Akamatsu, Ken. A.I. Love You.

AKAMATSU, Ken. A.I. love you . Tokyopop. 206p. illus. c2004. 1-59182-615-2. $9.99. JS

A.I. Love You stars Hitoshi Kobe, a 16-year-old computer geek whose only female friend is the sweet, pretty Saati. The only catch is that Saati, a.k.a Program No. 30, isn't real; she's an artificial intelligence program Hitoshi created so he'd have someone to talk to. This changes when a thunderstorm creates a "particle conversion" in Hitoshi's computer (hasn't he ever heard of surge protectors?), which causes Saati to fly out of Hitoshi's PC into his startled arms.

Ken Akamatsu, whose super-popular Love Hina flies off the shelves at my library, is not breaking any new ground here (as anyone who's read Oh My Goddess or Video Girl Ai will attest). This is formulaic--Hitoshi is the nice, somewhat nerdy guy who's no good around girls; Saati is sweet and naive (Hitoshi forgot to add anything about the birds and the bees to her core program) and possesses awesome superpowers--but it's a well-written, well-drawn formula. My favorite story: Saati is laid low by a computer virus named Peter 4, who appears onscreen in the form of an evil clown, and Hitoshi must use all his computer programming skills to rescue her. True love, indeed.

A.I. Love You precedes Love Hina, and was translated into English due to the success of the latter title. It is a good choice for libraries with manga collections that focus on romantic comedy. Contains vulgar language and girls in bikinis. George Galuschak, YA Libn., Montvale P.L., Montvale, NJ