Review: PRETEAR

Spring is finally springing forth at last, and with it comes a month of magical girl manga here at the Manga Test Drive.  Our first title isn't one of the best known titles, but it's got some really interesting things going for it.

PRETEAR (Shin Shirayuki-hime Densetsu Puritia), written by Junichi Sato and art by Kaori Naruse.  First published in 2000 and first published in North America in 2004.

PLOT:

Himeno went from near poverty to riches beyond their dreams when her father married a cosmetics magnate.  The only problem is that her stepmother and stepsisters antagonize her at every turn, to the point that Himeno feels like a stranger in her own household.  Her sad reveries are interrupted by seven strange men who declare her to be the Pretear and that they are her knights.  By magically fusing with these young men, she can gain elemental powers which she can use to fight the strange monsters that are stealing the life force from the world.  Himeno now has to juggle her family issues with her duties as a magical girl, even with the Princess of Disaster lingering on the sidelines.

Review: A TALE OF AN UNKNOWN COUNTRY

It's quite rare to see a shojo maid manga.  Maids tend to be there to assist the heroine, not be the focus of the story.  I guess that's technically true for this one as well...look, let me explain below.

A TALE OF AN UNKNOWN COUNTRY (Shirinai Kuni no Monogatari), by Natsuna Kawase.  First published in 2001 and first published in North America in 2009.

PLOT:

Rosemarie is the princess of a small but impoverished kingdom of Ardela, where even the royal family has to work part-time selling goods to tourists at their castle to get by.  To improve their lot, Rosemarie is to be married to Prince Reynol of the far more advanced kingdom of Yurinela.  Rosemarie has heard nothing but bad things about this prince, so to find out more she poses as "Marie" the maid and joins Reynol's household.  As the two grow closer, Rosemarie starts to worry that she can't reveal her true feelings without offending him and ruining everything.

Review: THE MAID I HIRED RECENTLY IS MYSTERIOUS

That's not to say that modern maid manga can't be horny either.  They just tend to be a little less obvious about it.

THE MAID I HIRED RECENTLY IS MYSTERIOUS (Saikin Yatotta Maid ga Ayashii), by Wakame Konbu.  First published in 2020 and first published in North America in 2021.

PLOT:

Somewhere in the countryside, a young man lives alone in a large house with a beautiful new maid.  He can't quite pin down why he finds her so fascinating.  Is it her excellent cooking? Her ability to guess his every need?  Her somewhat revealing uniform? Her exotic purple eyes? 

There's only one sensible explanation: she can't be human.  She must be some sort of demon or something!  That's why he can't stop thinking about her everyday!  It can't possibly be that he's attracted to her!  Clearly, the best response is to confront her with this truth, along with overly honest confessions of how much he thinks of her and how he wants her to stay with him forever.  That'll show her!

Review: HANAUKYO MAID TEAM

 The peak of maid manga came at the beginning of the millennium, when literally any doofus could make a ecchi manga, throw some maids in it, and call it a day.

HANAUKYO MAID TEAM (Hanaukyo Maid-tai), by Morishige.  First published in 1999 and first published in North America in 2003.

STORY:

Tarou didn't know what to expect when his dying mother bid him to go to his grandfather.  He didn't expect his grandfather to be fabulously wealthy with a giant mansion full of horny maids to cater to his every need.  He definitely didn't expect said grandfather to leave everything to Tarou.  Now he has to learn how to navigate his life with an army of maids who create a lot of chaos in their attempts to manage every detail of his life.

Review: MY MAID, MISS KISHI

With spring on the horizon, it's time for some spring cleaning.  That makes it the perfect time of year to look at a few of the many maid manga out there, such as this recent digital offering from Kodansha.

MY MAID, MISS KISHI (Maid no Kishi-san), by Kano Kashiwagi.  First published in 2020 and first published in North America in 2022.

PLOT:

Kiichiro Hayase is the heir to a corporate conglomerate.  He's young, handsome, wealthy beyond measure, polite...and hopelessly klutzy.  That's why he relies upon his personal maid, Miss Kishi, to manage the little details of his everyday life.  Miss Kishi is as capable and reliable as he could ever hope for, but he begins to wonder why he's never seen her smile.  Thus, Kiichiro takes it upon himself to show his gratitude by finding a way to please Miss Kishi.  How do you find a gift for a maid who wants for nothing, isn't impressed by fabulous displays of wealth, and never seems to change her expression?

Review: MABURAHO

Well, for once I'm reviewing a harem manga where I understand precisely what the girls see in the lead.

It's a terrible reason, but I can comprehend it.

MABURAHO, based on the light novel series by Toshihiko Tsukiji and character designs by Eiji Komatsu, with art by Miki Miyashita.  First published in 2003 and first published in North America in 2005.

PLOT:

In a world where magic is real and where the number of spells one can cast determines everything from your social status to your lifespan, Kazuki Shikimori is an anomaly.  He only has the ability to cast seven after using one as a child to make it snow in the summer for a mystery girl.  He also comes from a long line of powerful witches and wizards, meaning that any child he could potentially father would have immense power.  That's why three girls from some of the oldest and most prestigious magic families have their eyes set on Kazuki.  It's a three-way battle between the clingy and temperamental Yuna, the stoic Rin, and the bombshell Kuriko for the rights to Kazuki and his killer DNA, and all of them are determined to win by any means possible.

