Then, as was kind of standard for the 00s English anime/manga bubble era... ADV Manga went kind of crazy & overindulgent.
In January of 2004 it was announced that ADV Manga had licensed "over 1000 individual volumes of manga and manwha for North American release", roughly double (if not slightly more) than what TokyoPop had planned to release in 2004 alone, though not all of these books were planned for release in that year by ADV Manga. Then, later that March, ADV Manga sent out a press release announcing all of the various manga it had recently licensed... ALL 37 SERIES!!!!! Yeah, in just a single press release ADV Manga had gone from "supplemental manga division of a major anime company" to "licensing more manga/manhwa than it could possibly ever handle", and by November of that same year it was already confirming three titles that were initially announced in that March press release had been cancelled after just one or two volumes getting released. Cancellations would continue to happen as ADV Manga went into 2005, resulting in only a small amount of titles seeing continual release, and after mid-2007 ADV Manga was quietly killed off, with only a small handful of titles being rescued by TokyoPop previously in 2006 (Aria, Tactics, & Peacemaker Kurogane) or by Yen Press later in 2009 (Yotsuba&! and Azumanga Daioh). Sure, ADV Manga's death was likely partially due to ADV's own disastrous partnership with Sojitz necessitating some stemming of the bleeding being felt by that point, as this was mere months before ADV would enter its death spiral in early 2008, becoming the "Zombie ADV" shell corporation that it continues to exist as to this very day, due to it seemingly having perpetual international rights to Kino's Journey [2003], Chance Pop Session, Elfen Lied, & (maybe?) Samurai Gun, all of which it co-produced. However, there's no doubt that ADV Manga would have died anyway once the 00s English anime bubble burst in 2008/2009, and in its wake is a multitude of manga that never saw complete English release... some of which only ever saw a single volume.
A couple of years ago at an anime con I came across a vendor that happened have a bunch of these "one-&-cancelled" releases by ADV Manga. I decided to buy them so that I would, one day, read them & see if they were truly not worth releasing more of or if they were simply innocent victims of an overindulgent & overzealous (now former) giant of the American anime industry. While these aren't all of the "one-&-cancelled" releases by ADV Manga I did manage to get six of them (technically seven, but I'll explain that at the end), which looks to be around half of the total amount, more or less. Plus, covering six manga in one piece is going to be long enough, as it is; maybe if this piece performs decently enough I'd be willing to cover the other half another time. I'll go over this sextet in English release order, starting with one of those three titles whose cancellations were confirmed in late 2004!
As mentioned, ADV Manga licensed & released both Japanese manga and Korean manhwa, and our first two "one-&-cancelled" releases will be of the latter. Released in June of 2004, Fantasy Land (originally Fantasy Game in Korea) is a manhwa that I really can't find much info on beyond the bare minimum. It looked to have originally debuted sometime in 2002, ran for six volumes, was published by Daewon C.I., & was created by Lee Si-Young, though unfortunately outside of a listing on Manga Updates it's essentially impossible to find any info on her. That is because the name "Lee Si-Young" ("이시영" in Hangul) is also used by an actress & former amateur boxer, a poet, a footballer who currently plays for Seongnam... & even the first ever Vice President of South Korea! Anyway, Lee Si-Young the manhwaga looks to have debuted back in 1995 & has dealt primarily in romance and/or fantasy manhwa, specifically in what would be the Korean equivalent of "shojo manga". Lee also has had very little in regards to official English releases, as outside of this "one-&-cancelled" release for Fantasy Land there was just a one-shot collection called Real Lies by Ice Kunion in the 00s & her 2017 webtoon Lovely Ugly. ADV Manga looks to be the first publisher to give Lee Si-Young a chance in English, so time to see if this manhwa was truly worthy of cancellation after just one volume.
Ji-Yoon is a bit of a tomboy-ish high school girl who just had her father drop a bombshell on her: He wants her to marry a young man she's never met the moment she graduates from high school, though the man will be attending her incoming birthday party. Distraught at this sudden news Ji-Yoon runs away for a bit, eventually noticing a beautiful statue on display in an antique store. She cries at the sight of the statue, which the store owner notices & (bizarrely) sells to Ji-Yoon for next to nothing, plus free shipping. On Ji-Yoon's birthday she's ready to head down to see her friends, only to first notice a nice looking pendant on the statue's hand. The moment she grabs it, though, Ji-Yoon is suddenly whisked away to another world, one where she's referred to as "Princess Isdale", has seemingly de-aged a little bit (losing her long hair, in the process), & soon meets Prince Lloyd... who looks just like the statue that was sold to her. Turns out Ji-Yoon has been transported to a world made up of the "dreams & imaginings of all living things", including humans, while Prince Lloyd is the heir to the throne of this world, but only if he can manage to defeat Cardiff, the "shadow" older brother of Lloyd's royal father who took command after the King's death, already taking over 3/4 of their world... and wishes to also bring chaos to the "Real World". Ji-Yoon is actually from the Dream World & five years ago was sent to the Real World to protect her from Cardiff, and the only way Ji-Yoon can regain her proper form is to kill Cardiff... who is also the real father of Lloyd's own "shadow" brother, Chopi.
