Hot Gimmick volume 1

Hot Gimmick volume 1
by Miki Aihara
Viz Communications
BW, 192 pgs w/ ads, $9.95 US / Higher in Canada

Hot Gimmick is the first of Miki Aihara’s manga to reach North American shores, a shojo that at first glance sticks to the tried and true formulas of the genre. Where it differs though is in its art, which in itself is enough to convince the reader to check out subsequent volumes. This is fortunate for the reader because if online research is to be believed, Hot Gimmick deviates from the norm starting with volume 2.

Case Closed volume 1

Case Closed volume 1
by Gosho Aoyama
Viz Communications
BW, 192 pgs w/ ads, $9.95 US / Higher in Canada

High school student Jimmy Kudo uses keen powers of observation and astute intuition to solve mysteries that leave local law enforcement baffled. As such, Jimmy has become somewhat of a local legend, helping the cops when all clues have lead them to dead ends. Jimmy is a modern day Sherlock Holmes, possessing the talents that made that fictional detective such a renowned investigator. Jimmy has, in fact, learned his skills from reading Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Holmes stories and other detective novels in a vast library belonging to his own father, a famous writer of mysteries.

Ranma 1/2 volume 3

Ranma ½ volume 3
Viz Comics
by Rumiko Takahashi
BW, 216 pgs $13.95 CAN / $9.95 US

Ranma and Akane put on their ice-skates to finally duel with the ‘Golden Pair”, Azusa and Mikaao. The victors of the battle win the pig P-Chan and the loser gets nothing. As always, the events get crazy and everybody is fighting for the love of someone else and by the end of it nobody is really sure what happened.

As I started reading this trade paperback, I couldn’t help but feel the series Ranma ½ was going nowhere. The transformation of the characters into different forms was unlike anything I’ve read before, but I was starting to think this premise was getting stale after about three trades. Rumiko Takahashi can write funny situations and her gag timing is almost perfect, but the stories were being told over again in different ways.

These thoughts about Ranma ½ were changed by the introduction of the character Shampoo. She is a Chinese Amazon hunting down the female version of Ranma after ‘she’ defeated Shampoo in hand-to-hand combat. Shampoo swore to avenge herself and kill Ranma. But it wasn’t the character that made me change my opinion of the series. It was what happened. Shampoo gave Akane amnesia in a fight because Shampoo fell in love with the male half of Ranma after he beat Shampoo in hand-to-hand. So, Akane didn’t remember who Ranma was and it was the turmoil that ensued that really propelled the story. After hundreds of pages, Takahashi’s characters were finally breaking away and building their own personalities. It is evident the core players really care for one another.

So, even though every trade will be filled with turbulent love scenes and gratuitous action, I don’t mind. I’ll be reading it for those soft moments when Ranma figures out he is actually fond of Akane even though every bone in his body knows he isn’t suppose to be. (Dana Tillusz)

Ranma 1/2 volume 2

Ranma ½ volume 2 
Viz Comics
by Rumiko Takahashi
BW, 224 pgs $9.95 US

The adventures of Ranma, Akane and Ryoga continue in this second edition. This series is jam-packed with crazy love triangles; everyone is smitten with someone else but no one is able to get together. In poor Ranma’s case, he’s just trying to avoid the whole affair. Everyone seems to fall in love with Ranma whether he is a boy or if he’s turned into his female form.

Akane is supposed to battle Kodachi, the “Black Rose”, in the art of rhythmic gymnastics. After ambushing Akane a week before the scheduled battle, Kodachi bumps into Ranma. The Black Rose falls head over heels for Ranma after he beats her in a quick duel; even then she shows her true colours (she cheats at everything) when Kodachi uses paralysis gas to try and kiss him. Luckily for Ranma, Akane beats her off with a swift kick and the adversity carries on. The following day the situation gets thicker when Akane injures herself practicing her gymnastics and Ranma has to take her place in his cursed female form. And just for the record, rhythmic gymnastics involves beating your opponent out of the ring using any weapon you’ve got at your disposal. Ranma attempts to play the gentlemen (beating up girls isn’t his style) until Kodachi starts playing rough.

