Cyber Doll, Daring Student’s Association & Helios Eclipse
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Cyber Doll is a hand drawn manga that has been making waves in the Japanese comic industry due to its unique style. The story revolves around 17 year old Jina, an ordinary student who gets caught up in a fantasy war involving the cyber world. Incidentally, the Land of Reah, which is the cyber world, has been attacked by a great evil force known only as Gregory, trapping its peaceful ruler Reah and taking over that world. In her effort to restore balance to the cyber world, Reah sends messengers to the real world in search of heroes, who gain the name Cyber Dolls after Jina was selected.
The artwork of Cyber Doll is quite decent. While it’s not anywhere near outstanding, the lines are smooth and the drawings easy on the eyes. Fans of old anime series like Cardcaptor Sakura and Astro Boy will find a resemblance in drawing style to their respective animes. Characters are drawn quite distinctively so you’ll be able to recognize them quite easily, and the artwork is simple and clean enough to get through the entire book without feeling like there’s too much “noise”. Fanboys and girls alike will be delighted to find that Cyber Doll comes in full color.
Cyber Doll has likable characters, in the sense that the mangaka (author) has taken effort to inject humor and a slight dose of realism to keep things interesting. The story is decent enough to be believable, and in some panels the artist uses paintings which resemble real-life photographs to add a touch of difference. Overall, I found Cyber Doll an enjoying enough read, and had no “bottleneck” issues while reading the book.
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The same can’t be said for Daring Student’s Association. Daring Student’s Association tells a political story of how the Student’s Association President gets accused of a crime he didn’t commit, and is subsequently expelled from the society. In his efforts to find the truth and redeem his rightful place, he encounters love, friendship and betrayal. The plot has a lot of potential, but unfortunately the mangaka doesn’t seem to make full use of the storyline. One gets the feeling that a lot has been left out after finishing the manga. Still, its saving grace is its chibi (cute) characters, which lend a delightful appeal to an otherwise laid back storyline.
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Helios Eclipse is set in a fantasy world where the ruling spirits and elements are at war with each other. It revolves around Helios, the king of the elements, who is fighting to free his land from the grasp of the evil Soileh. The plot is fantastically complicated, with the elements all broiled up in different yet interweaved events, and fans of long standing anime with rich storylines will get a blast out of Helios Eclipse. The story is separated into a few books, all of which are full color, and the artwork is simple but pleasing nonetheless.
Ratings:
Cyber Doll: 4 out of 5
Helios Eclipse: 3.5 out of 5
Daring Student’s Association: 2 out of 5
Out of these three, I would have to give Cyber Doll the highest nomination. It succeeds in attracting readers not just purely from an art and story perspective, but relates to us emotionally as well with Jina being a normal high school student. Helios is pretty good, and those who like stories with magic-like attacks like Fire, Wind and Earth will find this a joy to read. Daring Student’s Association is aimed towards a shoujo (young teenage girl) fanbase, but fails to live up to expectations.