Ai. Kitti goes away for a short while and just look what happens! Drama and romantic comedy all over the place!! Makes you want to ask yourself, where is the blood?! The Angst?!

Well enough about that. I’ll make up for it later. Prepare yourselves! For today… Well, kitti thought shed treat you to a little cyberpunk with a dash of fantasy. You can thank me later… ;3

Clover is yet another manga by CLAMP, this series combines the best of both the cyberpunk and fantasy genres. The story is unique and put a new spin on a otherwise tired genre.

The story revolves around a young girl called Sue and the weight she bares by being the only four leafed ”Clover”, a group of children able to manipulate technology through magic. The clover’s were divided into catergaries, with 3-leaf and 4-leaf clovers being the strongest. Due to their tremendous power the clovers were separated from society. Sue was imprisoned in a glass cage to protect the world from her powers. Isolated and alone she asks for one wish, that she might travel to Fairy Park. It is then that she meets Kazuhiko, the man in charge of getting her safely to Fairy Park. Seemingly unconnected it is soon revealed that they are related through Kazuhiko’s late lover Ora.

What separates this manga from conventional manga is the absolutely no frills approach that the mangaka took to create it. The simplicity of the style, and the clean approach to the characters make the manga far from boring and emphasises the characters traits and personality to full effect.

All-in-all Clover was an excellent read. I suggest it to anyone looking for a different kind of manga.

Try it if you liked: Tsubasa Chronicles, Xxxholic

Keiichi and Belldandy’s trials continue in this, the third installment of Ah! My Goddess, also known as Ah! My Goddess – Fighting Wings.

Tatakau Tsubasa is a 2 episode special that was released especially to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the series; that’s right – the original manga was first serialized in August 1988.

First – a short bit of history. Firstly, Ah! My Goddess came about as a spin-off (as unlikely as it sounds) of You’re Under Arrest, when creator Fujishima Kosuke added a four-panel strip to one of the versions in which the main characters of the manga prayed to a goddess. Liking the idea and the character drawings so much that he decided to create a full series around her, and thus, Belldandy was born.

The manga has enjoyed tremendous success, still ongoing 20 years down the line and with 35 volumes on the shelf. The manga has also been the basis for numerous TV adaptations, among them the 5 episode Oh! My Goddess OVA (1993), followed by the Adventures of the Mini-Goddess (1998) which consisted of 48 episodes and the Ah! My Goddess – the Movie (2000) which was a direct sequel to the OVA.

In 2005, Ah! My Goddess was released as a 24 episode series which returned to the beginning of the manga series and followed the manga itself a lot more closely, although the storyline was adjusted to fit into the early 21st century rather than the 80′s as it was originally. A further 2 OVA episodes were added on highlighting the aftermath of the final episodes of the series.

The first season was followed by Ah! My Goddess – Sorezore no Tsubasa (Everybody has Wings) which consisted of 24 episodes and aired in 2006, followed finally by Tatakau Tsubasa which aired in Japan for the first time in December 2007.

The manga and the anime have gone through quite a transformation over the past 20 years – changes brought about by modernisation and character redesign for the most part, yet none of the changes render the characters unrecognisable. In the anime, there were large changes between the original OVA and the movie, and then again in the TV adaptation – but since then the style and artwork have remained stable, producing one of the prettier anime I’ve ever watched.

In Tatakau Tsubasa, Lind, one of the Valkyries, descends to Earth in order to capture an Angel Eater – a creature which seperates the goddesses from their angels. And of course the creature would head to the one place on the planet with the largest concentration of goddesses available – the Morisato residence.

As stated above, the artwork and animation hasn’t changed, and the original seiyuu have been kept on board – the only obvious difference I could note, was the departure of the opening track from the expected Celtic sound featured in the first two seasons.For a series like Ah! My Goddess, 2 episodes is definitely too short, although director Gouda Hiroaki has stated that he would like to animate as much of the manga as possible – which says to me that we can definitely expect more. And as long as they retain the same voice actors as they have done since the first OVA, I believe the series will retain the same magic that has kept its fans loyal through all the years.I happen to be one of them. So as soon as I get more news, I’ll let you know :)

Yes, as you can read, I’m doing a two-in-one this time around, I’ve decided to review both the manga and the anime in this particular post. Starting first, the manga:

I’ve long been a fan of Akamatsu Ken’s work – ever since I first came across Love Hina (the anime) about 3 years ago.

Negima is Akamatsu’s latest series and also his longest running manga to date ever since Love Hina ended with 14 volumes on the shelf. Mahou Sensei Negima started running in February 2003, and is still ongoing with 21 volumes on the shelf, in Japanese. Del Ray Manga has licensed the manga for English up to volume 18. Read the rest of this entry »

Any DNAngel fans should be pretty happy to hear this … but the DNAngel manga, on a break since 2005 will be making a return in next month’s issue of Asuka magazine.

