EX Home | Email | Search | Prev. Page | Contents | Next Page
Vol 2 Issue 6
[MANGA REVIEWS]


shonen sunday.
(continued)

Selected Brief Updates

INUYASHA
Takahashi Rumiko

Overview: Kagome is a seemingly normal student who finds herself in fifteenth or sixteenth century Japan, where she meets the strange boy Inuyasha. Now, they are on a quest to retrieve the fragments of the Shikon no Tama, whose powers are sought by evil beings.
  This issue:Back in modern day Japan, Kagome has run into a malicious ghost of a little girl. The girl, it turns out, wants to kill her brother because she is angry that her mother did not save her from a fire. However, her ghost is accompanied by a strange spirit that turns out to be a "Tatarimokke," a guardian of children's souls that helps them reach spiritual peace. More importantly, the Tatarimokk has a secondary job: it sends souls to Hell if they are about to turn into evil spirits — which this little girl seems to be intent on doing. Of course, Inuyasha doesn't seem at all interested in helping Kagome save the girl's soul.

ME GUMI NO DAIGO
Soda Masahito

Overview: Asahina Daigo is a young firefighter with the "Me" Company, who has an unusual ability to find and rescue people in danger.
  This issue: The rescue squad in-training is at the site of a raging apartment fire, where they mistakenly believe someone is inside. Ara's gamble is paying off; he sees clearly that Daigo has the same "sixth sense" of danger that he has, and the same love-hate relationship with the thrill of braving fires. Ara and Daigo seem almost the same in this regard — almost. When the word comes that the person thought to be inside is actually safe, Ara and the rest of the team start to leave. But Daigo has sensed something that even Ara has not, and has lapsed into his powerful rescuer alter-ego.


LOVE
Ishiwata Osamu

Overview: Takagi Ai ("Love") is a girl who, in a bid to have a re-match with her old tennis rival, has entered a high school tennis club disguised as a boy.
  This issue: Love and her team are competing at the Inter-High School competitions. But Love finds it hard to concentrate on her current game since she senses that her new friend Chinami has wound up in some sort of bad situation with Love's current opponent, the obnoxious Otokoyama. Chinami, desperate to see Love win so that she does not become Otokoyama's woman (in the bet she accidentally entered), goes so far as to declare a false fault against Otokoyama. But even this "help" does not seem to be enough to help Love, whose concern for Chinami continues to hurt her game.


GROOMING UP!
Yuuki Masami

Overview: Although originally a city boy, young Kuze Shunpei has taken to working as a farm hand at the Watarai racing horse breeding farm; he also has taken to Watarai Hibiki, one of the Watarai daughters.
  This issue: Oblivious to Tazuna's increasing devotion to him, Shunpei daydreams again of confessing to Hibiki that he likes her. This time, though, it actually happens in the heat of the moment (that is, when Shunpei vehemently objects to Hibiki's efforts to hook him up with Tazuna). Unfortunately, due to a poor choice of words, Hibiki winds up rebuking Shunpei, who runs off weeping. The next morning, Hibiki discovers that Shunpei has left.

GHOST SWEEPER MIKAMI GOKURAKU DAISAKUSEN!!
Shiina Takashi

Overview: Mikami Reiko is a money-hungry, gorgeous female ghost buster, aided by her sex-starved and underpaid male assistant Yokoshima Tadao, as well as kind and gentle female ex-ghost O-kinu.
  This issue: Three gorgeous and ridiculously powerful female demonic agents of the evil Ashtaroth have at last hunted Mikami down, in order to find out if she is the reincarnation of the demon Mephisto, who had stolen an energy capsule (see previous review of GHOST SWEEPER MIKAMI volume 23 for more details). Mikami secretly leaves her body when they test her, giving them a false negative result. But Yokoshima, enraged by what they have done to her, attacks them. Impressed but unhurt, the youngest of the three demons decides he would make a great pet, and hauls him back to their base. There, Ashtaroth is being prepared for his rebirth as the new evil ruler of Heaven and Earth.

MAJOR
Mitsuda Takuya

Overview:It has been four years since Honda Goro put together the Mifune Little League. Now, in junior high school, he is reunited with his old friends and is faced with a new baseball crisis.
  This issue: Brash and arrogant, Honda insists on seeing the captain of a rival junior high school's baseball team. Ayane, a girl in love with the captain, watches as the spectacle unfolds: the captain (to Honda's surprise) is Toshiya, an old friend and rival. Toshiya agrees to test Honda's pitching abilities to see if he is worth practicing with. Honda throws with confidence, and is shocked when Toshiya hits the ball; more, he is speechless when Toshiya praises him for having come so far in just two or three years after switching to left-handed pitching.

Randomly Selected Brief Updates

DANDOH!!
Sakata Nobuhiro and Banjou Daichi

Overview: Dandoh is an earnest young boy who has found a calling in golf. With his friend Yuka and Shou, he uses sincerity and determination as his guides to becoming a pro golfer.
  This issue: Dandoh is in America, playing against an African-American golfer named Cutter (suspiciously nicknamed "Cool Tiger"). At the last hole, the spirit of the boy named Will helps him relax, and he makes his miracle shot, bouncing the ball off a metal grate to reach the green at the other end of a pond. Later, Dandoh learns from Cutter that his friend Taku has won a tournament the previous week.


KYOU KARA ORE WA!!
Nishimori Hiroyuki

Overview: Blond Mitsuhashi and spike-haired Itou are two high school guys who hang out, fight, and generally get into and out of trouble.
  This issue: Mitsuhashi's enemy Sagara has sent a gun-wielding guy after him. But with some help from his friends, Mitsuhashi escapes long enough to grab gasoline and splash it on the would-be gunman, who decides firing the gun is not worth the fireball risk; the rest is settled with a fist fight. Later, Sagara gloats quietly over the worthiness of his opponent.

ARMS
Minagawa Ryouji

Overview: Takatsuki Ryou has a mysterious right arm that is a powerful and dangerous weapon. He soon realizes that whatever happened to him is part of something much bigger.
  This issue: Ryou and his other ARMS friends try to befriend "Al," a member of the mysterious enemy who has been, up until recently, fighting against Ryou. While Al angers most of them with his arrogance, the group is finding out more about the mysterious "Egrigori" organization.

SHONEN SUNDAY: COPYRIGHT © 1997 SHOGAKUKAN


EX Home | Email | Search | back | Contents | Next Page