• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Comment Policy
    • Disclosures & Disclaimers
  • Resources
    • Links, Essays & Articles
    • Fandomology!
    • CLAMP Directory
    • BlogRoll
  • Features & Columns
    • 3 Things Thursday
    • Adventures in the Key of Shoujo
    • Bit & Blips (game reviews)
    • BL BOOKRACK
    • Bookshelf Briefs
    • Bringing the Drama
    • Comic Conversion
    • Fanservice Friday
    • Going Digital
    • It Came From the Sinosphere
    • License This!
    • Magazine no Mori
    • My Week in Manga
    • OFF THE SHELF
    • Not By Manga Alone
    • PICK OF THE WEEK
    • Subtitles & Sensibility
    • Weekly Shonen Jump Recaps
  • Manga Moveable Feast
    • MMF Full Archive
    • Yun Kouga
    • CLAMP
    • Shojo Beat
    • Osamu Tezuka
    • Sailor Moon
    • Fruits Basket
    • Takehiko Inoue
    • Wild Adapter
    • One Piece
    • After School Nightmare
    • Karakuri Odette
    • Paradise Kiss
    • The Color Trilogy
    • To Terra…
    • Sexy Voice & Robo
  • Browse by Author
    • Sean Gaffney
    • Anna Neatrour
    • Michelle Smith
    • Katherine Dacey
    • MJ
    • Brigid Alverson
    • Travis Anderson
    • Phillip Anthony
    • Derek Bown
    • Jaci Dahlvang
    • Angela Eastman
    • Erica Friedman
    • Sara K.
    • Megan Purdy
    • Emily Snodgrass
    • Nancy Thistlethwaite
    • Eva Volin
    • David Welsh
  • MB Blogs
    • A Case Suitable For Treatment
    • Experiments in Manga
    • MangaBlog
    • The Manga Critic
    • Manga Report
    • Soliloquy in Blue
    • Manga Curmudgeon (archive)

Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

nightschool

Off the Shelf: Boo!

October 27, 2010 by MJ and Michelle Smith 11 Comments

Welcome to the Halloween edition of Off the Shelf with MJ & Michelle! I’m joined, once again, by Soliloquy in Blue‘s Michelle Smith.

In keeping with the holiday, Michelle and I take a look at some creepy comics from Yen Press, Tokyopop, and Manga BlackBox.


MICHELLE: Hey, did you hear that skritching noise? I think some zombies are trying to get in!

MJ: I’m safe! The workday already ate my brains. But wait, is that the howl of a werewolf?

MICHELLE: A ravenous one, no doubt! To take our minds off our impending doom, why don’t you tell me about a manga you read this week?

MJ: Okay! Well, my first selection isn’t exactly manga, though it is an East Asian comic. With Halloween approaching, I thought it was time to dig into some horror, but nothing from my to-be-reviewed shelf quite fit the bill. Fortunately, my husband is addicted to his iPad where he found a new app, just released yesterday, featuring award-winning Malaysian artist Leong Wan Kok’s From a Twisted Mind, published for iOS by a company called Manga BlackBox.

The book’s cover is immediately striking, with a surreal, psychedelic creepiness one might expect if, say, the Yellow Submarine had carried mad scientists instead of musicians. I plunked down my $3.99 based on the cover alone, which turned out to be a pretty good deal, all told. What I got for my money was a collection of seventeen short comics by Leong (sometimes known as “Puyuh”), originally published in four volumes, mostly horror (with one short volume’s worth of black & white fantasy/sci-fi stories in the back), all visually stunning.

The quality of the storytelling is uneven, as is the case of most short comic collections. The series’ first story, “Fantasy Aquarium,” (click title for screenshot) about a carnival run by vengeful fish, is delightful, and though it makes for a splendid opening, it sets the bar perhaps a bit too high for many of the comics that follow. Highlights include “Metamorphosis,” a creepy tale with a twist; “Love Virus,” about a biology student who wreaks disgusting vengeance on a backstabbing friend; and “The God of Happiness,” who is definitely not what he seems….

Read More

Filed Under: OFF THE SHELF Tagged With: demon sacred, from a twisted mind, higurashi when they cry, nightschool

Nightschool, Volume 2

October 7, 2009 by MJ 6 Comments

Nightschool, Vol. 2
By Svetlana Chmakova
Published by Yen Press

nightschool 2
Buy This Book

Determined to find out what happened to her sister Sarah, young weirn Alex enrolls in the nightschool, though just getting inside proves to be more of a challenge than she could have expected. Her first “night” gets off to a rocky start as well, when Alex’s unusually advanced magical skills win her an enemy on the teaching staff. Fortunately, her abilities get her transferred into a class that may very well be the key to her search for Sarah, though Alex is undoubtedly in great danger there herself. Meanwhile, the Hunters are on a search of their own, desperate to find the silver-haired girl who stole life away from a number of their crew, though evidence suggests it may be too late to save them.

After the first volume’s whirlwind pace, Svetlana relaxes a bit in the second to provide some very rewarding moments of drama and playful characterization. The story’s momentum hasn’t subsided in the least, but this volume has a bit more ebb and flow to it, pausing gravely over the fate of the fallen Hunters, accenting some bits of humor involving the supporting characters, and offering up Alex’s somewhat bratty yet immensely satisfying triumph in astral training class.

