Y The Last Man Volume 2 & 3

I decided to blog these two together since I read them one after the other. I love this series although I find it frightening at the same time. The characters are diverse and complex. I'm falling in love with Agent 355. The implied torch she carries for Yurick is an interesting but not unexpected, plot development.

Yurick's sister shows her face and we see a bit into her twisted head as she now runs with the militant group "The Amazons". I think it's important for me to mention here that although the book labels them as "bra burners" they are NOT feminists. Feminism and what people think feminism is, happens to be two very different things. So I have chose not to label them as a militant feminist group because they aren't. They are extremists who are blinded by spiritual views justified with the idea that "mother nature wiped out all the men, so men are an abomination that should not exist on the planet". I shouldn't HAVE to explain this but it seems views are still skewed on this. A lot of men's rights groups masquerade as men's rights group when really, they are just a bunch of men who hate women. I find these groups are the ones that really throw around the feminism hate and misconceptions. Real feminism is about equality. Equality for all. NUF SAID-well that's all I'm going to get into on this post. So to avoid confusion made in this comic book, The Amazons are NOT feminists.

That isn't to say that I am overlooking some problematic messages sent by the story. If anything, I think it accurately portrays a wide range of feminist views/issues and a wide range of what others (feminist or not) perceive feminism to be. I believe if one begins reading the book keeping in mind that it's portraying different ideas and views of feminism, they will find themselves enjoying the book and laughing a lot! There is a lot of comedy in this book. I mean, come on, last man on Earth!

Fushigi Yugi Volume 3

Why am I still reading Fushigi Yugi?? I have no fucking clue.. Maybe because I can read a volume in 20 minutes? Maybe because I want to see Yui and Miaka tear each other apart in some vicious girl fight? That's going to happen by the way, at the end of the second volume, Yui got sucked into the book and Miaka with her fictional friends decided to go looking for her. 

In Volume 3 we learn that Yui's spent 3 months sucked into feudal Japan and didn't go as well for her as it did for Miaka. Instead Yui was gang raped and eventually found by some blond, blue-eyed foreigner. He's a knight employed by a distant rival province (Qu-Dong) and Yui finds out she's the priestess sent to save the kingdom from the other kingdom that Miaka represents. So the two become enemies but really, they only become enemies because Miaka is such a selfish cow. She's a total airhead. Even as the heroine of the story, I hate her. She's selfish, she's a pig (eats constantly, and takes food from the less fortunate!) she basically went back into the play so she could see some guy! She told Yui that she went back to rescue her! (fucking liar) Yui of course finds out the truth. 

It's safe to say, I fucking HATE Miaka, at this point I'm only reading it in hope that Miaka suffers some come-upp-ins. But since this is written for teenage girls, I suspect the ending will be more like "best friends forever!" not "die you selfish wench!".

Ayako by Osamu Tezuka

Released in North America by Vertical.

One of Osamu Tezuka's masterpiece's, Ayako is a desperately tragic story of a fictional Japanese family known as the Tenge Family. Once wealthy land-owners, they come up against economic upheaval in post World War II Japan. The story begins in 1949 with a reasonably happy family harbouring a dirty secret. The story is full of espionage when the second eldest son returns from working in a POW camp, now secretly working for America to eliminate leaders of the red parties in Japan. He returns to find he has a new sister of 4 who everyone claims was born of the matron at 47. Disbelieving, Jiro finds out the truth of the matter when he sees his father sleeping with his sister in law. The agreement between the eldest son & father being that he gains the family fortune while the head of the family violates his daughter in law. Further tragedy begins when Ayako witnesses something to incriminate Jiro. To avoid further shame, the family locks Ayako is a cellar for 23 years. She escapes...

The story contains incest and murder, not suitable for readers under 16 I would say but this is all a little VC Andrews don't you think? I loved the story all the same (VC Andrews has always been a guilt pleasure for me). It's a very large book, previously released in 3 volumes, now collected in one large hard cover which I got from the Library. Read it.. you might cry.

Savage Wolverine #1

Writer & Artist Frank Cho

This is the first Marvel Comic I have purchased in over a year. I got really mad at Marvel and the X-men (which I once read religiously) due to the whole Hope & No Mutants Story Arc. Oh and for the fact that they killed off Nightcrawler, and for relaunching the X-men title with a vampyric Jubilee. FUCK THAT. However, Wolverine in Savage Land with Shanna the She Devil?? YEAH!! And seriously, Sauron is supposed to show up at some point. The Reapers do but Sauron hasn't shown his face yet. Hey, it's issue 1, can't pull out all the flashy-flash and rickita-rackata.  

