Otomen is one of the funniest manga I have ever read. Ever since I saw it in Shojo Beat Magazine, I just had to have it, even though the cover of the first volume is indeed really really lame. The covers after that however are absolutely amazing, playing on the fact that Asuka Masamune is an otomen or in translation a man that has girly interests.

When Asuka was a young boy, he had very girlish hobbies. During that time, his father ran away from his family and right before he left he told his son and wife that he was going to go and become a woman. After that, Asuka's mother made him swear to give up girly things or else she would die. Asuka took up kendo and martial arts and then years later when he is in high school he is known as the cooliest, manliest, toughest guy in high school. Not only that, he's pretty good looking too so all of the girls usually fall for him. The upside is that he's not a jerk, he's actually very gallant and is always nice to every single person. He still keeps his secret of being girly in his stomach however. He's a guy who likes girly things. Asuka ends up meeting the new girl. Ryo Miyakozuka looks very feminine, but in truth she's more of a guy than Asuka! She can't cook or sew or anything! Asuka falls for her and his girly side shows when he's in love. Soon he and Ryo become friends and even sort of start dating (it's not officially said but Asuka has said so many times even if Ryo did not confirm). Along with Ryo, the only other people who know he is an otomen is his friend Juta Tachibana. They all cope with him being an otomen.

The manga is very funny and it has the occasional moment of love between Asuka and Ryo. The story line is upbeat and it keeps you going, never does it go into a "traditional" shojo manga thing. It is shojo, but it is nothing like the other shojo manga where you can predict what is going to happen before you even read the manga. It's original and the art is pretty good too. The only instances where I don't like the art is when the artist has scenes from Yamato's (Yamato is a minor character) imagination on how Asuka is suppose to be and it goes into serious old style shojo drawing which to be is just yuck. Haha. But those don't occur that often and the art is very good. This manga will be something new and totally fun for all readers since the main character is a boy, but not only is he a boy but he's an otomen coping with struggles on what to do.

After seeing Switch by Naked Ape so many times in stores, I finally bought it. It always did look interesting and the art is pretty exceptional, but I never picked it up until last month, and now I have over 10 volumes! Haha

Switch is about a rookie drug investigator named Eto Kai who partners up with Kurabayashi Hal. They are sent to investigate drug cases and they often go in on the scene projects. They don't work behind desks, they are sent after the drug dealers and the druggies to take them down. They often go undercover and have different names. Kai can't really remember his past and he has a "switch" personality. When he gets really hurt, he changes to a completely different personality. He's usually a very nice guy who's a bit of an idiot at times and Hal always calls him "good for nothing", but when he switches he becomes totally sadistic and likes to hurt people. Hal and Kai are both in the Kanto Narcotic Control Division, and the division is tracking a specific group called Ryugen who's selling a new type of drug called Dragon Speed. Ryugen always seems to be able to avoid them though, and the drug problems in Tokyo are bigger than anyone thinks. The drug dealers are all targeting people who already have a weak resolve and attack them.

Overall this manga is very very amazing. The thing I like best about Switch is that Kai doesn't "switch" all of the time. We're lucky if he even switches in a volume! Kai switches about once every two or three volumes, and sometimes even four, and that's what I love. It's not like Rosario + Vampire where the main girl switches in every single chapter, Kai barely switches. Now there's a main storyline underlying all of the mini story lines in the manga. The mini story lines are all about the current drug problem and how the division is dealing with it, but the main story line is still about the Ryugen. I love this manga because it's not what anyone expects, you can't exactly predict what's going on or what's going to happen and there's a lot of psychological problems in it which makes it exciting. There's also a lot of action, so I recommend it to everyone.

Wow, I'm just bringing on the reviews today huh? Haha. There seems to be a lot of good manga out there. Reading manga on a Sunday with nothing else to do seems pretty good. The first chapter of Momo Lover by Mitsuki Miko just came out four days ago.

The manga is about a girl named Chieri (cherry) who comes home one day after being confessed by two hot guys. They both chase her home and say they love her and ask her to go out with them. One of them is Shirou Hanabe the student body president, and the other one is Koyomi Kimishima, the smartest guy in school. He's number one. After she rejects both of them, she finds a baby in her house and a note from her sister Ichigo (strawberry) telling her to take care of her baby Momo (peach). The two guys followed Chieri home and they stay at her house and she lets them, the baby seems to like them both a lot. The baby seems actually like a perverted baby who only likes good looking men. Haha. The two guys fight over who should be the baby's dad since they think that it belongs to Chieri. Troubles arise when some old dudes come to the house asking Chieri to give up the baby. Chieri doesn't know why they want the baby, but the note from her sister said to be careful and not let anyone take the baby away. The two hot dudes come out and then scare away the bad guys. They find that the baby is missing then they go and find her. They find that she was just crawling around outside and then both of the guys offer to stay at her place to protect her. She doesn't really accept but she doesn't reject either.

The story is actually very cute, and the art is very very well done. Of course, the whole love storyline is a bit cliche since it's the two best looking and successful guys in school falling for the same average girl who lives alone and is not that good but is very hardworking. The interesting thing is that Chieri doesn't like either of the guys and she always says how unlucky she is that the two like her. I like how she thinks it's unlucky since it's a bit different. Kind of. Now with the whole baby issue it becomes really different. This story seems a bit cliched at parts, but most of the time it's actually pretty original. It seems pretty good so far so anyone who likes cute manga, this is very good.

