Encyclopedia

Manga - N

Menkui! GN 1-3
The manga's protagonist Kotori is much too ordinary and too unmemorable a hero or lover to be the embodiment of an untranslated Japanese word "menkui." Better—or should I say worse?—to say that Suzuki Tanaka's first multi-part series itself is “menkui,” a manga of appalling stunted scope and pinched ambitions.

Bleach GN 26
This is the average shounen-action training arc done exactly by the book, and it almost runs the entire series into the ground.

Battle Angel Alita: Last Order -Angel Goes Nova GN 10
Despite getting too ridiculous for its own good and seeming to be running short on ideas, this series still kicks butt on the artistic front and still tells a solid story. Above all, it still has Alita, and she is back, front and center, where she should be.

Love Pistols GN 1-3
Perversity in one's choice of manga reading material, if Tarako Kotobuki's Love Pistols is any indication, is a habit that, enjoyed once, may well become permanently addictive.

Baccano! DVD 2
Can a series that sometimes gets tremendously gory also be tremendously fun? This one seems intent on proving that a series can be both. Its plethora of converging story threads, combined with the ongoing antics of Isaac and Miria, make watching this an involving and highly entertaining experience.

Akihabara@DEEP GN 2
Much of volume two of Akihabara@DEEP takes place in the world of a fictionalized MMORPG world, but if you think you are merely in for a hackneyed version of .hack, you are in for the surprise of your life: One of the top manga series first published in English in 2008 is getting even better.

Ghost Slayers Ayashi DVD Part 1
A novel hybrid of adventure and education: call it a monster-bashing kanji lesson.

Psychic Power Nanaki GN 1-3
Psychic Power Nanaki is a series that you should feel safely empowered to avoid entirely.

Darker than BLACK DVD 3
It's just a shame that Tensai Okamura and his raft of talented collaborators couldn't swing something better than “good enough.”

Claymore DVD 4
Clare encounters one of the “Big Bosses” of her world and gets involved in a major multi-Claymore expedition as she continues to collect new allies and skills and steadily “level up.” The series' shonen roots are becoming more prominent, but it still looks great and still packs a lot of action punch.

GaoGaiGar: King of Braves DVD 5
With each passing volume it becomes less and less likely that it will ever become anything more than a loving giant robot pastiche/light parody targeting those whose ears perk at the mere sound of those words. But then again, who cares?