Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Rosario + Vampire Season II Volume 3 Love Bites

Mizore's kind of creepy, but she gets that honestly from her mother.  Her whole village anyway.  Mizore's story has been the most "monstrous" of the individual stories of the girls.  I have a feeling that snow fairies are some Japanese legend that I've never heard about.  That or Ikeda is able to build a myth better than I thought he'd be able to.

Sunday, May 29, 2011

The Black Butler Volume III

It's all out in the open now regarding the deal surrounding Sebastian.  Not entirely surprised but nice to see the conclusion of the first arc.  A quick humour episode and then right into the second arc.  Not bad for a manga I picked up solely for the name and the front cover.

Naruto Volume 33: The Secret Mission

You don't want to make him angry...  You wouldn't like him when he's angry.

At least the plot moves along a little.  But the Hulk sprang to mind.

Naruto Volume 32: The Search for Sasuke

They've let Naruto out on another mission - to find Sasuke.  I don't know if it's a good idea to let Naruto essentially walk into the belly of the beast but I guess that's what makes a challenging story.  And they've found a surly replacement for Sasuke.  And he's a spy.  Great.

Naruto Volume 31: Final Battle

This is it.  The big showdown to rescue Gaara.  And it almost works too.  Although it does give the opportunity for big sacrifice.  I think I would have enjoyed this one had most of the character development scenes not already been said in the last arc.  Kishimoto doesn't really tread any new ground with this one.  Naruto's positive attitude seems to be the theme.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Bleach Volume 34: King of the Kill

Hey look!  Nel prevails and then an even bigger threat shows up.  It's becoming a bit predictable.  Thank goodness the big guns from the Soul Society decide to show up too.  I wonder how Ichigo will top them all.

Bleach Volume 33:The Bad Joke

Hmmm... I would've never guessed that Nel was a scantily clad warrior goddess.

The Gathering Storm

This is the first of the last three books in the Wheel of Time series.  It's also the first that wasn't written solely by Robert Jordan.  Brandon Sanderson does have a different voice for the characters than Jordan did, and some of them do take getting used to.  His Perrin and Elyane are the closest to Jordan I think, with Mat and Egwene being the furthest.

Besides the voices of the characters being slightly different.  The action also heats up.  I don't know if that's what Jordan intended but it seems like everything is coming to a head at once.  It definitely feels like the Last Battle (and the end of the series) is just around the corner.  I laughed when I read that this would be the end, that it wouldn't be dragged out for a few more books but after reading this one I think I may have been wrong.

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Naruto Volume 30: Puppet Masters

With the focus mostly on Sakura it's a chance to see how much she's grown since the last arc.  A lot.  I like her character and it often seems she's overlooked by the guys.  Which makes sense I guess.  So it's nice to see her really holding her own.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Bleach 32 Howling

Looks like Ichico's training made a difference and he was able to defeat the Arancar that had defeated him previously.  Of course, that's not good enough when the next even tougher guy shows up.

Black Butler Volume 2

I'm really enjoying this series.  My only complaint for this one is that the the action was cut before the climax.  It was a bit of a let down.  But Toboso is also starting to have an ongoing storyline after having introduced all the characters.

Power Girl: Aliens and Apes

This volume is more, I don't know, fan servicey? than the last one.  There's not a whole lot of super heroics, but there is a lot of jokes about Power Girl's body.