Good Mangas to Read: Saikano, Chobits, Alichino, Helter Skelter ect.
Written by Teresita Blanco (The Artsy Sister)
Saikano: The Last Love Song on this little planet Manga Review
Saikano is one of the best mangas ever written. It is about the romance between Shuji and Chise, the Ultimate Weapon. The story behind the creation of the manga is a bit odd. Shin Takahashi was riding on the bus. He suddenly saw a sign that said, “Ultimate Weapon”.
This made him think about his wife, for some odd reason. He wondered what it would be like to be dating the Ultimate Weapon. From there, he developed the manga Saikano. The story is told mainly from the point of Shuji. He is the narrator for most of the manga.
From time to time, Chise has her own voice. This one is usually illustrated in the forms of her diary page. The first Volume did a decent job in developing Chise’s powers. As the manga progressed, Chise got bigger and stronger as a cyborg.
Another nice thing about the manga was the clothing. Chise got a wardrobe change from time to time. Shuji too, except that he was a guy; so, he did not get changed into something that far out. Aside from turning into a robot, Chise had a lot of hot action going on. It was a real mess.
The manga spent a lot of time illustrating the tragedies of war. The manga did a nice contrast between Chise’s school life and her war life. She was trying to live a normal life, despite her cruel existence. Overall, it is a pretty cool manga, especially with the apocalypse references.
Chobits Anime and Manga Review
Chobits was an interesting manga reading. The anime show was meh. The show was stretched a bit to fit 24 episodes. The anime show also did not illustrate all the lovely dresses worn by Chi. Chi was a little doll.
Her twin sister had a creepy name and personality. Freya certainly shows the problem of giving computers A.I. It would be nice if in the future people got PersoComs that look as pretty as the robots from Chobits.
This will certainly make people take better care of their computers, or something like it. In the new and improved version of the manga, Clamp added a few more dresses here and there. The details for each dress were drawn with much detail. It was truly a pleasure to just look at them.
The little side stories about the other maidens were pretty interesting. However, I found it odd that Chi’s mother threw her in the garbage. The reason for doing this also did not make any sense. Plus, why did Chi’s father place the turn on button in such an odd location?
Alichino Vol. 1-3 Manga Review
Alichino is one of the best drawn mangas ever made. The artist takes forever to draw each page. All the characters sport beautiful dress. Then again, this is the norm for all except the main character. Tsugiri has only worn something interesting in the cover of the first volume.
All his other attires have been a bit banal. On a side note, this manga has only three volumes. It does not seem to be getting a new volume any time soon. The creator apparently broke his drawing hand. The recovery process does not seem to be going well.
In any case, fans must not expect a new volume in either this decade or the next. This is truly a pity since this was quite the beautifully drawn manga. The best story was the flashback with Hyura. He was one of the most handsome male characters ever drawn.
The entire design was truly cutting edge. The next character worth mentioning is Myobi. For some reason, she did not travel with Ryoko and Tsugiri on their quest to save Enju. Frankly, this was poor story telling. Then again, Tsugiri was not going to become a better fighter with Myobi fighting all his battles.
From time to time, the manga tried to give Myobi some bad morbid jokes. Frankly, the writer should stay away from comedy. His forte seems to be sob stories. As for the Alichinos themselves, the name was mentioned on Dante’s Inferno. His entire mission is to protect Bolgia V, during his eternal stay in the eight ring of hell.
In the Manga, the Alichinos are treated as synonym for demons, or something like it. They make contracts with humans in exchange for their souls. They also kill humans for the hell of it. They can also merge souls with other humans. This is their way of getting married to normal humans. By merging their souls, humans gain some of the power and lifespan of the Alichino. In exchange, humans lose their freewill or something like it. All in all, it was a fun reading, even if the manga never got an ending.
Bizenghast Manga Review
Bizenghast is a pretty decent manga. The first few volumes were drawn with high detail. Somewhere along the way, the drawing style got a bit sloppy. Also, the character designs changed quite a bit. This was in part due to the author trying to develop her own style.
The first graphic novel is truly the hardest one to make. It shows the development of the artist’s style. While some rise to the challenge and draw better, others prefer shorthand to speed up the work. Regardless, the first few volumes sold pretty well; the last two not so much.
The best stories of the manga were the early ones. The one was Dinah met her dead friend in the dream world was also amusing. The world of Ixis was also cute. In any case, the first 3 Volumes were decent. The rest have their moments, and I will say no more. Read the manga. It is good.
Helter Skelter Manga Review
Helter Skelter is one of my favorite girl mangas. Then again, this one had a serious interesting subject. It was about a fashion model that is a real douche. She has gotten thus far because she has undergone extensive plastic surgeries. The story is mostly told from the perspective of her makeup artist. Recently, there was a movie that stole a few of the bits of this manga, but whatever.
The Neon Demon can’t hold a candle to Helter Skelter. The title is a bit misleading since it has nothing to do with the Beatles. Anyhow, the fashion maiden starts getting unbalanced when a natural model joins the agency. She really starts fuming when her boyfriend starts dating his family appointed wife.
All in all, it is an interesting manga about women’s obsession with looking beautiful. It starts with a simple upgrade and then you start getting plastic surgeries everywhere. This manga only has one volume, so whatever. You will get the entire story in one sit in. So, enjoy it.
Sakuran Manga Review
Sakuran, by Moyoco Anno, is another great one volume manga. It got made into a live action movie. The story is about a maiden who gets sold to a brothel because her dad had fallen into poverty. She tries to run away but is immediately captured.
Resigned to her fate, Tomeki must find out a way to survive in her new environment. Slowly, she must rise up in the ranks in order to become a courtesan and be set for life. Her plans are stalled when she falls in love with one of her costumers.
The manga itself is nicely drawn. All the kimonos have exquisite designs. Despite the theme, it is not a putrid manga. It is in fact just another one of those love stories. It is for a mature reader, so do keep this in mind.
Buddha Manga Review
Osamu Tezuka is the only mangaka artist to ever make a good manga about the life of Buddha. Buddha lived through a turbulent time. His life is actually really, really interesting. Tezuka did not sugar coat things. He paints all actions with all its grim colors.
He did so in his cute cartoony way of drawing. All his personages look adorable, even when they are the bad guys. The story of Buddha has about 7 volumes. Then again, these are some pretty thick volumes. They have about 500 pages each. The first volume is a scene setter.
It shows all the chaos and corruption that existed in India before Buddhism came about. Before Buddha, there was no one to challenge the authority of the Hindu priests.
Because of their monopoly, they had become corrupted. They no longer cared about the physical and spiritual wellbeing of their flock. The manga was pretty entertaining to read. I recommend it.
Black Jack Manga Review
This is a graphic novel for people who like to read about medicine. Originally, Osamu Tezuka was going to be a doctor. He even managed to graduate. Much to his parent’s disappointment, he did the graphic novel thing instead. He wanted to be taken serious as a writer.
As such, he made serious graphic novels like Black Jack. This one is about the best doctor in Japan. Since he is the best of the best, he charges people an arm and a leg for his services. He also never turns down a patient. He gets critiqued a lot for charging people a lot of money.
Black Jack thinks doctors should be paid well for their services. After all, how much is a human’s life worth. The manga has been adapted to two anime shows. The first one follows the graphic novel more to the letter. The newest one is more a prequel. It is not too hilarious.
