Doubt

"Rabbit Doubt" is a game with a group of rabbits, in which one rabbit is actually a wolf in disguise. Each night, the wolf will kill one rabbit. To end it, the rabbits vote for whom they believe is the wolf and execute the wolf by hanging it. However, if they vote for the wrong rabbit, then that is the end for them all....

A group of teenagers who play this game one day decide to meet each other in the outside world. The day they spend together is full of joy, fun and happiness.

But what happens when they awaken in an abandoned building, only to find that one of them has been killed and hung? The group finds themselves playing a real game of "Rabbit Doubt" as each person is killed one-by-one.

Can they find out who is the wolf in time?

Recommended audience: 16+

Author and Artist: Yoshiki Tonogai
Year Published: 2007
Volumes: 4 - completed

Star Children

I like looking for new manga to read, but I never thought I'd end up reading one about a space academy. Star Children follows the story of Yuuto, a boy aspiring to be an astronaut with Sirius--a division that practices deep space exploration. The manga starts off with young Yuuto expressing his passion for space exploration. His father works at a space station and the person he's always looked up to is a Sirius astronaut. He wants to become an astronaut, but he's afraid his parents would disapprove of his decision. The first chapter is mostly of Yuuto contemplating whether he should study to become as astronaut or not and the end of the chapter was... you'll have to read it.

The story in the first few chapters felt slow, but it becomes more interesting and reads faster closer to chapter 5 when more main characters are introduced. I've never read a manga about a space academy (or at least I can't recall ever reading one), so I don't know what to expect. I like the surprises that the manga brought so far, and I'm looking forward to read and see what challenges lie ahead for the main characters. What I like most about Star Children are the the characters: they each have an interesting personality and their emotions and expressions are played well.

Recommended audience: All ages <--yeah, you read that right

Author and Artist: Kida Masashi
Release year: 2011
Scanlators: Pinoymanga Scans

I haven't mentioned or linked the scanlators who translated the manga into English so far. I'll start doing that now.

Eden no Ori

If you've ever read Lord of the Flies by William Golding, you may enjoy reading Eden no Ori. Also known as Cage of Eden, the manga has a storyline and characters roles similar to Lord of the Flies. The differences between the two are that the manga, being a manga, provides fanservice with its many high school female and male characters and sets the danger to the island to an all time high with deadly prehistoric lifeforms.

What I like most about Eden no Ori are the many mysteries that come with the island. Why are there prehistoric lifeforms? Did the characters travel back in time? If so, how and why did it happen? If they didn't travel back in time, was the island always there? Is it natural or was it man-made? Which characters will survive on the island and what role will they play later in the story?

I have plenty more questions regarding to the manga but they will have to wait until the scanlators or Kodansha USA finish with it.

Recommended audience: Teens

Author and Artist: Yamada Yoshinobu
Release year: 2008
Volumes: 13+ ongoing
Licensed by Kodansha USA

Oresama Teacher

I like reading shojo manga, but it gets a bit boring when you read enough to know what will happen next. But! It's refreshing when a shojo manga like Oresama Teacher appears.

Meet Kurosaki Mafuyu-- she's an ex-delinquent entering a new school and hopes to make a lot of female friends, but she can't seem to stay out of fights and help the most scary teacher Saeki Takaomi at her school who happens to be her next door neighbor and her... childhood friend? (Their past is a little odd but sweet.) She ends up befriending mostly male delinquents like she did in her past and at some point was convinced by her teacher to uphold justice at the school by disguising herself as a male student and a rabbit.

The characters in Oresama Teacher seem to focus more on friendship than love, but it's interesting to read how Mafuyu gets closer to the other characters.

Recommended audience: All ages

Author and Artist: Izumi Tsubaki
Release year: 2008
Licensed by Viz Media

_{Thank you panda scans for releasing the latest chapters every so often!}

Tetris DS

Tetris DS is the DS version of the classic game of Tetris.
Players can play in a variety of new modes, such as push, touch, catch, and more! The standard version of playing is still present, of course, with the blocks dropping down faster as you level up.

Wi-Fi communication is available. Players may play against other players in different modes.

Rating: 10 out of 10
Development company: Nintendo

Recommended audience: All ages

Nemu Nemu

I was surfing on the net and landed on someone's LiveJournal. Their LiveJournal entries had comics about a toaster named Toasty. There was a website on the comic images, so I typed it (www.nemu-nemu.com) into my browser's URL bar.

