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

Shinrei Tantei Yakumo

Ongoing Manga

Brief Summary: A girl comes to look for the help of a detective when her friend falls into a coma after a "test of courage" in which she meets a ghost.

He actually looks a bit girly in this cover, no? ;p But somehow I liked it quite a lot for a while, plus the story is all right. The drawing is nice and pretty and the two protags have a lot of chemistry though they are not romantically involved as yet in the first volume.

The guy takes the lead in the mystery solving but the girl is sharp and an able side kick (most of the time). At first, the girl is skeptical but later realises that the guy knows more than meets the eye as he is able to preceive and communicate with spirits/ghosts, including the female protag's dead twin sister.

My Rating:
Art: B
Story: B
Recommended? The storyline is quite engaging so far although it isn't really exceptional.

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.

From Far Away

Manga completed at 14 Volumes

Brief Summary: A girl gets drawn into another world where she is the key to awakening a monster.

This topic isn’t new, just think of Escaflowne, Anatolia, Queen’s Knight, Kyo Kara Meoh and even Amatsuki (I’m sure you could name many others), where someone is sucked into another realm/world and, somehow despite being rather plain and nondescript in the normal world, is now a special person of some consequence there.

And then there is the romance, though this isn’t exactly your typical hearts and flowers shojo. In fact, I was wondering all the time whether this was written for males or females. There is a deep romance element but a large part of the story is centered on the royal politics. The fight scenes are also spectacular, going on for quite a few pages a time. So it did seem more for guys, but then again, I know some girls like their fight scenes too, and the romance part didn’t seem like something the guys would be that interested in (I could be wrong).

The characters have good chemistry, especially the two protagonists. Of course the guy’s got issues (and the girl is sweet and nice) but they are settled later on. The drawing isn’t bad but the characterization seems more towards the older 90s style, which you can see from the girl’s hairstyle. The guy also isn’t your typical bishonen, though he seems cool enough.

The story is rather typical with bad guys galore, but there wasn’t really adequate explanation on the whole concept of how she became so special - some similar stories would have had her ancestor or something coming from this world into ours sometime in the past, and having a lineage in the fantasy world to begin with (e.g. Meripuri). With this one, it wasn’t really touched on at all (or did I miss it?).

My Rating:
Story: B
Art: B
Recommended? There are so many titles with the same topic so if you’ve read a few you may be weary already, but if you haven’t this isn’t a bad start I guess.