Ultra Maniac

So, this is my first review, so sorry if I seem a bit um...
n-noobish...
Well, I'm not sure if I look quite as noobish as Nina with her magic...
(...you do realize that was my bad pick-up line attempt there? |'D)

Ahem... let's start.

Story:
(7/10)

Girl fails magic school, transfers to regular human school, meets friend, helps friend, mishaps happen, romances blossom, other characters appear,
...that's basically the outline of it.
It's quite entertaining to read, actually. It's got quite bit of humor, and later on some drama, not to heavy though, but just a good amount.
I have to say the whole "Magic Kingdom" gimmick was pretty nice too
There were some characters who had small roles, but overall they made the story enjoyable, even though the minor characters maybe likely to be forgotton.


Characters: 8/10
(types we've all seen before now and again, but put together in a way that works great.)

Ayu personally appealed to me. Even though she did seem typical in some places, there was something about her (and the rest of the characters) that seemed lovable.
Probably the mangakas efforts to make them a cast to get attached to the characters shined through.
I know many people would describe Ayu as "plain", and she even admits herself that that's she style she goes for. But I give her props on being a shojo heroine who is actually "sane" for once xD;;

Now for the other one, Nina. She's the slightly more... "insane" one.
But the way she is is in more of a unique way; she's a witch failing magic classes and will do anything to help a friend (even if that means screwing up in total embarassment.)
She has this "naive, young wonder" kind of air going on, and like I said, is very sweet and loves to help out her friends, even though it backfires.
She isn't really all that "goofy" or "looney", at least intentionally, as does seem to have some seriousness somewhere, but that's mostly covered by her innocence/immaturity.

Basically, the friendship between Ayu and Nina was one of my favorite things in this manga.

As for the boys, Tetsushi would be that one character people would forget after they skim through this manga. Even though he was nowhere near as bad as some other generic guys that seem to be abundant in shojo. His personality was cheerful, which I liked.
I'll just end this by saying Hiroki is the serious guy because I'm writing a bit too much.


Art- (9/10)

The art is pretty much a very good definition of "shojo style"
In my opinion, the entire manga seems good for someone who's just starting to delve into the shojo genre.
The lines are smooth, flawless for the most part, the graphics have less of the "random sparkles everywhere" thing going on than your average Nakayoshi/Ribon/Ciao-type comic. (which can be good or bad)
The expressions are very well-drawn for the most part. Although the way they look when they turn into exaggerated chibis may look a but odd, it's easy to get used to.


Enjoyment/re-read value:
(9/10)
I find myself picking up one of the books and re-reading it a good amount of times, it's a quick 5 volumes and doesn't have many parts that drag. Even though sometimes you might have to go back and "scan" the book again before you can realize what's going on with all the characters at the moment, because a lot of happenings and conflict unfolds with volume 3-4.

So in the end, it's a quick and easy read, a great shojo for those who like romantic comedies sprinkled with a bit of magic.

ok this is my first time writing a review but Im not going to sit here and talk about the art (but it is good). im half way through this series and i have to say i love it
1 i've seen the anime and choose to read the manga and i gotta say the manga is way better! i highly recommend you read this series if u like magic shoujo and a not your every day story :)

Okay so the basic story is follows our main charter Ayu Tateishi (the popular and cool student known for her "mature" laid back attitude). Our story really starts with the introduction of Nina-who turns out can use magic and is from a magical kingdom in some other dimension (or something like that)! Ayu ends up finding out when she stumbles into Nina when she is trying to find her "magic computer"....(although Ayu ironically didn't believe in magic in the beginning)
Ayu and Nina become friends and they go though some wacky adventures together. Nina basically becomes Ayu "fairy godmother" although Nina's spells do not always go as planned.
Story:
The story is creative and interesting in my opinion, it's the only story I know that actually has a backstory for the whole magical society. Along with explain why some magical people are doing in the "ordinary human world". It knows what it wants to be as a story and it does those elements wells- although this story has a habit of dropping storylines on a dime without any warning or reason (which is one of the things holding it back and the reasons that it gets a 7 in book). I mean one of the story lines that bugged me was the whole "Yuta Kirishima(Ninas former classmate from magical school) liking Nina". When he comes into the story he basically followed Nina from the magical dimension because he missed her- even though he would never admit it. They had know each other for years and when he is called out for liking Nina by Ayu he admits he does like Nina......then that story line is dropped. Like nothing else is really said about it. Yuta never confessed any feelings for Nina and Ayu never tells (which I think could have been an interesting side story for charter development). He even just goes out with this other magical girl whos a model Sayaka Nakamura. (Even though they had been basically been using each other and had showed no attraction to eachother). Also Yuta had followed Nina from a different dimension! You cannot expect me to believe he would just give up on Nina! That whole thing just bugged me.

