This is my sixth and final catch up post. I’m still waiting on the next issue to be delivered so i’ll post it when it arrives.

The Nightschool cover was awesome and has a great feel about it. The Soul eater one is nifty, but lacking something IMO.

I’m starting with the manhwa side this time, because it leads in with Nightschool.

Firstly, JuYoun explains why Maximum Ride was missing from an issue, and why Higurashi has been removed from the magazine (I still cry over that )

Otaku Pimp comes for his second round in the Yen Plus Anthology. And Kurt picks Nightschool volume one as his favourite of the month. Which I agree with, though Oninagi was a hard contender for it IMO.

The Manhwa & OEL side

Nightschool – Svetlana Chmakova

Some sweet colour pages start off this chapter, followed by some plot setting. It also seems we may get to learn just who Alex is shortly, though I can’t see her as evil, I mean she’s just so damned cute!!

Gotta love her Astral as well for adding in the humour at just the right moment.

Maximum Ride – James Patterson & NaRae Lee  

WOW a good chapter in various ways. We get to learn more about where everyone came from (except for one of them), and learn that things are bigger than initially believed. Can’t wait for the next issue to land so I can see how things go

The bonus page this month is a super cute Angel in tradition Korean outfit, and damn does she look sooooo cute

One Fine Day – Sirial

Laundry day, that’s pretty much all you can say about this chapter. I think it’s safe to say this series has no story period and it just meanders through No-Ah’s life day by day.

Pig Bride – Kookhwa Huh & Sujin Kim  

A rather interesting chapter with more revelations, this time about Doe-Doe. *sobs* my pure image of her has been totally destroyed *sobs* Sure it was to be expected, but still *sobs* Damn it where’s my next issue!! it’s two weeks late already!!

Sarasah – Ryang Ruy

Once again I find myself getting interested in this series. It has some good developments this time, but I do find I don’t really care about the love aspect side of things, and am more interested in the political side. The ending looks really interesting and I’m looking forward to the next issue.

One Fine Day – Sirial

err uhm err well this was a second chapter, and I have to admit I can’t remember anything about it. Read it twice and it’s like it went in one eyeball and out the other. One Fine Day is fast heading towards being the first series of Yen’s i’ll be dropping.

Time and Again – Jiun Yun  

WOW what a grisly chapter this was, and yet exciting as well. this was definitely the best of the manhwa side this month. An interesting twist to the story as well, though it doesn’t seem to have any relation to the main story.

Jack Frost – JinHo Ko  

Talk about your short chapters lol, this is one of those where you blink you miss it hehe. Some interesting stuff revealed again this time. Mostly about Jack and Helmina, the more I read the more I’m getting into this. Oddly, no gore or fan service this chapter, and it actually did well without either

Thus ends the manhwa and OEL side of the magazine. We’re treated to another page of Fan Art, the Afterword, and another set of Abby’s 4koma. Time to flip the mag and start reading backwards

The Manga Side

The manga side leads of with Soul Eater this month, and we’re given a Soul Eater poster as a prezy. One problem, only way to get the poster is to rip it out the mag, not a good thing. Considering it comes in a sealed bag of it’s own, there was no reason for it not to be released loose. That said looking at the actual cover for the manga side, it looks better in the hand, than it does on the web

Soul Eater – Atsushi Ohkubo

What can I say other than curse you Atsushi!!! How dare you defile my love of the King Arthur and Excalibur legend. Okay so I nearly killed myself laughing over it, but it was still below the belt lol A bloody funny chapter at the end, which balanced out the tension from the beginning. I’m really looking forward to how this progresses now.

Nabari no Ou – Yuhki Kamatani    

I wasn’t overly impressed with this chapter TBH, it wasn’t bad, just not really exciting. That said the cliff hanger ending has at least got me hooked for another chapter

The thing I’m liking about this series is that there is no clear good or bad guys, they’re all equally warped and greedy. It’s a good twist.

Sumomomo, Momomo – Shinobu Ohtaka    

hahaha this was a rather fun chapter to read, since it introduces Iroha. However I preferred how the anime handled her introduction to the manga one. While it’s essentially the same the anime feels more lively. The manga seems to be lacking something.

Bamboo Blade – Masahiro Totsuka & Aguri Igarashi  

I actually enjoyed this chapter, which is rather surprising. It’s basically the start of the practice match which I’m guessing will conclude next month. It has it’s funny comedy moments in this chapter which for once made reading it rather enjoyable. shame it was only one chapter out of so many.

Hero Tales – Jin Zhou Huang & Arakawa Hiromu  

A killer chapter this month, and this one is by far the best on the manga side. Given how fast the ‘stars’ are being revealed I don’t think this is going to be a long series which is a shame. However this time around we got a new character introduced, and I’ve got a good idea already of where they’re going to end up. If things unfold the way I think they will i’ll be a bit disappointed, since it’s to obvious and lacks oomph. I’m hoping it goes in a totally new direction. Either way, this was an awesome chapter!!

Final Thoughts

Another great magazine, and sadly the last to be freely available in the UK. From the May edition all issues are imports and cost extra *sobs* There’s really only a few series in here that I would say are absolute must haves, Maximum Ride, Nightschool and Pig Bride on the manhwa side, Hero Tales, and the now absent Higurashi on the manga side. While most of the others are indeed enjoyable, they lack something to make them exceptional.

Expect the next issue to be up as soon as I get my mitts on a copy