Title: 妹 (Akane) Vol. 1 "Meet Again"
Artist/Author: 山花典之 (Noriyuki Yamahana)
Book Size/Pages: B-6, 227pp., w/o furigana
Volume: 1/14
Original Serialization: Weekly Young Jump Vol 17, '00 - Vol 28, '00
First Printing: 9/24/00
Rating: 4/4

This volume is an extended version of the first iteration of this series. The previous two volumes were compiled from special chapters in Young Jump. The series was probably popular enough to warrant a weekly serialization of it, which is how this volume came about.

The story is pretty similar, although there are several differences that allow the story to be expanded from 3 chapters in the previous story to 11 chapters here. Some chapters are really good, especially the one where Akane sees another brother/sister relationship, and it gives me a better sense of each character's motivations. It's not possible to get such depth with only 2 or 3 chapters. Artwork is as great as it was previously.

While I would have been more than happy to pay full price, I managed to get this volume for $1 at Book-off.

For bonuses, there's a color page but that's about it.

1. Meet Again: Stepsiblings Shinpei and Akane are separated after their mothers death. 3 years later, Shinpei has saved enough money so that he and Akane can live together as a family again. At school, Akane is in trouble with a crooked teacher who abuses her and threatens to kick her out of school if she doesn't let him do as he pleases. Several incidents later, Shinpei saves Akane from this teacher. However, Akane doesn't want to leave her aunt who she's been living with.

2. 戻れない理由 (The Reason I Can't Return): Akane's uncle is in debt and let's Akane be taken off to work at a whore house. She reluctantly agrees because she doesn't want her aunt to suffer. After Shinpei hears about this, he rushes over there and is Akane's first client. He begs her not to do this for the sake of her future.

3. 兄貴の役目 (Brother's Responsibility): Shinpei gets kicked out by the next client. Meanwhile, the aunt finds out about her husband (boyfriend?) allowing Akane to work as a prostitute and kicks him out. Back at the "house," Shinpei makes some noise, gets beaten down, but he and Akane are eventually saved by the aunt who comes and clears everything up (including the fact that she's underaged). She tells her to go live with her brother.

4. 硝子の兄妹 (Glass Siblings): Living together isn't as smooth as it could be and Akane is contemplating leaving. At a park, she sees a young boy and girl. The girl seems very attached to the brother and while he's away, she sits around patiently. In fact, the boy is out stealing money.

5. 小鳥 (Small Bird): The little girl, Chiyo is sick, but waits patiently. When he comes back, she collapses from sickness and Akane takes them to the hospital. The brother wants her to be hospitalized, but from the looks of him, he doesn't have the money for it. We find out that he and her sister are living alone because their parents have died. He says he has the money, and so he goes steal some more money. However, his usual escape route of jumping in front of train just in the knick of time (so no one can follow him) backfires and he gets killed. The little girl is then adopted. This whole incident makes Akane rethink her familial relationship.

6. 遊園地へ行こう (Let's Go to the Amusement Park): Shinpei takes her to the amusement park and she thanks him for it. It reminds him of being a real family again.

7. 義妹である前に (Before Being a Stepsister): Shinpei, like any guy, is attracted to Akane. However, despite her beauty, he is determined to not stray from being a good parental figure.

8. 名門星和女子学院 (The Famous Seiwa Girl's Academy): After some resistance, Shinpei convinces Akane to go try and see if she can get into the Seiwa Academy. The teacher, 塚原 (Tsukahara) though, doesn't like Shinpei nor Akane because they're poor. She tries to scare them off with the price tag. Although it costs a lot of money, he works extra jobs to start saving up. Akane goes and takes the test, but the teacher accuses her of cheating.

9. 妨害 (Interference): Although she didn't cheat, the teacher locks her in a room to prevent her from continuing to take the test. The proctor though confirms that she didn't cheat and is very impressed with her performance. He manages to find her in time and allows her to finish her test. She passes, but the teacher takes advantage of another student's parents. She tells them that if they can prevent Akane from coming to the interview, their daughter will gain acceptance.

10. 面汚し (Disgrace): Shinpei tries to ask for money from his uncle, a prick. So he has him dress up like a dog and do things like eat food off the floor for money. Shinpei does this and Akane sees him. She's more determined than ever to gain acceptance into Seiwa.

11. 電気監禁 (Confined by Electricity): On the day of her acceptance interview, the desperate parents keep her confined with a stun gun. Akane manages to turn it against them and arrives at the school. The principal suspects that Tsukahara had something to do with her late arrival. Akane gains acceptance.

