A while back, Yen Press created a ton of buzz when it announced a new monthly manga/manhwa/OEL anthology. Many speculated that it would not only become a serious contender against VIZ’s Shonen Jump and Shojo Beat, but also possible get the attention of non-otaku with its OEL manga adaptation of the Maximum Ride novels.

Now the first issue’s out, and it’s time to determine if the hype was well-deserved. To be frank, most of the manwha – including the previously unannounced Sarasah and One Fine Day – failed to impress me. But that’s made up for by the fairly good Maximum Ride and Bamboo Blade, as well as the stellar Higurashi, Soul Eater and Nabari no Ou.

For the sake of fairness, I think I’ll do a title-by-title review of what’s getting serialized in the first few issues of Yen Plus, instead of just saying ‘well the magazine was great durhurhur.’ In left-to-right publishing order, we have the OEL and manhwa~:

Maximum Ride kicked off the left-to-right side with six full-color pages and a 30-pages-or-so first chapter. The art’s nice and bishie-full, and the writing’s solid, but those without a basic knowledge of James Patterson’s novel series will be somewhat lost. The battle scene (if it can be called that) gets confusing and mildly stupid, too, with an uber-cliche “BWA HA HA HA HA HA!” thrown in for good measure. Still, if the plot gets its act together, Maximum Ride’s latest adaptation has tons of potential and will probably be read and reread by both me and my sister.

Next up is another OEL, Nightschool, by Dramacon’s Svetlana Chmakova SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!. As uninspired as the concept is (a school for supernatural-ish beings after dark in a ‘normal’ high school building) its execution and plotting are actually somewhat SENSIBLE (like wooooah, what a word there) and not utterly ridiculous and cliched and crap. The art’s quite nice too, as expected from Chmakova. The writing is funny, original and pretty dang clever at times, with some hints at darker things to come as well.

Moving into the manhwa, we have Pig Bride, a story about a guy who got betrothed to a random girl as a child, and she meets up with him on his 16th birthday at midnight, yadda yadda yadda. The only catch is that this girl isn’t a moe-eyed promiscuous loli — she (or HE, perhaps?) wears a pig mask over her face at all times. Combine that with a mysterious girl at school and a loli ninja, and you have a series that’s a bit more fun than it should be. Still not that great, though Yen Press’ solid translation (“OMG BABY~ C’MERE” was a peeeeeeerfect fit) certainly helps.

The unexpected publication of Sarasah (by Ryang Ruy) certainly made my day: it’s the first shoujo I’ve read that stars a meganekko~~! <3 Despite that, though, it looks like it’ll turn out to be another Fushigi Yugi clone; according to what I’ve read, the girl ends up in mysterious world and meets a bunch of bishounen. Yaaaaaaaaaay. /sarc

Even less impressive is the slice-of-life-ish One Fine Day, about this guy and some animals that turn into humans with animal ears. As cute as the first two chapters were, they’re quite dull. I did like the dancing cold viruses, though.

Finally, we have Jack Frost, a violence-and-panty-filled adventure that doesn’t make much sense. I think this title was the primary reason for Yen Plus’ Older Teen (16+) age rating. (More on the age rating thing below.) It was interesting, to say the least, but not great.

Moving on to the actual manga (in right-to-left publishing order~)

Soul Eater, which recently got adapted into an anime, got its first chapter published in this issue. It’s a fun read with lots of playful dialogue. The art’s really awesome to look at, with its gothic-y bits and all, though it’s overall too fanservicy for my tastes. The twist at the end of the first chapter made me laugh out loud, and I’d love to continue reading it, especially knowing how many devoted fans it has already. ;)

Next is the action-y supernatural series Nabari no Ou, which also recently got an anime adaptation. It’s interesting and original, and the, er, yaoi-riffic bits made me laugh out loud. The characters are all likable enough (until the twist at the end of the chapter, that is) and the action’s well-drawn too. It’s got everything going for it, but the lack of coherent plot may hinder it a bit if things don’t pick up in the next chapter.

Sumomomo, Momomo is yet another series about a girl who attacks a guy and claims she want to marry him and bear his children. There’s a ton of assorted fanservice, and a ton of blushing, etc, etc, but at least there’s some emotional philosophy-ness and action to go with it.

Next is Bamboo Blade, the kendo-riffic harem series where the girls actually care about each other (in a totally platonic way) and not just the main guys. (So it technically still a harem? Prolly not, but they’re all so moe it’s still unrealistic. ;D) It had an anime adaptation in fall ‘07, but I think the manga’s art is better than the anime’s. The manga-kas put a ton of love into this series, and it shows in both the art and the story. It’s not awesome yet but has a lot of potential.

Finally, we have the very highly anticipated Higurashi – When They Cry manga, an adaptation of the hit horror anime. If you’re familiar with Higurashi, there’s little explaining to be done: it’s the same adventures newbie Keiichi and his harem have in Hinamizawa, and there’s a murder mystery and conspiracy, and Rena’s creepy, etc, etc. The art and writing, as well as Yen Press’ adaptation, are very nicely done. So if you have neither the patience nor the money to see the now-re-releasing anime, this is a perfectly fine place to familiarize yourself with the franchise.

The magazine as a whole is not without flaws, but at least Yen Press didn’t butcher it. While it was awesome for Maximum Ride to get some color pages, why didn’t Higurashi or Jack Frost get their color pages printed IN COLOR? That’s not fair to the purists out there, and if Shonen Jump can do it, why not you? :( My only other gripe is with the sound effects, with which there was a transliteration of the hiragana or katakana (for example, ‘nikori’) printed next to a translation. While I can understand the intentions behind it, it clutters things up and it’s confusing.

At least, though, Yen Press did something spiffy by serializing these series so we could get a taste of all of them. This first issue was truly impressive, and I liked the extras such as the congratulatory art from the manga-kas and the notes from the editors. While I might not be getting a subscription after all (Older Teen rating = freaked-out parents, ’nuff said) I will be buying compiled volumes of some of these series.

CJ’s Rating: 8 out of 10 California rolls

Possibly objectionable content: Uh. Bathtub scene in Soul Eater; panties in Soul Eater, Sumomomo, Momomo and Jack Frost; and plenty of blood and cursing in multiple series. I see why Yen Press rated this Older Teen. I figured Higurashi would be the worst thing in here, but it’s actually pretty tame at this point ^_^; I agree with the 16+ age rating, in all honesty.