Volume 2 #4
Copyright © 1999 Viz Communications

ANIMERICA EXTRA has a somewhat unique focus, as two of its major titles feature shoujo (girls) manga. The other three current titles are popular shonen (boys) titles. But the five ongoing series revolve almost exclusively around relationships. Whether it be love triangles, quadrangles or even the occasional pentagram, these manga devote their attentions to the characters connections with each other and the alternately comic or tragic consequences of those interactions. And while the reader may see the occasional mecha or sword fight (plus a smattering of female underwear), be forewarned that the series in EXTRA stand in marked contrast to the majority of manga and anime available in America.
Each series that EXTRA imports enjoyed tremendous popularity in Japan and, for the most part, they are fairly recent offerings that were originally created earlier this decade. One of the real strengths of this magazine lies in its wide selection of different series—each one is unique and rewarding for its own merits and stands apart from the other.
VIDEO GIRL AI is the first series presented in this issue. Created by Katsura Masakazu in 1989, AI is a cute little manga with highly detailed and intricate artwork. The series follows the lonely high-school student Yota who rents a video starring the idol Amano Ai, only to have Ai herself magically emerge from the television and enter his life. EXTRA has been featuring Yota's and Ai's adventures since the magazine began over a year ago. By the point of this issue, Yota and Ai have become close friends and the magical video girl is helping Yota develop his relationship with a girl from his school. As a gesture of thanks, Yota has given Ai a new dress and she is determined to wear it and go out for a night on the town with her friend. Yota, meanwhile is more concerned about a mechanical problem with his VCR overheating. Over the next 20 pages you follow Ai and Yota to the bowling alley, a restaurant and the movies, but you don't think Ai's feverish behavior and the VCR's troubles could be related, do you?
AI is both funny and sweet, and this episode particularly works well as a stand-alone installment. Even without previous knowledge of their complicated relationship, the reader can easily enjoy Ai's antics and Yota's insecure reactions to her. The artwork is superb as well, featuring Katsura's precise lines and playful characterizations. VIDEO GIRL AI can make you laugh without getting too silly, all the while making a grab for your heartstrings.
FUSHIGI YUUGI, however, is not quite so easily digested for the uninitiated reader. With story and art by Watase Yu, this extremely imaginative manga about a wacky high school girl named Miaka who escapes into the fantasical sword-and-sorcery Universe of the Four Gods has been steadily gathering fans stateside. Unfortunately, the extensive array of characters coupled with their dizzying array of relationships make it difficult to follow if you've never entered the realm of the Four Gods before. (See EX's FUSHIGI YUUGI feature for more information). Not being overly familiar with this series myself, I honestly had a hard time keeping track what exactly happens in this particular episode.
Another potential draw back to FY is Watase's switching styles of artwork. At times the characters are well detailed and their expressions are surprising and entertaining. At other moments the art seems haphazard, overblown and distractingly unpolished—drawing attention away from the jokes or dramatic tensions taking place in the story.
Adachi Mitsuru is one of Japan's best-selling manga artists, and the brief but exquisite stories featured in SHORT PROGRAM bear testament to his popularity. This particular episode concerns a couple's first date at an amusement park where the boy seems to know an awful lot about his date's home life. I don't want to give away the O. Henry-esque ironic twist at the end, but Adachi masterfully builds the story to an effectively bittersweet climax. Every episode of SHORT PROGRAM stands on its own, relying more on Adachi's writing than his soft, simple artwork to explore his characters' relationships. SHORT PROGRAM is a quiet manga, and subtly powerful.
X/1999, on the other hand, is hardly subtle, but no less powerful. Enigmatic and intricate, X/1999 was known as simply X in Japan and is the product of the famous all-woman team known as CLAMP. Viz has already released 4 volumes of graphic novels featuring X/1999, and EXTRA picks up the story's thread from there. X follows the fate of Shiro Kamui who has the power to save the world or destroy it as the millenium draws to a close. Surrounding Kamui are dozens of friends and enemies and dense layers of mystery, making X/1999 impossibly difficult to follow if you haven't been reading earlier installments. (Check out EX's review of the first graphic novel for more information).
Even if you've never seen a previous episode of X/1999, this manga is so visually elegant and stimulating it almost doesn't matter if you have no idea what the characters are talking about. The episode featured here presents a stunning variety of characterizations and perspectives, in addition to highly inventive breakdowns of the pages into large and small frames. I honestly didn't care that the obtuse story left me in a fog; the evocative artwork alone is worth coming back for more.
Where X/1999 is complicated and confusing, STEAM DETECTIVES presents itself as unpretentious and straightforward. With story and art by Asamiya Kia, STEAM DETECTIVES follows the adventures of the young sleuth Narutaki as he solves crime in a fictionalized 8th century city where steam has enabled technologies more familiar to giant robot manga. This series seems rather cartoonish compared to EXTRA's other series, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. Asamiya's clean and basic artwork reflects the simple humor and plots of DETECTIVES.
Readers won't be too challenged picking up any episode of DETECTIVES without previous exposure, but EXTRA has picked up where the serialization from MANGA VIZION left off. While DETECTIVES is easily the most action-oriented of EXTRA's offerings, this particular episode is not particularly interesting as it is more of a transitional installment. A mechanical Steam King is terrorizing the city, and Narutaki's police contact suspects the horror writer named Steam King to be the culprit; and I'm fairly certain the pun on Stephen King is not a product of translation. DETECTIVES is clearly not afraid to be a little goofy as it spins out its stories, making it an enjoyable read and an excellent contrast to EXTRA's more convoluted presentations.
The editors fill their leftover pages with a few articles previewing current manga favorites in Japan and the occasional feature about upcoming domestic releases. This issue writes about the shoujo manga YAWARA, and the development of the VIDEO GIRL AI OVA series. Quite frankly though, these articles are pure filler, and you should buy EXTRA for its delightful and diffuse array of manga alone!

English version published by Viz Communications
128 black/white pages
monthly magazine; $4.95
Available now in the USA
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