Title: 堀江由衣：楽園 (Yui Horie: Paradise) LE
Vocals: 堀江由衣 (Yui Horie)
Release Date: 4/28/04
Catalog No.: KICS-91077 (LE)
Rating: 3/4

Yui Horie's 4th album, "Ho?" doesn't count. All my former complaints about Yui still hold true. She doesn't have much vocal range, not much vocal power, and can single only one genre type of song. BUT, she does it oh so well.

There are total of 13 songs on the album. The only one that's promoted as an anime song is the intro to Jubei-chan 2. I believe everything else is original to this album. The songs are all very homogenous, lively, upbeat, and generally happy songs. As usual, Ritsuko Okazaki penned many of her songs, including the Jubei-chan 2 song. There are also other familiar lyricists and composers with her songs including Yuki Matsuura (Mao-chan), Funta, and atsuko (Stellvia). I was hoping that atsuko's song would be as lively as the Stellvia intro, but that probably wouldn't fit Yui's singing style. My favorite song has to be track 11, but that's because I saw the music video for it.

Overall, the CD is quite good but I might need to put it on shuffle with other songs so I can have a variety that aren't just happy and peppy songs.

Like all her previous albums, first pressing includes an extra booklet with numerous photos. I think she looks a lot better with shorter hair. Unlike her previous ones though is that it comes in a nice and sturdy cardboard box rather than plastic.

Title: Hiyoko Brand おくさまは女子高生 (The Wife is a High School Student) Vol. 3
Artist/Author: こばやしひよこ (Hiyoko Kobayashi)
Book Size/Pages: A-5, 164pp., w/o furigana
Original Serialization: Weekly Shonen Jump Vol 29, '03 - Vol 43, '03
First Printing: 12/23/03
Rating: 3/4

I started reading Hiyoko Brand solely because I like how Asami's drawn. The story is pretty simple: a high school teacher marries his student, but that's a total secret. At school they have to keep a "professional" relationship and at home, there are many awkward moments since he doesn't want to "do" anything with her until she graduates. There are many nudity scenes, but no action.

The artwork remains excellent in this volume too. While the plot is still rather weak, it's a lot better than the previous two volumes where it was just to show off her body (not that I mind).

There are about 6 color pages to start the book off (unfortunately, this is a far cry from the 80 color pages in vol. 1) as well as a letter from the author in the back. There's also a postcard with the book, but that could be just a first printing bonus.

The chapters are short and quite numerous so I'll just give an overview. Since this manga sells mostly for it's...ahem...artwork, the story line is pretty simple. This volume has two main storylines. The first story is where another teacher at their school seems to have fallen for Ichimaru and he, out of pity, seems to be spending more time with her. However, Asami keeps the faith. The second story has a fellow study who everyone labels as a pervert since he likes to take pictures and film girls. He asks to take pictures of Asami. At first, he refuses but later, he saves her from a pervert on the train so she goes and poses for him.

Title: yui horie CLIPS1
Vocals: 堀江由衣 (Yui Horie)
Release Date: 4/28/04
Catalog No.: KIBM-67
Rating: 3/4

This Music DVD contains many of Yui Horie's promotional videos (i.e. music videos) for her songs. The ones included include the intro to Sister Princess, Love Hina Again (yay!), Mao-chan, and Jubei-chan 2. For Yui Horie fans, in addition to the anime songs, she also has music video of one song from each of albums including her newest album for a total of 8 music videos.

As a Ho-chan fan, I really enjoyed all the videos. Even for the anime songs, there's no animation, only live action with Yui. As someone who watches a lot of videos, I have to say that the video quality for all but the last music video sucks. I think it's because the source material wasn't high quality so the transfer to DVD showed those flaws. On many, the colors were way oversaturated and even with my XP-30, there were noticeable interlacing problems. The visuals is why I couldn't give it 4 stars. The audio was top notch being linear PCM.

First edition comes with a 8cm CD containing a 1:30 song that she composed herself with toy musical instruments. The "making of" for this song is included with the DVD.

Title: 純情 Fever (Pure Heart Fever)
Original Creator: Age
Vocals: Wild 3nin Musume featuring Skytemple
Release Date: 2/4/04
Catalog No.: LACM-4120
Rating: 4/4

The opening song is so catchy! I got exposed to the songs on this CD from the Kiminozo Radio CD where they were only playing as background music. Wild 3nin Musume (Wild Three Girls) consists of Minami Kuribayashi, Joy Max 2004 (male, he's part of the radio program) and Sputnik OTA-SASA (male).

There are two versions of the OP song. The song itself sounds a bit like disco and has a very danceable beat. In addition to Minami Kuribayashi's vocals, there are some Engrish "rap" as well as Ayu having some words in there. The remix takes the song and makes it more techno (a little too much though). The ED song, written by Minami, is also quite catchy but I prefer the intro song.