Manga for Sale

Hey gang! Woooow it's been so long since I've used this blog. I have some extra manga for sale! I really need to clear out some space, and get some pocket cash in the process. This list may be updated as I unearth other titles I want to get rid of. If you're international, and you MUST have one of these books, I will ship it to you if you cover the extra shipping cost. I'll accept Paypal, or you can mail me cash if you want, but I won't ship the book until I've received it. For my Paypal or mailing address, please email me at: kristin AT comicattack DOT net.

All titles are very gently used or like new, unless noted otherwise. You can find reviews of most of them by me at comicattack.net. I'm selling them all for $5, plus $1 to help me ship normal sized books, and $2 for over sized. I will also SWAP them, on good faith, for your manga/anime/make an offer.

A Strange and Mystifying Story volume 3, from DMP (yaoi, 18+ only please), plastic wrapped

Kamisama Kiss volume 5, from Viz Media

Ai Ore! Love Me volume 2, from Viz Media (over sized)

Ai Ore! Love Me volume 3, from Viz Media (over sized)

Osamu Tezuka's Black Jack volume 16, from Vertical Inc. (over sized)

Itazura na Kiss volume 1, from DMP (over sized)

Itazura na Kiss volume 2, from DMP (over sized)

Color, from DMP (yaoi, 18+ only please)

Green Light, from DMP (yaoi LN, 18+ only please) (this one has a small ferret bite mark near the spine; it only goes through about 3-4 pages on the front and back, so it doesn't interfere with the text or art inside)

Case Closed volume 41, from Viz Media

Cold Fever, from DMP (yaoi LN, 18+ only please) (this is the final book of a trilogy) (over sized)

Blue Exorcist volume 1, from Viz Media

Blue Exorcist volume 2, from Viz Media

Blue Exorcist volume 3, from Viz Media

Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee volume 7, from Viz Media

Bakuman volume 7, from Viz Media

Bakuman volume 8, from Viz Media

Bakuman volume 9, from Viz Media

Kimi ni Todoke volume 10, from Viz Media

Kimi ni Todoke volume 11, from Viz Media

Kimi ni Todoke volume 12, from Viz Media

Hayate the Combat Butler volume 18, from Viz Media (has tiny ferret bite marks on the cover's top corner)

PR: Viz Media joins coalition against manga piracy

From Viz Media (PR):

MULTI-NATIONAL MANGA ANTI-PIRACY COALITION FORMED

San Francisco, CA, June 8, 2010 – Today a coalition of Japanese and U.S. publishers announced a coordinated effort to combat a rampant and growing problem of internet piracy plaguing the manga industry. “Scanlation,” as this form of piracy has come to be known, refers to the unauthorized digital scanning and translation of manga material that is subsequently posted to the internet without the consent of copyright holders or their licensees. According to the coalition, the problem has reached a point where “scanlation aggregator” sites now host thousands of pirated titles, earning ad revenue and/or membership dues at creators’ expense while simultaneously undermining foreign licensing opportunities and unlawfully cannibalizing legitimate sales. Worse still, this pirated material is already making its way to smartphones and other wireless devices, like the iPhone and iPad, through apps that exist solely to link to and republish the content of scanlation sites.

Participants in the coalition include the 36 members of Japan’s Digital Comic Association, Square Enix, VIZ Media, TOKYOPOP, Vertical, Inc., the Tuttle-Mori Agency and Yen Press. Working together, the membership of the coalition will actively seek legal remedies to this intellectual property theft against those sites that fail to voluntarily cease their illegal appropriation of this material.

“It is unfortunate that this action has become necessary,” said a spokesperson for the group. “However, to protect the intellectual property rights of our creators and the overall health of our industry, we are left with no other alternative but to take aggressive action. It is our sincere hope that offending sites will take it upon themselves to immediately cease their activities. Where this is not the case, however, we will seek injunctive relief and statutory damages. We will also report offending sites to federal authorities, including the anti-piracy units of the Justice Department, local law enforcement agencies and FBI.”

The coalition stated that it has currently identified thirty sites targeted for action.

