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I'm no expert, but many of the Shoujo Mangas I've read are completely based off of Romance (with some great exceptions) as characters fall quickly for each other. Fortunely Penguin Revolution is not one of those, and is not even very focused upon the romance of the series, instead focusing on the careers of the main characters and the business of entrainment. With this we get to see the romance develop on the side, no "oh he looks good, I think I'm in love!" is here, though the characters are all good looking, the romance is more than that. Unfortunately all you're going to get is the development, because the series offers a terrible conclusion and is one of the major let downs of the series, and nearly made me bring it down to a six. However what you will get in Penguin Revolution is an interesting story that delves into the entrainment business and actually can thrown in surprising realistic twist at times.

The story of Penguin Revolution follows Yukari Fujimaru, a young girl who for unexplained reasons can see wings on people (?) that have talent in acting. One day she sees Katsuragi Ryouko and notices the wings on her, and later sees her getting harassed by a guy, and being talented in fights, saves her. However after some conversation, she was getting water and accidently sprays Ryouko because of the broken tap, and gives Ryouko a change of clothes she has on her. Seeing if it fits she opens the door to find that Ryouko is a man, and has to dress that way to hide his identity as an actor for the large group of male actors Peacock. She promises to keep it a secret though, as it could ruin Ryouko's career if it gets out. After her father calls her to tell her she doesn't have a house, phone, or anything else anymore as he once again screwed up in the entrainment business, Ryouko gets her a job as his manager, as she already knows his secret, and moves in with him and his famous roommate Ayaori, the highest ranked in Peacock. However Fujimaru also has to dress up as a male, as it is supposed to be a male business, and we got a Gender Bender situation already. However this series is not one of those idiotic gender bender series that recycles similar sexual situations over and over, and is fairly focused on the events in the business as it develops harem relationships, slice of life comedy, and the interesting changes from a normal rookie into an uprising star.

The art is average, nothing much to speak of there. The characters in Penguin Revolution is the best part, as they are all great. From the corrupt businessman, the interesting owner, and the great main cast. They are all developed well, have their dreams for the business, whether it be for money, fame, or deeper reasons, and are all entraining. The main cast particularly with the more talkative and energetic Fujimaru and Ryouko, and the more silent and lazy Ayaori. Nothing particularly original, just an entraining group to watch, and great development and pacing. Once again though, the end is like a little group of harem styled ties as multiple people seem to want Fujimaru but God knows who gets her.

Overall anyone looking for a good Shoujo series that doesn't just focus on the couple, if you actually haven't read Fruits Basket, and than this. There isn't anything particularly amazing about it, not in comedy, drama, romance, or any other genre. It's just an overall good series, with a good group of characters, and some good ideas and twists presented throught the story.
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Bitter Virgin is a surprisingly mature, beautiful and dark story with a strange and misleading title. When I first saw the title of Bitter Virgin, I figured it was yet another mediocre Ecchi/Comedy that would feature some girl with overly sized breast to the point their unattractive embracing random men as their heads go into the breast. Classic joke isn't it? Of course thinking that, I decided to ignore the series, and wasn't even looking for a new series at the time, focusing on the things I was already reading. I heard it's name thrown around a couple of times afterwards, and finally looked at it. I was surprised to see that ecchi and comedy weren't even on the list, and instead it was a dramatic romance story. Though I couldn't help of thinking of NANA and how it portrayed the dramatic live of sluts (okay, okay, people who jumped from boyfriend to boyfriend and dreamed of having sex with various people) and got acclaimed (never liked sluts), I once again passed it. Today I decided to give it a chance, and it started off something like how I pictured it, the main character Suwa being a womanizer, attractive women chasing after him, and things similar, despite being done in a serious way. However things take a complete turn when Suwa is relaxing in a church that he spread rumors of being haunted, and hides when someone enters, thinking it may be one of the girls he just got away from. However he is surprised when it was the classmate, Hinako, that he tried to hit on only to have her run away. He pretends to be a priest, but ends up getting a confession, and a shocking one at that. Not just Suwa, I was pretty surprised at how serious the sudden plot twist was, and it didn't take long to realize how the story was going to be, a sad romance about overcoming the past, or something like that. Bitter Virgin is a misleading masterpiece, with a mostly dark but beautiful and hopeful story, with a great message.

