Review: RG Veda Omnibus V.01

Title: RG Veda Omnibus Volume 01 (of 3)
Creator: CLAMP
Format: Right-to-Left
Original Publisher: KADOKAWA
US Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: 9/6/16
Pages: 656
ISBN: 1616559888
MSRP: $24.99
Genre: Fantasy
Rated: T (Teens)

Description: RG Veda, pronounced Rig Veda, is based on the classic Indian saga of the same name. The lush, sprawling epic follows Yasha, once a mighty warrior king, but now the lord of a slaughtered people he could not save. Yasha journeys the land as the companion and protector of the genderless Ashura, even knowing Ashura's fate is wound with doom for many. Together they seek the other four of the "Six Stars," whose prophesied gathering will at least defeat Taishukuten, the evil usurper of Heaven's throne. But all prophecies are open to interpretation...

Contains 7 Parts:

• The Ressurection of Ashura
• Star Festival
• Storm of the Six Stars - Part 01
• Flame of Destruction, Thunder of the King
• Traveler's Light
• Storm of the Six Stars - Part 02
• Ice Castle, Fire Prison

Revew:

Cover: The cover for this volume has a Gold colored background. The main image is directly centered and features Ashura and Yasha. The series title and mangaka are along the left side of the cover, with the volume number on the right side.

The spine from top to bottom contains the series title and mangakas side-by-side, the volume number, an image of Ashura and Yasha taken from the front cover, and the Dark Horse Comics company logo.

The back cover mainly has everything shifted to the right side. The top portion has an image of, yet again, Ashura and Yasha taken from the front cover. Then we have the series title, the mangakas, and the volume description.

The only thing great about this cover is the front cover. The background color used was a great choice! The image used as well, on the front only! There was so much art that could have been used for the spine and the back cover, but nope! We got the same image used over and over. This is an Omnibus. It was originally 4 Volumes! And we got artwork from just 1 cover? This is probably one of the worst cover designs I have seen in a very long time.

Artwork: This series is done by one of my favorite group of artists of all time, CLAMP. Even if their stories are terrible, their artwork makes up for everything! RG Veda is their very first work, and it still shows just how beautiful of art they can truly create. The artwork is very Shojo-esqe, but it has a lot of detail to it. If anything, if you are a fan of great art, check this volume out!

Translation: Character names, places, artifacts, sound effects, and pretty much everything you can think of was left intact. However, from the nature of this series and knowing CLAMP, the one thing that was not kept were the honorifics, which was a bit disappointing to see.

Extras: There were absolutely no extras with this release. This was a bit disappointing as well weith all the extra content that was included when the series was originally released; the Tokyopop releases had the extra chapters and content.

Content (Warning: May Contain Spoilers): The prophecy tells of one man who will one day destroy the Earth completely. It is said that if he is revived that he will one day end all life. This is basically where our story begins. A man named Yasha hears this prophecy, yet still does not believe in such nonsense and decides to awaken a child, Ashura, who has been sleeping in a forest for 300 years. It is said that the child will bring bad luck to anyone who encounters him, including killing Yasha. Yasha still does not believe the prophecy and will do whatever he can to change the destiny and bring balance to the planet.

Thus we now begin a quest in a sense. Yasha decides to raise the young Ashura as his own, gathering his Six Stars and regaining the Sword that the original Ashura once possessed. But there is a lot to this tale and it is rich in history.

Ashura was actually born from a woman who did not love the original Lord Ashura, but an evil god Taishakuten. There were two children actually born and were seperated. The child Ashura was sealed in the forest because the prophecy told of him killng the god Taishakuten, which is also the reason Yasha is protecting the boy cause the god actually wiped out all of Yasha's tribe as well.

There is a large blood soaked path of destrucition whereever our protagonists seem to go, and the main quest in this volume does not really move that far along. By volumes end we have Ashura basically just regaining his sword and still looking for his Six Stars, which two of them have already been found just not really shared with the readers.

