High School Debut

Title:  High School Debut
Japanese Title:  Koukou Debut
Mangaka:  Kazune Kawahara
Length:  13 Volumes (Completed)
English Translation?  Yes, all released by Viz Media.
Demo/Genre:  Shoujo/Slice-of-Life/Romantic Comedy

How did I hear about it?  I had seen it advertised in some of my manga, then found a strong recommendation on one of the blogs I read.

Haruna was a tomboy all through middle school.  She has made it her goal to shed that image in high school, to find a boyfriend, and to fall in love.  There's just one problem:  she has no idea what boys like!  Immediately after entering high school, she meets Yoh, a popular upperclassman.  When she sees how girls throw themselves at him, she thinks that surely he must know what it is that boys look for in girls.  She begs him to become her coach, teaching her how to be a girl that boys will want to date.  He reluctantly agrees, but with one condition:  Haruna must not fall in love with him.  Gee, I wonder where this is going?

I'm really on the fence about the art in this series.  My opinion of it changed from frame to frame.  At times, it seemed really clean and pretty.  At other times, it seemed awkward and childish.  It just felt a little inconsistent.

This is another series that was just plain fun.  HSD never really gets deep, though it does explore the notion that the best person you can be is yourself.  It's a simple, candy-coated moral, but it's a true enough statement that it allows this manga to express itself without ever getting too heavy.  At first, I didn't like Haruna.  She was your average cookie-cutter shoujo heroine.  She was naive, dense, nice to a fault.  Really naive.  Unbelievably naive.  Maybe about halfway through (possibly even later), I did start to warm up to her a bit.  I never outright liked her, but I felt she worked well enough.  I liked Yoh though.  He was a bit more complex.  Haruna just had to learn to be herself, but Yoh had to work out a few issues from his past, though his issues didn't end up being all that heavy when you consider what a lot of other protagonists have had to go through (Fruits Basket or Mars, anyone?).  The supporting cast was functional.  Of Yoh's two best friends, one is a bit too much like Haruna (one was enough, Kawahara-sensei), but the other was a bit snarky, and therefore, more interesting.  Yoh's sister also played a sizable role.  I actually liked her.  She was very conceited to the point of being funny.  I think what made her attitude work was her facial expressions.  Her delivery was calm and aloof, but pleased with herself.  Haruna's best friend was of little consequence.

HSD is a perfect example of a story of a light-hearted teenage first romance.  It's a fun, light read that I think would be good for any shoujo fan.  Do I plan to collect it?  Someday.  I have other titles a bit higher on my priority list though.

Her Majesty's Dog

Title:  Her Majesty's Dog
Japanese Title:  Joou-sama no Inu
Mangaka:  Mick Takeuchi
Length:  11 Volumes (Completed)
English Translation?  Yes.  All released by Go! Comi.
Demo/Genre:  Shoujo/Fantasy/Romance/Comedy

How did I hear about it?  It was recommended by an otaku friend.

Amane comes from a clan that possesses the kotodama, or power through words.  While all in her clan have spiritual powers, only the most prominent of members can use the kotodama, and Amana is the granddaughter of the village chief.  With the kotodama, if Amane knows the true name of a person or creature, she can control it.  Everyone in her clan has a demon familiar by their side, their koma-oni, that feeds off of their life force.  Amane's koma-oni is a dog demon named Hyoue whom she "feeds" through kissing.  As she and Hyoue leave their isolated village to sample the "normal" life for a while, they deal with spiritual problems of both the living and the dead.  This being a shoujo, Hyoue's devotion goes beyond familiar to master.  He has developed forbidden feelings for his human companion.  Even though she is far from her clan, Amane can't escape her responsibilities as signs of a traitor within the family soon reach the two of them.

I wasn't crazy about the art.  It wasn't bad, so I don't think it would be fair to say that I disliked it.  It just seemed a little dated.

Don't be fooled by the cheesy title and cover art.  This was a really fun read.  It was sweet and funny, then later developed into something a little more substantial than that.  I really liked both Amane and Hyoue.  If you've been reading my reviews, you've probably figured out that I'm not usually keen on shoujo heroines.  They typically have a few traits that can be a bit grating.  Amane has "naive" down to a T, but where she really shines is her humor.  It's perhaps not Amane's humor, but more the style with which Takeuchi-sensei wrote her.  Amane is ditsy and naive, which is usually a big turn-off for me.  What makes her work is that she's also serious.  She rarely smiles at all throughout the series, and her lines are delivered completely straight-faced.  She tends to take things literally, which only adds to her deadpan humor.  Despite her denseness, she's quite mature and has a big heart.  It made her a pleasure to read.

Hyoue is a pretty standard tsundere character, so natually I loved him.  He teases Amane and can give her a hard time sometimes, but he's truly completely devoted to her and doesn't hesitate to put himself between her and danger.  I loved the dilemma between the two of them.  I feel like there aren't enough shoujo out there where it's the boy who first realizes his feelings.  His feelings for Amane are often the butt of Takeuchi-sensei's jokes, but eventually, it does take a turn for the serious.  Hyoue's feelings are absolutely forbidden, and even if there was nothing standing between them, what kind of relationship could form between a mortal being and a demon of great longevity?  Interesting, very interesting.

This was a fun read for this shoujo fan.  It was the perfect balance of heavy and light, and all wrapped in a nice fantasy package.  I haven't started collecting it yet, but I'm planning on it as soon as I finish up one of the series that I'm working on now.  I wish this review could be a little longer and more detailed, but it's hard to write about something I read so long ago.  Maybe I'll update this after I collect it and refresh my memory.  This is another series that makes me wish I had done a half star system.  It's more a 5 than a 4 though, I suppose...

 

Goong

Title:  Goong
Manhwaga:  So-Hee Park
Length:  27 Volumes (Completed)
English Translation?  Yes.  16 Volumes so far by Yen Press (omnibus starting from volume 9)
Demo/Genre:  Shoujo/Slice-of-Life/Romance/Comedy/Drama

How did I hear about it?  It was recommended by an otaku friend.

The story takes place in a fictional version of modern-day South Korea in which the royal family still exists.  Chae-Kyung is just your average high school girl.  However, she happens to attend the same high school as Shin, the Crown Prince.  A few awkward encounters between the two leave them with a low opinion of each other.  When Shin receives pressure from his parents to marry, he is informed that if he cannot find someone suitable, they have a long-since arranged marriage to fall back on.  When the only girl in his life turns down the caged life of royalty, he is slated to marry...Chae-Kyung.  Yeah, who saw that one coming?  It turns out that her grandfather was a close friend of the late former King and was the only person to treat him as a man and not a royal.  To thank him for his friendship, he arranged the marriage of their grandchildren.  Chae-Kyung and Shin begin their tumultuous relationship as man and wife, but can they truly learn to love each other?

