Review: VIDEO GIRL AI

Let's look back on one of the biggest magical girlfriend series of Shonen Jump's past.  Is is still relevant in this new millennium or is it just an outdated artifact of the past?

VIDEO GIRL AI (Den'ei Shojo) by Masakazu Katsura.  First published in 1989 and first published in North America in 2000.

PLOT:

Yota Moteuchi is such a hopeless dork with girls that when he tries to ask his crush Moemi out, he ends up helping her ask his best friend out instead.  Heartbroken and ashamed at his own cowardice, he wanders the streets until he comes across a strange video rental shop.  He picks up a promising title: "I'll Cheer You Up: Ai Amano." Yota takes it home and manages to jerry-rig his broken VCR long enough to play it, but somewhere some wires got crossed and Ai emerges from the TV into his room.  In the video she was gentle and sweet, but now she's blunt and tomboyish with smaller endowments to boot.  Yota can't complain when it means that someone can cook for him (even if she sucks at it), keep him company, and help him figure out how to win Moemi's heart, but what will happen when Ai starts to develop her own feelings for him?

Review: BLEACH

Weekly Shonen Jump has been producing big shonen manga hits since the 1960s, and it's time that we here at the Manga Test Drive dedicate a month to some of the many titles to come from its pages, starting with one of the biggest titles of the 2000s.

BLEACH (Burichi), by Tite Kubo.  First published in 2001, and first published in North America in 2004.

PLOT:

Ichigo has always been able to see ghosts, but he doesn't consider it a big deal.  It's just one more complication in a busy life full of school, siblings, and his family's medical clinic.  That ability becomes a big deal when a Soul Reaper named Rukia shows up in his house to fight an evil spirit called a Hollow.  When Rukia is injured, she insists that Ichigo take part of her power to continue the fight.  Ichigo accidentally takes it all, forcing him to take on Rukia's role of keeping the balance between the human and spirit world while Rukia figures out how to fix things.

Review: GERARD AND JACQUES

Whenever I review BL, I always have to promise myself that I cannot front-load it with all of my favorites.  I only get one slot for the likes of est em or Fumi Yoshinaga, and I'm using it this year to talk about one of Yoshinaga's most unique yet flawed works.

GERARD AND JACQUES (Gerard to Jacques), by Fumi Yoshinaga.  First published in 2000, and first published in North America in 2006.

PLOT:

Jacques was the teen son of minor nobility, sold into prostitution to cover his father's debts.  Gerard is a wealthy commoner, a novelist with a tragic past and a distaste for the aristocracy.  The two meet in a high-class brothel, and soon after their encounter Gerard buys Jacques's freedom.  Jacques works his way up from houseboy to personal secretary with speed, skill, and intelligence, and in the process the two start to become not just master and servant, but friends.  Then Jacques learns the details of Gerard's past and he starts to question just what the nature of his feelings for Gerard may be.

Review: FALSE MEMORIES

Once again, it's time for another month of cleaning out my giant box of BL books BL reviews!  I want to start things on a good note, so let's take a look at one of the better offerings from SuBLime.

FALSE MEMORIES (Ikasama Memory), by Isaku Natsume.  First published in 2012, and first published in North America in 2013.

PLOT:

Nakano is a representative for Bandai Randai's toy line, and while he's known for being surly and distance he gets good results.  His life is disrupted when a meeting with some new contractors includes his former high-school friend Tsuda.  The two were once closer than close, but their friendship fell apart after a failed attempt at sex.  Tsuda is ready to reconnect, but Nakano is still hurting from what he sees as a betrayal.  Can these two sort out their feelings without ruining their professional relationship?

Merry Month of (Shojo) Manga: MOON CHILD

You know what?  Let's get weird today.  Let's get "gender-changing amnesiac merperson from space falls for human dancer" weird.

MOON CHILD (Tsuki no Ko), by Reiko Shimizu.  First published in 1989, and first published in North America in 2005.

PLOT:

Art is a struggling dancer in New York who gets in a car accident.  He's saved by a mysterious and beautiful young man with amnesia, who is quickly dubbed "Jimmy."  Art takes the boy in, and the two start to bond.  Then strange things start to happen: Art exhibits telekinetic powers, strange fish-like beings start to appear, and a boy from hundreds of years in the past comes looking for Jimmy.  His past turns out to be tied to a a species of intergalactic merfolk, witch hunts, and the story of The Little Mermaid, and the more he remembers the more his life is in danger.