Amano Yukiteru is a boy who doesn’t really have any friends, even in high school. He also made it a habbit to keep notes of his life on his cell and eventually started making friends with an imaginary friend Deus X Makina. She rules everything including space and time. So what does this super powered friend do? Allows him to write what will happen in the future. Mirai Nikki takes the supernatural a step further by having to survive a game that determines the Deus Ex Machina. The game plays where you have to kill using diaries, with personalities and stat like attributes that are based on the personality. One can win by destroying the diary.

The manga is still going and it’s not licensed. The other name this manga goes by is Future Diary. There’s also a side manga called Future Diary: Mosaic which shows everything from other players. Guess just incase people didn’t like the main set of characters.

Follow the link to more Mirai Nikki cosplay.

It is quite unfortunate that amazing manga like this will rarely see the light of day outside of japan. Wether it be the series is considered too short or that people don’t believe that it would do well, it is when you come across a manga like this that you really just hope that someone notices it’s brilliance and decides to pick it up for translation. For those who have read this series you no doubt enjoyed it and agree with what i’ve said. As for everyone else, if you are a fan of romance then I cannot recommend this enough. It rivals Kanon 2006’s Makoto story arc which (IMO) was 1 of the 2 best and saddest romance stories i’ve encountered. This is a short series that only runs for 5 books, and was made quite awhile ago but it still remains a brilliant work. However lets get on with the point of all this.

STORY

We follow a man by the name of Yoshizumi Ikuru who lives in the future. As I read this series over 4 or 5 months ago I cannot remember exactly if you find out how old he is but he seems to be around his eairly 20s. Unfortunately due to a major traffic accident when he was young that claimed his parents, he is now close to dying. He was able to survive and avoid his imminent death by scientists grafting body parts of another person onto/into him. This allows him to live but not for much longer. As he only has short time left to live, he turns in his application for an Ai-Ren. What is an Ai-Ren? Well as the manga puts it they are

“Human beings made out of artificial genes with the purpose of relieving the mental despair of a patient during his/her last moments of his/her life”

They are custom grown to suit the person they are given to. Unfortunately their life span is also not as prolonged as 1 would hope. They usualy die a few months after being “born” which in itself is quite sad but in this case is just worse. Ikuru decides to name his Ai-Ren simply Ai, as that is all she can say for the first few hours after taking her home. With both of the main characters introduced, the story now follows them together as they experience life together and eventualy fall in love with each other.

Characters

I figure more information on the main focus of this series wouldn’t be too out of order so i’ll go into some further depth of the characters. There are more that you meet but Since 90% of the story is based on 2, I will only go into detail about them.

Ikuru: He is a rather intelligent person who often has dreams/nightmares about his impending death and about his body’s deterioration. Sometimes these are so severe that they leave him unable to eat or even move due to bodies reaction. He doesn’t seem to mind cleaning and is pretty good at cooking too. He is an exceptionaly kind and understanding character that unfortunately feels cut off from the rest of the world. He seems to feel guilty about applying for an Ai-Ren but that later disappears through time when he becomes truly happy he did.

Ai: Born/grown at the request of Ikuru in a lab. She physicaly looks about late teens, eairly 20s but since her mind requires a short span to mature to her physical age, she acts very childish at first. Drawing on walls and never being able to stay still and the like. Although her personality is designed to compliment Ikuru’s, she seems to enjoy flashy things in life such as rock music which Ikuru doesn’t. She learns to play the piano thanks to Ikuru but soon passes him in skill and picks up the guitar as well. Together with Ikuru they grown vegetables outside of their country house. She keeps a diary of her life with Ikuru and always writes in it about her day and what happened.

Final Comments

Unfortunately that is about as much as I am able to write up about this due to it being short. However don’t take that as a bad thing has writing any more would just spoil it for the people who wish to read it. If you are looking for a great romance series that wont suck up too much of your time then I cannot suggest a more perfect book. It has great artwork in it that is minimalistic at times, but really shows a sense of the atmosphere and surroundings. A great read that should be on everyone’s list of “must read” manga.

Muddy is the perfect manga if you were to mention examples when you argue that female mangaka shouldn’t make shounen. It ended so soon and didn’t connect well with the Shounen Jump readers. Not really a reason not to read it, it’s a fun read. Clay was a promising smart person who grew up as a failure…more like as an ehh. What is he suppose to be good at? Making chimeras, artificial life. After a certain point, he’s fired too soon as he makes a human chimera from mud. The name of the new lifeform in the shape of a small child is Muddy. Because of Muddy’s innocense and wild nature, Clay decides to raise him. There’s plenty of action and you get to see the many sizes and forms of Muddy with his female form likely being the most popular.

Why should you read this manga is simple. It’s has a simple theme, only has twelve chapters, and little Muddy is very loveable. Volume one in Japane with all the chapters is out incase you wanted to add it to your collection.

Hand’s is a shounen manga with a sports theme, but it really isn’t a sports manga. There’s two chapters scanlated by promfret, however, they have dropped it. Hand’s is a single volume series, though, so it’s very worth buying if you can read the rest. You have a young kid named Tachibana Daigo who is pro at handball, but has a loser dad who offers him to the handball coach. The coach also has a daughter Nishioka Mizuki who helps create the wonderful moments in this manga.

Hand’s is really action and drama with a tomboy and a short but very daring kid who wants to be a hero. At times Daigo seems almost unhuman and he’s sometimes is shown as so in subtle ways. Also like to state that this is one of the few manga that pulls off baggy clothing well.

Cloth Road volume six has just been released today. The author is the really highly thought of Hideyuki Kurata, the creator of Red or Die and Red x Hand. Cloth Road’s style will be the the part that will keep you reading, even though the plot is has a unique idea and premise, too. Battles with fashion and styled clothing with a pair that discover they have a sibling. Jennifer and Fergus are brother and sister, they have to fight in such tournaments in order to keep from becoming too poor. Who can someone battle with clothes? The story takes place in the future where computers have made it into clothes with very tiny nanobots inside. Then you’re likely thinking about why they’re fighting? All about the brand names.

The Cloth Road manga originally appeared in Ultra Jump, from the company that brings you Shounen Jump.

If you think buying manga is expensive, try getting into games or movies. Those must have staples from the past, limited releases, and the new titles aren’t cheap. If you really want to be a fan and not just a reader, buy it. At least some of it. Royalties do exist in manga, so buying licesned manga in your country does support the mangaka and small studio that created the manga. Japan isn’t perfect and most comic companies are in big cities. Big cities means high rent and cost of living with Japan’s economy as it is. Not that downloading is wrong, since it some countries don’t have much in a way of a manga industry unless you find a site that delivers where you live. You’re a fan, of course you want to experience stuff you like. But wouldn’t it show that you’re a fan if you actually have a series?

There are discounted online stores and buying what little manga in your area does bring more manga to be picked up by publishers. You can even learn the language. Just look at a lot of shounen and shoujo, the hiragana is right next to the kanji. Worth taking classes if it means manga that you can buy for less. Not like you’re going to get tired of the whole weaboo, anime, and manga world.

Stop asking y cnt i dl dis?