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Battle Royale: Ultimate Edition Volume 1
Authors: Koushun Takami & Masayuki Taguchi
Artist: Masayuki Taguchi
English Adaptation: Keith Giffen
Publisher: Tokyopop

The wonderful folks at Tokyopop have decided to start releasing these Ultimate collected editions a couple of months ago. So far this Hardcover edition of BR featuring the first three books is the best collected edition I have seen. Set in the future, the premise of Battle Royale is very simple and extremely brutal and disturbing. Set in Japan in the not so distant future where the greatest entertainment show is simply called The Program. Every year a random school class is picked, delivered to a certain location and told the rules of the game. Every single student of the 42 in total receives a random weapon, they are all in a restricted area and they have three days to win the game and kill each other. There can only be one winner and the weapons range from a megaphone to a machine gun. You get more on the background stories of the students than you do in the movie and the death of the characters is definitely more detailed. Not only is the story disturbing, but the art definitely adds a creepy tone to the book. There is a lot of detail in every panel, and although his character designs are sometimes bizarre, Taguchi gets a lot of human emotion into his drawings. Sometimes his over the top violence helps an already disturbing scene become more haunting. This book has the perfect balance of extreme horror and intense violence to make it an instant classic. The price could have been a little less if they had put this in paperback format, but that is my only gripe. A -

Berserk volume 18
Art & Story: Kentaro Miura
Translation: Duane Johnson
Publisher: Dark Horse

When last we left Guts, he was getting revamped with a new sword and a new arm. Meanwhile Casca has gone missing and is now living with a bunch of prostitutes at a camp. Guts continues his long hike to the Tower in search of his lost companion and runs into a thief by the name of Isidro, who decides to follow Guts because he can sense his strength or just wants to steal his sword. Farnese and the Holy Chain Knights are exposed to the High Inquisitor's methods even further as they are witnessed to his torture chambers reserved for those he chooses to be Heretics. By the end of the volume Casca is caught by some demon worshipers and Guts has a conversation with the Skull Knight. As far as adult material is concerned this is probably the most intense volume I have read of Berserk. There is a huge chapter that is just filled with nothing but demons fucking humans and just really gratuitous and almost unsettling violence, almost. There is lots of character development in this particular volume and it was time to take a breather in between the last huge fight and the next one that is sure to come. Miura delivers the same goodness he always has with each volume in both a beautiful and repulsive way. Another great chapter in the saga of the Black Knight. A

My Heavenly Hockey Club volume 1
Art & Story: Ai Morigana
Translated and Adapted: Alethea Nibley
Publisher: Del Rey

When I looked at the cover I remember thinking that this was going to be another stereotypical sports based manga, but by the time the bear showed up to be a goalie for the team, I knew it was something else. Hana is a lazy high school girl that due to damaging Izumi's car, finds herself enlisted as the goalie on an all-male field hockey team and you know there is some cross-dressing to be had. She becomes embroiled in comedic adventures that involves much travel and practice, but no actual sports matches. and when Hana proves useless on the field she finds herself replaced by a bear. This is a crazy surreal adventure that is full of hijinks and insane moments. Although it's full of intense moments it is definitely a character driven manga. Hana is completely weird and makes weird noises occasionally and the other characters are also somewhat strange, though their personalities really haven't had much time to develop yet. I was down with the bear in a goalie outfit too. Unfortunately it isn't enough for me to keep reading. There seem to be better written manga out there with the same premise and the art is really nothing to write home about. By the end of the first volume the jokes were already getting old. C

Ohikkoshi
Story & Art: Hiroaki Samura
Publisher: Dark Horse

Samura is best known for one of my favorite manga of all time Blade of the Immortal and this book is completely different than his usual his ninja story telling. This book collects three stories; The longest being, "Ohikkoshi," which is a romantic comedy that uses manga elements but is still very unlike any manga I have ever read. It is very much like the British show Coupling with the main characters are a bunch of students who seem to spend all their time in bars, and much of the story unfolds through their conversations. There is a love triangle or more like a square at times, but for some reason I found myself wanting to read more and more. Luncheon of Tears Diary (Vagabond Shoujo Manga-Ka) is almost a mockery of the shoujo manga genre, in that the heroine, a manga artist, goes through a series of extreme personal catastrophes, but has a satisfying ending. The third story is Bloodbath it is very short and basically an omake (which is a bonus story), with a lot of in-jokes about Kyoto. You can tell that at times Samura was experimenting with new techniques such as blackouts, exaggeration, and frequent breaks in the fourth wall to convey emotion and ridiculousness at the same time. It really seems like a different person writing and drawing this book. As my good friend Chris says: I was pleasantly surprised. A

Princess Resurrection volume 1
Art & Story: Yasunori Mitsunaga
Translation: Satsuki Yamashita
Publisher: Del Rey

Any cover with a chick with a maid outfit holding a bloody chainsaw should promise a badass story. Hiro Hiyorimi is a boy who has just moved to the city to meet his sister. Suddenly he is hit by a car and dies. On the verge of death he is seen by a young woman clad in gothic clothes. She then resurrects him, leaving him alive in the hospital morgue. He wakes up confused over what happened, only to encounter the woman again as she eliminates some wolf creatures. She addresses Hiro as "her servant" and introduces herself as Hime, which is weird, because that is the Japanese word for Princess. The beginning reminded me of one of my favorite manga 3×3 eyes, where Yakumo becomes Pai's servant and is pretty much a walking zombie. The story is very intriguing, but I really have no idea where it's going and the sad part is I don't think the author does too. I'm not sure if some of the stories are supposed to be horror or funny, but with e more narrative momentum this series has the potential to be good light fun with a deeper story to be found. The art is really clean and clear and the panel to panel flow is top notch. It's good for a few laughs, but I wish I could see the bigger picture. B