Manga Books

Well, someone beat me to this review and wrote a very good summary so I'll keep it short.
This volume is the best one in my opinion in terms of story, character interaction and the art (greatly improved).
It's got a lot of humor even though it is dealing with serious issues and the stories are once again well developed and interesting.
I'm just hoping the rest of the volumes come out faster (not in June...I can't wait that long)!!!
Bottom line: worth EVERY penny you spend :)

I love the story between these two lovers. I agree with the other reviewers that this couple has all the same problems that other couples have. They ask themselves am I good enough? Can I make him happy?

But I did find Ran a little insecure in this one. After eveything that he and Kei have been through to think that Kei would just dump him for a woman. I think that the second time Ran thinks Kei is cheating on him, Kei should have said, "Fine, leave if you think I think so little of you as to throw all the time we have been together out the window along with all the memories and love."

I love Book 1 and 2. Book 3 is just as enticing. The translation is solid. Ran and Kei are simply endearing and my favorite Yaoi couple. I am not too fond of Kai but Masa is intriguing. Too bad Kodaka decides to pair up Kai and Masa. I would have prefer Masa to have someone more compatible. Oh well!. Book 3 has 3 stories. First 2 are on Ran and Kei, which are excellent. The first one is comical yet tender. The second one is my favorite. Ran and Kei are forced to question their relationship. Will it stand the test of time? Will they be able to remain true to each other? Kodaka does a great job despite the limitation of words in a manga. She even manage to inject some comical moments in a serious subject. Ran's doubts and Kei's response are beautifully depicted. And of course the erotic sex scenes though the rape scene is a trifle disturbing.
The last story on Kai and Masa is a trifle sober but manage to justify to the reader Masa's love for Kai. Do yourself a favor and get Kizuna. Meanwhile I am impatiently waiting for books 4 to 6 which the publisher has announced to be released in 2005.

uwa! finally! together at last! kind of... very nice! i like kizuna bacause it proves that even the perfect couples are psycho sometimes ^^ haha

If you are a Kizuna fan, then you know what I am talking about when I say that this story line just keeps getting better. I am happy that she is finally giving us more on the romance between Masa and Kai. I have been waiting on that couple for a while. It is a bit angsty but getting there. I totally recomend it.

Compared to Vol 7, erotic sex has somewhat toned down in Vol 8. But for us fans, sex is no longer "a must" in Kizuna. Volume 8 is about overcoming one's haunted pasts and it is beautifully written as Ran and Kai are forced to face their ghosts. Ran has been quietly debating to take up Kendo again, a sport he loves but is forced to give up due to an accident which left him half paralyzed years ago. Kai is haunted by his own rape during his captivity years ago, a scar which suddenly surfaces while Masa tries to make love to him. This scene is all the more touching when Kai realizes his own terrible action upon Ran (Vol 1 remember?). Kai's remorse, Ran's comforting words and Kei's quiet eavesdropping is my favorite scene in this volume.
So how do Ran and Kai conquer their demons ? By challenging each other in Kendo, of course. And I do salute Kodaka for her remarkable story telling skill in this.
Love is certainly not lacking in this volume. Far from it. Ran and Kei is such a loving couple. Kei is certainly Ran's anchor from the moment Ran decides to take up Kendo again till the end of the fight. And Masa's pain as he realizes Kai's hidden scar is a most touching moment.
This is a most stirring and meaningful volume. And I hope bebeautiful will give us the remaining 2 volumes this year. Sadly the Japanese tankoubon is only up to Vol 10 as the brilliant Kodaka does tend to drag her feet.

This is a awesome book and is totally funny. the characters are creative and likable. I really hope Sana and Akito end up together (that would make me super happy :>). If you are in the mood for comedy buy this series, it's super hilarious, and makes me lol. Sana and Akito sittin' in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G. Hee hee hee.

