Well hello all - sorry I haven't updated ALL week. When I got back from my two week trip, my internet was down! I swear I saw the face of death when I found that out. But luckily its back up and running, so I can review this oneshot!

As you can see from the cover above, the oneshot I will be reviewing is called Gaba Kawa by Takada Rie. The storyline is: Demons like Rara are supposed to cause mischief in the mortal world and draw humans to darkness. They're not supposed to help mortals and they're definitely not supposed to fall in love with them! But that's just what happens when Rara enters high school, where a hot guy named Retsu Aku calls her "Gaba Kawa"!

While demons gain power by causing mischief, the opposite is also true - if Rara uses any of her powers to help motals, she'll lose that very power. if she loses enough power, she'll dissapear! Poor Rara. What's a "Gaba Kawa" demon to do?

(No, I did not write that summary - I copied it off (not onemanga!) of the back of the book! Since I actually own it!

I liked the artwork for this story. Or most of it. I didn't really like the main male character (Retsu Aku)'s hairstyle. But the drawing style was cute, Rara was very cute, and the chibis were funny but cute. So all in all, the drawing style was cute.

The story was a little hard to follow at some parts and the ending was a little sudden and I had to reread it a couple times to understand. But with a lead character like Rara, what's not to like? She's funny, persistant, and really sweet. Gaba Kawa, may seem like a strange nickname to you, so I'll explain. (Actually, I will copy paste the meaning from http://wikipedia.org/ because the explaination there is much easier to understand than the explaination I have.) "The manga's title, Gaba Kawa is a combination of the Japanese words ganbaru, meaning to persist, and kawaii, meaning cute. It refers to someone who is persistant but cute."

I give this oneshot a good, solid, A. It was an easy, breezy, fun read, (although you have to think a little bit to understand some parts - so don't read it when you're brain dead). I suggest that if you don't mind some confusing parts, that you head on over to:

http://onemanga.com/Gaba_Kawa

to read it.

Sorry my post was pretty short today - I have a TON (aka. two week's worth) or stuff to catch up on and so I can't really spend too much time on here.

Thanks for reading! See you again tomorrow (hopefully - if not, within this week)!

Sorry I haven't posted anything for these last few days - I've been really busy with end of the year school stuff. Also, I'll be gone for the next two weeks and I won't have Internet access (frown), so I won't be able to update then, either. The other day I bought to oneshots at Borders - one called Gaba Kawa and the other called Wanted. I'm excited because I've only read these other oneshots that I've reviewed so far online. So this will be my first time reading a oneshot in... in person? My first time holding a oneshot and reading it. I don't know why I'm making a big deal out of this, but for some reason I'm super stoked!

Anyway, this oneshot I'll be reviewing/blogging about today is called Bloody Kiss by Atsushi Suzumi. The storyline is: Anna is a little vampire girl who loves cute little animals. Whenever she sees an animal she likes, she is tempted to suck its blood and make it into her familiar making it grow wings. Because of her strange passion for cute things, her room is full of cuddly animals with black wings and she even throws out her coffin because it isn't cute. Her cat familiar, Noel, always complains about her strange behavior. One day, Anna is on her way to see the fireworks when she sees a poster for an Animal Circus full of wonderful exotic animals. Can Anna resist this temptation or will she end up creating her own little animal circus?
Again, I didn't write this summary - credit goes to onemanga.)

The artwork for this story was cute - the animals were drawn really well (but I'm no animal expert, so you may beg to differ). Anna was cute, but the clothes were... to modern. From what I could tell, this was set sometime in the 18th century or early 19th century. Anna's clothes consisted of things from short skirts to booty shorts and boots. The leader of the circus looked a lot like Hikaru and Kaoru from the manga/anime series Ouran High School Host Club.

See for yourself:




















(Picture taken off of deviant art)



The guy from Bloody Little Circus and Hikaru and Kaoru from Ouran High School Host Club.
Hm... maybe it's just me. Now that I put their pictures together, they don't look so alike. It must be the hair...

