Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

Katherine Dacey

Pick of the Week: Not You, Manga

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MICHELLE: I really loved The Last of Us, and one thing I can enthusiastically plug this week is HBO’s official companion podcast, in which the creator of the game, his co-showrunner, and the original voice of Joel go through each episode offering up all kinds of extra detail and interpretation.

SEAN: I’m running behind on this series, which everyone I know has already read, but The Locked Tomb has been my reading in between light novels lately (which is to say, about a chapter a day). Gideon the Ninth was fantastic, and I’m halfway through Harrow the Ninth, which is confusing but also fantastic. “Lesbian necromancers in space!”, as the pull quote says.

ANNA: I’m currently watching the k-drama Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha on Netflix. It is about a dentist who moves to a small town and gets involved with the quirky community in unexpected ways. I’m around halfway through, which is when I assume the hero’s psychological trauma appears to make everyone start crying after several solid episodes of rom-com antics.

MICHELLE: That reminds me that live-action version of The Full-Time Wife Escapist is on Netflix now and is also a great deal of fun!

KATE: I was disappointed in the second season of Picard, but the new season is a blast; sure, it’s got plenty of fan service, but the old gang have such great chemistry together that I can forgive some of the show’s clumsier references to characters and events from the original Next Generation series.

ASH: I finally got around to reading R. F. Kuang’s The Poppy War trilogy and am just about finished with the third book. An award-winning epic fantasy partly inspired by twentieth-century Chinese history, the series can be brutal but it’s also excellent. I already have more of Kuang’s work lined up ready to read (Babel: An Arcane History) and on pre-order (Yellowface).

MJ: In anticipation of its season two *hopefully* coming out in April sometime, I’ve been rewatching the first season of Link Click, a Chinese animated series about a trio who run a unique time travel service, available from Crunchyroll (originally licensed by Funimation before they merged). The English subtitles are… well. Um. But the story is so good and the characters so compelling, we’ll take what we can get. Check out the trailer for season one here and the opening theme here. It was one of our greatest finds during the pandemic and I’m pretty hyped up for the new season.

The Manga Review: Special K

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After months of speculation, Kodansha formally announced that it would be launching K Manga, a digital platform that will allow fans to read the latest chapters of current series as well as the full run of old favorites. The app, which will debut on May 10, 2023, will be available for both iOS and Android, and will function as “Kodansha’s official serialization platform.” As Deb Aoki notes, Kodansha’s press release was “vague in some key areas,” with no information about “pricing or subscription models,” but included a brief list of titles that would be available right away, from Attack on Titan and Blue Lock to Ghost in the Shell,  Fairy Tail, and Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagataro. Speaking with The OASG, Deputy Editor Yuta Hiraoka explained Kodansha’s decision to create its own digital platform for English-language readers. “To produce many simulpub titles, we had to be able to control the entirety of the process directly in-house,” Hiraoka told The OASG. “We also thought that by having all the titles available on the same service, we would be able to provide the same comfortable reading experience as we do in Japan.”

NEWS

Coming soon to a theater near near you: My Neighbor Totoro, which celebrates its 35th anniversary this year. Screenings will take place across the US between March 25th and March 29th. [Otaku USA]

ICYMI: Astro Boy’s boots have inspired one of 2023’s most outlandish—and fun!—fashion trends. [Black Girl Nerds]

Drawn & Quarterly will be publishing Yokai: The Art of Shigeru Mizuki in October 2023. [Anime News Network]

In other licensing news, Seven Seas announced that it will release a deluxe edition of Nagata Kabi’s My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness as well as a new, follow-up volume called My Pancreas Broke, But My Life Got Better. Seven Seas will also publish Black Night Parade, a comedy from the creator of Arakawa Under the Bridge and Saint Young Men. [Seven Seas]

ARTICLES AND OPINION

Sam Moore explores the horror of Kazuo Umezz’s classic The Drifting Classroom, comparing it with more recent coming-of-age stories. “Both Classroom and Promised Neverland create their horror by changing the ways in which time functions for these adolescent characters,” he notes. “Instead of being on the cusp of something – and growing as people to face whatever that might be – they’re thrown into the future both temporally and personally.” [The Gutter Review]

Is it too soon to start composing your Best Manga of 2023 list? The gang at Noisy Pixel don’t think so, and have just named their ten favorite manga of 2023… so far. Don’t be surprised if one or two of these make the final cut in December. [Noisy Pixel]

The latest Chatty AF focuses on how asexual and aromantic characters are represented in Our Dreams at Dusk, Sex Ed 120%, and I Want to Be a Wall. [Anime Feminist]

Kory, Apryll, and Helen review The Girl That Can’t Get a Girlfriend and Run on Your New Legs. [Manga in Your Ears]

The Trash Manga Friends jump in the WABAC machine for a look at Ultimate Muscle (Kinnikuman), a Shonen Jump classic from the 1970s. [Trash Manga Friends]

The OverMangaCast crew discuss the first twelve chapters of Tokyo Revengers. [OverMangaCast]

Xan dedicates the most recent Spiraken Manga Review to two new series: The Invisible Man & His Soon-To-Be Wife and Lazy Dungeon Master. [Spiraken Manga Review]

Before Naoya Matsumoto created Kaiju No. 8, he wrote Nekowappa!, a story about a human raised by cat gods. David and Jordan offer their first impressions of this two-volume series. [Shonen Flop]

Small press alert: the Manga Machinations crew focus on three indie manga: Mermaid Town, The Karman Line, and WONDER HOUSE OF HORRORS. [Manga Machinations]

Over at SOLRAD, Ayla Marsden posts an in-depth reflection on Kiyoko Okazaki’s Helter Skelter, in which an aging model who takes extreme measures to preserve her youthful body. “What fascinates me most is the woman’s body as a grounds for transformation, as a place of not only beauty and youth, but also of extreme ugliness and decay,” Marsden observes. “In that vein, I am fascinated by the woman’s body as a location of horror through transformation – the great potential that this body has to shock, disgust, and ultimately liberate.” [SOLRAD]

REVIEWS

If you need a reminder why Scott Cederlund is one of the best comics critics out there, check out his poignant review of Tatsuki Fujimoto’s Look Back. Elsewhere, Arpad Okay praises Mothers, a new anthology from Glacier Bay Books… Megan D. takes Blue Giant for a test drive… The Reverse Thieves name Skip and Loafer their manga of the month…  Justin and Marcella continue their read-through of Revolutionary Girl Utena… and the latest Reader’s Corner offers pithy assessments of Call the Name of the Night, Ima Koi, and The Remarried Empress.

