manga

I've been a bit sad since my relatives left, so I bought a bunch of manga.

Nakamura Yoshiki's "スキップビート" is my favorite so far. The art and story are highly enjoyable. It's all about revenge, and self-discovery. Not revenge in a "I must revenge my parents' death" kind of way though. It's more of a "You asshole, I'm going to become a greater star than you since you crushed my heart" type of revenge. So not too sappy, and the character is pretty smart and resilient.

"赤ずきんチャチャ" is pretty funny, but I actually like the little author's notes even better. That author is hilarious! She has this one note about cutting her hair short, and how it made every day an adventure. Her alarm woke her up, and she fell back to sleep automatically. The second time she woke up, her hair was sticking up like Vegita from Dragonball (this guy who's hair sticks up like a candle flame, coming to a point in the back). She has a mirror at the foot of her bed, and she looked at herself and woke up instantly. Then she ran through the house to show someone her hair, so that it wouldn't go to waste. Hilarious. Having trouble finding volume 4 on the used book stores. Chacha's kind of stupid though. I'd rather read about a smart heroine.

"やまとなでしこ七変化" is pretty darn funny, but the female character is weirder than she is strong.

I also picked up "パンプアップ" by UEDA Rinko. It was cute and I enjoyed it. The female characters were ok - the first one was pretty strong. I really like the way she draws guys.

I bought "Blue Wars", also by Nakamura Yoshiki, which is kind of funny because the protagonist is a gay muscleman of a high school kid, who loves gardening. It's interesting, but more funny than deep.

I checked out a manga by the author of "ネバギバ！". While nice, "愛っていうのは" (or something like that), especially the cute second story, the female characters again aren't that strong. Persistent though. Persistence is good.

I bought a NASU Yuki book "天使とダイアモンド”which I bought mostly because it's NASU Yuki, the author of "Here is Greenwood". It looks like a bit of mystery and supernatural stuff, which she really seems to like. It's a 2 volume series. Haven't read it yet.