One-Shot for the Weekend – Gate 7

Title: Gate 7

Author: CLAMP

Artist: CLAMP

Genre: Adventure, Fantasy, Romance, Shounen, Supernatural

Takamoto Chikahito had always wanted to travel to Kyoto. On the day of his first long-awaited visit however, he somehow ends up stumbling into a hidden realm. There, he comes across a girl and her two companions who battle the creatures that reside within.

Published as a one-shot in Jump SQ December 2010, and is currently serialised

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I’ll pay tribute to CLAMP since Chungky chose Syaoran and Sakura as our Valentine’s Day mascots. That, and CLAMP should be given tribute anyway since they’re CLAMP. In any case it’s good to keep up with times, and so now this week’s one-shot is their latest work that started its serialisation this month – Gate 7!

I wouldn’t say I’m in love with it yet. There’s just too much in it that reminds me of a mesh up between XXXHolic and Tsubasa. It can’t really be called unoriginal (since they are the creators for those manga) but it’s just very – well, CLAMP-ish. The characters, the setting – even the plot. What I see lacking so far is the unique streak that differs one CLAMP work from the other. Then again, Gate 7 just started so I’ll give it time.

Gate 7 is a simple read – it’s not the type of manga where there’s all these made-up concepts you have to grasp right from the start. It’s been planned out for a serialisation from the start though, so it doesn’t have the usual conclusiveness that one-shots carry.

Also, if you’ve been missing the fancy magic art from Tsubasa and are a fan of  XXXHolic’s character designs, here’s a chance to just sit back and feast your eyes. As always, CLAMP never dissapoints with the magic they work with their pens and ink.

If you love the story and art that CLAMP always brings to the table, you definitely can’t miss out with Gate 7 this weekend!

Rating: 3.2/5.0

-arawr >=3

Mushroom Manga! Barakamon & Oresama Sensei

I would just like to say that this post had been punctually written some 3 weeks back when Chungky said  ‘I want a Mushroom post by tomorrow!’ and then had a change of mind the next day and went ‘Nope! Let’s go all Chinese New Year! Gong xi gong xi!!‘ and so my Mushroom never saw the light of day.

Until now.

So yes. I just had to complain a little.

I’m done.

Moving on =D

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Barakamon (ばらかもん)

Manga-ka: Yoshino Satsuki

Genres: Comedy, Shounen, Slice of Life

As punishment for punching a famous calligrapher, handsome, arrogant, self-centred Handa Seishu is exiled to a small island. A city-slicker to the core, Handa is surprised (and annoyed) by his wacky new neighbours and their odd habits – people travelling around on tractors as if they were cars, unwanted visitors who never use the front door, annoying kids using his home as a playground…the list of grievances grows by the minute. Can a city guy really adapt to an easy-going island life?

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First of, Barakamon is not a Digimon.

This manga has a really laid back feel. It’s not the usual shounen comedy that would crack you up coz something  amazingly stupid just happened (i.e. someone got shot out of a cannon or something) – it’s a really light-hearted humour that just makes you feel…  well, light-hearted.

One-Shot for the Weekend – Foo Fighter Fuji

Title: Foo Fighter Fuji

Author: Miyokawa Masaru

Artist: Miyokawa Masaru

Summary: 16 year old Gizagaki Fuji always had a temper and hated the idea of romance. A shooting star suddenly crashed into him and now he’s become an alien’s spaceship?!

Published as a one-shot in Akamaru Jump in 2008.

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Well, here I am again, late for this weekend’s one-shot once again. Oh yes, I’ll be recommending another love story again, it’s only appropriate since Valentine’s Day is in two days time.

I was going to offer a sweet, no-stress read for this romantic weekend but I decided to add a twist.

A romance from shounen manga. How shocking.

Now you don’t have to wait for 100 chapters before the couple shows any emotion towards each other. Or in some cases, watch cool men neglect their women(I’m looking at you Conan).

The idea of this one-shot is quite unique and bizarre at the same time. In actual fact this one-shot doesn’t really centralise on romance, it’s a mixed bag. It’s quite commendable for everything to be stuffed into a one-shot.

It’s a relationship between a boy and an alien. It doesn’t exactly break any new ground but it’s a nice one-shot with some nicely drawn action scenes. It sort of pokes a little jiffy on shoujo manga(in a non-offending way) & the aliens are used in a comic manner. I had a few chuckles reading this.

It was romantic in an unconventional way.

Have a wonderful remaining weekend.

