Planetes by Makoto Yukimura is the story of garbage collectors in space, those responsible for picking up leftover junk floating around. Yuri is trying to get over the freak death of his wife years earlier. He’s quiet and distracted, putting up with the desolation of the work by losing himself inside his head. Hachimaki is still young, dreaming of making enough for his own ship one day, and not realizing how prying simple questions can be. Fee is their driver, […]

Tokyopop promoted Natsuki Takaya’s Fruits Basket as its “most eagerly-awaited manga series”, and sales figures and top rankings have borne that out. With its blend of comedy, romance, fantasy, and drama, all expressed in an attractively mainstream art style, there’s something here for everyone. An eternal optimist, Tohru Honda is proud of taking care of herself, even though she’s been living in a tent after her mother’s death. She’s on the property of the Sohma family, a rather unusual group […]

The setup for this comedy by Mine Yoshizaki is simple: Fuyuki and his sister Natsumi accidentally capture a frog-like alien. He was sent as part of an advance invasion force, but due to his incompetence, he quickly loses his weapon and is abandoned by his planet. The kids want to make friends with the alien, and he agrees to play along so that he can scheme uninterrupted. They treat Sgt. Frog as a pet, one that’s able to help with […]

I picked up Alichino because I saw a preview, and I was astounded by the beauty of the art by Kouyu Shurei. Stunning, graceful figures stare piercingly at the reader, accompanied by a menacing owl. Alichino are gorgeous beings who can grant wishes at the cost of the requester’s soul. They’re lovely demons, drawn to misery and deep desires. A girl, seeking one to save her brother’s life, mistakes Tsugiri for one because of his beauty. He’s not, but he […]

Sumire Iwaya is a highly educated, accomplished, beautiful woman who puts most of herself into her newspaper job. Her fiancé dumped her because he’s uncomfortable with her — she makes more money than he does and is smarter than he is — and she was demoted from breaking foreign news to the lifestyle section after she forcibly rejected her boss’ advances. She has no friends at work, only people who gossip about her out of jealousy, while other women play […]