Anne Freaks by Yua Kotegawa

Synopsis: Yuri Kitawa just killed his mother. While burring her corpse he is seen by a girl; Anna and she offers him help to get rid of his mothers corpse, forever, in exchange for Yuri’s help to assassinate Anna’s father, the Head of the Kakusei Group; a terrorist organization. While on the road of revenge Anna and Yuri meet Mitsuba Maezono, who just escaped from the murderous Kakusei Group that slaughtered his family. A trio with a secret and terrifying past, killing down the road of vengeance and love. What future awaits these Children of Death? And why do they continue going forth on a path made from corpses?

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Great! This is the best way to describe this manga. With the fluid art, remarkable characters and an interesting plot, you won’t regret the bucks spent on the 4 volumes it lasts and to top it all, add the excellent atmosphere that fills those tense moments to make them even more tense and, when necessary, the occasional joke to break the ice while giving us more three dimensional characters. The catch is that all this great things come with some sacrifices.

I was more than amazed, more than in love with the characters. All of them having their reasons to exterminate the Kakusei Group or to stop the deadly trio, I established a connection between the characters and myself, yet this connection was shaken twice and I couldn’t understand the reasons behind these actions, which wasn’t a pleasant experience. While not a pleasant experience it surely didn’t have an impact big enough to ruin the story.

What better way to make things even better than a solid plot? Fluid art? Well Anne Freaks has both. With crisp art that only aids the plot by offering you exquisite character designs and backgrounds, there is enough to drool on. What makes the plot so solid is that it never strays away from the point, with useless side quests as seen on various manga, besides the originality of the plot, vengeance upon your father, the head of a terrorist organization.

Now that you have read my opinion, go get your self a copy of this, start reading and start enjoying. I promise one thing, just one simple thing, you won’t be disappointed. I was lucky I picked this one up based on pure impulse and now you are lucky to know that it is this good.

Angel's Share by Tsutomo Takahashi & Go Ohinata.

Synopsis: The Afterworld Bar, a place between Heaven and Hell where all the people stuck in limbo go to. And he is no exception, but even when he knows which path to take, he just wants to have a drink first, for it may be his last. But little does he know that his cursed luck as a living one ends here.

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Weird in every aspect. Tsutomu Takahashi (Alive, Blue Heaven, Route 69 & Skyhigh) pairs up with Go Ohinata to come up with a refreshing manga that not only mixes the art styles, but the viewpoints as well. The 8 pages it takes to cover the story seem more like a conversation between the two mangakas and it is pretty obvious who is who. A pessimistic side of death (Tsutomu Takahashi) and the optimistic side of death (Go Ohinata).

The extremely limited length of Angel’s Share makes it almost impossible for the main character to have any background and development. Yet we learn about his past life, even when it is just two sentences, it manages to work and it gives us a nice idea of the kind of man he was. But besides the two sentences of background there is nothing else. True, it works, but there is no reason given to his actions and that leaves me with an awful taste since instead of reading a story I end up drawing conclusions that may not correct.

The art has one main purpose, to indicate the state of mind and complexity of the characters. The character that was drawn by Takahashi is dark and emanates a heavy and obscure atmosphere that fits his dark and obscure past and personality and it also enhances it. While the rest of the art was done by Ohinata which is very bright and has almost no shadows, sometimes one might think that a child did those drawings, but that is the point, to lighten the mood and give a light of hope. And while the art does what it was meant to, it ends there, it doesn’t do much else, it is just there.

In the end Angel’s Share offers a nice view at the mangakas opinion on death. Yet the lack of more character background and development makes it hard to like. This share of manga, is just like a taste of a great dish, you will always end up wanting more.

Angel Sanctuary by Kaori Yuki

Synopsis: Setsuna and Sara are brother and sister and they are on the run from everything and everyone. Criticized by everyone for their mutual, strong love they decide to flee from everyone and everything they know, to start again from zero. But, suddenly, Sara is attacked by a monster and in despair Setsuna turns into the Organic Angel, Alexiel. The promised one to return peace and order to the Heavens. Setsuna is now driven to go to the very bottom of Hell and to rise to the upper layers of Heaven, just to exterminate the source of all evil, suffering and chaos and during his quest he must overcome all kinds of obstacles, including the prejudice of loving his sister, with the aid of demons, angels and humans alike.

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Here you have it ladies and gentleman. The most famous work that Kaori Yuki has ever made; Angel Sanctuary. The longest manga I have read until now, 20 volumes of amazing art, captivating characters and enough atmosphere to put you as a spectator of the story rather than a reader. Yet in all its might and glory some things don’t fit, like some weird actions scenes and the length of the manga can make some people back away instead of drawing them near the wonderful story.

Having a cast of fully developed and engrossing characters is something Kaori Yuki has always done right, but in Angel Sanctuary she raises the bar by offering you a huge cast of characters. On the top of my head I’m thinking of 20 characters. And by fully developed I mean entire volumes dedicated to some characters. If we add the delicate art Kaori Yuki is know for, we get an exquisite cast of characters, beautiful both in design and persona. And with her trademark storytelling skills and touch to create and manipulate a story, she draws you in and places you at the side of the characters, so when a character screams you can hear him and feel the intensity of his scream.

True, Angel Sanctuary is something to praise, but it’s not entirely perfect. During a lot of actions scenes I ended up confused, not understanding what had just happen was a experience I can’t like, making me go back and forth the pages to understand what happened was a pain rather than a pleasure. Yet the part I disliked the most about Angel Sanctuary was the ending. Through out the 20 volumes I experienced many, many chills down the spine because of what just happened and while the ending was pretty, I was expecting something more shocking, more amazing and more a-la Kaori Yuki. Something that leaves me with my mouth open for times to come, as she has done many times before.