The original manga, which consisted of 11 volumes, was created by mangaka Sugisaki Yukiro in 1997 and ran until 2005. All of the volumes were translated into english by Tokyopop and a anime adaptation came about in 2003, consisting of 26 episodes.

The story follows young Niwa Daisuke who gets rejected when he confesses to his first love on his 14th birthday – which was also the same day a peculiar genetic anomaly caused him to turn into the legendary phantom thief Dark, who has the task of stealing legendary works of art from various museums in the city. Now, he does not only have to hide his second identity from his classmates – but he also has to evade capture by the young Hiwatari Satoshi, who also happens to be in his class.

So does this mean a possible second series? Most likely not, since the ending of the first series was pretty definite – and having not read the manga I can’t tell you where it ended off, so I have no idea where it’s starting up again. It’s on my to get list though.

Good evening my children! It is I, the Great Kitti! Today Kitti is going to review a manga very close to Kitti’s non-heart. So sit back, relax, and prepare to gasp in awe at Kitti’s serious side!

Tokyo Babylon is a 7 volume series produced by Clamp (Known for works such as X/1999, Card Captor Sakura, and Xxxholic)

Tokyo Babylon follows the story of a young onmyouji (a type of diviner/priest), Sumeragi Subaru, and the various supernatural encounters he has whilst preforming his job. Subaru is helped in his various endeavours by his twin sister Hokuto and sometimes by the enigmatic Sakuruzuka Seishiro, a veterinarian rumored to be the head of the Sakurazukamori Family (A group of onmyouji silently controlling Japan from the shadows).

Tokyo Babylon is a somewhat bittersweet manga that at times displays human nature at its absolute worst. The combined difference of the pure and kind Subaru against the utter depravity of his rival creates a subtle tention that slowly builds as the personalities and interactions of the characters is revealed.

Tokyo Babylon is the prequel to one of CLAMP’s most famous works, X1999, in which older versions of the characters of Tokyo Babylon are seen fighting in the final battle for the Earth.

Kitti recommends this if you liked: X1999, xxxholic, Godchild.

Next time, Kitti will be reviewing the shoujo manga Godchild. Watch this space >3

I would like to start of by saying, I’m just seeing if this works.

You see dear readers, I am a internet obsessive, anime mad, manga crazy lunatic who currently doesn’t have the interweb. You would think that would stop me? XD I’m currently using my Sony Ericsson Z520i to make this post. Why am I doing this? Simple. Its all part of my ultimate plan of brainwashing the masses to love manga as much as I.

Until later my dear friends.

Prepare yourself!

I’ve been a huge fan of Ken Akamatsu’s work for a while now – he’s responsible for A.I Love You, Love Hina and Negima, with Love Hina and Negima both gaining themselves quite a following as well as an anime series based on the mangas.

And now I’ve discovered Itsudatte My Santa! – created by Akamatsu before he started with Love Hina, and it was serialised in Shounen Magazine in 1998. The manga only consists of 1 volume … and I don’t think there is an english translation available at the moment.

In December 2005, a 2 episode anime OVA was released in Japan, and was licensed in January 2007 by FUNimation for a scheduled release in December; however, due to a misprint on the DVD label – it was recalled and is now planned for release in the 2008 holiday season. *sigh* Another year’s worth of waiting.

So what’s the story about?

It follows a boy, who, born on the 24th of December, was named Santa by his parents, making him despise the holiday – until one Christmas Eve young Santa-in-training Mai gets sent with the mission to cheer him up. The 2nd episode is an additional story which didn’t feature in the manga. For more on this, go check FUNimation’s Itsudatte my Santa webpage.

The Japanese version features the voice talent of Hirano Aya as Mai, who’s featured in such memorable roles as Suzumiya Haruhi from The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi, Izumi Konata from Lucky Star and Lumiere from Kiddy Grade.

And now for my last little bit of a bonus – I found this AMV of Itsudatte my Santa! on YouTube – the song is Miracle performed by Cascada … enjoy!! (please excuse the Polish subtitles ;) )

It wasn’t all that long ago that I discovered manga for the first time … and boy! Does it have me hooked.

My collection started off at a fairly rapid pace – my first volume of anime was Mahou Sensei Negima! – and since then I just haven’t been able to stop, although I have been buying less – the reason for that is that I’m saving up very hard for a trip I have planned – even though I’m not entirely sure when that will be happening. Hopefully not too far into the new year – I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Anyways, without further ado – here’s my collection (I’ve included links so you can see what they’re about – at the moment they’re heading off to Anime News Network – but I’ll redirect them as soon as I have some decent content on my site) :

Read the rest of this entry »