As a whole, this story is a bit confusing. The chapters don't really flow with each other and are all over the place without really telling the readers what happened and at what point in time the chapter takes place in the story. However, it is still a very rich tale, and if you can get through it, you can pretty much catch on to a lot of it if you pay really close attention to the details. As this is a CLAMP title, I wasn't expecting the story to go off in a complete weird tangent at times, but it is also their first work as well. The story has an intriguing plot, that I will stick around for with the next volume at least, but if you have a hard time following stories, this might not be something you want to get into.

Objectionable Content:

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

Score:

• Cover: 2/10
• Artwork: 10/10
• Translation: 7/10
• Extras: 0/10
• Story: 6/10

Overall Rating: 5/10

Where Purchased: Barnes and Nobles

Original Review Date: 10/31/16

Busy, Busy. Busy....

Sorry for the lack of reviews and not keeping up with the schedule, I am doing my best to manage my life and the reviews at the same time but have less and less time to do some of the things I love doing! It also doesn't help that a lot of the volumes that I am doing right now are big Omnibus editions...

If you notice, the review pile is getting longer and longer... Novembers releases have started trickling in...

Currently still going through reading RG Veda... might not be out by Tuesday as planned, but it will be out that week... Same goes for the following two weeks... BLAME and Fruits Basket are huge books as well! So I will try my best to get them all out on time! They just might be a few days late or so...

Review: One-Punch Man V.08

Title: One-Punch Man
Volume: 08 (of 11+)
Creator: ONE and Yusuke Murata
Format: Right-to-Left
Original Publisher: Shueisha
US Publisher: Viz
Release Date: 9/6/16
Pages: 200
ISBN: 1421586568
MSRP: $9.99
Genre: Shonen Jump
Rated: T (Teens)

Description: Nothing about Saitama passes the eyeball test when it comes to superheroes, from his lifeless expression to his bald head to his unimpressive physique. However, this average-looking guy has a not-so-average problem-he just can't seem to find an opponent strong enough to take on!

Class-S hero King is known as the strongest man on earth. Even monsters fear him. But when a mysterious organization sends an assassin after him, the shocking truth about King is revealed!

Contains Punch 38-40:

• Punch 38: King
• Punch 39: That Man
• Punch 40: Outlaws
• Bonus Manga 01: Lost Cat
• Bonus Manga 02: Monster

Review:

Cover: This cover features King and Saitama playing video games. Saitama looks to be beaten at the game he is playing and is tossing the controller down onto the floor, extremely pissed off. The series title is across the top in green lettering, with the volume number and mangaka listed on the lower left corner.

The spine from top to bottom contains the Shonen Jump brand logo, the series title, the volume number, the mangakas, an image of King, and the VIZ company logo.

The back cover contains a bonus manga in color that has King browsing a local game store. The bottom 1/3rd of the cover has the volume's summary on a green background.

This is yet another great representation of the original tankouban release. It is also pretty hilarious to see this cover depicting an action sequence and it wasn't until really thoroughly examining the cover that I realized they were actually playing an old school SNES. I also really liked they included a kind of bonus manga, in color, on the back cover. Really creative here and probably one of the coolest things I have ever seen done with a manga.

Artwork: Artwork that consistently amazes me. This series is a Shonen title, so expect tons of explosive action from cover to cover. As we move on from the Boros saga, there still isn't a small breath of hesitation as we get right into the next Demon level threat in town, and tons of beautiful splash pages. I really wish some of these were done in color, they would look even more amazing.

Translation: Character names, attacks, culturual references, and locations are all left intact. Sound effects have been changed; typical VIZ stuff.

Extras: There are two extensive bonus chapters in this volume. Both of them take place after the events that happen within this volume. The Bonus Chapter, Lobster, does contain a bit with one of the new villains we will be seeing over the course of the next few volumes, Garo. Both are worth definitely reading and should not be skipped.

Content (Warning: May Contain Spoilers): This volume was pretty much an entertaining side-story after the events of the last story arc with Boros. We get the aftermath of that fight, but we quickly move to even more monsters still attacking the city.

