This time Coengar2 opens his sack of christmas manga and reviews a new series based on a popular strip found in Newtype magazine

Title: Aoi House

Publisher: Seven Seas

Genre: Comedy

Age: Older Teens 16+

Volumes: 2 so far ( Vol 3 not due out until summer)

Violence: Slapstick

sex/Nudity: Fanservice, some sexual themes and dialog

Status: New Series, just being published

Alex and Sandy are long time buddies who are enjoying the dorm life in thier freshman year in college. Well, enjoying it until Sandy’s love of showing hentai anime in the dorm’s common room and the antics of Sandy’s panty stealing hamster Echiboo get them thrown out of their dorm. While trying to find a new place to live they stumble across a flyer advertising that the campus anime club it’s own house, called Aoi House, and are looking for new room mates. While Sandy is a total anime otaku, Alex is more like just a semi interested watcher but they do need a new place to live and they need it fast. As they enter Aoi House they are startled at how easy it was to get accepted and get a room, they are even more startled when they meet thier new housemates. The other housemates are all girls. There is the bossy and overbearing rich girl Elle. Nina is the way too laid back jock. Jessica is a way hot nursing student who loves to tease (Sandy is her favorite victim). Maria is a quiet bookworm type and high energy Morgan is just on this side of being insane or so it seems. Just as the boys are adjusting to thier new housemates, they learn the true secret of the house. It seems that the house is not called “Aoi House” it’s called “Yaoi House”, the “Y” just fell off of the front sign and Morgan thought it looked cute and left it off on the flyers. To make matters worse, all the girls are rabid Yaoi otakus and at first they think the guys are gay lovers. Alex quickly convinces them that he and Sandy are not lovers but since they still need a place to stay they agree to keep rooming in the house which is a good thing since Morgan has laid claim to Alex as her personal Yaoi Pet and playtoy and it seems as if Elle too might just be developing feelings for the guy. Now if only Jessica wont tease Sandy into a coma things just might turn out alright for the guys.

Good points: The artwork is great and the story is filled with great anime injokes and cameos. It doesnt hurt that it’s funny as hell too

Bad Points: If you’re looking for a serious manga, this aint it. Also the long wait between the release of Vol 2 and Vol 3 really sucks (at least 6 months probably)

Overall Review: This is definatly a harem genre series with at least two of the girls going for Alex and a couple of more showing signs of interest. The series also happens to be very funny and watching Morgan in action is a riot. Another cool thing is all the various anime and manga injokes and tributes that abound in this series. Watching out for them is half the fun of reading this series. There are even several nonanime related jokes spread around (watch for a Jay and Silent Bob cameo in the Mall ) With a load of laughs and fanservice this series doesnt take itself to seriously but you should and you really need to check this one out!! It’s the perfect series for a kick back and unwind kind of read and who could ask for more from a comedy manga??