Zombie Loan Volume 1

Overall Rating: B
Synopsis: Michiru Kita is a mousy girl, who runs errands for her friends, and has Shinigami Eyes, which allow her to see a ring around a person's neck. This ring symbolizes the person's impending death; once they are marked to die, a gray ring, which is invisible to normal people, appears around their neck. Over time, the ring gets darker, and once the ring turns completely black, the person dies. Chika Akatsuki and Shito Tachibana, two boys in her class, both have black rings around their necks, but to her surprise, they are not yet dead. Who are these boys, and what do they have to do with the strange loan office called Zombie Loan?

I picked up the first volume of this one because of the title. It doesn't hurt that I like things with zombies in them. Then I checked out the description and it drew me in. I was sure I would be rating this one with an A+. Unfortunately, the first volume didn't blow me away. It's actually a little slow paced, but I really liked the concept so I stuck with it, and I wasn't disappointed.

Zombie Loan is basically a twist on the numerous manga out there featuring shinigami, and life after death. Chika and Shito provide the bad ass dudes aspect to the story, with a gun and sword attached to their bodies by chains, and mysterious pasts. However, instead of the usual buxom girl we get the mousy Michiru. Unfortunately, that's where the characters stop in the first volume. We're also introduced to some minor characters, who add flavor to the book, and hopefully are expanded on later in the series.

So far, I have a bit of a soft spot for Michiru, but I hope she grows as a character more in future volumes. One of the reasons I only rated this volume a B is because I haven't grown attached to any of the characters. The plot is interesting, the art is good, and I'm looking forward to where they go with things, but the characters seem pretty one dimensional. Hopefully this will pick up soon (and maybe add another woman to the cast) so I can cosplay Chika. I think Will would make an excellent Shito.

Black Sun: Silver Moon (Manga Review - volume 1) by Tomo Maeda

Rating: A

Synopsis: Taki Juhas is the oldest of ten children and his parents apparently owe a debt to the local Catholic church. In lieu of paying off the debt, the priest Shikimi Farkash comes and takes Taki as his indentured servant. As Taki spends his time cleaning the giant cathedral and serving his sensei tea, he wonders why on Earth they need to keep such a secluded church so clean. That night, Shikimi introduces Taki to the other part of his job - zombie killing.

Though there seems to be a bit of a misunderstanding about how the Catholic church works in this comic (owing debts to the church that are repaid with indentured servitude, and as a priest's servant, Taki is given a priest's outfit to wear) it doesn't really seem to affect the overall story.

Taki and Shikimi are both very attractive, and just seeing the cover one might think that there is going to be some shonen-ai going on, but that is definitely not the case. Their relationship is mostly humorous, with Shikimi being unreadably cheerful, and Taki being a teenage grump, always about to pull one over on his new master (like giving him mop water in his tea).

Supernatural elements of the story are introduced to us through Taki's introduction to them, and then Shikimi explains them. Shikimi hands Taki a sword and takes him to the graveyard to "see how he reacts" on his first night. Once a zombie pops up, and Taki kills it, Shikimi explains "Oh, that was the dead fisherman's wife we buried three days ago." It lets the story unfold and get explained to the reader very quickly, but it doesn't leave much to be answered in the next book. But now I really enjoy the characters, so I'm still going to read the next book (perhaps that was the point all along).

As Taki learns more about killing zombies that rise from the church's graveyard, Shikimi begins to reveal the reasons behind his silver hair (which seems to demonic to the townspeople) and why Taki is just so dang good at killing zombies. Though usually, he's not good enough for Shikimi, who critiques him constantly - "You used way too much energy getting the head off of that one."

Overall, it's like a supernatural slice-of-life friendship between unlikely people manga, and I think you'd like it.

Chevalier D'eon - Anime Review

Overall Rating: B+

Synopsis: D'eon Beaumont is an attractive young nobleman whose normal days of hanging out at Versailles just ended - the story starts with his sister's body pumped full of mercury, floating in a coffin down the Seine River. D'eon falls into the dangers and intricacies of his sister's spy duties as her spirit inhabits his body and assists in searching for her killer.

Far superior to the American movie Marie Antoinette, this show immerses the viewer 18th century France Versailles, and keeps it interesting. D'eon's accomplices include Robin (gunslinging pageboy), Durand (seemingly shifty swordsman), and Teillagory (master swordsman). And, lest we forget, he is also accompanied by his sister's vengeful spirit, who occasionally takes over his body during crisis scenes and commits ultra-violence (it's a lot like he goes Saiyan - his voice gets high-pitched, glowing red text appears on his sword and he's suddenly a bad-ass).

Here are the reasons you should watch this animated series:
- Awesome animation
- Well-written
- Sword fights
- Mercury-filled zombie fights

I adore well-done mysteries, and this one involves zombies, possession and did I mention cross-dressing? There's cross-dressing.

Rating Reasoning: The show has some minor localization flaws. Some of the voice acting is sub-par (which I thought was a play on stuffy noblemen at first). One of the first mystery plot points involve the word "PSALMS" and the subsequent Bible verses. Devout upper-class Frenchmen were unfamiliar with popular biblical references and had to research to discover them. I imagine this was more for the Asian audiences.

Note: This story is also a manga. It is also loosely based on historical fact - Chevalier d'Eon was a French diplomat, spy, soldier and Freemason who lived the first half of his life as a man and the second half as a woman.