Totally Spies Cinemanga Volume 4 : Time Spies When Your Having Fun

by David Rasmussen

Riddle me this! What does a trio of gals from Beverly Hills, CA, a Halloween costume ball and the Middle Ages have to do with this story? Find out!

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Riddle me this but usually I am not the one to tout the wonders of CineMangas, unless it’s a movie I really really loved (that’d be Spirited Away the Cinemanga, which got a 4 out of 5 if I remember my review right). So why is it am I now reviewing Totally Spies the Cinamanga from TOKYOPOP? Why?

I needed a few extra reviews and I got this from my favorite book swapping site BookMooch.com, that’s why. Thank you everyone who swaps books every day over at BookMooch! You’re a lifesaver!

So really, what does a trio of gals from Beverly Hills, California (who are only lesbian lovers in the fistful of erotica fanfics and images you can occasionally find on the internet), a Halloween costume ball and the Middle Ages have to do with this story? Apparently a lot, believe it or not. The trio in question (Clover, Sam and Alex) are pals, go to the same High School together, and also work for the worst acronym secret organization since the 3WA (god bless the Lovely Angels, aka Dirty Pair, but the organization you work for has a stupid name). WOOHP… aka the World Organization Of Harry Potter fans… I mean Human Protection. This organization does the usual save the day protect the world thing, only it does it with fashion obsessed, pop culture addled, they may be the only three young women standing between America’s Next Top Model and series cancelation, trio of young teens instead of the usual cavalcade of secret agent types.

Thusly they are often “conned” into missions, dragged against their wills to secret meetings beneath Beverly Hills (where WOOHP seems to have a mega HQ), and are often geared with the most ill designed gadgets that seem to be geared towards young female agents (and thus geared towards young female viewers in terms of merchandise sales).

The series? Japanese I think… but (believe it or not).
Anyway who cares about that, it’s best not to think too hard on things like that.
Let’s review, shall we?

The world’s top scientists (aka people who don’t get out often enough to party) are being abducted, and all signs points to a “Dark Knight” on horseback… no, not George Clooney (the seldom loved 4th Theatrical Batman, with Adam West counting as 1st because of Batman the Movie). It seems somebody has set up shop back in the Middle Ages hellbent on abit of personal revenge (and world domination) by rewriting history a wee bit. Yeah, so we got three young ladies from the future with weird funky gizmos, a hot male king (yeah, another thing is they’re so straight in this series… guess that’s why the series of books is All Ages approved) and a time traveling dark knight… well, guess somebody has to save the day (past and present).
Too bad the trio would rather attend the social event of the hour in the form of a must be seen at Halloween costume party… let’s see if they can make it back in “time” and find enough inspiration during their mission in the Middle Ages for costumes for said party.

OK. About recommendations.
Hmm… I think you’d either have to be a total fan of the series itself (or just like stories with female leads) to read this one. It’s all All Ages titles, and one aimed at young girls to boot, so there is zero titilation if your into that sort of thing. Anyway, on the book’s plus side, it’s one of TOKYOPOP’s affordable line of reads ($6 a pop) so it’s right up there on your list of bargain titles if you’re looking for something in your budget with a little cost saving per volume.

My only problem is the way the panels are set up. It’s supposed to be funky or imaginative or something like that, but the bubbles (or dream clouds or whatever) used to frame each screenshot is abit small, which leaves abit too much overall unused space per page (too much for my comfort level). As “imaginative” as the person who did that may think they are? I would prefer something with more screenshot and less funky, yet totally unused (except for voice bubbles and sound f/x) zones between bubble panels.

Well, the title has three starlets so we’ll give this one 3 time traveling femmes out of 5.