MISC. MANGA, *Galaxy Angel

Based on the popular anime series, this manga deals with the Galaxy Angel team in a slightly alternate storyline. There is an original video game which is seperate from the TV show that this is derived from.

The Angel Troupe are a team of five cute girls in the future who use special fighter craft to help protect the galaxy. They’re made up of the incredibly lucky but dim Milfie, the sexy but superstitious Ranpha, the bunny-eared closet cosplayer Mint, soft-spoken healer Vanilla, and the gun-obsessed Forte.

While on vacation, the Angel Troupe gets called into escort the Prince Shiva to an area of space protected by the Moon Goddess. The goddess is an entity that in the storyline of the video games hand selected the Angel Troupe into action. So now, they’re on their way in the prince’s main ship, the Elle Ciel. Along for the ride, are the acting captain Takuto, who is just a young boy who is really smitten by the Angel Troupe, and Commander Meyers who is his advisor. On the way, they stop at a desert planet for supplies where they befriend that planet’s prince, and the girls are mistaken for actual angels. Also, they make a sidequest to a hot springs resort so Ranpha can find her true love.

Each volume is filled with tons of bonus material, usually taking up a good 1/5 of the book, including character bios, mini-comic strips, glossaries, translation notes, and more. It’s just a funny as the anime, but with more of an ongoing plot to it.

Top 10 Ani-M.I.L.F.s

Since its Mother's Day, thought I'd list the top 10 anime mommas. Now, since mothers in anime are kind of an endangered species, coming up with 10 is no easy order.

10. Yui: Neon Genesis Evangelion

Where as she was already dead for most of the regular series(movie and TV), her presence is the main driving force for Gendo Ikari's plans for bringing about Armageddeon. She was also responsible for turning Shinji into a total Momma's boy, which makes her enough of a good mother to be on the list.

9. Trisha: Fullmetal Alchemist

Another dead character who was a motivation for the main protagonists, Trish was the wife of one of the most deadbeat dad's ever, but also a great alchemist. So when she passed on, her sons tried bringing her back to life, which ends up causing them to spend the rest of the series looking for a way to turn their bodies back to normal from the attempt. That's some loving kids, despite being turned into hideous abominations because of it.

8. Neo Queen Serenity: Sailor Moon

Sailor Moon's future self is kinda hot in her strapless evening gown. She'd be a better mother if she'd stop sending her only daughter back in time when the Earth is still being attacked by demonic aliens.

7. Misaki: Tenchi Muyo

Sasami & Ayeka's mom is freaking psycho! She's obsessive, picky, and overbearing. And that's what makes her so damn wonderful!

6. Harumi: DearS

The stepmom of the main Earth character, Takeya. She's very influential on him though, to the point where he even shrugs off the advances of his gorgeous alien slave girl because he's so infatuated with her. Plus, she delivers a great finishing wrestling move.

5.Nadoka: Ramna 1/2

Ranma's momma is seriously dedicated to her family. Especially since she's willing to behead both her husband and son if Ranma doesn't turn out to be a "man amoung men". Too bad he turns into a girl half the time!

4. Sakura: Hyper Police

Even though she starts out the series as a bachelorette, after she ends up marrying a samurai flung hundreds of years into the future(not Samurai Jack!), Sakura gives birth to triplets who manage to reach full toddler age within a few months. For a kitsune, she manages to care enough for her new family, although she still wants to devour a certain catgirl.

3. Nancy: Read Or Die

At first she was a super-powered clone of Mata Hari. She later becomes pregnant with the son of a former genocidal madman, who would later become a candidate for taking over the entire world! So not bad! Plus she wears a skintight leather outfit like Black Widow could only dream of.

2. Hild: Ah My Goddess

Urd's mother is the ruler of the underworld, and the grand poobah of all demons. Acting also as the boss for the demon Marller, she constantly tries to break up Belldandy's relationship with a wimpy college student. She is pretty much all powerful, but still tries to maintain the balance between good and evil. She's also one of the most voluptuous females in all of anime!

1.Washu: Tenchi Muyo

One of three goddess that govern the cosmos, Washu is also the most brilliant scientist in the universe. Giving birth to one of the most prominent members in the Kuramitsu family(of whom the character Mihoshi is descended), Washu also created the neferious space pirate Ryoko using her own egg cel. Washu can shift between her younger Washu-chan guise, to her adult form. But her full-fledged goddess stature is totally "hubba-hubba"!

JESI THE GENIE, *Part 1: Page 3

Story by Jer Alford, art by James Dawsey.

MISC. MANGA, *Guru Guru Pon-Chan

From Satomi Ikezawa, creator of the manga Othello, is this quirky comedy about a dog given the chance to become human.

