Daydream Sanctuary Features

Saturday, May 7, 2011

[101 Oneshots in 2011 + Manga Discovery] Short Stories by Odagiri Hotaru, Kamaro Kikuchi, & Takagi Shigeyoshi (Feat. Demon 72)

I had mentioned on my review of the FLAGS manga that the mangaka should pair up with an author for his new series because even though his drawing skills are cool, his storytelling isn't. As if to answer to my demands, this manga had showed itself to me:
by Mizunaga Yoshinori and Ueda Satoshi
3.5 Hearts ('coz it's sooo my type xD)
What drew me into this manga is that its plot has references to the Lesser Key of Solomon, which totally reminded me of a favorite series of mine, Makai Ouji: devials and realist. And while reading it, seeing the relationship of the two main characters reminded me so much of Kuroshitsuji (young master + awesome demon), which is yet another favorite series of mine xD A combo of a shoujo manga and a shounen manga in a seinen manga... that had me so intrigued xD
Anywayz, I still think my two favorites are still better (or at least more addicting ;P) than this one. Nonetheless, this has been really interesting and cool in its own way~ I'm so loving this manga~ Wheeeee~

Alrighty, that's the new manga I've discovered to share in this post. I'm still addicted to checking out new titles but now I'm focusing on those that are complete for manga challenge this year, hehe. I'm starting to catch up, and for this entry, I'll be posting the recent oneshots I've read ;D

Majority of these oneshots weren't really... errr... you see, this batch consists of oneshots of the following mangaka: Odagiri Hotaru, Kamaro Kikuchi, & Takagi Shigeyoshi.

I had read Odagiri Hotaru's and Kamaro Kikuchi's oneshots because I THOUGHT they were titles of a series ^^; It turned out that the tankoubon that I was reading which were by them were actually oneshot collections o_O As for the ones by Takagi Shigeyoshi, they were included as extras in the Hana ni Arashi tanks, so I just read them since I enjoyed Hana ni Arashi anywayz. Bara to Dangan, however, is the only oneshot in the batch with "reading a oneshot" in mind, hehe.





~ ODAGIRI HOTARU ~

Snow Snow Melody
a guy got inspired to become a songwriter after hearing someone sing
C+ (NOT BAD!) 2.5 Hearts (NEUTRAL)
It was quite predictable and the leading guy's too stupid to be true o_O So many stuff here seemed typical or shallow, nonetheless the characters are okay. Story's nothing great but not bad either. It was a nice read.

Don't Worry Baby
a guy's in love with his friend who has a brother complex
C+ (NOT BAD!) 3 Hearts (LIKE)
I didn't expect this to have BL romance because the brother complex was a nice distraction to it, haha! The characters lack so much background, especially the dark haired dude. More info on why the hell the dark haired dude fell in love with his friend in the first place would've been nice.
Even so, I'm happy that there hadn't been any angst and stupid jealousies. Things were realized soon and peacefully, and this hadn't been mushy either (not even a kissing scene). I enjoyed it, hehe.

Difficult Love Journey
a guy wants to confess his love to his crush, but his crush doesn't let him
C (AVERAGE!) 2.5 Hearts (NEUTRAL)
The crush being so relunctant even though he's so obvious got me really annoyed.
But it was nice to see the other guy serious enough that he'd aim to win in their agreement/competition than go angsty on not being able to see his love for more than 24 hours (the other one felt uneasy though when that happened though. yeah, he misunderstood and made wild conclusions... but it's his fault why that happened. then now he goes drama? pfft).
There's nothing really special about this series, but it's okay.

Sayonara no Riyu
lovers are being separated by their parents
C (AVERAGE!) 2.5 Hearts (NEUTRAL)
Nothing much happened on this thing... lovers just got their last moment together, get separated, then that's it. They emphasized so much of parents being the bad guys, which turned me off (this is usually my problem with romances with the "against all odds" themes... they put a blame on everyone against their relationship).
Nothing eye-catching in this manga for me. The pool scene might be lovely to the perverts though.



