GotWoot Manga Reviews

[Ryllharu]

Glass Mask

This is one of the preeminent shoujo series. Started in the 70's and still ongoing, this is the epic shoujo series that has been emulated countless times in manga and anime, usually as a parody or hommage to the "Glass Mask Reaction" (seen below in the third image). It is as epic in shoujo series as Berserk or HnI is to shonen/seinen.

It tells the story of Maya Kitajima, a 14 year old plain girl who doesn't realize her natural talent as an actress. A once legendary actress takes Maya under her wing to train her as her sucessor after Maya runs away from home. Along her path, she meets the incredibly talented Ayumi Himekawa, rich daughter of a famous actress and director, and the cold hearted Hayami Masumi, president of a large production company. She learns a great deal about the stage and her talents as the years pass.

What makes this series stand out so much is how much depth all of the characters get. Nemeses, seemingly minor coworkers, friends, and even side characters get a disproportionate amount of character development. Main characters are fleshed out completely, side characters given chracterization usually only seen in main characters during certain chapters and story arcs. Even the plays are given a large number of pages so the readers can get the same feel as the theater audience in the manga.

Despite the dated art (it was drawn in the 70's) emotions are clearly felt and the impact of them is hightened by the "Glass Mask Reaction." Miuchi Suzue takes her character's own advice and makes sure to display even the subtle emotions on the faces of her characters. The art may seem simplistic, and the pace can sometimes be a little slow, but the series is well worth it.

The very in-depth review that got me reading it can be found here. (Warning: some minor to moderate spoilers)
Additional series info here
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There are roughly 20 volumes scanned of the total 42 currently out. TJO and Stage-Storm are doing a joint on volumes 19 and above. I do not know of any place other than #lurk at irc.irchighway.net to find the first 18 volumes.

TJO can be found at their irc channel: #TJO@irc.irchighway.net

[Munsu]

Akumetsu

I started reading this a couple of weeks ago, and I have to say that it's an amazing one at that. It gives a whole new meaning to the word vigilante; the main character might be similar to V for Vendetta, in the sense that he targets high ranking officials. I'm really recommending this for the sole reason that the main character is one of the most unique and kickass characters I've encountered. He is Akumetsu, and he's on a journey to clean up Japan of all evil with his twisted view of justice, and what he considers evil are high ranking officials that prey on the good society. For example, he targets the former president of the main metropolitan bank, accusing him of embezzling money, the cause for the increases in taxes which he argues to have killed at least 30 people. He submits the president to a rigorous questionnaire while torturing him until he realizes his evil ways. After all is set and done, Akumetsu is one sick motherfucker who doesn't take shit from anyone, and it's awesome to see how he accomplishes everything. The manga is very violent and graphic so beware.

http://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?id=397

The manga is being scanlated by AT-T:
http://manga.nagi-fanboi.net/
http://att.white-reflection.com/

[Dark Dragon]

This is another one of my favorite that for some reason isn't very popular in this forum.

3x3 Eyes:

Yakumo Fujii is a 16 year old high school student that work at a bar to support himself because his father left him 4 year ago to go look for a mysterious 3 eyes race. On the way to work one day he saw a cute girl getting mug and stop to help her, he got her bag back and the thief only manage to get away with her staff. She was cover and dirt and her clothes was torn so he decided to take her to the bar where he work to get her clean up.
During the conversation they had at the bar his name came up and the girl broke out in tear and gave him a letter from his father. His father is now dead, this girl name Pai is the last of the 3 eyes race and his father had promise her that he would help her turn into a human but he is unable to do so now, his last wish is for yakumo to fullfill his promise to Pai.
While Yakumo is trying to figure out what to do with Pai and the letter, a news broadcast came on saying that a Gigantic Manface bird is rampaging around town, turn out that is Pai guardian Takuhi and the staff that the thief took is use to summon him, Pai ask yakumo to come help her calm Takuhi, but Takuhi gone crazy and was unable to recognize Pai so he attacked them, Yakumo push Pai out of the way getting himself killed in the process, as he is dying Pai 3rd eye open and absorb something from him. He woke up later to find himself alive, Yakumo later learn that the the 3 eyes race: The Sazan each has the ability to absorb the soul of a human and turning that human into a "Wu" granting them immortality and the Wu would serve as the Sazan Guardian. Yakumo felt that he owe his life to her so now he will go with Pai to find a way to turn her into a human.


http://sazanquest.cjb.net/ is the only one doing translation for this manga, they currently have up to chapter 12 of Volume 27 and all chapters can be found there.




Edit: Sorry for editing your post, but this is also one of my favorites and I just had to add some manga samples and make the title bolder and bigger. If you don't like it let me know and I'll remove my edits. The manga is one of the most violent shounen I have read, the plot is good, and there's a good romance story. It has everything. Budweineken

Edit: NP i couldn't find any good manga sample page to post or i would've anyways thx. This manga is one of the best i have ever read and its a shame that it not more popular.

