I’ve read Othello through volume 6, and even by this penultimate volume, I don’t know what to make of it. It follows a cripplingly meek high school girl named Yaya who is persistently mocked by her “friends”. All this stress leads to the birth of Nana, Yaya’s split personality who “kicks a—and takes names”. Yaya, however, has no clue of Nana’s existence. Throw in a love interest and a half dozen characters who come and go without a whole lot of purpose, and you have a series that’s a bit inconsistent. It has a habit of completely forgetting it’s own plotline. Until I can read the next (and final) volume, I’m not sure I can recommend this series, or discourage reading it. (It has absolutely nothing to do with Shakespeare, by the way.)

Princess Ai is a series that I approached with trepidation. It sounded as though it could be a self-indulgent exercise in idol promotion. But it’s not. I’ve read through volume 2, and it’s pretty satisfying. While “princess from a foreign planet with no memory” isn’t the most original of plotlines, Princess Ai makes it work. Of course since I have one volume to go, it could still all go down in flames, as many series do at the end, but for the time being, I recommend it.

Kare Kano is a series that I have more or less pledged eternal loyalty to. Upon finishing volume 14, I immediately thought “I want more of this. NOW,” which is a sign of good manga. I don’t think I need to describe the plotline of Kare Kano to anyone, which is a good thing because it’s pretty hard to do. It’s another high school romance drama, but with so much more. While there are certain plot arcs I’ve pretty much had to “endure”, not “read”, I love this series. People should read this. (If you skip volume 12, you won’t miss anything. And you’ll be happier.)

Saiyuki is not for kids. Especially not the manga. It has its fair share of swearing and a dirty joke now and then, not to mention the artist’s apparent love for Drawing Women (if you know what I mean and I think you do). Doesn’t sound as though I like it, huh? Well, I do. There’s something about this series that makes me overlook all of these things, things that I normally frown upon at least to some extent. Saiyuki is a retelling of the ancient Chinese novel Journey to the West - but the connection, of course, approaches “tenuous”. It’s fair to say that I’m addicted to this series, and the thought of all the branch series there are to read and watch makes me drool. Saiyuki is a mega-franchise. It has at least 3 manga series (one yet to be licensed), and at least 4 television series (1 yet to be licensed, 1 starting on DVD only this week), plus a movie. This is a very good thing to someone who never thinks series last long enough (like me.)

And finally, Comic Party. My dear, dear Comic Party. I’ll just level with you. There is no excuse not to read this series. I’ve read all 5 volumes. This series is absolute bliss. Yes, you will have a hard time keeping track of the plethora of female characters - suck it up. You NEED to read this series. A random schmuck learning the ways of self-publishing manga may sound like an inaccessible plot, but anyone can enjoy this. Just, PLEASE, go read this.

I’m waiting on Fruits Basket volume 13, which comes out in April, with bated breath. I’m all typed out, but you also need to read Fruits Basket. Everyone needs to. No excuses.

(carriestar800@aol.com )

(http://www.thewebcomiclist.com/p/3320/kage-to-odoru )

Ahhh, she’s back online. But now I am getting yelled at because my mom picked or work day to invite the carpet cleaners over. -_- Oh well, solutions are coming.

Which leads me to my rant: School SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’ll walk you through my average day.

First period: Honors English. I walk in, dead tired. Teacher hates me, no doubt about it. We had definitions and sentences for homework. I did them, of course. Turn it in with that stupid “I have neither given nor received any unauthorized help on this work,"” pledge that we have to write on EVERTHING we turn in or lose points, and then take my seat and poke Kit-chan to chat about the latest Fullmetal Alchemist episode. The bell rings. Eh, we still have five minutes. Bell rings again; two minutes. Third bell rings, teacher comes in, we all get quiet. She starts with some thought-provoking question, and then the announcements cut her off, and she gets mad as if she wasn’t expecting them (they are at the same time every morning). Anyways, she pulls out our DOL, we get five minutes to work on it. I get ALL of them right, except one. And it JUST SO HAPPENS that it’s THAT one that she calls on me to answer. So, I give out my wrong answer, she goes “NO!!” and treats me like I am stupid, then calls on some one else. Then we pull out our 5-pound literature books and start reading Romeo and Juliet. She acts as if the entire class is stupid and can’t understand the Shakespearian text. So we read a passage, and then she calls on the only stupid people in our class to tell her what it means. So I raise my hand, but instead she tells us in her own words. FINALLY the bell rings and I leave for German.