Fantasy Land's first volume is a perfect example of what can be called a "mixed bag". The first third or so that takes places in the "Real World" & sets up Ji-Yoon as a character honestly feels a bit slow & kind of drags, because the only major things you need to really know about her are that she's put into an unfair scenario beyond her control by her father & that she was sold a beautiful statue by a weird antique shop; Ji-Yoon's talent at drawing is explained as her wanting to become a manhwaga, but it's a comparatively minor detail. However, once Ji-Yoon winds up in the Dream World the pacing flips completely around & suddenly goes by a bit too fast & things are explained very quickly one after the other, with only short bits here & there for things to really breathe. So many things get explained, like Ji-Yoon's de-aging being due to Cardiff's sheer magic power, but thanks to Chopi's own magic she wasn't reduced to a baby. Meanwhile, Chopi himself has a similar situation as Ji-Yoon, as he was actually killed in sending Ji-Yoon to the Real World, but luckily managed to take on a younger form himself. It's super obvious that Chopi & Ji-Yoon will eventually fall in love, as they go on the journey to kill Cardiff together. This volume even includes an attempt on Ji-Yoon's life by way of her handmaid, Elvira, who's also Chopi's old lover & despaired after his death, deciding to sell out to Cardiff in return for killing her princess once she returns. All of this combined with the sudden tonal shifts to silly comedy every now & then, while occasionally amusing, does result in this book feeling a bit awkward throughout. Also, just as a nitpick, for a world allegedly made up of all the dreams concocted by all living beings, it's a rather generic & organized world, at first glance. Obviously, I'm sure later volumes show off more of the fantastical, though, hence why I call it a nitpick.
Lee Si-Young's artwork here definitely matches well with the shojo manga it was no doubt inspired by, right down to some of the panel work & organization; in Korea this would be called a sunjeong manhwa/"pure comic". That said, though, I thought Ji-Yoon herself looked surprisingly manly during the initial stuff taking place in the Real World, which I guess was intentional to befit her tomboyish nature, but at the same time at the end of the book (when she reverts back to her actual form for a small bit) she seems to look a little more feminine, at least to my eyes. It might sound as though I didn't really enjoy this first volume of Fantasy Land, but that's not really true. While the pacing mismatch throughout is awkward it's never a confusing introduction, and leaves some things (like why Lloyd looked like the staute) unanswered for the time being, so there are still some things to entice people to continue reading. However, I'd still say that Fantasy Land's first volume is a rough one, overall, and the fact that ADV Manga didn't even bother to include any back cover copy to actually explain anything about the book for potential buyers results in a bit a "No duh!" as to why the entire series was cancelled after just one book. In that regard I would absolutely say that ADV Manga failed Lee Si-Young more than Fantasy Land itself simply failed to sell on its own merits, and at least she's been given later chances in English by other publishers.
The other one-&-cancelled manhwa in this sextet is actually a title I had mentioned once before. In 2021 I did a two-part overview of the various long-running manhwa that saw unfinished release in English, and in Part 1 I covered the 1998 manhwa Change Guy by Son Eu-Ho (story) & Choi Myung-Su (art), which was published by Daewon C.I. until 2006 for a total of 31 volumes. Unlike Fantasy Land, though, ADV Manga did in fact solicit multiple volumes of Change Guy, now under the altered title of Quantum Mistake, with three volumes originally scheduled, & Volume 2's cover even being shown online. Unfortunately, the August 2004 release of Volume 1 was all that would ever see release in the end, and that's kind of sad in retrospect as Change Guy was seemingly a rather big deal in South Korea during its run (running for 31 volumes is certainly proof of that), and it even managed to find a following with English readers online, as by the end of the 00s the entire manhwa had gotten an English fan translation. Sure, it would have never gotten finished by this publisher, regardless, but is it possible in just a single volume to see how big of a fumble Quantum Mistake seemingly was by ADV Manga?
