Nessa's Thoughts

Assassination Classroom. Judging by the title, it sounds like one of those survival manga, like Battle Royale or Doubt or Future Diary, in which high school students are drafted in to a dog-eat-dog killing contest where there can be only one survivor.Wrong.Assassination Classroom takes place on Earth, but an Earth which is playing host to an almost impossibly powerful alien monster who demonstrated his talents by blowing an enormous chunk out of the moon. All military efforts to destroy him have failed, though he takes some mirthful delight in his capture. So, through some contrivance, the alien gets a teaching job at a private academy which tosses underachieving students into a Class 3E , a classroom that is considered so shameful that it's located atop the mountain just behind the school. Thanks to this isolation, the government have developed a special curriculum for the students, who have been given weapons that will hurt their new teacher, but cannot possibly hurt their fellow students. If they manage to kill the monster who's a great teacher, happy to tutor them and be a shoulder to cry on, they will have the glory of having saved the world, and be rewarded with millions of dollars. Too bad their teacher is almost always one step ahead of them.Oh, Japan.Funnily enough, Assassination Classroom isn't quite as bizarre as the premise makes it out to be. Sure, the teacher (nicknamed 'Koro-sensei' after the Japanese for 'cannot be killed'), is an alien who can travel at speeds of Mach 20, changes colour based on his mood, among other eccentric behaviours, but he fits oddly well into this whole story. He's threatening and rather creepy, yet at the same time very pleasant and accommodating. You never quite know what's going on behind his ever-grinning mask, but the darker elements, along with the comedy blend well together. Yuusei Matsui is the creator of this series, and also the creator of Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro, a ridiculously dark (and darkly ridiculous) romp about a demon coming to Earth and setting up a detective agency because he feeds off mysteries. Therefore, the story of an alien coming to Earth and demonstrating his powers before being given a teaching job isn't too much of a stretch.The only real complaint thus far with this manga is the world building. Ridiculous premise aside, are you really telling me that the world governments would let Koro-sensei settle down into a teaching job, of all things? To hand the murder of this super-powered alien to some inexperienced kids who've only got a year to learn how to be an assassin with specially-created weapons, compared to professional, military-trained assassins? Sure, it's better to keep Koro-sensei in one place than to let him run riot, but why this school out of anywhere else in Japan? What about one of those underachieving schools like the one in Ryuuhei Tamura's Beelzebub, where the rough and ready students (and yes, those kinds of schools don't really exist, but this is fiction) would relish a chance like this? Not just kids who are talented in one area (like that girl who was good at Science), but flunked their exams once?There was also a character introduced in here whose inclusion didn't really make sense: Karma. Sure, he's violent and is brought back into the school after being expelled because his bloodthirsty tendencies make him the perfect candidate to at least try and injure Koro-sensei. Which he does. But after that, his exploits kind of lost their touch as Koro-sensei just outsmarted him at every turn. Karma tries an elaborate suicide game where Koro-sensei has to choose between saving a student and getting hurt, and Koro-sensei just wiggles out of the trap and saves him. Big whoop.Halfway through the volume, one wonders quite how this manga would end, since it seemed to be breezing gently through the school year in the first volume alone. The manga is still ongoing, so presumably Class 3E don't do so well in their tests and have to be held back yet another year, and due to Koro-sensei's contract, he may in fact be bound to serve Class 3E for a long time yet. (Super-powered entities offering contracts, take note from the second season of Black Butler – be very clear with the fine print, or else you'll wind up like Sebastian.)Despite some of the problems with characterisation and world-building, the art in Assassination Classroom is quite nice. Koro-sensei becomes oddly adorable after a while (just look at his little mortar board!), yet still has that creeping sense of pure malice. The character designs themselves are nice and distinguishable, even if it's fairly obvious to see from the first panel he's featured in that Karma will be the violent bad boy, pulling eye-popping faces and grinning sadistically like he's enjoying himself way too much. The main character and audience avatar Nagisa seems fairly run of the mill at the moment, but thankfully he's got more to do than just exposit the world's backstory.While Assassination Classroom is quite a campy take on the 'dog-eat-dog survival' genre of manga, and one that it is somewhat difficult to take seriously, it's almost having too much fun to care. It's at least aware of its outlandishness, and doesn't desperately try to cling to the tired "THIS IS SUCH A DARK PREMISE YOU GUYS!!" format that Future Diary sometimes went for, and which Deadman Wonderland absolutely thrived upon, to its detriment. However, certain aspects of the story and the characters could have been written a little bit more tightly. Koro-sensei simply wouldn't bow to the world's governments trying to get him to stay put, and instead insisted on being the teacher to this one class of underachievers in Japan? I know he's supposed to have mysterious intentions, but the moment anyone vocalises them, they're shut up by variations of: “We don't know why he's like this, he is the way he is. Just go with it.”That being said, the manga isn't all that bad and can be funny at times, and sometimes a little bit heartwarming. Being a ridiculously super-powered alien monster who couldn't give a rat's arse about humanity, it's both amusing and quite sweet to see Koro-sensei letting a student open up to him, or helping them deal with their problems, moments before he has to outsmart yet another assassination attempt by his students.Assassination Classroom is a quirky little manga, with its tongue firmly in its cheek, and it works very well, barring a few duff characters and story elements here and there. 4/5.(This review is also available on my blog: http://book-wyrm.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/manga-review-assassination-classroom_30.html)

Japan certainly like to make spin-off properties for anything that gets even remotely popular, don't they? Alongside the regular Evangelion manga, there's one series where Shinji joins a secret society at a private Catholic school who battle evil angels at night (no, really), and one series which is more like a dating sim.So it doesn't baffle the mind too much to imagine the suits at Aniplex and/or Houbunsha realising how popular Madoka was back in 2011, and capitalising on that. Just look at all the merchandise Madoka has, relative to its young age.Anyway, Oriko Magica is not good merchandise for the series in the least. These aren't the characters the audience grew to love in the anime or the manga. Their personalities are now completely one dimensional, and there's a cold, calculated logic behind every pose, as if it's for maximum profit from the fan-base.This manga is written like an incredibly boring visual novel, with characters 'snapping' from place to place, dropping cryptic hints that don't really lead up to much, and just being confusing for the sake of dragging the story along.The artwork is absolutely dreadful. Sure, it's manga, and sure, not many of us could pull off being able to draw in that style, but Oriko Magica's art just crosses the boundary into really