Video Girl Ai, Vol. 13

I live for this book and now its all over. If you think I'm a perv for reading this book, well that your fault for not realizing how wonderful this manga is. GO buy the whole seriers. You won't go wrong.

The fifth volume of Video Girl Ai starts of with a cautionary tale as Ai's creator makes her witness the birth of "Mai", a non-defective version of Ai who will do his bidding and not fall in love with the person she's supposed to help. But in a sadistic moment of experimentation, he gives Mai to someone unpure of heart, Naoto, who supposedly is in love with Nobuko. Besides bringing happiness to her master, Mai has another mission....to kill Ai! As Noboku and Yota continue to drift apart, Ai's memories begin to return and along with them, her love for Yota. But with Mai roaming around, will they have time to renew their relationship? When Yota isn't busy stringing along 3 girls at a time, he can be quite likeable. At times though, his failure to commit to any of the girls in his life make him very annoying. Ai's creator is especially intriguing because we still haven't really got an explanation of who he is or what his purpose in creating video girls really is. Masakazu Katsura's art is beautiful and realistic and painstakingly drawn. His fondness for accentuating adolescent angst can get tiring sometimes but when you have 14 volumes you can drag things out as much as you want, for good or bad. The lack of Yota's decisiveness does create an element of suspense though for future volumes. A good read. I would also recommend the anime series Ah My Goddess.