Independent Opinions, News, and Reviews of Graphic Novels, Manga, and Comic Books
If you like boys’ love stories and cats, Honey Darling is the perfect manga for you. SuBLime Manga has published this single volume by Norikazu Akira. Takahashi has no purpose in life until he finds an abandoned kitten he names Shiro. One night, Shiro gets sick, and Takahashi makes a fateful deal. He’s so indebted to the big, bearish vet that saves his cat that he agrees to become his live-in housekeeper. Dr. Kumazawa needs someone to clean, cook, and […]
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Kaoru Mori is the fan-favorite author of the popular manga Emma and A Bride’s Story. As she explains in her comic-format foreword, Anything and Something is a “stewpot book… a bunch of manga short stories, illustrations, and columns” she’s done over the past ten years, since the launch of Emma. It’s good to see such a collection make it to the US, especially for those eager to buy whatever she has available, but I found the result a mixed bag. […]
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If you’re not reading this charming series about a curious little girl discovering the world around her, I’m not sure what I could say now to convince you. (Unless it’s how jealous I am of you that you have over 10 books to enjoy.) It’s consistently good, enjoyable in its naive portrayal of the world, and encouraging in its optimism. In this volume by Kiyohiko Azuma, Yotsuba learns how to make noodles in a local shop. Her happy face and […]
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It’s never a good sign when a creepy girl says, early on, “Loving someone or hating them… it’s the exact same thing.” I’d forgotten just how spooky this series can be, but the lead story here in The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service volume 13 rams it home in spades. The story is by Eiji Otsuka and art by Housui Yamazaki. A vengeful young woman is taking control of men who prey on runaway young women new to Tokyo — by […]
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One of Digital Manga’s last print releases before their announced hiatus, Start With a Happy Ending by Risa Motoyama is an odd but comforting selection for the end of the year. I found its message, to take more joy in life and make more rewarding choices for yourself, memorable and needed. It’s a single volume, and the short chapters all have a similar premise: someone who died suddenly is reincarnated as a cat to handle any unfinished business … but […]
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Only in Japan. This bizarre historical fantasy by Mari Yamazaki finds similarities between the bathhouses of the ancient Romans and the public bathing culture of modern Japan. Lucius is a Roman architect seeking new designs for a public bath. He’s just been fired for having “antiquated ideas” in his modern day of 128 AD. When he seeks to relax by bathing, he gets sucked under water and comes up in a Japanese bathhouse. After the expected culture clash, he returns […]
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Continuing their pattern of bringing out significant manga in substantial hardcovers, next month Fantagraphics will release The Heart of Thomas, an important work in the history of shojo. It’s by Moto Hagio, whose A Drunken Dream and Other Stories was published by them two years ago. The Heart of Thomas is one of the first “boys’ love” manga (shonen-ai, which doesn’t have the sexual content of yaoi), originally published in 1974. Thomas is a boy at a German boarding school […]
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Seven Seas’ decision to release this series by Kaoru Shintani in double-sized omnibus form seems even smarter now, since the first half of this book is taken up by one long story, that of “The Hound of the Baskervilles”. It’s one of the classic Holmes stories, but frankly, all I remember of it is that it includes a giant dog. That’s on display here, so I’m satisfied. It’s a fun reread, and the manga design suits the character types well, […]
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