Genos and Saitama decide its up to them to fight these monsters, but in another part of town there is a hero known as King, who witnessed a fight with Saitama against a monster that Saitama killed and he took all the credit. When King gets thrusted into this City infested with monsters, everyone looks to him for help because he is supposed to be so strong, yet really is the weakest person in the whole Hero Association and would rather stay in his apartment and play video games. Saitama however catches him in his lie and reveals it to King. With more and more monster attacks, King doesn't know if he can keep the lie up much longer, even with a new assassination organization who has sent enemies to take out King personally. Saitama once again saves the day, and King as well, but King still doesn't reveal to the world that he is a fraud.

Meanwhile with more and more threats attacking the city, the Hero Association looks to villains to start helping the heroes save their planet or they won't be able to keep fending the Earth. Enter, Garo; he takes out pretty much everyone at this assembly of villains and heroes. And he vows to kill every last Hero.

The volume was an entertaining read, but not as thrilling as the previous few volumes of the series. This is also the first volume that will be Season 2 of the anime, so we have now entered into some original content if readers cared to watch the anime now, or if fans of the anime wanted to pick up the series since we are now past the anime's first season. King was an interesting character, and hopefully they go back to him as the series progresses, especially with this new Garo story arc that we will be treated to within the next volume (yes, this arc is still going on in the current manga as well). Now that we are out of the shorter story arcs and entering a much larger story with this volume, let's hope the mangaka can continue to deliver!

Objectionable Content:

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

Score:

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

Overall Rating: 9/10

Where Purchased: Barnes and Nobles

Original Review Date: 10/26/16

Review: Fruits Basket V.04 Collector's Edition

Title: Fruits Basket
Volume: 4 (of 12)
Creator: Natsuki Takaya
Format: Unflipped
Original Publisher: HAKUSENSHA
US Publisher: Yen Press
Release Date: 8/30/16
Pages: 392
ISBN: 0316360651
MSRP: $20.00
Genre: Shoujo/Comedy
Rated: Teen

Description: Jealousy, rage, regret--the members of the Sohma family are no strangers to these emotions. Tohru Honda's cheerful optimism, however, is like a balm to them. Unfortunately, not every Sohma feels that way! Kisa and Tohru have become fast friends, but Hiro Sohma isn't too happy about this turn of events and decides to take out his anger on...Tohru?! And when the normally docile Hatsuharu snaps and pulls a Black Haru at school, will Tohru's brand of magic have any effect at all?!

Contains Chapters 37-48:

• Chapter 37
• Chapter 38
• Chapter 39
• Chapter 40
• Chapter 41
• Chapter 42
• Chapter 43
• Chapter 44
• Chapter 45
• Chapter 46
• Chapter 47
• Chapter 48

Review:

Cover: The cover this time around features Momiji in his school uniform, holding his hat in front of him. The background is a very light lavender color, with the series title and volume number in the left top corner in a darker purple color.

The spine from top to bottom contains the volume number, the series title, an image of Momiji and Hatori standing side by side, the mangaka, and the Yen Press company logo. The background on the spine is a flowery purple template.

The back cover has a picture of Hatori, dressed in his usual business suit.

I'm still in love with these covers, however, the image of Momiji used wasn't as impressive as the original volume that contained Momiji (can't remember the actual volume number at the moment). Also, yes I know he is a kid, but the position of Momiji on the cover leaves a lot of empty space across a lot of the front cover. I know these covers are going for a more simplistic look, but being the front cover, it should have been a bit better in terms of design. Hatori on the back cover was a good choice and his image took up almost the entire back.

Artwork: As the series continues on, the artwork is beginning to get a bit more consistentcy in terms of its style.  Being a shoujo series, the art is very simplistic in nature with a much more carefree and lighter appeal. Backgrounds are minimal, but character dramatization is high in terms of how things can go from happy to moody in a matter of seconds. For the most part, each volume does get better then the last in terms of the overall art.

