I don’t know whether to be amused or appalled by this “opposites attract” rape comedy. The back cover blurb is generic, describing an all-girl elite high school that’s only recently started admitting boys, so there are still many more girls attending. It continues: So begins a wild, no-holds-barred competition for the boys of the school. Which smart and independent-minded girl will rise above the fray? Sounds like a lot of girls want one of the few available young men for […]

Wolverine, the Marvel Comics superhero with the mysterious past and the magical healing factor, has been reinvented as a lonely teen martial artist in Wolverine: Prodigal Son. This manga-style adaptation has story by Antony Johnston and art by Wilson Tortosa. Logan is the best in his class at the remote Canadian school where he trains, beating even Tamara, the teacher’s daughter and a talent in her own right. He’s an unusually fast-healing “freak”, but he’s also quite attractive, with tousled […]

Well, that was a twist. Volume 1 was about twin teens thinking they were in love with the same boy. Volume 2 heads off in a very different direction with all kinds of over-the-top events. Shy Ageha has just lost out on Ryusei to her twin sister Hana. That plot is quickly forgotten, though, as the strange guidance counselor Kyu-chan instead starts meddling in Ageha’s relationship with her mother. The parents raised Hana, you see, while Ageha was raised by […]

This has been quite a year for realizing that rules don’t apply. I used to say “I don’t like horror comics”, but I should say, “I don’t like most horror comics”, because I enjoy Parasyte. That’s because the scary element — a body-invading controller — is a perfect metaphor for teenage alienation and discomfort with one’s own body. When alien worms come to possess humans, Shinichi is saved by his Walkman. He uses the cord as a makeshift tourniquet, preventing […]

Hana was raised in the city, and she’s pretty, popular, and outgoing. Her twin sister Ageha lived with their grandmother in the country, and she’s shy and plain … although, obviously, that’s more in her head, since they’re twins. She blames her upbringing and outside circumstances for her situation, dreaming of becoming a beautiful butterfly (thus the title) but either not knowing what to do or not sure she’s willing to take the steps to get there. Ageha has a […]

Writer Christopher Hart is responsible for more than 60 how-to books about creating manga and comics, including the incredibly popular Manga Mania and its many spinoffs. But I’d never heard of him creating any actual comics until now. The Reformed is described as “original English language (OEL) crime noir vampire manga”, and the promotional text will give you a good idea of just how clichéd it is. Immortality is his, but love never will be — only an eternity of […]

I liked the premise behind this odd series by Tomoko Hayakawa — four gorgeous guys hired to bring a geeky horror fan out of her shell — but when I sampled The Wallflower before, I could never get into it. For me, there was too much emphasis on the horror references, not enough character development. I was surprised, then, to find myself drawn into this later volume. I still can’t tell the guys apart, and it’s a bit unnerving that […]

The otaku/manga/anime fan series by Kio Shimoku comes to an end with this volume and school graduation. The club president’s American friends have returned. Sue, the bad-tempered yaoi fan, now has a dream: to attend university in Japan as an exchange student. Since she only talks in anime quotes, there’s some confusion over just how much Japanese she understands or can speak. For that reason, her friends think it’s a bad idea, but Ogiue (who winds up hosting Sue as […]