Too-Ji Kang is a freshman at Ki-Sang High who has a hot temper, and the sheer fighting skills to back his rough attitude up. Woo-Soo Choi is a freshman at Myung-Sung High, an academic genius, & a fast learner. After these two strangers accidentally find themselves on a train filled with delinquents, which Too-Ji takes care of with little trouble, Too-Ji & Woo-Soo find themselves accidentally hit by a vehicle being driven by a mad female scientist & her assistant, as they were hunting after human test subjects for her greatest creation, a teleportation device. Seeing this as a perfect opportunity, the scientist decides to use the two boys as her (unconscious) test subjects, and is thrilled upon seeing the two swap between their respective teleportation stations, before dumping the two on the street; if they die, they die, but at least she knows her device works. However, the teleporter only actually teleports the "physical" elements, not the intangible (i.e. personality, memories, intelligence, etc.), so when Woo-Soo wakes up he realizes that they've swapped bodies! Meanwhile, Too-Ji (now in Woo-Soo's body) is the one who took the brunt of the car hit, so Woo-Soo brings him to the hospital... only for Too-Ji to be suffering from retrograde amnesia, making it impossible for Woo-Soo to prove that they've swapped bodies to his own parents. With no other choice Woo-Soo manages to find a way to Too-Ji's home & starts to assume his life, not knowing one bit about the absolute menace that Too-Ji is over at Ki-Sang High.
First & foremost, I just have to get this out of the way: ADV Manga changing Change Guy's title to Quantum Mistake was a boneheaded mistake. I'm not saying that ADV Manga should have just kept the OG title, as "Change Guy" definitely reads a bit too awkwardly "Engrish" (though I think it kind of has a charm to it), but the new title really doesn't fit this manhwa at all, even for the first volume, as after the first two chapters the mad scientist & her "Quantum Teleporter" play no factor in the plot at all; hell the scientist isn't even given a name, showing how she was just a plot device. I think something simple like "From Brains to Brawns" would have sufficed as a name change & better fit the general concept, but I just want to establish that I'll just be calling the manhwa Change Guy from here on out. And for a first volume Change Guy does a more than decent job at establishing things & setting up a bit of an initial status quo, with the majority of this book being mainly fixated around the basic idea of Woo-Soo being a much-too-pure hearted boy that's stuck in the body of someone who's already instilled fear and/or hatred in much of his classmates. Therefore, a situation like Woo-Soo complaining about not having enough money to buy a book gets interpreted by two classmates as Too-Ji about to demand money from them, so they skip straight to just giving him money so as to avoid a beat down, which Woo-Soo then interprets as his classmates being immensely generous; you know, that kind of humorous misunderstanding.
Since this is the first volume it's understandable that one could theoretically worry that Change Guy would just continue to be this kind of one-joke comedy series, where Woo-Soo tries to do something polite, which gets interpreted by others as something violent, and in turn the end result is something that Woo-Soo misinterprets as generosity. Luckily, even in this book there are hints that such comedy would only last so long, as Woo Dae-Huh (the head delinquent at Ki-Sang) is introduced in the latter half, and while Woo-Soo instantly agrees to learn under Dae-Huh under the assumption that he's some academic genius, the next volume preview text (& Volume 2 description in the listing above) does indicate that physicality will definitely be coming in the future. Also, there's a quick bit showing Woo-Soo instinctually punch a falling potted plant that was accidentally going to fall on him, indicating that some of Too-Ji's physical instincts have stayed intact. Thankfully, though, since Change Guy has been over for nearly 20 years in Korea once can also just look up some basic info about the manhwa, and it very much becomes a much more intricate & action-focused story. Even just looking at the Wikipedia page shows that Too-Ji does eventually lose his amnesia & befriends Woo-Soo, with Too-Ji even now able to learn judo due to Woo-Soo's more flexible body. In fact, Change Guy essentially pulls a Rokudenashi Blues by initially starting off as a bit of one genre (in this case comedy) before becoming a straight-up delinquent action series, with a heavy focus on showcasing multiple fighting styles across what seems to be a rather large cast of characters.
While this first book as Quantum Mistake is a fun enough read on its own, though certainly nowhere near a standalone experience, looking up more about Change Guy really does show that ADV Manga truly didn't know what kind of title it had licensed; instead of a silly body swap comedy, it's (eventually) an intense action story. If ADV Manga had known what Change Guy would later become ahead of time (& it really should have, as 24 volumes were published in South Korea by the time this English book came out) then the staff likely would have given it a much better (& fitting) title and maybe even tried pushing it as a bigger deal, instead of giving up on it after a single volume. Seriously, there's no way Change Guy would ever have had a chance in English with a name like "Quantum Mistake".
