The Male Harem

Ah, male harems. Yes, I’ll be doing a future entry on lady harems, but first I feel I must focus on male harems. I must get all the shoujo recommendations out of my system before this blog gets a large amount of readers. (Or at least I hope I get a large amount of readers…)

Male harems are the easy way out for shoujo. What do I mean? Well, what easier way to create drama, romance and eye candy for the readers?

Think about it, 1 cute, clueless girl and five or seven dudes who could make any sensible lady cream their jeans who are all involved with her in one way or another. Sure, it’s pretty damn obvious who she’ll end up with in the end and who she’ll leave the obvious dude for when our dear heroine is confused, but she COULD end up with the dude who is YOUR favorite. That’s pretty much the point of this whole cliché. To cater to your tastes, to give you eye candy and to give you the hints of your favorite couple hooking up.

Onto the reviews.


The Good: Ouran High School Host Club by Bisco Hatori
I love Ouran because it is ridiculous and by being so ridiculous it becomes a really fun read. Not only are there lots of hot boys, they are rich, sheltered private school boys and they’ve started the Japanese version of an escort service at their own school. Don’t get the wrong impression, Japanese host clubs are ALL about pleasing the ladies, but sometimes you kind of wonder. There are flamboyant costumes, prissy men, seemingly gay, incestuous twins and the president thinks that all the dudes are one big family, replete with a mother figure that is actually male. But since this is all a part of the host club members’ eccentricities, you know that they’re all crazy about Haruhi, the poor scholarship student who they’ve forced into cross-dressing servitude. Ouran is a good read because it’s funny as hell and when you start to really care about the characters, you start getting some of the touching, deep stuff mixed in. These guys are all true pals in the end. Right now Viz is putting out volumes as they get released in Japan, so if you catch up to the publishing schedule, you’re unfortunately in for a wait, but there’s no danger of Ouran disappearing anytime soon.


The Bad: Me & My Brothers by Hari Tokeino
I had to read this manga for research for an article. I wound up not using it because it was just that bad and I was supposed to recommend GOOD manga. Where do I start? Well, suddenly a grief-stricken orphan discovers she has four brothers that her family has kept from her. Since she has no one else, they take her in despite all being young with lives of their own. BUT WAIT! They’re not ACTUALLY her brothers, which is why they were kept from her. But they totally grew up with her when she was just a wee lass who couldn’t remember them yet and they TOTALLY BONDED GUYS. Totally.
Basically, this manga is a big, old hunk of cheesy artificial cheese and I can’t stand it. The manga never got past the point of trying to convince the heroine that they were really “family” and I just need more than that in my shoujo. I was never so happy that there was a side story at the end of the volume and I could put it down. I’m sorry, TOKYOPOP, but I really didn’t like this one.


The Classic: Fushigi Yugi by Yu Watase
Confession, Fushigi Yugi was my gateway drug into manga and that is why I could not resist putting it in this entry. It has all the great elements of shoujo manga, a girl spirited off to another world, an angst-filled romance, an epic journey to fulfill mystical duties and TONS of hot boys. The political intrigue of the story gives the reader a solid performance and more... personal politics are regularly involved. It can seem a little soap-ish, but it’s not a bodice ripper and not every plot twist has to do with romance. It’s a great fantasy epic as well as a love story. Check out the Viz Big editions, which I believe they are still putting out and the sequel Genbu Kaiden.

MAGICAL GIRLS!

Our first real post!!! Bear with me, I like to be a little historical and a little informative and the way I’m writing this could probably use a little bit of tweaking, but I’ll leave that for future posts.

When it comes to anime and manga, how often does a cute young girl come into your mind and then transform into a scantily clad, cute girl with magical powers?

Yeah, me too.

In fact, like many anime fans around my age, one of my first exposures to anime at the time was the perennial magical girl, Sailor Moon. I didn’t really realize the difference between anime and other cartoons at the time, but Sailor Moon was still totally kick-ass. I mean, she could attack people with a magical compact mirror and her cats TALKED. As you can imagine, the show blew my 10 year-old mind.

'Sup Bitches.

These days moe is usually the direction that a lot magical girl shows go in, but did you know that magical girl shows, or mahou shoujo, started with Bewitched? The classic show was so well received in Japan that Mitsuteru Yokoyama, the creator of Tetsujin 28-go (Released in the U.S. as Gigantor) and Giant Robo, created the first magical girl anime, Sally the Witch.

