Ion

by Arina Tanemura

Ion Tsuburagi chants the letters of her first name as a charm to bring good luck when she needs it. Then she meets Mikado Hourai, the president of the Psychic Powers Research Society at school, and touches a mysterious substance he's been developing. Now chanting "I-O-N" gives her telekinetic powers!

Genres: Manga, Romance, Fantasy, Shojo, Graphic Novels, Young Adult, Comics

Paperback

First published December 1, 1997

About the author

Arina Tanemura (種村有菜) was born on March 12, 1978. She's the author of Full Moon O Sagashite, Time Stranger Kyoko, Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne, The Gentlemen's Alliance Cross, Sakura Hime Kaden, and more.

Her favorite hobby is Karaoke. One song that she sings is Smile, originally by Myco. She has two cats, named Riku and Kai. She has one elder and one younger sister and one brother. She's the type who hates to lose in anything. She also likes Ribon.

Reviews

[nitya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this a long time ago but remembered very little so I thought to have a reread!

I know it's a standalone manga, but honestly I'd love to see this as a series. The psychic angle was intriguing, and I wanted to learn more about Ion's power and her family's knowledge of it.

Still an adorable and quick read!

[Bibliothecat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ion has always believed that something good will happen when chanting your own name. After getting involved with her classmate Mikado's experiment for telekinetic powers, Ion finds not only does chanting I-O-N bring her something good, but also allows her to use psychic powers. In addition to her new powers, she also begins to fall in love with Mikado. He, however, only seems to think of her as an interesting experiment.

I.O.N was the second manga I ever read and bought - way back in 2004! One may think my rating is nostalgia influenced, but I genuinely like this cute short story. Ion is a nice upbeat kind of character and the idea of chanting your own name for a little bit of magic always struck me as a nice and unique concept.

Ion is friendly and caring - and sometimes a little silly. I think she could have been a very nice character had she had her own series. This being a short story, of course, didn't leave her much room for character growth. But it is what it is, and Tanemura let the story develop smoothly in the few chapters available.

Some of the psychic scenes are among the cutest I've ever seen. I adore how Ion, when lying on the ground, uses her powers to hover just a little above the ground to embrace someone she cares for. It is really just a short and simple story, but it is so nicely executed that it gives me a warm feeling when reading it. The art is cute, it's almost entirely drama-free and I love the author's humour of her earlier works.

[Laura A. Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story was so much fun!

I haven’t read an Arina Tanemura story before and definitely want to read more because if all her characters are just as fun as Ion is, then I have seriously been missing out! While I know this creator has more iconic stories that are available in English, I decided to give this one a try first because I wanted to feature it in an upcoming video and it made sense to me to go ahead and try it first since I had it on hand. And I’m so thankful I did try it rather than return it back to the library without reading it first!

Ion is such a wonderful, happy, and fun heroine to cheer for because not only is she daring, but she is also charming in a cute, klutzy kind of way. I LOVED how her dream was to find a man that pursues his lifelong dream because I feel it is *extremely* rare for that to be the number one thing a heroine is looking for in a crush. I think it shows a deeper and more serious part of her character since for the majority of the manga it may seem like she’s not the brightest because she mainly wants to make her crush happy. Granted, I didn’t feel that way personally, but I feel that could be a vibe given off for some.

I also really liked the hero, Mikado! It was fun seeing him geek out about his passions and be really happy when other people genuinely express an interest in his passions too. I also thought his struggle, later on, was an honorable one in that he wanted to do right by Ion and respect her feelings. I know MY respect went up for him more and more as the volume progressed!

The romance part of this story was VERY cute and enjoyable. With that said though, my favorite part was just the overall story. Usually, I feel the romance in any story would be my favorite part, but I just really enjoyed the whole cast of characters and how Ion tries to make herself happy with her abilities as well as use those abilities to help other people. I definitely loved the romance, but the plot itself made me really happy.

Overall, I was definitely surprised by how much I really enjoyed this! I think I unknowingly started this manga thinking it would be “dated” and shame on me for thinking such a thing! It's a beautifully drawn story that does have a little bit of age, yes, but it's also just a very beautiful story of helping other people as well as helping spread joy to those around us (even if that mainly centers around a crush LOL).

