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Rating: 
Summary: A Great, But Confusing, Start.
Review: I had first heard about Rikki and Tavisha through Invader Zim. While Rikki is best known for voiceing eveyone's favorite robot GIR, he has also collaberated with his wife on the series Rankle and His Three Legged Cat and Reality Check. ShutterBox, a more gothic and mature series, has wonderful art and plot, but can leave the reader confused once they finish reading the first volume.The plot deals with recent high school graduate Meg Amano witnessing a man supposedly drowning himself on a beach she and her friends are at. Soon, Meg is transported to the land of Merridiah, an alternate universe, whenever she falls asleep at night. There, she attends the land's university as a ShutterBox exchange student, learning to become a muse. Tavisha is a wonderful artist and her style continues to mature and grows more eye-pleasing. I really enjoied the character designs and the incredible detail of the landscapes. Plus, the characters all are great. One of my favorite characters is Damien, AJ's older brother. His characterzation is perhaps one of the best that I have ever read. I love how flirty he is toward Meg; this really rounds out the character well. Similar to the Chesire Cat from Alice in Wonderland, he taunts and toys Meg with riddles and sarcastic quips that are irresistibly well-written and draw you in. On the otherhand, this is where the fault line is drawn. While the plot is the perfect bait, the actually dialoge is either a hit-or-miss. Some of parts are pure fillers; using fluff and "pretty words" to make the story more "dark", but this leaves the reader confused and often causes him to loose his place. Other times, the dialoge is too simple and doesn't mix in at all. Also, the characters are slightly flawed. This happens to Meg the most. While she maybe somewhere between the ages of 16-18, she comes off as a little too "teeny-bopper"-like, resulting in becoming annoying rather fast. But that's the charm of her character: she is confused, yet remains mostly collected and accpects her surroundings. This also acts like a curve for Damien. While he's dialoge is well done, it can leave the reader very annoyed at times, due to the fact he teases Meg constantly. Also, this volume should have been longer. This would have tied up any loose ends and make this volume a much more satisfied read. I also did not like how stereotypical gothic it was. While I certainly don't mind the gothic life style, it seems lately that it's becoming more and more mainstream and that it seems that it is starting to loose it's once "indie" (meaning, only a selected group of people know about it) edge. But, if you can get past the faults, the first volume of ShutterBox is a great start. Hopefully, the later volumes will flesh out the characters and story, so give this series a go.
Rating: 
Summary: Shutterbox is a MUST have for every manga lover!
Review: I recently found my copy of Shutterbox-- I knew the author for her previous works, she is a Japanese-American artist, and the soul of Japanese manga shows in this new work like ever before. The shoujo beauty of the art and clothes designs grows stronger as the story takes us into an Alice in Wonderland landscape but with a deeper and more substantial meaning. The feeling of death and the mission for those who left this world is not over by just crossing into the next realm. Sometimes the fantasy world into which Megan is transported clashes violenty with reality, making us wonder and filling our minds with muses and our hearts with dreams
Rating:
Summary: I must say.....
Review: I was immediately drawn into Shutterbox when I saw an add for it. The pretty, yet mysterious guy on the cover intrigued me, and since my brother had the first Volume, I figured I'd give it a shot. At first, I wasn't sure what I thought about it. In fact I didn't like it much at all really. And I was sad because the guy on the cover cuts his hair. :( hehe Okay, so I'm a dork, sue me.! :p Anyways, as others have said, the story is intrigueing: A girl named Megan has been having weird dreams lately. She's been unsure what to do with her life, and she's been seeing people or things that she's not sure are real, her mother sends her to a psyciatrist, doesn't help much though. But then one night when she goes to bed she discovers just how real it is. That she has been chosen to be a Shutterbox, an exchange student at Merridiah Univrsity where dead people are trained to be muses, and she is there to be trained as a living muse. The characters are interesting enough, I really like Adrien, I hope to see his character grow. And I REALLY *hope* to see Megan grow out of somewhat typical manga-girl character she is right now, and become something that is a more 3-dementional. Not say she's a flat character, but I was more intrigued with Damien and Adrien then I was her. What kept me reading was knowing that I would see Adrien. And that the plot itself is very interesting. Shutterbox seems like a very promising manga, I have a feeling it will only get better once the characters are giving room to breath and live. I did like the chapter names and pics though. Esp. the title "Quixotic" made me think, that maybe this is more poking fun at the typical manga, and celebrating them as well, by having Megan be the sort of character she is. If you are familiar with Don Quixote or the Female Quixote(which I studied in college), then you will know that they are characters transfixed with a romance novels and detimerined to live the lives of the romance characters. I think in a way, that is what the authors here are doing. :D Well that's my bit, you may or may not like Shutterbox, that my friend, is up to you. God Bless & *Enjoy* ~Amy PS: The artowrk takes getting used to.
