Well, I haven't been on in a while (well, not since last Sunday) but I do have a review for you.
Aqua vol. 1
Kozue Amano
Now, I've had a loooong week. But I picked up this book (which I bought like 2 weeks ago, too) and started to read. The back of the book read...
"Akari Mizunashi is a new arrival in the gorgeous Martian city of Neo-Venezia. She becomes a gondolier tour guide and begins her training to become an Undine, the most coveted job on Aqua. Follow Akari's adventures as she discovers the wonders of Aria in this prequel to the popular anime and manga series. "Now, the manga does go according to the story. We first find Akari on a, ehm, "plane" or spaceship of some sort going to Neo-Venezia a city on the planet formerly known as Mars. After 150 years of terraforming, the planet is now habitable for humans. First, that would be wonderful, if we began terraforming. It always seemed like a wonderful... futuristic thing to do. Terraforming a planet to be like Earth. Well, anyways, Akari wants to become a gondolier for the Aria company. Neo-Venezia is a city modeled after Venice, Italy which is famous for being underwater. So people use gondolas to travel around. The first volume is a great start to the series. Even if the series is only 2 volumes long... It's pretty packed. We learn a lot about the Aria Company as well as the gondoliers themselves. The translation and art are top notch, which is a surprise from Tokyopop. One complaint, I don't like the way Tokyopop released these series (Aria & Aqua) They released the first volume of Aqua then the first volume of Aria. They should have finished Aqua first. Pick up this volume. It'll be worth your while. If you don't fancy it, the series is only 2 volumes. So you can chill. This series is definitely worth it, and I look forward to volume 2.
Here's an update of my current manga count: 261