Some of my favourite story arcs in X-men history, take place in the Savage Land. It's AWESOME. Cho had this to say about the title:

 "This isn't just a solo Wolverine story. It's actually a team-up story with Shanna the She-Devil. Both Wolverine and Shanna have similar assertive personalities. The story is not just a quest to get home; it's a story about surviving each other's company and the Savage Land."  - Taken from an interview on CBR.

The first issue really just explains how a special SHIELD task force is trapped on the island. Poor Wolverine merely wakes up on the island after spotting some weird flash of light. It isn't long before he runs into Shanna who spills the whole SHIELD story. So am I gonna continue reading..??? FUCK YEAH, 'cause that's how much I love The Savage Land, over my current hate on Marvel. On a side-note, I really love the cover art and Cho is pretty successful at turning me on with the art inside. It's not exactly the type of thing I love but I enjoy the subtlety of his style and really like how he draws Wolverine. I'm not going "GAH!" when I look at it, so that's a good sign.

Beyond Kimchee! Korean Food!!

I have been really obsessed with Korean food as of late. I make a giant jar of kimchi once a week and I'm obsessed with gochujang and bean paste. That being said, I have a lot of experience with Asian cuisine but I pretty much ignored Korea until recently. Wow, I was missing A LOT!

So that means this entry is not about comics. It's about Korean food! I'd like to take this opportunity to introduce a blog I've come to love called "Beyond Kimchi".

Blogger Holly has lived in several different places in Korea. Each of her recipes has a charming story about it's origins and memories she associates with the dish while growing up. She started the blog as a away to put up her recipes for her children and it gained so much popularity she started her own online store. There are so many recipes on her blog that I'm dying to make! I still don't know how I feel about the Korean fiddleheads. They're brown and I've only ever seen the preserved kind here in our stores which look kinda questionable. But there are substitutes!

"Tomie" by Junji Ito

This is one of Junji Ito's earlier stories, 1987 to be exact. Immediately, I could notice an un-polished look to the illustrations utilizing far less detail than his more recent work. Tomie is a 12 Chapter manga and right up my alley of course. 

The story begins with the death of a classmate Tomie, told by a young girl claiming to be her best friend. Tomie is torn apart, completely butchered. The shock comes when Tomie walks into class unharmed and completely healthy. Her classmates are in disbelief and her teacher insists she must be a twin! Unfortunately for everyone, the body parts of the butchered girl believed to have been Tomie, are cremated before there is time to go back and re-identify the body. Yet, they all remember the reports that the dental records matched Tomie's 100% !!

Everyone gets over the tragedy, happy to have their pretty classmate back but something's not right. Tomie starts leaping to her death over and over again as she drives men to madness by inspiring lust. Tomie is incapable of dying even after her body is dismembered by her teacher and classmates. Each chapter is a new story of Tomie's demise. Kinda like Groundhog Day.

I read this online-yeah I know bad me, but it's soo hard to get Junji Ito's older books. Darkhorse released "Tomie" in 2005 but every time I try to order it through Indigo or my local comic shops, it's on backorder. Indigo claims that the book is sold out...it's been saying that for a while, leading me to believe that it is out of print.

"Tomie" has been turned into nine films which were initially released in 1999. I really want to try and get my hands on the subtitled versions!  

PLUTO Volume 8 by Urasawa X Tezuka

The final volume of Pluto! OH GOD THERE IS NO MORE!! Let's see.. where do I start? I LOVED THE WHOLE SERIES. Okay, I'll stop yelling.

The series as a whole, is so well planned. It has a bit of everything, action, comedy, drama, and of course tragedy. It's a very tragic story. So many characters are killed off including my favourite character Epsilon. There are a few different themes in the story. The obvious theme deals with the idea of whether artificial intelligence is capable of emotion. My mind likes to assume that anything that is sentient would posses some kind of emotions by default. Whether or not a sentient being can process the emotions or identify them is another story. Babies feel emotion even though they cannot articulate them till they are well out of infancy. I like to think that an A.I. would simply require experience in order to to do the same. In the story, whether or not robots have emotions, has mixed opinions depending on the human you ask. While the humans in the story attempt to assess the world's most advanced A.I. they also silently begin questioning what makes us human. Machines are emotionless, that's why they cannot lie as humans do. They operate out of logic and fact instead of rationalizing a lie to spare or hurt feelings. Through-out the story, several of the world's most advanced robots develop the ability to lie to spare the feelings of those they care about. This ability to rationalize & justify a lie makes them more human, more sentient, more alive.

