Four Zombie One-shots to End ZAM2015

Finishing up this month of May with a few smaller stories about the zombie apocalypse. Let's keep the lessons learned these past few weeks close to heart, so that when the hoards come, we can stay alive and, more importantly, stay dead when we do go. 
 

Escape From High School Girls by Seiman Douman
Genre: Adult Horror
Length: One Chapter - 9 Pages

            Art is very angled and interesting, it could be called a simplistic but I'd like to go with 'stylized' myself. What was best was the variety of the eyes and hair, no two people were alike in any way. The body shapes were the opposite, every one had long necks and thin limbs. Very unique even when just giving it a glance.
            There is no escape from high school girls, even when they are zombies.
            A fun look at high school life, this manga may not be what you expect. If you like dark humor with zombies, like the movie Zombieland for example, you'll like this. Very novel.
 


5/5 For giving me what I wanted even though I didn't know I wanted it.



Girl's Day Out of the Living Dead

Genre: Adult Horror
Length: One Chapter - 7 Pages

            Same artist so I'll just add that the way the gore is made cute, even though a certain character has half her face missing lets say, is something to behold.
            High school girls never change, even when they are zombies.
            Even more bizarre than the previous installment, I guess the author liked these zombie gals so much he had to draw them some more, a bonus for us readers. The dark humor is just as spot on as the last chapter making it easy to chuckle at some poor schmuck's expense. Just beware looking this author up, his works are primarily hentai, or in other words, porn. I'm willing to brave it, though, to see if there are other interesting stories like these two.

5/5 More of what I didn't know I wanted but was glad to see a continuation of.


Unlucky Boy Undead Girl by Sou Tobita

Genre: Shonen Romance
Length One Chapter – 50 Pages

            The art of this one shot is quite original, but it does have some sketchy bits. The

teeth are often huge, as well. I found it very enjoyable to look at, the clothes were kind of plain, but the backgrounds were there and the faces are very expressive. The main character's face was my favorite part.
            What happens when a guy with the worst luck ever meets a zombie who is trying to escape her captors? Could it be love?
            This one shot was over far too fast, and this mangaka has nothing else but a game adaptation manga written. I'd really like to see more of this author because there is a really good mix of humor, romance, and originality just in these fifty pages that shows someone with a good idea of how to make lots of elements work together. I especially want more of this couple, they are amazing together. My favorite out of this group by a wide margin.

5/5 Entertaining and super cute.


Kuma-san To Issho by Yutaka Tachibana

Genre: Horro Shojo
Length: One Chapter – 47 Pages


            Cutesy meets zombies, but they don't mesh very well. The shojo art is well done,

and the backgrounds are there enough, but the zombie art is just sort of nonsensical and gross. Overall, there isn't much to complain about with the art, beyond my problem with the zombies.
            In the midst of a zombie invasion there is a lone house on a mountain where just a little girl and a man in a bear costume live, from an outsider's perspective it may seem like paradise, but can a place so perfect actually exist in such a hell?
            I do not understand what the point of this story was, or why the author deemed it worthy of drawing. The 'twist' makes no sense and the rest of it is boring. Plus, the way the zombies were drawn were disgusting in a way that I found repulsive, and not in a good way, they don't match the way the shojo art looks nor do they have detail enough to make my eyes not just slide away. It was a waste of my time all around.


1/5 Huh? What did I just read this for?




They may have been short reads, but they were packed with information. Including, don't think just because a zombie used to be a loved one you shouldn't kill it, don't let yourself get surrounded, and that there probably will never be a place safe enough to let your guard down in. Remember: know your zombie facts before it's too late! Here's to hoping that 2016 will be another zombie free year for us all.

This guy may not be able to listen, but you should.

 

Sankarea by Mitsuru Hattori

Though I ran into some trouble finishing this in a timely matter, I've got another zombie manga post coming this weekend to further my training and research on this fascinating subject of the living dead. I hope this romanticized story will amuse and teach you, as well. (Also, I'm trying something new with my graphics, but Blogger and I seem to be disagreeing violently so just bear with me...)