Art:
It's okay the art style is kinda dated and cutesy. There isn't a lot of action scenes- and a personally think the art style is cute. To be honest some of the charters look the same (like the boys seem to have the same look to them with nothing to tell them apart besides a slightly different hair style).
There's nothing really dramatic or revolutionary about the drawing style.

Charter
Okay to the 2 main characters are Nina and Ayu (so ill just be doing these 2). Although there are more charters.
Nina- is the magical girl from another dimension. She is kind, sweet, innocent, and a little but clumsy. She can also be a bit dense sometimes. She was sent to earth after failing out of magical school- since earth is where all the "fluckys and drop-outs" go. I personally loved her charters as she some particular quirks that made her an overall fun charter.
Ayu- is the "cool and mature" (Not really) popular sports girl in school. Her and Ayu becomes friends. She plays off of Nina's quirks brilliantly in my opinion. Although when it comes to her crush,Tetsushi Kaji , she can be just as airheaded as Nina. Although she is always trying to play it cool she often looses it when it comes to Nina's high-jinx.
Of course there are more charters like Nina's friend Yuta, Ayu's crush Kaji- just to name a few.

It's basically a very light and fluffy novel- although there is nothing wrong with that. Not as intense as like "Harry Potter" wizards and magic but I personally think it's a good read for anyone just wanting some light reading for fun. It didn't do anything revolutionary but it wasn't bad either- I personally enjoyed it.

Ultra Maniac was the first manga I've read, but is mediocre compared to the other manga I've read. I've also watched some of the anime episodes, and was a great anime. I wasn't a noob to the anime industry, though. The character development was great, and my favorite character so far has to be Nina. The art is amazing and wonderful, and it's very enjoyable. I gave this manga a 6/10.

These where one of my first manga's so I found it interesting and fun to read. The story is basically about a girl name Ayu Tateishi, who helps out a girl name Nina Sakura. Nina trusts Ayu so much that she tells her that she is a witch from another realm. The story basically reflects off of there, Nina using her powers to help out Ayu at times but sometimes causing her even more trouble.

Ultra Maniac was the second manga I ever read. The things I like about this manga is the character development and the cute storyline and characters. I like how even the secondary characters had attention put on their development and story. While this is a cute manga, it is mostly geared towards the younger audience (which I was when I first started reading it) But now that I have read a lot of different types of manga, I can see that Ultra Maniac is relly not one of the best mangas out there.

When I watched the anime a long time ago it had been the first romantic comedy I have ever seen. I both laughed and cried during that series and in my opinion that - the ability to make the viewer feel emotion - is what makes a story great. Today, about 4 years after having watched the anime, I finally got myself to sit down and read the manga.

Once again I was impressed by Ultra Maniac. The manga had a lot of similarities to the anime, but it also had a lot of differences too. One of the first things you will probably notice if you had watched the anime first is that Nina no longer uses her mahou shoujo outfit, which I think is a good thing. There are also some characters that weren't in the anime and some characters in the anime just did not appear at all. But like the anime, this series has interesting plot twists, light hearted drama, great romantic moments, and many scenes will make you laugh.

When you first look at the summary you are probably going to think this is just your typical shoujo... and in many ways, it kind of is. Like with most shoujo's this is a romance aimed at women and it has relatively few action scenes. So if you only watch Bleach and stuff like that you probably won't like this. If you do like shoujo though, this shouldn't bother you.

So to put things bluntly, if you like romantic comedies with some light hearted drama you will probably love this series. In my opinion it was good from the start, but it started to get really good around chapter 5.