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
or
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!)
Labels: a little romance, action, comedy, horror, shounen