Daydream Sanctuary Features

Sunday, September 12, 2010

A Dozen of Random Shoujo Manga Series that Rock, Suck and... are Okay

Before I used to post about a manga I recently discover almost everyday. Lately I don't but... honestly, the new manga I check out still increases in number! @_@ I'm beginning to find it troublesome to post an entry for each... even in batches of five (like the recent ones) because they're really really so many O_O;;; So I thought of a new method. For new manga titles that don't have that much chapters out, I'll include them to a batch of twelve. For those with more titles, then I'll cut the batch in half. I'll also only be posting the images of those I highly recommend ;P The list will always be arranged according to favorites, with the most favorite on top then to the least favorite (or hate) down at the end. So here goes:

For this batch, I've been putting together all the shoujo series (in which I've read only 1 chapter, except for J+K, which is 2 chapters) that I've read recently (of course not all of them just this weekend. Some are even last month).
ZeroSum series are usually categorized as josei, because the plots are more complex (and hell better than your average shoujo).... either that or a mix of shoujo and shounen, because the action scenes are awesome enough to be categorized for the action boys ;D But I'll be classifying them as shoujo, since they're more aimed to females anywayz. Moreover, the stories aren't as deep or mature as the many officially josei series that I know. Besides, a ZeroSum mangaka has considered her work shoujo, so I'll stick to that. Alright, here goes:

:: THEY ROCK ::

A boy claims to be a reincarnation of a queen of a foreign country... unfortunately no one believes him... except for one girl who's into fantasy. In their school, it has become a custom for some upperclassmen to bully those in lower years. Our main characters become targets later... our heroine spoke her mind while our hero fought back, which is unexpected for a laidback guy. He had decided not to rely too much on the magic he learned from his previous life and continue to live as an ordinary schoolboy.
I LOVE IT!!!!!! Though I'm honestly more interested in Veronica's life, Minami's life isn't that bad either. I love it that he didn't rely on magic to fight against the bullies, and he only used it to get back to the person who got him into trouble in th first place (there's no room for martyrs! Revenge is sweet~ Haha!). I love Minami, and also Kamioka! I love girls who show it when they're pissed off and try to get along with the "weird" people not because they are "new students" or "she's just trying to be nice to everyone", but simply because she believes they have the same interests. That's very nice~ And hopefully the other characters in Veronica's era will be revealed soon, especially the bishie who seems to be her love interest (if not her relative). SQUEEEE!!!!! I LOVE THIS A LOT!!!! xD

Their boarding school seems ordinary in the surface but is actually rich in urban legends. Two of the main guys meet a mysterious little girl who wants to have her dog "fixed". They promised to do that for her, and they were given a pile of rocks with only a vague sketch for a clue. They eventually meet a sculptor who can "fix" the dog for them, but unfortunately she actually hates dogs. Then one of the main guys suddenly started to have visions of the mysterious girl and an actual dog... she repeats that she want it fixed... and that she hated some woman. The leading guy collapses and the chapter ended with that cliffhanger.
I adore slice of life-ish series with a group of guy friends because their interactions are usually so adorkable xD It totally got my humor, I enjoy reading it xD Among the characters, my favorites are Tulli (oh his jokes! And he's abusable xD) and Yan (Yay! Supernatural boy!). The story's quite messy though (I don't get why the connection of the two meetings of the main duo's not explained.... and what's with the leading guy suddenly having psychic visions =_=) but the mystery got me intrigued~ Gah! Evil cliffhanger!!! =_=

The leading girl is very very busy because she has been helping out in so many clubs. She's very nice; she seems happy and all.... but she has blames herself for a tragedy that happened in the past. She finally finds a friend who was involved in that incident... and tries to chase him... but she prioritized the boy about to be hit by a huge vehicle. She got hit... and the one she's chasing tried to save her life.... by biting her neck!
I have been avoiding vampire love stories because the recent ones that I know of are either crap or becoming crap! Fortunately, this series has a huge chance of not heading to the wrong direction. Story's doing good so far and I'm very intrigued with what happened in the past and also the nature of the vampires in this series. Our heroine's likable; she may be the usual saint but at least she knows how to fight and speaks up her mind. The leading guy's your angsty tsundere though.... but he reminds me of the leading guy from Seirei Produce so I can't hate him, haha! Moreover, there are TWINS in this series. I.CANNOT.RESIST.BISHIE.TWIN.BOYS.SQUEE~

A bodyguard was hired by a king.... who doesn't want to be protected! Bodyguard gets annoyed but also intrigued on the reason why the king does such, especially when he found out that the king still visits the graves of all those who protected him! So later it has been revealed to him that the king hates people dying on him.... to the point that he is doing his bodyguard's job when they were attacked... costing him his right eye. This time bodyguard promises to protect him.... and become the king's right-eye.
There are other royalties who don't like being protected and having their bodyguards sacrifice their lives, but at least this king is capable of kicking ass, not a fragile self-sacrificing idiot. And I like the bodyguard dude... and I love it that he's abusable! Haha! And I believe the doctor's crack... a doting daddy! I'm so fond of them, haha!