Sankarea by Mitsuru Hattori

 

Genre: Romance Shonen
Length: 11 Volumes – 56 Chapters plus some extras

            The art, even from the beginning is very professional and clean looking, and it steadily improves from that point as well. Some of the character designs are a little generic, and forgettable, most of them are just background people though like the extra eye candy girls and the main character's friends (who are quickly forgotten anyway) so it isn't really a problem but a couple times when there was a title page with girls on it I had to stop and remember where they came from. Everyone else, though, is

This annoying face is the one I mean

distinctly different and easy to identify, the main character's cat ears hair for example is awesomely cute and interesting. The clothing is pretty unremarkable, but if, like me, you are making note of it it has nice details, especially the zombie movie references on t-shirts and the like. The backgrounds are of the same vein, there is quite a lot of backgrounds and ambiance given to them that really set the tone of the manga, but nothing particularly note worthy about it. There is one aspect that bothered me though, the blush lines. I think I've talked about distracting blush lines before, but in this case it wasn't when people were blushing that the lines bothered me, there were times where a triangle of blush was spread across the bridge of the nose and it was so distracting on the one character that had it all the time that I disliked her even more than I would have with out it.That was the one thing though, all the zombie graphics were done really well, and the juxtaposition of it next to all the pretty girls really works well to set it apart from other manga.

Just run away from the freak, girl, seriously

            Chihiro Furuya loves all things zombie, from the cute, to the gory, to the strange, he has seen it and enjoyed it, and even admits himself that his only interest is in zombie girls. Yet, when he meets Rea Sanka, by all appearances a lady of a high class family, screaming into a well all her frustrations, Chihiro can't help but be little bit interested. The two start a friendship of convenience once Rea learns that Chihiro knows about her concealed outings so he tells her his secret, too. You seen, since his cat died Chihiro has been trying to create a zombie of the animal so that the two of them can have some more time together. Rea, surprisingly, decides she is going to help him and the two studiously try to decipher an old notebook Chihiro found where the description of a 'resurrection drug' is written. Still, Rea has one condition, if she dies Chihiro has to bring her to life and accept responsibility for her!             I was a little worried at first due to the amount of skin I was seeing right off the bat, when a manga has down-the-shirt shots and random jumps to girls getting naked to take baths one starts to wonder if it will just degrade into a harem manga with out much plot, but despite the nudity, the story was actually really engaging. I was never really quite sure how the ending would come about, if it would be miraculously happy or horribly depressing. Now that I've finished it, though, I'm still not quite sure which one it was... All the same, even though one of them becomes a zombie, Chihiro and Rea are still very real feeling and their actions seem logical and normal in the situations they are handed. Chihiro does as he promises and Rea's wish to be normal is given a full chance, until things turn completely 'zombie' of course. A false sense of security is a plot device often employed by zombie movies, after all. The zombie

Making fun of it's self a little here

explanations were actually kind of a fresh take, even the reason behind why they want to eat flesh, or how they come to be living again, so that it feels different though the same, and when I'm looking for a zombie story its always nice to find something unlike what you've seen before. It wasn't with out problem, I already mentioned a certain character getting on my nerves every time she interferes, and I couldn't stand her hair, either, it was always dangling in her face even though she wore a hair clip, and while you become sympathetic to her situation I just couldn't become attached to her like I did the rest of characters. This manga also has a few times where things just don't move forward when they could have, or things are left dangling instead of just getting them over with. As a reader, it left me fed up from time to time, but the pacing does draw you along really well despite the few hiccups of plot. I don't remember a time not wanting to see what was happening next to the couple. The ending also felt like a bit of a cop-out, though it wasn't unsatisfying in its own way, it didn't fix the problems that were presented fully in the beginning of the story. The heart of the love story was there through out, the humor was there, and even the gore was there, and if I ever feel like reading it again, I can buy it in English myself, which is always a bonus.

5/5 A full zombie love story with plenty of originality.

            As far as teaching zombie awareness goes, I'd say it gives a good idea of what zombies are like. They will bite you if you are not careful about it, but, unlike Chihiro, you will not survive the bite! It also explains zombie anatomy pretty well, despite the subject being a high school girl, the fact that they have not the limitations of pain like humans do, that they will rot, that they will never heal the wounds they are inflicted, and, most of all, they want nothing more than to eat the flesh of the living.

Just like this poor sap has just discovered

Kingdom of Zombie by Nojeok

So I learned from the Zombie Research Society that May is Zombie Awareness Month, so to prepare myself I decided to read some zombie manga. I hope these perspectives on zombies will help you be more aware of the potential for zombie outbreaks happening in your life time. Remember, always aim for the head, that is the quickest way to kill one!


