I want it Wednesday

I decided to post some manga today for I want it Wednesday. My students are crazy for manga and I'm trying to find more titles they would like to read and I want to try.

Goong is one title I have been looking at for a while. Here is a summary:

Monarchy ended long ago in Korea, but there are still other countries with Kings, Queens, princes and princesses. What if Korea had continued monarchism? What if all the beautiful palaces which are now only historical relics were actually filled with people?! What if the glamorous royal family still maintained the palace customs?! Welcome to a world where Korea still has the royal family living their lives! Only for this one high school girl, Che-Kyung, this is a tragedy, since she has to marry the prince who apparently is a total ...well you know!

Be careful who you love

Bride of the Water God Volume I caught my attention so I decided to give volume II a go.

Everyone is back in volume II and this time things are heating up with Soah and Mui. But the problem is she is married to Habaek, who is a child. How can she stay faithful to her husband(the kid) when she is starting to fall in love with Mui? But, could Habaek and Mui be the same person?

Once again we have the colorful casts of gods and goddesses, including Habaek's mother who stops by for a visit and she brings trouble with her.

As with the first volume the art in this one is great, and I really enjoyed it. But as with volume one not much happens. It appears that manga is pretty slow compared to American comics. Still, something in this series has caught my attention because I bought volume III on Amazon.

As I read this series it is geared towards the ladies. I don't think men would enjoy this at all because there isnt a lot of action. There is a lot of angst though.

I'm looking forward to volume III

I'd like to suck your blood

Cross Academy has a Night Class and a Day Class. The Night Class consists of beautiful vampires. The Day Class has humans. The humans do not know that the Night Class has vampires.

Yuki Cross is one of the school's guardians and it is her job to keep these two apart. She does a pretty good job of things, but it is a difficult task because the humans are attracted to the vampires and the vampires want to feed on the humans. Added to the mix is Yuki's growing attraction to one of the vampires.

So why are vampires and humans living together side by side if it only means trouble? Well, I wasn't too clear on this, but I think the head master brought these two species (if you can call them that) together so they can learn to live side by side.

The story was entertaining and I liked it but it isn't a must read, in my opinion. Also, if I was told one more time that there were two classes and that the classes had to be kept apart I thought I was going to throw the book across the room. I got it the first five times, there was no reason to beat me over the head with it twenty more(ok, maybe I am exaggerate but not by much). I hate it when the author thinks that I'm stupid.

I can tell there is going to be romance, fighting, and maybe some killing in this series. I have no doubt that this will interest some students. I was able to get volume II from the library so I'll read that one and see if I'm sold on the series or not.

Has anyone read past volume I? Did you enjoy it?

Can a God love a mortal girl?

Soah is a young woman who must be sacrificed to the Water God Habaek. Her village needs rain and the only way to do that is for a a pretty young woman to die. Soah is the unlucky winner.

Once in Habaek's kingdom she meets some unusual characters, and some with some dark secrets, including the Water God himself.

While I enjoyed the story I felt that there wasnt a whole lot going on, but thats typical with manga. There are all these little secrets and you can't find out what they are until you read the next volume. I think the premise is a good one and I'll pick up these to see what else happens in the series. To date there are three volumes.

The first two pages are color, showing Soah in her wedding dress which is a beautiful red. I wish the entire book would have been in color becuase I think it could have been breathtaking. But, since its manga its in black and white. The illustrations are nice and I really enjoyed them. This also reads like a typical book(left to right) not like your other manga titles.

I think teens who are looking for a little romance in their manga will enjoy this novel. There is some sex in it however so it may not be a wise purchase for school libraries. It isn't really graphic, but I'm wondering if this title should end up on my shelf.

Overall, a good read. I'm looking forward to the second volume.

It's manga time!

In my quest to read more manga I decided that Bizenghast looked like something I might be interested in so I gave it a go.

Dinah is a teenage girl who lost her parents in a car accident and is currently living with her aunt in the rundown town of Bizenghast, MA. Nothing ever happens and Dinah is slipping into madness. She sees ghosts and is haunted by them.

Vincent is her only friend and together they sneak out of her house and go to a local cemetery. Its there where Dinah is forced to release restless sprits ...or else.

To be honest with you I have no idea if I liked the book or not. Does that sound strange? I mean the premise sounds interesting. The art was nice. Dinah is in a new outfit almost in every panel and she looks like a goth girl. However most of the book deals with her releasing spirit after spirit after spirit, which gets old quickly. I was wondering where the rest of the story was. Things seemed to pick up towards the end though, so maybe there is hope for this series.

I borrowed the next three volumes from my local library and I’ll give a report on them later.

I like the idea about a young girl being haunted by ghosts (supernatural and her own demons), but I’m not sure about this book yet. So I can’t say if teens will enjoy it or not.

My first Manga Experience

This was the first manga book I read. Now I won’t lie, I was one of those confused people trying to read it like an American comic book. Thank god I read it in the safety of my own home so no one would laugh at me.

Anyway, Emma is a work of historical fiction which means there are no crazy fantasy elements to the story. The book takes place in England during the 1890s, I think. It could also take place in the early 1900s. But that aspect really doesn’t matter. Anyway, Emma is a young maid working for Kelly Stownar. One day Mrs. Stownar has a guest and that is William Jones who is a very wealthy young man. The reader learns that after Mrs. Stownar’s husband dies (very soon after their wedding) she gains employment as Mr. Jones’ governess. William is taken by Miss Emma (oh god no not another wealthy man falls in love with a poor girl story!) But yes that is what we get as the reader experiences their awkward blooming romance.

The author, Kaoru Mori, is said to have studied countless hours for this book. She researched her heart out! Oh really? First off, if you want to say you are 100% accurate then you better back it up, which Ms. Mori cannot do. There are a few inconsistencies throughout the book, but I’ll only list three.

We have William giving gifts to Emma, which would be quite scandalous. The only time people were allowed to give gifts is when they were courting, and these two aren’t courting. Plus with the social divide I’m not sure how they could court but I'm sure that's explored in later books As the story progresses we have Hakim, one of William’s friends come to England. Hakim decides one day to ride an elephant through the streets of London. Yeah, once again we have historical accuracy.

Now, maybe it’s me. Maybe I’m just a bitter historian who hates it when people say things are historically accurate ( *ahem* The Luxe / Emma) and then they don’t deliver. Don’t get me wrong, if you don’t care about the little historical hiccups along the way and just want a fun read then…don’t read this.

I’m not sure where the story is going but I found it really tiresome and old. This had been done a million times before and frankly I don’t want to read about another rich guy falling for the maid.

If teens are looking for a non fantasy love story with historical details then this maybe for them. American readers don't see these types of books, and that's one thing I do like about manga. The Japanese market, unlike the American comic book industry, are reaching out to female readers.