About Heroes

.hack: Legend of the Twilight Omnibus

Story: Tatsuya Hamazaki
Art: Rei Idumi
Translation: Ben Dunn
Lettering: Jose Macasocol Jr.
Publisher: Tokyopop

I love LOVE Omnibus editions! If you ever come to my house and check out my bookshelf, you’ll see exactly what I mean. I’m a wait for trades kind of guy, which you know if you listen to the podcast and it seems more and more I’m turning into a wait for omnibus kind of guy. I enjoyed the previously Tokyopop omnibuses err omnibi whatever….. This one is no exception, it collects all three volumes of the series with over 650 pages plus original artwork, all original covers, Japanese covers, and a postscript all for less than 20 bucks! Let’s talk about the story for now. This series, Legends of the Twilight takes place following the .hack games on Playstation 2 games. A pair of siblings, Shugo and Rena, win a contest that grants them limited edition characters models or Avatars (not to be confused with the Last Air Bender or James Cameron) of the legendary players known as Black Rose and Kite. Rena, as Black rose, is keen to use the prize characters although Shugo is a bit more reluctant to assume the role of Kite. He feels he has outgrown the videogame genre. Inside The World however, Shugo is back to being the kid that loves playing videogames. Then a visit from Aura provides Shugo with Kite's bracelet, and they quickly draw the attention of other familiar players. These include Balmung, Helga, and even Orca. All wondering if history is trying to repeat like it happened four years ago. Gradually, the pair make new friends and start playing in the virtual world. As epic as it sounds it really lacks in the action department and most of the book is spent on tame adventures. It’s not until we get to third part of the story that things come together. While the cute character art might fool into thinking this is a story for kids, it’s really not. There is a sexual undertone used by the writer and it contains its fair share of language. Unfortunately the artwork doesn’t stand out and while it serves its main purpose of telling the story; it really falls flat when it comes to action sequences and facial expressions. While it wasn’t necessary to read this book to enjoy the rest of the .hack world any fan of the series will probably pick this up. If you aren’t a fan of the .hack games this might give you an idea why it has a huge fan following. B -

Alive: The Final Evolution vol.8
Story: Tadashi Kawashima
Art: Adachitoka
Translation: Anastasia Moreno
Lettering: North Market Street Graphics
Publisher: Del Rey

As much as I hate to admit, Omar was right. I wasn’t a big fan of this series at all. But he kept insisting that the series did get better as it progressed. So I read the first five volumes and now I’m hooked. I don’t know why the first volume didn’t reel me in; I mean the premise is neat. A worldwide epidemic of something knows as a suicide virus causes chaos at a Japanese high school. Kids and teachers begin killing themselves in bizarre and violent ways. A group of high school kids learn that they may hold the key to this mystery. It turns out that the virus is of alien descent and people either kill themselves, gain powers that give them the urge to kill, or as with Taisuke Kano; they get powers without the urge to kill. It’s a unique way of taking a superhero book and gives it more of a sci-fi twist. Speaking of heroes, this volume questions just how much of a protagonist is Taisuke. Not to mention an awesome fight between Nami and the girl who killed her brother Kanon! What I noticed this time reading these books is how enjoyable the artwork is. It’s crisp and clean. You can really tell what’s going on in each panel without having to look twice. Adachitoka (awesome name by the way) has a gift for sequential story telling. Throw in some plot twists in each volume and I’m there for every volume. I really can’t rave enough about this series…where else are you going to find such a variety of genres being covered? A-

Amefurashi: The Rain Goddess vol. 2
Story & Art: Atsushi Suzumi
Translation: Elina Ishikawa
Lettering: North Market Street Graphics
Publisher: Del Rey

From the creator of Venus vs. Virus and Haridama: Magic Cram School comes Amefurashi! I guess it doesn’t help that I never read either one of those two books. That can also be good, because I go in this book with no idea what to expect. The story is somewhat like Oh My Goddess; Boy meets Goddess. Gimmy is just an ordinary teen that runs a repair shop and lives in a desert town. With rain rare to come, the town gives up offerings to the rain goddess who in return provides them the essential water. She lives in a grand magical tree with instead of leaves, have clouds. Gimmy notices that his younger twin brother and sister disappear. While searching for them, Gimmy runs into Sora, the rain goddess who provides water to the town. But another goddess, Ciel, wants Sora’s sacred Nimbus tree, so that she can control the rain. By the second volume Gimmy realizes that Sora isn’t just a goddess, but she is very normal at heart and laughs and cries and he could see himself falling for her. The book is often silly, but fun with some great artwork. That’s really what grabbed my attention was the beautiful artwork. The characters are vivid and gorgeous. The only thing is that the action scenes seem stiff and awkward and really don’t flow very well. That’s just a small gripe for an otherwise fun book. A-