Definitely would recommend it if you're looking for a one-shot with beautiful art and a great story with a wonderful heroine! (I’m currently debating if I should try grabbing this physically for my own collection because I enjoyed it so much! That art style is just way too stunning to not read again!)

[Jessica · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dnf. I usually like to read at least two volumes in a manga series before I decide not to continue but this one just wasn't keeping my attention.

[Hot Mess Sommelière ~ Caro · Rating 3 out of 5]

I re-read this a lot back in school, when I owned virtually everything Arina Tanemura ever wrote.

[Marta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Second book on the Manga Readathon
-Read your shortest series

Hacía mucho que no leía nada de Arina y como siempre no decepciona. Aunque la verdad es que se nota mucho que es su primera historia, ya que es bastante más superficial que sus otras historias. Aún así ha sido muy bonita, y su dibujo es sencillamente divino (la verdad es que las 4 estrellas se las he puesto más que nada por el dibujo jeje)

[Isa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Historia corta y autonclusiva, para un ratete suelto, tiene su gracia, no se sale del estilo de la autora.

[Hisgirl85 · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Cute and sweet. It is simple with a bit of magic and pretty art.

[~Cyanide Latte~ · Rating 4 out of 5]

My sister reached a point where she was getting rid of a lot of old books and manga she didn't want any more, and the vast majority of all of her manga happened to be Arina Tanemura titles. I said I'd take them off her hands, and would give them a read to see whether I'd keep them or sell them. Some of my motivation was because she had some volumes of Full Moon O Sagashite and Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne that I didn't and this would help ease some of my burden of collecting these out-of-print materials, and she also had a decent amount of Tanemura's work I've never read. I.O.N. happens to be one of these.

If I'm reading some of the side facts in the margins correctly, this oneshot manga is the first one she ever made, which is surprising, given how polished it looks. (I won't go on a ramble about how all her characters suffer from sameface, because they do, but there's no real point in harping on about that right now.) For how short it was, I thought I.O.N. was very cute. It would have been nice to see a little more development for Ion's two best friends, but my guess is that Tanemura was only allowed to write the six chapters she got and had to focus more on the romantic drama in order to progress the plot. Regardless, this was very light and fluffy, and a decent palate cleanser. I'll definitely be keeping this one, and possibly re-reading in the future.

[Tinka · Rating 3 out of 5]

So, last summer I started to re-read some of my old Mangas, the Kaori Yuki ones to be frank and this year I decided, why not my Arina Tanemura collection.

The history is long and complicated. Arina used to be THE Mangaka of my early teen years. Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne was one of my first Manga Series ever and for a couple of years I used to read everything I could find of hers, full on series or one shot. And I loved it. Her beautiful artwork, her cutesy romances and quirky stories. Then Shinshi Doumei Cross happened and Arina and I went on a break. What started out as a promising series quickly became one of the weirdest reading experiences of my life and while my best friend bravely stuck with it to the end, I couldn’t. And that was it for the upcoming years.

Now, about two or three years ago I felt like buying a Manga, but not committing to a whole series and there it was, Arina‘s Mistress Fortune smiling at me from the shelf and I just bought it. And what can I say? The artwork was gorgeous as I remembered the rest was...fine... I guess. From that moment on I am on a weird Arina revival tour. The Best Friend and I are reading 31 I Dream, with very mixed feelings so far and I tried my luck with her very popular My Magic Fridays but only managed to cringe myself through 2 volumes. It was disturbing.

Now, why all this rambling when this is a review of "Ion", you might ask? Well, I decided to try and rediscover why I loved Arina‘s stories so much or to just try and see if my taste really changed that much.

"Ion" tells the story of Teenager Ion, who discovers she has psychic abilities and hopes to use them the win her crush over, a boy called Mikado, who just happens to be interested in the subject matter. Enter another psychic rival of love, an obsessed class President and some well meaning friends and you get a High School Rom Com with a supernatural flavor.

It’s cute.

