Itsudatte My Santa by Ken Akamatsu

Merry Christmas a day early! I probably will not get to post a manga review next week since Christmas is proceeded by a sibling's birthday and then its family time for New Years eve and New Years day which leaves little time to actually sit down and read let alone the hour or so it takes to write a review and format it to my liking. So again I say,

but adding:

Itsudatte My Santa by Ken Akamatsu

Art and story (c) Ken Akamatsu

Genre: Shonen, Ecchi
Length: One Chapter – 47 Pages




           This is the same mangaka as Love Hina so, it looks just like Love Hina unsurprisingly. Roundish faces, dark eyes with out much detail and thick eyebrows are the basic look. The bodies are rather thin, and the women wear clothes that are expressly drawn to be revealing; you can bet your sweet bippy there are lots of panty shots that’s for sure. Otherwise,

the clothing is baggy and unremarkable along with the mostly empty backgrounds. There's a lot of blush lines, too, but nothing too distracting. Overall it is good, I'd categorize, but not really remarkable.
           Born on December 24, and named Santa by his parents, one boy sits alone on Christmas eve people watching instead of being with anyone even though its his birthday. That is when a strange girl appears, claiming to be a real Santa Claus and promising him she'll spend the whole night with him!
           I started this manga sure I had read this story before, but after a few pages, and a look through past posts, I think I was mistaken and I've only heard the name before. In any case, I haven't written a review of it so I went ahead and did so. First off let me begin with my usual triad against this type of ecchi manga. While this isn't as bad as Inaba Rabbits, because it isn't a harem manga, the fact that it's written by the mangaka who is the king of harem, the jokes and humor are the same and the “story telling” is similar. When I was in high school (ten years ago! Time sure does fly when you're reading manga) Love Hina was a very popular manga and anime, and I believe it is still fondly remembered and read by a lot of budding manga readers and old

school readers alike. I was never one of those, and while I did read the whole set because several of my friends did, I did not care what happened to any of the characters. Now, I'm not against ecchi manga, even if it seems like I am every time the subject comes up but the fact of the matter is typically if the manga is a comedic ecchi the funny and revealing jokes replace real character development and action ecchi usually just use nakedness gratuitously because (I have to assume) that men enjoy the extra sexuality. So, if there is one think I dislike it is the loss of story telling for gimmicks. CGI movies that are all flash and no story irk me to no end, starting with Avatar all the way up to the more recent Hobbit movies, and its a trend that continues. I know I've complained about it everytime I've reviewed a manga that I felt shortchanged itself by falling in that sort of development and just cruised along floating on the premise alone instead of delving into the actual development of story. So, to come back around to the actual review and you can stop here if you skimmed through all that long winded personal feelings, this manga not only being ecchi but also written by the same author as Love Hina brings up a lot of dislike from me before I even began reading it. Trying to say unbiased, the story is cute and fun, though it is very cliched. It also moves at a fast pace and crams lots of naked/panty shots in as often as it can. I suppose for a Christmas themed manga it was a quick seasonal read but its pretty forgettable. The jokes are pretty funny, such as the supposed Santa Claus being only able to pull fish out of her magic backpack, and the slap stick humor keeps the pace and story light as well. If you like Love Hina style manga you'll probably like it, its a good example of humorous ecchi and there are several nude shots for anyone looking for them. Its just not a genre I particularly like so its hard to for me to recommend it.



2.5/5 But there's a lot of bitter personal feelings mixed in.

Cradle of Monsters by Kei Sanbe

 That is the end of Zombie Awareness Month 2016, I hope it gave you some insight on how to survive the zombie invasion when it comes. There is a really good tip in this manga, too.

When up against zombies, always go for the neck if you can.

I won't be posting next week because it's my birthday then and I don't feel like it. Plus, it will let me get ahead a little bit, which is good for a lazy person like myself. With school almost out, though, I won't have to worry about work anymore either. I should get some longer manga read finally.



