Independent Opinions, News, and Reviews of Graphic Novels, Manga, and Comic Books
Given the wavering state of the manga market these days — the difficulty of selling long series (and thus the lack of publisher willingness to release them), the dropping sales for print overall, the fallback to safe sellers (which tend to be of less interest to me, with their fight manga, panty shots, or fantasy elements) — it’s a pleasure to find a new series that leaves me thinking “I’d like to read more of that, please”. Missions of Love […]
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Although it’s quiet, without any particular gimmick to set it apart, I enjoyed reading this tale of first love. Ninako hasn’t ever been in love. One of her classmates, Daiki, is friendly towards her, so the girls tell her they should be together, but Ninako only gets those butterflies when she sees Ren, the aloof, popular, older boy everyone has a crush on. After a chance meeting on the train, Ninako gets to know Ren a little bit. There’s also […]
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If you liked volume 5, volume 6 continues the story of Rin as a teenager. Me, I already have enough shojo school stories to read, so I still miss the tales of life with a little girl. I suppose this feeling can be reinterpreted as an accurate portrayal of how life is really like when you have a kid, that they all grow up eventually and don’t stay cute forever. I don’t want to read about that part, though. Now, […]
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These days, it’s hard to find manga that I don’t know much about, what with all the reviews and Twitter chat, but I had good luck blind-buying Young Miss Holmes, which I enjoyed. So when I saw that Seven Seas had another young woman solving mysteries in an historical period, I dove in. Lizzie Newton: Victorian Mysteries is a bit different, though — since it’s translated manhwa from Korea, it reads left-to-right. The story is by Hey-jin Jeon with art […]
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After launching strongly, The Drops of God series appears to be faltering. The previous book released was Volume 4, taking us through the discovery of the second “apostle” of twelve amazing wines. The Drops of God: New World jumps ahead to where the two oenophiles are seeking the seventh bottle, because that quest takes them to the wines of the New World, the Americas and Australia. Reportedly, if this volume doesn’t do well, we won’t see any more in English, […]
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I was curious to see this single-volume historical manga by Moyoco Anno after reading her Happy Mania series. (She’s also had Flowers and Bees translated over here.) Sakuran promised to be similar to Happy Mania in its portrayal of a strong-willed but messed-up woman, only this one had kimonos and a more explicit use of sex as a transaction. Kiyoha is a child slave at a brothel who eventually, out of stubbornness, rises to become a leading courtesan during the […]
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It took me a couple of tries to get into the original Genshiken series by Shimoku Kio, which concluded with a ninth volume in 2007. So although I wasn’t won over by the first book of this sequel series, I expect that I’ll enjoy Genshiken: Second Season more in future volumes. My biggest problem was that I didn’t remember enough about the first series. (Those who began reading or re-reading with the recent omnibus re-release won’t have that issue.) Many […]
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The latest in the Manga Guide series tackles the complicated math of Linear Algebra. As with the other books, The Manga Guide to Linear Algebra (written by Shin Takahashi; art by Iroha Inoue) has a framing story to involve the reader and provide a sympathetic co-learner. Here, it echoes the classic shonen fight manga structure, as freshman Reiji wants to join the karate club. He’s too scrawny, though, so he strikes a deal with the brawny club captain — he […]
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