Nightschool

Overall Rating: B+
Summary: A urban fantasy/supernatural shōjo comedy series by Svetlana Chmakova, which follows two sisters, Alex and Sarah Treveney, who are witches. The manga itself (which is an OEL or Original English Language) centers around the Nightschool, an ordinary high school during the day, but teaches magic-based classes at night. At the beginning of the manga, Sarah has recently become a teacher at the Nightschool, and Alex is being homeschooled by her astral, a mysterious creature that is always with her. Why she is homeschooled has not been revealed yet, but it may be a part of a mysterious prophecy...

In the first volume, Alex sneaks off to practice her magic in a cemetery despite Sarah warning her not to. Unfortunately, this turns out to be a bad idea as she accidentally runs into some vampires and hunters. She manages to escape, but the hunters seem interested in her, which is almost probably not a good thing.

Speaking of the hunters, they are the other group that gets a lot of focus in the first volume. They protect humans from the "Night things", but unlike most hunters in this kind of story they don't wantonly kill the vampires, witches, and werewolves. Instead they focus on dangers to humans, and then make sure they are no longer a threat.


I had read a couple of chapters of this when it showed up in the Yen Plus manga magazine (which is where I originally read Soul Eater as well), and was interested in the plot. I ended up checking out the first volume when it was released and I was glad to see my interest held. I really enjoyed seeing the side of both the hunters and the vampires, witches and werewolves. It added a lot of depth to the supernatural aspects of the manga. On top of that, the character development was really solid, and I'm interested to see where things go from here. All-in-all a solid story and I look forward to reading volume 2.

Fairy Cube

Overall Rating: A
Summary: A three volume fantasy shōjo created by Kaori Yuki, which follows high school boy Ian Hasumi. Ian was born with wing marks on his back and the ability to see fairies and the world they live in. Unfortunately for Ian, no one believes him, and have taken to calling him "Ian the Liar". Ian also has a spirit twin named Tokage who hates him and an abusive father who burned the fairy marks off his back when Ian's mother left to prevent Ian from "flying away". Not so great actually.

Recently, there have been a series of murders in the city. The victims have had  their backs slit open and the blood spurting out has formed the shape of wings. As a result, the crimes have been dubbed "the fairy murders".

Ian's childhood friend Rin Ishinagi is the only one that ever seemed to beleive Ian's stories of fairies. In fact, he was once able to show her the fairy world. Now she has returned to the city, and Ian's feelings for her are returning as well. Unfortunately, they may cause him even more trouble!

Okay, I picked this one up on a whim in Borders the other day (I thought the title sounded funny), and was pleasantly surprised by how good it was. The characters and plot drew me in and has me wanting to read volume 2 as soon as possible (it's already out but I haven't had a chance to get back over to Borders. I definitely recommend this one to fantasy and shōjo lovers. Check it out the first 22 pages online here

Kitchen Princess Volume 1

Overall Rating: B+
Synopsis: Written by Miyuki Kobayashi and drawn by Natsumi Ando, Kitchen Princess is a shōjo cooking series that follows Najika Kazami. Najika is an orphan from Hokkaidō, who lost her parents in an accident. After the accident, Najika thought about trying to kill herself to be with them again. Before she falls into a river to drown, a small boy catches her. He gives her his flan which has a silver spoon it. As he runs off to join his parents, Najika promises to make him the best treat ever. Eventually, she learns that the emblem on the spoon is from the Seika Academy school, so she sets out to become a great cook and get into the school.

However, after getting into Class A (the special class) at Seika Academy, Najika learns her problems are only beginning. She has to figure out who her "Flan Prince" is, and suffer the insults of the other girls in Class A. It turns out that every kid in Class A has a special talent, and the girls in Najika’s class think she doesn’t deserve to be there. She also meets and befriends Sora and Daichi Kitazawa, two brothers who hate each other, but are the most popular boys in school. They also realize what Najika's special talent is, her amazing cooking.

I liked the title of Kitchen Princess, so I decided to read the first volume. It's a cute manga, and the only reason I didn't give it an A is because the plot isn't very original. That being said, I love that they print the recipes for everything that Najika makes in the back of each volume. Especially since so many of the recipes sound delicious!