I just got done reading this, manga book. Ya, I know it's been a long time sense I've writen a review. But it's all my friend Meghans fault she took so long reading it. Now she taking to long reading the seventh one.But back to the review. It's a must read mange. I'll even give you a sneak peak where they last led off Naozumi's fans attack Sana up in the moutains at the shoot. Well they brack her leg you could say, accually she only gets a crack in his leg, but it is bad. Because they have to film around her, when they can't do that any more and they have to flim the last part of the flim. She goes in and sits down on the x they had there for her.They then start the house on fire and when she's suppose to get out of the house her leg give a sharp pain. She fell to the floor and everyone was worried about her that she wasn't coming out. But she gathers up the courage to get out of there and when she comes out of the house Mr.Ono is so happpy because she got it perfect, he said if they did it again it wouldn't come out that good. You must buy it and read it. If you liked the last book and it left you on the edge of your seat this one will too. So you gotta read it.I hope my review helped you make your chose of buying it or not.

In this book, we see how truly strong Sana can be work-wise. When a rowdy impediment injures her, she still carries on. During her trials she remembers the people who care about her and their voices. This really helps her through the impediment she faces. In other fields, however, well...she has to deal with those. It's hard to heal a broken heart, and Sana is forced to learn that at such a young age.
Here's a no-brainer: some people get their hearts broken. However, contrary to what I expected, I actually felt their pain and sorrow. The emotions are deep in this book; I was surprised. Of course, nothing can ever be too serious around Sana. Comic relief is ever present!
Naozumi grows up in this book. He does some chivalric gestures for Sana. Of course, Sana being Sana, she doesn't see it the way that Naozumi intended. As Naozumi says, "I hope someday she understands." So do I. Sana may be mature at times, but she can be innocent too.
A love revelation- and then some.

I cannot stress this enough: fantastic read!

Kodocha is an incredible series that anyone who likes manga-style books should consider. Unlike most of the mangas in America, it is not bloody and gory. It did have a Teen rating for language. The language isn't terrible, it is just that it comes out in strong bursts instead of sublty scattered through the whole book. It is a love story, but it is an incredible story for either gender that just about anyone will like!

Life or death sitution. Akito searches for a kid(Kazuyuki) about to commit sucide in a forest. Will Akito be killed too?
What will Sana do?

find out in book 8!

There are no words to describe how much I love this series!!! I cannot believe that more people do not read manga!!! ...Well, I won't give ANYTHING away! YOU will just have to read it for yourself!!! ... oh PS. if you like Kodocha you should read MARS!

This is a must read manga, this was the first manga I strated to read, my friend Karleen kept on saying that I must read Kodocha and I finely got to, so far I'm going to be starting the 6th book there are ten books in all so I hope to read them all. So far only nine of the ten are out, I'm hoping by the time I need to read the 10th one that it's out instead of waiting for it like I have been. But back to the story it's amust read for all Kodocha readers or for any one starting out on manga, like I said this was the first manga I started to read, now I'm reading al sorts of manga, it might happen to you too, but you buy this book first then you can enjoy the romanca, humer, and serousness on the inside.

Awesome book in all! I just got it yesterday and have read it 3 times! I have absoulutely no complaints about this book. The translations are some of the best out there, great drawings, emotional conflict is very realistic, everything's just great! ^__^ These are definite page-turners so beware! I just bought #5 today but I haven't read #4 yet so I have to becareful not to look ahead but it's drawing me in, I'm too stubborn though! I recommend this to the practically the whole family, if you're looking for a few tears and a lot of laughs try this. I guarantee that you'll love this.
Hope this review has been very helpful!