Review: FOUR-EYED PRINCE

I don't know if it's reassuring or not that Kodansha has always been peddling shojo manga about taming Asshole-kuns to Americans, even when they were Del Ray Manga.

FOUR-EYED PRINCE (Megane Oji), by Wataru Mizukami.  First published in 2007 and first published in North America in 2009.

PLOT:

Sachiko thought it was bad enough when her confession to the stoic class prince Akihiro was rejected.  Then she had to move in with her long-absent mother after her grandmother had to go to a nursing home, and during that time her mother married Akihiro's father.  Now her crush is her step-brother and the two of them have to find a way to live together harmoniously.  That's no small challenge considering that Sachiko's crush is still going strong in spite of Akihiro's regular attempts to needle her, embarass her, and deny any connection to her as much as humanly possible.

Review: YOU LIKE ME, NOT MY DAUGHTER?!

 It's time for another round of Bad Romance Month, where I look at some of the weirdest romances in manga.  We're starting off with an age-gap story, albeit one with a MILF-y twist.

YOU LIKE ME, NOT MY DAUGHTER?! (Musume Janakute, Mama ga Suki Nano?!), based on the light novels by Kota Nozomi and character designs by Giuniu, with art by Tesshin Azuma.  First published in 2020 and first published in North America in 2022.

PLOT:

For the last 10 years, Ayako Katsuragi has been happy serving as adoptive mother to her orphaned niece Miu.  The only thing that makes her happier is seeing how well Miu gets along with their college-aged neighbor Takumi, who is always hanging around.  She presumes that someday the two of them will get married...at least, until Takumi confesses that he's always loved Ayako and wants to marry her.  Takumi is completely serious, but Ayako's unsure if she's ready for romance at all at this point (much less dating a much younger man).

Review: PRINCESS AI

 I know some might fuss over including this title here, considering its reputation and the fact that it was so closely tied to Tokyopop's controversial OEL initiative.  This one did run in a shojo magazine (even if its sequel and spinoffs are pure OEL), so it count for my purposes.  Plus, this year marks its 20th anniversary so now's as good a time to look back on it as any.

PRINCESS AI (Purinsesu Ai Monogatari), written by DJ Milky and Courtney Love, with character designs by Ai Yazawa and art by Misaho Kujiradou.  First published in 2004 and first published in North America in 2004.

PLOT:

A beautiful young woman from another world wakes up confused and alone in a Tokyo alleyway.  She can't remember anything clearly save for her name: Ai.  Fortunately for her, Ai meets up with Kent, a sensitive college student who takes her in.  She's also fortunate enough to possess the singing voice of an angel, and she soon becomes a sensation at the strip club where she works.  Alas, there are dark forces coming for Ai, be they greedy record executives or demons from Ai's original world who want her dead.

Review: GORGEOUS CARAT

 It's time to dig once more into my collection of BL manga and find a series that looked spectacular at first glance but lost some of its sheen as I read it.

GORGEOUS CARAT (Gojasu Karatto), by You Higuri.  First published in 1999 and first published in North America in 2006.

PLOT:

In belle époque Paris, the rumor mill is abuzz about the sad fate of the Rocheforts.  Once they were a wealthy aristocratic family, but now they have been reduced to selling off their family treasures one by one to survive.  The Rocheforts' heir Florian wants to sell the family's most precious jewel, a giant diamond known as the Flame of Mughal, but his mother refuses out of sheer pride.  Fate soon forces their hand by way a distant relative named Ray Balzac Courland, who is better known as the mysterious jewel thief Noir.

Ray offers the Rocheforts a choice: sell him the Flame of Mughal or sell him Florian to do with as he pleases.  Florian agrees to the latter, and soon finds himself swept up in Ray's many schemes.  He and Ray may have started as captive and captor, but more and more the two must work together to solve other crimes around them and live for another day.

Review: ARATA THE LEGEND

 A new year means it's time for another round of Dealer's Choice, where the only theme unifying the reviews is their refusal to fit into most of my usual themes and my desire to talk about them anyway.  We're starting off with yet another Yuu Watase title, but this one is a little different from the rest.

ARATA THE LEGEND (Arata Kanagatari), by Yuu Watase.  First published in 2008 and first published in North America in 2010.

PLOT:

Arata Hinohara is a miserable teen who is bullied and shunned by his classmates.  Arata Hime is a restless young man forced to conceal his true gender in order to take over his family's traditional role as a magical protector of the land.  Things go badly for this Arata right away, as the princess he's tasked with protecting is brutally murdered by one of her twelve generals.  Arata is framed for the crime and tries to flee, only to stumble through a tear in time and space so he can switch places with Hinohara.  While Arata Hime adjusts to modern Japan, Hinohara is stuck in a strange world as a fugitive for a crime he did not commit with only a serving girl to guide him and a mystical weapon said to possess the power of a god.  It seems that the only way Hinohara can get home is to survive long enough to clear his counterpart's name and save the kingdom.