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  By Tammy McDonal

  Dec 27, 2010
  I found this collection through the comic company's blog site. A few months ago I found a little comic called Jikan and the Kappa King on the blog and started reading it every week as new episodes were posted and I really liked it, it was fun, silly at times, and really sweet like a Japanese fairy story. I never read any other Jikan stories but I reckoned they'd be similar to J&tKK so I bought this collection. I was wrong, the stories are much different. In fact, the same writer of J&tKK has two other stories in the book (there are three or four different writers) and they are pretty violent and humourless. The book starts with a short story that is similar to J&tKK and I enjoyed that but then the next story is completely different, a bit boring, with really bad cliche-ridden dialogue. Following that, the third story is a confusing mess, with more bad dialogue. At last the fourth story gets back on track, with a bit of humour and cool artwork to change the pace from the... More > so-so second and third stories. I liked this one. There is another story and then J&tKK which is sweet and innocent but is followed by probably the most violent story in the book, AND IT'S BY THE SAME WRITER WHO WROTE J&TKK!!! It's weird how the same writer who made me want to buy the book made me wish I hadn't...a big problem I have with this collection is that there are four writers and each writer has his own idea of the characters and they don't seem to go well together. The first story, the fourth story and J&tKK seem to go together, but the rest don't fit. In the second and third stories Jikan lacks much personality, he seems lost and confused and depends too much on others, in the stories bookending J&tKK Jikan is quick to violence and seems older and much more seasoned than the earlier Jikan, and then the Jikan in the last story in the book is altogether different, a sort of depressed kind of character. In the first story and J&tKK Jikan is best, not too serious or grim, philosophical and introspective at times, shows a code of honor and seems like a hero. I hope to see more stories like these. I will keep my eye on the comic company's blog and see where this series goes before I buy another collection.< Less
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