Read as part of
December 2006, TokyoPop
192 pages, Paperback
Personal copy
Manga: Young Adult/Fantasy
Occasional strong language, Japanese high school life, magic as a power, an unhappy family life, pressure, arguments, teen romance,
Summary by TokyoPop
Eighteen-year-old Nami is a magic user with a keen interest in helping everyone...but herself. Ryutaro is the new boy in school--he's rough around the edges and has a mysterious past, but beneath his rough exterior is a gentle soul. When these two meet, they leave each other spellbound!
Nayuleska's thoughts
I decided to get this series because I've watched and enjoyed the anime version. When I opened this up, I realised the story was different. That isn't big news, because often anime uses a different storyline to the manga version (if there is one). I like seeing the difference, it helps me learn more about the characters involved.
Anyway, the main character in this version, Nami, is 18. Personally looking at the cover you wouldn't think she was 18...but I find that it's often really hard to place an age on people so I'm not too bothered about this. Nami has a lot of trouble on her plate. She's got to start thinking of what she wants to do next in her life. The problem is, that's something she doesn't want to think about. Her family is very pro magic. Her father always does something on her birthday, and she hates it. She hates feeling inadequate and not improving on her magic skills. Surprisingly I could relate to this a lot. Sometimes it feels like everyone has really high expectations of you, and deep down you don't believe you can meet those hopes. Being at a sixth form rather than a college, I identified well with Nami in her classes and interactions with her classmates.
The key interaction is with a pretty argumentative and explosive boy called Ryutaro. He has a quick temper, and strangely he joins Ryutaro's school. He cuts class an awful lot, and as class president she's the one to check up on him. I'm eager to find out why he is so protective about his family, and how magic plays a part in his life.
Overall it was a nice enough manga. It doesn't have me super excited (this may be due to the characters being different. Not that I'd hold that against the story) - in some places I was thinking 'huh?' to where the plot was/wasn't going. I wouldn't recommend this as a first manga read, but after you've read a few I'd recommend it :) Although it has the teen rating due to the romance, it's mostly innuendo and concepts of conversations (nothing visual).
Final conclusion:
There are totally different characters in here to the anime, but it is still enjoyable, and when magic is used I can almost hear the sound effects!
Keep an eye out, because I'm reading the rest in the series!
Great, I can't wait to read more reviews of Manga books! I always try to read them in a shop but I find them so hard to understand, with the whole backwards thing, and I get really confused : )
ReplyDeleteOnce you've read a few of them, you get the hang of it. It might be handy to copy the info at the back of the book (the one which tells you you are looking at the last page) because it usually explains which order to read the frames in. Soon it'll be come second nature!
ReplyDeleteRemind me to add this series to the list for the library please :D
ReplyDelete