As for the story itself. It was very silly. Cute, but silly and a little weird at the same time. And there is nothing bloody in this story, so I'm not really sure why it's called "Bloody Little Circus". Okay, I do know why - because she's a vampire, but I was being sarcastic. Or rhetorical. The ending just made you say "That's it?". It was sudden, but that's not what made you say "That's it?". You'll have to read it for yourself to find out what makes you say that! Or maybe I'm the only one who said "That's it?" It was just a very "That's it?" kind of story.

Overall, I would rate this oneshot a B-. Its only 20 pages long, (or short) so its not a time-consuming oneshot. If you're wanting to read something short about vampires who don't drink human blood, but don't want to read 'Twilight' (by Stephanie Meyer - but I'm sure you know that because the Twilight Saga is so popular and there are Twihards EVERYWHERE. EVERYWHERE. They scare me so much...), then you should go to:
http://www.onemanga.com/Bloody_Little_Circus/
to read it.

Thanks for reading! Sorry I haven't updated for a few days... See you (though not literally) next next week!
Let me know if you know of any good oneshots!

This next oneshot is called "Half and Half" (you've probably already guessed that from the title of this post and by the cover illustration) by Seo Kouji.

The story is: Shinichi Nagakawa and Yuuki Sanada are both involved in an accident and die together. But they're given a chance to live again. God lets them live for 7 more days. But the catch is that after the time limit, one of them must die again.
There's more. God decrees that their lives will be shared, including emotions (guilt) and physical sensations (pain). They are told not to leave the other's side, else both of them die. What will happen during those 7 days?

The artwork for this story was perfect, in my opinion. Both character's displayed a lot of emotion, which was appropriete for this storyline - and unlike some other mangas where you wouldn't really be able to tell what they're feeling unless you see what they're saying, I think you'd be able to follow right along the story even if there weren't any words. Well, except for the part where they're told they're going to share everything for the next 7 days. That part would probably need words.

As for the story - I loved it. As you may know by now, I love happy endings. I had conflicting feelings about the ending (SPOILER: its was sad...), but I still loved it. The story was a good mix between happy and sad.

Overall, I would rate this oneshot an A+. If you're in the mood for a bittersweet romance manga, you need head over to
http://www.onemanga.com/Half_and_Half/
or
http://www.mangafox.com/manga/half_half/
read this right now. But if you're in a super fantastic mood (and feel like reading romance), I suggest you read something happy, like
Suki Nan Desu (http://oneshotmangas.blogspot.com/2010/06/suki-nan-desu-i-like-you.html)
or
Tonari no Inuyama-kun (http://oneshotmangas.blogspot.com/2010/06/tonari-no-inuyama-kun.html).

Thanks for reading! If you know of any good oneshots, please let me know! (Please not Yaoi or Yuuri though.)

This next oneshot I will be blogging about is called "Tonari no Inuyama-kun" by Tsubasa Sakura. Translated roughly into English, the title would be called something along the lines of "Inuyama-kun next to me". Japanese honorifics come up a lot in manga. Most commonly are "kun", "chan", and "senpai/sempai". For those of you who aren't familiar with what they mean, I will explain. "Kun" is used by people who are a higher status when they are addressing a person of a lower status, but most commonly in manga, it is used by anyone when addressing a boy. "Chan" is usually used for babies, girls, generally for anything cute. Also they can be used between couples or close friends. "Senpai, sempai" is used to address one's senior colleagues in a school, company, sports club, or other group. So at school, the students in higher grades than oneself are senpai/sempai.

Back to the story - the storyline is: Kokoro was involved in a traffic accident when she was small, and there was a hero who risked his life to save her. She can't remember anything about him, except for his back, which was scarred from saving her. Now a high school student, she still can't forget the guy from her memories. Suddenly, she was assigned to take care of the new transfer student, Inuyama Kei, who's always quiet and somewhat of a weirdo. He reminds her of her childhood hero, but she wishes her hero was Shun-senpai, the idol of all the girls in school, and who's been very nice to her lately...

