Great Teacher Onizuka

Story:

Eikichi Onizuka is a 22 year old male, virgin, who dreams about become a teacher so that he can become friendly with young high school girls. But there's one catch he totally forgot about. Teacher exam. Since he barely made it through college and then finally graduated after 7 years has he of course not taken this teacher exam which is, to his first great but then bad surprise held the very same day he's busy doing nothing.

Of course did he not make it in time and when he gets there it is too late. But the bad luck takes a big turn and Onizuka gets to know that one of the private schools are hiring sub teachers, a profession he does not need the exam for. [Good luck ends] On the way to the school on the crowded bus, Onizuka spots an older man squeezing a younger, quiet pretty, woman’s butt and Onizuka interferes and totally embarrass the old man. The woman on the other hand is friendlier, telling him she's also there to apply for the teacher position. The talk loudly and happily about how great it would be if they both got the job and both crosses their thumbs as it's Onizuka's turn. His great mood and high hopes suddenly breaks and dies as he steps into the room and sees that the principal of the school is no other than the old disgusting pervy man from the bus...

Character:

Eikichi Onizuka: He is so cool. My God. He's a total kick ass! He is pretty unpredictable, which is great for a change. Always dealing great with his students in an unexpected way, a big laugh! He's great. I wish he was my homeroom teacher. He is really stupid. Favourite word is great but he means well and all he wants is to make it a great day and a great school together with his class.

Fuyutsuki Azusa: Got hired the same day as Onizuka. She's really pretty but a little shy and you know. The other teachers always take advantage of these, making her run small errands, photocopy and things like that. Onizuka is always encouraging her and she thinks he is hopeless and keeps saying she wonders how someone like him could become a teacher. They're so cute ^^

Vice Principal Uchiyamada Hiroshi: I think he rules the series though Onizuka is the coolest. He is one of these nervous types just like the manager for Bad Luck in Gravitation who faints like 12 times each episode, though Uchiyamada does not faint that much >.> He wants Onizuka out but of course in the end they get along.

Sakurai Ryoko: The school head. She was the only one that wanted to hire Onizuka, claiming that it would be good to have someone like him around the school. She is cute! Trying to cover for his mistakes while she poses as the cafeteria lady so she can watch and get closer to the students and keep another eye on the school and the atmosphere. I like her. She's a tough lady!

Please right-click and choose "Save As" instead of simply clicking on the download link
Volume 1
Volume 2
Volume 3
Volume 4
Volume 5
Volume 6
Volume 7
Volume 8
Volume 9
Volume 10
Volume 11
Volume 12
Volume 13
Volume 14
Volume 15
Volume 16
Volume 17
Volume 18
Volume 19
Volume 20
Volume 21
Volume 22
Volume 23
Volume 24
Volume 25

Flame Of Recca

Story

The main character of Flame of Recca is a young boy named Recca. He lives with his father, his mother having died when he was very young. He attends school where he spends most of his time fighting.

Recca is a child obsessed with the Ninja and his
friends constantly challenge him to fights where Recca displays his awesome ninja skills.

One day Recca meets a young girl and he pledges to be her ninja. From then on he refers to the girl as "hime" (10 points to those who know enough Japanese to translate that).

Characters

Hanabishi Recca; Main character, ninja, flame master. Recca's a nice guy who doesn’t think a whole lot. If he decides to do something then he will do it no matter what obstacles may stand in his way. He's fiercely overprotective of Yanagi (hime) but he earns the respect of all who know him.

Ishida Domon; I know this guy shouldn’t be listed second; but he’s my favourite character so here he is. Domon is the big man of the series (tho; he always ends up fighting people bigger than himself.) He is also the dumbest out of the entire group. He proves himself someone to be relied upon and in the second half of the manga he just steals the show (as far as Im concerned). He ends up using a lot of powerful weapons to help him. But his physical strength is already well above average.

Kirisawa Fuuko; Also a ninja, Fuuko grew up alongside Recca and so she also picked up his hobby. She's an agile girl and she relies on her speed and technique. In the first volume she gains a weapon that enables her to control wind. She’s the only female member of Recca's fighting force; but she's very strong and is loath to let herself lose.

Koganai Kaoru; He's a little puzzle maniac boy. And while that sounds lame; its actually not. His puzzle is a weapon called the Kougan Anki. A weapon with 5 different forms. Kaoru relies on this weapon and his ability to plan to get him through his fights. He's a cool kid and manages to pull off some pretty impressive victories.

Tokiya Mikagami; Mikagami is the pretty-boy genius fighter. He uses a style called Hyoumon Ken and a sword with a water blade called the Ensui. He doesn’t smile much but his fights are pretty cool.

