Category: Manga of the Month

Anime & Manga of the Month: November

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Anime of the Month
Magic User’s Club OVA by Triangle Staff & Bandai Visual

When aliens invade the Earth and vaporize all of the advanced technology that could beat them, who would you rely on? If you said a weird group of high schoolers that belong to a club that practices magic you get a gold star. Magic Users Club is wacky and youthful through and through. It is simply there to be enjoyed. Sae is our main character and she is eager to learn magic but has a klutzy nature that tends to get in her way. However, she has a lot of power if she could only harness it. With a little help from the club president (also her intense crush) and her faithful, but cynical, friend Nanka she may just save the world. While Sae is at the forefront, everyone in the cast adds to the pot which keeps the humor high. The prez is a lecherous pervert; Aburatsubo is the handsome good at everything guy; Nanaka doesn’t even believe in magic; and Akane just about never shows up. Like with most shows like this, some real romance is sprinkled in. The president doesn’t just have Sae after him but also Aburatsubo who by the way Nanaka is completely crazy about. Can we say this club is dysfunctional? Magic Users Club is a simple treat with a lot of humor and a little romance. And with just six episodes it continually delivers fun every step of the way.

Manga of the Month
March Comes in Like a Lion by Chika Umino

Often just by hearing a plot you can take a good guess at who has written a manga. Sometimes an author goes in an unexpected direction when they release a new work and you would never guess that the same manga-ka had written both works. March Comes in Like a Lion is somewhere in between these styles. It is a distinctly different work but not a totally unfamiliar one for Umino.

I first became a fan of Chika Umino through her major debt work Honey and Clover. A popular josei drama set around the lives of students at an art college. March Comes in Like a Lion is the story of an orphaned, professional Shogi player in a seinen magazine. While in a different magazine with a different setting Chika Umino’s josei style is still unmistakable especially considering that Young Animal is the magazine that runs Berserk. It has a seinen story structure while still having the humor and character depth that you would expect from Chika Umino.

Rei Kiriyama supports himself by playing shogi professionally. He is a quiet isolated young man whose only human contact outside of shogi is a young woman named Akari. She and her two sisters, Momo and Hinata lost their parents and live with their grandfather. We slowly see Rei’s world expand as he interacts with these three sisters. The only group working on this manga have only scanlated up to chapter 6 so I am hoping that they can start up again soon.

On an amusing note Chika Umino recently did a limited edition cover for the 33rd volume of Berserk and Kentarou Miura is doing an alternative cover for March Comes in Like a Lion in return. So far it has been Chika Umino’s cover has been very tongue in cheek so I expect nothing less in return.

Anime & Manga of the Month: October

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Anime of the Month
Urusei Yatsura by Studio Pierrot

Urusei Yatsura is based on an obscure manga by an even more obscure manga-ka named Rumiko Takahashi. Ok that is a blatant lie. But for the amount that people still talk about Urusei Yatsura in the U.S. you would assume this was the case. Which is a shame because it is one awesome anime.

Urusei Yatsura starts with the lecherous and unlucky Ataru Moroboshi getting engaged to the alien Lum Invader after saving the earth by defeating her in a game of tag. Despite Lum being drop dead gorgeous Ataru wants to date all the other women in his life while the super jealous Lum wants to keep her darling faithful…by any means possible. Ataru might be the world’s greatest girl chaser but Lum can fly, shoot lightening blots, and has bevy of gadgets of alien super science. Ataru and Lum lives are only more complicated by various aliens and human who are drawn to Lum.

Urusei Yatsura’s greatest strength is its delightfully twisted cast of characters. Lum herself is an immortal anime icon to Japan and other parts of the world. You will see echos and allusion to the cast in every other Rumiko Takahashi work and a good deal of any other manga as well. From the spoiled over the top richest boy in the world Shuutaro Mendou to the manipulative split personality Alice in Wonderland themed alien Ran all of  Urusei Yatsura’s characters are iconic. Urusei Yatsura is also the most Japanese of all of Rumiko Takahashi’s works. Most of the aliens are based on creatures of Japanese mythology.

