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Square Enix: Full Force Manga! Part 1
While at the San Diego Comic-Con there was no shortage of freebies. At the Square Enix booth the free thing was a manga book called Full Force Manga! that contained various manga samples. This took me by surprise. Why the heck was I getting manga sampler book from the Square Enix booth? The manga samplers I received form Udon and Dark Horse made sense, but I had no idea that Square Enix was actually responsible for Fullmetal Alchemist and other manga that I’ve never heard of before. Samplers are supposed to give you just enough of the story so that you’ll be interested in finding out more and go buy the whole book. There are twelve manga titles in the book with the first chapter, or part of the first chapter, from each title. At the beginning of each title is a very brief synopsis of the manga and introduction to the author. At the end of each sampled title is an ad of sorts for the manga series. I don’t regularly read manga so I wanted to find out if this sampler would get me interested in any of the titles within. I finally got around to reading it and here are my thoughts as to whether I may or may not check out these manga titles based upon what was in the sampler. The title of the book is terrible, by the way. I don’t want manga in any kind of force let alone full force. The first four manga forcefully sampled in full were Fullmetal Alchemist, 0-Parts Hunter, Enchanter, and E’s.
Fullmetal Alchemist: This Full Force Manga! book isn’t off to a good start. I have tried watching the Fullmetal Alchemist anime on several occasions, but I just can't get into it. However, I want to be fair to all the titles in the sampler and give it a fair shot. Alchemist's introductory paragraph basically explains that when the Elric brothers dabbled in alchemy, they got burned. Edward lost an arm and leg and the Alphonse’s soul became trapped in a suit of armor. Well, that explains the whole metal dude with a kid’s voice from the episodes of the anime I have seen. The two brothers arrive in a town where the people trust the word of Father Cornello who preaches about the Sun God Leto. We meet the Father and a loyal religious girl named Rose. From the looks of things, Rose will someday be molested by Cornello unless the brothers can convince her and the townspeople that Cornello is a fraud. Cornello actually practices weak alchemy to fool everyone in thinking he has the Sun God's power. With the help of Rose, the brothers go see him, but… it’s a trap! A couple battles ensue and Edward rips off his cape, revealing why he’s a full metal alchemist with dual exclamation points!! Verdict: You know, I wish I had never seen the anime because any time that Alphonse (the metal guy) is talking in this manga, I hear that damn high-pitched voice in my head. I know it’s supposed to be that way, but it just ruins the image of the character for me - that and his loin cloth. Why does he need the loin cloth when he’s a suit of armor? It might get explained in some chapter of the actual manga, but I have no desire to really find out.
O-Parts Hunter: This manga is so evil that it's called 666 Satan in Japan. The artist of this manga is actually the brother of the guy that does Naruto. Since I’m not a fan of Naruto, this is not good news for me. Jio, the main character, is annoyingly designed with alternating black and white hair, clothes, and eyes. And his jacket has an enormous zipper. The first sentence of the intro paragraph says that “Jio is a young boy with a tragic past…” Oh, like every other anime/manga character! I already do not like this. The story starts with explaining that an advanced civilization was destroyed and that people in the near future start collecting pieces from the ruined civilization. These pieces are known as O-Parts. Now, people fight over the O-Parts to collect them all. We are then introduced to Ruby, a young girl that wants to become a world famous treasure hunter. She is atop a tall statue and makes a joke about taking a leak off of it if she was a guy. Then she says that she has no time to be romanticizing. Ok, so basically this girl likes to romanticize about guys pissing. This manga really just keeps getting better and it’s only a few pages in. Perhaps this is what Square Enix means by the Full Force Manga! title; I have to fully force myself to read on. Suddenly, she is surprised by a giant turtle that comes up from behind her. I don’t know how she didn’t notice a giant turtle slowly walking around, but she falls from the statue right onto Jio. Jio beats the turtle and the two kind-of team up. Jio reveals that his dream is world domination. I think it’s supposed to be funny. Both of them make incredibly stupid looking manga faces throughout the rest of the chapter while they discuss demons and treasure. Some rival treasure hunter shows up and they have a chase against a Dragon Train. A few more stupid manga faces later the chapter is done. Verdict: There is no way in hell am I reading anymore O-Parts Hunter. Since this is written by the Naruto guy’s brother I’ll say this: O-Parts sucks – believe it!
