Fairy Tail x RAVE Manga Review

We have reported last time that Hiro Mashima, the creator of Fairy Tail and RAVE decided to create a crossover special with his two works! About freaking time! In the crossover, Natsu, Happy and Lucy are looking for a girl who has large tits, wears Heart Kruez clothing, has baton for weapons and causes quite a ruckus in a casino!

But along the way, both Natsu and Haru got lost and met, same goes for Lucy and Elie.Based on the descriptions, it all points out to Elie. Is it actually Elie whom our Fairy Tail wizards are looking for? Or is it someone else?

Lastly, can our two hotheads, Natsu and Haru fix this misunderstanding and stop fighting?! Well, that is for you to find out.

On to the review, if you are familiar with both titles, you know that there are some elements present in RAVE such as Oracion Seis, Heart Kreuz and most especially, Plue are also seen in Fairy Tail making this crossover quite consistent aside from Hiro Mashima wrote and drew it. What makes this crossover amazing is the fact that even if the crossover lasted for only 21 pages, it packs quite a punch. From the action scenes, the cross references for both shows and the similarities of some characters.

If there is one thing that I liked about this crossover is that how the Fairy Tail guys describe stuff that they saw the RAVE guys are doing into their own universe and vice versa. For example, in Lucy’s case, when she saw that Elie also has his own Plue, she assumed that she might be a Celestial Mage. In Natsu’s case, when he saw Haru transformed his sword, he makes a quick reference to Erza’s “re-equip” magic abilities. It was fun and makes Fairy Tail fans feel at home with the RAVE characters that appeared in this crossover.

Like I mentioned a bit earlier, the crossover packs quite a punch because of the really good actions scenes along with the references for both titles. Now talking about the action, it was really good. So good, that I hate to admit it but it was better than the action scenes found in Cross Epoch. Seriously, about freaking time to see Natsu meet his match in the form of Haru! Based on how I see it, they are equal in every way.

Lastly, how the crossover ended. I love the twist at the end! This clearly proves how good Mashima is in terms of his comedy. If you have watched or read a lot of Fairy Tail episodes or chapters, you are quite familiar with his running gags with our core cast. And yes, he employed that same gag and it still work wonders. Guess it is quite obvious right now on who are they looking for!

Overall, it is one heck of a crossover, so good that I hate to admit it is quite better than the other manga crossover that I read that featured an original universe and Shenron drinking tea. The action is really good and the character interactions are on the spot. The characters are as they are that we know about it, and I am quite glad that they used the amnesiac Elie in this one. Seriously, I miss this Elie!

If you are a fan of RAVE and you miss these guys, this crossover is a good read due to the amount of references to the old show and the references made by the Fairy Tail guys with their own show, giving you a thought to try watching it. As for Fairy Tail fans, it is one fun crossover and if you haven’t watched RAVE yet, it gives you an idea where Plue originally came from and where the Heart Kruez fashion line first appeared in.

Cross Epoch Manga Review

With Cross Epoch being released in the US via the 100th issue of Shonen Jump, I guess it is time for me to review the only crossover between Dragon Ball and One Piece. Unlike any other crossover, it has its own story and a different take on the characters and does not involve epic battles but about friends gathered by the mystical dragon, Shenron.

Cross Epoch is a collaboration between Dragon Ball’s Akira Toriyama and One Piece’s Eiichiro Oda who just met, learned that they are fans of each others manga and decided to do a one-shot story about Dragon Ball and One Piece characters meeting.

The story begins with all the Dragon Ball and One Piece characters in a group. Krillin is with Chopper and they are driving a train, Bulma is with Nami and they are robbers… SPACE robbers! While Master Roshi and Sanji, the sheriffs learning about the robbery, and the fact that the robbers are chicks, and obviously, these perverts will chase them!

Vegeta, Trunks, Robin and Usopp are pirates, while Piccolo and Zoro are lost and plans to steal the train that Krillin and Chopper are driving, and ends up being passengers on the said train! Finally, Goku and Luffy are heading to somewhere, like the other characters before them!