Translation: The translation for this series is spot on. Everything from character names, honorifics, places, cultural references, and sound effects are left entirely true to the original Japanese manga.

Extras: There is an afterword and translation notes. Nothing really worth it in my opinion. As I have said previously, the original manga had a lot more notes in between the chapters, which the mangaka has eliminated with these Collector's Edition volumes. It kind of sucks, cause they were very fun to read!

Content (Warning: May Contain Spoilers): This volume dives deeper into both the Sohma family, as well as backstory with Tohru and Uotani. So there will be a bit to discuss this time around.

At first we are greeted by a new member of the Zodiac, Hiro Sohma. He appears to give Tohru a hard time, but his attitude mainly stems from the relationship she has begun to develop with Kisa Sohma, the Tiger that he has a crush on. Not only does he make life hard for Tohru, but he also tests her to see if she really is a good person or not. We do learn too that Hiro is the Sheep of the Zodiac.

Next we get a very in depth backstory with Uotani, specifically the day she meets Tohru and how she got to meet her once idol, Kyoko, who she wanted to teach a lesson to for becoming too soft. Kyoko is Tohru's mom for the reader's of my review's who have not read this series. She had a past of being in a really serious gang. So we get to see some moments of how she got out of the gang as well. It is a very deep story, and one that needed to be told since we learn how Uotani and Tohru actually became such close friends, even though they are so very different.

We then get a few filler chapters with more comedy then drama, since we just suffered a lot of emotional angst with the previous few chapters, but it doesn't last long as we jump right into meeting the next new member of the Zodiac, Ritsu Sohma, the monkey. His tale is a bit tragic too as he dresses like a girl, even though he is a boy and he had a lot of hardships growing up in school.

Next we have another visit from Ayame, this time to see his brother Yuki. We finally get some clarrification on why these two aren't as close as they should be for being brothers, which is a bit gut wrenching as well, especially when we learn a bit more of Yuki's tragic past and being locked away by Akito.

We then dive back into fillers for the remainder of the volume, but we get a glimpse of the next Sohma we will be introduced to more in the next upcoming volume, Rin. Rin has a deep connection to Hatsuharu, which was covered a bit in this volume, but there is a bit more of a mystery behind her and it will be unraveling very soon.

The series continues to get better and better. I loved how we finally get to have some back story on a few of the characters in the series. It will be fun to see what happens next with the Sohma family, especially when Tohru begins to start breaking the curse (I have not read that far and with Volume 5 of the Collector's Edition, I will be exploring some uncharted territory myself). Here's hoping this series continues to rise in suspense as we get closer to the climax of Fruits Basket.

Objectionable Content:

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

Score:

• Cover: 8/10
• Artwork: 8/10
• Translation: 10/10
• Extras: 3/10
• Story: 8/10

Overall Rating: 7/10

Where Purchased: Barnes and Nobles

Original Review Date: 10/23/16

Review: Magi V.19

Title: Magi - The Labyrinth of Magic
Volume: 19 (of 27+)
Creator: Shinobu Ohtaka
Format: Right-to-Left
Original Publisher: SHOGAKUKAN
US Publisher: VIZ
Release Date: 8/9/16
Pages: 192
ISBN: 142158395X
MSRP: $9.99
Genre: Shonen Sunday
Rated: T (Teens)

Description: Deep within the desert lie the mysterious Dungeons, vast stores of riches there for the taking by anyone lucky enough to find them and brave enough to venture into the depths from where few have ever returned. Plucky young adventurer Aladdin means to find the Dungeons and their riches, but Aladdin may be just as mysterious as the treasures he seeks.

Magomett, the leader of Magnoshutatt, learns that the Kou Empire plans to attack while the city is weak from fighting against Leam. In desperation, he uses the Magoi Reactor to create a terrifying blackness in the sky. The very essence of the world is now threatened, and Aladdin must summon his most powerful allies to try to stop it!

