This story is about a Nino, aka Alice, who sings to regain the two guys in her life she’s lost. As a young child, she sang out the window with her neighbor, Momo, to drown out the sound of her parent’s fighting. One day, Momo moves away without saying goodbye. Distraught, she goes to the beach where she meets Yuzu, who writes songs in the sand, and Yuzu tells her to keep singing to bring Momo back. Then, Yuzu moves away. And, in true manga fashion, they all wind up at the same high school. Nino wears a mask to prevent herself from screaming until she disappears, a symptom of her abandonment issues. Yuzu is part of a super popular band, but they all wear disguised (hence “anonymous” in the title). Momo doesn’t come back until late in this volume, so it’s hard to say yet how he will fit into this narrative, but I imagine Yuzu and Momo will both be going after Nino, and she will have to choose.
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Tatsuya Matsuki was convicted of lewd acts with a minor, so I no longer recommend the purchase of this series.
Act-Age is a story about a struggling girl becoming struggling actor. Kei Yonagi is taking care of her two younger siblings after her mother's death and her father's abandonment, and she’s trying to make it as an actor in order to pay the bills (after having several failed attempts at all kinds of other jobs). Yonagi goes on an audition for an acting agency, and her ability to get lost in the scene scares the production team. Everyone she meets thinks that she has an uncanny talent, but she can’t separate reality from fiction when she’s acting, which could be dangerous. One director, Sumiji, thinks she has the natural ability to be a super star, so he takes her under his wing and tries to nurture her talent without destroying her.
Illustrated by Jo Rioux
This haunting story, based on an old Celtic folktale, is about two sisters of a king and faerie mother. The mother passes away, and the two daughters grieve very differently. When they find their father in a questionable situation with two young ladies, their opposite reactions shape the course of their lives. Dahut, the strong-willed red-head, follows in her mother’s magical footsteps and does what she can to protect the city of Ys from the sea. Rozenn, the kind and gentle brunette, retreats to the country and tries to live among the folk. She, being the heir, does not understand her sister’s life and what the grisly price has been to keep Ys prospering. The last half of the story is full of heart-breaking moments as the two sisters make many sacrifices to keep their people safe. In the end, this story has half a happy ending, but mostly chilling and unsettling.
Ok, a little needed background on RWBY. RWBY was originally a web series, but the creator passed away during the third season. The crew carried on and finished out the season, and created a fourth season. Then came some manga. There's RWBY that followed the storyline of the original series and then veered off. There's RWBY: Official Manga Anthology, which contains side stories and other adventures, but basically works off of the assumption that you've seen the show. NOW there's RWBY: The Official Manga, which again follows the series, but with much more detail than the first iteration. My buying advice, grab this one and the manga anthology, skip the original one.
OK! On to the review. Ruby and her half sister Yang are enrolled at Beacon Academy, training to become huntresses, so they can fight Grimm and save people. There is also a magical substance called Dust that helps hunters and huntresses with their spell casting, in addition to having an innate magical skill. In this volume, the students are formed into teams during an initiation task, and thus Team RWBY is formed: Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang.
Many of us probably know the tale of Persephone and Hades, and a cursory background knowledge may help, but is not mandatory, for understanding this story.
In Persephone, Locatelli-Kournwsky takes cues from mythology, but crafts a world very different from Greek mythology. Persephone is the adopted daughter of Demeter, a powerful witch who fought in the war against Hades. Now, the way to Hades is sealed, and Persephone lives a normal teenage life in the Studio Ghibli-esque city in the kingdom of Elesius. That is, until she is tricked into passing through the portal to the netherworld, and forced to bite a cursed Fruit of the Damned. One lock of her hair turns blue, instead of her whole head, a sign to others that she has tasted the fruit. She is rescued by some passing merchants and taken to the castle, where Rhadamanthus has been trying to rule the kingdom in his father's absence. Meanwhile, Demeter must convince the Council of Elesius to let her break the seal on the portal so she can rescue her daughter. For good measure, a trip to Tartarus rounds out this adaptation of the classic myth. |
About MeI've been reading manga and comicbooks for years. Now, I write reviews and other helpful things for School Librarians, teachers, parents, and students. Search this siteRatings, Audience, and Subject Tags
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