New and Noteworthy

Complete and Ongoing Series

The Manga Review: March Madness

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Back in February, Twitter users introduced me to dozens of podcasts and websites that hadn’t been on my radar, among them The Wonder of Anime. The site was created by Lisa De La Cruz, who’s been interviewing voice actors and content creators, filing convention reports, and reviewing manga since 2019. Right now, she’s midway through her own March Madness, posting short reflections on her favorite series, from My Love Mix-Up! to Clover, Love*Com, Wave, Listen to Me!, and Wotakoi: Love Is Hard for Otaku. De La Cruz also hosts a popular podcast that’s available on Apple, Spotify, and Stitcher; recent episodes have focused on manga translation and lettering.

NEWS

If you’ve been curious about Azuki, check out Rob Salkowitz’s profile of this new digital manga platform. “We want to provide people with a wide range of manga to read, and a wide range of how they can read it,” said Marketing and Licensing Director Evan Minto. “We do our own scouting of titles that subscribers will like. That curatorial approach gives us the mindset of a publisher, not just an app.” [Forbes]

VIZ Media announced that it will be publishing Betwixt: A Horror Manga Anthology in November. The book will include work from American and Japanese artists including Becky Cloonan, Junji Ito, and Aki Shimizu. [ICv2]

Coming soon to a shelf near you: Gou Tanabe’s adaptation of The Shadow Over Innsmouth, an H.P. Lovecraft novella set in a coastal New England town where the locals harbor a nasty secret. [Dark Horse]

Dark Horse will also be releasing Shin’ichi Sakamoto’s Innocent, a manga inspired by the life of Charles-Henri Sanson, who was the Royal Executioner of France in the late 1700s. [Dark Horse]

Good news: American fans may get another chance to discover Hiromu Arakawa’s Hyakusho Kizoku (Noble Farmer), as an anime adaptation is in the works. [Last Looks]

ARTICLES, INTERVIEWS, AND OPINION

Danica Davidson interviews Fabien Grolleau and Ewen Blain about Guardian of Fukushima, a graphic novel about a farmer who became a folk hero for his unwavering dedication to the animals abandoned during the Fukushima nuclear crisis. [Otaku USA]

Anime UK News compiles a list of staff members’ favorite anime and manga based on video games, from Pokémon to Persona 4. [Anime UK News]

Planning a trip to Japan this year? Trevor Van As has compiled helpful tips for buying manga while you’re abroad. [How to Love Comics]

On the latest episode of Dad Needs to Talk, Robert reviews the new manga adaptation of Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables. [Dad Needs to Talk]

Ray and Gee discuss the merits of Sweat and Soap, a romantic comedy that “features one of the most healthy and communicative relationships in a contemporary romance series” in spite of its “potentially skeevy premise.” [Read Right to Left]

The Mangasplaining crew revisit an earlier work by Inio Asano: Goodnight, PunPun, a coming-of-age story that’s… well, bleak. The pictures are nice, though. [Mangasplaining]

Looking for a good read? The editors at Women Write About Comics plug the comics and manga they read—and loved—in February. [WWAC]

If you’ve ever wondered how to become a manga journalist, check out this in-depth interview with Deb Aoki. [Off Panel]

As part of her year-long celebration of Okazu’s twentieth anniversary, Erica Friedman hosts a roundtable on diversity in anime and manga journalism with panelists Samantha Ferreira (Anime Herald), Vrai Kaiser (Anime Feminist), and Lynzee Loveridge (ANN). [Okazu]

REVIEWS

The Manga Bookshelf gang weighs in on Confessions of a Shy Baker, Kitaro, and Mermaid Scales and the Town of Sand… Megan D. reviews the now-forgotten La Cordo d’Oro, a reverse-harem manga set at a music school… the latest Reader’s Corner focuses on Insomniacs After School, SHY, and Solo Leveling… Azario Lopez explains why you should be reading espionage thriller Love of Kill…. and Jocelyne Allen offers her two cents on Lemon Haruna’s surreal comedy Daru-chan, about “an alien from Darudaru, her true form a flesh-coloured blob with a cute bob and a red ribbon in it.”

New and Noteworthy

 

Complete and Ongoing Series

Bookshelf Briefs 3/16/23

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Confessions of a Shy Baker, Vol. 1 | By Masaomi Ito | TOKYOPOP – Initially, Confessions of a Shy Baker felt to me like a discount knockoff of What Did You Eat Yesterday?. You have a gay couple who have been together for years and live together. One of the men (Gon) is more laidback and is out to his coworkers in a service industry job. The other (Toshi) is more reserved and closeted at work and is the one who lovingly prepares homemade baked goods for his boyfriend. The strange art style—Toshi has giant ears and looks cross-eyed—and instant dive into LGBTQIA+ issues rather than focusing on the characters didn’t help, either. Thankfully, the story seems to relax halfway through and we get chapters about Gon’s obnoxious college friend and Gon and Toshi inheriting a cute dog. In the end, I liked it enough to continue. – Michelle Smith

Doomsday with My Dog, Vol. 1 | By Yu Isihara | Yen Press – In this post-apocalyptic comedy, a young woman wanders a devastated landscape with her trusty shiba inu. The two encounter a variety of animals and aliens in their search for food and shelter, but not much happens; by the middle of volume one, the storylines have fallen into a predictable pattern in which the scatterbrained owner makes a rash decision, seeks counsel from her wise pet, then ignores Haru’s advice. Though a few scenes elicited a chuckle, the aimlessness of the storytelling and the plainness of the artwork left me cold; I never clicked with the characters or the script, not least because the main human character was a flighty bore. Your mileage may vary. – Katherine Dacey

