Review: STEEL ANGEL KURUMI

We go from isekai maids to robot maids as I dig up this forgotten bit of nonsense from ADV's manga division.

STEEL ANGEL KURUMI (Kotetsu Tenshi Kurumi), by Kaishaku.  First published in 1997 and first published in North America in 2003.

PLOT:

In an alternate version of the Taisho era, Dr. Ayanokoji is on the run.  The army wants to seize his plans for his "Automated Dolls," and he's willing to do anything to protect them.  Nakahito is a cowardly young orphan who happens to stumble upon Dr. Ayanokoji's hideout in the middle of a dare.  He awakens one of his Dolls with an (accidental) kiss, and she pledges her eternal devotion to him.  Now Nakahito has a robot maid who will protect him from anything, including her mechanical 'sisters' and those who would wield them as super soldiers.

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: 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: SEVEN OF SEVEN

There are certain people in Japanese media who are just as adept with anime as they are with manga.

Today's review is not an example of that.

SEVEN OF SEVEN (Shichinin no Nana), written by Yasuhiro Imagawa with art by Azusa Kunihiro.  First published in 2001 and first published in North America in 2003.

PLOT:

Nana Suzuki is a shy teenage girl who wants nothing more than to be with her crush Yuichi.  She wants this so much that she makes a wish for it at night on a weird crystal she got from her father.  Little does she know that this crystal is indeed magic and it splits her into seven different versions of Nana with seven different personalities.  Now it's up to the original Nana to keep her splinter selves in line before they ruin her grades, her crush, and her life.

Review: ARIA

 Oh god, I'm totally going to get cancelled for not liking this iyashikei classic.

ARIA, by Kozue Amano.  First published in 2002 and first published in North America in 2004.

PLOT:

It is the 24th century and Mars has been transformed into a watery paradise.  Its prime attraction is Neo-Venezia, where the undines guide their gondolas through the canals to ferry people across the city.  We follow the newest trainee, Akari Mizunashi, as she meets new people, enjoys the everyday pleasures of life, and grows ever closer to becoming a full-fledged undine.

Review: ENMUSU

More often than not, maids are used as fetish fuel in manga, and today's review is one of the more unfortunate examples of such.

ENMUSU (Renai Shusse Emaki En X Musu), by Takahiro Seguchi.  First published in 2002 and first published in North America in 2004.

PLOT:

Gisuke Arakawa is a high school senior down on his luck.  He's constantly bullied, struggles to maintain his grades, and his brilliant but icy classmate he's crushing on won't give him the time of day.  Then a tall, busty Russian maid named Sonya shows up at his door bearing a special good-luck charm just for him.  This charm grants Gisuke a chance at inheriting a vast fortune, but to do so he must defeat the other charm bearers at a series of punishing academic tests.  Worse still, the other boys and their maids want Gisuke out of the way and are prepared to do that by the dirtiest means possible.

STORY:

Looking at Enmusu, you would presume that this is just another shonen battle series, and you would be half-right.  It is a shonen ecchi battle series, so you get this weirdly off-putting mix of childish earnestness with fetishes a-plenty.

Seguchi wasn't even trying when it came to writing the cast.  Gisuke is downtrodden, Sonya is a ditz, Shizuku the love interest is as frigid as the Arctic, and the villains Tendo and Satoshi are sadistic creeps.  Nobody really changes save for Shizuku, and that's only because she's torn down to nothing in the kinkiest way possible first.  Gisuke is meant to be endearing with his perseverance and innate decency, but mostly he comes off as a blank, reacting to fanservice moments and spouting platitudes about The Power of Friendship (tm) like a shonen-manga-themed robot.

The characters may be simple, but the plot is needlessly convoluted.  It's like Seguchi and his editor picked tropes out of a hat or threw darts at them at random, and what they got was "dead business mogul," "maids," "Japanese good-luck charms," and "competitive academic testing."  If that sounds like a random and nigh-impossible collection of ideas to tie together into a coherent story, you are absolutely correct.  That's why Seguchi doesn't even bother, relying instead on shoving in as many fetishes as possible.

