Impression: Please Save My Earth 6

Volume 6 picks up the slack of volume 5 and I find myself engrossed in the story once more.

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Summary

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Rin decides to cancel his engagement to Alice, which causes Alice to make sure he is ok. When the two of them talk alone, Rin speaks oddly, stating in his dreams he is alone once more.
Furthermore, Rin's teacher notices the boy has exceptional talent. He shows Rin's mother a poem he wrote and tells her that not matter how one looks at this poem, it cannot be one an eight year old would write.

Meanwhile the other Moon dreams are becoming suspicious of "Shion" after Rin tells them he broke off his engagement to Alice due to "Shion"'s insistence. During the meeting they recollect that they had some passwords for the Moon Base and the general events that happened during their last days on the Moon Base.

Later, Jinpachi confronts Haruhiko about Rin's cancellation of his engagement to Alice. Naturally, Haruhiko has no idea what Jinpachi is talking about and gets up to leave. When Jinpachi holds him back, Haruhiko slaps him and tells him to "try being me and see how you like it".

Back at Kyoto, Mr.Tamura gets a call from Hokuto saying that his mother wants to meet up with him. During their meeting, Hokuto's mother talks about her other son, Mikuro, who also has ESP. After she finishes her story, she asks Mr.Tamura not to forget that "S" may be in need of his help as well.

At their next meeting, Daisuke has come up with a rough outline of what happened during their previous lives. Using the outline, the others begin to fill in the missing information and recall how Mokuren was a special "Kiche Sarjalian" and she performed a special dance and song at all national holidays.

The next day at school, Jinpachi tells Issei that the tree by the window where Alice sings has grown a lot. Issei agrees with him and Jinpachi says they must convince Alice to come back to the Moon Dreamers meetings. Issei says he has school council duties, so it falls on Jinpachi to convince her. Jinpachi passes Alice in the hallway and calls to her that she doesn't have to ignore him and apologizes for his previous behavoir. He tells Alice he knows why the Ginko tree by the music room has been looking really healthy and has been growing and asks her to come back to the meetings. Alice agrees to come back to the meetings.

Meanwhile, Haruhiko is at an aquarium, while recollecting his life as Shukaido, a stranger bumps into him. The stranger hands him a book and leaves. Inside the book he finds a warning about teleportation.

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My Thoughts

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Last volume was rather slow as I noted, but volume six really picks up the pace. Truth be told, volume 5 was partly to blame for me taking so long to get to volume six. While five was by no means bad, it wasn't as attention grabbing as some other manga at the time, which caused me to shift my priorities to other titles. I do regret that now, since volume six has shown me why I fell in love with this series in the first place: the story telling is solid; Hiwatari-san moves seamlessly between the past on the Moon and the present on Earth, she gives us bits and pieces of the story on the Moon, which only increased my curiosity without showing me everything at once and thus keeping me in suspense. Likewise, the character development was really good this volume as we get to see more of Issei's inner turmoil and we finally get a look into Sakura/Shusuran, but most importantly, we get to see behind Rin's mask for once and learn some more about the other Moon Scientists.

Issei is currently my favourite character. I love how he struggles against his past, and just in general he is quite likeable. Rin, although not my favourite, is quickly becoming my reason for reading Please Save My Earth. I'm genuinely intrigued with his demons and how he appears to be walking a thin line between sanity and insanity. I currently don't hate any of the characters, although I do wish Alice, Diasuke, and Jinpachi would get stronger characterizations. Alice, in particular, really needs it since she is suppose to be the main character.

I was surprised that in one of the side notes, Hiwatari-san wrote that people are calling Haruhiko a cry baby. I'm not a fan of frail characters, but Haruhiko isn't really frail, he's acting quite strongly for the situation he is in. He cries because of everything happening in his life. It's basically being torn apart for mistakes he didn't do (his past self did them) and he has no one to give him moral support. It's kind of hypocritical really, since Alice isn't being called a cry baby but she was crying through volume 1 and 2 because of what happened to Rin (in a situation similar to Haru's, where she had little moral support with the whole school against her and Rin's family despising her). And just like with Haru, I think they both reacted realistically and strongly for the situation they were in. *Sigh* And people think I'm hard on characters. I'm actually not too hard so long as the characters act with some realism (also known as, characters have common sense that *most* people have).