HIRAETH ~The End of the Journey~, Vol. 3 | By Yuhki Kamatani | Kodansha Manga (digital only) – This series comes with a warning that it deals with suicide ideation, and reader discretion is advised. And sure enough, Mika does in fact make the effort when she finally gets to the end of her journey… but she can’t. Her journey has given her too much life and love and joy to go chasing after her lost love. That said, we also get Hibino on the cover, and this is really his book, as he’s forced to confront his immortality and the reasons for it, as well as his own realization that, unlike Mika, he really is ready to move on. This author’s series are usually fantastic, and this was no exception. it’s not for everyone, but it’s why the word “evocative” was invented. – Sean Gaffney

Kitaro | By Shigeru Mizuki | Drawn & Quarterly – Somehow, it’s been nearly a decade since Drawn & Quarterly introduced its first anthology of stories from Shigeru Mizuki’s manga GeGeGe no Kitaro. I loved the collection and so was sad to see it fall out of print and become increasingly hard to find. But now a second edition has been released; I couldn’t be happier that these incredibly influential stories are readily available again. Revisions to the second edition include a new introduction by Zack Davisson (replacing the essay by Matt Alt) and updates to Jocelyne Allen’s translation as well as notable improvements to the lettering and overall book design. Davisson’s glossary of yokai is retained in the re-release, too, further augmenting the general presentation of Mizuki’s manga—thirteen delightful stories originally published in the mid-1960s which have more than stood the test of time. In addition to being an important cultural touchstone, Kitaro is just so much fun. – Ash Brown

Komi Can’t Communicate, Vol. 23 | By Tomohito Oda | Viz Media – At last, the payoff. Manbagi confesses, waiting to get rejected, and actually ends up having Tadano say yes, because Tadano is the way he is. So she has to sort of nudge him to admit that he’d rather be going out with someone else, and by the end of this volume, we have finally achieved blushing confession. This was a fantastic sacrifice on Manbagi’s part, and I sure hope that she’s not going to just become a minor character after this, because that would be terrible. (Foreshadowing, your key to quality literature.) At the moment, though, this was a great payoff, and I’m happy for these two dorks, who still need massive injections of self-confidence but are good kids. – Sean Gaffney

Marmalade Boy: Collector’s Edition, Vol. 1 | By Wataru Yoshizumi | Seven Seas – It had been years since I read this series back in the dawning days of shoujo manga being a thing here in America, and mostly what I remembered was that the romance between Meiko and her teacher, which I quite liked back in the day, reads far less positively to me now. Which is true, but that’s not till the end of this volume. Till then, it served to remind me what a good series it is, with likeable, fun leads, a lot of humor, and the shoujo drama does not yet have the heavy hand that it would get later. Also, we have The Parents, and when you say The Parents to a shoujo manga fan, they always know who you mean. Na-chan dating his underage student drowns out the parents. They’re TERRIBLE. Overall, this was great to reread. – Sean Gaffney

Mermaid Scales and the Town of Sand | By Yoko Komori | Viz Media – This is an unusual license for Viz—You is not usually a josei magazine they dip their toes into, and I’m not sure there’s a forthcoming anime or anything. I’m very glad they did, though, as this is a beautiful story well told. A young girl moves with her father to a remote seaside village after the breakup of her parents’ marriage, and she must try to make new friends while also searching for the man who saved her life when she was last there at the age of four… and who was a mermaid. The series toes just the right line between “are Mermaids real here, is this a fantasy?” and the mystery of why a town might want to make mermaids real. Complete in one volume, this is a must read. – Sean Gaffney

The Manga Review: Buy Local

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If you live in the Greater Boston area, Comicopia should be on your radar. This small shop is packed to the gills with manga, from best-selling shonen titles—Chainsaw Man, Demon Slayer, Jujutsu Kaisen—to kid-friendly series, yaoi and yuri, horror, manly-man manga, and a few OOP treasures, as well as a modest selection of books in Japanese. I discovered Comicopia when I relocated to the Boston area in 2008, and it felt like an oasis. I’ve always found the staff friendly and funny, and the atmosphere comfortable; no one will judge you for buying something popular or—heaven forfend—girly. For more insight into what makes Comicopia a great place to shop, check out this interview with Comicopia’s Matt Lehman and Dan Palomares conducted by fellow Bostonian Brigid Alverson.

NEWS

This opening sentence pretty much says it all: “Hit Japanese manga One Piece is coming to Netflix as a live-action series — a development that’s both exciting and worrisome for fans who have seen mixed success in a growing list of Hollywood adaptations.” [Associated Press]

And speaking of One Piece, creator Eiichiro Oda consulted ChatGPT on an upcoming storyline, but rejected the bot’s suggestions as “boring.” [NDTV]

Band geeks unite! Azuki has just licensed Crescent Moon Marching, a coming-of-age story about a teenager who joins a marching band to get away from the stress of her fast-paced life in Tokyo. Look for the first chapters on March 16th. [Azuki Manga]

Everything old is new again: Dark Horse will be re-issuing Hellsing in a new paperback edition this fall. [ICv2]

Krystallina has the scoop on the upcoming merger of Manga Planet and futekiya. [The OASG]

Although the February 2023 NPD Bookscan numbers confirm what most of us know—folks loooooove Chainsaw Man and Spy x Family—there were a few surprises on last month’s Top 20 Adult Graphic Novels list, including the first volume of Blue Box and the seventh volume of My Dress-Up Darling. [ICv2]

Why is Osamu Dazai having a moment on TikTok? The New York Times investigates. (Hint: it involves Bungo Stray Dogs.) [New York Times]

LISTENING IN

On the latest episode of Screentone Club, Elliot and Andy discuss Slasher Maidens and Oshi no Ko, “two things that everyone loves – ladies kicking arse and ladies being idols.” [Screentone Club]