The remaining four books in this sextet are all manga, and we start with one written by an author that ADV Manga actually was kind of big on, Hideyuki Kikuchi. As mentioned, Demon Palace Babylon, Demon City Hunter & Darkside Blues were three of ADV Manga's launch line-up, & Demon City Shinjuku would follow shortly later, & while Babylon, Blues, & Shinjuku were all only two volumes & completed in English, Hunter was left unfinished. However, at least Demon City Hunter managed to get two volumes (of 17) released by ADV Manga, which means it still fared better than the fifth & final Kikuchi-written manga that was attempted by the publisher, Taimashin. Originally debuting in the pages of Scholar's Comic Burger magazine in 1995, Hideyuki Kikuchi teamed with artist Misaki Saito to create Masatsu Note: Taimashin/Notebook of a Demon Killer: Exorcism Needle, running until early 1999 when Scholar went bankrupt. Sony Magazines then took over Comic Burger's catalog, moving them over to Comic Birz magazine, and the same applied to Taimashin, which eventually ended in 2001 with a final total of 11 volumes. Sony would then leave the industry entirely in late 2001 & transferred all of its manga businesses to Gentosha, which currently still has the rights to Taimashin (this is where ADV Manga licensed it from), with Gentosha then publishing the sequel Mashin Taidou-hen between 2001 & 2004; ADV's 37-title press release lists the sequel as having been licensed, but it was actually the OG manga. Media Factory's Comic Flapper would then publish Taimashin: The Red Spider Exorcist, which starred a completely different lead character, between 2006 & 2009, with DMP publishing only the first two volumes (of six) physically in English, though the remainder was released digitally by DMG. As you can see, there's actually a lot to Taimashin, which makes it all the more embarrassing that ADV Manga only released one volume in October of 2004, so time to see how this Saito-drawn Kikuchi tome fares in a single book.
Dr. Taima, along with his nurse/assistant Maki Togetsu, is an acupuncturist by trade... or at least he is in an official manner. However, Taima has another job as a special type of exorcist as he also has the ability to wield taimashin, needles that can control the flow of chi as well as banish demons from another dimension that have possessed living beings, like people. Taima & Maki head over to see what can be done for the case of Jukei Fujio, an old business magnate who lately has been experimenting on living beings before himself turning into a seemingly unnatural man. Taima manages to subdue Fujio for the time being after an encounter in Fujio's pond, but in order to properly perform the exorcism he has to head over to America (Dunwich, Massachusetts, specifically) to locate the origin of the interdimensional breach, during which he comes across Kyogo Ayakashi, one of "Japan's Three Masters" who can perform such exorcisms, same as Taima, and they discover that this is all the result of Yog-Sothoth impregnating Lavinia Whateley 70 years prior. However, while Taima is away the demon possessing Fujio manages to start entering the human world, and it's up to Maki to subdue it until Taima returns.
So, needless to say... I was not expecting Taimashin to wind up being a literal Lovecraftian story. And, in all honesty, credit to Hideyuki Kikuchi for keeping it subtle for the entire first half, instead focusing solely on making it seem more like a bit of a standard Japanese-style horror story. My knowledge of Lovecraft is very minimal, so it wasn't until I saw the name "Yog-Sothoth" that I started thinking "Wait, that name sounds kind of Lovecraft-ish...", but those more well versed would have started putting two & together once things like Dunwich, MA & Wilbur Whateley get brought up at the start of the second half, which both come from Lovecraft's 1928 novella The Dunwich Horror. In fact, the second half of this book almost felt like Taimashin had turned into a completely different series in some ways, as it becomes more about Taima & Kyogo meeting up at the old Whateley House, before encountering a highly superstitious night watch & needing to deal with them, before making their way to Sentinel Hill (also from the novella) to deal sealing the interdimensional crack. They manage to do so... except for the one leading to Japan, which I'm sure is what the remainder of the manga deals with: Taima, Maki, Kyogo, & Kurusu (the third "Master" who's only referenced once in this book) needing to deal with other interdimensional horrors throughout Japan.
Meanwhile, the first half feels much more about establishing mood & some lore that can be revisited, like introducing Sanpei Kazahaya, the descendant of an ancient clan of ghost hunters who works as a freelance reporter. In fact, it's Sanpei's fault that Maki has to deal with the demon trying to possess Fujio in the second half, as he neglects to properly dispose of a zombie, allowing it to possess the Fujio family's dog & providing a conduit, of sorts, for Fujio's demon to emerge. This is a slightly beefier book than your standard manga volume, just shy of 300 pages, so ADV Manga likely had licensed Gentosha's seven-volume "Special Edition", and in that regard I'm kind of glad as this allows the one & only volume of Taimashin that came out in English to feel more self-contained, though definitely still not "complete" in its own way. The artwork by Misaki Saito is also very strong, who does a very job at giving scenes detail, characters lots of personality just from their clothing & designs, and handles the more creepy visuals nicely; the shot of the demon-possessed dog smiling to finish Chapter 4 is fittingly chilling. It's not a perfect book, as the shift between halves does come off a bit jarring at first, but as a general introduction to the series I still really enjoyed this & feel that ADV Manga definitely did it dirty by cancelling it after only one release.
