Shojo Beat

    (Viz, 2005)
™ and © the respective creators

Shonen Jump is considered the best bargain in comics today, but Shojo Beat has it, um, beat hands down. $5.99 gets you 360 pages, an interview with Olympic volleyball star Ogonna Nnamani (plus shorter pieces on manga artists and singers Puffy Ami Yumi), a free DVD preview of the Ultra Maniac anime coupled with a mini-insert appetizer of the manga—plus a chance to win a Mini-Cooper!

But none of the extras would mean much, if they weren’t as good as they are. The lead is a 100-page introduction of “Nana,” a series that will incinerate your expectations of hearts and flowers. It’s the too-real-seeming story of a teen girl recovering from her latest destructive relationship with an older man, this time a married one. (You don’t see that sort of thing in an ABC Family original movie.) But the rest, especially the sports story “Crimson Hero” and “Absolute Boyfriend” (I’m curious to see how the perfect android mate looks from a female perspective), are just as strong.

— S. A. Bennett
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