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Let’s face it; there aren’t very many horror mangas out here in America that are scary. The only truly scary ones are Uzumaki and The Drifting Classroom, but that is my opinion. Viz Signature line has recently brought forth to America a brand new series by Kazuo Umezu (The creator behind The Drifting Classroom) called Cat Eyed Boy. Will this be the new horror series that will actually scare us?

Story:

Let me put it this way. Cat Eyed Boy is kind of like Mushishi. Like Mushishi, the series centers around one character, which is Cat Eyed Boy for this story. ... Just like Mushishi, the entire series is a collection of short or sometimes long stories that happen to Cat Eyed Boy or the people he runs into. The stories themselves are quite interesting, exciting, and sometimes freaky. Examples of these are The Band of 100 Monsters, The Immortal Man, and The Promise. Other stories, aren’t really interesting and just not plain scary, like The Ugly Demon. Overall, since this series is a bunch of mini stories combined into two volumes, I’m sure you’ll find at least one story you’ll like.

Art:

Well… this comic was made back in the 60s from what I’ve heard and it sure shows. The art looks very old school and the basic layout of the panels is also very old school. However, this art is rather impressive. The world the characters all live in very detailed, the characters are drawn very nice and look more realistic compared to most manga characters today, and the monsters themselves are often freaky and scary to look at.

Still, a lot of the human characters often look very cartoonish and take away from the fright level of many of the stories. A lot of the demons themselves look weird and often don’t provide any chills.

Character:

There is only one main character and the rest are just characters that appear only once for one story. Cat Eyed Boy himself… or itself is an unique character. He sides with no one most often and is often a spectator to the situation, but he often lends a helping hand to humans or demons, despite getting no thanks at all for his work. He also likes causing mischief and sometimes likes to harass humans for fun as well. So, he is a good guy often and sometimes a bad guy depending on the situation.

As for the rest, there is no one else really to mention. Like I said before, the series only has one character and everyone else is a one time appearance. The one timers for most stories are interesting for the most part, such as Kodomo from The Band of 100 Demons and The Monster Professor from The Ugly Demon. Still, a lot of these characters are not appealing and you will not miss them at all after the story has passed.

Enjoyment:

Well, since I’m a fan of Kazuo Umezu, I picked up this series in hopes of finding a brand new good story to read. Overall, it was a good choice. If you enjoy Kazuo Umezu and his works, you’ll probably want to get this story. If you also enjoy horror mangas, you’ll probably like this one as well. Everyone else will probably want to look away from this series and even some horror fans might want to avoid this series since it often does not provide many horror thrills.

Overall:

Like I said before, fans of horror and Kazuo Umezu will enjoy this series, while other might steer clear of Cat Eyed Boy. The series provides some great horror stories that are freaky enough and will make your heart race as you read. I highly recommend you read one of the stories from the series first before you buy it, just so you know what you are getting yourself into.

This series contains blood and gore, strong violence, some violence against children, and a lot of disturbing images. If you are not into this stuff, avoid this series or view at your own risk.

Let’s face it. When was the last time you have ever read a romance manga that wasn’t a harem? If you have, then forget what I said. But if you haven’t read a romance story other than a harem lately, you need to expand your horizons. I have done so in the past and have uncover this hidden gem of a story. It’s about time all of you should about the amazing title I found when I did so.

Story:

The story itself is interesting and very entertaining. What makes it interesting is that it provides us with a realistic depiction ... of unexpected love between two people that seem very different than each other. Notice the word ‘realistic’. For once in a manga, this story can actually happen, the chances are unlikely, but it can happen.

Anyhow, this love story moves at a nice pace that people can enjoy. But what really makes this story interesting is that most of the story is being told by the male character in an online chat room with tons of other people commenting about the situation on folding.

Art:

The art style isn’t one of my favorites. The characters are nicely drawn and all, but sometimes they look pretty weird which wasn’t well received by me. Another thing, there is a lot of white space between panels in the manga. I don’t know why the artist couldn’t add anything to fill in the blank spots.