So with 195 episodes, 11 OAVs, and 6 movies where do I start. Or rather where should youstart? The answer is slightly unexpected. Start with the last disk. It has episode 194 which has the top 10 Urusei Yatsura episodes in summary with the most popular episode in its entirety. It will give you a good idea if this series is for you. You could also start with the first movie. It jumps right into the action and is consistent in tone with the rest of the series. The second movie might be the pinnacle of Urusei Yatsura but much like Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro it might give you the wrong impression of the series. The 5th movie is also excellent but it’s very silly to start with the end in my humble opinion.

Also Rock the Planet (the 5th opening) is without a doubt one of the greatest anime openings of all time.

Manga of the Month
D.N.Angel by Yukiru Sugisaki

Daisuke is a short, artistic, and energetic, if a bit clumsy, 14-tear-old boy but he has a bit of problem. In his family, all of the first born boys inherit the ability to turn into the phantom thief Dark who is a bit of handful. Hiwatari, a classmate of Daisuke who is hiding some secrets of his own, is determined to catch the thief that hasn’t appeared since almost 40 years prior. Dark has been stealing artwork from the Hikari clan for 400 years but for what purpose and reason? Dark emerges when there is artwork to steal but also when Daisuke’s emotions surge, especially those of love. To make things more complicated Risa, the girl Daisuke has a crush on, falls in love with Dark while Riku, Risa’s twin, starts showing feelings for Daisuke. Not to mention Dark being in love with Riku himself. Plenty of drama and comedy ensues with the help of Daisuke’s family. So begins a game of cat and mouse, art theft, action, magic, mystery, and quite a bit of romance. It has a good pace mixed with artwork that continues to evolve as the series goes on. The relationships are a high point pulling you first one way, then the next, making the complexity very dynamic.

D.N.Angel is a series that garnered popularity in Asuka magazine and has only recently come off hiatus for long-waiting fans. With 11 volumes released in English and just 13 in Japanese everyone who reads it is anxious for its, more than likely bittersweet, conclusion.

Anime & Manga of the Month: September

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Anime of the Month
They Were 11 by Kitty Film

This a short (running just 91 minutes), perfect little self-contained space opera. While it was made in the 80’s it is adapted from a manga made in the 70’s and the character designs reflect that. Ten cadets are sent off on their final test of survival, which happens to be on an abandoned space ship, but when they board the ship there are 11 people in the group. Since the test is randomized no one has a clue as to who is the odd man out. Suspicion, sabotage, and mystery ensue as the cadets form factions and cope with a decomposing ship, rising temperatures, and a fatal disease that is spreading among the crew. They can end the test with a push of a button but then they all fail. All manner of species and personalities clash in this small group, which makes it a pleasure to watch it play out and almost impossible to figure out who the 11th man is.

Manga of the Month
Excel Saga by Koushi Rikudou

While Excel Saga the anime had it’s time in the sun, most people ignore the excellent manga it was based on which is a shame because while I love the anime, I love the manga even more. Where as the anime was a high energy gag a second parody of anime, the manga is a little more subtle with social satire mixed in with its parody of anime tropes. Also I really think Elgala is cute and she’s only in the manga.

Excel, Hyatt, and eventually Elgala are soldiers and agents for ACROSS, an organization bent on world domination. Ilpalazzo, the leader of ACROSS, has determined that he must first take over F city before he can take over the rest of the world. And so Excel spends most of her time going on bizarre missions in hopes of taking over the city and then the world. Ilpalazzo’s old nemesis, Dr. Kabapu, has organized the Department of City Security with his own agents to stop the plans of ACROSS. Technically both organizations are hunting each other but most of the time they are so incompetent that they spend more time fixing their own mistakes, dilemmas, and financial problems than fighting one another.

I must make note that the Viz translation is done my the famous Carl Gustav Horn so they are expertly translated and researched with amazing translation notes at the end. I think learn a little sometime every time I read a new book of Excel Saga. Sometimes the translation notes are as amusing as the comic itself. And that is high praise indeed.

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