Normally I would leave the secret as it is, a secret and let you hear it from the book and not me. However it seems other reviews have already told you, so I guess there's no point in not saying. Hinako got a stepfather, and her mother looked happier than ever, of course Hinako wanted her to be happy. However on the first night she was late for work, the stepfather grabbed and raped Hinako. Hinako burst into tears upon seeing her mother the next day, but the stepfather quickly showed up, and Hinako stayed silent, wanting her mom to be happy, and afraid of what would happen if she told. The stepfather continued doing it, and eventually impregnated her. Of course after suffering signs of it, she was taken to the doctor, and her mother found out she was pregnant. She got angry, and when Hinako said it was her stepfather, she didn't believe and made her get an abortion, and didn't tell their stepfather, not wanting him to think badly of her. It continued and she once again got pregnant, but this time was covered in bruises, and this time there was no escaping the truth of who did it. The mother made the stepfather leave, but Hinako was already sacred for life, and terrified of men. I'm sure you'll get what the rest of the story is about from that, and it is a beautiful and well developed story, as you watch Hinako and Suwa grow closer, as Hinako slowly accepts him more and more. Brilliant story, especially if you're looking for a more serious side of romance.

The art is pretty good and makes a mix of Seinen and Shojo drawing. I can remember moments with flowers blooming behind smiling or blushing characters, though the story is mature as hell, and at times it will reach a darker moments where the drawings move away from that style as well. Nothing particularly special, everything's drawn well, and doesn't really add to or distract from the series, and all the characters also look pretty good.

The characters are all done well, and despite the dark story actually mix in some comedy with it as well. Suwa is careful about getting close to Hinako despite his feelings for her, and is always looking out to protect her from men, though also tries to help heal her from her fears, of course he doesn't tell her that he knows here secret. Hinako is actually fairly happy, especially around Suwa, for the most part. Of course mentions of babies or being around males will scare the hell out of her are make her sad, but that's only normal. These are the two main characters, and there are also other re-appearing characters of course. Like Suwa's mother who wants him to get a local underage teen pregnant, and start his life as the keeper of her shop. More get introduced as time goes on, and they are all done well, with both a little comedy and especially having great drama ties to the story as well.

Overall Bitter Virgin is an amazing read despite it's short length, it stays focused on the true story without any non related side stories, and greatly develops the characters in that short time, as we get to slowly see the Hinako overcome her past, with a lot of help of course. Overall don't even think about the title, Bitter Virgin is an amazing read for anyone who likes the dramatic and mature side of romance, and is highly recommended to anyone who likes either genre. read more

Fukan Fuukei is the first and fairly stand alone attempt at an adaption of The Garden of Sinners novel. First I would like to say that I have no past experience with any product of The Garden of Sinner series, and this review is based off of this movie with no knowledge to anything else. First off to people who don't like such things, this is a strange and abstract way of storytelling, and apparently the rest of the series follows a similar style. You will spend time not knowing anything about what is going on in the story, besides the plot points that are introduced to the characters at the same time they are to you, and even at the end you won't know anything about the characters. One more thing worthy of mentioning, I don't know about the whole series, but this movie isn't on the action or fantasy side, and only has a little romance development at the end, and for the most part was a Supernatural/Horror movie.

The story in Fukan Fuukei revolves around a mysterious strings of suicides by jumping, with all of the victims being high school students. On the surface besides where they jumped, the deaths are unconnected and will probably always be seen as such. As you like as you don't mind it's strange way of telling things, the story presented in the first movie is actually quite good. It present great ideas, an intriguing plot mixed in with a nice sense of Horror, Supernatural, and Mystery (or maybe just because they don't tell you much about what the hell's going on). The idea of why people commit suicide was actually quite interesting, as is the other psychological styled ideas presented in the story, the majority of which came from Touko Aozaki, with some also being presented by another main character Mikyia Kokuto. The plot moves at a nice pace, it always remains interesting (at least once we get to the actual building where they committed suicide) and provides a good outcome to the story, though if anything, can be a bit confusing to understand the criminal behind it all, and at first left me with a "what the hell's going on?" type of thing. It's nothing amazing, but it does a surprisingly good job of telling it's story.

The art in the movie, is stunning. The backgrounds, details, character designs, everything in Fuukei is done with gorgeous art. It's also to note that it looks brilliant especially during the Horror/Supernatural scenes of the show, for instance watching a person's body after committing suicide has never looked as good as it does in Fuukei. Everything runs pretty smooth, and there aren't any drops in quality that are noticeable throught the series. I'm not an expert on Anime, though I'm trying to work up to being one, but this currently ranks among the best looking Animes I've ever seen.

