Top Ten Manga

I've just started reading Paradise Kiss, got the first volume today in the post and it was brilliant, I can't believe I've lived this long without ever reading it and I'm already planning on getting the complete anime series tomorrow. The manga is not easy to come by- Amazon has them used on a varying price scale, which is where I'm getting mine.

The manga is 5 volumes long and the anime is 12 episodes and now they are filming a movie with Keiko Kitagawa as Yukari Hayasaka and Osamu Mukai as George, Keiko is best known as Sailor Mars in the Live Action Sailor Moon series and she also had a small role in Fast and Furious 3.

So far it reminds me a little of Nana with the growing up theme, the kooky punk outfits and the romance tangles, and obviously the fact that they are both works of Ai Yazawa. More adult than the more popular manga I think it will quickly become one of my favourites, a shame it's so short but that's probably a good thing for my wallet since I'm continuing to buy Death Note and Nana and Darren Shan manga and I've still to complete Battle Royale manga and I've just started Pokemon Adventures (I couldn't resist, I'm obsessed with Pokemon).

I always adore stories with complex love relationships and I am very fond of punk, goth and Japanese lolita fashion so to have these combined in two wonderful manga series (Nana and Paradise Kiss) is a treat! It's also nice to have some realism, something you can relate to, now and then though I am obviously more for the fantasy and fairytales (although even these have some corn of truth in them).

I think Paradise Kiss and Nana will definitely be in my Top Ten Manga by the time I have finished reading them (could take forever with Nana, only getting volume 3 now and there're 21 volumes so far).

Top Ten

1. Fushigi Yugi-


It has its flaws, certainly the romance with Miaka and Tamahome being greatest as it is unbelievable, happened ridiculously soon and becomes repetitive and annoying almost instantly but it has many pros as well. As one of the first manga I read and one of the first anime I ever bought, I have always had a soft spot for this and I always will.
Fushigi Yuugi is set in modern day Japan and ancient China, it follows Yuuki Miaka, a student from Japan struggling with her exams as she faces leaving Middle School for High School, as she enters a world via a magic book where she becomes the Suzaku no miko, prophesised saviour of the country Konan. As the Suzaku no miko she must bring together the seven seishi of Suzaku and summon the god who will grant three wishes, which she must use to save Konan.
Fushigi Yuugi offers great animation and wonderful characters, Tasuki is my favourite, and lots of humour. There are darker serious moments, which helps make it a brilliant anime as it is not eternally happy, nothing bad ever happens, which gets boring fast.
Although the villains were underwhelming, what you did learn about them was intriguing and they made good extras.

2. Fushigi Yugi- Genbu no Kaiden


At 9 volumes so far and still ongoing, this is the prequel to Fushigi Yugi and follows the Genbu no miko Takiko who proves to be a much better lead than Miaka. It shows a lot of development from the creator Yuu Watase as the romance between Takiko and Uruki is a little more believable. The series is a lot more serious as unlike Miaka, Takiko and her seishi are feared as bringers of misfortune. Hokkan also proves to be a more gloomy country than Konan as it is colder, bleaker and suffering inner turmoil.

3. Hellsing


I saw the anime first and accepted it as fun but confusing, then I found the manga and noticed the vast difference. Hellsing takes place in England and follows the order of Hellsing trying to combat the threat of Nazis who exist in the group Millenium and the threat of Iscariot, section XIII of the Vatican. The noteable characters are naturally the wonderful vampire Alucard, the head of Hellsing Sir Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing, Alucard's recently sired vampire Seras Victoria, Hellsing's trashman and butler Walter C. Dornez and the Iscariot leader Alexander Anderson.
This manga has it all great characters, amazing villains, blood, guts, gunfire and mayhem. The Major and Rip van Winkle stand out as particularly noteable villains.
Alucard is one of the greatest fictional vampires of all time, he would easily make mincemeat of Edward and stands out as a great villain/anti-villain who never really shows what sign he wants to be on, after all he is a slave of Hellsing.
Hellsing grows complicated and it can be hard to follow at times as it seems to rely more on pictures than words to tell its tale. Some characters could have had more development but it is basically a bloody, war shoen manga and it does not stray far from that. The history with Dracula, Mina and Van Helsing definitely could have be expanded upon but who knows, maybe a prequel will do this.

