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As a shoujo romance, Nanoka no Kare is one of the stronger ones lately. It's has character building and development and the relationships and feelings keep you wanting to read to see what will happen next. At 36 chapters into it, I want to read more.

The art is quite beautiful, realistic and emotional, both in portraits and in action. It's by the artist of Akuma to Love Song and all the characters in Nanoka are so well drawn, they seem very real. The writer is not one I've read other works by before.

Nanoka,the female ... lead is more straightforward and take charge than most shoujo leads, she boldly makes a confession to a guy she had just met. I rather like her and understand her. The feelings of all the characters in this series develop, and are complex. She is a good shoujo lead heroine. I liked her better than the heroines of Strobe Edge and Crazy for You, ones that are along it's lines.

This is a definite triangle with two very different male leads who over time will make you like them. In the beginning of the story, you might definitely like the younger one Hayato, the good guy, but when you see Takato's, the other's, feelings that he keeps to himself, you will understand him too and start to question which one you prefer. Around chapter 30 you will start to like Takato, or maybe you will like both... hehe. Takato actually tries to change and in a lot of ways he is the most interesting character in it although in some ways he has that bad boy vibe. Hayato I like a lot but Takato is more complex.

The story comes off strong at first, then gets a bit muddy, but recovers and becomes rather intense with a lot of things happening, ie drama, however, it's enjoyable and exciting as you get further into it and get to see more of what's in the mind of the two male leads. It does have cycles of drama and it's more of a drama and character story rather than a plot.

The point of view changes between each of the three sides of the triangle in different chapters letting you see what that person is thinking and feeling from their perspective. This was one of the strongest points of this romance and I think it gives it more intensity than just seeing it from one person. It also lets you see all how each of the is different and similar.

However, there are points of this that are typical and cliche of many shoujos and the story itself is rather average shoujo, however, I really like it. It's an ongoing series that I think many shoujo lovers will enjoy. I give it an 8.

Koudai-ke no Hitobito is absolutely a treat of a manga, I am in love with this!
By the mangaka of Gokusen and Deka Wanko - this is top rate comedy that transcends it's genre and it's different from both of these previous works of hers but just as good or better, personally I think it's her best yet, but I really love this mangaka's humor.

Kei is a young woman with a vivid imagination of all things she sees. She is a daydreamer that spins fairy tale like imaginings out of all the things ... that happen around her. She seems quiet and a bit disconnected from everything else because she is off in her own little dream land, yet she is also a very sweet and caring person. She is quite an endearing type of heroine, and you can't help but like her. In fact, she really reminded me of my own best friend in real life. The main guy has a special ability, he can read minds and he finds hers very entertaining and fascinating.

Unlike many romances, this story is not just the story of the main mcs, but rather we have multiple protagonists and get the stories and back stories of parents, grandparents and siblings which makes this manga so much richer. Here we have a wonderful and unique oddball cast. First we have the 3 Koudai siblings who share the same gift. Then we have their parents and grandparents. There are also side characters that they know around town. So we get stories within a story and backstories with multiple mcs with multiple points of view and more than one romance. It has the genres of comedy and slice of life. This is a josei not a shoujo and it is a really wonderful one. If you are tired of the fare that most romances spread out, with school stories and triangles, please read this instead. You will be glad you did.

I am so glad that I found this, I truly love this and all the characters in it. I fell in love with it in the prologue and then I read 27 more chapters in a binge before writing this. This is a new ongoing manga, new to English translations. It is ongoing in Japan too. If you like stories like Kuragehime or xHolic you might like this. I give it a 10 just because it made me love it. It has top rate humor, sometimes it makes you laugh your butt off and sometimes chuckle or smile. It has character development, lots of great ones, and there are no characters in this to hate. All of them become interesting individuals with stories of their own. This story just has great feels to it also. Please enjoy!

reviewed by inzaratha for ~reviews for the unreviewed~

Love At First Sight, This manhwa is broken into two different titles, Season 1 and Season 2 -they have the exact same cast (for the most part) but slightly different flavors. Also the title is deceptive as the main characters are childhood friends not people who just meet and fall in love, but people who have grown up as next door neighbors since they were infants. So if you like the whole friends become more theme you may like these characters.

Season 1 has 3 volumes (34 chapters) and Season 2 has 11 volumes (134 chapters). So if ... you go into this think of it as a 14 volume work.