The sound of Fuukei is done very well, though not as extravagant as the visuals. There's nothing extremely complex or beautiful to it, it's just all the fitting themes at all the right times, and it adds to the movie well, as music should do for a movie. All the voice actors used in the show fit their characters well and are pretty good, though it didn't offer any memorable moments, it didn't need to either. The voice acting was also done well, and added to the show.

I'm not sure how to rate the characters in this one. The three main characters are actually very interesting, with the main character Shiki Ryougi being particularly mysterious among the three, but the other two also are certainly interesting characters. However the movie offers lacking development as the short fifty minutes focuses upon the plot presented during the story, instead of backgrounds and relationships between the characters. There was a little development of hinted romance at the end, which was great to see, but it did not go much of any where either. The second movie preview at the end looked like it would was completely focused on character development though, so added to the fact that it is part of a series, and the character's were interesting, I would say the characters are great characters, ranking about 7.

Overall, this is a great movie, with an interesting though confusing plot, breath taking art, and still good though underdeveloped characters. The horror styled parts of it and the psychology like questions asked in the series are particularly interesting, and I would recommend it if you like things like that at all, as Fuukei does it stuff well, and makes the future of the series look very bright as long as the characters get developed more and the plot gets a bit less confusing. read more

Surprised that no one has reviewed this, while it may not be at the same level of 20th Century Boys, it's only two volumes, it's the ending, and it's a great read despite it's short length. If anything I am a little disappointed that it didn't show us a bit more of an "aftermath" to things, I was particularly begging for Friend to have a good reason for what he was doing, but it never came. 21st Century Boy simply wraps up the story of 20th Century Boys story, starting off with the concert that we saw near the end of 20th Century Boys, and leading us into the events we saw on the final page. 21st Century Boy is short, but intriguing and satisfying ending to the great series created by the genius mind of Naoki Urasawa.

The story is directly finishing the events that happens in "The New Book of Prophecies" and finishes up all the mysteries of "who friend was?" and "who replaced him?" and the relationship between the people who were directly involved with the friend personality. I don't want to give away to many spoilers, though if you're reading this I assume you've already finished 20th Century Boys, in which case, get your ass out that in read the sequel. The story is similar to 20th Century Boys, but is more answers, and has the interesting way of searching the past to find out what to do in the present that was presented in 20th Century Boys, just taken to higher levels here. If you like the story of 20th Century Boys, you don't have to worry about this, it's a great sequel with a compelling story.

As expected from anyone familiar with 20th Century Boys, this one is filled with great artwork, and will make you actually want to take a second to look at the great artwork that Urasawa turns out in this story. The character's still aren't nesscairaly attractive, but it doesn't matter, the artwork is filled with detail and beauty on the character's, and is amazing to behold. Truly a genius to both write and draw this, the artwork gets a ten out of ten here, the only ten I gave in the review stats.

The character's presented in 21st Century Boys are all characters we have seen before, but this time we get to take a deeper look on the children through Kenji's interaction through them, and we also get to see some of Friend's old servants on a deeper level as well. Mainly it is particularly Kenji and the villains of the past series that shine in this, as they are the focus of the story, and prove for some extremely interesting angles in the story, especially the interaction between the people of Friends, and seeing how there are things they change on and things that stay the same.

Overall, 21st Century Boys proves to further answer the final events in the New Book of Prophecies, but not much after that. We get a nice little conversation at the end to, but I did feel like there were some loose ties in there, like all the talk of a "confession" between two of the character's never go anywhere, it certainly feels like an incomplete ending, but is still satisfying at that. I guess to sum it up it felt like there should have been another chapter, and that was just the end to a good chapter. Of course you should read it right after 20th Century Boys, and you shouldn't even have to read this to decide that, but if you did, I hope this helped you to decide to read this great series. read more

