Boku wa Ookami by Yuuki
Nachi
Genre: Shojo (14 and up)
Length: 4 volumes - 18
chapters
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| Art and story (c) Yuuki Nachi |
Let's see, the art style, I wouldn't
call it generic, it has its own character and the silly faces are pretty good,
too. There are lots of nice backgrounds, the clothes are mostly school uniforms
and they look crisp and seem to fit the bodies well.
Rina Kuramoto hates perverted boys,
so much so that she thinks boys only care about dating so they can do things to
her. She dreams of the day that she'll meet a gentle boy who doesn't think
about perverted things and loves her with a pure love. One day a boy transfers
into her class, Jin Ookami, he seems shy and strange but Rina finds that he is
the pure boy she's been waiting all her fifteen years for! The only problem is,
once she tries to speak to him alone, he, too, turns into a beast!?!
This manga felt typical and obvious,
and I felt like it could have been done much better so after the first volume I
was sort of begrudgingly reading it. It didn't help that my scans of the first
volume were really badly translated, but the manga had deeper problems than
that for me to dislike. There are some parts that are actually pretty funny,
and I like the fact that Jin just eats buckets of KFC all the time. But, Rina
feels so weird to me that I couldn't sympathize with her or get along with her.
She cries all the time and is mean to the love rival, then when she realizes
it, she doesn’t get any better, no, instead there is a hypnotism sub-plot
before she goes right back to normal. I realize its all for laughs but I couldn’t
get past her personality. Speaking of laughs, this manga also uses the fact
that Jin has been raised by wolves to sniff Rina's butt and ask what boobs are.
I don't claim to be fancy, but it felt much too childish and low-brow for me,
especially for all the sexual innuendos thrown around. The humor just wasn’t
hitting the marks, and made me feel like it was a chore to read. Don't get me
wrong, the two main characters are sweet together, but it takes three volumes
before you really get the sense that they are a couple. Perhaps, though, my
dislike is because I've read a better version of this coupling before. (Scroll
down, it’s next)
3.5/5 Eehhhh? When you hear 'boy
raised by wolves' I think you expect better than this.
Beast Master by Kyosuke Motomi
Genre: Shojo (14 and up)
Length: 2 Volumes - 7
Chapters 2 Extras
This mangaka has a nice, smooth art
style, I especially like the hair. The clothes are not amazing or bad, rather
they are barely noticeable, which is a good thing, when you do notice the
clothes fit well and modernly. As far as backgrounds, there aren’t a terrible
lot of them, its usually just simple tones. There are two extra one shots
included at the end of each volume. This is the same mangaka that created
Dengeki Daisy, though that one is still on-going, so I have not read up on that
one, but it’s popular enough. Beast Master is available in English! (Buy
iiitttt!)
Yuiko Kubozuka loves animals, in
fact, she loves them so much her overbearing affection turns them against her.
One night while trying to catch a lost cat, she meets a boy with the magic
touch for animals; he catches the cat but runs away before she can thank him.
Luckily the boy, one Leo Aoi, transfers into her class! He has a scary face,
and the school is quickly a buzz with bad rumors about him getting into fights
and the like. Yuiko isn't fooled, she quickly befriends Leo, who is quite self conscious
of his mean looking face and he only doesn't know how to make friends because
he's never lived with other people before. Yuiko, finding Leo to be like a cute
cat that doesn’t shove him away, quickly goes about setting everyone straight regarding
his sweet personality. Yet, just when they are getting to know one another they
are attacked and Leo's inner beast is unleashed.
 |
| Art and Story (c) Kyosuke Motomi |
I love this manga. From my first
reading, Leo has become one of my favorite characters, and Kyosuke Motomi's heroines
are always so spunky and tough in an adorable way, Yuiko isn’t an exception. It
doesn't hurt that Leo is so charming that you just melt into a puddle when he's
around. The story is paced well, and has secondary characters that aren't just
funny but return again and again so you get a good sense of the world you are
in. As for the one-shot stories included at the end of each volume... Well, the
first one, Sky, I think I’ve only read twice, and I’ve read Beast Master seven
or eight times. It’s an earlier work and the art isn't as polished but that's
not my problem with it. The first time I read it, it felt twice as long as the
rest of the manga even though its only a fourth of the book, and it's just
plain boring. The second extra, Cactus Summer Surprise, is actually pretty good
and has some nice heart in it. Only problem is, you want more of Yuiko and Leo
and get mad that there is none.
5/5 Super Recommended for an
excellent mix of fluff and drama.
Verdict: In the war between wolf-boy
and wild-boy, there is only one true winner in my heart... Wild-boy wins with out
hardly any contest at all, why was out time so short Leo-kun?!
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