At first, I rejected the artstyle.  Then, as I read, it grew on me until I found it to be beautiful.  I absolutely love it now.  Also, her SD drawings are absolutely RIDICULOUS, but in a funny way.  Seriously, it's so outrageous that it's hilarious.  If you don't like the art at first, give it a bit.  You might be like me and just need it to grow on you.

I really liked Chae-Kyung.  She's spunky, independent, and willful.  Most importantly, she doesn't put up with Shin's shit.  At the start, Shin is an asshole.  There's no sense mincing words.  He's an outright asshole.  Usually, that doesn't fly with me in manga (Black Bird, anyone?).  However, I feel that it's a compliment to the manhwaga that she created an asshole that I wanted to get to know better.  I felt that there was more to him, and I wanted to stick around to watch him grow.  I'm really glad that I did.  His cold and selfish exterior slowly melts away until he becomes someone worthy of Chae-Kyung's love, yet it never feels like he becomes someone else.  His growth and development feel like a natural reaction to his circumstances, so it doesn't feel out of character at all.  I loved watching Shin mature throughout the series.  I said before that Chae-Kyung doesn't put up with him, but then I turned around and pointed out that she loved him, indicating that she felt that way even before he "became worthy" of her.  I wasn't necessarily contradicting myself.  After she realizes how she has come to feel about him, she even tells someone (one of her only confidants) that her love for him isn't because of who he is, but what he is.  She's been placed in a completely different world, cut off from her friends and family, and he is the only constant in her life right now, and the only person she can rely on.  Had it have been someone else, she would have fallen for them, too.  Just because she loved him on some level, she didn't sacrifice her dignity.  When he picked a fight, she stood her ground and bared her teeth (figuratively and literally.  She bit him once, haha).  That being said, I don't doubt her love for him in the slightest.  I believe it may have started that way, but as Shin came to love her as well (and manned up, so to speak), I believe she genuinely fell in love with him.  I cannot express how much I love Chae-Kyung and Shin.  IMO, they were very well-written characters, and they made this series for me.

There was a turning point in the plot, and I've read that many readers didn't like what was happening so much.  Many say that it slowed the series down and frustrated them.  For me, I actually really loved it.  Though, I'll admit that my love for this plot point is heavily influenced by an outside source.  You see, there was a conspiracy between James Blunt and my iTunes that resulted in me loving this manhwa immensely and being so moved by what happened that I actually cried.  I friggin' CRIED.  And it's all James Blunt's fault.  And my iTunes.  They worked together on that one.  James Blunt wrote a very appropriate song, and my iTunes just happened to land on it at just the right time.  Shuffle, my ASS.  It's a CONSPIRACY, I tell ya.  Anyway, outside source be damned, I loved the drama.  Every time I hear that song, I think of Chae-Kyung and Shin, and my heart aches.  Who cares how I came to love something?  It just matters that I do.  Oh, and I can't tell you what song.  If you haven't read the series, it would be an uber-spoiler.  I don't think that it would be hard to figure out though (the plot or the spoiler).  Still, I shall retain my silence.

I doubt the pic is a spoiler.  If you can't read the premise and figure out that our two protagonists will eventually fall in love, then you clearly haven't read much shoujo... O_o  I had to choose it because it was one of the most beautiful pages I've encountered.  See, this is my sappy side.  It's small, but it does exist.

In summation... Goong is laugh out loud funny, yet very moving and beautiful.  The lead characters are spectacularly written, though the supporting cast is a bit lacking.  Though the series has completed its run in South Korea, the scanlations are a little behind, so I haven't been able to finish the series yet.  I can't wait to see how it ends!  Yen Press is releasing the manga in the US, but don't be fooled by the volume numbers!  Starting with Vol. 9, they packed 2 volumes into each one.  So though they've released twelve physical volumes of Goong, it actually covers volumes 1-16 of the original release.  Does that make sense?  Anyway, I am in the process of collecting it right now, and I have four volumes so far.

Gate 7

Title:  Gate 7
Mangaka:  CLAMP
Length:  3 Volumes (Ongoing)
English Translation?  Yes.  2 volumes so far by Dark Horse.
Demo/Genre:  Shounen/Fantasy/Action

How did I hear about it?  I've read other works by CLAMP, and I was curious about their current series.

Umm...the plot....Let's see.  There's a guy named Chikahito, and he met a girl named Hana while on a trip to Kyoto.  Then he met her again after moving to Kyoto for school...and now he lives with her caretakers.  Turns out, she's some kind of warrior against supernatural things, and then there's a lot of history in there somewhere...  Yeah, I just can't get a good grasp of the plot, probably because this manga just can't hold my attention.

One good thing I can definitely say about G7 is the art is great, which one should expect from CLAMP.  It's a very beautiful manga.  Unfortunately, that's all that really interests me about it.

Many of the references in Gate 7 will be lost on those who aren't Japanophiles, which I am not.  I know some basic Japanese history, but I don't think I'm quite on the level that this manga requires.  I'm not a fan of Chikahito.  Big-eyed boys are never a big draw for me, and it's rare that I find myself taken by one (I can think of a couple that I have liked though).  Also, I can't quite figure out his purpose yet.  The manga is still in its early stages, so perhaps all will be revealed at a later time.  Currently though, he's pretty useless.  I'm not too fond of the girl either.  Hana is a loli-type, but perhaps a little too much so.  She's just too childish for me to take seriously.

It's hard for me to formulate an opinion of this manga, seeing as how it's so new, but so far, I'm not taking to it.  I continue to read the new chapters as they're released though.  I think I'm hoping that at some point, some turning point will happen in the plot, and I'll find myself liking it.  Only time will tell on this one.

Gakuen Alice

Title:  Gakuen Alice
Mangaka:  Tachibana Higuchi
Length:  26 Volumes (Ongoing)
English Translation?  Sort of... Tokyopop released 16 volumes before they shut down.
Demo/Genre:  Shoujo/Fantasy/Comedy/Romance/Action

 How did I hear about it?  It came highly recommended by my otaku friends.

10 year old Mikan Sakura's best friend Hotaru is leaving their little village to attend the exclusive Alice Academy in Tokyo.  After six months of not hearing from her friend, Mikan runs away to Tokyo to try to find her.  She finds herself barred from the Academy and learns that it is only for special students who have abilities called Alices.  Hotaru is one such skilled student.  Since Mikan doesn't possess an Alice, there's no way she can attend the Alice Academy.  The teacher who explains this to her, tries to use his own Alice on her to help persuade her to leave the school grounds and is very curious when she is unaffected.  He decides that she does indeed possess a rare kind of Alice and invites her to become a student.  Reunited with her friend, Mikan discovers her own powers and those of her new classmates.  However, she almost immediately makes an enemy of Natsume, one of the most dangerous students in the school.  Though things seem like fun and games at first, Mikan will learn that there is a much shadier side to the Alice Academy.