First off I just wanted to point out that the description that Amazon gives you for the book is actually discribing Volume 2. That aside, Kodocha is a great series. It actually makes me laugh out loud. Sana is absolutely insane and it's great. In fact, pretty much all the characters in this manga are insane on some level. It's much better like that isn't it? After reading Volume 1 i thought it was just a cute manga that i would get around to finishing eventually. But after i picked up Volume 2 I fell completely in love with it. Not only is it funny but it's adorable. The relationship between Sana and Hayama is so sweet. Needless to say I will be buying alot more of this series alot sooner than planned. Oh and here is the real description for Book 3:

It's the season of family crises in Sana's world. Her school friend Tsuyoshi, the mama's boy, is now fatherless after his parents got divorced and his dad won't acknowledge him. The real bombshell drops when Sana's mom releases a new book that reveals shocking details about Sana's past. But in Kodocha, even the most shocking incidents take a turn for the bizarre, and this time is no exception.

La Esperanca has a very cute ending here. There is a bit of tension with a soft release. Very cute (not yaoi, only shonen-ai) and I must admit to liking side characters better than the main characters (love Henry and his friends).

Another great title in my collection, I enjoyed it from the beginning to end, At first i thought this was just another BL story in which the uke is weak and stupid and the seme is a drama-queen who falls in love with a boy that resembles his dead girlfriend. But no, this took a great twist with our guys' personalities and their situation that I even cried and felt bad for them afterwards. The developing of their relationship is slow but that's what makes them very realistic compared to another titles where the seme and the uke get together very quickly because they have to and that's it, in this story you are able to feel the emotions as you read.

In my case, I could feel their love, fear, confusion and sadness whenever they were together and it is not often that just one kiss (there're only like 2 or 3 kisses throughout the whole manga)can have a great impact on the reader that a sexual situation is not necessary and could even ruin the beautiful moment that our endearing boys are having. Needless to say, I was very satisfied with this shounen ai manga, the main and side characters are all very likable, they will make you laugh, cry, jump of happiness, and feel so overwhelmed with all kind of emotions like i did.

Ever since the first volume this series has held me in angsty suspense; the story itself is beautifully written and you feel for every single one of the characters, for all of them have depth and harbor insecurities and it's wonderful to see them work through it as the series progresses. As for this volume it surpassed my expectations and has become my favorite of all of the volumes since everything finally reaches its climactic end with everyone having given closure to past hurts and growing from the experience, especially Georges and Roberts relationship. All in all this has become one of my most favorites series ever!

Godai isn't having a lot of luck finding a job so he's starting to get a little desperate. After all, how can he take care of Kyoko unless he's got a good career....doing something. After pursuing various options with his family, he gets a part-time gig at a resort, not knowing that the whole Maison Ikkoku gang is coming to visit! The main part of this volume deals with Godai becoming a student teacher at Kyoko's old high school, and ironically, just like Kyoko fell in love with her teacher, Godai too picks up a female admirer among his students, a girl named Ibuki Yagami who's willing to do anything to wiggle her way into Godai's life and usurp Kyoko from his heart.

Rumiko Takahashi is not only a master of action manga like Inuyasha, she is a master of realistic romantic comedy. There were some scenes in this book that made me just outright laugh, which happens very rarely when I read. Rumiko has a expert sense of pace and storytelling and her layouts really flow. Most people can relate to this volume because everyone at some point has experienced or been the target of a crush. I don't know for sure whether Yagami really loves him or not, but I think not. I also like this series because it illustrates a lot of Japanese culture. Classic manga.

Godai is still doing the student teacher thing, and Yagami's fascination with her wishy-washy teacher escalates to new heights. She goes to Maison Ikkoku and refuses to leave, wanting to sleep in Godai's room. Of Course the ever jealous Kyoko will have none of this and has Yagami sleep in the manager's room. Yagami who is much more frank with her feelings than Kyoko confronts the lovely woman about how she feels about Godai. Of course, Kyyoko can't come clean with her feelings, and remains silent. Yagami takes this to mean that Kyoko has no interest in Godai, so this further causes things to go haywire. Yagami later corners Godai in the gym equipment storAge room wearing only her underwear, and later moves into Maison Ikkoku when she has a fight with her father over her feelings for Godai, chaos insues of course. Then we have Godai turned down for job after job poor guy. read this, enjoy this, suffer along with Godai.