If you’ve been curious about Ramen Wolf & Curry Tiger, Xan has some thoughts about this unusual culinary manga. [Spiraken Manga Review]

The OverMangaCast gang weigh in on chapters 100-127 of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba (better known to fans as the Swordsmith Village arc). [OverMangaCast]

Walt Richardson and Emily Myers review the February 2023 issue of Shonen Jump. [Multiversity Manga Club]

On the most recent episode of Manga in Your Ears, Kory, Apryll, and Helen discuss Is Love the Answer? and the first volume of Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou. [Taiiku Podcast]

Anyone nostalgic for Planetes will want to tune into Manga Machinations, which is doing a multi-part retrospective on this sci-fi classic. [Manga Machinations]

Ashley and Asher also take a trip down memory lane with a look at Duklyon: CLAMP School Defenders, “a strange, comedic, and loving send up of tokusatsu shows.” [Shojo & Tell]

REVIEWS

If you read only one review this week, make it Leonard Pierce’s lovely, in-depth analysis on Gengoroh Tagame’s Our Colors, an honest look at a young teenager wrestling with his sexual orientation. “Tagame has been open about this being his own coming-out story in many ways,” Pierce observes, “but the manner in which he projects it into a contemporary setting while retaining its personal character is excellent storytelling.” At Brain vs. Book, Jocelyne Allen explores the surreal humor of Wayama Yama’s Onna no Sono no Hoshi, a comedy about a beleagured male teacher at an all-girls’ school… Carrie McClain explains why you should be reading The Invisible Man & His Soon-to-be-Wife and Gap Papa: Daddy at Work and at Home… Masha Zhdanova gives a thumbs up to Mermaid Scales and the Town of Sand and thumbs down to volume two of Rainbow Days… and The Japan Times gives a big thumbs down to the big-screen adaptation of Inio Asano’s Downfall, pronouncing it dour and boring.

New and Noteworthy

Complete and Ongoing Series

Pick of the Week: Oranges for Sale

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SEAN: I am definitely pleased that we’re getting one final look at the characters in orange, still a top-tier “use hand-wavingly explained time shenanigans to fix things” series. As such, my pick this week is orange -to you, dear one-.

KATE: While I’m also pleased to see another chapter in the orange saga, my vote goes to Ayashimon, as it looks like a hoot, sending up cliches about yakuza *and* yokai manga.

MICHELLE: It’s definitely orange -to you, dear one- for me, though I’m also eager to get caught up on The Ancient Magus’ Bride.

ASH: I am absolutely reading everything that’s been mentioned so far, but orange has become something of a touchstone series for me, so it’s latest epilogue is my pick this week, too.

ANNA: There’s a lot of great manga coming out this week, but if there’s a new volume of Yona of the Dawn coming out that’s always going to be my pick.

The Manga Review: Turnover at Tokyopop

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In a recent interview with ICv2, Tokyopop’s Kae Winters confirmed that Stu Levy is transitioning out of his long-time leadership role at the company. “Stu’s been a major part of Tokyopop for so long, but with his own family now – and his move to Germany – we knew he’d step back eventually,” she said. She praised new COO & Publisher Marc Visnick as “a natural fit with our team” as Tokyopop continues to solidify its place in the current US market. “When we returned to publishing back in 2016 we released seven new titles; in 2022 we published almost ten times as many,” Winters noted. “We consider ourselves a boutique publisher now, with plans to expand modestly in an effort to maintain quality over quantity, and continue to bring titles to fans that we personally believe in.” Visnick echoed Winters’ sentiments, stating that he is “cautiously optimistic” about manga sales since Tokyopop has “witnessed steady growth across all trade channels” including independent booksellers and libraries.

NEWS….

On the tenth anniversary of Saturday AM‘s founding, Brigid Alverson sat down for a conversation with publisher Frederick Jones to discuss the magazine’s history, as well as its recent pivot into book publishing. “We refer to our works as diverse manga to normalize content that is both by creators of various ethnic origins and features various heroes of similarly broad racial backgrounds,” Jones explains. “While most young people will never make it to Japan and even fewer won’t learn Japanese, Saturday AM’s diverse manga stands as a key brand for their works to be discovered, featured, and celebrated.” [ICv2]

Kristin offers practical tips for assembling the full run of Berserk. [Anime Collective]

Bill Curtis compiles a master list of all this month’s new manga and light novels. [Yatta-Tachi]

R.I.P. Leiji Matsumoto. [The Beat]

Yamada Murasaki’s Talk to My Back has been nominated for a Los Angeles Times Book Award. [The Beat]

Last year was the highest grossing year for manga sales in Japanese history. [Otaku USA]

Chainsaw Man was 2022’s best selling manga according to two separate charts: NPD Bookscan and ComicsHub. Both lists are heavily dominated by VIZ Media properties, with only a handful of titles from Dark Horse and Kodansha making the cut. [ICv2]

If you love cats, Brigid Alverson has good news for you: Seven Seas has five new cat manga in the pipeline, including Cat on a Hero’s Lap, My New Life As a Cat, and A Cat from Our World and the Forgotten Witch. [ICv2]

The Lakes International Comic Art Festival just announced its inaugural Sophie Castille Award, which recognizes outstanding work in the field of translation. The award was created in honor of the late Mediatoon executive who was “a key figure in the growth of translation of comics and graphic novels around the world.” This year’s prize will go to the translator of “a comic translated from any language into English,” but LICAF organizers hope “to widen the scope of these awards and have partners all over the world so that there will be Sophie Castille Awards for many languages” in the future. [LICAF]

…AND VIEWS

Please join me in congratulating Tony Yao on thirteen years of manga blogging! Tony has been posting thoughtful articles about manga and mental health for years, first at Manga Therapy, and more recently at Drop-In to Manga. [Drop-In to Manga]

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to teach–or take–a college survey course on manga? If so, you’ll want to check out the syllabus for Martin de la Iglesia’s Manga – Introduction to History and Theory, which he taught last year at Heidelberg University. [The 650-Cent Plague]

