Tetragrammaton Labyrinth Volume 5

From the books I unpacked out of storage.

Title: Tetragrammaton Labyrinth
Issue: Volume 5
Publisher: Seven Seas Entertainment
Date: May, 2009
Writer: Ei Itou, Shannon Fay
Artist: Ei Itou
Letterer: Aristotle Licuanan
Editor: Shanti Fader, Adam Arnold

Demon-hunters Meg and Angela arrive in Heidelberg, Germany, searching for the source of power that will activate Angela's magical Anathema scythe. They first encounter two Roma sisters who are suffering mistreatment at the hands of humans who are just as evil as any of the demons that Meg and Angela have dealt with.

Their investigations also lead them to an undine who has been drowning locals in a nearby river, and then finally to the secrets of the city itself.

The first two chapters in this volume are essentially monster-of-the-week tales that stand on their own reasonably well. The authors were clearly making some attempts to be respectful of Roma culture, but still ended up playing into a fair amount of stereotypes. The second story involved a bit of unnecessary complication with the inclusion of a second mythical creature, but was visually stunning.

The final chapter in this volume is much more closely tied to the overall plot of the series, and features a big moment when the heroes play into the hands of the villain, and boy does he let them know it with some serious villain monologuing. This had some impressive visuals, but it also featured a lot of moments where it was hard to tell exactly what was going on. 

All of this was a bit excessively dramatic, which I realize is part of the point, but it did make it a bit difficult to take any of it all that seriously.

Rating: 4.5/10

Black Knight Volume 3

From the shelf of unread books.

Title: Black Knight
Issue: Volume 3
Date: 2007
Publisher: BLU (Tokyopop)
Writer: Kai Tsurugi
Artist: Kai Tsurugi

I'm picking this one up in Volume 3, and it's political-intrigue-heavy, so I probably missed some of what was going on with the overall situation in the setting, which is a set of fictional vaguely musketeer-era nations. The story is a romance between a prince and the knight assigned to guard him.

Christian, the privileged prince is being sent on an undercover diplomatic mission, traveling in a caravan while the threat of war looms. His lover, Zeke, the Black Knight of the kingdom, is there to keep him out of trouble. Spoiler: He does not.

There's some fighting, and some chances for the super-competent Zeke to be the vulnerable one, followed by a very tense bit of negotiating with a rebel group known as the Falcon's Talon. 

The character interactions were great, especially in quiet moments. The action was well-drawn but felt a little bit repetitive, but it was effective in moving the plot along. There was some really lovely art in this, and enough story and worldbuilding to get me interested in learning more about these characters and their setting.

Rating: 7/10

Avatar: The Last Airbender Volume 1

From the shelf of unread books.

Title: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Issue: Volume 1
Date: 2006
Publisher: Tokyopop
Writer: Bryan Kanietzko, Michael Dante Dimartino
Artist: Anna Kernbaum, John Lo, Louis Csontos, Monalisa J. de Asis
Letterer: Thomas Montalvo-Lagos
Editor: Zachary Rau

Full-color adaptation of the opening episode of the animated series. Katara and Sokk,a of the south-pole Water Tribe discover Aang, the last of the Air Nomads, who has been frozen in ice for more than a century.

While this sticks closely to the story from the animated show, that story is excellent, and these opening moments do a nice job of capturing the mix of humor and tenderness that makes this story so special. This is a nice introduction to the major characters, with the possible exception of Sokka, who is stuck mostly in the comic relief role. I loved seeing the beginnings of the connection between Aang and Katara, and the worldbuilding flows nicely with the story.

Rating: 8.5/10

Venus Versus Virus Volume 7

From the shelf of unread books.

Title: Venus Versus Virus
Issue: Volume 7
Publisher: Seven Seas Entertainment
Date: September, 2009
Writer: Atsushi Suzumi
Artist: Atsushi Suzumi
Letterer: Roland Amago
Editor: Adam Arnold

So this is volume 7 out of 8, and I'm jumping in here, which is not ideal. I did end up pleasantly surprised, however, by how into the story I was by the end of this volume as it moves toward the climax of the ongoing plot.

There is a crew of magical girls who are training to battle demonic entities known as "Viruses". Among these are best friends Sumire and Lucia, who have now been involved with this fight for a year. Sumire is planning a surprise party for Lucia's birthday, but Lucia makes a discovery about Sumire's boyfriend that threatens to destroy everything they've worked for.

