Amefurashi, vol. 1

Amefurashi The Rain Goddess, volume 1
Atsushi Suzumi
Del Rey, 221 pp.
Available here.

I got this one the day it came out. I'm not sure what it was that made me want to get this...maybe it was the sassy girl on the cover? Or maybe it was the fact that it was by Atsushi Suzumi, the creator of Venus Vs. Virus? Either way, I'm glad I picked this up.

The story is about average. It has it's weaknesses, but manages to be unique in a way. Gimmy is on a mission to save his younger twin brother and sister because they accidentally shipped themselves off to the Rain Goddess. So he has to get them back from the sassy goddess Sora. Along the way, there's another goddess that wants to get in Sora's tree so that she can control the rain.

It works out pretty well, except for the few weaknesses. One of them is Sora's story. There really isn't any reason why they send up gifts to Sora. Yes, after that it does rain but why? Why would you go send dolls up to a goddess? Another is the plot itself. It's fairly predictable.

The characters are great. Gimmy is much like Watanuki from xxxHolic, but isn't the same character. They share similar traits. Sora is a very sassy and somewhat immature goddess. Just about everyone else other than the two main characters is cookie-cutter, from the twins to Daryl, the parental figure in Gimmy's life.

The art is by far the strongest point of the book, which is very good. It's got detail and still fares well during action scenes. The characters are drawn very well, with costume detail and expressions that stand out.

The publication is great, mainly because it's from Del Rey. This book is extra thick, coming in at 221 pages with just the main story and a few notes with sketches. It has the extras, translation notes, and has a decent (but untranslated) look at the next volume. These are the great things that make a worthy publication.

Art: 5
Characters: 3.5 (Bought up to four point five by the mains, but taken down by the cookie-cutter side characters)
Quality: 5
Story: 3

Overall: Rounded to a 4. It's an A. It's a good, short shonen story that's only two volumes long. Your mileage may vary if you're used to reading long shonen and don't enjoy short ones. If that is the case, you man not enjoy this title to it's full extent.