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Taken from my first take post (with accompanying picture snaps) on http://sekijitsu.com/2011/01/26/first-take-oumagadoki-zoo/

While the name doesn’t exactly roll of the tongue, the manga itself is pretty unique. Previously known as Oumagadoki Doubutsuen and originally appearing in Jump as a oneshot, OZ follows a young female high school student, Aoi Hana, who stumbles on a part-time job in a local zoo. With her love for animals, it seems like the perfect match but little does she know that by night, the zoo inhabitants take on a different form altogether. Led by their egotistic and childish director Shiina, the animals acquire Aoi’s help to make the zoo the ... most popular park in the world.

Shiina has his own motives for wanting to make the zoo popular, since 13 years ago he had been cursed by a rabbit ghost, resulting in him taking the form of a large rabbit. In order to break the curse, he needed to show love to animals, through the powers of his curse. Due to the curse, he has an excessive amount of magic, which he uses to turn members of the animal kingdom into humanized versions of themselves. With their help along with Aoi Hana, he hopes to achieve his goal and help break the curse in order to become human again.

OZ is one of the most creative and original manga I’ve read in while. As Jump is now infested with new manga in the stereotypical highschool setting, OZ manages to create it’s own world with something that many would not even consider: a zoo. Written and drawn by a young new mangaka, Kōhei Horikoshi, the story and art itself feels pretty well layered, especially given that it is the mangakas first serialized work.

While it may not be as captivating during the first few chapters to some, I personally found that the mangas art and unique setting was enough to help me follow through with the story. I have to say though, the manga ramps up in quality with the addition of new animals and new enemies not long into its serialization.

The second arc is where things really get interesting, as the manga begins to find it’s niche as a surprisingly captivating battle manga. Looking back at the first few chapters, this development was a surprise to me but the transition was executed so well that it was an absolute blast to follow the animals through their battles. With the amount of possible characters to choose from in the entire animal kingdom, the possibilities for future enemies and new characters are really endless, so I’m certain that it would not stale too early in it’s run.

It also helps that the designs of the humanized animals themselves are pretty creative. You can sense that the mangaka has taken some inspiration from some other animal based animes and movies, since I saw some resemblances with characters from series like Pokemon, Summer Wars and the like. Still, they each have their own brand of personality so they definitely feel one of a kind (a particular favourite of mine is the badass Orca, whose features have been modified to resemble a suit. Also, Shiina reminds me of Hiruma from Eyeshield 21, in that they are both conniving and share that evil huge grin. A huge win right there).

While this is a relatively new manga, it is starting to gain a certain following, especially from the western half of the world. Not being particularly popular yet in Japan, you can see a lot of people voice their concerns over the possible dropping of the manga given it’s consistently low ratings in the TOC rankings. I have a feeling that it will avoid the drop however, since the story and setting is too unique to have it dropped so soon, especially since it is beginning to develop more.

The editors of Jump themselves seem to agree as well, since OZ always manages to get a lot of coloured spreads and extra pages, a sign that it is given the benefit of the doubt from Jump, even though ratings haven’t been stellar. High sales of the tankobon volumes recently may soon influence it’s popularity, so I have faith that the ratings will steadily increase in due time.

Even though this is a first take on the manga, I found it good enough to warrant a recommendation to y’all. It’s relatively new, with only 18 translated chapters to this date, so it isn’t one of those monster mangas that will take ages to read. Released scanlations are pretty sporadic at the moment though, which is a bit of a bummer since it’s already behind the Jump releases by quite a bit. Still, it shouldn’t be long before more groups start picking up this series, since I have a feeling that it’s going to explode in 2011. Fingers crossed it manages to get that far, as I really have high hopes for this (vote Japan, vote!).

If you liked the review, you can find more of my work on my blog www.sekijitsu.com

Taken from my recommendation post (with accompanying picture snaps) on http://sekijitsu.com/2011/01/21/rec-lying-mii-kun-broken-maa-chan/

I **** you.

Words that are open to interpretation. This manga plays skip rope with the line that defines love and hate, fear and fearlessness, sane and the insane. Truthfully, I’m writing this not long after completing the manga, but with only 5 chapters, it is one that goes by really fast. The lingering questions however, stay for much longer.

