Bettina M. Kurkoski

I received Star Trek: The Manga (Ultimate Edition) for my birthday this summer and have to admit to disappointment. If this represents the "cream of the crop" of recent Star Trek manga it doesn't speak well of what was left out. Most of the stories simply force the Original Series cast into bland manga storylines. The result feels slap-dash and out of place and doesn't service either genre particularly well.

That having been said, the volume is worth the price for Wil Wheaton's excellent show more Klingon-centric contribution, Art of War. Complimented by some fine artwork, Art of War doesn't attempt to force Japanese tropes into the Star Trek formula, but rather allows a first-rate Star Trek story to be illustrated in the Japanese style. Wheaton knows his Klingons and this story is the only one in the book that feels like it would play well as an actual episode of the Original Series. show less

Ok, I gotta tell ya, I LOVED this book and will definitely get the other 2 planned volumes - I actually already have them on pre-order, or at least volume 2. If you have cats or have lived with cats you will most definitely want to pick this one up . The creator has to be intimately acquainted with cats as she's really captured the essence of cat..she really understands them. The story is beautifully rendered and Loki is absolutely adorable. At first I was leary about this book as I'd seen show more some of the catboy references but she does such a good job of using the catboy Loki as a tool to get the message across of what cat Loki is feeling. I just can't recommend this one highly enough...really...go buy it! So yes, definitely cute animals, not so much hot guys. show less

This second collection of Princess Ai short comics follows on the success of the first post-trilogy collection, proving once again that the story of Princess Ai is too popular with readers to end. In fact, this book also contains a sneak-peak/first chapter of the next Princess Ai trilogy - the Prism of Midnight Dawn. Tokyopop may be trading in on the popularity of the series (and catering to fans' demands), but this collection actually introduces readers to other storylines in the Tokyopop show more universe. I didn't recognize most of them because I am sorely out of touch with manga publishing, but I was happy to see one familiar series make a guest appearance - the crew from the Tarot Cafe series. show less

An interesting collection of stories about Princess Ai (a character based on Courtney Love). Each story is written by a different author and artist and some include characters from other TokyoPop series. For example there is a story "Missing" by Sang-Sun Park which includes characters from her Tarot Cafe.

The stories weren't that great, but it was a great way to showcase other TokyoPop talent. It was a good read for completions sake for the series and there was a preview of the new Princess show more Ai series "Prism of the Midnight Dawn" which I am looking forward to reading. Of the 10 authors and artists there are definitely some I will be checking out further so I suppose the collection served its purpose. show less