Title: Vs. Volume(s): 7 Author(s): Keiko Yamada Format: Unflipped; Right-to-Left Publisher: CMX MSRP: $9.95 Genre(s): Drama Rated: Teen (13+) There Is No Buy Now Button Because I Do Not Support This Release

This is not a review you are about to read, this is a warning. This is not a review because I don't feel like I've read enough of the series I'm about to warn you about to write a full length review, but I've read enough of it to tell you to stay as far away from it as possible. This is not a review of CMX's oddly titled series “Vs,” this is a warning to not read it. Don't check this book out at the library, don't borrow this book from a friend, and don't *shudder* pay for this book. “Vs.” is vile trash of the worst kind. I opened the book with the idea that I was going to be reading another manga series to review for my site. Instead, I was treated to the most violent, unkind, corrupt thing I've read in a long time. The description of this series makes it sound like a series about a boy who has the talent to play the violin, but not the heart, and that he must find his heart if he is to play the violin beautifully again. This is what I was going to be reading, or so I thought.

Don't read this book.

Not even a chapter and a half into this book, I had to close this book in pure horror. Instead of reading a series about music, I read a series about violence, anger, and hate. Characters were barely introduced before they started shouting at each other, beating each other, tearing the other person down with status and pride. Before the first chapter ended, one person had already tried to kill someone else, and the violent behavior just continued into the next chapter. When the characters played music they played it with the facial expressions of people who are haunted by demons and past sins, making the images of the music horrible and ugly. The only smiles to be seen in this series are those of people who get pleasure out of tormenting and tearing down other people. I like a good dark story as much as the next person, but this is too much, too soon, and there's no balance to any of this. It's almost like “Degrassi,” a show that I can barely stand to watch because it's about nothing but bad things happening to high school kids. “Vs.” is "Degrassi” except with musicians, and is, in fact, worse then “Degrassi.” At least the characters in “Degressi” were people you cared about to a certain extent. “Vs.” is about people who are victims, predators, adulterers, and killers. You care about none of them. How can we? All they do is make us mad and stir up hateful feelings towards one another. I can not say whether or not the series gets better and more cheerful later on in the series, but if it does, then the author makes a fatal mistake in showing us the violence first. Whenever you see a series of movies, have you ever wondered why the second movie is always darker then the first? It's simple storytelling really; if a director made the first installment of his movie gloomy before you got to know any of the characters, the movie seems cruel and you can't identify with the characters because you don't know them.

I'm serious

Once you establish the characters in the first movie, the second movie has the glorious freedom to BE darker and more violent, because there's a reason to CARE about what is happening to the characters now! “Vs.” starts out cruel and violent, and the effect is that I have no desire to stick around to see what happens next, so the author would be wasting her time if she bothered to make the characters likable later on in the series. The artwork, translation, and book quality is something I couldn't care less for at this point. This is not a review. This is not a series I want to analyze and critique. It got off on a wrong foot, the worst foot it could get off on. It's hostile in ways I couldn't imagine it to be, it's mean in ways I didn't expect, and I certainly didn't enjoy it enough to even finish ONE LOUSY VOLUME!!!!! No, there will be no review for “Vs.” on this site from me. This series is vile garbage. This is not a review, this is a warning: Do not read this book!

- -Review Warning By Kevin T. Rodriguez- -