Some of the fetishes are obvious, like all the focus on maids.  Every boy that gets a charm also gets a maid of their own, and Seguchi clearly savors every opportunity he can get to have these boys bathe with their maids, molest their maids, or in some other way sexually exploit them.  Others are less expected, like the heavy focus on submission, bondage, and other S&M stuff.  We're talking dog leashes, demeaning nicknames, verbal and physical abuse, and so much more, and all of it is piled on Shizuku before volume's end for the terrible crime of not beating a sadistic little kid on a practice test.  She's clearly traumatized by this, and all Gisuke can offer is a pep talk.  To say that this is tonally out of whack with everything else in the book (including the other ecchi scenes) is an understatement.  It felt like an unwelcome peek into the mangaka's mind and BOY did I not like it one bit.

ART:

The art for Enmusu might somehow be worse than its story (which is saying a lot).  The character designs are all weirdly short and squat, which makes most of the characters look like children.  Looking at Gisuke on the cover, you'd sooner presume he was 10 than you would 18.  Their faces are like a teen's caricature of an anime character drawn on a squashed jellybean.  The only thing Seguchi seems to draw competently are nudes, so not only are there are a lot of fanservice scenes with the girls and Gisuke but also a surprising amount of man-ass.  The panels are framed uncomfortably close to the action and at low angles to best capture both the frequent panty shots as well as to emphasize the looks of scorn and hate thrown at Gisuke and Sonya.  

RATING:

I can't figure out what possessed ADV to pick up Enmusu in the first place.  It's a gross mix of random ideas and overly intense fanservice, shoved awkward into a shonen manga mold.  It's not amusing, it's not sexy, it's a mistake that was mercifully stopped by the end of ADV's manga division.

This manga was published by ADV Manga.  This series is complete in Japan with 6 volumes available.  1 volume was published and is currently out of print.

Review: HAPPY LESSON

Of course, I couldn't let the month pass without talking about a bad harem manga, but this one is both different from the rest and yet not all that different either.

HAPPY LESSON, written by Mutsumi Sasaki and Dengeki G's Magazine with art by Shinnosuke Mori.  First published in 1999 and first published in North America in 2004.

PLOT:

Susumu Arisaka is an orphan who has spent the last decade in an orphanage.  Now he's returning to his parents' home to attend high school.  Five of his teachers learn about his predicament and are so moved by his tragic life story that they decide to all become his "mama."  They move in with him, cook and clean for him, tutor him, all in the hopes of giving him a happy life...or a lot of chaos for poor Susumu.

Review: NOODLE FIGHTER MIKI

Food manga and comedy should be a fine combination in theory, but this manga manages to turn it into an incredibly off-putting combo.

NOODLE FIGHTER MIKI (Muteki Kanban Musume), by Jun Sadagawa.  First published in 2002 and first published in North America in 2005.

PLOT:

Miki Onimaru wants to help her mother with the family ramen shop, but everytime she sets out to do a chore or make a delivery she gets distracted.  Sometimes it's something mundane like a loose bird's nest, cleaning the street outside the shop, or a gaggle of kids taking over her old treehouse.  Sometimes it's something more complex like investigating a potential break-in or getting caught up in old rivalries.  The only thing stronger than Miki's lack of focus is her hot temper, often with unintentionally destructive results.

Merry Month of Manga: LOUIE THE RUNE SOLDIER

 LOUIE THE RUNE SOLDIER (Maho Senshi Riui), based on the light novel series written by Ryou Mizuno and character designs by Mamoru Yokota, with art by Jun Sasameyuki.  First published in 1999 and first published in North America in 2004.

PLOT:

Louie is the foster son of the powerful mage Carwess, but he would rather drink and schmooze with women than devote himself to his magical studies.  His real dream is to become an adventurer, but that dream seems out of reach until a trio of ladies declares that he is the hero they need.  Can this hapless, brawling doofus transform himself into a true hero?

Review: FULL METAL PANIC!

Let's take a look at another notable mecha series from the 2000s that made a much more graceful transition into manga.

FULL METAL PANIC! (Furumetaru Panikku!), based on the light novels by Shouji Gatou with art by Retsu Tateo.  First published in 2000 and first published in North America in 2003.

PLOT:

Kaname Chidori is a popular, smart young girl who keeps busy with her duties as class representative.  Everything would be perfectly normal for her if not for the new boy in class: Sousuke Sagara.  As far as she knows, he's a weird military otaku who follows her everywhere and treats everything like a major threat.  What she doesn't know is that Sousuke isn't just some gun nut, but an actual sergeant for the secret military organization MITHRIL.  He and his teammates believe Kaname possesses a strange power that malicious forces want to exploit for their own purpose, and he is determined to protect her at all costs.