Enchanter: Eukanaria is a female half-demon with big breasts, short shorts, and bat wings. She is searching for her lover Fulcanelli who disappeared. Haruhiko is a high-school student that has a crush on his childhood friend Yuka. Except, somehow now Yuka is a science teacher at the high school Haruhiko attends. Yea, I don’t get it, either. Haruhiko is eating with his friends in the lunch room who are teasing him about Yuka. Yuka comes into the lunch room to get Haruhiko to help her fix her VCR; all the while his buddies continue to poke fun. The two arrive in the room with the VCR and Yuka explains that she’s no good with electronics and that Haruhiko is, something the both of them obviously already know about each other. Yuka gets called away for some teachers’ meeting and a few minutes later, the sexy demon girl Eukanaria portals into the room. Now the real craziness is about to begin. You see, Haruhiko just happens to look exactly like Eukanaria’s lover Fulcanelli. Not only that, but Eukanaria just happens to look exactly like Yuka. Their similar appearances to the other persons just promise lots of zany antics throughout the series. There isn’t time to try and work out their identities, though, because a demon followed Eukanaria through the portal. Now she’s trying to get Haruhiko to fight it off, but he’s just a high-school student! After some bumbling the demon is defeated and Eukanaria takes him though a portal. I sense some forced funny adventures ahead. The advertisement on the last page is for the five volumes of the Enchanter manga and says in huge letters, “F-CUP BREASTS!” They not only just mentioned the size of Eukanaria’s breasts, but below it, mention that they indeed do mention the size of her breasts in the manga. If that’s not one of the best ads for a manga, I don’t know what is. Verdict: F-CUP BREASTS!
E’s: A random guy is running through a park and stops to get a drink from the water fountain. The water from the fountain explodes and captures him in a crystal. The scene shifts to Kai, a fifteen-year-old psychic who is apparently a rookie in a psychic organization that captures psychic criminals. Kai is concerned for the well-being of the criminal and his superior Eiji says that the organization captures and helps criminals. Kai leaves and Eiji orders some soldiers to kill the dude in the crystal. It seems that Eiji is a real jerk. Kai goes to his apartment and some girl named Shin-Lu welcomes him back with unbridled excitement and happy faces. She has prepared a feast to celebrate Kai’s one year anniversary of being wherever they are. A piece of cake then floats into the air. They see that it’s Shen Long who has greedily taken a piece of the cake meant for Kai. Wait, Shen Long? As in the Shen Long Ryu keeps telling me I must defeat to stand a chance? Oh, no that’s Sheng Long, this Shen merely needs to be defeated from eating more cake. Shen Long looks like a girl and thinks he’s a big shot psychic guy. He starts talking about Kai’s sister which makes Kai so pissed that he punches Shen. The two have a psychic mini-battle until Shin-Lu tells Shen to stop or she’ll get mad. I have a feeling that Shun is a more powerful psychic than either of the two boys because one of her eyes becomes completely black. That’s when you know not the screw around during a psychic’s dinner. Forward to the next morning during some briefing where Kai and Shen Long get placed on the same mission. Verdict: I think I know how this will end. From the introductory paragraph I know that Kai is captured by rebels and meets his “mysterious” sister. Kai will learn that the organization he works for is bad and will fight them. Kai will sleep with Shun Li, but afterwards he will find out that Shun Li is his other long lost sister. The organization will force Shun Lu to kill lots of innocent people and she will kill herself because of it. Kai will save the world from the organization of evil psychics and have massive mind bullet battle with Shen Long that destroys half the city. With his dying breath Shen will tell Kai how that he always considered him his best friend. It’s time for Kai’s emo time. I hope you enjoyed the first four titles from Full Force Manga! I will go over the next four in Part 2. - Shawn - 09/11/07 |
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