Ponta is a cute labrador puppy who lives with a family in Japan. Their grandfather Koizumi is not only the head of the local school, but he’s also a closet scientist. He develops something he calles the Guru Guru Bone. It’s a synthetic non-digestable bone that is supposed to cause a dog to start speaking human language once they put it in their mouth or lick it. Koizumi tries to test it on Ponta, bun instead the effect it has on her is that it turns her into a human girl! She starts running around totally naked, and then runs into the neighbor’s yard. Their neighbor is Mirai, the handsomest boy in school. He sees this crazy naked little girl in his yard and doesn’t know what to think, but saves her from nearly getting hit by a car. Ponta runs away when she accidently pukes on Mirai, and then turns back to her dog form though as transformation is only temporary.

Nine months pass after that, and Ponta is now a few years older(in dog years). She sees Mirai again, and gets a hold of the Guru Guru Bone which was in his room for the last few months. She turns into a human again, but this time she’s a cute blonde teenager. She grabs one of Mirai’s shirts and runs home. Ponta’s family is suprised to see a mute half-naked girl running around, but then the transformation wears off again, and they learn the truth about their grandfather’s experiment.

From this point, one thing leads to another, and Ponta is now enrolled in Koizumi’s school, which his granddaughter Yuka who has a secret crush on Mirai. But what none of them know is that Ponta has a crush on Mirai too. He soon figures out about Ponta’s transformations, but still treats her like a little sister. This leads to a conflict where Ponta realizes that Yuka is jealous of her spending time with Mirai, so Ponta tries to loose the Guru Guru Bone. But that doesn’t last long, as she’s back in school in human form later on, and becomes the girl that the new transfer student gets a thing for.

This is a charming manga. It’s mostly from the p.o.v. of the dog though, but still very well illustrated, and has a bizarre but hysterical sense of humor. Certainly worth a look for dog lovers, or any shojo junkies.

JESI THE GENIE, *Part 1: Page 2

Story by Jer Alford, art by James Dawsey.

MISC. MANGA, *Hyper Police

Hopefully you’ve seen one of the definately best anime for furries, minus Inu Yasha. But before the TV series there was the manga it was based on. By creator Mee(yeah, that’s his name)this post-apocalyptic sci-fi fantasy cop show has something for nearly any kind of furry otaku. You might be familiar with another anime based on Mee’s work, Adventures Of Kotetsu, which was released on video from ADV Films some time ago.

Set in what’s called year 22 of the new Holy Century, Hyper Police happens after some disaster apparently caused by mankind, which later brings all different races of monsters out of hiding. In this new society, humans co-exist with monsters, although they are still the majority race, often treating monsters as second-class citizens. This leads to various crime committed by monsters.

Since the regular police can’t handle all this, special groups of bounty hunters step in to keep the streets clean for a nominal fee. One group is the Police Company. Natsuki is a catgirl-half that works for them, and lives in a house filled with cats. She’s under the care of her partner Batanen, a sex-crazed werewolf. But after accidently shooting him, she gets a new partner in Sakura who is a kitsune whose working to fill out her ninth and last tail. She so far has 8 1/3 tails, and has to consume a being of magical energy in order to be a full-fledged fox spirit. Sakura hooks on Natsuki because she believes her ability to use parasites which shoot out bolts of lightning would give her the power boost she needs.

From this point, its a little like your standard flashy action police anime. Sakura moves in with Natsuki while still trying to “eat” her. Later, the Police Company goes out of business, Natsuki and Sakura have to go solo for a while, but can’t collect any bounties without a license. So they become apprentices under Batanen and his dogboy partner Tommy. The weird part is the arrival of a samurai from hundreds of years in the past(Samurai Jack, anyone?)who eventually becomes Sakura’s love interest.

The manga doesn’t have as much of the action as the anime did, but there’s alot of more gratuitous fan service. Tokyo Pop did a reasonable job for a change with the translation though.

MISC. MANGA, *In Dream World

This RPG-inspired manwha seems like it might be based on an actual card game like Yugioh, but it doesn’t, although creator Jae-Ho Yoon was probably pitching for one when he made it.

Taking place in a fantasy realm, pirate girl Hanee is apparently from our world, but ends up being swept away to the a different reality where creatures called Nightmares prey upon the innocent. The only way to stop them is by using special magical cards called In Dream Cards. With them, the bearer can summon various creatures and magical warriors to battle the Nightmare monsters.

Once in this strange new world, Hanee is intoduced to the elvish warrior Drake who is also from another world like her, and she soon finds out that all aliens to this realm have the ability to become masters users of these In Dream Cards. Drake takes Hanee as his travelling companion after an initial attack by a Nightmare.

Later on, Drake and Hanee meet Bunny Girl, who is a young girl wearing obligatory Playboy Bunny ears, and has come down with a bit of amnesia. They then all meet up with another alien girl named Rosemary and her talking doll counterpart. Rosemary apparently comes from the same world as Hanee, but from a different period.

The ulitmate goal for the group is to hunt down and rid the world of all the Nightmares, while Hanee is hoping to find a way back home. It’s a little short of direction, but there’s some decent storytelling going on here, and interesting characters to flesh it out. Furry fans will enjoy the eclectic summon monsters like talking wolves and merfolk. Should look into it if you dug old school video games like Monster Rancher or Chrono Trigger.