Delicious in Dungeon volume 5 is something of a restart for the fantasy adventure/food manga series by Ryoko Kui. Volume 4 was all adventure, as the group finally found and fought the red dragon they’d been seeking, which meant little room for new monsters and meals in that multi-chapter story. Now, they need a new quest, and against their will, they’re given one, although it’s very similar to the previous. The lunatic magician that runs the dungeon takes Falin away […]

Both the monsters and the story challenges become more varied in this second volume of the series. Delicious in Dungeon volume 2 provides more insight into the characters as well. Senshi, in particular, is well-developed, as we learn how he gardens vegetables in the dungeon with a clever twist. He has strong opinions about the value of hard work, avoiding the easy way, and contributing to make the community a better place and maintaining the balance of the natural (monster) […]

Delicious in Dungeon is one of those “only in comics” concepts: it’s a food manga where the dishes all involve fantasy monsters, since our chefs are part of a party on a quest to find and kill a dragon in a dungeon. Laios’s sister Falin saved the group, on a previous trip in, by sacrificing herself. However, although she was eaten by a dragon, magic is common and workable enough that, if the group finds her body by slaying the […]

It’s been a while since I’ve talked about Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-Kun because volume 6 wasn’t quite as funny as I hoped, but I’m glad to see that these recent installments bring back the balance and comedy I was looking for. The series is a collection of four-koma (panel) strips, grouped into chapters of 12 or so pages around the same subject. The premise is a high schooler, Nozaki, who is a professional manga-ka, and most of his friends either help […]

It’s been quite a while since I checked in on No Matter How I Look at It, It’s You Guys’ Fault I’m Not Popular! — I last reviewed volume 4, and now here we are at volume 10. I’d gotten a bit tired of the cringe factor in constantly seeing Tomoko get humiliated or embarrassed, but I thought it might be interesting to check back in to see how an episodic comedy kept itself going this long. The strategy used […]

In trying to catch up with Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-Kun, I found it helpful to keep Volume 4 at hand, because that’s the book that has the cast’s character profiles at the back, and I tend to get the various male supporting characters confused easily. The young women are much more distinctive: there’s viewpoint character Sakura, the nice girl who tries hard and crushes on manga creator Nozaki; Seo, who’s athletic and mean but sings beautifully; Kashima, the androgynous prince who’s […]

I don’t normally read a lot of 4-koma manga (collections of four-panel strips), because I find them too fluffy and inconsequential. I do like Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-Kun, because it’s got a good amount of in-jokes about making manga, and I appreciated the best-known, Azumanga Daioh. Too many, though, just want to copy that last title by showing a group of girls, each with a mildly distinctive characteristic, and lots of school uniforms. Kiniro Mosaic by Yui Hara has a premise […]

It’s a tad self-referential, but Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-Kun by Izumi Tsubaki is surprisingly playful and funny. Chiyo confessed to a classmate that she had feelings from him, but since he’s a manga artist, he gave her back an autograph, thinking she was a fan. He’s behind on deadlines (when is a manga artist not in comics?) so he takes her to his home to help ink backgrounds. It turns out he (under a pseudonym, of course) draws flowery shoujo stories […]