• 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

March 3, 2015 by Sean Gaffney and Michelle Smith 2 Comments

Bookshelf Briefs, 3/3/15

This week, Sean and Michelle look at recent releases from Kodansha Comics and Viz Media.

eden17Cage of Eden, Vol. 17 | By Yoshinobu Yamada | Kodansha Comics – In this volume, we see a welcome return of massive killer beats, this one a genetic monstrosity that seems to be an attempted chimera. It allows this manga to do what it does best. No, not the fanservice and commentary on the fanservice, though there’s that too. Seeing the cast inspire each other to use their abilities to their fullest in order to survive is something both Sengoku and Yarai to a lesser degree have been doing, and there’s lots of impressive fighting attempts, even if some of them don’t work. Sadly, this can also lead to OVERconfidence, as we see with fake Miina, who tries to take out the beast and gets eaten. Hard to come back from getting eaten. Or is it? – Sean Gaffney

magi10Magi, Vol. 10 | By Shinobu Ohtaka | Viz Media – This volume reminds us how far our heroes have cme since the start of this book, and how closely they work as a team. So when you add a new element to that team, Hakuryu, he can find himself quickly falling behind – something that makes him insane with envy and self-hatred. It takes Alibaba to remind him that they’ve all made mistakes because they tried to take too much on their own, and his mistakes cost people their lives. In among this, we get Morgiana stepping up to new levels of awesome as she learns to use her vessel, a sneering villain who does his best t drive the group onward and will likely prove to be testing them, and some new arrogant bad guys to provide a cliffhanger. What more culd you want? – Sean Gaffney

meteor1Meteor Prince, Vol. 1 | By Meca Tanaka | Viz Media – The premise of Meteor Prince—“a naked alien prince falls from the sky to tell [our heroine] that out of all the girls in the universe, he’s come to Earth to mate with her”—is virtually guaranteed to make one dubious. However, I’m glad I overcame my initial doubts because the series won me over in the end. Io, said prince, is an innocent horndog with alien abilities who easily overcomes the horrible luck that has forced heroine Hako Natsuno to keep her distance from all but a few good friends. As a result, there’s a nice balance of comedy and romance, and Tanaka even finds time to hint at feelings between a couple of the secondary characters. Two volumes seems just the right length for this series, which ultimately reminded me of the type of shoujo once offered by CMX. Surprisingly recommended! – Michelle Smith

onepiece73One Piece, Vol. 73 | By Eiichiro Oda | Viz Media – No volume of One Piece is ever bad, but some are more emotionally affecting than others. Volume 73 is a good balance of sympathetic islanders—a much-loved king forced to betray his people by a villain, swept-under-the-carpet undesirables plotting rebellion, Franky crying his eyes out over their story…—and action, as the storylines converge and our heroes make ready to help out. I like how the alliance with Trafalgar Law has affected the crew, and how Nami is the one to really recognize the merits of his strategy, and I really liked the arrival of a certain (presumed) character and the effect this had on Luffy. Did any of this make me personally verklempt? Well, no, but it’s still pretty great. – Michelle Smith

sayilove you6Say “I Love You”, Vol. 6 | By Kanae Hazuki | Kodansha Comics – Well, it didn’t take long for Megumi’s plans to come crumbling down around her, did it? It helps that Mei has her first major rival/villain on her side now, one that can see through all the garbage. Given that we also see a sizeable chunk of Megumi’s past here, I suspect she may also end up becoming more likeable to the reader, though I suspect it will take longer. What’s more interesting is the cliffhanger, which makes you wonder if Mei and Yamato will have their first time together. I’m inclined to guess they won’t, but we’ve seen quite a bit of sexual activity in the book already, so you never know. In any case, this is still one of those mangas I always try to read as soon as it arrives. – Sean Gaffney

Share this:

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

Filed Under: Bookshelf Briefs

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. wandering-dreamer says

    March 3, 2015 at 5:53 pm

    Are both Magi 10 and Meteor Prince 1 really coming out this week? I’m curious because I just got Magi 10 from my library today (and would be dumbfounded if they for once had a book already processed and waiting for me the day of) and I could’ve sworn that Meteor Prince was earlier since I’ve seen people talking about it/read the digital first chapter myself a couple of weeks back.

    Reply
    • Callum says

      March 4, 2015 at 3:23 pm

      Bookshelf Briefs are about titles that were released in recent weeks/months so they aren’t all released this week.

      Reply


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.