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Neo is a girl from the future, and Saya is a boy with a dream. Odette is a robot who wants to be a real girl. Dinah is caught up in a strange struggle with the world of the unrestful dead. Kiyo is a girl who has inherited a mansion that comes with two vampires. What do they all have in common? They’re all main characters of manga put out by Tokyopop!

In the 23rd century, women are encouraged to be quiet and reserved. But Neo likes her skirts short and her personality loud - just like the ladies of the twenty-first century! Lucky for her, she stumbles across a device that puts her in our day and age, and she just happens to fall into giving a concert with a handsome backup singer named Saya. Though the concert bombs, they’re given three months to put together an act and perform for a record deal! The challenge is like heaven to Neo, who has always dreamed of being a singer and feels at home in the past, but Saya’s a bit of a naysayer. The two manage to put their differences to the side and team up, though there’s a hint of romance on the horizon! Created by the illustrator for the Code Geass manga, Majiko!, this series is adorable and fluffy, but not much more. Like brain candy, this is one that you’ll giggle a little while you read, but it isn’t destined to be a story you remember.

For something like that, you should turn to M. Alice LeGrow’s Bizenghast. One of the more successful American manga authors\artists, M. Alice’s story of a sleepy little down with an undead secret is one of my favorite manga titles right now. Dinah can see spirits. At first, they are the stuff of nightmares, but then she gets drafted by a bureaucratic underworld to help put to rest spirits with issues. Only this gig is more than it seems, as we learn at the beginning of volume six, the volume that LeGrow herself described as the volume where ‘the shit really hits the fan’. When Dinah is set to meet yet a third member of Edaniel and Edrear’s family - a sister, for once - they find not her, but a body. And everything begins to fall apart.

The boys are distraught, and Dinah, on her own, finds another piece to the mystery behind the town of Bizenghast. Like the clockwork in Dinah’s corset on the cover, everything begins to click into place and tick down to the release of the seventh - and final - volume. The sixth volume makes it quite clear that there is a war coming, and Dinah will play a very large part.

Bizenghast is a favorite at conventions, mostly due to the insane, brilliant and utterly hilarious M. Alice, who has a unique artistic vision that makes Bizenghast her first series (of what will hopefully be many) so unique. It’s packed with silly fun humor, and all kinds of snakey references to herself and pop culture (in the first chapter, she’s the one wearing the ‘I want a Robot Boyfriend’ and ‘Martification Unit’ shirts. And yes, she is that adorable in real life). Bizenghast stands as the example of what the American manga movement should be - the Japanese format done with a distinctly Western look and story, as opposed to a bunch of Americans trying to be Japanese. Those of us on this side of the world who wish to get into the manga line of work should look at LeGrow as a source of knowledge, an example. I cannot recommend Bizenghast enough; the only downside to the series is that it will merely run seven volumes.

Odette, like Pinocchio, only wants to be real. Only Pinocchio wanted to be a real boy, and Odette just wants to be a high school girl. Her creator lets her go, and every day for Odette is a new experience. From eating and understanding what ‘tasty’ means to making friends to having feelings - it’s all an adventure to Odette, and readers of Karakuri Odette will learn that this mechanical girl is closer than she thinks. Calm, passive, and a little maudlin, Odette finds everything around her fascinating, and the audience feels the same way about her. Of course, this isn’t the first robot girl to capture our hearts - Chi from Chobits immediately leaps to mind - but where most robot girls are mere vehicles for fan service, Odette seems to be aimed more at the female audience - we want to be her friend, not see her get got by the boy. I really enjoyed this first volume, and can’t wait for the second, due out in February.

Kiyo has no family; her mother is deceased, and her father has disappeared after being falsely accused of a crime. Her life has given her a purpose, and she pursues it single-mindedly: to become a lawyer and clear her father’s name! So when she suddenly comes into an inheritance, she doesn’t think much of the old rambling estate - she mostly wants to tear it down and sell the land. Only the heroine of Bloody Kisses doesn’t know that inside that ramshackle house are two vampires who, once, were companions of her grandmother’s and now live alone, together.

Kuroboshi is dark haired and handsome, and he falls for Kiyo almost instantly. He seeks to make her his ‘bride’, which means that he will drink from her and only her. His servant, Alshu, is a bit of a prankster, and also thinks that Kiyo smells tasty, and wants a nip. Kiyo will have none of it; she doesn’t want to be anybody’s snack, and doesn’t much care for being a ‘bride’, but can’t help but notice that Kuroboshi sure is cute! Bloody Kisses is a silly, supernatural, romantic romp, one that inspires laughter and will certainly make you want to turn the page. Included in the back is a bonus story with a completely different set of characters, “Angel Love Song”.

Though Bizenghast six is the clear pick of this group, Karakuri Odette one and Bloody Kisses one are also fantastic reads, not to be missed!

(Amanda Rush is an animaven who likes to stalk M. Alice LeGrow at conventions. For more on that, check her interview with Marty: http://www.popsyndicate.com/site/story/an_interview_with_m._alice_legrow/ )