The manga referenced here of course is the psychological drama/mystery “Lying Mii-kun & Broken Maa-chan: Precious Lies”. The title hints at the deceptive nature of the story, as the narration successfully manages to throw curveballs and ... lead you in the wrong paths, even though the reality might actually be the opposite. If you think that my words so far have been pretty ambiguous, its because it is meant to be. Being only 5 chapters long, there’s not much room to maneuver around key plot points so the only way around it is to be a bit vague. I’d rather not spoil anything from this manga, since to experience it fully; you really have to go into it blind. I certainly did.

Seriously, this manga managed to get into my mind quite a bit as I read through it. The protagonist and narrator, “Mii-kun” is a very interesting person whose dark past haunts him constantly. This leads to some heavy exploration of the complex overtones in the human psyche, as both he and “Maa-chan” attempt to rid themselves of the demons that plagued their childhood. Mistakes were repeated, although not through faults of their own. The things that they have experienced and continue to experience really makes you wonder about people who suffer from similar mental states. Their relationship with each other is also pretty ambiguous, since the mangaka censors the words that they try to express to each other. “I **** you”. Open to interpretation.

Mii-kun as the narrator is really memorable as you look at the story through his tainted eyes. Seeing that he is a compulsive liar, you can never be too sure about what he says, even his inner monologues. If I were to compare it to a previous manga I read with similar themes, I’d guess that the style is similar to “Onani Master Kurosawa”. In OMK, you empathize (eventually) with the protagonist Kurosawa who does indecent, unforgivable things to his unsuspecting victims. A similar scenario is evident here, although instead of having someone jizz all over your undergarments, you replace it with murder and torture instead.

Through the second chapter, the introduction of a detective figure made me think about comparisons with Death Note, another notable psychological, mind-game thriller. While this angle was not used as much as I hoped in the end, the cryptic dialogue between Mii-kun and the detective was enough for me to bring about images of L and Light’s infamous mind games. While that may be a bit of an exaggeration, at times this manga is really good with its dialogue, even though it is extremely short.

In the end though, like Kurosawa, you really feel for the characters’ plight. You empathize with the protagonists, you vilify and hate the antagonist, even though at times you don’t really know who is in the bad until the very end. Like I said, the way the story is narrated can sometimes throw you off the path and there are plenty of twists and turns that make you doubt your previous assumptions. Even at the end of the story, there are questions left unanswered. I won’t spoil it here, but since I was so invested in these characters, the ending’s lack of concrete answers made me feel uneasy. Still, there are just some problems that can’t ever be solved so at the very least, leaving the ending as it is allows the readers to interpret the conclusion the way they want to.

The author’s done a great job at portraying such a dark subject matter and it is definitely a worthwhile read if you want a quick fix of mind fuckery. Each chapter will leave you wondering what lies ahead and therein lies the beauty of this short gem. I initially entertained the idea of just having a large “wtf” in bold as the post’s content since it really is crazy at times but that wouldn’t give this manga justice. It just deserves better.

With only 5 chapters, its very hard not to recommend this. At the end of it all, you’ll be thinking “Is that it?” Regardless of its length, I really think you should give this a go, since you will come out of it feeling grateful for what you have in life. A final caveat, the weak-minded should tread with caution.

If you liked the review, you can find more of my work on my blog www.sekijitsu.com

Taken from my first take post (with accompanying picture snaps) on http://sekijitsu.com/2011/01/06/first-take-donten-prism-solar-car/

Fans of great manga and great art (*cough* Eyeshield 21) rejoice, cos Yusuke Murata (of Eyeshield fame) is now part of a new team creating a new Jump manga once more! It’s been a horriblly long wait for me personally for Murata to finally get back into the manga scene once more, since it’s been ages since Eyeshield 21 finished. While he did have a oneshot recently in Jump (Blust!), it didn’t really have that great of a premise and seemed a bit too shallow for my taste. It definitely ticked all the boxes ... of a standard hero shounen manga, but like Mashiro and Takagi found out in Bakuman, generic heroes just don’t cut it. So even though he isn’t as good a story teller as I would have liked, his art however has always been top-notched. He just needed a running-mate to help him sort out the story, characters and development while he can just focus on the art.

So he now has a new manga running up in the Monthly-published Jump SQ, where other quality works call home including Ao no Exorcist and D.Gray-Man. The only difference now though is that Murata-sensei is not collaborating with Eyeshield 21 author Riichiro Inagaki again, which is sad for me personally since I loved his characters, humor and penchant for the dramatic. The new author here would be Yasuo Ōtagaki, who’s previous work includes the sci-fi drama manga Moonlight Mile. I’ve never seen his previous work before but since it got adapted into an anime series, he does have the pedigree of being a top-notch writer. And after reading the first four chapters of their new venture, Donten Prism Solar Car, I think this new team will be good enough to really get me buzzing again.