:: THEY'RE OKAY ::

Crash!
The leading girl has the ability to detect people who have celebrity potential.... which is through her nosebleeds! Her mother, who works in an agency, asks her to use her skills once more by finding recruits at the park. Miraculously, she was able to spot a group of boys... enough to form a popular boy band! She faints form too much nosebleed... and failed to get their names. But luck has come to her doorstep when one of the guys came to the agency looking for more work opportunities.
The nosebleed thing reminded me so much of Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge xD I know the nosebleed thing in this series is pretty stupid... and it's so obvious that the leading girl is gonna be romantically paired up with the "bad boy" bishie.... and it has cliches like meeting all the main bishies in one go for some coincidence..... BUT IT'S SOOOO AMUSING!!!! And stories of this type usually have the heroines wanting to become idols themselves, not recruiting them. Hehe~ This was such a delightful read~

Iiki no Ki
The young master finds a boy with an ogre mask in the ruins. The ogre boy later became the loyal servant and friend of the young master and his fiancee, who apparently is an orphan from a witch clan. They had a little sword practice and when the servant got injured, for some reason the fiancee is more concerned about him than her boyfriend. Master gets mad, servant boy takes the blame. Then one day he sees the girl outside, who seems to be possessed, telling him about his ogre side... very vaguely. Then later the master comes with a psychic mistress, and she foretells that ogre boy will be the cause of the fall of the capital.
The young master's amusing and crazy. The ogre boy's frighteningly adorkable. I love those two~ But the rest is MEH! Oh gawd, it's not as creepy as it seemed (or maybe my annoyance to the leading girl overpowered the eeriness of this series to me). And a love triangle to complicate things? "Great"! Oh well.... I don't remember lasting long in reading Kaori Yuki series.... I think her oneshots are better.

Tsumitsuki
Demons, called the tsumitsuki, eat people who feel guilt for their sins from the inside. The chapter's heroine's friend, who is apparently avoiding her, has become a victim of the monster. A mysterious boy named Kuroe had been warning her about it, but she still wants to help her friend. But it has become too late to save her friend, Kuroe kills the friend, and he later reveals a surprising twist of why the friend became like that and... also that the heroine will be his next meal.
I liked the story (especially the twist! Our main character's a bad boy who acts like someone who wants to help out but in the end is the type who can manipulate people to his advantage~) but not the story flow... I mean, he just appeared out of nowhere! He also pops up in the girl's school. Err... character relationship development please? Nonetheless, it was an interesting read. And I love it when stories that promise to be tragic are really tragic~

Ayahatori Shoukanjou
Our heroine can summon spirits, and the one she summoned in the chapter is the leading guy, who is a very unwilling spirit. He doesn't like being a servant but since she's her master now, he can't do anything about it. She doesn't want to be treated such anyway, because they're friends to her. Yes, one of those typically angelic heroines who summons servants to become her "friends" but they will later become her super loyal bodyguards and, of course, love interest. It has been like that with our leading guy. But at the moment our heroine has an obvious crush to her senpai... just to make things complicated and for the sake of a love triangle. Later chapters will most likely continue the bad spirit fighting and the "complexity" of the relationship of the main characters.
The bishies are really really really pretty (especially the senpai! He's even in a prince charming-ish costume) but it just had to cover almost all the supernatural shoujo cliches, making it extremely boring and annoying. Surprisingly, it's quite tolerable. And at least the heroine didn't annoy the hell out of me. Hopefully the cliches become less in later chapters, because those are the only things that degrades it x_x


:: THEY SUCK ::

Kiss Me Host Gumi
Leading girl transfers to a new school... where the host club is freakin' popular. She doesn't get the hype... and accidentally ruins a poster which made her forced to work for the host club. She doesn't like her job, and is very open about it. She loathed the host club business more when she learned that the love being spread in it isn't true love. She spoke her mind but got backfired for making a speech about something she has no experience of. She mopes... leading guy, who is apparently the no. 1 host, tries to comfort her.... and kissed her.
Oh gawd... no matter how you look at it, it's an Ouran wannabe. However, it's nowhere close to Ouran's level of awesomeness. I like it being weirder and more violent, but I'm not liking how it's planning to represent "true love". And oh boy, the main couple had a kiss this early, and seriously... I can't see the necessity of kissing a depressed girl =_= The leading guy will definitely be encountering problems on his position because of the leading girl's existence. Ugh... I find this so lame. The art's not that pretty anywayz =_= Meh.

