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.

It's been a long time!

It's been a long time since this blog was set up - four years! :) And a long time too that I have come around again. I do still read and buy manga but recently have been caught up in a few other things. I am actually surprised with myself with posting so much on this blog about the mangas I read and I hope that it has been useful to at least some of you. I see a few new comments but not many and I invite you to comment and let me know how to improve the blog. Comments can really be encouraging to bloggers. :) I hope to do a few updates by and by and have made minor ones to existing posts. Let me know if you have titles to recommend for reviews or reviews of your own that you want to add. Thanks for visiting! 

cosplay at STGCC

Ok ok, so this is a really belated post. After all, the Singapore Toy Games and Comic Convention (STGCC) was in December 2010! :) Never mind, you'll forgive me with this photo of Sebastian and Ciel. Love that dress. :)

Just a hiatus

Just a hiatus for a now, although i'm sure I'll be back here updating soon. :)

Ooku

Brief Storyline: In the Edo period, a new mysterious disease called redface pox strikes Japan and over the following years wipes out nearly all the males. The population later stablises at 1 male to every 4 women. The social consequences are drastic - females move into traditional male roles, at work and at home. The shogun is now a female and the harem is full of men.

I have my doubts on whether I would have picked this up myself, but since a friend recommended it I thought to give it a try, especially since I am leaning towards josei reads over shojo at the moment. Something with more meat. Well, this one does have a lot of ugly things happening, not least of all the deaths from the disease. No wonder that though it is not smut nor contains very graphic sex or violence, it is "explicit" and no recommended for the young 'uns. Nothing that doesn't happen in a normally rated PG-13 movie nowadays but it is definintely not a sweet shojo.

Although it is in the realm of what is science fiction, the situation is not that exaggerated. The setting is realistic and the people are generally well characterised. It is not a happy story though, and things are brutal. The usual court intrigue and politics is to be expected. Having said that, it is also in a way dramatised.

My Rating:Story: B
Art: B
Recommended? I think if you are in for a realistic storyline and don't expect a happy ending. It can be something that draws you into another world, another time.

I just thot the image was nice...;p

Still not sure if I'm going to read this yet, but saw the image and thought it looked interesting. I think it's the colors that I like.

If I don't read this I'll try to get my friend to write a review. :)

Update: Yikes, I never did get down to reading this although I believe the series is still with me! I think I need to get going on that.

New stuff

As the twitter says, I had a bit of a spree and got four volumes - Atsu Atsu Trattoria (a one volume shojo), Gakuen Alice Vol. 4 (remember sweetie puked on vol. 3 so that one will be with me forever), Gakuen Ouji (I know, what a joke) and Nabari no ou (Yay!! mais en anglais - c'est tres cher!). I have no idea why I like Nabari no ou so much...why is it? I don't even feel the urge to finish the anime. I think it's the art, the characters, maybe the humour in the darkness of it all.

I saw Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei but decided not. I didn't know that there were satirical mangas but then I should have expected there to be all sorts.

Also saw that Skip Beat 18 is out. Perhaps I should be making another library recommendation...dunno who is enjoying the fruits of my labor with vol. 17 now...;p Actually, I haven't been following this series after volume 15 or so (u know me, I can't take a long series).

I also wanted to pick up Chi's Sweet Home, in Japanese. I read that it's completely in color. There were only two old-looking volumes and they weren't cheap so I left them. I'll try to pick them up when (if) I'm in Tokyo (or anyone else who can, thank you. ;p).

Saw that Pet Shop of Horrors, Vol. 4 is out. I wasn't so keen. Cos I tend not to re-read that series. But we'll see...maybe when I get really bored...like how I'm considering Otomen, which a friend has asked if I'd like to borrow. The art was good but the story sounds erm...loss for words...

Am still on Watashi no + Okusuri. On the first chapter and I'm really not liking the girl. She is childish, arrogant, tactless and rude, not to mention silly.

I think I really need to limit my purchases - jus now already had an avalanche with quite a few of my manga - need more space for them! I seriously envision a large (large!) shelf with them all.

Oh. I still can't find my Ichigo Jikan. I shall assume it's not published yet and blame it on illusion.

Is it me or is it that most English publishers don't really do many oneshots/one volume shojos/others?