Rating:
Summary: Long Time Fan
Review: I've been reading Rikki and Tavi's comics for 10 years now, since I was 12, all the way back when they used to make Robotech Clone and Reality Check. Shutterboxs is absolutely their best work to date, although my favorite is still Ranklechick. I don't undrstand the reviewer who wrote that "dialogue is a luxury in a visual medium." That's totally wrong considering that comics aren't just a visual medium. Hello, that's why there're are words to read! And I've always loved how Rikki conducted his personal style. It does take a long time for his story to get anywhere because that's his style. It fills up the world with something intelligent and not just speed lines and super deformed faces and same old same old "bishies". Tavisha and Rikki's work compliments each other completely. And I liked the Santa Monica scene. It made Megan look small cold and alone and I think that's how she felt when she saw AJ die. Plus, no other reviewer here wrote "I dare people to create their own manga this good". You must be paranoid.
Shutterbox is beautifully written and drawn. I can't wait for book two.
Rating:
Summary: king of dreams
Review: If you haven't heard about Shutterbox by now...well, I'm afraid you've been living under a cave, my friend. Beautiful plot, fantastic characters and a storyline that'll melt you to your curly-toed boots. I haven't seen a comic so intriguing and bursting with new ideas for many many years. We're no longer boxed in with back-to-back copycat mangas about magical girls with magical powers and masked heroes carrying them off into the stars; Studio Tavicat (the creator, as if you didn't know) have given us something uniquely new. Magical girl? You get Megan, a spunky girl without the need of a spunky hairdo. Magical world? You've never seen a place as darkly familiar to your soul as Merridiah. Masked men? None, sorry, but full of amazingly sexy muses who don't need to hide their faces. If you like the ideas of humans mingling in the spirit world, you better buckle up. With Shutterbox, not only are you going to get an amazingly well-delivered plot that'll get you thinking the whole time, but you'll also get the fantastic curly-cued and darkly charming art along with it. "But some other reviewers didn't like it....," you say? Well...I'd very much love to see those other reviewers create a storyboard brimming with poetics, put on panels, coloured and then published into an actual piece. Shutterbox is amazing in its entirety. It's a step up into a new world of meaningful manga. Get it!
Rating: 
Summary: Great idea, but devoid of everything but okay artwork
Review: Shutterbox is the story of a girl named megan who in her dreams travels to a place where the dead become muses to the living while awaiting reincarnation. Megan travels to this place called Meridah and stumbles upon Merridah university on accident and is accepted to be a living muse. Sounds interesting, huh? Sounds like it could be a really great read am I right? Sadly it isn't. Shutterbox has some great artwork. The character design of shutterbox is the most appealing thing about it as Adrien and Megan just look absolutely wonderful, also the artwork of the university and and the mindfield do look good, but that's where the greatness of shutterbox stops. The rest of Shutterbox is absolutely dreadfully lifeless. The story while intriging goes absolutely nowhere. Most of shutterbox is spent with pointless conversations that are filled with either useless facts or bland dialogue filled with more cliches than I can count on my hands and feet. Shutterbox has some interesting concepts indeed.The mindfield and just the overall concept of the dead acting as muses is a great concept but goes nowhere. Some scenes in shutterbox, do nothing but just bog the story down even further, one such part is the lady nailed to the cross scene, it seemed as though it was just put in to add some more action to the pretty bland story. To sum this all up do not buy manga, no matter how intcing the story or the artwork don't buy it, rather go spend you 10 bucks on another manga more deserving of that money.
Rating:
Summary: shutterbox....an interesting read to say the least
Review: shutterbox, it seems it's one of the first american mangas published. the plot i particualry like, since you often must read it over again, to get all the hints though at times it's a bit confusing. i wonder what audience this sory is aiming towards....the main character seems a tad too pre- teen princess at times, though the male characters are very interesting to watch.
abother thing is the art. it seems as though this particualr story,it tries a tad to hard to act shoujo instead of being drawn in it's own unique way. i was immediately impressed with the very lovely front cover and the first few pages of the story. though when megan is in the ofice of her shrink it's quality goes down it seems, whih is rather unair because there are some very lovely shots, and the gothic cute fahion desings are wonderful as well.
while the art , perhaps not the same level as clamp or paradise kiss, it's still recomendabl. while some scence (as when megan is crying about her mom) are a little pitful,the sucide is very well done. the plot is quite interesting and most of the chapter pictures are fun to look at.
don't expect and incredible amount from this book, but just take it for it's down points and it will probably very fun read at least.
Rating:
Summary: Potential
Review: Tavisha has loads of it, but the poor quality of the writing in this story drags down the artwork. There are scenes that are beautifully executed, such as the opening sequence with the scissors, and the mysterious ocean suicide. Other scenes are overloaded by an unnecessarily heavy toning or over-emphasized background details that jar you out of the story (for example, when Megan walks alone in front of a poorly-executed Santa Monica backdrop that pretty much eliminates her from the panel). The story took a very, very long time to go anywhere, maybe because it was overly amused by its own wordplay (dialogue is a luxury in a visual medium, folks), or because it doesn't understand the curse of the dreaded infodump, or maybe because it's just not structured very well. Which is a shame, because the story concept is fantastic. When I'd finished reading the first volume, my heart ached for the lost potential of the dark and stirring bishie Adrien. In spite of a negative review, I recommend buying this book to get a look at him. To the reviewer who essentially said, "I dare people to create their own manga this good," -- people already are (and sometimes it's better) both online and in print. Ameri-manga is improving by leaps and bounds every year and I hope that creators of Shutterbox are prepared to keep up with the competition.
Rating:
Summary: shutterbox....an interesting read to say the least
Review: The back of the cover reads: "Like a Photograph, love develops in darkness. On the surface, megan Amano sems like a typical Los Angeles girl, attending college and spending a good deal of her time in therapy. However, when Megan dreams, she travels to a place unlike any other - a supernatural and surreal college, one any recent high school graduate would die to attend. And usually they must...for Merridiah is the afterlife's premier educational institute. But for Megan a great exception has been made. Megan has been accepted as a Shutterbox exchange student, where she will spend a year studying to become a living muse. However, all is not as it seems as secrets are unlocked and a great mystery is exsposed - revealed, of all places, through the lens of a camera." And with that said, combined with the beautiful art on the cover, I didn't even have to open this book to know I MUST HAVE IT! You get a great feel for the strange, sad (melancholic?) feeling that runs through the theme of this book just from the beautiful picture of Adrien on the cover, but what's really surprising is the gentle humor that runs side-by-side with the sadness. Bitter-sweet and oh, so wonderful. The story begins and hooks you with a suicide drowning, and from there we enter megan's dreams and the land of Merridiah that resides there...or SOMEWHERE. Muses, fairies, little flying bunny things called Beebos, a herd of Hyperpans, reincarnation, and a mysterious/magical castle somewhere in the great beyond...I wish MY dreams were like Megans! Oh, but is she dreaming? This is the first book of six so I guess we'll slowly find out over time! I know I'll be there for the whole series if the rest are as good as the first. BTW: there are so many things you catch on the second and third readings, it's like reading it for the fist time every time. Like, the cruel brother to Adrien, Damien, he's the only character with British spelling in his word balloons ("favourite" instead of "favorite")!
Rating:
Summary: Merridiah!
Review: The back of the cover reads: "Like a Photograph, love develops in darkness. On the surface, megan Amano sems like a typical Los Angeles girl, attending college and spending a good deal of her time in therapy. However, when Megan dreams, she travels to a place unlike any other - a supernatural and surreal college, one any recent high school graduate would die to attend. And usually they must...for Merridiah is the afterlife's premier educational institute. But for Megan a great exception has been made. Megan has been accepted as a Shutterbox exchange student, where she will spend a year studying to become a living muse. However, all is not as it seems as secrets are unlocked and a great mystery is exsposed - revealed, of all places, through the lens of a camera." And with that said, combined with the beautiful art on the cover, I didn't even have to open this book to know I MUST HAVE IT! You get a great feel for the strange, sad (melancholic?) feeling that runs through the theme of this book just from the beautiful picture of Adrien on the cover, but what's really surprising is the gentle humor that runs side-by-side with the sadness. Bitter-sweet and oh, so wonderful. The story begins and hooks you with a suicide drowning, and from there we enter megan's dreams and the land of Merridiah that resides there...or SOMEWHERE. Muses, fairies, little flying bunny things called Beebos, a herd of Hyperpans, reincarnation, and a mysterious/magical castle somewhere in the great beyond...I wish MY dreams were like Megans! Oh, but is she dreaming? This is the first book of six so I guess we'll slowly find out over time! I know I'll be there for the whole series if the rest are as good as the first. BTW: there are so many things you catch on the second and third readings, it's like reading it for the fist time every time. Like, the cruel brother to Adrien, Damien, he's the only character with British spelling in his word balloons ("favourite" instead of "favorite")!
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