The ending of this volume is delightfully dramatic.

Rating: 8/10

Return To Labyrinth Volume 1

From a Little Free Library in Wilbraham MA USA.

Title: Return To Labyrinth
Issue: Volume 1
Date: 2006
Publisher: Tokyopop
Writer: Jake T. Forbes
Artist: Chris Lie,
Inker: Jeremy Freeman, Robert Grabe, Alex McCaffrey, Tyler Niccum, Em Stone
Letterer: Lucas Rivera
Editor: Rob Valois
Cover: Kouyu Shurei

Manga sequel to the film Labyrinth, featuring a high school aged Toby who has grown up with secret "help" from the Goblin King whenever he makes a wish. But this has not always worked entirely in his favor. When things escalate and Toby becomes aware to the strange happenings around him, he soon finds himself in the Labyrinth world, and a pawn in the Goblin King's intrigues.

This was a nice introduction from my perspective as someone who has vague memories of the film, but isn't completely up to date on the lore and characters. The story jumps right into things, leaving the awkward high school drama and family issues behind quickly and introducing a bunch of new characters. Particularly intriguing is Moppet, the servant of the goblin mayor. 

The artwork is a nice blend of manga style with the influence of Jim Henson's work, and the action flows nicely.

Rating: 8/10

Faeries' Landing Volume 3

From the shelf of unread books.

Title: Faeries' Landing
Issue: Volume 3
Date: 2004
Publisher: Tokyopop
Writer: You Hyun, Tim Beedle
Artist: You Hyun
Letterer: Jeanine Han
Editor: Paul Morrissey

Faerie girl Fanta is trying to save human boy Ryang from his curse, which has doomed him to 108 failed relationships, in one of those over-ambitious plotpoints that is hoping that this series will go really, really long. While Fanta watches out for the "evil affinities" that Ryang is destined to attract, her faerie rival Medea is plotting her way back to the throne of Avalon where she has plans of becoming queen.

This had a lot going on, including lots of dialogue and jokes in tiny font, and it had trouble holding my attention. Possibly my bad for starting at Volume 3, but in spite of a decent summary to start things off, I quickly found myself pretty lost. I also had a hard time getting too hooked into the drama around Ryang's cursed lovelife. Medea's intrigues and ambitions for the throne of Avalon were a bit more interesting, but are clearly a secondary plotline. The art was lovely in places, especially when Fanta and Medea were featured. I do have a couple more volumes of this on the tbr shelf, so maybe some familiarity with the characters will help, but this felt more difficult to get into than it needed to be.

Rating: 3.5/10

Sarasah Volume 3

From the unread book shelf.

Title: Sarasah
Issue: Volume 3
Date: 2010
Publisher: Yen Press
Writer: Ryu Ryang
Artist: Ryu Ryang
Letterer: Abigail Blackman

Set in the Shilla kingdom of ancient Korea, this is a period court drama with some minor fantasy elements. Ji-Hae, a girl disguised as a boy, is training to become part of the Hwa-Rang-Do. She has feelings for Ja-Yun, a warrior recovering from an injury, and now has reason to suspect the feelings could be mutual.

Meanwhile, there is a plot against the Queen, and an investigation to try to uncover the conspiracy.

This is an exceptionally pretty book, and the courtly intrigue and drama were fun to follow, even in my position of jumping into this in the third volume. There is a lot going on here, and I found myself wishing I had a better (as in better-than-none-at-all) of Korean period costume to get a more sure sense of who everyone was and what their position was in the court. The fact that I had this train of thought is testament to how this managed to grab my interest.

I may be looking for more of this series.

Rating: 8/10

Ranma 1/2 Volume 4

From my books retrieved from storage.

Title: Ranma 1/2
Issue: Volume 4
Date: 1995
Publisher Viz Media
Writer: Rumiko Takahashi
Artist: Rumiko Takahashi

Ranma, a local martial arts prodigy, has a bit of a curse to deal with. He changes sex whenever he gets splashed with cold water. Hot water reverses the change.

