Earthian
Blade of the Immortal
Inu Yasha
Outlanders
Caravan Kid
Appleseed(edited)
New Vampire Miyu (updated)

This series is a 'shounen ai'/yaoi series, 'shounen ai' meaning 'boy love', and 'yaoi' being a story which includes sex between males. I have up to, and including, volume 4 of this series, and thought that was all there was, but there is at least a volume 5, and possibly more. The series has the premise that there is a planet called Eden, where the people, who look like angels, are sent to other planets in groups of two to check the situation on those planets. There is a plus-checker, who counts the good things about the planet's people, and a minus-checker, who counts the bad things about the planet's people. If the bad count ever exceeds a certain amount, the people are to be wiped out. The two main characters are one of the checking pairs. The minus-checker is a self-righteous normal angel. The plus-checker is a mutant angel, who has black hair and wings, which are rare and ostrasized on Eden. As a result, he feels compassion for the Earthians, who they are checking. This leads him to break the rules of Eden, and get involved with the Earthians (humans), and try to help them. This often puts him in danger, and he has to be rescued by his partner, who supposedly loves him. This partner is very jealous of the time the mutant spends with humans and other angels and checking groups on Earth.

The art is excellent is this series, and the artist has a very good Art Nouveau/designer style. I want to get the rest of the books as soon as I can. Unfortunately, there is a tendancy for some of the characters to look the same, and by skimming through the book, it is hard to get and idea of what's supposed to be going on. Especially when the angel with black hair is drawn dramatically with light hair... But, even if you are not sure if you would like this series, but you like good artwork, and you have the opportunity to pick these books up (and don't want to send them along to me...) then get them for the art, because it's worth it.

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Blade of the Immortal is, in my opinion, the best manga series ever. It's good all around, in both art (which is exceptional) and plot (with is not only present, but is riviting). It's definately the best series to be released here.

The story is about a girl named Rin, who witnessed the death and rape of her parents, by the members of a new fighting school, the Itto-ryu. It is a few years later, and she hires a man called Manji to help her take revenge. Manji is special, because he has been rendered immortal. He had killed his corrupt lord. He was then granted immortality by an old woman, and will only be released after he kills 1000 evil men. Rin is trying to develop her fighting skills, but she needs Manji to protect her, until she gets better at it. There is good character growth over the series, especially in Rin, and her reaction to the growing scope of her revenge. I would would recommend this series highly.

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Inu Yasha is the latest series from the pen of Rumiko Takahashi (Ranma 1/2, Urusei Yatsura, etc.). I don't think it's been as widely accepted as Ranma 1/2, and Ranma fans have bitched about how they feel Inu Yasha should be canned as an 'inferior Ranma wannabe'. I, however, feel that Inu Yasha is better than Ranma 1/2. I could be biased, however, because I tend to like series of 'epic journeys in olden times' better than 'wacky hijinks'.

The series starts with a school girl in modern Japan (don't they all...), who discovers that the well behind her house is a gate to 500 years in the past, when magic and demons held sway over the populous. She is promptly attacked by such a demon, and is mistaken for a woman 50 years dead. It later turns out that she is the reincarnation of that woman. The woman was a powerful shrine maiden, who had a pure heart, and was given the task of keeping safe a jewel which could grant any wish. The jewel was embedded in the modern girl's body, and torn out by the demon. The girl happened upon a half-demon, who was sealed to a tree. She awoke him, and it turns out he had been sealed by the shrine maiden just before she died. The shrine maiden's sister puts a spell on the half demon, who is Inu Yasha, so that the modern girl, Kagome, could control him with a command. Inu Yasha helps to defeat the demon, but the jewel it had stolen was shot with Kagome's bow, and shattered. The pieces were scattered across the land. Kagome is charged with the task of collecting them all, as even teh shards can grant enormous evil power. She takes Inu Yasha with her to fight the demons, and slowly collects new members. The series is still going in Japan, but is much further along than the releases here. I have two of the Japanese books, and my roommate has the entire english language series thus far.

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The second series I collected. Unfortunately, I caught it at the end of it's western release, and so ensued an arduous (and expensive) struggle to find the back issues. I'm missing about six out of the thirty-odd comics in the series, but I've stopped looking. Though I did manage to get Volume 1. Johji Manabe was one of my favorite comic creators at the time, as his was the best stuff to be found in Nova Scotia comic stores at the time, and I liked the camp-ness. And chicks with swords, I liked series with catgirls and chicks with swords.

