About Heroes

Dragon Eye Vol. 1
Kairi Fujiyama
Published by Del Rey

I adore the author's note at the beginning of this manga: "Hello, it's me, Fujiyama. This is the story of a boy with an eye in the middle of his forehead and sundry other folk. Let's go explore them together." What an awesome invitation and attitude about writing and reading stories.  I want to steal it and use it at the beginning of my books, if I ever get published...

If you enjoy Naruto, then you'll most likely enjoy this as well. Kids train at school to become VIUS who fight against the Dracules, humans turned into monsters by a virus. Leila Mikami is searching for revenge for her parents' death, and while she wants to remain human, she also wants the power to crush the monsters, and that power is the Dragon's Eye. She may not have to search that far though... Oh, never mind. I can't keep it a secret. If the cover of the manga has a boy no the front with a star on his forehead, it's pretty obvious he's the supped-up, can't be beaten until he meets bosses character who's got the Dragon Eye.

The action moves smoothly, which is a big plus for reading fight scenes. Another plus is the buckoos of dialogue bubbles to read. B+

Le Chevalier d'Eon Vol. 1
Story by Tou Ubukata
Art by Kiriko Yumeji
Published by Del Rey

Deep, rich art awaits you in Le Chevalier d'Eon, along with lots of deep, rich blood! Creepy bad guys are sacrificing virgins in nasty ways to get their hands on France, but this uber-powerful woman with a sword comes in to save the day! So why isn't she mentioned on the back summary...? Only the king's knight is mentioned. Is Del Rey sexist? Nope! The twist is..., he actually turns into the awesome fighting chick by evoking his sister's spirit!

The story is very gothic and mysterious. There are a lot of references to Christianity, but the members of this cult are construing it for their own evil purposes. The artwork flows wonderfully in the fight scenes, and each violent panel seems to be dripping with blood. B

Rure Vol. 1
Art & Story by Da-Mi Seomoon
Published by Tokyopop

Shame on you Tokyopop for passing off Rure as a Japanese manga - it's actually a Korean manhwa! Oh well - hopefully people will figure out it's Korean when they read the names of the characters, the author, and learn that the main character lives in Seoul. Hopefully I don't sound like I'm against Korean manhwa; on the contrary, it's a really good book and I don't care what country it comes from, but I think that it needs to be properly labeled instead of just lumping it with another country's culture.
So let's go through the checklist.

1.Art: Check. Beautiful first couple of pages, with an interesting hook about a goblin in Ha-Ru's back yard. And hair in this manwha = gorgeous!

2.Story: Check. Have to wade through the middle bits, but when Ha-Ru and her sister are transported to another world, it gets more interesting.

3.Humor: Check. Seomoon really finds his/her stride in the last third of this volume. A sprinkling of humor really keeps it alive and helps to characterize Ha-Ru.

Verdict: B

Translucent Vol. 1
Story & Art by Kazuhiro Okamoto
Published by Dark Horse Manga

Okamoto added a twist to the high school drama story by dropping the element of invisibility into the story. The main character, Shizuka Shiroyama, has a rare disease called translucent syndrome. Sometimes only parts of her body are invisible, but other times she goes completely transparent. Mamoru Tadami hooks up with her, and he helps her deal with an affliction that most teenagers feel metaphorically anyway!

On the positive side, each chapter is basically a self-contained story, which is a nice change. But the story itself hangs on the invisibility schtick, and there's no meat to it. Unfortunately I lost interest after the first couple of chapters. D+