Blocking them is Tettiri no.55, a papier-mâché air ship owned by the weakest villains from Dragon Ball and One Piece, Pilaf and Buggy the Clown! With them blocking their way, can Goku and friends go to that place that they want to go? That is for you to find out.

On to the review, if you read the one-shot for the first time, you will find it senseless, I am dead serious. Why, it is because the aim of the story is really weird, it doesn’t involve something serious but something fun, something illogical that you might end up thinking about Alice in Wonderland and what the heck is the story all about!

Unlike most crossovers, that I know that involves two very diverse series meeting for each other, what Toriyama and Oda did is that they created a separate universe and let their characters meet and like they know each other for a long time. This is good because it is a 19-page one-shot and they need to give us a story that would fit with the allotted number of pages!

What makes it a plus because it removes the awkwardness of the characters meeting for the first time and goes straight to the point on how they will interact with each other. And it is fun to see two perverts talking about chasing chicks instead of going for trouble and seeing Luffy riding Kintoun, which proves that even if he is a pirate in a different world, he has a pure heart!

Shenron, chillin'

As for the plot, to sum the entire one-shot, it is about all of our characters having a tea party with Shenron! See how senseless it was? But at some point, it makes sense. What Tori and Oda did here is that they abused one plot point from Dragon Ball. What happens to the Dragon Balls that needs to rest for a year? In this universe, Shenron is having a tea party with his friends! It was weird seeing Shenron holding a teacup while waiting for Goku and Luffy to arrive. But hey, at least Shenron is enjoying himself and does not have plans to stop granting wishes!

Vegeta as... Vegeta w/ horns!

As for the characters, I love that they retained most of their personalities and their costumes for this series! My only disappointed is that they introduced many characters and never had time to play with all of them within 19 pages.

Overall, Crosh Epoch is one senseless yet fun read. It is senseless because it is about their adventure of having tea with the mystical dragon and fun because it is senseless! The entire chapter reminisce the adventure feel of the original Dragon Ball manga, one of the aspect that I liked about this chapter asides how they are grouped with characters that are similar to them (i.e. Nami with Bulma, Goku with Luffy, etc.) and how they interact with each other (points at Roshi and Sanji). If you want some clean and senseless fun, better read this one-shot then! We will not know if Toriyama and Oda will do a collaboration after this one or if Toei has plans to do a Dragon Ball x One Piece movie in the future!

Dragon Ball Volume 1 Manga Review

Since I have the Dragon Ball VIZBIG Edition Volume 1 of the said title in which, a volume is composed of three volumes of the original title, I will review the first volume of all the three volumes of the big volume.

Dragon Ball is a manga written and illustrated by Akira Toriyama and in this first volume; this is when we saw how Goku’s adventure began… by tagging along with Bulma! Aside from that, if you never had the chance to watch the original series due to Z becoming extremely popular, here’s what I can tell to you, the characters that you thought are useless has some use!

The volume begins with Kid Goku, wearing his blue karate gi (If you are reading the same edition that I read, its blue. But if you read the original release which is in black and white, your lost!), living in the middle of nowhere and he was able to survive it after all. Aside that he was able to survive the wilderness, he hunts and do things what I a guy will do if he is in a forest.

Enter Bulma, a teenager who is looking for something and bumps into Goku who has just caught a fish and thinks of her car as a monster! After clearing things up, Goku welcomes Bulma in his house since that is what his dead grandpa tells him. Treat women nicely. And so, we saw the first Dragon Ball in this series, the four-star Dragon Ball.

We learned that there are more Dragon Balls in existence and we learned that once you complete all seven Dragon Balls, and once you do the proper chant, you can summon a mystical dragon named, Shenlong (That’s what my volume says, deal with it.) which can grant any wish that the person likes!

Since Goku doesn’t want to give his grandpa’s Dragon Ball, Bulma then convinces Goku to join in her quest to look for the Dragon Balls, and since Goku has nothing to do, he decides to tag along! And so, Goku’s adventure begins… along with Bulma.

