[ARC REVIEW] Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas by Jun Asuka (@TOKYOPOP)

Title:  Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas


Author:  Jun Asuka (Original Script by Tim Burton)


Artist:  Jun Asuka

Genre: Horror / Adventure / Romance / Halloween / Christmas / Adaptation 


Year Published: 2004


Year Read: 2017

Publisher: Tokyopop


Source: eARC (NetGalley and Edelweiss)



Content Rating:  Ages 8+ (Some Scary Images and Scary Situations)


Buy on:  Amazon  //  Book Depository

I would like to thank NetGalley, Edelweiss and Tokyopop for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Introduction:

Now, I will start going into fangirl mode here since I will be talking about one of my most favorite animated movies of all time!   I will admit that when I was little, I was actually terrified of Tim Burton’s classic animated movie “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” due to the scary visuals presented in the film.  But, when I started watching this film way back in high school, I suddenly fell in love with this creepy yet memorable movie and it has become one of my most favorite films to watch during Halloween (next to “Hocus Pocus,” of course)!  So, when both NetGalley and Edelweiss gave me a copy of the manga adaptation of “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” which was adapted by Jun Asuka, I was jumping around with glee since I never would have thought that a manga version of “The Nightmare Before Christmas” would ever be made!

What is this story about?

Based off the classic animated film, Jack Skellington is the scariest creature in Halloween Town, but unfortunately, he has started to get tired of doing the same old things every year for Halloween and he goes out into the woods to discover more things to do.  One day, while he was out in the woods, he discovers a door that has a Christmas tree on it and he ends up going through the door and discovering Christmas Town and Santa Claus.  It was then that Jack decided to become Santa Claus that year and deliver some “presents” to all of the girls and boys in the world.  Unfortunately, Sally, the ragdoll that loves him, has a terrible premonition about Jack’s Christmas turning into a disaster and Sally has to stop Jack from becoming Santa Claus and delivering the presents to the kids before it is too late!

What I loved about this story:

The story:  Wow!  I was quite impressed with this story!  “The Nightmare Before Christmas” has always been one of my most favorite animated movies of all time and I was so excited to finally be able to check out the manga version of this movie!  As I come to expect, the manga version of “The Nightmare Before Christmas” was completely faithful to the original movie, from the dialogue to the situations that happened in the film.  I loved revisiting the movie in manga format since it was quite unexpected for me to see this movie in manga form rather than in a regular graphic novel format and it just made this manga so original to read through!  I also loved the fact that this manga focused more on Jack and Sally’s relationship with each other than the movie did and I loved the fact that we get more focus on Sally’s perspective of the whole situation in this manga since I wanted to see more from her character in the movie and this manga did a great job at fleshing out Sally’s character even further.

Jun Asuka’s artwork:  Jun Asuka’s artwork was both creative and adorable to look at!  I loved how Jun Asuka’s artwork was faithful to original designs of the characters from “The Nightmare Before Christmas” movie as they look just as creepy as in the movie, but with a bit more anime style added for effect!  I also loved the way that Jun Asuka designed Sally in this manga as Sally is drawn in a much cuter style than in the movie and it makes her into a more endearing character to read about in this manga!

What made me feel uncomfortable about this story:

The reason why I took off half a point from the star rating was because the copy I got seemed a bit incomplete.  It seemed like the bottom half of the pages were cut off a bit and there was a bit of dialogue that I ended up missing because it got cut off at the bottom.  Luckily, I have seen the movie enough times to figure out what is going on and I probably would have given this manga a five-star rating if I had not received an incomplete copy of this manga.

Final Thoughts:

Overall, “The Nightmare Before Christmas” manga is a joy to read if you are a fan of “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and of manga in general!  I would highly recommend it to manga and horror fans alike!

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[BOOK REVIEW] Food Wars! Volume 1 by Yuto Tsukuda

Title:  Food Wars!  Volume 1


Author:  Yuto Tsukuda


Artist:   Shun Saeki

Genre: Action / Cooking / Comedy / School


Year Published: 2012


Year Read: 2017


Series: Food Wars! #1

Publisher: VIZ Media


Source:  Library


Content Rating:  Ages 16+ (Sexual Imagery)


Buy on:  Amazon  //  Book Depository 

Now, I have been a huge fan of anime that deals with cooking and I had decided that I wanted to try my hand into a manga series that deals with food!  What luck I had when I picked up this popular manga series called “Food Wars! Volume One” by Yuto Tsukuda along with artwork by Shun Saeki and I was quite impressed with the bizarre creativity of this manga!