The book deals with a wide variety of emotions developed by the A.I. HATE becomes the ultimate catalyst in the plot.

The ending, oh man- I love the ending. In a way, it seems that it's left just open enough to continue the story (of course Atom's story continues in Astro Boy) while having a complete and settled ending to the story arc. I really want to see a manga about the robot that was incarcerated for killing a human. I'd like to know his past and future. What does he do after he rids Europol of the big bad?? Do the authorities ever catch him? How the hell did he get out of that jail anyway!? See! QUESTIONS! I need a spin-off.

"3x3 Eyes" Volume 1 by Yuzo Takada

I've known about this manga for over ten years and have never read it. Until my recent realization that the local libraries carry manga, I didn't have much exposure to manga that wasn't carried in the bookstores.

3x3 Eyes is a story following the journey of a young adult male and an immortal being known as the triclops (named Pai) who quests desperately to become human. Technically, I believe Pai is a demon. A few characters call her that on occassion. Pai left Tibet to chase down the son of a man who originally was helping her become human. That son is Yakumo and through his brash actions he almost gets himself killed! Pai casts some magical shimmysham and BLAMO! Yakumo is immortal for as long as Pai is. When she reaches her goal and achieves mortality, Yakumo's human form will be restored.

I dunno if this was translated correctly. As with a lot of manga, some meaning gets lost in the translation. There are a certain amount of cultural idioms that are often left out and replaced due to the fact that it's new intended audience will not be able to understand it. I really like literal translations of idioms. It really helped me learn a lot more about the intricacies of Japanese when I first started reading manga years ago. I use to pick up fan-subed anime off ebay and almost always, the translation was completely literal. I learned a lot but then you get manga that lacks that... and it leaves you feeling like you've completely missed out the authors intended story. I think I'd be very upset if my story was tweaked in translation. Anyway, suppose it's nothing I have to worry about, I'd be lucky to publish in one language let alone several.

Addicted to Curry Chapter 3 : Big Fat Chick and Healthy Curry

I'm disappointed. Chapter 3 contained NO RECIPE!! I mean, he cooked a low-fat version of a vegetable curry for a lady who is dieting, but they didn't include the recipe! SADNESS ! Also, not so fond of the title here...size shaming is just never cool.. anyway, the chapter is short.. and I realized I dislike Yui. She just constantly talks about the chef and goes on and on about whether to trust him and whether he's really a friend of her father's and not some pervert (he busted in on her in the shower-total fan service) I think I'll just stop reading this now.. 

Addicted to Curry Chapter 2 : The First Step for a Comeback and Pumkin Curry

Apparently "Addicted to Curry" has not been released in North America. I can't seem to find any published volumes so I'm reading this online per Chapter. It's kind of annoying this way but what can ya do? I really did want to read it! I will try not to write a blurb on every single chapter because that would just be really annoying. Instead, I think I'll just update every now and then on the progression of the story.. well mostly I just care about the fact that there are recipes in this manga and a less than powerful love story. lol.

It cracks me up that the manga always begins with a scantily clad pic of Yui. Total fan service and really funny. This chapter contains a recipe for Pumpkin Curry. I wish I was eating pumpkin curry right now.

Dororo Volume One by Osamu Tezuka

I am setting myself a new goal : read all of Osamu Tezuka`s work that is available. For those of you who don't know, Osamu Tezuka is known as the godfather of manga. As the creator of Astro Boy, he has created some of the best loved stories of the world that have been re-worked, re-told and ripped off all over the world (coughDiseneycough) Originally inspired by the artwork of Walt Disney's early films, he found  his own artistic style and story telling that went on to inspire graphic novels known in Japan as Manga. He is credited with inventing the serial manga.

I got Dororo volume 1 at the library. I am in love with this book. If I could make love to it (and I think I could actually make love to a physical copy...) I would, if it didn't belong to the library. I should first mention that I love the cover art for this book (the recent edition). It's a great collage !! Kinda reminds me of a zine. The tagline is "nobody is born whole" which I really appreciate because it makes me think that we are all partial people until we live our lives and gain experience, thus making us whole.