4. X/1999


My greatest qualm with this is that it never finished and it appears unlikely that it ever will as Tsubasa Chronicle really took over. A sequel of sorts to Tokyo Bablyon, X/1999 as a rich plot following the seven dragons of heaven and the seven dragons of earth or seven seals and seven angels if you will who have Kamui Shiro and Fuma Monou as their competing Kamuis. It is the Kamuis who will decide the fate of the earth and an ensuing battle follows between the fourteen characters. The dragons of heaven are guided by Princess Hinoto a dumb, deaf, blind, crippled dreamseer who communicates telepathically, and the dragons of earth are guided by her sister Kanoe who can spy on others' dreams.
All fourteen characters are different, each intriguing in their own way though some suffer from underdevelopment. Subaru and Seishiro are by far the most fun to observe as they are continuing from a dark past they share that came about in Tokyo Babylon. Kamui is a quaint character, suffering a lot at the hands of fate, losing all the females in his life it seems, but never quite giving up.
As seems typical with many manga the villains suffer the most at the hands of underdevelopment but not by much, they do get the fair share of scenes.
The tragedy is that we may never know who was to win, the anime goes one way and the movie goes another, as after 18 volumes the series has been on hiatus for 7 years and Tusbasa Chronicle, which features most of the characters, seems to be taking up CLAMP's time.

5. Tokyo Babylon


The prequel to X/1999 and the introduction to the memorable Subaru Sumeragi, his sister Hokuto and the mysterious Seishiro Sakurazuka. It starts with a strange meeting between Subaru and an unknown man under a cherry tree that is wiped from Subaru's mind and from that day on Subaru is forced by his grandmother to wear gloves to hide marks left on him.
Tokyo Babylon is funny, sad and bittersweet, at 7 volumes, it is one of CLAMP's greatest mangas telling the tale of a complicated, seemingly doomed relationship that continues on in X/1999.

6. Angel Sanctuary


Beautiful artwork from the start, Angel Sanctuary weaves a complicated story based on Christianity its angels versus demons, circuling around the angel Alexiel who has been reincarnated in Setsuna Mudo a troubled young boy who has incestuous feelings for his sister Sara.
Angel Sanctuary explores the worlds of Earth, Hell and Heaven showing them to be ripe with corruption, it offers both beauty and violence, holding back on neither with intriguing villains particularly Alexiel's insane twin Rosiel and the cunning Sveothtarte. It also offers brilliant backing characters in the elemental angels- Raphael and Michael, Setsuna's tough loyal friend Yue, Rosiel's servant Katan and the demon princess Kurai.
Controversial certainly but not to be missed, Angel Sanctuary is dark and brutal though moments of humour do shine through and it tackles issues most people would shy away from such as incest, blasphemy and more.

7. Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne


A magic girl manga, it's heroine is Maron Kusakabe, the reincarnation of Jeanne D'Arc whose job it is to gather the scattered pieces of God's power before demons do, these pieces are hidden inside priceless artworks, which leads to the mysterious Jeanne being viewed as an art thief chased by Maron's friend Miyako Todaiji who is aiding her father, a police detective.
Maron is rivaled by Chiaki who is the mysterious Kaito Sinbad, aided by the angel Access Time, and she is aided by the angel Finn Fish.
A delightful manga, it is fun, humorous and entertaining and with unexpected twists and a certain amount of villainry to keep people interested. Mostly it is light-hearted and though it adds sad elements with Maron hoping to hear from her parents and Finn's betrayal, it still seems to lack depth. The plot is overall simple, making for a light read, which can be good though it will never offer the gripping twists of the likes of Death Note.