While it is definitely a shounen manga by definition, the characters and setting is evidently more mature than that right from the beginning. For one thing, the hero and characters are all in the college-student age group. No more highschool settings here and the manga really has a more realistic vibe to it since the main character, Shouta Kaneda, is a part-time worker struggling to make end meets, with the goal of eventually having enough money saved up to attend college. The manga starts off tragically, with Shouta hurt in a car accident. It is later revealed that his father had died in the accident and because of that, life has been hard for Shouta and his mother. With the economy bad enough as it is, both of them had to work hard to maintain a steady lifestyle, with Shouta having to sacrifice his dreams of attending college due to a lack of financial backing.

Now much older, Shouta works for his uncle’s ironswork company and lives on the second floor of the company’s warehouse along the outskirts of the city. Due to the accident 10 years before, he has always hated cars, instead using his beloved bicycle as a means of transportation. One evening however, he receives a phonecall that a group of university students would be using the garage in the warehouse as a base of operations for their college project, the revival of an old solar-powered car, with the aim of taking part in a solar car racing tournament in a year’s time. Apparently Shouta’s uncle had given access to the university as it would mean more funding to avoid layoffs in the company. He also requests Shouta to give a hand in the project, as the students did not have any manufacturing skills whatsoever. So the manga builds upon this premise, and the next few chapters overlooks Shouta’s relationship with the students and their college professor, along with confronting his fear of cars in the process. The main goal is definitely the attending of this solar car tournament, so it does have shades of Eyeshield 21′s Christmas Bowl dream.

After skimming through the premise, this is not really a manga that typically caters to the young shounen demographic. Due setting and premise however, the story really struck home with me personally, since the whole “working part-itme jobs to pay off college” is something that I have been going through for the past few years, and quite possibly for the next few in the future. It really is admirable to see a character like Shouta work through hardships like that in order to achieve his dream of a better education and a better life. He definitely has his fair share of downsides, as he is not very sociable and is not really all that trusting of others, but hey, you can’t have the protagonist perfect right from the start right? You gotta start off somewhere and Shouta as a character is very genuine to me, grounded in reality to fit the setting perfectly.

Other characters to note include the heroine Junko Yazaki, her fellow team members Honda Eiji, Teruo and Hitoshina Katsuhiko and their college professor Saeki Kenjirou. Junko is the glue of the group, since she was originally the only member who tried her best to revive the old solar car project. Her enthusiasm is really infectious, as she managed to gain the backing of her fellow teammates but there is a hint of romance on the side as the members all seem to be taken to her. The college professor aids to help the group find funding and parts for the project, and he also plays a major part in persuading Shouta to agreeing to help the project, as he offers to pay him a part-time salary on top of tutoring him to pass the university entrance exams.

The art of the manga is still first-class as usual, as there is plenty of details to be seen especially on the technical side. Murata-sensei has had a lot of experience drawing intricate objects in Eyeshield, so it’s no surprise to see the amount of awesomeness and care that he puts into the solar car designs. The characters are also designed really well, as they do not really remind me much of anyone in his previous works. There are some subtle homages to previous characters, as Junko seems like the combination of both Mamori and Suzuna from Eyeshield and Katsuhiko kinda sorta reminds me of Shin Seijuro a little bit. Other than that though, the character designs are still top-notch and the realistic style matches the story really well. His ability to draw appealing female and male characters are still evident here, so there’s eyecandy for both sides of the coin.