Things get even more complicated when Ranma's old frienemy, Shampoo, shows up, along with her great-grandmother, who uses a secret pressure-point technique to make Ranma intolerant of hot water, causing Ranma to be stuck in girlform. From there, Ranma sets out on a series of schemes to get the great-grandmother to reverse this latest indignity. We end with a cliffhanger involving a shark.

This was goofy fun, a bit hard to follow in places, although some of that was just from jumping into the series at volume 4. The characters are more meant to be laughed at than to be sympathized with, which left me without much of a hook to care about the story beyond the slapstick antics. This was decent in terms of mayhem, but there wasn't much in the way of substance.

Rating: 4.5/10

Tactics Volume 1

From the shelf of unread books.

Title: Tactics
Issue: Volume 1
Date: 2007
Publisher: Tokyopop
Writer: Sakura Kinoshita, Kazuko Higashiyama, Lianne Sentar
Artist: Sakura Kinoshita, Kazuko Higashiyama
Letterer: Star Print Brokers
Editor: Lillian Diaz-Przybyl

Kantarou is a folklore scholar who's not exactly making the big money off of his publications. Fortunately, he moonlights as an exorcist of sorts who deals with problems caused by youkai. These beings are usually invisible, but Kantarou has the ability to see them. To really get ahead in his business, though, he's been searching for Haruka, the legendary demon-eating tengu.

But once he finally gets Haruka on his side, it only adds lots more complications to Kantarou's life.

This series is episodic with something of a mystery-solving vibe. Each situation that Kantarou and Haruka encounter seems to break the rules of the supernatural as they understand them at first, and it's up to them to figure out what is really happening.

The dialogue flits all over the place, especially in the midst of the action, and the stories tend to rely on an epilogue-like bit toward the end to help the reader make sense of it all. The world does have good internal consistency and enough variety of supernatural beings and effects to keep things interesting, and the banter between the characters is fun in places.

Rating: 5.5/10

Sugarholic Volume 2

From the unread book shelf.

Title: Sugarholic
Issue: Volume 2
Date: 2009
Publisher: Yen Press
Writer: Gong GooGoo
Artist: Gong GooGoo
Letterer: Terri Delgado

Jae-Gyu has agreed to pose as Whie-Hwan's girlfriend for a month. She's struggling to deal with his strict rules and life in the big city in general. And the fact that she's caught the eye of a star musician is not making things any easier. This is a slow-burn romance that has the potential to go in a lot of different directions. The characters all tend to be a bit flighty and high-strung, which makes everything they try to do more complicated. This issue was still mostly setup as the main characters take their places in the scenario. Everyone in the story is very pretty, but no one is all that likeable at this point. I did like some of the intrigue that is happening with Whie-Hwan's very powerful family, which provides a bit of a mafia vibe to put an edge on the romance.

Rating: 4.5/10

Yu-Gi-Oh GX Volume 4

From a Little Free Library in Rindge NH USA.

Title: Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
Issue: Volume 4
Publisher: Viz Media / Shonen Jump
Date: 2010
Writer: Kazuki Takahashi, Naoyuki Kageyama
Artist: Naoyuki Kageyama
Editor: Mike Montesa, Jason Thompson

I picked this up from a Little Free Library, and might not have given it a try were it not for the fact that I just read the Yu-Gi-Oh Official Handbook (also from a Little Free Library, and reviewed here), which gave me some idea of the backstory.

Yu-Gi-Oh GX takes place years after the original series and features a next-generation scenario with a group of aspring duelists attending a Duel Academy, one of several such schools around the world dedicated to the Duel Monsters game.

This is the fourth volume, so we're in the middle of things, in this case, a tournament for the honor of dueling legendary champion Zane "Kaiser" Truesdale. The semifinals have come down to Jaden Yuki against Bastion, and Chazz versus David Rabb.

Jaden has to deal with an opponent who has constructed his deck specifically to beat Jaden's strategy, while Chazz finds himself up against dark magical forces as David engages him in a shadow duel where damage causes real pain.

A flashback to ancient Egypt gives a bit more background on the long-term storyline as the stage is set for the finals. Meanwhile, Duel Academy teacher Ms. Hibiki suspects something unusual is happening involving David, but David's sister, Reggie, is aware of her suspicions.

This exceeded my expectations by a lot. First of all, I was impressed with how interesting the book managed to make the card duel sequences that were at the heart of this issue. Even with my (extremely) limit knowledge of the Yu-Gi-Oh TCG, I was able to follow the action and ended up really enjoying these scenes. 

