All Nippon Air Line: Paradise at 30,000 Feet

So… I wouldn’t buy Virgin Soil because of the title… I just want the kid on the cover of My Paranoid Next Door Neighbor to put on some pants… but when All Nippon Air Line: Paradise at 30,000 Feet showed up in my recommended list at Amazon it made me giggle and immediately file it in my wish list.  I had to.

The premise:  A Japanese airline staffed entirely by hot, gay men where affairs are rampant among staff and customers.  I wasn’t really sure what to expect – I guess I thought it would be kind of dirty/naughty and I usually don’t buy books for that reason, but… again.  The title made me laugh. 

I suppose at this point I’m so used to absurd concepts being taken seriously in manga that I wasn’t really expecting this to be quite the comedy that it was.  This is however, quite a funny book.  It had me laughing out loud four or five times, which is pretty good for me.  The whole tone of the book was wonderful – it was divided into a lot of little 3-4 page stories and while the characters themselves didn’t act very much out of the ordinary, the narration is what really sold it.  It reads like a combination tour book/advertisement/recruitment manual.  (Fly A.N.A.L.!  Love A.N.A.L.! A.N.A.L. is the best!)

I was surprised that while the humour and situations were adult (like the steward instructor telling his students he was going to drill them quite hard in class much to their delight) the art was fairly discrete (mostly a couple of OHs! coming from behind closed doors).  The art wasn’t great (I thought most of the characters looked the same) but worked well with the tone of the stories.

Here’s the back cover blurb, just for you.

 One of the first pages from the book explains the concept.  And you get your first clue that you will be reading the word A.N.A.L. many many times before you are finished.

 And yes!  It’s all love in the air!

Heh heh heh.

Ahem.

Some examples of stories within the book?  Forbidden romance between rival airlines! A business man learns the benefits of flying first class!  Don’t like pretty men?  It’s okay!  There’s a sporty flight you can take instead!  And what happens when a plane gets hijacked?  (I’m not telling.)

There are of course some characters that have to stand out among the others.  There’s the Chairman who personally interviews and selects each employee (he’s known for his stamina), one of the Four Kings who’s voice is enough to cause orgasms (an onboard emergency lets him make his first announcement over the speakers and he’s oh so thrilled to do it), the exotic Ana Sui who wears Chinese garb and constantly battles customers fighting for his hand (or… whatever). 

Eh, I’m done gushing.  I had fun being surprised while reading and I’d hate to spoil it too much.  I wanted to write this review right away, though, because I’m totally lending this to people.  I’m not sure when I’ll be getting it back.  :)

It’s nice to make new friends

I so didn’t need to spend money on this today, but she was just sitting in the box looking so lonely…

Yes!  I now own Danboard to go with my two Yotsubas.  One Yotsuba wants to play with her, the other wants Danboard to make her day…

It’s kind of hard to tell, but angry Yotsuba is holding her water pistol.  Happy Yotsuba is just thrilled to be there, so I didn’t feel the need to pull out the ice cream bar.  But!  I have to say that the pistol fits perfectly in the hand that comes with it – no need to jam it or prop it in her hand at all.

The little black spot on the left side of the cardboard head?  That’s a switch that moves!  Neat!  This figure is a lot more poseable than I thought it would be when viewing it in the box.  Though as my friend pointed out when I bought it, the sample poses on the back of the box are quite creepy.

I also found out that I can stick Yotsuba’s head on Danboard’s body.  Heh.

Tiny Titans 1

 Last week I picked up the first issue of Tiny Titans.   As anticipated, it was pretty darn cute.  The stories star various Titans (from the earliest like Robin, Wonder Girl and Kid Flash to some of the latest like Rose and Kid Devil) but aren’t heavy on plot… I think the longest story was four pages and involved Wonder Girl’s new uniform.   Er.  I guess it’s Cassie rather than Wonder Girl.  They’ve made the odd choice to have both Wonder Girls in the comic but Cassie doesn’t have a code name.  Poor Cassie. 

This was one of my favorite gags. 

I think they’re kind of worried about the wrong thing here.  :)  The substitute teacher they get later is even better. 

 So… in this not-so-action packed issue we get Robin pondering the meaning of Speedy’s code name, Cassie’s jeans, Beast Boy gets a puppy and here some of the ladies go out for lolipops.

Ha!  The ladies always love Robin.

So, yes, I really really liked Tiny Titans.  It was a fun read and I love the character designs.   I’m going to pass it on to my youngest nephew who I think will enjoy it too.  He knows more about Superman and Spider-Man right now, but comics are always fun.