I had thought this charming series ended last year, when the title character, a Victorian maid, captured the heart of her beloved, an upper-class gentleman. However, this year saw the release of three more volumes. These additional books collected short stories featuring other characters from the series, providing additional glimpses into the detailed world built by artist Kaoru Mori. Now, with this final volume, the series really is over, and it’s quite a shame. Mori’s portrayal of the Victorian world […]

Guest review by Ed Sizemore **Warning: This Review Contains Spoilers** Hiroshi Nakahara is a 48-year-old architect who finds himself mysteriously transported back to when he was 14 with all his knowledge and memories intact. He soon realizes that this is the period just before his father mysteriously abandoned his family, and he has resolved to stop him. Since Hiroshi has already successfully altered portions of his past, he’s confident he can make this change, too, in A Distant Neighborhood volume […]

This manhwa trilogy by Kim Dong Hwa, a coming-of-age story set in rural Korea several generations ago, follows a young girl learning about love. The Color of Earth Ehwa lives with her mother, a widow who runs the local tavern, which means the men think she’s easy. Living in a farm community, the kids are exposed early to the facts of life and how cruel others can be. Although her mother is a lovely, still-young woman, she’s become distrustful of […]

Argent, the Royal Apothecary, has left the princess in order to seek a cure for his condition of being a living toxin. He’s learned a process that may remove the poisons from his body, but leaving the country has branded him a traitor. Meanwhile, the princess has been traveling around her realm to better know how her subjects live. When the two reunite, the princess is working in the fields, and she’s so distracted — and Argent somewhat changed — […]

The Lizard Prince by Asuka Izumi, a romance in a magical fantasy setting, has enough humor to make it an enjoyable read for the young and young-thinking. As explained in the author’s notes, this book is Asuka Izumi’s first collection, so it follows a typical pattern: The first chapter works as a stand-alone story establishing the premise. That’s so if the concept isn’t popular or picked up, then there’s still a satisfactory ending. But this series was popular enough to […]

The latest translated manga by Jiro Taniguchi follows a plot familiar to most science fiction fans. In A Distant Neighborhood, a middle-aged business man finds himself reliving his life as a teen, with the potential chance of doing things over, better. By mistake, Hiroshi Nakahara gets on the wrong train and finds himself in his home town on the anniversary of his mother’s death. After he visits her grave, he returns to town to discover that he’s become his 14-year-old […]

Like the previous volume, Emma volume 9 contains short stories set in the world and time period of the main story. But you don’t need to be familiar with all the rest of the series to enjoy this one; in fact, it might be a good sample if you’re curious and coming late to this great read. The first story surprised me by being so nature-focused. A young boy and his pet squirrel go on a family picnic in the […]

by Asuka Izumi; story by K-Ske Hasegawa You may know the term “shinigami” from the popular Death Note series, where the death god is black and goth and scary. Ballad of a Shinigami, based on a light novel series (translated in the U.S. by Seven Seas) and later anime, turns that concept on its ear by featuring a young girl, all in white, as the messenger of death. Except few people actually die in this book — instead, they’re affected […]