Manga Review: Girls of the Wild’s by Hun, Zhena (Illustrator)

Published Nov. 9, 2012
320 Pages

Wilds High has a history as a 42 year old fighting specialist for elite girls all over the world. Each year, they hold Wilds-League, a place where the Wilds girls test their fighting skills. But this year, the school breaks tradition and becomes co-ed and granted its only male student Song Jae Gu a three year scholarship.

The only condition is he cannot leave the school and with two siblings to take care of that isn’t an option. But after meeting Queen, the champion of the Wilds League, his choice to stay at the school becomes complicated.

This series starts off really really good. Its different and love the twists that are added. Song doesn’t really like women and not because he prefers men but because of a situation with his mother and his sibling, women are just monsters to him. Therefore, most of the book he is trying his best to stay away from women and just keep his head down. I personality didn’t like him because he does a lot of sob stories and at a certain point, I was over it. I did provide a different story, however it was annoying after a while.

I wanted more of Queen; for a while she isn’t as prominent as the summary makes it seem and that unfortunate. However, the characters beyond her were perfect. They provided the humor, the serious tone and the realistic personalities. I loved it and stayed awake most of the night reading this.

However, the deeper the manga the more boring it got. The same story was ran over and over and I didn’t mind the fighting but what I mind was the fact that nothing really changed for quite a while.

As for artwork, I enjoyed it; cliche is not a term you can us to describe it. Each character was unique in personality as well as looks and movements. The pace of the story moved until its hits a obvious wall.

Mangasee.com has the series for you to check out.

Overall,

4 Pickles (mainly for creativity) 

Manga Review: Devil’s Line by Ryo Hanada

Vertical Comics
Published May 24, 2016
224 Pages

Tsukasa is rescued from a vampire attack, by an unknown vampire blending with the human population. Anzai, her hero is a half-breed that uses his powers to help a shadowy police task force, fight against vampire- related crime in Tokyo. 

As Anzai and Tsukasa become closer, Anzai has to fight harder to keep from breaking his no human blood rule.

Based off the summary, this sounds like a typical vampire human romance. But trust me . . . it is not. I am only two volumes into this (because the other’s have not been posted online) and it is on my top ten for vampire mangas.

Tsukasa is a awkward college student. Although social-able when it comes around men, she doesn’t know what to do or for that matter say no. When she meets Anzai, she finds him fascinating as opposed to a freak (cliche I know). But there is something about Tsukasa that Anzai decides he has to protect her. The romance is there but it isn’t acted upon as easily as one would think. I loved how both didn’t completely understand their feelings but they weren’t avoiding each other either. It was a mature move; instead of running away they just went with it. I enjoyed that.

Beyond the romance, the story is amazing. So many characters are intertwined and complicates everything in the most artistic way. Is there some predictability? Yes. Is there a love triangle? No. (Thank God) But the cliche not everything is what it seems is the case with this one.

I loved the pace of the manga and how detailed it was without dragging. It was intense, dramatic and had some funny points. The art work was far from cliche; everyone looked different and had different personalities. The cliche of beautiful vampires doesn’t exist in this manga. It is mentioned but from my point of view, that vampire wasn’t all that cute.

If you want a vampire romance that doesn’t have the high school drama and is pure action and intensity, this is for you. I am in love with this therefore to the point, I may buy the series, I am impatient for the next volume to be released.

5 Pickles

Manga Review: Bride of the Water God by Mi-Kyung Yun

Dark Horse
Published Nov. 6, 2007
184 Pages

Soah has just been sacrificed by her village to become to the bride of the Water God. The Water God hasn’t been allowing it to rain in her village, so in order for her village to prosper Soah, the most beautiful girl in the village has to go.

Unsure of her fate, Soah not only has to become accustomed to her new world but also her new husband,who is not exactly what she expected. But things become complicated when she falls for Mui, the Water God’s true form (which Soah does not know).

This manga was actually really good. I was extremely surprised because I really thought it would be bad. Firstly, let me explain the art work.

Nothing was over done and nothing was really cliche. What I loved about the artwork was that the story took place in ancient times, so the kimonos were  long and flowing. Beautiful artwork with extreme care and detail. The only thing that got to me was the fact that almost everyone looked alike. It was as if they were all drawn with the same prototype.

The story was well done and creative. Some things were expected while others weren’t. Now I’ve read most of the series, I say most because the author did one thing that I extremely hate and that is adding unnecessary drama. To my knowledge this series is 22 volumes and counting; half way through the series, the author begins adding more people that do no want to see the main characters happy and in love. It was too much and really confusing. Don’t get me wrong I want to see this series to the end and that is mainly because the last one left off on a big cliff hanger.

Overall, I think this is a really good serious, too long, but good none the less. This manga gets 4 Pickles