When I wrote about volume 1, I wasn’t as impressed by the battle scenes as I was by those of Viking home life. That’s changed in this volume, because the strategy and maneuvering among various factions are more compelling. Makoto Yukimura’s Vinland Saga is a fascinating read on multiple levels. It’s the beginning of the 11th century, and the Vikings are invading England. The first chapter begins quietly, as an outspoken mother embarrasses her daughter by ranting about politics — […]

I don’t read zombie comics. Most frequent readers of this site know that. So it took me a while to decide to try Mitsuru Hattori’s Sankarea: Undying Love, the romance between a boy, Chihiro, and a zombie girl, Rea. I was willing to try it because it’s not really about her being a zombie — instead, it’s about her trying to fit in and be normal, given unusual circumstances. She could as easily have been a foreigner as undead, only […]

The long-anticipated series from Makoto Yukimura, creator of the much-loved Planetes, is Kodansha’s first hardcover manga, a double-sized volume with twice the amount of tough-guy content. Vinland Saga is the story of Thorfinn, an Icelandic orphan raised by Viking pirates to be one of them. He’s a super-fighter, fast and tough, motivated by revenge for his father’s death, particularly since he’s working under the man who killed him. Thorfinn’s father was a great, noble warrior, one of a tribe who […]

As I predicted when I reviewed the first book, I liked Genshiken: Second Season by Shimoku Kio more on the second try. With the odd fan personalities, it takes a while to get comfortable with them, but more time spent makes them more acceptable, just like having a weird friend. You take them as they are, quirks and all. I should have mentioned, when writing about volume 1, that the internal volume and chapter numbering continues from volume 9 of […]

I very much dislike the tendency for snappy manga heroines, the observant ones with a bit more bite to them than the usual good girl, to lose their spark as soon as love enters the picture. It’s too old-school “taming of the shrew” for me, playing into the idea that a smart girl who refuses to hold her tongue just needs romance to calm down and be properly feminine. Which is why I find the way this series has turned […]

This installment of the series wasn’t as interesting for me as the first book, but I’m not giving up on it yet. Missions of Love is settling into its groove. Without the author, Ema Toyama, having to introduce the characters and premise, the events become more typical, without the emphasis on odd elements that made the previous volume grab me. Yukina blackmails Shigure into acting as her boyfriend. He goes along with it, but since he’s learned her weakness, he […]

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 […]

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 […]