aesthetically unpleasing and tacky-looking. The artist responsible is Kuroe Mura, who drew the end title card for episode 10 of the anime, which also makes Madoka Magica look like it's from some cheap dating sim with an illustrator who has no clue about anatomy.Most of the problems I had with this manga were already highlighted in my Weekly Book Report a few weeks ago, and they still stand. Kuroe Mura doesn't really have much of a clue about anatomy or perspective or any of the other little facets of art - you can tell by a simple glance at Mami here.I have never taken an art class in my life, but I can at least comment on this, because it's awful. Mami's head looks as if it could fit between my hands if I was impersonating Mr. Burns.I know it's manga, and manga doesn't always strive for the most amazingly correct anatomy you will ever see in your lives, but come on. Mami's head reminds me of those little figurines you can buy which come with a handful of faceplates with different expressions painted on so you can swap them at will. Or like one of those Spoonheads from Doctor Who.There's also a small problem with Mami's only having one leg visible, and her pose making very little sense. Is she standing firm against an enemy with one knee bent (look how short her thigh is!), or is she twisting her body around a bit to face the enemy, with her right arm out of view? Plus, her bust is a bit too big. I can't help but imagine Mami with her tiny head not even being able to see her toes over those things.Alright, so that's only one example, but the art is like this throughout. So much so you could give yourself cirrhosis of the liver by drinking every time you see an off-model character design or some really poor artistic choice.The story and the new characters aren't particularly good either. Oriko seems to be this angelic new magical girl who just sips tea in a walled garden and gets her friend Kirika to do her bidding. Oh no, magical girls are being killed off by some mysterious girl, let's instead spend our time worrying about little orphan Annie Yuma, and following this completely jumbled mess of a plot-line whilst pretending there's a point to it, and wave to each of the characters as they make their cameos! Urgh.There you have it. With completely unappealing artwork that looks more like one of those How to Draw Manga guides with bizarre proportions (look at the pin-sized head Kyoko has on the front cover and Mami's left leg looks very wobbly), and a dull, plotless story with no particular reason to exist, Oriko Magica is best avoided by all, even if you're a big Madoka Magica fan. Especially if you're a big Madoka Magica fan.Oh well. There probably are better spin-offs of Madoka than this garbage.I stand corrected. 1/5.(This review is also available on my blog: http://book-wyrm.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/manga-review-puella-magi-oriko-magica.html)

I was really excited to pick up Angel. I'd been craving a YA angel book, and Amazon had one of those rare psychic moments where it gives you the link to a book that's currently on sale, and doesn't sound too bad. Angel isn't a bad read, but it has some pretty glaring flaws here and there, but I ultimately didn't finish it because it just wasn't my cup of tea and I found myself incredibly bored by it.My main problem was with the characterisation. Both Willow and Alex felt like stereotypes when we were first introduced, and they never really developed beyond that. Willow is just this psychic girl who fits two special snowflake quotas, being both the daughter of an angel and a human and possessing a talent for fixing cars. She's also a tad psychic. You can practically hear her crying: “Look at me! I'm not like the other girls!” Alex, on the other hand is generic boy raised to be a soldier, with an icy heart. That's pretty much all there is to him. Not once do you get a sense of his personality outside of the stereotype.The plot revolves around angels as villainous, parasitic beings, who have come down to Earth, set up churches, and are slowly brainwashing and converting the populace. Angels like to feed off the human population, harvesting their energy to grow stronger. Their aura is extremely powerful, and usually renders their victim in either a state of bliss or a state of serious illness. This is described in the chapter before we meet Willow's mother, who has had catatonic schizophrenia ever since Willow was a child. Your cells can become cancerous, you might develop conditions such as multiple sclerosis, and there's also the potential for - like Willow's mother - schizophrenia.Considering how often it's implied how different Willow is to her peers at the beginning of the book, interspersed with Alex sort of building the world of the angels as threatening figures, it wasn't much of a stretch at all when Willow's mother was introduced to put two and two together. It's safe to assume that she's the product of a human mating with an angel. Yet... There's really no stakes to this at all. Weatherly introduces us to this world where angels are dangerous beings slowly colonising our planet. Yet not once are the angels anything to really inspire fear in the reader. Sure, they feed on people and run these enormous cult compounds, but everything seems so distant and non-threatening. I get that these angels are supposed to be ever-smiling, oh so nice beings that have a hidden dark side that makes your skin crawl, but it just didn't come across that way to me in the writing.In fact, the angel problem has gotten so bad that apparently the CIA hire special weapons agents to travel around the US and take them out, yet the general populace is ignorant of their influence. Somehow. Yay, another secret society story, coupled with a boy who seems to have closed his heart after a traumatic event! And a half-supernatural girl. Oh hi Ash and Meghan from Julie Kagawa's Iron Fey series! Or Clary and Jace from Cassandra Clare's The Mortal Instruments. There's pretty much no other characters to get attached to, so we're left with these personality vacuums, sadly. I mean, sure, Willow heads to that Angel church because this girl she did a psychic reading for early in the story ran off to them and now wants nothing to do with the world she left behind. (This girl being a student Willow never actually talked to much at school before today.) Of course, her plan goes horribly wrong and Alex has to rescue her. And that seems to be the end of that. Willow also has another best friend character, who hangs around while she's repairing a car at the beginning of the story and does nothing but talk about Willow's strange affinity for cars and how they work. Urgh.The angel characters we did get to meet weren't very threatening either, which is a bit of a shame. Just generic villains, really.While I did like how both Alex and Willow are both proactive characters, they didn't really have much personality outside of their character templates, as I said in an earlier paragraph. The villains weren't threatening, and even though the world was fleshed out enough, it ultimately fell short of my expectations and really bored me. There's enough story there and I wouldn't say it's bad from an objective standpoint, but subjectively, I don't really recommend it. 2/5.(This review is also available on my blog: http://book-wyrm.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/angel-angel-1-by-la-weatherly.html)

