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Jing: King of Bandits, Vol. 2 - Yuichi Kumakura
by ROMEHEREWECOME
Tokyopop
I am consistent at the very least "formerly known as Mixx, is a distributor, licensor, and publisher of anime, manga and original English-language manga in German. It previously published works in English and Japanese. On April 15, 2011 the Comics Beat website announced that Tokyopop would be shutting down on May ... 31, 2011."
Yuichi Kamakura
A Japanese manga artist who is a Taurus and born in 1971, they also seem to be very into cocktails and have quite possibly been a bar worker in the past as the majority of their characters are named after alcoholic drinks in their main works King of Bandits Jing.
Characters
Our protagonist Jing may only be a teenager but he is by far the best thief in the mystical fantasy world of Yuichi Kamakura. With hair darker and sharper than Goku from Dragon ball and with fashion sense that would impress Gok Wan, Jing stands out amongst other protagonists his age from the fantasy genre. Not only is he stylish but philosophical and wise beyond his years, though he is a notorious softy and a futuristic Robin Hood.
Kir
Jing's partner in crime and organic weapon, this raven flirts with any cute young female in his sights any time he's not playing the role of Jing's gun. This team together can release a powerful energy beam that can demolish buildings and ogres alike.
Chapters
This volume carries on a story from volume one please see my review of volume one to see where this story begins.
5th Shot-The Flower of Never land- Continuing on from the last volume Jing is facing off against Master Gear and his equally deadly anime partner Sherry the Fox. In this chapter it is Jing that finds himself being rescued by the cute girl with pigtails (Mirabelle) who he rescued from execution in the last volume. So there is a bit of role reversal. Jing soon discovers that she is part of a large group of rebels who are literally hiding underground biding their time to fight back against Master Gear. These are people that the rest of society presumes to be dead whom grow flowers underground with any source of light they can find.
6th Shot-How to Steal Time- "Citizens of Adonis! Cast aside your clocks! The sun has risen again!!" With help from the rebels Jing manages to destroy and stop all means of time keeping in Adonis such as the giant clock tower and egg timer throwing Master Gear out of sorts and into a state of confusion. They do this through planting sunflower seeds in the sand of the giant egg timer. Once this has been destroyed nothing in Adonis works. The chapter ends with Jing entering the growing room with the clockwork grapes.
7th Shot-A Clockwork Grape- "Spurred on by time... the clockwork grapevine, which produces fruit made almost exclusively from mere machinery, has over time been engineered to bear only one organic fruit." Jing and Kir battle off against Master Gear and Sherry for the last time, through passive trickery instead of violence Jing manages to separate the opposing partners and thus taking away their unique powers. Offended by Master Gears lack of courage and confidence Sherry abandons Master Gear in the search for a real man who treats her like Jing treats Kir.
This isn't the end however as typical heroic battles never end that easily, Master Gear brings out a new mechanical toy out which he seems to become bonded and muted to. Without Sherry however he is no match for the Kir Royale. Adonis becomes a City of joy and freedom as a result of Jing's medalling and theft of the Clockwork grape.
8th Shot-The Most Dangerous Cargo-"Although chocolate is the animal's favourite food of choice, all traces of bitterness must be removed and milk should be added for best results." The Porvora (another suspiciously alcoholic name) are fuzzy little pink creatures with big puppy dog eyes, they look somewhat like a clefairy or jigglypuff from Pokémon but should they be exposed to stress or fire then they have more explosive power than their weight in dynamite. Jing must help escort these little creatures across a mountain range with a volcano so danger and action soon ensues when an older fiery tempered female demands to accompany the group. Oh and where are they heading May you ask? Sungria, more alcohol related locations.
9th Shot-Incandescent Memories ""Fake is fake after all...It's true. I think about my dead daughter too much. Once, my eyes and hands remembered her so well I made a life-sized clay statue of her...In the end, it sank...into the lava rapids...Melted away, just like that. I guess a cluster of gongs is still just noise after all...Empty noise...is no substitute for what's real in the world."