Review: CROMARTIE HIGH SCHOOL

With it being September, it's time to take this site back to school with a month of reviews about school-related manga, starting with a very silly and satirical one.

CROMARTIE HIGH SCHOOL (Sakigake!! Kuromati Koko), by Eiji Nonoka.  First published in 2000 and first published in North America in 2005.

PLOT:

Thanks to a promise to a friend that fell through, Takashi Kamiyama finds himself the newest student at Cromartie High School, a place notorious for having the toughest student body around.  What he finds there are yankiis doing things like arguing over the importance of nicknames, a robot student that no one acknowledges is a robot, a rich boy caught up in his own ridiculous lies, a gorilla with a wristwatch and cell phone, and the mysterious man known only as Freddie.

Merry Month of (Shojo) Manga: BLUE INFERIOR

I was recently reminded of Key to the Kingdom, which led me to take a look at the only other Kyoko Shitou manga released in English.

BLUE INFERIOR (Buru Infiria), by Kyoko Shitou.  First published in 1998 and first published in North America in 2004.

PLOT:

In the future, much of the land has been transformed into uninhabitable desert and the oceans plagued by poison tides.  Humans lived in isolated pockets of habitable "blessed" land, and Liber might be the most blessed by virtue of its beautiful seascape.  Kazuya spends his days exploring the ocean in the hopes of finding clues about what happened to his parents, but his explorations lead him to a mysterious girl named Marine.  Marine has no memory of how she ended up washed up on the beach, but the longer she hangs around Kazuya the more she remembers.  Her memories might be the key to the fate of Kazuya's parents and the world beyond the blessed lands...if a traitor from within the community doesn't stop them first.

Merry Month of (Shojo) Manga: MORE STARLIGHT TO YOUR HEART

When it comes to shojo manga heroines, there's a fine line between 'cute and spunky' and 'too juvenile and naive to function,' and this series all but stumbles clutzily over that line.

MORE STARLIGHT TO YOUR HEART (Motto Kokoro ni Hoshi no Kagayaki o), by Hiro Matsuba.  First published in 2002 and first published in North America in 2005.

PLOT:

Akane is a young noblewoman living a privileged life in Heian-era Japan, but that life means nothing without her beloved childhood friend Aoga.  Forbidden by her father from seeing him, she goes so far as to disguise herself as a servant within the imperial palace to get close to him.  Her plans are constantly threatened by her ineptitude as a servant and palace intrigue, but she's determined to make her feelings for Aoga known, no matter what.

Review: ORPHEN

Of course, 90s fantasy manga wasn't all about young girls being whisked away to strange new worlds and times.  Others were meant to be wackier collections of adventures with a rag-tag team of weirdos.  How successful these stories were at being funny was...variable to say the least.

ORPHEN (Majutsushi Ofen), based on the light novel series by Yoshinobu Akita & character designs by Yuuya Kusaka, with art by Hajime Sawada.  First published in 1998, and first published in North America in 2005.

PLOT:

Orphen is a runaway sorcerer working as a sort of magical mercenary for hire, doing odd jobs at the behest of the mysterious Childman.  He's constantly chasing the next job, if simply in the hopes of keeping his landlord at bay and shaking off annoying hanger-ons like the diminutive Volkan and oblivious Cleao.  Eventually Orphen's dark past with a former classmate catches up with him, threatening not just himself but Cleao's family.

Review: PRINCESS TUTU

Like last week's review, this is another adaptation of a beloved anime series from the 2000s (although it took a lot longer for this one to earn its acclaim).  Unlike that review, this one isn't a simple rehash of the source material...it's just a major downgrade.

PRINCESS TUTU (Purinsesu Chuchu), based on the story by Ikuko Itoh & Jun-ichi Satoh & art by Mizuo Shinonome.  First published in 2003 and first published in North America in 2004.

PLOT:

Ahiru is a clumsy girl who wants nothing more than to impress Mytho, a boy who is as handsome and gifted at ballet as he is sad and distant.  Edel, a local shop owner, gives Ahiru a pendant that allows her to transform into the magical Princess Tutu.  As Tutu, Ahiru can not only dance beautifully, but also salvage shards of Mytho's heart from monstrous creatures.  As Mytho's feelings return, Ahiru/Tutu finds herself in conflict with both Mytho's stern protector Fakir as well as the mysterious Princess Kraehe.

