Genres: Comedy, shounen
Volumes: 8 (ongoing)
Scanlated: 4 and a bit
Author: Hata Kenjiro

Moetron reports that Hayate the Combat Butler is getting an anime! I’m sure a lot of people have heard about this manga, Hayate the Combat Butler, but for those who haven’t, it’s an awesome comedy with perhaps a little romance, revolving around a teenage boy (Hayate) who winds up with a massive debt which he cannot pay off. Having worked hard all his life, when he finds out the sum of the money he has to pay back, he snaps and decides to kidnap someone for ransom. However, the person he targets ends up being the daughter of a very rich family, and instead of kidnapping her, he saves her from the mafia and gets hired as her butler. Of course, the main storyline is simply of him and his butler duties, but this will expand later on. Don’t want to spoil too much anyway. There are currently 7 volumes and is still ongoing, while 4 volumes have been scanlated for us non-Japanese readers. I highly recommend this read; you will love it. And if you already do love, you will be pleased to hear, if you haven’t already, that it is getting an anime! Oops, I already mentioned it above, but just in case you missed it somehow. Hopefully the studio that does it will be relatively good, and definitely not something like the guys who did Yoake. If KyoAni does this, it will be godly!

Well then, I can’t really explain what this manga is about in any more detail; it’s a comedy remember. So how about a few pages to change your mind? Remember, read from right to left!

And so Hayate finally cracks it…

And finally another teaser later in the manga when Hayate has become Nagi’s (the girl) butler…

Now go and read the goddamn manga!

Genre: Comedy, Love-Romance, Ecchi
Artist: Yabuki Kentaro
Author: Hasemi Saki
Artist’s Past Works: Yamato Gensoki, Black Cat
Started in: April 2006

This has got to be one of my favourite manga. Those who’ve read it will know that the storyline is very cliché, but that’s not the point. The character design overrides everything else by far when it comes to judging an anime or manga, and To-Love-Ru’s character design is the best I’ve ever seen. The artist is the same guy who drew Black Cat, though I haven’t read it. However, if you don’t want to read anything serious with a complex plot, or just want to get a few laughs, this is the manga for you. I did say it was cliché before, but almost all manga of its genre are the same. ‘To-Love-Ru’, spelt to-ra-bu-ru in romaji, can also be pronounced as ‘Trouble’. It’s of the comedy-romance genre, following the very screwed up school life of our male lead, Rito. I thought he was a shota when I first started reading because he looked really short, but he’s actually average height.

Anyway, he has a crush on a girl called Haruna, and decides to confess his love for her. But of course, all stories like this have the lead fail in confessing due to their lack of confidence. The same goes for To-Love-Ru. But to add to his worries, he meets the mysterious Lala (and by mysterious I don’t mean secret-samurai-girl-with-dark-past-type mysterious, as the only thing mysterious about her is that she’s an ALIEN!) Ok, an extremely hot alien with a devils tail, who comes from the planet Deviluke and is the heir to the throne to the entire universe! And can you guess how Rito meets her? With this genre, any new encounter with a hot chick cannot be normal. As Rito is taking a bath, Lala appears from in the water completely naked! Of course, Rito freaks out and starts screaming and such. However, when he calms down slightly, he realises that there is no one there! How strange…Oh but no, it was real! As in Rito’s bedroom, Lala is sitting on his bed with his bath towel wrapped around her. Did I mention she has no shame at all and doesn’t mind being completely naked in public? After some more fanservice, Lala falls in love with Rito and decides to marry him! However, as she is the heir to the universe, many other aliens want her as well. At first, Rito is completely uninterested, but when he finds himself saving Lala from the various freaks that come after her, he sees himself torn between his concrete feelings for the shy, quiet Haruna and growing fondness for the ecstatic, outgoing Lala.

Rito Yuuiki

Lala Deviluke

Haruna Sairenji

The story uses the typical settings for a harem anime, including the park, beach, swimming pool, campout in the forest with a large hot spring, and of course, school! And is there fanservice you ask? Well, let’s just say it borders on hentai, except without any detail! Someone gets naked practically every chapter. As the story progresses, more main characters are introduced. One of the aliens after Lala ends up being a bishie who was Lala’s childhood toything, and has come back to marry her, and his name is Ren. He joins Rito’s school, where Lala also attends, and tries to beat Rito at everything. Meanwhile, Rito is still trying to get Haruna’s attention (and it seems like she’s fallen for him as well), but experiences more priceless moments with Lala. Another character that’s just come into the picture is possibly one of the year’s more ‘beautiful’ girls, and immediately gets jealous of Lala when she learns of her popularity. She decides to seduce Rito as she thinks it will upset Lala and starts trying to get Rito’s attention using the most seductive method she can think of. I don’t know how long she’ll last, but if this keeps up, Rito will have 3 extremely hot chicks in his life. That’s not including his little sister. ^^

To-Love-Ru is scanlated by KEFI. There are 26 chapters released at the time of the writing of this entry.