365 Days of Manga, Day 283: Suihelibe!

SUIHELIBE! • CMX • Naomi Azuma • All Ages
Children’s science fiction comedy. Cute little animals (and plants) from the planet Noid have been unleashed upon a Japanese junior high! Lana, a young alien girl with pink hair, must catch the “Noidys” before they cause trouble, so she recruits the help of Tetsu, a boy who witnesses her spaceship crash into the wall of the school. To find the escaped aliens, they join the school’s tiny biology club, where they make friends with other students while chasing down giant turtle-creatures and rabbit-creatures. Suihelibe is a mild-mannered children’s comedy with super-cute, simplistic, somewhat bland art; the characters look like Playmobil figures. The heroes capture the Noidys with a combination of science lessons (”What if we used electrolytic water? Just spraying around tap water that’s been electrolyzed will disinfect this entire room”), and magical sci-fi gadgets (such as a magic pump which turns a portrait of Beethoven to life), but the stories aren’t really about the aliens, they’re more about the friendships and quarrels between the students, and their efforts to keep the biology club from being disbanded. For child readers, it’s a sweet series with some good jokes, but it may not hold the attention of adults. (Review by Jason Thompson; originally printed in Otaku USA Magazine.
** 1/2 (two and a half stars)
Today’s winner is Michele W. of Indiana! Congratulations, Michele! After you get your manga, head over to Anime News Network to check out my review of a classic “adult women’s” manga, a manga which makes “Sex and the City” look like a story for junior high students, Moyoco Anno’s Happy Mania!