Since this is a monthly, the wait is definitely gonna be excruciating, much like my experience reading DW, Ao no Exorcist and DGM. The manga is longer than the standard weekly-fare, but with the way that the chapters end every month, it really is a pain for me to wait for my next fix. Needless to say though, so far this seems like a keeper for me. The characters and plot really resonated with me and I can see a lot of development going on here, as I can already sense some future romance going on with the characters (awkward love-triangles ftw). There are currently 4 chapters released, with the last one scanlated on New Years eve. I strongly suggest that you give this a go if this post interested you in any way. It’s only 4 chapters into the story so it is still really new so what is there to lose? Plus, you can also join me and Flags in our horrible agony of waiting to get past the cliffhanger of chapter 4 D:

If you liked the review, you can find more of my work on my blog www.sekijitsu.com

Taken from my recommendation post (with accompanying picture snaps) on http://sekijitsu.com/2010/03/09/recommendation-eyeshield-21/

The Hard Sell: If you are automatically turned-off by the fact that this is a sports manga, you are missing out on something much, much more. I know plenty of people who won’t even give this manga a chance because of the premise. Hopefully I am able to convince some of you that sports is just the outer layer of this series, since it is actually much deeper than that. If not, I don’t think it would have stood a chance in the highly-competitive world of JUMP, where rankings are king and new series get ... dropped so often that it’s saddening. For a manga which focuses on the relatively-unpopular American Football (at least outside America), for it to stay serialized for 300+ chapters is astounding, and has actually helped to boost the sport in Japan.

You don’t even need to be a fan of the sport. When I first picked this up, I was actually just starting to get into American Football, as I was interested in the sport after watching “Longest Yard”. This manga helped me understand it more, as it builds up on the rules slowly but surely, acting as a helping hand for newbies to the sport. You don’t even need to understand it to love it, as I know some others who read it out of pure love for it’s characters and comedy. For those who want to know more about the sport, I can’t recommend an easier and entertaining way than to read this, as I’ve pointed plenty of people to ES21 when they ask me of the sport.

The Characters: The thing that you can pick up on right from the first chapter is the easy-going attitude of the series. It’s not serious (although there are plenty of those moments later on), as it is quite a light-hearted take on the sports-genre. It is definitely no Slam Dunk (arguably the greatest sport manga ever) but what it lacks in seriousness it more than makes up for in humor and character (although SD has plenty of those as well). The characters all have their quirks and the mangakas do not hesitate on blowing them up. Take the main character for example, Sena Kobayakawa. An unassumingly weak character, he is seen as the victim of bullies early in the story. He even needs to rely on his female childhood friend, Mamori Anezaki, for protection and help. The only thing he has going for him is his inhumane speed, which he ends up using to run errands for others rather than to fend bullies off. He was also forced to join the Football team, but learned to grow as a person through the hardships of teamwork and battle. A cliched rise really but the way at which he climbed up to the top is the stuff of legends, as I’m sure plenty of readers will agree on.

Then there is the fan favorite Hiruma. He is the unique one of the bunch, as he is mainly viewed as the cunning and devilishly wicked leader of the team. What he lacks in physical prowess he more than makes up for in cunning plays, laser vision and genius tactical knowledge. He may seem like a horrible person on the outside but later on we learn that he is a great leader, someone who is willing to sacrifice everything for the cause of the team, as well as his comrades. He doesn’t show this freely but the team knows this and by using his devilish and shocking facade, he is able to build the team up from scratch and into a formidable squad. Also, his antics and way of doing things are hugely entertaining, as I’m sure you’ll find out in the images I posted along with this entry.

These two are just some of the colorful characters that you will learn to love through your reading. If you think these guys are awesome, wait till you see the rivals they face. All of them exude originality and confidence, and the designs never fail to amaze as everyone looks amazing and non-generic. If you like Bishies or even hot cheerleaders, look no further as there are no shortages of either of these in Eyeshield 21. For the ladies out there who need a little push, here are some of the bishies up for show (don’t worry guys, there’s some for us here too).

The Humor: The humor is what I’d like to describe as slapstick, since it is pretty crazy the lengths that the characters go through to give us our laughs. Since the main team the Devilbats are essentially a bunch of misfits that band together after blackmails and threats, you can expect that their teamwork will be shoddy at best in the beginning. This itself leads to some very funny moments, since there are clearly factions within the team that don’t really like each other. Couple this with the fact that Hiruma rules with an iron-first (or more accurately, weapons of mass destruction), you can expect a good laugh whenever the team doesn’t go through the plays that they should (since 95% of the team don’t even know the sport nor the rules when they first joined).

Most of the laughs come from our very own Devilbats but their rivals also get into the act at times. A key piece of rival team Oujou Knight, Ootawara is a stereotypical all brawn, no brain player, as he often finds himself butt-naked no matter what the situation. While this may seem childish, it just shows the range of the comedy available as every player is susceptible to a bout of craziness themselves. The comedic duo of Monta and Sena, the one-man show Hiruma, the huh-huh rivalry, the perverted helpers, the technologically-challenged genius and plenty more show just how crazy this ensemble really is, and I am sure that they will manage to tickle your funny bone, no matter how hard-headed or mature you claim to be.

