Sumire Takahana is a seemingly normal school girl cursed with the ability to see malevolent ghosts known as "Viruses." Her life hits a crossroads after a run-in with Lucia, a "gothic lolita" clad monster killer for hire. Not content to stay on the sidelines while these Viruses prey on the weak, Sumire decides to join forces with the mysterious, eyepatch-wearing Lucia to hunt down the Viruses before they can hurt anyone else.
Interesting first volume, it reminded me a little bit of Sailor Moon (the TV series) for the very similar drawings and the similar storyline (demons and various monsters). I will continue with Venus Versus Virus Vol 2, which I already borrowed from the library and I have it here with me ready to roll.
This manga has shades of things I liked in series like D.Gray-man and Tokyo Ghoul, but it never goes that extra step to become something really intriguing in the genre of paranormal horror stories.
I don't have a lot to say about this one. It isn't doing anything creative/new and the characters are okay. I could predict how most of the scenarios would play out and the writing is pretty basic for now. However, I will admit that it has piqued my interest and I will at least read the second volume. I have been meaning to read this series for awhile but could never find the whole series. Despite what the edition says, I read this as a e-book and will read subsequent volumes as such. A decent first volume, I am curious to see what volume two has to offer before committing to the series.
Zum Inhalt: Sumires Leben war bisher nichts Besonderes. Doch plötzlich erfährt sie von Lucia, einem Mädchen in Gothic-Lolita-Kostüm und mit Augenklappe, von grässlichen Viren, die in Monstergestalt die Menschenwelt unsicher machen. Von nun an hilft sie Lucia und ihrem Partner bei der gefährlichen Jagd auf die Viren. Bald stellt sich heraus, dass in Sumire geheimnisvolle Kräfte schlummern. Doch sind diese nun gut oder böse?!
Cover:
Das Cover hat mich von Anfang an begeistert. Hier sehen wir den Charakter Lucia, welche in einem Lolitakostüm steckt und eine Augenklappe trägt. Das wirkt skurril, ist aber eins zu eins der Charakter wie im Manga und das macht neugierig, was es denn mit ihrem Aussehen und ihrer Art auf sich hat. Wirklich ein toller Blickfang. Mir gefällt es. Vor allem auch diese Farben. Das passt einfach alles ganz toll zusammen.
Eigener Eindruck:
Als die Schülerin Sumire allein in der Schule ist, findet sie eine Brosche an der sie sich sticht. Als sie am nächsten Tag in der Schule ist, ist sie total erschöpft und sieht plötzlich etwas im Hintergrund, was eigentlich nicht da sein dürfte. Es sind Dinge die sie früher schon einmal gesehen hat, jedoch dachte, dass diese „Visionen“ endlich verschwunden sind. Als Sumire bemerkt, dass sie von Monstern verfolgt wird, scheint es fast zu spät. Hilfe bekommt sie von Lucia, die sie daraufhin in ihren Laden einlädt. Was Sumire nicht weiß ist, dass sie als Köder fungieren soll, da sie die „Viren“ sehen kann. Als es zu einem erneuten Angriff durch die Viren kommt, greift Sumire selbst mit in das Geschehen ein und soll von da an Lucia zur Seite stehen. Von da an lernt Sumire eine völlig neue Welt kennen, die ihr einiges abverlangt…
Als ich den Manga begonnen habe, war er mir ehrlich gesagt zu wirsch. Als ich mich jedoch durch die Seiten vorgearbeitet habe, kam immer mehr Licht ins Dunkel und monoman, was soll ich sagen? Der Manga ist einfach eine Wucht, denn wenn man erst einmal Fuß in der Story gefasst hat, dann liest das Werk sich in einem Rutsch durch und ist so spannend, dass man einfach ganz schnell den nächsten Band zur Hand haben möchte. Die Charaktere in diesem Werk sind bisweilen ein bisschen schräg und ich musste schon ein bisschen schmunzeln, aber da es sich hier um einen Fantasymanga handelt, waren diese Übertreibungen mit denen der Mangaka arbeitet vollkommen okay. Denn sind wir mal ehrlich, das Outfit von Lucia ist doch etwas gewöhnungsbedürftig. Die Charaktere finde ich übrigens wirklich toll gestaltet und man kann sich sehr gut in sie hinein versetzen. Das gelingt den Wenigsten und macht einfach nur Spaß. Die Idee die „Monster“ als Viren zu bezeichnen fand ich im Übrigen sehr erfrischend. Das ist einmal etwas anderes. Ich bin gespannt, wie es weiter geht und vor allem bin ich auch wirklich neugierig welche Rolle Sumire nun schlussendlich zuteilwerden wird. Kanonenfutter oder Held?
Fazit:
Endlich mal wieder ein Manga der spannend ist und eine gute Story vorweisen kann. Details ohne Ende! Absolutes Lesemuss für alle Mangafans!
The story line is interesting with a bit of mystery and some horror elements. The characters are unique and designed well. The only issue I have is the pacing is slow and makes it a bit of a hard read. I do intend to get the next volume to see if the pacing changes.
I really enjoyed this, the story was fun and entertaining. I would really like to see more backstory for Lucia's character in the next volumes. I like her character a lot so far.