Being a fan of T. Rex, I was immediately interested in a book that referenced him in the title. I was even more interested to find out it was by Naoki Urasawa, the genius behind Monster. I started reading it right away, and hardly put it done till I was finished with it, and also finished the sequel right after that. Well there's two things I want to say in the opening paragraph, first is that even though this is an amazing Manga series, I can't help but feel it isn't quite at that level of Monster, and that being said, neither is it the #1. Certainly it is amazing enough that I don't mind seeing there, but just wanted to say that. Second being a big fan of music, I found the references in this series to be rather shallow. I probably had to big expectations because it referenced T. Rex, the forgotten classic band of the late sixties and seventies, I was thinking it wouldn't carter to the typical references. I expected instead of seeing "just like The Beatles" I could see at least a couple of steps down on the popularity scale, something like "just like Van Morrison" or instead of "just like Bob Dylan" a "just like Leonard Cohen". Sure not as many people would get laughs, but they've already gotten their share of stuff. Basically the references, with the exception of T. Rex, is rather typical references to music giants like Hendrix, Stones, Beatles, Dylan, Mitchell, Doors, etc. That was just another thing I wanted to get out there, in case anyone was thinking something similar to what I was thinking. However, this series is certainly still worth reading, and is an amazing mystery series, filled with plot twists, references, and great characters.

The story in 20th Century Boy is a strange one, and can be quite self-contradicting at times. It revolves around a group of childhood friends (there grown up now) who used to hang out at there secret base, reading Manga, listening to the Radio, and just having fun. One day one of the boys called Kenji decided to start righting his own Manga plot, revolving around a hero who would have to save the world from a virus and a giant robot. A simple childish story at first, however in the future when the events starting happening in reality, and the symbol they used for their fort is being used by a strange cult-like leader called "Friend", Kenji quickly finds out that something is wrong. Being the ones who created it, Kenji and his group of friends that knew about the story (or the ones who he managed to gather), now are the only people who can save the world. A save the world plot, that quickly contradicts itself with characters referencing that they can't just be ride out there and be a hero, like in Shounen stories. It quickly moves itself into being an amazing plot, with one big question, who is Friend?

As much as I loved the series though, and Friend himself, Friend is one of the my major complaints about the series. I understand people like Kenji and his friends reason for going against Friend, but what about Friend? Is he just some freak that wants to have fun, so he starts killing of people and trying to put an end to the world. I wanted to feel more of a back-story from Friend than him just having a little fun by killing people and watching other people try to stop him. To me along with the shallow music references, it was one of the letdowns of an amazing story, and seemed rather a pointless villain, even though I can't help but love a crazy guy who makes people call him Friend. Some people might not care about a back-story, but I guess that just comes down to a matter of opinion.

The art was probably the best part of this series, if I base it off of my ratings that is. The art was wonderfully drawn, moments like the first two pages of Chapter 100, not only stand out in my mind for the amazing script, but the drawing was beautiful to behold. Most of the characters didn't even look that great, but I still found myself stopping the reading for a second to gaze upon the beautiful drawings in the Manga, and I never got tired of doing it. Even now I love going back and looking at Chapter 100, the mysterious aura, the music reference, and the great drawings all tied together, and it helped give it that feeling of greatness, and is one of my favorite things about it.

The characters are another one of my favorite parts of the story, though I seem to be saying that for everything. The main character, though absent for a good amount of the series, is a great lead. If there is one line that I remember in that show, it will be what he said to the young guitarist at the crossroads. The other character's also prove to be great characters, from the strange villain of Friend and his twisted and confused servants, the group of childhood friends, and most notably, the hobo called God. God is one of the best characters of the entire series, and his mix of humor and foresight, plus the name, makes him always entraining when he shows up. That's not to say we don't have problems, as I said sometimes the Villains can seem rather pointless, one of my biggest dislikes of the series. However even if they seem pointless, I can't deny that they have some great moments, and if they did have a reason, then I would probably have loved them.

20th Century Boy is a story that has it all, great art, unique and great story, amazing scripting, great characters, amusing references, and most importantly, is just an extremely enjoyable read. As I stated before I can't say I agree with the #1 ranking that is given to on this site, but I don't mind, because Urasawa, once again, presented us with a great story filled with mystery, thrills, drama, and those little hints at other genres like Comedy, Romance, Slice of Life, etc. It's all there, and 20th Century Boy is certainly worth reading. read more

Made by the famous Rumiko Takahashi, the length draws out over 558 chapters, and this length both causes some of it's greatest and worst moments. For instance the romance of the story (or more specifically the love triangle) reaches it's climax as we draw towards the end with a bittersweet, but none the less great conclusion to it. However we go on to, in my opinion, another disappointing ending from Takahashi. I haven't read all of Ranma 1/2, but I hear that the ending was not the best, and InuYasha certainly felt rushed at the end. That is always a bad thing, but it's quite annoying when the ending feels rushed, and it's even worse when the story had ran for 558 chapters and still feels rushed. God forbid another couple of chapters to tie thing up, but instead (trying to be spoiler free) the "romance" at the end during a reunion feels like "oh hey, how you doing? It's been a while" thing between two old friends. That and the idea of side character's getting more of an "ending" than the main ones, can be rather annoying. Basically, InuYasha is certainly not a Manga you would pick up if you don't have patience. At times it runs into a repetitive schemes like "villain attacks and villain leaves" or "upgrade weapon, get stronger, upgrade weapon, get stronger" type of thing. If you're going to read InuYasha, you're going to get crap, feel unsatisfied at times, but you will also at times witness a great plot, and good, though eventually disappointing romance. Well onto other points.