This manga was very nearly in my Top 5.  There was basically one plot point that forced me to edge it out, but it's probably a close #6.  When I first learned the ages of the main characters (10 at the start, now 12 in the current arc), I was a little hesitant to start it.  I thought it would be kiddy, and I couldn't imagine getting wrapped up in the affairs of tweens.  Fortunately, I was very wrong.  At first, GA was sometimes funny, sometimes cute, and sometimes sweet.  I was won over pretty quickly.  Then, the story deepened, and I couldn't read it fast enough.

Mikan is a decent heroine.  She's funny, inelegant, and very loyal to her friends.  Hotaru is great.  She's sarcastic, with a deadpan delivery of her lines.  However, she truly loves Mikan, and I love how beautiful their friendship is.  My favorite character was easily Natsume, Mikan's enemy-turned-love-interest.  Which, by the way, if you had told me before I read this that I would completely swoon over a love story involving tweens, I never would have believed you.  Mikan's and Natsume's romance is sweet and age-appropriate, but also beautiful and a little sad.  Natsume has led a very difficult life.  Having an extremely powerful Alice, he's in high demand by those who need some serious dirty work done.  Many in class fear him (except for his best friend Luca), and Natsume takes advantage of that to work his kindness in his own way.  He often takes the blame for things that happen because he knows that no one has much of an opinion of him anyway, and it will save someone else from having to look bad.  I adore Natsume.  Not all of the cast are tweens though.  The Alice Academy has an elementary division, junior high division, and senior high division, and there are important cast members from all age groups.  Also, some of the teachers play important roles, one in particular.  Narumi-sensei is the teacher that initially met Mikan outside of the school and determined that she does have an Alice.  He is immediately very taken with her and assumes a sort of brotherly/fatherly role with her.

As I said earlier, I was hooked on this manga right away for its humor and style.  It's also very imaginitive.  Some of the students have very standard Alices that have appeared as super powers in many other manga, such as fire (which is Natsume's Alice), mind reading, or teleportation, but some of them seem to be quite original.  For example, Hotaru can invent just about anything, and Narumi can manipulate human pheromones.  I loved learning what sort of powers everyone had and seeing how they could be employed.  Let's just say that GA had one of the most interesting sports festivals of any school manga I've read!  As good as it was before though, this manga eventually entered an arc that took it to a completely new level.  As you learn what's going on behind the scenes, who's the real villain, and the truth of what happened to Mikan's parents, the series loses its humor to become enveloped in a drama that ran me emotionally ragged.  Also, and I don't think this is too terribly spoiler-y, I have never feared for the life of a fictional character the way I do for **** (name deleted to prevent maximum spoilerage, haha).  The series is in its final arc now, and lemme tell ya, it's intense.  The scanlations are a couple of chapters behind, which is driving me crazy.  I've read some summaries though, and that is helping me to stave off my withdrawal.  As the series wraps up, I'm plagued with questions like "Who will live?  Who will die?"  I believe it's the sign of a great manga when the mangaka has you biting your nails over what's happening.  As I mentioned at the beginning of this review, there was one major plot twist that I didn't completely agree with, but other than that, this manga is brilliant.

If you haven't read Gakuen Alice, then what are you waiting for?  Don't be scared off by the ages of the protagonists.  This isn't a kiddy series, and I believe Tokyopop gave it a T rating (I think).  I'm on the fence about collecting it.  It's one of my favorites, so I feel like I need to have it in my collection.  However, it may never be published beyond the sixteenth volume here in NA.  There are a couple of other series that were left high and dry by Tokyopop's unfortunate closing that I've collected, but there were considerably fewer volumes of those.  The 16 volumes of GA are starting to get a little pricey.  I guess we'll see about that.  Please, someone PLEASE, relicense this series!  It stopped releasing right before it started getting to the really intense parts!  It saddens me to think that one of the most beautiful chapters I've ever read may never be in my collection to peruse at my convenience.

Fushigi Yuugi

Title:  Fushigi Yuugi
Mangaka:  Yuu Watase
Length:  18 Volumes
English Translation?  Yes.  All released by Viz Media.
Demo/Genre:  Shoujo/Fantasy/Adventure/Romance/Action/Comedy

How did I hear about it?  It's pretty popular, so word gets around.  Plus, I loved Ceres, Celestial Legend, and given that this is Watase-sensei's most popular work, I knew I had to read it.

Miaka Yuki is under a great deal of pressure from her mother to get into a top-notch high school.  While studying at the library, she and her best friend Yui find themselves in a restricted section, where they discover an old translation of an even older Chinese tale.  Upon opening this book, they are both sucked into the Universe of the Four Gods.  After a brief encounter with a handsome young man, they return to their world.  Later, after an argument with her mother, Miaka returns by herself, where she is then believed to be the Goddess of Suzaku.  If she can gather the seven Celestial Warriors, the god Suzaku will appear to grant her three wishes.  She's already met two of the Warriors: Tamahome, the handsome man from her first trip into this world, and Hotohori, Emperor of the land.  Meanwhile, Yui has entered once more, only she landed in a neighboring country, where she is appointed the Goddess of Seiryu.  Now the two former best friends are rivals.  Who will collect their warriors first and gain their three wishes?

Does that premise sound cheesy?  It does?  Good.  'Cause it is.  Ceres, Celestial Legend was the first series I ever read by Watase-sensei, and I loved it.  When I heard that FY was even more popular, I thought that it would surely be just as good, if not better, than Ceres.  Boy, was I let down.  I didn't expect the artwork to match up.  Ceres was written later, and it was during that one that Watase-sensei's artstyle shifted, so I knew that FY would be in her old style.  Despite that, it really wasn't too bad too look at.  But then there's the plot and characters...

Everything just felt so...amateur.  I've said many times that I am willing to overlook cliches in manga if they're done well.  This was not (in my opinion).  As I read on, I was met with cliche after cliche.  Too many of the "serious" plot points had little to no impact.  I felt that they were added for shock value alone.  While I didn't outright hate the characters, I never fell in love with any of them either.  That made it difficult to care about them or their circumstances.  Well, maybe I did genuinely dislike Miaka a bit.  She was young, but she felt considerably more childish than many of the other protagonists I've read.  Sarasa (from Basara) was also fifteen, but look what she accomplished!  Hell, Gakuen Alice's main protagonist  was 10-12 throughout that series, and she felt a hell of a lot more mature than Miaka ever did.  I didn't find Miaka's antics funny, nor did I ever take her seriously as a protagonist.  I was never wild about her love interest, Tamahome, either.  He starts off looking like he'll be a promising tsundere character, but whoops... within the first three volumes he has shed his prickly exterior to become a smotheringly affectionate deredere type.  Not really my style at all.  Naturally, I didn't find myself getting invested in their relationship.  Worse yet, their relationship was of the "on again, off again" sort.  I much prefer couples that fight through their obstacles, never wavering.  The supporting cast and villains just didn't do it for me either.  They all seemed to follow their set cliches.  If you read my review of Fairy Tail, you may remember that I mentioned that many cliche personalities appeared in that manga, yet I really liked it.  So what's the difference?  Well, FT was funny, and FT still managed to give its cliche (is there another word for "cliche" that would fit?  I feel like I'm using "cliche" a lot.  Oh no!  "Cliche" is becoming a cliche!!) characters unique pasts and quirks that made you forget just how cliche they were (there's that word again!!!!).  This just felt uninspired.

