Many thanks to Yen Press for providing a review copy
About the Mangaka
Sadly not a lot of info on Ohtaka Shinobu, Sumomomo was their first work, and are currently working on a series called Magi-Labyrinth of Magic.
About the Manga
A rather lacklustre volume that started off dull and went to pure crap. Though It did have a few moments that made me chuckle.
Sadly the praises I was singing from the last volume fail to come through this time around.
I found the art, for the most part, rather uninspiring. Iroha was especially bad I felt, whose legs didn’t seem to really match her body, being at times overly thing and long, I also found the design, loli in fishnet stockings, ninja outfit, really weird.
Unfortunately I also couldn’t get into the other characters this volume for some reason. Momomo really got on my nerves for some reason, she just irritates me with the way she jumps around. I especially found the chibi’s really annoying this volume since I felt they were used in the completely wrong place.
Sadly pretty much all of the art in this volume was the same, rather disappointing, with only a few pieces being any good. Though I will admit the colour panel at the front was definitely one of those. It did look pretty awesome.
Regrettably the story fails to save this volume, unlike the previous one. While I understand it was being used to set up both Iroha and Nakajima, I felt that it was done in a really bad way.
The story flowed like treacle going uphill, in other words nowhere fast 
Rather there is no progression at all really. We get a bit at the beginning as the initial Iroha arc is finished, but after that it’s chapter after chapter of pointless waffle. Pretty much everything that was revealed in the second half of the volume could have been just as well done in one or possible two chapters.
Yea I know I’m the first one to complain when something is to short, but dragging something out just to make it fit into a volume will also have the same effect as being overly short.
While this volume was disappointing, I’m still hoping the other volumes will be better.
Yen Press did their usual good job, though I did have a few minor gripes. This volume has some pretty bad guttering at times, after two read throughs there were a couple of creases on the spine already. I also hated the way they handled Hikaru’s speech pattern, something about it just feels totally wrong.
Overall this was a disappointing volume, and I doubt it’ll be a series I add to my essential read list.
Where to Buy
November 4, 2009 @ 02:34.
This series, while never awesome, really didn’t improve as it went along. Dropped, a little sadly. The art isn’t my favorite, and it’s a bit ecchi for me, but it at least had the potential to be fun, which it failed at.
mefloraine´s last blog ..Genius House / ジーニアス・ハウス