Cradle of Monsters by Kei Sanbe


Genre: Seinen, Horror, Ecchi
Length: 6 Volumes – 41 Chapters

Art and story (c) Kei Sanbe

           I want to say the art is as good as the story, but there are a lot of extra lines in the clothes and background that I found distracting. The faces have a unique look to them, snub-nosed and grim but expressions aren't all that changeable. The eyes and hair have a lot of different looks to them, though, and the eyes especially show expression best

even if they look sinister when they don't need to. The action is follow-able and the gore has a good balance. It's not just guts everywhere or the like, but the blood and wound detail gives exactly what is needed in a zombie story. The backgrounds are there consistently, and really add to the dilapidated feel of the setting, even if it isn't immediately recognizable.
           When a maniac goes on a killing spree on a cruise ship, a group of high school classmates have to band together to protect one another, but when a tremor adds to the confusion and their ship capsizes staying together becomes the least of their problems. It seems like its more than just one man who has gone crazy and is killing people on sight. Is it simply coincidence that so much happened all at once? And can the small bands of survivors make it out alive?
           The last manga this year is the most 'horror' one of the three zombie stories. It has a proper plot that continues in a logical way and it has lots of characters to zombie-fy and murder off. I really enjoyed it, despite it being one of the type that shows panties (and towards the end just full naked shots) randomly. The zombie angle wasn't just expected to fly with no type of explanations and it

gives a good take on the process. There was a little bit of things getting convoluted towards the end when all the ends were being tied off, but nothing logic breaking. Everyone gets theirs so its pretty satisfying. Especially the long burn on a few of the more annoying characters that make you want to strangle them, in that fun-hate way, who get it in the worst way. The psychology was done pretty good, too, though at times it was repetitive, it wasn't too preachy. I was worried in the middle it would be a story that ends in tragedy and no one makes it out despite the terrible struggles they went through to try, and I would have liked this a lot less had that been the case, but its nice to have a horror manga that isn't just depressingly ended with no survivors. Not to say that everyone you expect to make it does, though. No deep spoilers, zipping lip. Well, except to say that one of the main characters randomly grew up in a circus and it just sorta seems to come out of left field with a tiger and from time to time other strange character actions or plot twists do happen like that but again, nothing breakable to the story.  The beginning is a little slow, though the terrible misspellings on my version of the manga did not help that, the story keeps things moving pretty good with the extra shots of random zombies and bad guys showing up at good intervals. Its not just that I didn't enjoy the first two zombie manga that make this one look good, I assure you. Zombies hungry for flesh on a sinking boat, it takes survival horror up one more notch.



4/5 Enjoyable and bloody escape story.

(G) Edition by Mizuki Kawashita

I've got the 'I should have watched that movie in the theater' regret right now, its pretty heinous. Also I saw a commercial for Uncharted 4 and had a fit of fangirling. I foresee a lot of money being spent in my future due to these two. *sigh* Also, its starting to get hot, yuck.


(G) Edition (G-Maru Edition) by Mizuki Kawashita

Art and story (c) Mizuki Kawashita

Genre: Shonen, Ecchi
Length: 2 Volumes – 16 Chapters


           The art is sufficiently cute and, uh, fleshy. The characters are cute and a fun mix.

The hair looked a little odd from time to time but it was mostly in only one hair style that those problems came out. The eyes are a little generic, but the expressions have a lot of variation and feeling in them. The clothes have an interesting look, and they have a lot of detail from character to character, too, even though all three of the main characters just wear school outfits. The “mascot” character though, he was a little incomprehensible in a way, and he honestly just reminded me of Sgt. Frog designs instead of something original. The backgrounds are there and the action covers up some of the more blank panels. Its professional and well made, but not really that excitingly unique.
          Aruto Kaburagi is a high school student with a passion for making shojo manga, and though she isn't a professional yet she knows she'll make it one day. Then, one evening after school, she comes home to her room warping and a voice announcing an arrival. What pops out isn't human in the slightest, but claims he is from a hundred years in the future where Aruto's manga is his favorite and he just had to meet her. Except that he isn't a fan of Shojo manga at all, but claims that Aruto is famous for Ero (adult, pornographic, another word for hentai) manga??
            Just like one of the other gratuitous manga I reviewed, Zero In, this is that type of manga that panders to boys with many butt and chest shots, and that really isn’t my thing, but the genre does have several things going for it that make a few worth the read. This particular manga really was amusing, and I enjoyed the slapstick humor, if not the random nudity that made me worry if anyone was looking over my shoulder. Also, the story is

