Afterschool Charisma Injects Sci-Fi Suspense Into High School

In your average high school drama manga series, you'll find the usual cast of characters: the jock, the brain, the bully, the sensitive artist, the prissy girl, and the hussy. Kumiko Suekane's Afterschool Charisma has these archetypal characters, but with a twist: they're all teen clones of historical figures. The brainy kid has the same DNA as Albert Einstein. The girl most likely to succeed? She's the clone of Queen Elizabeth I. And the bully is... Mozart?

It'd be entertaining enough to see teen Sigmund Freud, Florence Nightingale and Rasputin deal with the everyday drama of high school, but Suekane takes it to the next level by injecting sci-fi/psychological suspense into the plot. The clones of St. Kleio Academy are already struggling with meeting their teachers' expectations when one of the school's most famous graduates, a clone of John F. Kennedy is assassinated on live TV. This turn of events sends a ripple of fear throughout the school. The clones begin to ask themselves: are they doomed to repeat the lives and deaths of their predecessors?

Samurai Harem (Asu no Yoichi!) Complete Collection

Yoichi Karasuma was raised and trained in the mountains in the disciplines of the Divine Wind School, but when he finally betters his old man in skill, his father decides that Yoichi's new “training regimen” should be learning how to live in a different wilderness – i.e. the city.
To that end Yoichi journeys to an in-town dojo of his school, which becomes a challenge not only because of his unfamiliarity with the setting but also because he's never really been around girls or women, which is a particular problem since the dojo is operated and inhabited by the four young Ikaruga sisters: the gorgeous elder sister Ibuki, second sister Ayame, third sister Chihiya, and youngster Kagome. Much nosebleeding and bashing about by Ibuki ensue over Yoichi's innocently inappropriate behavior. Local tough Ryou Washizu, who is head over heels for Ibuki, sees Yoichi as an obstruction to his romantic goals, while various warriors from rival martial arts schools occasionally pop up to challenge Yoichi. As he and the Ikaruga sisters soon discover, though, the fox-masked brother and sister behind most of the attacks have their own sinister goals involving Yoichi and Ibuki.

Director: Rion Kujo
Screenplay:
Hideyuki Kurata
Tatsuya Takahashi
Music: Tomoki Kikuya
Original creator: Yuu Minamoto
Chief Animation Director: Yumiko Ishii
Animation Director:
Hong Chen
Yumiko Ishii
Yutaka Matsubara
Masami Nagata
Kiyotaka Nakahara
Yooichi Ueda
Sound Director: Jin Aketagawa

NY Times Manga Bestsellers: Hellsing Climbs The Charts, Battle Angel Alita Returns

Naruto, Vampire Knight and Bleach: these three perennially-popular titles claimed the top 3 spots in last week's chart, and they're still holding strong to their positions in this week's New York Times Graphic Books Bestseller List. But nipping at their heels in the #4 spot is the 10^th and final volume of Hellsing, the ultra-violent, no-sparkly-hunks-here vampire saga by Kohta Hirano from Dark Horse.

The sole newcomer to this week's chart is the latest volume of Battle Angel Alita: Last Order by Yukito Kushiro from VIZ Media, the current adventures of a powerful cyborg who seeks out her forgotten origins and the circumstances of her past life. The first Battle Angel Alita series was one of the first manga series that VIZ Media put out back in the day, so it's nice to see that this latest series has maintained its popularity with readers.