Throw-Back Thursday Review: Yu Yu Hakusho V.03

Title: Yu Yu Hakusho
Volume: 3 (of 19)
Creator: Yoshihiro Togashi
Format: Unflipped
Original Publisher: SHUEISHA Inc.
US Publisher: VIZ
Release Date: 2/25/04
Pages: 194
ISBN: 1591161835
MSRP: $7.95
Genre: Shonen Jump
Rated: T (Teens)

Description: Yusuke's back from the dead and better than ever! But his encounters with the supernatural are far from over, because his new after school job is as an Underworld Detective, working for Botan and Koenma to bring in renegade demons and solve mysteries that only a former ghost can figure out! But when three demons escape to the human world with evil artifacts, Yusuke's new job turns into a trial by fire. Now, armed only with his wits, his guts, and the mystic power of the "Rei Gun", he must face Goki (a soul-eating ogre), Kurama (a shape shifting fox spirit), and the deadliest one of all, Hiei of the Evil Eye...

Contains Chapters 17-25:

• Chapter 17: The New Mission
• Chapter 18: Action!
• Chapter 19: The Deadly Trio
• Chapter 20: The Muncher of Souls
• Chapter 21: What Binds a Mother and Son
• Chapter 22: Hiei of the Evil Eye
• Chapter 23: The Fearsome, Gruesome Binding Curse
• Chapter 24: Operation: Infiltrate
• Chapter 25: The Cursed Forest

Review:

Cover: The Cover to Yu Yu Hakusho volume three stays true to the original, yet again. The color scheme on this cover is mainly green and black with most text in white. We have the series title at the top. Under the title we have a nice picture of Yusuke in white, with a Kendo stick on one side and his hand in his pocket on the other. Then we have the volume number and the mangaka.

The Spine has the same green, black, and white color scheme. From top to bottom we have the Shonen Jump Logo, the series title, the volume number, the mangaka, and a nice bronze colored picture of Keiko. I don’t honestly know why Keiko graces this Volumes spine as she has hardly any run time in these pages.

The back is like most of the other Shonen Jump covers. We have the series title on the top with a summary underneath it (as well as the volume title, ‘In The Flesh’). To the right of the summary we have a picture of Yusuke in a detective outfit; it fits the main idea of this volume since he is now a “Spirit Detective.” Under Yusuke’s picture we have the volume number, which completes the back.

Volume 2’s cover I still liked the best out of the 3 covers. As far as this cover goes though, it is nice to finally see some full body shots of characters and not from the waist up.

Artwork: The artwork is kind of old, but VIZ touched it up quite a lot, which makes it look brand new. Some pictures at times do look grainy, but it could possibly be due to the master copies.

Translation: Perfect translation! Only bad thing IMO is the dubbed sound effects. Other then that, plot is very accurate and it gives good detailed descriptions where it needs to be explained.

Content (Warning: May Contain Spoilers): With this volume we cover a really major ARC, but first we have the first chapter which deals with how Yusuke learns that he has other plans with the Spirit World, he must become a Spirit Detective.

While the first Chapter is pretty much part of the whole resurrection ARC (I can not really place it with The Deadly Trio ARC), it still has a lot of important information. I don’t really want to get that much into this one chapter, so I will start off the content portion with The Deadly Trio ARC.

The main portion of this volume, or the Deadly Trio ARC, centers on Yusuke’s first real Spirit Detective Assignment, getting back the sacred artifacts from three criminal demons that escaped from the underworld. The three criminals are Goki, Kurama, and Hiei. Kurama and Hiei become main characters later on. Yusuke first goes after Goki who has a glass orb that steals souls. In order for Goki to survive he must consume souls. So, Yusuke decides to deal with Goki first as he is one of the real main threats (actually, Goki is the only one who would stick around to fight him). Yusuke loses the first time he fights Goki, but he manages to defeat Goki on their second encounter.

The next criminal Yusuke comes up against is Kurama. Kurama is not much of a criminal because he wants to use his item, a wishing mirror, in order to cure his ill mother. Yusuke let’s Kurama use the mirror, until Yusuke learns that Kurama must give up his own life in exchange for the wish. Yusuke butts in and manages to save Kurama and his mother by sacrificing some of his own life energy.

The last criminal is Hiei, whom attacks Yusuke through his girlfriend, Keiko. Yusuke goes after Hiei in order to save Keiko. Yusuke learns that Hiei used his item, a demon sword, to change Keiko into a demon. Yusuke must get the antidote from the sword before Keiko becomes a demon. Kurama helps Yusuke out in the match, since Yusuke helped him earlier. Their joined powers are able to put a stop to Hiei, and Yusuke gets back all 3 items of the underworld.

