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Mixed Vegetables GN 1
Mixed Vegetables's first volume leaves a pleasant but bland aftertaste ... not quite dramatic enough to be a great romance series, and not quite gourmet enough to be a great cooking series.

Boogiepop at Dawn
A must-read for any fan of the Boogiepop franchise, this first book in Seven Seas' undersized Lite Novel line definitively describes the franchise's crucial five-years-past backstory, including the origin of Boogiepop. It is an absorbing, chilling, and easy-to-read diversion.

Missing -Kamikakushi No Monogatari- GN 2
Although the first volume was passable in quality, volume two is, to put it as bluntly as possible, excretable. Do not let this pitiable excuse for printed matter spirit away your time and your hard-earned money!

Monster GN 16
After over 130 chapters and fifteen compiled volumes, even Naoki Urasawa, a mangaka of prodigious storytelling talent, is having trouble holding it all together.

The Key to the Kingdom GN 1-2
Ignore the baby-soft pink and purple color scheme of the cover. This is a series that anyone of any age—male or female—who loves high fantasy for all ages in the tradition of Tolkien or C.S. Lewis needs to pick up right quick.

Million Tears GN 1-2
Although Million Tears boast a richly-described gothic sensibility that culminates in a warmly humanistic message, it is clear that Kazumi is still in the process of earning her creative chops here, and the manga, though intriguing in places, represents a wealth of missed opportunities.

The Yagyu Ninja Scrolls GN 1-2
Grounded in actual history and styled similar to Basilisk and Ninja Scroll, these first two volumes have no actual ninja in them. That doesn't prevent them from offering a solid and well-crafted, if pedestrian, excursion back to the bloody days of early 17th century Japan.

Blue Dragon Dub.DVD 1
A standard epic quest upon whose skeleton clichéd developments hang like rotten shounen fruit. Character designs by Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama. Whoopee.

Black Lagoon: Second Barrage DVD 1
Back after most of a year's absence, the second season of this series about a torpedo boat crew in the seedy underside of SE Asia begins with a lot of nasty, bloody, action-laden fun. It's great-looking, well-written, and sports an impressive English dub.

Tweeny Witches DVD 3
There's no denying it: the series is beautiful to behold—more so now than ever. Too bad there's nothing else to recommend it.

Kikaider DVD 1
...if you like your anime slow and deliberate, with a lot of philosophical undertones about man's relationship to machine and the discovery of repressed emotion, Kikaider might be for you.