The story follows a teenager who is cursed (due to his piece of shit father) with a crippling affliction. He was born missing 48 body parts. He can regain them by defeating 48 demons. With prosthetic arms and legs he roams feudal Japan chased by demons. He speaks, sees and hears with a supernatural power in his brain due to the lack of eyes, ears and vocal chords. During his travels he comes across a tenacious young boy called Dororo. Dororo is Japanese child speak for "thief". He is a young boy born of farmers turned thieves, orphaned at a young age and left to fend for himself. Dororo and the cursed teenager Haykkimaru (Hyakki = hundred demons, maru= fuedal suffix for boy) find a kinship in each other. It isn't long before Dororo begins calling Haykkimaru his brother. The two journey the countryside battling evil, all the while being seen as vile, evil creatures themselves.

Originally printed in Shukan Shonen Sunday in 1967, this story directly influenced countless manga of our time. Inuyasha being one of those manga's directly influenced, a personal favourite of mine.

This is a really intense story that is also incredibly humorous. Tezuka can tell a story like no bodies business and I cannot wait to get my hands on the next volume. If you like comedy, action and drama, it's perfect for you. Do you like a bit of everything because I do and this story has got it!

Black Hole by Charles Burns

I don't think Charles Burns cares much for women. At least, that is the first impression I got while reading Black Hole. I've read some of his shorter comics in the past and while I didn't find them particularly misogynistic at the time, I'm sure that if I went back to read them, I would have some qualms.

In this large graphic novel, there is a) a lot of drug use and b) a lot of orifices opening up in weird places on the characters' bodies. They are all shaped like vaginas.

The female characters in the book all suffer from near crippling fears of inadequacy and poor self-worth. Burns portrays the women as people who use sex to get closer to the others, which I think says more about Burns than it does about women in general. (yes I'm sure not everyone shares this opinion but this is MY blog) I really felt as though the female characters were all weak and empty vessels. It made me pretty sad actually. The females are all pretty much miserable and full of worry. They cling to men to make them feel safe or "happy" AND one of them has a tale... which says all kinds of things about Burns. The girl with the tale is the one personality that I felt endeared too. She felt like a whole character which apparently Charles Burns doesn't think exists as a real woman so he gave her a tale?? It's as if he thinks a perfect woman is a different species or something. YUCK.

I take issue with the portrayal of drug use in books and film because generally it glorifies drug use which I do not like at all. The drug use in Black Hole doesn't feel particularly glorified. Instead, the drugs seem to deeply effect the way the characters view the world even long after the effects have worn off (which doesn't really fit with my own experiences). The book doesn't seem to really accurately portray the experience of marijuana. It's kind of strange actually..but maybe that it just doesn't fit my experiences. They are teenagers, they are experimenting.. that type of story. 

So why is called Black Hole? I dunno, because the characters are all miserable and sinking into the black hole of life? Life is just a big black hole? Or um... the black hole is the awful town they live in? Or is it the woods? FUCK I dunno, I'd have to read it again and I really don't want to do that because I didn't particularly enjoy the book. SIGH... I guess I didn't take too much away from it. 

Addicted to Curry by Kazuki Funatsu

Forty-six volumes of "Addicted to Curry" has been released in Japan since it's debut in Shueisha's "Weekly Young Jump" in 2001. That's a lot of manga. I guess this speaks to it's popularity? At any rate, I decided that I would have to take a look at it since I found out that each chapter ends with a unique curry recipe and I love my curry.

The story starts out following a young girl name Yui, who is in the habit of bringing home strays. This stray however, is a passed out, full grown man. She decided to give him some food but accidentally drops a can of pop on his nose breaking it! She simply runs away too scared to wait for any possible reaction. It just so happens that this man is looking for a friend he met in India who is the proprietor of a curry shop in Tokyo. Coincidentally, the owner of the shop happens to be Yui's father. When Mikato walks into the shop, Yui thinks it's to seek vengeance over his busted nose. Well you can guess what happens.. love. Mikato soon finds out that his friend is absent and that the curry house is going under! The story becomes a great attempt to save the curry house.

Hidden within the story are little bits of information on topics from the history of curry and the relevant spices to culinary tips.

As for the art, it's a bit busy but I enjoy it. It reminds me of the look of characters in Bleach. Actually the Mikato looks exactly like Ichigo to me...except more like skinny teenager Ichigo, not the bulky slayer Ichigo.

Chapter 1 has 40 pages and one recipe for Ground Beef Curry... I think I'll skip that recipe...

