By Mat K.
That’s right ladies, this is a shoujo kind of week. Not completely of course, that would just be bad marketing of their parts, but damn is it heavy with cute and/or romance stuff. But more than that, it is also a week of premiers. First and foremost of which is the new book by Benjamin (Orange, Flash) who’s known for a very painted style of CG art. His new book is called Remember and is about stories of love and loss and losing your inhibitions. All that drama combined with the gorgeous art makes for a definite need with this book. But it’s only one volume, so enjoy your jollies without having to make a real commitment.
In case any of you out there can’t get enough Alice In Wonderland based stuff, there is a new series coming out this week called Alice In The Country Of Hearts, a joint effort by artist Hoshino Soumei, and writer Quinrose. Another retelling of the classic, of course in true manga style this time, the white rabbit turns into cute boy with bunny ears, and all the citizens of Wonderland wield dangerous weapons for some insidious cause, not to mention Alice seems to be the only girl in a world of gorgeous boys. I think the only way this could be more manga-ish is if she had a talking pet sidekick (rabbits dont count if they become people), and could magical-transform, (again, shrinking and growing don’t count, I’m talking Pretty Sammy/Sailor Senshi magic styling to qualify).
But I digress. Next on the list is Portrait of M & N by Higuchi Tachibana. Basically a beautiful and graceful girl named Mitsuru is a masochist, a single violent movement against her has her begging sweetly for more. Meanwhile, Natsuhiko is a complete narcissist, whenever he glimpses his own reflection he flies into passionate musings about his own beauty. Can M & N work together and figure out how to curb their desires and behavior to achieve the high school dream of normalcy?
Now, let’s end this week on a non-shoujo note, after all, I did mention that while being largely girly, it isn’t a completely girly week. Here is something for the fellas, Deadman Wonderland debuts this week by Jinsei Kataoka (story), and Kauzma Kondou (art). The long and short of it is there was a great earthquake that struck Tokyo known as The Great Tokyo Earthquake (shock! awe!). Ten years after this grand movement of tectonic plates, people’s memories have largely faded of the event. A boy named Ganta Igarashi who was evacuated at the time is now in middle school, and trying to get into a normal life when his entire class was brutally murdered, and while innocent is sentenced to death and sent to a bizarre prison named Deadman Wonderland. Let the game of survival begin.
That’s plenty of interesting stuff to get you started this week, and while there are plenty of continuing series coming out as well, I’ll only take the time to name Bride Of The Water God Volume 5, since it’s awesome and we’ve been waiting a while to see it’s face. Other than that, I’ll see you next time!
Ja Ne!
