Mangaka of the Month~ Hatori Bisco

Bisco Hatori

(葉鳥ビスコ Hatori Bisuko)

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(Bisco Hatori is a pseudonym)

Place & Date of Birth: August 30, 1975, Saitama, Japan.

Gender: Female

Blood type: AB

Horoscope: Virgo

Bisco Hatori’s website

Bio: Bisco Hatori made her manga debut with Isshun kan no Romance (A Moment of Romance) in LaLa DX magazine. The comedy Ouran High School Host Club is her breakout hit. When she’s stuck picking characters’ names, she gets inspired by loud, upbeat music (her radio is set to NACK5 FM). She enjoys reading all kinds of manga, but she‘s especially fond of the sci-fi drama Please Save My Earth and Slam Dunk, a basketball classic. -Shojo Beat

Nightmare Inspector: Yumekui Kenbun Vol 1

Title: Nightmare Inspector: Yumekui Kenbun/Nightmare Inspector/Yumekui Kenbun

Author: Shin Mashiba 

Artist: Shin Mashiba

Genre: Mystery, Supernatural, Historical, Shounen/shoujo?, Horror

Status: Completed

Summary: For those who suffer nightmares, help awaits at the Silver Star Tea House, where patrons can order much more than just Darjeeling. Hiruko is a special kind of private investigator. He’s a dream eater. And he’ll rid you of your darkest visions…for a price.

Lost Things

Dreams on the menu this volume: a restless soul, a murderous beauty, a woman afraid of falling apart, a grieving lover, an unforgiving son, a suicidal actress and a mysterious voice on the other end of a lonely young man’s phone.

-Viz Media

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I’ll begin by calling it ‘weird’ more than ‘morbid.’

Having read Yumekui Kenbun a few years ago, I recall happy and unique memories when I first read it. Now that I revisit Yumekui Kenbun a few years later, it seems that my response has sort of dumbed down.

Yumekui Kenbun is for the reader who loves stories like Natsume: Book of Friends and xxxHolic. There’s a very surreal and magical quality to it; the atmosphere it creates is like the weak smell of tea, whereas xxxHolic is hazy incense. Yumekui Kenbun has a very disjointed structure – each arc is seperated by the nightmare inspector’s client. I believe it’s one the weaker aspects because it doesn’t seem to have a very good flow – one can just re-arrange the each chapter and I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. This may very well be intentional for a more defragmented and eerie effect but it isn’t coming through clearly. It becomes more like a mini obstacle in following the story.

The little mysteries themselves are reasonably simple and quite unique and they are really thought ‘out of the box.’ The stories are often eerie and depressing (it is a nightmare after all) and they are all secluded into their own little world with a little twist that is quite enticing. You can really tell that the mangaka injected a lot of effort into crafting these stories; it’s very surreal and dream-like. But it again, doesn’t seem to attain the full potential it deserves.

Yumekui Kenbun is the avant garde of manga. Its artwork is divine and otherworldly, and the background and surroundings have a very haunting effect which I say is the focal point of Yumekui Kenbun. I find it very inspiring – it encourages you to think beyond and it feels like you’ve been released into the unexplored. Though it is surreal and haunting, the drawing is actually quite defined and clean. It’s like a paradox, but I think that achieves this ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ quality. It’s as if it’s fading but it’s not, like Salvador Dali’s painting – ‘The Persistence of Memory.’

Yumekui Kenbun is a manga you dream of reading but is too hard to find. It’s quite reserved and I think it’s audience is very much restrained to the niche community. If you’re looking for a traditional & cultural themed manga like xxxHolic, you won’t find it very strong in Yumekui Kenbun – it invites you to a little dreams with odd pockets of mystery. It’s a little thrill, not a roller-coaster. Highly recommended.

Rating

Story: 4.3/5

Art: 3.9/5

Character: 3.3/5

Execution: 3.0/5

Overall rating & any additional comments: 3.6/5, it’s execution brought it down heavily.

-chungky

 

A:Rating Re-working~

I don’t think all the overall ratings I’ve given are very consistent, so I changed a few. On another note, I’m going to get Monthly Asuka and Lala magazine when I get to London this weekend. I’m not sure whether Japan Centre carries Monthly Asuka but it’s worth  a shot! Releasing Yumekui Kenbun today even though it’s not been edited by arawr. Lol.

