Otaku Surf

Yen Plus: Manga Anthology Book

Posted on 04. Aug, 2009 by admin in Anime/Manga

The cover of the August 2009 issue of Yen Plus featuring Maximum Ride.

Probably the most difficult Otaku merchandise I shop for is new manga. There are a few websites on the net that carry manga reviews and they’re helpful at times. But I usually end up in the book stores flipping through some mangas with interesting covers and names that might interest me.

I decided to change it up a bit and get Yen Plus, which is a monthly anthology filled with Japanese manga, Korean manhwa and original-english language manga. The monthly anthology is usually over 450 pages long with one side dedicated to Japanese manga and the other towards manhwa and OEL manga.

Being the manga purist I am I was under the impression that I would enjoy some of the manga and wouldn’t care two cents about the rest. But lucky for me and Yen Plus, I enjoyed a bit more of the magazine than I thought I would.

For the most part I did like the whole anthology with a few exceptions, like the overly-cutesy One Fine Day and Hero Tales. Below is a list of a few of the stories that I really liked from Yen Plus.

Awesome Maximum Ride poster that came with Yen Plus.

The first story and one of the best one’s in the magazine is “Maximum Ride” which is a manga adaptation of the the novel of the same namesake drawn by Korean artist Narae Lee. The story is basically about a group of kids who have been genetically engineered with the DNA of birds. They all appear human except for the wings that appear on their backs and in some cases have additional powers.

Maximum Ride is the eldest of the kids and it’s her responsibility to keep the rest of the kids safe and find a way for them to live a normal life and evade the Erasers who hunt them, who may or may not be from the institution that the group escaped from.

The story in the book has the group confronting one of these Erasers, who unlike the kids actually does take on animalistic physical features, and the groups makeover to further help them escape those who are pursuing them.

After the groups escape from the Erasers, they decide to get some new doo's and gear.

The art and the writing is some of the best in the anthology and before I read it I was under the impression that it was Japanese manga. The series is a manga adaptation of an American novel series drawn by a Korean artist, but I couldn’t really tell and thought I was reading Japanese manga.

I like the characterizations in the story and the art is spectacular, the cover and poster provided by Narae Lee is just a sampling of her work. Maximum Ride has a hint of X-men in the sense that they are in a sense mutants and a group of outsiders, which is a plus since I collected and was a fan of X-Men back in the day.

The cover art to the Pig Bride manga by Yen Press.

Pig Bride written and drawn by Korean artists Kookhwa Huh and Sujin Kim, is about a boy, Si-Joon Lee, who is promised to be married to girl who wears a pig mask, Mu-Yeon Park. The only way that Mu-Yeon can stop wearing the mask is to marry Si-Joon.

With this story, it’s evident it’s a balance between Korean and Japanese artistry. The story is broken down in two parts in the magazine, with part of the story taking place in 1600′s Korea and the other taking place in modern world.

A woman has come to the capital to see and entertain a nobleman, but the woman is surprised that the wife of the nobleman is happy to see her and doesn’t seem to have any jealously. It all leads to a surprise physical confrontation which leads to Si-Joon waking up from a dream which has him acting more caring towards Mu-Yeon, which he quickly realizes and stops.

Si-Joon waking up after the dream and starting to realize how close he is to Mu-Yeon.

The art is more “flowery” than what I’m used to but doesn’t really distract from the story, which the art compliments well. “Pig Bride” has an interesting scenario and art to boot and I’m interested where the current premise will lead all the characters.

The Japanese manga side of Yen Plus featuring Black Butler.

Featured on the Japanese manga side of Yen Plus is the premiere segment of “Black Butler” by Yana Toboso. “Black Butler” is the story of the Black Butler Sebastian Michaelis and head of the Phantomhive family Ciel Phantomhive.

Today the Phantomhive family is receiving a guest and Sebastian has to deal with some overenthusiastic and clumsy staff at the household. Being the “Black Butler,” Sebastian deals with all the problems with perfection even to be called “Superman” by his master.

Sebastian having to deal with his staff and determining what to do next.

Black Butler reminds me a bit of “Hayate no Gotoku” which is always a good thing, since its one of my favorite animes. Sebastian is a darker, albeit mature version of Hayate. The manga is pretty funny and it’s a great addition to Yen Plus.

The cover to the Japanese Edition of Soul Eater Volume 1.

Now saving the best for last. I’ve heard about and seen previews for the anime “Soul Eater” but I’ve never actually seen anything from the manga. Atsushi Ohkubo’s series is my favorite Japanese manga on Yen Plus and tells the tale of a boy named Soul Eater, who if he devours souls of 99 humans and one witch becomes the ultimate weapon.

Soul is partnered up with a scythe meister, Maka, who Soul doesn’t have an easy relationship with. They’re all part of the Death Weapon Meister Academy “where living weapons and their meister partners train to become the ultimate weapon of death.”

I love the art in Soul Eater and the dark comedy isn't all that bad either.

In this segment Medusa is in the process of releasing the “Demon-Eye Man” from a prison in order to create some havoc with Soul and his friends. Meanwhile, we get an inside look at the relationship between Soul and Maka which is pretty funny!

Soul Eater reminds me of an adolescent Deathnote crossed in with a bit of Dragonball Z. Ohkubo’s distinctive art style is another huge plus and I can’t wait until the first volume of Soul Eater comes out in the U.S.

Overall I enjoyed Yen Plus which gives the reader a variety of stories and art from Japanese, Korean and American artists. I didn’t find everything to my liking, but what I did like peaked my interest to the point of making sure that I check out Yen Plus in the future.

Tags: manga, otaku, yen plus