Ruby Loves Adventure

Boys Over Flowers: Hana Yori Dango, Vol. 1 by Yoko Kamio
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Super, super cute graphic novel. This reminds me of the Meteor Garden days when i was watching it religiously while in school, even though it was in Chinese and I had to read the subtitles. A time when there was still dial-up internet, or the wires were a bit too slow and it takes a few hours to download an episode online and video CDs were all the rage.

I find it funny how the manga was initially wrote in 1992, was made into the Meteor Garden series in 2001, and of course the manga spawned other versions too: Boys Over Flowers from South Korea, an anime series, and a few other franchises too.

So, I picked this up randomly while perusing through the library and you won't believe my delight when I actually saw this in the shelf. It was totally unexpected and the library near my house actually had all 36 + 1 volumes of it. Back in the Philippines, I would have to search for these manga volumes one at a time and actually buy them. Because, you know, we don't have libraries. So thank you Jacksonville Public Library for helping me save some money and keeping me entertained.

Anyway, this manga gave me all the feels that I had felt way back when I was still at school. It's insane. Though Tsukasa (Dao Ming Si) didn't look as good looking as the character who played him in Meteor Garden, Tsukiji (San Cai) in the drawings actually looked pretty too!

So, after I was nearly halfway through volume 1, guess what? I decided to go back to the library and pick up volume 2! Since Volume 3 was in a different branch, I proceeded to get our library to move it to the library's branch near my home. Sweet! So yes, you'll definitely see more of my reviews of the other volumes within the next few weeks!



View all my reviews

Archie: Rockin' the World by Dan Parent
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Nostaligia to the max! Grew up reading Archie comics and I picked up a Betty and Veronica graphic novel and Archie with Josie (or something of that sort) a few months from the library. Was browsing the graphic novels section again and saw this.
This book is basically a story about the Archies, Pussycats, and two other bands going around different countries (India, Australia, Canada, among others) to perform for various venues to adoring fans around the world.

There is a love twist (in typical Archie fashion, of course), and this book must be read before you do read the Archie and Josie output. Because, well, it adds more dynamic to other graphic novel as a whole.

Would I buy this from a store? Probably not - it has a tag price of $10, but it is quite short for the price. While there are additional stories in the end, mostly older ones about the Glads, and the Pussycats and how they started, it certainly does not give me liberty to open my purse strings. Pick it up from the library if you can!

Of course, my review is quite high because, well, Archie comics... and nostalgia. And anything Archie Comics is quite good in my opinion!

View all my reviews