Manga (THIS IS NOT A BOOK TITLE)

Okay, so I've been a bit self-indulgent of late, and I've been reading manga books.  I know, I know, not the epitome of fine literature, but here are some titles which I think deserve attention for their drawings and story lines.

The Children of the Sea   These books are more 'graphic novel' than manga, but the pictures are more than I could ever aspire to draw.  Also, the storyline is different.  Set in modern-day Japan, I think (I don't recognize the names of all the cities), a girl meets two boys who have a very strange relationship to the sea and the creatures that dwell there.  Read from 'back' to 'front'.

Vampire Knight   Written by Matsuri Hino, this story is a publication of SojoBeat manga. So far, there are 12 volumes that tell a story of a teenage girl who keeps the peace at an academy where the day students are humans and the night students are vampires.  As tensions rise and secrets and identities are revealed, Yuki Cross's memories of her mysterious past resurface to haunt both groups:  vampires and vampire hunters.  Just to let you know, there is a huge cast of characters, and sometimes it is hard to tell certain people apart.

Nightschool  Alex's sister has just disappeared while working at the Nightschool, a school where, again, in the day human students study while at night students of different species gather.  Alex, a weirn herself, must infiltrate the school and find her sister while dealing with a curse placed upon her, the threat of an ages-old creatures come to cleanse humanity of it's imperfections, and a group of Hunters who wish to obliterate Alex and her kind. 

Demon Diary  The art is done by Kara, while the story is written by Lee Yun Hee.  The story is about a young demon lord who is very un-demonic.  He doesn't seem to understand that he must be evil to be a demon lord . . .To tell the truth, I didn't know that Raenaf (the main character) was a male until half-way through the first book, but when the artist takes the time to put detail into her characters the work almost jumps off the page at you. 

Crescent Moon   I didn't like the pictures in this one as much as I did the others, but I like it for it's story line.  It's about a group called the 'Lunar Race', beings who live in the night, like werewolves and vampires, who live in Tokyo who must recover the 'Tear Drops of the Moon', jewels which will prevent the extinction of their kind.  Their princess, a girl who believes she is human, must help them, but she is reluctant to do so.  A cute story, and the characters certainly have unique personalities.

I am sorry that I couldn't remember the authors of three of those.  I can't really remember any other manga books worth nothing right now, but I'll right more when I do.  Oh, I've heard that Bleach is supposed to be good, but I haven't read it yet.