Midweek Manga Reviews: Devils in love and girls with guns!

Devil’s Bride
Story & Art: Se-Young Kim
Translation: Hyun Joo Kim
Adaptation: Lorelei Laird
Publisher: Tokyopop

That cover threw me for a loop because I really had no idea what it had to do with the story, well until there is a revelation about sixty pages into the book. The devil has been living in the forest alone for a long time. He gets a visit from an old friend, Jya and informs Jya that he is looking for a human bride. He wants to purchase one, because after all he is the devil and women just don’t throw themselves at him. A young girl approaches him one day and states that she is the only one willing to be his bride as long as she is getting paid, because her father needs money. Turns out that this cute young girl was nothing more than a pretty boy dressed in women’s clothing trying to deceive the devil, but ends up falling for him. Do to some kind of accident (I’m still not sure what happened) he dies and is later rebuilt by the devil. Now the devil is starting to put human pieces together to “build” his perfect bride. There is also an origin story about a blind boy named Alex, who seems to be our main character. So, not everything might be what it seems to be. I really enjoyed the story, for something I thought I was going to care less about, I really was pleasantly surprised. It doesn’t seem like we are dealing with the devil, but with a man that has sold his soul to the devil for the gift of sight. Not everything is laid out in front of you and I love that in storytelling. The reader is left to put the pieces together and finish the rest of the story. My only complaint is the art….we have one woman that actually appears in the whole book and I couldn’t tell the difference between her and all the guys, except for the mercenary, cause he was just plain ugly. It does have a second volume that I will be checking out. B

Jpop Idol
Story: Millenni + M
Art: Toko Yashiro
Translation: Monica Seya Chin
Publisher: Tokyopop

You know it had to happen. I’m actually surprised it didn’t happen earlier, but with the consistent success of American Idol there just had to be a Jpop (Japanese) Idol. Sure there have been other books like this covering this subject, but this is the first time that those two words have been together in one book. It figures that a company like Tokyopop would release a book like this, because they were really one of the earliest pioneers trying to push the Jpop music and lifestyle to the mass American market. From the minds of Toko Yashiro (artist for Shogakukan’s magazine Shojo Comi) and writer Millenni+M comes Jpop Idol, a story of pursuing your dreams and what you are willing to pay to achieve them. Everyone and by the terms of this book I mean everyone, dreams about being the next J-Pop Idol! Best friends Mika, Kay, and Naomi win a nationwide singing contest, setting them on their way to stardom.