Its June and time for more reviews

This week I have a few reviews for you. the amount of manga that is up for reading is quite amazing. As with any other form of fiction, there are good and bad examples. This week I have reviews that cover that range. Enjoy!

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 First up one of the mangas that is a little older and complete

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Yuraru no Tsuki by Chika Shiomi

This fun manga is a cross of the high school love triangle and the magical/mystical story types that are so popular in manga/anime.

Yuraru is a cute high school girl who is being followed by ghosts that no one else seems to be able to see. When the school year starts she finds herself set between two very popular boys in the school.

Both boys have special abilities and can see these ghosts. Both boys tease her, yet they both really like her. When a ghost needs help to move on something different happens. Yuraru's form changes from the cute and short girl to a much taller and sexier long haired woman.

and thus the fun begins. One boy Mei, is in love with Yuraru in her cute form and the other, Yako, is in love with her in her sexy adult form.

How they work out things and what we learn about the other form is what makes this story is interesting. the characters are rich and fun and the art is amazing.

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Next we have another completed manga. This one is a bit darker but quite a good read

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A Million Tear Drops by Yuana Kazumi

Another of the manga types I like to call mysterious. Filled with pretty boys and a touch of dark magic, this manga is a fun read for the older reader.

We start out with a teen boy who notices that members of his basketball team are disappearing, and worse, no one seems to remember that they exist.  A new boy shows up at the school and things get really interesting from there. It seems that Hiromu is not who he thinks he is and that is girlfriend is not the girl he thinks.

A completed story that gets dark in the second volume this story is rich and filled with some very Japanese themes. Understanding who you really are and dealing with things like pain, loss and even death, this I would not recommend for readers under puberty but it is will worth it for the more mature reader.

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Finally we have one that well....just read the review

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Wing by Kim Youn Jung

Well I tried reading this one but it just didn't catch me. The first issue has the typical silly unfocused young girl who really is more concerned about food than geting to school on time. She is a bit of a knockoff Of Usagi from Sailor Moon. I had hoped I would find it better by the end of the issue but I was not even interested in opening the other issues. As sometimes happens this one just is a dud for me.

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There you go, three reviews for the price of one....and as this is a free blog you are quite lucky! I have more reviews all ready written for other manga but I will only do so many each week. Go, read, and enjoy. There is a world of comic books, graphic novels and manga for you to enjoy.

Reading comic books and graphic novels

Now a lot of people out there either look down on comic books or don't realize the artform that they really are.  Most of the comics printed today are really more than the simple comic book from when I was a kid.  The stories are richer, the art is both more detailed and less and they cover topics that are central to the world today.

Anyone who watches the movies as they come out know that the big dollar draws in the summer are mostly comic book characters lately.  Superman, Batman, Wolverine, Spiderman and others.  They are strong characters living in complex worlds that are just a step to the right or left of our own.

The thing is when dealing with a lot of people my age unless they are crazy people like me many of them think that comic books are a waste of reading material.  This is just not so.

Recently while on a bus ride with my daughter I ended up in a discussion with one of the teachers from her school.  When she asked her what she had been reading over the summer my child proudly popped up with Elfquest and Archie comics.  The look on this teachers face was like she had just bit into a lemon.  Now really that was just wrong.

Having a ten year old child who is devouring comic books is a good thing.  With all the video games, youtube, movies and tv shows out there having a kid who will read ANYTHING is a good thing.  She said I should make her read Nancy Drew as if that was the cure for her reading things filled with Elves (wrong attitude to take with a fantasy author right?)(

Well the next time we headed off to the library we spotted Nancy Drew and in of all things graphic novels.  I talked my daughter into trying one and she is has just finished reading the five and sixth of those books that she picked out herself at the library.

Now I know graphic novels have less words in them than most books.  After all since they have an artist the authors don't need to do the setting of scene for the reader.  The way my daughter rips through these things I think is interesting.  As a child with working memory issues she has trouble accessing the words.  It is like when you know something and it is on the tip of your tongue but can't pull it out of your mind.  We all have moment like that but my daughter has them all the time.  That she rips through graphic novels and comic books makes me excited for her.  She enjoys them and I do not have to make her sit down and read them like I used to have to other books.  This is a good thing.

Sometimes in our current culture we put too much emphasis on having each child exactly like the others and do not look to see the wonder that is each child.  We need to find out what makes them excited and then go for it.  I am glad she is reading and when she is ready I will turn her on to the Manga I have in the basement.  The next step in the wonderful world of fiction that will hopefully someday let her pick up a copy of Dragonsong from Anne McCaffrey and enjoy the tale in print.