Manga Monday: Boku wa Beatles by Fujii Tetsuo

This week for Manga Monday I’ve got a Quick Review for a series that I stumbled across recently. It’s Boku wa Beatles by Fujii Tetsuo!

Plot Synopsis: This is the tale of a Beatles Cover Band named The Fab 4 that is on the verge of breaking up due to inner conflicts in the year 2011. They all love The Beatles, but when they get into an argument in a subway….

Plot: The plot of this first chapter is all setup for the series, and while I won’t spoil the plot, I will say I was intrigued by the concept behind the series. You’ll know what I mean when you get to the end of the first chapter. Now as to the musical side I actually enjoyed it quite a bit, and their last song they played in this chapter was Yesterday. That particular song was the first ever song I sang in Choir class all the way back in middle school, so it’s got special meaning to me.

Characters: Rei and Makoto are the two big stars of this first chapter, but the entire band is pretty interesting. While we aren’t shown a whole bunch of their backstory yet, I’m sure we’ll get to see more later on.

Art: The art is awesome, and frankly I wouldn’t have been surprised to see that this was in a Shueisha publication, but it actually isn’t one.

Overall: If you love music, and especially if you love The Beatles, do yourself a favor and read this series. This first chapter was excellent.

For those who like: Music, The Beatles, Rock, Excellent Plot, Fantastic Cast of Charcaters,

Manga Monday: Piano no Mori by Isshiki Makoto

This week for Manga Monday I’ve got another Quick Review. It’s Piano no Mori by Isshiki Makoto!

Plot Synopsis: A tranquil tale about Amamiya Shuhei, who transfers to Moriwaki Elementary filled with hope and ambition about his new life. But it doesn’t take long before he gets picked on by the class bullies, and gets involved in a dare to play the mysterious piano in the forest, leading to his meeting an enigmatic child that goes by the name of Ichinose Kai …

Plot: This first chapter’s plot is pretty decent. It’s nothing spectacular mind, but it isn’t terrible either. The series probably gets better considering that it’s an award winning series, but I didn’t have the time to read past the first chapter.

Characters: Shuhei is a pretty normal character, frankly he’s pretty much a side character in this first chapter, with the spotlight being switched to Kai almost immediately upon his appearance. I’m hoping the characters get a bit more mature though as the series progresses, and like I said above given that this is an award winning series it will probably happen. Kai is pretty foul mouthed for a 10 year old kid, but he seems to be have more depth than Shuhei based solely off this chapter.

Art: The art is okay, it’s got an old timey feel, but isn’t quite as timeless as something from Urasawa like his work on 20th Century Boys. It probably improves over the course of the series, but this first chapter wasn’t super impressive.

Overall: I’m giving this a go ahead solely because of the Award Winning tag I saw in the genre descriptions. Hopefully it proves to be a bit more captivating as the series goes on.

For those who like: Music, Slice of Life, School Life, Drama, Interesting Plot, Decent Characters, Good Artwork.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above.