Alphabetical Index of Tokyopop Manga Reviews

Aria Volume 4

After some trouble, I finally found a copy of the latest chapter of this gorgeous series. As volume 4 begins, it’s summer on Aqua, and Akari and her fellow gondolier trainees Aika and Alice vacation on a small island. Yes, it’s a bathing suit chapter, but the clothes are reasonable, and instead of body parts, the emphasis is on the fun and relaxation of the beach. The younger girls have never swum in an ocean before, and their feelings of […]

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Tokyopop in March: NG Life, Tsubasa: Those With Wings, Star Trek Manga Ultimate Edition

Tokyopop sent along some of their upcoming March releases for review. NG Life Volume 1 by Mizuho Kusanagi, $10.99 US Four-volume series High school student Keidai remembers his previous life in Pompeii. His love then, Serena, has been reincarnated as the new neighbor, Yuuma, a middle-school boy. His best friend then is now a female classmate, Mii, who at least listens to his memories that no one else shares. NG Life should make for enjoyable light comedy, but the impression […]

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Aria Volume 2

Where volume 1 covers autumn, as Aria volume 2 begins, winter is coming. The first chapter introduces the snowbugs, small creatures mistaken for dandelion puffs. They have seasonal lifecycles, coming out only in the cold and leaving right before the first snow. Lead character Akari is at least a teenager, with a career, but in the beginning of the book, when she’s never seen a fire in a fireplace, she seems very young. On the other hand, she’s from a […]

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Aria Volume 1

Kozue Amano’s Aria volume 1 introduces the glorious water world of Aqua. (We know it better as Mars, now flooded and renamed.) Akari is a gondolier in training in the tourist city of Neo-Venezia. Those in her profession are called undines, after the mythological water spirits, and her joy and grace cause her to live up to the inspiration. As the book begins, it’s autumn, and Akari’s appreciating the signs of the changing season. Her open, deep eyes express her […]

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The Kindaichi Case Files: The Undying Butterflies

The Undying Butterflies is the latest volume, the seventeenth, in the recommended Kindaichi Case Files mystery manga series. It opens with a day at the beach for Kindaichi, Miyuki, and Reika, a young singer who’s previously appeared in the volumes Death TV and Playing the Fool. The sleuth finds himself juggling time alone with the two young women in a sequence that could have appeared in an Archie comic, in which the authors do a good job combining tenderness and […]

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Happy Mania Volume 9

Now that the series by Moyoco Anno is winding down, things are happening rapidly again. Volume nine opens with Shigeta getting the news that Takahashi is getting married. Fuku expects her to be shocked, but Shigeta is the calmest I’ve ever seen her in this series. Takahashi’s faux-fiancee is the freaky one here. She hears “congratulations” and thinks “they’re plotting against me.” She refuses to leave, even when Takahashi tries to break up their non-existent relationship. Artistically, there’s a lot […]

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Happy Mania Volume 8

It’s been a while since I’ve talked about this series by Moyoco Anno, last covering volume two last month. I admit, the intervening books didn’t grab me as much as the first couple did, but I still want to find out if man-crazed Shigeta ever calms down and finds happiness. Volume eight opens with a recap of her motivations in an amusing visual parody of the samurai genre. She’s mid-20s, she wants true love but doesn’t know what it is, […]

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Fool’s Gold Volume 2

I read Fool’s Gold volume 2 when it came out, several months ago, and I didn’t have much to say about it. It continues the story from volume 1 in expected fashion. Hannah, the previous queen bee, isn’t coping well with Penny usurping her place as Miss Popularity, so she’s scheming and manipulating. The boys identified as pyrites (the false gold of the title), who are now without girlfriends, are beginning to get suspicious. Keeping up with her ever-growing girl […]

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