...continued from previous page ROMANCERS by Asami Yuuko Started in #44, 1999 / Ended in #12, 2000 Overview: Takara is a Romancer, a being that can make words come to life. In his case, he can make any "lie" a lie in real life. He uses his special talent to help people while searching for others like him, but when he saved his cop friend Wakisaka, his powers were strengthened and Takara's powers changed so he could use them when he is deeply moved. With his strengthened powers, Takara protected his classmate Akira from harm—then he found out that this new friend might be the younger brother of Kagami Kensuke, the Romancer who saved Takara's life... This Issue—19. Magic that Flies over Time - Takara and Akira confirm with each other that the man who they are thinking of is the one and the same. Akira then starts to tell Takara his memories of Kensuke: Akira's mother never let him near his brother, for she thought that Kensuke was a monster. One day, Kensuke decided to leave his house for good, and told Akira that he was leaving. Akira pleaded to go with him, but Kensuke refused and used his Romancer powers to fly a small model airplane, saying that when the plane stops its flight, he was no longer alive on this earth. The airplane grew still after two days. Akira tells Takara that he was happy to hear that his brother passed away with a smile because Kensuke never smiled when he was at home. Takara replies that he doesn't think Kensuke was dead, and he borrows the model airplane in question. Takara uses his Romancer powers to say that it was a "lie" to not make the plane fly if he was alive (i.e. the plane will fly if Kensuke was alive), and the model airplane rises into the sky. Takara promises to himself that he will find Kensuke again someday. The series unfortunately was too short for any significant character development. (The series was so short, in fact, that it ended two weeks before the first volume was due to hit the streets!) The art was stable and strong as Asami ever was in the latter portion of WILD HALF; it just might have been that the subject matter was not as appreciated as much by the target audience (elementary school boys) who still comprise a majority of the readership. ZOMBIE POWDER. by Kubo Tite Started in #34, 1999 / Ended in #11, 2000 (1 volume available) Overview: In this world, there is a powder called the Zombie Powder that brings the dead back to life and gives the living eternal life. The long journey for Elwood the pickpocket begins when he meets Akutabi Gamma, a Powder Hunter in search of the 12 Rings of the Dead to acquire the Zombie Powder. Gamma successfully gets the first ring, and is on his way to a doctor that can safely pull the second ring out of Emilio... This Issue—track for cut down / the nameless way - Angel takes Gamma's entourage and warps back to the lab, where they are greeted by the doctor named Gemini and her assistants. With one look at Emilio, Gemini diagnoses him as being possessed by the Ring of the Dead. Much to Wolfina's surprise, Gemini then pulls out part of the ring's curse, then asks Wolfina to be a lab sample for a year as payment to rid Emilio's curse. As the operation gets underway, Elwood feels left out and starts to wander around, looking for Gamma. He spots our hero visiting someone's grave. Meanwhile, Wolfina calls her mother, saying that Emilio will finally be operated on, and that she believes that he will be fully healed. That night, Smith meets Gamma who sneaked out of the lab. Gamma tells Smith that he decided to leave Wolfina and Elwood at the lab to continue his journey. He then says that he trusts Elwood to make a decision for himself, much like how he did years ago, and heads out into the night with his friend. Considering the number of fans of this series (enough to have the first volume show up in the Original Confidence weekly top 20 comic chart during the first week after release), the sudden end was very unexpected. The abruptness of the ending shows in this final episode; more questions are left unresolved despite the apparent closure. Hopefully, when compiled into tankoubon, the last volume will expand slightly more than what this ending gave. HIKARU NO GO story by Hotta Yumi, art by Obata Takeshi, supervised by Umezawa Yukari Started in #2/3, 1999 (5 volumes available) Overview: Hikaru was a normal elementary school student until the spirit of Sai, an ancient master of go, became trapped in his body. At first, Hikaru knew nothing of the game of go, but with Sai's proddings and teaching him