• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Comment Policy
    • Disclosures & Disclaimers
  • Resources
    • Links, Essays & Articles
    • Fandomology!
    • CLAMP Directory
    • BlogRoll
  • Features & Columns
    • 3 Things Thursday
    • Adventures in the Key of Shoujo
    • Bit & Blips (game reviews)
    • BL BOOKRACK
    • Bookshelf Briefs
    • Bringing the Drama
    • Comic Conversion
    • Fanservice Friday
    • Going Digital
    • It Came From the Sinosphere
    • License This!
    • Magazine no Mori
    • My Week in Manga
    • OFF THE SHELF
    • Not By Manga Alone
    • PICK OF THE WEEK
    • Subtitles & Sensibility
    • Weekly Shonen Jump Recaps
  • Manga Moveable Feast
    • MMF Full Archive
    • Yun Kouga
    • CLAMP
    • Shojo Beat
    • Osamu Tezuka
    • Sailor Moon
    • Fruits Basket
    • Takehiko Inoue
    • Wild Adapter
    • One Piece
    • After School Nightmare
    • Karakuri Odette
    • Paradise Kiss
    • The Color Trilogy
    • To Terra…
    • Sexy Voice & Robo
  • Browse by Author
    • Melinda Beasi
    • Brigid Alverson
    • Sean Gaffney
    • Anna Neatrour
    • Michelle Smith
    • Travis Anderson
    • Phillip Anthony
    • Paul Beasi
    • Derek Bown
    • Katherine Dacey
    • Jaci Dahlvang
    • Angela Eastman
    • Erica Friedman
    • Sara K.
    • Megan Purdy
    • Emily Snodgrass
    • Nancy Thistlethwaite
    • Eva Volin
    • David Welsh
  • MB Blogs
    • A Case Suitable For Treatment
    • Experiments in Manga
    • MangaBlog
    • The Manga Critic
    • Manga Report
    • Soliloquy in Blue
    • Manga Curmudgeon (archive)

Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

Latest Picks

January 23, 2023

Pick of the Week: Finding Gems

January 16, 2023

Pick of the Week: Soda, Idols, and PTSD

LATEST FEATURES, ESSAYS, COLUMNS, ROUNDTABLES, & REVIEWS

January 26, 2023 By Sean Gaffney, Michelle Smith, Ash Brown, Anna N and Melinda Beasi

Manga the Week of 2/1/23

SEAN: It’s February 1st, but as readers of Manga the Week of know, that really means January. ASH: That it does. SEAN: It also means no Yen Press, and no Viz Media. Instead we start with Tokyopop, which has Her Royal Highness Seems to be Angry 4 and Yuri Espoir 3. Square Enix Manga gives us Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?! 6 and My Dress-Up Darling 7. MICHELLE: I really liked the first volume of Cherry Magic!. Hopefully this’ll be the release where I get caught up. ASH: I’ve really enjoyed what I’ve read so far, too, but am likewise a bit behind. SEAN: No debuts for Seven Seas. But we do see The Evil Secret Society of Cats 2, Happy Kanako’s Killer Life…

Read More

January 26, 2023 By Sean Gaffney

Bride of the Barrier Master, Vol. 1

By Kureha and Bodax. Released in Japan as “Kekkaishi no Ichirinka” by Kadokawa Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Linda Liu. Sometimes you get the feeling that you’re reading something in the wrong medium. Bride of the Barrier Master is a shoujo manga. Everything about it screams shoujo manga, and the personalities of the two leads are designed so that we can watch the expressions on their faces as they react to each other. Unfortunately, while there *is* a manga adaptation of this light novel, this isn’t it. I mean, I get it. Sometimes the written word is all a creator has. It’s fine. The problem here is that without visuals, everything just feels a bit too harsh. We’re supposed to admire the perseverance of the…

