095 - Mai the Psychic Girl

Mai the Psychic Girl -- Feb2011. written by JCPMA

In the late 1980's/early 1990's I've read at random some of the (few) manga titles available in NorthAmerica and translated into English. The manga at (comic) book stores at this time were all in traditional North American "comic book sizes", approximately 8 x 10", perhaps 50 to 80 pages (ie., similar to the size of a NorthAmerican comic book like DC or Marvel etc titles like Superman, Batman, Spiderman, Archie & Jughead ... well you get the idea). The common manga format that I see nowadays, are in compact digest compilation sizes. They are approximately 6 x 8". They contain 4 or more issues/chapters of the story per volume, and each digest (volume) may have 300 or more pages! It is common for translated manga to be "flipped", that is, read from the right to left direction. Rumiko Takahashi's work is cute. Other authors' work was somewhat interesting.
I even purchased a few titles of Chinese manga (translated into English); One is a story around a martial arts theme set in ancient China. I can't recall the name of the title (I think the work "Sword" is in the title) but it is somewhere stowed away in my "stuff" storage area. This manga is absolutely terrible. The art is good and acceptable with perhaps an average (subjective) rating. The storytelling however is very bad. It is boring to read. There is no real heavy suspense, and I don't really "care" about the characters. It seems much of the story is based on action/fighting sequences.

Back to present times. I don't get out much, but it seems to me Chinese manga never caught on in North America. Am I wrong? (Does this mean all Chinese manga is this bad? There must be some quality work out there, somewhere.) Ironically, I have noticed that there are Japanese Manga titles translated into Chinese! I guess quality is accepted universally.

Mai the Psychic Girl is the series, decades ago, that got me hooked onto manga. It was one of the few titles which was compelling and captivating at the time. This is one of my favorite, if not my most favorite, manga series. Fortunately, the retailer carried back-issues and I was able to collect the entire (28 issues) series! (I understand that Viz recently republished the entire series as a 3 volume manga called "Mai the Psychic Girl, Perfect Collection".)
The writer is Kazuya Kudo. The art is more realistic than in most manga in that the eyes are less "cartoonish". Ryoichi Ikegami is the artist; He also illustrated the adult manga series Crying Freeman. This is from Wikipedia. In Japan, Mai the Psychic girl is titled "Mai"; the Kanji for Mai is " 舞 "
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The original NorthAmerican comic book format of this series was published bi-weekly by Eclipse Comics and Viz Comics.

Plot: Extra-Sensory abilities are seen as a curse as they hinder a young girl's life and freedom. The heroine has to remain strong to do all she can to avoid using her powers and to try to live a normal teenage life. This series is a super-page-turner. A fun roller-coaster ride. One of my favorite supporting characters is "Ron" the dog.

If Tim Burton does direct the movie, I hope it DOESN'T contain an Edward Scissorhands, or Batman type cinematic flavor.

Links.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mai,_the_Psychic_Girl
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryoichi_Ikegami
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eclipse_Comics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viz_Media
http://www.comicvine.com/mai-the-psychic-girl/49-26428/
http://www.viz.com/product?id=3976
http://www.amazon.com/Mai-Psychic-Girl-Perfect-Collection/product-reviews/156931070X/
http://www.screenrant.com/tim-burton-mai-psychic-girl-ross-60405/

5star Manga