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Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

April 10, 2017 by Michelle Smith and Sean Gaffney Leave a Comment

Bookshelf Briefs 4/10/17

Black Clover, Vol. 6 | By Yuki Tabata | Viz Media – Most of this volume is taken up with one big fight, but the single focus is quite welcome, and it helps to give depth to another one of the Black Bulls, as Yami shows up to save our heroes and promptly shows off that his powers are (if you’ll pardon the cliché) on a completely different level from our heroes. He’s utterly cool, and I fully expect he will die tragically somewhere down the line, but that day is not today. Asta also does some leveling up, though, and we see that the Midnight Sun cult is after his grimoire—and is rather ticked off that he has it at all. Black Clover continues to remind me of various series mushed together (Magi stands out this time), but it’s fun and readable. – Sean Gaffney

Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma, Vol. 17 | By Yuto Tsukuda and Shun Saeki | Viz Media – I expected a more serious arc and I was right. Erina’s father has changed the rules so that all chefs are equal, but that just means that no one is allowed to express themselves in any way. The middle third of this book is like eating a bag of gravel, as smug snake Eizan is such an obvious villain that even one of his fellow Council members (Rindo, who is wonderful and appears to be siding with the enemy just because she’ll be more entertained by what follows) points it out. Meanwhile, the Polaris Dorm is due to be shut down… or at least it would be, but Megumi and company get out their riot gear and stand their ground. Hard to read in places, but excellent. – Sean Gaffney

Haikyu!!, Vol. 10 | By Haruichi Furudate | Viz Media – I tend to like the training parts of sports manga more than the actual matches, and that proves to be the case here, as this is a stellar volume. Everyone is watching the other teams to try to find ways to improve, and despite a fight over staying the course vs. risking failure with something new, Hinata and Kageyama are the same. The exception is Tsukishima, everyone’s favorite jerk, whose apathy is starting to concern everyone. Surprise, it stems from a tragic flashback that crushed his dreams. Can you really strive to improve yourself if you don’t really care all that much? How do you make something you’re good at fun? Haikyu!! is one of Jump‘s best pickups lately, and I am happy it’s a monthly concern. – Sean Gaffney

Honey So Sweet, Vol. 6 | By Amu Meguro | VIZ Media – Honey So Sweet is consistently cute and adorable, and this volume definitely offers up an assortment of heartwarming moments for our lead couple. That said, a fair amount of what happens here feels like something I’ve seen before. Even within this own series, in fact. It begins with Nao running into yet another wounded delinquent. This time it’s a guy named Nishigaki who, it turns out, idolized Onise in junior high and doesn’t think Nao is cool enough to be his girlfriend. When the new school term begins, he and his twin sister, Miyabi—yes, fraternal twin sibling firsties just like in Say I Love You.—begin attending school with the other characters, and Onise is very nice to socially clueless Miyabi, who seems to be developing feelings for him, which of course worries Nao. Still, I’m sure a happy ending awaits. – Michelle Smith

Honey So Sweet, Vol. 6 | By Amu Meguro | Viz Media – This was a stronger volume than the previous one, despite the fact that we’re introducing yet another love rival. Miyabi is a twin, and also very introverted, to the point that it takes her a minute or so to respond to anything someone has said to her. I appreciated that the solution was not “you just need to be more extroverted,” as it is in many other Japanese manga—the idea of telling people she responds slowly was good. That said, now we get to see how Nao deals with jealousy, though given that this is a pretty sweet manga, I think it will be fine. Taiga’s flashbacks were also quite good, showing off what drew him to Nao and the difficulty he has looking like a thug. Cute shoujo—not top-tier but definitely readable. – Sean Gaffney

In/Spectre, Vol. 3 | By Kyo Shirodaira and Chashiba Katase | Kodansha Comics – This volume has a large hurdle to get over, in that it’s almost entirely exposition, as our trio discuss what Nanase really is and how to deal with her, along with a heavy dose of Japanese urban legends. Luckily, Kotoko’s amazing pettiness and jealousy still livens things up, and despite her discussion of losing her virginity in the first book you sense she and Kuro haven’t gotten very far at all. We also get a discussion of how Kuro wins his fights—he can alter probabilities, to an extent. Of course, this tends to involve seeing a lot of bad futures. And he can’t be everywhere, as the cliffhanger shows another murder gumming things up. I still find this quirky mystery refreshing. – Sean Gaffney

Yona of the Dawn, Vol. 5 | By Mizuho Kusanagi | VIZ Media – It was a foregone conclusion that Yona would persuade the Blue Dragon—ostracized for his abilities—to join her, but despite the predictability, her acceptance of him is still touching. She names him Sinha, and with his awkward kindness, he instantly becomes my favorite character. Unfortunately, he’s promptly sidelined during the second half of the volume, as the gang ventures into a port town in search of the Green Dragon, a pirate named Jaeha who plans to fight to escape his fate. And then he sees Yona at the end of the volume. I hereby predict that he will be won over eventually, too. A little formulaic? Sure, but it’s still good fun, and I’m always a bit sad to see a volume end. – Michelle Smith

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