Pick of the Week: Last Gasp First

MICHELLE: Calm but carnivorous giant space hippos. Fanciful and imaginative landscapes. Terrible carnage at a poodle ranch. A cute, fluffy, and cheerful alien protagonist who keeps falling for all the wrong girls. If any of these absurd notions appeal to you, then you need to be reading Junko Mizuno’s Little Fluffy Gigolo PELU, the second volume of which is due next week after a three-year hiatus. I really enjoyed the first volume and am positively asquee that volume two is here at last!

SEAN: For me it’s going to be Oresama Teacher 14. Only Excel Saga makes me laugh more than this ridiculous shoujo comedy, which actually could be shifted over to a shonen magazine without needing to change even one thing – it’s filled with goofy fights, wacky misunderstandings, and healing broken teenagers though the power of stupidity. Love it to bits.

MJ: Since Michelle has already given her pick to my likely first choice, PELU, I’ll take this opportunity to give a boost to this week’s other new offering from Last Gasp, The Strange Case of Panorama Island, Suehiro Maruo’s manga adaptation of the popular novel by Edogawa Rampo. I’ll be the first to admit that “underground” manga is pretty hit or miss with me—and most often miss. It seems so often that “underground,” at least what’s advertised as such here, translates to “obsessed with shock value for its own sake,” which usually ends up being empty in most other ways. But a look at this video about the book from Last Gasp is all it takes for me to put my money on “hit” this time around. That lush artwork is more than enough to lure me in. I’m sold!

What looks good to you this week?