Kingdom of Zombie by Nojeok

Art and story (c) Nojeok

Genre: Horror Shonen
Length: 1 Volume (sort of) – 11 Chapters

            Art is distinctive, it reminds me of something but I can't think of what, the eyes have a lot of personality and the character designs are all dissimilar. There is a 'realistic' feel it it, despite the chunky and gravity defying hair, and it has a very European palate to the structures as well as the clothes. Body types and movement is natural, and the clothes fit perfectly with detail enough to be looked at. The action sequences are also easy to follow. Backgrounds were good, too, with a few blank backgrounds. The zombies are done in a very cliched way, with tattered clothes and blank eyes, though they hold up well with the rest of the art.
           Van is tired of his day-to-day life working with the blacksmith who took him in and dreams of making something of himself and at least he has the tournament of champions to give him something too look forward to. So, when he is banned from going he sneaks out to watch it anyway. Waylaid by a noble offering him to go meet last year's winner by way of giving him a letter, Van rushes to the Gate so he can also catch the end of the tourney while he is at it. The Northern Gate has been the city's defense against the zombie horde outside ever since the plague started twenty years ago. When Van arrives, though, before his very eyes that protection is opened and a swarm of zombies surrounds him!

Good advice, Van.

           This is the first 'manhwa ' I have reviewed so I'd like to explain its difference from a manga, a manhwa is a comic that comes from Korea, as such it is read left to right instead of right to left. Why haven't I reviewed a manhwa before this? Well, I've not had a good experience with them in the past and so have avoided them in the last couple of years, this comic's cancellation doesn't really help that, but I haven't been ignoring them or anything but I've just been... wary. The saying 'once bitten, twice shy' comes to mind, but I've noticed an upswing with them lately, mostly thanks to lots of full color web comics, but some of the translations of theses are spotty, too, so only time will tell if any of those get reviewed here. I actually went into this fully aware of its canceled status, still the end crept up on me as I went. This manga had good potential, and even though it ends in the worst way (i.e. no discernible ending at all) I still really enjoyed it. Despite my misgivings, there isn't really anything to complain about in this manhwa, the art is very good and the story progresses in a natural, if a bit rushed, way. In fact things were just getting good, but I can't find any information beyond rumor as to why this was canceled so as a warning, you will get really into this and then be cut off so completely you will rage. Its a good ride, though, Van is interesting as a main character, despite the dopey vs. bad-ass personality trope. There could have been more character development for some of his friends, true, but there was potential for it for sure. The zombie parts were really typical, bordering on predictable, but not in an annoying way. In fact it was just getting around to the zombie stuff when it cuts off. Shame, I was looking forward to understanding some of the multitudinous mysteries laid down here. 

3.5/5 Cancelled, but still a good read.  




          As far as being a guide for keeping someone aware of zombies, though, it isn't very helpful. The characters are told to go for the head but they don't seem to understand it until it is almost too late. Still, a good point is brought up that everyone should abide by: Zombies mostly navigate by sound, so stay quiet when zombies are about and you may just get away with out them swarming you!

Well, I guess you can breathe.

Ojikoi by Kakeru Tsutsumi

Ojikoi by Kakeru Tsutsumi

Art and story (c) Kakeru Tsutsumi

Genre: Shojo

Length: One Volume – 7 Chapters

            Art is a little amateur, but just in a sketchy way, the proportions are okay everywhere except for the face once or twice. There are some backgrounds and tones, but its just as equally blank. The action is done well. The faces are easy to read, and the eyes have good expressiveness but they, too, have some of that unfinished look to them. Clothes are fairly plain, and lack detail. Its familiar but only because I've read about a million manga with the same vague appeal. The generic quality of the art didn't win this manga any points but it didn't detract from it.

             Arashi has found part-time work that pays well and she gets to put her aikido (a Japanese martial art more info here) skills to work. The only problem is her chain smoking, sexual harassing boss. It seems like she's doing all the work while he leaves the office and fools around. Still, strangely, she can't find an excuse to leave; only excuses to stay.