The artwork for this story was nice for the most part. Kokoro's (the main girl character) hair was kind of flat, in my opinion. She wasn't the prettiest manga character I've ever seen before, but she seemed more like a normal girl (not one of those girls who's hair is always perfect no matter what kind of situation they're in) - which was refreshing, and pretty nice, actually.

I really liked this story, it was a cute, yet a little awkward romance. The awkward part? The guy was a little weird at first and he was different from most other lead male characters. But don't get me wrong - he's a great character.

Overall, I would rate this oneshot a nice solid A. Its only 45 pages or so, so its a nice short read. If you're looking for a romantic story with a cute ending, I suggest you go to
http://www.onemanga.com/Tonari_no_Inuyama-kun/
to read it!

Thanks for reading! If you know of any good oneshot mangas please let me know!

I found out about this oneshot on a forum at http://animenation.net/forums, and I have conflicting feelings of whether I'm glad I did or not. This oneshot is called Heaven's Will by Takimiya Satoru.

The story for this oneshot is: Sudou Mikuzu has a very special talent - she can see ghosts. And because of this predisposition, she's become a magnet for all sorts of unwelcome monsters. Luckily for her, she meets Seto, a friendly, cross-dressing young exorcist. Sudou needs protection from all the creepy phantoms bugging her, and Seto needs to practice his exorcism skills. So the two decided to pair up and help each other. But will the partnership last?

(Taken off of Mangafox because I can't write summaries...)

The artwork for this story was very good. Takiyama-san did a really good job with making Seto (the cross-dressing boy) look like a pretty girl, yet if you knew he was a boy, you could see the somewhat boyish face (that seemed to take nothing away from making him a pretty girl). Did that make sense? It's hard to explain, I suggest you see for yourself.

I really liked the story itself. It was interesting - dark but nice. The manga boasts "U.S. Debut of the popular teen goth romance!" on it, but I didn't really see any romance. This was not a romantic manga. It had romantic... seeds... (I couldn't think of anything else, sorry) planted, and if there were more romantic scenes in the story, maybe it could have been. Either way, I thought it was a fun oneshot and I really liked it, but the ending was much, much too abrupt and open. It would be nice if it had a side story or one more volume but there isn't... Maybe if I were a more creative person and I liked open endings (I'm more of a fan of the "And they lived happily ever after" type endings), I think I'd like ending much better.

I would rate this oneshot a B+. I really liked the story itself, but I just didn't like the ending. It was really a let down. (But the story itself is great!) If you're the type who likes stories with exorcisms and open endings then I suggest you read this oneshot at:

http://www.mangafox.com/manga/heaven_s_will/

Thanks for reading! Let me know if you know of any good oneshots I could review! (Please no YAOI or YUURI though!)

This next oneshot I'll be reviewing/blogging about is called 13 by Soraichi Hideaki. I decided that since the last oneshot I reviewed was in the shoujo manga category, the next one should be a oneshot in the shounen category. For those of you who may not know what shoujo and shounen mean, I will explain. Shoujo manga is manga that is targeted for girls in elementary though high school age. Usually shoujo manga has romantic themes (though not always the case) and has more cutesy art than shounen manga. Shounen manga is manga that is targeted for boys in elementary though high school age. Usually they're full of action (please note the word usually) and have some humor in them. (Humor's not limited to shounen manga, shoujo manga has humor too)

The story for this oneshot is: Mondo Fujieda is in love with a girl named Izayo Gorugo. However, there's a problem: her family members are all assassins. He ends up humiliating her and upon this humiliation, she vows to kill him. Luckily for him she moves away shortly after. Years later, she comes back to seek vengeance, but what is a guy to do against a skilled assassin?

