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Reviews (13)

SEARCHING FOR PARADISE
In a dying world, there are some that know of a place to escape to known as "Paradise" where life can be restarted. But it's not the humans that know of this place. The wolves, once thought to have been extinct for 200 years, are the only ones that know how to get to it. But they need a guide. The "Flower Maiden", Cheza, whose is said to have been born of a Lunar Flower, is that guide.
Can there be a paradise at a time like this?
When the Wolf's Rain animated series came out, I gave it a shot, watching 5 episodes. I didn't understand a single minute of it at all. I don't know what it was, but something with that show just didn't click with me. Sure, it had beautiful music and animation, but there was something about the wolves that could turn into humans to hide their identities that didn't sit well with me. And yet, many people consider it to be one of the best animated shows of this decade. At the same time, many people consider Dragon Ball Z to be one of the greatest animated shows of all time, so that isn't really saying much. But a few weeks ago when browsing through a book store that was going out of business, I picked up a few books that I'd been meaning to give a shot, and I noticed that there was a book for Wolf's Rain. Remembering that this was one of the rare cases when the animated series came out BEFORE the comic, I wondered if it'd change my mind about Wolf's Rain at all, since some things would of course be taken out, given that the books are made up of two volumes. Well, Wolf's Rain was the last of the books that I read, and I can't say that it was the least interesting of those I purchased. But it did hold my interest in the time it took to read. Undoubtedly, this comic is mostly for fans of the show, but those who were put off by the show may want to give it a second chance after reading them.
A Howlin' Good Time!
After watching the anime series, I beagn to read the book and was a little dissapointed.For two reasons:
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Subjects:  1. Comics & Graphic Novels    2. Fiction    3. Graphic Novels - General    4. Graphic Novels - Manga    5. Graphic Novels - Media Tie-In   

Reviews (2)

Four Girl's Stories
"Four Shojo Stories" is one of the best manga collections that I own.The collection was assembled by translator Matt Thorn, who was doing his Doctorate studies on Japanese Shojo manga, a media form he felt was unique to Japan, and missing from American comics. The best English-language manga compilation ever printed!
In his introduction to this wonderful graphic novel, translator Matt Thorn called sh�jo manga: "...a unique forum in which Japanese girls and women can discuss and debate among each other (and now you) what it meansto be a Japanese girl, woman, a human being in relationships with otherhuman beings."The hallmark of all sh�jo manga is its focus uponhuman relationships and emotions; it is the characters that drive the sh�jomanga tale, not external conflict or action.This introspective, personalfocus confers upon sh�jo manga an amazing literary quality unique to thecomic books of any culture or country. Read more

Subjects:  1. Fantasy - General    2. Fiction    3. Fiction - Fantasy    4. Graphic Novels    5. Graphic Novels - General   

Reviews (1)

Sayaka's Island!?
The Legend of Kamui is a very Tradgic Story indeed, as those he loves are murdered and Kamui himself is forced to flee again. I've loved this Manga since I read the first "chapters" in the early 90's (in Swedish, of course). Read more

Subjects:  1. Fiction    2. Graphic Novels - General   

Subjects:  1. Fiction    2. Graphic Literature    3. Graphic Novels - General   

Reviews (7)

Before AKIRA, there was MAI
MAI, Psychic girl is truly on of the classic mangas that has somehow been forgotten in the US mainstreaming of Japanese manga and anime. Released in the late 80s/early 90s Mai was one of the first hugely successful B&W manga comic books.
Strong art, weak story
This tells the story of Mai, a Japanese school girl who becomes the target of vague organizations of powerful conspirators who want to use her for her psychic powers. good read
This book is about Mai, a girl who happens to be a very powerful psychokinetic.She doesn't think her abilities are a very big deal, although she is careful to hide them from others.Still, she uses them mainly to keep boredom at bay.Unfortunately, a secret organization is after her and other psychokinetics, so that they can use her for military purposes.Her dad, a man skilled at martial arts, as other ideas, however, and does his best to keep her safe.Read more

Subjects:  1. Fiction    2. Graphic novels   

Reviews (2)

The art was beautiful... couldn't say the same for the story
Like most people who couldn't read Japanese, I got the English translation of Crying Freeman.The first book of the series, Portrait of a Killer waspromising in that the story was sort of believable.A Taste of Revenge follows up on two minor characters from the first book.Being the enemies of Freeman, both Kimie Hanada and Det. Nitta wanted revenge.How the story finally turned out was a surprise.Mixed into the revenge story was a plot of a certain cult to take over Japan. Compared to Portrait of a Killer, this story was mildly preposterous.As usual, the hero was practically invincible, and sexy.And I'll leave it at that. The artwork was beautiful as usual.