Stardust Wink
The leading girl is failing in getting a boyfriend because she's still close with her two male childhood friends. She can't imagine being in a romantic relationship with her childhood friends... but since one of her friends got a girlfriend, she doesn't want to lose! So she was so happy when she finally becomes successful in getting one later.... but her friends promise to be there if something came up.... which did happen. Her prince charmings came and she broke up with her boyfriend. In the end, one of her friends finally had the guts to be honest with his feelings for her.... yeah, he asked her to become his.
I like romances with childhood sweethearts but having it as a love triangle is something I'm getting really sick of. I also abhor the "getting a boyfriend is the most important thing in life" idea... uuuuggghhh.... And it was totally not a surprise that the two boys are gonna be romantically connected to the girl... love triangle's just gonna make their relationship more "complex" to have some drama here and there.... and also to make the story longer. *yawn* I admit it got me giggle but still.... this is CRAP. What's the title got to do with anything in it? =_=

Shouri no Akuma
The leading girl transfers to a new school because of financial issues.... but her new school has become too weird for her. She received a warm welcome from the weirdoes but they're so different from her that she finds it hard to get along with them. She's also very upset when her hobbies are insulted and when people don't understand her. Nevertheless, the other main character (whom the leading girl finds really really beautiful) doesn't give up in making her part of the family. The charisma of this mysterious person encouraged her to try to get along.... and still trying.
I find Akira awesome but OH GAWD THE LEADING GIRL IS ANNOYING TO THE CORE! Fine, she's capable of speaking up her mind... but she just blurted those out. She's so emo... BUTTHURT EMO... and of course she cries easily. I like her passion for literature but she's very boring... and her being annoying makes my hatred towards her even worse. And honestly, the folks in the school aren't really "weird", just people doing what they want and quite rebellious to the usual school rules. They are pretty wild, but not as weird as the manga is trying to imply them as. Anywayz, that's just a minor flaw from the way I see it. Everything could've been nice if it weren't for that leading girl, who's incredibly unbearable. Ugh... I BLAME HER! Thank goodness Pika Ichi's heroine's nothing like her.

Royal Straight
It's about a princess, who has no traits of being a royalty at all, and wants to visit her mother's birthplace, Japan. She doesn't wish for publicity so she stays in an average family's place like a transfer student. There's a boy in that house.... of course he's a bishie. They are like polar opposites and "don't get along" because the bishie is mean. But of course, later we find out that he's actually a nice and caring guy... and the girl falls in love with him. Now we have a problem... and drama and emo stuff will come very soon.... boohoo
Typical shoujo crap, of course I hated it! It was really difficult to find something unique or cool about this. I like tsundere bishies but he's too predictable.... and the leading girl? So lame to the core.... not to mention annoying and pretty whiney. Oh just die. Gawd, I was hoping that there would be cards stuff because of the title. But there was none. And it was more horrible than your average shoujo. Uggghh

5 comments:

railtracing said...

The bodyguard one sounds interesting. :3

Is there a female love interest for the bodyguard? Who would you say to be the main character? O.o

Kencana said...

Thank you for the recomendation. I've already read Shirogane no Ou. It's quite funny.

abandonedfactory said...

Well I checked out Bokura no Kiseki, and it was an interesting beginning. I liked the fact that Minami was sort of between being naive and wise. As his current incarnation, he needs to grow up and use what he learns, but he has the advantage of having seen life once before, so he can draw on those experiences as well.

cheezy said...

D: Usually I'd put Ayahatori Shoukanjou under "They Suck". But your list of "suckiness" makes that title look so much better.

And yay! Finally Bliss released Bokura no Kiseki. I buy the tankoubon for the series, so I find it really sad that nobody knows about this awesome manga... \o/

Sapphire Pyro said...

@ railtracing
If ever dear bodyguard will have a love interest, knowing Zero-Sum, it would most likely be either not canon or just one-sided canon, ehehe.

@ Kencana

No prob~ And yes, it's really funny xD

@ abandonedfactory
YES! I saw that in Minami too *_* He's such an interesting main character~ I got spoiled in a later chapter and it looks like this series keeps getting better *_*

@ cheezy
That's the reason why I didn't put it under the "suck" category xD Hehe.

I've been dying to know about Bokura no Kiseki's story ever since I saw it at WARD xD I'm so grateful that Bliss did it *_* Can't wait to get my hands on the tankoubons *__*

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