MISC. MANGA, *Sushi Girl

One of Tokyo Pop’s very first original titles was this American anime-styled comic that came out back when they were still called Mixx Entertainment. The first half of is was printed up in Tokyo Pop’s Smile Magazine, and then reprinted in a small paperback along with the rest of the story. It was concieved by Tokyo Pop head Stu Levy, but written and drawn by Tavicat, otherwise known as Tavisha Wolfgarth and Rikki Simons(the voice of Gir from Invader Zim).

Taking place about 2 centuries after yet another futuristic apocalypse, the world is divided into several sections. One is an area made of sticks, sort like the boonies, and fresh young happy-go-lucky pink-haired girl Kemmy leaves the sticks to the mega-mall city on the other side of the planet where everything is traded through a system based on karma. The more good karma you have, the better you are. Kemmy hopes to be an “OperaRap” star, but doesn’t have any good karma in this brave new world. However, she manages to stop a rampaging bunch of wild zoo animals with her mad bunny board(flying-scooter)skills. She then gets hired by a talking purple moose to be a delivery girl for a sushi shop. Kemmy and her fellow co-workers try to form their own rock band too, although the jealous snobby neerdowell, Olivia Neutron Bomb, sabotages their premiere concert. Kemmy uses her good karma and natural singing talent to save the day though, only to be asked to become a secret agent by her boss.

Sushi Girl is a pretty good comic. It’s got some great colorful visuals that Tavicat employed impressive 3D graphics for, which they also used on their original comic of Reality Check(which is unfortunately left out of the Tokyo Pop reprint). The story is good too, although the first half seems a little more fluid than the second half. Whether this had something to do with the initial magazine release of the first half is unknown. The comic was later redone as a light novel for younger readers called Karma Club by Stu Levy. There was going to be an animated series based on Karma Club a few years ago, but so far nothing on that. Still, Sushi Girl is one of the more delightful little “Ameri-manga” titles to come out, and its worth tracking down a copy of the paperback for your library.