amusing by itself so it holds the interest okay for what it is. But that doesn't mean there wasn't plenty to dislike, either. I already mentioned the “male” lead in the story, and how his design wasn't really interesting, and he had a joke that when he gets excited his head grows, but I really didn't notice much of a difference unless I was really trying to. He was mostly a Doraemon joke that lasted two volumes. The worst and most stereotypical part, something Zero In didn't have which was why I liked it so much, is the fact that there isn't a real plot. The main character doesn't want to be an ero mangaka, the mascot character gets a silly device out of his hat to try and convince her to. There is a little deviation, and it is all funny but the characters do not advance, really. I've probably ragged on lots of manga already for this problem, and I bet most of my low scores are due to this problem too, but not having a story line that keeps the plot moving and the characters growing sort of makes the whole time spent reading pointless in the end. At least in my opinion. In G-Maru's case, in the end the emotions are just kind of shoehorned in at the end and then everything goes back to normal. It was amusing and well drawn but I didn't really connect with the characters because they stayed the same the whole time. There is a fandom for this type of silly, non-involving manga but I just don't see the point in it most of the time.



2/5 Funny but not really involving in any way.

Zero In by Sora Inoue

Y'know, when you like to watch or read all different types of genres, especially in things geared towards men, or to both men and women, you get used to sex being thrown in randomly. Books especially, I'm no prude, but not every book needs a sex scene to get people to read it. Maybe its more like movies make it easy to tell when such things are coming because they are rated, but books aren't besides 'child' 'teen' and 'adult.' Same goes for manga, not all 'shonen' titles are full of busty girls showing cleavage or having up-skirt shots, but, you never know which ones do until you sit down and read them. I'll warn you, it is one of those manga. But, for a 'hot chicks with guns' manga, it could be a helluva lot worse, that's for sure, and I am actually surprised that in the end I do recommend it. (Well, Blogger just erased twenty minutes of fiddly editing on this post, but it's late, so, sorry if the layout is a little wonky)




Zero In by Sora Inoue

Art and story (c) Sora Inoue

Genre: Action Shonen, Ecchi
Length: 12 Volumes – 75 Chapters



           The art is very professional, I don't think there is one thing I can find to complain about as far as the art goes, even at the beginning. There were a few times the backgrounds were a bit empty, but this was usually during action scenes so it obvious why they were left that way. The eyes are expressive, and there is a wide variety of character designs in both main, side, and background characters. The hair is interesting to look at, not only are the haircuts themselves complicated, but the hair itself has good action during all the different scenes (a character all its own, perhaps?). The detail of this manga, actually, is amazing. The clothes for example, are always layered and full of details, even the school uniforms are different and fretted with things that make them unique from other manga and the assorted characters in the story. The clothes are also well fitted to the bodies, as well to the characters who are wearing them, they have a modern feel which plays into the slightly futuristic plot. The physiques are also in a wide spectrum, with girls more on the chunkier side, I assume this is to make their ample bosoms look more natural, and if that is the case I appreciate it. There isn't much I dislike more than giant pillow boobs on thin frames. The guns are well rendered and the action isn't hard to follow, making the shoot outs a dream to read (and there is a metric ton of them). If I had to really dig for a complaint, sometimes the dialog bubbles were easy to read out of order.
           Kou Shiraishi knows he is a complete wimp who is always getting into trouble, and in a society rife with gun crime trouble isn't hard to find. To combat the crime rate, though, a private police force has been formed, while it cannot discharge weapons without direct permission from the police they are a fast response team capable in hand to hand as well as gun fights. When Kou predictably gets in trouble and the private police are called in, he finds himself face to face with the girl idol of his school, Mikuru Nazume, a secret officer of the private police and very capable at handling the capture of violent criminals. Kou may be weak physically, but he's always wanted to join the police force, in fact he decides to to follow Mikuru's example and become strong, too.
           The art is excellent, the story is excellent, the action is heart pumping, and the comedy hits the mark, a top notch manga in just about every category. This isn't really my type of manga, too much fan service, but I still highly enjoyed reading Zero In. Because, amid the gratuitous boob, butt, and panty shots, a real story is nestled. The characters are basically all likable, though with the amount thrown at you its not surprising a few rubbed me the wrong way (lookin' at you Shikie, I still dislike you), and, even more unbelievable, the action is good and the story is good. The slow romance gets a little annoying sometimes, but it adds a little interest into the relationship that you know is going to happen sometime. Suddenly, in the middle of a fight, you'll find yourself laughing, too, because the characters are so well crafted. It really is a perfect mash up of action and school comedy manga. The highlight of this manga is the several chapter spanning action fights. Usually revolving around some personal tragedy or attack on one of the main character's loved ones, they are intense shoot outs with good always triumphing. Just as it should be. Its those in-between chapters you have to worry about, that’s when the real stuff goes down, but the tragedy doesn't drone on. It wasn't perfect, of course. Kou's sister, a side character who is introduced right at the beginning, is one of the problems I have with Zero In, see, she's cute and busty like you'd expect, but making her a purveyor of sexy body shots every time she shows up feels sort of gross since the main character is her brother. I realize that she's but one of the different types of girls in the manga so that the reader is sure to have an abundance of choices to pick their favorite from, but seriously, is weird how she poses around while her bother is right there. Mikuru is also a cliché in anime/manga, a cheerful and a bit clumsy character who is actually a huge bad ass; think Trigun's Vash, Trinity Blood's Abel, Rurouni Kenshin's Kenshin, the list goes on... and on. I personally don't think it detracted from the story, but I am a fan of the trope. My translation was a little here and there sometimes, though I never mark that against the original manga. All in all though, I'm still highly surprised at how much I liked Zero In when every title page is a girl showing/in her panties. I mean, its obviously not marketed towards me, but it is basically every other page with the pin-up shots. I'd like to down grade it for that, but for the action sequences alone it gets full marks.

