Ichigo Jikan

Brief Storyline:
A girl (15 years old) goes to her new school and discovers that the dorm she was supposed to be staying in is under renovation and she has nowhere to stay. After some begging, the school admin gives her the key to an apartment, which she later discovers is where the Chairman (aged 16 yrs!) stays...

As some have already commented, the guy looks like he's around 20 and the girl looks pubescent. The story is quite basic shojo fare and I think if you have read enough shojo you would know what to expect to happen from page one onwards. The guy, despite his cold tsundere look, is actually pretty decent to her. She, on the other hand, is somewhat ditzy but still bearable. She is also supposed to be rather smart, where studies are concerned.

The storyline is a bit confusing at the end where new elements are added in a rush. There are some bits of other plot concerning the guy's competition as Chairman of the school.

Possible Spoiler
The mom is rather silly though IMHO. Actually, her words of encouragement for them to "get it on" were a bit of a put off to me. I mean, she was like meeting that guy for the first time and there was no guarantee he would take any responsibility.

Spoiler (highlight to read)

Also think it would have been nicer if she had actually been proposed to, rather than have the guy tell the whole world that they were getting married without even asking her first.

Storyline: C+
Art: B+
Recommended? Suspend disbelief and just enjoy the art and some sweet moments between the two.

Crown - originally written on 16 Jan, updated 12 May

Brief Storyline: An orphan girl is suddenly grabbed from her part time job by her long lost brother, Ren, who, with his good friend, Jake, has come to protect her. Apparently they are royalty and targets of a deadly plot to obtain the throne.

The guys are of course bishi (first things first eh? ;p) and I'm pretty sure those who loved Gakuen Heaven would have a field day with this one too (it being by the same artist). The drawing overall is good, although there are some unfilled in eyes and other parts in scenes here and there. In the action scenes, the backgrounds are drawn in rather more detail to help in understanding what is happening. The guys all look rather different so it is easy to tell them apart.

The author and the artist are different and of opposite sexes. Interesting. So, I'm not sure if that colors my judgement that it is not as girly girl as other shojo, besides the "hot guys" (quoted from the author's words) and silly shojo girl. The last few pages give a tiny bit of entertaining insight into this collaboration.

The girl is, as mentioned, somewhat silly, and a bit too sweet, naive and is more like a little pet or elementary school child than a high schooler. Some of her expressions are rather dramatic and cringeworthy. The guys hold much of the story with their skill and action as mercenary soldiers, in protecting the girl from danger but the girl also has a special natural "talent".

A bit bloodthirsty as quite a few people lose their lives. Not as innocent in this respect as most shojo. The two are really merciless. I suppose it is a life or death fight, but still, a more sanitized storyline would have them solve it another way I suppose, but then again, not everything can be sanitized.

The characters have chemistry and there are a few humourous moments in between killings. :) Ok, ok, it is after all a shojo so one isn't expecting fantastic violence or gore and I believe the creators were going after a comedic feel as well. Thus, there are some really cheesy moments played out and some strange scenes. There are also some OTT emotional moments that don't seem to quite gel with the merciless bloodthirsty atmosphere but probably help to make it more shojo than shonen.


Possible Spoiler
The relationship between the brother and sister is ambiguous, and from comments I've read it seems I'm not the only one to get the insinuations. Some feel it's an incest tease but a few predict that there may be a twist there although in volume two there is not much further indication/development of this, especially if you see the first few pages (the weird scene I was referring to).

The guys' relationship also have slight shonen ai overtones in some of the scenes, although I would say that it is rather minor (well, the artist does do this genre). The story is also starting to develop a slight very much reverse harem feeling at the end, with the two bodyguards already (Jake and Ren, her brother) and now another guy, Chrondrite Condor (interesting name yeah?) probably interested in Mahiro. At the end of volume two, there's another guy to join the harem!

I find Mahiro even more unbelievable when this cute little supposedly sweet silly girl sees her Jake and Ren killing people and things blowing up and she is completely unfazed. Nor is she fazed when she is almost killed. Strange.

An aside - the volume one in my hand is this yellow cover one. Is there really a blue colored cover?

My Rating:
Story: B
Art: B
Recommended? Eye candy - quite a few cool bishies. Storyline is atypical and rather fast paced, action orientated, with bits of comedy and unexpected twists.

Licensed by Go!Comi

Merupuri

Finally bought Vol.1. Had vols 2-4 for a long long time (albeit in English, I never seem to be getting Vol 1 of anything). I prefer the English one, as it seems cleaner and the pictures clearer. Could be due to the fact that the Eng one is bigger. The Chinese words seem many more than English, though that could be my imagination? A bit of eye strain for some of the characters...

Some people didn't borrow this series of mine because there wasn't a vol.1. Ready for it now? Although I know some of my friends still won't borrow it cos they don't want to read it in Chinese.

Had a re-think on this since I bought the last (erm, rather first) volume and realised that it is rather shotacon don't you think?

It constantly reminds me of Bride of the Water God, which I've since abandoned (maybe until they release the entire series, I hear Vol. 3 will finally be out soon), cos it was way too slow. I've sorta stopped reading manhwa cos they seem to be too slow. Well, maybe with exception of Saver which was pretty action packed (but still slow in a sense).

Oh, super cheap thrills but realised the Chinese version had this little color pull out, nothing near poster size (smaller than A4 I think) of the main characters. Colors weren't that nice though.

