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, […]

story by Yuma Ando; art by Yuki Sato We’ve fully moved out of the school arena, a process that began in the previous volume. Here, in Sherlock Bones volume 6, Takeru is a rookie police officer completing his first case. Also working on the force with him are former classmate Miki and import showoff Kento. Kento’s convinced that the murder of the anchorman’s wife was a mugging gone wrong, but Takeru knows the truth. The anchorman did it, but how […]

As Say I Love You volume 2 opens, we’re at the beach. (If you want seasonal summer reading, manga’s the way to go.) More significant than seeing the very busty Asami in a bikini, though, are the flashbacks the loner Mei has. We learn why she wound up with no friends and no memories — an over-protective father went too far in trying to keep her safe. Say I Love You is different from a lot of other shojo manga […]

I’ve seen this premise before, in such titles as Beast Master. There’s an unsocialized boy, Haru, feared by other students. He meets and befriends the solo Shizuku, who only wants good grades so she can get a high-paying job and has “no time to worry about other people”. Together, the two learn more about caring for others in My Little Monster by Robico. Haru was suspended on the first day of school for fighting, resulting in increasingly exaggerated rumors about […]