The Dirty Pair

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Yuri and Kei are the two members of a "trouble consultant" team codenamed Lovely Angels in earth's far future. Trouble consultants are some kind of agents whose job it is to eliminate threats to humanity. Or catch'n'kill terrorists and such.

The Lovely Angels are pretty competent in their job. However, most of their missions end up with tremendous casualties along their way through no fault of their own. Don't think collapsed buildings - think nuked cities, space stations, planets, solar systems. This - along with their working attire - earned them the name The Dirty Pair.

The Dirty Pair are the archetypes of anime-chicks with guns. The whole series flows over with action in a strange utopian/dytopian high-tech setting. Every technological advance - no matter how ethically deplorable - has been made and commercialized. Cyborgs, AIs, The Matrix, Mutants, Bio-Engineering, Genetic Modifications, Personality Transfers and weapons in all forms and sizes inside.

The original series is pretty old and started out as a light novel (i.e. trash), became an anime and then a manga ... or rather a comic. The main guy responsible for this comic is the american Adam Warren, so this can't technically be called a manga despite the japanese drawing style. You even have to read from left to right.


But no matter who dunnit - this series is great fun and utterly chaotic. You probably won't get more chicks'n'guns per square inch than in Dirty Pair for a very long time.

Sex&Crime: Lots ! Ok, they don't do sex (publicly), but they know exactly how they are showing of their assets. ^_^
Nah, the violence displayed is ... well ... much, but not the kind of nightmare inducing violence you sometimes see in other mainstream mangas (I recall a couple of very disturbing Berserk panels). And the utter disregard for human casualties is strangely undisturbing - probably because you never have to bother with the aftermath of all the carnage.
Imagine Plastic Man on a mission to recover a nuclear suitcase-bomb from terrorists. The mission succeeds although two passenger planes fly into the twin towers and the last panel shows a grinning plastic man flying away from the collapsing buildings while saying "Doh! Well, could've been worse.".
Well, you get the idea. If you can laugh to that then you'll love the Dirty Pair.

The Ultimates

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US-Comics for a change. And this one is awesome.

You probably read a few classic superhero comics at one time or another. Superman/Spiderman and shit like that. Some probably ditched this kiddy stuff and switched to some advanced forms of graphical novels, like Sin City, V or Preacher. Or the no-nonsense brutal reenvisioning of the superhero genre, like Planetary, The Authority or the relaunch of the Squadron Supreme with the almighty Hyperion. Definetly not the Justice League.

Now imagine that the new generation of authors responsible for the new, realistic and cynical tone of the best comics america has to offer - what if those authors gang up and take over Marvel Comics shitty Avengers series. Enter The Ultimates.

You get nazis, aliens, nazi aliens, superpowered domestic violence, heroes killing brand name villans, heroes killing innocents, cannibalism, a black Nick Fury (and boy, this guy is hardcore), torture, a god out of a mental institute, a naked giant man and his 10-foot dong, politics, intrigue and a captain america that knows how to use guns and grenades.


And most important: A believable and great story.

The Ultimate relaunch of the Marvel Universe is probably the best thing Marvel ever did. And now you get it on the iphone.

The images were scaled down to a width of 480, which makes the text readably - not as readable as the larger manga text bubbles, but readable enough. I had to compromise a bit to ensure that the images load fast in the Comic Viewer. It's not optimal but it's enough, i think.

If you haven't installed the Comic Book viewer program yet then you can find a guide for that if you follow this link.

I hope you'll enjoy it. I did so much that I bought every single Ultimate hardcover I could find. Well worth it.

-DF

Ultimate Hentai Kamen [manga]

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or here
or here

Volumes 1-6
Don't forget to install iComic first !

First things first: THIS IS NOT HENTAI. THIS ALSO IS NOT YAOI (google it if you don't know what that means. Afterwards wash your eyes with soap) .
Hmm ... sounds familiar.

Despite having the word 'hentai' in the title and having a ... unique cover, this manga is really not hentai. You won't find the business end of our hero get stuck in places where you might expect it to be. And you'll also never see his family jewels breathing fresh air, so all you homophobes relax and enjoy this ridiculous parody on the japanese superhero genre (power rangers and stuff).

Our protagonist Kyousuke is your relatively normal japanese high school student with karate training. But whenever he does what apparently too many japanese men do - sticking his nose into girls panties - he gains SUPERPOWERS !!!
Yeah, once he wears panties on his face, he becomes the invincible superhero Hentai Kamen. Using his superhuman strength and his power over ropes, he effortlessly overpowers his enemies, bondages- er, bonds them and finishes them off with a steel hard attack of his groin.

Needless to say that most criminals are not exactly happy to fall prey to Hentai Kamen.

This sums the main characteristics of the manga up pretty well. Sure, there is story around, too, but you won't remember Ultimate Hentai Kamen for it's touching love story or it's diverse and detailed characters (because they ain't) - no, you'll remember it for the groin attack of justice !


Sex&Violence: What do you think ? No hentai, but if you have kids then this manga is the best way to generate unusual behaviour patterns in them.

Conclusion: This is probably the pinnacle of ridiculeness in japanese mangas, so that alone is worth picking this one up. Don't let yourself get caught reading this in public, though. :D