Have you ever tried to write a review through a veil of tears? It's not easy. Thanks for that, Madoka Magica manga. And yes, I know I felt like I was punched in the gut in my review of volume 2, but this time, I have just picked myself up off the ground, out of the foetal position.Alright, alright, maybe Madoka's not that sad, but there isn't really a poetic way of putting it – I cried at the anime, and I've just finished a fit of tears after finishing the manga. While volumes 1 and 2 did manage to keep a sort of light tone to them, volume 3 throws us straight into the futility of trying to turn Sayaka human again after her Soul Gem turned into a Grief Seed, meaning she'd turn into a witch, as well as Kyoko dying, Kyubey pulling out more Jeff the Killer faces, and taunting Madoka by describing why his race do all this energy-harvesting, and finally, an entire chapter dedicated to Homura. And then her and Madoka having to face against Walpurgisnacht, a witch of immense power who is coming to the city, as foretold by Kyoko.Oh, also, did I mention that in between all of that, Kyubey is a right little bastard to Homura? She's been trying so damn hard ever since Madoka (who in an alternate timeline is her best friend and contracted with Kyubey) was defeated by Walpurgisnacht, that all her efforts are for naught. Indeed, as Kyubey explains...“You rolled back time for one reason: to save Madoka. By repeating the same time frame for the same reason and purpose each time, you probably intertwined multiple parallel universes, all centring around Madoka. If the threads of fate from these universes - which were never supposed to interact - all connect to Madoka in this timeline, then I can understand why she has so much power. Every thread of fate circulating within the time-frame you've been repeating has wound about and connected back to Madoka. Great job, Homura. You've made Madoka become the strongest witch ever.”You can almost hear him slow-clapping his little paws, can't you?Oh, wait, there's more."A Puella Magi's latent powers depend on how heavily that person is burdened by fate. I would understand if she was a queen or the saviour of a country, but I was baffled as to why the threads of fate all centred around Madoka, who had such an ordinary life. Hey, could it be that Madoka becomes such a powerful Puella Magi... because you repeat the timeline over and over? Yes, I thought so. You're the cause, Homura.""If it comes down to it, Homura will probably negate this timeline and continue fighting. She'll continue repeating this meaningless chain of events, failing to learn from the past. Giving up and coming to a standstill means the same thing to her now. The instant she believes this was pointless and that fate can't be changed, she'll fall into despair and turn into a witch. She knows. That's why she has no choice."I hate to use this term, but this manga really was an emotional roller coaster from start to finish. There's this moment towards the beginning of the manga where Kyoko brings Madoka with her into the witch's labyrinth created by Sayaka. Kyoko asked Kyubey if perhaps Sayaka could be revived if Madoka tags along and tries to get Sayaka to be happy, reminiscing on all the times they've shared together. Kyubey just smiles and withholds the information, but you know that little shit is just smirking on the inside. Naturally, Kyoko and Madoka's plan fails, and Homura asks if Kyoko ever had a hope in hell of restoring Sayaka. Kyubey responds with a cheery: “Of course not!” Now, that is a true villain. I hate to keep referring back to Naoki Urasawa's Monster, but I get the same bone-chilling vibe I do when Johan Liebert is around. (And yes, I know Kyubey is just a cutesy magical girl mascot in the same vein as Mepple from Pretty Cure, but damn.)Also, the flashback chapter with Homura? I have one thing to say.I mean, you can't deny just how tragic this whole thing is. Homura has gone through alternate timelines so much, each time with the vain hope that she can perhaps save Madoka from ever making the contract with Kyubey. (Also, I don't remember it being mentioned in the manga, but doesn't Homura also have a limited quantity of sand in the hourglass in the shield on her arm? So she can't take her sweet time, she has to go into these timelines, try to save Madoka, and then try again when it doesn't work.) However, it just doesn't work as the poor girl actually winds up causing Madoka's undoing, all while Kyubey just smiles on.Speaking of Kyubey, I know I've gone on a bit in these reviews of Madoka that Kyubey likes to pull out creepy faces, but here he does it every other pages. Perhaps to a detriment – I think the dark and twisted things he says to the Puella Magi work so much better when he's smiling oh so sweetly, or not changing his expression much at all, such was the case in the anime. Still, thanks for the nightmares, you little rat.I'm not going to discuss much more about Madoka herself, since it's a huge, huge spoiler, and I hope you get to check out this anime/manga some day, but I pretty much started crying at this particular reveal about how great a friend Madoka is, and how she finally gets to tell Homura how grateful she is to have known her. Man alive, I think I've still got something in my eye.5/5.(This review is also available on my blog: http://book-wyrm.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/manga-review-puella-magi-madoka-magica_7.html)

In 2011, I started watching the anime Puella Magi Madoka Magica as it was airing in Japan. I don't normally watch anime this way (but when I do – *shot*) but Madoka was incredible from all technical standpoints. The writing, the art, the animation, the music, the character and background designs, everything about it was so wonderfully neat and polished. (Yes, like all anime it had its quality and off-model moments, but man. I'm currently saving up for the series on Blu-Ray, because it's simply too gorgeous to only behold in standard definition.)So naturally, I picked up the manga when it came out over here. I just couldn't get enough of this delightfully dark and subversive magical girl story, which made me bawl my eyes out during the last episode, so hard that I actually needed to be comforted by a family member. The anime is that good.Hanokage and Magica Quartet's manga adaptation follows the anime to the letter, and while this is usually a complaint, I have no qualms with it whatsoever. It still feels fresh. It's nice to look at the slight differences in art, character expressions, dialogue, and compare and contrast them. I mean, I had no idea that the manga would actually go as far as showing Mami having her head ripped off by Charlotte the witch, and all the blood and gore that went with it. The anime cuts away to Homura breaking free of the binding spell Mami cast on her earlier, and Madoka and Sayaka's shocked reactions as Charlotte throws Mami down to the ground and starts devouring her off-screen. Charlotte also looks a hell of a lot scarier than I remember her in the anime. Okay, in the anime she's kind of cute and goofy, until she unhinges her jaw like a snake and unveils her rows of razor sharp teeth, but uh... the manga forgoes any attempt of that and just shows us this:I also really love Madoka Magica for just how grounded in reality it really feels, despite dealing with... you know, magical fantasy. There's serious gravity and emotional consequences to the girls' choices, and there's one particular scene with Sayaka asking Mami if she should use this one wish (that Kyubey grants in exchange for them becoming Puella Magi) for somebody else's sake. Mami replies: “Do you actually want them to have their dream come true? Or do you just want them to be indebted to you for making it come true?” Having seen the anime, there's also a great scene where Kyoko confronts Sayaka about it – because surprise surprise, when Sayaka makes the wish for her injured friend Kamijou's sake in the hopes he might reciprocate her affections and return to his one passion in life, he starts dating her best friend instead. Ouch. (Also, the writer of the anime himself commented that even if Sayaka and Kamijou had this 'happy ending' where they started going out with each other, it wouldn't necessarily work out for them in the least.)Okay, now, back to the manga. I love the artwork and character designs. All the inking is so light and airy, and everyone just looks so adorable. Kyubey reminds me more so of one of those super cute Normal-type Pokémon, like Minccino, Eevee, or Buneary. Maybe it's because Kyubey doesn't have those soul-sucking red eyes in the manga, and they have more expression to them in this medium than in the anime. Still, it's not like Kyubey isn't scary in the manga, right? ...Right?