One Shot for the Weekend – Sunny Spots Typhoon

Title: Empty Boy/Kara No Shounen: Sunny Spots Typhoon

Author: Fujitsuka Yuki 

Artist: Fujitsuka Yuki

Genre: Drama, Romance, School Life, Shoujo, Slice of Life

Summary: Kusakabe Kaoru is the prince of the school that all the girls want. But he has a secret that he doesn’t want any one: Since his mom’s death he’s been a house-husband and takes care of his three younger siblings and dad.

Collected in a tankōbon of one-shots by Fujitsuka Yuki.

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A very sweet and touching story that brings the reader’s attention to hardship, family values and ultimately to be appreciative of our lives. It flows with an easy-going and lighthearted pace which encourages the reader to smile in appreciation rather than be bogged down by its themes – themes that are often presented in a depressing manner in other similar mangas. I’ve read quite a few  stories that share the main plot of Sunny Spots Typhoon, but in this case it’s executed beautifully.

Overall Rating: 4.7/5

-chungky

Backstage Prince Vol 1

Title: Backstage Prince

Author: Kanoko Sakurakoji

Artist: Kanoko Sakurakoji

Genre: Shoujo, School Life, Comedy, Romance, Slice of Life,

Status: Completed

Summary: Drawn into the exciting world of kabuki theatre, young Akari spends her time after school assisting the famous actor, Shonosuke Ichimura. In the real world, however, this prince of kabuki is actually a high school cutie named Ryusei. The pair’s relationship gets off on the wrong foot but eventually, with the help of a cat known as Mr. Ken, the two teenagers fall in love. – Shojo Beat

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What might’ve caught your interest here is the use of the theatre art of Kabuki into this manga. If it is, I’m sorry to disappoint –  although the story revolves around it, it concentrates more on the romance rather than feeding the reader cool facts about Kabuki. There’s only pretty drawings of people ‘performing’ and really not much else. I can’t even bring myself to say it had bits and pieces of information – it’s more like crumbs. Even then, they mostly occupy the extra pages rather than being incooperated into the story. If you want a more theatrical devoured shoujo, try Orange Chocolate instead.

The story will pretty much fulfill any male tsundere lover’s dream – this hero would probably die for his maiden anytime and anywhere, on the spot. Romance is in control 99.9% of the time, and I find it adorable and cute rather than sweet or something steamy.

I knew beforehand that Backstage Prince was a short story collected into two tankōbons, so I felt like the story was a bit hasty and rushed at times – in fact it feels rather like a one-shot. When relationships are rushed in a story, the outcome can often be quite cheesy rather than romantic. Backstage Prince does show minor evidence of this. It’s similar to this scenario:

Boy & girl meet in page 1 and on page 10, boy says: ‘You’re the only one who can make me smile.’

I need some progression! It’s not exactly a big issue, everything does flow; it just flows too quickly.

The heroine of the story is distinguished as an ‘ordinary girl,’ with not much self-esteem(very common, but at least this one has some guts). I’m sure plenty of girls out there would read Backstage Prince and relate it to themselves(which is why I think this type of character is popular). Who doesn’t want their own hawt protective tsundere who buys them Anna Sui jewelry?

The character body proportions are really good and they resemble humans – they’re not changed, or what I’d like to call ‘manga-fied.‘ The ‘attractive’ people are really drawn well and the costumes are also really pretty. The art is somewhat unique, I can recognised her more popular work, Black Bird. However, there are quite a few mangaka’s work that carry that distinct style as well.

It’s a pretty different approach to a school life/slice of life shoujo manga; the guy’s a Kabuki celebrity besides what we’d usually expect as just ‘that popular boy’ in high school. Most of the story is pretty much confirming and testing their love, so give this story a go when you’re feeling down and just need to regain hope in love – or maybe even to just make yourself go ‘u-waaaah,’.

Rating

Story: 3.3/5

Art: 3.5/5

Character: 3.2/5

Execution: 3.2/5

Overall rating & any additional comments: 3.4/5

-chungky

Lala Special Issue 12/2010~

I just got the December 2010 issue of Lala Special. So happy! I bought it from the Japan Centre in Regent Street, London which costed me £11.70. I couldn’t get it on the Japan Centre website since it wasn’t the normal Lala monthly magazine and the shipping fee from Amazon.jp was just crazy! The Lala Special issue differs from the parent by releasing Lala monthly’s side stories as well as a variety of one-shots from mangakas.This issue contains Ouran’s special chapter as well as a selection of previous chapters, there’s also a announcement that there will be a special one-shot sequel at the beginning of next year!(there are many other series as well, vampire knight etc. not just ouran if you’re wondering)

There’s also a set of Ouran bookmarks!!! There are 8 bookmarks as you can see:

Now I have an extra reason to look forward to reading my books.