The plot was terribly predictable.  "Hmm, that happened a little too easily.  I bet someone's a traitor."  Dum, dum, DUUUUM!!  You guessed correctly!  "Something tells me that so and so is about to die."   Dum, dum, DUUUUUUM!!  Right again!  "Oh geez, so and so's about to redeem themselves, aren't they?"  Dum, dum, DUUUUUUM!!  Ain't you smart?  It's a shame that such a promising and original story idea became such a contrived plot.  Also, I'd like to add that the actual story ends in either volume 12 or 13.  The rest is sort of a semi-sequel that picks up some time later.  I really felt that that entire section of the story was unnecessary.  It felt tacked on and lacked any purpose, instead only managing to convolute the plot with strange dilemmas that I felt were better left untouched.

Most of the pics my google search turned up were from the prequel, FY Genbu Kaiden (more on that in a sec), and I had no desire to go digging through the manga for something acceptable.  I chose this chapter page because it perfectly embodies my feelings for this manga.  Just looking at it makes me cringe.

Watase-sensei has since started up a FY spinoff called Fushigi Yuugi Genbu Kaiden.  It follows the tale of another girl (who was briefly mentioned in the original FY) who became the Goddess of Genbu long before Miaka ever entered the Universe of the Four Gods.  I haven't read it yet, but I actually really want to.  From what I've seen on the interwebs, people who really liked FY, didn't like the Genbu Kaiden as much, but fortunately, the vice versa is also true.  So since I wasn't a fan of FY, I think there's a chance I could actually like this spinoff.  Time will tell.  I'll read that one eventually.  I have no plans to collect Fushigi Yuugi.

Fullmetal Alchemist

Title:  Fullmetal Alchemist
Japanese Title:  Hagane no Renkenjutsushi
Mangaka:  Hiromu Arakawa
Length:  27 Volumes (Completed)
English Translation?  Yes.  All released by Viz Media.
Demo/Genre:  Shounen/Fantasy/Adventure/Action/Comedy

How did I find out about it?  I caught a couple of episodes of Brotherhood on Adult Swim and decided that I really needed to read it.

At a very young age, brothers Edward and Alphonse Elric attempted the forbidden act of human transmutation to try to bring their dead mother back to life.  The transmutation rebounded, and Alphonse lost his entire body, and Edward lost first his leg, and then an arm when he transmuted his brother's soul to a suit of armor.  Now the two of them are determined to find a way to restore their bodies.  Their research has led them to a single possibility:  the philosopher's stone.  However, this extraordinary alchemical stone is only a legend and any information on its true properties and creation are heavily guarded.  Their search for a philosopher's stone unveils a plot that involves their entire nation.

Arakawa-sensei's art is very simple, but very effective.  She draws action very well, and I love her character designs.  Even in her latest series, I love the art.  It's nothing groundbreaking, but it's very functional and appealing (to me, at least).

The plot and the characters are where this series really stood out to me.  This is another series that is definitely in my top five favorites.  First off, I love that it doesn't follow the typical shounen formula.  Our heroes don't constantly level up to ridiculous levels of strength, gaining more and more outrageous skills.  Ed pretty much has the same set of skills at the end that he did in the beginning.  Instead, FMA focuses more on the actual plot at hand.  Rather than a story told through a few different story arcs, FMA consists of one-single arc.  Each chapter in the entire series is a single piece of that story.  That's something else that I loved about it.  I would also count FMA as one of the funniest manga I've ever read.  There were countless times that I was laughing out loud.  Despite that, this series also takes a turn for the incredibly dark as it explores moral themes such as the value of a human life, betrayal, and sacrifice.

I love the cast of FMA.  Ed and Al were both great protagonists and were two of my favorite characters in the series.  That being said, there were still a great deal of supporting characters that stood out.  My absolute favorite character in the series was Roy Mustang.  He was a badass if there ever was a badass.  Okay, so he might have a little competition from Kakashi Hatake in Naruto, but still, Roy is awesome.  One of the things I found most fascinating about him was his relationship with his lieutenant, Riza Hawkeye, who was another favorite of mine.  There is no romantic relationship between the two of them (at least, not one mentioned.  I bet somewhere down the road they end up together though.  Just speculating.), but they have a complete trust in one another as comrades.  They've been through a war together, and either one of them would (and does) put their life on the line for the other.  Actually, while I'm mentioning Hawkeye, let me go ahead and say that FMA had a stellar female cast, which is fairly rare for a shounen.  I don't know if that's because the mangaka is a woman who understands women, but no matter what, I was very impressed by all the X chromosomes present.  Hawkeye was serious and to the point.  Olivier Armstrong was cold and militant (very appropriate for a hardened general).  When asked just who the hell she was by whomever was on the receiving end of her ass-kicking, Izumi Curtis would respond with a yell, "I'M A HOUSEWIFE."  Lan Fan ripped her own freakin' arm off to throw someone off the trail of the man she had sworn her life to protect.  Even the young May Ling was a little badass.  Winry, Ed's love interest, may not have been an alchemist or in the military, but she was still far from a dainty character.  I loved the fact that she was a gearhead and never hesitated to call Ed out on his shit.  I know I sound like a raging feminist here, but I just wanted to say that I was very impressed by these characters.  It's rare to see the girls get so much recognition in a shounen.

Not that the boys were lacking.  Basically, there were no characters in this series that I disliked.  As I mentioned above, I loved Ed, Al, and Roy.  Olivier Armstrong's brother Alex was a favorite with his surprisingly gentle and...sparkly...personality.  I loved Ling/Greed.  No matter whose personality was foremost in that duo, he stole the scenes he was in.  Also, I loved the main villain.  Not in a "favorite character" kind of way, but more in a "epically awesome" kind of way.  I think I may have mentioned in a review already that good manga villains typically fall into one of two categories:  1) conflicted, with human motives and good intentions, or 2) epically evil, with carefully laid plans that are usually on a ridiculously huge scale.  This villain falls into the second category.  He laid his plan centuries ago and has been patiently setting the stage ever since.  Very nice.

I chose the above picture because I remember thinking when I came to that page, "Whoa.  When did Ed get taller than Winry?"  If you haven't read the series, Ed is pretty short, and he's very sensitive about it.  He starts off being a little shorter than Winry.  I love it when mangaka show their characters growing over time.  Fruits Basket was good about that, too.  I guess it just makes the story feel a little more real to see signs of the characters aging?