In fact, this very release was considered "cancelled" by ADV Manga in that November 2004 ANN news article I mentioned at the start... yet I have the physical release right next to me as I type this, and people are still selling it online at places like the Amazon Marketplace. If anything, that (& the fact that the sequel was listed in the press release, not the OG series that actually came out) shows just how shoddy of a division ADV Manga seemingly was; the translations themselves are fine, but this was a production problem.
A Japanese publisher ADV Manga licensed a lot of titles from was Mag Garden, in particular series that ran in (the now digital-only, since mid-2014) Comic Blade magazine, home of titles like Aria, Elemental Gelade, Jinki: Extend, Magical Detective Loki Ragnarok, Peace Maker Kurogane, Sengoku Youko, Sofuteni, & Tactics. One of the lesser known manga that came from this working relationship was Dream Gold: Knights in the Dark City by Tatsurou Nakanishi, which debuted in Blade's first issue of 2003 & ran until late 2005, lasting five volumes. This was Nakanishi's first serialized manga, and despite trying their best to lay out hints & seeds of a larger plot it wound up being cancelled, though there are apparently two different endings. The first, "Side:B", is the original ending that was published in Comic Blade while the second, "Side:A", is the one that appeared at the end of Volume 5. Nakanishi would later reprint Side:B on their website in 2019, while also making an original story titled "Side:C" that finally answered some of the mysteries that could not be resolved in the original run; Nakanishi even made a short little (unrelated) visual novel in 2018! But I obviously can't judge Dream Gold's multiple endings, simply because ADV Manga only ever released the first volume of it in December of 2004, so all I can do is see if Nakanishi set things up in a way that could catch my interest.
In April of 2050 the Mayor of the Dark City announced the establishment of "The Knights", a Treasure Investigation Division made up of citizens who have each found one of 250 "Treasure Keys", with the goal being for one of the Knights to find "The Center of All Treasures", Dream Gold. It's been six months since "Knights Establishment Day", & Kurorat Jio Clocks is one of those people who came to the Dark City with hopes of becoming a Knight by finding a Key, & is currently making due by running a mobile weapons shop with his friend, Katana Shirabano. The two actually have found Keys in the past, but circumstances (plus Kuro's kind nature) have always resulted in them giving them away. Kuro & Katana manage to find the True Night Key, the last one, allowing Kuro to be enlisted as the 250th & final Knight... but all he finds himself is a bunch of trouble & mystery, as Knights have to follow whatever they are ordered to do via their PDAs while they hunt for treasure "salvage" on their hopeful discovery of Dream Gold, even if that means having to fight each other.
As mentioned earlier, Dream Gold was a manga that got cancelled before Tatsurou Nakanishi could answer all of the mysteries they had set up in the manga, and that's something that is very easy to see from this first volume alone. While I wouldn't call this a "bad" manga, it's very much one where the reader has to just let go of any real expectation of being given much explanation about anything & simply agreeing to just go for the ride, but at the same time I still would have liked to be given just a little bit more to chew on from an explanation perspective. What exactly is Dream Gold itself? Who knows, honestly. What is Kuro & Katana's backstory? Aside from an "Interlude" chapter here giving some small hints, like the two agreeing to drop out of school to search for Dream Gold (upon which they agree to split apart, despite the fact that they clearly have feelings for each other), them having a past with the Tiger Sky Pirates led by Homura, or Kuro being "The Clever Rat of Higurashi Street"... they're just kind of neat characters with a fun rapport but nothing else. This first volume also just tosses in Knight after Knight after Knight across the three stories seen here after Chapter 1, but most of them are literally there for no more than a page, while others that get more to work with aren't given much of an explanation; also, the Knights can have some utterly wild names, which definitely looks to have been intentional.
