Comics and More

Alien Nine: Emulators Hitoshi Tomizawa This single-volume sequel to the Alien Nine manga trilogy (which started out great , but ended a little shaky ), entitled Alien Nine: Emulators , sees the three female protagonists from the original trilogy beginning Junior High School, protecting a new school from the threat of alien life forms. In the Alien Nine universe, ordinary school girls are burdened with alien symbiotes that they use to battle aliens that are dangerous to the student population. Events from the previous books leave the girls in a very different place at the beginning of this volume from when they originally appeared, and that place is much darker. While it's still a silly premise overall, the things that happen in this sequel, and toward the end of the original trilogy, are kind of disturbing and quite bleak. Good things do not happen to these girls, whose bodies are mutilated, whose personalities slowly sink beneath those of symbiotes, and who become wholly alien t...

Alien Nine (Volume 1) Hitoshi Tomizawa Alien Nine is a pretty wacky manga that follows three girls who have all been nominated by their respective classes to be in “The Alien Party.” The girls get out of a lot of regular classwork and such, but in exchange, they must don alien helmets and hunt down a variety of aliens that roam the school grounds. The bug-eyed symbiotic aliens that the girls place on their heads protect their wearers from harm, but can also lash out if their human host is frightened. For their protection, all the aliens ask in return is to feed off of the girls’ bodily waste: sweat. The aliens can be seen licking the naked girls‘ backs with their long tongues in a few unsettling panels. Of the three girls that take on the responsibility of alien hunters, Yuri is the main focus of this volume, and she isn’t very good at the tasks she’s assigned, and doesn’t really want to be a part of the team at all. She has a strained relationship with her alien, often throwing out h...

Welcome to Manga Monday! This week, reviews of Alien Nine and Drifting Classroom ! Alien Nine (Volumes 2 & 3) Hitoshi Tomizawa The final two volumes of Alien Nine pick up where the first volume left off and continues to tell the story of a world being invaded by aliens, friendly and otherwise. It is a wacky manga that follows three girls who wear aliens as helmets to help them track down hostile entities at their school, and continues in the direction the last book took, into that of a darker tone that all but consumed these last two volumes. All three of the girls are changed by their roles, whether they're possessed by an alien who makes them act differently, or their body is mutated to reflect the bond with the creatures, the permanent changes the girls undergo all but wipe the "cuteness" from the book and leave things unsettling and kind of depressing. It's a great metaphor for the changes of adolescence and growing up, but the energy of the series overall ...

It's the one year anniversary of Manga Monday at Comics-and-More ! So, in celebration, I'm going to list some of my favorite Manga Monday posts before moving on to a review of the latest chapters of Hana-Kimi ! Dragon Head (Volume 7) (Manga Monday Special) Fushigi Yugi: The Mysterious Play (Volume 1) (Manga Monday 31) To Terra (Volume 1) (Manga Monday 28) Until the Full Moon (Volumes 1 & 2) (Manga Monday 26) Mushishi (Volume 1) (Manga Monday 24) Mail (Volume 1) (Manga Monday 23) Hikaru No Go (Volume 1) & The Red Snake: Hino Horror #1 (Manga Monday 11) My favorite anime & Naruto (Volume 1) (Manga Monday 8) Flowers & Bees (Volume 1) (Manga Monday 7) Alien Nine (Volume 1) (Manga Monday 6) Bambi and Her Pink Gun (Volume 1) & Desire (Manga Monday 2) Domu: A Child's Dream, Octopus Girl, Planetes & More! (Manga Monday!) Hana-Kimi (Volumes 15 - 18) Hisaya Nakajo These last three volumes are definitely the weakest and least enjoyable of the ent...

Here's the run-down of April release dates for films, books, DVDs and music, as well as my box office predictions. . In Theaters April 3rd Adventureland Alien Trespass C Me Dance Fast and Furious . Predictions: 1. Adventureland ($35 million), 2. Monsters and Aliens ($32 m), 3. Fast and Furious ($31 m), 4. The Haunting In Connecticut ($9 m), 5. Knowing ($7 m) . In Theaters April 10th Dragonball Evolution Hannah Montana: The Movie Observe and Report . Predictions: 1. Hannah Montana: The Movie ($36 m), 2. Observe and Report ($29 m), 3. Adventureland ($18 m), 4. Monsters and Aliens ($16 m), 5. Fast and Furious ($15 m) . In Theaters April 17th 17 Again Crank: High Voltage State of Play . Predictions: 1. 17 Again ($28 m), 2. Hannah Montana: The Movie ($19 m), 3. Observe and Report ($18 m), 4. Crank: High Voltage ($10 m), 5. State of Play ($9 m) . In Theaters April 24th Fighting The Informers Obsessed The Soloist . Predictions: 1. The Soloist ($23 m), 2. 17 Again ($15 ...

50 -  Angel & Faith: Seasons Eight & Nine   Christos Gage & Rebekah Isaacs Overshadowing the main book in Dark Horse's continuing story of the  Buffy, the Vampire Slayer  universe, following the conclusion of the television series, is this really thoughtful, character-focused title from Rebekah Isaacs and Christos Gage.  This book has a lot of heart and while Angel and Faith both confront their troubled pasts, this book isn't bogged down by it like its counterpart. They cross paths with familiar faces, but also introduce us to fresh new characters,  like Giles' family, complete with interesting dynamics and focused storylines.  Gage and Isaacs strike the perfect balance of keeping true to the source material and making it their own.  Gage captures the voice of the characters so clearly I can hear the actors recite the dialogue he provides for them in my head as I'm reading, while bringing them to new, interesti...