               This manga is very silly right off the bat, though it is pretty short at only 150 pages, I'd guess a hard copy would have some sort of special or one-shot at the end to fill it out to the normal page length of a volume, as it is its quite wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am. It is very similar in plot to a manga I have reviewed before (Houkago x Ponytail) still, it is distinctly different in someways so I liked it better. For example, the age gap is very obvious in this one, which makes it less ambiguous even though the ages are also not expressly written, the art shows the ages much better. I don't mind a large age gap, but I suppose if you find such things gross, you won't like this as the male lead is obviously something in the low to mid 30s. Some how, even though the ages aren't given, its less creepy than the last one of this genre, I think the behavior of the couple helps. The boss is so silly too, so its obvious why Arashi (or as he calls her Ran-chan) sticks around to see what kind of weird stuff he gets into. Plus Arashi's irrational violence is a good pairing. The love story aspect doesn't feel as sudden as Houkago x Ponytail, either, since the two seem to have been working together for a while before you come in on the story but it does take an abrupt turn when things need to be ended. I think one more chapter or some kind of extras would have endeared me to it more. I enjoyed it a lot, put it also suffers from the one volume syndrome of either being too short or too long, in this case too short, so its so hard to give full marks to Ojikoi despite the fun it was reading it.

4/5 Worth the read for the chuckles and cheesy romance.

Eensy-Weensy Monster by Masami Tsuda

Since Mother's Day is fast approaching, I went out looking for a manga with an excellent mother character in it, especially since its a pretty common trope in manga and anime to have horrible moms. The search was frustrating, most of the ones I found were not suitable, and when I finally found one I wanted to review, I found out that, though its completed, the translations were not, but only after reading twenty-nine chapters of it.... So, sadly, I had to just read something else and forget the theme. All the same, happy Mother's Day!


Eensy-Weensy Monster by Masami Tsuda

Art and story (c) Masami Tsuda

Genre: School Shojo
Length: 2 Volumes - 12 Chapters




             I sort of assumed this manga was one of the mangaka's firsts due to the art, but I guess that isn't really the case, so I guess I just don't really like the art much. I found the faces particularly off putting, their eyes were blank and devoid of emotion, though that would disappear when the characters were drawn in a sillier style. Full on, or at a three-quarters perspective, though, the faces looked out of proportion. In fact, the faces looked rather... chubby, I think is the closest I can come to describing it, in most angles and they just looked unappealing. Now, the hair looked good, except in the male lead's case where it just frames his face oddly, with a good flow and texture. The body proportions and movements are good as well, and even the clothing fits the frames. The backgrounds surprised me how well they were done sometimes, since the author notes that the theme is a love story over the course of a year there is a nice feeling of the different seasons thanks to the backgrounds. If only the faces didn't bother me so much... I suppose it's just personal preference, but its so strange that I like the funny or silly faces, but dislike the casual faces so much. I wish I had a good reason for it, but its completely off-putting to me.            Nanoha is average at everything, and is very easy going. Despite the fact that her two best friends are both smart and popular, she never gets jealous of them or angry about her invisible place between them; not even her teachers can remember her name. Still there is something that bothers Nanoha, all the other girls call him 'Prince' because of his looks and how he dotes on them, but for Nanoha just the thought of him makes a little demon inside of her show up. In fact, when he talks to her, there is nothing she can do to stop the tiny monster from taking over her usually gentle manner.

            Eensy-Weensy Monster sounded like a really interesting concept, and I thought it was cute and funny but, as a person who has read lots of manga, I found this pretty much unremarkable in any way. So when I added art I didn't much like to a story that I found lukewarm at best, it came to an over all 'meh' feeling. True, I sort of picked this with some frustrations because I couldn't find a story with a theme I wanted, I was actually very interested in seeing how a manga with this type of hook would go. Wacky? Supernatural? Sappy? No, none of those, instead, its just a bland shojo. I found myself nitpicking before I even got to the end of the first volume, when usually I just read a manga and then think about it when I'm done to review it, taking in my whole impression. So, as you can imagine, that means I have a lot to complain about. Firstly, Nanoha's 'gentle' personality is actually more like 'no' personality, though she, too, develops as the story progresses, she's still so very bland. Her monster is just a plot tool used and forgotten otherwise, and not in any interesting way like the description makes it seem. Hazuki, the male lead, is the worst looking, but the most engaging of the couple, the way he intentionally goes out to change himself gives most of the meat of the story. Seeing him change is engaging and adds to the way this manga is written. There is too much reliance on explaining things through thoughts, though, instead of showing how the characters are developing through their actions. There were a few things I actually liked, as shocking as that may seem, I don't hate this manga, after all. I found it intriguing the way the male character had his own dialog instead of it being entirely from the female's perspective. That's not something you usually see in shojo manga, and it was amusing the way the mangaka would show the same conversation from each characters point of view, too. That did cause some disorientation though because it wasn't always done in an even matter. Speaking of, the story, too, would have some skipping from time to time, transitions are not really used, and you'll suddenly find yourself in a different place or on a different day with no warning. I don't think this manga wasted my time, nor do I regret reading it, but I don't think it's interesting or memorable, either, except for the name of it. Just like Nanoha, its average and brings out the little critic monster in me. Even the ending is lukewarm. It sort of drags you a long for a few chapters and then ends in the same place. I always think that someone's work should interest you in looking for the rest of what they have created, and this manga did the opposite for me, and the other manga I coincidentally found by this author has been moved to the bottom of my list now, and it is a massive list.



