Rizelmine: Volume 1

by Yukiru Sugisaki

Tomonori is a hapless 15-year-old student who has just had his heart broken by the teacher he has had a crush on. When he goes home, Tomonori finds an unexpected surprise: Rizel, a very cute girl who is apparently made of nanomachines!

Genres: Manga, Graphic Novels, Comics, Science Fiction, Shonen, Fantasy, Shojo

Hardcover

First published August 1, 2005

About the author

Yukiru Sugisaki (杉崎ゆきる; Sugisaku Yukiru in Japanese) is a Japanese manga artist. Her hobbies are dramas, video games, and "collecting rabbit things".
Sugisaki's face is rarely seen, as she prefers to draw herself with a rabbit face or mask in her manga profile images. She also seems to have developed a trait of leaving her series unfinished before moving on to different projects (Notably D.N.Angel, which has seen multiple month-long droughts between chapters. She has just recently done many Lagoon Engine installments, including the Japanese release of volume 7.
Previous to that, she completed a small series entitled Eden, which had its debut in the October 2006 issue of Shōnen Ace, and finished in February 2007. It saw a departure of sorts from Sugisaki's previous series, with a darker, sci-fi noir theme and older protagonists.

Currently, she finished D.N.Angel in 20 volumes (5 released only in digital).

Her work

She made her debut in "Asuka Magazine" with "Namaiki no N". Her other works include "D.N.Angel (13 volumes, unfinished) ", "Rizelmine (1 volume, finished)", "Lagoon Engine (7 volumes, unfinished)", and "Lagoon Engine Einsatz (1 volume, unfinished)". Her "D.N.Angel" manga and "Rizelmine" manga have also been adapted into anime series. Because the D.N.Angel manga was incomplete at the time, the anime has many differences to the original manga, most notably the ending.

Sugisaki is also the artist of the "BrainPowerd" and "The Candidate for Goddess" manga, both of which have been turned into an anime. Her "Neutral" artbook contains artwork from "D.N.Angel", "BrainPowerd", and "The Candidate for Goddess". Her second artbook, [FEDER:] (which is no longer available for purchase), contains newer artwork solely from D.N.Angel. She has also penned the well-known "Sotsugyo M", and created doujinshi for series such as "Tenkuu no Escaflowne", Neon Genesis Evangelion, Lets&Go , and King of Fighters.

Most of her works feature young, cute main characters and elements of Yaoi, though not considered Yaoi.

Her current project is D.N.Angel, which has finally begun serializing in Monthly Asuka again.

Reviews

[~Cyanide Latte~ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recommended to me by my dear friend of several years, I have never read Rizelmine before now and I'm a little disappointed it wasn't more popular or well-known when I was in high school. It's probably a oneshot that I would have genuinely adored back in the day.

And that's what it is, despite the listing of "volume 1" as though there were more in the series. It's just a oneshot manga, though personally I feel like it would have benefited from being drawn out over more volumes. The story feels like it would have been absolutely fascinating if it had been longer and had more exploration, if the world-building had been more fleshed out than it is.

Regardless, it's still a very cute oneshot, if trope-reliant, and I certainly enjoyed it as a mostly-sweet, mostly-fluffy little read. Definitely glad I gave this a chance, and I will probably track down the anime adaptation at some point to give that a shot as well.

[Emma · Rating 1 out of 5]

Most of Yukiru Sugisaki's work is cheesy shojo manga. Rizelmine is no exception. Iwaki Tomonori is fifteen years old, and is strictly attracted to older women. It's not quite clear in the beginning why he refuses to even consider any other type of girl, but, as he says, "If she's my age, I couldn't care less." He's in a really bad mood when he gets home from school one day, because he has just found out that the teacher he has a crush on is engaged. He is greeted at the door by a twelve-year-old girl named Rizel, (supposedly an artificial life form) who tells him that she is now his wife. Iwaki does not take this well, despite his parents pleading for him to cooperate, because the government is paying for their water bill, electricity bill, lifelong health care, and many other benefits besides. This is because Rizel needs love to develop further, so her scientist 'papas' desperately need Iwaki's cooperation to further their research. However, he doesn't cooperate. He makes Rizel sleep in the closet, among other things. But when Rizel goes into a coma from physical exhaustion, it seems that Iwaki is the only one with the power to wake her up.
The art is fine, but a bit cartoony. Even though there is an interesting twist at the end (involving why Rizel even likes Iwaki so much in the first place), it's not interesting enough that I desperately want to know what happens next. The minor characters (like Ryuunosuke Hououin, the rich brat intent on making Rizel his bride) are uninteresting and often seem unnecessary, and the side plots are confusing.
So, I guess you might want to read it, if you're really bored and have nothing else to read, or if it happened to wash up on the beach if you're marooned on a desert island, but under any other circumstances, I wouldn't recommend it.

[Trip · Rating 1 out of 5]

Almost entirely uninteresting. I have no idea how they made it look at all appealing even in ads.

[Kelsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the concept but the execution was lacking. There was a lot of confusion the first time reading through.

[Jenna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not as intriguing a concept as DNAngel nor as interesting characters, but I guess since it's a one-shot, can't blame it...

[Shahna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not as good as it could be. The main characters are irritating. ugh.

Good thing they never made any more volumes. I don't think I could handle all the whining.

bleh