In Season 2 - Again, you know that they really love each other and are fated. But it becomes much more blurry for most of season 2.

This does not have anywhere near the amount of psychic abilities and the red thread as Season 1 did, until the last volume where all those themes from Season 1 come back strongly and then some, where that is a major aspect.

In this title, the mc female is dating one other guy not the lead for a long time so it's very much a triangle. Still at times I found it hard to tell if she was "seeing" her boyfriend or her best friend because their looks blend together and sometimes he looks like a wolf, sometimes a young child, and sometimes like her friend and sometimes like a regular teenage guy. Again this is Not just clumsy art but is on purpose.

The art is top quality shoujo manhwa art just like in the first part. Minor nuances in how the characters look become very important to the meaning.

The mc female is much less aggressive and more feminine than she was in Season 1. The mc male becomes increasingly a shadow of his former self, like a ghost of himself and this is also planned. Really, Many things don't make sense until the end.

The final volume departs very much in what is happening in the rest of the manhwas' volumes and it because all about the psychic abilities again. So it might come as a shock but it was planned from the beginning.

If you want to know the whole story you really need to read both seasons. Many things only make sense when you read all the way to the ending of Season 2 volume 11. Without that, there are many things that will not fall into place. The author planned the whole story plot wise from the beginning of volume 1 of season 1, and it doesn't just go with the flow but has a set ending and it is not found in the first season, so plan on reading both all the way to the end if you are going to read it at all. Overall I would give it an 8.

In the middle this gets rather muddy, and at times I did not like the female lead, but that resolves. But I really liked the final volume and the ending. However many other people in threads did not like the end, but I did.

What made this difficult for many readers is that it is Very hard to find this in translation. So you need to find all of it before you read it.

This will appeal to those who like more complex and twisted shoujo or josei manhwas. It's a story about fate. It's not a light romance but a bit heavier.

reviewed by inzaratha for ~ reviews for the unreviewed~

Love At First Sight, This manhwa is broken into two different titles, Season 1 and Season 2 -they have the exact same cast (for the most part) but slightly different flavors. Also the title is deceptive as the main characters are childhood friends not people who just meet and fall in love, but people who have grown up as next door neighbors since they were infants.

Season 1 has 3 volumes ( 34 chapters ) and Season 2 has 11 volumes (134 chapters).

In Season 1 - You can tell through the whole manga that they really love each other, yet ... neither wants to "give into fate" and accept that they are completely meant for each other.

The themes of this manga draw heavily on the red thread of fate and psychic abilities. Each of the mc's has an ability as does the boy's mother as well. There is a curse or prediction at play here. The girl when she sees a good looking member of the opposite sex, she sees their true self instead of their looks, so she may see someone looking like pinocchio... At other times she sees them as over the top good looking.

Parts of this were confusing for me because the mc girl dates several other guys but both her childhood friend and the other guys sometimes rather resemble each other and it may be confusing as to who is who. This is Not just clumsy art but is on purpose.

The art is top quality shoujo manhwa art, meaning it concentrates on the characters portraits faces, bodies and expressions more than anything else. In this type of shoujo a lot may be told by the look of an eye or the angle of the mouth, or the tilt of an eyebrow,rather than action.

The mc female and male both date a bunch of other people and things get rather twisted. They both have pretty strange personalities, with her acting very bitchy at times, this is a manhwa not a manga, and the female lead is often assertive, aggressive, rude and tom boyish. Yeah, I did find her personality annoying though at times. However, it also makes sense in time.

Overall it's a good love story with no clear ending as it just goes into Season 2; so if you want to know the whole story you really need to read both. There is no resolution to Season 1 by itself. They are both completed.

Overall I would give it an 8. I don't think that many things in the manhwa can be understood until you read all the way to the ending of Season 2 volume 11. Without that there are many things that will not fall into place. The author planned the whole story plot wise from the beginning of volume 1 of season 1, and it doesn't just go with the flow but has a set ending and it is not found in the first season, so plan on reading both if you are going to read it at all.

reviewed by inzaratha for ~ reviews for the unreviewed~

Sonna Me de Mite Kure has to be one of the funniest manga that I've read in a long time. It was a rare treat.
This features an arrogant male lead who is reduced to jealousy, tears and outright laugh out loud comic antics when he falls in love the first time. It's very light and not graphic at all, and it doesn't focus on much of anything physical between the two, but more on the arrogant lead getting the shy guy object of his affections to notice him.
Being a comedy this is more about jokes and ... gags and the art is comic rather than fine art. But the expressions and such go well with the comedy. It's not full of angst like some of the genre either. It hasn't got a spectacular plot because it's not that type.