Yes, I know that was kind of vague as my summaries go, but there is a lot of information in this ARC that can not be explained in a 3 page review. This volume also introduces the next ARC, The Genkai Tournament ARC, but it does not really get that far into it. We have pretty much qualification’s for this volume (next volume is the actual tournament). The main point of the Genkai Tournament ARC is for Yusuke to find a criminal named Rando who is out to win Genkai’s technique which will give him an extra advantage at trying to take over the underworld.

As far as this volume goes, it is well worth the money. Yu Yu Hakusho gets to be a pretty intense series, and this volume begins to shed light on the actual action aspect of the series.

Objectionable Content:

• Language: No
• Violence: Yes
• Nudity: No
• Sexual Situations: No

Overall Rating: 4 (out of 5)

Where Purchased: Frank and Sons Collectible Show
Reviewer: TheGodofJurai

Review: Black Clover V.02

Title: Black Clover
Volume: 2 (of 7+)
Creator: Yuki Tabata
Format: Unflipped
Original Publisher: SHUEISHA
US Publisher: VIZ
Release Date: 8/2/16
Pages: 192
ISBN: 142158719X
MSRP: $9.99
Genre: Shonen Jump
Rated: T (For Teen)

Description: Asta is a young boy who dreams of becoming the greatest mage in the kingdom. Only one problem-he can't use any magic! Luckily for Asta, he receives the incredibly rare five-leaf clover grimoire that gives him the power of anti-magic. Can someone who can't use magic really become the Wizard King? One thing's for sure-Asta will never give up!

On the orders of the Wizard King, Asta and his allies head to a mysterious dungeon to retrieve a powerful relic. When mages from a rival country show up, however, this mission turns into an all-out battle. Can Asta lead his team to the win?

Contains Pages 8-16:

• Page 08: Those Who Protect
• Page 09: The Boys Vow: Part 2
• Page 10: What Happened One Day In The Castle Town
• Page 11: Dungeon
• Page 12: Reunion
• Page 13: The Diamond Mage
• Page 14: Friends
• Page 15: Three
• Page 16: Mortal Combat

Review:

Cover: This covers volume features several characters. In the very front we have Yuno. Behind him is William Vangeance. And to the sides we have Asta and Noelle. The series title is directly across the center. The background imagery this time is a tan like grimoire with a flowery pattern.

The spine from top to bottom contains the Shonen Jump brand logo, the series title, the volume number, the mangaka, an image of Yuno (taken from the front cover), and the VIZ company logo.

The back cover uses the same kind of background artstyle. We have one of the color pages, in actual cover, on the top third of the cover. It features Asta with his sword out and Yuno holding his book. Under that is the series title. with the volume title under it. The volume's summary follows.

As a whole this cover is done very well. The layout and characters used on the front cover was very strategically put on display that really gives the cover a pop when its sitting on the shelf. My only complaint is the back cover is still kind of bare. I really wish the color page image was a bit bigger as the color pages of this series are amazing! Loved this one too when it first appeared in Shonen Jump magazine. Overall though, its still an all around great start to this volume!

Artwork: Once again, more amazing art! This is a shonen series so we have a lot of heavy battle scenes. The artists style reminds me a lot of Berserk and Claymore, with a touch of Naruto. So if you are a fan of any of those, you will definitely enjoy this series! No complaints at all when it comes to the art.

Translation: Characters, cultural references, places, attacks are all left intact. Sound Effects have been changed as usual.

Extras: More character bios and notes from the mangaka. There is also a bonus manga. And an Afterword section. Tons of extras! Everything actually very relevant to the title as well which is a good thing as some titles stray from the actual source material. 

Content (Warning: May Contain Spoilers): The battle with Heath Grice continues in this volume, with Asta going all out with using his Black Clover Grimoire in a last attempt to save the village from complete destruction. The battle does not actually take long to finish, as it is pretty much over within the first two chapters of this volume. Asta ends up killing Heath Grice, but one of his minions ends up escaping back to their true leader.

The next part of this volume deals with our characters taking a trip to the Black Market. This is pretty much a filler chapter, but we do learn that this is a place that wizards get to go to spend their money that they get from completing missions. This is where we also learn of the next mission that our Black Bulls will be going on, completing a Dungeon!

