A newcomer to the small hamlet town of Hinamizawa, Keiichi Maebara makes friends quickly among the students at his new school. He also learns that the town has a history of grisly murders occurring on the night of the local Cotton Drifting. What’s more, some of his new friends seem to be intimately (and tragically) involved in the town’s gruesome history.
About Megan M.
Megan is a customer service representative for an evil credit card company who lives in Texas. She would be a single English major living alone with a cat if her apartment complex allowed pets, and has compensated for the lack of a cat with far too many books. She has read so much that it has turned her brain, and her shelves are overflowing with romance novels, fantasy novels, mystery novels, american comics, and, of course manga. If one looks closely, one may spot the rare volume of Serious Literature, valiantly gasping for air, struggling to survive in the sea of popular fiction. Her fictional preferences for women with weapons and attractive, often roguish, male accessories were firmly established at a very young age due to early exposure to Star Wars and Willow.
Vampire Knight, Volume 8
December 30, 2009 by 2 Comments
Cross Academy is divided into two groups of students: the Day Class, made up of seemingly normal high school students, and the Night Class, whose members are actually vampires. Protecting the human students from the vampires are Yuki Cross (the headmaster’s foster daughter) and her childhood friend, Zero Kiryu.
Bamboo Blade, Volume 2
December 20, 2009 by 1 Comment
Kojiro is his school’s kendo coach and is always broke and hungry. When his senpai, the coach of a rival school, bets him a year’s worth of free sushi that Kojiro’s girls’ kendo team can’t beat his, Kojiro can’t resist, even though losing means forfeiting a championship trophy. The only problem is that despite his recent acquisition of Tama, the daughter of a dojo, he only has four girls on his team, one less than what’s required.
Guest Review: Dystopia, Volume 1
December 13, 2009 by 1 Comment
Seventeen-year-old Dionne has always been extremely close to (and even emotionally dependent upon) her older brother Lyon. Lyon is their parents’ favorite, while Dionne herself has never gotten along with them. When Dionne’s best friend, Shikku, confesses to a crush on Lyon, Dionne is happy to play matchmaker. Everything seems perfect for the trio until tragedy strikes and Dionne learns of a secret about her family that her parents have kept hidden since Lyon was two.
The Antique Gift Shop, Volume 9
November 23, 2009 by 4 Comments
Bun-Nyuh, who still hates the supernatural world and tries to pretend it isn’t a part of her life, thinks to finally free herself from it by closing her shop and dumping the remainder of her grandmother’s antiques, all touched by the supernatural, in the river. This, of course, does not have the desired effect. Before we can get to that, however, we must first wrap up Lee Eun’s skewed version of “The Little Mermaid,” which began in the previous volume and features a rather self-centered mermaid convinced that the fairy tale got things completely wrong, and that she must rescue her prince from life with his obese girlfriend, who is a former ballerina.
Angel Diary, Volume 10
November 19, 2009 by 2 Comments
This volume concludes the conflict between Dong-Young, Bi-Wal, and Bi-Wal’s brother Ryung (who would be the King of Hell were it not for his white hair). I have read all the licensed series from this manhwaga team (the others being Demon Diary and Legend>) and Angel Diary is my favorite of the three, but I haven’t enjoyed the most recent volumes as much as I did the previous. I signed up for the story of the crossdressing Princess of Heaven who is hiding out on Earth to escape marriage to the King of Hell, her mysterious admirer, and all the otherworldly shenanigans that surround them. Recently, it’s been delivering less on that and more on “he’s not really an evil villain, he just does bad things due to an angsty past!” Unfortunately “he’s only bad because of his angst” characters tend to not work for me.
Gin Tama, Volume 14
November 7, 2009 by 2 Comments
This volume of Gin Tama continues the arc began at the end of volume 13, in which Otae’s childhood friend, Yagyu Kyube, returned to Edo and claimed her as “his” bride. Gin and Kagura joined with Shinpachi to rescue her and Hijikata and Okits joined with Kondo to rescue her, to prevent Kondo from ending up married to an alien gorilla princess (the Shinsengumi are rather desperate to avoid that). This is actually an aspect of the plot that I don’t care for, given the treatment of the gorilla princess in volume 13, but it wasn’t followed up on here.
Black Lagoon, Volume 7
October 1, 2009 by 1 Comment
Guest Review: Black Lagoon, Vol. 7 By Rei Hiroe Published by Viz Media Review by Megan M. Buy This Book This book continued the Roberta arc that began in the previous volume. I think it says much for this series that combat maids, typically considered to be a form of fanservice, are interesting, dramatic, badass, [...]
St. Dragon Girl, Volumes 3-4
September 16, 2009 by 1 Comment
Guest Review: St. Dragon Girl, Vols. 3-4Review by Megan M. When I read the first two volumes of this series, I liked the concept–a martial artist (Momoka) harboring a dragon spirit inside her fights supernatural foes along with her childhood friend (Ryuga)-but disliked the fact that Momoka can only access her powers if Ryuga physically [...]
Rasetsu, Volume 2
September 9, 2009 by 4 Comments
Guest Review: Rasetsu, Vol. 2 By Chika Shiomi Published by Viz Media Review by Megan M. Buy This Book Picking up several months after the end of volume one, Yako has settled into his job at the exorcism agency and Rasetsu is starting to feel the pressure of the fact that she has a deadline [...]