As the volume progressed, we met Kame Sen’nin, translated as Turtle Hermit thanks to the sea turtle that was eternally lost in the forest. Because he helped him find his friend, he decides to give him a gift, originally, immortality but since the “immortal” phoenix died because of a tainted birdseed (I am serious), he decides to give Goku the next good thing… KINTOOOOOOO’UN! Ah, I miss screaming this one! Yep, if you are not familiar with it, I think Flying Nimbus is the term. And so, the Turtle Hermit gives Goku a cloud. Deal with the logic.

Aside from that, he has a Dragon Ball and after Bulma showing off her… assets (You need to read it if you want to know those assets), we now have the fourth Dragon Ball the grouped possessed.

Later, we met Oolong, a shape shifter who is terrorizing a town and this is when we saw the debut of Goku’s infamous “pat-pat” scenes for him to know if a person is a girl or not! Since the town has a Dragon Ball, Bulma decides to do a bargain; they will fix the problem with Oolong, if they will give the Dragon Ball.

Later, after they defeat Oolong and add him in their party (Plays FF’s Victory Fanfare), Bulma and co. is planning to go Fry-Pan Mountain to find the next Dragon Ball. This is when we learned about Gyuu-Mao aka The Ox King. Based on Oolong’s reaction, he is one dangerous guy.

After losing their capsules in the river, they all end up walking towards Fry-Pan Mountain and meets Yamcha and Pu’ar. Yamcha is a desert bandit and his partner is Pu’ar, the two of them are planning to rob Bulma and co. with their capsules and so, one of the first recorded awesome fights has been recorded… and we learn that he is afraid of girls… and I thought he is a pimp!

After the duo learns about the Dragon Balls, Yamcha now has a new mission, to steal the Dragon Balls and wish for the mystical dragon to remove his fear of girls. Cheesy, yes. Required? Absolutely! I mean, Yamcha dreams of getting married, so he must first get rid of that fear first!

Anyways, after their third encounter with Yamcha, and after he lost, he decides to give him the party a car with a tracker in it so that, he can follow them wherever they will go and steal their Dragon Balls if he has a chance! The party now continues with their quest in Fry-Pan Mountain in which we met Chi-Chi, who is secretly part of the Ultra Family due to her ability to shoot lasers and to throw boomerangs in her helmet. After that, Bulma and co. now looks for the Dragon Ball in the burning castle, and met Gyuu-Mao personally and apparently, he knows Kame Sen’nin, which he refers as his Muten Roshi in English, Invisible Master! Therefore, this is how the first volume of Dragon Ball ended.

On to the review, I will quote to one of the most clichéd sentences around, “this were it all began.” In this volume, we saw the first adventure of a naïve boy whom we have never thought that at the end, he will later save the world. From the following: a terrorist organization, green “demon,” aliens with monkey tails, another alien, a monster based on various aliens and a fat pink guy who will undergo major diet and will later shrunk into a dumb pink kid.

One of the driving forces in the first volume is Goku being extremely innocent. It is one of the driving forces of the comedy that this manga offers aside from the amount of Bulma fan service that we are getting in here. How innocent was Goku back then? Aside that he had a hard time identifying if that person is a guy or not, and after the incident that he learned that Bulma has no “balls” (You know the one), we saw the development of Goku’s technique in learning a person’s gender, the so-called, “pat-pat.”

You might say that Goku is stupid because of that, but here is his situation, according to Goku, his grandpa is crazy, add the fact that Goku is in the middle of nowhere, it is obvious that he will have a hard time learning the difference between a guy and a girl! Now you know why I love Goku back then! He is simple; all he cares is that as long as he can eat and beat the crap out of someone (Which is still remains up until now) he is happy.

