Yozakura Quartet Volume 1 by Suzuhito Yasuda amazon

I pre-ordered this because I thought the image of a pink-eyed girl with a guitar on the front cover looked sort of cool. I guess I was secretly hoping that she’d wack people over the head with the guitar; instead she uses a lacrosse stick. Unfortunately, someone using sports equipment in battle was not enough to sustain my interest in this manga. The Yozakura Quartet is a group of teens that have banded together to protect their town. Hime, the girl on the cover, is a superhero who is referred to as the Mayor. She’s joined by a psychic cat-eared girl, a girl with big boobs and glasses who can conjure up anything she imagines, and an ordinary high school boy.
This manga starts in the middle of the action, with no backstory or explanation as to why the 4 characters are hanging out together or why they have superpowers. I don’t need an elaborate origin story, but I would have liked to see the relationships and history between the characters fleshed out more throughout the volume of manga, especially since this was the first volume. The quartet deals with a demoniacally possessed serial shooter and a depressed kindergartener. The stories in this volume seemed disjointed, and I wasn’t surprised to read in the author notes that the chapters were originally published in a different order. I’m not sure if reordering them would have helped though. There wasn’t enough narrative flow and while I often don’t mind this in other manga. usually my interest in the characters keeps me reading. There wasn’t much to grab my attention and I had to force myself to finish reading this. The art is attractive, with a flat style that reminded me a little bit of the anime studio Bones.

I thought I’d take some time to sit down and make a list of which manga series I’m actively following:

Viz

Nana - Consistently awesome.
Boys Over Flowers - One of the nice things about following a long-running series is being able to see the art evolve. The later volumes of this series are so much better than the first few volumes.
Hana Kimi - My favorite girl disguising herself as a boy with wacky hijinks + romance ensuing series.
Fushigi Yugi Genbu Kaiden - I’m a sucker for Yuu Watase, and in many ways I’m enjoying this prequel series to Fushigi Yugi more than the original. It is a more mature work, with better characterization and a more complicated plot.
Skip Beat - I can see why the main character might be annoying to some people, but I like Kyoko’s relentless desire for revenge combined with her gradual awareness of her love for acting.
Fullmetal Alchemist -Sometimes I tend to let my volumes of Fullmetal Alchemist pile up, and then I’ll read them in one big chunk and wonder why I’m waiting to read each volume. One of the most intelligent action series out.

Tokyopop

Queen’s Knight - I like fantasy series, this one is pretty decent. From the author of INVU.
Suppli - I’m so happy there’s a new josei series to read.
Fruits Basket - Naturally.

GoComi

Cantarella - Borgia + Manga is a potent combination.
Her Majesty’s Dog - Consistently good series about a girl and her spirit animal companion.

Del Rey
xxxHolic - Gorgeous CLAMP art.
ES (Eternal Sabbath) - Great blend of suspense and sci-fi.

ADV

Yotsuba&!

CMX

Canon - Vampires!
Penguin Revolution - This series about a girl manager and her aspiring actor client/roommate is a little more consistent than the author’s other work Land of the Blindfolded.
Emma - Maids and thwarted love.
Venus In Love - I really liked the first volume of this series set in college.

Any other new manga coming out that I should be trying? Or are there any older titles I need to check out?

Le Chevalier d’Eon

Le Chevalier d’Eon features a combination of cross dressing and horror that I think one would be hard pressed to find anywhere outside manga. Eighteenth century France is afflicted with a peculiar kind of literary serial killer. Poets seem to be suddenly compelled to write psalms using the blood of virgins. The murderers are opposed by the woman who calls herself the Chevalier Sphinx, except she’s really a man! By day d’ Eon is a hapless member of the Paris police, but when evil serial killer poets strike he becomes possessed by the spirit of his dead sister Lia, so he puts on a pretty dress, high heels, and a wig in order to run around with a sword saying things like “In the Beginning was the Word!” and “Death to All Wicked Poets!” The plot of the book is somewhat incomprehensible. In addition to the evil poets, d’Eon must cope with being a secret agent to the King, and his daughter the Princess Sophie has some sort of link to the evil force behind the horrible psalms as the verses appear in backward form on her skin, and her language abilities have deteriorated to the point where she can only say the word “Palmss.” The art has a thick black line, which serves to make the evil poets look more reptilian and the blood more drippy. D’Eon spends his time in this volume going after evil poets, aided by his assistant Robin. The plot is a little scattered, and I’m wondering if this book gets better in later volumes, because the storyline and characters didn’t really grab my attention. D’Eon is based on a historical figure, and the extras in the back of the book feature a little bit of information about the real d’Eon as well as extensive translation notes.

My Heavenly Hockey Club by by Ai Morinaga (amazon.com)

Hana is a heroine after my own heart. She dedicates her life to eating and sleeping, to the extent that she studies diligently to get into a competitive high school located a few feet away from her house because she wants to cut down on her morning commute. Due to a random accident, she finds herself inducted as a member of an all boys field hockey club. The club doesn’t really play sports. Instead, they schedule away games to give them an excuse to travel around, go to hot springs, and eat local food. Izumi is the handsome and rich leader of the club, aided by the vice captain Itoigawa, the feminine looking Natsuki, and the twin Ayuhara brothers.

There are some obvious parallels with Ouran High School Host Club - both clubs feature a clueless rich leader, a devious second in command, mischievous twin brothers, and a decidedly unenthusiastic heroine. Hockey Club is a little less over the top in its comedy and doesn’t skewer shojo conventions as much as Host Club. The comedy in Hockey Club is based more on the characters’ relationships and travels although an occasional monkey or slobbering wild bear will appear from time to time.

Although Izumi and Hana might be headed towards romance, their relationship in this first volume is expressed through Hana’s habit of falling asleep on Izumi and his tendency to buy her cheesecake. If you’re tired of reading a typical shojo story about a clumsy but attractive girl who somehow manages to make 3 boys fall in love with her at once, My Heavenly Hockey Club seems like a fun and quirky alternative.