2.5/5 Middle of the road, all of it.

Brundage no Mahou no Shiro Story by Ikuno Tachibana and Art by Yuuko Kasumi

Brundage no Mahou no Shiro Story by Ikuno Tachibana and Art by Yuuko Kasumi



Genre: Fantasy Shojo
Length: 1 Volume - 5 Chapters

Story (c) Ikuno Tachibana Art (c) Yuuko Kasumi

           The art was what drew me to this manga initially, its clean and pretty with a European style of clothing and architecture. The magician himself is very handsome though on the androgynous side, and the girl has big expressive eyes. Backgrounds were very well done and the hair was gorgeous. Still, it definitely wasn't with out flaws, though, often the stuffy suits and frilly shirts that the magician wears did not seem to fit him properly, in fact he looks much too skinny most of the time and just about always looks awkward just standing around. The action is hard to follow, as well, and often the ornate nature of the setting overwhelmed the characters living in it. Its mostly just lack of practice, but its also a little generic.
            Adrienne lives a strange life, brought to a castle by an ex-prince magician who only has any interest in a commoner like her because she was the one he saw when he asked his scrying pool who would be best to give him a child to pass his magic on to. The magician is arrogant and impossible, but having lived together for some time, Adrienne has come to love him,. Its getting more obvious by the day though that he doesn't feel the same. So Adrienne, fed up, asks for a version of him that is kind and gentle to the her in the mirror, but you should always be careful what you wish for when magic is involved...

Two pics only cuz I don't care about these two

            Truthfully, I found this manga very boring. Its based of a novel, and I hope that the original book is much better than this, because this is so bland. Especially the first chapter, where I'm supposed (?) to be rooting for her return to the one she loves but the man in this manga has no personality beyond being mean and I couldn't find any reason why she should like him at all except for the fact that she is stuck with him. It didn't help that the man's name was 'Donatian Charles' which just kept making me giggle every time she called him by his full name, and that was quite often. I'm not sure if its a case of Engrish or a not quite right translation (maybe a bit of both?) but it turned me off to his charms even further. The second chapter is a bit better than the first, more interesting things happen for sure and its much more comprehensible. Then the third and fourth chapters are back to nonsense, while the last chapter is so typical shojo that it's back to being really boring. As a fantasy story buff what bothered me most though was that the magic is rather vague, most of the time Donatian just snaps his fingers, and that really takes all the fun out of it. Magic is restrained, and this there's always the threat of someone getting hurt but it never actually happens, instead the most boring scenario happens and everyone is perfectly fine. Another threat that is often thrown around, is the threat of Donatian being a 'pervert' and such, considering that he kidnapped her just to get her pregnant is in fact a point that is brought up a lot, but there is no sexy in this at all. The dialog mentions it, one scene he suggests it, but, yet, there is only ever kisses, pretty tame ones at that. I expected more romance than that, but its just not given. Considering this has a source material, it is like when you find out a one season anime is actually based off a long running manga and you know that no ending will be satisfying. These chapters just sort of throw you into this world and give you an unflattering look at it before ending with out anything actually having happened. It almost seems like there should be more to it, but nope, nothing. In any case, adaptations should always interest you in the source material, and Brundage no Mahou no Shiro even failed on that point. Its all around weak, even the art is once you sit down and really look at it. I dislike giving really low scores, but I actually regret reading this.


1/5 Don't be fooled by the pretty art.