• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Comment Policy
    • Disclosures & Disclaimers
  • Resources
    • Links, Essays & Articles
    • Fandomology!
    • CLAMP Directory
    • BlogRoll
  • Features & Columns
    • 3 Things Thursday
    • Adventures in the Key of Shoujo
    • Bit & Blips (game reviews)
    • BL BOOKRACK
    • Bookshelf Briefs
    • Bringing the Drama
    • Comic Conversion
    • Fanservice Friday
    • Going Digital
    • It Came From the Sinosphere
    • License This!
    • Magazine no Mori
    • My Week in Manga
    • OFF THE SHELF
    • Not By Manga Alone
    • PICK OF THE WEEK
    • Subtitles & Sensibility
    • Weekly Shonen Jump Recaps
  • Manga Moveable Feast
    • MMF Full Archive
    • Yun Kouga
    • CLAMP
    • Shojo Beat
    • Osamu Tezuka
    • Sailor Moon
    • Fruits Basket
    • Takehiko Inoue
    • Wild Adapter
    • One Piece
    • After School Nightmare
    • Karakuri Odette
    • Paradise Kiss
    • The Color Trilogy
    • To Terra…
    • Sexy Voice & Robo
  • Browse by Author
    • Sean Gaffney
    • Anna Neatrour
    • Michelle Smith
    • Katherine Dacey
    • MJ
    • Brigid Alverson
    • Travis Anderson
    • Phillip Anthony
    • Derek Bown
    • Jaci Dahlvang
    • Angela Eastman
    • Erica Friedman
    • Sara K.
    • Megan Purdy
    • Emily Snodgrass
    • Nancy Thistlethwaite
    • Eva Volin
    • David Welsh
  • MB Blogs
    • A Case Suitable For Treatment
    • Experiments in Manga
    • MangaBlog
    • The Manga Critic
    • Manga Report
    • Soliloquy in Blue
    • Manga Curmudgeon (archive)

Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

June 9, 2014 by Sean Gaffney, Anna N and Michelle Smith Leave a Comment

Bookshelf Briefs 6/9/14

This week, Sean, Anna, & Michelle look at recent releases from Kodansha Comics, Digital Manga Publishing, and Viz Media.

cage14Cage of Eden, Vol. 14 | By Yoshinobu Yamada | Kodansha Comics – We’ve moved past the ‘everyone is fighting against horrible prehistoric animals’ stage of the manga, and the ‘everyone is bathing naked in rivers so you can see their breasts’ stage has at least lessened (the biggest fanservice moment in this volume is for the ladies, as Yarai shows off his manly naked body). So now we seem to be at the ‘actually trying to figure out what’s going on’ stage, as Sengoku and company explore the depths of a pyramid filled with death traps, surprisingly Japanese-made machinery, and even more giant stuff that makes no sense – plants this time. I’m not sure there’s any explanation that justifies all the buildup, but this is still a lot of good shonen fun. -Sean Gaffney

gangsta2Gangsta, Vol. 2 | By Kohske | Viz Media – This volume develops a bit on the first, teasing us with a little more backstory regarding Nic and Worick and their respective backgrounds. There’s also a lot more worldbuilding, as we meet some rival families and groups who will no doubt continue to influence events. Mostly, though, it’s a volume that shows us just how terrible and knife-edge everyone’s lives are at the moment – violence runs rampant throughout, there’s tons of casualties, Nic goes into a drug-induced berzerker rampage, and even Ally, who spends almost the entire volume staying at the office, is having drug-induced hallucinations leading to psychotic breaks. If you like Black Lagoon but thought it was too cheery, Gangsta is right up your alley. – Sean Gaffney

itazura10Itazura Na Kiss, Vol. 10 | By Kaoru Tada | Digital Manga Publishing – This volume is an excellent one for showing us how far we’ve come since the first. Yes, Kotoko can still be shallow and aggravating, and Naoki can be heartless and insensitive. But it’s almost in the minority by now, as they deal with fresh new crises; the birth of her friend Satomi’s child, visiting her mother’s embarrassing family (who all have so many stories to tell her new husband), and dealing with Naoki deciding he has to intern in Kobe in order to better specialize (in pediatrics, god help those children). I’ve described Itazura Na Kiss as a bitter coffee of a manga, but the coffee now has milk and sugar in it, and the bitterness is mostly knowing it’s about to be cut short by the author’s death. – Sean Gaffney

