My Neighbor Seki volume 2 is just as cute and funny as the first volume by Takuma Morishige, and that consistency is a good thing. Yokoi is still distracted by the weirdly creative things Seki does with, on, and to his desk during class, but this installment expands their world a bit with the introduction of a new character and different settings. The first chapter features a “lucky laugher” game. I’m not familiar with this piece of Japanese culture, but […]

My Neighbor Seki volume 1 by Takuma Morishige is something truly unusual — a refreshing read that celebrates curiosity, creativity, and imagination. It’s the kind of series that would never be created over here, but not because of weird cultural reasons or fan service or any of the other manga stereotypes. I can’t see someone here putting out a successful series about subtle battles with authority, about doing your own thing on your own. In this country, it would be […]

Clearly, Prophecy is not a series you can dip in and out of. I hadn’t paid enough attention to the specifics of some of the disaffected men introduced in volume 1, so I found myself wanting to reread both books as soon as I finished this new volume. However, there’s also a change in focus that means that much of volume 2 deals with different situations and characters than the first book did. The first scene, for example, effectively portrays […]

It’s so entertaining reading more about Kenji and Shiro’s relationship as it continues, with key moments involving food. Meals are such important family moments, and I love the emphasis on preparation and sharing of home cooking as a carrier of deep feeling, as well as the conversations the two men have over dinner. My favorite scene of the entire series so far occurs in this volume, as the two spend time with another gay couple at a pickup baseball game. […]

Sometimes reviews work! I hadn’t taken notice of Prophecy until I saw Ash Brown’s review, which made it clear I would find the topic fascinating. The figure on the cover of Prophecy is “Paperboy”, a vigilante who covers his head in newspaper when he goes online to promise revenge through underground video postings from internet cafes. All his victims were previously brought to public attention online, whether a company that caused a number of food poisoning cases or a guy […]

story by Makoto Shinkai; art by Midori Motohashi A boy in his first year of high school takes shelter on days when it rains in a park gazebo. He sketches shoes and dreams of being a designer of ladies’ footwear. His family is moving apart without him, with his mother spending her time with a younger boyfriend and his big brother moving in with his girlfriend. On those mornings when he goes to the park, he has company — an […]

This blend of cooking advice, home meals, and everyday personal interactions by Fumi Yoshinaga continues to impress and entertain. The first chapter of volume 5 illustrates this mix, as Shiro and his housewife friend have shared a deal on cabbage. She’s comfortable with him, since they have bargain-hunting in common, but her husband sees him first as a gay man, then as a person, as can be seen by his clueless attempt to pair Shiro off with another friend just […]

If you look closely at the cover to What Did You Eat Yesterday? volume 4, you’ll see a number of European-sounding dishes listed: hamburgers in mushroom sauce, leek consommé, spaghetti neapolitan. And they all appear in the book, as Shiro cooks a variety of meals, but they all have a uniquely Japanese spin to them. The tomato in the spaghetti sauce, for example, comes from ketchup, shudder. The material in this series by Fumi Yoshinaga continues to get more and […]