David Brothers leads the Mangasplainers in a lively discussion of Under Ninja, a series about a ninja who “sets his sights set hilariously low.” [Mangasplaining]

Looking for a great new series? Laura Grace adds a new chapter to her ABCs of Shojo Manga with a survey of titles beginning with the letter G. [Beneath the Tangles]

If you love a great accessory or a well-tailored frock, you’ll want to read Jocelyne Allen’s review of Fashion, a manga about the garment industry. Author Lemon Haruna “does a great job of portraying clothes in motion, and making them feel both unique and a part of everyday life,” Allen observes. “Haruna also has an extremely clean, but totally expressive style that reminds me somehow of a cross between Kondoh Akino and Chris Ware.” [Brain vs. Book]

REVIEWS

This week’s must-read review comes to us from Adam Symchuk, who praises Mermaid Scales and the Town of Sand for its thoughtful depiction of a young girl on the cusp of adolescence. “Exploring themes of ‘family’ is where Mermaid Scales and the Town of Sand excels,” he observes. “Tokiko’s relationship with her father paints a portrait of a young girl with a unique intuition and empathetic nature.” Over at The OASG, Helen and Krystallina compare notes on volume seven of The Apothecary Diaries, while the staff at Beneath the Tangles post short reviews of Ayashimon, Guardian of Fukushima, and Tezcatlipoca, and my Manga Bookshelf colleague Sean Gaffney reminds us that he doesn’t just review light novels; he also writes pithy, hilarious manga reviews.

New and Noteworthy

Complete and Ongoing Series

Marmalade Boy: Collector’s Edition, Vol. 1

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One of shojo manga’s most time-honored plot lines goes something like this: a young girl’s life is turned upside down when her mother or father remarries someone with a teenager of their own, usually a cute boy who’s smart, athletic, and insufferable. Over the course of six or ten volumes, however, the heroine gradually moves from indignation to infatuation, finally admitting to herself what everyone else could plainly see: she likes her stepbrother. There are a usually a few complications on the way to a blissful relationship—say, a crazy ex-girlfriend who won’t go away—but the step-siblings eventually realize that they’re meant to be together.

Wataru Yoshizumi’s Marmalade Boy adds a new wrinkle to the formula, however, by engineering a crazy scenario for bringing her romantic antagonists under the same roof. In the opening pages of volume one, fifteen-year-old Miki Koishikawa’s parents come back from a trip with shocking news: they’re getting divorced. Making matters worse is that the Koishikawas have decided to swap partners with the Matsuras, a couple they met while traveling, and combine their families into a single household that includes both Miki and the Matsuras’ son Yuu. Yuu, of course, is a quintessential shojo prince: he’s gifted at tennis, an ace at math, and popular at school and—naturally—Miki hates him. She finds him smug in his refusal to criticize their parents’ impulsive behavior, and is furious that no one seems to understand her reservations about their new living situation. 

Their blended family life is established with great efficiency, setting the stage for plenty of misunderstandings and fights between Miki and Yuu. Yoshizumi also wastes no time in introducing other romantic prospects for both leads; a good part of volume one, in fact, follows the complicated friendship between Miki and Ginta, a cute tennis player who Miki used to like. Yuu, meanwhile, has his own romantic travails when his ex-girlfriend Arimi tracks him down at his new school, determined to rekindle their relationship by any means necessary. And if all those potential entanglements weren’t enough to fill thirty or forty chapters, Miki’s best friend Meiko starts hooking up with her hot homeroom teacher in the school library.

If I’m reading the story in Responsible Adult Mode™, it’s hard to ignore all the WTF? shenanigans. In one of the weirdest scenes in volume one, for example, the Matsuras and Koishikawas stage a fight to see whether Miki truly disapproves of their living arrangement, confessing their deceit only after a tearful Miki begs them to follow their hearts. The sight of all four parents gaslighting their daughter is comically awful; I’d be the first to admit that I’m on Team Miki, as she seems to be the only person who grasps the impulsiveness of the adults’ spouse-swapping arrangement. Then there are the usual shojo red flags: student-teacher relationships, stolen kisses, and characters whose behavior sails over the line between friendly interest and stalking.

If I allow myself to reconnect with my inner twelve-year-old, however, I have to admit that Marmalade Boy is funny, silly, and engrossing, offering a teenage gloss on Dynasty or Melrose Place. It’s the kind of manga in which two romantic rivals settle their differences with a high-stakes tennis match—in front of the whole school, of course—and characters state their intentions in a bald fashion: “I won’t lose you to him,” Arimi cheerfully warns Miki over a sundae. (A sundae!) Yoshizumi’s ability to balance the absurd with the everyday lends an air of plausibility to these scenarios; there’s always a kernel of emotional truth to the interactions between the characters, even when they’re dreaming up soap-worthy schemes.

Though the plotting is intricate, the artwork is clean and unfussy; backgrounds, hairdos, and clothing are rendered in a style that keeps the focus on the characters’ faces and body language. Miki has big, dramatic reactions to everything, but Yoshizumi avoids too much deformation or mugging to convey Miki’s distress. More surprising is how gracefully the artwork has aged, aside from an errant headband here and there; it wouldn’t look out of place at Barnes & Noble in 2023. (Well, that’s not entirely true; Yuu has a major case of 90s Shojo Prince Hair™, notable for its height and for the artful way it flops to one side of his face.)

All of this is to say that I enjoyed Marmalade Boy waaaaaaaaaay more than I expected, given my advanced age and my strong preference for stories about, y’know, adults. I cheerfully recommend it to anyone looking to recapture the feeling of reading their first shojo manga, or the palpable excitement of being a manga fan in the early 2000s, when Tokyopop published these kind of stories by the truckfull. Recommended.