8. Magic Knights of Rayearth


Both series 1 and 2 of the manga are brilliant, though difficult to get these days. Without the anime filler the plot is quicker to move along. Magic Knights follows three young girls from another world (Tokyo) who are taken into the world Ceiphiro to become the Magic Knights, the prophesised saviours of the world who must resurrect the three mashin- Windam, Celeste and Rayearth to conquer evil.
These three- Hikaru Shidou, Umi Ryuuzaki and Fuu Hououji offer different, refreshing, amusing characters- Hikaru is the innocent, headstrong and often naive one, Umi is the tough, tempermental one and Fuu is the dumb, often dozy but loveable one and together they mix brilliantly. Magic Knights of Rayearth is yet another magic girl manga offering the brilliance of Sailor Moon, Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne and other magic girl manga.
It has a surprising dark element to it that adds depth to the plot, with the expected romance tangles of a shoujo manga. It could have done more with the fantastical side of things, crossing into sci-fi with the mashin being just that- mashin, instead of mystic gods or something. It might be a nice mix for some but I would have loved it more as pure fantasy. I also think the OVA offers elements that could have made the series much, much more though I understand that the OVA was not well received.

9. Death Note


I know for many this would be much higher, and I do love Death Note but it is where it is on my list. Death Note is so popular it probably needs no introduction- Light Yagami is a high school student who discovers the Death Note when it is dropped by the shinigami Ryuk, with it he proceeds to become the feared and disturbingly respected killer Kira who is trying to make the world a better place. He is then hunted down by the detective L and later his successors Near and Mello, and finds himself allied by the second Kira, idol Misa Aname who proclaims herself to be in love with Light.
Death Note is fantastic as it manages to create a detailed plot with many twists that it never loses control of, the plot is full of plenty of action and unexpected manoveurs from Light and the battle between Light and L never gets old.
Misa can be both fun and annoying to follow, her insane love for Light obviously explains many of her motives but it grows irritating. She's not the typical damsel in distress lead you often see however and that is very freshing.
Death Note for me took a disappointing turn with L's demise, it seemed an unworthy way for him to go and an early point in the series, making it very much Part 1 and Part 2. Though Near and Mello prove to be interesting successors, they do not quite measure up to L's greatness.

10. Kimagure Orange Road


This series really needs an official release in English and the anime should certainly get a re-release so that more people can witness the wonderfulness of it. Kimagure Orange Road is mainly about the love triangle between best friends Madoka Ayukawa and Hikaru Hiyama with new arrival Kyosuke Kasuga.
Madoka is the bad girl at school, a smoker who fights with a guitar pick and is also known for her saxophone playing skills, she plays the tough girl who tries to act disinterested in Kyosuke and even when she starts to like him there is a hint at her holding back out of respect for Hikaru.
Hikaru is Madoka's younger deliquent companion who seems to almost fall for Kyosuke on first sight, she is a plucky, energetic young girl who goes out of her way to act as Kysouke's wife, making him lunch for school and calling him 'darling'.
Kyosuke is the new arrival in town and is part of a family of espers, that is people with supernatural abilities such as telepathy, telekinesis and time-slipping in Kyosuke's case. He is drawn to Madoka throughout the story and wants to be with her but he cannot find the courage to turn down Hikaru who does have a degree of fondness for.
Kimagure Orange Road is light-hearted, made particularly funny by its supporting characters- Kyosuke's sisters Manami and Kurumi and his perverted school friends Seiji and Kazuya. Its fun to read, taking the characters to different places e.g a beach, a theme park, but the love triangle business does grow stale as it obvious from the get-go that Kyosuke wants Madoka and she wants him.
Madoka for all her toughness seems a pushover when it comes to Kyosuke, giving up smoking because of him and changing her appearances because he time-slipped to six years ago and told her to do it basically.
Though many people insult Hikaru as the annoying third-wheel to me it is Kyosuke who comes across as a user, a coward and a bit of a control freak who does not really like Madoka for who she is but more for who he turned her into. Rather than let down Hikaru honestly, he leads her on ensuring that the hurt will be that much greater in the end, and it does not seem to overly bother him that he may ruin Hikaru's and Madoka's friendship.
For all its flaws though Kimagure Orange Road is a beautiful manga and a fun read.