Merry Month of Manga Review: DARKSIDE BLUES

Some people only have one good idea inside them, no matter how many times they try to create something new.  If history has taught us anything, then this is most certainly true for Vampire Hunter D creator Hideyuki Kikuchi.

DARKSIDE BLUES (Dakusaido Burusu), written by Hideyuki Kikuchi with art by Yuho Ashibe.  First published in 1988 and first published in 2004.

PLOT:

In the not too distant future, the Persona Corporation owns most of the world's land and controls every faction of life with an iron fist.  Their rule is reinforced not only by the director's sadistic children, but also by their small army of biologically modified assassins.  The only opposition to them is a group of anti-Persona guerillas led by a woman called Messiah.  Into this struggle comes a strange man calling himself Darkside, bringing with him his own supernatural brand of justice...

Merry Month of Manga Review: ONCE UPON A GLASHMA

Sadly, they can't all be winners.  Today's review is a perfect example of that: one that takes a premise rich with potential and mostly whiffs it until the end.

ONCE UPON A GLASHMA (Hajimari no Glashma), by Kumiko Suekane.  First published in 2006 and first published in North America in 2007.

PLOT:

One day, the women of the world disappeared and a few select men began to develop magical powers.  It's the duty of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication to take a census of the known wizards of the world.  Thus, it's up to investigators like Nippori and his eyepatch-wearing, bat-wielding Sempai to go out and confront unregistered wizards and keep their powers under control.  During the course of their work, Nippori discovers that Sempai knows more than he lets on about what caused all the women to disappear, and it's a secret that threatens to destroy what's left of the world...

Review: NEON GENESIS EVANGELION: ANGELIC DAYS

As I noted before, there are plenty of school-set Evangelion spinoffs, and while Shinji Ikari Raising Project is the best known, it was not the first of its kind.  Looking at today's selection, though, it's easy to see why this one has been utterly forgotten while SIRP lingers on to this day.

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION: ANGELIC DAYS (Shin Seiki Evangelion: Kotetsu no Garufurendo 2nd), by Fumino Hayashi.  First published in 2003, and first published in North America in 2006.

PLOT:

Shinji Ikari is a normal boy living with a normal family complete with a normal (if rather moody) next door neighbor/childhood friend Asuka Langley Soryu. 

Wait a minute, are you sure I'm not just describing the Shinji Ikari Raising Project again...nope, guess not.

Anyway, on their way to school, Shinji and Asuka literally run into the pretty, mysterious new girl Rei Ayanami. Now Shinji finds himself torn between ...seriously, are you sure I'm talking about the right series?...er, torn between Asuka and Rei even as that weird kid Kaworu keeps hinting at something stranger going on.

STORY:

If my description didn't make it obvious, reading Angelic Days is going to give you a weird sense of deja vu if you've ever read Shinji Ikari Raising Project.  I'd almost call it a ripoff if not for the fact that it came out two years before SIRP and was based on a different game.

Like Shinji Ikari Raising Project, Angelic Days is based on an officially licensed dating sim.  Acually, correct that: it's based on a sequel to an officially licensed dating sim, Girlfriend of Steel 2.  The premises of both games is more or less the same, which explains the plot similiarties.  The biggest difference story-wise is that Angelic Days commits even harder to making the premise utterly mundane.  Other than a few references to NERV and the cast itself, there are none of the signature elements of Evangelion.  There are no EVA units, no plug suits, no Angels, just a bunch of annoyingly lovestruck teens.  Also like SIRP, all the rough edges have been sanded off the cast.  Thus, we have a Shinji who is merely insecure and indecisive, an Asuka who hasn't hit full tsundere, and a friendly, flirty Rei instead of a quiet, creepy girl.  The rest of the cast makes appearances here and there, and most of them are unremarkable save for Ritsuko.  She's been cast as the school nurse, and she takes opportunity of her one scene to make a bizarrely blunt confession of love for Gendo to a visibly confused Shinji.  It's such a WTF moment that my confusion easily matched his.   Sadly, that was probably the most exciting thing to happen to any of the characters here.  If not for Kaworu being mysterious off in the corner with some sort of experiment, there would be absolutely nothing of substance here to talk about.  You'd think there would be more drama considering the source material and the fact that this manga ran in a shoujo magazine, but you'd be dead wrong.  I almost find myself longing for SIRP if simply because it punctuated its tedium with a dash of fanservice.