MARMALADE BOY: COLLECTOR’S EDITION, VOL. 1 • BY WATARU YOSHIZUMI • TRANSLATED BY AMBER TAMOSAITIS • ADAPTED BY KRISTA GRANDY • LETTERING BY JENNIFER SKARUPA • SEVEN SEAS • RATED TEEN+ 

Pick of the Week: Long Awaited Volumes

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KATE: Holy smokes–a new volume of Versailles of the Dead?! In 2023?! I reviewed the first volume in 2018. File this under Better Late Than Never, I guess. It’s not the best zombie manga I ever read, but it definitely earns style points for its outrageous plotting and gorgeous costumes; the undead never looked better!

SEAN: One of the “this will never get a full release in English” titles now finally has a full release in English, and it’s an excellent one as well. The final volume of Urusei Yatsura is my pick.

MICHELLE: It’s The Invisible Man and His Soon-to-Be Wife for me. They had me at “detective agency.”

ASH: I certainly interested in The Invisible Man and His Soon-to-Be Wife, but I’ll be joining Kate this week in picking Versailles of the Dead. It’s an odd zombie manga, but it’s a stylish one.

ANNA: I’m going for The Invisible Man and His Soon-to-Be Wife, as it sounds most intriguing.

The Manga Review: RIP Leiji Matsumoto

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On February 20th, Leiji Matsumoto passed away at the age of 85. Matsumoto made his professional debut in the pages of Manga Shonen magazine in 1954, dabbling in a variety of genres over the next fifteen years before discovering his true calling: space operas. In the 1970s, he directed Space Battleship Yamato, and penned some of his most influential work, including Space Captain Harlock, Galaxy Express 999, and Queen Emeraldas. In later years, he collaborated with Daft Punk on a series of music videos for their 2001 album Discovery, and rebooted Space Captain Harlock with illustrator Koichi Shimahoshi. Anime News Network, the BBC, ICv2, and The Japan Times have all published thoughtful reflections on Matsumoto’s legacy, as did translator Zach Davisson, who shared vivid memories of watching Yamato on American television in the 1970s:

NEWS AND VIEWS

Over at Comicosity, Allen Thomas dedicates his latest Health and Inclusivity column to Okura’s I Think Our Son Is Gay. “I appreciate this manga because it is a helpful guide for approaching the queer and trans kids in our lives,” he observes. “Hell, it’s great for cishet kids too because they can see what their queer and trans peers may likely experience in school, at home, or in life in general. This manga also shows us how to be there for the people in our lives by responding to their needs without projecting our own.” [Comicosity]

Anime Feminist has compiled a directory “spotlighting Black writers, artists, and media outlets that cover or create art inspired by Japanese pop culture.” [Anime Feminist]

If you’ve been curious about The Girl Who Can’t Get a Girlfriend, click over to Honey’s Anime to read Brett Michael Orr’s interview with author Hiranishi Mieri. [Honey’s Anime]

Seven Seas just announced that it will be publishing Chi: On the Movements of the Earth, Breakfast with My Two-Tailed Cat, Dungeon Friends Forever, and I Married My Female Friend. All four series are slated for a late 2023 release. [Seven Seas]

Asher and Ashley revisit an early work from the CLAMP canon: Man of Many Faces. [Shojo & Tell]

There’s a reason you probably haven’t heard of Tricks Dedicated to Witches. [Shonen Flop]

Wondering what to read in 2023? Book Riot has you covered with a breakdown of the best completed, ongoing, and upcoming shonen manga. [Book Riot]

John Holt and Teppei Fukuda translate yet another essay by manga critic Natsume Fusanosuke: “Pig Gourd: The Meaning of Tezuka’s Playing Around with Form.” The essay, which was originally published in 1992, focuses “on Osamu Tezuka’s trademark Pig Gourd character, who will pop up or even decimate panel borders to show not only Tezuka’s embarrassment at being unable to resist a sight gag but also his bold desire to play with panel possibilities.” [Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics]

REVIEWS

Erica Friedman bestows a rare 9 out 10 stars to The Girl Who Can’t Get a Girlfriend, “a beautiful, heart-breaking and hilarious book about queer life and love.”

New and Noteworthy

Complete and Ongoing Series

Pick of the Week: Mermaid Josei

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SEAN: Josei? From a magazine we almost never see anything licensed from? Complete in one volume? Sold! Mermaid Scales and the Town of Sand also looks quite pretty, and is definitely my pick this week.

KATE: My thoughts exactly, Sean–done-in-one josei? With gorgeous, stylish art? And a plucky heroine? Sold! (Literally… I pre-ordered this one.)

MICHELLE: What else is there to say besides, “I concur”!

ANNA: Me too!

ASH: Ditto! (I really have been looking forward to this one and already have my pre-order in.)

MJ: Not to be predictable, but I’m going to go along with everyone else here! I’m so ready for this!

The Manga Review: Brush Up Your Shakespeare

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Earlier this week, ABLAZE announced that it will be publishing four manga by Osamu Tezuka. Two will debut this year: One Hundred Years, a story about an accountant who makes a pact with a demon in exchange for wealth and power, and Shakespeare Manga Theater, a collection of short stories based on Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and The Merchant of Venice. In 2024, ABLAZE will release Tomorrow the Birds, a one-shot about a world in which birds are smarter than people, and Neo Faust, one of Tezuka’s final works.

One quick programming note: to make it easier for you to find a great anime or manga podcast, I’ve created a permanent directory at the Manga Critic. Click here to view; click here to make suggestions or corrections. My goal is to update the list a few times a year.