Thus our next story arc begins, which is pretty much a Dungeon crawl with another rival guild trying to find the treasure before the Black Bulls can reach it. The other guild is none other then Asta's Rival, Yuno's guild. This is the first time the two have seen each other for quite some time and lots has changed.

In the battle there are tons of fights and we even get a bit of a back story dealing with a Black Bull member, Luck Voltin, during his big fight scene. The climax of the volume though is between Mars and the rest of the Black Bulls and Yuno. We are left with a cliffhanger, but I really don't want to spoil any of the Dungeon story arc for you readers.

This volume is amazing We start with action, we end with action. There is lots of dialogue as well so its not just a cluster of art and battle scenes. The story moves right along at an even pace giving the reader character development, background, and a rich dark world full of magic battles. I am very hooked on this series so far and each chapter just makes me sink even deeper into this amazing world that the mangaka has created. Another great entry to this series, and I seriously can not wait until the next volume is released.

Objectionable Content:

• Language: No
• Violence: Yes
• Nudity: No
• Sexual Situations: No

Score:

• Cover: 7/10
• Artwork: 10/10
• Translation: 8/10
• Extras: 10/10
• Story: 10/10

Overall Rating: 9/10

Where Purchased: Barnes and Nobles

Original Review Date: 9/27/16

What The Schedule Looks Like

So I am not making plans as of actual dates yet when these will be released, but I do have a working order of what reviews will be done and in what order. So here is what to expect...

What we have left over from the month of August and September:

• Black Clover V.02 (This Week it will be released)
• Magi V.19 (TBA - Roughly next week)
• Fruits Basket CE V.04 
• One-Punch Man V.08
• RG Veda V.01
• BLAME V.01
• Fruits Basket CE V.05

Of those, Fruits Basket V.04-05, RG Veda V.01, and BLAME V.01 are all Omnibus volumes. BLAME won't take me as long to read as I have read all these before so I know what to expect on how long they will most likely take to get through. Fruits Basket and RG Veda are another story. Both are deeply involved so these might take me a bit longer then a normal review.

For October, we have a huge month of releases! The August and September ones might be taking up most of the October month as it is, but here's what to expect following if I get to them in October or not...

• Black Clover V.03
• Platinum End V.01
• Magi V.20
• Inuyashiki V.05
• Fruits Basket CE V.06

There might be two other titles that come out in October I may be reviewing as well, one being Kuma Miko V.01... the other is Tokyo Ghoul Days... Unsure on the Tokyo Ghoul Days one yet though as it is a Novel and I am currently into SAO V.03 - Fairy Dance. Hope this helps clear up future plans and what to look forward to!

Review: Naruto Hiden - Sakura's Story - Love Riding the Spring Breeze (Light Novel)

Title: Naruto Hiden
Volume: 3 (of 6) - Sakura's Story - Love Riding the Spring Breeze
Creator: Masashi Kishimoto & Tomohito Ohsaki
Format: Flipped
Original Publisher: SHUEISHA Inc.
US Publisher: Viz
Release Date: 5/3/16
Pages: 192
ISBN: 1421584425
MSRP: $10.99
Genre: Shonen Jump
Rated: T (For Teens)

Description: A new series of prose novels, straight from the worldwide Naruto franchise. Naruto’s allies and enemies take center stage in these fast-paced adventures, with each volume focusing on a particular clanmate, ally, team…or villain.

The Great Ninja War did not only harm adults, but left many damaged children behind. Medical ninja Sakura travels the land, opening clinics dedicated to healing children of the mental trauma they experienced. She learns of a series of attacks against Konoha, and her investigation leads to an impossible conclusion: Sasuke is the terrorist mastermind behind them all! Using her skills and her heart, Sakura strives to clear Sasuke’s name and bring the real perpetrator to justice.

Contains 9 Chapters:

• Reminiscing
• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5
• Chapter 6
• Chapter 7
• Chapter 8

Review:

Cover:The cover for this volume features a sketched image of a much more mature Sakura. The background used this time is a pink and black frame like border, with a beige color for the center where the main image is focused. The series title is towards the bottom, followed by the novel's title. There is also the original Japanese title imprinted on the right side, which can only be seen if you move it through the light.

The spine from top to bottom contains the Shonen Jump brand logo, the series title, the manga title, the writer, an image of Sakura (from the front cover, and the VIZ company logo.

The back cover uses the same kind of pink and beige background. The center has the Novel's title and subtitle, followed by the description.

Still absolutely loving the way these novels are handled. Love the imaging used for each character and how they are actually sketched pictures. Love how they included the original title on the cover in the original Katakana and Kanji. Everything is just amazing! 