(I stole this off of onemanga...)

The artwork for this story is very... horror-like at some points. At other times, however, the characters make hilarious facial expressions. There is very little detail in the hair or eyes, showing its clearly not a shoujo manga - which I'm not used to, but I still liked the drawing style.

As for the story, I don't usually read shounen manga, so I wasn't really sure what to expect. (Usually, meaning never.) The story itself, I thought was pretty good. Unlike some shoujo mangas (where the whole story is about how the girl can't make chocolate for Valentine's Day), there's an actual problem. It was a little hard to follow sometimes, but other than that, I liked it.

Overall, I would rate this an A. I wasn't too big of a fan of the ending, but the rest of the story was good enough to make up for it. Another thing - this would definitely be rated 13+, so don't go reading this to your little brother or sister. If you're looking for a bizarre love story with action and funny facial expressions, I suggest you head on over to either

http://www.mangafox.com/manga/13/v01/c001

or

http://www.onemanga.com/13/0/00/

to read it. I didn't notice any difference in translation between the two, so it doesn't really matter which one you go to. One last thing, the translator didn't seem to know how to spell 'definitely', so there are a lot of 'defiantly's in the speech bubbles.

Thanks for reading! If you know of any good oneshots, please let me know! (NO YAOI OR YUURI!)

The first oneshot that I will be reviewing/blogging about is: Suki Nan Desu (translated: I Like You) by Iseru Ayana.

The storyline is that Koharu is dating the prince in school, Suwa. But things don't turn out as planned when Koharu tells him to keep their relationship a secret!

I really liked the art for this story - Iseru-san is a genius! Her drawing style is adorable, and I love how Koharu and Suwa both blush all the time. For those of you who don't like art styles with lots of lines and detail, you may not like it as much as I did.

The oneshot itself, I thought, was cute but not realistic at all. (But then again, when is manga realistic?) This would really be good for a quick read, because there are only 30 pages. I almost wished that the story would go on a couple chapters more, but it was a good place to end.

There is one suprising scene near the end of the story that totally caught me off guard. I won't spoil it for you, but at least let me say that the one interesting part about this oneshot was that the main male character (Suwa) was very feminine and sensitive. Which was nice, since usually what happens in manga in that kind of scenario at the end is that the guy gets mad and tells her off, and then the girl goes after him and apologizes and its all good. But that doesn't happen in this oneshot, making it unique which is why I love it. (And also because its a really cute story.)

Overall, I would give this oneshot an A-, and recommend you get yourself down to http://www.mangafox.com/manga/suki_nan_desu/ to read it.

Again, this is my first time ever blogging or reviewing anything, so let me know how I'm doing and feel free to give me any suggestions to make this blog better! Also, let me know if you have any oneshots you would like to have me review (BUT NO YAOI OR YUURI)!

See you again next time!

Hi! I've never written a blog before, so I'm not really sure what to say... Well, let's start with introductions, shall we? I am half Japanese, and I love manga. I'm a total otaku (except I don't cosplay). But living in America, its hard to buy cheap manga, and buying volume after volume of a series can become quite expensive - which is why I have come to appreciate oneshot mangas. For those of you who may not know, a "oneshot" is a manga term that denotes series that are short, usually consisting of just one chapter. (I totally just stole that off of http://www.onemanga.com/ - one of the best sites on this wonderful thing we call the internet) So since its only one chapter, it's cheap and the story doesn't drag on. The downside of oneshot mangas though, are that you can't really have a deep plot or much character development. But that's okay because they're great for a quick read, and a lot cheaper! I've read about a handful of oneshot manga's so far (I've JUST gotten into them), so for now I'll review the one's I find myself, but please feel free to let me know about oneshots (I'll just call them that from now on, since it might get annoying hearing "oneshot manga" over and over) that you would like me to review! (But please, NO YAOI or YUURI.) Thanks for reading! And feel free to review how I'm doing as a first-time blogger too!