NEWS…

The ALA’s Graphic Novels and Comics Round Table just published its list of 2022’s Best Graphic Novels for Adults. Though the list cants heavily towards Western titles, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End and Talk to My Back both made the cut. [GNCRT]

The Beat has an eleven-page preview of Tokyopop’s forthcoming Guardian of Fukushima, a graphic novel documenting the bravery of Naoto Matsumura, a Japanese farmer who returned to Fukushima in the aftermath of the 2011 nuclear disaster to care for all the animals that had been left behind. [The Beat]

Star Fruit Books will be publishing Hideshi Hino’s Occult Detective Club: The Doll Cemetery this summer. [Star Fruit Books]

In April, Last Gasp will publish Keiji Nakazawa’s memoir I Can’t Forget the Bomb: Barefoot Gen and the Bombing of Hiroshima. [Last Gasp]

The first chapter of The JOJOLands, the newest installment of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, debuted yesterday in the pages of Ultra Jump. [Otaku USA]

If you’re feeling nostalgic for Death Note, InuYasha, or Sailor Moon, I have good news for you: VIZ has made the full run of all three anime available on YouTube, along with select episodes of Hunter X Hunter and Naruto. [CNET]

File under Better Late Than Never: Kakusai Han recently made his professional debut as a manga artist with the publication of 67-sai no Shinjin: Han Kakusai Tanpenshu, which, translated into English, means The 67-Year-Old Newcomer: A Collection of Short Stories by Kakusai Han. “I always thought things would work out if I drew something interesting,” he said. “I didn’t care about my age.” [The Asahi Shimbun]

… AND VIEWS

Martin de la Iglesia revisits K, an early manga from Jiro Taniguchi and Shiro Tozaki about a “Japanese climber living near the Himalayan and Karakoram mountain ranges” whose superior skills make him the go-to guy for tricky alpine rescues. [The 650-Cent Plague]

The latest installment of Dad Needs to Talk focuses on The Savior’s Book Cafe Story in Another World. [Dad Needs to Talk]

Over at Manga in Your Ears, Kory convenes a roundtable on Shuzo Oshimi’s Inside Mari. [Taiiku Podcast]

Should you read WANDANCE? Xan weighs in on the popular series, a sports manga set in the world of hip hop dancing. [Spiraken Manga Review]

Andy and Elliott devote the latest Screentone Club to Nodame Cantabile, a slice-of-life drama about young musicians, and Burn the House Down, a twisty psychological thriller. [Screentone Club]

Jocelyne Allen offers a hilarious, blow-by-blow account of Reiko Shimizu’s Kaguyahime, which, in spite of its title, has almost nothing to do with The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter. “It’s bonkers right out of the gate,” she observes. “The first page has a quick overview of the Bamboo Cutter, presumably setting us up for what we’re about to read, but no. Next up is a hot (probably—I can never tell with nineties manga) foreigner looking at art in a gallery. There’s a pretty funny moment where the gallery staff guy is forced to try and speak English, and then next thing you know, fire! And maybe a bomb!! The gallery is evacuated, and our foreign friend is joined by someone with flamethrowers. The two proceed to torch the gallery, and we cut to a random high school.” Back in the aughts, I have no doubt CMX or Tokyopop would have licensed this, but today, I’m not so sure any US publisher would take a chance on this pure, unadulterated slice of 90s shoujo cheese. [Brain vs. Book]

REVIEWS

This week’s must-read review comes to us from Tony Yao, who’s been blogging his way through Sensei’s Pious Lie. Writing about the fourth and final volume, Yao explains why he found the story’s resolution cathartic. “The characters in Sensei’s Pious Lie aren’t beautiful, just tragically human,” he observes. “But there’s a beauty in seeing the tragic. Through loss, you slowly get to pick up pieces and discover alternative ways to figuring things out, but it takes other people to help you see that.”

Also of note: Anna N. reviews the first four volumes of Matcha Made in Heaven … the crew at Beneath the Tangles reviews A Condition Called Love, Boss Bride Days, and Unnamed Memory… and Megan D. revisits Puri Puri, a harem manga from the DrMaster vaults.

New and Noteworthy

Complete and Ongoing Series

Pick of the Week: Classic and Modern

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MICHELLE: Part of me really wants to pick Marmalade Boy here, as it’s one of the first manga I ever read and I have tremendous nostalgic feelings about it. However, I do realize that some aspects of it were decidedly not great. So, instead, I will go with the second volume of Usotoki Rhetoric since the first was absolutely delightful!

SEAN: I agree with Michelle regarding Marmalade Boy, though I will of course be reading it, because who doesn’t want to relive their old problematic media? That said, my pick this week is The Girl That Can’t Get a Girlfriend, about one woman’s search for the butch of her dreams.

ANNA: I’m going to choose chaos this week and pick Marmalade Boy!

KATE: Break of Dawn sounds like it’s just my speed, so that’s my pick.

ASH: Break of Dawn seems like an obvious pick for me, too, but this week I’m going to choose the print debut of Raven of the Inner Palace. I’ve heard great things about the series as a whole and the cover artwork for the first volume is stunning.

Bookshelf Briefs 2/10/23

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Blue Box, Vol. 2 | By Kouji Miura | VIZ Media – Blue Box continues to strike a great balance between being a sports manga and being a romance. In this volume, Taiki is paired with Haryu-sempai for doubles and they end up doing well enough together and separately at the prefectural qualifiers to advance in their journey to nationals. Haryu has a manipulative side, but he also makes a point of complimenting Taiki’s work ethic and overall potential in Chinatsu’s presence. Taiki’s other friends do their part to help his romantic prospects, as well. His friend Hina, in particular, is emerging to be my favorite character, as she’s doing her best to root for him, but the more it seems like he and Chinatsu could really have something special, the lonelier she feels. She’s on her own journey to nationals, and I hope we see more of that going forward! – Michelle Smith

The Fox and the Little Tanuki, Vol. 1 | By Mi Tagawa | Tokyopop – It’s not hard to see why Tokyopop licensed this charming, kid-friendly title; though it isn’t a Disney property, it has a lot in common with Bambi and The Fox and the Hound, right down to its button-cute cast of talking animals. The story focuses on the improbable relationship between Senzou, an ancient fox demon, and Manpachi, a baby tanuki, who—natch—are temperamental opposites. Though it’s not hard for an adult to see how their dynamic will evolve over time, the story offers enough twists and tear-jerking moments to keep readers invested in this oddball relationship, especially as Manpachi struggles with the realization that his birth family has rejected him for being different. The illustrations are another plus, as artist Mi Tagawa has a flair for drawing expressive animal faces; I dare you not to sniffle when Manpachi pines for his mother. – Katherine Dacey

