Heaven's Will, vol. 1 (END)

Heaven's Will volume 1 (of one)
Satoru Takamiya
Viz (Shojo Beat), 193 pp. $8.99
Sudou Mikuzu has a very special talent--she can see ghosts. And because of this predisposition, she's become a magnet for all sorts of unwelcome monsters. Luckily for her she's just met Seto, a friendly, cross-dressing young exorcist. Sudou needs protection from all the creepy phantoms bugging her, and Seto needs to practice his exorcism skills. Consequently, the pair decides to team up and help each other. In return, Sudou promises to bake a cake every time a ghost gets zapped!

I admit this book has potential. Lots of it. For a oneshot, I would have thought this would have been turned into a series because it has so much potential. But because of being a oneshot, it seems to fall flat in the end.

Sudou is your average teen, except she can see ghosts, spirits, oni and the like. When she meets Seto, a crosdressing exorcist, a friendship is formed. He protects her while she draws spirits to him and bakes cakes. Along with their friend Kagari the vampire, they exorcise spirits!

I admit I thought this was going to be something like Ghost Whisperer or Twilight. But I was proven wrong. This has elements from them, but it is it's own story. It works out well for a oneshot. We also have a very interesting back story with Seto and how he wants to bring his sister back using his body because she died saving him.

The characters are great. They're very well designed, and have good personalities. Sudou is your average teen, but she's scared of most things, including ghosts, oni, boys, and pretty much everything she doesn't understand. Seto is a caring crossdresser who wants to bring his sister back to life by getting a "change", and Kagari is a stone-faced, monotone vampire. They're all very interesting and developed for a one-shot.

The art is great. It's very pretty and illustrates the tale well.

The publishing is good. It isn't nearly as good as Del Rey's or as bad as Tokyopop's. It's somewhere in the middle. There's a translation note here and there, but they aren't in the back. They're scattered around the book as footnotes.

Art: 4.5
Characters: 4.5
Quality: 3
Story: 3.5

Overall: 3.8. It really goes that extra mile by having a really interesting back story for Seto. I really think this could have turned into a series, because the ending isn't as satisfying as it could have been. B+.

Gaba Kawa, vol. 1 (END)

Gaba Kawa (Loosely translated to "So persistent it's cute)
Rie Takada
Viz, somewhere in the 160-180 pp. range.

Young demons Rara Yamabuki and Bibi Kurosawa come to the human world in order to do evil deeds and become full-fledged demons. Rivals in love, they search for the legendary demon, Hiroshi Akusawa, in order to win his heart though they don't even know what he looks like. While Rara is standing on the roof, classmate Retsu Aku mistakenly believes she's going to kill herself and grabs her, "flying" down with her to safety. With that, and hearing him called "Aku," Rara believes him to be Akusawa, but later learns he is just a normal human and that Akusawa isn't nearly as desirable in person. When she uses her power of flight to aid Retsu, which causes her to lose the power forever, Rara realizes she has fallen in love with him. From Wikipedia

This is your standard supernatural-romance shojo. It's light and fluffy with a bit of comedy, but leaves you feeling empty in the end. I guess you could compare it to cotton candy, but that is better than this.

Where to start? If the back cover (which I didn't post this time because it might spoil the book for you) doesn't explain exactly what happens in the book, nothing does. Even if you don't, the story is predictable. Rara was sent here to Earth to cause micheif and become a full demon, but ends up falling in love. That's common for a shojo story. It's not that great for a well-read shojo fan, because you've all seen it before.

We've got your standard shojo antics, such as crossdressing to get closer to the boy, attempting to protect the boy but failing in a cute way, and the love rival causing trouble for the main character. Nothing special here that you couldn't read in about 10 other different shojo manga.

And the less-than-stellar ending didn't help either. It came way too soon, with the story's overall feeling becoming a darker tone for the last chapter. Really, I thought this would have been a better series if the last chapter didn't screw up the pacing.

The characters aren't likeable. Maybe it's because Rara is stupidly-persistant for loving a boy that she hasn't spent five minutes of quality time with or that she's simply a bit annoying. Bibi is your standard shojo love rival, and Aku is your standard tall-dark-and-handsome bishie. There personalities aren't fleshed out enough, even though there's time to do that. Nothing special here either.

It was an okay publication from Viz, nothing special. The paper was average, and the translation was okay. The only complaint I had is maybe pricing it a bit lower than 8.99 because it's a oneshot. Maybe they could have put it at 7.99 like their Shonen Jump line.

The art wasn't special. Maybe it's because I didn't enjoy the art that much in Happy Hustle High, or maybe it's a different problem, but I didn't think the art was spectacular. There's also an over use of chibi that works well the first few times for comedy, but like boob jokes, chibi's become stale over time.

Art: 2
Characters: 1
Quality: 3
Story: 1

Overall: 1.75. I'm not sure if that's an F or a D-. Even though there's been mixed reviews of Gaba Kawa, I'm on the negative side. Not recommended. If you're looking for a decent oneshot with supernatural elements, romance, and well fleshed-out characters, check out Heaven's Will.

Don't even bother buying this. Many libraries in my area got this back in March of this year, so if you have the urge to check it out, search for it in the Library catalog.