Rokunin No Akazukin Wa Konya Taberareru – bonutzuu’s light novel archive

Bought this on a whim and was surprised. This book surpassed my expectations.

On the night of the red moon, the beast Chevodon will appear. A wolf larger than a raging ox, fiercer than a mother bear, and cleverer than man – it will hunt down red-hooded girls and all who lend them aid. Only six red-hooded girls remains, and tonight, they will all be killed.

This is a light novel by Korimomo Amayuki, illustrated by Shiso. I ran into this book randomly on Shoppee and decided to get it just out of curiosity. I didn’t expect it to be such a page-turner that I finished the whole book in one night.

This is a mystery/thriller about a bunch of girls and a hunter fighting against a fearsome beast. If the premise interests you at all, I recommend trying this book out without reading spoilers in my post.

Kamitoki no Resist vol 1-3 – bonutzuu’s manga archive

The great Jinkishi, who keeps demons at bay, died. Youkai are on the rise. Yet Shihodo Jin, the sole descendant of the Jinkishi, had no desire to inherit his father’s position.

Fate comes in the form of Araragi Hayato, who came to Kyoto in order to claim the seat of Jinkishi for himself and his family. However, the powers of Jinkishi cannot be passed onto another individual, so Hayato casted a spell in the form of a red thread, a curse that bound him and Jin forever.

Kamitoki no Resist – Tales of Men who Persist Justice and Resist Destiny is a manga by Yamada Shiro, from her experiences living in Kyoto. It looks like BL but no, there’s just some strong energy going on between the two male leads.

Anyway, here’s the story: [spoilers alert! I write everything from beginning to end]

Kyoushirou and the Eternal Sky (Shattered Angels) – bonutzuu’s manga archive

Let me tell you a bit of why I only have volume 3 of a 3-volume manga. Volume 1-2 went out of print, so I ordered the third book online, and a day later received an email from the publisher saying that the manga’s been sitting in their warehouse for so long that the cover’s colors have faded and the laminate (is that the word?) came off. They said they’d choose the one that looks best for me, so I said okay, I just wanna read the content, I’m not interested in collecting. And so here it is. Honestly it looks better than some first-hand books I got from other publishers lol. You should’ve seen my Deadman Wonderland. Looks like it’s been dipped in water before shipping to me.

Now on to the content.

Aria the AVVENIRE / CREPUSCOLO / BENEDIZIONE – healing&nostalgia

I first saw Aria when I was in elementary school, so when Avvenire came out when I got to highschool, I was like ‘hurray more Aria, I’ll watch it if I have time’. But then I got around to watch it eight years later lol. Thank you Muse Asia for bringing it to Youtube.

Anyway, I think it’s good that I watched it when I did. Aria strikes a different cord when I watched it as an adult. When I watched Aria the Animation, Natural, and Origination when I was about 9-10 years old, I remember being fascinated by the beautiful scenery and fantasy world, and just enjoying the ride with the cast. You could say that I was like the singles training to become primas, a kid studying hard to become an adult. Now that I’m an adult, it’s less about Neo-Venezia’s fantastical world and more about the people and wonders in it.

I got myself stuck in a productivity trap, which gave me a really bad burnout that progressed into depression. I started doubting all my life choices and why I’m even here. I started questioning why I was not happy despite having wonderful parents, a house to live in, a bunch of lovely dogs, and great friends that I can always talk to, and that questioning made me feel even worse. What I forgot was the lesson that Aria taught me since elementary school: appreciate the small ‘miracles’ in life. The little things, the little wonders that fill your days.

Muteki Banjo Bakuraiga (Super Universe Bakuraiga) – bonutzuu’s (obscure) manga archive

Cheesy and over the top mecha for kids that escalated into Evangelion by the drop of a hat.

Bakuraiga is a one-volume manga by Eichi Shimizu and Tomohiro Shimoguchi. This post will be pretty short because honestly, I have no clue what happened.

Bakuraiga combines mecha with motorcycle gangster aesthetics. Basically this Baku dude and his sidekick fought against this random ‘banjo’ to rescue his childhood friend and Asuka Langley-lookalike whose name I forgot. Baku’s dad brought his son to his secret base and showed him the superpowered mecha Bakuraiga that he prepared. His dad became known as the ‘muteki banjo’ (invincible sovereign) in order to fight against an organization called ‘Dragon Circus’ or DC for short. DC is anti-god, anti-everything, and it’s got a pretty confusing ideology in general so I’m not going into that.