Hello, Melancholic!, Vol. 3 | By Yayoi Ohsawa | Seven Seas – In this final volume, Minato and Hibiki officially become a couple, but not before Hibiki pushes Minato into checking out a civic brass band that has attempted to recruit her, resulting in a bit of a squabble. Minato’s gotten better at being open about her feelings, but now it’s Hibiki’s turn to stop trying to steer Minato in the direction she’d like their relationship to go and just be honest herself. After this breakthrough, it’s a whirlwind, as Hibiki graduates, Minato’s third year happens off camera, and then they reunite at college. This series has been cute and pleasant throughout but I’m a little dazed and confused that it’s over so soon, particularly with the Sakiko and Chika relationship, which featured so prominently in volume two, still in its uncertain state. Oh well. Still recommended. – Michelle Smith

Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible, Vol. 5 | By Nene Yukimori | Viz Media – Shiraishi is coming along. Slowly. That said, his face is still just a blank most of the time, because that’s what his character is, so there’s no denying that it’s more fun watching Kubo’s expressions. Whether she’s panicking imagining that another girl might possibly hang out with Shiraishi, or deeply traumatized when Shiraishi, in the mall with his brother, sees her buying a sexy bra. She also meets his mom, who clearly seems to love her, and we all know that it’s only the series’ popularity that is preventing them from hooking up. Heck, the series even has an anime currently running… except it’s been pushed back to April due to COVID-19. Luckily, we still have the manga. – Sean Gaffney

Toradora! Vol. 10 | By Yuyuko Takemiya and Zekkyo | Published by Seven Seas – Well, it’s been two and a half years, clearly it’s time for the next volume of the slowest-releasing adaptation ever. We are deeply in the ‘dramatic’ part of the series, with humor kept to a minimum, though there is at least some, as everyone tries to hide in the closet to avoid Ami and Minori’s confrontation. I feel bad for Ami here, who does not really have any problem-solving settings beyond “be a bitch till the problem is solved,” and that’s just not going to work here. As for Taiga and Ryuuji, he at least now knows she loves him, but has no emotional capacity to deal with it, and should be worried more about college, and how to afford it. Come on, just read the LNs. Don’t wait three more years. – Sean Gaffney

The Two of Them Are Pretty Much Like This, Vol. 2 | By Takashi Ikeda| Seven Seas – There’s not a lot of what you’d call forward movement here—this is a vibe manga. We do see Wako getting a decent-sized voice acting role, and the scenes where she tries to do publicity and not freak out or screw up are fun. She also meets her co-stars, who are in a fake relationship, which interests Wako greatly, given that she’s in a real relationship with Ellie. Ellie, meanwhile, has some lunch/dinner talks with another friend of hers who is clearly massively crushing on her but unwilling to do something about it given that Ellie is happy. Ellie even finds her neighbor is a huge fan of her work… her BL doujinshi work, that is. This is so relaxed and fun to read. I love it. – Sean Gaffney

Blood on the Tracks, Vols. 1-5

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One part Mommie Dearest, one part Kids, Blood on the Tracks is an unsettling depiction of the toxic parent-child relationship between Seiko, an overbearing mother, and Seiichi, her thirteen-year-old son.

The first volume is an artful tease, frankly portraying Seiko’s controlling behavior while encouraging the reader to see it through her obedient son’s eyes: as an expression of parental love. Oshimi hints that Seiko’s attachment to Seiichi goes beyond a simple desire to protect him, but it isn’t until a fateful hiking trip that Seiko’s true ability to manipulate and terrorize Seichii is revealed. In the aftermath of the trip, Seiichi begins to question his earliest childhood memories, and forms a connection with his classmate Yuko, another teen caught in a toxic parent-child relationship. The teens’ effort to break free of abuse, however, is thwarted by their age and by Seiichi’s deep-seated guilt about running away from home; the final page of volume five shows Seiichi abandoning Yuko under a highway overpass to search for his mother, rain and tears streaming down his face.

I’d be the first to admit that Blood on the Tracks is a potent reminder of just how good an artist Oshimi is. No matter what genre he’s working in, he does a superb job of creating fully embodied characters whose facial expressions, gaits, and vocal tics reflect their lived experiences; we can see how socially and emotionally stunted Seiichi is from the way he slouches and stands on the fringes of his friend group at school, and from his difficulty making eye contact with other people. Even more striking is how fluidly Oshimi segues from crisp naturalism to abstraction, using the latter as a way of representing how feelings manifest not as fully formed thoughts but as vivid, unsettling images that intrude on everyday life. Oshimi’s expressive linework and creative use of perspective give these sequences a visceral authenticity that would be almost impossible to achieve with language. 

In this scene, for example, Oshimi shows us the turning point in Seiko’s relationship with his mother. The first image in the sequence offers a fleeting glimpse of Seiko as Seiichi used to see her: as a beautiful young woman who devoted her life to protecting her son from harm. The second and third images in the sequence, however, reveal how Seiichi now sees her: as a terrifying stranger, a point reinforced by his wide-eyed stare and the faint smirk on Seiko’s lips. Oshimi sharply contrasts the beauty of the setting with the horror of what just transpired, creating a visual analog for Seiichi’s shock at learning who his mother really is.

The stumbling block—for me, at least—is that Oshimi’s stories always veer into the uncomfortable terrain of transgressive behavior and power dynamics. His characters exhibit such destructive, sadistic tendencies that his work often leaves me feeling queasy, not least because so many of his protagonists are teenagers. Maybe that’s the point: we can’t understand what it’s like to live with a pathologically selfish person unless Oshimi uses jump scares and creepy close-ups to make us feel the same sense of apprehension that Seiichi does. Yet there’s something distressing about making entertainment out of this material, however convincing his portrayal of Seiko’s pathology may be; I couldn’t shake the feeling that watching Seiko squeeze the life out of her son was a kind of emotional torture porn. I threw in the towel with volume five, but your mileage may vary.

BLOOD ON THE TRACKS, VOLS. 1-5 • BY SHUZO OSHIMI • TRANSLATED BY DANIEL KOMEN • VERTICAL