The selection of new manga is wide at Midtown Comics this week. See the Battle Robot’s picks below!
KATE: My liver and I agree: this week’s must-read manga is volume three of The Drops of God. The genius of Drops is that it reads like a shonen tournament manga but has the soul of a Food Network show. Each volume manages to impart information about the world’s finest and rarest wines while delivering plenty of drama and adventure; it’s as if someone crossed Naruto with Oishinbo, and the results are totally, utterly entertaining, even if the characters spend a lot of time waxing rhapsodic about terroir and vintage. Really, what’s not to like about a series that dares to compare a 2001 Chateau Mont-Perac with Freddie Mercury’s singing?
SEAN: My pick this time is the 2nd volume of A Devil And Her Love Song, Viz’s new shoujo series for those of us who like our heroines with bite. However, leaving Maria aside, I’m also enjoying the way that the manga is giving us the traditional shoujo cliche of the happy blond guy and his more serious brunet friend. Maria manages to deconstruct the two of them almost right out of the box, and I look forward to seeing whether they plan to develop beyond the cliche. (I do expect the cliche to stay the same in one, way – serious guy is going to win the girl.) And, as ever with series where the girl is hated by her female classmates but surrounded by hot guy friends, there’s a hope for other sympathetic females.
MICHELLE: Oh man, this is a difficult week! I am definitely eager to read both Drops of God volume three and A Devil and Her Love Song volume two, but Kate and Sean advocated for them so eloquently that I’ve nothing left to add! I think, therefore, that I’ll go for volume two of GTO: 14 Days in Shonan. I knew nothing about the series going in, yet found it easy to follow and though it does have a little too much gross-out humor for my taste, it’s also got a lot of heart. It’s nice reading about a generally goofy protagonist who is also legitimately good at something. Recommended.
MJ: I’m anxious to read both the second volume of A Devil And Her Love Song and The Drops of God (I’m behind on GTO), but since these have already been mentioned, I’ll give my nod to the third volume of Rei Toma’s Dawn of the Arcana. Though at its core, it is a pretty typical shoujo love triangle, volume three finally manages to make the heroine’s supernatural ability interesting and introduces a new, fairly intriguing character as well. Even the political angles of the story are finally taking on some real heft. Though my enthusiasm for this series is still in-progress, this is beginning to look like a series I’ll enjoy following to completion. If you haven’t already, I’d say now is the right time to pick it up!
Readers, what looks good to you this week?
Aaron says
April 2, 2012 at 8:56 amHaveing just read both Devil and Her Love Song and Arcana of Time I’m going with those two because the characters are getting even more interesting especially Caeser in Arcana and Tomyo in Devil
Lorin says
April 3, 2012 at 1:02 amThough not on the Midtown list, my most anticipated titles for this week are the second volumes of Countdown 7 Days and Replica. The first volumes of both these series were really enjoyable. I’m also looking forward to Drops of God.