Participant members of the Digital Comic Association include: Akane Shinsha, Akita Shoten, ASCII Media Works, East Press, Ichijinsha, Enterbrain, Okura Shuppan, Ohzora Shuppan, Gakken, Kadokawa Shoten, Gentosha Comics, Kodansha, Jitsugyo No Nihonsha, Shueisha, Junet, Shogakukan, Shogakukan Shueisha Production, Shodensha, Shonen Gahosha, Shinshokan, Shinchosa, Take Shobo, Tatsumi Shuppan, Tokuma Shoten, Nihon Bungeisha, Hakusensha, Fujimi Shobo, Fusosha, Futabasha, France Shoin, Bunkasha, Houbunsha, Magazine House, Media Factory, Leed sha, Libre Shuppan

Upcoming April 2010

I'm still here! And there are some things I'm working on. So far this year I have watched the following titles:
NieA Under 7
Gunslinger Girl Il Teatrino
Gun x Sword
Bleach (ongoing)
Fushigi Yuugi
Night Head Genesis
Paranoia Agent

I also reviewed Berserk, but I guess I watched that last year. I'll be writing up reviews for Night Head Genesis and Paranoia Agent soon. I've been watching Kimi ni Todoke, which is adorable. And the next show on my Netflix is Clannad: After Story. So I'm off to a bit of a slow start, it seems. I've been reading a ton of manga though! And I got to do some other things, like review Kick-Ass: Creating the Comic, Making the Movie. I also covered all three Makoto Shinkai films over Global Shinkai weekend (5cm, The Place Promised, Voices).

Otherwise.... I finally beat Nostalgia, for the Nintendo DS, which was entertaining, if a little lacking. Think a less sophisticated Skies of Arcadia. I also beat Mass Effect 2 recently, which was bloody brilliant. Assassin's Creed 2 I beat before that, which I also loved. Was playing Prince of Persia, but it glitched on me somewhere, and I'm unable to complete the game, so I put that aside. Finished Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth last night, which was...about as nonsensical as you can get. Good game, but some of those cases.... At a bit of a standstill at the moment regarding video games, so I'm hoping to pick up Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon for the Wii soon, and also Resonance of Fate later this year on the 360. Still working on Dragon Age: Origins for the PC.

Nothing much else to report on. Haven't seen any good dramas lately. I'm waiting on the Gokusen film to be translated, and the Nodame movies to come out. Still wondering what happened to that Skip Beat drama...wonder if it was canceled. Oh, I did have plans to watch the LA Yamato Nadeshiko...but forgot about it. Will have to look that up again. Very excited about the LA Beck Mongolian Chop Squad that is coming out, starring one of my favorite actors (the lovely Hiro Mizushima). Also, there's a new (animated) Trigun film! Can't wait to get my hands on that!

To all my readers, few though you were, if you're still there.... I hope you are enjoying yourselves! If you're looking for some manga to read, don't forget to check in on my review column at ComicAttack.net. I write my Bento Bako Weekly column every Monday, and I often have a Bento Bako Lite on Wednesdays. I'm working on some anime review for you and hope to have them up in a week or so, so I'll see you again then!

Itazura na Kiss

Itazura na Kiss is a charming romantic comedy. The story focuses on clumsy, average (and generally unintelligent) Kotoko Aihara, and handsome boy genius Naoki Irie. Calling Naoki a genius is really an understatement; he’s more like a prodigy. He’s good at everything. He instantly memorizes anything he looks at once, he’s good at sports, he can cook, he’s popular (not in that he has a lot of friends, but that he has many followers), top of his class, one of the best in the entire country, skilled at just about everything he attempts, and is good looking on top of all that. Poor Kotoko is…less intelligent. She’s closer to the bottom of her class, has difficulty studying, can’t cook, isn’t particularly good at sports, isn’t exactly drop-dead gorgeous, and is really the total opposite of the kind of girl Naoki would normally be interested in.

In fact, the book starts off with Kotoko attempting to give Naoki a love letter…which is rejected before it even leaves her hands. Poor Kotoko is devastated by his callous rejection, and vows to put that jerk out of her mind forever. But when an earthquake destroys the new house her father just built, they are forced to move in with an old friend of her father’s…who happens to be Naoki’s father. Naoki makes her promise not to tell anyone of their situation, but circumstances (like Kinnosuke, who is in love with Kotoko, following her home) ultimately reveal their situation to the entire school. Then rumors start spreading that they’re dating, then that they’re getting married, and Naoki is not happy. Making the situation more chaotic is Naoki’s mother, Machiko, trying to push the two together against their (or well, at least Naoki’s) will. She is thrilled to have a girl in the house to dote on, and thinks Kotoko would be a perfect match for her son.