This is another series where I could probably ramble all day, but I'll stop there.  Needless to stay, I loved just about every aspect of this manga.  Despite how much I loved it, I actually haven't collected a single volume, and if I ever do, it'll be quite a while from now.  Instead, I opted to buy the entire anime.  The second one.  See, the first anime adaptation took the characters and the basic premise, but ran in its own direction, one completely different from the one that played out in the manga.  Then, some years later, a second adaptation was made, and this one (called Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood in NA) follows the manga to the T.  The voice acting is some of the best I've heard in English.  The soundtrack is amazing.  It's probably my absolute favorite anime.  I'm so glad I bought it!  Because I have the anime, I have been slow to commit to purchasing the manga.  Like I said, Brotherhood follows it almost exactly (except for the first couple of episodes), so it almost seems pointless to buy 27 volumes of the same story.  At least for now, when I have so many other stories to collect, I won't be buying this manga.

Fruits Basket

Title:  Fruits Basket
Mangaka:  Natsuki Takaya
Length:  23 Volumes
English Translation?  Yes.  All released by Tokyopop.
Demo/Genre:  Shoujo/Fantasy/Comedy/Romance/Drama

How did I hear about it?  It's pretty hard not to have heard of this one.  It became a priority to read because it came highly recommended by my otaku buddies.

When the recently-orphaned Tohru's living situation suddenly becomes unstable, she decides to take matters into her own hands and take care of herself by living in a tent.  However, she has erected her tent on the outskirts of the Sohma property.  When Shigure and his younger cousin Yuki (who is Tohru's classmate) discover her situation, they invite her to stay with them for a while.  Soon, another Sohma cousin, Kyo, is added to the mix.  Things seem like they may be fine until Tohru discovers that the Sohma family is cursed by the spirits of the Chinese Zodiac.  Those who are possessed by one of these spirits transforms into their Zodiac animal when either their body becomes weak or they are hugged by a member of the opposite sex.  As Tohru meets and befriends many members of the Sohma family, she learns that the curse isn't all about cute and fluffiness at all.

First off, I loved the art.  This being her first long series, the art changes over time.  The shift in FB though is way more dramatic than much of the manga I've read.  It's really astonishing to try to compare the style in the first volume with the one in the twenty-third.  While I liked her style in the beginning, I absolutely loved her "new" style.  The lines are softer, and I feel that more subtleties become apparent in the facial expressions.  The picture I chose was from fairly late in the series (volume 17, I think), so it exhibits her shifted artstyle, though there's still just a tad more evolution to it in the last few volumes.

This is definitely in my top five favorite manga of all time (so far, at least).  The premise sounds horribly gimmicky, and the story could have easily become something light and silly.  However, the drama that unfolds completely sucked me in.  It has quite a large cast for a shoujo, and so many of the characters were just brilliantly written.  Actually, I found the main protagonist to be the weakest character of the bunch.  She was upstaged by virtually all of the other cast members.  It's not that I didn't like her.  She was just more or less a typical shoujo heroine:  a bit naive and nice to a fault.  For the first half of the series, I really had no opinion of her.  Somewhere around the halfway point though, Tohru becomes a bit more argumentative and displays a little self-doubt as she struggles to find a way to help her friends with their plight.  I enjoyed watching her develop these human traits.

FB features a love triangle between Tohru, Yuki, and Kyo.  I loved both boys, though I may have been a bit more in Kyo's corner.  He was the tsundere character of this series, and those types are my favesies.  Kyo is possessed by the spirit of the cat.  Hey, wait...there's no cat in the Zodiac, you silly goose!  You are right, there's not, which is why Kyo has it particularly bad in the Sohma family, being possessed by the animal who was kicked out of the original Zodiac.  His mother committed suicide when he was young and his alcoholic father has always maintained that it was because she gave birth to a monster.  Kyo, as the cat, is shunned by the Sohma family and doomed to a life of solitude and isolation, though many of his fellow Zodiac members count him as a friend.  Yuki is very popular at school, but he's had it pretty rough, too.  His parents, like many Zodiac parents, have very little contact with him, and he has been subjected to a great deal of emotional abuse at the hands of Akito Sohma, the young head of the family (more on him to come later) since he was very young.  The final member of the particular Sohma house that Tohru finds herself in is Shigure, ten years their senior and owner of the house.  He's basically the only member of the Zodiac who seems relatively unaffected by the curse (mentally and emotionally, I mean.  He still transforms.  Oh, and he's the dog).  He's a novelist who writes serious novels using his name and trashy romances under a penname.  He's rarely serious and often a little perverted, but occasionally his real personality comes through, and we see that he's actually selfish and manipulative.  I absolutely loved all three of these men.

The rest of the Zodiac was populated with memorable and likeable characters whom we got to know very well (okay, except for one that Takaya-sensei said she was regrettably unable to give more screentime due to page restrictions).  Each of them have unique pasts and tales.  We see more pain and heartache as many of the children have horrible relationships with their parents due to their...affliction.  Sometimes mothers have a hard time dealing with a son that they can never touch, and some parents feel so far removed from their Zodiac children (they belong more to Akito than to them) that they don't bother to form a relationship with them at all.  These circumstances lead to a smattering of "damaged" characters.  It sounds like it would be repetitive, but as I said, their backstories and personalities end up being so unique that you can't help but love them.

And then there's Akito...  Akito, Akito, Akito.  He is by far one of my favorite villains ever.  I would love to tell you why, but I'm doing my best to keep this review as spoiler-free as I can.  Let's just say that perhaps he's the most broken character of them all.  He's about 20-21 for the series, yet he is regarded as the head of the entire Sohma family.  He's cruel and emotionally immature.  Most of the Zodiac members have been subjected to his emotional and physical abuse for years.  He can't stand for any of the Zodiac members to have anyone in their lives more important than him.  For example Hatori's (possessed by the spirit of the dragon) request to marry his girlfriend was met with a rage that resulted in one of his eyes being permenantly blinded.  I wish I could talk about Akito more, but if you by chance have not read FB, I would hate to spoil it.

I could probably talk about Fruits Basket all day, but I guess I should start wrapping up.  This series was funny and sweet, but it was also dark and moving.  It had a large cast of memorable characters and one of the most perfect endings of any series I've read.  There's a reason why this series is in my top five, people!  It's fantastic, and I have the entire series in my collection.

FAKE

Title:  FAKE
Mangaka:  Sanami Matoh
Length:  7 Volumes
English Translation?  Yes.  All released by Tokyopop
Demo/Genre:  Yaoi/Shounen-ai/Action/Romance/Comedy

How did I hear about it?  A friend loaned me this series.

