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Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

Latest Picks

December 12, 2019

Manga the Week of 12/18/19

December 9, 2019

Pick of the Week: Pick of the Seven Days

LATEST FEATURES, ESSAYS, COLUMNS, ROUNDTABLES, & REVIEWS

December 12, 2019 By Sean Gaffney

Manga the Week of 12/18/19

SEAN: There are 9 or 10 debuts this week and half of them are from Seven Seas. Hrm… how about a reverse order week? Yen Press gives us an artbook, as we see The Art of Sword Oratoria, presumably lacking the title of its parent series to save space on the cover. Enjoy gorgeous art of Aiz, Loki, Lefiya and the rest from the LN illustrator, along with rough sketches and the like. ASH: I’m not particularly familiar with the series, but Yen has done a really nice job with previous artbooks. MELINDA: That is my take as well. SEAN: Also from Yen we have Trinity Seven 18, My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong As I Expected (manga version) 12, and The Monster and the Beast 2. MICHELLE: I’m looking…

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December 12, 2019 By Sean Gaffney

An Archdemon’s Dilemma: How to Love Your Elf Bride, Vol. 8

By Fuminori Teshima and COMTA. Released in Japan by HJ Bunko. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Hikoki. This series started out starring two people, but the cast has grown exponentially sine then. As such, it seems appropriate that this volume is fairly light on both Zagan and Nephy – in fact, it actually manages to work that into the plot, as Foll is planning a massive party for the not-Christmas holiday that is upon us and wants to surprise both of them. Zagan is completely in the dark about the holiday, but Nephy isn’t – in fact, she’s working part-time at a pub to get money for a present. As such, both are absent from the main plot itself till the end, though there’s many…

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December 11, 2019 By Sean Gaffney

Aria The Masterpiece, Vol. 4

By Kozue Amano. Originally released in Japan by Mag Garden, serialized in the magazine Comic Blade. Released in North America by Tokyopop. Translated by Katie Kimura. It is, a great deal of the time, very difficult to remember that this manga takes place in the future on a different planet. Honestly, a lot of that may be engineered by the residents of Aqua, who have deliberately set things up so that anyone coming to Neo-Venezia is going to be thinking “old-time Venice”, not “new, modern, future Venice”. It’s brought up explicitly in the chapter where Akari helps the old mailman deliver his letters – why are there so many letters, when the world has email? We’ve even seen Akari send emails. But it’s because people who stay here want to…

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December 10, 2019 By Sean Gaffney

Arifureta Zero, Vol. 3

By Ryo Shirakome and Takaya-ki. Released in Japan as “Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou Rei” by Overlap Bunko. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Ningen. I’ve been comparing Miledi to Hajime in these reviews of Zero. And just as Hajime was written to be the ultimate in “I am cool and badass and will happyily abandon anyone other than Yue to a fiery death” and then walked back to where he is now reasonable a decent person, likewise Miledi was introduced in the main series as the most annoying person in the world and then we gradually see in Zero how much of it is a front. It’s a front she feels more comfortable with, in fact – despite her complaining, she’d much rather be yelled…

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December 9, 2019 By Sean Gaffney

Gal Gohan, Vol. 1

By Marii Taiyou. Released in Japan by Hakusensha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Young Animal. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Andrew Cunningham. Adapted by Bambi Eloriaga-Amago. Sometimes Japanese manga companies have a broad spectrum of things they release across all genres and age groups… and sometimes they specialize. Hakusensha is one of the latter – it has no shonen titles per se, and is best known over here as the top shoujo publisher with its magazines Hana to Yume and LaLa. But… they do also have Young Animal. As with most magazines with ‘Young’ in the title, it caters to the young adult male, with each cover featuring a cover and insert section of an idol singer or model. Unlike the shoujo end of the company,…

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December 8, 2019 By Sean Gaffney

86 –Eighty-Six–, Vol. 3: Run Through the Battlefront [Finish]