Another thing I find strange is the choice of manga that Chuang yi publishes in both English and Chinese. Titles like Midnight Secretary and Gakuen Ouji and a few other silly romances, which I don't find very mainstream.popular (or that fantastic) are published, including smut by Shinjo Mayu but there are no really good shojos, or shonen, for that matter. Perhaps they don't want to duplicate Tong Li and other Taiwanese publishers, but I hope they pick up titles that are more Nabari no ou, etc.

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

Divine Melody

Hahah...realised I had the title of this spelled wrongly earlier.

Was recommended this manga by the salesperson when (once again am on this) I couldn't find Ichigo Jikan (maybe I should just stop searching for it for now). At first had no interest in it, cos I'm not interested in animal+human love, just doesn't appeal to me at all. The cover picture also gave me a so so feeling, cos it looked really cheena. ;p Finally decided to try it when I got bored and there are already 8 volumes out so I can be entertained for a while (in fantizhi/Taiwanese Chinese I mean, in English there are two volumes with the third out soon).

The main protagonist, Cai Sheng, is supposed to be a fox spirit (but yet different "super" type - ??) and the story tells of her relationship with the boy and girl who saved her life. Strangely (or more interestingly?) she can completely change her gender from male to female and vice versa, at will, although she has grown up and lived most of her life as a female. The story delves a lot into how Cai Sheng matures in thinking, esp when it comes to love, particularly human love. It also deals with the clashes in her wants and her duties, as seen/desired by others and being caught in between her love for humans and fox spirits, which are in an antagonist relationship with each other (humans seeing fox spirits as evil and to be destroyed and fox spirits making use of humans for their own ends).

I think the relationships and how they evolve, and relatively good (though not fantastic) characterisation pulls the story through. The drawing turned out to be better than I expected. Cai Sheng doesn't look half bad as a male. Even better than her as a female! ;p

My Rating:

Story: B
Art: B
Recommended? All right reading with an interesting storyline mostly concentrated on the relationships between the characters, but it can get a bit repetitive in some ways.

Latest booktore visit

Went to the bookstore to look for Ichigo Jikan (草莓时间) which I remember seeing before (now wondering if I saw wrongly as baka updates says there are zero volumes out?? But really thot I saw it cos I remember thinking the girl looks like a elementary schoolgirl...sidetracking) and ended up with Watashi no + Okusuri (baka updates link) (我的爱情魔药) because the cover was somewhat cuter than the rest of the limited stuff there. I didn't even know the Japanese title and had to google for it. Cos the Chinese title is just "My love potion". I was wondering where the other volumes are, but came to realise it's complete at one volume. I'll write a review once I complete it. Hopefully the impulse buy will prove to be interesting, but I should really stop buying on impulse!

Gakuen Ouji

I couldn't find the English cover online so had to settle for this one. I was surprised to see it in English and our local publisher has published four five volumes of it as well (in Chinese). Surprised cos some of the more popular titles didn't seem to be translated or were dropped whilst this one I'm wondering if it will appeal to that many people.

Just to say it is quite a strange manga that I really wouldn't recommend to those whose sensibilities are still intact. It's a rather brutal turn on the guy being the sex obsessed to the girl/s being the ones. It was amusing but it is rather exaggerated and can I guess, be distasteful for some, as despite it all I still think there is a bit of sexism and the girls are seen as having 1D personalities that only focus on that one thing. Also read comments of those who have ventured further than me and they weren't that good, including something about the guy not being very nice to the girl. I really need decent male protags. ;p (me and my happy endings...).

A.I. Revolution Vol. 5 (updated June 2012)

I don't usually review manga by volumes, as personally I like reviews to be about the whole series. I find that if they go volume by volume you no doubt have some spoilers. I also prefer to find out about the whole "feel" of the manga series and whether there is actually some worthwhile plot to follow, as I would prefer not to start something I wouldn't want to finish. In a small poll that was on this blog previously, most people had no preference though.

However, just got Vol. 5 of A.I. Revolution today and was a bit disappointed as I guess I expected something different. The story is again segmented into a few characters' perspectives, and this time there wasn't a story about Sui, the main female protag, which is what I really wanted to read about - i.e. her relationship with Vermillion. Instead, it goes into the unfinished business with At-6, a killer robot, and it still doesn't draw any conclusion at all about this issue. Furthermore, the extra story, a twist of Cinderella, is a bit strange, and of course being a one shot is very very rushed.

I did recommend this issue to the library but I ended up buying it as I guess I was thinking of collecting this series. I say "was" as I'm somehow not that keen after this volume, and plus it's another 12 volumes more, and I don't know if I've moved onto something else by then as the release is super slow.