Dee and Ryo are two American detectives in New York City.  The two begin their odd couple relationship as partners, and eventually become, well...partners.  Dee is bisexual and doesn't disguise his advances on Ryo.  At first, Dee's flirtations are only to rile up Ryo, but as they continue to work together, he finds himself falling for him.  Despite the fact that he's only ever experienced heterosexual relationships before, Ryo finds that he's attracted to Dee as he slowly lets his guard down around him.  Also along for the ride are two street kids, Bikky and Carol, whom Dee and Ryo have come to more or less care for.

Banana Fish was my very first taste of anything even slightly shounen-ai oriented, but FAKE was my first real yaoi outing.  It has been explained to me by a true fujoshi that there is a difference between shounen-ai and yaoi.  I believe FAKE's first six volumes fall into the shounen-ai category.  There's a build-up of the romance, lots of kissing, but nothing too hardcore.  The seventh volume ramps it up quite a bit, though still not really "hardcore" by the standards set by most of the yaoi out there.

I have discussed on a couple of different occasions that my attraction to yaoi (though I would not say that I've turned into a fujoshi just yet) is the different dilemmas that the characters must face.  Oftentimes, shounen-ai/yaoi depicts characters who haven't had a homosexual relationship, so the reader must watch the character(s) learn to come to terms with this aspect of themselves.  Also, there's the dilemma of how will the people and the world around them react to their relationship.  These are things that aren't typically an issue in standard romances, so it provides a refreshing point of view.  Now that I've said all that, I'd like to point out that FAKE doesn't really explore these issues.  An unbelievable amount of characters have homosexual tendencies in this manga, and the rest are all too accepting of the two of them.  Not that this is a problem.  I'm just pointing out that this manga foregoes the more serious issues of homosexuality in order to concentrate more on just telling a fun story.

I have to say that I did not care for the art.  There is a little bit of a shift in the style between the first and last volumes, but it never really settles into something that I was fond of.  In 2007 Matoh-sensei began a second season of FAKE, and the few images I've seen of it show that her artwork greatly evolved in the years between the two series.  I'm much more fond of the new style.  I'm tempted to read it just to see if I take to the characters a little better when they don't look so...awkward.

As for the characters themselves, I can't say that I'm crazy about them.  As is typical for BL (boys' love), one is a clear seme (top) and the other is established as an uke (bottom), personality-wise.  Ryo (the uke of this relationship) does exhibit some strength occasionally, but most of the time, he was entirely too wussy for me.  Dee on the other hand was so touchy-feely.  Pretty much every scene that saw the boys not on the job had Dee trying to paw Ryo the whole time.  It became a little tiresome, and to me, it just didn't further their romance any.

At the end of most of the volumes, there would be a bonus chapter featuring Bikky and Carol as teenagers that depicted the growing romance between the two of them.  These chapters tended to be funny and charming, and their romance was actually kinda sweet.  I have to admit that that boggles my mind just a little bit.  I would think that someone who was writing a shounen-ai series would almost undoubtedly be a fujoshi themselves, yet she gives the heterosexual relationship in this manga much better treatment than the featured same-sex one.  That's just my opinion though.

All in all, I didn't hate FAKE.  It had its funny moments, and its sweet moments.  The characters were a little inconsistent, but they weren't terrible.  I know I just spoke really critically of it, but in the end, I came away with a positive experience.  I don't have any particular urge to revisit the characters though, so I doubt I'll make it a point to collect this series.

Say I Love You

Title:  Say I Love You
Japanese Title:  Sukitte Ii na Yo
Mangaka:  Kanae Hazuki
Length: 8 Volumes (Ongoing)
English Translation?  Nope.  Gotta read it online if you want it.
Demo/Genre:  Shoujo/Slice-of-Life/Romantic Comedy

How did I find out about it?  Its popularity on mangareader piqued my curiousity.

Mei Tachibana is a quiet misfit at school.  Though she is constantly ridiculed by her classmates, she brushes aside their taunts and pranks and pretends that it doesn't bother her.  Yamato Kurosawa, the most popular boy in school (because it always has to be the most popular boy in school in these types of stories) notices his best friend ridiculing Mei and takes interest in her.  When Mei reaches her limit and mistakenly identifies Yamato as the prankster (with a roundhouse kick, no less), his interest leads him to talk to her, and thus their awkward friendship begins, which soon lends to a blossoming young love, and so on and so forth.

I didn't know anyone who had read this series, so I went into this series with no recommendations whatsoever.  While I didn't really dislike it, it's far from a favorite.  If the premise sounds a little tired and done, you're right.  I've said before that if a series is really well done, I can overlook tired stereotypes.  I had a hard time getting past them here.  The romance develops just a little too quickly, and the lead protagonists suffer from a lack of development.  It wasn't horrible.  I really did enjoy it.  It just didn't really stand out.

I can see where opportunities were missed here.  For instance, we learn that Yamato had a friend in middle school who was bullied.  He has since felt guilty that he was never able to do anything to help him.  A comparison between this friend and Mei is drawn, but it's hardly fleshed out.  I feel that SILY would have benefitted from this aspect of Yamato's past being further developed.  We could have seen him immediately connect Mei's plight with that of his friend, and in his efforts to avoid repeating his past mistake, he would fall for Mei. Just a suggestion.  On Mei's end, she explains to someone that she didn't avenge her bullying because it wouldn't stop the cycle.  This is another instance where I feel like a good topic was touched, but not properly developed.  We, the readers, see Mei reach her limit and finally strike back in the first chapter.  I feel like it shouldn't have happened that fast.  If that is her belief, then I would have liked to have seen it drawn out a little more, which would lend to what I said before about Yamato's could-have-been role in the story.  No matter how it was done, I feel that more development was needed in both the characters and in the plot.  It's a shame, too.  Mei isn't your typical shoujo heroine.  I really would have liked to have seen her shine.

Only the first five volumes or so have been scanlated, so it's of course possible that the series redeems itself later.  As it is though, it's lacking.  Like I said, it's not horrible.  Overall, I enjoyed reading it.  It's just not something that stands out as unique or special to me.  If it's ever licensed here in the States, I probably won't purchase it.

Genshiken

Title:  Genshiken
Mangaka:  Shimoku Kio
Length:  9 Volumes (Completed) Second Season, 2 Volumes (Ongoing)
English Translation? Yep.  All released by Del Rey.  Kodansha USA will release the Second Season.
Demo/Genre:  Seinen/Slice-of-Life/Comedy

How did I hear about it?  The recommendation came from my trusted otaku buddy from college.

Kanji Sasahara has just begun his first semester at Shiiou University.  Being an otaku, he investigates the Uni's manga and anime clubs, but ultimately finds his way to the Genshiken (The Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture), a small club of extreme otaku.  At first he's unsure if he'll fit in, but he soon finds that he is just as bad as any of the other members.  This manga follows the misadventures of the members of the Genshiken as they attend comic conventions, publish their own doujinshi, and form relationships with one another.