The Last Unicorn- Then and Now

So I finally got the novel The Last Unicorn by Peter S Beagle after hearing it was much better than the beautiful movie and not just some kids' fantasy novel and indeed it has proved to be much more. The descriptions are divine and paint wonderful images in your head, even the brief ones strike vivid images in your head. Naturally the characters come across more in the book as it has time for development that the movie did not. Schmendrick is my favourite so far and the unicorn is a wonderful character, aloof at the start, disturbed and intriguing.

As for the movie, as a child I loved it for its fantasy and darker nature and as an adult I love it for the same reasons, plus the marvellous voice cast I can now appreciate. Not quite your average happy fantasy movie, it stood out to me for its darker undertones, mild black humour and marvellous animation. Better than Disney for its realism with an ending neither happy nor unhappy but brutally realistic and bittersweet (not that I don't adore Disney).

I would highly reccomend both the novel and the movie to those who have not read/seen it, children and adults alike. It's not just for your average fantasy fans reaching far beyond that with a more darker element, Haggard's castle especially shows this but the fantasy element is very vivid for those looking for it with unicorns, a harpy, a magician, curses, and more.

Not So Little Red Riding Hood

You all know the story of Little Red Riding Hood or at least a version of it, most popularly the Grimm Brothers' version where Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother are both saved by a woodsman in the end who kills the wolf. Of course in the older versions there was no woodsman and Little Red Riding Hood and granny were not so lucky.

If you look it up on Wikipedia you can see how this fable has developed and been interpreted over the years, often people add sexual symbolism to it from Red's red cloak to her being led astray by the wolf, everything seems to have a double meaning. This is most beautifully explored in the film In the Company of Wolves, directed by Neil Jordan and based on a story in the book the Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter. This film, along with Trick R Treat also explores the idea of Red being a wolf herself and not the innocent heroine/victim she is usually represented as.

For years now Little Red Riding Hood has been one of my favourite fairytales, perhaps because of the talking wolf (I love werewolves) or the fact that's she not a stereotypical princess but someone more average or maybe just because generally she's represented as a brunette and not a beautiful blonde lol.

Nowadays a lot of people depict Red as grown up, sexy and getting her revenge on the Big Bad Wolf, which is an interesting interpretation, one I am very fond of. Although I like the idea of her being the wolf's alley and maybe a wolf herself even more.



It's amusing how a lot of fairytales have now many adult interpretations, some wicked and gothic, others sex filled, some both, you just need to google the internet briefly to find a few, from the Gothic versions of Disney princesses to the adult novels about Beauty and the Beast or the television series for the matter. It seems as adults we have lost our innocence and cannot be fooled by happy ever afters but we are not yet ready to let go off our beloved stories and so have moulded them to suit our realities better.

What girl can't relate to the desires to stray off the path like Red and rebel, going off with the dangerous male who she knows is dangerous and yet she cannot resist his seduction?

As a lover of Halloween and Red Riding Hood naturally this year I've decided to dress up as my favourite heroine. I've been Red before, twice in fact, but with poorly made costumes that involved my own clothes and a purchased hooded cloak that was warm and great to wear but alas too long, easily catching on the feet and quickly spoiled by mud. This year I decided I wanted my costume to look good so I bought one after much trawling through the internet, browsing all the available options.

It was more of a struggle than I thought it might as I bought one of ebay that turned out to be a tacky, polyester thing that looked like it came from Anne Summers and then I was sold the exact same costume again from ebay by a different seller who had been falsely advertising with a different pic. I finally went to the website that had created the costume I wanted, the one falsely advertised on ebay, and bought it directly from the source.

