Manga Bookshelf

September 20, 2019 By Sean Gaffney

The Way of the Househusband, Vol. 1

By Kousuke Oono. Released in Japan as “Gokushufudou” by Shinchosha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Comic Kurage Bunch. Released in North America by Viz Media. Translated by Sheldon Drzka. Adapted by Jennifer LeBlanc. Sometimes, it has to be said, an author comes up with a premise that is so magical that you are tempted to say that it writes itself. This is never a good thing to say, especially to the person writing it, but let’s face it: the premise of this manga, which is that a yakuza thug is trying his hardest to go straight and become a househusband, is magical. You should read it for that alone. Fortunately, the execution is also very good, showing off a minimal cast and going in several directions that I wasn’t expecting….

September 19, 2019 By Ash Brown, Sean Gaffney and Michelle Smith

Bookshelf Briefs 9/19/19

A Bride’s Story, Vol. 11 | By Kaoru Mori | Yen Press – Back to Bookshelf Briefs with this volume. Not that it’s not good; it’s very good. But I don’t have a lot of detailed analysis about it. This is possibly a slower-burning romance than even Amir and Karluk, as Mr. Smith is an English Gentleman and Talas is chasing after love after several husbands have all passed away. The “husband and wife” part goes quickly—in fact, Smith proposes almost immediately—but, as with a lot of couples in this series, actual romance is awkward and relatively innocent—the best part is a ride on a swing where we finally see Talas fully open up emotionally. In any case, we now get to go ALL THE WAY BACK, as Smith and…

September 19, 2019 By Sean Gaffney, Michelle Smith, Anna N, M.J. Beasi and Ash Brown

Manga the Week of 9/25/19

SEAN: Even with Yen Press moving a lot of its release dates, this is still a pretty heavy week. Lotsa stuff. Debuting from Dark Horse is Ms. Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles (Ramen Daisuki Koizumi-san), another in the series of foodie manga to be brought over here. High school girl is secretly a RAMEN MASTER. This runs in Takeshobo’s Manga Life Storia. MICHELLE: Oh, this sounds neat! ANNA: I do enjoy a food manga. MELINDA: I’m interested… ASH: So am I! Plus, I am particularly fond of ramen. SEAN: Dark Horse also has Berserk 40 (I believe that’s Vol. 40, not the 40th anniversary of the last volume), and the 2nd Elfen Lied omnibus. ASH: I am now actively reading Berserk in parallel with itself. SEAN: Ghost Ship not only has…

September 19, 2019 By Sean Gaffney

I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level, Vol. 5

By Kisetsu Morita and Benio. Released in Japan as “Slime Taoshite 300 Nen, Shiranai Uchi ni Level MAX ni Nattemashita” by Softbank Creative. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jasmine Bernhardt. I tend to enjoy this series, and so I will try to be charitable about some of its… quirks. A lot of the series involves revisiting plots and characters that we’ve seen before, and this gets turned up to eleven in this book, which starts with a dungeon crawl that turns out to be a tourist trap… much like the tourist trap we saw in the previous book. There’s also another festival, which gives our heroes the opportunity to run another cafe, only this time they have more people on their side, which is good as…

September 18, 2019 By Sean Gaffney

Koyomimonogatari: Calendar Tale, Part 02

By NISIOISIN and VOFAN. Released in Japan by Kodansha. Released in North America by Vertical, Inc. Translated by Daniel Joseph. There are spoilers towards the end of the review for the end of the book, which is hard to talk about without spoiling. The second half of Koyomimonogatari feels like it’s sliding slowly towards a darkness that you really don’t want to see. The first half of the collection (i.e. the first book, as Vertical split it in two) was fairly lighthearted and bantery, with only Nadeko’s story coming across as ominous. But as we get into the events of the 2nd half of Araragi’s school year, and things take a darker turn, it’s no surprise that the short stories do as well. The exception to this, oddly enough, involves…

September 17, 2019 By Sean Gaffney

The Devil Is a Part-Timer!, Vol. 14

By Satoshi Wagahara and 029. Released in Japan by ASCII Mediaworks. Released in North America by Yen Press. Translated by Kevin Gifford. As hinted in my previous review, this does not give us the next installment of the main series, but is another series of short stories that are interspersed throughout the series’ timeline. Most of them, with the exception of the last one, were published in magazines, something that happens quite frequently in Japan but is not always collected into a volume, and even when it is sometimes is not picked up in North America (hi, Index). As you can imagine, the stories here range from merely OK to quite good. None of them are too serious and none of them really advance the plot, but they’re fun and…

September 16, 2019 By Anna N

Daytime Shooting Star, Vol. 2

Daytime Shooting Star Volume 2 by Mika Yamamori I can usually tell if I’ll like a series after I read the first volume, but after two volumes I can more easily decide if I really like it. The second volume of Daytime Shooting Star still features plenty of angst over a potential student-teacher romance, but the supporting cast was featured a little more and I started to find this series endearingly quirky. The second volume opens with the shoujo staple of a school trip, and when Suzume finds herself accidentally trapped in a ravine with Mamura the boy who is pathologically afraid of being touched by a girl, they actually have a couple moments of conversation. Suzume passes out just in time for Mr. Shishio to come to the rescue,…

September 16, 2019 By Katherine Dacey

Become You, Vol. 1

Ichigo Takano’s orange may be one the of best shojo manga published in the last ten years, offering readers a vivid, sympathetic portrait of five friends who get an unexpected chance to save a suicidal classmate’s life. Though orange explored dark emotional terrain, it was never mawkish; instead, orange ended on a hopeful note that showed younger readers that life goes on after tragedies big and small. Become You, Takano’s latest series, mines a similar thematic vein, this time focusing on two emotionally damaged boys who form an improbable bond through music. And by “improbable,” I mean Taiyou and Hikari are temperamental opposites who initially seem ill-suited for friendship, let alone artistic collaboration. Taiyou is one of those only-in-manga characters whose dogged optimism shades into fanaticism—the kind of character who…

September 16, 2019 By Sean Gaffney

Aria the Masterpiece, Vol. 3

By Kozue Amano. Originally released in Japan by Mag Garden, serialized in the magazine Comic Blade. Released in North America by Tokyopop. Translated by Alethea and Athena Nibley and Katie McLendon. Having given a long introduction to the main character of Aria – the city itself – Amano can now set about fleshing out the cast. Of course, the fleshing out is done at the exact same “slow pace” that the rest of the series has, but we do get two new regulars at the start of this third omnibus. Alice is from Orange Planet, the main competitor to Aika’s Himeya and the top gondolier company in Neo-Venezia. (Great gag when Akari asks about Aria Company and is reminded they have two employees.) Alice is one of those people who…

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