Contains Nights 179-188:

• Night 179: The Deepest Level
• Night 180: Koha Ren, The King's Vessel
• Night 181: Completion
• Night 182: Djinn Equip Amon
• Night 183: Meeting
• Night 184: Titus and Marga
• Night 185: Final Strength
• Night 186: Koen and Alibaba
• Night 187: Great Gathering
• Night 188: Djinn-Equipped Warriors

Review:

Cover:The cover for this volume features Alibaba in his Djinn Equip form. This is the first volume as well that he reveals this form, so it is fitting that he is gracing the cover. The imaging is full of lots of flames, since that is the power that Amon has. The words are across the top with orange lettering, with the volume number on the bottom.

The spine from top to bottom contains the Shonen Sunday brand logo, the series title, the volume number, the mangaka, an image of Alibaba taken from the front cover, a magic lamp image, and the VIZ company logo.

The back cover features Koha Ren in her Djinn Equip form on the top half of the cover. The bottom half has the volume summary on an orange background.

As far as the cover goes, I really enjoy it a lot. The visual appearance is great and really shows what is in this volume, on both the front and back cover. My only issue is the coloring of the lettering. The orange used for the series title on the front is very hard to see. The gold border around the volume number is also very hard on the eyes. As well as the white coloring of the letters for the mangaka. The visuals are beautiful, but everything else that tells you what series this is and everything about it is completely bad.

Artwork: This volumes artwork has improved significantly, but its probably due to there being no real change in tone. The theme of this volume is very action oriented with a bit of drama sprinkled throughout it. There isn't much of those comedic moments like previous volumes of the series where the artwork truly does suffer. Hopefully we will have this caliber the next volume as well, mainly because this storyline doesn't appear like it might be ending soon.

Translation: Character names, places, attacks, and the central plot was all retained. The sound effects have been changed however, like almost all of VIZ's titles.

Extras: There is a bonus 2-Page manga that really has nothing to do with the story, and is drawn in the comedic style which I loathe so much from this series.

Content (Warning: May Contain Spoilers): The battle rages on in this volume as what we thought was the climax was only just the beginning of the problems that Leam and Magnoshutatt have to face, when the Kou Empire arrives on the battleground and an even bigger battle begins.

Magnoshutatt's leader decides to go for broke; Mogamett decides to sacrifice himself to use the Magoi Reactor to possibly save what was left of his kingdom of magic, but in the process ends up killing all of the humans on the bottom levels of his empire in order to summon the dark magic he needs to possibly win the outcome of the war.

All seems to be lost as Aladdin and the rest of the Leam empire try to fend themselves from this power, as well as Leam and their incoming forces, when Alibaba reunites with his friend and is now fully in his Djinn Equip form. As they continue to fight on, it seems the evil powers of Magnoshutatt can not be defeated. When one shadow monster is destroyed, three more rise up. Leam notices this as well and with the forces of Leam and the Kou empire teaming up, they begin the fight for their life to try and stop this maniacal evil wizard's last dying wish, to make sure Magic is the real victor in this war.

This volume pretty much is just an all out war from beginning to end. There are very few dramatic points, except one chapter dealing with Titus and Marga. I really like the direction though that this series went. It's dark storytelling of the Magnoshutatt with how the Magicians truly did enslave humans for their own personal power trip; it reminds me almost of the holocaust in a sense on how morbid the wizards truly are.

The sentimental moments with Titus and Marga were really great as well, it showed quite a bit of character development for these two characters, especially Titus as he was once someone who was pretty monotone when he first started in this series.

Last point, Alibaba finally in his Djinn Equip mode! Took long enough! But the scenes with him were amazing. Hopefully the rest of the gang will join the fight in the upcoming volumes before this reaches a climax, if not maybe right after. As a whole though this volume was a great read from beginning to end, and I am really looking forward to what the climax is going to bring.

Objectionable Content:

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

Score:

• Cover: 6/10
• Artwork: 8/10
• Translation: 8/10
• Extras: 2/10
• Story: 8/10

Overall Rating: 6/10

Where Purchased: Barnes and Nobles
Original Review Date: 10/4/16