It’s been a slow week news- and reviews-wise, so this installment of the Manga Review is short ‘n’ sweet.
Netflix announced earlier this week that it would be renewing One Piece for a second season. The live-action adaptation of Eiichiro Oda’s hit series is currently Netflix’s top-ranked show in 73 countries around the world… the Blue Giant film is coming to North American theaters in October… Ablaze just licensed Choi Gyu-Seok’s award-winning series The Awl… Brigid Alverson breaks down the August Circana Bookscan numbers… and the Mangasplainers unveiled their latest projects: Search and Destroy, a “fresh take” on Osamu Tezuka’s Dororo, and Wandering Cat’s Cage, a new series from the creator of Sensei’s Pious Lie.
AROUND THE WEB
Over at ANN, James Beckett reassures One Piece fans that Netflix’s adaptation is “really good.” “For all of the (rightly deserved) praise that has been heaped onto the series’ pitch-perfect set designs and costume work—which perfectly evoke Oda’s original vision while still feeling at least mostly plausible when applied to living human beings—One Piece is a story that lives and dies on the strengths of its characters, and if we didn’t immediately fall in love with this iteration of the Straw Hat Crew, things would have been very dire indeed,” he notes. “Somehow, though, the show managed to exceed expectations by finding performers that fit so well into their respective roles that it is virtually impossible not to fall in love with them” [ANN]
Kara Dennison explains why you should be reading MamaYuyu, which just debuted on the Shonen Jump app. [Otaku USA]
Vrai Kaiser interviews artist Aiba Kyoko about the evolution of the BL market over the last ten years. [Anime Feminist]
Letterer Aidan Clark joins the Manga Machinations gang for a celebration of Naoki Urasawa’s work. [Manga Machinations]
The latest installment of Manga in Your Ears focuses on The Gay Who Turned Kaiju and Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End. [Taiiku Podcast]
Let the Mangasplainers convince you to read Not All Girls Are Stupid, “a blistering look at the difficulties of being a woman in your late teens and early 20s.” [Mangasplaining]
Should you add the KMANGA app to your phone? Justin lists the pros and cons of Kodansha’s digital manga platform, praising it for the selection and good image quality, and panning it for its point system: “There’s no getting around the fact that the points structure is an obstacle to really enjoying the service, especially if you’re not a fan of playing games to get points.” [The OASG]
REVIEWS
To honor the start of the academic year, Megan D. has a review of Zero’s Familiar, a high school harem comedy. “Honestly, I debated whether to even bother with a plot summary for Zero’s Familiar because if you’ve read a single magic school harem series before, then you know pretty much all the story beats you’re going to see and all the character types you’re going to meet,” she notes. “You’ve got the everyman Potato-kun protagonist, whose only distinct quality he possesses is his annoyance with his status as a servant and the social class system in general. You’ve got the primary love interest whose personality begins and ends with ‘tsundere,’ and because this work came out in the mid 2000s she’s also comically tiny… She in turn is surrounded by a horny girl with big boobs, a stoic girl, a comic relief playboy, a perfectly ordinary maid/secondary love interest who is possibly even more boring than Saito, a handful of teachers, and the occasional disposable villain.”
New and Noteworthy
- Akane-banashi, Vol. 1 (King Baby Duck, Boston Bastard Brigade)
- Batman: Justice Buster, Vol. 1 (SKJAM! Reviews)
- The Black Cat & The Vampire, Vol. 1 (Demelza, Anime UK News)
- Game of Familia, Vol. 1 (Richard Gutierrez, The Fandom Post)
- It Takes Two Tomorrow, Too, Vol. 1 (John, AnimeNation)
- The Mandalorian: The Manga, Vol. 1 (Tyler Treese, ComingSoon)
- Persona 4 Arena, Vols. 1-2 (Richard Eisenbeis, ANN)
- Primus7, Vol. 1 (Marion Pena, The Beat)
- Saint? No! I’m Just a Passing Beast Tamer, Vol. 1 (Liz, No Flying No Tights)
- Touring After the Apocalypse, Vol. 1 (Ian Wolf, Anime UK News)
- The Witches’ Marriage, Vol. 1 (darkstorm, Anime UK News)
- XOGENASYS, Vol. 1 (Marion Pena, The Beat)
Complete, OOP, and Ongoing
- Demon Slayer, Vol. 9 (Sara Smith, The Graphic Library)
- Gakuen Alice, Vol. 1 (Robert Harris, The Fandom Post)
- Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible, Vol. 9 (Josh Piedra, The Outerhaven)
- Oshi no Ko, Vol. 3 (darkstorm, Anime UK News)
- Otherside Picnic, Vol. 4 (Onosume, Anime UK News)
- The Saga of Tanya the Evil, Vol. 20 (Sakura Eries, The Fandom Post)
- Sunbeams in the Sky, Vol. 2 (Sakura Eries, The Fandom Post)
- Usotoki Rhetoric, Vol. 3 (Demelza, Anime UK News)