365 Days of Manga, Day 251: Foxy Lady

FOXY LADY • Ayun Tachibana • Tokyopop • 16+
Jin Mikasa is a young shrine priest in training who (although he’s a blushing innocent at heart) can’t help reading “how to get girls” manuals on the job. Suddenly a cute foxgirl arrives at the shrine, announces her intention to “mate with Jin,” and inspires jealousy in Jin’s pervy fellow priest Sogo who becomes the story’s primary cock-blocker. (”I thought you were my comrade-in-palms!”) Your basic “monster girl who wants to have sex with some dorky guy” formula, Foxy Lady was originally drawn for Comic Zero-Sum, an unusual manga magazine with a mixed female and male readership. As a result, although things get kinky, there’s no actual nudity and even a few yaoi jokes to maintain gender-equality. Unfortunately, the story is familiar, and despite a few funny moments, it’s neither smutty enough for fanservice or original enough to stand out. Flipping back and forth between emotional melodrama (turns out Kogane’s dearest wish is to become human) and cheesy jokes (Kogane gets drunk on deep-fried tofu), the manga feels unfocused and the artist has to keep throwing in supernatural subplots and uninteresting side characters in a vain attempt to keep things moving. (Review by Jason Thompson – originally printed in Otaku USA magazine.)
** (two stars)
Today’s winner is Cameron N. of Massachusetts! Congratulations, Cameron!
All Texan manga/anime fans (or manga/anime fans who happen to be in Texas this weekend) should stop by Project A-kon in Dallas, Texas on June 4-6. I’ll be doing a bunch of panels on manga, as well as running some dice-centric events in conjunction with my graphic novel, King of RPGs. King of RPGs artist Victor Hao will be there too, and we’ll be talking about the making of the book on the “Making of King of RPGs” panel, Friday from 5:15-6:15 PM! Stop on by!