Beautifully illustlated story of violence and love
Ryoichi Ikegami, a Japanese Gekiga illustrator known his fluent and sexy paintings. Men and women he paints are beautiful, realistic and sexy. I love them!A young and promising Japanese ceramist is kidnapped by HongKong mafia and made up to be an assassin. After the long and tough training, he becomes an expert assassin and the leader of the family. Once he was seen his killing by a Japanese woman and try to kill her, but they fall in love and get married. This story is about the adventure of violence and love. Sometimes Ikegami's works go too far to the extent of losing its realism, but in this series, well maintained. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Fantasy - General    2. Fiction    3. Fiction - Fantasy    4. Graphic Literature    5. Graphic Novels - General   

Subjects:  1. Comics & Graphic Novels    2. Fantasy    3. Graphic Novels - Fantasy    4. Graphic Novels - Manga   

Editorial Review

Hayao Miyazaki is probably best known in the West for his films; Read more

Reviews (109)

The Best Manga I've Read in YEARS!! Too good to pass up!
I've been a Miyaki fan for years! Of all of his movies and books, Nausicaa is definitely the best one! Miyaki creates a beautifully vivid world and characters that will you will most certainly NEVER forget! This is one manga series (and the movie as well) that I've never gotten tired of. Every anime fan should have Nausicaa in their collection! You won't regret it!!!

More Than A Children's Book
Just like LOTR, children love it, but until they grow well into their adulthood, they will not be able to fully comprehend the essence of the story.
not comic, this is art.
I am surprised that USA people watch this comic series in addition to the same title movie.Read more

Subjects:  1. Fiction    2. Graphic Novels    3. Graphic Novels - Science Fiction   

Subjects:  1. Comics & Graphic Novels    2. Fiction    3. Graphic Novels - Fantasy    4. Graphic Novels - Manga   

Reviews (2)

Awesome beginning to an awesome variation on the OYW
For those who've seen the original Gundam 0079 TV series, the character personalities, mecha designs and plot synopses differ from it, even if it's just a little bit.Each issue of the manga probably translates into about 1 episode or so of the show, so expect to see about 40-50 issues at the rate Japan's Gundam Ace Magazine is covering it, along with Viz's great translation to English.Once you get the right-to-left reading down, you'll have no trouble understanding it.This issue especially differs from the first episode for a few key reasons, but I'll leave them up to you to notice so as not to spoil anything.I recommend this to anyone looking to get into Gundam manga, the UC timeline, or Gundam in general.

A hard story given a modern edge...
Yoshikazu Yasuhiko's mecha and artistic skills work very, very well for this re-telling of the first Gundam story. The Origin is a version of the events that's been tweaked a bit, expanded in some really cool ways (we get to see a fight between a Gundam prototype piloted by an expert, among other things) and thoroughly modernized. The mecha and people still have that 70s Disco-Afro Glow, but the artistic style of the book is much more realistic, with a lot of moody shadows, more detail on the mecha and a weight of credibility slathered over all of the mechanical elements. If you've read the story before, then you won't find much that is new, but Yas' complex, rich illustrations and the modernized mecha designs are worth the cost of the book. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Graphic novels    2. Japan    3. Science fiction comic books, strips, etc   

Subjects:  1. Graphic novels    2. Graphic novels, Japanese    3. Science fiction    4. Translations into English   

Reviews (1)

This is one of my favorite mangas of all time.
I recently got into mangas.Likea year ago.I have enjoyed the Initial D series, Naruto, One Piece, and quite a few others.
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Subjects:  1. Comic books, strips, etc    2. Graphic novels    3. Japan    4. Translation into English    5. Translations into English