Translation: Lot's of errors in this volume, which is probably the worst thing I can actually say here. First off the translation is pretty soft translated, so there is room for a lot of improvements in terms of the grammer. There are also a lot of character names switched which at times could get really confusing, especially when Sasuke and Sakura's name get swapped multiple times over a single page and its not who they are referring to.

Content (Warning: May Contain Spoilers):Continuing forward from the previous Novel, this volume is the third in both chronological order in the timeline and release order. This one also takes place after Naruto The Last, the final movie in the Naruto Shippuden Movie series, so some events are mentioned throughout the entire course of the novel. Is it worth reading even though you have not seen the movie? Well let's find out shall we!

Sakura and Ino are helping Tsunade open up new hospitals through out the world, specifically for helping the children that were effected by the Infinite Tsukuyomi. While on their journey they come to find out that Sasuke has been seen and is trying to revive the Akatsuki to basically start a new project to collect the beasts once again.

Now it is up to Sakura and Ino, with the help of Sai, to try and figure out if it is really Sasuke doing this. In the end they find out that it is actually a warlord named Kido who had collected DNA from the final fight with Naruto and Sasuke at the Valley of the End and is trying to create drugs to reproduce the world's greatest ninjas in other people to make an army for himself. It is now up to our three heroes to find a way to bring down Kido before he fulfills his ultimate goal and creates a nine tailed beast drug that anyone can basically use freely just by taking a single pill.

Not going to give away the whole story this time since this may be the last volume of the Hiden series since VIZ has not actually released any info on the final three volumes. All I can tell you is yes, if you have finished the manga, it is a good idea to read this even if you have not seen Naruto The Last. There are a few flashback scenes kind of in the novel that give enough info to not really a person needs to see the movie. It has lots of character development and it was great seeing Sakura really in action as she is the third member of Naruto's team and has the least amount of time of the three members to actually be given a lot of growth. I for one was extremely pleased with this story and I hope the next novel does get released as these have great potential and a fulfilling gap between the original manga and the current Boruto series.

Objectionable Content:

• Language: No
• Violence: Yes
• Nudity: No
• Sexual Situations: No

Score:

• Cover: 10/10
• Translation: 4/10
• Story: 8/10

Overall Rating: 7/10

Where Purchased: Barnes and Nobles
Original Review Date: 9/20/16

Review: My Hero Academia V.05

Title: My Hero Academia
Volume: 5 (of 10+)
Creator: Kohei Horikoshi
Format: Unflipped
Original Publisher: SHUEISHA
US Publisher: VIZ
Release Date: 8/2/16
Pages: 192
ISBN: 1421587025
MSRP: $9.99
Genre: Shonen Jump
Rated: T (For Teen)

Description: What would the world be like if 80 percent of the population manifested superpowers called "Quirks"? Heroes and villains would be battling it out everywhere! Being a hero would mean learning to use your power, but where would you go to study? The Hero Academy of course! But what would you do if you were one of the 20 percent who were born Quirkless?

The final stages of the U.A. High sports festival promise to be explosive, as Uraraka takes on Bakugo in a head-to-head match! Bakugo never gives anyone a break, and the crowd holds its breath as the battle begins. The finals will push the students of Class 1-A to their limits and beyond!

Contains Numbers 36-44:

• No. 36: Bakugo vs. Uraraka
• No. 37: Midoriya and Endeavor
• No. 38: Todoroki vs. Midoriya
• No. 39: Shoto Todoroki: Origin
• No. 40: Emancipation
• No. 41: Fight On, Ida
• No. 42: Final-Match Time
• No. 43: Todoroki vs. Bakugo
• No. 44: Relaxing Day Off

Review:

Cover:The cover for this volume features a close up shot of Todoroki in his hero costume. The background color used is white, with some cloudes to the right. Ir really shows the emotion in this image that the character kind of goes through over the course of this volume. It's almost as if its showing the calm before the storm. The series title is across the top, with the volume number to the left of it. The volume number this time features Ida.

The spine from top to bottom contains the Shonen Jump brand logo, the series title, the volume number, the  mangaka, an image of Ida from the volume number on the front cover, and the VIZ company logo.

The back cover has a white background and continues the theme of the previous volume. We have the volume summary across the left top side, with a yellow cartoon bubble with the series description in it. An image of Todoroki from the front is under that, in a comic book type panel. The right side of the cover has an add from the hero Endeavor, showcasing his Burning Black Coffee.