The story starts off with a young teenage boy named Soma Yukihira who works at his father’s family restaurant in a poor part of town and yet, the family restaurant is well known for their extremely tasty dishes.  One day however, Soma’s father decided to sell the family restaurant and send Soma to a classy culinary school.  At first, Soma is skeptical about all this since his major goal in life is to surpass his father in cooking.  But, when Soma’s father mentions that if he passes this school, then Soma might have a chance at surpassing him, Soma decides to give this high class culinary school a chance!

Can Soma graduate from this high class culinary school?

Read this volume to find out!

Wow! I have to admit that this was one of the most unusual yet creative manga that I had read that dealt with cooking!  Yuto Tsukuda had done a great job at writing this story as I found myself being immersed with the bizarre cooking world established in this volume and how each character treats graduating from this high class culinary school as serious business.  I also loved the fact that we get some kind of “Toriko” vibe here as this series may not be as action heavy as “Toriko,” but it still treats the cooking scenes as scenes you would get out of an action movie!

I really loved the way that Yuto Tsukuda wrote each character, especially Soma Yukihira, who is probably one of the most interesting characters in this story!  Even though Soma can be a little rude towards other people at times, he is always determined to make the best dishes no matter how much the odds are stacked up against him and I always enjoyed this determined attiude that Soma possesses since it makes him a really likable character.  Shun Saeki’s artwork is fantastic to look at as the characters are gorgeously drawn and I loved seeing some of the lighting around the characters as it makes them glow on the pages.  I also enjoyed seeing the various tasty dishes that are shown in this volume, such as the image of Soma making a bacon wrapped potato dish, which looked quite tasty and unique!

The reason why I took off half a star from the rating was because of the sexual imagery that came up whenever the characters are experiencing Soma’s cooking and you can see images of the characters imagining themselves halfway naked whenever they are describing the taste of the foods they sampled.  Now, I usually don’t mind seeing sexual imagery depending on whether or not the story is a romance or something of the sort, but because this is a series about cooking, it just felt a bit too out of place in this setting and I sometimes cringed a bit whenever the sexual images come up in the story.

Overall, “Food Wars! Volume One” is a fun volume for anyone who loves manga that deals with cooking and action and I am definitely going to try to check out the next volume in this series!

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[BOOK REVIEW] Rin-ne Volume 15 by Rumiko Takahashi

Title:  Rin-ne Volume 15


Author:  Rumiko Takahashi

Genre: Horror / Adventure / Comedy / School


Year Published: 2009


Year Read: 2016


Series: Rin-ne #15

Publisher: VIZ Media


Source: Library


Content Rating:  Ages 7+ (Nothing Objectionable)


Buy on:  Amazon  //  Book Depository 

Ever since Renge Shima has been introduced into this series, the series has certainly changed up its game with all the characters involved.  “Rin-Ne Volume Fifteen” is one extraordinary volume that puts a lot of focus on Renge and her relationship with Rinne and the gang that will be enjoyable for “Rin-Ne” fans!

Renge Shima has moved in next door to Rinne (much to Rinne’s chagrin) and has already started causing trouble for everybody again when she decided to give away lucky cell phone charm straps to various people for free.  The problem with this is that it causes Rinne’s spirit hunting business to go downhill as more people get help from Renge instead of Rinne and Rinne must find out a way to put an end to Renge’s trickery before he is out of the business!

Rumiko Takahashi has done it again with her witty and hilarious writing for these unique characters and their crazy situations!  I loved the fact that this volume actually focuses more on Renge Shima and her relationship with the other characters as it made her character stand out more and it was interesting seeing that Renge actually knew most of the characters since childhood and has been a pain in the neck to them for all those years.  I also liked the fact that we get to see what kind of relationship Renge has with Kain (as it seems like they have so much in common, except for the fact that Renge is working for the Damashigami Company) and I would like to see more stories unfold between Kain and Renge and whether or not Kain will discover Renge’s secret.  I was also impressed with the storyline where Ageha and Renge knew each other when they were children and it was interesting seeing them still maintain their rivalry even when they got older as it was pretty comical to watch!  Rumiko Takahashi’s artwork is as always, great to look at as all the characters are drawn in both an adorable and creative way and I also loved the way that the action sequences with the characters fighting each other are all detailed in action.

Overall, “Rin-Ne Volume 15” is a great volume that focuses on Renge Shima that fans of the “Rin-Ne” series will enjoy for a long time!