By Asato Asato and Shirabii. Released in Japan by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Roman Lempert. True to its title, this is the second half of the story that began in the second volume. The Legion now have a massive Railgun that they used to destroy 40% of the Federation’s forces. Given that the Federation lacks Kamijou Touma, they need to defeat it by more military means. Fortunately, the railgun was slightly damaged when it was dealing out masses of deaths, so there’s time to send a strike force. That said, the chance the strike force survives and takes out the Railgun is basically 0%. It’s essentially a suicide mission. And so, as you likely guessed, it’s time to send out the 86, who…

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December 7, 2019 By Sean Gaffney

Yona of the Dawn, Vol. 21

By Mizuho Kusanagi. Released in Japan as “Akatsuki no Yona” by Hakusensha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Hana to Yume. Released in North America by Viz Media. Translated by JN Productions, Adapted by Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane. It can sometimes be hard to remember that Hak, in the context of this series, is a normal human. He does not have any Dragon Warrior powers, but gets by by simply being very, very, VERY strong. This becomes very clear about two-thirds of the way through this volume, where the tension that has been slowly building about how long can Su-Won and Hak get away with not meeting face to face finally breaks – there’s just no avoiding it in the melee battle to save Riri that is going on. Indeed, it’s the…

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December 6, 2019 By Sean Gaffney

You Call That Service?, Vol. 1

By Kisetsu Morita and Hiroki Ozaki. Released in Japan as “Omae no Gohoushi wa Sono Teido ka?” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jasmine Bernhardt. This book lets you know right away that it’s a comedy, and, with the exception of one or two bits near the end, does not really let up on that throughout the volume. The characters do comedic things, the setup is written to be highly amusing, there’s a lot of boke/tsukkomi humor, and you get the standard harem novel staples, lots of girls after the hero, misunderstandings, etc. There is even a psycho lesbian and a yandere stalker girl, which Japan seems to find far more hilarious than I ever have. Actually, that seems to be the issue I…

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December 5, 2019 By Ash Brown, Sean Gaffney and Michelle Smith

Bookshelf Briefs 12/5/19

Anonymous Noise, Vol. 17 | By Ryoko Fukuyama | Viz Media – I had thought this would be a race to the finish, but honestly it’s feeling more like a leisurely victory lap. The single is doing well, Nino is singing duets, Yuzu is finally getting through to his mother after literally taking her on a world tour, and the last of the beta couples finally get together. Oh yes, and Momo has written a new song, one that he really, really wants Nino to sing. The main pairing is still, I suspect, going to be Yuzu and Nino, but this is a nice final threat—after all, this is how the two of them bonded in childhood, as we see in a flashback. The next book is the final one,…

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LATEST POSTS – SITEWIDE

  • Manga the Week of 12/18/19
  • An Archdemon’s Dilemma: How to Love Your Elf Bride, Vol. 8
  • Aria The Masterpiece, Vol. 4
  • Arifureta Zero, Vol. 3
  • Pick of the Week: Pick of the Seven Days
  • Gal Gohan, Vol. 1
  • 86 –Eighty-Six–, Vol. 3: Run Through the Battlefront [Finish]
  • Yona of the Dawn, Vol. 21
  • You Call That Service?, Vol. 1
  • Bookshelf Briefs 12/5/19

From the Archives

June 1, 2010 By M.J. Beasi 21 Comments

Manga Moveable Feast: Archive

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December 27, 2012 By M.J. Beasi 3 Comments

Melinda’s Best Manga of 2012, Part 1

It's that time of year again, when manga bloggers all over scramble to pick the best manga of the ...

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October 14, 2013 By Ash Brown

My Week in Manga: October 7-October 13, 2013

My News and Reviews I posted two in-depth reviews last week, one manga and one not. The first ...

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August 6, 2012 By Sara K. 3 Comments

It Came From the Sinosphere: The 36th Chamber of Shaolin

The 36th Chamber of Shaolin does not have a subtle opening. It wastes no time in telling the ...

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May 4, 2009 By M.J. Beasi Leave a Comment

Live for Love

By Itsuki Sato Digital Manga Publishing, 200 pp. Rating: M (18+) Seven years ago, just as his ...

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