Fairy Tail 1 / Fairy Tail: Blue Mistral 1 / Fairy Tail: Ice Trail 1

by Hiro Mashima / Hiro Mashima and art by Rui Watanabe / Yuusuke Shirate
Hennepin County Library, paperbacks, approx 200 pages each
genre: YA manga fantasy action

I really, really dislike manga. But I have students who *love* it, so I continue to read and consider their recommendations. I have very little money to spend, so I am really not in the market to invest in a new series this year.

Fairy Tail - the usual boobs, big eyes, fighting, and strange noises. Wizards, powerful objects, and magic guilds. Lucy connects with Natsu and Happy (his cat with wings sidekick). The storytelling is meh. This is just not something I enjoy. I did like the author's choice to explain honorifics and his choice to include them in the story.

Fairy Tail: Blue Mistral - more of a middle-school version. The witches are 12-year-olds. I didn't read the whole thing because I got the gist of the story from the Fairy Tail original. "She may only be 12 years old, but Wendy Marvell is already a member of the magical guild Fairy Tail, and a powerful dragon slayer wizard. Even so, she's a little nervous when she sets out for the town of Nanalu for her first solo job: to discover why some of the locals have been mysteriously disappearing!"

Fairy Tail: Ice Trail - I read almost half of this one. Lots of fighting. Much, much more fighting. Nano Leaf is a girl who can speed up time inside an egg (that's her power). The evil Chrono-guy (don't remember his name) wants her to quickly incubate a demon's egg so he can continue with his evil plans. The mysterious boy who has the "magic of freedom" gets involved in saving her and defeating the bad guys. When the most evil guy is released from a high-security prison and he releases all the other prisoners, telling them to murder the guards . . . I decided I'd had enough.

If I had a LOT of money, I think I'd buy the Blue Mistral series . . . but I think students would like the original Fairy Tail the best.

Soul Eater

by Atsushi Ohkubo
Hennepin County Library paperback 200 pages
genre: YA manga, adventure

I read this based on a student's recommendation. I only read a portion of it . . .same old, same old. Fighting with loud exclamations, a child-like babydoll character, a busty and shapely (and nude) adult woman, . . . I don't really understand why some of my students read so much of this. I am happy to provide as many graphic novels (and even manga) as my budget will afford, but I simply don't have the money to start a new series. (And if I did, I wouldn't choose to spend it on this.)

From the back "Maka is a weapon meister, determined to turn her partner, a living scythe named Soul Eater, into a powerful death scythe - the ultimate weapon of Death himself!" The story prologue opens with Soul Eater eating his 99th human soul and needing only to eat the soul of a witch to become a death scythe. It doesn't get better after that . . .

Kazumi Magica 1: The Innocent Malice

by Masaki Hiramatsu
art by Takashi Tensugi
Hennepin County Library paperback 144 pages
genre: YA manga, adventure, magic

I got this based on a student's recommendation. I hated it. I asked the student what it was that she liked about it. "The adventure, trying to help people."

It is geared to a middle-school audience (based on the main characters, who are far more physically developed than most middle school girls but identify as middle school). Three girls can do magic and turn into super-fighters with special powers. The story opens with a girl in a suitcase, naked. Yeah.

The story develops that a female police detective was trying to increase her rank and esteem, so she planted a bomb, kidnapped Kazumi, removed her clothing (it's never clear why), put her in the suitcase, and set up an elaborate switched-suitcase scheme.

I don't like manga in general - the art, the exaggerated facial expressions, the back-to-front reading. The reason I buy as much of it for my collection as I do is that it is popular and some readers absolutely devour the books! I don't think I have money for this title. I'd be more likely to buy the Black Butler series (requested a few years ago).

Sixth grader (Class of 2022) was S.I.M.

Vampire Knight

by Matsuri Hino
Dakota County Library paperback less than 200 pages
genre: YA manga paranormal romance

Surprisingly, though this one had the creepiest cover, I liked it best of the four I read recently. The school in this story has day classes and night classes (for vampires only, though that's top secret). Two students are members of the disciplinary committee - making sure students don't go in the wrong place at the wrong time. Yuki Cross (who looks shockingly young for so much responsibility) and Zero Kiryu (hot & older, naturally) have a strange mix of attraction and frustration toward one another.

Kitchen Princess

manga by Natsumi Ando & story by Miyuki Kobayashi
Dakota County Library paperback 200ish pages
genre: YA manga romance

I actually kind of liked this one - it's emphasis on food anyhow. Shocker - there are two boys interested in the same girl. The girl looks waaaay too young to be interested in older guys (she's middle school; they seem older teen / early 20s). I liked the drawings of the different desserts and the recipes at the end.

Story basics - Najika is in the Seika Academy and entered in a baking contest. The youngest contestant there, the academy's director points out that she's the daughter of two famous (but dead) pastry chefs. He basically wants to use her for marketing for his school. She's in love with one of the director's sons, but the other son is interested in her too.

Gakuen Alice

by Tachibana Higuchi
Dakota County Library paperback 200ish pages
genre: YA manga, fantasy

Sigh. In this one, best friends Mikan (looks like Alice in Wonderland) and Hotaru are separated when Hotaru goes to a special "Alice" school. Heart-broken, Mikan decides to go find her. Lo and behold, the school is for students with special giftings (called "Alices" - even for the boys). Turns out whiny Mikan has a special talent, too, only she doesn't even know what it is.

At least this one had some suspense and adventure in it, but it still isn't my cup of tea! I'm trying to find something that will meet the needs of my girls who keep asking for The Black Butler (because he's hot, basically, in a graphic sense of the word).

Land of the Blindfolded

by Sakura Tsukuba
Dakota County Library paperback 202 pages
genre: YA manga paranormal romance

"Kanade can sometimes see the future and Arou can always see the past. Even with the chemistry they feel, it's impossible to forecast what will become of their relationship. Adding to the tension, Namiki (a new student who can also see the future) develops a crush on Kanade."

My reactions to this (and other manga of this style):
1. I don't really get it or like it.
2. Why is the female drawn like a little girl and the guys drawn like hot teenagers? That's just creepy.
3. What is it with the female crying like an idiot every two seconds?

Nuff said.