[BOOK REVIEW] Rin-ne Volume 14 by Rumiko Takahashi

Title:  Rin-ne Volume 14


Author:  Rumiko Takahashi

Genre: Horror / Adventure / Comedy / School


Year Published: 2009


Year Read: 2016


Series: Rin-ne #14

Publisher: VIZ Media


Source:  Library


Content Rating:  Ages 7+ (Some Scary Imagery)


Buy on:  Amazon  //  Book Depository 

Ever since I’ve been reading “Rin-Ne,” I have been wondering if they are building up a possible story arc for the Damashigami Company plot regarding Rinne’s father Sabato and it seems that in “Rin-Ne Volume Fourteen,” we see even more plot twists from the Damashigami Company that will change everything regarding this series!

In this volume, we are introduced to Renge Shima, a transfer student who immediately gets the attention of all the boys at school.  Unfortunately, it turns out that Renge has a Marilyn Monroe look-alike spirit hovering over her that is making the boys become attracted to her, but is Renge harboring a dark secret that could turn the tides for Rinne and the gang?  Other stories in this volume involve Rokumon meeting up with the Black Cat Elder, Rinne meeting up with a Nine-Tailed Fox that possesses Tsubasa and a demon that tries to steal beans from a bean throwing ceremony.

Wow! Rumiko Takahashi never ceases to amaze me with her unique writing style in her works!  Even though this volume has even more filler story arcs than the previous volumes, there were some stories that also contributed a bit to the main story line regarding the Damashigami Company.  Now, I have seen so many new characters being added to this series already, but Renge Shima was an interesting case as she seems to be the most serious character introduced in the series so far besides Kain and it makes me wonder (hopefully) if the series is actually going to get to an actual story arc sometime after this volume.  I also enjoyed the side story about Tsubasa getting possessed by a Nine-Tailed Fox since it focused on Tsubasa and it was a pretty hilarious story to read!  Rumiko Takahashi’s artwork is a treat to see as the demons shown in this volume are both scary and hilarious to look at and I really loved the artwork of the evil dragon spirit at the beginning of this volume as it was a cross between being frightening when it first arrived to being humorous after it got all the negative emotions it needed.   

For anyone who does not like images of demons and other scary characters, this volume has a bit of scary imagery of demons that might scare some people such as the dragon spirit that feeds on negative emotions at the beginning of the volume. 

Overall, “Rin-ne Volume Fourteen” is a great volume for fans of “Rin-ne” and I am definitely looking forward to reading more of this series in the future!

[BOOK REVIEW] Rin-ne Volume 13 by Rumiko Takahashi

Title:  Rin-ne Volume 13


Author:  Rumiko Takahashi

Genre: Horror / Adventure / Comedy / School


Year Published: 2009


Year Read: 2016


Series: Rin-ne #13

Publisher: VIZ Media


Source:  Library


Content Rating:  Ages 7+ (Nothing Objectionable)


Buy on:  Amazon  //  Book Depository

Once again, Rumiko Takahashi has created another hilarious volume that introduces more crazy characters into the universe of “Rin-Ne” and I was just as impressed with the thirteenth volume as I was with the previous volumes!

In this volume, Rinne’s scythe ends up getting damaged during battle and he tries to find a scythe smith that could fix his scythe (for a cheap price of course).  So, he ends up meeting the rabbit-eared twins Right and Left, who offer to fix his scythe for free.  Unfortunately, Rinne will soon learn that Right and Left’s craftsmanship on his scythe might not be what he wanted and he might want his refund back!

             

Rumiko Takahashi’s writing is as usual fantastic to read as the humor and the action sequences are well woven together and makes the story extremely creative!  I enjoyed the introduction of Right and Left as scythe smiths as I did wondered about whether or not there are people in the Shinigami world who repairs scythes and even though I liked seeing that side of the universe, I personally was thinking about what can Right and Left really bring to the story and how their presence would affect the characters in the future.  I also enjoyed some of the other stories in this volume which included a ghost causing mayhem at a dessert buffet and Rinne and the gang being trapped inside a haunted house during Christmas Eve as they were hilarious and interesting to read.  Rumiko Takahashi’s artwork is as usual fantastic to look at as the characters are drawn in a cute and effective way and I really enjoyed the appearances of Right and Left as they look like cute human characters that have rabbit ears, which make them look unique.

Overall, “Rin-Ne Volume Thirteen” is a fantastic volume that fans of “Rin-Ne” will enjoy and I definitely cannot wait to check out the later volumes in this series!