It too follows a familiar pattern. A hapless young male in Tokyo finds himself in the middle of an alien attack. He meets up with the leader of the attack, an alien princess. With a sword. She attacks him, but he accidentally defeats her, knocking her sword away. She retreats, and he eventually brings her back her sword. She falls in love with him, and kidnaps him. He convinces her to not attack the planet, which her people consider the Sacred Planet of their ancestors. Her father sends more battleships, to slowly destroy the humans, who are considered to be desecrating the planet. Tokyo is destroyed. The rest of earth's defenses mobilize, and an old man, who is possessed by the spirits of the princess's people's ancient enemy, has a secret plan to destroy the Empire of the Universe, as they attack Earth. There is a powerful sorceress, who was banished by the Emperor. He convinces the main guy's friend that she is the reincarnation of this sorceress, and invests her with the sorceress's power. The moon turns out to be a weapon left behind by one of the factions of alien, and the humans prepare to use that to defend themselves as well. The sorceress and the moon almost wipe out the entire army of the Empire, but the moon could only be used once, or was destroyed soon after, and the sorceress banished by the girl she was inhabiting, then the girl killed. The only other rival for the main guy's attention is also eventually killed, as must always happen. The princess's main general, and friend (a cat girl and using a sword) defects to aid the princess. The general's lover and his section of the army also defect. The princess is refused the permission to marry the guy, so she decides to fight the Empire, and her father. They win, of course, but with casualties. And the survivors live happily ever after, the Empire destroyed.

One thing I couldn't stand was the over-use of many panels in a row of lots of nothing. I'd finally get a comic, and almost nothing would be accomplished, because there were so many panels of nothing but space, or a planet, or ships over and over. They went beyond mood-setting, and into drag-the-story-out. Also, there were the omnipresent bath scenes, 'accidental' nudity scenes, big fight between two powerful females, and convenient removal of all rivals for the main guy's attention. But it wasn't a bad series, and not everyone got to make it to the happy ending. Actually, I think I cried during the last issue, so it wasn't that insipid. Either that, or I'm too sensitive... either one could be true.

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Another Johji Manabe series, one that I started to collect closer to the beginning of it's run. However, even though I had ordered the series, I only got one out of every 2 or 3 that were released. I did get a couple holiday specials, though. I stopped collecting the series, in frustration, about halfway through.

It's about a woman (with a sword) who is on a journey to do something secret, the boy and his creature that she captures as 'pets' and hostages, and the Empress that is trying to stop her. The girl turns out to be an android, and a special one that was created to kill, and to protect this thing that she's heading for. The Empress is implied to be one of the same kind, linked to the main girl. The boy is bumbling, and he and the girl secretly start to like eachother. The creature is of a race that thinks only of monetary profit. The Empress tries various ways to keep the girl from her goal, using threats, bribery, attacks, and trickery. There are many swordfights. It ends after a while.

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I managed to find, in that little comic store, a collection of Appleseed comics, in graphic novel format. Unfortunately, it was comics 13 through 17 or so, so I didn't really know why the character were doing what they were doing, but the art was slick (the best I'd seen up to that point) and it had a feral catgirl (yay!). I have two other volumes, but they're sourcebooks and 'specials'. Luckily, there was a timeline in one, so I had a better idea of what had gone on before.

The world is set in the future, with a city run by computers. It centers around a female special agent cop, her cybernetic lover, and the slight current of conspiracy running through what the city actually is. Most of the people in the city have been 'enhanced' biologically, and benefit from longer lives, as long as they remain in the city. I liked his drawing style, and the linework is good. The storyline isn't necessarily original, but it's done well, so you don't notice as much.

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I've had the translated scripts for some of these since my first year of university (somewhere around 1994), but they're now being released here, and the run is almost over. This series is about the origins of Larva, and the invasion of Japan by the western Shinma. I only have the last four volumes of the first section of comics myself, but my current roommate has been collecting them all, supposedly so that I can read them.. I love the art style. I enjoy the Miyu series greatly. I had heard years ago that there was supposed to be a related series, called Vampire Yui, but it seems to have been integrated into the New Vampire Miyu series.

Miyu has much trouble with these pesky western Shinma, especially when Larva's sister and father take Larva away, and try to break what they see as Miyu's spell on him. But Miyu is joined by her successor, Yui, and Yui's guardians. The Japanese Shinma also feature. As I said, lovely minimalist artwork, which I enjoy greatly... but the plot unfolds slowly, and in a way that I can only describe as wispy. Much like the artwork itself. More of an art piece, less of a story piece.

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