Title: 少年マガジン (Shonen Magazine) Vol. 43
Issue Date: 10/6/2004
Publisher: Kodansha
Pages: 544

Mayuko isn't as bad as Waka, but still not my style. New series starting in this week's edition. A tennis manga. I use to skip sports manga since I was picky in the past. But now, I'm open to anything and to my surprise, sports manga can be pretty exciting. But that doesn't mean I'm going to start on the obscenely long Hajime no Ippo anytime soon.

Full Swing: １ホームラン打てた (I Hit a Homerun): 栗原タマ (Tama Kurihara) has always wanted to play baseball every since catching the homerun ball of his favorite pro player as his childhood female friend, 古都 (Koto) recalls. He practices everyday wanting to be just like his idol. He finally makes the starters on his school team and has his first game. At bat, he swings as hard as he can, but it falls short and hits the inside fence. However, he rounds the bases as fast as he can. He slides into home, but gets called out. What's worse, he has broken his left hand. After seeing the doctor, he's told that he'll never have the strength in his left hand to hold a bat again. Months later, he seems to be okay with it, but secretly, he's angry that he can't swing a bat. He sees Koto going off to tennis practice and tries that out and discovers that he can get the same feeling playing tennis that he got from playing baseball.

King's Sword: ４劉備とともに (With Ryubi): Ahi and Kanu are rewarded with some dumplings for their efforts as they're still seen as kids. Ryubi returns from scouting to tell them that the bulk of the bandits are heading this way. The people in the town scatter, but Ryubi has an idea to take out the bridge before the enemies can cross.

Negima: 69時間目 嵐の夜の訪問者 (The Visitor From the Stormy Night): The girls in the dorm get a visit from Wilhelm Josef Von Herrmann who has captured 7 of the girls with his water creatures. While his primary purpose is Negi, he also knocks Kotaro around a bit asking about a certain bottle he wants back. Wilhelm tells Negi that in order to see the safe return of the girls, he has to challege him under a tree in the middle of the school. Kotaro and Negi team up and head to the battleground.

Suzuka: ＃３１視線 (Eyeline): The pesky girl who was hawking newspapers previously and tricked Yamato into subscribing is now working for the cable company and is offering the same deal with free tickets to the pool. Yamato tells that he knows her technique, so having been discovered, she gives him the tickets and tells him to consider. He wonders if he should as Suzuka on a date again. The last time, he had confessed but she rejected him. At practice, Honoka comes up to him and invites him to Miki also invites herself as well as another track student 小早川健 (Kawaken Kohaya, 200m guy who Yamato doesn't know well). Miki then invites Suzuka who surprisingly agrees to go. Honoka isn't too thrilled that her rival has tagged along.

Tsubasa: ５７交わらない線 (Threads that Don't Cross): The guys come back from having been defeated by Shaoran at the circus. From the description to Souseki, Kuro and Fye think it might be Shaoran, but when they say it's a girl, they disregard the thought. At the circus, Shaoran shows more or his abilities and Sakura has a talk with Karen. Suddenly, another earthquake shakes the grounds.

Changing Now: ＃２１圧殺！！メガトン男 (Crushing!! Megaton Guy): Binban (Dog Fighter's ally) is in trouble fighting so Dog Fighter comes to the rescue. However, the enemies are on the same side as Crimson Bunny. The members of Crimson Bunny's faction have noticed that she's been acting weird lately, and it shows as she's hesitant about fighting Dog Fighter. But from nowhere a new villan, Velvet Rose, appears.

Hamanaka Ai: ０５３少年的笑い話 (Funny, Youthful Tale): The two teachers are recalling the story about Masahiko's experience during their classes drawing session. Ayaka was going around asking for white paint, but Masahiko's tube accidentally squirted the white substance all over her face.

Title: 吸血姫夕唯〜香音抄〜 (Vampire Yui ~Kanon~) Vol. 1
Artist/Author: 垣野内成美 (Narumi Kakinouchi)
Book Size/Pages: Small B-6, 210pp., w/furigana
First Printing: 6/30/03
Rating: 3/4

Maybe I should start with Vampire Miyu, then the original Vampire Yui series before reading this one. I guess it's convenient for me that Yui starts the series off having forgotten most of her past, but there are still many things I don't understand, probably due to the fact that I haven't read the earlier works.

First edition volume came with a figure of Yui I believe. I only have the book itself. There's a handwritten page by the author which completely illegible to me.

The book is split into two parts, the first half is a prologue and the second the main story. 瑞月夕唯 (Yui Mizuki) arrives at the door of a church covered in blood. She utters out the name "那嵬 (Nagi)" before collapsing. She's taken in by the priest of the church. She starts out with no memories of her past, but slowly has strange dreams about her mother, Miyu, and from that she discovers her name, Yui. Meanwhile, in the village, vampire attacks are happening and Yui shudders at the though as she has a hunch that she probably is one. The culprits are 見夜 (Miyo) and his apparent superior, 唐木 (Utsuki). The find Yui care of Nagi who finally makes contact with Yui and makes her remember. The two villians go after her but Nagi and the priest try to defend her. The priest admits that he knew Yui would reawaken and eventually gets killed by Miyo. Nagi and Yui then start their story.

The second part has Yui meeting the very complex 三条 (Sanjo) family. There's 真幸 (Masaki) who has taken an interest in Yui as her red eyes remind him of a girl he once knew. He starts hanging out with Yui despite Nagi's suspicions. There's 揚葉 (Ageha) the class leader and 旭 (Asahi) the eldest brother and a school teacher. There's also拿魅餌 (Namie), (Masaki's ex?) and doesn't seem to like his new girlfriend. We find out that the Sanjo family is a race of butterflies sworn to protect Yui but had escaped their duty. Namie sends out her butterflies to attack Yui but eventually gets kill for interfering.