Creative Talent
Writer/Artist: Kosuke Fujishima
Translated by: Dana Lewis
Adapted by: Alan Gleason and Toren Smith
What They Say
Ever since a cosmic phone call brought the literal young goddess Belldandy into college student Keiichi’s residence, his personal life has been turned upside down, sideways, and sometimes even into strange dimensions!
Half-goddess, half-demon, Belldandy’s big sister Urd continues her campaign of naughtiness when she brews up a luuuuuv potion that, of course, goes horribly awry, infecting everyone but her poor intended target – Keiichi. But random passion in the streets may be the least of the gang’s worries as a seemingly harmless CD could turn out to be a portal from the underworld, unleashing a most pesky demon, and any other random nasties that happen to be near her!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Early on in this volume, there is a great chapter focusing on Urd. Of course, it begins with her attempt to tamper with Keiichi and Belldandy’s relationship, but ultimately ends with her drinking her own love potion. The majority of the chapter follows her around and she latches onto one guy after another depending on how much she likes his particular personality. The reason I enjoyed this chapter so much is because of the depth shown in Urd’s character. It seems she was in love once and is actually more than just an ‘in your face’ woman who likes to stir up her environment to stave off boredom.
Fans of the anime will be familiar with the demon Mara. Her appearance and continued interaction with the main characters covers much of this volume. The funniest running joke through this is Keiichi’s belief that Mara is a guy. It has been a long time since I watched the TV series so I don’t remember if it uses this gag, but Fujishima draws Mara so rough that it is of little surprise Keiichi makes such a mistake. Anyways, Mara has known Belldandy since they were kids, and now that Mara is free from her prison, she plans to make Belldandy’s life a living hell. Unfortunately for Keiichi, that means Mara is going to really screw with him and his sister to upset Belldandy. Mara even tries teaming up with Sayoko in hopes of luring Keiichi away from Belldandy.
So far, most of the chapters in this series tend to stand alone, but this volume introduces Mara and four consecutive chapters involving her antics. The Mara story arc and the other chapters in this volume are really quite funny and therefore the higher ‘Content’ grade compared to volume three. I also bumped up the ‘Art’ grade as Fujishima’s art is reaching a more polished appearance. It still has a ways to go before reaching the A quality beginning around volume 20 or so, but, the steady progress is good. There is also a great picture of a winking Urd wearing a bathing suit at the beginning of chapter 26 (sorry, I just can’t help being an Urd fanboy). This volume still has the color plates in the beginning of the book but a few pages with smeared ink caused me to knock a small notch off the ‘Packaging’ grade.
Content Grade: A
Art Grade: B
Packaging Grade: A
Text/Translation Grade: A
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: October 25th, 2006
MSRP: $10.99