I hope that premise doesn't sound too terribly boring.  There may be no over-arching plot at hand, but the adventures of the Genshiken are hilarious, and the characters are superb.  This manga had me laughing (sometimes nearly to the point of falling out of my chair) on numerous occasions and, being a seinen, its sense of humor is allowed to venture into more risque territory than its shounen brethren.  I wasn't too wild about the artwork at first, but as most long series tend to do, the art evolves over time, and it soon reached a point where I absolutely loved the art.

At first, the more-or-less main protagonist Sasahara just didn't grab me.  Not that I disliked him, he just didn't show enough personality to really stand out.  However, as the series progressed, he became a pretty cool guy who would stand his ground when the club was arguing and make a move on the girl he likes.  It was fun to watch his personality develop, and by the end, I really liked him.  Saki was another favorite of mine.  She is the only "normal" member of the Genshiken, who is dating a super-otaku.  She endlessly antagonizes the other members for their nerdiness, though she ultimately develops real friendships with all of them.  The other female members of the cast also ranked pretty highly with me:  Ohno, a fujoshi (fan of yaoi) and cosplay nut, and Ogiue, a self-loathing otaku with a talent for drawing who serves as the love interest for Sasahara.  The character who really takes the cake though, was Madarame.  His character design is about as stereotypically nerdy as it can get, but he's simply fantastic.  He's hilarious (usually unintentionally on his part) and over-the-top.  I loved his nerdy appearance and his shameless display of otaku-ness.  His interactions with the other characters were always fun to watch, especially his scenes with Saki.  He's the one she gives the roughest time, and despite that, they develop a good friendship, even leading to an unrequited love on Madarame's part.  The rest of the cast was still quite good, as well.  The characters simply made this series great.

Some four years after the end of the series, Kio-sensei kicked up Genshiken Nidaime (the Second Season) which picks up where the series left off.  The original members of the Genshiken have all graduated and play a lesser role in this series, which follows the Genshiken during Ogiue's presidency.  The original cast members still make appearances, especially Madarame, much to my delight.  Some new characters are introduced as the freshman members of the Genshiken.  So far, they're all decent, though not especially memorable, with the exception being Hato, a heterosexual cross-dressing fudanshi (male version of fujoshi).  I love Hato!  The second season is still in the fairly early stages, so I'm very eager to see where it's going to go!

If you consider yourself to be an otaku, you simply have to read Genshiken.  It's hilarious, and there will surely be moments where the characters will remind you of yourself.  Del Rey released all nine volumes of the original series before the shutdown of its manga division.  Kodansha has since taken over the licensing and will be re-releasing the original series in omnibus format, then begin releasing the second season for the first time in NA.  I plan on collecting this series as it's released.

NG Life

Title:  NG Life
Mangaka:  Mizuho Kusanagi
Length:  9 Volumes (Completed)
English Translation?  Yes.  All released by Tokyopop.
Demo/Genre:  Shoujo/Fantasy/Romantic Comedy

How did I hear about it?  The recommendation came from my trusted otaku buddy from college.

Keidai Saeki is just your average 17-year-old guy, except for that he can perfectly recall his past life as a gladiator in Pompeii whose life ended when Mt. Vesuvius erupted.  In his current life, he is surrounded by the people who were close to him in Pompeii, only none of them have any memories that life.  Most important is his former best friend Lolaeus, who is also his best friend now...only now, Lolaeus is a girl named Mii Serizawa.  Keidai has been waiting his entire life hoping that his former wife will come back into his life, and shortly after the story begins, his wish is granted.  His beautiful wife Serena moves next door...only in this life, she's now a boy.  A crazy and complicated love triangle ensues.

The premise sounds horribly gimmicky, but it actually works quite well.  The series is pretty funny, and the characters are well-crafted.  While NGL maintains a light-hearted feel for the majority of the time, it does give way to some serious chapters as you near the end as Keidai has to come to terms with his developing feelings and realize why no one remembers Pompeii save for him (though we do meet a couple of other characters later who have also retained their memories).  I also found Serena/Yuuma to be an interesting and funny character.  The beautiful wife Serena is now a rather girlish boy who is very sensitive about his feminine appearance and only wants to become strong and manly.  Some of the other side characters were great as well, and the series even went so far as to feature a secondary romance between a couple of them that I thought was treated very well.  As for our female protagonist, Serizawa... she reminded me a bit of Tohru Honda from Fruits Basket.  Serizawa is cheerful, optimistic, and nice almost to a fault.  I didn't dislike her, but she didn't stand out to me as well as she could have.  That being the case though, it still didn't detract from the sweetness of the romance for me.

NG Life was just a fun read, plain and simple.  With light-hearted comedy and a unique premise, it easily entertains, but also contains enough drama and plot for it to linger in your mind even after you've finished reading.  This was one of the last series that Tokyopop released, with the last volume coming out just before the unfortunate shutdown.  I do believe that I will collect this series fairly soon.  If I did half-stars, this would probably get 4.5, but since I limit myself to either 4 or 5... Then this title will round up to a 5.  Cause I feel like it. :D

Tsubasa: Those With Wings

Title:  Tsubasa: Those With Wings
Japanese Title:  Tsubasa wo Motsu Mono
Mangaka:  Natsuki Takaya
Length:  6 Volumes (or 3 bunkobon volumes) (Completed)
English Translation?  Yes.  All three bunkobons were released by Tokyopop.
Demo/Genre:  Shoujo/Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Comedy/Romance/Action

How did I hear about it?  Originally, I found it because I'm a huge fan of Fruits Basket.  I was curious about Takaya-sensei's other works and that led me here.  It jumped up on my reading list after I found it highly recommended in a blog I stumbled upon.

In the future, the earth has been destroyed by wars.  Now, the majority of the population lives in poverty under the rule of a totalitarian military government.  Enter Kotobuki, a young thief stealing to survive.  She is half-heartedly pursued by a captain in the military, Raimon, who has fallen for her.  Soon, he resigns from the military in order to spend his life with her, much to her annoyance.  Romantic comedy ensues.  Mixed in with the romcom elements is the legend of Tsubasa, a glowing light from the sky that long ago descended to grant the wish of a human.  Though most believe that it is only a myth, there are still some that spend their lives searching for it, and it seems that even the military has its sights set on finding Tsubasa...

I loved this series.  The actual plot behind the race to find Tsubasa is intriguing.  I was just as caught up in the main plot as I was the romance.  The series has a decent villain, which I feel is essential to any good series.  Being the shoujo fan that I am though, I guess I will move my discussion to the romance.  I.  Love.  Raimon.  I liked him right away, but I soon found myself falling for him completely.  He's almost difficult to describe.  He's an asshole, but a gentleman at the same time.  Hmm...let me see if I can expound on that.  He cares for no one except for himself and Kotobuki, and between the two, Kotobuki comes first.  He's a (very funny) asshole to everyone else he meets.  He delights in teasing Kotobuki, who is at first resistant to his advances, but he never crosses the line and waits for her to come to him.

