It’s such a pleasure to try a manga series you know nothing about and have it turn out to be hilarious! Kiss Him, Not Me! is silly but amusing, making fun of both shojo cliches and fandom. The author Junko knows the subject well, since her other works are boys’ love titles, and she talks in an end note about being an otaku. Serinuma is a chubby yaoi fangirl who spends her time at school shipping her male classmates. She’s […]

Genshiken: Second Season has focused a lot on Hato, and volume 6 is no exception. It’s not surprising, since he’s an only-in-comics character that captures a lot about fandom, the focus of this manga. I do worry, though, that part of the reason I can’t keep the other members of the club straight sometimes is because we’ve spent so much time with him. Hato’s a cross-dresser, a fanboy who took his love of yaoi (termed BL here, which is more […]

And so the series ends, with more of the same. For me, Manga Dogs volume 3 demonstrates that the gag — of a school-age manga author bedeviled by three pretty boys who want to make manga but are woefully misinformed about what it takes — has run its course. As expected, the cliffhanger threat from volume 2, that Kanna’s series will get canceled under the new magazine editor, is addressed, but briefly — it was all a misunderstanding. Many of […]

Following on from the previous book, Yamato is modeling, and quite successful at it, which makes Mei worry. She’s jealous, not of another girl, but of his time, that he’s spending less of it with her, since he’s got photo shoots In volume 4, she makes the mistake of not answering honestly when he asks her opinion about the work. She doesn’t want to control him, so she wants to allow him to make her own decisions, but if she […]

At the end of the previous volume, manga artist Kanna had been kidnapped by a wannabe. More than her life, her work was in danger as her pages were taken hostage, preventing her from making her deadline. Of course, she’s rescued in this book — the advantage of a series made up of short (ten-page) chapters is that things move very quickly. The teacher of the manga class (made up of Kanna, the three aspiring guys, and the new character) […]

A light gag manga is just what I need during busy times, and Manga Dogs by Ema Toyama fits the bill, with a slight overlay of information on making comics for the Japanese industry. Kanna Tezuka is thrilled that her high school has established a manga degree program, since she’s already a published author. She writes and draws “Teach Me (Heart) Buddha”, a shojo manga. She’s excited that she can work on her story during school, although she hopes to […]

story by Yuma Ando; art by Yuki Sato The series comes to an abrupt end in this final volume of Sherlock Bones. Volume 7 starts by wrapping up the plastic surgery case from volume 6 with help from friend and journalist-in-training Miki. I wish we’d seen more of her work, but she’s treated like an information source, a way to explain Takeru getting certain bits of data without having to pound the pavement himself. As usual, the detective team with […]

Former loner Mei is still getting used to her new relationship with popular boy Yamato. The world is full of rivals who want him, though, from Aiko, former fat girl embarrassed by her stretch marks, to Megumi, teen model who wants a “prince charming” who’ll look good next to her. She ropes Yamato into modeling with her as a pretend volunteer in Say I Love You volume 3 by Kanae Hazuki. Although Mei is open with him about her feelings, […]