Here is one thing I observed in this volume, the quest for the Dragon Balls was fast. By fast, it felt like, after every arc, Bulma and co. will earn a Dragon Ball. But that all changed when Yamcha appeared. In his introductory arc, the group never received a Dragon Ball, we only encountered a bandit that knows a martial arts technique called, Fist of the Wolf Fang and robs people and that includes Bulma and co. In the consecutive chapters after his introductory arc, Bulma and co. still doesn’t receive a Dragon Ball, which is good since it lessens the predictability of their adventure.

On to Yamcha, he left quite a good impression on me. In the first volume, he is the first decent antagonist that Goku faced aside that he is human; he was able to go on par with Goku in terms of fighting! Heck, it even caused Goku to lose more of his energy while fighting him! Add the fact that he never ate for a while! Their first fight was a real good read that I read it again. Too bad, he is afraid of girls.

My first impression on Bulma… she is a geek with quite a dirty mind. She is spoiled, had a hard time to live in the wilderness, and lastly, desperate for a perfect boyfriend that is why she is looking for the Dragon Balls, to wish for a perfect boyfriend! I find it absurd when I first read it but as soon as I read the volume, well, her wish has a point. I mean, she is Miss Perfect as seen on her actions in the volume, so all she needs is a guy who can add up to her “perfectness.”

First impression on Kame Sen’nin, he is a classic dirty old man with an awesome secret as revealed by one of his students, the Ox King. Aside that it was revealed that he “might” be immortal due to his immortal phoenix, seeing how terrifying the Ox King is, it is obvious that he is a strong master and like most old men in kung fu films, you should not under estimate him… and I was right after reading the following volumes.

As for the other characters that would be regulars, nah. They never left a good impression on me aside that Oolong is just a perverted pig, Chi-Chi has an Ultraman helmet in which up until now, and still confused on why she didn’t give it to her son, Gohan and Puar is just… Puar!

Overall, Volume 1 of Dragon Ball was a good start of Goku’s adventure. Sure, the first volume doesn’t give much focus on Goku as a main character aside that he only aides Bulma in her quest to look for the Dragon Balls just for the heck of it, but it gives us the meat on the stars of the original series, namely, Goku, Bulma, Kame Sen’nin and Yamcha.

The art for the first volume is great and the colors (If you are reading the Viz Big Edition), properly matches the characters. The only downside with Toriyama’s coloring is the fact that he went a little lazy after a few pages and decides to color the manga with the shades of red, orange and gray before going all black and white.

The edits made by Viz in terms of the sound cards is well done and in the Viz Big Edition, how they did the edits on Bulma’s service scenes was properly made (Note: The scans that I used here are the earlier releases of Dragon Ball in the US) for the new readers not to notice it.

If you are a fan of Dragon Ball Z and never had the chance to watch the original Dragon Ball series back in TV, the first volume is a must read. Aside that you learn why those characters in Z exist even if they don’t do a lot, you will learn that without those characters, Goku will not be the Goku we know and love. Thank God, Bulma found Goku in the wild and Goku wreck her car in return! That my friends, is how the relationship of a 14 (?) year-old with a monkey tail named Goku to a 16-year-old 36-C cup girl named, Bloomers, I mean, Bulma!

If you love this review, please support the official releases by Viz Media! You can buy your own copy of Dragon Ball Vol. 1 online (Which I post the links below), or if it is available in your local bookstore, buy it! The scans here are used for promotional purposes of the manga and for the sake of this review to be not boring because it is long. So please, Viz, don’t kill me. 

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Dragon Ball Vol. 1 (Paperback)
Dragon Ball Vol. 1 (Collector's Edition)
Dragon Ball Vol. 1 (VIZBIG Edition 3-in-1)


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Dragon Ball Vol. 1 (Paperback) 
Dragon Ball Vol. 1 (Collector's Edition) 
Dragon Ball Vol. 1 (VIZBIG Edition 3-in-1)

She is Back. The Ring 2 Manga Review.

The Ring 2 is a manga based on the novel written by Koji Suzuki and was adapted by Meimu in terms of artwork and Hiroshi Takashi took the job in creating the script.

