Peach Girl by Miwa Ueda

 Well, I'm not finished this as of yet, and I'm not too sure I will. Don't get me wrong, it's not horrible. In fact I've read much worse. When I started reading it I thought it would be interesting because the premise at the beginning is that people misjudge her based on her skin tone which is darker than the other girls because she's on the swim team. This makes people assume she a party girl, or easy, I guess would be a g- rated translation. I think they're called ganguro girls in japan. Either way, she isn't one of these girls but people see her tan and assume that she is. So as I say, I walked into this expecting this kind of thing, and while there was some of this conflict in the beginning, it soon fell away to needless drama. Now drama isn't all bad, in fact it can be quite good, but the issue of her tan wasn't really resolved. She was kind of ashamed of her tan, but only because Toji supposedly didn't like tanned girls. If a person were to consider this issue resolved in the first couple of volumes, when it stops being the primary focus, than it would be because she thought the guy didn't mind. Basically it seems like a lot of her resolutions are based on his acceptance of her rather than some inner reassessment and acceptance of herself. And this kind of thing generally tends to get under my skin. 

Another thing I have issues with is the lack of communication up to the point of... I don't even know. I mean when her friend is sabotaging her, that stretch of the plot line, well I got sick of it about half way through. I'm all for jealousy n such, I mean it's a shoujo, we're kind of expecting relationship problems yes? But it seemed like it was dragged on for too long. 

Drama is good, but it's a delicate emotional tool. Just enough and you've got gold, too much and it sucks. The lack of communication seemed a bit unbelievable at times, which frustrated me a bit, and the characters in general seemed to act in a way that almost deserved the angsty agony they brought upon themselves. I mean I haven't even finished it and I already dislike most of the characters, not so great.
 
But, even though I have these criticisms, I do admit that I could see myself finishing the series sometime in the future because it does have that shoujo draw where you want to know what happens in the end and you want them to be happy (... though you hate them). So I say read it, but there is definitely better out there.

Cardcaptor Sakura by Clamp

The anime for this was on all the time when I was younger and I really enjoyed watching the show, but the manga differs from the anime a bit, which isn't a bad thing.

The story is about a girl named Sakura who finds a magical book, and is assigned the task of capturing magical cards.

First off, the first series is only 6 books, the second one is only 6 too, and this kind of surprised me at first because the first season of the anime had something like 50 episodes, and after reading the manga I saw how much filler was in the anime. The card captures in the manga are all major cards (none of the cheap cards like the move card...) and the captures all meant something. Meaning they either developed plot or developed character, so if it was not for plot development it was a capture that required some effort and allowed Sakura to grow as a character, like the water card. On top of this, the manga also has homosexuality in it, which is not in the anime. Nothing explicit, just a character implying that he/ she has a crush on someone of the same gender. People might make a big deal about it here, which is probably why they took it out of the anime, but it's so subdued and platonic that taking it out is kind of pointless.  By doing so they lessen the intricacy of the plot development and the connection between the characters, so I'm glad I read the manga for that reason (among others).

Sakura is a great heroine. I've read over 100 mangas, and I'd say that Sakura is one of the strongest heroines I've read about in manga form. It's kind of ironic that it's for kids, but great I suppose. It's hard to find proactive females in manga. Even in the shoujos, the ones focused on girls, the 'action' is still left to the guys and the girls are for the most part withering, weak, delicate, know nothings; or if they do fight well they are portrayed as kind of heartless. It's rare to find a happy medium. Cardcaptors would be an example of the girl getting some action.

Overall its a cute manga, I mean those who've watched the anime already know the basic story line, it's a good one. It's an original story and its well told, and the manga is better then the anime. I recommend.

                

Beck Mongolian Chop Squad by Harold Sakuishi

Beck's a great story, basically about this kid who gets into a band. It's really inspiring and down to earth. The day to day crap was really relatable and was almost enjoyable to watch because even though bad things happens to Koyuki (I think he even says at some point 'when it rains it really pours for me' or something) he still doesn't get majorly depressed and looks at the situation positively. 

I also thought that the passion for music was successfully transferred to the reader and at some points I really wanted to pick up a guitar and start playing, though I don't know how. Some of the ways they related to the American music industry was kind of gimmicky, but it was pulled off a lot better than I've seen else where, like they won't just throw out some musician's name just so that the reader's like 'ooo they know who that is!!!' which I find largely annoying, but the people they did incorporate were given a couple of lines to explain who they were and how they fit into the story so it wasn't that bad. The story did feel like it was dragging on in some places, but those were usually the places that the guitar guy was being a douche, but it gets resolved so I guess you just have to suffer through it (though the story usually makes up for the suffering, and I guess it could be seen as a good kind of tension). I'm not done it yet so I don't know if I'm satisfied with it yet, but there are a few indicators of a happy ending so I think it'll pay off. So to sum up... give this one a shot.