Drawing Style

I like it; The characters seem a little thin at times, and the mangaka really dsoen't draw well defined muscle. But I suppose that’s just part of the style. If there is one thing you gotta praise the guy on its just how cool all his characters seem.

Domon spends the majority of the manga fighting in just plain t-shirts but he makes it look cool. Kurei's presence tones the manga up a hell of a lot. He's the definition of badass... definatley not a guy you want to mess with. Recca's dragons look awesome when they come out and do stuff.

The art really works for the kind of story the mangaka wanted to tell.

Enjoyment

Flame of Recca is great. It’s a pure shounen manga. Fighting, fighting, a little bit of story here and there, more fighting and some comedy elements throughout.

Flame of Recca has the "laugh out loud" aspect going for it as well as the "OMG that was cool" aspect.

Overall

Recca is worth your time. Its cool, its funny, its got powerful characters and it uses them well.

It’s a ninja story with a modern story... and it works. It’s a great trip from beginning to end.

Please right-click and choose "Save As" instead of simply clicking on the download link
Volume 1
Volume 2
Volume 3
Volume 4
Volume 5
Volume 6
Volume 7
Volume 8
Volume 9
Volume 10
Volume 11
Volume 12
Volume 13
Volume 14
Volume 15
Volume 16
Volume 17
Volume 18
Volume 19
Volume 20
Volume 21
Volume 22
Volume 23
Volume 24
Volume 25
Volume 26
Volume 27
Volume 28
Volume 29
Volume 30
Volume 31
Volume 32
Volume 33

Full Metal Panic

Story

The "Full Metal Panic" manga basically takes some of the early novel and short story work by GATOU-sensei and gives them to illustrator TATEO Retsu to come alive. In many ways, it is the story told in the first "Full Metal Panic" anime series with some differences. Also, a couple of stories seen in "Full Metal Panic ~Fumoffu~" are in this manga.

The story itself tells of Sgt. Sagura Sousuke, who's a teenaged member of the mercenary group known as Mithril. He’s been assigned to protect the teenaged girl Chidori Kaname, who’s being targeted by parties unknown as she is suspected of being a “Whispered” – someone who somehow has advanced technical knowledge beyond normal human understanding. Thus, Chidori is introduced into a new world where things aren’t as simple. She has to survive a kidnapping plot, the near destruction of Tokyo by a giant rogue mecha unit, and Sagura’s constant goofs in public.

The story flows a bit better in the manga than it did in the FMP anime and there are a couple of short stories which have not been animated yet. However, I’m not sure that’s enough to warrant purchasing the title. If you loved the anime enough to buy it, you might want to own the manga as well.

Characters

Chidori Kaname – She’s the teenaged heroine of the title. Her life is turned upside-down when she learns that her “military otaku” classmate is really a mercenary assigned to protect her.

Sagara Sousuke – He’s the teenaged hero of the title. He’s assigned to protect Chidori no matter what the cost, including how much it might annoy her.

Captain Tessa Testarossa – She’s the teenaged captain of the giant submarine “Danna.” She is a whispered, and while a bit clumsy, she’s very good at her job. She’s not so good at showing her feelings for Sagura though. She’s fluent in Japanese due to having spent time there as a child.

Garon – He’s a mysterious fellow who shows up frequently to oppose Mithril. He and Sagara have a long history from Sagara’s childhood days of fighting.

Melissa Mao – She’s the head enlisted person in Sagara’s mecha group. She’s a of Chinese decent and has a past with Tessa.

Kurz Weber – He’s also in Sagara’s mecha group. He’s of German decent and is a sniper expert. While he’s a bit of a playboy at heart, when the going gets tough, he’s the one you want fighting with you.

Drawing Style

The drawing style is similar to that of the anime. TATEO-san does a really good job at bringing the characters to life. While I prefer the anime character designs, TATEO-san’s designs are fine. Her art is clean and nice to look at.

Enjoyment

The story I enjoyed and the short stories were funny. As such, I did enjoy the title. My enjoyment was lessened because of ADV’s refusal to respect the Japanese culture by mostly ignoring all Japanese honorifics. None show up and most of the time, the “translation” of the honorific is to pretend it wasn’t there. So for those who say that honorifics in the translations are a cop-out, how much greater of a cop-out is it to pretend they don’t exist?

Interestingly enough, the manga has a glossary to define naval terms or weapons shown in the manga. I guess there were no worries about readers being confused, even with a glossary, like they would with honorifics.

TATEO-san did a bonus section at the end of each volume (of which there are nine total) which I found to be very interesting.

Overall

Bottom line: Not bad, but nothing special. It could have been better with the honorifics left in tact, but even then, it still isn’t anything special. Too bad we don’t have the original novels officially in English.

Please right-click and choose "Save As" instead of simply clicking on the download link
Volume 1
Volume 2