Meanwhile, Nakanishi's artwork very clearly looks like something being made as their first series, as while Kuro & Katana tend to look good at all times there are plenty of other moments where secondary & tertiary characters can look a bit rough & simplistic; sometimes it looks to be on purpose, but it tends to look more "rough" than intentional. However, Nakanishi absolutely gave it their all when it came to panel layouts, as this one book of Dream Gold has a number of pages where they did some honestly interesting things, like page-height panels that are on their side, two-page spreads utilizing double-width panels for effect, and the like; as rough as Dream Gold could look in this book there's no doubt Nakanishi had ideas. The manga also makes use of a host (of sorts) called Key History, & she'd appear at the start & end of each story to establish things like the setting of said story, whether or not it was a multi-part story (so she didn't appear at the end of Part 1 or the start of Part 2), & even appeared at the end of the last chapter of this book to set up things that'll happen in the next volume. I'm honestly curious if that last one was something added for the tankouban, or if Nakanishi actually figured out where each volume would end in advance & included this teaser page in the actual serialization. I wouldn't say that Key History was necessary in any way, but at the same time she wasn't intrusive in the story itself, and the idea of a "story" being told was brought up in this book, so she's clearly a thematic inclusion.
Overall, Dream Gold: Knights in the Dark City's first volume is something that honestly doesn't quite pull me in... but it could have, and that's where I still kind of have to admire it a little. From a general perspective I am curious about finding out more about the world of the Dark City & the characters living in it, like Kuro & Katana (who do honestly have a really fun rapport, almost singlehandedly saving the book... almost), and that Interlude chapter gave just enough hints as to their backstory that had ADV Manga released more of this manga then I really would be inclined to read more. However, at just the first volume only, Dream Gold still had enough flaws in its set up, artwork, & lack of explaining much of anything that I can kind of see why ADV dropped it like a hot potato, and why Comic Blade cancelled it. It's not just Shonen Jump that can be cutthroat, you know.
We now move into early 2005 with our next "one-&-cancelled" manga, the February 2005 release of Volume 1 of Gate by Hirotaka Kisaragi. Not to be confused with the isekai novel series by Takumi Yakai that first appeared in 2006, this manga debuted in 2002 in the pages of Biblos' Magazine Zero & comes from a mangaka known best for his BL manga. Gate, in particular, was actually originally affected by Biblos' bankruptcy in early 2006, a little over a year after ADV Manga released their sole volume in English, resulting in the fourth & final volume not seeing release in Japan until 2011, once Libre Publishing acquired the rights to Biblos' catalog & Kisaragi was able to continue the story in Kurofune Zero magazine. Because of that there was absolutely no way that ADV Manga would have ever finished releasing Gate, in general, but it's still unfortunate that they only ever released a single volume of the manga. Still, despite its troubled publication history having nothing to do with the manga itself, does the first volume of Gate (no, not that one!) showcase any potential as the "bishonen masterpiece" ADV Manga touted it as being on the back cover?
Akira Saijo, Riki Shirokita, Shigeru Minamiyama, & Kazuya Saito are best friends in high school, despite them being very different from each other, as Akira loves science, Riki is a tough guy who's in a band, Shigeru is obsessed with video games, & Kazuya is the popular valedictorian who helps out at his family's shrine/dojo. While hanging out together one day after school in Shibuya Akira notices the clouds in the sky being strange color... right before a sudden bolt of lightning comes down & strikes all four of them at once. However, aside from each of them having a burn mark somewhere on their bodies all four are perfectly fine & after coming to at the hospital head back home later that night. On the way back, though, they encounter a woman who asks for them to "return the four beasts", which they all ignore, only for each of them to have some trouble at home when it comes to either fire, wind, an earthquake, or water. The next day they find out the truth when the woman, Shuri, appears before them again. The Four Beasts (Genbu, Suzaku, Seiryu, & Byakko) who guarded the gate between dimensions were attacked, and they rode a bolt of lightning down which happened to hit the four friends, initiating a pact between them & the beasts. These four high school students must now fight with the power of the beasts in order to reseal the gate as all manner of monsters & demons make their way to Earth... that is, as long as they can earn the trust & partnership of their respective beasts.
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| Sorry, can't find any images of the manga itself, so Libre's covers will do. |
By Kisaragi's own admission in the afterword, Volume 1 of Gate is all about setting things up for the later main plot, and even by the end of this book that set up isn't completely finished. Namely, this book only covers the establishment of the situation where our four leads wind up with the beasts housed inside them, followed up showing how Akira, Riki, & Shigeru earn the trust of Byakko, Genbu, & Suzaku, respectively, leaving only Kazuya & Seiryu left. Because of that there really isn't much of an overall plot outside of the (for the most part) standalone chapters seen here, but at the same time that does mean that almost all of the main cast get some time to shine & develop as characters. Akira has an inferiority complex at first, feeling that he's the only one not "worthy" of the beast within him. Riki is loud & brash on the outside but deep down fears what he doesn't know, like how his friends really think of him. Meanwhile, Shigeru's story introduces Kikyo Amabe, an childhood friend that Shigeru acts uncouth at due to his own worry about hurting her should he reciprocate her feelings. There are also little bits of character shown for the beasts themselves, which play into how each of them come to trust their respective hosts, which honestly makes me curious about Kazuya & Seiryu, as the next volume preview indicates that Seiryu was responsible for the death of Kazuya's grandfather. Then there's Shuri, who's quickly integrated into the human world so that Akira can occasionally talk with her about their situation, but otherwise is kind of just the semi-aloof supporting cast member.