Against Naoki’s wishes, he continually finds himself involved in various situations with Kotoko. He helps her study for her exams because she blackmails him with a childhood photo, Machiko makes up an excuse to clear out the house so Naoki and Kotoko can be alone for a couple of days, and in general Kotoko causes him unending trouble. Naoki is unused to such a hectic life, and Kotoko’s presence throws everything off for him. But for this goalless guy who has no real passion for anything, Kotoko’s enthusiasm is just what the doctor ordered.

What makes Itazura stand out from a sea of shojo titles, is its time span. The story follows Kotoko and Naoki through their final year of high school, their time in college, through internships, and official jobs. All of the characters grow and change over the course of their lives. Some of them get married and have children. It’s not just a moment in time; it’s a lifetime.

I really think I was too hard on Itazura before, when I saw the anime. I didn’t like Kotoko at all; I’m not a fan of girls who throw themselves on or fawn over guys who obviously don’t like them, or put up with such obvious cold treatment. But I’ve read Sarasah recently, which is infinitely worse, and realized that Kotoko isn’t so bad. The heroine of Sarasah really has no redeeming qualities to speak of; but I’ve come to understand that Kotoko is compassionate, caring, supportive, and an incredibly hard worker. All admirable qualities; she just needed Naoki to give her a chance. Circumstances threw her into his vision, and he was forced to see her for who she really is, and not just judge her by her standing in school. And, you know, Naoki really isn’t that bad; he’s the sort of person who is so consumed with studying, that he doesn’t really know how to properly interact with people or convey his emotions. He’s a snob, certainly, but it seems to be a wall that he puts up to avoid interacting with people. It really takes an open, passionate girl like Kotoko to pull him out, and it’s going to take all of her effort to get Naoki off his lofty perch, and down where the normal humans roam.

Itazura na Kiss is published by Digital Manga Publishing, for $16.95 (for a double volume). The manga remains unfinished due to the mangaka's untimely death, but it was finished in the anime, which used her intended ending. A copy was provided to me by Digital Manga Publishing for review (thanks!).

Goong Live Action

What if Korea still had a royal family, a ruling monarchy, in this modern time? Now that we've created the setting.... What if you saw your fiancee proposing to another woman? This is the situation Shin Chae-kyung finds herself in - Chae-kyung overhears Crown Prince Shin proposing to classmate and ballet dancer Min Hyo-rin, and then just days later finds herself in an arranged marriage with him!

Before he died, the king of the previous generation, Prince Shin's grandfather, made a promise with his only true friend. This promise engaged the current Crown Prince to his friend's granddaughter (Chae-kyung). At the time however, the Crown Prince was not Shin, but the current heir's son, Yul. When Yul's father died in an accident, Shin's father became the heir and Shin became the Crown Prince. So you can see how some problems would arise. A love quadrangle forms before you can even spit out the word "quadrangle."

Shin is the heir to the throne, but Yul isn't about to let him take that position without fighting back to reclaim what should have been his - and that includes Chae-kyung as well as the throne. Problems arise when Yul's vengeful, ambitious mother pulls out all the stops to bring herself and her son back into the palace. Yul plays along for a while, dutiful to his mother, until his love for Chae-kyung overwhelms all his other feelings. Meanwhile, Shin struggles to deal with his feelings for Hyo-Rin, which he is forced to put aside, and strange, emerging feelings for the unlikely Chae-kyung. Chae-kyung struggles endlessly with palace life, her upbeat and outgoing personality constantly at odds with palace rules and regulations. It's hard to decide which boy to root for. They're both good guys, in their way. Shin is just more awkward and less honest with his feelings, and Yul is more forward. But they both care for her - Shin does lots of little things to make her happy or take care of her, though she doesn't always notice; and Yul's stance of not letting his mother screw around with her is admirable.

There's political intrigue, plenty of drama, lots of humor, gorgeous sets and costumes, sweet romance, hot guys, beautiful girls.... What else do you need?
It's a really beautifully shot show, in terms of the environments and the costumes. They went all out. The set designs are incredibly detailed, and the use of updated traditional clothing for the royal family is superb. And apparently very expensive, though I'm sure the level of detail and realism was very helpful to actors, and it certainly gives everything a believable look.