Overall Rating: 3.7/5

One-Shot for the Weekend – Beelzebub

Title: Beelzebub

Author: Tamura Ryuuhei

Artist: Tamura Ryuuhei

Genres: Action, Comedy, Martial Arts, School life, Shounen, Supernatural

Summary: The story follows the “strongest juvenile delinquent”, Oga Tatsumi, as he watches over the devil king’s son (and future devil king) with the fate of the world hanging in the balance.

Published as a one-shot in Weekly Shōnen Jump 2008 where it won the fourth Gold Future Cup. It is currently serialised in Weekly Shōnen Jump, has 9 tankōbon volumes and an anime series

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I’ve been following the Beelzebub anime recently, and after watching the Beelzebub special episode it’s made me think back to the time when Beelzebub was just starting. Then I thought, “It’s such a waste if nobody doesn’t at least give it a try by reading the one-shot,” because, after all, I had been one of those misguided fools. Days have been devoid of laughter I could have experienced because I had not heeded my brother’s advice to read it. Not wanting anybody else to repeat my mistake, I post it here and now as this week’s one-shot.

Beelzebub. Is. Hilarious.

You can say that I’m shallow. I’ll call almost anything a brilliant piece of work as long as the comedy is awesome even if the plot is really going nowhere. But this is different. This is on an entirely new level. This is Beelzebub. And the plot really is going somewhere.

The one-shot is a really nice way to just laugh all your stresses away this weekend. It’s a ridiculous stupid kind of humour where you’ll be like ‘the heck?!’ most of the time and burst out laughing.

Okay, and besides comedy the action scenes basically have Oga pwning everyone. It’s hilarious how they all get defeated so easily.

Personally when I compare the serialised version to the one-shot, I feel like there’s been a huge development. If you did try it out and thought the one-shot was okay, don’t put it down just yet. That was the mistake I made. Continue reading, coz the serialised version gets even better.

Overall rating: 4.2/5.0

– arawr >=3

Mushroom Manga~

Kaitai Shinsho 0/Kaitai Shinsho Zero/Kaitaishinsho 0/Kaitaishinsho Zero/Kaitai Shinsho Ø

Author/Artist: Kenmotsu Chiyo

Genre: Fantasy, Action, Shounen, Super-Natural, Adventure 

A Byouma is a medical weapon created by ancient sorcerers to kill the infected or those around the infected and make it look like an illness. Even centuries after the sorcerers have died, these weapons still wander the world, infecting and killing people. Narutaki Soutaro and Izumo Momo are Shadow Doctors, trained to combat these Byouma through unorthodox means. Using magically created anti-Byouma medical equipment, they perform “operations” on the medical weapons to separate them from their hosts and destroy them. Will their special weapons and brilliant teamwork be enough to get rid of all the Byouma in the world?

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I’ve just picked up Kaitai Shinsho Zero and I’m rather liking the story so far. The story is set in a historical Japanese period; it adds a new flavour on an adventure involving a young doctor & nurse(No perverted thoughts please, they’re more like exorcists really) who destroy these nasty bio-weapons that infest humans. I love the young protagonists, always makes me feel like I can achieve amazing things, it’s probably why they’re so popular.

One-Shot for the Weekend – Oumagadoki Doubutsuen

Title: Oumagadoki Doubutsuen/ Oumagadoki Zoo

Author: Horikoshi Kouhei

Artist: Horikoshi Kouhei

Genres: Action, Comedy, Fantasy, Shounen

Summary: Aoi Hana is a normal female high school student, though she is extremely clumsy and thus tagged as good-for-nothing. She tries changing things for herself by applying for a part-time job at a zoo since she’s an animal lover. When she goes for her interview, everything seems just fine. Just a normal zoo, one might think. But that is only until Hana gets to meet the zoo director…

Published as a one-shot in issue #2/2010 of the of Weekly Shounen JUMP, and is currently serialised.

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There is symbolism in choosing this manga for the New Year 2011 – I already decided on it sometime last week, but I never realised how appropriate it was until I did bit more research on it.

Hint: 2011 is the year of the Rabbit.

I like reading it – I wouldn’t say I’m currently obsessed over it (although I do follow the serialisation) but I like the characters, the character designs and the characterisations. Beneath all the folly going on around the surface, there’s quite a lot of depth that goes underneath. It’s got a nice family setting going on which is really easy to see; this may seem ridiculous but I like how all the characters are comfortable with each other.

