Manga Review: Voice Over! Seiyu Academy

Title: Voice Over! Seiyu Academy
Artist/Author: Maki Minami
Publisher: Viz (Shoujo Beat)
ISBN:  9781421559704

Purchase: Amazon / Barnes & Noble (Also Available Digitally)

Initial Impressions:
I approached this skeptically because I'm tired of reading "I wanna become an idol" manga. I only picked it up because Holanio and Sora from Tumblr seemed to be really excited about it.  The first chapter was lackluster, but I kept reading. The second chapter -- yeah, yeah, senpai notice me... But by the 4 chapter I was hooked once the manager character showed, and I became curious about what his plans for Hime are.  So... I guess I'll get the second volume, but only if it's on sale.

Artwork -- B: It's typical Maki Minami.  Lots of screentones and all the females look like 5-year olds. I don't particularly like the female character designs because they look like elementary school kids, but I can read the expressions and distinguish the characters from one another.

Presentation -- A: The redrawing and typesetting are superb. Also the translation reads easily and they dropped the honorifics (san, chan, kun, sensei, sama, etc...) I wish there were color pages, but that's a nitpick.

Story -- B-: It took 3 chapters for me to get into the story. It starts as a typical "I wanna become an idol" story (she's not a good voice actress in the roles she wants, senpai doesn't notice her, she's grouped together with handful of eccentric losers,... etc.) The end game is obvious, and I kinda wish she'd say "screw it" and embrace her natural talent rather than chasing after something she isn't. In this respect, the story is tedious. The characters are forgettable. I had to look up Hime and I can't tell you any other characters' name.  That's just how generic this is. What's got me interested in this series is how the industry rep plans to use Hime.  Will the story get creative in this respect?

Overall -- B: This is a generic idol shoujo cotton candy. If you like idol-shoujo, go for it.  If you like Maki Minami, go for it. If you're new to shoujo and like the little you've read so far, this is a must read.  If you've read a ton of shoujo and have grown tire of idol-shoujo, you can skip this title and miss nothing. I'm gonna get the second volume to see if the story detours from the generic idol story, though.

The Attack on Titan Levi Spinoff is now Licensed by Kodansha USA -- W00t! WE ARE DROPPING!

YES!!!!!  We are dropping the series immediately and I will be retiring the prologue NOW.  THIS IS A GREAT DAY!!!!

What I Read Last Week: "Dictatorial Grimoire" Volume 1

Title: Dictatorial Gimoire -- Cinderella
Mangaka: Ayumi Kanou
ISBN:  978-1-937867-93-5
Purchase:  Amazon/ Barnes & Noble

Initial Impressions --
Oh, I remember this from Comic Gene. I was looking into making this an OS project, until I started to translate it and got bored within the first 10 pages. Maybe in English, since I don't have to fight the Japanese, it'll be better.  The artwork is soooo very pretty!  "Cinderfella" is kinda cool. What's with the bondage gear?!

Artwork -- A: It's gorgeous, well laid out, detailed, and the action is easy to follow. I was very much attracted by the artwork when I was looking at the series in Comic Gene.  Unfortunately, in the two or three years since this came out, many artists have taken on this style, so there's nothing distinct about it to me now. It's typical shounen for girls artwork. Still, it's very nice.

Presentation -- B-:  I like the larger-sized paperback books. There's a lot crammed in each page, so the larger size prevents the text from being too small to read. Most of the sound effects are left in Japanese, but they are all subtitled. I would have liked it more if they had stuck to one style -- either subtitle all the sound effects or redo all of the sound effects in English.  A mix is fine for scanlation, but for something I'm going to buy, I expect consistency. Also, there is no table of contents or chapter number labels. However, there's a nice color pages and some nice extras at the end of the volume.

Story -- D:  It's a typical magical teen collecting demons in objects, and then using those collected demons to defeat and capture more demons. In case the main character Otogi (Fairytale -- Haha!), he is capturing fairytale demons and sealing them into a book. I'm tired of this story mechanic, so it fell flat for me. Otogi himself is hot-headed and that's all. He's a very one-dimensional character. Cinderella, who happens to be a bishounen, is a neat freak M.  Again a very one-dimensional character.  The demons in this story are all murderous genderbent fairytale princesses. That's the schtick. That's all... yay? (Do I smell fujoshi bait?)  Sooooo a whole lot of pretty pictures of pretty guys, bondage gear, and no story.  I managed to slog through 80% of the first volume before boredom made me put it down.  I can't tell you which chapter, because like I wrote earlier, there are no chapter labels.

Overall -- C:  I am not the demographic for this series. I think if you like looking at pretty pictures of bishies in bondage gear and you don't care about the story, then is is the manga for you. It's all style and no substance.  Perhaps for a person who's into otome games or just into bishes, this could be a fun series.  For me, no matter how pretty it is, it still needs a story.  Mind you though, the artwork is very appealing.

Oneshot: "Jinrou Chronicle" Part 1

Continuing on with our Fall releases, here is the first part of "Jinrou Chronicle", a 2-part long form oneshot.  The second part will be released next week.

I've been working on this oneshot as pet project for several months. It's a lovely story about brothers, family, and monstrous wolves. Hahaha! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Onto the release!

Retired -- New Series: "Shingeki to Kyojin -- The Birth of Levi" Chapter 0 (Prologue)

As promised, we will be translating the "Attack on Titan" Levi spinoff.  What better way than this to kick off our special fall releases!  This is a short prologue to the series.  The actual series will begin at the end of November.  This project will be our top priority, and we will do our best to release the chapters within a week of Aria arriving in the mail.  I typically get Aria the day of or the day after release in Japan.

A big thank to Ichigo Stars for helping me with the redraws (and repaints). It's pretty amazing that we were able to get this out with full redraws in less than 24-hours after receiving the raws.  Thanks to everyone who worked on this for recognizing the urgency and jumping on the project right away.

It's pretty much guaranteed that this will get licensed at some point (hopefully sooner than later).  We will translate the series until that occasion arrives.  After that, I encourage you to purchase licensed copies so we can support the author and the artists.

Non-English Partners for this Series:

Spanish -- La Noche de los Caidos
French -- Shiro to Kuro
Vietnamese -- SxS
Italian -- Quegna Traduction Team

And now onto the release!