After a few months of waiting and speculating it has finally come to pass.
Realbuzz Studios is on it’s way to launch… in 3 months.
But to get you warmed up let’s get you ready for the launch of the first wave of the “Christian” friendly faith manga with the first wave out of the door and August’s Serenity. But first let’s clear the air and set a few ground rules.

Rule #1 - Yes, I still believe the title should be spaced out
No, not that way. I mean in the way that Realbuzz’ Serenity doesn’t really need to come out all at once (ditto with September‘s release of Goofyfoot Gurl). Instead of all six volumes at once they should (in my opinion) space it out to a bi-monthly format, once every two weeks. Then when September rolls about they’ll introduce Goofyfoot Gurl every other week and have a nice pattern of releases that’ll keep readers coming back to stores again and again (week after week) keeping track of their favorite titles.

Speaking of time and all that I don’t suppose Realbuzz can get a Christmas special ready by Christmas eh?
I mean a Christian manga WITHOUT a Christmas Special is sorta like a Nintendo Wii Wiimote without it‘s nunchuk attachment. Sure it’ll go and all but mostly it just won’t work in my book without that something extra (be it a Christmas themed Realbuzz release or that Wiimote nunchuk).

Anyway back to the topic of the two releases, what’s the hurry? Realbuzz doesn’t need to all release on one day. Some of us are patient, give us something to wait for.

Rule #2 - Homophobia equals a 1 out of 5
As much as Christians seem to think the entire universe will collapse is gays and lesbians are given the simple human right of marriage, I will not tolerate homophobia in any format. You gay bash, you get a one out of 5... By the way, I don’t see that happening here because the title is aimed at young women and I think the creators of these titles are going to give the topic a wide berth and avoid it alltogether, or find a way to handle it that’ll be even handed in all respects.
I have faith in Realbuzz doing the right thing, so prove me right everyone. Prove me right.

Rule #3 - Refer to Rule #2 and stick to it like William Shatner to a Star Trek video game VO contract.

Rule #4 - Shelf thy preconceptions before judging Realbuzz
Yes, it is a Christian Faith Manga, but if you are willing to shelf your preconceptions about that sort of thing you may find that this isn’t another disappointing disaster like King of Kings. Far from it.
Let the review itself speak of the title and why it’s getting the score it’s getting.

Serenity Volume 1
In “New Girl in Town”… oh, wait… (spraypaints out “New” and scratches in “Bad”)… ahem. Let’s start that again. In “Bad Girl in Town” we are brought to James A. Madison High School, Monday at 7:57AM on a lovely school day. At this moment at this time new girl Serenity Jones has just stepped off the bus, and heck is following close behind (with a press statement denying all responsibility for Serenity’s actions after this point you first meet her). As three of the mismatched lovable foursome known as the school’s Prayer Club get their first look at the blue haired rebel without an escape clause, Serenity, they have no idea what they’re getting into with the new girl.

Case in point. 5 minutes into her arrival she’s already trading verbal blows with the frustrated principal of the school (who’ll no doubt he seen again in future volumes, let alone future pages of this volume). A few minutes later the school’s welcoming committee, in the Prayer Club, go to meet her and are promptly given… well… I’d say a greeting but I guess you can call it the creator’s idea of what non-Christians “think” of Christians… now I don’t know about you, but I have not automatically jumped down the Prayer Club’s throat 30 seconds into my first meeting with them by calling them “Bible Bangers”… I usually wait for the homophobia then I jump down their throats. Ok, Ok, seriously though? That is way too quick a snap attack on people saying hi, but then again considering she just went to the prinicipal and is already locking wills with her I guess she’s not going to be invited to host the Presidential Press Corps dinner (or any other thing that requires a not so acidic attitude) anytime soon (your on in five, Mr. Little).

However after Serenity has a run-in with the school’s cheer club, and then the school’s “wrong crowd” (don’t ask me what consists of “the wrong crowd”, I am sure my idea of wrong doesn’t fit here) which results in a major blow up and the flipping of middle finger (discouraged in both Christian and 70% of normal non Christian mangas), the Prayer Club is suddenly compeled (guilt tripped) into making Serenity their “pet project” and becoming her friend.

That one, she who kick started the ball rolling on the “salvation” of Serenity, is Prayer Club member Sally. She who speaks softly, is the bearer of bad puns (Pickled Squirrel anyone?), has a lovely attitude… and the ability to cuss strongly enough to cause US Marines to pee on themselves (her loving uncle is a bad(bleep) drill sarge for the Marines after all). With her convincing the gang (made up of four “core” cast members (one seen a tad bit less than the other three though she is still a core member), a fifth character who acts more like a secondary back-up character, and a couple more who are filler characters) to take on Serenity they promptly go to tell her the “good news. She takes it rather well, beating her head into her own locker until she nearly collapses and requires a trip to the nurse and aspirin given for a case of… what! Religious Persecution my eye! You can only be religiously persecuted if… never mind! Just swallow the aspirin and pipe down!