I've decided to review the second series for probably my favorite manga of all time. I have always loved Prince of Tennis, so I'm reviewing the second season which just came out last year around this time. New Prince of Tennis by Konomi Takeshi.

The story revolves around the U-17 camp that everyone goes to. Right after the Nationals, Ryoma Echizen went to America right away. The 9th graders are about to go to high school, but before they do they go to the U-17 camp. It trains middle and high schoolers from all over Japan. It trains them so that they can be on the All Japan Team. A tennis team for Japan that will compete with other countries all over the world. Most of the high schoolers already at the camp get booted out because with all of the middle schoolers there's no more room. So instead a helicopter drops about 250 tennis balls from the sky and anyone who doesn't get a tennis ball won't be in the camp anymore. The middle schoolers, instead of just taking one ball, gather a bunch of them, leaving zero for most of the high schoolers. Only the best high schoolers get the balls and the ones that did get them are about a million times better than the middle schoolers. Ryoma comes back from America to join in the camp. Everyone is told to pick a partner at the camp, and they all pick their friends thinking that it's a doubles thing, but they all learn that the partners they picked they'll be playing against, and the loser has to go home! After the matches, the losers, instead of going home, get taken to a mountain. They're told they have to climb that mountain if they want a second chance. Once they get there, they find the high schoolers that got booted out training under an old drunkard.

The storyline is pretty good considering this was the continuation of the first season. I like how they started off about a few months after Ryoma left. However, I would've liked to see what the Seigaku people would do when they were in high school already and I wondered if Ryoma would just appear back again. It's a good sports manga that would be great for anyone who was a fan of the first season. Also, it has some unexpected twists to it that will keep you wanting to come back since every chapter leaves off with a cliffhanger. Most people will like the main character's cockiness since he's so young instead of him being insecure. The manga is updated every month with two chapters since only two chapters do come out every month in Japan. The only problem is that the chapters are very short.

So today I read all of the chapters for the manga Stepping on Roses by Ueda Rinko who also did Tail of the Moon. I had decided to read it because I saw that it was just recently released in the United States by Shojo Beat.

The original name is Hadashi de Bara wo Fume translated to Stepping on Roses. It's about a girl named Sumi Kitamura whose older brother Eisuke leaves the family in debt because of his gambling during the Meiji Era. He does have a job for dating older women, but he always gambles the money away. Eisuke constantly brings home children that are orphaned so that they can have a home at his and Sumi's tiny hut. People come by the hut threatening to sell the children away if the family doesn't pay their debts and the rent. Sumi decides to go and sell herself, but then she meets the famous Soichiro Ashida who promises her that he'll give her all the money she needs if she marries him. The only thing is that it will be loveless marriage and he says that they are not allowed to fall for each other. Soichiro is the head of a big company who needed to find a wife to be able to inherit the company. Sumi finds it hard to live as a lady since she's really nothing more than a poor commoner who couldn't even read or write. Soichiro's most trusted servant Kohai teaches her to be a lady and become her friend. Sumi struggles with her feelings though, not only for Soichiro but also for his best friend Nozomu who had given her a bit of money when she was poor so she could buy medicine for one of her sick siblings. Nozomu falls for Sumi and Sumi has some mutual feelings for him, but she also has feelings for Soichiro and she is also married to Soichiro. After she stops having feelings for Nozomu, she falls deeper for Soichiro but trouble arises because Nozomu still wants her and people are out to get Soichiro's position as head of the Ashida family.

Over all the story has a nice vibe to it. It shows some brief nudity but nothing serious. The story has a very nice balance between eastern and western themes. It is set in the Meiji Era, but most of the rich families seem to follow western ways, even wearing western clothes. Sumi is like any other girl in any other story like this one. Of course she is poor, but she also has an amazing good heart and a sweet personality. She always thinks of others before herself and she is incredibly naive about how things work in the world, but she is also hardworking and tries her best at everything. That is the only bad thing about the characters though. Sumi seems very . . . cliche for this sort of story. Soichiro is very mean to her and he only thinks of himself in the beginning, but of course he too starts to fall for her after a while because of how she is.

The only bad thing about this is that you can sort of predict how the main girl and guy get together and their personality seems very obvious too at the same time. Now the different thing about this is how some of the other characters are. You expect Nozomu to be overly friendly and try to woo Sumi in a slow way, but instead he moves way too fast and eventually seems to be so obsessed with Sumi that he seems kind of crazy at the same time. Now the characters develop in a nice way, and it's not too repetitive. It is a bit like other stories, but at the same time it is very different. I recommend it to anyone who likes this kind of story and any shojo fan.

Wow, already in a day and I'm setting up another blog. I thought that since my other blog is all serious and everything, I would do something a little bit better, a little bit more fun.

I will be reviewing both shonen and shojo mangas. So don't anybody worry about favoritism or anything.

I did start this because I've been reading a lot of manga lately, and I thought that people would want to know what some people think about manga. I'm not trying to persuade anyone into reading or not reading a manga, it's just that if I was the reader I would like to know people's opinion on a manga too. Like what if the majority didn't like it? There's a good chance that I wouldn't either.

So I just wanted to make a manga review blog.