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Ah, Beast Master is good stuff.

Despite it's intimidating title and bondage-esque cover, Beast Master is a fairly normal shoujo manga. It is somewhat cliched, but very enjoyable. While it's not over the top amazing, it's above average in all categories.

==Story==
The story is pure, unadulterated fun. Occasionally it gets a bit serious, but mostly, it's just pure entertainment. The comic timing is impeccable. This really is a comedy, you know. It's freakin' hilarious.
It's somewhat predictable and stereotypically shoujo, but it's still enjoyable.

==Character==
Leo, the hero, is one of the most lovable characters shoujo manga has ever seen. He's just amazingly cute. He's not one of those irritating perfect high school princes, Leo's just dang adorable.

Another reason I love this series is because Yuiko is a super-strong and brave heroine. I was surprised when she was introduced actually talking to a group of people in her class, as opposed to the stereotypically socially incapable but easily sympathetic Mary Sue style heroine we're used to. Yuiko... is great!

==Art==
The art is quite good. While there is the occasional awkward looking face, otherwise it's solid.
While Yuiko's character design is stereotypically-shoujo forgettable, Leo's is not. The audience will long remember his adorable happy fanged face. Toki-san's funny European face stands out, and Leo's dad has an interesting desgin as well.

The action is AMAZING for a shoujo comic. I was pretty much blown away. It somewhat reminded me of Shaman King's hip hop style. It's just that cool.

By the way, the author, Kyousuke Motomi... is a man. That explains the action and the tough heroine, but why would a man write shoujo...?

But ah well. If he writes more shoujo, he's gonna put the women to shame at their own game.

==Bonuses==

There are two bonuses in the Beast Master series, one is a short story called Fly Away, which is cute and nice, but otherwise not noteworthy except for a cool scene where the heroine jumps from a bridge and you can see her abs.

Cactus Summer Surprise, however, is an amazing 80 page long bonus. It's an amazingly inventive, and surprisingly touching short story. While the character designs don't stand out, their personalities are unique and quirks, and stand out. The comedy is amazing. I had to stop and slam my head on the desk from laughing so hard. Unlike the plot of Beast Master, the plot of Cactus Summer Surprise was inventive, unique, and loads of fun. As good as Beast Master was, Cactus Summer Surprise pretty much beat it up.

Beast Master is definitely worth the read! Go read it right now!

(By the way, kudos to whoever recommended it for fans of "You're My Girlfriend." Great recommendation!) read more

++A review of Gokinjo Monogatari for fans of Paradise Kiss++

Gokinjo Monogatari (Neighborhood Story) is probably best known as the prequel to Ai Yazawa's international hit, Paradise Kiss. While the setting is the same for both manga, and the events of Gokinjo set up some events in Paradise Kiss, they are quite different manga.

++Moral content and target audeince++

First of all, Gokinjo was published in Shoujo magazine Ribon, whose target audience, according to Wikipedia, is 9-13 year old girls. Ribon titles tend to glisten with innocence, like Full Moon wo Sagashite, Mint na Bokura, Ultra Maniac, Gals! and Fancy Lala. I wonder if Ribon has very tight rules as far as what kind of content can be in their magazines, as Gokinjo is full of mentions like "We can't do that! It'd give bad ideas to the readers!" or "We can't show that! This is a shoujo manga!"

On the other hand, Paradise Kiss was published in the magazine Zipper, which is actually a fashion magazine. In Paradise Kiss, Yazawa-sensei stops mentioning what she can and can't show the readers, and proceeds to show us a lot more than she did in Gokinjo.
Interestingly, while Yazawa wrote over 10 titles for Ribon, it seems that she has had growing pains. Or maybe her tastes in writing have matured beyond the morals of Ribon. With the exception of her short three-volume series "Kagen no Tsuki," (which is, by the way, easily the best manga I've ever read) she has not returned to Ribon since Gokinjo.

As a result, Paradise Kiss is properly labeled a "josei" manga, a manga for young women, while Gokinjo is definitely a shoujo manga.

++Art++

To me, Yazawa-sensei does two things better than anyone else: Drawing, and making characters. Her art is fresh, fun, and it stands out among other titles targeted for girls and women. Gokinjo is definitely up to the high art standard you see in Paradise Kiss.
The character designs are beautiful and diverse, and the characters stand out from each other.

I'd say, one of the characters designs that I was impressed with was Mikako's father. Unlike in a lot of shoujo manga, where the characters are either beautiful and young or old and ugly with not a lot of variation, the father is a character who is clearly older, yet is also handsome.

++Charater++

Her character's are very lovable and very real, and they too stand out among the stereotypical princes, bad boys and mary sues of shoujo manga. These characters have an air of reality about them, and they may remind you of someone you know in real life.
Her characters, just like humans, have their fair share of flaws. Sometimes this can grate on your nerves some, but I'll take a character who has a sense of reality over one who is perfect any day.

However, Gokinjo seems to have too many interesting characters. One of the major flaws of Gokinjo is that there are many characters who seem to only stand on the sidelines and trade banter. I'm thinking there are a good four characters who hang around with the main cast, but remain undeveloped and uninvolved in the plot.

Another problem I see in the characters is that sometimes they spring character development out of nowhere. For example, (excuse some slight spoilers) in the beginning, Tsutomu doesn't want to go out with his long time childhood friend and neighbor because he feels like he needs to do more than just what seemed to be pre-ordained in his birth. However, this attitude vanishes after one conversation, and later, he seems to suddenly suffer from the exact opposite problem, that he lacks ambition.
Frankly, it seems that his weak character development is injected to add drama in to his otherwise perfect relationship with the heroine.


++Story++

Gokinjo doesn't seem to have a story. After the initial arc ends and the problem presented from the onset of the story is resolved, the rest of the story seems to be... non-existent. Rather, it's more like a slice of life story that focuses mostly on the development of and relationships between certain main characters.

However, like I mentioned, certain characters get more development than others, and the development of certain characters, especially Tsutomu, seems hasty.

The story also seems to end without a real climax or resolution.

But there are arcs, and side plots that are fantastic. For example, Ayumi's love for Yuusuke is a good story, despite the lack of resolution. How Mikako met with her father is also a pretty touching story, and it's very well done! However, it also suffers from a hasty, though enjoyable, resolution.

++Overall++

Gokinjo is different enough from Paradise Kiss that it needs to be treated as it's own animal. Liking Paradise Kiss is not enough to guarantee that you'll love Gokinjo.
It is not the perfect manga, and has a fair share of flaws. However, it's amazing art and enjoyable characters will make it worth the read. read more