Of course when your “pet project” locks horns with the school bleeding heart literary expert (figuratively of course), and causes Sally to have an emotional meltdown just to get said pet project to stop cussing… well, this isn’t going to be a cakewalk. Things look up when Serenity shows up (not by choice) for Youth Night at the local church, but even if she thinks she just showed up to irk her really uptight tightly wound mom maybe they really are making an impression on her… until she ups and steals the money Sally had gathered to donate to a local animal shelter. Then all bets are off… or are they?
What happens next may either seal Serenity’s fate, or open new doors to her that even she could never have thought would open to her. Only time, and the volume in question, will tell.

Now then, shelving any preconceived notions let’s give it the full solid review. First off, the good news.
Writing is as solid as promised, with a fine balance that doesn’t overdo religious tedium and yet isn’t completely fluff (with a fine balance between drama, humor and purpose to it’s writing). With a whimsical art style, and a lighter style at times of it’s writing to match the whimsical artwork, the title is not all serious drama and plot… though it is finely mixed with that as well making for a solid balance.

Now the bad news.
I won’t go on about the artwork, which is set in a rather simplistic style that may be whimsical but is also lacking in great details (though at times the artwork does show the promise of what the artist is capable of if only that artist trained some more and improved their skills… or just showed their higher order skills in the title). This is not as bad as my main problem… and that is the characters have the POTENTIAL to be lovable… but there is a misbalance of character development.

Serenity and Sally both leap out from the starting gate as characters you can get behind, and learn to really love (even the seemingly unlovable Serenity). However most of the rest of the Prayer Club either only has partial character development or minor development (two potentially interesting characters of the Prayer Club, for instance, stick in my craw as suffering from a lack of character development this first volume).
Thus while you meet the whole cast you only really synch with SOME of the cast, something I hope Volume 2 will improve on with a greater depth of character development for the overall cast.

Also sometimes it seems the characters go out of their way to bring up the Christian equation. Now don’t get me wrong, I do remember that this is a Christian Faith manga… but you don’t need to spell it out several times per volume especially if there seems to be no reason to do so. At times it is necessary, and fits perfectly with the book… a few times seems like it was just brought up for no reason other than the writer felt it had to come up for no particularly solid reason.

Overall there is more good to Serenity than bad (Bad Serenity, bad), leaving you with a title that (if you are willing to set aside any preset notions of a Christian faith manga) might be a most interesting read. Still, at times it seems the title goes out of it’s way to bring up the Christian equation, and not all of the main slash secondary cast get enough of a fleshing out character wise in your first meeting, still overall it is again more of a good thing than a bad thing.

I look forward to reviewing the rest of the first run of Serenity, though again I do wish the title would be more evenly spaced out than packing the entire first series run in one release.
Serenity Volume 1 gets 4 Drill Sarge Sally chewing out cries of “MAGGOTS” out of 5.

Now for the next time.
The next time we gather together again for another Realbuzz review (or preview) it’ll be in regard of the September 2007 launch of the second Realbuzz series, Goofyfoot Gurl Volumes 1 to 4. Again, sure, I’d like to see the series spaced out abit on launch, but again that’s me.
If you’re wondering, yes Serenity Volume 1 does have a preview of Goofyfoot Gurl, and while I can’t say much about the title from it’s launch I can say a few things.

1-It’s set in a mini-mart or 7-11 type place that is entirely in the orange. Lots and lots of orange.

2-An incident between a buzz cut (Realbuzz, buzz cut, I sense a trend) overworked employee and a Close Encounters of the Yiddish kind leads to a breakdown of the language barrier, and a revelation concerning a certain Suki (I think she’s the lead if I remember my previous talks about Realbuzz in the past).

3-Buzz cut lad drops the topic of Suki’s Christianity while asking her about her knowledge of yiddish… how did that equate into the topic?

4-Suki is half Japanese and 100% listener (that‘s more than even Dr. Phil!)… I’m not sure how that info was relevant either but I guess only reviewing Goofyfoot Gurl will reveal that.

If things hold out as well as it was with this Serenity review I think I will have positive things to say about this title when I give you your first look at it in the near future.
Stay tuned, your next peek at Realbuzz’ coming titles should be along before you know it. See you.