Cutie Honey was actually the series that started the infamous henshin (transformation) sequence trend. Unsurprisingly, it became rather popular to have an adorable girl spin around nearly naked and suddenly reappear with a new outfit that would not protect her against a jagged edge, let alone hide her goodies. Which explains why moe and mahou shoujo go together so well.

Now, this is where it gets interesting. While I have some great suggestions for you, about all of them also have anime or manga that are either worse or better than my suggestion. It kind of makes it hard for me because I wanted to keep this blog in the realm of manga and other forms of comics, so this time you get two reviews in one! FIRST POST SPECIAL!



The Good: Magic Knight Rayearth by CLAMP
If you’ve seen the anime, don’t be afraid because the anime is not that great. The manga, however, is pretty damn awesome and is CLAMP’s breakout manga for a reason. It’s definitely shoujo, being about a bunch of girls and all, but it’s got a good deal of action too. Plus, if you’re a fan of some of CLAMP’s repeat characters, this is where it all starts. (With Mokona, of course.) It begins with a bunch of random girls from different schools on a field trip to the Tokyo Tower (OH HEY LOOK! ANOTHER CLICHÉ!) and getting sucked into a vortex that takes them to another world. (Three in one manga! A NEW RECORD!) These girls all have different personalities that make them a crucial member of their team, but aren’t without their own troubles and problems and, luckily, they never lose their original selves. They do, however, grow up nicely considering they suddenly have a lot of rather powerful enemies and they remain realistic despite being in quite the fantastical world. TOKYOPOP lost its license to print it, but never fear because Dark Horse will be releasing an omnibus edition soon in honor of CLAMP’s 20th anniversary.



The Bad: Princess TuTu by Ikuko Itoh
This kills me because the Princess TuTu anime is made of so much awesome it HURTS, but the manga is an abomination that belongs in the depths of hell. I cannot even tell you how much it pained me to read it. They messed up the original anime story so badly, they turned a bunch of good characters into bad ones. REALLY bad ones that replace the original villains even though the originals versions of all these characters were successfully kick-ass in the anime. It actually hurt me to see one of the sweetest, most selfless characters be turned into a poorly-written, evil mastermind. It was pretty much as bad as reading Ultimate Muscle. (Which might as well be the gayest manga that didn’t mean to be gay ever. It’s actually about wrestling.) That and the art is less than fantastic. So don’t buy the Princess TuTu manga. They probably don’t carry it at your bookstore which is a BLESSING, trust me. But you should still check out the anime. It just amazes me how different in quality they are…



The Classic: Sailor Moon by Naoko Takeuchi
From what I remember of Sailor Moon, (it’s been awhile) both the anime and the manga are pretty cool. Then again, Sailor Moon wins in my mind because she can attack you with the contents of her purse! Serena/Usagi also starts as a crybaby, but she definitely came into her own powers over the course of the series. Sure, the art’s in an old style and that’ll make some of you cringe, but classics shouldn’t be ignored because they aren’t drawn in the current popular style or because they didn’t have the same kind of animation technology as we do now. Watch the anime and feel more appreciation for the contents of your girlfriend’s purse because unfortunately TOKYOPOP doesn’t have the rights to sell all its Kodansha titles and the manga is nearly impossible to find. I wouldn’t be surprised to find it on a scanlation site, so you might want to go that route if you can.

Well then, that’s it for our first post. Expect another post on Tuesday or so. I’m hoping for a twice a week updating schedule, but I’m also expecting a busy quarter at school. (Luckily, it’s my last quarter at school!)

But before we go: What are your favorite mahou shoujo series? What makes them so great to you? And which clichés would you like to see me write about in the future?

Welcome to The Review!

Why hello! Welcome to the Manga Cliché Review! Our first number will be coming up shortly, but before that let me introduce myself and this little blog here.

I, Coppelia, will be your fan girl for this blog. Do not fear, dear readers, for I will not be screaming in your ears or suddenly glomping you in your delicate cosplays. No, dear readers, I am a lover and I have been loving manga a long time. You might even say I’m a connoisseur and a connoisseur must tend to their love and let it grow like the collection of an otaku, not just watch Cartoon Network.

And that is the point of this manga review, my readers. But what fun is a review with out a little spice? If you wanted a boring, old review you would have gone elsewhere, am I right? So, my new friends, this is a manga review about the cliché!

They say that every story has been written before and this blog does not deny it. But manga is full of clichés and every story that has been written must be discovered by those who have not read it before.

So, thus, I am delighted to show you something new, perhaps something already old, but in a new light. Be warned, it may be you won’t like what you see, but perhaps you are a connoisseur like me and, of course, audience participation is always welcome.