Ah, but I'm rambling off track now. So I'll just conclude this with saying that volume six of Please Save My Earth really impressed me and I am looking forward to reading volume seven. :)

~Joanna

Impression: Fushigi Yugi 9

With volume nine, I have hit the half point of the story. Like last time, I'm going to try and keep the summary short with more focus on my own reactions to the story.

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Summary

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Volume nine beginning with Nuriko's funeral, after which the remaining warriors head inside the cave. Once inside, they discover that the Shentso-Pao is guarded by two of Genbu's warriors. Unfortunately for the Suzaku warriors, these two are ghosts and cannot be defeated. It is then that Miaka steps up and begs the two to let her pass. They agree so long as Miaka can prove she is indeed the Priestess of Suzaku.

The test involves Miaka overcoming the ice powers of the two warriors. And just when all hope is lost and Miaka is fully frozen, thoughts of Nuriko awaken his bracelets that Miaka is wearing, and Miaka bursts forth, out of the ice. Having proven that she is indeed the Priestess, the Genbu warriors present her the Shentso-Pao.

But before they can celebrate, a giant wolf steals the Shentso-Pao right out of Miaka's hands as she is leaving the cave and brings it to Nakago. Nakago confirms it is Ashitare, whose wolf blood has taken over after his human death, and promptly kills him.

Miaka, depressed, runs off again and Tai-Yi-Jun appears before her. When Miaka asks for her help in getting the Shentso-Pao back, Tai-Yi-Jun suggests the bedding technique to disrupt Nakago's chi. Miaka, confused, asks how she can have sex when the Priestess must be a virgin. Tai-Yi-Jun laughs that she lied and that it was just a precaution against love disrupting the quest. She confirms this by pointing to Yui, who was raped. After Tai-Yi-Jun leaves, Miaka decides she wants to try it since Nuriko gave his life for the Shentso-Pao. Meanwhile, Tai-Yi-Jun appears in front of the Suzaku warriors and tells them that she is taking care of Miaka and tells them to go on ahead to the southern city where the second Shentso-Pao lies.

When Miaka makes it to Nakago's camp, it appears he has been expecting her. He confirms this and tells her that the Tai-Yi-Jun she saw was a fake created by one of Sieryu's warriors. He then proceeds to have his way with her, which he states will remove any chance she has to summon Suzaku. When Miaka asks about Yui, Nakago, with glee in his eyes, tells Miaka she was never raped. He saved her before anything happened but she is convinced she was violated.

Meanwhile, Tamahome has an ill feeling and decides to head back to check on Miaka. After he finds her, the two of them do not know how to react with what just happened. Eventually Tamahome tells Miaka that she looks just as pure as ever and that nothing could ever tarnish her. After a loving embrace and maybe more (it is not certain since nothing is shown explicitly), Miaka decides that she has to run away once more because she is unworthy of both Tamahome and summoning Suzaku.

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My Thoughts

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Well, this was certainly a very dramatic and tense volume. I sort of found it strange that it is titled Lover, given what happens to Miaka...but maybe the editor was aiming for the final chapter. Just, personally, I find it rather ironic that the subtitle is "Lover" when Miaka gets raped...supposedly. Yeah, I have my doubts. I mean, we know the good girl wins in the end and I have a vague idea that Tama (Tamahome's real world counterpart) was created through Miaka's wish...so if the virgin deal is real, then nothing happened and it was more a psychological attack on Nakago's part. Plus this is a shoujo series and I have yet to encounter one where the main character is actually raped. Lots of shoujo series come close, (probably to amp up the drama) but none cross the line, and I cannot see this being different.

Half the volume was actually pretty good, until the ill-fated rape scenes (nothing is shown, mind you, only implied). I've got nothing against depicting rape, but it seemed to me that it was included just to amp up the drama, and that sort of annoys me. But maybe I'm wrong and volume 10 will confirm that Miaka was actually raped, who knows?

I actually wasn't annoyed that Miaka believed the fake Tai-Yi-Jun. It was a perfect trap. And it was honourable of her to try and do something herself, even if it wasn't well thought out (she knows she has no sexual experience, so how is she suppose to seduce Nakago??? She even doubts she can do it while heading there, so I just don't understand why she thought she could do something...ah shoujo heroines, so stupid sometimes.) No actually the part that annoyed me the most was Miaka running away, yet again. She showed a little character growth/maturity with the Genbu test, but yet again it's all discarded and she reverts back to her weak emotional self. Where is the brave talk of doing this for Nuriko? Now, when more then ever she needs to be strong, she caves in and runs away. Agh! When will we finally get some character growth out of this heroine?! But I guess I shouldn't expect much out of someone that needs to be told what to do (i.e. Tamahome needs to tell her that grieving now will waste Nuriko's sacrifice.)

Honestly, I'm not trying to hate on her....I'm really trying to give her the benefit of the doubt and trying to be realistic....but I can't help but wish for a stronger heroine. I guess that's just the kind I like, since I've never been one to depend on others for everything the way some of these shoujo heroines do.

But enough about Miaka, time to talk about Tamahome. Is he ever unrealistic. I mean, your girlfriend has been raped, and you're totally fine with it? I'm not saying he should be disgusted by her, I'm saying he should be confused. Confused as how to react, how to comfort her...but nope, Tamahome is like a sage, he knows exactly what to say and do. It's sort of ridiculous. Gah, I know I know, it's shoujo and it's suppose to be idealistic love, but it just takes me out of the story when a character acts so unnaturally. Personal taste I guess, but I dislike idealistic depictions of love. The cynic in me sneers at them.

So I bet you're thinking, if you hate the main leads so much, why the hell do you bother reading this anyway? Especially since I've dropped other manga for the exact same reasons. Well, it's because, while Miaka and Tamahome do annoy me from time to time, I haven't yet learned to loathe them like Hatsumi and Ryuko from Hot Gimmick, and the secondary characters are actually likeable. But the biggest reason is that the story is still engaging; I'm still interested in Nakago's goal, whether Yui or Miaka will summon their god first, what will happen to the fictional world, and just whether there is more to the Universe of the Four Gods than has been laid down so far. So for these reasons, I'm willing to continue reading even if there are a few weak volumes, like seven, and the main leads make me roll my eyes from time to time. So yes, I'm still looking forward to volume 10.

~Joanna

Impression: Fushigi Yugi 8

Impression: Boys Over Flowers 12

The roller coaster relationship between Tsukushi and Tsukasa continues in this volume once more. I, surprisingly, haven't gotten bored of it yet.

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Summary

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Volume 12 begins with the conclusion to the Miss Teen Japan contest. Tsukushi has somehow made it to the finale, through sheer luck and perseverance, and now faces against her rival, Ayano, in the final challenge.

Unfortunately, the final challenge is to play with a group of children, and Ayano garners all the attention of the children in one quick sweep by playing the piano.

Tsukushi is left dumb-founded, shuffling through toys, until she notices a group of four boys that remind her of a certain other group of four boys. The four boys start a fight with Tsukushi and she retalitates by challenging them to a series of games, which she all wins. While she looks absurd doing so, it eventually garners the attention of the other children, leaving Ayano struggling to keep the remaining children with her. Being good natured, Tsukushi calls Ayano over to help her with jump rope, which shocks her, but she accepts Tsukushi's invitation with a smile and utters to herself that she finally understands why Seinosuke fell in love with Tsukushi.

When the challenge ends, the announcer asks the children to choose who the liked playing with more. The children, however, break down into tears and refuse to choose one girl. The judges then announce that the winner will be decided based on points. Ayano wins but Tsukushi also gets a special recognition prize of 300, 000 yen (around 3,000 US).


Afterwards, Tsukushi quickly runs out to meet Kin-san (Seinosuke), who is still waiting for her answer. While she tells him she does not love him, she cannot answer his inquiry whether she love Tsukasa. She admits that when it comes to Tsukasa, her feelings are a mixed jumble. Kin-san takes all this with a smile and leaves Tsukushi saying that if she ever need some help, she can call on him.

Later, the F4, Tsukushi, and Kazuya all celebrate Tsukushi's special recognition. Tsukasa stares at Tsukushi earnestly, which leads her to remember his request. Tsukasa had asked Tsukushi to spend Christmas with him to repay him the rest of the money, 700,000 yen. However, the more Tsukushi thinks about the request, the less she looks forward to it. She questions just what Tsukasa is thinking, buying her for a day, and whether he expects that she to anything and everything.