Anyway, the story is your classic villain-of-the-week morning anime kid stuff until halfway through the volume… where the story introduced us to ‘Seigi’, a very promising character with complex stuff going on inside his head. On one hand, he’s hell bent on serving justice, on the verge of using his sense of justice to cover his thirst for blood, which one of the villain quickly pointed out. But then what happened? All that got thrown aside when Bakuraiga got the ‘axe’ warning, and the authors decided to shove everything they planned for the manga into a few chapters, resulting in a mess as if it’s hit by the Third-Impact. A cheesy and cliched overpowered mecha manga turned into Evangelion both in plot and mood, and it really caught me off guard. I only have images for two pages but I think you get the idea.

So overall, I would like to leave Bakuraiga in the realm of oblivion and just forget about it for good.

Hatsukoi Rocket (Happy Princess) – bonutzuu’s manga archive

I have no idea why the localized Thai version called this book Happy Princess, but oh well.

This is a one-volume collection of one shots by Taamo, published in 2005 by Shogakukan.

11eyes: Tsumi to Batsu to Aganai no Shoujo – bonutzuu’s manga archive

11eyes is a manga based off the visual novel of the same. Satsuki Kakeru and his childhood friend Minase Yuka found themselves dragged into the “Red Night”, a mysterious dimension with a black moon and red sky. They weren’t the only ones there, though: beings called the Black Knights tried to kill them for some unknown reason. Luckily, other people with special powers were also in the Red Night, including Kusakabe Misuzu, a female onmyoji who wields the five legendary swords.

The cover’s color is faded because they were left out in the sun for too long… my goodness, the tropical sun is harsh.

Soooo 11eyes was quite popular so I don’t wanna spoil it for anyone. The manga is based off Misuzu’s route for the most part, so it had to cut out most of the stuff about Yuka’s special powers and Kukuri’s relationship to Kakeru’s sister, whatever that is, I do not know because I haven’t seen the anime or played the VN. However, despite the limited number of pages and the difficulty of adapting a long visual novel into a three-volume manga, Ayano Naoto-sensei did a pretty good job. The manga captured the main story from start to end and tied it in with Misuzu’s character arc quite well. Kakeru also showed a lot of character development, which made their romance quite nice to read. Ayano-sensei did mention that he didn’t want to write a half-baked story and that really showed in how complete 11eyes turned out.

Hibiki no Mahou (Hibiki’s Magic) a continental chronicle vol. 1-6 summary + review – bonutzuu’s manga archive

[This post contains unmarked spoilers for Hibiki no Mahou from the beginning to the ending. Please skip if you do not want to be spoiled.]

“Human kind can not gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain something of equal value must be lost. That is Alchemy’s first law of equivalent exchange.” – Alphonse Elric

That quote from Fullmetal Alchemist summarizes the system of magic in Hibiki no Mahou: in order to use magic, you must give something in exchange, be it your memories, lifespan, or flesh. Mages are seen as those who sacrifice themselves, albeit for an art that is going obsolete.

Hibiki no Mahou is a manga written by Maeda Jun and illustrated by Izumi Rei. If you’re familiar with Air, Clannad, or Angel Beats, yes this is the Maeda Jun that wrote those stories, so you know what you’re getting yourself into.

Shoujo Tenshi Milky & Cute – bonutzuu’s (obscure) manga archive

Shoujo Tenshi Milky & Cute is a 2-volume manga written by Kikuta Michiyo and published in 2006 by Kodansha. The thing is only 9 chapters long with three special chapters, one being a crossover with the author’s other work, Mamotte Lollipop.

The story follows every 2000s mahou shoujo trope you could think of. Air-headed Amano Miu and her best friend Suijouin Sena received mysterious Tamagotchi from Miu’s mysterious dad, and can transform into angels Milky Cute and Milmarine, respectively. Their rival was the Satan gang: Labutos, his bro, Satan’s daughter Ririmu, and her sidekick. Miu developed a crush on Yoku who turned out to be Labutos. Yeah, classic magical girl stuff.

Cristo -Tougan no Messiah- bonutzuu’s (obscure) manga archive

Cristo: the Orange-Eyed Messiah is a one-volume manga by Sorano Kaili published in 2004 by MAG Garden Corporation. The manga only had four chapters but boy did a lot of things happen. If this looks interesting, I recommend you give it a try before reading, because I recap it in this post. Spoilers!

Towa is a newbie Sweeper on his very first mission to eliminate Adys, a monster that plague the city’s forbidden underground level. His training proved to be insufficient, as he almost got his butt kicked the very moment he set foot there. Luckily, he was saved by a janitor with long, blue hair.