That’s basically it, really. "Ion" is Arina‘s debut Manga (apart from some smaller scale shorts) and it definitely shows. The artwork, while beautiful, is not as detailed and polished as it will become later on. The writing however shows prototypes of famous tropes she will go on to use in her later works.

The characters are okay, even if a bit irritating. There are definitely some aspects I probably overlooked as a teenager that bother me now. The whole dynamic between Ion and Mikado feels a bit wrong to me and I really want to shake that girl and tell her to get some more self-respect. You know, the usual.

But whatever. It is a harmless little romance. Cute, but nothing more.

[Yoyomaus Die Büchereule · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ion flüchtet vor ihrem Verehrer - dem Schulsprecher Koki - und bekommt dabei Hilfe von dem Jungen Mikado. Er ist sehr an Telekinese interessiert und berichtet Ion begeistert davon. Um ihn zu unterstützen gründet Ion in der Schule eine Arbeitsgruppe. Nachdem Ion eines der Experimente von Mikado berührt, entwickelt sie plötzlich die Fähigkeit zu schweben. Ab diesem Moment will Mikado sie unbedingt als Freundin haben. Und dann taucht plötzlich auch noch Mikados Exfreundin auf und scheint das Chaos zu perfektionieren.

Mit dem Oneshot hat Arina Tanemura eine kurzweilige, wenn auch schöne Geschichte geschrieben und gezeichnet. Sicher wäre die Storyline noch ausbaufähig gewesen, aber ich mag die Geschichte so wie sie ist. Die liebevollen Zeichnungen wiegen die kurze Storyline wieder auf. Top.

ISBN:9783770485987
Sprache:Deutsch
Ausgabe:eBook
Umfang:208 Seiten
Verlag:Egmont Manga
Erscheinungsdatum:04.12.2014

[Soobie has fog in her brain · Rating 3 out of 5]

Adesso ho raccolto tutto quello che è stato pubblicato in Italia di Arina Tanemura e piano piano leggerò. Intanto vediamo il primo dei suoi due volumi autoconclusivi.

Storiella molto leggera in cui c'è la protagonista che sa di avere qualcosa di speciale, visto che ogni volta che pronuncia il suo nome succede qualcosa di positivo.

A scuola deve vedersela con il presidente del consiglio studentesco che la tampina ma a lei non interessa per niente. Quando conosce uno dei membri dell'associazione di ricerca sul paranormale, uno che segue i suoi sogni, Ion comincia ad interessarsi a lui (e all'argomento).

Simpaticissimo l'amico del presidente del consiglio studentesco. Le amiche di Ion, invece, erano solo lì a far tappezzeria.

[Pflanzis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I*O*N ist das erste Werk aus der Feder von Arina Tanemura, wenn man von den Kurzgeschichten mal absieht. Es wurde 1997 in Japan veröffentlicht. Die Geschichte ist zwar originell, spricht mich aber nicht mehr so an wie 2004, als ich sie zum ersten Mal las. Trotzdem verbinde ich viel mit diesem Buch, denn ION war der erste Manga mit dem ich in Berührung kam und der bei mir die Liebe zum Medium und zum Zeichnen entfacht hat. Überhaupt mag ich die alten Zeichnungen von Arina Tanemura sehr gerne. Insbesondere die Kapitelcover stachen immer irgendwie heraus und haben mich dazu animiert, etwas ähnliches schaffen zu wollen. <3

[Brandon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This certainly ended up being better than I expected from the start. The hook of randomly getting psychic powers and using them to get close to a boy didn't get me going. But as the story progressed and the true conflict became whether the boy liked her for her psychic powers or liked her for her self, I cared more. Ion is shown to be a kind and brave girl whose courage brings her to attempt great things- the psychic powers are a little bonus that helps her actually succeed. I enjoy the tension between her and the love interest, though I found the boy's status as more of a trophy than an active participant in the plot to be a weak point.

