Monster Collection: Volume 1

It's rare to see a manga open with deluxe color pages. Unfortunately, the effort is wasted in Sei's collection, with its generic and lackluster art, featuring busty women with intricately draped clothing; mysterious, vaguely Arabian men; and dragons and other mythical creatures. The various figures appear to have been taken from completely different pieces of art and layered on top of each other with little sense of perspective. The book's interior is similar, only more cluttered, owing more to fantasy art than typical manga. The story involves a student named Kasche who usually makes trouble in her monster-summoning classes at wizardry school. She rushes into conflict without thinking, and she's a master of overkill. Due to a lack of more suitable candidates, when a treasure is stolen from the school, Kasche is sent to find it. She does have talent, and readers will quickly guess that her unique spirit will turn out to be her greatest asset. There's nothing original here, and the contents have little to recommend such a familiar story, unless readers are willing to put up with a good deal of space filler to get to the panels of forced sexual situations, female nudity and other typical fan service elements. (Apr.)