The manga takes place after the events that happened on The Ring in which Ryuji and Reiko found the body of Sadako. They thought everything will be over until Ryuji died. After these turn of events, Reiko asked his father to watch the tape so that his son, Yoichi will be saved by the curse of the videotape. Well, the first 45 pages of the manga is a brief flashback on the events that happened on The Ring!

Now for the main thing, the manga opens with that old man back in Sadako’s hometown was called to identify the body in which we learned the shocking truth, Sadako was alive inside that well for 30 years and she just died a couple of years ago.

Meanwhile, Mai Takano, Ryuji’s student is looking for some answers about the death of her professor, so she went to Reiko’s office to discover that she is missing. She also went in her house in which Mai slowly discovers her psychic powers and still, Reiko is nowhere to be found.

Later on, Mai visited the hospital in which Masami, a witness when Sadako killed her victim was confined. Because of that event, she does not want to get near beside a TV set. But an event caused her to accidentally saw a TV. Thus, Mai saw the Sadako’s well and her psychic power went into full development, and learned that Yoichi needs her help.

As the story progressed, she met Yoichi, the son of Ryuji and Reiko. Unable to speak and was running away from a figure later identified by Yoichi as the Long Haired Woman. Because of strange turn of events, Yoichi is slowly consumed by fear and due to the fact of his father’s genes, he inherited his psychic powers. Put those two elements aside, along with anger, he slowly developed into another “Sadako.”

Will Mai’s newfound abilities save Yoichi? Will Yoichi be totally consumed by fear? That is for you to find out.

On to the review, I haven’t read the original review due to obvious reasons but I watched ¾’s of the original Japanese film before my mother forced me to turn off the TV because it is getting late. To be honest, back then, I didn’t know what the hell is going on in the whole film until now.

The Ring 2, contrary to popular belief is a scary piece of work in which a Long Haired Woman is crawling out from the well and kill you, but it is more of a title that revolves around mixing science with the psychic forces quite unknown to man. Kinda like Death Note except it is more realistic and quite believable is some angle.

On the plot, I love the Science meets the Supernatural thing going on! I mean, it’s really rare that Science did a major role in a work that is related to the supernatural. One of the things that I liked about this is that it is more of an indirect sequel and not a direct sequel of the first Ring making new readers easy to “get in” the story without much exploring the back story of Reiko, the only adult character from the previous Ring that survived.

I liked two things about this manga adaptation. First, is Meimu’s artwork. Second, is how it grips me to continue on reading it. Since I don’t know Meimu’s gender, I’ll just address the guy via his/her name.

A graphic novel will not work without these two elements, the writing if it is an adaptation, the adapted script based on the source in which it was based and the artwork by the artist. Heck, why is it called a graphic novel if it doesn’t have pictures?

The translation of Takahashi’s script was good but the script really worked thanks to Meimu’s artwork. Meimu’s artwork has this feel as if you are not reading it but watching it. It grips you in continuing to read it. I love the facial expressions are well animated in the character’s faces. In addition, I love the detail on Sadako’s decaying arms and the semi-gore factor on some panels.

The weakness in reading a manga that is not the first volume especially if you don’t have the knowledge about it is that you don’t get what is going on unless the publishers decide to place a page or pages dedicated to the events that happened prior to the volume. That is what it did for the new readers who haven’t read no.1.

Overall, even at first, I was skeptical on reading this since I have this fear of adaptation decay thanks to the American The Ring film. However, after finishing reading it, I loved how the original work was adapted. In case you haven’t watched the films nor read the novel, this is a must read for those who are curious on the story of that girl who crawls out from the well.

Yu Yu Hakusho Vol. 1 Manga Review

Yu Yu Hakusho is a manga written and illustrated by Yoshihiro Togashi that was released in the early 90’s. In the first volume, we are introduced to the manga’s protagonist, Yusuke Urameshi, a 14-year old delinquent who just, well, died. 

Unlike its anime counterpart, there are chapters from the manga that are not included in the 1st volume,and there are some major differences from its anime counterpart and its original source, and I will share it to you guys.

