In Giant Spider & Me: A Post-Apocalyptic Tale, Kikori Morino has assembled some never-fail elements — chipper girl surviving in terrible circumstances that are only hinted at, weird but adorable pet, charming domestic activities — into an odd, only-in-manga mix that brings out a smile. The cheery Nagi lives by herself in the mountains. She says hi to the birds as she heads out to gather vegetables and dreams of what she can make from her garden. Then she encounters […]

I should have given up on Dreamin’ Sun a while ago, because it’s just spinning its wheels. Zen likes Shimana, who likes their landlord, who doesn’t seem to like women. Repeat ad nauseum with various internal monologues full of questions from Shimana, who’s gone from being cute to being vapid. Volume 7 begins with a chapter that seems to have come in from some other book. It’s finally explained by the end of the volume, but when I first started […]

The Bride Was a Boy presents author Chii’s true story of her gender transition and wedding. It’s a timely topic, cutely told. Each chapter covers an obvious question readers might have, from the couple’s meeting (and her concerns over when and how to tell him about her status) to Bride-chan’s surgery. Some are focused on the gender topic; others, such as the story of the proposal, are about their romance. Chii also tells us how she came to recognize her […]

Creator Yumi Unita is best-known in this country for Bunny Drop, an adorable manga about a single father that turned creepy when he decided to get involved with his adoptive daughter once she grew up. Thus, when Slumbering Beauty was announced, I was concerned about what might be part of this manga. I shouldn’t have worried. I could really get into Slumbering Beauty, because it was weird from the start. Schoolgirl Yoneko likes to sleep, and she’s really good at […]

I’ve been catching up on Dreamin’ Sun by Ichigo Takano, and reading a whole bunch of it may not have been the best choice. I like Shimana, the confused young lady at the center of the story, but too much at once just reinforces how indecisive she is, particularly when it comes to who she’s crushing on now. In a way, though, that’s part of the fun. None of the characters know what love is or whether they’re in love, […]

There’s a lot that’s familiar to the manga reader in Dreamin’ Sun volume 1 by Ichigo Takano, but it’s good-hearted and comfortable enough that I didn’t mind. Kameko has run away from home because her mother died, her father remarried, and the new baby takes up all their attention. She trips over a drunk guy in a kimono in the park who’s been locked out, and he offers her a place to stay. This, amazingly, is not creepy. It helps […]

Gay characters have been portrayed in manga in a variety of ways. The best-known approach takes place in the yaoi genre, which concentrates on physical interactions and is aimed at women. My Brother’s Husband by Gengoroh Tagame is the opposite, focused on normalizing a gay relationship to those who are uncomfortable with the idea. Yaichi is raising his daughter Kana alone. In this way, the book starts as a domestic fantasy, like Yotsuba&! or Bunny Drop, with a cute kid […]

The artist who calls herself Misako Rocks has reissued her quasi-autobiographical Rock and Roll Love (previously released by Hyperion in 2007). It’s about her trip to the US as an exchange student, where she meets a guy in a band. Because she’s basing the story on her own life, the telling is unstructured and wandering. She decided to learn English and go to America because she had a crush on a pretty-boy rock star she saw on TV. It’s hard […]