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It’s manga!
I was waiting until this manga’s story got developed further before mentioning it, but I’m beginning to think it has died, which is unfortunate, as there was some potential there. Dr. Duo tells the story of Kotone Tasuku and his misadventures with his recently acquired ghostly companion, Shinonome Keisuke. Shinonome was once a brilliant surgeon, but unfortunately died at a young age only to be stuck in this world as a ghost who, for whatever reason, can only interact with Kotone, a model hobbyist. During a visit with his childhood friend(whom he has feelings for) a tragic accident both traps them within her house, and mortally wounds her younger brother. With the young boy’s life on the line, and no help able to get to them in anywhere close to enough time to save the boy’s life, Kotone, with limited tools and under the instruction of Shinonome, must team up to save the boy’s life.
I can’t say much besides this series has(had?) the potential to be very entertaining, unfortunately, as there’s only one chapter that I’ve found. I can hope that it is only like, a quarterly series, but this entry is mostly about missing potential. Boo! Stop cancelling series that could be good in the future maybe!
Shibuya Mirai used to believe in heroes. Unfortunately, with the way the world is sometimes, that belief got beaten out of him(figuratively speaking). Now the new kid at a new high school, he becomes the target of some delinquents on his way in on the first day. He escapes, but they recognize his school uniform and follow him to his school. Just as they’re about to close in on him, Sasaki Ririko, a girl in his class, dons a mask and fends them off… somewhat clumsily. Turns out that Sasaki is a member of the Heroes Club, a small group that, in the club president’s words, “fights for justice”. Convinced they have a couple screws loose, Shibuya heads home at the end of the day. On his way, a mask flutters down from the sky and for whatever reason, he decides to hold onto it. When he tries it on later, just to see how it looks, his sister sees him posing in front of a mirror and not only will that guarantee weeks of ridicule, in his rush to chase after her and explain himself, he breaks his door and shatters his bedroom wall with little more than a touch. Just what did that mask do to him?
Hero Mask sort of falls under the same category as the previous entry, ie. wanted the story developed more before bringing it up, but it seems to have a more definite purpose at this point. At its core, it’s a fairly standard super-hero origin story; boy finds mysterious item, said mysterious item gives him superpowers, etc. At the point the manga is at right now, the story hasn’t progressed past the “finding the limits of your new powers” phase of the story, so the entire manga is rife with potential, something some of you may know I get giddy about. I can probably predict with fairly good accuracy which direction the series will go, but whether I’m right or wrong about that remains to be seen, and I think it will be a fun ride along the way, regardless. If you’re into a more western style super-hero story, check this one out.
A mysterious island appeared out of nowhere 18 years ago, and of all its mysteries, the most important and befuddling by far was found deep underground; The Monument. Very little, if anything, is known about how the Monument became buried in the island, or even came into existence, as the technology composing it was far beyond anything the human race had ever seen. As time went on, certain people were able to connect with the Monument and extract some of its secrets; these people became known as “Compatibles”. With this knowledge, our technology advanced by leaps and bounds and the race to find and train Compatibles began. Soon an agreement was reached that the Compatibles, regardless of national affiliation would be collected at the island and taught how to extract data from the Monument for the benefit of the entire human race. It wasn’t too long afterward that it was discovered that Compatibles could make a form of contract with beings via the Monument, known as “Phi”, in order to fight. Satou Taketora is the lowest ranked student on Academy Island, and a childhood friend just arrived, bringing some unfinished business with her and, you guessed it, Satou is about to be dragged along for the ride.
It’s made quite obvious early on in Tora Kiss that Satou is an underachiever by choice, not due to lack of intelligence, though the why part of that aspect of him remains a mystery. I’ve always enjoyed this character type; the one that knows more than he appears to, is more talented than he might seem at first, etc. and I’ve never really been able to pin down a definite reason why. Basically, it’s a deus ex machina character, and those tend to piss me off, but when given the spin of playing the fool, I absolutely adore them. I must stress that this manga, at least as far as I have read, is not exactly what one might call deep, the dialogue is average(that could be the translator’s fault, however) but the storyline is mildly interesting and the art style lends itself to the way the story is told. It has some noticeable flaws, but this is one that I think is well worth checking out.
So… uh… sorry about the small hiccup in the release schedule again. This was what will be an ultimately vain attempt to get this releasing on the week I want it to, ie. alongside the standalone Anime Club release. No telling how long until I fuck up the schedule again, so we’ll cross that bridge when we get there. And I know it’s cheesy, but I wanted to thank everyone who’s been coming to read this over the past year+. It certainly enjoy writing these and I hope you’ve been enjoying reading them; here’s to another year and more!
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