I mainly bought this month’s special issue because of the Ouran commemoration, it’s so sad to say good-bye after  7  wonderful years. I’ll definitely cherish Ouran forever(T_T), thank you Bisco Hatori.

-chungky

Record of the Fallen Vampire Vol 1

Title: Record of the Fallen Vampire

Author: Kyo Shirodaira

Artist: Yuri Kimura

Genre: Action, Drama, Sci-fi, Shounen, Fantasy, Super-Natural, Tragedy

Status: Completed

Summary: Thousands of years ago, Vampire King Akabara “Red Rose” Strauss lost both his kingdom and his queen. Since humans were unable to kill the queen, they sealed her away, erecting thousands of fake seals so that the king would never find her true location. Despite being pursued by relentless dhampires, Akabara continues to search for his queen to this day…

Akabara’s quest takes a sinister turn when an entity called the Black Swan appears. The Black Swan inhabits the body of a young human girl every 50 years, giving her the power to destroy the Vampire King and his queen. With each incarnation the Black Swan grows stronger–will the 49th Black Swan mean the end of Akabara? -Viz Media

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First of all, I’d like to dedicate my love for this title – Record of the Fallen Vampire – clearly not your every-day vampire manga. So forget Twilight or Vampire Knight for this short moment because this is unlike any vampire themed story out there. If I had one word to describe this story, it would be epic. Not the ‘that’s epic dude/man/guys,‘ sort of epic, but more like an important-piece-of-history kind of epic. If you’re still not quite sure what I mean, the bottom line is that this isn’t a story for everybody – can anyone read poetry and expect to get it right away?

Record has a very serious tone with some gentle dark aspects, but I wouldn’t call it scary or gloomy. It bears similar traits to a history book with myths and legends; the author really went out to do what he decided to do – a record. Some may find it confusing since the first volume transports the reader into three periods of time. Another big stray in the story is the fact that the protagonist is a tragic hero – he isn’t a bad man, but he isn’t completely innocent. Definitely not your typical head-strong chatty hero with a hidden lion heart. There’s no blood-sucking involved – the vampires are presented as just being stronger human beings who can perform magic and age much slower, and are faced with discrimination.

The art is nice – lots of fine details especially with coloured work, but I thinkcompared to other vampire themed mangas out there it’ll probably be just above average. Mangakas seem to love drawing elaborate, exaggerated and detailed art for super-natural beings like fairies, vampires, magicians etc. The action scenes can be a little confusing(on the other hand manga action scenes always seem to confuse me).

Record presents a vampires themed stories in a very different light – I even dare say a whole new dimension. A tragic hero hunted by a never-ending curse – how did he end up this way? Lots of depth and complexity, story-telling and some fighting…all you have to do is read the records to find out.

Rating:

Plot: 4.1/5

Art: 3.5/5

Character: 4/5

Execution: 3.8/5

Overall rating & any additional comments: 3.9/5

-chungky

Kaichou Wa Maid-Sama! Vol 1 – *Updated Version*

Title: Kaichou Wa Maid-Sama!

Author: Fujiwara Hiro

Artist: Fujiwara Hiro

Genre: Shoujo, School Life, Comedy, Romance

Status: Ongoing

Summary: The class president has a little secret she’s keeping from the sexy bad boy in school… As President of the Student Council, the overachieving feminist Misaki really socks it to the guys in an attempt to make the former all-boys’ school attract a more female student body. But what will she do when the sexiest boy in class finds out Misaki’s after-school gig is in a maid café?! It’s love at first fight in this shojo romantic comedy–with a whole new look at the battle between the sexes! –TokyoPop

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‘Seduction of a Feminist.’