Character:

The lead male character is your basic geek or otaku. He’s pretty cool in his own way and I can pretty much relate to him in a lot of ways. The lead female character is lovable and sweet. She reminds me a lot of some of the girls at my school. Anyhow, the two leads are characters who you will like throughout the entire story.

The rest of the cast is pretty interesting. The rest are a bunch of online people in a chat room who are always giving advice or talking to the hero about his current situation. They are all pretty cool people, but we never really get to know much about them. On another interesting note, no one in the entire series is given a real name.

Enjoyment:

Considering that fact that I’m a guy, I actually found this story very enjoyable. I couldn’t help but root for the male lead as he tried to get the girl. There were also a couple of good funny moments, but a lot of sweet moments in it.

Overall:

Are you sick of your typical romance story that is basic and seems similar to everything else you seen before? You owe it to yourself to pick up this title right away! It is a great romantic tale in the modern world and you will not be disappointed if you jump into this series.

Warning! This series contains partial nudity and some sexual references. If that stuff bugs you at all, avoid the series.

Horror is a hard thing to make in comics today without just being a mindless blood bath of gore and fluids splattered across the walls. Junji Ito does a good job of providing us with good, freaky stories that scare or just plain old disturbs us. Gyo is one of his most recent stories that he took a chance with and provided us with a new look of what is under the sea. Not just that either, in this series we were also given two quick short stories at the end of the series to leave us terrified of not going under ... our houses or go hiking anymore.

Story:

The main story is nice and helps build up tension and suspense as each chapter builds. The things that make this story from reaching a perfect score are that two chapters that take place in a carnival is a bit lacking and the end leaves us without a good real way to end the story. Otherwise this story provides us a good explanation of what is happening to our hero and builds up a nice strong storyline.

Now the other two stories are interesting. The first one is too short and lacks any real depth or horror to it, though it leaves us wondering. The second short story really is a lot better and can give us shivers. This story is strong and provides enough information to understand the situation but leaves us with two questions at the end: why are they drawn to the area and who was that at the end of the story?

Art:

This story has a nice sense of art style, the main characters are nicely drawn, the details the world are amazing, and the monsters or should I say fish, are drawn beyond any skill level I have seen before. This story has set the bar high on what a story should look like. There is nothing to complain about here.

Character:

What can I say about our only four characters? The female lead is a complaining brat who never gives up complaining about the smell, but after a while I say why she would complain. It doesn’t help us like her more though. The male lead character is pretty cool and has a good sense of luck throughout most of the story. His uncle is a bit weird and there isn’t enough information about him to connect him with us. His assistant is interesting, but still, not enough information is given about her to make us feel connected with her.

The short stories lack a bit of depth in the characters, but then again, they are just short stories so there isn’t enough time to shell out a lot of information about them. The first story leaves us with nothing to know about any of the characters, but the second story does provide us with enough information about our two characters, though not a lot, to understand them a bit.

Enjoyment:

The main story itself was fun to read, but not enough to make me want to read it over and over again. The short stories, however, would be fun to read again and again. Overall, it depends if you like the story the first time around then you might want to read it again.

Overall:

This is a solid horror story, but lacks a strong ending that may disappoint. Horror fans will enjoy the story and so will fans of Junji Ito as well. Also, if regular people are looking for a good story with a great art style, they’ll want to jump into this story.

Warning: This story contains graphic violence, nudity, and disturbing images. Do you hate that stuff? If you do, avoid this story at all costs!

Yeah… this manga hasn’t actually reached America yet, but that doesn’t stop me from reading the series online and posting a review about it so far. Another fantastic story from the master of suspense and drama, Naoki Urasawa.

Story:

This story follows a teenage girl called Miyuki Umino. One day, her brother disappears, leaving her with a 250 million yen debt that needs to be paid off to the Japanese mafia. Her only chance they give her is to work in a soapland, but she jumps at a better chance, to become a professional tennis player.

As the story moves on, we meet plenty of ... villains and very little heroes in this curel and dark world known as women’s tennis. This story, provided with great characters, the feeling of suspense, and not knowing what will happen to this heroine makes this a story you’ll want to read from beginning to end. The sad part of this story is that there seems to be too much villains which is kind of sad since things are always getting harder for her.