I actually enjoy this cover a lot more then a few of the previous ones. Showcasing one character then multiple really makes it stand out a lot more. We still have the same comic book cover designs, which I hope continues for the course of the series; it really is an amazing idea that the creator did this. My still real big complaint is just the reuse of art on the front and back. I wish there was some more original artwork instead of it being recycled.

Artwork: Such a strong volume in terms of art and story. We continue to have the amazing Shonen stylized art that we have had in previous volumes, but we also have quite a few flashbacks dealing with the origins of some of the other characters of the series, so drama moments do happen as well. The action is explosive, and the emotion of the dramatic scenes is really showcased in the artwork too.

Translation:Character names, attacks, cultural references, and places are all kept intact. Sound effects have been changed per usual with most of VIZs releases.

Extras: More awesome character profiles. We also get some costume deconstruction where we get to see what all is involved with specific character's hero costumes. Last we have an afterword by the mangaka about the sports festival story arc, which pretty much concludes with this volume.

Content (Warning: May Contain Spoilers): Not much really goes on in this story in terms of pivitol moving the story along much. This volume just continues with the fights of the sports festival, but as it ends, we do get a glimpse of what is to come.

First up is Bakugo vs Uraraka; we got to see that they were going to fight in the previous volume, but it didn't actually begin yet. This fight doesn't last too long, but Uraraka does show she has a lot of fight in her, just not enough to actually take down Bakugo's explosive sweat powers.

We then move on to the fight that is actually the most important part of this volume. Midoriya goes up against Todoroki. Before the fight though, Midoriya confronts Todoroki's father, who has been pushing Todoroki to use his fire powers but he refuses. Midoriya pretty much tells Endeavor that Todoroki is his own man and he will win on his own.

When the actual match begins we do get a nice flashback that goes into great detail on Todoroki's character. It really fleshes him out greatly and we see why he only uses the power he has inherited from his mother, but in order to beat Midoriya, he's going to have to use his father's fire to win.

Many more fights happen, but they are a bit too fast to really take notice of. In the middle of them, Ida recieves a call from his parent's about his brother being attacked by a villain and ending up seriously injured. The villain who caused it is Stain, the hero killer.

The final fight begins with Bakugo vs. Todoroki. In a great display of action, Bakugo wins the match, even though he really wanted the fight to still let him be the winner, but in a different way of winning. The volume ends with everyone going back to their homes and the places they need to be; all is right for now.

Although it does conclude with no serious cliffhanger, we still have the lingering presense of Stain, the next enemy our heroes will be up against. In terms of actual story, this volume does very little to progress forward what we love so much about this series. It's more a typical shonen tournament arc; I know most shonen series have this kind of theme in them at some point, My Hero Academia started the arc off in a rather bold move by not doing head to head combat, but eventually moved to that direction. As a whole, I did not really care for the pacing as we didn't really get to see our heroes shine like they should have in each fight, but we did get Todoroki's story fleshed out a lot, and I kind of feel this was the main reason this story arc was originally created for in the first place. Now that the Sport's Festival is over, let's hope the Hero Killer arc will be much more battle heavy and put our heroes back out on the front lines once again.

Objectionable Content:

• Language: No
• Violence: Yes
• Nudity: No
• Sexual Situations: No

Score:

• Cover: 8/10
• Artwork: 8/10
• Translation: 7/10
• Extras: 10/10
• Story: 6/10

Overall Rating: 8/10

Where Purchased: Barnes and Nobles
Original Review Date: 9/14/16

Coming Up...

So as I posted a few days ago, there was a bit of a set back with reviews. In the meantime, I am working my best to get some new content out as quick as possible. My Hero Academia V.05 will be up within the next day or two. Currently working on finishing it up as we speak. After that I will be doing the Naruto Hiden Novel review, need to get that out of the way since we will be having the next novels coming out in November.

Everything else will continue to be reviewed like originally planned. Black Clover V.02 will be next, followed by Magi V.19 and Fruits Basket V.04 CE. Hoping to have these all done this month as this was my original plan for the month of August.

September's releases will most likely be done first half of October, since there are not a lot of releases this month. As of right now we just have One-Punch Man V.08. Fruits Basket V.05 CE is probably the only other volume from this month that will be reviewed.

Just hold tight guys and see you all soon!

Laptop Crashed... And I'm Kinda Back

My laptop took a dive. Took 3 weeks to get it fixed... Still behind on stuff, so bare with me as everything gets settled down. Reviews will be incoming soon!