Manga Review: Demon Diary, XXXHolic, Ayako, Swallowing the Earth
Written by Teresita Blanco (The Artsy Sister)
Demon Diary Manga Review
Demon Diary is an interesting 7 volume comic that I liked for some reason. It is a bit yaoi, but not too over the top. It is about an orphan boy that one day gets chosen to be a demon lord. He was not aware of his demonic powers.
Since he did not have a proper education, it becomes the task of Eclipse to mold him into a proper demon. The problem is that Raenef V is a really nice kid.
He does not fit in a world where you have to be evil and mean to fit in. During his first gala, he becomes the laughingstock of the entire demonic kingdom. His teacher Eclipse does not take this well.
The rest of the manga focuses on their adventures, as Eclipse tries without much success to make Raenef into a proper demon lord. The manga is nicely drawn. The author was Lee chi-hyong and the illustrator Kara.
This was back in the day when Tokyopop took in a lot of experimental comics. Tokyopop practically went to hell in 2008, possibly because of the Tsunami.
Since then, it has closed many branches all over the world, and it has done much editing to mangas to target younger audiences. Needless to say, the writers were not pleased.
XXXHolic Manga Review
XXXHolic is another one of those clamp mangas. This one was nicely drawn, but it got boring around volume 3. Frankly, the stories were all repetitive. I have read enough books to recognize all the references made in the manga.
From time to time, this manga does a crossover with two other series like Card Captor Sakura and her alternative world version.
Frankly, the second version seems like a poor excuse to recycle characters. I was very disappointed when I learned its existence. As for Holic, it has now 19 volumes.
One can write a lot if one does not need to think very hard about the plot. The comic is about a kid named Wataniki. He can see spirits and dead people. He decides to work for a seer named Yuko.
She promises to get rid of his visions in exchange for a price. This is not like America where you can leave an IOU for a service. No, he had to work first and then he would get what he so desired.
As such, he becomes Yuko’s errand boy. While running errands he runs into all sorts of wild adventures, involving spirits and curses. The plot eventually becomes seriously convoluted at the end.
Ayako Manga Review
Ayako is one messed up piece of fiction. The name Ko refers to the strangeness of the character Ayako. She is the illegitimate daughter of the head of the family who slept with his daughter in law.
The old man likes his youngest daughter a lot, because she is sweet and innocent. She is the one thing that has not been corrupted by the evil ways of his rural family.
Everything goes to hell, when his oldest son returns to his home. I admire Tezuka for making believable mangas like this one, about evil human beings. The story takes place in Post-World War II Japan.
It captures well economic tensions of families living during that time. Overall, the manga is pretty depressing. Japanese society back then was really mean to women, and special kids.
Onward Towards Our Noble Death Manga Review
Shigeru Mizuki made this interesting manga about World War II. It focuses on the life of a Japanese soldier taking part of the New Guinea campaign.
The title alone shows Japan’s main strategy for winning the war. The soldiers were instructed to go on suicide runs instead of retreating. It was seen dishonorable to survive a battle.
This 1970 manga was well liked outside Japan; especially in the US It got made into a TV drama in 2007 for the Japanese channel NHK.
The manga was more or less decent. There were times when I was almost bored to death. Still, it managed to keep my attention from beginning to end. All in all, the manga insists upon itself.
Swallowing the Earth Manga Review
This is another one of those Tezuka feminist mangas. This one is about a cult of women who wish to avenge the death of their mother, the cult leader.
Part of their oath is to swear off any men. The protagonist was a drunkard named Seki. He ends up meeting one of the cultist leaders after being drugged by her.
She used the drugs to make the men think they had slept with her. The problem was that Seki had developed a high tolerance for many things. His biggest issue was that he was a drunkard.
At times, he felt like he could swallow the whole world, ergo you have the title of the manga. This is not one of the best-known Tezuka titles.
It is not well known and for good reasons. I got bored after the first pages into the comic. It is not what I would call his best work.
Then again, it is rare for manga writers to only produce gold. Even Clamp has a few mangas that are a total snooze fest.
Ceres: Celestial Legend Manga Review
Ceres was one of the first mangas I ever read. The manga was a million times better than the anime show. The issue was that both the Japanese and the English versions had poor voice actors.
The ones playing Aya had a knack for sounding nasally and whinny. One could not put up with her voice for more than 2 minutes. I only read the last three volumes.
When I did get the first one, it was a true disappointment. Then again, Yuu Watase tends to get a bit caught up in character development. As such, she takes forever to get the plot going.
There is also the issue with slamming you over the head with the same problem over, and over. The ending was at least interesting. For those that have not seen the manga, it is about Aya and her Twin Aki Mikage.
Their last name means I pooped myself, in Spanish. Combined with their first names they are called I poop there and I poop here.
Each time I remember their names, they really crack me up. Anyhow, both were cursed to be the reincarnation of two murderous douches. In Aya’s case, she has the Celestical Maiden Ceres. Her brother was possessed by Ceres’ human husband.
Apollo’s Song Manga Review
Apollo’s Song is an interesting manga by Osamu Tezuka. This one was about a guy named Shojo. He has been taken to a sanitarium for beating up animals.
He hurts them whenever they start to show feelings for one another. He has a phobia of love. After getting his first electro shock treatment, he has a vision of Athena.
She has cursed him for staging a war on love. The curse demands that before he can consummate his love, he will die. This curse will happen over and over, for all eternity.
The rest of the manga follows Shojo in his failed romances. The manga also displays plenty of psychological disorders. These were all well researched seeing as though Tezuka was meant to be a doctor.
The manga has a pretty depressing ending. The story is called Apollo’s Song because of his romance with Daphne. Apollo had gotten into a fight with Cupid.
As such, Cupid made Apollo love Daphne, while he made Daphne hate Apollo. In the end, before he could catch her, she turned into a laurel tree.
This story was also nicely illustrated in the manga. Overall, it is one of my favorites of Tezuka’s mangas.
Triton of the Sea Manga Review
Normally, people tend to rave about mermaids. This is the only piece I seen dedicated to a merman. Tezuka also goes into great lengths to describe the difference between mermaids and mermans.
He also describes how they grow up, and the reason why there are so few as of late. Triton was about one of the last mermen. His father had been staging a war against some weird fish king named Poseidon.
He could not linger in the land, because his enemy would then pick on the humans. The manga has about two, very thick volumes.
It chronicles the start and ending of Triton’s life. Like most of Tezuka’s comic, it got made into a 24 episode anime show.
The show is pretty old, and it has never got a remake. Frankly, I prefer the first volume, to the second.