Art:

If you read any of Naoki Urasawa’s previous works, you already known that this guy does a great job of making the world come to life. The characters are nicely drawn, but the part I dislike is that almost all of the females are ugly with a capital U besides our main character. The world itself is nicely drawn, but a lot of the rooms seem sometimes bland in a few areas.

Character:

Even with my previous review of Negima, I have never met such a wonderful cast of amazing and such realistic characters! Our heroine we can easily feel sympathy for because the emotions are clearly given out well. Her friends we can relate to and sometimes find ourselves thinking that would we go so far to try to help our own friend. Even some of the villains in the end up turning around and turning out to be not such a bad person after all.

Now as for the villains, oh my God, I have never met such an evil cast of characters in my life. What makes them so bad is that what they do is something a person can do to you in real life. The main character’s villain is such a… b that I just want to strangle her little neck! The other villains really bring out the worst in humans that we just have to despite them.

Enjoyment:

I have never enjoyed such a thrilling manga like this before, though Monster and The Drifting Classroom in my mind still can’t compete. This is the best sports comic I have ever read in my life and probably will be forever. Once you start reading, you’ll never want to stop.

Overall:

The greatest sports manga of all time, hands down is this. The best set of characters of all time can for sure be found here. This comic has its weaknesses, what manga doesn’t anyhow? Don’t skip this series if you enjoy sports, Naoki Urasawa, or just manga at all.

This series contains nudity, sexual scenes, and strong language. If that stuff isn’t your scene, it is best to avoid this series.

Ghost Hunt is one of two shojo mangas I read, the other being Card Captor Sakura. This is also the only series I read that I never heard about from anywhere and just grabbed it off the selves to buy it without even knowing it. I was quite surprise by my choice and found this a very interesting series to read.

Story:

Well… there isn’t much of a story to say the least. The first three volumes contain separate stories about the main heroine’s group investigating a mysterious force in a certain place. Then the next 6 volumes contain three stories separated into ... two volumes a piece. The last three stories are very good and are for sure to get your attention.

This series is also a bit confusing to follow at some points since the characters go into a lot of detail about certain things that relate to the case. I mean the explanation is good, but it hard to understand at some points.

Art:

This story has an interesting art style. There isn’t a lot of detail that goes into background and the world around the characters. There is a lot of white in most of the buildings in the story so it is somewhat bland. There characters design are nice, I don’t read a lot of shojo as mention, so the art style is a lot more interesting to me than most of the shonen titles I read.

But the best art design in the story is when we get into the supernatural experiences and the strange entities that make up the story. Everything is very cool and amazingly unquie.

Character:

As with most shojo titles (That I heard about), we get our female lead and the boy she most likely has a crush on. The female lead is a character that I can sometimes relate to is and can put out a few sweet and funny moments. The boy character is easily a narcissist, he is even nicknamed Naru because of this, that has a good heart deep down that we see as the story later unfolds. Then we are introduced to the rest of the team that will be helping along with the psychic investigation. At first, we don’t get a lot of information about this people, but the story slowly introduces new things about our characters that we can relate to and understand.

Enjoyment:

This series is a bit complicated to read and reread over and over again since it is kind of difficult to understand at some points, but if you are able to over look these problems. Supernatural fans will get a good kick out of this and boys should be able to enjoy this series even though it is intended for girls.

Overall:

This story provides a group of smaller stories within this large one that are always interesting and make you wonder. The art style is interesting and the characters are neat as well. I give this series an 8, but it is almost a 7 too. If you want to read an intelligent story about a group of people who battle against the supernatural in real world settings, jump to it!

This series contains supernatural violence and blood & gore. If you don’t like this stuff, it is best to move on.

There are many horror mangas out there that try to make themselves scary. But often we just get a comic that’s more gory or disgusting than scary. Now there is Kazuo Umezu who really can write a horror story that’ll scare you. He is known as the godfather of horror manga, but there is another called Junji Ito called the master of horror manga who has wrote something just as terrifying as any scary movie, book, or comic out there. This story is called Uzumaki.

