Epsilon: For those who haven't heard of him, he's the guy who did Video Girl Ai.

Blade: Well, I sort of picked up this series as a lark...and then hunted down every other issue I could get my hands on. As you may have guessed, this means I like it. Quite a lot, in fact. Best manga mini-series I've read since Caravan Kidd.

Epsilon: I don't like this series nearly as much as Blade does, so while he begs you to read it, I'll give you an actually decent review.

Blade: (lofty look) Since when have I ever been less than absolutely objective when giving my opinion of something?

Epsilon: One word: Tarou.

Blade: TAROU IS KING! That is not opinion, that is objective fact that the pathetic great unwashed has yet to figure out! Well, technically, somebody else is "King", but in the colloquial sense, he's "King", you know?

Epsilon: You mean he's Elvis?

Blade: Just shut up and worship him, heathen.

Epsilon: We're wasting space where you could be ranting about Shadow Lady.

Blade: Oh yeah, right! Well, I like Shadow Lady a lot.

Epsilon: You've already said that.

Blade: (whap) Shut up. First, the artwork is excellent. Seriously.

Epsilon: If you're into cheesecake.

Blade: ... (pull out bokken) May I finish now?

Epsilon: (magnanimously) You may proceed...

Blade: THANK you. As I said, the artwork is great; and I do mean that in utter seriousness. Katsura has an excellent sense of form, and the overall style is one of the best I've seen. Very rarely do I find panels or scenes I consider ill-drawn. I haven't seen VGAi yet, but on basis of artwork alone I'm now interested in taking a look.

Epsilon: Yay...well, even I have to admit he has a good sense of position and distance, but none of it really grabbed me.

Blade: (flat look) I'm the aesthetic here. When was the last time ANY artwork "really grabbed you"?

Epsilon: Well, CLAMP tends to grab me. Pinches, too.

Blade: With anyone else, I'd consider that comment somewhat ecchi.

Epsilon: If anybody else was reading Shadow Lady, I'd consider them ecchi.

Blade: 9_9 There's not THAT much fan service, you know.

Epsilon: Aside from that issue where they were tearing off her clothing with fish hooks.

Blade: Granted on that one, although it was humorous. Still, generally it's not even as bad as a Manabe comic.

Epsilon: Not many non-pornographic series' are as bad as Manabe.

Blade: True, I suppose. Still, let's get off the subject of cheesecake; it's not bad in comparison to many. While I like the artwork, it isn't what really attracts me to the series. It's got a really fresh sense about it...I mean, aside from the initial premise, which is fricking weird even by manga standards...

Epsilon: ...because it's a parody of many manga concepts?

Blade: Not to mention a certain western icon that couldn't beat Ranma in a fight? Yeah, that. But also there's a certain willingness to break conventions; not on the whole, maybe, but in little things, aspects of the characters, story, and even jokes that are just a bit fractured off what you expect, but still make sense. I like that.

Epsilon: I'll admit there's some neat "fractured concepts", but some of it gets old really fast. He may poke his finger in the eye of many clichés, but remember that clichés become clichés because they work.

Blade: (shrug) I think they do work, for the most part.

Epsilon: On to characters, I suppose. Go ahead, Blade, I know you've been waiting for this.

Blade: LIME-CHAN WA KAWAII DESU!!!!! I love Lime! She's so COOL! So INTELLIGENT! SO...

Epsilon: You've seen her in three issues.

Blade: And isn't it amazing how much she's impressed me in such a short time?

Epsilon: (flat look) You were already saying she was going to be the next addition to your list of favourite characters when she had appeared in about five panels and you didn't even know her name.

Blade: That was her utter coolness shining through to my infallible intuition. I mean, I already knew Toguro Ani was cool when all I had was an extrmely blurry picture from a video game magazine that mistranslated his name and said nothing about him besides "he's a freak"!

Epsilon: What's that saying about self-fulfilling prophecies?

Blade: Regardless! Lime-chan is quite cool. She's also one of the major examples of the fractured concepts previously discussed; I won't spoil it, since it's neat, but she's not like the usual rival to the main character at all.

Epsilon: Nor is anybody like the usual anything in this series...well, except for the cops being incompetent, that's not unusual.

Blade: Anyway, for the really confused: in essence, Shadow Lady is about a young orphan named Aimi Komori who comes into possession of magical eyeshadow (really) which turns her into the world's greatest thief. Well, I suppose she could have been something more heroic, but thief was what she went for.

Epsilon: It also tends to release her inhibitions. And I suggest you skip the story where the eyeshadow gets used on a guy. (shudder)

Blade: (cackle) As you say. The normally shy girl finds release in the antics of her more liberated alter-ego; assisted by the obligatory cute mascot...well, sidekick...well, perverted little demon...anyway, she fights or something to win love or something in a city that bears a slightly parodic resemblence to Gotham.

Epsilon: "Slightly" parodic? The place is called Gray City.

Blade: (cackle again) I know; ain't it Gray-t?

Epsilon: I think it's rather dull, actually. Almost colourless.

Blade: Ack, skip to the serious part before a pun war erupts!

Epsilon: You started it.

Blade: Anyway - last time I say that this review, honest - overall I like this series (as if you couldn't tell) and recommend it as something a little different. I do agree the cheesecake could stand to be reduced, but as cheesecake goes, most of it at least makes a vague amount of sense character-wise. In addition, I find the characters generally appealing, with just enough twists on the usual stereotypes to keep things interesting. A-.

Epsilon: Well, this series is okay, but not something I'd pay money for. On the other hand, it is something I'll read if it was available, or if it's shoved in my face as it was when I was at Blade's place, which is actually better than quite a few other series'. C+.

Blade: I'm trying to get people to BUY it, you twit! (thwap)

Epsilon: You're trying to get people to buy a comic about a thief. The last thing we need is to give the otaku community more ideas.

Blade: What, make them dress up in black leather fukus and run around on rooftops? I'd pay to see THAT.

Epsilon: Therein lies the difference between us.

Blade: ... (beats the living hell out of Epsilon with bokken) I didn't mean it THAT way, you moron!