The older actress (Kim Hye Ja) playing the Queen mother has a beautiful, melodious voice, and it sounds like she's singing a song every time she speaks. Yoon Eun Hye is amazing as lead character Chae-kyung, and she's a newcomer! In fact, (most of) the younger actors were fairly new, while the adult characters were veterans; a dynamic that transfers into the story. Shin was played by handsome Joo Ji Hoon, who later appeared in the Korean Antique Bakery film. The main gang is rounded out by talented Kim Jeong Hoon as Yul, and Song Ji Hyo as Hyo-rin.

Unfortunately, I am unable to compare this to the manhwa, because I have not read it. I've skimmed a tiny bit of it, and it looks entertaining. I did notice that the characters in the comic seem a little more animated than their live action counterparts (specifically Shin). But, you know, internal thoughts are a little hard to convey on a screen.

The story does move a little slow, I will admit. I think it could do to have a couple of episodes knocked off, and a few things consolidated. Shin and Chae-kyung bounce back and forth in their relationship an excessive amount, and often you just wish they would TALK to each other, because it would solve things really quick. But Shin is incredibly private and emotionally awkward, and he's constantly put off by how outgoing and honest Chae-kyung is, so it's understandable.

You can purchase Goong, known as Palace or Princess Hours in America (the DVDs are sold as Palace), from the American licensor YA Entertainment. (I got mine from Rightstuf.com.) The box set of the series comes with a bonus disc that has interviews, bloopers, and behind the scenes footage (most of which is really funny).

Head over to Comic Attack for Ludwig II, The Art of Angel Sanctuary: Angel Cage, and December 2009's Previews highlights.

Skip Beat!

I was working on a Black Lagoon anime review, but got busy with various things. If I don't get it up later this week, it will go up next week instead.

However, I did do a review of one of my absolute favorite shojo manga, Skip Beat!, over at ComicAttack.net. You should head over there and read it.

Tokyopop Dismay

I had hoped to have Scrapped Princess ready to review today, but due to some very annoying shipping issues, it's very slow going. It's the same issue I had the first time I tried to watch the series, but I got one disc further along this time. Here's hoping that "short wait" tag on my Netflix list will go away quickly so I can finish it up.

I DID get the live action version of Mushi-Shi in the mail, but haven't watched it yet. I'll probably watch it later today, and may review it for next week.

So today will just be a rant day. Though I am seeking some advice. I got some extra birthday money in, and I'm looking at the purchase of one of the following three things. I can get them all for about the same price ($35), so that's not an issue. Which is the problem. Here are my options: Gunslinger Girl - Il Teatrino box set, which is out right now. Nostalgia for the DS, which comes out at the end of October. Kingdom Hearts 358/2 for the DS, which comes out at the end of September. I'm leaning towards Gunslinger Girl right now because it's easier for me to buy that for myself (though I will be ordering it, so I'll have to pay shipping too, which will make it run about $40) than to ask for it as a gift later on. The DS games are ideal Christmas gifts since they're lower in price and easier to find, though I am a little concerned about the availability of a smaller title like Nostalgia by the time Christmas comes around. Decisions, decisions.

Moving on.... I've been very disappointed with the quality of Tokyopop's manga lately. It's completely unacceptable to be asked to pay $11 for something filled with so many careless errors. Fortunately the only TP manga titles I read now are Natsuki Takaya books (they seem to have a monopoly on her works). Both series are short, and nearly over. Other than Return to Labyrinth (which isn't very good, but I got suckered in by my love for the film), which has one volume left, and the novels for Twelve Kingdoms, I won't be reading any other TP titles. They have nothing I'm interested in. Viz has better titles, better quality, and is still a dollar or two cheaper (depending on the title) than TP books. Yen press has been getting some good titles too. Tokyopop used to be a monster in the manga publishing business, but they seem to really be struggling now, and it's not just the economy.

I'll wrap up with a nice little rant to Tokyopop, which covers why I, and many others, are so frustrated with them lately.

Dear Tokyopop,
Why is your editing department one of the worst I've ever seen? Spliced frames and dialog, backward pages, poor grammar, misspellings, mixed dialog, incorrect names. The mistakes are far too frequent. You raised your prices across the board, but you lowered the quality of your paper (to some see-through crap [TP has recently stated they found some new, better paper, but they have not used it yet so we'll see later if this improves the quality...or raises the price]), and the quality of your work has gotten worse. This is not how business works. Yes, the economy is bad, yes everyone is struggling to make money. But lowering quality and raising prices do not go together. It's a slap in the face to the people who spend money on your books. They don't have to; it's so easy to find this stuff for free. But we decide to spend the money on professional quality, and support the industry.