The Dark Drinks Blood by Junji Ito

As usual, the reader is in for a disturbing surprise with this Ito story. I really hadn't guessed that bats would be incorporated into a story about an anorexic girl. Nami, a teenage girl who's ex-bf has started dating a skinnier girl, decides to stop eating to "show him" swearing that she'll be the skinniest girl she can be. Nami begins having disturbing dreams about running through raining blood! In it she sees the same hand reaching out for her, full of marks. Nami soon meets an odd boy at school who says he'll diet as long as she does. The two become close until one day the boy takes Nami to see his shed behind his house. Inside lives dozens of vampire bats. The boy explains that he hadn't been starving himself after all but actually feeding his blood to his pet bats -his friends, who have been in turn raining the blood onto Nami while she sleeps in an attempt to feed it to her and keep her nourished and alive. Nami terrified, begins to run and as many hysterical characters of Ito's novels perish, the boy is hit by a car. The interesting part is how the bats attempt to keep blood flowing through his strewn body parts. I won't give away the ending.

I know how the topic of eating disorders threatens to turn any story into an after-school special but I don't really feel like any of Junji Ito's stories are cautionary tales. There never is any lesson, just random hysteria and chaos. Always a haunting feeling like there's more to the story but Ito's just not going to tell you. In the end, you really are left with only as much knowledge as the main character obtains during the horrific events. This story is no exception as the story starts out being about an anorexic teenager, and morphs into a tale about vampires.

Not all of Junji Ito's stories are full of body gore. This manga in particular had very little, but one theme of course is used and that's body transformation while usually the transformations are gory and gross, sometimes it's just a character turning into another creature or animal. However, if you are anything like me, that whole concept is pretty disturbing. Did you ever see the Dream Warriors sequels to Nightmare on Elm St when Freddie turns that athletic girl into a cockroach?? Yeah that gave me some nightmares when I was younger. Hell, that gave me nightmares like 3 years ago when I re-watched it for Halloween. I suppose this whole transmutation is a form of body-gore but I still don't quite lump it in the genre all the way. Hmm I'll have to think about that one.

Anyway, read it! Enjoy it. I love horror.

Orange by TAKANO Ichigo

The first thing I noticed when I began reading this manga, was the very minimalistic backgrounds. The second thing I noticed was boxed narration that Junji Ito likes to use as well. The third thing I noticed was that it didn't have a real polished look and for all it's minimalism there were pages that felt rather un-finished. I can't help but wonder if this is simply due to lack of experience.

Chapter 1 starts out with our main character discovering a letter that was written by her older self and sent from 10 years in the future. Yeay, time travel! The letter tells her exactly what will happen that day and explains how to act towards the new transfer student who starts class the same day the letter arrives.

I couldn't find too much info about this particular manga, only that it's first publication was in 2012 and I'm reading fan translations. From what I can gather, this was an electronic publication? I can't seem to find any info on whether it had been published in a magazine or as a single. The artist is younger than I am... damn.. and has worked on a couple other manga although I have not read them (Bambi no Tegami, Itoshi Kingyo, Shooting Star). I was drawn to this manga purely because I loved the cover image used in the reviews I read. Yes, I do judge my books by their covers even when they are online thumbnails. Shut up and stop looking at me like that...

Pluto Volume 6 & 7

Well I can easily tell you that Eplison is by far my favourite character in this series. He's not exactly the type of character I generally fall in love with. I believe it simply may be a case of having fallen in love with the way they draw his facial expressions and always display him with such kind eyes, yah and then there's that whole androgyny long, blonde hair thing that.. those who know me well, they know I got a soft spot for that sort of thing.

By this point, you have been given the understanding that a lot of people die in this series. This does not concern me as my favourite books, movies and comics are the built off the idea that there is no one main character. That is probably why I can't stop reading Pluto; a series that when ultimately recommended to me, I figured would less than entertaining. It's a good thing I tend to give everything a shot ! I hate the thought I could miss out on something truly amazing. Who doesn't love being pleasantly surprised?

I think I'll recap the whole series when I finish the last volume.. which I will be picking up shortly at the Library!

"OnePunch-Man" story by ONE art by Yusuke Murata

If you ask Wikipedia about OnePunch-Man, you won't find much. There's a tiny blurb about the artist Yusuke Murata but it mentions that he is only collaborating on a project of the same title with web author ONE. Yusuke Murata is responsible for illustrating "Eyeshield 21" which is a manga about an american football team. I have never read Eyeshield 21 but I've heard good things. I decided to check out the first issue of OnePunch-Man after scanning a thread on reddit. It was widely praised.

