I can't say enough about Mai. The drawing in this saga in phenomenal. The clean and uncluttered art is sure to please any anime or manga fan. If you want to be taken to another world this is one comic you gotta pick up! This page is a shrine to this once very popular comic. Unfortunately the Viz Comics site has no info about Mai but pay them a visit to check out their new titles. Leanne Richer

(Above) Mai The Psychic Girl Sketch by Leanne Richer

Viz graphic novels popular in Japan
Normally, it would be no surprise that one nation's comic books are popular in another country, but what makes it so fascinating that Viz's line of deluxe graphic novels are popular in Japan is the fact that these English-language works were originally produced in Japanese! Quite frankly, it boggles the mind to think that a translation of one country's own creations would garner so many fans amoung people who could read it in the original. For example, the highly popular graphic novel collection, Mai, was so well-recieved in Japan that a Japanese book distributor bought out the entire backstock of the book, making it impossible for Viz to fill reorders from American distributors and forcing the book back to press for a second printing! This has also been the case for the Grey graphic novel, and it appears that it will be true of the deluxe collections of Nausicaa and Lum as well.

Mai Kuju, one of the five most powerful psychic children in the world, is being chased across Japan by a secret information service employed by an underground international organization. Mai never considered her power as anything more than a game, but she has recently been forced to confront its tremendous potential.