~ KAMARO KIKUCHI ~

Akuma ga Hallelujah
honor students in a religious schools are being targetted, and the bad boy's the prime suspect
C (AVERAGE!) 3.5 Hearts (LOVE)
Manga with religious references always grab my attention, haha!
Anywayz, the heroine's quite an example of a discriminating fanatic (all ye who look like the devil should be punished!) but watching the leading guy abusing her had been hilarious that I forget my annoyance towards her, haha.
So many in this is honestly SOOOOOOOOOOO PREDICTABLE, and oh the coincidences of the leading guy being so right on time to rescue the heroine.
Despite its cliches and other flaws, I find the idea of a delinquent being reformed in a religious school through that method pretty interesting. Most likely the moral of the story would be something like "you don't need to be a religious and well-mannered individual to be a good person".
Oh well, I don't care if it's too typical. This oneshot was really really enjoyable to read xD I like this author~

Vanilla Beans Love Pink
leading girl wants fluffy stuff but she still looks lame no matter how much she dresses up
C+ (NOT BAD!) 3 Hearts (LIKE)
Thank goodness this heroine is being sad about not looking good in pretty clothes rather than having a boyfriend. She's more of just a dreamy type of girl, who would really love to be a character of an ideal fairy tale romance.
To my surprise, she did have the "bishie of her dreams" date her O_O
But of course there was a twist. And many things here had been VERY predictable.
Nonetheless, it was a really really sweet story~

Lover's Laboratory
rich girl makes a desperate (for money) chemistry member to make a love potion for her
B- (PRETTY GOOD!) 4 Hearts (ADORATION)
The part when the leading guy didn't give a damn on hurting the girl for the sake of A COIN really got me, bwahahahahahahahahha xD
The idea of a chemistry loving dude agreeing to make a love potion for the girl seemed really stupid at first, but him doing it for money made sense.
The girl's pretty stupid for thinking that chemists do love potions though. But you see, she eventually became serious with the guy and worked hard to continue seeing him, even when she found out that he was just fooling her. She didn't waste her time on too much angst when she found out about the horrible truth about her love... and even when things have gone bad at her house.
She was once a heroine who is just bored with her life, but later became the admirable type (though she's still stupid). There's character development *tears of joy*
The guy had such too, just not as obvious. Their story had been very sweet~ I really really love this xD



~ TAKAGI SHIGEYOSHI ~

Jikou Kokyuu no Hitsuyou
girl does "CPR" to a guy who's actually just sleeping because she thought she was dead
C+ (NOT BAD!) 2.5 Hearts (NEUTRAL)
It's unusual, which made it pretty interesting, but I really can't connect a girl kissing so many people to be actually serious on someone x_x I don't see what made her like the leading guy so much.
Maybe she had gone crazy because of what she had gone through... to the point that she can't differentiate kiss from CPR o_O That's quite bizarre... but that's what made it unique and pretty interesting for me~ The romance seemed nice..... though quite vague, ahaha.

Futeru Ondo
a student hates being touched by other people, except for his beloved sensei
D (HORRIBLE!) 1.5 Hearts (HATE)
I admit that I'm not a huge fan of student x teacher romances but... oh geez, this is just unbearable. The leading guy's so annoyingly emo, and couldn't admit that his "feelings" for her only started when he enjoyed being touched by her. He realizes himself later that his someone's touch had nothing to do with his "sensitivity", so what's with his sensei obsession all of a sudden =_=
I was already applauding when the teacher said that he's just seeing things immaturely, but my headaches returned when I saw her being jealous.
Guh, this is stupid.

Bara to Dangan
longtime bodyguard partners got separated for the first time on the recent mission
C+ (NOT BAD!) 2.5 Hearts (NEUTRAL)
I honestly only got attracted to this because of the art and because I thought there were two bishies doing sexy poses on the cover (the other one turned out to be female, I was surprised, ahaha!)
Anyway, actually, this oneshot is MEH. The story's quite a mess and the characters are underdeveloped. I think I would've liked the dude who adopted the main characters though, but he didn't get to do nor show up much. Guh.
What made it deserve a C+ in my opinion, you ask then? Well, it's the TWIST. I find it pretty good~

2 comments:

Kencana said...

So far, I like Bara to Dangan and hope it would be longer. What make me like this : The heroine actually nice and not typical hot-headed or clumsy. She can passed as a boy!

Sapphire Pyro said...

The heroine of Bara to Dangan isn't the typical type, but I didn't find her that interesting either. (in other words, I find her bland.)

The hero, on the other hand, is the typical shoujo heroine who happened to be a bit boyish, wild, and well, male. He annoyed the hell out of me =_=

The oneshot had been more on the characters then with the story, so I don't mind it not being a series despite the pretty interesting premise. Unless the mangaka changes the characters, maybe. But I don't think the mangaka is good with fight scenes (as what I see in Hara ni Arashi), so.... naaah. I think the mangaka should stick to comedies.

Post a Comment