****ATTENTION SPOILER ALERT, PIECE BY PIECE LITERALLY LOL.**** Piece 01: is about a high school girl name Takahana Sumire she is running late and to her knowledge she is seeing things. She spots a brooch someone had dropped. She picks it up and hurries to school. One of the ugly monsters tries to attack her, and here comes Lucia, who saves her. She shoots ugly, and then give Sumire a flyer to her store Venus Vangard. Then Lucia starts "schooling" Sumire about the monsters that's she calls a virus, which is apparently a type of demon that feeds on others with the "vision", turning them into viruses as well. Piece 02: Sumire experience her first battle with her first virus. When Lucia missed and accidentally hit Sumire, with her special bullets. The bullets changed Sumire into a human antivirus. Which allowed her to reach physically into the virus and kill it. AWESOME!! Lucia and Nahashi invited Sumire to use her powers to fight more virus. Piece 03:In this chapter we meet Sumire cousin Nene and Riku. Riku is in love with And Nene, is trailing Sumire trying to figure out why she is so distant with her, and what she discovers, is difently not what she had expected. Sumire is going back and forth in her head whether or not she should help Lucia. Then after another battle and this time Lucia intervines and saves her. Sumire decides to move in with Lucia to help her with the virus. Piece 04: Sumire and Lucia are on their first case. A little girl Tsukuyo needs some help saving her twin brother You-Chan. So strangly Nahashi, remembers Tsukuyo house but he doesn't remember from where. Piece 05: After picking up a old newspaper article it came back to Nahashi that Tsukuyo is the missing girl. By that time, Luca and Sumire is in the house. Luca gives Sumire strict instruct not to move Tsukuyo. While she go into the room to talk to, You-Chan. You-Chan tells Lucia about how a monster ate his sister, abd instead of helping her. He ran all the way home, and locked himself, in his room. Outside the door, cunning Tsukuyo convinces Sumire to go down stairs. When the two get down stairs that's when all is revealed that she is the monster. She is the virus....creepy but sad. That's the end of book one. I love the oddness(I don't think that a word °-°) of Lucia, I enjoy the fact more and more about her is being revealed. I can not wait to read book 2!!! So far this manga is incredible.
Overall Rating: A+ Summary: Sumire, a shy middle school student, can see ghosts. One day, she pricks her hand on a strange brooch and starts even stranger things. One of the things (which looks like an octopus with one eye) attacks her. Luckily, a "gothic lolita" clad woman names Lucia shoots it. She calls the thing a virus, which is apparently a type of demon that feeds on those with the "vision" (like Sumire), turning them into viruses as well. Lucia also runs a store called Venus Vanguard that sells gothic lolita clothing as a front for her virus hunting. Did I mention she wears an eye-patch and wields a gun? I'm thinking of cross-playing her.
I first heard about Venus Versus Virus a few months ago, and was eagerly awaiting its release. The series is by Atsushi Suzumi, and it began as a one-shot submitted for a contest the manga anthology Dengenki Dao was running with the theme gothic lolita. Unfortunately, when the first volume came out in the US two weeks ago, I couldn't find a copy. Then I went to Comic Con and went to the Seven Seas booth (they publish the book), got the manga, read it, and loved it as much as I hoped I would.
I absolutely adore Lucia, and Sumire quickly grew on me. She starts the series out being quite timid, but things start developing quickly after Lucia saves Sumire from the virus. Lucia gives Sumire a flyer for her store, and says she's charging her for the rescue. Of course, it turns out she will let Sumire work off the debt by acting as bait for more viruses (it seems like a lot of manga characters end up working off debts, and the jobs inevitably lead to hijinks and adventure. hrm...). It's during the next virus attack that we learn Sumire has virus hunting powers as well, and the pair begin to live and work together. They also seem to develop the hints of a relationship (nothing is explicit, but there seem to be Yuri undertones).
Volume 1 of the manga is out now, and volume 2 comes out in October. I highly recommend it.
For more manga and anime reviews, please check out Hobotaku.
I picked this up because I saw a summary for it somewhere that sounded so bizarre that I couldn't not check it out. Unfortunately, it wasn't that bizarre.
Now, I've seen a lot of very positive reviews for this one on Goodreads, so it could just be that I've forgotten how to appreciate manga or something (I am very out of practice), but this just felt pretty generic to me. The character designs are cute enough, and the art is fine, but there was just nothing here to grab me. Sumire's ability to see ghosts never even played into the story at all except as a set-up for why she could see the viruses.
I enjoyed the first volume of this series, and I think it has potential! Though, I'm not entirely sure why Suzumi-san kept feeling the need to apologize for her artwork. I thought it was just fine! She did a great job!
I think what I like and appreciate most (and perhaps it's because the manga-ka is a girl) is that there are two female leads and neither of them have giant boobs. Arigatou Suzumi-san... for real. :-p
I will definitely be reading the rest of this series!
Gothic lolita demon hunter. Nuff said? NO? The art is decent and the idea has potential but volume one didn't get me very invested in the characters. I liked it enough that I will likely give volume 2 a chance though and see where it goes from there.