My vote is for.... No. 6: Maggie: New & Improved by Alpha2 But here are my extraneous comments U_U;;
2. Ameko ~ Rival Pets: I like the art style, it had the appropriate amount of detail without being cluttered, and was just in general very pleasant. The panel gags worked well; supplementing what I thought was an unusual story. Just an off-thought, but one of the characters reminded me of a young Ayanami Rei; must be the bob and the puppy ears :)
3. Choiii!!! ~ Wizard: Great, wicked sense of humour here; I liked the sly references to Pokemon and Celebrity Deathmatch :) Plus the pg 3 action sequence was cool, and made the sequence of comicstrip-like panels on the next pg all the more effective.
4. Dee ~ A New Beginning: A very professional looking bit of shoujo eye candy, I must say. Even the SD characters looked great. The story seems well set up, with its charming heroine, an mischievous schoolboy, a cocky idol :) Needless to say I think this offering does the genre justice....
5. Jacky Gilbertson (Who are Kevin and Cathy?) ~ Broken Crystal: Man, they start young nowadays U_U;;; This was a well-drawn piece; the style reminded me of Rumiko Takahashi's in a few places, and had a kind of innocence to it..... Which made the rather dark subject material all the more surprising. I was rather traumatised by the ending, but really that earns credit for the manga-ka, whose objective was to challenge the reader. Interesting.
6. Alpha2 ~ Maggie: New & Improved: Choices, choices! What's a girl to do? :) Cool from Pg 1, with the chat windows. Artwork was beautiful; that's a very clean style there, with well-executed soft shading. As for the characters, they were charismatic and had you rooting for them; the dialogue was very real, very funny in places, and worked wonderfully with the visuals. Will Maggie, flattered by the unexpected attention, submit to stereotyping? O will she find companionship with an old friend who appreciates her innate qualities?
7. Tarra ~ The Loser's Club: Intriiiiiiguing; this piece left me wondering what would happen next; both a good thing and a bad thing in a way! But the mystery certainly left plenty of potential for future parts... Nice cover art, good use of panels and closeups. The bg photographs worked well, by the way.
8. Tang ~ Ito Ending: As I said in a previous communication, it does *not* suck. It was simple, no doubt, but the dialogue at the end was a clincher, and I was moved by their little denials :) The famous Tang-ian wit strikes again.
9. Julie Bihn ~ Courtly Love: I can't believe how incredibly cute and funny this entry was, heh :) There is no shame in Pokemon... "Honi soit qui mal y pense" ^_^:;; But on a serious note, I think I've been much remiss in not saying what a warm feeling I get from the character interaction in the series of Courtly Love... all that sweet naivete, well-meaning 'blunderation', and devotion. Every instalment makes me smile, and this is no exception.
10. Kasumiko ~ A Pleasant Surprise: Another quite beautiful entry. Nice use of screentones, and the characters were exceedingly easy on the eye :) I confess I am stumped by the 'surprise', and what it spells for Nami. The title already dictates that it should be 'pleasant', but I imagine there's room for a plot twist of some sort. Lots of potential.
In general: this month's offerings revolved a lot around school life, probably to tie in with the Shoujo requirement for the contest, and mine was no exception. But whether dark or humorous or romantic, the entries were spiffy. Well done all! Regards, Alexe