In another story, Akane and Ranma are blackmailed into dueling a couple known as the golden pair over the ownership of the piglet P-Chan (Ryoga’s animal form–Ryoga is cursed too and is Ranma’s archenemy; yes, I know it’s confusing). Of course, the fight takes place on an ice rink, the fighting in the style of Martial Skating, and neither Ranma nor Akane can skate. Nonetheless, some fighting takes place and Ranma receives his “first kiss.”

If this manga series is anything, it is entertaining. Ranma ½ might not be filled up with philosophy and highbrow humour, but it sure knows how to make you laugh. With all the love lost characters filling the pages, the reader can’t help but fall in love with them. (Dana Tillusz)

Ranma 1/2 volume 1

Ranma ½ volume 1
by Rumiko Takahashi

Viz Comics
Translated by Gerald Jones and Matt Thorn

BW, 312 pgs
$9.95 US / Higher in Canada

Both martial artist Ranma Saotome and his father are cursed. They were training and honing their skills in China at a legendary place where they were surrounded by magical pools, sparring on the tops of bamboo sticks. Ranma’s father fell into the “spring of drowned panda” and who ever falls into that pool takes on the body of a big ole panda bear. Ranma, shocked by the transformation of his father and surprised by what happened, couldn’t fight off his panda dad and so he was tossed into a neighbouring pool, the “spring of drowned girl.” And if you hazard a guess at what happened next you’re most likely right. Ranma surfaces with a girl’s body, breasts and all. Boy was he surprised.

Rumiko Takahashi began chronicling her outrageously crazy series Ranma ½ in 1987 after she finished wrapping up her first two popular manga series Urusei Yatsura and Maison Ikkoku. Takahashi started her career studying under Lone Wolf and Cub author Kazuo Koike while she attended women’s college in Tokyo, Japan. In 1978, Shonen Sunday began serializing her first comic, which garnered much success and a huge fan following. Today, she is one of Japan’s most premiere creators with over 100 million copies of her compiled works in print. Takahashi continues to work on her newest series InuYasha that began publication  in 1996.

GYO volume 2 (2nd Edition)

Gyo volume 2
by Junji Ito

Viz Communications
English Adaptation by Yuji Oniki

BW, 204 pgs
$9.99 US / Higher in Canada

I can’t say I’ve ever been scared reading a comic. There are horror comics out there, but they’re not likely to make you jump in your chair like some horror films. That’s actually fine by me because that jumpiness is the most basic form of horror there is. It’s a one trick pony. The momentary fright isn’t going to linger. You’ll probably even laugh immediately after jumping.

The purest form of horror is an underlying sense of unease. This occurs when moments of tension are never released. There’s no cliched scare tactics. There’s no delivery. It’s a relentless, seemingly unending build. You’re left stuck in anticipation. This unease is caused by the visuals you see and the sounds you hear. These thing make you think, put you in the moment, make you experience the horror on a more personal level. A good horror comic can do that with its images and story. It can get under your skin, make you uneasy and leave you that way even after the last page is turned. That is exactly what Gyo does to you.

DEATH NOTE volume 12

Death Note Volume 12

Viz Media
Writer: Tsugumi Ohba
Art: Takeshi Obata

BW 216 pgs
$7.99 US / Higher in Canada

The great moral conundrum: Does the ends justify the means?

I believe Neil Gaiman once said all stories if left to their own devices would inevitably end in death, as that’s life’s natural course. What about a manga that begins with death and is all about death? Of course it ends with death, does it not? And does creating a perfect world mean it’s all right to kill thousands? Do the ends justify the means?

When I discovered Death Note, it quickly became one of my favorite manga and was, in fact, one of the best comics I read last year – American, Japanese, European, they’re all comics in my opinion. Call them what you will but Death Note is right up there with the best.