Fruits Basket by Natsuki Takaya

I enjoyed reading this series. The story is about a girl who stumbles upon the family secret of the most popular boy in school, which is that certain members of the family change into the animals of the chinese zodiac when hugged by a member of the opposite sex.

The reception of this manga is mixed, and depending on who you talk to they either loved it or didn't. I liked it. I thought Torhu was a strong heroine, though this isn't blatantly apparent (though I think that the whole idea behind inner strength is that it happens inside of you, so it might not be that readily apparent to onlookers). She has a quiet strength and is the rock that holds everyone together. 

I thought that the characters were well done too. The manga was long enough to go in depth on most, if not all of the characters which made the story line pleasingly complex and intricate.
 
I'm loved the ending, I thought it was really cute, and actually, this is one of the cleanest manga I've ever read. Most mangas directed at an audience over the puberty line are all about romance and relationships, if shoujo, or have the girls in suggestive clothing, if shounen. This one's a shoujo and though there's romance in it, that isn't the focus, the curse is. So I guess its one of the refreshing ones, as it still manages to pull off a great storyline with compelling characters. It's one of my favourite mangas ^^

Goth by Otsuichi

I really enjoyed this manga, it's one of my favourites. It has something of a morbid story line, focused around various cases of murder... but I wouldn't say it's primarily a murder mystery. There is definitely that aspect to the story, but because the main characters react as they do to these murders.. well lets say that the death helps to set the mood of the story more than drive plot (at the beginning of the story anyways). Both main characters have some connection to an obsession to death and are drawn to various morbid activity throughout the story. There is only one or two really graphic pictures, for the most part it's just the concepts that are kind of gruesome, and because of that the subject matter isn't as repulsive as it would be if the story was all guts and gore. It's more intriguing that repulsive, and in a dark kind of way you always want to know what happens next.
 
Something else that's kind of interesting about this story is how the character relationships are set up. I'll start of by saying in no way is this a romance... it's the opposite, but the way in which the characters relate to each other in conjunction with how the story progresses is reminiscent of a romance. The two main characters are a boy and a girl, the story is mostly narrated by the boy though, the girl always seems distant in this sense, as if we're watching her. Even the part where the girl is telling us about her past we see her through her eyes as something foreign... so we never really get into her head.
 
The boy is obsessed with death though. He was first drawn to the girl because he wanted to kill her (or wanted her hands), and for the rest of the story the girl and boy are what one could consider as friendship. Throughout the story though he's interested in her death, not plotting it per say, but interested in the possibility. The girl always seems to attract people who want to kill her and the boy always shows up, and at one part fights someone because he wants to be the one to kill her. It is kind of like a romance in that the boy is so obsessed with the girl, or the part of the story the readers are shown he is anyway... but just to restate, this isn't a romance.
 
The art is pretty nice and goes with the over all mood. I'm glad it's getting published in English.

The One That I Love by Megumi Tachikawa

This... was really bad. The book is comprised of several... you can't even call them stories because they are all around 7 pages in length and go no where. They all hint at a possible story, but none of them actually puts in any time to create something worth reading. It's more like a collection of possible love story ideas someone else could write about if they wanted to write a romance... but chances are that someone interested in writing a love story would already know about possible plot twists... making this completely and totally useless!! I can't see how anyone could read this excuse for a collection of decent plot lines and call it a nice collection of love stories, and the art is grade b. There is nothing redeemable at all... it's just so horrible. and pointless. Honestly, why.

The Legend of Chun Hyang by Clamp

This manga is based off of an old Korean folk tale about a girl who stands up against the corrupt leaders of the villages she goes to, kind of like a Zorro idea.

It's only one volume long, which kind of sucks. The story has a lot of potential and the characters could definitely been expanded upon, and the ending is somewhat unsatisfying because it ends with the mother hinting at and a possible continuation of the story, one that we'll never know about. Also, Chun Hyang and the guy only went up against two corrupt village leaders, and it was stated in the beginning of the chapter that they would later get married, which was mentioned because she was a peasant and he was some higher up the social scale guy, but that relationship was barely touched upon besides a mild flirtation. The story could continue in so many ways, and should because what they give you is a beginning to a story, an introduction, but it doesn't follow through with the substantial plot it hints at becoming. But then again there are many manga plot lines that drag on and on... so I guess it could be seen as an OK thing that they didn't let that happen...

Overall, a good story, but an unfinished one in my eyes.