This series really is a mustread for shoujo fans, especially fans of Takaya's ever-popular Fruits Basket.  I'll warn you though, the scanlations are a little all over the place.  I read the first three chapters online, then just decided to go ahead and buy it so that I didn't have to worry about reading something out of order or skipping chapters.  With just three volumes readily available on Amazon, it was very easy to collect.  The covers for the bunkobon volumes feature new artwork drawn by Takaya-sensei long after the end of the series, drawn after even the end of Fruits Basket.  The actual artwork in the manga remains unchanged though, featuring her old artstyle.

Naruto

Title:  Naruto
Mangaka:  Masashi Kishimoto
Length:  59 Volumes (ongoing)
English Translation?  Yes.  55 volumes so far by Viz Media.
Demo/Genre:  Shounen/Fantasy/Action/Comedy/Drama

How did I hear about it?  How did I not?  I'll admit I was a little late to read it though.

Twelve years before the start of the story, the Hidden Leaf village, Konohagakure, was attacked by the enormously powerful Nine-Tailed Demon Fox.  The most powerful ninja in the village gave his life to stop the demon and seal it within the body of a newborn infant.  Now that child, the titular Naruto Uzumaki, is a twelve-year-old prankster in Konohagakure's ninja academy.  The first part of the story (which spans 27 volumes) follows young Naruto as he becomes a fledgling ninja, bonds with his new teammates and instructor, and learns to harness the immense power that lies within him.  Of course, there's a big chunk of plot hammered within there, but that's beyond summing up without spoiling (though I imagine you've already read it).  The second part of the series (volume 28 to the present) picks up 2 1/2 years after the first part of the manga with the 15-year-old Naruto returning to his village after years of gruesome training.  The plot then follows the 15-16 year old Naruto as he and his comrades face a new and powerful enemy that pulls the 5 hidden ninja villages into a world war.

Hm...I feel that my summary skills are lacking.  It sounds kinda lame the way I put it, but believe me you, it's far from.  I enjoyed the first part of the manga.  Kishimoto-sensei constructed a tale filled with great characters and a plot that steadily builds, setting the stage for the latter half.  Let's talk characters for a moment.  I kept hearing from my friends how much they loved Naruto (the character).  Reading the first half, I just didn't see it.  I didn't dislike him, but he was a hot-headed, immature kid.  Basically, a 12-year-old.  As the story progressed, he began to exhibit a bit more bad-assery, but he just never crossed into my Top 5 favorite characters.  Young Sasuke, Naruto's obligatory rival, faired quite well with me though.  He was tough, serious, sarcastic, emotionally conflicted.  I adored young Sasuke.  My number one though was forever held by Kakashi Hatake, Naruto's instructor.  Before reading Naruto, Roy Mustang of Fullmetal Alchemist was my favorite badass ever.  He has some serious competition now that I've met Kakashi.  Everything from Kakashi's character design (will we ever get to see beneath the mask?) to his attitude was just...gaaaah.  You can't see it right now, but I've got fangirl hands.  So much love...

As I said, I was certainly enjoying myself while reading the first part, but what solidified Naruto as one of my all-time favorite manga is the second section.  First off, Naruto (the character) leapt up to fill the position as second favorite character (Kakashi is a tough man to top).  Teenage Naruto is a much more mature and complex character.  With each chapter, I think I loved him more and more.  Sasuke, on the other hand, dropped several spots.  His confliction that drew me in in the first part has led him down a sketchy path that has made him...somewhat less endearing to me (though I am still a fan).  The plot that was laid out during the first section now deepens and expands, even managing to draw a tear out from my cold black heart on more than one occasion.

All in all, this manga was incredible.  I talked about the main cast, but really, there are sooo many characters here, and they're all really incredible.  This series is occasionally laugh out loud funny, intense, and even emotional.  Sometimes after reading for a long stretch, I would just feel emotionally exhausted.  If you are somehow like me and are late reading this series, then go out and read it now.  If you're a shounen fan, then there's no excuse for not having read it.  If you're mainly a shoujo reader (like me), then perhaps you should consider it. Especially in the second "half" (called Naruto Shippuden in the anime), this series will appeal to a wide range of manga fans.  Will I collect it?  Yup.  In fact, I loved it so much that as soon as I "finished" reading it, I hopped onto ebay to see if there were any reasonably priced box sets available.  I now have volumes 1-30.  I have a ways to go, but having 25 to go is much easier to deal with than 55.

Fairy Tail

Title:  Fairy Tail
Mangaka:  Hiro Mashima
Length:  31 Volumes (Ongoing)
English Translation?  Yes, 18 volumes so far by Kodansha USA.
Demo/Genre:  Shounen/Fantasy/Action/Comedy

I keep getting caught up in reading and not posting!  I'm sorry!  I have some major catching up to do!  Good thing I don't have any regular readers, eh? ;)

How did I stumble into Fairy Tail?  Its popularity on mangareader led me to try it.

17-year-old Lucy Heartfilia is a fledgling Celestial Wizard (basically, a summoner for you RPGers out there).  In the land of Fiore, you're not a fully-fledged wizard (I preferred the scanlations' translation as "mage" instead of "wizard") until you join a magic guild, and Lucy has her sights set on Fairy Tail.  Through a series of coincidences, she meets well-known fire wizard Natsu Dragneel a.k.a. Salamander, and her adventures as an FT wizard begin.

Take every shounen character stereotype and throw them all into one manga.  Sounds like crap, right?  Oddly enough though, it works here.  Fairy Tail doesn't set out to be groundbreaking in its genre.  This may turn away those who want something more from their manga.  For me though, I can overlook stereotypes and cliches if they're handled well, and I was satisfied here.  Mashima-sensei has a great sense of humor, and I found that the series only became funnier as I read on, one moment in the current arc even landing itself in the "Top-3-Scenes-That-Have-Made-Me-Laugh-the-Hardest-in-a-Manga."  Like that title?  I just made it up.  :P

When I began this series, I thought it was only "okay."  The characters were decent, but I really wished for more character development.  The guild is filled with interesting characters, and Mashima-sensei fills his chapter pages with detailed character bios that offer unique insight into that character's personality quirks, which proves that he gave them a lot of thought, so why not utilize this cast?  Sometimes a new character would be introduced, then that character would be absent from the next arc, and I would think, "Gee, that had a lot of promise.  Too bad we don't get to see more of that character."  However, I would always get my wish answered.  Sure, there were still some characters in the guild that never found the spotlight, but many of them eventually received the treatment they deserved.  And all those new characters that seemed strangely absent?  I just had to sit tight.  Maybe they wouldn't appear in the next arc, but they would come back, and I'd get the time with them that I had wished for.  I hope that's not really a spoiler.

FT lacks the epic scale of Naruto or Bleach, but it makes up for that by just being pure fun.  While it doesn't enter into any new territory that has not been explored by other shounen titles, it manages to be greater than the sum of its parts.