Zodiac P.I. #1
by Natsumi Ando
Tokyo Pop, b&w 179 pages, $9.99
Rating: Neat-O
Zodiac P.I. is one of the flood of new manga that Tokyo Pop is loosing on the American market; printed "back-to-front" and about the same size as a Japanese tankobon they sell like hotcakes to people (primarily adolescent girls) who have had zero interest in comics American-style, and mostly from places (bookstore, record stores, video stores) that have hardly carried comics rather than the comics specialty stores known as the "direct market." At some point Tokyo Pop and its imitators (Viz, long-time player in the manga translation market has just changed the format of its collections and dropped the price-point to match Tokyo Pop, and Random House has announced it's getting into the act) will saturate the market and there may be some kind of shake-out. It's gone from where I could automatically pick up anything new from them to, well, this week when they released over 15 new books; even at ten bucks a pop that's a fair chunk of change. Still, there is so much good material in Japan and Korea, in genres that "mainstream" American comics publishers haven't been willing to touch with a ten foot pole for decades now, that even once an individual reader can't aspire to follow them all, the market may continue to support multiple genres, just as the book market has its mystery, science fiction and fantasy, and romance readers.
Which brings us to Zodiac, P.I. which manages to be all three of those genres at once. It's a murder mystery, with fantasy elements and romantic overtones. The title character is a thirteen year-old girl named Lili, an astrologer from a long line of astrologers, possessed of a magic ring that lets her communicate with the personifications of the spirits of the Zodiac, who adopts the identity of a private investigator called Spica in order to solve crimes with her astrological insights. The crimes are, at least so far, down-to-Earth murder mysteries; it's only Lili's investigative m.o. that smacks of the supernatural. The romance, or potential romance (I'm anticipating a bit here), comes in with a rival detective and class-mate, who it happens is allergic to girls (!). And, although the rating on the cover is for ages 7+, I think it would depend on the 7 year-old; there's at least one depiction of a bloody corpse with a knife sticking in its neck, and a girl being strangled in silhouette. Nothing grotesque or shocking, but quite a bit grimmer than, say, Kodacha: Sana's Stage. The art is typical shoujo (girl) style, neither extremely squashed and cartoony nor exaggeratedly long-limbed and elegant; there are lots of expressionist background motifs (flowers, solarization patterns, "speed" lines) and dynamic figures breaking panel boundaries. If you like this sort of thing, and I do, it comes across as stylish, vibrant, and expressive; if you don't then it probably seems busy, confusing, and even precious. And if you're one of those people who just can't get the hang of reading back to front, left to right, then forget about it.
Overall, I quite enjoyed it, and I expect I'll keep picking it up, even if it means finding something else to drop.
Zodiac P.I. is funny, suspenseful, and encourages readers to use their mind. Although Tokyopop catagorizes it as mystery only, Zodiac P.I. promises romance in the later volumes. The art in this manga by Ando Natsumi is beautiful. The details of the characters are well done and the characters are all exceptionally good looking. (Isn't that what we look for in manga?) The story is about a teenage astrologer named Lili who is a high school student, and also a private investigator! (Unimportant detail: Her dad is a very also a detective and is apparently very unsuccessful from her success. ^_^ Her dad also does not know about her being the P.I.)The book is full of brain boggling cases which she solves, and hopefully you do too. I assure you that you will enjoy this beautiful manga, for i did, and I have read and watched at least 70 anime and manga and Zodiac P.I. happens to be one of my favorites out of all of them.
This series is great!! It has the makings of a great book! If only people could make more websites about it!! And I think it would make a pretty good Anime series! Even though it was classified as mystery it also should be Romance and (maybe) Magical girl. If you don't read this series then you are really missing out on some great books!!!
Yeay!!!!! When I first read 'Zodiac P.I', it was actually called 'Catcher in the Horoscope' (a much better title if i do say so myself) in the humongous Japanese magazene, Nakayosi. It was such a cute comic that I enjoyed so much!!! The mystery, ROMANCE (especially), and the fun characters got me so wound up in it that it was hard for me to let it go when Nakayosi ended the manga(yes, I know what happens at the end already ;) ) But I have yet to find out the exact translation in English, although I know somewhat of Japanese!!!!!! I'm sooooooooooo excited...
I have read all of the Zodiac PIs. I think that they were great! I thought that Sirus was her mom and I was wright! You could tell that Lili and Hirome were going to get toghether. I have re read them a few times, and when ever I do I notice something different. I'm a Taurus if your wondering. You can reach me at KellyCFanHeather@AOL.Com. Well peace out!
Heather
Wow! When I first went to the Barnes and Noble store in my area, I just seen a BUNCH of great Mangas! Zodiac P.I. and Wedding Peach and Revolutionary Girl Utena and ceres celestial legend immediately caught my eye! I have to pick these up and i will very soon! i always go this bookstore to see all of my fave manga! ^_^
WOW! I hafta say, this is an absolute MASTERPIECE! If you never read another manga series again, make this one your last! It's got brilliant screentone, pencils, inks, effects and art all together! Another great thing is, you get to see Natsumi's interpretation of your sign. I have yet to see Cancer, but I'm certain that I will in the near future. Even before I read this manga, I was an astronomy/astrology freak. That's why it was so appealing. But I don't think that you need to have that interest to read this.
The downside to this manga was the fact that it reads right to left. In some places, I was a little confused, and got lost. Once I got the hang of it though, I accidentally read the newspaper comics right to left! ^_^
Pick this up, and just read it! You'll see how good it is!
I LOVE Zodiac P.I.! I'm not used to the flipped manga books, so it's an upside for reading right to left for me! I love how it's got a good plot aswell as ROMANCE too! It's practically perfect, that's all I can say. Oooh & her name is Lili too! ^_____^ I LOVE Zodiac P.I.! I'm not used to the flipped manga books, so it's an upside for reading right to left for me! I love how it's got a good plot aswell as ROMANCE too! It's practically perfect, that's all I can say. Oooh & her name is Lili too! ^_____^
OMG! I love Zodiac PI! I have only read the 1st one and I'm obsessed! My friend thinks Hiromi is cute, but I wouldn't go that far! Anyway, I think that this manga series is the best I ever read and the best I will ever read. It outstrips Inuyasha by a lot and Ranma 1/2 and definatly all of those things like Imadoki and things like that!
If you wanna talk some more about this marvolous series, email me at rina_harsch@mac.com