Clover Omnibus
Story & Art: CLAMP
Translation: Ray Yoshimoto
Lettering: IHL
Publisher: Dark Horse
I remember years ago buying the first volume of Clover when it was published by Tokyopop and it was 15 bucks. It was during a time when manga was being dropped to ten dollars a pop and 15 bucks for 100 pages just seemed too much to put down. Even if I am a big fan of CLAMP, I just couldn’t do it. Along comes Dark Horse and release all four volumes for less than 20 bucks! Now I got to finish the story and the price is rightly justified. This omnibus is over 520 pages long and includes not only the original four covers, but promotional art featuring the characters from the book. Clover is set in a dark, cyberpunk, futuristic world where the people in control are called Wizards and they will do anything for power; even destroy lives. Enter the clovers, a few children with special powers who seemingly have the magical ability to manipulate technology. Their powers vary from teleportation to summoning weapons from thin air. The higher the leaf-number the higher their power; they rank from 1 through 4. The wizards fear them, so the Clovers are either controlled, or destroyed. The story is also about a young girl called Sū and she happens to be the only 4-leaf Clover discovered. She is imprisoned along with other Clovers by the government. Now with her escort, Kazuhiko, they will journey to Fairy Park and they relationship will take a turn to the past. The story is fascinating, the characters endearing and intriguing, and the art is incredible. There aren't too many complicated two-page spreads as there usually are with CLAMP. Instead, they experiment with blank space and unusual angles. The artwork is clean and sparse, but this is in a good way. It's not filled to the brim with images like Clamp's usual works, which is not to say that is bad, because I love that style too. The gorgeous artwork mixes lush, baroque detail with spare, elegant page layouts and this serves to reinforce the mood of isolation and gives the whole manga a film-like feel. It gives the book a clean, austere feel that none of CLAMP's other manga has. This is a beautiful work that any fan of cyberpunk, Clamp or excellent stories/art will enjoy. A-

Dokkoida?! vol.1
Story & Art: Yu Yagami
Original Story: Taro Achi
Translation: Sheldon Drzka
Publisher: CMX
Never thought I would be reading a book that had a superhero wearing diapers. Ohh, who am I kidding? I read manga and independent comics; I knew this had to happen eventually. The manga and anime of the same name are based on a 6 volume novel series. The premise of the manga is pretty absurd, but it works on considering the characters’ personalities. 19-year-old Suzuo Sakurazaki is in search of a part-time job when he runs into Tanpopo, an alien who happens to look like a 10 year old human girl. Claiming that she works for a toy company, she offers him a job testing a costume for the character Dokkoida. But she’s really working for the Galaxy Federation Police, an organization looking to test out power suits for their own peacekeeping forces. The suit itself looks like a cross between Ultraman, Kamen Rider, and Kikkaider. Before you know it, Suzuo beats up a giant robot and moves into an apartment building with other suit-testers-only and none of them know they’re all doing the same job! The book is not only action packed, but also it happens to have a very humorous take on superheroes and their secret identities. But that humor is really lost when you realize it’s the same over the top goofy tantrics that keep repeating and repeating. There is also the stereotypical harem approach to the book when all the girls he moves in with have a crush on him. It’s a good concept and the art style really fits the book, but I hope with the next volumes the in your face humor takes a step back. C

Hellgirl vol.6
Story & Art: Miyuki Eto
Original Story: The Jigoku Shoujo Project
Translation: Gemma Collinge
Publisher: Del Rey