The flashback sequence did a nice job of building up some of the lore. This had, admittedly, a lot of characters to keep track of, but I found it surprisingly accessible considering I was jumping in at Volume 4. 

Rating: 7/10 

Slayers Special: Spellbound

From the tbr shelf.

Title: Slayers Special
Issue: Spellbound
Date: 2001
Publisher: CPM Manga
Writer: Hajime Kanzaka
Artist: Tommy Ohtsuka

Collection of short adventures starring sorceress Lina Inverse and her frenemy Naga the White Serpent. The two rival sorceresses are constantly finding themselves on the opposite sides of local conflicts, including a reporter out to break the story of a nilfa who has survived extinction and a rivalry between competing carriage services. Their battles take on a kind of Spy Vs. Spy level of silliness, but when Naga goes missing, it;s Lina who (reluctantly) steps up to get her out of trouble.

The slapstick comedy was amusing, and the multi-story format did a nice job of giving us little glimpses of the world, which is nicely detailed in spite of not taking itself too seriously.

Rating: 5.5/10

Kingdom Hearts II Volume 1

From the shelf of unread books.

Title: Kingdom Hearts II
Issue: Volume 1
Date: 2007
Publisher: Tokyopop
Writer: Shiro Amano
Artist: Shiro Amano

Roxas, a teenager living in a small village called Twilight Town, just wants to enjoy his summer vacation with his friends. But weird things keep happening. A mysterious thief is stealing not just items, but the memories of those items too. And Roxas keeps having dreams about a boy named Sora.

This is actually the third series of manga based on the Kingdom Hearts game, so it's probably not the best jumping-in point for a franchise with so much lore. It was a bit difficult to keep everyone straight, and the artwork gets very jumpy in the scenes where the various bits of weirdness kick in. I did really enjoy the art in the quieter scenes, but even for someone unfamiliar with Kingdom Hearts, this felt more confusing than it needed to be. A bit more time to breathe and explain would have been nice.

And while I have some idea of what types of things to expect out of Kingdom Hearts is was still a little disconcerting to have Donald Duck and Goofy just show up seemingly randomly in a couple of panels.

Fun character interactions between Roxas and his friends did help make this interesting, but not so much that I felt like I needed to find out what comes next.

Rating: 5.5/10

Orfina Volume 1

From the tbr shelf. Not sure where I got this one.

Title: Orfina
Issue: Volume 1
Date: 2005
Publisher: CMX
Writer: Kitsune Tennouji
Artist: Kitsune Tennouji
Editorial Director: Jim Lee

A young soldier fleeing the forces of an advanced militant nation is taken in by the royal family of a peaceful kingdom, and it's discovered that the soldier appears nearly identical to that kingdom's princess. The princess and the resistance fighter become best friends from the moment they meet, but the forces of the invading nation, Granze, are closing in, unleashing destruction with guns and fire dragons which the armies of Cordia have no defense against.

The story in this opening volume turns grim pretty quickly as the folk of Cordia fight a brave, but losing battle against the invaders and Princess Orfina and her "twin", Fana, must flee for their lives.

There was some good character development, particularly in the relationship between Orfina and Fana, and lots of room for future plot complications. This was a solid start, and the artwork was lovely.

Rating: 7.5/10

Bio Booster Armor Guyver Volume 3: Dark Masters

From the tbr shelf. Not sure where I got this one.

Title: Bio-Booster Armor Guyver
Issue: Volume 3: Dark Masters
Date: 1995
Publisher Viz Media
Writer: Yoshiki Takaya
Artist: Yoshiki Takaya

Chronos has captured members of Sho's family, and they proceed to do a bunch of villainsplaining to reveal some of their evil schemes. Betrayals, rescues, escapes, and more rescues follow. The hyperzoanoids have a big fight with two versions of Guyver, leading to a brief reprieve for the heroes. Then Chronos comes up with a new plan: Using Sho's father as a weapon against him. More battle and shocking cliffhanger follows.

I was at a bit of a disadvantage jumping into the story here, but the father/son drama was good, and the ending with its emotional impact worked well. The villains felt really generic.

Rating: 4.5/10

XXXholic Volume 4

From the books unpacked from storage.