Our lovesick, long-suffering hero, Godai winds up teaching at an all-girl high school where the object of his yearning desire once attended (and attached her first husband in the very first place). This heart-rending irony continues when a lovestruck young student decides to chase the handsome Godai all the way to the ends of the world. In fact, this stinking rotten little girl even denies her own self-respect and the respect from others when she cornered her victim wearing only a bra, forced her way into his room, manuipulated and abused her dear old father into giving him a job at his company, and plain just drove poor young Koyoko (and Godai as well) up the wall. The kid's dad seems like a gruffy, heavy-breathing orge who looks ready to eat up any male who would dare to go near his only daughter, - but actually, he turns out to be such a docile piece of putty in the dainty hands of that mean little creature. A real nice touch of Lolita-complex twist in the endless mating ritual between the ever-hopeful young Godai and the lovely dark-eyed Koyoko.

I liked the first in the series, but I really loved the second a lot more. The "relationship" between the two main characters is different and complicated, but it keeps you reading wanting to know more about them; I loved that it wasn't another typical lovey-dovey BL book. It's just what I've been looking for.

In this book, we start to get a deeper look into the minds of some of the characters. Yes, perfect! I love a book that delves into the darker aspects of the mind, and I certainly hope to see a lot more of it as I read more of the series. Some of the characters you thought you'd pegged from the first book are turning into entirely different people, which is fascination to watch. I love it.

I thought that, in the first book, the translation was a bit choppy, but there was a much better flow to it in the second. Sooyeon Won is not only an artist, but a writer and a storyteller, which unfortunately is often hard to find in manga.

I'm so happy with this series and am excited to get the next book. I'm definitely going to make room on my shelf just for this series; I have high hopes for it.

This volume is a little slower than the first...
But this is mainly because the focus isn't set on Dai and Jaehee(?)(forgive me, I'm horrible with korean names). They definately have their moments, but the story delves a bit more into the other characters. Though it is interesting to see what happens with Jaehee's (ex?) girlfriend later on. This is what I perceive as 'slower', because I want so badly two see what happens with the two boys.

Their interactions are like a careening rollercoaster ride... and two of the wheels have just popped off!

vol 3 is fast paced agin, giving us a lot of Dai/Jaehee coverage :)

Volume 1 was a shocking discovery.
It's made me create a new shelf space of Korean mangas
("Manhwa"). Looking forward to it.

This book is a great resource for how to draw action in a manga style.

It goes step-by-step into the dynamics of speed lines, structurin the body to show movement without speed lines, Body mass differences, and how to add the quirky manga attitude to your characters.

A simple line drawing can become an action-pact drawing with the use of this book.

-Dash C. B!AM

This book is wonderful! Like all the other let's draw manga books, "All About Fighting" covers everything within its topic and much more. This book has every fighting style from fistfights to virtual reality battles. My favorite part of this book is the character design part, which shows tricks to designing characters, and also shows different kinds of characters and their traits.

Some things included in this book are, costumes and uniforms involved in fighting, various poses involved in different fighting styles, a mini weapons encyclopedia, and short mangas (comics) with almost every fighting style to help interpret the use(s) of the style. Overall, "Let's Draw Manga: All About Fighting" is an excellent source of reference and inspiration.

I think this book is a must buy for artists who want to pursue a job in manga making or if you just want to learn to draw a totally awesome fight scene. It substitutes having to take lessons from a teacher (even though I highly doubt you'll find one), and when it comes to what you can to do with this book, the possibilities are practically limitless! I would recommend this book to anyone who would be willing to listen.

This is an excellent book that has a wealth of detail, drawings, and information related to various kinds of combat in manga. There are sections on unarmed combat, armed combat, uniforms and costume design (as it relates to combat), supernatural (ala DBZ) combat, monster combat, robot combat, and even animal combat!