I settled with watching the anime of Hell Girl after reading volume 1. How could I forget how sometimes the anime seems to vary so much from the manga. Hell girl was an original anime that was later adapted to manga and even a live action television series. Just because you’ve seen the anime doesn’t mean that you necessarily have to skip the manga. Most of the stories are original and yes, some are adapted from their anime episodes. The plotline revolves around Ai the cute school girl on the cover who also happens to be Hell Girl. She’s an ageless entity who collects names of the deserving and unfortunately sometimes undeserving for retribution. The cost of sending your enemy or rival to hell it that eventually you join them in eternal torment. Volume six adds four new chapters to the story. One of them focuses on Ai’s assistant Ichimokuren. That was a nice break from the usual norm of the story. The flaw that I noticed in this series and yes even the anime is that sometimes you never see the people actually fully realize their choices & their mistakes. Some of the clients never fully understand what eternal suffering in hell means, and as such they never appear to regret their actions or fear their deaths. Most of the characters assume that they'll live for a long time and not worry about the consequences of their actions. While the art is gorgeous to look at, I’m not sure it still fits the book. For example Ai’s eyes (no pun intended) are full of life and big where as her anime counterpart’s look like they are cold and dead. While sometimes the plot was predictable the stories were still entertaining and I can’t wait to read more of Ai’s wicked moral lessons. C+

Variante vol. 2
Story & Art: Iqura Sugimoto
Translation: Sheldon Drzka
Lettering: Dave Lamphear
Publisher: CMX

It’s been a long time, probably a year since I reviewed volume one of this intriguing manga. In volume a girl named Hosho Aiko wakes up after the murder of her family, in a lab to discover that her own arm has been replaced by one from a hideous and powerful monster. This arm has a will of its own as we find out in this volume. Agents from Aethos which is a mysterious, government-linked corporation, want to use the power of Aiko's demon arm to fight the deadly creatures known as Chimeras, whose attacks on the civilian population are increasing. But agent Sudo, who has befriended Aiko, isn't so happy about this development. After tests on dogs Dr. Kochigawa releases Aiko to fight her first opponent. After a brutal battle she is able to defeat it, but it’s not her will that makes this happen. Through a series of flashbacks we find out that agent Sudo knew a girl 14 years ago by the name of Nana. Nana, seems to have had the same thing happen to her on her back. These “wings” eventually took over her body and Sudo had to shoot her down. This is why he wants to help Aiko out as much as possible. The art makes the story flow better too. There’s a nice mixture of cross-hatching and toning that works well here, giving the artwork a unique feel to it that helps convey the rather bleak world of the series and gives it that dark etch that terrifies you at times. The designs of the Chimeras and Aiko’s left arm are very organic looking and Aiko seems to be in real pain when the arm strikes unexpectedly. I’m intrigued with what’s going to happen to Aiko and Sudo and the rest of the Chimera. I can’t wait till the next volume. A-

The Yagyu Ninja Scrolls: Revenge of the Hori Clan vol.7
Story & Art: Masaki Segawa
Original Story: Futaro Yamada
Translation: Gemma Collinge
Publisher: Del Rey

Man, that is one long title, but it completely makes sense why you have to use the whole title to describe the inside of the book. I’m being completely honest when I say that as much as I loved Basilisk I just couldn’t get into volume one of Yagyu. I’m not sure if it’s because the first volume took too long to tell or maybe I just kept comparing it to Basilisk. The story is about Kato Akinari, the local lord, rules the territory with an iron fist, committing all manner of atrocities. When the Hori clan rebels, he squashes them with the help of the freakish Aizu Seven Spears. Not content to simply round up and execute the men, the Seven Spears track the Hori women clan to a sacred, female-only temple and slaughter them in front of the captured male clan members. When the dust settles, only seven women remain. The survivors begin planning their revenge on the Seven Spears and Akinari. But to carry out their plan, they’ll need a little help from a certain one-eyed swordsman by the name of Jyubei. Yes, the legendary Jyubei with the eye patch. Four of the Seven Spears are dead and three remain. The women now enter Aizu where they encounter the remaining three Spears and a new father/daughter villain team known as Ashira and Oyura. The art is amazing and takes a while to get used to because there’s a heavy reliance on toning which can turn some people off. The action and emotions are clearly depicted, if at times a bit comically so. You can easily tell the good guys apart from the baddies because the bad guys are ugly, with several bordering on animalistic. Segawa seems fond of round edges as well; instead of square shoulders, all his characters have round, muscular ones and their chins and noses have a smooth curviness to them as well. I found myself really enjoying this volume though. Even if I missed the five volumes in between the remaining cast is making this book really enjoyable. It’s enough to go back and pick up the missing volumes. The interaction between the characters is what kept me reading this volume and I can’t wait to see how it ends up. B+