I would caution you about reading this in front of others in case they wonder what is wrong with you when you start laughing. The humor is more like Oresama Teacher or Horimiya but it is a shounen-ai (if that bothers you -but nothing really happens it's not a full on yaoi- but I know some guys won't read those).

It's complete at one volume. The story would be 7 and the enjoyment 10. Overall I would give it an 8, although personally I really enjoyed this and would like to score it higher. Just a very cute, light-hearted, cheer you up type of manga that I recommend.

Reviewed by inzaratha for ~reviews for the unreviewed.

This manga, Torch Song Ecology is really different. Looking at it's cover, it's not what one would expect at all. The cover has a sort of BL vibe to it, but this manga is not that so don't let that put you off, this is fine for gals and guys to read. It's supernatural with sadness and tragedy thrown in. The feeling of it is sort of dark, because it deals with a lower ranked actor who is depressed due to deaths of those close to him, so it has a sort of heavy feeling but at ... the same time it is very funny. He is haunted by ghosts but the ghosts are quite funny.

I hand it to this experienced josei mangaka, she really throws some unusual twists into this one. There is a lot of abstract surreal quality to it to, as it's often his thoughts and dreams and memories that are shown not just the current time line. It's almost hard to tag this - I guess supernatural and tragedy fit the bill. A torch song is a song before death. Yet if you like unusual manga that are unpredictable I think this is a good one.

Obviously, it does not have a big readership, but the scores it's gotten are not indictative of the quality of this work. I think it has suffered from something common to josei - slow translations. It's apparently 3 volumes but josei are not translated quickly enough for those of us who like them. I happen to like it when I get something that is more than it looks like from the outside. The whole you can't judge by the cover thing really is applicable here. Anyway I give it a 9 for it's quirkiness. I'm not sure if I will change this further in, but after one volume I find this story intriquing.
~ reviewed by inzaratha for ~ reviews for the unreviewed.

Nemurenu Ou ni Sasagu Yogatari is a manga retelling of One Thousand and One Arabian Nights, so there is a cursed king who cannot sleep and a young woman who must tell him stories to get him to sleep.
It draws on fairy tale type elements, the supernatural and curses, were the two are bound together by a strange fate. It is set in the palace of a desert king who is known to be cruel. Reincarnation is a theme of this manga. It is also about redemption and breaking a curse to find ... love in spite of it. This is a short story, it's only one volume, and yet it has stories within the story as she tells him tales.

The first three chapters are quite well woven, it goes back and forth between the main story and the tales she tells him from her dreams, but the end chapter, the mangaka tried to pull it together too fast. All in all it is enjoyable yet I think it could have used a couple more chapters for another tale and to expand the ending which felt rushed to me and that is the main fault of it. Still, I enjoyed this supernatural shoujo. I liked the art as well, it's not spectacular but quite nicely done and goes with the theme. There is not much to spoiler here if you know the story of the Thousand and One Nights with you, it's a very compacted retelling of that. This manga is now complete at one volume. Overall I would give it a 7.5 or 8.

reviewed by inzaratha for reviews for the unreviewed.

The Tale of Felluah (Pellua Iyagi) is the among the manga I have read that comes closest to the medieval ideas of chivalry and the idea of courtly love as it was praticed in medieval France (which are very, very different to how we see these things today). While I have read many novels and historical literature that accurately portray this aspect of the medieval era, I have not seen it portrayed as accurately in manga as I have in this little manhwa. This makes me think more of tales from history, historical fiction, the legends of King Arthur and the Lays ... de Marie de France of which courtly love is a main attribute more than mainstream manga. This goes along well with them and it's obvious that the writer and artist researched and read from them to create something in their tone without copying them. I, for one, appreciate this. It shows a writer who is not lazy and not trying to create something trendy but really creating a more authentic medieval court type setting.