Read More

January 25, 2023 By Ash Brown, Katherine Dacey, Sean Gaffney and Michelle Smith

Bookshelf Briefs 1/25/23

A Certain Scientific Railgun, Vol. 17 | By Kazuma Kamachi and Motoi Fuyukawa | Seven Seas – After briefly wrapping up the previous arc (and, sure enough, glossing over the fact that Uiharu developed story-breaking powers), we end up flashing back to Mikoto’s first year in middle school. She’s just turned Level 5, and lacks the confidence she’ll gain later. We also see Misaki, who has the same problems (though now that Junko’s spinoff has finished, we can officially see her kicking ass in Railgun proper). As for the plot, well, it’s a turf war between the school’s three cliques, who are being manipulated by some unknown factor. Meaning this is basically now a delinquent manga with middle school girls. To be fair, that’s par for the course with this…

Read More

January 25, 2023 By Sean Gaffney

Sasaki and Peeps: Psychic Battles, Magical Girls, and Death Games Can’t Contend with Otherworldly Fantasy ~Or So I Thought, but Now a Storm Is Brewing~

By Buncololi and Kantoku. Released in Japan as “Sasaki to Pi-chan” by Media Factory. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Alice Prowse. It’s getting better. There are still a few times where I wince while reading the series, mainly whenever the neighbor girl is trying to manipulate Sasaki into sexually assaulting her (he doesn’t), but for the most part the series is doing what it does best: mashing up genre after genre and watching our deadpan salaryman crush all of them as he flies past. Sasaki may be a bit of a stoic sad sack, but the series wouldn’t work at all if the protagonist were, say, Kazuma from KonoSuba. It not only requires his experience as a Japanese salaryman to drive a lot of the plot,…

Read More

January 24, 2023 By Sean Gaffney

Suppose a Kid from the Last Dungeon Boonies Moved to a Starter Town, Vol. 11

By Toshio Satou and Nao Watanuki. Released in Japan as “Tatoeba Last Dungeon Mae no Mura no Shonen ga Joban no Machi de Kurasu Youna Monogatari” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham. While I would not say that the cast of Last Dungeon Kid are as bad as Seinfeld, a series where the creators had as one of their series rules “no hugging, no learning”, it is certainly true that any time one of the characters almost reaches a point where they will come to their senses and mature as a person, they immediately backslide horribly for comedic effect. Usually that person has been Marie, and it’s Marie here as well. She’s reaping what she’s sown, as Lloyd is now convinced that…

Read More

January 23, 2023 By Sean Gaffney

Yuri Tama: From Third Wheel to Trifecta, Vol. 2

By Toshizou and Kuro Shina. Released in Japan as “Yuri no Ma ni Hasamareta Watashi ga, Ikioi de Futamata Shite Shimatta” by Overlap Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Tristan K. Hill. “Sean,” my readers say to me. “I’m happy that we’ve gotten a lot more yuri titles in the last few years, but what about fans of incest? Is there a book out there that looks closely at younger sisters who love their older sister and tries hard to do a deep analysis about whether it’s OK or not?”. OK, no. My readers never say that to me. That said, if that’s what you want, I have good news, the second volume of Yuri Tama is all about said feelings, and whether Yotsuba will decide…

Read More

January 22, 2023 By Anna N

Honey Lemon Soda Vol 1 by Mayu Murata

Honey Lemon Soda Volume 1 by Mayu Murata I was aware that there was a great deal of anticipation when Honey Lemon Soda was licensed, and the first volume lived up to the hype! Popular boy inexplicably adopting an incredibly awkward girl is a familiar plot in most shoujo manga, but Honey Lemon Soda takes this premise and runs with it, making the reader feel instantly sympathetic with the introverted heroine in question. Uka Ishimori’s gets in the way of an errant blast of lemon soda wielded by Kai Miura. She freezes up and is unable to respond to his friends’ expressions of concern and she runs away when Miura apologizes to her. His friends comment “It’s kinda like she’s living out a different genre than the rest of us”…