Will this get me more page views, I wonder?

5/5 Not my style, but, all the same, really well done on all fronts.

What these two guys said

Atashi wa Sore wo Gaman Dekinai by Maki Enjouji

Atashi wa Sore wo Gaman Dekinai by Maki Enjoji


Genre: Josei (fairly smutty as well)
Length: One Volume - 4 Chapters

Art and story (c) Maki Enjoji

            The art of this mangaka, I've always liked it, the people look like adults, though the men all tend to look the same. Long faces, with relatively small eyes that have a lot of expression and definition. As an older woman's manga there is some sex in it, so I can say the bodies look good and the poses are well done. There weren't a lot of backgrounds but there was a sufficient amount so you don't really note the absence. Clothes were rather plain.


            Several stories of romance that read very much like romance novels. Beginning with a woman who finds herself trapped in a relationship with a married man when she wants something more. A woman who wakes up with amnesia and has to rely on the kind man who is taking care of her, though she has questions of their relationship. A woman who has to move in to a new house once her parents die, counting on the kindness of her father's friend, only to find its a house of only men. And lastly, a seasoned nurse takes care of a patient that wants her as his girlfriend, but she refuses him knowing that, like many others, he will only forget her once he is healthy again.


            This mangaka also wrote 'Hapi Mari' and this manga is of the same vein, meaning mean men taking advantage of ditzy women. Abusive/domineering men are not my preferred trope of josei romance, but that is what this author likes to write so be warned. I think I've posted one of these anthology types of manga before, and they are a little harder to give a firm review for since some chapters can be good and some can be abysmal, Atashi wa Sore wo Gaman Dekinai (I Can't Endure It, I believe the translation is) wasn't too bad, it was more of a middle ground. The chapter with the amnesia girl I found really boring and hard to get through and not because of the creepy factor but because it was lackluster, but the others were easier. My main problem with the domineering man type is that he is always paired with the weak woman type and those always annoy me. I think the nurse story is the least extreme of this type so I ended up liking it the most. All in all its a solid anthology, the art is good through out and the plots, though cliched by both genre and author, are fun to read. The humor was particularly good, which was the only reason I ever stuck with Hapi Mari FYI, and I got a few chuckles from reading it. My particular scans were half translated from Chinese raws so some of the characters had Chinese names, which I am not adept in pronouncing and had to stop to try and work them out from time to time, so I was a bit annoyed by that but I don't think it has colored my opinion. Which is: despite the fact I do not much enjoy this type of manga, it was well drawn and the writing was evenly paced, and so I cannot fault it too much.



4/5 If you like domineering types you'll probably love this.