So where is our professional quality? Why is every volume I pick up riddled with mistakes? The recent volume of Tsubasa: Those With Wings is an excellent example. See-through paper, a misplaced page, inconsistent spelling of character names and locations (both between volumes and within the same volume), dialog bubbles spoken by incorrect characters, poor sentence structure. These are not 1,000 page novels here. Is it too much to ask for some simple proof reading? My eyes catch every mistake, and every mistake breaks the flow of the story - every poorly structured sentence that I have to re-write in my head, and every incorrect bubble that I have to study in confusion to figure out which character the dialog actually belongs to. A few is acceptable, and even expected. When it's all over every volume you publish, that's a problem.

~ Your Frustrated Consumers


Oh yeah, in other news, Disney has purchased Marvel Comics. I haven't decided how I feel about this yet. The "thing" to say right now is "Oh, there will be Marvel characters in the next Kingdom Hearts!" But...I don't really want that, to be honest. Hopefully the only thing they'll bother to do with the company is fire Joey Q, and then keep their mitts off everything else.

Flowers of Evil

Flowers of Evil is a 7 volume manhwa from Korea. The most important thing to note about this series is that it features twin incest (twincest). So decide right now how much that bothers you before continuing.

Can you stomach it? I'm not asking if you like it, or agree with it, or think it's disgusting. It's central to the story, but that's not all that's there. And I'm talking incest like Angel Sanctuary, not Ouran High School Host Club. Can you push past that and just look at the story as a whole? If your answer is either "Yes, I can put up with it," or "Yes, I enjoy it," then continue reading. If not, then this is not going to be for you, end of story. See you next time.

Now let's get started.
This 7- volume manhwa by Lee Hyeon-Sook is pretty dark and twisted. Twins Se-Joon and Se-Wa are extremely close. For most of her life, Se-Wa has had no one but Se-Joon there for her, he's been her only friend, and he has spoiled and protected her all her life. As a result of their closeness, her preference of shutting herself away from all others, and the naivety that has developed as a result, Se-Wa cannot distinguish between sibling love and romantic love. She doesn't really understand what "love" means, and so she has fallen in love with her brother. Se-Wa thinks this is perfectly natural, but Se-Joon seems to have more mixed feelings. Se-Wa throws herself at him at every given opportunity, crawling into bed with him at night, hanging on him, and becomes exceedingly jealous as an upperclassman tries to date her brother. Se-Joon allows Se-Wa to do these things, but often doesn't instigate them himself, and is even a little embarrassed about it all. Where Se-Wa believe it's innocent and natural, Se-Joon seems to realize it isn't. He tries to push his sister away by dating another girl, and shoving the relationship in Se-Wa's face. This in turn drives Se-Wa toward a new man, a classmate from their old elementary school, Gi-Hoon. A move which doesn't thrill Se-Joon like it should.

The problem is that at the same time Se-Joon tries to push Se-Wa away, he's also doing things to drag her back in again. Even if she wanted to, he makes it near impossible for her to separate herself from him. He messes with her head on purpose, and it's driving her insane. It doesn't help that Gi-Hoon appears to have some secret, ulterior motives for befriending the twins once again (he hasn't seen or talked to them in years), and his true feelings remain unclear for most of the story. It's worth noting that nothing in this manhwa is really as it appears. The story is well-written, if a little confusing at times (the pacing of the few Korean books (and by few, I mean like, 3 or 4) I've read has always felt a little off to me, in terms of pacing and frame staging). It's good at keeping the suspense going, and at keeping you totally fooled up until the very end. It's also very sad, because the relationship between the twins is just so warped and troubling, and you desperately want for them (Se-Wa in particular) to grow and change on their own. So if you don't mind the incest themes (or actual acts of), the story there is touching, heartbreaking, and bittersweet.

The fact that the title for the story comes from Charles Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du mal is not a nonsensical connection. Currently this has no English version, so if you're interested, you're going to have to dig it up online. The art is decent, but I've seen better; though these Korean artists really have a different artistic feel than their Japanese counterparts, which is nice. Good facial expressions for the most part. I should also note, that while this story does contain incest, it's not glorified in any way. These kids live a messed up life, and it doesn't end pretty.

