Yay, one of the manga series that I have actually finished. I quite enjoyed it as well. I hope you will too, after reading it. Try to appreciate the art as well as the story and you'll find it fun to read.
+Anima are humans with animal-like powers (anima). They receive their anima when they are in grave danger, and only when they're under the age of fourteen. +Anima are feared and shunned by other humans, because of their supernatural abilities. This story is about four young +Anima; Cooro- a crow, Husky- a fish, Senri- a bear and Nana- a bat +Anima, who are trying to find their place in a cruel world.
What I really like about this story is the characters. You have Cooro, who is a boy around the age of twelve. He's your typical happy-go-lucky kind of guy. He loves to eat, especially apples, and likes to make friends. Then you have Husky, who is the same age as Cooro, but quite the opposite of him. He is often quite grumpy and is sensitive about how people interpret his gender. Husky is often mistaken for a girl because of his beautiful singing voice and his appearance. He is often disciplining Cooro for his ecstatic behaviour by hitting him. Senri is one of my favourite characters, because you don't find characters like him quite often in novels. Senri is about seventeen or eighteen years old. He has little memory of his childhood and has a strange obsession with pressing flowers. He doesn't speak or show emotions much. Senri is quite naive and ignorant, and is seen as having the least common sense in the whole group, although he is the biggest and the oldest. I like the way that the younger ones teach him the right things to do, as if he were younger than them. Although he is seen as a "stoic", Senri gets mad whenever one of his close friends gets hurt. Last but not least, you have Nana. Nana is the same age as Cooro and Husky. She is a typical girly-girl. She loves clothes and jewelry and is jealous of Husky for his feminine appearance. She and Husky are often arguing because Husky cannot stand Nana's "girliness".
The characters are very likable and in one way or another, you can relate to them easily. I love the art as well. It has lots of detail and I often practise drawing form Natsumi Mukai's art as well (Hee hee). Well, I hope you are now motivated to find and read +Anima and to enjoy it too.
Here's a picture of the characters, for those who are curious. From the left: Cooro, Nana, Senri, Husky
Peace Out!
Erika
Some useful manga sites:
http://www.onemanga.com/
http://www.mangafox.com/
http://www.mangavolume.com/
