About Heroes

Boys Over Flowers Volume 27
Yoko Kamio
Viz Media

Finally! Finally, finally, finally, finally! Tsukushi declares her love for Tsukasa! Yeah, the guy is a jerk at the beginning of the series, but as it progressed, the more I began to become fond of him. Kamio’s art style may not be my favorite, but when she draws Tsukasa with bubbles around him, glowing, and standing in a cool pose because he’s saying something romantic, he’s awfully sexy! This guy will do anything for Tsukushi too, such as moving into a tiny little apartment with no bathroom in order to live next door to her and protect her from burglars. He’s slowly maturing and learning what it means to love someone besides himself.

So while Tsukasa has been growing, Tsukushi has been backtracking. She was admirable at the beginning of the series with her will of steel and won’t-take-crap attitude, but in the last few volumes she became annoying with her indecisiveness about how she feels. Yes, Tsukasa’s mother is threatening her family and friends with financial ruin so she won’t date her son, but even if she wasn’t Tsukushi would probably still be wishy-washy. I want to see her fight back because she always stands up for what she believes is right, and it looks like she’s returning to that frame of mind again. A

Dark Metro Volume 1
Story by Tokyo Calen
Art by Yoshiken
Tokyopop

The dead who seek revenge or release lurk in the subway tunnels below Tokyo and wait for the living to fall into their trap. Cool concept, but there isn’t an overall story arch connecting the different stories in each chapter. Seiya, the guide to the underworld, appears in each one, and he holds a large chance at being really beastly (a term I’ve learned from my high school students), angsty character, but he doesn’t get much story time until the last chapter.

Since the story isn’t living up to its potential yet, the art takes center stage. Yoshiken does a wonderful job of creeping me out! Barbed wire entangling a man and transforming him into a shower of blood is a gruesome scene that demands a second or third perusing. The art definitely kicks it up a notch. C

I Wish…Volume 1
Hyun-Joo Seo
Tokyopop

No more getting free wishes just because you’re in a bind! Now you have to give up what is most important to you in order for K (a guy who embodies the essence of a cute hairstyle) to grant it. The price is too high for Jin Ryu though, who just lost her family in a plane crash and consequentially is fandangled into working for K. As she becomes privy to the customers’ wishes, she can’t help but get involved. What would you do if a father was trying to break up his son and his son’s girlfriend, or if a woman won’t give up her lover’s memories of her in order to save his life?

I appreciate the splash of humor that is thrown into the story when Jin chibi-sizes or K becomes exasperated. The artwork carries the story very well, but I’m not quite into the elongated appendages and necks. It does help the characters strike a dramatic pose though…C+

Manga Sutra Volume 1
Katsu Aki
Tokyopop

All I have to say is….cute! No, it’s not supposed to be completely cute; it’s supposed to be sexy as well, but come on! When you’ve got two virgins get married and one is too embarrassed to be seen naked in the light and the other has trouble with premature ejaculation, hilarity is bound to ensue. In each chapter Makoto or Yura receives advice from their brother or sister on how to have great sex. Then they try it out! Let’s just say if these two were your brother and sister, you would be afraid of how enthusiastic they are about your sex life.

But after reading chapter after chapter of Yura either blushing because she thinks it’s perverted to ride on top or she doesn’t think they can have sex in the daytime, she gets pretty annoying. I know playing coy is sexy, but there comes a point where they should both have fun! I was so rooting for her when she finally enjoys herself in one chapter.

The author doesn’t intend for this to be just a hentai (porn) but a guide to great sex because…, well, first of all there is a note at the beginning stating such, and secondly, the author includes diagrams of their insides during the sex scenes, which equals not sexy. Finally, the author respects the audience because he assumes the reader knows nothing about sex and starts from the beginning. He doesn’t include pubic hair, not because it makes the book less hentai, but pubic hair in Japan is censored whether it be real or drawn in pornography. Kind of an odd law coming from a culture where nudity is more accepted than it is in the West.

This book is a lot of fun to read and will make you laugh out loud. Just don’t read it while visiting your future father-in-law in the hospital because your future mother-in-law will keep asking you what you’re reading. A

Tokyo Pet Shop of Horrors Volume 1
Matsuri Akino
Tokyopop

Count D, the pet shop owner, looks creepier on the cover than he does in the actual story. But if you’re not accustomed to reading manga, he may seem strange. Is this person male or female? It doesn’t matter in most mangas, where pretty boys are commonly accepted and even admired by young females. The count is actually kind of nice, in a weird way, and helps people with their problems by selling them a pet that showers them with good luck. But the horror part comes into play with the twist ending to each story where someone always dies.

There is a side story about Count D’s grandfather at the end that may border on the offensive side for some readers. In fact, it was previously unprinted due to the subject matter, but as with any piece of writing, you have to separate the author from the characters. Eva is Hitler’s lover who desperately wants a child by him, and Count D’s grandfather grants her wish in the form of a pet that turns human. Throughout the story, she is oblivious to Hitler’s real plans and believes he just wants to better Germany. But when Blondie, the child pet, reveals to her the fires of a concentration camp, she stutters, “How beautiful.” I believe this is supposed to be the horror part of Pet Shop of Horrors because she promptly marries Hitler and they kill themselves two days later. I don’t think the author is praising Eva, but rather he is showing the madness behind the Holocaust. But it was pretty hard to read. B