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Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

December 12, 2016 by Michelle Smith and Sean Gaffney Leave a Comment

Bookshelf Briefs 12/12/16

Anne Happy, Vol. 3 | By Cotoji | Yen Press – The stars of Anne Happy may be in a separate class due to their horrible luck, but they also end up getting special attention, which makes the other classmates in the school (who are also in specialized programs, so you can’t really compare it to a gifted program or somesuch) upset. That’s the focus of the new teacher introduced properly in this volume, who thinks the luckless girls are being coddled. But it’s hard to be stern when merely swimming in a school pool might cost you your life, and midterm exams dependent on improving luck have Anne in the basement. This is cute, but absolutely light as air. That said, adding more dramatic stuff wouldn’t help it one bit. It is what it is. – Sean Gaffney

Everyone’s Getting Married, Vol. 3 | By Izumi Miyazono | Viz Media – This is a josei series rather than shoujo, and it shows in the maturity of the two leads, who thankfully do not overreact to seeming disasters by running off with tears in eyes. As expected, Ryu’s married ex is back, still married, and still a giant pile of problems that Ryu can’t help but get involved in. Meanwhile, Asuka is getting a marriage proposal from a handsome, successful guy who is perfectly happy to let her achieve her dream of being a housewife. But can she still have that dream anymore without Ryu? As for Ryu, can he let go of his past… and tell Asuka about it? This is still a potboiler, but it’s a mature one, in the best sense of the word. Still totally on board. – Sean Gaffney

Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma, Vol. 15 | By Yuto Tsukuda and Shun Saeki | Viz Media – I keep thinking that Soma is not like other Jump protagonists, but that’s not really true. He’s enthusiastic, stubborn, talented, and tends to fail repeatedly till he works out how to win. It’s just he’s so laid-back that he feels different in comparison to the Luffys of the world. Here the school has the typical Festival arc, except being a bunch of lunatic chefs, they all compete to see whose food sells the most. Soma makes a foolhardy bet with one of the Elite Ten, and while his thoughts on winning aren’t wrong, they aren’t enough. Luckily, he has Megumi to help, and even Erina is giving good advice. It’s hard to believe this is the series I panned so hard long ago. There aren’t even any food orgasm shots this time around. – Sean Gaffney

Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma, Vol. 15 | By Yuto Tsukuda and Shun Saeki | VIZ Media – I should know better by now than to read Food Wars! while hungry, but I challenge any meat-eaters to read this volume and not salivate for the black pepper pork buns Soma creates for his booth at the School Festival! He spends most of the volume figuring out how to challenge one of the Council of Ten who’s a Chinese food expert, and all of his strategizing and flavor-testing are fun to read about, not to mention his salesmanship and the gradual improvement of his standings in the sales rankings. We’ll have to wait until the next volume for the resolution, but I’m certainly impressed how invested I am in the outcome. – Michelle Smith

Haikyu!!, Vol. 6 | By Haruichi Furudate | Viz Media – Hope you like volleyball, because it’s all tournament, all the time this arc. Sadly, that means that while it was quite good, I’m at a loss as to what to talk about. The most obvious thing is probably Kageyama, who shows that when you’re a grumpy ball of rage a lot of the time, you can be easily frustrated. Particularly when the opposing team works out your super secret signals to show what you’re going to do. On the bright side, it was nice to see Asahi get past his previous year and kick ass, as they managed to defeat Date Tech’s Iron Wall. The cliffhanger was excellent too, as the best sports manga always take pains to remind you it’s a team sport, no matter how many prodigies may be starring. – Sean Gaffney

Kuroko’s Basketball, Vols. 5-6 | By Tadatoshi Fujimaki | VIZ Media – After Kuroko prevents a buzzer-beater shot by Midorima, Seirin moves on to the finals league of the Tokyo Inter-High qualifiers. Their first game is against yet another of Kuroko’s middle-school teammates, Daiki Aomine, an incredible player (and awful person) with an unpredictable playing style. As a long-time fan of sports manga, I was chastising myself somewhat for buying into the idea that Seirin might lose. Then I thought, well, perhaps they might lose this game, thus making their ultimate perseverance that much more poignant. I was not prepared for what happened or for the desolate sentiment, “We were fooling ourselves.” I’ve enjoyed Kuroko’s Basketball up until this point, but this volume surprised me. Now I’m even more eager to see where the story goes from here. – Michelle Smith

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