I said it before and I'll say it again: I'll never understand what drives Evangelion fans to turn their beloved show into the most milquetoast thing possible in spinoffs like this.  I can't imagine anyone on either side of the Pacific reading this out of anything other than obligation.

ART:

Ok, that's not entirely true.  They also might be reading it for the trainwreck factor, as the art here is BAD.  SIRP may have been dull, but the artwork was competent and mostly on-model.  Angelic Days, on the other hand, has strange, almost amateurish artwork.  The character designs are pointy, gangly, awkward, and only vaguely resemble the original cast.  The faces and heads in particular suffer the most, as Fumino's attempts to ape Sadamoto leave her characters with this overly narrow, crudely drawn heads and faces.  She barely even tries with the backgrounds, and when she doesn't just slap down some plain screentones she simply leaves them blank, a choice which only adds to the generic quality of the story.  Honestly, the only positive thing I can say for the art is that it is unique.  It may be awful, but it's awful in a distinct way and one that I wish I could forget.

RATING:

Angelic Days is pointless and ugly and whatever connection it may have to the Evangelion universe feel solely like window dressing.  It might have been the first to be released, but compared to SIRP this is the one that feels the most redundant and it's best left forgotten.

This series was published by ADV Manga.  This series is complete in Japan with 6 volumes available.  All six were published, and all are currently out of print.

Review: FULL METAL PANIC! OVERLOAD

Comedy spin-offs of popular franchises are a dime-a-dozen in Japan but we very rarely get them Stateside.  If this book is any indication, though, there's more than a few good reasons why we don't see them published very often.

FULL METAL PANIC! OVERLOAD (Ikkinari! Furumetaru Panikku!), based on the light novel series by Shouji Garou with story and art by Tomohiro Nagai and character designs by Shikidouji. First published in 2001 and first published in North America in 2005.

PLOT:

Kaname Chidori and Sosuke Sagara are back, and this time there are no serious plot elements to hamper them!  Yep, here you'll get nothing but wacky hijinks inside and outside of the classroom as Sosuke's military instincts turn even the most ordinary situation into an explosive one, leaving Kaname to try and keep the peace.

STORY:

So, you do remember all the silly comedy bits from the original Full Metal Panic!?  Well, imagine if someone stretched those moments to fill out an entire manga volume and then halved the quality.  If you can picture that in your mind, then you have some notion of what reading Full Metal Panic! Overload is like.  There's really no point in describing the cast because it's composed almost entirely of Kaname and Sosuke, and if you have any familiarity with the franchise then you know precisely what you're going to get.  Kaname acts like a classic tsundere, Sosuke is deadpan and oblivious, repeat ad naseaum.  Hell, you don't even really need to be all that familiar with the Full Metal Panic! canon as the characters and set-up are briefly summed up in the beginning.  The chapters themselves are fairly formulaic, and everything seems to end with Sosuke breaking out a gun, a grenade, or even a landmine all in the name of protecting Kaname.  He's so dedicated to his cause that not even a brief bout of amnesia can't stop him from his duties. 

The only thing that breaks up the monotony are the occasional bits of fourth-wall humor.  The characters might mess with the captions labeling them or comment on how all this ridiculousness is 'like being in a manga or a light novel!'  Sadly, these moments are the only times that the jokes come anywhere near inspired.  The reason that the comedy bits in the original series work so well is that they come before or in between extended bouts of serious business.  The lightheartedness lets the reader come down a little from the main storyline before diving back into the next big plot turn, and most adaptations know how to get the most from the simple set-up.  This manga, on the other hand, does not.  It just cranks the comedy to 11 and never stops going, and the end result feels both watered-down and tedious.

ART:

It took me at least two tries to actually get through this manga because of the character designs.  I don't know who this Shikidouji guy is, but I'm pretty sure no one really needed his particular take on this cast.  They're not quite normal and they're not quite super-deformed, but they're bizarre and over the top and not appealing in the least.  Plus now there's a lot of awkward panty shots to go with it all!  I don't know why this series demanded a separate character designer, but neither he nor Nagai add all that much visually.  It's all just a bunch of heavily stylized nonsense presented as plainly as possible.

RATING:

Not even Full Metal Panic! fans would get that much out of this version.  All it does is rehash old jokes in an ugly, goony artstyle.  In a world where we have Full Metal Panic! Fummofu, this manga is absolutely unnecessary.

This series was licensed by ADV.  This series is complete in Japan with 5 volumes available.  All 5 were published and all are currently out of print.