Manga Review: Mugen Dokei

Name: Mugen Dokei
Author & Artist: Saitou Ken
Chapters: 1 - finished
Genres: Drama, Fantasy, One Shot, Romance, Shoujo, Tragedy,
Plot:
In a world where time consists of two kinds of clocks, the Clock of Eternity, which indicates the life span of the universe, and the Silver Clock, which indicates the life span of a person, lived Mu, a carefree girl who despises the contradiction between eternity and the Clocks. Then she meets a boy who’s Silver Clock runs faster than any other person she’s met…

Review:
Let me start off by saying this has got to be one of the best one shots I've ever read. I've read this awhile ago and I've been itching to do this review for awhile now. It's so well put together and the subtle foreshadowing is utilised well.

The whole premise is living in a world where you life span is dictated by your watch. Eerie  and tragic but definitely intriguing and romantic.
I can't say much without spoiling it but if you love everlasting love, character development along with tsunderes then go ahead and read it.

Manga Review: Otogimoyou Ayanishiki

Name: Otogimoyou Ayanishiki
Author & Artist: Hiwaka Kyouko
Chapters: 21
Genres: Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Historical, Romance, Shoujo, Supernatural.
Plot:
Suzu, an ordinary girl who possess extra-ordinary power to summon demons, was left with a flute, the only keepsake of her disappearing ‘Father’. In the flute, dwelt the guardian spirit who responds to her plea in danger.

Review:
I came to the sudden realisation that the author of this manga is the same as Kanata Kara and I thought the two stories were very familiar, blonde moment there.

Art has a very 90s-esque to it and it's very similar to Kanata Kara although romance is very minimal so if you're looking for sappy romance, this is not for you.
It's very plot driven and I find the story intriguing. I thought the characters were a bit similar to the author's previous works and there wasn't much character development.

The female lead, Suzu, relied on Shinkuro too much, plus she suddenly gets powerful in the story and she wasn't shown to have trained much. Characters are bland and are again, a bit too similar to Noriko and Izark from Kanata Kara. I guess I've been drawing too many comparisons but that's the conclusion I've come up with.

The side characters are a lot more interesting, I mean you got a kitsune here (fox spirit) who's really funny and the villains are a lot more scarier too.
I thoroughly enjoyed it but it doesn't stick in your mind so much and I don't think I'd be reading it again anytime soon.

My Latest Fix: Nobody Knows

I'm renaming my recommended manga segment to my latest fix. I think it just sounds better. Basically it's just manga I'm enjoying recently but they haven't released enough for me to determine whether the overall story is good.


Name: Nobody Knows
Author & Artist: Lee Hyeon-sook
Status: Ongoing
Chapters: 14
Genres: Drama, Romance, Shoujo, Supernatural
Plot:
The “self bully” Ban has a normal enough life, and where divorced parents aren’t that uncommon, her life becomes shadowed in mystery when her mother, Eun-Joo, suddenly brings their “distant relative” Jin-Whan home to live with them. Ban’s mother would always avoid the topic of her family, so who is this strange boy? Are they really relatives? What torturous secrets does her mother’s past hold? And what do the sudden strange happens that follow in Jin-Whan’s wake mean? Would a better question not be who is he, but what?

Overview:
I think it's definitely worth a read and I really dislike manhwas (korean comics). They are generally overdone and melodramatic like k-dramas. I guess I just have a prejudice against them but I know I shouldn't generalize Although the good ones I've read tend to have a dark ambient to them, being a wuss in horror I find it weird how I like crime, thrillers and dark ambient things, I just find them intriguing.

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...

Shoujo Manga Cliches: Annoying Female Characters

So with my recent comeback to my blog, I'm going to start writing about shoujo manga cliches. If you read shoujo manga as frequently as I do. You will know what I'm talking about.

1. The Crybaby/ mentally weak female lead - one of the most god damn annoying cliches in the whole shoujo manga world. If an author is too lazy to think up something original, they'll whip out this 1 dimensional character. Girls like this frequently exist for the guy they love; they have no depth at all. They don't have any deep relationships with friends or even family members, their sad little lives revolve around their high school crush or loved one.