The manga kicks off with Yusuke being dead. Yusuke, now a floating spirit wonders what happened to him and why his arm just crossed over the man’s head when he tried to punch him, and so, Yusuke recalls what happened 3 hours ago. In which he remembered he had a regular day, in which he skipped school and beat Kuwabara but there is something in this regular day that is different, he saved a kid who is playing on a street and now, he is dead.

This is when Botan appeared to tell him that his death is not on schedule and he has a chance to live again. At first, Yusuke declines the offer but after learning that there are people who cared about him, he accepts. In which in the next chapter, he goes to the underworld to accept the challenge from King Enma, Jr. aka Koenma, a kid (?) that wears a pacifier and a bib and that challenge is to raise an egg and once it hatches, it will determine his fate. If Yusuke continues to emit good energy, the egg will hatch into a good being but if he continues to emit negative energy, it will hatch into a monster and devour Yusuke.

Yusuke then remembers to tell them not to bury his body, and so he goes to his mother but since she is drunk, he didn’t visited her in her dreams, so she goes to Keiko and haunts her in her dream to check his coffin. Keiko rushed to Yusuke’s house in which Atsuko, Yusuke's mom rushes to Keiko to say that Yusuke is still alive. And for that, after he returns to the land of the living, Yusuke can’t talk to them and so, he gives his final message to Keiko via Kuwabara and his extreme sixth sense.

Some chapters of the manga never make it into the anime. First is about a dog who can’t cross over to the other side because of his master can’t live without him. Next is about a girl ghost who is stuck in a park bench that waits for his boyfriend during Christmas but we learned that his boyfriend cheated on her and was being bet upon. The sixth chapter is about a raccoon wanting to express his gratitude to a grouchy old man for saving him back then.

And in between the chapters that never appeared in the anime is the chapter about Kuwabara trying to save his friend’s job by not fighting for a week and passing their next exam, in which we saw Kuwabara’s determination just to save his friend’s job.

The last chapter in this volume is Yusuke’s temporary resurrection. Since his body is slowly getting weaker, he must return to his body for it to be “recharged.” Meanwhile, Keiko and her friends met a bunch of thugs and Kuwabara’s friends came to help them but they lost. After Keiko slapped the leader of the thugs with her bag, Keiko is in big trouble. Meanwhile, our hero is enjoying his temporary resurrection… by smoking and playing in the arcade.

On the review, one thing that I observed in the manga that there are chapters omitted in the anime and some concepts removed, such as Yusuke must return to his body once a month for his body to continue living. Aside from the said concept, Yusuke, being a smoker was not found in the anime. In addition, there are alterations from the manga and the anime. First, is the artwork, in the anime, Koenma doesn’t wear a bib but in the manga, he is wearing one. Second, is the egg giving scene here in the manga was longer compared to the anime. And third, Keiko’s friends appeared more often in the manga than in the anime.

In terms of our protagonist, Yusuke is a good guy deep inside but because of his upbringing, he ended up being a punk and wasting his time on smoking, slacking off and hitting Kuwabara countless times. 

In the manga, we saw a lot of his good side, especially in the chapters that was never adapted in the anime. For instance, in one chapter, he acted out as the demon just for the kid to let go of the spirit of his pet dog. Also, in one chapter, we saw him pull a girl ghost out of the park bench just for her to experience the joy outside the bench! See how good Yusuke is in the manga?

Kuwabara is you might say, Yusuke’s rival and all I cans say is, he is the most developed from the entire cast. We saw both of his aspects in the first volume. First, is his punkish attitude and his rivalry with Yusuke and second, is his caring nature towards his comrades that he would be willing to take the risk of not fighting those who are challenging him and let him get beaten up into a pulp just for his pal to have his job.

Keiko is one strong female character and that is all I can say about her as for Botan, she is one pretty static character, I never saw anything special about her that will interest me, personality wise except that she is Koenma’s assistant. Speaking of Koenma, he is one heck of a character. He is an old man in a body of a five-year-old that stamps papers for his job in filling in his father’s place and is working in a pseudo-stock exchange-esque office!