This is about an arranged marriage in a world where people would have lovers, mistresses and marriage and love were two different things as marriages were based on politics. In that society, women and courtiers talked about these things and read and listened to the newest troubadour tales. We have a beautiful lady here who wants to actually be true to her new husband and does not want to be part of that circle of courtly love. She has strength of character. However, she is also a girl who loves to read the most current romances, listens to the troubadours, and knows the inner circle, but knows how to work around it and does not want to get stained by it. How will she make her new husband fall for her? How can she avoid and get him to avoid the court of lovers outside marriage. This is a fantasy world based on medieval type politics and society, not magic, or fighting. The art has a nice airy, light and bright feeling to it and the court is a good reflection of another time. If you are expecting a magical based world this is not that. If you like romances or medieval settings beyond the fighting wars and dragons type, I would recommend this ongoing manhwa shouj/ josei romance. I would rate it an 8.
reviewed by inzaratha for *reviews for the unreviewed

Spirit of the Ocean is a interesting manhua for shoujo readers that want something different from the typical school manga. How about a female lead who is a pirate with a historical setting?

This will appeal to readers who like a stronger, spunkier female lead. Haier is raised in a pirate community and is the daughter of the ruling pirate. She loves the ocean and has skills in fighting. Haier leads a pirate ship and attacks a Spanish ship and meets Michael an Englishman. Then, she falls in love with Shao, the man who is commissioned ... to destroy all the pirates, so there is a strong element of star crossed lovers to this manhua, or lovers being on two different sides in a war. Michael is involved with the pirates and makes deals with them but his motives are mysterious. As an action adventure story first, the romance takes a back stage to the plot. The art looks older and somehow it seems like it is an older style. There is period costuming as well since this is set during the time period of the Ming Dynasty.

Haier acts for the Ning Citadel where the pirates live but she also has a lot more freedom than other girls of that period would have had, so it’s pretty exciting to see how she will get out of situations, without being too over the top the way some shounen action adventures can be.

For readers who are unfamiliar with manhua, this is a manhua from Taiwan, it does have a different tone and look than either manga or manhwa, but often they do have historical themes which are very interesting. I’ve read others by this same writer, Yi, Huan, and have enjoyed them, which is why I started this one. She wrote Scarlet Palace and Devine Melody. I like the female lead and I’m waiting to see what happens with the plot and the star-crossed pair myself. I rate it an 8 overall.
Reviewed by inzartha for reviews for the unreviewed.

Raqika ( Rakiya) is a supernatural fantasy horror action manga based on Gnostic religious and apocalyptic themes.

This is drawn by the mangaka of Sun-Ken Rock – Boichi – but it is very different from his other works - as it is not written by him. In this, I personally think it’s better, although people who like Boichi for his near hentai eichi will probably disagree with me. This manga has much less of that and the story is much more complex which is no doubt why it does not have as big an audience as his others ... -since sex sells. Don’t get me wrong, I do read and enjoy Sun-Ken Rock as a gangster manga, but it also has a lot of things I take issue with as well, especially as a woman, although I understand it goes with the setting. What you will like if you like Boichi - is of course the art – the characters in this look very similar to Ken and Yumin and the backgrounds are just as wonderful, detailed and well drawn.

However, instead of gangsters and whores, we have demons and a goddess. There is also a lot of violence and death and nudity; it is also a manga for mature audiences. The story has a strong plot and it is headed in a direction without waste and filler. And that direction is the apocalypse - a biblical type apocalypse.

It is the type of manga that calls for you to just drop assumptions and pre-conceptions and read the plot as it happens. It does move along well too with plenty of action. Sometimes it seems more supernatural and other times more action thriller horror.

A girl’s family is killed and Luna enters in a pact with a demon becoming something not human, and whether that is a goddess or the anti-christ still remains to be seen at this writing. So her life is changed and there is no going back. There is quite a lot of violence that follows Luna because of that pact.

This manga is based on the obscure doctrines of Gnosticism – so the revelations and apocalypse that is shown is not the one from the more familiar Christian Bible but from Gnostic scriptures instead. So the nature of God and demons is rather different from that generally accepted in the Christian view. So whether you think her or the young priest (who is a Ken look alike) as right or wrong may be colored by your viewpoint as well.

Since I am reading in translation I have only read the translated chapters although it is finished in Japan so I will only be reviewing that.

I would rate Rakiya an 8 since it has a strong plot and great art, the characterizations could use a bit more but it is plot based rather than character based.

~ Reviewed by inzaratha for reviews for the unreviewed. ~