Shounen Rival: Manga Spotlight

None of them is as shitty as Naruto, thank God.

Urgh, it’s been so long since I’ve decently blogged something (thanks to a nasty case of Writer’s Block), but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been paying attention to my beloved mangas. Recently, my focus was on top of Shounen Rival, the latest manga magazine from Kodansha. Shounen Rival had it’s first issue on April and replaced the now defunct Comic Bonbon magazine. Also, it’s focus is aimed to junior highschoolers, diverting from Comic Bonbon elementary school children target audience. Let’s have a quick look on the mangas being serialized on the magazine after the jump.

Holy Talker

Synopsis

From the hands of Ayamine Rando (mangaka of Getbackers), comes a new high school manga. Takayama Renga is part of a team of teenager exorcists in charge of fighting and sealing the demons that are corrupting humankind. But he doesn’t do it only for altruism: his sister, Takayame Moegi, is a “Proof of the Descended Holy Mother”, which means her infused blood with the power of the Holy Mother can be used to make the chalices which are the only thing that can send back the demons to hell.

But a new student enters the school and changes everything. Amakusa Chitose is a priest with a strange power: he has a split personality which can fight the demons by itself and consumes the soul of the demons.

Comments

Ayamine Rando’s one year break hasn’t changed much his style: he reused several character designs of Getbackers like Ban Mido, Makubex and Hevn and even the personalities don’t differ much from the originals. What’s changed is the settings of the action, which was shifted to a more spiritual one, kinda similar with Getbacker’s Divine Design arc. Although the fights seem to be less epic, there is still enough action to make the reader satisfied. It’s all a matter of adjusting to this new style.

Monster Hunter Orage

Synopsis

If you are a Fairy Tail reader, you will recognize in an instant the unique style of Mashima Hiro, which was also the mangaka of Rave. Again, this new manga brings us a plot that focuses heavily in the concept of nakamas mixed with the extremely popular MMO game from Capcom, Monster Hunter. Shiki Ryuuhou is a special kind of monster hunter: taking the dream of his deceased master, he’s a Forbidden Hunter; a hunter who can enter any hunting ground and with the goal of defeating the forbidden dragon of light, Miogaruna. During his travels, he finally meet the daughter of his master, Irie, who is also a monster hunter. Together, they will journey to realize the dream of the master/father: Gurelli.

Comments

You can’t deny that Mashima Hiro really likes the One Piece kind of manga. the plot is again based on
a party of nakamas, with the added bonus of being based on Monster Hunter, a series of games that I’m a huge fan. Another great bonus is the amount of detail and info that the mangaka took from the game universe: just to cite a few, the non-existant wind element, the prototype whip weapons that only exists on artbooks and loose data on the game, the several ways to use the weapons like the dual sword “Demonization”. The only defect I find is this is a bit too similar with Mashima Hiro’s other current manga, Fairy Tail.

Blaze Driver

Synopsis

After finishing the semi-flop manga 666 Satan (which had one of the lamest endings I have ever read), Seishi Kishimoto has begun this new manga called Blaze Driver. Similar to the concept of O-Parts of 666 Satan, there is now Mystickers, a technology developed as being enviroment-friendly which imbues stickers with elemental powers and allows them to be activated by drawing a specific pattern with your fingers on the surface of the sticker. As usual on manga plots, the main place of development of this technology is Tokyo, which has became a true eco-city.

Daichi, the main hero is part of the Team Sky,which is lead by his female friend Misora. Together with it’s friends they battle other teams for respect and and rival team’s Mystickers.
One day, during a battle, a rival sticks a Ice Mysticker directly on the arm of a unconscious Daichi, with the aim to physicaly harm Daichi. Instead of the excepted freezing to the ground, Daichi’s body reacts to the Mysticker and emanates a wave of ice, damaging the rival and Misora, who was on the way of helping Daichi. From this incident begins the entry of Daichi of the chosen ones to harness the powers of the Mystickers, the Blazers.

Comments

Seishi Kishimoto still has the same defect that he had in 666 Satan: he rushes things way too fast and tends to make things more complex than it should. But the concept of the Mystickers is interesting and it almost looks like it was made to be converted into a Nintendo Ds game.

Kitsune no Yomeiri

Synopsis

From the newcomer Takagi Satoshi, Kitsune no Yomeiri is based on a japanese folktale about a fox’s marriage (the manga title means exactly Fox’s Marriage in japanese). when rain suddenly pours down in a sunny day means that a fox is being married somewhere.

Ousuke is a fellow with very bad luck to everything. Trying to get better luck, he fixes a Oinari shrine he found during one of his unlucky accidents, even tying a ribbon to the small fox shaped Inari statue.
Hours later , rain suddenly pours on that sunny day and for his surprise, a Kitsune no Yomeiri procission passes right in front of him. Thinking he’s getting crazy, he runs home but he finds a beautiful young girl called Kyoka inside waiting for him and saying she’s his wife

It seems that Kyoka was the Inari statue that he tied the ribbon to and that’s considered as a act of marriage. Ousuke can’t even reject the marriage or he will get the wrath of the entire Fox Clan. And to add things up, Kyouka as the fox she is, can’t resist playing pranks. How will Ousuke’s life be affected from now on?

Comments

Cute comedy manga with a even cuter girl. But it’s a furry again…Why the hell Japan is trying to turn us into furry lovers? Do they pretend to sell girl clones with fox years?

Ann Cassandra

Synopsis

Bekku Nanaki is a countryside girl who with a constant bad hair which moves to Tokyo. At the arrival , she is saved from being crushed to death under a billboard by a strange and clumsy mobile fish vendor.

On the next day, she finds out that the strange guy with the shocking pink glasses turns out to be Banjou Kizaki, her classmate. He seems to be surrounded in several accidents and bad luck, which makes Bekku intrigued by this peculiar fellow.

During her “stalking”, she finds a notebook that he dropped filled with pictures of accidents and deaths. Banjou reveals to her that those pictures are predictions and he’s in a game to prevent them and change the future. As unbeliabable as it sounds and after an initial distrust, Bekku believes him since she shares more things with Banjou than he suspects….

Comments

Future prediction mangas are hard to make, but this one seems to have a good start. What appealed me the most was the character design: I have a thing for short hair, so Bekku with her kawaii hairstyle made me howl from the Moeness; Banjo’s design is also great and it isn’t everyone that can use pink glasses and still look good.

Side Note: There are also 2 mangas running on Shounen Rival that I’m particulary interested, Emma and Zettai Hakase Kolisch. The problem is that there aren’t scanlators for them and I can’t Moonread… Nevertheless, here are some pics of them.

Emma

Zettai Hakase Kolisch

Side Side Note: I would have posted this sooner but lately this what was happening to me: “I should write that post…..oh wait, new shoujo manga releases!!!”

It’s like a crow and shiny objects…