And sigh, as soon as I took the picture above, my girl jumped on it and made a bit crease in the cover. Oh oh oh....

Update: I have actually stopped looking for this manga as it seems that it is no longer being published in   English. Which is really sad. Am I the only one that likes this manga? Maybe...

Make a manga avatar

Been telling more than one person to get an avatar and I think not everyone knows what one is.

I know this may be old to some of you but a friend just linked me to it, ironically after I linked him to a website talking about it.

It's really cute and rather fun (at first? ;p) , so those of you who like "dressing up" those flash people, or rather, those of you who played with paper dolls when you were young, go do one!

Face your manga

W-Juliet

Someone recommended me this series, saying it was similar to Tenshi Ja Nai, which I had reviewed earlier. Saw W-Juliet (links to good wiki) on and off at the bookstore and finally decided to try it.

So far, after going through a few volumes, I'm getting a bit bored and losing steam. Somehow, I enjoyed Tenshi Ja Nai more, perhaps because it was the first of this plot device that I read. One thing is that the girl is made a lot more boy-ish in this series, and this trait is actually played up (e.g. she has a girl admirer). However, I read that one way to0 long ago to make a better comparison at the moment.

The story itself is rather episodic, whereby they get into one predicament, solve it, rebond, and then wrap up, repeat, repeat repeat. The main background story itself doesn't seem to flow through the volumes.

There is also a bit of a reverse harem, despite that fact that the girl looks so boyish she attracts girls as well. I find this a bit strange. The guy is quite nice, sweet and decent to her.

There is also a sequel to this, which I understand can be read as a standalone (without reading the first series), and which may be better on the eyes, as the guy is now a guy (I mean, no longer disguised as a girl). I haven't read it yet but I saw some comments that that mentioned the girl is no longer pursuing any particular dreams (of acting, etc.) and seems to be just staying at home playing with the dog, whereas the guy is the one out and about having a great career. I guess it smacks a bit of sexism put that way. Actually, such a remark put me off a bit.

Overall, I think this is more for younger tween/teenage readers.

My Rating:
Story: B-
Art: B-
Recommended? Ok, as long as you haven't read too many of this type of plot, and can stand the girl looking like a guy and then the boy looking like a girl.
Similar to: Tenshi Ja Nai

Library recommendation approved!

To reduce $$ spent, realised I should recommend more titles to the library. No news about my recommendation of Good Witch of the West (but like I said, I wonder why bother since it seems abandoned by the publisher).

But good news is that my Skip Beat Vol. 17 recommendation has been approved! :) I know I know, now we have to recommend Vols 1- 16 to make it worthwhile (tho I think they have a few already). I have already lost touch of this series actually, since I don't watch much tv anymore and think the series on Okto is already over.

I'll recommend the rest of the titles I think are worthwhile later. You too eh? A joint effort should stock the library well. :) For some reason, they only have Fruits Basket and Nausicaa Valley of the Wind (hee) in great abundance.

I've just recommended A.I. Revolution, Vol. 5, which was just out this month. I wish I could just recommend all the volumes in one go...

Check their catalogue first to see if it's already available and if not, go to the NLB website recommendation page to recommend it. Put in the ISBN number or else they may not be able to locate the title (so they say, although I wonder why). You can find the ISBN from an Amazon search and for good measure include the Amazon link as well.

NB: If the link is not working they are most likely doing site maintenance.

Got a bit tired of having to type and retype so wrote NLB a suggestion to allow us to add more than one title at a time and indicate additional volumes of the same title/series.

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.

Cute

Pressie from husband. Nothing remotely Jap in origin, but cute. Smells good too.

Nausicaa

Yes, now you know. And here, Greek princess in Homer's Odyssey, which I read when young and had no impression of Nausicaa then.

