February 21, 2020 Johanna Yen Press Manga Reviews Leave a comment

Whenever Our Eyes Meet: A Women’s Love Anthology

Whenever Our Eyes Meet: A Women’s Love Anthology is a wonderful read if you’re interested in yuri manga or simply sweet romance. The characters are working women, not schoolgirls, which makes this a pleasant addition to the types of stories that are being translated. Each short story is by a different creator. Most are about how a couple meets, including: a one-night stand turns up at work the next day as the new employee former co-workers meeting again by chance […]

January 5, 2020 Johanna Kodansha Manga Reviews One comment

Sweetness & Lightning Volume 12

I don’t have a lot to say about Sweetness & Lightning volume 12, but I did want to mark the series conclusion with a few notes, particularly since it stayed consistently enjoyable until the end. The last time I talked about the food manga series by Gido Amagakure was with volume 8, where we began seeing daughter Tsumugi growing up. The previous book to this one, volume 11, was where we got some drama around the child starting to make […]

January 4, 2020 Johanna Other Manga Publishers One comment

Otherworldly Izakaya Nobu Volume 4

Otherworldly Izakaya Nobu volume 4 continues to be entertaining and delightful. I thought, with the previous book, that we’d be seeing longer stories at this point in the series, but I was glad to see I was wrong. Instead, we just see new stories with the characters we’re getting to know better, which makes it all more comfortable — particularly since you don’t need to remember their history to enjoy the chapters. In the first chapter, several previous customers come […]

January 1, 2020 Johanna Other Manga Publishers Leave a comment

Our Dining Table

Our Dining Table was a satisfying, if not particularly memorable, bit of comfort reading. It doesn’t do anything exceptional, but the notes it hits make up a nicely blended tune. The story is quietly reassuring, good relaxation without being demanding in any way, a warm manga bath. Author Mita Ori manages to combine a boys’ love story, food manga, and a cute kid into a single-volume story. Young office worker Yutaka lives on “ready-to-eat supermarket meals and salads.” The only […]

December 16, 2019 Johanna Kodansha Manga Reviews One comment

Cells at Work! Code Black Volume 1

Cells at Work! Code Black is a gender-swapped spin-off of the original Cells at Work! manga with a more adult approach. The red blood cell, who serves as the reader’s guide through the body, is here an uncertain young man who doesn’t like his job. The protective white blood cell is now a woman (with a ridiculously impractical costume that’s missing its front, so copious cleavage is always on display). And the topics covered are those happening in the body […]

December 7, 2019 Johanna Yen Press Manga Reviews Leave a comment

Fruits Basket Another Volume 1

Fruits Basket Another is the best most recent example I’ve seen of the benefits of brand extension. I read a bunch of the original Fruits Basket series, although I quit long before the end. It’s considered a modern classic, though, with lots of awareness, so Yen Press republished it in the US beginning a few years back, along with this sequel series by the same author, Natsuki Takaya. I thought Fruits Basket Another might make a good starting point for […]

November 2, 2019 Johanna Viz Manga Reviews Leave a comment

Ao Haru Ride Volumes 5 & 6

It’s that time of the series by Io Sakisaka — it’s too soon for things to settle down (since the series overall runs 13 volumes), and the first mystery has been revealed, so let’s introduce some rivals for the attention of the members of our core couple. That will provide more chance for misunderstandings and pining internal monologues of the “why would he do that?” sort. Ao Haru Ride volume 5 starts with great romantic promise. Futaba and Kou make […]

June 1, 2019 Johanna Viz Manga Reviews Leave a comment

That Blue Sky Feeling Volume 1

That Blue Sky Feeling is a different kind of manga series. It’s about two schoolboys, one of whom is thought to be gay, but it’s not an explicit romance or BL (boys’ love). Instead, it’s about friendship and learning to think about others, regardless of how like you or different from you they are. It’s a likable coming-of-age story that reflects how amorphous lines have become these days, written by Okura and illustrated by Coma Hashii. Noshiro is the excited […]

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