Ultra Maniac, Vol. 1

by Wataru Yoshizumi, Wataru Yoshizumi (Illustrator)

Overview

Shy Ayu Tateishi has just made a new friend at school. But this new friend, much to her surprise, is no ordinary classmate. Nina Sakura may look like a normal middle school girl, but she's got a big secret.

She's a witch.

Or, rather, she's studying to be a witch. And, apparently, she's not doing her homework. Her spells are devastating in their ineffectiveness and often result in the most embarrassing situations for poor Ayu.

But things wouldn't be so bad if Nina's sorcery didn't make Ayu look silly in front of the one boy she secretly adores. All she wants is a simple love potion. What she gets, however, is a new best friend who almost flunked out of witch school!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781421551654
Publisher:	VIZ Media LLC
Publication date:	04/23/2012
Series:	Ultra Maniac Series , #1
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	180
File size:	63 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

Wataru Yoshizumi hails from Tokyo and made her manga debut in 1984 with Radical Romance in Ribon Original magazine. The artist has since produced a string of fan-favorite titles, including Quartet Game, Handsome na Kanojo (Handsome Girl), Marmalade Boy and Random Walk. Ultra Maniac, a magical screwball comedy, is only the second time her work has been available in the U.S. Many of her titles, however, are available throughout Asia and Europe. Yoshizumi loves to travel and is keen on making original accessories out of beads.

Editorial Reviews

Tennis star Ayu Tateishi is the junior high school's "queen of cool," and she has her eye on Tetsushi Kaji, the star of the baseball team. All is well with her world, until she unwittingly helps out novice witch Nina Sakura, who then feels compelled to do her magical favors whenever she can. Nina has a "portable magic PC" with which she can download spells (and some cool MP3s) from the Internet. What she doesn't have is much experience with witchcraft-so her attempts to help Ayu result in predictably wacky hijinks. This first attempt at fantasy manga by Yoshizumi (Marmalade Boy; Mintma Bokura) is charming and good-natured. Her art is clean and uses the standard manga conventions, such as schoolgirl uniforms, to good effect. The storytelling occasionally veers into the cutesy-Yoshizumi uses chibi (cuter versions of the characters) regularly to telegraph jokes, and peppers her chapters with "Free Talk"-footnotes to the reader revealing facts like "I think the thing that has changed most about my art is that I'm drawing a lot more eyelashes"). Given the teen audience this work is aimed at, the breathless dialogue and unselfconscious goofiness simply add to the charm, and this book will likely be ultra-popular with the manga crowd. (July) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly