Rain - There's a lot of good energy in the artwork, although the figures are at times too stiff and a bit unconvincing. The effect through the glasses, though? Love that. :) The story is generic, and the characters are stock characters until page 18. I think it would be more effective if the opening text were less "This is what happened and this is what I'm going to do," and more like the stuff on page 18. Trust the reader and let us figure out what's going on, and make the characters alive to us from the start.

Romantrophy - I love the linework and the spotted blacks. Pages 2 & 3 are wonderful. Then on pages 4 and 5, the backgrounds lose that quality - the perspective is off, and their lines don't flow and are less confident than earlier. And then the backgrounds are wonderful on page 7 ... and 14. I think some of them were rushed, or maybe there's just less confidence in designing interiors. 4 & 5 just stand out. Otherwise, the art's strong and flowing. The story is good - the plot's been done before (not that that should stop anyone as long as they put their own spin on it), but maybe a bit more of the characters revealing themselves would make the ending stronger and make it stand out. What does the title have to do with it? And there's a misspelling twice on the first page, which jumps out.

Scratched - It almost seems as though everybody's starting with their characters in bed this year. Anyway, like "Ignorance", the art isn't quite there yet. A year or two of working on perspective and proportions and movement will probably get it there. The story's OK, nothing outstanding, but I know enough about police procedure to be not convinced by all the breaks in it, unfortunately.

Slight of Hand - My very first impression of this story, from the title alone, without looking at the first page, is that the misspelling in the title (Slight/Sleight)better be intentional. In a published anthology, I'd assume it was, but from years of looking at RSOM online, I am no longer confident this is the case. OK, now to go read the story. Second impressions: First page - backgrounds great, Moo is adorable, dialogue is intriguing and definitely pulls me in and makes me want to turn the page. XD (Third impression ... is "Slyph" misspelled? *reads on* Ah. Yes.) .... OK, now I'm done. This works for me actually, despite the minor problems, and I'm still not quite sure if the title misspelling was intentional. The artwork is good, and I like the way it played with going from strong and confident to thin and sketchy during conflict. And Moo is still frickin' adorable.

The Cacti Boys - Art is variable, although it's good more often than not. Perspective and proportion needs to be worked on a bit - the figures are good most of the time, but other objects aren't as convincing. I can see a bit of Amy Hadley influence in the girl's character design. XD It works, though, especially as an homage, since she wants to be a fashion designer. :) The story's pretty good, too - paced well, but the problem is that it reads more as the first chapter of a longer story. There's a climax at the end of the story, as there would be at the end of a chapter, but no real resolution. (And Los Angeles is misspelled.) I would, however, like everyone to take a look at how the first page sets up a bit of weirdness, with the cacti sitting in heaps of clothing, and then goes on with the story, with the explanation coming a bit later. This is how you get people intrigued in a story - if the cacti explanation had been held off until the middle or end, it would have been a story about four bishounen driving through the desert and, frankly, I'd have gone back to Saiyuki if that was what I wanted. :D But, it was done right in here.

Up and Down - Competent shounen sports manga. :) None of the characters are any different than you'd expect in a story like this - the geek, the jocks, the wet dream, er sports beauty. The dialogue was kind of clunky - I couldn't tell if the formal phrasing Felix uses in the first half was to indicate that English was not his first language or because the dialogue needed some good polishing. The art's pretty good, but could use a bit of polishing also - I expect that with good editorial guidance, or with serious application to practice, the artist could be pro-level or close to it in a year or so. The layout of the text balloons was confusing in some places, and I ended up reading them out of order. You should never be afraid of covering your art with text balloons - or, even better, draw the balloons in at the sketching stage and keep them incorporated from the start.

Utopia - Another one where the art quality is up and down. I like a lot of the elements, but they're not quite jelling. I think a lot of it has to do with perspective, and with not giving the objects quite the same care as the figures when sketching and inking. The flat grey fills weren't working in this particular one, either - flat grey works best when the sketching and inking is simple, flat, and graphic, or when the inking is so dynamic that it carries the picture alone and the grey fill just enhances it slightly. The story was a bit confusing, and I never got a real sense of the primary character - the focus was too often on his friends and not him, I think.

Utopia 13 - Nice backgrounds on the first few pages. Good, dynamic inking, especially on the figures. Unfortunately the simplistic hair really stands out - it's Naruto hair in an almost BLAME! world, and they don't mesh. The story ... eh. The protagonist is a generic fighting cipher, and were this a book-length story, I'd give him a few more pages to start becoming interesting, but in a short story he needs to gain some sort of personality in addition to stoic much more quickly.


So. The one I'm voting for? "Minion." It takes the page and stretches it to its limit, and plays with the visuals while at the same time keeping the story, and my interest, going. I think "Slight of Hand" is my second-place choice, and loses only because of the sheer insanity that is the artwork in "Minion."