Further danger carries on throughout this chapter as Jing enters the belly of the volcano with the Povora and has to avoid fire snakes and demons which greatly desire to munch on the Povora.
This story in concluded in volume three so we are left on another cliff hanger, a very cunning marketing ploy to get the reader to buy the next volume, which I do have but the next volume isn't available for review on dooyoo, so you will have to find out yourself unfortunately.
I think the art improves a lot in volume as does the attention to detail and character development in that we learn that Jing has a little bit of a mother complex and that he is willing to risk his life for anyone or anything including the Porvora which makes him even more likeable than before.
Extras
There is more detail in the back about the city of thieves which was the first city featured in volume one which is very detailed. There are also some advertisements for other manga series and a preview for the next volume.
Was originally aroung £6.99 may be more now that its been out for a while, anime available also but he is depicted as a bit older and I do like the charm of the manga.
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Love Mode: v. 1 - Yuki Shimizu
by ROMEHEREWECOME
BLU
BLU manga is a sub section of Tokyopop which produces a lot of Yaoi or more adult manga which features a lot of gay romances largely geared towards the female and gay market of readers with slightly more graphic sexual situations they are largely given and age rating of 16+, Mature or explicit contents. ...
Yuki Shimizu
A Feale manga artist from Japan, Love ode was her biggest hit; she is very health conscious and loves motorcycles.
Plot
A young man who attends high school called Izumi is promised a hot older date by his friend over the school holidays however after waiting for nearly half an hour he wonders he if he been stood up. Just then another young man stumbles past him and drops a rose at his feet, the young man then stumbles on. Izumi picks up the rose wondering what's happened he is then approached by a tall handsome older man who seems to know his name. Izumi thinks he's been had but since the man is willing to pay for everything on the date he goes along with it.
Further into the evening things get hot and steamy and Izumi gets more than he bargains for when he is taken to a hotel room and the man takes his virginity. The next morning both shocked and distraught the older man sets a large wedge of money beside him and says he would like to him the next time. Angry and offended Izumi tells him that he is not an escort. It turns out the man who dropped the rose was also called Izumi and was part of a male escort service.
Despite the mix up the unlikely couple find true love through the mix up though Izumi is very confused by his new found interest in the same gender. He treats his new found partner very horribly at first but when he finds out feelings are mutual the relationship grows.
The characters
Izumi- A stubborn High school students with a bit of an attitude, he constantly likes to test peoples trust.
Takamiya-A tall handsome older man who initially mistakes Izumi for an escort, despite the mix up he falls automatically in love with Izumi despite his protests.
Aoe-Takamiya's close friend who runs the escort service, he is pretty fierce in temperament but is also extremely tall dark and handsome and is never seen without a cigarette, he plays a nasty trick on Izumi by giving him a special brand of aphrodisiac chocolates to test his relationship with Takamiya.
The story has a good pace and flows as one story as opposed to real separation with chapters, there are much less breakages in the plot than manga I have previously reviewed.
The art work is very detailed with almost a retro look to it but does contain much male nudity so I wouldn't recommend this for under 18s. It is not all about the sex however as there are other aspects to this manga such as mafia involvement family issues, bullying physical and sexual assault, abduction, kidnapping and much physical and graphic violence also.
The storytelling is very good and the characters are well developed in the first volume. You are highly encouraged to read on to see what happens next and I have become quite addicted to this series. I am now on volume 8 and I have to say the stories get a lot more emotional and heartfelt as the series go on. Many more characters are integrated along the way too along with some slapstick comedy.
At the end of the day it's not for everyone as it does have many graphic violence and sex scenes and deals with serious issues such as abandonment, abuse and acceptance.
I actually prefer this series to other BLU manga such as Junjo romantca however as the flow seems so much better with less interruption and it deals with a lot more serious and topical issues.