As for the artwork, I love Togashi’s artwork! It has a good mix between slapstick comedy-esque art and standard shonen artwork. Also, the character designs has the look of a standard Japanese punk middle school student will look like. Seriously, they can adapt Yu Yu Hakusho into a live-action series!

As for Viz’s translation (Note: The scans that I am using are the scanlated version of the manga), At first, I have problems with them editing the sound effects, but I slowly get used to it as I read the volume. There are some parts of the volume that I love how they edit, namely the panel in which we saw the words, “pointless” in Yusuke’s head which added the humor of the scene! As for the translation, compared to the scanlated version that I read, they tried to retain the humor of the original Japanese version as close as possible by changing some words in the translation to make it one fun read.

Overall, the first volume of Togashi-sensei’s Yu Yu Hakusho is one good read. Asides that it has content not found in the anime as well as a concept of Yusuke’s body being a battery for the sake of his Earth body to recharge. The characters, especially Yusuke being somewhat partly good and partly evil made this volume quite a read, add the fact that it ended with a cliffhanger of Keiko is trouble and Yusuke is just smoking and is playing on an arcade. Because of that, I want to read the second volume, right now!

Guys, like I pleaded with my Dragon Ball Vol. 1 review (will be doing vol. 2 later), please, please, support the official release of the manga by buying it! Sure, I used the scanned version, but it is for you guys to have a good idea on how the product will look like.

The Robot Cat From the Future! Doraemon Vol.1 Manga Review.

One of the well-loved works of Fujiko F. Fujio tandem, Doraemon is about a story of cat coming from the future that is helping Nobita, an idiot 4^th grader with his life with his gadgets coming from his pocket.

The first episode that aired in Philippines back then is exactly the first episode of the series but didn't introduce the origins of our favorite robocat. That episode never explained why that cat arrived in Nobita’s time, until I bought the Filipino translated manga last December. To those who want a copy, go to the nearest Booksale outlet here in the Philippines and look for it. It cost Php 60-65 pesos per volume. I am planning to buy volume 2 next week.

Since I read the first volume, I think I would like to share three chapters of the manga that is relevant to the plot. The rest of the chapters are classic Doraemon fare.

The manga started with Nobita sleeping during laying his head on his room at the start of the new year, until he heard a strange noise telling him all the misfortunes that will happen to him during the day, looking around, he thinks that its just his imagination, until Doraemon pops up from his desk and introducing himself. After Doraemon spotted food, h e left and Nobita started to think that it is just an imagination… until his great grandkid from the future, Sewashi appeared along with Doraemon. Sewashi explained that in the future, great misfortune will happen to him and Doraemon is there to help him. To be exact, he will be married to Giant’s (Damulag to those used with the Filipino dub) sister, and he will have a debt that can’t be paid in his entire lifetime.

At first, Nobita did not believe and started throwing things at the two, later on the said misfortunes happen to Nobita and later were convinced with Sewashi, and the rest, is history.

The next chapter is simply about Nobita trying to escape a car accident… and ended up with a car accident anyway thanks to a toy car thrown at his head! The other relevant chapter is about how his parents ended up together, it all because of Nobita and Doraemon after all!

On to the review, one thing that I liked about the manga is that humor is still intact even though it is translated in Filipino. The artwork as always, is still the classic Doraemon we all love, except that he is getting thinner per chapter (Note: In the first chapter, both his head AND his body are at the same size, it is better describe as two soccer balls glued together). Since it is the first time Doraemon is helping Nobita, at first, he is reluctant to help Nobita in ever problem he had faced. Now I know why Nobita is very, very lazy in the anime!

To the specifics, Nobita is the same Nobita we love, an idiot, lazy and always bullied by Suneo and Giant, idiot, because he was not able to get what his great grandkid is speaking. To be exact, when he discovered that Sewashi is his grandkid, he replied, “How come I become a grandfather if I am still a kid.” Idiot. Bullied, I think you know what I am talking about.

