When Fuuka Academy is attacked by strange creatures called Oprphans, the school sets up a special task force of its female members---called HiMEs---who must team up with a unique “Key” to battle these invaders! Yuuichi Tate is the new boy in town, thrilled to be at a new school. But he soon discovers that he’s the key for not just one but TWO HiMEs!
Two highly competitive, rival schoolgirls. One overzealous boy. And that’s just the start of the trouble!
Initial Impressions - 8/10
NOTE: This title comes with a Parental Advisory warning. This title may not be suitable for those under 18 years of age.
So I decided to go ahead and do something different this time round with my latest Manga purchase, I decided that instead of buying something I knew something about I would grab something off the shelf I hadn’t heard of. I took a look at covers and read the back synopsis, and ended up setting on My-HiME.
First off the cover has a really nice portrait of one of the female leads from the series, even if she is a bit on the ridiculously endowed side. I appreciate the parental warning very clearly displayed on the book, makes it very clear that this title isn’t intended for those under 18 years of age.
The story from the read on the back cover sounded interesting, so the initial impression is very good.
Story - 6/10
I haven’t seen the Anime of the same name that people say is markedly so very different. So I am basing my story judgement based only on the Manga, I hope to get some of the Anime at some point to judge better.
So theoretically this sounds to be a bit of a harem comic with a Magical Girl twist to it, the problem is that it never seems to be either. It’s a spastic story at best, I got lost 10 pages in as to who was supposed to be in charge of what, it gets started fast which is good, but there are a lot of details left out. Such as how does an apparent 8 year old end up running a school?! There are also a number of jarring flashbacks of our hero that don’t help as much as they hinder.
Another problem is the translation, he holds a Kendo sword and talks about being in the Fencing Club?! What the heck? Also he goes on to speak about having fateful encounters at one point when referencing girls? There seems to have been a huge disconnect with translators and quality control on this one.
Once you get a little deeper into the story one can see there might be some promise, I will probably grab volume 2 to see if there is an improvement.
Art - 7/10
The art in the volume is nice, the action scenes are very well done and the character designs work well if a bit generic. There is a total lack of details in the backgrounds at points which some people might find off putting, I don’t mind as it really keeps the focus on the characters.
There is a ton of Fan Service in the volume if that is your type of thing, but for the most part it isn’t explicit, but after awhile you question if they just ran out of story ideas. It’s almost jarring the amount of times the girls clothes seem to explode into nothingness.
Final Conclusions overall - 7/10
I really wanted to enjoy this volume more, it looked to have a fun premise and from what I could see the artwork looked decent. But the story is really what’s holding it back, it just leaps around with no sense of direction or clarity.
Hopefully future volumes will improve on this.
NOTE: For the most part the story and art in this volume doesn’t seem to warrant the 18+ warning, however the last few pages definitely take an adult twist…Parents, you have been warned.
+ Decent artwork
- Storyline is a mishmash
Little background detail
Large volumes of Fan Service [bordering on the pornographic]
Publisher: Tokyopop
Cost: $9.99
Rating: Explicit Content 18+
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