For the uninitiated, Death Note is about a notebook. If someone’s name is written in it, they will die in 6 minutes and 40 seconds. If the cause of death is written down, the person will die of it in 40 seconds. An extremely smart teenager named Light Yagami finds a Death Note that was dropped into the mortal realm by the Shinigami death god, Ryuk, who was bored and decided to make his life more interesting. And hanging around Light has been anything but boring.

Death Note volume 1

Death Note volume 1

Viz Media
Writer: Tsugumi Ohba
Art: Takeshi Obata

BW, 200 pgs w/ ads
$7.99 US / Higher in Canada

What is the difference between right and wrong? When is it acceptable to say a person who has done something wrong and they should die because of it? Is it acceptable at all? What happens when a single person decides who lives and who dies? These are just a few of the many questions that come to mind when one reads Death Note.

When I mention manga to friends, random strangers and even some co-workers, I’ve found most people who haven’t read much manga will have at least heard of titles like Akira, Ghost in the Shell and Lone Wolf and Cub. This small selection though is just a glimpse at the wildly different types of manga available. For instance, the fact that not a lot of people have heard of Death Note is a crime.

A Death Note is a notebook the Shinigami, death gods, use to extend their own life by stealing a human’s remaining life by writing their name in the notebook. If a human finds a Death Note and writes someone’s name into the book that person will drop dead in 6 minutes and 40 seconds of a heart attack unless otherwise specified. The human who did the writing, however, will not get the extra life like a Shinigami. There are a lot of rules about the use of a Death Note, more then I care to get into here, in fact.

Uzumaki volume 1

Uzumaki volume 1
by Junji Ito

Viz Communications

BW, 208 pgs w/ ads
$9.99 US / Higher in Canada

It is rare that the mundane be made truly unsettling. Manga-ka Junji Ito manages to achieve this in Uzumaki volume 1. He makes the pattern known as spirals a device of horror.

The first instance of this pattern occurs on the very first page. Kirie is overlooking the seaside town in which she lives. The sky above is grey and spirals can be seen in the clouds. This is a subtle instance of the spiral and almost goes unnoticed. A couple pages later, Kirie is walking down a street and a whirlwind rushes past. On the heels of that, she spots her boyfriend’s father crouched in a grubby alley. His attention is fixated on a small object. That object is a spiral shaped snail shell. It’s a quietly unsettling moment because such fixation is unnatural and as such just simply feels wrong.

Spirals remain a fixture Uzumaki from that point on. Volume 1 is divided into a series of chapters, each one a tale that describes another individual’s obsession with spirals and how that obsession leads eventually to despair, madness and ultimately death or worse.

Gyo volume 1 (2nd Edition)

Gyo volume 1 
by Junji Ito

Viz Communications
English Adaptation by Yuji Oniki

BW, 200 pgs
$9.99 US / Higher in Canada

One of the great things about my gig here at comicreaders.com is the very fact I have access to a wide variety of comics. When I buy comics I need to be selective because my money can only go so far. I will admit to you too that I’m a very cautious shopper. I’m more apt to buy a new series written by a writer I’ve enjoyed in the past then branch out and try a comic from someone with whom I’m not familiar. I don’t have that worry when reviewing comics. I can pick and choose whatever I want without thinking about my pocketbook. In doing so, I’ve been able to make some fantastic personal discoveries. I’m talking about the cool comics that grab you by the short and curlies of your interest and don’t let go. These are the comics for which I get up on my soapbox and shout. These are the comics I want you to read.

Gyo is that kind of comic.

Written and illustrated by Junji Ito, Gyo is a comic that has the word cool written across it in big, bold, flashing letters. It’s a horror comic of the highest degree (the best damn horror comic I’ve read to date…period), telling the tale of strange fish that start crawling out of the sea on their own legs. Yes, on legs.