Story:

The story is simply starts us of quick with two main characters to get use to and ... the setting for our horror manga. Right away, we get the feeling that something isn’t actually right in this little coastal town. Soon, after the first chapter we get our first freak out and scary moment that is very twisted. The story is written well and focuses on something that really isn’t scary to begin with, a simple spiral.
But as this story shows, there is much more to this symbol then meets the eye.

As the story moves along, each chapter presents us a separate story that is completely different than the last, but still connects to the main plot. We get strange stories about a lighthouse, crazy hair, giant snails, and twisting bodies that all go together into this spiral story, no pun intended. But some of these stories within the story aren’t actually really horrific or anything which is why this grade isn’t a 10.

Art:

This story really is scary and what helps it is its sick and creepy style art. These characters are really well drawn and have a small alteration that makes them different than another person, though a lot of the girls seem similar to me and at one point I could tell two of them apart from each other.

Now let’s look at the world itself. It really is drawn well and if you look closer enough, you’ll find spirals that aren’t even apart of the story at hand. There’s also the carnage and scenes of disturbing violence in the story, now this stuff is freaky. This story contains a lot of this story and unlike most stories, it actually makes this story scarier!

Character:

Like I mention before, we are instantly given our two main characters right off the bat that both provide two different personalities. The girl is a bit uneasy and refuses to believe a lot of the things happening around her for a while and there is her boyfriend who is really nervous about the town and believes there isn’t something right about it.

Then we get the rest of the cast… there isn’t much of a cast besides these two. The only people that make repeat appearances are Kirie’s mom, brother, and dad plus one of her friends occasionally. Everyone else that has a big part in one of the chapters is pretty much a one time appearance. It’s kind of annoying that you get to know a new character only to never see them again.

Enjoyment:

Well… this series is extremely rewarding if you get it a chance and you’ll for sure think there is no other horror story around that can reach this level of freakiness. But this story might not appeal to everyone. Some might be put off by the crazy images or might find this story not that scary but just disturbing. Either way, this story provides a chilling, but enjoyable ride from beginning to end if you find that you like this series.

Overall:

This story might not appeal to everyone like said before, but a lot of people should at least read the first chapter before making their judgment. You never know, you could be missing out on a great horror manga and you could never have even known!

This series contains a lot of disturbing images, violence and gore, nudity, language, and intense scenes of horror. If find any of this not really your style, especially the disturbing images, avoid this series at all costs!

I really enjoy this manga, The Drifting Classroom. Heck, it’s my favorite of all the manga I read. But! That, however, will not affect my review of this series. Even though I like it, I will deliver a totally honest review about it.

Story:

We have a lot of disaster manga in the past such as Dragon Head or Eden that deal with the end of the world or a certain place and the characters must find a way to survive the area that they live in. This series is no different and that’s why I don’t give it a 10, but ... why do I give it a 9? The reason is because the story is constantly changing, new situations that astound us and the characters are always popping up and changing the story and the survival rate for characters from the ground up. It really is an incredible story, but not something we have already seen in the past in this day and time.

I have recently read the ending of the series. Though the ending wrapped up every lose end and had a decent conclusion, I wasn't completely happy with the ending and some other people might not as well. I'll have to edit my review slightly for that.

Art:

Now this part really could either kill the manga in some people’s minds or really catch their attention. Do you like girls who are busty and curvy? Do you like guys who are tough and hunky? Do you like attractive art and cuteness in your story? You do? TOUGH LUCK! This story has got zip on any of that stuff! It gets down and gritty providing us with totally unique characters, areas, and monsters that really look different than any other artist out there. There is blood and gore in the story, but most of the body tearing is seen off screen so you don’t see what the person looks like torn apart at the ends, though someone gets a spear thrown into his eye. Ouch!

Character:

The characters are cool. You got your hero who is a prankster, a villain who is a delivery man, and plenty of others to fill the void. Don’t get too attach to most characters however, a lot of them have a few misfortune. I had a favorite character who didn’t have a name that I wanted to see make it to the end, but sadly didn’t get that chance. There are some you’ll really hate and some you’ll like. It all depends if you can stand their personality or not.