Doraemon, is not properly developed in this first volume, he was only introduced here as a robot cat from the future that will help Nobita in everything. End of description.

Sewashi, even though he appeared for about 3-7 pages in the volume, his character is properly established, and he is best described as the grandkid from the future that is willing to help his grandfather to give him a better life. He even revealed that in his childhood, he never had a toy because of his great grandfather’s never ending debts. Poor kid.

So far, this volume pretty much gave me a good time and best recommended to old and new fans of Doraemon. It is a fun tale, and Doraemon’s gadgets are worth a drool to techies.

Mystery & Revenge. Skull Man 1970's Manga One-Shot Review.

The original one-shot manga created by Shotaro Ishinomori, known for his other creations such as Kamen Rider, Cyborg 009 and Kikaider. This story is said to have a dark-theme with an anti-hero as the lead character, who assumes the identity of the Skull Man… and considering the fact that this one-shot is created in the 70’s! Because of the word, dark-themed, anti-hero and revenge, I got a sudden interest about it aside that it is suppose to be the basis of Kamen Rider.

There are dozens of mass murdering cases and catastrophes that seem to have no connection, that’s what the masses thought. A detective agency investigating those cases came into one conclusion, it is done by him. The said “him”, is a psycho calling himself, the Skull Man.

A man named Tatsuo Kagura decided to help the investigation of the said crimes. As the manga progress, we learn that Tatsuo is Skull Man and he seeks answers about the death of his parents. After killing the cop, he with his partner, Garo who has the ability to shape shift, went to the place of the person the cop mentioned, Chisato Kogetsu.

He is about to do his revenge after he revealed the reason why he kills those “innocent” people who are not connected to Chisato. He said that they are not innocent, some get money from the people, took bribes, and other possible crimes you would like to think of. Chisato said that almost all people are connected to him. Skull Man replied in a sort that sounds, I don’t give a damn, I will kill them.

Skull Man said that he will kill him and her granddaughter. Her granddaughter said to him that don’t shoot brother. Ooh, the plot thickens.

Her granddaughter, Maya then revealed that Chisato is his grandfather. The readers then learn why his grandfather killed his parents. The reason why he killed his children is the fact that his son, a brilliant man who is considered more than a genius, is doing harsh experiments and creating mutants. To stop this madness, his father decided to kill his own son and his daughter-in-law. He is planning to kill young Tatsuo but he is rescued by one of the mutants, Garo. His grandfather later adopts his sister Maya.

After revealing the truth, Chisato then reenters the house with Maya. Skull Man noticed this and entered the house. On the next panel we saw the interior burning. Chisato then said, “We were born in wrong era!” and so, on the last page, we saw fire on the site, concluding us with a tragic ending. Skull Man, Garo, Chisato and Maya died.

On to the review, in my own opinion, Skull Man is the epitome of what a manga anti-hero supposed to be. At first, I thought he is the bad guy until at the last pages of the manga revealed why he is killing people. Skull Man is like Batman with a gun with a thirst to kill those who are evil. While reading every page, I was amazed with the darkness of the manga. The first few pages have no dialog which adds more to the darkness of the work. It really captures the reader to continue on reading this. Skull Man has this sort of element that is missing to the current stream of anime and manga anti-heroes. He has a dash of mystery yet he has a lot of showmanship that the media tried to hide from the general public.

Skull Man’s main theme is revenge. Skull Man is fueled by revenge, unlike Batman, who is in my opinion is the closest thing to compare to Skull Man. Bruce Wayne used his experience of losing his parents in becoming the vigilante known as the Batman. He wants people not to experience the same fate. While Tatsuo, while he is in the same level like that of Bruce except that he will kill and he will use a gun… unlike Bats. Cool.

To sum things up, Skull Man is one heck of a manga, even though it is created back in the 70’s, it has a theme that can be adapted into this current era. Skull Man is best read by people ages 13-up simply because kids can’t handle the darkness of this masterpiece.