 I don't care for this antenna-headed character in the beginning... too.. DragonBall for me. The art style is kinda odd... I don't totally know what to make of it yet. This is definitely supposed to be a comedy right?? It has the distinct "monster of the week feeling", or in this case "monster of the 17 pages that make up one chapter".

I read the first few chapters online. As far as I know this manga is not available in North America. It looks as thought it's barely been out for a year with only 21 chapters. I suppose I'm reading a fan translation in that case. I suppose it's not that bad but I can't help but think I'm missing some meaning in there somewhere... from what I gather the story consists of a young man who can defeat any foe with one punch. This whole one-punch-win deal is getting him real down because he can't enjoy a good fight if all his opponents fail to survive the first strike. The monsters and side-characters look ridiculous but it seems to be all in jest. The second Chapter is a flashback where the OnePunch-Man is job hunting and runs into a giant crab-like humanoid. (it explains he ate so many crabs that he morphed into a crab monster) The crab-man is on his way to find a creepy looking child who drew nipples on his armour/chest while he slept on a park bench. Crab wants to SMASH! So OnePunch-Man gets to the ugly kid first and decides he should save him since we're living in the age of declining birth rates. OnePunch-Man pulls out one of the crabs giant eyes and well, he's down. They flashback to the present with an unsatisfied hero who trained so hard that he lost all his hair. A cute way to end chapter 2.

I think I will continue reading this manga... and I think I will keep you all updated.
-- 

"House of Puppets" by Junji Ito

Nice cover page. Jesus that's terrifying. There is little that I find scarier than clowns and puppets. In fact, if you call them poppets, I'll instantly wet myself out of fear.. nah, I'm just joking..no I'm not.

A travelling puppeteer carts his three children around forcing them to help earn their keep with puppet shows. The kids do get some education apparently. Apparently in Japan, it's fine to plow through schools, spending a month at a time at each one. How's a kid suppose to make any friends? Well the youngest of the three certainly isn't going to have an easier time considering they live in a truck.

Haruhiko, the youngest boy brings a friend home anyway, home to his truck and let's her see all the puppets which this little girl thinks are pretty neat. Obviously she's never been homeless before...lucky little bitch lol. She notices this creep puppet which Haruhiko explains happens to be a drench magician named Jean-Pierre. That made me laugh.. a lot.

As you can probably guess, the boys begin to suspect that the puppets are controlling the puppeteers  The eldest son runs away. Their father becomes ill and the children wonder if their nomadic lifestyle will finally come to an end.

In some years later, Haruhiko receives an invitation to meet up with his long lost eldest brother who is now rich and married with children. To Haruhiko's great horror, he finds that his brother has become a living puppet and for whatever reason this all seems very normal to everyone else. This is where things get interesting..but you'll have to read it to find out. It's 60 pages long so it's not terribly long and not terribly short. I find a lot of Ito's stories are really quite short. Anyway, it's a pretty quick read. Unfortunately, no real body gore, but puppets still freak me out... so do French magicians.

The Window Next Door by Junji Ito

This is a pretty short manga but one with some really great visuals. A boy is haunted by a freakish looking women who live next door. Her window is directly across from his bedroom window and she beckons him to come visit her. She's hideous and at first, the boy assumes he's had a nightmare, but when it happens the next night, the woman threatens to come visit him in his room straight through the window. The last visual is the best. The window is growing out of the house and slowly making it's way to the boys room. It reminds me of images from Videodrome. hehe. Sigh. I love Chronenburg.

Fushigi Yugi Volume 2

Yeah, so I read it. I grabbed it as I was running out the door. It was the smallest and closest book to me and I need to take something to read to work with me. Anyway, uh.. I guess the story is improving?? It's written for teen girls. Shojo. That's not really a bad thing, but I find the main character sooooo annoying... Now that there are plenty of characters in the book, I find her less annoying...yet still, I dunno if I'll read the rest of it. It is pretty decent brainless fun on a lunch break though. At least I'm not depressed like when I tried to read Black Hole on my lunch break...yeah.. not doing that again. Work is depressing enough without books making it worse.

I guess it's cute enough. Miako finally get back to the real world for a little bit but her best friend Yui gets sucked into the world and now Volume 3 will be about locating Yui. meh, I might read it. I've got the rest of Pluto coming to me and some older Tezuka manga. I'm currently reading Eden and Black Hole but I'll be done with those soon. Meh.. maybe I'll read Volume 3?? What do you think?