A simple premise, executed with care for all the characters, makes for an enjoyable read in My Love Story!! volume 1. Takeo and Sunakawa are schoolboy best friends. Takeo already looks like an adult, though, and maybe a wrestler — he’s large and bulky. Sunakawa, on the other hand, is your typical manga pretty boy, so he always gets the girls. Until they meet Yamato. They rescue her from a groper on the train, and when she comes to Takeo’s […]

The author of Midnight Secretary returns with another supernatural romance, although many will find the lead here more interesting. Tomu Ohmi’s latest translated manga series, Spell of Desire, has the same naive young lady forced into close contact with a mysterious, brooding, darkly handsome, magically powered man from a group of fantasy creatures, but this version adds cute animals. Kaoruko runs a small-town herb shop on her own after her grandmother’s recent passing. She’s never had a boyfriend, and she’s […]

Food Wars! is due out in print at the beginning of next month, but it’s been available digitally (along with book 2) for months now. If you enjoy cooking competition manga like Iron Wok Jan or Yakitate!! Japan, this is another strong entry in that category. It’s written by Yuto Tsukuda and drawn by Shun Saeki. Soma Yukihira is a scrappy teen cook. He’s been raised in the family restaurant, and he’s quite talented, but unpolished. He winds up attending […]