Azumanga Daioh Volume 1

Reviewed by: Quita Paul

Since my recent break from reading manga, I have discovered a new freshness to the manga world. I got Azumanga as a gift from a friend on my birthday. There really is not a flowness to the story due to the manga is set to what I would call a “mini-series”. If you seen the Nightwalker manga then you would know what I am talking about. Each comic strip is focused around the following characters:

•  Miss Yukari: A loud-mouth, self-centered English teacher who loves talking about her figures. At times, she talks so much that she goes off of the subject of what she teachers. My favorite personal character.

• Chiyo-chan: The self-proclaimed child prodigy. At only 10 years of age, she surpasses most of her classmates in brains and pop quizzies. Her ponytails are actually fake and can be replaced with new ones.

• Sakaki: The most serious character in the series. She loves animals, but animals hate her especially cats. She also has a very busty figure that she often makes other girls jealous of her.

• Tomo: Full of energy, she can never seemed to get her homework on time and always jealous of Chiyo-chan. At times, she can be normal.

•  Miss Kurosawa: The P.E teacher and is friends with Yukari. They have a very werid friends. One of the normal ones in the story.

There are also side characters like Yomi, Osaka, and Kaorin. But, you don’t see them in some of the storylines so I would not count them as major characters. Mainly, the storyline follows these girls and there crazy adventures with teachers and perverted male classmates in the classic high school setting. What really brings in to Azumanga is the non-traditional classroom setting.          

 The students are not memorizing poetry, and if they are they are not paying attention for the heck of it. Of course, like in any comedy manga you will have you case of male perverts. That is the main reason why I do not recommend Azumanga for younger children. Altough it flashes the teen rating, I would recommend it for older teen in some aspects. There is some mild sexual prefences that might be a concern to some.                                                                            

The artwork is very simple, making you want to focus more on the story and not the art. However, there are setbacks to this manga. Since it is mini-series of comic strips the story tends to off and then goes back to the main friendship between Miss Yukari and Miss Kurosawa and then slips back in the day to day high school drama.

Overall, Azumanga reflects the needs of what it was like to be in high school once again.

Rating: B

Genshiken Vol 1

Reviewed by: Quita

Have you ever read a manga within a manga? Do you love anime so much, that you would choose your girlfriend over it! Genshiken, also known as The Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture maybe once again believe in the manga/anime obsession. We begin in the spring of freshman year. Kanji Sasahara longed to cherish his dream of joining an otaku club. Saki Kasukabe faces the same dilemma. Can she turn her boyfriend, the obsessed anime fanboy Makoto into a normal guy? Will Kanji and Makoto succeed in joining an otaku club? Or will Saki ruin everything?

Of course you have Saki who can just leave her boyfriend alone! If he likes manga then why can you respect it! Kanji is also stuck between being in the anime club and longs to be in the manga club as well. And both presidents want him to make up his mind already. There are some anime freak girls in the club as well. Ohno is my favorite, rarely you see girls that obsessed in anime and manga. Her whole room is covered in posters magazines to name it.

Overall, I enjoyed Genshiken very much. All of the characters, especially Makoto really crack me up. All they read is manga and watch anime. But the club’s obsession is even worse they love to watch hentai and fanclub magazines. The best part, that really drawed I into this series was the comedy. Most of the jokes are die hard in anime. There are however a lot of reference to hentai and final fantasy lol. So the older teen rating is recommended. There are some convention aspects how it is like to be stuck in a room with horny teenage freaks. And there is the true statement of the anime club vs. the manga club. Why can we all just get along and work together?

If you like mangas like Excel Saga, Megatokyo, and Maze than this is manga for you. Enjoy the world of what it takes to be the ultimate otaku.

Rating: A+