Plus, it’s funny. Not exactly hilarious, fall-out-of-my-chair funny, but an above average, enjoyable funny.

If you’re looking for a short one-shot though, you might want to look somewhere else. It’s got over 40 pages like the general one-shot, but the panels are small and there’s a lot of text, so there’s more things going on in the 40+ pages. Which can, admittedly, get a bit tiring if you’re not in the mood. It’s not like most of the shoujo or seinen one-shots we’ve been doing where a double page feature can just have two people looking at each other or something.

And best of all, if you really liked the one-shot, it continues. Since, well, it’s already serialised now with two volumes and all.

Rating: 3.9/5.0

-arawr >=3

Mangaka of the Month~ Arakawa Hiromu

Arakawa Hiromu
(荒川 弘 Arakawa Hiromu)

(December)

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Place & Date of Birth: May 8, 1973, Hokkaidō, Japan.

Gender: Female

Blood type: A

Horoscope: Taurus

Hiromu Arakawa is a Japanese manga artist from Hokkaidō. Arakawa’s career started with a work titled STRAY DOG, but she is best known for creating the Fullmetal Alchemist which became a hit both domestically and internationally, and was later adapted into two television anime series. She often portrays herself as a bespectacled cow as she was born and raised in a dairy farm with three older sisters and a younger brother. Arakawa started out as Etō Hiroyuki’s assistant writer for Mahōjin Guru Guru and a friend of Shakugan no Shana author Yashichiro Takahashi.

Mushroom Manga! Sengoku Strays & Yamamoto Zenjirou to Moushimasu

We can’t possibly review everything we read, yet there are some manga that we just feel we should share with the rest of you. So! We came up with ‘Mushroom Manga’ – manga that we’ve come across and decided to recommend, but are much too lazy to give a proper review.

Moving on, for our first Mushroom post, I present…!

Sengoku Strays

Manga-ka: Nanami Shingo

Genre: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Historical, Shounen

Kasane is your average kendo-obsessed girl, when a brush with a mysterious sword sends her back in time to the Sengoku Era. Stuck in an unfamiliar time and place, Kasane also has the poor luck of winding up right in the middle of the turmoil that surrounded Oda Nobunaga’s rise to power!

This is really just a personal favourite of mine that I found a couple of days back; I’d understand if a bunch of people didn’t share my sentiments. What makes me really enjoy it is probably the characters; I really like the protagonist, Kasane (quite similar to Himoto Sora from Shitsurakuen, when I think about it); she’s cute, she’s cool and best of all, she’s not completely useless from the start – which really is just one out of the several appealing factors.

What I’m really looking forward to though is how the relationships are going to develop. After all, since it’s a historical manga you could find spoilers if you read up Oda Nobunaga’s history (something I’ve seriously been tempted to do) so the only thing left is pretty much character development.

By the way, if you find yourself completely overwhelmed by the coolness of Nobunaga’s character, don’t look up for his real face. It really kills the mood.

Well, it did for me, anyway.

I wouldn’t say Sengoku Strays would fit the bill of mainstream shounen manga like Bleach or Naruto – but I think it could potentially fit somewhere along the popularity rankings of Kekkaishi and Soul Eater.

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Yamamoto Zenjirou to Moushimasu

Manga-ka: Maki Youko

Genre: Drama, Romance, School Life, Shoujo, Supernatural

Hotate is a 10 year old girl who was living at her grandmother’s house since her mother died. One day her grandmother tells Hotate that she can’t care for her anymore because of her age and that she’s going to have to live at her uncle’s house. After moving to her uncle’s house, she attends a new school, but things aren’t easy because of her special ability to see the dead. Can she make friends with students in her new class? And what’s the secret behind the bond between her and her uncle…?!

If the art looks familiar, if the story sounds similar, if it pulls your heartstrings the same way, that’s probably because Maki Youko is the same manga-ka for Aishiteruze Baby. It was completely unintentional that I stumbled across Yamamoto Zenjirou to Moushimasu, yet once again I found myself completely drawn to it.

I remember how I wouldn’t shut up when I first read Aishiteruze Baby, and this time was no different. The story is cute, innocent, has just the right touch of drama and mystery, and the dash of romance nicely fills up the background.

This shoujo isn’t just for a shoujo audience – I think even  shounen fans can appreciate this; that is, if they look for more than just swords and fists and buildings being blown up. It’s probably because Yamamoto Zenjirou to Moushimasu has more of a seinen feel in terms of plot – it’s just the execution that makes it shoujo.

– arawr >=3