Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

Latest Picks

LATEST FEATURES, ESSAYS, COLUMNS, ROUNDTABLES, & REVIEWS

By

The Asterisk War: The Way of the Sword

By Yuu Miyazaki and okiura. Released in Japan by Media Factory. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Haydn Trowell. There is not usually much continuity between reviews of different series on my site: these are meant to stand alone. That said, as I read The Asterisk War’s 11th volume, a series derided by many as being cookie-cutter and plot-by-numbers, filled with harem heroines getting jealous, cool girls with swords, and a lead who seems to be putting all issues of romance aside till he solves the big problems, it was hard not to compare this with the 13th Strike the Blood, which I’d read right before it. Heck, they even both have the exact same number of fanfics on AO3. Five. I was somewhat grumpy with the…

Read More

By , and

Bookshelf Briefs 10/18/19

Bakemonogatari, Vol. 1 | By NISIOISIN and Oh!great | Vertical Comics – For years there wasn’t a Bakemonogatari manga. It’s not clear why; perhaps Nisioisin didn’t like the format, perhaps the iconic SHAFT anime made it a hard act to follow. In any case, getting Oh!great to draw the story was an inspired choice—the ridiculous over-the-topness that grew tiresome in Air Gear and Tenjho Tenge fits in perfectly with Araragi’s fevered fantasies and Senjogahara’s verbal lacerations. This first volume takes us almost to the end of Hitagi Crab—indeed, it cuts off right near the end, awkwardly so. Still, for anyone who gets overwhelmed by the novel’s verbiage, this is a great purchase. There’s even a bit of added content, though only a bit. – Sean Gaffney If I Could Reach…

Read More

By

Strike the Blood, Vol. 13

By Gakuto Mikumo and Manyako. Released in Japan by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jeremiah Bourque. The author mentioned in his afterword that this volume was meant to be something of a return to “traditional” Strike the Blood volumes, and it certainly succeeds at that. We’re back on the island, which is under attack by a terrorist organization that seemingly has all the cards. Half of Kojou’s allies are taken out, and he’s weakened by a Beast that can do something no one else had thought possible. Fortunately, by biting Yukina, as well as another girl, he’s able to save the day. And Yukina gets to say “No, senpai, this is our fight!” It’s all here, all present and correct. Unfortunately, that also includes…

Read More

By , , , and

Manga the Week of 10/23/19

SEAN: Mostly due to books being pushed back, this is the smallest week I’ve seen in some time. There’s barely anything! Under 20 books! ASH: That seems almost unheard of these days! SEAN: Dark Horse has the third hardcover deluxe edition of Berserk, which contains books 7-9. They also have the 11th and final omnibus of I Am a Hero. ASH: Dark Horse living up to the dark in its name, I see! Both of these series are great, though. SEAN: J-Novel Club gives us Infinite Dendrogram 10 and Outbreak Company 11. Kodansha, in print, has In/Spectre 10 and Love and Lies 8. The digital debut is 1122: For a Happy Marriage. This is a seinen title from Morning Two, a story of a couple who’ve been married for some…

Read More

By

There Was No Secret Evil-Fighting Organization (srsly?!), So I Made One MYSELF!, Vol. 1

By Hagane Kurodome and Katto. Released in Japan by Overlap Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Taishi. If I’m honest, this book was never going to live up to its title. That’s a big title. It promises a lot. It’s long, in the tradition of light novels these days. But the (srsly?) and the MYSELF!, between the two of them, promise more than I feel the series is prepared to deliver. The premise is solid. Indeed, if I read the second book in the series, it’s likely because I’m interested to see what happens next as I am curious. Unfortunately, the characterization and the writing can’t quite live up to it. Possibly the main sin the series commits is that I don’t think it’s funny enough….

Read More

By

The Promised Neverland, Vol. 12

By Kaiu Shirai and Posuka Demizu. Released in Japan as “Yakusoku no Neverland” by Shueisha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Weekly Shonen Jump. Released in North America by Viz Media. Translated by Satsuki Yamashita. A brief moment of appreciation for the cover art for this series, which continues to amaze. Last volume we had Emma looking like a witch, this time around her feathery hair is shown to be reminiscent of a bird. She’s also paired on the cover with Phil, who gets a chapter reminding us that the youngest children had to be left behind… and that everything’s changed at Grace Field House. The kids are now all split up, the Mom we know and have mixed feelings about is gone, and Phil has to just sit there and…

Read More

By

Crest of the Stars: The Return to Strange Skies

By Hiroyuki Morioka and Toshihiro Ono. Released in Japan by Hayakawa Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Giuseppe di Martino. The final book of the trilogy, though not the final book in the series overall. This wraps up getting Jinto and Lafier off the planet they’ve been stranded on and back to the Abh Empire, where he can finally go to quartermaster school an she can be a pilot. In between, we get cops chasing them, soldiers chasing the, the resistance desperately trying to get them to behave like hostages, a wild chase through an amusement park with animatronic animals, space battles galore, getting shot into space in a coffin, and an epilogue that neatly wraps everything up. If there hadn’t been more of the series,…

Read More

By

The Drifting Classroom Signature Edition, Vol. 1

In a 2009 interview with Tokyo Scum Brigade, Kazuo Umezu acknowledged that his debt to Osamu Tezuka went beyond storyboarding and character designs. Tezuka “didn’t pull any punches for children or dumb down his works,” Umezu explained. “He dealt with complicated themes and let the readers work it out on their own.” The 1972 classic The Drifting Classroom reveals just how profoundly Umezu absorbed this lesson. Though it ran in Weekly Shonen Sunday, a magazine aimed at grade schoolers, Umezu’s work was bleak, subversive, and weirdly thrilling, depicting a nightmarish world where kids resorted to violence and deception to survive. The Drifting Classroom begins with a freak accident in which a rift in the space-time continuum sends the Yamato Elementary School and its occupants into the distant future. Initially, the…

Read More

By

Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation, Vol. 4

By Rifuin Na Magonote and Shirotaka. Released in Japan as “Mushoku Tensei – Isekai Ittara Honki Dasu” by Media Factory. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Alyssa Orton-Niioka. Adapted by JY Yang. Ugh. After three volumes where I was mostly pleased and interested in the story, despite the occasional bits of sleazery from Rudy, I now come to a 4th volume where it’s getting really hard to ignore the sleazery. Rudeus is a reincarnation of an otaku lech, and thus spends much of this book either perving on everyone, or else being mistaken for perving on everyone because his “I like petting a dog” face is the same as his “I like groping a boob” face. He’s still not actually trying anything with Eris, but it’s not…

Read More

More Features & Reviews