manga quick takes

Prince of Tennis #1

This is the first sports manga that I’ve read. I wasn’t expecting to find it so entertaining. A mysterious student, Ryoma Echizen, enrolls at a school with an extremely competative tennis team. He soon starts to humiliate all the upperclassmen with his unbeatable serve. The first volume hints at various storylines to be developed — romance, avenging the stalled tennis career of one’s father, peer pressure, bullying, and the cutthroat world of high school tennis competition.
It’s also an anime series.

INVU #1 & #2

This is the first manwa (Korean comic) I’ve read.

In the first volume Sey’s mother suddenly decides to move to Europe, after lovingly giving her daughter a credit card and settling her down to live with a strange family. Sey’s new brother Terry seems strangely androgenous, and it turns out that he’s a girl (Hali), forced to cross-dress against her will because of her insane mom! There’s a crushworthy teacher with a past (Mr. Cho), an attractive bad boy (Siho) who works at a gas station, rollerblades, and creepy model scouts!

The second volume continues in great soap opera fashion, as Hali becomes closer to her teacher Mr. Cho as she starts dressing like a girl and becomes more assertive with her emotions. Sey becomes more nimble on her rollerblades and learns to pump gas under Siho’s tutelage but she cannot forget her crush for Mr. Cho. What is this girl thinking? Here she has a nice yet attractively dangerous guy who teaches her to rollerblade, takes care of her when she’s sick, and gets her a part time job at his gas station, yet she remains focused on a whimpy teacher in his 20s who seems to be drawn against his will towards her cross dressing foster sister who is starting a career as a model. How will it end!!!!!??????

Please Save My Earth #1 & #2

This is an interesting series, from the cover image I was expecting something more sci-fi. The plot is very complex and difficult to describe, partly because there are so many characters and past incarnations of the characters. Alice is a shy girl with an affinity for plants who had just moved to Tokyo from Hokkaido. The comic lives up to the title, as there is a strong environmentalist theme. Alice is forced to babysit Rin, a precocious and mischievous little boy who lives next door. She starts going to a new school where she meets Issei and Jinpachi, two boys who seem to be sharing dreams of a previous existence where they lived somewhere in outer space monitoring the earth. Alice becomes drawn to the story that Issei and Jinpachi are dreaming while Rin struggles to get her attention.

Please Save My Earth mixes slapstick comedy and romance. The dreaming/reincarnation storyline grows more complex as the students on earth find their lives becoming more entwined with the people they dream. It’s also an anime OAV in addition to being a multi volume manga.