On the day of their date, however, Ryu, the leader of the children's F4 shows up and asks to spend the day with Tsukushi. When she asks him to spend it with his mom and dad because she is busy, the little boy tears up and states his parents are away on business. With nothing else to do and as a measure against Tsukasa's advances, Tsukushi brings Ryu along on their date. While Tsukasa is visibly annoyed, Tsukushi manages to convince him to allow Ryu to join by reminding him that he had the same sad experiences as a child.

The day goes good and Tsukasa even shows off a fatherly side by holding up Ryu to see the elephants at the zoo, but everything is ruined when Ryu, asleep, accidentally pees on Tsukasa, and the latter tosses the former into the air. Tsukushi manages to catch the falling Ryu, but she loses all patience with Tsukasa and the two leave in a rather, stand-off-ish way.


When Tsukasa gets home, he makes it abundantly clear just how angry he is and the other F4 members wonder if the two of them will ever hitch up. Sojiro, however, hatches a plan to get them back together. Basically, he and the other F4 member, Rui and Akira, come to the dango shop Tsukushi works at and attempt to sell the dango by sweeting the deal with a kiss from Akira. They manage to sell out the whole stock and Tsukushi and Yuki get 500, 000 yen in commission. Tsukushi, uncomfortable, refuses to take the money because she did not earn it. The boys suggest that she and Yuki then use it to come with them on their Canada ski tour. Yuki is ecstatic, but Tsukushi flat out denies the invitation stating that she cannot leave her family in the state they are in. The boys tell her to think it over and to give her final answer in six days.


While discussing the issue with Yuki at a cafe, the three crones, aka Yuriko Asai's group, overhear them and decide they cannot let Tsukushi keep the F4 to herself. On her way home, Tsukushi admits that we would like nothing more than to travel overseas, but she is too proud to ask Tsukasa to go to his villa after the fight they had. When she gets home, her parents inform her that her father has found another job so she won't have to work as hard. The phone then rings and Tsukasa screams through the receiver that Tsukushi cannot come and that he won't go if she goes. Tsukushi, now really angry, yells back that the others invited her and that she will be going.

When Yuki hears the news, she is ecstatic. On the day of the departure, Yuriko's group shows up and asks for Tsukasa. Rui points out that he will be going there in his own private air plane, much to the shock of Tsukushi. And that is it for volume 12.

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My Thoughts

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Where to start? I really liked the cover of volume 12. It's not the best cover out there, but I liked how the two leads both looked angry while dancing which, to me, looked like a visualization of their romance. The dance is their romance, since just like when dating it involves two people, and while dancing, they both look displeased, which is what they both usually feel when they are together.

As for the actual volume, I felt like I was see-sawing along with Tsukushi. The Miss Teen Japan plot was pretty well concluded and I liked that Kamio-san did not give us a crop out win for Tsukushi. The date, however, was where my mixed feelings began. At first, it seemed like Tsukasa was finally starting to move out of his jerk phase only to rebound back into it. In this volume in particular, his immaturity was pretty extreme: he couldn't tell Tsukushi how he felt and in turn got angry at her because she brought it up and his anger culminated in his tossing up of Ryu. At that point, just like Tsukushi, I had lost all patience for him and I was back to wishing Tsukushi would just give up on him and move one (although that would be boring, wouldn't it. ;] ). Thankfully, she didn't get back with him this volume and I think her "I won't take this shit" attitude keeps me coming back to Boys Over Flowers/Hana Yori Dango. I'm sort of torn about them as a couple though, just like Tsukushi, since at one moment he appears to be a respectable nice guy, but the next he's throwing tantrums and demanding everything be his way or nothing.

That aside, I'm still enjoying the story and just Tsukushi, herself, makes reading the manga worthwhile. I especially liked that she had some pride and wouldn't accept going to Tsukasa's resort until he had the gall to call her up and tell her not to come. I enjoy seeing her not take his antics lying down...unlike some other shoujo heroines. Tsukasa's vainglorious displays, like riding his own plane, are also amusing. Overall, it was a pretty good read and I look forward to future volumes.

~Joanna

Impression: Claymore 1

The first volume of a great epic. It starts out a little slow yet still interesting, and continuously gains momentum with each passing volume until it sucks you into the story and doesn't let go.

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Summary

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In the world of Claymore, there are monsters called Yoma that prey on humans and avoid detection by taking on a human appearance. The only way to exterminate a yoma is to request a Claymore, special warriors that take on the flesh of yoma but keep their human minds, to detect and exterminate them. One such village requests a warrior and a young boy, curious, follows the female warrior around.

