Imagine yourself homeless and earning each meal by playing your guitar. Then one day a random girl, dressed in full punk attire, walks up to you and takes you home with her. You have no clue what's going on and you proceed to play a song for her best friend. This is what happens to Izsak in Christy Lijewski’s RE:Play.

Lijewski, creator of the TOKYOPOP manga NEXT EXIT!, brings us her twist on the lives of a locally known punk-rock band, Faust. Cree, the lead singer, is the person who found Izsak. Rail, Cree's best friend and the band's lead guitarist, is like Cree and the band's figurative older brother. Char is one heck of a drummer and is also the fashion mastermind behind everything the band members wear.

So where does Izsak fit in? Ed, the old bassist, left the band to form his own. Izsak is said to be better than Ed ever was. The question is: Can he live up to the expectation?
Boys and girls both love their music, but girls love their shojo. While there is provided a nice fantasy element later in RE:Play, the manga is more pointed toward the girls who love their pretty boys.

The language content is mostly the reason for the OT rating. The use of lingo that this generation of teens uses is blended nicely into the mix. The use of American-based beliefs and infatuations with the supernatural are expressed in a more mature way. Although there are now punk-rock lyrics to go with the flow of this manga, the reader does get a feel of the band's performance.

The punk-rock feel of the characters in RE:Play are well-integrated through Christy's art. Everything from the rips in clothes, half skirts, to even the piercings lets the reader know just where they stand. They look like they don't take crap from anyone, even though Cree reminds me of a little kid sometimes.

I couldn’t stop reading RE:Play until I was done. I couldn't give RE:Play a full score, because I was disappointed to not have more insight on the band's lyrical choice. I really did enjoy the manga and it makes me want to buy the next volume. There is no release date as of yet for volume two, but if you are interested in RE:Play then check out tokyopop.com for more details. 

TOKYOPOP rated this manga OT (Older Teen Age 16+). The genres of this manga are fantasy, romance, and drama.