the basics, his own ability starts to blossom. Hikaru, upon hearing that Akira has turned into a professional go player, applied and was accepted to the academy for aspiring professionals. However, he is struggling to win against the other kids. Furthermore, in order to play Akira again, he must improve his status within the academy... This Issue—57th bout. And then - Back at Haze Junior High, Mitani thinks about how it was a year ago that day that Hikaru dragged him over to the go club. The club in question got one new boy to enter, bringing the membership up to four. Since there was a girl on the volleyball team that promised to help the two girls out in the three-man tournaments, Natsume heads back to convince Mitani to be their third man so that the boys can enter the tournament as well. Mitani refuses, but during science class, he finds out that the go club had been keeping records of all their bouts—and they had reserved a record book just for him. That day, Mitani shows up at the go club meeting, but says that he is there only for the occasional matches and he won't take part in the tournaments. Just then, Kaneko, the girl from the volleyball team, arrives; she tells the group that she will show up occasionally to prepare for the tournament. She asks for a match with the strongest player in the club, and everyone points to Mitani. While the others watch in fear, Kaneko manages to play against Mitani. She loses, but promises that she will have a rematch the next day (although Mitani says he won't be coming back the next day)... SHAMAN KING by Takei Hiroyuki Started in #31, 1998 (7 volumes available) Overview: Asakura Yoh is a shaman who wishes to become the best of the shamans—the Shaman King. Supported by his friend Manta and his fiancée Anna, Yoh and his spirit-friend Amidamaru won through the preliminary matches for the Shaman Fight in Tokyo, the tournament which will decide who the King will be. This Issue—78th Reincarnation: Claiming to be the Future King - Yoh's entourage arrives at the meeting place for the main battle, the U.S. army station. There, they wonder what's going to happen next, realizing that they were soon going to find out what will happen to them. Suddenly, a boy comes in, wondering why they were worried about trivial things like the near future. Horohoro gets angered at this comment, but he is blown away by the boy's spirit. The boy goes on to introduce himself as Hao (the mastermind behind the two rocker shamans that assaulted Yoh a while back). Ren attacks Hao's spirit, still he can't even make a scratch. Just then, Hao's henchmen (including those rocker shamans) urge their master to go back towards the base before the airplane takes off; Hao smiles at Yoh, saying that he wanted our protagonist to become one of his servants. HUNTER x HUNTER by Togashi Yoshihiro Started in #14, 1998 (7 volumes available) Overview: Gon is a boy who dreamt of becoming a Hunter just like his father Ging. Now that he and his friends Clapika and Reolio passed the Hunter Qualifications Examination and became Hunters, they went their separate ways in search of finding the answers to the questions that led them to become Hunters. Time passes, and the boys reunite with Reolio at the auction in Yorkshin, but Clapika is on duty as one of the bodyguards for Neon, a girl with fortune-telling Nen powers. But during the audition, Genei Ryodan (the thieving ring that Clapika seeks revenge on) appears to swipe all the auction items and kill off everyone in the room, and a large-scale battle between the thieves and the Injuu (top Nen users of the mafia community) gets underway. This Issue—No.076. September 1st (part 5) - Wubohgin uses one huge punch to blow Mimizu (the "worm" Injuu) to pieces. Yamaarashi ("porcupine"), Hill ("leech") and Byouken ("rabid dog") set to attack Wubohgin. While Yamaarashi diverts attention, Byouken plants a poison to stop Wubohgin's movements, then Hill plants numerous parasitic leeches in Wubohgin's body. Wubohgin says he only needs from his neck up to defeat the three, and he bites off half of Hill's head. With one spit (of a leech's skull, no less) he then blows away Byouken's head, and finally uses a loud scream (to the level of a sonic boom) to destroy Yamaarashi's brains from the eardrums. Wubohgin calls out to his comrades for help, while Clapika at a distance stands up to capture Wubohgin. Meanwhile, somewhere far away, Hisoka stands up to go meet someone. Somewhere else, Gon tells Reolio that his Nen powers are only Ten and not actual Nen...