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'My Fair Neighbor' is a short romance story about a former delinquent and his young neighbor.


The Bad:
The ending is --in my humble opinion-- a bit rushed and forced, but that does not deter from it being a satisfactory ending. I personally feel that the romantic ending did not really fit well with the rest of the story, but I guess that is my personal taste. I would have liked this to be a story about friendship more than a story about romance.

The Good:
Where this story really shines is in its characterization. The main characters are properly fleshed out. Both characters (and even Momo's mother) ... explore the meaning of maturity and responsibility in an age-appropriate way for their characters, while relying on their friendship to grow as people.

It's a short, feel-good read. I enjoyed it.

What makes From Far Away different? I never heard of this series before, just stumbled upon it on a random search for reading material and it blew me away. I'm not too knowledgeable when it comes to art, but in terms of storyline, progression and characterization, I was really pleased.

The first thing I thought was really interesting about this series was that the 'spirited away' girl had to learn the language spoken in the new world and it takes her a lot of times and several misunderstandings. The fact that you see her language progress and become less clumsy through the story is something I ... think more writers should take into consideration. Given, the same language seems to be used over many different countries, but I'll just give my thumbs up for the original idea of language barrier.

The flow of the story is really good. It keeps you on edge: "will he become the monster that brings the end of the world"? and, for the wide range of supporting characters, you never have the feeling you have to stop and think hard about who is what.

The romance element was just perfect -in my opinion- because I felt there was no rush. It's not love at first sight, and it's also not a "bickering couple" a la Pride and Prejudice style which seems to be a trend when it comes to romances. The characters just slowly grow to love each other. There's also no love triangles, which I find refreshing (ok, so there's a guy who starts liking Noriko, but she flat out rejects him short after). The way Noriko and Izark tease each other was endearingly sweet without it being too mushy.

As someone who doesn't believe in absolute good and evil, it was somewhat bothering the fact that there's "good people" and "bad people"... but by the end of the story this matter is resolved in a way I felt was satisfying.

The interaction between main characters and supporting characters was really good. You can see how their personalities influence each other and allow the main characters to grow.

Now, when it comes to the characterization of the main couple, I'm very pleased with Noriko's characterization, but not as pleased with Izark.

Noriko is different from most female characters in these "spirited away" series in that she is very mature and she doesn't throw childish tantrums or fight with the people who help her. Very early on she decides to trust Izark (who just saved her life) and you never see her questioning her trust on him. She's usually very coolheaded, and doesn't usually run into trouble out of stupidity. In her growth as a character she becomes a lot more self-confident and brave, but she's still no warrior. Overall, a great character.

Izark was a lot more of a standard character for this sort of genre. Beautiful, powerful with a dark past and a darker destiny. Considering all the times this guy must have been bashed and beaten up, you'd at least expect him to have a broken nose at some point, but apparently he's so good looking he can pass as an actor (is this something to do with his regeneration abilities?). There's a lot of development on this character from an aloof lone warrior to a person who can even make jokes every now and then and even ridicule himself for the sake of his friends. I think his interaction with Alef is exquisitely rich. Still, I wouldn't call him the most original of characters. As Noriko first notices, he's a good guy.

All in all, even if this series is not perfect, I think it's a must-read for people into fantasy shojo. It's really a good story and unless you're really not into shojo or fantasy, I can't think of one reason why you wouldn't like it.

My personal rating of this manga is very poor.

I'm not a judge of art, so my comments will focus on the storyline, credibility, characterization and morality.

The topic of the series is "prostitution". As such, I felt it was taken very lightly. It was an idealization of prostitution and rape instead of a recrimination towards a society that allows such barbarism.

This work could be falsely praised to be "mature"and "deep" because it deals with such a complicated topic. Yet the main characters portrayed are entirely flat and overly perfect/good, which is perhaps an innate quality in shojo manga, but does not suit the ... severe situations portrayed.

-Warning spoilers ahead-

For example, in the first story we find a girl who actually wants to become a "doll". I found this so wrong it wasn't even funny. The character is such an "angel", she feels sorry even for a sadistic man who whips her unconscious every night. I'd say, next time you want to do like Garcia Marquez in Mis Putas Tristes and going on about the undeveloped tits and quivering hips of a little girl in the arms of a pedophile, at least give the character a working brain so we can see she's not just a masochist who enjoys being a prostitute because everyone praises her.

Second story was just as ethically corrupted. Here's a prize of a main male lead: a pimp who is ruthless enough to break the new acquired girls in a raping orgy. Not happy with that, he actually decides the heroine is too lifeless, thus making her fall in love with him so she can do her best for the costumers and fight the rest of his harem for his affection. If you ever read the story, I want you to pay close attention to the ending and tell me if he's not being a two-faced, sadistic pig because he never changes his attitude towards the other prostitutes.

The third and last story I will discuss here was at least a bit more bearable, even if it does include sexual abuse from a father figure towards his daughter.

A while ago, I had given up on writing reviews, since it seems they are all extremely unhelpful. Reading Cherish, however made me want to write about it, even if I fail to convey all the feelings it awakened in me.

The storyline is simple: a girl who has been raised by a gay couple and has trouble finding a partner who can actually accept her family. There's of course a few complications and misunderstandings, but it's generally a work you'll read in one go.

I felt really drawn to the main character and her love for her family above anything else. The characters were ... overall well presented within the shortness of the story.

All in all, it's a well-worth read that will not take a lot of your time.

This story was really cute. It's about a small young-looking girl who has a crush on a younger boy who looks like a high schooler. She knows that she is not that attractive (because she looks so young) so she decided to support him if he ever falls in love.

I felt really identified because I'm small and have a baby face as well, so I was never very popular with guys my age (they never really consider you) and well, I have a younger boyfriend who looks a lot older than me.

Back to the story, it is really linear and predictable, but it's ... incredibly cute throughout. The characters are well developed. I would really love to see a follow-up.

The art is good, comparable to S.A: Special A.

I enjoyed reading it quite a lot, I hope you do too!

This is the shortest one-shot I have ever read (only 8 pages).

The story is simple: a girl imagining how to declare her love for a classmate and her brother giving her his advice, culminating with the confession itself. It's basically 85% imaginary scenarios and 15% real actions. The mangaka tries to make amends between the typical girly love and the typical boy fantasy. The result, in my humble opinion, is hilarious.

The art is beautiful, all colored pages. However, there's not much characterization (that would be too hard with just 8 pages) so it's hard to say if there is anything abnormal in ... the siblings' relationship or to which extent the heroine's crush is made up of admiration or lust.

It's not the most amazing story ever. If you're not looking for something extraordinarily good, don't let the shortness of the work and poor characterization scare you away, though. I found it quite funny (it sort of has a final punchline). If you're looking for something to entertain you those 5 minutes before going to work, this one-shot should do the trick.

I think many girls feel identified with having a crush on someone they don't know all too much. I remember my girl friends in college were too shy to talk to the guys (I blame all-girl schools) so they would do strange things like learning the guy's name, patterns or faculty. This is the story of one such girl and that is why I liked it: it's characters are well constructed for a one-shot.

The storyline is very simple: the situation is stated, there is a build up, the point of crisis, the downfall and the solution. Happy endings all around. Still, I thought the ... reason for conflict was very cute.

The art is really beautiful. I'm not an artist myself, so I'm not the best judge on this.

As I said before, the characterization was good, taking this is a one-shot. They show a lot without adding unnecessary scenes and dialogs.

All in all, it's a short entertaining read. Simple, but enjoyable.

The title of the series is "Girlfriend" and the author makes a few attempts to link the title with the content. In my opinion this link is unsuccessful -at least in a western context- since a title like "f*ck buddies" or "Friend with benefits" would do for most of the stories.

Don't get me wrong, it makes an interesting read and it can make you root for a character... it can disgust you a lot too. If you feel uneasy about cheating boyfriends/girlfriends or adult-teenager relationships, be ready to feel very uneasy at some points. There are however some bitter-sweet stories (never entirely sweet) that ... are worth the while. Also, be ready for a lot of sexual scenes depicting various poses. The author is specially attracted to bj's, but worry not, the male reproductive organ is only implied.

The stories are rarely revisited and never conclude entirely. It's like a feeling of a lot of knots being tied and problems that arise without ever being resolved (I can only think of one or two stories that do reach an ultimate conclusion). There are of course a lot of cliché stories being exploited. Of how realistic they can be I guess depends on what sort of sub-world you live in: there is without a doubt teenage sexuality without love, based on self esteem problems or even loneliness and curiosity. However, being in my late tweens, I don't really think I've ever been in a relationship that twisted or at least never really thought of them in this depressive angle.

The art is good. It may not be extremely beautiful, but it fits the realism the author wants to imprint the stories with. Still, it's not realistic enough as to draw fatty girls, for some reason all the girls in the series seem to be pretty and the one complain is to be plain (then again it's mostly a guy's point of view).

The characterization: Yes, there are horny girls in the world and I can identify myself with that (not all of us are so crazy about bj's, though). Men can be sometimes more prudish. The author seems to enjoy portraying women using men for their status, their vulnerability, their shyness, etc. Women in the series mostly want to use the men to experience sexuality without strings attached or for selfish reasons (eg. boost their self-esteem so they can chase after another guy). The one exception to the rule I can think of is the only story told in the girls pov. Guys are masochists: be ready for a lot of "I know she's playing with me, but I can't help it".

You will be drawn to the series. You will want to read more to see if you'll finally learn what happened with x couple. As the dread pirate Roberts said: Get used to disappointments. It will make an impression on you, whether good or bad depends on how much you feel related to the story and how much offense you take on the chosen topics.

I can't say I enjoyed it, I can't say I suffered it. I certainly would have chosen NOT to read it if I knew how most the stories would turn out. I would not read it again either.

All in all: inconclusive storyline, nice art, semi-twisted but possibly lovable characters, will make an impact on you.