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Zodiac P. I. volume 1 by Natsumi Ando, Tokyopop So this is my first delve into the dark world of shoujo manga, Japanese comics for girls. Based on the fact that the main characters here are in Junior High, I'm going to guess that the target market is 10 to 13 year old girls. And here I am, a 30-year old man, reading the thing. Ah, well, I'm a sucker for cute pictures. I flipped through a volume of this series in a bookstore about a year ago and thought it looked interesting (as ridiculous as it is, the whole "kid detectives" genre somehow works for me). Recently, I decided to bite the bullet and go ahead and get the thing and try it out. Overall, I'm pretty happy with it. The art is really cute, and the stories are decent, though I did spot a few inconsistencies in the second mystery in the book. I won't be petty, though. Here is the basic storyline: our main hero is Lili Hoshizawa (that's her on the cover), a Junior High student who fights crime in the guise of Spica, a Private Investigator that uses her knowledge of the Zodiac and Astrology to solve crimes. Oh, and she has a ring that houses planetary spirits or something that give her clues and read horoscopes and stuff. Kinda weird. There is also a guy in the same class, Hiromi Oikawa, that is also trying to solve the same crimes. You can tell where THAT one is going, oh yes you can. Rivalry will turn to true love, I'm sure. Anyway, I enjoyed the book enough that I'll be picking up the next volume at some point. |
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Zodiac P.I. volume 3, by Natsumi Ando, 2003, Tokyopop And the silliness continues. Yes, there is nothing quite like reading detective comics for pre-teen girls. Everything I wrote about the first volume continues to apply here. The stories aren't always executed well, but Lili always looks really cute. And my prediction about Hiromi, the heroine's competition? Spot on, man. So, to sum up, younger girls would probably like the book, but everyone else can probably find more suitable books for their money. The writing just ins't strong enough to really hold an adult's attention. |
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Zombie Tales: Death Valley issue 1, by Andrew Cosby, Johanna Stokes, and Rhoald Marcellus, 2005, Boom! Studios I got this book based solely on the cover. How could you not love a cover like that? Seriously people, it's comedy gold. Anyway, this is a zombie survival horror tale about a group of high school kids that through their own ineptitude are the only survivors of a solar flare that turns everyone into zombies. Yeah, it doesn't make sense, but does any zombie story every make sense? Of course not. This issue introduces our heroes, puts a love triangle into place, and then kills off two of the characters. Yeah! Nothing like starting the whacking right away. The art is passable. I can't say that I like it very much, but it gets the job done and doesn't distract me. The writing is pretty good, overall. Dialogue is occasionally stilted, but it has a good pace. Pretty good stuff overall. We'll see if I can ever find issue two anywhere... |