Second period: German. Pretty easy, except I’m in a class full of extremely dumb people. Every one in that class hates me except that one girl I hate (MELONIE!!!!!!!!!!!!) and two other guys, who I suspect are annoyed at me. Anywho, we do some really lame story about a loser and his girlfriend who are trying to shop got the loser’s mom but the girl friend (who I suspect is a succubus) keeps shopping for herself or him. Then we get new vocab. Afterwards, we actually WRITE THE STORY DOWN! *GASPETH!!* And then, it’s time to go.

Third period: Science. Not so bad, as far as earth science goes. (Biology, yo!) Teacher is crazy. I use to just read through that class, but now I am making a habit of paying attention. Anywho, we don’t even get started in that class until ten minutes after the bell. He just rambles on, gives us a worksheet, and then that’s it. Simple.

Fourth period: Health/P.E. WOW I hate this class. So, for health. They’ve been teaching us the same thing since sixth grade. I know it all. Every one else should know it all too. But they don’t. I am still the only person who got a 100 on the test without even paying attention in class most of everyone else FAILED it. WTF!? How can you FAIL health!?!? Ugh. Oh, P.E. I hate physical activities at school. We do some cool stuff, like ping pong, but on a “fitness” day, we just run for five minutes, then do whatever we want, so long as it is not sitting or standing. So, I just walk round. I don’t have any friends in my class, but in my period I have one, Kenzie. However, we are the first class to go into health. As soon as we a e out of health, SHE goes into health, so I usually walk around alone, wanting to stab that idiot who thinks calling me a "witch" is an insult.

Fifth period: math. This is probably the high point of my day. Not ‘cause I like math, but ‘cause the teacher ROCKS! It’s algebra I, I can sleep through that class and pass (I know I’ve done it). So, the last ten minutes of class, after we all to out work, my teacher and me sit and talk about anime and video games. It’s great. He just got out of college, and like, he’s as otaku as me and some of my friends. He “chaperoned” the DDR competition, and we sat and talked about the technical side of DDR, such as “Omg, why are they doing this song? It’s too easy!!” and then “The sixteenth beats aren’t even hard in this song, so what is the point of testing people on it??” he’s so cool. Yey otaku math teacher!

Lunch: actually sucks. You know, I’m obsessed with the concept of the seven deadly sins, for some reason. I love them, I dunno why. So I know my sins: Envy, Pride, and sometimes Greed. But like I said, Envy. I can’t stand it. I sit with Zach, Senko, and Selene. Selene draws, we all draw. Zach keeps saying, “I really want copies of your pics, you raw so good.” Geez, whenever I show a picture of mine, it’s “Oh, that’s nice.” We aren’t that far apart in skill, and they don’t even look. I get insanely jealous of other people. It’s always the worst at lunch. I just wish her art would BURN!!! And that’s horrible for me to say, ‘cause I love her to DEATH, so I feel horribly guilty about it.

Sixth period: Orchestra. I’m laaaaaaaaazy, so I never want to play. And then, the kids in the class wont shut up, so out of 45 minutes, we get maybe, 15 of playing time. We have a concert in two weeks, and still have 3 more songs to SIGHTREAD and 2 more pages of another song to SIGHTREAD!!!!! We’re doomed. I hate the class, except Selene and Kit. Sometimes Anna and Jo get annoying, but they’re usually jake. I hope we get our pices down.

Seventh: History. This class is jake. He gives us notes, and then worksheets. Then we test. He even gives us the last 15 minutes of class for freetime EVERY day! That class is uber easy, it’s great.

That is my average day, starts out crap, and ends okay. I still dislike school with great intensity.

Until next time, this is Sage (aka Ky) saying peace out, yo!