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Back in 2005, when the "controversy" about original english manga (or OEL for short) first came up, one of the key books quoted and cited as evidence for and against OEL manga (and the first volume of which will be the subject of this review) was also one of the then first of TOKYOPOP'S new OEL manga line – Dramacon.

The first volume of this series - which was written by newcomer Svetlana Chmakova, and which, to date, is up to its third volume - follows the adventures of Christie, a first time manga writer and long suffering girlfriend of fellow manga artist, co-creator of their comic, and wandering lothario Derek. When Christie gets left to her own devices at her first ever animé convention she finds friendship (and possibly romance) in the form of Dramacon's very own Mr Darcy – Matt.

One good aspect of this first volume was the fact that much of the events that happen both to her and in the background of the convention are easy to relate to for the average western animé convention attendee – from crowded elevators to the archetypal pocky salesman to even the ubiquitous catgirls – something that's not quite possible with series like Comic Party or Genshiken.

Another good aspect of this volume was the artwork: Svetlana has resisted the temptation to totally ape Japanese manga style with her noticeable use of scale and knowledge of when to detail her backgrounds and when to focus entirely upon her characters without making it obvious that it's to help the reader to focus on whats important on each page.

Now, however, we have to go into the downsides of this manga. After making such an effort to create a believable story and a compelling plot line I can't help but find that Svetlana seems to have done this at the expense of developing her main and supporting characters: the background story got reduced to a quarter of one page, within which four mini pictures were used to explain how and why Christie and Derek came to the convention to sell their comic, for example.

Although Matt has to be left relatively vague to allow gradual expansion in later volumes I still felt that his personality was more like it was from angst ridden anti-hero plot no#22 rather than that of a believable person you could meet at a convention. Additionally there were two characters – a couple /chaperon's of Christie and Derek who, to be honest, were wasted as characters – whose appearances it seemed were there for no other reason than to either advance plot or to act as shocked bystanders. These characters could have easily been removed and their lack of presence would not have affected the plot line.

In summery I have to say that from this volume alone Dramacon, despite having an interesting premise with definite potential, fell short of the mark as far as a series goes.

Now wheres my Pocky?