(Christ, it's like the artist looked up an image of the Jeff the Killer meme and thought of the best way to translate it to the face of a Pretty Cure mascot.)Nope, Kyubey's still his manipulative, conniving and ever so adorable self. Granted, the former descriptors don't really happen in this volume, but you still get the hackles on the back of your neck raising when he's prancing around Madoka halfway through and telling her she's so naturally talented, her magical powers would be on par with a goddess. Right at a moment when Madoka is pondering about her insecurities and how weak she feels. Oh, and he's perched not a few feet away when Sayaka visits Kamijou in hospital for the second time, when he's feeling absolutely terrible and Sayaka just wants so badly for him to stop being in such pain. Damn you, you little cat-weasel-fox-alien thing!The supporting characters are all great too. Mami's her usual playful self, and her horribly sad backstory strikes a more poignant chord for me in the manga than it does in the anime. You see, Mami was dying when Kyubey pounced in front of her and offered her the choice to become a Puella Magi. Thus, she wants Madoka and Sayaka to think very carefully about their wishes, since she never had the choice herself. And it's ultimately tragic, because Sayaka rushes into her decision not one chapter after Mami is killed.I also can't wait to see more of Kyoko in this manga. She was one of my favourite characters in the anime, but I'm going to have to read the second volume, of course.To conclude, Puella Magi Madoka Magica is a very well done manga, a darker version of your typical magical girl series, accomplished by mixing it in with some pretty nightmarish images contrasting some feel-good fluffy shoujo art, and a Faustian contract with a bucketload of angst. 5/5.(This review is also available on my blog: http://book-wyrm.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/manga-review-puella-magi-madoka-magica.html)

Thank you, Madoka Magica. I really needed that punch in the gut.So, here we are with the second volume of the manga, which covers roughly episodes 5 to 8 of the anime. Naturally, the story this time mainly revolves around Sayaka, who has now become a magical girl for the sake of healing her friend Kyousuke Kamijou. However, just as Mami foretold and Kyoko continues to warn her, becoming a Puella Magi just so you could make somebody else's wish come true never works out. Ever. As Kyoko says: “You see, miracles are not free of consequence. The faith you put into your wish is equal to the amount of despair it will bring. If you add them up, it all equals to zero, so that everything is according to the laws of this world.”I mean, Sayaka starts out in this volume as fairly confident in her abilities as a Puella Magi, and then she just keeps being thrown down to rock bottom. It's never over the top, though. Shortly after Sayaka nearly dies when Madoka mistakenly throws away her Soul Gem, we get a glimpse into Kyubey's crueler side as he shows Sayaka the meaning of true pain for magical girls, and admits to leaving out information on certain parts of the contract, because nobody bothered to ask. "Hmph. You girls always react this way when I tell you the truth. Each and every time. What's the big deal, anyway? Why does your soul matter so much to you? I just don't get it." And also: "The only wrong thing I did was omitting some details about the changes your body would undergo." Feel free to shake your fist angrily at this fictional cat-weasel-fox-alien creature. I know I sure am.Sayaka's reaction to everything is totally natural, and she goes through denial, anger, depression, and then some form of acceptance, but by then, it's way too late, and her despair turns her Soul Gem into a Grief Seed, thus ensuring the birth of a new witch. Her argument with Madoka is really painful to read, and her breakdown with Kyoko in the final chapter is just heartbreaking. However, Sayaka isn't the only despairing magical girl in this world. Kyoko and Homura have their fair share of issues caused and exacerbated by becoming a magical girl, and while the focus of this volume is mainly on Sayaka, these two also get a chance in the spotlight. Kyoko starts the volume at Sayaka's throat, despising her and telling her she was an idiot for wishing for the sake of somebody else. Despite their initial misgivings, Kyoko mellows out and shares a moment with Sayaka, on why she regrets ever wasting her one chance for a miracle on somebody else, and it's really quite sad. Sayaka's reaction is one of feeling sorry for Kyoko on the one hand, but sticking to her newfound principles on the other.Homura, on the other hand, shouts at Madoka for being so oblivious to what's really going on, and how both Madoka and Sayaka are now beyond her help. It may seem a bit of an overreaction, but when you learn – in the next volume/batch of anime episodes – why Homura is the way she is... it's pretty gut-wrenching stuff.And all the while, Kyubey is never far away. His dialogue, actions, and even his facial expressions undergo this slow metamorphosis into being extremely creepy over the course of this volume. Remember in the last review where I said in one panel, Kyubey looks like the Jeff the Killer meme? Yep, he cracks out two of those really frightening faces towards the end of this volume.It's okay, Magica Quartet and Hanokage. I wasn't planning on sleeping tonight, anyway.Enough about facial expressions, though. Kyubey is manipulative and merciless as ever. He prances around Madoka promising her the powers of a goddess, he chastises Sayaka for not thinking before she contracted, tells Sayaka that Madoka would be so much more powerful than any Puella Magi in the world (which results in Sayaka yelling at Madoka during one of her breakdowns). He even very nearly gets Madoka to enter into his contract, preying on her kindness and her desire to help Sayaka out of her depression, and promising Madoka power when she is at her most vulnerable. Because, like Kyoko proved earlier, making a wish to help somebody else always works out for the best. Right?I mean, Kyubey can't exactly lie – just withhold information – but man, if he ever teamed up with Johan Liebert from Monster (as cracky as it may be), I really think Johan's wish to become the last person standing at the end of the world would come true. Ahem.Kyubey also pulls this creepy line out on the very last page, and going back to Naoki Urasawa's Monster, it's one of the rare times a still image in a manga has actually scared me. (I won't tell you which panel I was scared of in Monster, because it's in the final volume and I don't wait to spoil that series for anybody.) Anyway, Kyubey pulls out yet another Jeff the Killer expression and says: "In this world, a woman who is still on her way to maturity is called a 'girl', right? Then... isn't it possible that all of you who are on their way to becoming witches... are called magical girls?" You can almost hear the 'DUN DUN DUNNN', can't you?5/5.(This review is also available on my blog: http://book-wyrm.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/manga-review-puella-magi-madoka-magica_5.html)

Okay, guys. I listened to this in the recent Radio 4 drama adaptation. Not just because Benedict Cumberbatch plays the Angel of Islington and I tend to go weak at the knees for him. But either way, download it posthaste. It was excellent.

This is a manga about a polar bear who runs a café.This is a manga about a polar bear who runs a café.This is a manga about a polar bear who runs a café.*squealing so hard right now, you guys, the anime is ADORABLE*

Just wasn't my cup of tea.

Still one of my favourites.

For those of you who don't want to give traffic to this awful human being's web site, here's a reproduction of the original text.Clearly, there is no justice in Steubenville, Ohio today.Oh? Do continue.That's because two young men were convicted of rape in a much-publicized case. The verdict was handed down this morning, an odd move indeed.Because two people who have committed an absolutely horrifying crime were justly punished for it? Also, the last sentence makes me think Mr. Crook found it odd that the court proceedings took place in the morning.Two young men now have their lives forever ruined by a felony record because a 16-year-old girl went to a party and, according to testimony, didn't loudly and clearly say "no" to sexual activity.Well... they committed a fucking terrible crime, Mr. Crook. Or is 'rape' just some magical word that girls only use when they regret having sex with somebody? Seems to you like it is.Yet a judge elected to forever tarnish the lives of two young men who saw a seemingly willing participant. She seemed willing to them because they were wankers who couldn't distinguish that no means no. I don't care how intoxicated they were, or how intoxicated the girl was, you victim-blaming utter waste of skin cells.As I wrote in my latest book, "My Rules of Life," I don't believe for one second that "rape" exists.Perhaps you should acquaint yourself with a dictionary, Mr. Crook.Usually what happens when there's an accusation of rape is that it's a case of buyer's remorse.Oh, that's what it is? USUALLY, eh? Yeah, way to invalidate the completely shattered, broken women and men who go to the police station or domestic violence shelter, sobbing through their police statements. My dad was a police officer for nearly 15 years, and not once did some devious man or woman come into the station crying rape because they regretted sex with somebody on a night out or wanted to tarnish somebody's reputation forever. Maybe you're thinking of Mayella Ewell from To Kill a Mockingbird, but this shit does not happen. If somebody DOES go to the police about a rape, why in the Hell would they lie about it or seriously hate somebody so much they'd send them to prison whilst completely lying about it? Do you know how much you get charged for wasting police or legal time nowadays?Is that what happened here? Allegedly, the 16-year-old girl was appalled to learn what happened to her.As all sixteen year olds, nay, everybody would be.Problem is, I don't think either she or nor other people have fully examined her role in the situation, at least as far as I see it: She attended the party willingly and by her own admission, drank illegally and to excess. She wore clothing that could, in my opinion, be reasonably perceived by those in her age bracket as inviting sexual contact, and by others as just plain "slutty," which is an element that conveniently seems to exist in many accusations of "rape."You... you utter piece of SHIT. Oh, so SHE is to blame, now? Nice bit of internalised misandry there, Mr. Crook. Are you saying that members of your gender are sex-obsessed Neanderthals who declare any girl who raises her petticoats above her ankles to be promiscuous, and thus, fair game, and to be herself BLAMED for a horrible crime that HAPPENED TO HER BECAUSE TWO SHIT-STICKS DECIDED TO HAVE SEX WITH HER WITHOUT HER CONSENT.Also, here's a statistic my dad, the aforementioned Detective Sergeant of a fairly big jurisdiction told me. Most victims of rape he encountered throughout his years working in the police, were, at the time of their rape, dressed in regular, everyday clothing. It's not just 'slutty girls who go out half-naked' who are the typical rape victims. In the majority of cases, the attackers are known to the victim, or the victim is trying to make their way home and some dickhead decides to pull them aside and take advantage of them. So you can go take a long walk off a short pier, Mr. Crook.She put herself in a situation where there was alcohol and she passed out, which led to the supposed "rape," during a six-hour period of ignorance. "I was embarrassed and scared, and I did not know what to think because I could not remember anything," the girl whined in her testimony.So... what? She drank underage. Sure, that's a crime in the US, but it's not as bad as what these two twats did to her, can I reiterate, without her consent. She passed out? Well, I guess her body is fair game now. Thought no decent human being, ever.Also, I'd like you to take a look at the bolded word in the above example of this man's critique of the Ohio justice system. Whined. Thus implying that the girl was a snivelling, mewling sissy who deserved what she got. Words fail me.Odd. She was brave enough to drink, reportedly four vodka shots, two beers, and other alcoholic brew. This despite the fact that she had to have known that she wasn't old enough.Brave enough to drink? Yes, only the manly drink vodka, beers, and 'other alcoholic brew.' It's her fault for ingesting these substances only true men can handle. And of COURSE she knew she wasn't old enough. Lots of teenagers drink underage. Maybe not every teenager drinks to the point of passing out, but there's NO FUCKING REASON EVER TO BLAME A RAPE VICTIM. EVER. NO MATTER HOW INTOXICATED THEY MAY HAVE BEEN.She was bold enough to dress as she did at a party full of boys who, by their very nature, were blamelessly driven by natural hormones.More victim-blaming.Oh, and more internalised misandry towards the teenage boys.And now she wants to paint a picture of an "embarrassed and scared" girl? That cannot pass!Looky-looky! A man deeply affected by the Madonna Whore complex. So basically, you're saying this girl is either a virginal Madonna, or a promiscuous whore. I'm trying so very hard not to bring your faith into this, Mr. Crook.But it did, leading me to question the sanity of the judge and the justice system in Ohio.The sanity of the judge and justice system!? Because two utter arseholes WENT TO JAIL OVER A HEINOUS CRIME?Here's the thing: she voluntarily went to the party, a party where she knew, or should have known, alcohol was being served. I don't think any civilized human being drinks alcoholic beverages, but let's set that aside.Yes, people often go 'voluntarily' to parties. Especially if there's alcohol involved. I went out drinking in quiet pubs and bars with my friends when I wasn't of drinking age because hey, getting drunk can sometimes be fun. Especially if there's a slight, 'naughty' thrill to it.Also I know you're a member of the LDS Church, Mr. Crook, and from your religious studies, you've taken away some very conservative beliefs, but please. Let me drink my wine in peace without your babbling.An Instagram photo which was circulated in the media, albeit blurred, shows the girl being lifted by her arms and legs. This is not a girl who was clubbed over the head and kidnapped. She put herself in the situation that led to her being carried around, supposedly oblivious to what was going on.So... the only legitimate rape victims are those who were kidnapped? Everyone else is a liar, of course. Your husband raped you? You were drunk and somebody took advantage of you? Nope, your victimhood does not exist.Also, being held by her arms and legs in the photo posted on Instagram? Um... that doesn't mean she was inviting herself for rape. She was just having fun, and somebody took a photo of the crowd whooping and being silly, before this poor girl's world was absolutely shattered by two heartless individuals who didn't realise no meant no.Yet she chose that path, drinking to the point that she passed out. According to testimony, she couldn't explain why she had no clothes on when she came to her senses. And what of those clothes? News reports and court testimony paints a picture of immodest shorts and a tight shirt. Dressing like that does nothing for me to support her claim of being an innocent victim.Drinking to the point of passing out is never a good thing, but it's NOT A FUCKING INVITATION TO HAVE ANYONE DO ANYTHING SEXUAL TO YOU.Immodest shorts and a tight shirt. Let's completely disregard the notion that there should be no shame in walking around wearing tight or short clothing. It could also have been a hot day in Ohio. But oh no, the impure WOMENZ. Wandering around showing their ankles and attracting male attention!What sort of person allows that sort of thing to happen in the first place? The story goes that the next morning she woke up nude and on a couch in a house unknown to her. She then later reportedly frantically sent text messages to a friend, supposedly appalled that this happened to her. What responsible person puts themselves in a situation where they're not aware of what's happening at all times?Put yourself in the victim's shoes here, Mr. Crook, if you can. She's discovered she's nude on a couch in an unknown house. She sifts through the memories of last night, and suddenly panics in realising what has happened. Here is where the frantic texting and sudden upset comes from. You're talking about a teenage girl who went to a party and got drunk, and had a horrible crime happen to her. And you're blaming her for not being responsible enough? Oh yes, because she's not the victim. The victims are clearly the lads who are being made to pay for what they did.By all accounts, it appears that she brought this upon herself, and that's typically the case whenever a woman cries "rape." They conveniently forget to mention their role in the matter, ever the innocent lamb, and the guy's the hungry wolf.You victim-blaming fuck. Need I remind you that rapes aren't always to do with girls wearing supposedly 'promiscuous' clothing. And fucking STOP with your Madonna Whore complex and your ridiculous internalised misandry. Girls aren't just 'innocent lambs' or deviants who go out dressed in these licentious outfits in order to ensnare men so they can then ruin their lives by claiming that they didn't consent to sex.That mindset needs to stop. If the boys are going to be held to account, I feel she should be too, just like I feel any woman who alleges rape should be scrutinized and torn apart in the public forum and on the stand in court. She went to a party like that, a petite little girl dressed clothing that, I feel, practically invited and maybe even begged for trouble.The boys are going to be held to account for doing this horrendous crime, and the girl involved will be offered counselling. The girl should also be torn apart in public and forced to stand in court because of what she WORE? You absolutely disgust me, Mr. Crook. You victim blaming, nauseating and contemptible pustule.Please go and listen to track number 8 on Lily Allen's album It's Not Me, It's You. Preferably uncensored.And if that's still unclear:Fuck you!Fuck you very, very much.