The Art: Oh gawd, the art. This is what initially drew me in, since I am as crazy an art-whore as any. The Eyeshield artstyle is easily my favorite since it is the perfect blend of shouneny clean lines and intricate attention to detail. Whoever thinks that drawing about American Football is easy has to be delusional, since it is waaay harder to illustrate than say soccer or basketball. Since there are 22 players on the field, the amount of players drawn as well as details such as stadiums and uniforms make it so hard to illustrate, especially since Eyeshield is a weekly serialization. With the amount of detail going into each character and their gear (the helmets themselves are notoriously hard to draw, and that doesn’t take into account the shading and tinting), it is mindboggling how the mangakas are able to keep this up week-in-week-out for over 300 chapters.

The style at which the character faces and physiques are drawn are also perfect to a T in my book, since there are no characters that look remotely alike. The character and uniform design is just unique and refreshing, and they do not even resemble characters from any other mangas. The originality alone makes it easy to stand out from the crowd, and with the amount of characters there are in this manga (easily ranging in the 50+), I’m at a lost for words at how creative you must be to think them up. Another good thing is that the manga develops it’s own style very early in the series, since you can see the improvements in every chapter. While the first chapter isn’t much to write home about, come chapter 20 or so there is a markedly noticeable difference.

Because of the art, Eyeshield also gets a lot of colour pages since it is very popular. This is where the mangaka shines since he is able to use copics to illustrate things such as water and reflections beautifully. While the colour selection is not as awesome as say Amatsuki, the depth of each colour spread itself is enough to make up for this fact, since nearly every colour spread has like 10-20 characters coloured in detail. My favourite of the spreads are the ones where the lines are taken off, giving the pictures a more realistic effect. If your jaw doesn’t drop from seeing the colour images in this entry, then you’re just blind. No two ways about it.

The Epic Battles: It wouldn’t be shounen without the epic battles right? Since this is a sport manga, it definitely has it’s fair share of awesome fights. Since the Devilbats are perennial underdogs, they are always underestimated by their opponents. This may be due to the fact that the Devilbats were only formed not long before the manga started by Hiruma and his best friends Kurita and Musashi. Since the three were the only full members of the team, they needed all the help they can get, as they blackmailed and (forcefully) persuaded members from the school’s other sport teams to help them out to gain enough numbers for a proper team. This lead to some major losses and it wasn’t until their second year of high school did they stumble upon their gem, Sena. With Sena acting as the foil and team ace, they slowly but surely gained respectable and capable members to help fill the team numbers. With the growing potential of newcomers, the team improved immensely as they gained experience, with Hiruma cunningly picking the right opponents to help them fight to their limits.

Because of their rapid rise, as well as Hiruma’s cocky persona, the team gained their fair share of rivals, such as Shin of the Oujou Knights and Agon from the invincible Shinryuuji Nagas. These are just two of the best and the developing rivalry between their teams throughout the manga is very entertaining, as they go through a lot together. Sena and Shin are the ultimate rivals as they are forever improving themselves in order to catch up to the other, leading up to an insanely emotional final battle. I’m not gonna spoil too much about their journeys here but believe me when I say that the character development and the way that backstories and rivalries are fleshed out make the manga a very well-told story. If you think that this is gonna be very shallow than you’re sadly mistaken, since I actually think that there is more depth in character here than Slam Dunk. Hopefully the panels I’ve chosen for this section is enough to make you tempted, since they are just a sample of what you can expect.

CONCLUSION: Hopefully what you’ve read so far has been enough of a push for you to give this great series a chance. I personally guarantee that you will like it and even if you don’t, I’m sure the art still made it a worthwhile experience. Since the manga is really light-hearted and not too intense, it is very easy to get into so don’t feel too afraid that it is based on a sport that you don’t know anything about. If you do give it a read and end up loving it, I’d love to hear your comments and we can hopefully discuss about the stuff that we loved. Promoting Eyeshield was one of the main reasons why I started blogging in the first place so it has a very special place in my heart (I’ve read it 11 times now so you know that I’m crazy for it). I can only wish for it to be the same for others.

If you liked the review, you can find more of my work on my blog www.sekijitsu.com