Below is my costume, made by Secret Wishes in velour.




There were others I thought were good, the Elite costume naturally, which was around £80 and made of real velvet, only for the diehards, Halloween may be the best holiday but it is only once year and as much as I love dressing up as something different every year there is a simple to how much should be spent.
There was also a brilliant, Gothic tween costume that was based on an artist's picture A beautiful costume, I might have gotten it if the adult one had been easier to come by. For those who want it, you can get it from American websites and ebay from American sellers though it is not cheap.

So concludes the random Little Red Riding Hood rant inspired by my costume purchase, recent rewatching of Trick R Treat and purchasing on a wonderful leather bound edition of the complete collection of Grimm fairytales.

Halloween is Coming

It's almost my favourite time of the year- All Hallow's Eve and this year I'm planning on going as Little Red Riding Hood. Last year was the successful Girl Scout costume, thanks to living in Britain I was the only one dressed as a Girl Scout and I loved my costume, though it wasn't so handy when I ended up in downpour at four in the morning.

This year I'm hoping will be the year when I finally get the Little Red Riding Hood look right, it will be my third time as Little Red and the first time I've outright bought the costume. The first time I was at a house party wearing a hooded cloak down to my ankles and under it I wore a black skirt and a red gypsy styled top with knee high black cowboy boots, not very Little Red, my friend also wore the same hooded cloak and a third friend was a werewolf so it made for good photos. Two years later I went out for Halloween with the same hooded cloak only this time with a pink-red corset, a slashed, black skirt and black boots underneath, and it was just as unsuccessful. In none of the photos could you tell what I was.

Mind you, you could only tell what one of my three companions was dressed as- he was a belly dancer lol- the other two were a girl as Malice in Wonderland (everyone thought she was a maid) and a girl dressed as a cheerleader. It was a great night out but Malice and I had been working until 9 so we rushed with getting our costumes on and getting down to the club in time to get in, which we did after half an hour of queuing. By that point it was less about the costumes and more about getting drunk after queing for so long.

The year before that I was the March Hare with a guy dressed as the Mad Hatter and a girl as Alice in Wonderland, we went for a Gothic theme and I was in black and tartan, highly successful and the best costume I've ever made lol.

Last year's Girl Scout is the favourite so far despite trending towards the stereotypical nature of girls dressing slutty rather than scary as they get older. It is true that many girls do use Halloween as an excuse to wear as little as possible and look as sexy as possible.

Indeed last year I was single and eager to look sexy whilst still enjoying the fun of Halloween and I thought being a Girl Scout was both daring and very tongue in cheek, I even had a cookie box and if a thunderstorm hadn't resulted in my friends' electric going out my friend and I would have even made Halloween cookies for me to offer out!

My other female friends were a mix of following my trend, sticking to the horror tradition and just going for fun- there was the unbelievably daring and revealing Fifth Element sellotape costume, the traditionally scary zombie, a sexy Batgirl, a sexy Supergirl, an amusing hippie a sexy vampire and Alice in Wonderland. All the costumes looked awesome as did the guys- gravedigger, Wildcats, belly dancer again lol, hippie, skeleton and jedi.

It was one of the best nights out though it was an end to the wild partying for us as afterwards most of us got jobs and changed living arrangements, it was the end of our summer after our last year of uni and the last Halloween were we still acting like students. Three of my friends and I managed to fit in the tradition of pumpkin carving and eating toffee apples which was nice.

This year I'm hoping to continue the vein of tradition with some pumpkin carving, toffee apples, decorating the house and dressing up of course though I expect the night to be less messy and hope for it to be a little more traditional.

I'm also hoping my costume turns out to be good, I've had two misfires from ebay one due to my own misjudgement, which is fine since my sister might take that costume, and one due to false advertising. I have since ordered from the actual website so hopefully the costume will be all I expect.