When I first read Maid-Sama, I quite enjoyed it; in fact I really liked it, so much that I almost loved it. Now, however, I’m left with a little sour taste in my mouth that you might get after eating something delicious.What I’d applaud is the relatively original idea of using maid-cafes as a central theme in the story, it’s quite refreshing and it’s done wonderfully so that we don’t get any tacky and perverted outcomes that are so associated with this culture. Instead, I think Maid-sama actually helps us to appreciate this ‘exotic-ness’ of maid-cafes and its relative businesses.

Cliche events are what you are going to encounter in Maid-sama – in terms of originality, it isn’t the best. On the other hand though, shoujo manga has pretty much explored everything that could possibly happen in the ‘normal’ school life genre – school festivals, summer fireworks, someone get’s a fever etc. However, there are plenty of dreamy fantasies for you to gaze in awe and read over. This manga is designed to make girls squeal and maybe even shout as opposed to feeling warm, fuzzy, blushing red, or something sweet. I think it’s actually a little over-rated. There aren’t any real deep motives in the story so far and I think it jolts up in popularity because of this reason. Sometimes people just want to have a laugh.

My biggest doubts are created from the strong link between Maid-sama’s equally popular predecessor Special A. I find so many similarities between the two – mind you, in shoujo manga it’s hard not to find similarities between different stories – but I think the core issue for me is regarding the main characters of both mangas. I just find them incredibly similar – even in terms of character design – that it sort of puts me off. I found some sequences a bit, well, let’s just say there was a part where I just wanted to hide myself under a pillow out of embarrassment in a bad way(as did some parts in Special A).

There’s not that much intricate detail in the art and compared to many other shoujos out there. In that aspect, Maid-Sama will not actually stand out. As I’ve mentioned above, I compared the art to mangas like Special A – minus LOTS of exaggeration and having a much CLEANER look. If it were like cooking a dish it would be – adding just a pinch of serious-ness, taking out the guts of flashy details, and voila, you have Maid-Sama! It might not have that extra detail but it’s lighter and fresher in a good way.

It isn’t exactly ground-breaking, but a more original idea compared to other mangas in the school life genre. Funny moments and a blossoming romance is what I’ll say if someone asked me what kept me reading. If you want a good laugh and read about a hot growing romance from  a well-executed shoujo manga, do check out Maid-Sama. It has all the ingredients of a good shoujo. Also, if you like/love or detest Special A, you’ll also like Maid-sama.

Take note I didn’t take the Omake included in volume one into account.

Rating

Plot: 3.7/5

Art: 3.8/5

Characters: 3.5/5

Execution: 3.7/5

Overall rating & any additional comments: 3.8/5.

Chungky: I’ve updated the review with additional comments especially regarding the content which I found lacking in the previous. Apologies.

Click here for first version of this review.

Mixed Vegetables Vol 1

Title: Mixed Vegetables 

Author: Ayumi Komura

Artist: Ayumi Komura

Genre: Shoujo, School Life, Comedy, Romance

Status: Completed

Summary: Hanayu Ashitaba is the daughter of the celebrated Patisserie Ashitaba, but all she wants to do is be a sushi chef. Hayato Hyuga is the son of the prestigious Sushi Hyuga, and all he wants to do is be a pastry chef! It’s love and leftovers at Oikawa High School Cooking Department as these star-crossed gourmands do their best to reach their cuisine dreams! – Shojo Beat

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“A cooking shoujo manga. I find that very refreshing, and maybe I would be able to learn useful facts about cooking like many mangas that follow this cooking theme.”

If you’re looking for a manga purely for that reason, Mixed Vegetables is not for you. It has little bits and pieces of information about the cooking world, but not much; don’t expect this to be some cooking/baking themed roller-coaster like Yakitate!! Ja-pan or Chūka Ichiban!(cooking master boy is the most epic of all). It’s done in a very small scale.

Romance enthusiasts, you’re in luck! There’s potential(I shouldn’t even bother saying this, it is shoujo) for romantic feelings from the male and female protagonists just waiting to be united. But don’t be fooled by your ‘familiar romance manga’ instincts – there’s something unconventional in the first volume that just made me jump with glee.

There are plenty of ‘moe’ moments! =D

The comedy aspect of the story nice and simple; it’s there and you might chuckle. I find the jokes quite original and not overdone – kudos to the execution. The heroine of the story is quite likable(to me), she’s like an exploration of teenagers with that sort of naive, childish sort of trait. I’ve accepted the idea that some people might find her really annoying, but I think she’s executed quite well because I don’t see her as this loser crybaby. I think quite a few people may actually be able to relate to her.