kimi19Kimi Ni Todoke, Vol. 19 | By Karuho Shiina | Viz Media – I was a little grumpy about a third of the way through this volume, as Kento really is being a little too perfect to be realistic. But then, so is the rest of the cast, if I want to be honest. And it dawned on me that there’s nothing particularly wrong with that. This is a manga filled with nice people having quiet, gentle moments with each other. The only real conflict comes at the end, when Kazehaya’s controlling father shows up to provide a cliffhanger. Everything else is just heartwarming, sweet, and adorable moments. Even Pin, who does get to be goofily obnoxious, gets a sweet, heartwarming backstory here. I should stop trying to make this title more than what it is – just the nicest manga you’ll ever read. – Sean Gaffney

milsnow3Millennium Snow, Vol. 3 | By Bisco Hatori | Viz Media – Perhaps the best and worst thing I could say about the continuation of Millennium Snow (after a ten-year hiatus) is that it reminds me of Hatori’s much more famous series, Ouran High School Host Club. Remember those episodic chapters in Ouran where the gang would try to help a schoolmate with their problems? That’s basically what’s going on in this volume, as a seemingly cold-hearted nurse turns out to be nurturing guilt over the death of her child and a bullied girl befriends an injured supernatural beastie that feeds on the power of words. It’s kind of dull. However! Ouran also had a sense of humor that appealed to me, and I found myself giggling a couple of times in this volume, namely at the image of an immortal vampire’s hesitant first encounter with a stapler and the notion of his bat servant hastening to the supermarket because “Eggs is on sale!” So, in the end, not the best ever, but I’ll read the fourth and final volume anyway. – Michelle Smith

littlemonster2My Little Monster, Vol. 2 | By Robico | Kodansha Comics – It’s not that the plot of My Little Monster is new and original—it is, after all, a romance manga—but I think the characterization of the protagonist, Shizuku Mizutani, is nicely done. As we begin the volume, she’s been rejected by former wild child Haru but has declared she’ll make him fall for her. Unfortunately, she has no idea how to do this, and proceeds to be her usual prickly self even while helping him out of various troublesome situations. Eventually a new character, Oshima, falls for Haru too, and Shizuku is so distracted by this that her schoolwork begins to suffer. She decides that anything that detracts from securing a stable future is unnecessary, which of course coincides with Haru seemingly realizing that he does fancy her after all. It’s a lot better than this synopsis makes it sound, and Oshima is intriguing in her own right. Plus, there is a chicken! – Michelle Smith

rein3Sweet Rein, Vol 3 | By Sakura Tsukuba | Viz Media – If Sweet Rein has a fault, it is that it can sometimes be a tiny bit too sweet at times, but anyone who enjoyed the first two volumes of this series about a teen girl Santa and her handsome bonded transforming boy/reindeer will enjoy the third volume. The volumes follow a fairly predictable pattern of going through the seasons as the characters stubbornly refuse to age. Kurumi has to deal with Kaito during the spring, when all the reindeer have spring fever and become even more irresistible. A reindeer whose master has left him behind fixates on Kurumi in an unhealthy matter, and Kaito finally is driven to actually express a preference in a way that influences Kurumi’s behavior. This is a fun vacation read, as it isn’t terribly demanding on the reader! There’s also a bonus story from Tsukuba’s CMX series Penguin Revolution included in this volume, and I enjoyed being able to dip back into that series as well. This is light romance shoujo at its fluffiest. – Anna N.

tigerbunny5Tiger & Bunny, Vol. 5 |By Mizuki Sakakibara, et al. | Viz Media – I haven’t exactly been complimentary in my previous reviews of Tiger & Bunny, citing an inability to connect with the lead duo, but something has really clicked for me in these past few volumes. True, the story still flows swiftly, but it also does so with admirable clarity, focusing mostly on action but without forgetting to flesh out the characters. Not only does Barnabas come to trust Kotetsu more as his partner, which is nice to see and handled in a “show don’t tell” kind of way, but we also learn more about several of the supporting Heroes and how they feel about their responsibilities and each other. The plot, involving a villainous organization responsible for killing Barnabas’ parents, may not be the most riveting thing ever, but seeing this proud guy accept help in figuring things out is enough to keep me interested. I am finally on board! – Michelle Smith

Share this:

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Reddit
  • Tumblr
  • More
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest

Filed Under: Bookshelf Briefs

Reader Interactions



Before leaving a comment at Manga Bookshelf, please read our Comment Policy.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

 | Log in
Copyright © 2010 Manga Bookshelf | Powered by WordPress & the Genesis Framework
loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.