Matsuri Hino

I have been on a manga buying/reading spree lately. I’m a little late to the manga scene, at least compared to my husband, and have been trying to make up for it by picking up more or less every old manga I find at used book sales. Wanted by Matsuri Hino was one such purchase. This is a standalone manga from the creator of Vampire Knight. Yup, that’s right.

I mean. I’m not a huge fan of Vampire Knight myself. Actually, I’m not a huge fan of vampires in general. (Unless they’re named show more Alucard. Then they’re awesome.) But that’s a discussion for a different day.

Wanted is about Armeria, a young woman who is searching for her childhood friend and first love, Luce, who was captured by pirates eight years earlier. Since that day Armeria has been searching for him. When the story opens she disguises herself as a boy and joins the crew of the pirate known as Skulls, the same man who kidnapped Luce. Of course her cover is soon blown, and, well...

Look, guys. This is a shojo manga. It’s pretty obvious where the story is going.

Armeria, or Arto as she’s known to the crew, is a fairly likable heroine. After finally finding the ship of the pirate captain who kidnapped her friend so long ago, she dresses as a boy and boards the ship. Of course, her cover gets blown soon afterwards. However overused this trope is not just in manga but in all media, the beginning of this scene was humorous and definitely used the pirate adventure setting to its advantage.

And its scenes like this that made me enjoy the manga despite it being predictable.

Of course, once the plot gets moving along, everything’s over. There’s no fulfilling ending. No last chapter that wraps everything up nicely. In fact, the last chapter of the manga isn’t even another chapter of Wanted. It’s a very short standalone story set in the Meiji Era, which, while a good story in and of itself, is quite the jump from the 17th century Mediterranean Sea. In the end, I felt unfulfilled.

The last chapter, or the last chapter involving the characters from Wanted, only added new plot elements. Nothing was wrapped up. New characters were introduced. There wasn’t any sort of conclusion. At the same time, it wasn’t as if there was any great cliffhanger, indicating a push for a second volume some time in the future. The story just stops right when it really gets going. It felt almost like the actual last chapter was just forgotten, left out and replaced by the ending standalone chapter.

To be honest, this would have been much better off as a series. It has the potential for a lot more than it is. Sure, Armeria is a bit of stereotypical shojo heroine. She misunderstands things. She doesn’t see the obvious even when Skulls, the reader, and the rest of the pirate crew all do. And, yeah, she has to be saved a rather infuriating number of times for a single volume of manga.

But! (And it’s a big but.) She is more self-aware than many other similar characters. She readily admits that her memories of Luce are somewhat tainted now, that she’s put him on a pedestal in her memories and has trouble reconciling that with reality. That’s a lot deeper than we get from a lot of other manga’s, and I was quite happy to see it addressed.

The pirate adventure parts felt like a pirate adventure. There was misadventure. There was some swashbuckling. The pirate crew, while largely remaining anonymous background characters, are a rather lovable bunch with very varied personalities. I would have liked to see more of them, and, in longer running series, probably would have proven to be a good cast of characters.

While fun, Wanted by Matsuri Hino wasn’t without its problems. In the end it feels unfinished rather than a standalone volume. However, were more volumes to be released in the future, I'd definitely pick them up. If you like shojo manga or are a fan of Matsuri Hino’s work, pick up a copy of this manga. If you don’t like shojo manga, or if you don’t like trope-y manga, this might not be the book for you.

This review and more can be found on Looking Glass Reads. show less

Another day, another Vampire Knight Volume. My binging continues!!

I'm still really digging this series, especially since we're getting into the meat of the drama and action. Maria is definitely NOT who she said she was, and man is she causing some drama for our leads. Yuki cares for Zero and wants to make sure he's safe and well, but she might have to go too far to make sure that happens... Also, Kaname is way smarter than he lets on. He knows something is going on, and clearly is going to show more make a move of his own... Also, a person from Zero's past makes an appearance and changes the trajectory of his story....

The suspense is amped up in this volume. It's totally pulling me in as a reader and I can't wait to grab the next volume. The cliffhanger drove me absolutely wild, but thank goodness I already have the next volume within reach! To add to all of this, the romantic lines in this book KILL ME. They are so cute and are totally the swoon worthy YA romance I needed in my life. Gah! So cute!

Overall, this gothic fantastical romance is definitely what I needed to fill in my time. I will continue to binge this series until I run out of books in my hands. Any recommendations for series similar to this? Send them my way! I am eating this series up!

Four out of five stars! show less

It's been many years since I've picked this series up, and since I'm stuck with only studying and staying indoors I might as well pull out the old books. I have the first 15 volumes in this series, so it's time to do some binge reading and sink into the world of Vampire Knight.

I was OBSESSED with this series as a kid. I went to my local Wal-Mart every week to see if there was a new volume. I'm not kidding, I searched the book section like there was a pot of gold hidden.

So, the basic summary show more of this series: there's a school where the day class are humans and the night class are vampires (shh, it's a secret). Kaname is a hot vampire who's the lead of the night class. Yuki is a human and is guarding the day class and making sure those pesky vampires aren't up to their old tricks. Oh, by the way, everyone has some deep, dark secrets.

There's pretty pictures (because seriously, Matsuri Hino's art is STUNNING), a potential love triangle coming, lots of fantasy lore with vampires, some action, and lots of teenage drama. It's your YA addiction all wrapped into a manga! It's one of the better YA vampire adaptations, if you ask me. I still need to check out the anime of this too...

This first volume in this book isn't packed full of action, it's more story telling to set up this massive series. Don't be scared off by that though, this series does get better once you know everyone and get into it.

Yuki is kinda silly and annoying for me as an adult, but I adored her as a teen. It's seriously based on your reading preferences with how you're going to take this book. Go back into your YA mindset and you'll adore it. There is blood and a little rough action in this book, but it's nothing a teenager couldn't handle.

Four out of five stars! It was such a delight to grab this series again! show less

This was a light, funny read with over-the-top humor. I had heard of Captive Hearts before and, considering the premise and the author (she wrote/drew Vampire Knight), thought it would be a little darker than this. Even the part where Suzuka and Megumi learned why Suzuka must never give a member of the Kuroishi family an order was played relatively lightly.

The most disappointing thing about this volume was that only half of it was devoted to Captive Hearts. I hate it when I start a manga show more volume expecting an entire volume's worth of a single story, and then half of it (or more) is something else. The two short stories that made up the other half of this volume weren't bad, but still.

Both shorts were sweet, although fairly forgettable. The first looked like it was going to turn into forbidden student-teacher romance, so I was surprised when it focused mostly on showing the shy heroine's efforts to be strong.

All in all, this was an okay volume. I don't know that I'm interested enough in Captive Hearts to continue with it, though.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less