Still, what is seen in this first volume of Gate is honestly rather good in an old-school way, and it knows not to always have to be super serious at all times, so there's a fun casualness to it all. It's admittedly rather straightforward in what it is & there's really no big twists to be seen here, but Hirotaka Kisaragi manages to execute on it all very well. The characters are enjoyable, the artwork is nice, the stories are well told, and while Kisaragi is known for BL there's really nothing relating to that here, outside of the the occasional moment where something like a hug or the like is drawn in a way to simply make fujoshi fawn. Honestly, whatever the reason ADV Manga had when it came to cancelling Gate after only one volume was, I don't think it's because it wasn't a good manga. Sure, there's definitely a case to be made that Gate doesn't fully reveal enough of its hand in this book, but at the same time I think the character work done here was enough that I would have certainly been up for reading more & seeing what the actual plot would have been like here. Of course, as mentioned, ADV Manga would have never been able to fully release this manga anyway, so that's a bit of a moot point, regardless.
Is Gate necessarily a "bishonen masterpiece"? From this single book I don't think so, but at the same time I think it's pretty darn neat. At only four volumes I honestly think another company should give Gate a second chance.
We end this look at six of ADV Manga's "one-&-cancelled" releases with Kids Joker by Maki Fujita, Volume 1 of which came out sometime in March of 2005. Debuting in early 1999, Kids Joker was Fujita's third serialized manga & ran in Akita Shoten's long-running Monthly Princess magazine, home of titles like Bride of Deimos, From Eroica with Love, & Crest of the Royal Family (one of the longest running manga of all time); it's also currently the home of three concurrently running spinoffs of Sukeban Deka. Kids Joker itself would run until late 2000 & total six volumes, though Maki Fujita has continued to make manga for Monthly Princess to this very day, with their most recent series, Kare no Yo no Kemono ga Miru Yume wa/The Dreams of the Beasts in His World, having debuted in mid-2024. While this was Maki Fujita's first time being published in English, they would be given a second try by TokyoPop a few years later when that publisher started releasing their later Princess series Platinum Garden in late 2006... before that, too, got cancelled in mid-2008, after seven volumes (of 15); man, Fujita just couldn't catch a break in English. Anyway, let's finish this up & see how Kids Joker fares after just a single volume.
Hotaru Yanagawa is a high school girl who wants to become a detective & shows no hesitation in roughing up someone if they do something like try to molest someone on the train or hit on someone that's clearly not interested, even if it doesn't really make her look all that lady-like. After trying to help save a new transfer student named Moriguchi from such a scenario, the two are saved by a young man named Yui Kajiwara, who instantly takes a liking to Hotaru... much to her own dismay. Turns out, though, that Yui is actually an agent for a group that takes on more delicate situations that the police wouldn't normally tackle, like protecting Moriguchi while her congressman father is dealing with an employee doing something illegal, or needing to find out who's behind a series of ransom-based kidnappings. If anything, Yui is the perfect person for Hotaru to prove her worth too... and, despite her own protestations, she's kind of fallen for Yui, as well. However, Hotaru's reckless behavior actually winds up with Yui being taken hostage by a gang during a misunderstanding gone wrong, and despite Yui's fellow agents telling her not to get involved any further, Hotaru wants to save Yui.
Kids Joker might sound a little bit like a take on Sukeban Deka, where a high school girl becomes a secret agent, but in reality (or, at least, for this first volume) it's really more of a semi-comedic romcom involving a high school girl & the talented secret agent that's immensely smitten with her. There is a slight bit of awkwardness with Hotaru & Yui due to an obvious age gap (Yui has to at least be no older than his mid-20s, while Hotaru is likely around 16 or 17... and in high school), and Yui definitely lays on his affection for Hotaru a wee bit too thick so early on, but at least Yui does ask himself if he's overdoing it at one point, so the manga is a little self-aware of the situation; also, Hotaru's friends love driving her crazy by fully calling Yui her "boyfriend". Still, the four chapters in this book are split evenly between one-&-dones that introduce our primary cast (both main & supporting), while also showcasing Hotaru's drive to always want to help & protect others, as well as her admittedly keen ability to notice things that feel a little off. The second half, then, is the start of the multi-part story involving Yui being kidnapped, though I do feel like this is happening just a tad too fast, as it really does feel like the manga wants to advance Hotaru & Yui's relationship to somewhat of a next level ASAP. I wouldn't call it "rushed", but definitely a little pushed forward.
