About the Mangaka

The mangaka this time is rather unusual, since Peach-Pit is actually a female duo. Sendo Banri and Ebara Shibuko have had success after success, though they did go through three other group names, before settling for Peach Pit. Every piece of work they have done has gone on to become both a hit as a manga, and a hit as an anime. DearS, Rozen Maiden, and Zombie Loan have all been licensed, both in anime and manga format. Only Shugo Chara remains unlicensed. Their other work, is a a series of short comics called, Peach-Pit’s Three Titles Collaboration Comic, and mixes the characters from the three big manga, DearS, Rozen Maiden, and Zombie Loan. This is also unlicensed.

About the Manga

You know, this is the second time I’ve sat down to write this review. The first time was before my accident, and since I’ve forgotten most of what I wanted to write, I had to reread the series. Oddly, while I forgot what I wanted to write exactly, I remember my initial thoughts on the series: ‘crap’ ‘dull’ and ‘worst ever’.

However as I sat rereading the series, my thoughts have changed a bit, though only for my reasons.

Peach-Pit for some reason don’t really do a good job of this series, in fact at times it’s abysmal

While it’s true that the story does cover for it at times, it lacks the power to carry the series completely.

The art for this series is as I said, at times, stunning. Especially with regards to Ren and Miu. Yet at other times, when the other characters are around, it’s abysmal. It’s almost as if they didn’t care about the supporting characters.

Hiro is a prime example of this, at times he’s drawn extremely well; and genuinely looks like the playboy he’s supposed to be. Yet most of the time he just looks freaky.

Then we have the way Peach-Pit use the characters in the story. While Ren and Takeya  are undoubtedly the leads of the story, the other characters are just as important. Yet they’re underused to the point I was left wondering why a few were ever introduced.

Nia and China are prime examples of this. While Nia can be over looked as being the comedy relief, China was a different matter. She appeared, we love her, then she’s gone again.

Sadly the other characters are just as shoddily used. Even the main support characters, such as Khi and Miu are underused, Miu especially so in later volumes.

One of the main hates I have for the art is the over use of chibi characters. Admittedly this is a series where frequent use of them can be easily over looked, however the extent they’re used in this series is insane. Almost every other page is chibified. Chibi characters should be used for comedy relief, or cutesy scenes. while this series has lots of both, the chibi aspects are over used having a reverse effect. Rather than drawing attention to themselves, they cause you to over look them.

As for the story, sadly it fails to live upto expectations, the way it flows is jerky, and at times makes little sense. For example in the last volume we have Ren leaving. The way this is explained makes no sense at all, even less sense is the way she comes back.

The story lacks depth, especially early on, where it trips over the comedy side of things. We spend to long establishing Ren and Takeya’s relationship and bond, so the last of the series has to be rushed to get everything included. This is so obvious it’s annoying, especially give the fact the first few volumes are filled with nothing but filler, that could have easily been removed.

All of these pale however when you look at the hatchet job done by Tokyopop. I’ve seen a lot of bad stuff done by TP, but this one takes the rotten cake!!

volumes one and two are crammed full of missing words, spelling mistakes and publishing errors. Add in the seriously bad cropping and guttering, and those two volumes alone would be enough to throw this in the bin.

While the missing words is fixed from volume three on, the bad cropping gets worse. At times in later volumes entire speech bubbles are missing because of the bad cropping.

I don’t speak Japanese, but even I could spot the mistakes in these volumes. One or two I can live with, but the amount in these volumes is ridiculous. At times it has an almost rewrite feel to it. The flow is jerky, and just feels wrong.

The of course we have the outcry this series provoked in the UK. This series takes fanservice right to the point of hentai and dangles over it. While there’s nothing overtly explicit, there’s so much innuendo and blatant sexuality in it that it may as well be a hentai. Yet, despite this it was given a 13+ rating.

Unlike movies, the book rating system is totally voluntary, and Tokyopop came under severe criticism from both civilian and governmental offices because of their rating for this series. While perhaps not quite an 18+ title, it should have been a 16+. Yet if you compare it with say, Yubisaki Milk Tea, then it would be an 18+ series.

All told, this was a series that failed on all levels. It would have been a good series if more care had been taken over it, both by Peach-Pit and Tokyopop. It only just survives going in the junk pile, and that’s cause the final volume’s comedy had me in fits of laughter, and that’s the only reason.

Where to Buy

Head on over to the Book Depository, unfortunately because of their shitty search function, I cant link to the books directly. I put in DearS and got over 1000 books coming back >.< You’ll have to look through it individually.

However for this series, I highly recommend you save your cash and head on over to Book Close Out’s and buy from them. You’ll save 60% off the retail price, which makes the series worth buying in the end.