Read More

January 22, 2023 By Sean Gaffney

Sabikui Bisco, Vol. 4

By Shinji Cobkubo and K Akagishi. Released in Japan by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jake Humphrey. This review really cannot happen without spoiling the end of the book, so beware if you do not want to be spoiled, though I will try not to exactly spoil. Throughout most of this volume, this has the feel of a “makework” volume in the series, as events happen but it lacks the striking imagery of previous books, which was one of the major reasons we read it. It also is not as gay, which is the other reason we read it, mostly as Bisco and Milo spend most of the book separated from each other, and there’s only one or two moments, such as brief princess…

Read More

January 21, 2023 By Sean Gaffney

High School DxD: Lionheart of the Academy Festival

By Ichiei Ishibumi and Miyama-Zero. Released in Japan by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Haydn Trowell. Generally speaking, when harem series have to ask the question “why is the guy not understanding that all these girls who are literally naked in his bed saying “take me now, big boy!” kinda like him?”. The reason for that is that in most of these stories the answer is the same. It’s a variation on “don’t be silly, no girl will ever like me.” Harem protagonist never comes without a heaping helping of self-loathing, it would seem. Fortunately for High School DxD, it can actually give Issei a real reason for all that self-loathing beyond “because the plot requires it”. His first girlfriend, the one who…

Read More

More Features & Reviews

Primary Sidebar

BLOGS AT MANGA BOOKSHELF

mangablog
a case suitable for treatment

soliloquy in blue
manga critic
manga report

LATEST POSTS – SITEWIDE

  • Manga the Week of 2/1/23
  • Bride of the Barrier Master, Vol. 1
  • Bookshelf Briefs 1/25/23
  • Sasaki and Peeps: Psychic Battles, Magical Girls, and Death Games Can’t Contend with Otherworldly Fantasy ~Or So I Thought, but Now a Storm Is Brewing~
  • Suppose a Kid from the Last Dungeon Boonies Moved to a Starter Town, Vol. 11
  • Pick of the Week: Finding Gems
  • Yuri Tama: From Third Wheel to Trifecta, Vol. 2
  • Honey Lemon Soda Vol 1 by Mayu Murata
  • Sabikui Bisco, Vol. 4
  • High School DxD: Lionheart of the Academy Festival

From the Archives

July 27, 2009 By Melinda Beasi 3 Comments

Unsophisticated and Rude

Unsophisticated and Rude By Momoko Tenzen Published by DMP Buy This Book When Hiroto's ...

[Read More...]

February 6, 2017 By Ash Brown

My Week in Manga: January 30-February 5, 2017

My News and Reviews Last week at Experiments in Manga the winner of the Please Tell! Me ...

[Read More...]

March 28, 2016 By Ash Brown

My Week in Manga: March 21-March 27, 2016

My News and Reviews I only posted one in-depth manga review at Experiments in Manga last week, ...

[Read More...]

December 23, 2013 By Ash Brown

My Week in Manga: December 16-December 22, 2013

My News and Reviews Two reviews were posted last week at Experiments in Manga. The first review ...

[Read More...]

March 29, 2017 By Ash Brown

Manga Giveaway: Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid Giveaway

It's the last Wednesday of March and you know what that means! It's once again time for a giveaway ...

[Read More...]

More Posts from the Archives

Recommended Reading

  • Off the Shelf: Fullmetal Alchemist
  • Off the Shelf: Moon Child
  • Off the Shelf: Basara
  • The NANA Project
  • Breaking Down Banana Fish
  • Roundtable: Hikaru no Go
  • BL Bookrack: Wild Adapter
  • Off the Shelf: Tokyo Babylon
  • Please Save My Earth with Melinda & Michelle (at The Hooded Utilitarian)

DRAMA DIARY

By Anna N

Skip Beat! the drama

I recently marathoned 14 episodes of the Tawainese live action version of Skip Beat! which is airing now on ...

[Read More...]

By Anna N

Drama Diary: IRIS Episodes 1-5

I tend to watch mostly romantic comedies when I am viewing k-drama, but IRIS is a bit different. This is a ...

[Read More...]

MORE DRAMA DIARY

Follow us on Facebook

Follow us on Facebook

SUBSCRIBE VIA EMAIL

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

 | Log in
Copyright © 2010 Manga Bookshelf | Powered by WordPress & the Genesis Framework