FEBRUARY 25, 2004 | Cuurure 13

MA Ne

GetBackers 1

>> Tokyopop 2004

A
Art by Rando Ayamine
Story by Yuya Aoki .

Yes, everyone, this week is a special treat for those of you who like to learn
about comics. The third manga of interest this week is GetBackers, the much-
anticipated series‘ from Rando Ayamine and Yuya Aoki. The series has been
around since 1999 in Japan, and our friends at Tokyopop just recently acquired
the rights to publish it here in North America. GetBackers is vaguely reminiscent
of Cowboy Bebop, since the two main characters, Ginji and Ban, have the worst

luck when it comes to completing any job they happen to take. Ginji and Ban are,

the GetBackers, a recovery agency with an almost 100% success rate.
Unfortunately for them, success often comes after the duo has been severely
beaten by older brothers, yakuza, and lucky cat statues. Ban and Gingji do have
special mutant powers that they manage to use just in time to prevent their
uritimely demise, but these powers never seem to prevent severe beatings.

Aside from the hijinks and tomfoolery that are standard in the recovery busi-
ness, our intrepid heroes have to deal with the problems presented by beautiful
women. Yes, GetBackers is an ecchi manga, full of panty shots and almost naked
ladies. In Japan, things that are a little dirty are referred to as ecchi. Combine
panty shots and two horny recovery boys, and hilarity inevitably ensues.

The art in GetBackers is quite nice, with good contrast, and en excellent level
of detail. The story is entertaining and action-packed, and the reader is always
left wondering if Genji’s latest “distraction” (scantily clad girl) will be the one to
finally cause the death of the two protagonists. Of course, this manga is defi-
nitely intended for an older audience, so if you’re offended by sexual innuendoes,
avoid this book like the plague. Otherwise, GetBackers is a welcome escape from
that nasty midterm schedule, and should be used as such.

>>Dana

Haikus for Rez Students

In the residence

Petshop of Horrors 1

>> Tokyopop 2003

t eH

wee LA 31a
by Matsuri Akino

This week, we have a whole lot of
shounenai manga to tell our faithful
readers about! What does shounenai
mean, you ask? Well, it means “boy’s
love,’ which means that there are a lot
of really pretty men who happen to
like other really pretty men.

Petshop of Horrors tells the story
of the mysterious Count D, his mys-
terious pet shop, and the more myste-
rious pets that the Count finds to sell.
D claims to be in the business of sell-
ing “love and dreams”, but it must be
confessed that some of his pets are
just plain weird. Of course, if a new
owner ever violates the contract that
he or she has singed with D, then the
pet shop is not responsible for any of
the consequences, no matter how bad
they may be. Some of the conse-
quences can be rather horrible, and
the worst case scenario often involves
a pet owner being eaten. Of course,
the risk of being eaten is often
ignored by a person who feels that it
is necessary to buy a strange mythical
creature.

Each volume of the manga is
divided up into smaller stories, and
each story tells the tale of one pet and
its new owner. Some of the pets are
strange creature who are part human,
and the owners of these pets are
always told to show them to no one.
Other pets only look human, and

Story

they only appear thusly to their own-
ers. Either way, there is always a les-
son learned by the patrons of Count
D’s shop, and there is often hijinks
involved. Especially when D happens
to be teasing the New York detective
who tries to learn what the connec-
tion between so many dead people
and D’s little pet shop is.

The art in this manga is complex
and sometimes cluttered, and show-
cases some extremely exotic and
breathtaking character designs. The
stories themselves are often more sad
than gruesome, but there is the occa-
sional story that inspires feelings of
warm fuzziness. Humorous elements,
in the form of Detective Orcot’s
interactions with D, suffuse the story,
and serve to lighten some of the more
macabre tales. The idea of boy’s love
is not the main focus of the book
either; in fact, there is very little evi-
dence to support the idea that D likes
boys at all. In all, Petshop of Horrors
is an excellent manga, full of involved
storylines and beautiful artwork. It’s
not your average ‘allow your brain to
go on a vacation’ read, and should be
appreciated by anyone who likes a
good, dark fantasy adventure with the
occasional bit of just vengeance and
gory death.

>>Dana

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Demon Diary 1

Story by Lee Chi Hyong

One of the newest Korean man-
gas to hit the stores lately is Demon
Diaries. Demon Dairies is in an
implied shounen-ai (literally “boys
love”) style with artwork done by
Kara Lim (one of the top Korean
shounen-ai artists), and story writ-
ten by Lee Chi Hyong. Shounen-ai
and yaoi are both styles that are
written for women, by women, that
focus on relationships between two
men, implied or not.

Demon Diaries is a beautifully
drawn series, only seven books
long, that follows Demon Lord
Reanef who is, at the beginning, a
child. The previous Demon Lord
Reanef mysteriously died, and thus
Eclipse, one of the highest level
demons in the ‘normal’ hierarchy,
is sent to find the new demon lord.
Eclipse goes off and finds the new
demon lord, a surprisingly young
and naively innocent Raenef in a
thieves’ guild in the nearby town.

Racnef has to catch up on his
dark magic, and Eclipse finds his
rather ditzy student more than a lit-
tle irritating. Racnef only manages
to learn the very basic-level “Dark
Arrow” spell, which Eclipse himself
invented. Raencf then manages to
bumble his way through a meeting
between all the high demon lords,
embarrassing both himself and
Eclipse in the process.

The storyline starts in a very
fluffy way, watching as Raenef tries
to become a ‘proper’ demon lord,
to the rather intricate plots that the
previous Racncf had left upon his
death. Raenef’s entourage seems to
keep growing with a large group of
rather zany characters. Erutis, a
master knight, ends up trying to
destroy Raenef, and when she does
not succeed she is offered a place to
protect him. Chris, the ‘next’ High
Cleric also becomes part of the
group when he is rather forcibly
given to Eclipse for tutelage.

The entire manga is an amazing
culmination of art, plot, and char-
acterizations.

- Stephanie