[Bianca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eine schöne und süße Geschichte für Zwischendurch, die einen mitnimmt. Mir hat besonders der Zeichenstil hier gut gefallen. Arina Tanemura ist ja eher für ihre überladenen Seiten bekannt, aber bei ION hat sie sich echt distanziert und hat die Tatsache sprechen lassen: Weniger ist mehr. Es passiert im Gegensatz zu anderen Mangas zwar noch recht viel auf jeder Seite, aber die Zeichnungen sind leichter zu durchschauen und das verschafft einen klaren und sicheren Lesefluss. Mir hat das nun bei ION schon wesentlich besser gefallen als bei ein paar anderen Mangas von der Mangaka.

[♡Kayla♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too short to leave a strong impact, but it was really cute, and oddly nostalgic (note: I have not read this before). I think it's because it reminds me a lot of lighthearted, and slightly over-the-top shoujo series I've seen before, like Cardcaptor Sakura (both are so wholesome).

As an aside, Arina Tanemura has stunning art, and I just want to show her work to anyone who says "shoujo art sucks", to show them how dumb that truly is.

[E.W. Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute!
I read this book a lot when I was younger, and I wanted to revisit it.
It was very juvenile and the story moves really fast, but it was one of arina tanemura's first books. This book is also a stand alone so the pace makes sense.
Arina Tanemura is my all time favorite manga author so I usually don't have a lot of negative things to say about her and her work.
All in all still a good read and a blast from the past.

[Sandra Perez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Volver a leer a Arina Tanemura ha sido desbloquear un recuerdo automáticamente de la infancia, de ser aquella niña viendo Jeanne Kaito Kamikaze y aprenderse sus openings, a aquella adolescente leyendo por primera vez los tomos. Es una lectura llena de nostalgia con una historia típica de Arina, con personajes carismáticos y una trama con magia alrededor de su vida como estudiantes, mezclando temas mágicos con un reflejo de la realidad. Es autoconclusiva y es una lectura cortita pero linda.

[ChelseaFace · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was better than I had expected. This is Arina Tanemura's first manga and I am honestly very impressed. I wish it was an actual series, because it reminds me of Sailor Moon at moments and I think it could be great if truly fleshed out. Great characters and interesting flaws. I enjoyed this more than Mistress Fortune (another one shot by the same author). Highly recommend.

[~Avaliah Rose~]

NO RATING. This is the first thing I’ve read from Arina Tanemura that I didn’t love. Simply because I wanted Ion to end up with the other guy. That’s the very first time I’ve been let down in that way by Arina Tanemura. But I guess I can’t blame it too bad because it was her first manga. The art is still cute though :)

[Faj · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ion Tsuburagi chants the letters of her first name as a charm to bring good luck when she needs it. Then she meets Mikado Hourai, the president of the Psychic Powers Research Society at school, and touches a mysterious substance he's been developing. Now chanting "I-O-N" gives her telekinetic powers!

[Girlwiththeglasses · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first anime and I really enjoyed it! I loved the fun pictures, the little the making of the bhoo notes on the side of the page but when it came to the story, the romance wasn't really my sort of thing. I loved how quick it was to read and I'll definatly be looking out for more anime

[-moonprismpower- · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute but too short. I don’t like the insta love. I wish Ion had time to genuinely fall in love with Hourai. But the length of this story wouldn’t allow for it. I need to stop reading one shots and short stories. They never seem to satisfy me.

[KelceyTheLibrarian · Rating 3 out of 5]

A cute little one-shot story. I love Arina Tanemura but as this was her first book, I can see a lot of her style was still fairly undeveloped. This one was pretty basic and didn't have a lot going on. I love almost everything she does so like I said, it's not bad, it's just not the best :)

[TT · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[am4nda! · Rating 3 out of 5]

Está bien, pero la historia de amor es un poco rara y se la siente un poco forzada. Algunos diálogos son confusos, pero aparte ¡me ha gustado mucho!

[Gabriela · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of Tanemura's earliest works complete in one volume! It was an enjoyable sci-fi story, set in a public high school! The characters were fun to follow and the character designs were very detailed!

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

this is so ridiculous 💀💀 wasn't even fun ridiculous though.....just..... boring

[Mira · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked the manga

[Madelynne · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars