MJ Review: Pick of the Litter Volume One

[Jason]

Title: Pick of the Litter
Volume: One
Mangaka: Yuriko Suda
Serialized in: Asuka (Kadokawa Shoten)
Genre: Comedy, Shoujo, Supernatural
Publisher: Tokyopop
Rating: Teen 13+
Price: $9.99

Riku thinks he's a pretty normal kid, all things considered, until he is found by his long-lost family who lives in another dimension! As if that wasn't enough, some of his horde of brothers include half-rabbits and half-cats! He is their precious brother, who is the possessor of secret powers. However, he isn't about to leave his home on Earth, so he agrees to work in the family "shop" part-time and continue going to school the other part.

One of my problems with the Japanese system of classifying manga comes up with this title. With male-oriented titles, there's "shounen" and "seinen" which neatly divides up the ones for younger boys and the ones for late-teens-to-twenties (and beyond). However, with girls' manga, there's "shoujo", theres women's H stuff and then there's "redicomi", which is targeted almost exclusively at the OL set. So just slapping a "shoujo" label on this one doesn't really tell you one of the most important things about it: that this is a fairly young-age manga, and even the 13+ that Tokyopop put on it seems slightly old for the story.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. It's very entertaining, and stuffed with a full set of -- admittedly very standard -- interesting characters. Unlike other heroes in "I come from another world" stories, Riku is not a misfit or inept dweeb, but a friendly, studious guy who has it together. He has his two best friends, two guys and a girl, Mizuno, who holds a candle for him. His brothers are merchants in the world of Yamato: Satsuki, Shii and Ichiya seem (for now) fairly normal, but Futaba is an usagimimi, as is his cousin Konohana, and Mio, his uncle, is a nekomimi.

The art is really good for a shoujo manga (I'm sorry, but I usually don't like shoujo manga art), the character designs are really good, and they are different enough from each other to be easily recognizable, a pet peeve of mine with this kind of manga. Among the other things this artist does well, the top one is display her feel for the hang and drape of clothing--really excellent.

Tokyopop's publishing is about average for them, binding, paper, editing are all okay for the most part. Sound effects are, as usual, inconsistently edited, some difficult ones carefully changed while easily changed ones left in the original Japanese. I have a preference for leaving them alone, but I'd far rather there be consistency. Either change them all or don't. Regardless, it is undeniable that the *important* ones were changed and the obscure ones left alone.

This manga surprised me; two things I usually avoid, shoujo and young audience, worked against type to really entertain me. There's no world-shattering mysteries, and they're not saving humanity, but I found myself interested in what was going to happen next. I recommend this manga for those of you wanting a light, but still highly entertaining change of pace. Let's see what happens next.

Reviewer: Jiji
Proofer: The Mighty Highlord
Editor: Firedog