The story of InuYasha starts off with Kagome, a normal fifteen year old high school student, who lives in an ancient shrine, filled with old artifacts. One day she is suddenly taken by force into the Boneeater's Well by a monster, and finds a demon sealed to a tree. Upon being taken to a village, she discovers he is an evil demon called InuYasha, who was sealed by a Miko named Kikyou fifty years ago at the cost of her life. However when she gets close to him while running away from the monster, he awakens, mistaking her for Kikyou as they look a like. She is attacked and ends up having the ancient powerful object in her body called the Shikon no Tama (Jewel of Four Souls), an object than can make demons stronger, the same one InuYasha was after, but Kikyou sealed him and took it with her to the afterlife. To save her own life, she frees InuYasha to kill the demon, but InuYasha immediately goes after the Shikon no Tama. Kaede, Kikyou's younger sister from the village, seals a necklace object onto InuYasha which gives Kagome the ability to command him, causing him to be unable to steal the Jewel. However when another Demon tries to steal it, it is easily stolen, and they have to work together to get it back. It ends up getting broken and scattering to little pieces around the world, and now InuYasha and Kagome have to work together to find it.

That's just the start of a plot, that soon winds itself into a much greater plot of why Kikyou killed InuYasha, and as such we get greater villains, a wider cast, and greater ambitions on the part's of the characters, that still tie into everything of the beginning perfectly. As I said before, the length both helps and ruins the plot, as at times Takahashi pulls of great twists to the story, and introduces even more characters, and pulls of many great scenes throught the story. However at times you can also get 50 chapters where the same thing seems to happen over and over. It would help if it was interesting the first time, but painfully it wasn't, and the plot can jump from great, to boring. I'll give it an eight because it provides some interesting scenes, especially in Romance, but at times it's just completely mediocre.

From the few Mangas I've read (just started reading them), the art in InuYasha is fairly average. Compared to the other Manga I'm currently reading ("20th Century Boy"), it even can get rather ugly at times, but at times it can look fairly good. Nothing much to say here, the art in InuYasha is just average artwork and never really goes far beyond being average. That said it certainly isn't bad, it's rather good, just nothing special. You'll probably never take a moment just to look at how good it looks or anything like that.

The characters in InuYasha is the best part of the story, as we get all types of characters. Well the "good guys" are fairly typical people, angry lead fighter, sexual harassing guy on the side, innocent girl, etc. the "bad guys" have variety ranging from "bad ass" fighter to homosexual. I'm not sure on whether that is widely considered a good thing or bad thing, but it can be rather entertaining at times, and my favorite parts of the story come from the interaction between the characters. Once again mainly the love triangle which presents one of the best I've seen yet. The women you fell in love with first, who showed you a different style of life, and followed you in death or the women who came after and helped to change your life. If you had to choice, which one would it be? Certainly the best concept presented I've read (well, yet) presented in love triangles, and really can make you question which choice would be better. I haven't even come up with an answer to that myself.

I'm sure mostly everyone who's decently involved in the world of Anime and Manga have heard of InuYasha and Rumiko Takahashi, and I've read as much love as I have read as hate. Well most the hate I've read is for the Anime and how it falls into being repetitive, but remember that even though it fells into that, it also comes out of that (only to fall back in), but it certainly has some great moments, and the best is in the later half of the story (the conclusion of the love triangle). If you are looking for a Manga with a merge of great characters and a greatly established Fantasy world, than InuYasha is certainly a great book to pick up, as long as you have patience. There are times I was in love with it and started the next chapter right away, and there were times when I forced myself to read through it, always trying to look at the brightside of what's ahead. InuYasha may have it's disappointments, which I've certainly voiced in this review, but it also has it's great moments to, and is a great read. End of the first review, please put whether it was helpful or unhelpful.
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