Ninja Girls

Ninja Girls, otherwise known as Rappi Rangai, has finally been released in the US by Del Rey manga. I popped into the bookstore while out shopping today and decided to check for it on a whim. The book is $10.99, which is slightly more pricey than most manga, but it’s definitely worth it.

I talked about this series in my “6 Manga You’ve Never Read” post but I just wanted to gush about it, and the US release, s’more. Bear in mind this series is a tad raunchy, so don’t read on if your innocent mind can’t handle it.

Speaking of the first post I mentioned Ninja Girls in, let’s take a look at how I described it: “[It's a] harem manga that is genuinely funny. One that doesn’t rely on “walking in on the girls in the hot spring” gags and other cliches. One where the female characters aren’t tired, doe-eyed archetypes and have actual personalities. One where the male character isn’t a boring, plain, loathsome, dorky stand-in for sad otaku to inject themselves into… [I]ts also brimming with gorgeous art, badass action scenes, and ninjas.”

Yup, well, that’s about the size of it. And that’s what has kept me reading. I’ve been keeping up with scanlations of the series but the quality of translation these days is a tad… Engrishy, and sometimes hard to follow. This is why I was excited for it to finally have a commercial US release.

From what I’ve seen so far the story and characters are intact, the translation is great, they even use Japanese honorifics. Preferring honorifics to be there may seem weeabooish but they really can be important indicators of characters’ relationships to one another and how they view each other and help preserve the original spirit of the story and characterization. However they may have been a bit too overzealous, leaving attack/technique names untranslated and explaining them in the translation notes. But hey, it’s nice to see a company be so thorough.

I did notice they censored the cover of the comic, however:

But I haven’t noticed any other censors inside the book so far, so I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about. There’s never been any overt full frontal nudity in this comic, though most of the female characters are drawn in a salacious manner. But it’s really not over the top, and the artwork is gorgeous, it’s not only demonstrates the artists’ amazing skills but it’s so expressive and the characters are full of life.

At any rate, I highly HIGHLY recommend this book if you’re looking for a new manga to get into. It’s funny, it’s sexy, and it’s well drawn. The story is simple and more of a device to move the characters around and promote character development (the female ninjas are trying to rebuild the fallen clan they serve by finding a princess of another clan for the male lead to marry, who is an illegitimate offpsring and only living heir), but it too is good and has some mysterious villains in there to boot. Check it out!

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