“Well, this novel certainly looks interesting,” I said to myself as I requested it from NetGalley. “...Wait, it was originally released in 2010?” I then headed over to GoodReads and Amazon, and found a few decent reviews. “All the more reason to read it, then!”My face currently resembles a bulldog chewing a giant wasp that had recently taken a bath in lemon juice, which also happened shortly after I realised these authors were responsible for the insipid fluff that was Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. Which, might I remind you, is a film sitting right next to the first ten minutes of Juno as one of the films I despise with every fibre of my being. (Also sitting in that line-up is The Notebook and Twilight, so you have an accurate gauge for my most hated films.)Alright, let's get into the story, which alternates between two protagonists, the first of whom being Dash. He is a misanthropic teenage boy and basically, a complete retread of Will Grayson #2 from David Levithan's collaboration with John Green. I can forgive misanthropy if there's a genuine reason behind it, and it's not the typical teenage boy who's picked up some philosophical teachings here and there and suddenly muses on the possibility of being a soulless automaton of the corporate machine kind of crap. I'm fine with disillusionment, but there has to be some kind of good reason behind it.Dash has none.Dash is just a whiny, annoying little pustule and I hated reading every single chapter he narrated. Sorry, David Levithan. I was okay with Will Grayson #2 in Will Grayson, Will Grayson, but this is just far too much. Barely 1% in I was side-eying the book for letting such a pretentious little sod narrate the events as they happened.'I would never care about the whiteness of Christmas. I was a Decemberist, a Bolshevik, a career criminal, a philatelist trapped by unknowable anguish.'Also, just so you know, a philatelist is a stamp-collector. I've collected stamps since I was 12 and I've never known there to be some 'unknowable anguish' behind the hobby. Even scratching beyond the surface of that description makes no sense. Does it mean you have a lot of pen-friends but you don't get out very much? Does it mean you're upset that some extremely rare stamps will never get to be placed in your album? What does it mean!? Especially in relation to Decemberists, Bolsheviks and career criminals. Let me guess, little Dash doesn't really know what these words actually mean, but he's trying to sound clever anyway. Aww. Somebody deserves a lollipop.'I walked as invisibly as I could through the Pavlovian spend-drunk horses, the broken winter breakers, the foreigners who had flown halfway across the world to see the lighting of a tree without realising how completely pagan such a ritual was.' (1%)Yeah, here's another thing I can't stand – people who think they're better than everybody else. Fine, I will admit to being silently judgemental of stupid people at times, but it's the snobby air that Dash takes here that really rubs me the wrong way and made me want to jump into the novel wielding a giant tuna fish so this kid could get a well-deserved slap across the face.Also, I think pretty much every adult in the northern hemisphere knows about how certain elements of Christmas are derived from pagan Yuletide celebrations. I think somebody deserves a gold star to go with their lollipop and courtesy wet fish slap, Dashy-boy!'"Do you know me?" I persisted. "Did I grind you to a pulp in kindergarten, and are you now getting sadistic pleasure from this petty revenge? Stephen Little, is that you? Is it? I was much younger then, and foolish to have nearly drowned you in that water fountain. In my defence, your prior destruction of my book report was a completely unwarranted act of aggression."' (3%)Just... who talks like this, David Levithan? I really want to know who. I know there are miserable, drippy teenage boys out there quoting cod philosophy. I knew some at high school, but they generally don't talk like this all the time.In fact, in the quote above, Dash is talking to a bookstore clerk. It made me realise that I should have a trap door in front of the desk if I ever own a book shop, just in case a pretentious twat like Dash ever comes up to the counter and says something like that. Ahem. "Happy Hanukkah," I said. Because I always liked to say the wrong holiday, just to see how the other person would react.Priya took it in her stride. (4%)Oh yes, because that's a really nice thing to say to somebody who's from a different cultural background to you. Just to gauge their reaction, you say? What's next, sprinkling mildly racist and nasty things into everyday conversations to see if the person you're trying to offend picks up on them? Dash, you are a terrible, awful person and I am about to throw the bloody towel in on this book. Sorry David Levithan, but please take some lessons from John Green in how to write misanthropes with heart and personality, because Dash has none. He also just earned himself another smack across the face with my freshly-caught, dolphin-friendly tuna.Oh, what's this? A new character in a new chapter? Alright, I'm just going to scream into a pillow for a bit and return once I'm sufficiently calm.Back! Aww, Lily's a sweetheart, isn't she?In fact, why couldn't this book solely be narrated from Lily's point of view? Why cruel world, why not!?Lily is adorable. She's not a Manic Pixie Dream Girl, she's just a regular, ordinary girl who looks at the world and sees everything good about it. She came up with the idea of a scavenger hunt in a book shop, and letting the bookseller know about her plan so any potential adventurers can't ask him for help. Her clues are written as riddles within a notebook, and you have to go looking for the books detailed, and find the correct page number, sentence, word, et cetera. Naturally, the quest gets harder as you progress, and I suppose it's the perfect thing to preoccupy Dash's time. You know, when he's not wandering around New York at Christmastime being rude to his school friends and thinking about how he's the only person who sees through the blatant consumerism and the pagan ritual which the populace are so ignorant of.Unfortunately, even though Lily was cute as a button and I really liked her chapter, when I got to yet another Dash chapter, I just put my e-reader down and refused to touch it for another week. I skipped ahead to some of Lily's chapters, and while I do like her narrative voice, the story just isn't doing anything for me. I really do wish that Lily had been the sole narrator of this book. Perhaps it could have been a surprise for her that the one to play along in her game was actually a bit of an awful person and not the sweet, sensitive and bookish guy she was originally picturing. I'm sure that's probably explored later in the book, but I just couldn't get past more than 20% of this book.Ultimately I felt no attachment to the story in general either. I didn't care if Dash or Lily got together, or even if they ever met and sparked up a friendship. Or if the little red notebook scavenger hunt was really worth all the time and effort both parties had to go through. It really isn't enough of a story to make the reader want to continue. Well, not this reader, anyway.So, we have a pretentious dullard of a boy voicing half of the chapters, and a lovely, sweet and funny girl voicing the other half, tied to a flat storyline with nothing but a picturesque backdrop (whee, New York City at Christmas!) that is ultimately window dressing to mask the poor plot. I'm going to be merciful and add on 0.5 of a mark for Lily, but yeah. I'm not averse to brainless, fluffy romance novels, but this one just hit all the wrong nerves for me and didn't keep my interest at all. 1.5/5.