Sarah’s disappearance (even from people’s memories) continues to be a mystery, though there is an interesting exchange between Alex and the leader of the main nightschool student clique, suggesting that Alex may not be the only one who remembers her sister. Alex’s true identity remains a mystery as well, and although a few small clues have been laid out, I find I honestly don’t yet want to know. Like all well-told stories, the true pleasure is in the journey and Nightschool‘s journey is so well-paced and deftly plotted, I’m more than content to take it as it comes.

Yen Press’ production is lovely, with a small swath of color pages provided several chapters in. The larger trim size is a nice treat as well and I’m really glad this series has been given such deluxe treatment.

The more I read, the more I enjoy Nightschool. Its intriguing characters, snappy dialogue, easy-flowing artwork, tight pacing, and wonderfully suspenseful plot make it a true gem in Yen Press’ OEL catalogue.

Full Disclosure: Review copy provided by the publisher. Also, I once sat next to Dee DuPuy at dinner.

Filed Under: MANGA REVIEWS Tagged With: manga, nightschool, oel manga

Nightschool, Volume 1

August 21, 2009 by MJ 1 Comment

By Svetlana Chmakova
Yen Press, 192 pp.
Rating: Teen

As the last of the city’s high school students leave their classes and after school activities, school officials make way for the school’s night students—witches, vampires, and other supernaturally inclined teens who arrive nightly for their own education. Sarah Treveney is the school’s new “Night Keeper” who takes care of the school and its students through the dark hours. She lives with her younger sister, Alex, a young witch (known as a Weirn) who refuses to attend the school due to a mysterious past incident. Sarah teaches her at home but it’s hard to keep tabs on her when she’s working all night, and Alex takes the opportunity to wander outside despite the threat of Hunters—a group of demon trackers who are always on the prowl. Much is left untold in this first volume, but there are strong hints that Alex is more powerful than she knows and perhaps is even possessed by something truly formidable, capable of taking out a full team of Hunters single-handedly. After Sarah disappears during her night shift—so thoroughly that she is erased from all known record—Alex will have to go to the school she so fears in order to get her back.

There are more questions raised than answered in Nightschool‘s first volume, but that is actually one of the series’ best qualities. Information is revealed slowly, organically, and with the kind of sure hand that lets the reader know that all will be revealed in due time. Sarah and Alex’s relationship is nicely established, as are the basic rules of the Nightschool universe, though there is so much to introduce, these 192 pages read like one long introductory chapter. That’s not to suggest that the volume is full of boring exposition. There is plenty going on from the start and each of the story’s main characters and groups of characters possesses real personality from the moment they appear on the page—students, teachers, vampires, Hunters—each deftly introduced amidst the action.

One might even suggest that they are too deftly introduced, or perhaps too carefully so. Though the volume flows very well from moment to moment, there is a sense of something reminiscent of a good Disney film, in which the characters always say just the right words to each other (or aloud to themselves) in order to introduce themselves to the audience. This is not necessarily a bad thing, though it does make the setup feel almost too pat, with Alex cast as the perfect animated heroine—smart, restless, and rebelliously brave with a special inner strength of which even she is not fully aware.

Though Alex is at the center of all the mystery, it is Sarah who is easiest to warm up to in this volume. Her gentle compassion for her students, her obvious love for her little sister, and even her chronic lateness for work are all so endearing, it is honestly devastating when she is snatched out of the world so early in the story. This is brilliant characterization on the author’s part, of course, as the audience is now just as determined to get her back as Alex is. This entire volume, in fact, is perfectly crafted to make the reader desperate for the next one. With a beloved character in peril and so many questions yet unanswered, the second volume can’t appear soon enough.

Truthfully, most of the characters in the story are presented in a sympathetic light so far, including the Hunters so feared by our heroine and her ilk. That the series does not have an obvious villain at this time is definitely a strong point, though considering the way Sarah is removed from the story it seems likely there will be one eventually, perhaps even very soon. Who the Hunters really are is definitely a burning question, along with what or who Alex has lurking inside her. That Alex herself may turn out to be a villain of sorts seems very possible and adds an extra dimension of interest to the proceedings. The lines between good and evil are nicely blurred in Nightschool, creating a compelling, morally gray world that is bursting with potential.

Svetlana Chmakova’s art is as well crafted as her story, particularly in the way she uses her panel layouts. Action moves from one panel to the next seamlessly and with an artful feel, creating powerful action that is easy to follow alongside magical sequences that are often quite beautiful. Her character designs have a sameness about the face—especially the adult women—but they are drawn expressively enough that it doesn’t hinder the storytelling.

Readers who like to have things thoroughly explained as they go will have a rough time with this series but for those of us who enjoy just being swept up in the ride, Nightschool promises to be an eventful one indeed.

Review copy provided by the publisher. Review originally published at PopCultureShock.

Filed Under: MANGA REVIEWS Tagged With: manga, nightschool

 | Log in
Copyright © 2010 Manga Bookshelf | Powered by WordPress & the Genesis Framework