Manga Maniac Cafe

2.75 - 3 stars

What did I just read?? What a weird book. The first chapter is just bizarre. Takamiya is just an average guy. His classmate, Kagari, is known at school as “Princess.” She is smart, beautiful, graceful, and has her own fan club. For some reason she keeps sitting by Takamiya. They are always on class duty together. She rides the same bus he does. All of this gets him into hot water with Kagari’s fan club, whose members are fiercely jealous and protective of their idol.

Then one day, the tower in the courtyard collapses and almost falls on Takamiya. A weird girl with fuzzy ears attacks him with an army of large, creepy bunnies. Kagari rescues him, and he learns that she is a fire witch, he is her “princess,” and she will protect him at all costs.

Ooookayyyy. Takamiya, for reasons unknown, is wanted by the evil Tower Witches. Kagari is a good Workshop Witch, who protects the world from the Tower Witches. I didn’t really understand what the hell was going on, and clearly, neither did Takamiya. He has been kept in the dark about why these evil witches are out to get him and his white stuff. What is his white stuff? Who knows, though we all know what Takamiya thinks it is.

There is a ton of action, but since I didn’t understand the point of all of these attacks and rescues, it didn’t really capture my attention. Takamiya is constantly waking up in Kagari’s private room at school after she rescues him. He’s an okay character, I guess, but he is kind of weak and pathetic and therefore, not very interesting. Kagari is more noteworthy, just because she seems to be a badass with her fire magic, but she, like the other women in the story are there more for the big boobs and short skirts than anything else.

The art is crisp and clean, with fine line work. The characters’ noses look strange, and I found them distracting. The actions sequences conveyed a good sense of motion.

I checked this out from the library because I have volumes 4 – 9, courtesy of Vertical. I will try to pick up the story again with volume 4, because the library currently has only volume 1 in their collection. I don’t think this series is going to be successful for me. I didn’t find it particularly amusing, and the chapters felt a bit repetitive, but I’ll read at least what I have.