Manga Review: Miriam

Name: Miriam
Author & Artist: HIKAWA Kyouko
Chapters: 28 approx.
Genres: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Romance, Shoujo

Plot:

This is a cowboy shoujo manga set in the Wild West. Miriam is an orphan. Her father was a drunken gambler; she only had one dress and they moved from place to place, until one day her father died and Grace took her in. The series follows Miriam's life, growing up, and falling in love with her life-long friend, the skillful sharpshooter Douglas.

Review:

Sorry this was a draft for ages but I forgot to queue it since I've been swamped by finals and my likelihood of failure is still 50/50. Anyway, from the same author as Kanata Kara, it's another adventure story with a cowboy twist. I thoroughly enjoyed read it despite it being a western set shoujo.

Manga Review: Kanata Kara

Name: Kanata Kara aka From Far Away
Author & Artist: Hikawa Kyouko
Chapters: Approx.  70 - Finished
Genres: Action,  Adventure,  Comedy,  Drama,  Fantasy,  Romance, Shoujo,  Supernatural

Plot: 
Walking home from school one day, Noriko is innocently caught up in a terrorist bombing. Rather than being blown to bits, she finds herself transported to another world; a world in which darkness seems on the rise, as its powers desperately search for a being known as the Awakening whom it is said will awaken the Sky Demon. She finds this new world to be dangerous and overwhelming, and Noriko has little choice but to throw her lot in with the mysteriously powerful man she encounters upon her arrival. The enigma of this world and her role in it will gradually unfold, but first things first: Noriko must learn their language!

Review:
This has got to be one of my favourites. It's a solid manga with nice, clean art from the 90s.

Noriko is your average Japanese school girl who's thrown into a pretty dangerous world. She does everything she can that's within her limits and doesn't get bogged down by the fact that she really can't help anyone fight off demons or the enemies. She doesn't sit around and wine, and when she gets captured she thinks calmly about the situation and tries to desperately escape. I could have easily seen her become a Miaka from Fushugi Yuugi...

Recommended Read: Grand Sun

Name: Grand Sun
Author & Artist: Emura
Status: Completed
Chapters: 18
Genres: Action, Comedy, Romance, Shoujo
Plot:
In Japan, criminals are running rampant, and the law enforcement quality is worse than it has ever been. Anyone who has a large amount of money or is even a bit famous is liable to be kidnapped at any time, and it happens constantly. Bodyguards have become a necessity for anyone who doesn't want to be held captive, and special schools have been created for the soul purpose of training body guards and special organizations called vigilante groups that are made up of of highly trained people with advanced combat skills enforce the law since the police do not.

Asahi is part of a vigilante group called Nekomata, which makes its headquarters in a cafe of the same name in downtown Tokyo. Asahi is still young, but she's the best of the best working in the city, and is very passionate about her job. Then she gets called to a security school and offered a contract to be the bodyguard of the incredibly famous Kisaragi Sakuya, the rich heir to the Kisaragi Group and the youngest person ever to win the Nobel Prize with his incredible inventions. However, all of his previous bodyguards quit because of his personality and rather unfortunate hobby of testing his inventions on his bodyguards. Asahi accepts, and is whisked away from her rough-and-tumble home in Tokyo to a totaly different enviroment: the Kisaragi mansion. Eventually, she mangages to befriend Sakuya, and friendship grows into romance. Now, she must work to thwart the various criminals attempting to kidnap Sakuya, 90% of which want his money and 10% his skill, for if Sakuya were to join a criminal society and invent weapons for them, they would become the best in the world.

Comments:
The plot is very similar to Tokyo Crazy Paradise (with the female body guard thing) but I think this manga was a bit more different. This manga had some good depth and I really liked the characters. Although you do notice that the characters swith roles between master and bodyguard sometimes...
There's also a shocking (maybe typical?) plot twist in the story (that almost scared me to death XD).
The romance is actually pretty realistic despite the setting of the manga; it's not a really mushy romance.
I guess you have to read it to find out :L