Manga reviews! Manga reviews!

[darkelf105]

Manga roundup, yo. Here’s what I’ve been reading. Not really full blown reviews like I would like because there is so much and nothing was so super stellar that I feel like it warrants a huge long treatment. However, everything I’ve read was really entertaining, if non-nutritious brain candy. 

Black Sun Silver Moon by Tomo Maeda. This has zombies (aka the Resurrected), a priest who is slowly turning into a demon, his spunky protégé, and their adopted zombie dog, who may or may not be clinically stupid. 

 

Taki takes a job with Father Shikimi to pay off his father’s debt and ends up working in a large, largely abandoned church in the mountains. For the most part he cleans up messes that the father makes, and this is where most of the character development and interaction takes place. It’s funny, and Shikimi and Taki have a good dynamic. On the other hand, I picked this up because there were zombies in it. I think the zombies get a total of four panels. That being said, there is Agi, who is a zombie dog and is quite fat and adorable and gives new meaning to the words brain dead.  Towards the end we find out Shikimi is turning into a demon and he expects Taki to kill him. There is angst over the way the villagers treat Shikimi, there is angst over having to kill Shikimi, and then the angst stops when some zombies appear for two panels. And then Taki goes back to cleaning.

 

I liked this series; it was cute, though not what you’d consider a compelling drama. Definitely for people who like character driven series and don’t mind a little cliché with their characters. Definitely not for the hardcore lover of all things Romero and undead.

 

X-Kai by Asami Tohjoh. This manga has a florist. A very pretty, florist. Who happens to be an assassin, known without irony or fear of cliché as Death, by night.

 

Kaito is yummy. And serious. And thoughtful. And for being a hired killer has quite the moral streak. The first two stories center around his, um, renegotiations of some contracts he accepts and then finds morally deplorable. He’s a softie, especially for women. And children. Eventually there is an arc with a copy cat killer. This is my favorite arc, so I won’t spoil it. Needless to say, I am in love with the flowers as weapons. Eventually Kaito picks up an abandoned child and there are some touching moments between the two.

 

Kaito is pretty. Renge, the child he picks up, is adorable. And Sugaru, the woman who brings Kaito his missions, is hot and interesting, though not in the manga nearly enough. That’s pretty much all I need for a manga so I’m definitely going to order the next volume even though this manga has nothing I haven’t seen before in it. However, full of tropes and clichés that it is, it’s still done well and is engaging.

Sengoku Nights by Kei Kusuniki and Kaoru Ohashi. Mmmm, a women’s spirit reincarnated in a young high school boy’s body and her demon lover, who doesn’t give a damn that she’s now a teenage boy, by the by. Yay!

 

Masayoshi Kurozuka is a normal high school student and this manga definitely starts off a bit like Inuyasha especially with all the demons and reincarnating and whatnot. However, I was not overly fond of Inuyasha and I really enjoyed this.

 

The premise of Sengoku Nights is simple. Masayoshi Kurozuka is the reincarnation of Oni-hime, a figure from the Warring States era (I think, am not sure, my handle on Japanese history is not as good as it should be. I also think that Oni-hime is an actual mythological figure, but am also not sure on that count), who did some bad stuff (I know it involved killing lots of soldiers) and was basically cursed from here to kingdom come. She wielded some sort of special exorcist type power and was able to summon Nozuchi No Mikoto a god of the land, who then became her protector. Oni-hime, in order to protect herself, locks all the curses that were cast upon her, the souls of her enemies, and Nozuchi No Mikoto in a mountain that was then passed down through her lineage and reincarnates hundreds of years later as a boy so no one will find her. Masayoshi’s mother sells said mountain and they start to build a golf course on it. Curses, gods, and vengeful souls are released antics and plot ensues and I am entertained.

 

I like Masayoshi, I love Nozuchi No Mikoto, I like the guardian spirit of the mountain village that Masayoshi refers to grandmother and I really like the psychotic girl Masayoshi has a crush on. This is a two volume series and I most definitely will be getting the second one from the library. Highly recommended, as it’s a mix of the better parts of Inuyasha and Ghost Hunt

Night of the Beasts volumes 1 and 2 by Chika Shiomi. Contains an kickass, entertaining heroine, a moody, hot man slowly turning into a demon and the family that’s trying to kill them.

 

I enjoyed this manga immensely and am sad that the library has no more of it. Aria, our heroine, is a normal school girl. She’s spunky, full of fight and a protector of the innocent and defenseless, especially girls. One day, people start dying of “feral dog” attacks, read demons, in her neighborhood. A man named Sakura appears at one of the deaths and steals a kiss from her. Later we find out that Sakura is a very, very distant blood relative to Aria and is destined to kill all 4,000 of his blood relations do to a curse that will turn him into a demon. Aria appears to be the only person who can save him, both from the demon and from his family that isn’t going to take being killed lying down.

 

I really, really liked the character of Aria; it was nice seeing a girl doing the ass kicking and the protecting for once. I hope that her falling for Sakura will not make her useless later in the series; it doesn’t seem so, though, as Aria gets her own demon, too! I liked Sakura, as well. He’s a saucy beast. And there were some nice supporting characters as well. Recommended for those who want some romance with their demons.

Peace Maker by Nanae Chrono. This is touted as being Kenshin but on the other side. Between the Shinsengumi, a spunky protagonist, his endearing worrywart of a brother, a sexy blade master who looks almost like a woman and may or may not be having a relationship with the other sexy piece of man meat in the series, gender bending spies and of course samurai battles, with surprisingly little angst, what’s not to love? The art in this is so very clean and all of the characters are great. I’m not going into a lot of detail, mainly because this was my favorite read out of the whole bunch and I really, really, don’t want to spoil for anyone. (I tend to get excited when I really love something and I don’t shut up).

 

It’s character driven, if a little slow on the action. But I think the art makes up for it. I’m really excited from volume two to come in. And this is a series, I’m definitely looking to buy.