Oh, speaking of Studio Ghibli works (of which Nausicaa is one), I dug up this old old post of mine (May 2008, ok, so not that old). I've since watched most of Studio Ghibli's anime, including Totoro, Spirited Away, Kiki's Delivery, etc. I didn't watch Ponyo on a Cliff earlier this year though, as I didn't have the opportunity before its run ended. Maybe later if I'm really keen:

Friends introduced me to Studio Ghibli (notably Jean!) after they returned from the Ghibli Museum in Tokyo Japan. Previously heard of Totoro, a popular work by that studio, but never watched it as there were never any English subs. I know I know, most of the films are now distributed by Walt Disney and should be fully English (tho I would still prefer to watch it in Japanese audio and read subs). Actually the most well known film here is probably Spirted Away, which I didn't watch either, cos I think the reviews for it weren't that great if I remember correctly. Anyhow, to cut the long story short, lately have been trawling CD stores for the Studio Ghibli productions after picking up one, "Howl's Moving Castle" (which I just found out is based on a British book!). Despite being quite confused by some points in the storyline, I enjoyed the presentation of the characters, esp the girl and little boy, Markl and the fire, Calsifier. I'm now thinking of getting the book to clear up some points and see if it is nice too. I know some people don't read the book after seeing the movie or vice versa but sometimes I like to do both and each can have its own charm and anyway, most of the time the two are not really identical.

Howl's Moving Castle is probably the first Studio Ghibli anime I watched, if my poor memory doesn't serve me wrong. I also bought the CD and the book. I blogged about it last year too:

Well, found and finished Howl's Moving Castle, the Dianna Wynne Jones book (tho not the one with this cover) on which the Ghibli animation was based on. As I mentioned, books and their adaptations can be wildly different and this was the case here. Can clearly see where the director of the animation has headed in his own direction and frankly the movie has a rather different storyline altogether that only shares two similarities - the aging of Sophie & the contract Calsifier has with Howl. Up for borrowing too...

Oh, realised there's quite an extensive wiki entry on it too! But only to be visited after you read as there are quite a few spoilers.

Generally, in most of Studio Ghibli's works, the anime is very different from the manga/original work. Case in point is Nausicaa, Valley of the Wind. In that it may be confusing that the characters actually even change their traits. 

A Kiss for My Prince Vol 1

Very pretty art, which almost makes up for the lack of excitement in the storyline. Still wondering whether to get Vol. 2. There are 5 volumes altogether, but only 2 out now. It's just that the storyline seems a bit shallow so far so don't know if I'll read it again making my investment worthwhile.

To be frank, the characters don't really grow on me. The girl is too ditzy and just wants to marry into wealth and power, and then the crown prince is really terrible for threatening and scaring her when she finds out he tricked her. The other prince is a bit worryingly disturbing too, and comes off a bit paedophillic. Sounds like it doesn't have much to recommend it, does it?

Kuroshitsuji

Strangely like this. It's quite shonen ai though. Wanted to find out who did it but the credits here aren't clear. And, what exactly is one supposed to do at that moe website I also don't know.

Doesn't it look like Seb's about to squeeze Ciel's cheek? hahahah...just realised it when I was looking at it again.

Short hiatus

It's that time(s) of the year again. No, I don't mean submitting our tax returns, although that doesn't help. I'll probably take a break from updating the site and move onto the tweets (see side column) which will help me to keep updating in a fashion during this period.

Actually, in two minds about keeping this blog regularly updated as haven't received much response for it and like I mentioned it hasn't really met its objectives.

If you'd like to contribute to the blog or feedback on it, email me @ mangaobsess(at)simplypeaceable.com.

oh, just when I want to go into tweeting, the twitter website is down...! Discouraging.

What I wanted to say regarding my recent Code Geass craze was this:

Realised the voice talent of Lelouche is the same one as for Kei in Special A! Not to mention Grell in Kuroshitsuji. Didn't expect that, as didn't recognise that at all and neither is that character (Grell) one that I particularly liked. I did like Kei quite a bit though. :) Although the relationship doesn't move at all in Special A...sidetracking...

After wiki-ing Code Geass, I think I may not watch it in the end. It is 25 + 25 (two seasons) episodes long and I'm not sure I'll last (you know me). Plus, apparently it's really sad (read someone describing it as emotional). Erm, that's not me either.

Seduction more beautiful than love

Manhwa finished at 5 volumes, 2 volumes out in English, vol. 3 out on 4 November 2008. Decided to update this as I have been waiting for the third volume forever and was just wondering if my bookstore wasn't bringing it in. On Tokyopop's website, it is still at vol. 2. Guess there just wasn't demand for this.

Brief Summary: Pretty young teacher is harassed by handsome mysterious student who seems to have a crush on her, or is it something else?

Interesting title isn't it? The other alternative is "beautiful fascination better than love". I do find this a bit slow moving and up to volume 2 there isn't much development of the characters or plot. (Is it just me or are most manhwa rather? Just think Bride of the Water God and Goong/Palace).

