About Heroes

Amefurashi: The Rain Goddess vols. 1 & 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 or I Dream of Jeanie if you will; 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-

Only One Wish
Story: Mia Ikumi
Translation: Elina Ishikawa
Letterer: North Market Street Graphics
Publisher: Del Rey

While some of my favorite manga of all time are books that never seem to have an ending anytime soon like: XXXHolic, One Piece, Berserk, or even Tsubasa (that one is ending fairly soon); I really enjoy stand alone volumes of manga. It means I don’t have to buy any more and I didn’t have to read anything before hand. Only One Wish is pretty much a collection of short stories that the title implies. You can send a text a message to a certain address a cute little witch girl will appear and grant you just one wish. This may sound like a deal, but as the girls in this book find out, sometimes those wishes just go all wrong and can turn against you. Sure it’s nice to see greedy people get what they deserve, but the story falls a little flat and repetitive, with the exception of Wish 2. It seems she’s the only one that gets what she really wants in a morbid kind of way. There is also a special story that confused me a little bit, because it features characters from Ikumi’s Tokyo Mew Mew series. The narration of the stories just seems to go everywhere and it can get a little confusing. The art itself is really pretty to look at, but following the panels proved to be a little difficult to follow. Unfortunately just one of the four stories doesn’t make this book really memorable. C

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Story & Art: Mika Kawamura
Translated: Joshua Weeks
Letterer: North Market Street Graphics
Publisher: Del Rey

Awww look how adorable that little cat on the cover. How could you not think that this book wouldn’t be filled with cute magical girl action? Maybe it was just me and my fascination with Sailor Moon and Pretty Sammy that every time I look at a book I automatically think it’s going to feature a magical girl somewhere in it. Hey, I’m 90% right based on the covers. Panic is about Mistuki, a girl from a shrine and Kakeru, a boy from a church that have to set aside their picking on each other to team up and seal a demon door! This is the same door that their ancestors sealed over 2000 years ago and now it’s up the heirs of the shrine and church to seal it back up and put these demons back to where they belong! Of course these two don’t work well together right off the bat, but as the story progresses you can see a love start to blossom. Even the cat (Nekomata) has an adorable background story that has something to do with Kakeru’s ancestor. With more characters joining the cast by the end of the book, this book came as a real surprise to me. I enjoyed reading the fast pace stories and the bumbling romantic jokes. The art was really pretty and fit the story. Sure it wasn’t about a magical girl, but I was close! A

The World I Create vol. 1
Story & Art: Ayami Kazama
Translation: Sheldon Drzka
Lettering: MPS Ad Studio
Publisher: CMX

Remember the review I just did? That I was really good at telling magical girls apart? Well, this wasn’t the case when I looked at this cover. The first thing I noticed was the pupils missing off the girl’s eyes. So I thought she was going to be a robot or a zombie (yeah right). This book is a collection of four stand alone stories set in the world of “Projectionists”. To be a Projectionist is the ability to create worlds and things using your magical power and your imagination. Of course, this takes practice so students have to go to school to improve their skills. Unfortunately the story seems repetitive and runs dry after the first two short stories. Sure the romance is cute, but it can get so mundane at points. I did however; fall in love with the artwork. I loved how simple and complex it was. It was so cute, but so detailed during character interactions. I love the way that Kazama draws eyes, except for that cover, for some reason I think the colors are wrong. Even though the stories take place at a high school the art makes them look so much younger that captures that sense of innocence. B-