Enjoyment:

Do you like disaster type stories? You’ll love this one for sure, even some who don’t! My biology and physical science teachers, grandma, a lot of my friends, and my cousins all like this story and they aren’t fans of manga at all. This story can appeal to a lot of people, trust me. This story is also worth a few rereads even if it ends. There is no filler in it like other mangas so that should up the enjoyment.

Overall:

This is my comic of all time and after reading it, you’ll see what I mean. As stated before, disaster manga fans will love this, also sci-fi and horror fans will for sure get a kick out of this story. Most other people will dislike this though. Though the ending might not be what everyone has been hoping for, it was still nice.

This series contains blood and gore, strong violence, violence against children, images of suicide (If that bugs anyone), slight nudity (Only one scene out of the entire series so far, but it isn't really bad), and some strong language. If you are touchy about any of that stuff, avoid this series

I watched Love Hina a bit and liked it (I sadly do not own any of the manga series) then I heard all about this series being written by the same author so I ventured into this series with an open mind and hoped for the best. 16 volumes later and I'm lovin' all of it!

Story:

The reason the story isn't ranked higher because it takes a few volumes before you get into the good stuff. But either way, this series has a nice story that is constantly evolving into something better.

Art:

Man, what a series. All the characters are perfectly designed and never ... look like anyone else you’ll see in the series, besides the twins. The only complaint that most people have or might have is that the art work is really crammed in there. From page start to page end, everything is pounded into the page making the story quite long to read, but I like it that way.

Character:

On average, you got 31 cute girls with unique personalities in the story. There is no way a guy can’t find a fantasy crush or a girl find a character that she can relate to. Then of course you get all the extra characters who make their appearance further along in the series. There are a lot of people to keep track of which can turn some people off, but I have a great memory to remember who is who.

Enjoyment:

Let me make this perfectly clear, I don’t read this story because it is ecchi. No, I read it because it provides a wonderful, fantasy like adventure set in real world times not some foreign dimension or country which is timeless. The story and all the great characters with a couple of laughs to lighten things up make this a fun story to enjoy.

Overall:

Any fantasy or magic type fan will get a kick out of this series, ecchi fans who just look for perverted stuff will even stop looking at that stuff and start seeing this is a good story that you’ll want to read over and over again.

Also, this series contains fantasy violence (Not really bloody and no gore), sexual innuendo, partial nudity, and some crude humor are all contained with in the volumes. So if you hate this stuff, look some were else.

The Viz Signature collections features some of my most favorite mangas of all time, The Drifting Classroom, Uzumaki, and Black & White. However, there was always one story that just caught my attention right away after the Signature series started and that was Monster.

Story:

The story is completely different then any other series I have ever read and leaves me wondering what will happen next to our hero. After every volume, I feel I learned something new, but I'm still no closer to the mystery behind the villian.

Art:

This artist has some great skills. Every character and every location is amazingly detailed and drawn ... so well that any other manga after you seen this one doesn't compare at all. My only complaint is that almost all the female characters are ugly looking in my view.

Character:

Yes, this story provides a lot of good characters that you'll come to either love or hate. I like a lot of them and some of them I just plain wish they die. This story is also loaded with side characters that only appear in a very few chapters and then pop up farther in the future making you look through past volumes to remember who they were again. This isn't a problem for me, but I think a few people might find this annoying.

Enjoyment:

I often read through my manga volumes over and over again, but often very quickly. This series I take my time on. I read over it carefully and try to take in as much as I can because it is so good. Trust me, you'll still want to be reading this series over and over even after it is finished. Though a few chapters were kind of filler and boring that kind of takes the enjoyment away.

Overall, this is a great series with a few minor flaws in my view, but not enough to stop me from buying the next volume. This is a must grab have for any manga fan. Also, this series contains realistic and graphic violence along with brief nudity and some adult situations, so if this kind of stuff bugs you, you might want to skip this series.