While I am not anywhere near as versed in shojo manga stylings as others can be, I am still familiar enough with it that I could instantly tell that Maki Fujita's paneling, comedy, & even habit of including author's notes & four-koma on the side of at least one page every chapter felt indisputably "shojo"; Arina Tanemura is also very well known for doing this, as well. With this being Fujita's third serialization it's easy to see that her artwork here is honestly rather good, with great line work, good pacing, & nice use of paneling. Hotaru is an enjoyable lead already, with only small hints given as to her real reason for wanting so badly to become a detective & protect others, while Yui's more affable & aloof persona is meant to clash with his innate skills as an agent when need be. Despite the slightly awkward age gap (honestly, if Hotaru was in college this would be fine) the two do make for a fun pair, and even with only a single volume to go off of I think I can see what Fujita was going for here. Overall, Kids Joker is a fine first volume, and if ADV Manga had released more of this I would certainly be up for seeing how things moved on, but at just one volume it's understandably nothing more than that: "Fine".
ADV Manga was by no means the only English manga publisher to have released only a single volume of something before cancelling it, as that can happen for a variety of reasons (extremely poor sales, a sudden change in the licensing situation, etc.). However, I don't think any other English publisher had quite as many "one-&-cancelled" titles as ADV Manga did, and the simple fact that ADV Manga had announced so many manga at once in March of 2004 no doubt played a massive role in that. Instead of starting off small & focused, with hopes of expanding over time, ADV itself instead thought that since it was one of the biggest names in the North American anime industry come the early 00s then it could do the exact same thing with the North American manga industry. In essence, ADV seemingly thought it was Victor Fox & screamed "I'm the King of Manga!", while the sight of the ADV logo itself on a book's spine was seemingly thought to be enough to get people to buy its manga. Instead, ADV Manga simply just helped saturate the market at the time, creating an influx of new titles that was literally just impossible for the market to support.
Because of that certain titles just flopped instantly & ADV Manga seemingly had no choice but to stop a bunch of titles after only a few volumes, and while many managed to make it to two or even three volumes before stopping there were some that was stopped after just one. As I said, the six covered here only amount to somewhere around half of all of ADV Manga's "one-&-cancelled" releases, so I could technically one day return to this subject to tackle the other half, should I feel so inclined. Regardless, the batch that I covered here definitely ranged from "ADV Manga definitely failed it" (Change Guy, Taimashin) to the "I'd at least read more if I could" (Gate, Kids Joker, Dream Gold) to the "I'm just fine with what I've read" (Fantasy Land), and that more or less matched with what I expecting from this. At just a single volume released it truly wouldn't be fair to say that all of these titles were actually "worthy" of their "one-&-cancelled" status, simply because ADV Manga spread itself too thin to be able to support everything it licensed. Sure, not everything was necessarily "deserving" of an English release, but they were given that chance & ADV Manga did wrong by the mangaka themselves by trying to do such much at once. But, again, this is only about half of the "one-&-cancelled" releases from ADV Manga, so it's also entirely possible that I managed to wind up with the better titles this time around. If I was to ever return to this subject with the other half maybe those might wind up being all of the truly terrible ones.
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Now I did mention that I had also bought a seventh "one-&-cancelled" ADV Manga release alongside these other six, yet I didn't include it in this group; it would have slotted in between Taimashin & Dream Gold as a November 2004 release. The reason for that it because this specific release actually has a bit of nostalgia for me, as it was one of the earliest manga I ever bought, in turn becoming one of the earliest unfinished English releases I ever experienced, and ever since then I have always been curious about how the rest of that manga was. Therefore, instead of covering it here I decided to (eventually) also purchase the other two volumes that ADV Manga never released & give it a proper review! Is this specific manga a "sacred treasure" that must be "guarded"? Probably not, but I'm still really looking forward to finally reading all three volumes of Vaizard by Michihiro Yoshida!
Fantasy Land © 2002 Lee Si-Young, Daiwon C.I. Inc.
Change Guy (Quantum Mistake) © 1998 Son Eun-Ho, Choi Myung-Su, Daiwon C.I. Inc.
Taimashin © Hideyuki Kikuchi/Misaki Saito 2001
Dream Gold: Knights in the Dark City © Tatsurou Nakanishi 2003
Gate © 2002 Hirotaka Kisaragi/Biblos (now Libre Publishing)
Kids Joker © Maki Fujita 1999
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