Much to his surprise, she seems like a normal girl, and he introduces himself as Raki. The girl, however, refuses to tell him her name, and only leaves him with a cryptic message, "You'll forget about me soon enough."

Perplexed, the boy rushes home to make dinner, only to find his uncle a victim of the yoma. It turns out this yoma, who ate his parents, also ate his older brother to take on his appearance and remain undetected. Raki unable to fend off the monster himself is just about to get eaten when the unnamed Claymore jumps in through the window and disposes of the monster.

Raki, however, becomes incredibly terrified of the warrior as she becomes very yoma-like during the battle due to using the monster's power inside her. Huddled in a corner, terrified, the villagers assure him to just forget everything that happened. And then, when he hears those words, Raki finally understands why the Claymore warrior said what she did to him. Angry with himself, he rushes after her and thanks her for killing the yoma and asks once more for her name. The warrior continues walking but tells him her name, Clare.

Clare continues on with her work, heading this time to a town plagued with multiple yoma. Meanwhile, Raki is kicked out of his village because of his close connection to the yoma and collapses in a desert. He's rescued by a Claymore and asks around town where she could be. Someone tells him the Claymore is in the forest, and he goes to meet her there. Expecting it to be Clare, Raki is shocked when an unknown warrior steps forward. She introduces herself as a Claymore and tells Raki she was quite taken by him. Raki, however, remembers Clare telling him that her Organization never refers to itself by the name Claymore; rather that is the name people have given it. Raki pushes the Claymore away telling her that she is not a Claymore. The Claymore then reveals herself to be a yoma and proceeds to take Raki hostage. The yoma then calls out to Clare, telling her she knows that she has been following her.

Clare steps forward and the yoma threatens to kill Raki if she comes any closer. The yoma boasts that while Claymores have monster bodies, they still have their human hearts and memories, and insinuates that Raki must remind Clare of someone from her past, perhaps her younger brother. The yoma then tells Clare to throw her blade away, which she does, and proceeds to stab her through the gut. Clare then tosses herself and the yoma down the cliff so that she may reach her sword and proceeds to slay the yoma. Raki comes running down and thanks her for saving him again. She tells him not to misunderstand; she simply did that because otherwise the yoma would have escaped and she would have failed to slay it.

She then asks the boy why he isn't in his village. Raki does not answer and Clare concludes that they must have thrown him out of the village because of his relation to the yoma. She asks him if he would like to travel with her as her cook until he finds a village or town he would like to stay at. A grateful Raki agrees to accompany her.

While on their travels, Clare leaves to meet up with her link to the Organization, Rubel, and he gives her a black card. The black card is a request from a fellow Claymore to be slain by a certain person. It turns out Clare's only friend from her rookie days, Elena, is the one who sent the card. While Raki watches mortified and tells Clare not to kill her friend. Clare extends her blade and cut down Elena, who thanks her for allowing her to die a human. As Clare explains, the card is sent out when one feels they are about to lose their humanity and become a real monster. And so the first volume of Claymore concludes.

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My Thoughts

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Claymore starts off rather unremarkable and sounds like a typical shounen travel adventure: hero (in this case heroine) travels around the land vanquishing evil, but if the subtle disturbing scenes, like the yoma, who has taken on Raki's brother's flesh and memories, crying while attempting to kill Raki due to the body belonging to someone close to Raki was any indication, this manga will not be typical in any way. In fact, the final chapter of this volume begins to show us just how grim Claymore will become.

Granted, volume one is probably not enough to convince anyone of just how interesting and dark the story will get, but if anyone has even the slightest interest, I urge you to continue reading because it will get better!

Also, I admit that my main pull at the beginning (when the story wasn't yet interesting enough by itself) was Clare. It's so rare that we see a heroine of this calibre as the main character in a shounen series and also not just female for the extra panty shots (ikki tousen/battle vixens I am looking at you). That alone piqued my curiosity and I am glad I wasn't disappointed. The author, Yagi Norihiro, has earned my respect and now I shall be closely following anything and everything he releases. (*I have already checked out his prior work, Angel Densetsu, and I enjoyed it as well. I would love to see it licensed here).

So basically, Claymore starts off slow, but it gets better. And Clare is one of my favourite characters, along with a few others that are introduced later. :)

~ Joanna