There are a number of short 2-6 page manga that illustrate various points, and are decent examples of composition. Where this book really shines, though, is in the "Weaponless Fighting" and "Weapon Fighting" sections. There are a wide variety of techniques from various styles of fighting presented, and each section also includes a brief guide to designing characters for action manga.

The book's only shortcoming is that it rarely shows more than one or two views of a particular attack type, but given the scope of the book, that's understandable.

I highly recommend that beginning to advanced artists interested in the manga style acquire this book. For beginners it gives good information on techniques and tricks, and for advanced artists it provides a wealth of reference material.

Now, this was my first Let's Draw Manga book, and I wondered what I would get out of it, but as soon as I opened it, I was amazed. The art is amazing, it shows you things you would not even consider, and it's not even just about Fantasy, though it goes into a great deal about it. It doesn't just throw you into the world of Fantasy. It makes sure you know the basics b4 you drown in all the knowledge that may be ahead of you. It's really great for beginners. I, personally, am not one, but needed a reference for different fantasy worlds (Feudal Japan and Medieval Europe, for example which this book includes), so this book is an amazing reference book for those who are intermediates and experts as well. With that said, it's for anyone and is well worth your money.

This book is wonderful in so many ways. I was a bit skeptical when I was about to buy this book. Not because of the cover, which is cute by the way, but because I have at least 2 books from let's draw manga, and the books are ok, but nothing to fascinating. I was totally wrong about this book! I love everything in this book. This book is a good foundation for those growing imaginations, as well as expanding imaginations to help feed your ideas and make you manga even better. This books contents includes:

Chapter one: Let's create some characters!...

1. Drawing human bodies
practice corner
planning page

2. Illustrating human sized characters
Western style-medival characters
planning page/ let's draw western-style
medival characters
sci-fi style
science fantasy character illustration
asain-style characters
Planning page/let's draw asian-style characters

Chapter 2: Let's establish our world!

1. Creating a western medival world
Let's illustrate our western
medieval world in color

2. The world of science fantasy
Let's draw a picture board

3. Creating an asian-style world
Let's illustrate our asian-style world in color

Chapter 3: Enemy and supporting characters!

1. New relationships
Planning page

2. Let's create enemy monsters
Sample drawing/ color process

3. let's create friendly monsters
planning page
drawing process: digital color illustration

Fantasy variations
drawing process: black and white illustration

Chapter four: Magic and eguipment

1. Weapons and armor

costumes
weapons
accessories
2. Magic and magical equpiment
medival
science fantasy
asian
let's digitally illustrate a magical scene

Chapter five: Let's draw fantsy manga!

steps:
1. Ideas
2.Ecstablishing the plot
3. story boarding
4. drawing and inking a draft

Manga " the spring seekers"

Chapter six: Author illustrations

All in all, I think this is a fun and interesting book. It is a good foundation to start you off in your manga processes. I difintely recommend this book! It is a total steal. Plus there is no nudity at all in this book, so those of you who are offended by nudity, this book is right up your alley!

I have a collection of How to Draw Manga books, but this was my first Let's Draw Manga and I love it. Simply put: The book is extremely well done - no skimping on the art quality (what you see on the cover resembles the inside art, if not better) and excellent color graphics. It is probably for upper-level beginners and up as far as details in how to draw.
There are six chapters, each with about two subsections. The chapters are:
Let's create some characters
Let's establish our world
Enemy and Supporting characters
Magic and equipment
Let's draw fantasy manga
Author illustrations.

There are body shapes that you can photocopy (intelligent move by the authors), very detailed descriptions, CG instructions(which are great), background development and explanations, character designs and costumes, and finally a book with a good proportion of male character information (which I find hard to get out of the How to Draw Manga book series). It is almost like a compilation of the many of the How to Draw Manga books. Well worth the purchase. Useful. Great addition to collection.