Captive Hearts

Attention, Attention: This is a manga review.
Moving on....

I just spent several hours over the past couple days going through old picture CDs and my HS SR year memory book. I posted up about 70 photos from when my friends and I were in elementary and on through HS (and a tiny bit after). Several have already seen them, and we all had a good time reminiscing about "The Good Old Days." Most of my pictures contain the same 5-6 people over and over again (my closest friends through all my primary schooling), including a very good friend of ours who died a couple of years ago. So it was sort of a testament to him, as well. He's in 19 of the 70 pictures (and just off to the side in a few others). I know I enjoyed seeing his smile again, and it seems the others did too. We miss you, Nick.

Now that I've depressed everyone, lets get on to the review. I haven't looked at manga very much on here. Then again, most manga run on for years and years, so they're a little harder to review as a whole (as opposed to individual volumes, and if you thought my anime review backlog was bad, well...It would not be a good idea for me to start reviewing single manga volumes). Captive Hearts only ran 5 volumes though, and it's final volume came out just last week.

Captive Hearts is the first serialized manga from Matsuri Hino (Vampire Knight, Wanted, MeruPuri), published in America by Viz Media's Shojo Beat line. For those of you who have never read Hino-san's books, she has a talent for writing some seriously silly and ridiculous story lines. Her most recent, Vampire Knight, is about a private school attended by humans during the day, and vampires at night. Wanted is a one-shot about pirates. And MeruPuri is a story about a 12-year-old prince who ages 5 years whenever he is in the dark. I've read all of them (well, I'm reading VK since it's ongoing), and they're all equally silly. Vampire Knight is a bit of an exception, because it's Hino-san's first attempt at a more serious, dramatic story, but she still sneaks some very silly elements in there.

20-year-old university student Megumi Kuroishi has been living a life of luxury in the mansion that once belonged to his father's master and mistress (Yoshimi Kuroishi is a butler at the mansion), the Kogami family. 14 years ago the Kogami family traveled to China and disappeared. It was eventually determined that the family died of an illness in China, and the Kogamis left the mansion to their devoted butler and his family. Megumi is living his carefree life until one day, the young daughter of the Kogami family, Suzuka (now 17), suddenly returns home. The moment their eyes meet, Megumi is stricken with an intense desire to serve Suzuka and becomes entirely devoted to his "Princess." Unknown to Megumi, who had lived most of his life without the Kogami family around, the Kuroishi family is under a 100-generation curse to serve the Kogami family, body and soul. And since Megumi hasn't been exposed to the curse in many years, he is extremely sensitive to it and frequently launches into over-the-top man servant fits whenever his and Suzuka's eyes meet.

Somewhere along the way, Suzuka and Megumi fall in love, although it is unclear to Megumi if the feelings he feels are his own or from the curse. Seeing how tortured this makes Megumi (not to mention how troublesome the whole mess is), Suzuka vows to find a way to break the curse and free the Kuroishi family forever.

Things get truly ridiculous in this story. Even Hino-san makes mention of how extreme it can be, with side-bar comments like "is it really OK for me to write something this silly?" (That's not an exact quote; I couldn't find it again, but she says similar things several times in her columns.) I'm not sure if she's making excuses, or just making sure that people understand it's not meant to be taken seriously (it's not, by the way). Basically Megumi's "man servant fits" are off the deep end. When his eyes meet unexpectedly with Suzuka's, he transforms into a doting, devoted servant, willing to do anything at all for her; he sparkles, calls her princess, and gushes over her. He's always protective of her, and takes care of her, but the fits take it to an extreme, and they happen a lot.

A nice break from all the silliness is Suzuka's tragic, troubled back story. The story of the curse's origins (in the 3rd volume) is also a nice break and is rather more serious than its later effects on Megumi. A couple of the volumes also have some unrelated one-shot stories that Hino-san wrote for various things, all romance stories of course (some are very sweet, others are so-so). Captive Hearts is, after all, a romance, with a lot of comedy thrown in. If you can get past how ridiculous it is, the story is actually decent, and Megumi and Suzuka's relationship is very sweet. It's not great. The art is OK; it's clear this is an early work, but it shows a lot of potential (and indeed she has improved a great deal). Sometimes there are continuity issues, or panels are misdrawn. It's an average manga, but it's short, so it won't take a large time or monetary investment if it interests you.