Okay, so I was in the YA section of Waterstone's the other day, and just browsing casually through the books. Then out of the corner of my eye, I see Girl of Nightmares on the table, sitting right next to Gail Carriger's Etiquette & Espionage. I gave out this enormous intake of breath, got a funny look from the nearby bookseller, grabbed both of the books and made a beeline for the till, absolutely buzzing with excitement as I walked out.Another anecdote before we get into the review proper? I ordered myself some coffee whilst waiting an hour for a friend to arrive at the cinema (the café is in the same complex) so we could go see Wreck-It Ralph.I'm soon engrossed in the book, and I'm right at the part where Cas, Carmel and Thomas are poking around that barn where the big hillbilly ghost is sneaking around and trying to pick off unwary visitors. Thomas lets his guard down for one second and–I'm suddenly broken away from my immersion by damn near pissing myself in fear as some teenage guy trips on the stairs coming down from the second floor, and yells aloud. He was fine and managed to steady himself, but my poor heart was beating so fast, and I had this horrified expression on my face for a moment or two. Hands trembling, I took a sip of my coffee and tried to calm myself down before reading it again.And that, dear friends, is what I love about this series. It really draws you in. Kendare Blake has this talent for minimalist writing that is incredibly scary, and she puts her characters in these situations where the tables suddenly turn and you have no choice but to keep turning the pages. Every aspect of her writing is tightly controlled, but it never feels sterile.Cas in Girl of Nightmares isn't quite as cocky and sure of himself as he was in Anna Dressed in Blood. He's gone from being the popular new guy at school to being regarded as a bit of an oddball. It doesn't help that the pseudonymous Anna Dressed in Blood is still wearing on his mind, even if he's cleansed his father's knife to get rid of the Obeahman spirit he fought against in the climax of the previous book – who was pulling all the supernatural strings of the story – and Anna has transported herself to Hell. He actually hallucinates about Anna every once in a while, and he becomes convinced that she's trying to communicate something to him, even if both of his elder figures berate him for still obsessing over Anna. Gideon and Morfran say it's simply not possible for a spirit to try and communicate with someone whilst on the 'other side', so to speak. His friends even get quite weary of his obsession, with Carmel suggesting he might need to see a psychiatrist, since he keeps going on these incredibly dangerous ghost hunting missions, just to try and get another glimpse of Anna.In fact, this reckless behaviour makes Cas seem so much more human. I mean, it's not like he had a problem with his characterisation in the first book, but these moments of weakness in the beginning of Girl of Nightmares are really well done. His obsession is cutting him off from his family, friends and mentor figures, and it's all so subtly written. Bravo.However, even though I'm praising this book to the high heavens and back... It seriously had its flaws. None more so evident than when everyone packs their bags and heads off to the UK because Cas is butting against a brick wall in his quest to get Anna back from sort-of Hell, where she's trapped with the Obeahman.To start with, it's foreshadowed by a heap of relationship drama that just... even though I really admired it in relation to Cas, because he has been broken down by certain events, I just couldn't get into for Carmel and Thomas. In fact, I'll sum up precisely what happens during this part of Girl of Nightmares.Cas: Oh man, I really miss Anna...Cas' Mum: I know. You've been saying this for the last 100 pages, darling son of mine. By the way, you got a letter and a photograph in the post. No return address, but it's from the UK.Cas: They're all holding the exact same daggers as I am! You mean I'm not the special ghost-busting awesome kid I thought I was? Gideon never told me? Even though I never asked? Right, that's it. I'm going to London.Cas' Mum: Great! I'll buy you your plane tickets.Carmel: So, um, I know we only have a week or so of school left.... But I have to do school things and hang out with the popular crowd again.Thomas: Oh, that's okay. Cas and I will just investigate into this... Order of the Biodag Dubh who sent me Cas that creepy photograph.Cas gets on the computer.Cas: So according to Google Translate, Biodag Dubh means 'Black Dagger.' There's a book series on Amazon called the 'Black Dagger Brotherhood', but the synopsis sounds like it's about a whole load of vampires having sex with each other.One sloppy break-up later (which is instigated purely by Carmel simply turning away from Thomas and hanging out with the popular kids), Thomas is in a pit of despair. Cas gets him a ticket to London to take his mind off things, and one exhausting journey later, they're at Gideon's house in a leafy London suburb. With a rather annoying girl by their side. Then Carmel travels all the bloody way to London a few days later and joins them in a hike through the Scottish highlands up to the Black Dagger Brotherhood's stronghold. All in all, boring as hell.Jestine is another thing I hated about this novel. No, seriously, I want to know if somebody wrote a fanfic and Kendare Blake contacted them for use of their original character, this spunky girl with blonde, red-streaked hair and a thick Scots brogue who just so happens to be friends with Gideon, and is being trained to replace Cas, as the super secret Order she's a key family member of don't think the owner of a ghost-killing magical ceremonial knife should be moping about a dead girl being the love of his life.I mean, I appreciate that it wasn't just another Cas, but Jestine's fairly irritating, and a rather boring addition to the cast. I know she kind of has to be in the plot to advance the Black Dagger Brotherhood storyline, but I just didn't care for her in the least, even at certain parts of the story where I feel I was supposed to.The ending is fairly well-written. Cas and Anna team up to defeat the Obeahman once and for all, whilst their bodies and minds are about as broken as you can get. The only thing... it's fairly anti-climactic and doesn't really suit the story. I mean, it's wrapped up within the last thirty pages of the book, and while it doesn't feel rushed, it certainly feels like I came a long way to be greeted with absolutely nothing.The Black Dagger Brotherhood don't do a damn thing to hurt or hinder Cas, giving that part of the story no stakes whatsoever. There's this mention of Jestine being trained to take over Cas' job, and Gideon flat out tells Cas when he arrives in the Highlands that the Order want to kill him so they can sever the bloodline tied to his knife. But one dinner party later and hey, let's all