The art can also portray really serious events and it actually works(I find many serious parts of many stories quite lame). I’m pretty sure that the male characters would be much appreciated. The hero can most likely make your heart go ‘doki-doki’ – or even racing. The body porportions are very good which makes it appealing, but the whole style is sort of ‘manga-fied,’ as in it’s not realistic(just saying). Another attribute that I really like(I don’t really know whether I should be liking it or not), is that the adults and parents are drawn so young it’s as if they all have the age of university students in their third year. They’re drawn as attractively as the main high school protagonists – not old and wrinkly and short(most shoujo mangas have wrinkly parents).  You might not even mind if everyone committed incest or if the story just deviated and talked about their parent’s early romantic beginnings/stories instead.

My last words will be that Mixed Vegetables is an interesting story away from the conventional school life genre; there’s the culinary school and there is ambition. There’s not much use of cliched events like school festivals etc. I’d list ambition as one of the strongest aspects – it isnt’t all about the romance developing. The characters themselves have their own aspirations and motivations. It doesn’t come through fully in the first volume,  but believe me ambition will pounce up in the further into story.  I rest my case.

Rating

Plot: 3.6/5

Art: 3.8/5

Characters: 3.6/5

Execution: 3.6/5

Overall rating & any additional comments: 3.9/5

Kaichou Wa Maid-Sama! Vol 1

A updated version of this review has been published, click here to be redirected to it.

Title: Kaichou Wa Maid-Sama!

Author: Fujiwara Hiro

Artist: Fujiwara Hiro

Genre: Shoujo, School Life, Comedy, Romance

Status: Ongoing

Summary: The class president has a little secret she’s keeping from the sexy bad boy in school… As President of the Student Council, the overachieving feminist Misaki really socks it to the guys in an attempt to make the former all-boys’ school attract a more female student body. But what will she do when the sexiest boy in class finds out Misaki’s after-school gig is in a maid café?! It’s love at first fight in this shojo romantic comedy–with a whole new look at the battle between the sexes! –TokyoPop

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So now I’m going to deal with one of the most popular shoujo mangas of the present – Kaichou Wa Maid-Sama; and a warning to Maid-Sama enthusiasts, I’m a sceptic. When I first read Maid-Sama, I quite enjoyed it; in fact I really liked it, so much that I almost loved it. Now, I’m left with a little sour taste in my mouth when there was once something really sweet at the beginning. What I’d applaud is the relatively original idea of using maid-cafes as a central theme in the story, it’s quite refreshing and it’s done wonderfully so that we don’t get any tacky and perverted outcomes that are so associated with this culture. Instead, I think Maid-sama actually helps us to appreciate this ‘exotic-ness’ of maid-cafes and its relative businesses.

My doubts are created from the strong link between Maid-sama’s equally popular predecessor Special A. I find so many similarities between the two and mind you, in shoujo manga it’s hard not to find similarities between different stories. I think the core issue here though is regarding the main characters of both mangas. I just find them incredibly similar – even in terms of character design – that it sort of puts me off. I found some sequences a bit, well, let’s just say there was a part where I just wanted to hide myself under a pillow out of embarrassment. I do have my doubts but I will not deny that Maid-sama is a pretty good manga in its own right, plenty of dreamy fantasies for you to gaze in awe and read over – I’ll call it shoujo cliche moments reworked and improved.

I find the art similar to mangas like Special A – minus lots of exaggeration and having a much cleaner look.  If it were like cooking a dish it would be – adding just a pinch of serious-ness, taking out the guts of flashy details, and voila, you have Maid-Sama! It’s lighter and fresher in a good way.

I wouldn’t call it a big stray from your shoujo manga, but a more original idea compared to other mangas in the school life genre. Funny moments and a blossoming romance is what I’ll say if someone asked me what kept me reading. If you like/love or detest Special A, you’ll like Maid-sama.

Take note I didn’t take the Omake included in volume one into account.

Rating

Plot: 3.7/5

Art: 3.8/5

Characters: 3.5/5

Execution: 3.7/5

Overall rating & any additional comments: 3.8/5.

ratings edited: I changed my rating about three times. I entered 3.8/5 the second time but I felt as if I was pressured by the popularity of the manga to grant a higher rating so I returned to 3.7/5