I am pretty sure that I got the first volume for £4.99 but the retail value is £6.99 or there about on amazon.co.uk and good manga stores.
There is also a volume preview and some advertisements for other manga in the BLU range at the back of this volume.
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Strawberry Marshmallow: v. 2 - Barasui
by ROMEHEREWECOME
Tokyopop
The publisher of Strawberry marshmallow or Ichigo Mashimaro in Japanese is Tokypop whose publications are now becoming rather extinct as they will no longer be supplying the UK and Ireland with Japanese graphic novels any longer. For more information go to the website or read my other manga ... reviews.
Barasui
A younger lesser known male manga artist, this is their main and most popular series born in Japan in 1980 he is one to keep an eye on in my opinion for the simple story telling and comic appeal.
Characters
Nobue-She is 16 and a nicotine addict, despite being the oldest of the group she is easily the most immature at times when it comes to her school work or crazy scooter riding.
Chika-12 Nobue's little sister quite easily the most mature of the group she cooks and cleans. Her personality is the most normal or typical for a girl her age, she is caring and considerate.
Miu-12 hyperactive and desperate for attention of any kind from Nobue in the last volume she pretended to be dead for an entire chapter and quite commonly enters buildings through the upper bedroom window.
Matsuri-11 described by her friends as a bit of a lost cause and a cry baby, she is very bad at sports and has a pet ferret named John. She does speak very good English for her age however.
Ana-She is 11 also and an exchange student from Cornwall England. Though she has been speaking Japanese for years she doesn't let on to her school or classmates that she can speak any Japanese at all, but ends up confiding in Matsuri and ends up joining the strawberry marshmallow group of friends.
Chapters
Ana-Ana meets the Strawberry Marshmallow groups for the first time and joins in with the madness.
Ana's House-The girls visit Ana at her home for the first time, which turns out to be a mansion, Miu gets chased around by Ana's giant dog for trespassing.
An Amusing Stew (Using Miu)-The girls head to Nobue and Chi's house for a super cute competition.
Attack of the Killer Zzz's-The girls fight over the only bedroom in the house which has air conditioning.
Ana vs Miu-Miu becomes highly jealous of the attention that Nobue gives to Ana, the chapter ends in tears.
A Japanese Christmas-The girls try to keep Matsuri's faith in Santa Clause alive, which results in the other girls dressing up as reindeer and breaking into Matsuri's bedroom.
Into Hot Water- The hot water is off over the Winter month so the girls head to a public bath and Miu causes lots of noise and havoc, which is to be expected.
Non-Euclidean Geometry-Nobue skips school to meet the other girls in the park, but everyone gets lost, Matsuri helps a foreigner find the library.
Sick Jokes-Chika gets a bad cold which results in the group playing doctor for the entire chapter and writing obscure sentences on each other with permanent markers.
The Caper- A four paged short where Miu misunderstands the meaning of kidnapping while Nobue tries to do her homework.
The artwork in this volume has greatly increased in consistency and detail since the last volume, The jokes don't repeat themselves and are equally as humorous also which was good to see with little extra scenes in between the chapters portraying what the girls would look like should they take on various job roles such as teacher or Priestess. There are also mini scenes where we see what happens when each of the girls individually purchase something from a vending machine. In short nobody ends up with anything they actually wanted; instead they get notes saying "refund ticket no.23" or a piece of a jigsaw puzzle.
For the first time we see evidence that the girls aren't in a world on their own, we see teachers, tourists and fellow classmates in this volume including a repeating joke involving a boy called Sasazuka who despite the fact he says nothing he is quite regularly told to standing the hall even when it was Miu or Ana who misbehaved. When portraying his job he is an astronaut.
There is little extras to this volume, just a few extra advertisements from other manga series and a very brief preview for the next volume. I would have liked to find out more about the artists as they are so new and obscure, some other artists tell us a bit about their works in the backs of volumes but Barasui seems to be very secretive.
Available initially for £6.99 it is still available on amazon.co.uk
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