do the ritual to send two teenagers to Hell so they can rescue this cursed girl who's been deadThis could have been interesting. I mean, Jestine could have had a bit more personality than 'spunky girl', and reveal how she had been driven to want to take Cas' vocation, not just some vague 'oh, my parents raised me this way', and maybe betrayed Cas in Hell. I would have been fascinated by that. Instead they just stick together, Jestine goes off to find some silver you can only find in Hell and that has been used for centuries to make these athames, and... that's it.I know I'm ragging on Jestine, but the plot in this book slowed so much once I got two thirds of the way in. I had the same problem with Lev Grossman's The Magicians, you know? Everything was so magical and nicely written, and then everyone graduated from Brakebills and started partying with hipsters in New York before going on some dull quest into rip-off-Narnia.In summation, Girl of Nightmares is very much a disappointment in comparison to the first book. However, its first act has some really compelling writing, and the characters feel very realistic... up until we get to meet the spunky Mary Sue with the blonde and red hair, anyway, and this whole boring business with the Black Dagger Brotherhood that leads to a rather anti-climactic ending. 3.5/5.(This review is also available on my blog: http://book-wyrm.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/book-review-girl-of-nightmares-anna.html)

So... How about them bad boys?Yes, bad boys. From what I've seen and read over the years, bad boys tend to go a little something like this:They are aloof, coldhearted yet incredibly interested in this one girl. Authors of certain hackneyed works make their bad boys undeniably what Hollywood considers 'bad'. They smoke, they drive motorcycles, they get into fights a lot (Travis Maddox from Beautiful Disaster), they gamble (Patch Cipriano from Hush, Hush), and they consider stalking to be a perfectly legitimate hobby (Edward Cullen from Twilight). Also, they aren't forthright with their emotions or motives, so it provides a perfect excuse for our heroine to start looking into this mysterious boy who suddenly seems to like her after some contrivance brought them together.Now, I'm not going to say that the bad boy archetype is the worst thing ever and that I hate it, but... yeah, I kind of do. I just don't see the point of this kind of thing. I may have once swooned over Edward Cullen, being a naïve fourteen year old, but now I just find it laughable. I like men of mystery, sure, but not miserable, insulting bastards who make a show of how badass they are.I bring this up because I am now a twenty one year old girl, and I have fallen for a manga 'bad boy'. Hook, line and sinker. Why was I not reading this before?I also love the art in this manga. It's gorgeous. Everyone has nice, expressive eyes and fluid movements. My only complaint with the art is that the characters can look a little bit spaced out from time to time, but that's not really a big issue. Fuyumi Soryo communicates a vast array of emotions through the simplest things, such as Kira haphazardly pulling away from this one boy whose hand brushed against hers, Kira's mother hesitating before she shakes Rei's hand, etc. It leaves you wanting more, because we just don't know that much about the characters yet, nor why they act this way.So, what's the story? Kira is an extremely shy girl who has barely ever spoken a word to anyone in her class. She has a passion and a talent for art, however. She first meets Rei, her new classmate and the 'bad boy' I was talking about, and she talks to her mother about how she doesn't like him at all. Not because of anything he's done to her, per se. She just doesn't like his smoking habit, or how he seems to be quite a lady's man.I... kind of didn't understand this to begin with, but as you get further in the manga, the underlying implications of Kira's behaviour becomes crystal clear, and when the penny drops, it's quite harrowing.To begin with, Kira is a bit of a blatant wish fulfilment device. She's quiet, and she's easily flustered. She voices our desires, basically. She asks Rei to model for her, and he returns the favour, having rescued her from the slimy grasp of a teacher who seemed nice but was actually a creep. But she develops a lot more personality throughout the manga, even though she doesn't ever really stand up for herself.Rei is really quite fascinating. He's so emotionally distant, and though he's quite confident he can charm any lady who comes into his periphery, he sees something completely different with Kira, which is quite refreshing. He's a very unclear character, with details of his background only given to us quite sparsely throughout the story. Plus he's very nice to look at, so that helps.If there's one thing that annoyed me about this manga, it was the bullying subplot that comes in just about halfway through. It turns out that Rei had a girlfriend when he first met Kira, but they broke up because she needed to study for university entrance exams.The next most popular girl in school, Harumi, assumes she'll be next in line to be his girlfriend. When Rei starts turning his attention to Kira, however, Harumi and her friends start viciously bullying Kira. They come up to her and say they don't like her attitude, they threaten her to stay away from Rei, or else they'll burn her arm with a cigarette. Near the end of this volume, Harumi and her friends threaten Kira by saying they'll smash all the bones in her drawing hand and ruin her burgeoning art career. Kudos to Kira for looking up at them and saying she'll just learn to draw with her left hand if they do, but seriously?In two instances, Rei goes over to Harumi after she's finished threatening Kira, and tells her to stop it. And each time she just gets mildly upset over Rei's attitude towards her. That's it. Harumi doesn't really learn anything or realise she should move on. The ending even has this cliffhanger where Harumi outright tells Kira she will kill her if she gets any closer to Rei. Since Harumi is thwarted each and every time and never goes through with what she says, I kind of tired of the bullying scenes quickly. I have heard that Harumi becomes a good friend of Kira's later in the series, but for now she's just a cheap villain in a barely-there love triangle that clearly supports the idea of Kira and Rei being together. Just move the hell on, already, Harumi.Normally, the description 'fluffy shoujo romance manga' makes me jump a mile backwards, but here, everything works together so nicely. There's a great cast of believable characters whose story you will want to follow, as well as a compelling burgeoning romance. It's a shame the bullying subplot was kind of weak, but I suspect it'll improve over subsequent volumes. 4.5/5.(This review is also available on my blog: http://nessasky.wordpress.com/2013/03/08/manga-review-mars-volume-1-by-fuyumi-soryo/)