Amazon Experiment

As some of you may have noticed, I'm experimenting with Amazon.  In addition to selling my used manga, I have opened an "Associates" store to make it easy for you to purchase some of the manga series I translate, review, and recommend.  The idea here is to create a "win-win-win" situation in which you all, if you can, support the artists and publisher by purchasing the manga when it becomes available, I can get a little money from referring the sale to Amazon, and you all can have easier access to purchase the manga.  Yeah, yeah, yeah ... I can't keep doing this for free and I know the manga artists can keep providing us with wonderful stories to read for free ... so let's give this a try and see how it goes!

Here's a link to the store.  And a permanent link is located in the right side bar menu under the name "Omari's Sister Recommends."  I will be updating the store as the manga I translate and read come out.  Currently, "Ouran High School Host Club" Volume 1 - 13, "Wild Ones" (Arakure) Volumes 1 - 8, and "The Palette of 12 Secret Colors" Volumes 1 - 6 are listed there.  There is also a running list of my recent purchases.

Please leave comments.  Tell me if you like this idea or if you hate it.  Also, give me more suggestions on what I can do to improve on this idea.

Many Books Still Left!

Many thanks to those of you who have purchased books from me!  It's much appreciated :).  I can see my floor and I've recovered one whole shelf!  I still have many books left!  Please buy them.  Here's a sample of what's still available:

• Special A (S. A.)
• Monkey High (Saru Yama) Vol 3 - 6
• Kekkaishi
• Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle
• Yurara
• Kagetora
• Fushigi Yuugi
• Missile Happy 
• and more ...

Here's a link to my Amazon store and as always, mention my blog and I'll refund the extra shipping you paid on orders of multiple items.  If you can wait 7 - 10, I can send your order via media mail and refund most of your shipping cost for orders containing multiple items (Example:  3 books via media mail actually cost ~$3 in postage for $2 for the packaging, so I will refund you ~$7!!!).

Passing on "I Can't Be a Bride"

I started translating Kiyo Fujiwara's latest manga series, "I Can't be a Bride."  Here's the synopsis from Betsuhana:

"Odagiri Madoka is a hard working career woman who is very bad at housework.  Consequently, she requests some assistance from a house cleaning service.  The service dispatches Hirose Yuuki, a high school student with cooking skills.  He also cleans perfectly ...!  However, on the other hand, he's arrogant...?

I didn't get very far in the translation before deciding that it was a boring "Kimi wa Petto" variation.  A handsome guy name "Kuga" is the other competing male.  He's nice and calm (or so it seems).  His face is drawn with a touch of evil.

I have read "Kimi wa Petto" several times and it's quite good, so I can't find it within myself to sully the memory with an imitator.  More than anything, though, the pages I read of this manga are so slowwwww, augh!  It's very unlike the fast pace of "Arakure."  It felt like a chore to get as far as I did.

I'm sorry to all those looking forward to this, but getting through this first chapter will make me hate Japanese.

Manga Review: Monkey High! (Saru Yama) by Shouko Akira

I finished the last volume of "Monkey High" a few weeks ago.  I wish I had written a review sooner, because I've forgotten most of the details.  Anyhow "Monkey High" by Shouko Akira follows the high school relationship between Haruna, the daughter of a fallen politician, and Macharu, the happy-go-lucky son of a vegetable store owner.  Haruna, in a word, is "priviledged" and suffers culture shock when, after her father's fall from grace, she has to go to a public school.  She compares the culture there to a "monkey mountain" in which the different factions contest each other to sit on top.  Within this society, she meets Macharu who seems to her, in actions and physical appearance, to resemble a baby monkey.  He is the polar opposite of the too-young-to-be-jaded Haruna, and, it turns out to be just what Haruna needs.  Mixed into the story is Macharu's "frienemy," Atsushi, who can't deal with the fact that Haruna picked Macharu over him. 

The story never has any highs and lows and seems to be as low-key as both of the main characters.  I did enjoy how Macharu subtly reminds Haruna that she's still a kid and I, also, enjoyed watching Macharu slowly progress to manhood.  Haruna, also, has a nice intelligent pluck about her.  She's practical and she deals with issues head on.  What I didn't enjoy was the character "Atsushi."  He's a real prick and I didn't think his attempts at interfering with the happy couple added anything to the story. (I was really hoping that Macharu would kick Atsushi's a$$ in a fist fight to put him into place -- but, alas, Macharu is a baby monkey and both he and Haruna handle the matter in a civilized fashion.)

A word of caution to younger readers and parents, Macharu and Haruna do "consummate" their relationship and it is illustrated.  I think the chapter is well done and is a great "teachable" moment.  However, if you, as a parent, don't think this is appropriate for your child, then you may want to consider another manga series for your child.  Here are some suggestions for younger readers:

"Beauty Pop"
"Sugar Sugar Rune"

Rating 3/5 -- It's is too low-key (almost to the point of being forgettable) to be really compelling and the Atsushi character really rubs me wrong.  However, Haruna and Macharu are likeable characters and observing their romance bloom is quite nice.

Ouran Chp 78 Previews

There's not much said and in comparison to the page they are listed on, these previews are the size of postage stamps.  But anyway, here you go: