by Hinako Ashihara; adapted by John Werry With the conclusion of High School Debut, Sand Chronicles is now tied with Nana for my favorite shojo series. This volume concludes the main story, but there are two more books coming with additional bonus stories. To bring things full circle, in this book, the adult Ann is setting out to revisit the sand museum in Nima that provided her the hourglass token that drove so much of her young life. Once again, […]

After reading volume 1, I was unclear on what I was supposed to take away from this series by Yuki Yoshihara. The contrast was unusual — I got that the male/female roles were being stereotyped for comedy, but underneath it all, there’s still a romance, and if we’re supposed to root for the central couple to get together, then there’s only so far we can perceive them as ridiculous. The exaggeration is sometimes working at cross purposes to the shojo/josei […]

The much-anticipated (and much-feared, because no one wants it to be over) final volume in the deservedly much-praised series is here, and the presentation is excellent. This volume, with 10 chapters and 254 pages, is over-sized compared to the previous, and it opens with 10 glorious color pages. This book feels substantial and important, and so it is. This is the manga series that converts any comic reader to appreciating the format. It has an immediately intriguing high concept — […]

It’s been almost half a year since we left Suguri at the pet shop, trying to find a suitable home for the abandoned mutt Hinomaru, but it took me no time at all to get right back into the story. The poor dog risks becoming a victim to a murderous pet abuser, but that overwrought drama soon settles down to more believable conflict. A new family wants to adopt Hinomaru, but to do so, they have to accept that the […]

I so admire Naoki Urasawa’s skill. Just when my interest in this series was starting to wane a bit — I loved the original idea of contrasting kid friends with adults trying to save the world, but I was less involved with the Buffy-like tough future girl and the self-indulgent manga artist in prison storylines — he reels me back in in volume 7, both with flashbacks to the characters I missed and by ramping up the action on the […]

Ah, dear Pluto. What will we do when you’re gone? You’re well-respected, widely enjoyed, critically praised, and amazingly entertaining, but the next volume is your last. And really, where else can you go? There’s only one of the seven great robots, Epsilon, left on earth, and in this volume, he has his showdown with Pluto, the grand villain of the piece. Of course, since you’re created by Naoki Urasawa, there’s a lot more to his motivation than that, and the […]

The series concludes with a happy ending and a return to the emotional power of the earlier stories. The feeling of dragging things out just to continue the series is gone. Yoh’s about to graduate, since he’s ahead of Haruna in school. She wants him to follow the path that’s best for him, but she’s conflicted, because that means him going to Tokyo and her being apart from him for at least a year. Should she support his happiness or […]

This series by Aya Kanno has grown into one of the most reliable for amusing romantic comedy with a touch of gender-bending. The first story in Otomen volume 5 features one of those shojo standards, the embarrassing school contest. Somehow, martial artist and “eccentric beauty” Ryo has been selected by her grade to compete in the “Ideal Woman Contest”. Since the areas of evaluation are cooking, flower arranging, tea ceremony, and kimono dressing, she doesn’t seem to have much of […]