Gagaku Berceuse - So ... is it possible to have a harem comedy with only three characters? Art's fine, story's OK, didn't grab me.

Ignorance - Art and layout are a bit stiff and missing something, but I'm not sure what. (Mostly because it's what's missing in my own art, methinks.) Maybe more of a solid grounding. I think the toning doesn't quite match the art - it's rough and loose and would work well with a more stylized, simpler, graphic drawing style, I think. The more I come to think of it, I think the drawing style is right in between - it ought to be more refined and complex, or simpler and more graphic - and at the moment it's not quite one thing or the other. Er. Like mine. :D Anyway, the story's interesting although it didn't quite grab me - I think the characterization needs a bit more work.

I'll Be Waiting - Taken from an old legend that appears in a number of cultures, which made me peg the ending a few pages from it, but only because I happened to be reading a translation of a 4th century Chinese collection of stories and superstitions the other day and it was in there. :D Characterization could have been a *little* deeper - we don't know why the antagonist acted as he did, for one. The art ... is almost there. Liu is developing the sort of manhwa-inspired linework and toning style I love, and also has a good graphic-design sensibility, but they're not quite nailed yet. In a year or two, Liu's going to produce some really stunning work, I predict. (P.S. Some of the spreads are excellent - pp 6-7 and 16-17 really stand out to me. Backgrounds need more work in other places, and tone doesn't always work as a stand-in for a background.)

Kung Fu Couple - I can't decide whether the text is supposed to be reminiscent of bad HK dubs or just needed a serious edit. It should be pushed one way or the other. Art: variable. When it's good, it's good (I especially like the last panel), but when it's bad, it's obvious that the artist is losing control of the proportions of the human figure (usually by drawing the forearms and hands too small), and is drawing the figures too stiffly. Flat grey tones as backgrounds and fills rarely work: textures would work so much better. And a few more backgrounds would have made it more solid. Story: it's a simple joke which works well. It would work much better if the art were more solid.

Melody - Needs more detail. Linework isn't dynamic enough - needs a bit more variation. The backgrounds need detail, adding dark shadows would help as well as adding little bits of texture with the pen when inking. A good edit with an eye for spelling and grammar is needed, however. Story OK, although it didn't grab me. I'm not sure that hiding the protagonist's reason for beign unable to play the piano until 2/3 of the way through the story was the right choice, though. It would have made him more sympathetic to have revealed that near the beginning, IMO.

Melody Intrinsical - Overly grey - not enough sptted blacks or varied line weights. The Gothic look tends to work best when lines are precise and confident, and if there aren't many in a panel, the lack of confidence and control shows. The panels in this story that really stand out are the ones with heavy darks and blacks in them (example: panel 1, page 8), or very detailed lines (ex: page 7, although it would benefit from more spotted blacks). The others look unfinished. Story: confusing, not helped by the tendency of the text in lower-case to be too small to read on my screen.

Minion - The strongest one so far! (I'm still reading in alphabetical order, though...) I love this - the pages are confusing, the story is somewhat confusing also, but ... it's supposed to be. It's dreamlike and off-center and never takes itself too seriously. The artwork is dynamic and balanced well between lights and darks. It works well at this length. I think it would exhaust me to read a 150-page story with this art at one sitting, but I'd probably give it a try. XD

Motoroma - Is there a reason it's spelled Motoroma and not Motorama? Anyway ... I wanted to like it, it was competent in the artwork and story, but I can't help but get the feeling that I read this before, when it was titled FLCL. No, this isn't copied, but there are enough vaguely similar elements - strange girl appearing out of nowhere seeking someone, motorcycle/Vespa, hapless, harried, darkhaired guy - that I kept being reminded of it, and since this doesn't have the peaks of sheer manic energy in either the writing or the artwork that FLCL had, it suffers by comparison. Sorry.