Creators: CLAMPTranslation & Adaptation: William FlanaganLetterer: Dana HaywardPublisher: Del Rey When Tsubasa first started back in 2004, I picked up volume 1. Del Rey was a fairly new company and I wanted to see what they had to offer from one of their first manga titles. I really thought that the concept was an interesting one. Taking all the characters from the CLAMP universe and putting them together in one book was a great idea that had worked on such titles like Exiles in the Marvel Universe. If you didn’t know CLAMP is a four member group of manga creators that have been around for almost 20 years. Being a…

Deja-vu: A Love StoryStory Youn in-wanArt: Lots!Translation: Woo Sok ParkAdaptation: Ren ZatopekPublisher: TokyopopFunny enough, just a couple of weeks ago I rented Déjà vu with Denzel Washington and I thought the movie was great. When I saw the title to this book, I really wasn’t in the mood for a love story. About an hour and a half later I was so glad that I picked up the book, because I couldn’t put it down. The title includes spring, summer, fall, and winter because Dejavu is a story of unfulfilled love that takes place through different seasons and years. Through different seasons and different eras in time, two lovers cross…

Buso Renkin vol.1Story & Art: Nobuhiro WatsukiTranslation & Adaptation: Mayumi KobayashiLettering: James GaubatzPublisher: Viz I first got a small taste, or rather the first chapter of Buso Renkin in volume 28 of Rurouni Kenshin. I really didn’t think much of it then; just another guy gets granted powers by sheer luck and has to save a girl from being eaten by monsters. Although completely different than Kenshin, the story was one that I didn’t find unique. However, after reading the first volume of this series, Renkin shows a great promise. Kazuki Mutou is mortally wounded when attempting to save a girl from a strange monster, but is given a new…

Black Cat vol. 1Story & Art: Kentaro YabukiTranslation: JN ProductionsAdaptation: Kelley Sue DeconnickPublisher: Viz I really never know what to expect from certain titles. Especially when it comes to titles of manga. Black Cat has nothing to do with superstitions or a certain voluptuous silver haired burglar that hangs with Spider-man. The story is about Train “Black Cat” Heartnet and his partner Sven Vollfie. They are known as sweepers, which is just another word for bounty hunters who take on the most dangerous kind of work. By the time we get to the core of the book we meet the thief Rinslet Walker, who is in need of help from…

Emma Vol. 1Story & Art: Kaoru MoriTranslation & Adaptation: Sheldon DrzkaPublisher: CMX I know that you can’t judge a book by its cover, but every time I walked by the manga section of my local book store and saw the cover to Emma it would remind me of OEL (original English Language) manga art. Like the guys that do Megatokyo or Fred Perry’s Goldigger. So I was really surprised when I realized that this book was authentic. Even looking at the art inside of the book reminds me of some fan art I have seen. Emma tells the story of a young Victorian/Edwardian maid and her forbidden romance with a…

Aventura Volume 1Art & Story: Shin MidorikawaTranslation & Adaptation: Elina IshikawaPublisher: Del Rey When I looked at the title I really thought that Del Rey was starting to publish their manga in Spanish. Just from looking at the cover it looks like something I used to watch when I was a child in Peru. So yeah, I have a soft spot for kids that team up with carnivorous animals. To my surprise it turned out to be more than just a bond between human and mammal. It was more of a cross between Harry Potter, The Chronicles of Narnia, and The Prydain Chronicles. Randit is an orphan who isn’t the…

Jim Henson’s Legends of The Dark Crystal: The Garthim Wars Volume 1Barbara Randall Kesel, Heidi Arnhold, and Max KimTokyoPop The artists did a wonderful job of creating a Jim Henson/Brian Froud world in this prequel to the awesome movie, The Dark Crystal. Fans of this cult classic will definitely appreciate the attention to detail – from the way the Gelfling’s three fingered hands are kind of blocky to the way their upper lips and noses protrude from their faces. But as far as story goes…, it’s pretty slow at the beginning. Lahr’s village is destroyed by the Garthim, creatures that kidnap the Gelfling race for the Skeksis, who in turn…

E’s Volumes 3 & 4Story & Art: Satol YuigaTranslation: Satsuki YamashitaPublisher: Broccoli Books Boy do I feel like an idiot. And it really doesn’t take much, but that’s beside the point. Last week I reviewed E’s volumes 1 and 2, well on my review I referred to Satol Yuiga as him. After a little research I owe Ms. Satol Yuiga an apology. I was a little lost when I read volumes 3 and 4 and I just read the previous volumes just last week. The art is still impressive if not better that the introductory chapters. She still manages to capture amazing fight scenes and gorgeous character designs. I really…

BoBoBo-Bo Bo-BoBo Volume 1Story & Art: Yoshio SawaiEnglish Adaptation: Drew WilliamsPublisher: Viz How do I explain this book without using the word insane? I probably couldn’t. With a title like that what else would you expect from this book? For some reason Viz decided to only publish one of the 20+ volumes of Bobobo in America. What’s really strange is that it’s not even volume 1 of the series, but volume eight or nine. So we jump right into the story with a paragraphs worth of catching up. Does that work? Hell yes! You really don’t have to know much about the background of this series to appreciate the level…

Asian BeatStory & Art: Hakase MizukiTranslation: Yoohae YangAdaptation: Nathaniel BowdwenPublisher: Tokyopop When I read the title I immediately thought of some J-pop group that got their own manga. I have to be in the mood for J-pop and I really have little very interest in reading anything based on J-pop. Thank God that I was wrong. This book has nothing to do with music at all. It is a compilation of four stand alone stories: The Town Where Snow Falls, Asian Beat, The Grey Town, and Scars. Although the book is described as fantasy I really don’t consider AB to be in the same league of same stories as Mizuki’s…