VK Guilty

Well, guilty of one thing - starting VK Guilty at the insistence of my fellow manga/anime loving friend. The art and all is great, as per expected. I realise that I've been so reluctant to watch it probably because of a few factors, like that I wanted to wait for the manga to finish and get the entire set and enjoy from the beginning (maybe?) or perhaps it is really cos I don't want to find out who Yuuki ends up with cos I want her to have both of them!!! (more likely?). So I started watching the last season's epi 13 to recap, but the only version on hand was the French subbed. And oh boy did I struggle cos I'm just not used to it and read French oh so sloooooow....But thankfully, it is surprisingingly easy dialogue - hmmm...they don't say much of complexity, do they? ;p

Ok, still wrangling time to watch the rest...

And some negatives - I'm finding the plot painfully slow, with some "emotional" bits a bit too drawn out and then some. The dialogue sometimes goes in circles and some parts I could have done without. The drawing of hands were also really weird, with those scenes of Zero and Yuuki a bit ruined when her hands were the same size as his. The proportions were just a bit too much off.

In the poster on top I also find Yuuki a bit less attractive/sweet/cute than she is in the anime. It's somehow as if she's a bit too gaunt or something. I do like her with longer hair but in this she just looks strange.

Boku Wa Kiss de Uso o Tsuku

Ongoing manga

Summary: A girl finds herself kissed one day whilst asleep in the library. When she wakes up, she realises that there are four boys in the library and she has to figure out who did it by herself as no one is telling.

This is the best promotion for going to the library as any I've come across (and will likely!). Apparently, being a bookworm (bordering on nerdy?) and well read can get you plenty of attention. For the protagonist here, she is swatting away four contenders! There's the delinquent cassanova looking type, there's the studious one, the shotacon and the sporty (kinda reminds me of Ouran)! Nearly every bishie school shojo type is present. And, so the story goes, after the girl falls asleep in the library, one of them kisses her and it's up to her to shift through all the lies and the boys' shennanigans to find out just which of them it is. Really, a schoolgirl's fantasy to have such a wonderful harem of bishies...now now, just to find out who the kisser was...

Frankly, very unreal silly shojo. There is no real reason given on why the boys like the girl so things are a bit unrealistic and unlikely. :) Husband exclaimed after I told him briefly of the plot, "That can make a story??!!". Oh well.

My Rating:
Story: C
Art: B
Recommended? Very simple story. Eyecandy.

Bokura wa Itsumo

Ongoing manga

Cute innocent shojo. Two bishi guys, two pretty girls, all childhood friends, though it's not what you think - they don't really pair up, at least not in the beginning, as they are either with different people or not with anyone at all. The characters are really cute (as mentioned) but they are a bit youngish/more juvenile looking. Till now I'm still not getting how old one is supposed to be in their middle school/high school (is it the same as the US system?).

The guys, if they didn't have different color hair, might have ended up looking like twins though. For the girls, it seems like the usual shojo device where you have the main character (Nori) a bit more ditzy than her friend (Saeka), though spunky and happy go lucky.

My Rating:
Story: B-
Art: B+
Recommended? It's a cute story so far.
Similar to: Read someone mention it seems to be a better imitation of Marmalade Boy.
Also by author: Shuu 7

Full House Kiss

Ongoing Manga
Author: Yuwa Shiori

This is the somewhat common formula of having the girl become an orphan and coming to stay with some handsome guy (or guys in this case) due to some dire consequences (I think we've read one or two like this?). The only thing that stands out is that there is some underlying mystery concerning the deaths of her parents and the disappearance of her sister.

The guys are all different and the girl is so far not that silly but she is not that smart either.

Strangely this is based on/related to ? some game which I've never seen before but the description I read on wiki was quite funny and strange (and a bit ambiguous).

My Rating:
Story: B-
Art: B-
Recommended: Interesting, but besides the mystery it's also quite typical.
Similar to: I saw quite a few comments that this is very similar to Fruits Basket, but I've not read that so I can't say. I haven't really gone through Wallflower but in essence there is a similarity, though I would say the emphasis for that one is really quite different.

More info:
Bakaupdates

Earl and Fairy/Hakushaku to Yōsei

Complete first season anime and manga/light novel

Pretty characters, interesting concept, so far. Not sure where this is heading, but there is a rude little talking cat (you know I'm partial)! ;p The two leads are pretty and the girl seems headstrong and not the silly ditzy type though i hope she would stand up for herself and resist the charms of the guy a bit more. Hopefully she has some talents beyond looking pretty and helpless. Eye candy, she's always wearing the most elaborate clothes too.

The male (whom a lot of people say resembles Ouran's Temaki) is suave and quite the lady-killer, though in the whole anime so far, we don't have him really interacting with any other women except Lydia (the female protagonist). Raven, the manservant, probably has a fan club of his own. I love some of his lines and how he says them with a poker face (easy for anime! ;p). In contrast I find some of Edgar's lines a bit too outrageous and not very appropriate - as in, they are in a life and death situation but he says something completely frivolous. Of course that's his characterisation and perhaps also in the plot it's about not panicking Lydia but in the end it just seems funny.

Tried this out on husband but he wasn't keen. It's really too shojo I think, and there is really a lot of talking.

My Rating:
Story: B, a bit confusing at some parts, maybe too melodramatic (but probably not as much as Vampire Knight...)
Art: B, the guy is a real bishi! ;p
Recommended? So far so good. Eyecandy. I think the pretty characters and art attracts and the storyline is unique, but it isn't as exciting, probably cos it's quite slow and there is a lot of talking. The ending is somewhat of a mess, with too many loose ends.