[Munsu]

Angel Densetsu

Just so you guys don't think that I only enjoy dark violent mangas, I'm here to recommend the only manga, aside from Hajime no Ippo, that has genuinely made me laugh. The manga has nothing to do with angels, just so you know. It's a manga that can be explained with two words misconceptions and misunderstandings. Here you have Kitano Seichiro, a mostly quiet introverted individual, who is the nicest most generous person you could ever encounter in your lifetime. His only concerns are making good in the world, get good grades, and make lots of friends. The only problem is that he has the face of a devil, so everyone assumes that he's the incarnation of Satan, an individual purely evil. One misunderstanding after another he becomes the leader of the local gang in his newly transferred high school, which is hilarious since he doesn't even know how to fight. The leader is referred to as the Guardian of the school, so he's responsible of protecting it from rival school gangs by fighting them. What mostly makes it funny is that he has a speech problem, and every time he screams to help someone he makes the most evil sound anyone could ever hear, and the manga has a small translation to what he actually meant and to what the other characters actually hear. The manga is full of comedic situation, some interesting fights, and a hint of romance. Everyone should take a look at this manga, it’ll make your day.

You can find more info here:
http://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?id=348

The series is being scanlated by manga-sketchbook:
http://www.manga-sketchbook.org You can download some from there.

You can also download the series from #lurk @ irc.irchighway.net

[Munsu]

Shion no Ou: The Flowers of Hard Blood

I just found a very interesting manga, that I think many of you will like since many of you liked Hikaru no Go. This time around is about Shogi, Japanese Chess, instead of Go. At the moment I find the story much more interesting than that of Hikaru no Go, and the characters are better also. It has a very nice art too, and the story seems much deeper than Hikaru no Go ever was. It's a story about a girl named Shion, who 7 years ago not only did she lose her ability to speak, but her whole family was murdered. Since then she has been raised by her next door neighbor, a Shogi master. Since very little, Shion has always shown great talent and skill to play the game, and the world is about to learn this as she takes her first steps towards becoming a pro. Playing Shogi because she loves the game is not her only reason for playing, it's also the only clue towards finding her family's murderer, who apparently was a Shogi player. So I'm really recommending that you guys take a look at this, Hikaru no Go is very well liked and I think this manga has the elements to surpass it.

http://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?id=1378

The manga is being scanlated by Tsuzuku Jinsei o... & Hanashi and it can be found here:
http://fimbulvetr.no-ip.org:6969 for torrents
http://tjo.one-liners.net/shion.php for links for direct downloads

As always, #lurk has everything too.

[Dark Dragon]

Edit: Since there haven't been any new review, instead of double posting i'll just turn this post into a Adachi Mitsuru Manga review.

hmm i find this manga to be almost a combo of Hajime no ippo and H2 if you ever had a chance to read those are both great manga that i will add a review for later if no one else does.

Katsu

Satoyama Katsuki is a pretty laid back guy that really doesn't have any interest, however both him and his bestfriend has a crush on Mizutani Katsuki who happens to be the daughter of an ex pro-boxer. In order to get closer to her they both decided to join her father gym but Katsuki soon realize that he has a natural talent for boxing. He later found out that his own father also is a pro-boxer who quit due to a certain incident, while his father is oppose of him becoming a boxer Katsuki is still struggling to decide whether to live his life as it is or continue down the path that his dad had left.

Touch

The story revolve around three characters - Uesugi Kazuya, his twin brother Tatsuya, and their childhood friend Asakura Minami. Kazuya is the town baseball hero while Tatsuya is the lazy good for nothing in everyone (except Minami) eyes. Kazuya and Minami is consider to be the perfect couple and everyone expect for the 2 of them to get together. Tatsuya is a kind brother that doesn't mind taking the backseat to his brother and give him the glory, however Tatsuya soon realize that he himself love Minami and is unable to give her up to Kazuya and thus the story unfold.

H2

Hiro Kunimi was an ace pitcher in his junior high school, but one day he was told by a doctor that if he keep throwing his arm would break in 3 month. Now in high school Hiro chose to attend Senkawa High school to forget his pain since it doesn't have a baseball team. He join the soccer club to find a new path and find out that the school has a baseball club but they are consider to be a joke by everyone, the soccer club challenge the baseball club to a baseball game to humiliate them. Hiro unable to watch people make fun of the sport he love switch to the baseball club to help them only to discover that his arm is fine and the doctor that gave him that diagnosis is a bogus. Hiro suddenly realize he can play baseball again, but the school has no team and the baseball club is more baseball fan then baseball players, it is up to Hiro to create a new baseball team for Senkawa and achieve his dream of playing againts his best friend Hideo Tachibana in the Koushien.

[Munsu]

Claymore

This is the manga I've been reading lately, and I really like it. Great sword action for those of you that like that. At the moment there hasn't been much plot, just character development, but it has been pretty good thus far. I really like the art style, especially the way the mangaka draws the faces (same mangaka as Angel Densetsu reviewed above). The world is one filled with Yomas (monsters) and there's an organization that trains people to kill them, Claymores. Claymores are the only ones with the skills necessary to kill the Yomas. Who are these Claymores? That's the question that the manga will answer as it goes along. At the moment, they are an unknown identity which commoners know as Silver-Eyed Witches. The story will follow a Claymore in particular called Clare. There's lots of action, and there's no censorship as far as I can see. The mangaka is not afraid to cut-off a couple of ams, legs, and heads.

http://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?id=1037

This manga is released by Manga-Sketchbook, and they scan the version released by VIZ.

As of now, they've released the first 4 volumes. You can download them from www.mangatraders.com