It turns out the comic (called Nemu Nemu) isn't about a toaster! Only those few pages were. The main characters of the comic are two [adorable] magical stuffed animal pups. With its clean lines and distinctive art style, I think I'm going to be reading about magical stuffed animal pups for a long while.

Recommended audience: All

The World Ends With You

The World Ends With You is a Nintendo DS game developed by SQUARE ENIX's Kingdom Hearts team and Jupiter.

This game is set in the modern-day Shibuya shopping district of Tokyo. It revolves around a boy named Neku Sakuraba, in which he and his allies are forced to participate in the Reapers' Game. Killed within the Realground (RG), the selected players are brought to the Underground (UG) to fight for a prize: to be brought back to life, or to become a Reaper.

This game is played using both the stylus and game controls.

Rating: 9.5 out of 10

Development company: SQUARE ENIX, Jupiter

Recommended audience: All ages

Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box

Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box is the second game in the Professor Layton series.

In this game, Professor Layton receives a letter from his mentor, Dr. Shrader, claiming that he has found the Elysian Box. This Elysian Box has said to have killed anyone who opens it. Getting a bad feeling from this news, Professor Layton and his young apprentice Luke set off to Dr. Shrader's home. Upon their arrival, the two find the man lying dead on the floor with no box in sight. Only a ticket for the Molentary Express is present. Purchasing their own tickets for the train, Professor Layton and Luke set off on yet another adventure.

As a sequel to Professor Layton and the Curious Village, over 100 more puzzles, both new and more challenging, are available to be solved. Follow along the story as Professor Layton and Luke uncover more mysteries than ever before!

Rating: 9.2 out of 10

Development company: Level-5

Recommended audience: All ages

Prequel: Professor Layton and the Curious Village

Professor Layton and the Curious Village

The first game of Professor Layton is Professor Layton and the Curious Village.

In this game, a gentleman by the name of Professor Layton and his young assistant Luke set off to the town of St. Mystere to locate the "Golden Apple". Other mysteries begin to unfold as their search goes on.

The game takes times to complete as the fun and challenging puzzles gradually become more difficult to solve as the story proceeds. Many strange yet entertaining characters also appear throughout the game. With over 100 puzzles to solve and a few hint coins available to help, thinking and concentration is definately required for this game.

Rating: 9 out of 10

Development company: Level-5

Recommended audience: All ages

Sequel: Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box

Koko ni Iru Yo!

There's something about a story of a girl having to choose between two boys who like her that makes me want to read it. That wasn't the only reason why Koko ni Iru Yo! (Here I am!) caught my attention though.

The manga's main character keeps a blog about her experiences in life and receives encouragement from two of her followers whenever she needs help and inspiration. When things in her school life seem to be getting better, she soon discovers that her blog could also influence the people she cares about in real life. Conflict occurs as her blog and school life collide.

Recommended audience: All Ages

Author and Artist: Ema Toyama
Release year: 2007
Volumes: 5
Licensed by Del Rey

White Noise

White Noise is a dashing and funny story about the love in friendship. The story introduces Riona, a girl who doesn't like to speak because of her voice and spends her time listening to white noise rather than music. On her first day of high school, she meets two outgoing classmates named Jun and Shichi. She soon finds herself enjoying high school with the two friends and realizes the beauty of friendship.

Recommended audience: All ages

Better Boyfriend

I've always wanted to read a comic about a girl who turns into a boy and a boy who turns into a girl and they both would have never got to know each other if they weren't in the same situation.

Better Boyfriend adds to that scenario with a father who openly loves his daughter too much, a cheerful mother that caused her own daughter to turn into a boy, and an odd grandmother that turned her gang leader grandson into a girl. While the mother and grandmother try to figure out an antidote to the main characters' transformation, Jun and Yupi, the er... heroine and hero (?), have to deal with living as the opposite gender at their high school. As for why the title is what it is, read the comic to find out!

Recommended audience: Teens

Buttersafe

One of the wittiest comic series I've ever encountered must be Buttersafe. The simple character designs add to the clever content. There's no storyline to the comic: it's butter safe.

The creators of Buttersafe comics are Alex Culang and Raynato Castro. The about page at the comic's website states that Alex usually updates on Thursdays and Raynato on Tuesdays. Arthur Culang is a part of Buttersafe comics and "generally keeps Buttersafe from imploding, exploding, or sidesploding."