I was a bit disappointed with the teacher's character, she didn't seem very mature, but perhaps it was that one bad incident that really brought it out. The guy is as usual a dark horse, dunno what is going on inside his mind at all and there are flashbacks to suggest that something horrible happened in his past (which we're sure to find out later). I think it might be related to the reason he's stalking/having a crush on the teacher. I think I do need a reason; or else it's just not meaningful. Read a comment that it gets creepy in book four, but I wouldn't know since book three is not even out in English yet. I'm just glad it doesn't seem to drag since it's complete at book five. Let's hope it settles all the issues nicely. Frankly the first chapters got me interested but after reading book 2 the interest faded. I'm right now not sure if I'm going to follow the rest.

The art seems quite typical of manhwa, not over cutesy (with long bodies) as is to be expected I guess, as the characters are not young, and also the topic is rather serious.

One of my friends told me she can't appreciate this and the storyline wasn't good, another told me that it was pretty good and the art wasn't bad. So, guess it's really up to the eye of the beholder.

My Rating:
Story: B- (too slow! a bit confusing with the guy's girl friend, etc. angst! I wonder if it's the translation or it's just not coming out in the art what's going on or is it just me?)
Art: B
Recommended? I am on the fence. I just don't know where all this is going. There doesn't seem to be much direction and so far don't really feel much for any of the characters. And, the publisher doesn't seem interested in it anymore so perhaps we'll not see the end of this series for a while (ever?).
Similar to: Somehow reminds me of Akahime Ranshin, but then again I know of only four titles (the other I won't mention since it's not worth mentioning) that involve this female teacher male student relationship as a storyline. The other one that I did find was one of the stories in a volume called Koi Moyou. That was a bit different but quite a rush too as it's only a oneshot.

Cosplay at Liang Court

Was on my way to Liang Court when one of the peeps I was supposed to be meeting messaged me, "You're going to like Liang Court, there's a lot of cosplay going on". My response - "ok, on my way but now going to start running". :) So, seems like this is the type of reputation I'm garnering with all my anime/manga talk. :)

I only managed to get a few pics, and they weren't all that nice. There were more photographers than there were cosplayers, although there were a good number of the latter. A lot were characters I couldn't guess/didn't know about, but there was unsurprisingly the VK cast (including Yuki, Kaname and Zero) and another friend who I met there told me she saw Sebastian the butler (from Kuroshitsuji). I tried looking for Sebby but couldn't find him.

The Good Witch of the West

The title made me think of the Oz series straightaway tho there is no relation and the good witch in Oz was usually referring to Glinda of Oz of the South in most of the books.

Anyway, I was not very attracted to the art and therefore I think I've passed this over a few times. But it surprised me when I got hooked onto it. The only problem is, that before you start, you ought to know that Tokyopop has not printed volume 7 for ages and despite me visiting their website and all I'm still none the wiser if they are have dropped this series altogether due in part to the economic downturn and decrease in demand.

I guess if you've read the synopsis you would not be wrong to have assumed it's another pauper becomes a princess fairytale (every girl's dream come true, uh) and in a way it is, but it's not all that cliched because actually the girl wasn't really suffering or unhappy living a simple country life and the royal life ahead of her isn't exactly peaches and cream. Despite it being "fantasy" there really isn't that much in terms of magic or the supernatural and it instead focuses on the court politics (and strangely there are the catty jealous girls you see in most school life shojo, tho' presented in a different era). Sad to say, despite the girl being non irritable most of the time and not falling over this or that, she is rather unrealistic and sometimes more like a fluffy cottony personality rather than a capable intelligent young lady. I'm really glad that it was not too angsty or back and forth like with her love interest.

Halfway through reading this, I realised that I started thinking of Rune, her tormented childhood friend as very like Zero, and Eusis, the cool and sophisticated queen's knight as Kaname. However, in this story, I don't feel so distracted by this triangle as it isn't set up with too much wrenching emotion as was VK's. It's also settled about half way through so there's only the girl and her love interest's problems to seriously worry about (as if that wasn't enough). And, strangely, there is also a bit of shojo ai. Looking at the covers it seems to have gotten darker from volume one to six.

My Rating:
Story: B, a bit more exciting, with different elements of politics, intrigue, etc.
Art: B ok, a bit old style and the characters weren't like really bishie or anything.
Recommended? Ok, but seems also abandoned by publisher so how...??

Learn how to draw manga

Realised that the community centers are offering a how to draw manga course. Go to PA's website to register at one near you? :)