What I Read in September: Digest Version, Part 1 of 2

b Animal Land 1: Why, yes, this is by the creator of Zatch Bell.  Was it the poop jokes that gave it away?  Defecation as comic relief aside, this one is weird and touching, which is kind of par for the course for this artist.  It's about a human baby abandoned by his mother because she can't feed him.  Somehow, he ends up in the animal world and turns out to have the ability to speak and understand any animal language.  Awwww, you might think, a touching story of how he will unite everyone!  Well, when you're dealing with predators and prey, it probably won't turn out that neatly, will it?

b Boys Over Flowers 25: Sometimes you find an impossible to find out of print volume at Half Price Books when there's a huge sale!

b Crazy Love Story1-5: One of the things I love about manga is how you can read a story about people you would find 100% repulsive in real life, and you can sympathize with them sometimes.  You can cry over their stupid, stubborn contrariness and the ways they make themselves miserable when they're fictional.

b Dengeki Daisy 4: And the moral of the story is that when you see a piece of paper with an X on the ground, and someone's been threatening you, watch out for the desk.  It's starting to be one of those I know you know he knows you know, but you can't talk about it situations, and that should be irritating me way more than it is.

o Drifters 1: I have no idea, really, what's going on, but there's time travel and a war and Rasputin is really mean.  Pretty much everyone is bloodthirsty and crazy, too.

b Eensy Weensy Monster 2: Continuing its one chapter a month growing romance all the way to the conclusion, this series is just quirky and fun all the way through.

b Fake 6: Oh, the agony of choice and some deep, dark history rising up out of the shadows to prey on the innocent!  Also police drama, annoying characters, and goofy romance.

b Hetalia 2: The more I read of this, the more I can't understand why anyone would take it seriously enough to get offended by it.  It's goofy, ridiculous, occasionally almost accidentally educational.

b In the Walnut 2: Art, crime, and Robin Hood forgers.  I like this series quite a bit even if only for the gorgeous art lovingly recreated within.

b Kyo Kara Maoh 1, 3, 4: Y'know, there are some awful typos and crimes against graphic design in Tokyopop's earlier volumes, but I really enjoy the culture shock moments.  I'm sad no more will be published.  (I wonder if YEN would ever pick up the light novels that deal with the story line after the last Tokyopop volume that came out.)