Recommended audience: All audiences

Kiben Gakuha, Yotsuya Senpai No Kaidan

"Sometimes, we find truth within a rumor." Kiben Gakuha, Yotsuya Senpai No Kaidan is series of mysteries that follows that phrase.

Written and drawn by Furudate Haruichi, the manga stars Makoto, a middle school girl, and Yotsuya, a weird middle school boy who doesn't look like an ordinary school boy and is obsessed with influencing people with scary stories. The story starts with Makoto and Yotsuya solving crimes and mysteries by spreading rumors, but they later find that some of the incidents they've encountered are connected to one mischievous character.

I find the art looks creepy yet fine. The art style works well during the eerie moments. I feel that the events are more interesting than the characters though, but I suppose the characters are what makes the events.

Artist & Author: Furudate Haruichi
Release year: 2010
Recommended audience: Teens

Suits in Suits

Suits in Suits is a set of comicstrips about the four suits of aces. Each ace has a hair style that follows the shape of their suit and they each wear suits! The comic was launched by the incredible Chancake on Smackjeeves late April 2009.

I really like how Chancake used a select few colours rather than making it black and white or colorful. It suits the style and the characters.

Recommended audience: Teens

Deadman Wonderland

Deadman Wonderland; a new prison in which the prisoners are forced to fight each other with nothing other than their own blood.

Ganta Igarashi, the story's main character, has been convicted of the murder of all his classmates. He meets a weird girl named Shiro upon entering the prison park; however, Shiro isn't what she appears to be.

Recommended audience: Teen 13+

Author: Kataoka Jinsei
Artist: Kondou Kazuma
Status: ongoing - monthly

Intersexual(s)

The manga, IS (Aiesu), starts off with the story of an intersexual person who is raised as a girl but was born genderless. The character, Hiromi, chooses to move around a lot because she feels insecure about how people do not know that she is actually genderless. As Hiromi develops feelings for a man that has feelings for her, she is struggles to decide whether she should continue being an intersex or get a sex change before the man she loves finds out about her gender.

Some of the chapters in the manga carry stories of different intersexual characters and the stories of people who struggle accepting the concept of intersexuality. I really like how every chapter develops and how each intersexual experience their struggles to fit into society. The chapters on people learning to accept intersexuality are also great reads. The character situations feel very realistic and the characters' developments are often heartwarming.

Recommended audience: Teens+

Given Titles: IS: Otoko demo Onna demo nai Sei, Aiesu, Intersexual(s)
Author and Artist: Chiyo Rokuhana
Release Year: 2003
Volumes: 17

Strays

Strays follows a female lupian --a race of humans with wolf-like features-- and her journey through the once thought peaceful land she knew. Sounds like a serious story, right? Well, Strays has many moments of humour, sadness, and happiness.

The comic is created by Samantha Whitten and Stacey Pefferkorn. Both are artists with exceptional talent (which would explain why the comic looks professionally done).

Recommended audience: Teens+

Pokémon Twilight

An alternate story of Pokémon, Pokémon Twilight follows the adventures of Indigo League Champion Kaia Attwater and her trainees, Rose Thyme and Gina Green, who are aiming to be Pokémon Masters.

The story's events are like the stories in colored Pokémon games and Ash Ketchum's adventure, but with more characters and interesting lives to follow. There's also a Team Rocket crew that the story follows: Sae, Naelle, and Gavin. I personally believe this Team Rocket could defeat anyone if they persevere.

The art fits perfectly with the story with its not too simple and not too detailed style.

The comic launched in March 2007, and is by Smackjeeves user Ling. Updates to the comic are at ireegular times, but there is usually at least one update every month.

Recommended audience: All Ages

Fairy Tail

Fairy Tail follows the story of mages. It first introduces a 17-year-old girl named Lucy who soon meets Natsu, a young man with transportation sickness. Along with Natsu is his talking, blue cat: Happy. Seeming weak at first, Natsu turns out to be a mage of the infamous guild named Fairy Tail.

As the story progresses, Lucy overcomes challenges with her new friends, also dealing with what trouble Natsu is able to bring upon her.

Up to date Nov.23/09, Fairy Tail has 161 chapters including few special/extra chapters. All art and copyrights go to Hiro Mashima.

Author: Hiro Mashima
Status: ongoing - weekly.
Recommended audience: Teen 13+