Title: XXXHolic
Issue: Volume 3
Date: 2004
Publisher: Del Rey Manga
Writer: Clamp
Artist: Clamp
Letterer: Dana Hayward

This was mostly a Valentines Day (and White Day) themed issue, with Watanuki lamenting his lack of Valentines attention while Domeki is showered in gifts and chocolates. Meanwhile Watanuki is stuck making chocolates for Yuko to give away. Of course, spirits of various sorts become involved.

This then leads into an adventure involving a pair of twin sisters with a strange and possibly toxic connection, before finally setting up the stage for the next issue and filling in some backstory.

The setup for future issues felt more important here than any of the Valentines mishaps, so this felt like something of a transitional volume.

Rating: 5/10

Attack on Titan Volume 7

Bought at Barnes & Noble, Middletown RI USA.

Title: Attack on Titan
Issue: Volume 7
Date: 2013
Publisher: Kodansha
Creator: Hajime Isayama
Letterer: Steve Wands
Editor: Ben Applegate

With the abnormal female titan immobilized, the survey corps tries to force the titan to release it's human controller, but the titan fights back with new powers that the survey corps has never seen before.

This leads to an absolutely epic battle between the female titan and Eren in titan form that goes on for over 30 pages of this volume. The artwork is spectacular in this sequence, and the aftermath does a good job of conveying the emotional toll of the outcome on the survey corps.

There's also the setup for a major new plot complication in the final pages, as well as significant continued deepening of titan lore.

Rating: 7.5/10

Spy Family Volume 5

 Bought at Barnes & Noble, Middletown RI USA.

Title: Spy Family
Issue: Volume 5
Publisher: Viz Media
Date: July, 2022
Writer: Tatsuya Endo
Artist: Tatsuya Endo
Letterer: Rina Mapa
Editor: Amy Yu, John Bae

It's back to school for Anya, and she's got midterm exams coming up, with a dreaded Tonitrus Bolt for any exam she fails. Even worse, the exams are happening on a day when Anya's mindreading powers won't be functional.

So it's up to Loid to cheat on his "daughter"'s exams the old fashioned way. By breaking into the school and changing her answers. The only problem is that there's a less-than-competent rival spy with the same idea.

This issue had a very different style and pacing than volume 4 (reviewed here). This was loaded with quick plot developments, short bits of comedy, and the introduction of several new characters. This was fun and a quick read that sets of lots of future storylines.

Rating: 6.5/10

LiLing Po Volume 1

Found at a Little Free Library in Yarmouth MA USA in October, 2024.

Title: LiLing Po
Issue: Volume 1
Date: 2005
Publisher: Tokyopop
Writer: Ako Yutenji
Artist: Ako Yutenji
Letterer: Yoohae Yang
Editor: Julie Taylor

LiLing Po is an infamous thief who is released from prison to help his government recover a set of stolen magical treasures.

This quickly turns into an episodic kind of thing where LiLing Po and the government agents working with him investigate people who have been influenced or changed by the wish-granting powers of the mysterious eight treasures. While this provides some nice structure, I found the characters hard to relate to and the dialogue dense. This could have benefited from slower pacing and a bit of breathing room to get to know everyone before plunging into a sort of monster-of-the-week mode.

Rating: 4/10

XXXHolic Volume 3

From the books unpacked from storage.

Title: XXXHolic
Issue: Volume 3
Date: 2004
Publisher: Del Rey Manga
Writer: Clamp
Artist: Clamp
Letterer: Dana Hayward

Kimihiro Watanuki can see spirits. Domeki can't see them, but he can repel and exorcise them. They would make an effective team, except for the fact that they can't stand each other.

This volume tells two stories. The first involves the spirit-busting duo investigating a school where a divination game similar to an Ouija board has gotten gotten out of control, and taken control of several of the students.

The second story involves the sorceress Yuko Ichihara, and it's basically a variation on the classic story, "The Monkey's Paw". A young student obtains a box from the sorceress with the warning never to open it. Things go downhill rapidly from there.

This issue has a bit of a monster-of-the-week vibe, without too much focus placed on the longterm plotlines. The book could do a better job of recapping the storyline at the beginning.

Clamp's art is always gorgeous and a highlight of any of their books.

Rating: 6/10