Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

Katherine Dacey

Pick of the Week: Midsummer Manga

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MICHELLE: I don’t know how I could resist Steampunk BL from the author of Guardian! It’s Stars of Chaos for me this week.

SEAN: I’ll read Guardian, but probably not this. So I’ll make my pick a perennial “yes, always”: the new volume of Ascendance of a Bookworm.

ASH: Stars of Chaos is probably the debut that most interests me this week, but my official pick goes to What Did You Eat Yesterday?; I’m always glad to see a new volume released in that series.

KATE: Oof… so many manga, so few I want to read! I’m voting for Soichi even though I still haven’t finished the other two Junji Ito anthologies sitting on my nightstand. The evil you know, I guess.

Pick of the Week: Pore Hikaru Is Daid

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SEAN: I fear that the sheer amount of stuff out this week is making my eyes glaze over. That said, there are two “based on a light novel I enjoy” series out this week, so my co-pick goes to the debuts of I Want to Be a Receptionist in This Magical World and Secrets of the Silent Witch.

MICHELLE: I think The Summer Hikaru Died gets my vote here, and not only because my reply to Sean’s “The Night Chicago Died” joke just made me laugh again with how dumb it is.

KATE: I agree with Michelle: my vote goes to The Summer Hikaru Died, if only to encourage publishers to license horror titles by authors who are not Junji Ito.

ASH: As much as I like Junji Ito’s work, I do like seeing a wider variety of horror manga being released, too. And a BL-adjacent horror manga? I can’t pass up The Summer Hikaru Died.

The Manga Review: It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s Manga Superman

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Earlier this week, DC Comics unveiled a new feature on its DC Universe Infinite platform that will enable readers to experience Jiro Kuwata’s Batman in its original right-to-left orientation. Two titles are now available in this format with more in the pipeline… Brigid Alverson parses the June Circana Bookscan data… Brian Mariotti, the CEO of Funko, just stepped down… Saiyuku Jump will serialize a color version of Akira Toriyama’s Sand Land… Kiminori Wakasugi (Detroit Metal City) has begun work on Akina-chan Kamigakaru, a comedy about an aspiring manga artist… sales of the Oshi no Ko manga have tripled since the anime debuted… the final chapter of Space Brothers will be published in September… and How Do You Live?, Hayao Miyazaki’s last film, arrives in Japanese theaters today. Richard Eisenbeis has an early review. Last but not least, the finalists in the Comedy Pet Photography Awards were just announced and, as you might expect, there are plenty of hilarious images of flying poodles and soccer-playing cats. Go, enjoy!

AROUND THE WEB

How will artificial intelligence impact the anime, manga, and video game industries? In a recent survey of 27,000 Japanese professionals, more than half “worried AI will cost them future jobs and opportunities.” They also expressed concern about copyright infringement and unauthorized use of their work to train AI. [Otaku USA]

Muraktama Rodrigues explains why Slam Dunk “is your favorite sports manga,” even if “you just don’t know it yet.” [How to Love Comics]

Danica Davidson interviews Vernieda Vergara, author of My Manga Collection: That Time I Read So Much Manga That I Needed This Tracker to Record Everything, from the God-Tier Volumes to Trash Faves and Must-Reads! [Otaku USA]

Elliot and Andy are back with a new installment of Screen Tone Club. On the agenda: My Home Hero andThe Valiant Must Fall. [Screen Tone Club]

The OverMangaCast gang discuss the first the three volumes of Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead. [OverMangaCast]

Buckle up: the Manga Machinations crew are taking Eldo Yoshimizu’s Ryuko for a test drive. [Manga Machinations]

Helen, Kory, and Apryll dedicate the latest episode of Manga in Your Ears to After Hours and Good-Bye, My Rose Garden. [Taiiku Podcast]

REVIEWS

Four volumes in, Arpad Okay is still digging Dandadan… Justin checks out the first ten chapters of Kindergarten WARS… Megan D. revisits The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi-Chan… Johanna Draper Carlson praises The Way of the Househusband: The Gangster’s Guide to Housekeeping… Adam Symchuk recommends Don’t Count Your Tanukis… and my Manga Bookshelf colleague Sean Gaffney reminds us that he’s not just a light novel guy; he reads a lot of manga, too!

New and Noteworthy

Complete, OOP, and Ongoing Series

* Final volume

Pick of the Week: Hitting People Very Hard

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MICHELLE: I know nothing about Teppu other than the fact that it’s sports manga, which is enough for me to award it my pick this week.

SEAN: I also know nothing about Teppu, but boy did it excite some people whose opinions I respect, so we’ll go with it.

ASH: I still am print-preferred, so my pick of the week goes to the debut of the Tearmoon Empire manga, but I’m definitely interested in Teppu!

KATE: I’m going to put in a word for Phantom of the Idol, which is the perfect beach read. Six volumes in, it’s still silly, fizzy, and fun, demanding little of the reader other than the willingness to chuckle at a decent sight gag or a music industry joke.

The Manga Review: Straight, No Chaser

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If you weren’t able to attend Anime Expo, fear not: Brigid Alverson has a handy round-up of major licenses from Kodansha, which include a new edition of Initial D and a new series from Tsutomu Nihei (Blame, Knights of Sidonia), while Josh Piedra runs down the licensing news from Square Enix, VIZ, and Yen Press.  Also of note: Noir Caesar will be teaming up with Tezuka Productions for a new graphic novel based on Alabaster… UDON announced four new acquisitions… and the final volume of Mashle: Magic and Muscles will be published in Japan on October 4th.

AROUND THE WEB

This week’s must-read essay focuses on Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou, “the poster child of mono no aware works in otaku media.” It’s a lovely reflection on why this series remains a touchstone nearly three decades after its initial publication, and how it inspired more recent titles such as Girls’ Last Tour. [Sakuga Blog]

Jon Holt and Teppei Fukuda translate Natsume Fusanosuke’s essay “Memories of the Live-In Age: Hayashi Sei’chi and Kamimura Kazuo’s Dōsei Manga.” [The Comics Journal]

The Mangasplainers share an excerpt from Akino Kondoh’s delightful Noodling in New York, an autobiographical comic about her life in the Big Apple. [MSX: The Mangasplaining Extra Newsletter]

Martin de la Iglesia just published The Early Reception of Manga in the West,  which “examines what the first translated editions of Kazuo Koike and Gôseki Kojima’s Lone Wolf and Cub and Shôtarô Ishinomori’s Japan Inc. looked like, and how readers in the United States and in Germany reacted towards these manga.” [The 650-Cent Plague]

Vonmandelbrot offers his thoughts on the value of slow reading. [The Taishō Café]

Bill Curtis compiles a list of July’s new manga and light novel releases. [Yatta-Tachi]

New month, new manga: The Reverse Thieves name Summer of You as their pick of the month. [Reverse Thieves]

If you’ve been curious about Akane-banashi, let Chike Nwaenie persuade you to try this entertaining series about a young woman breaking into the male-dominated world of rakugo. [How to Love Comics]

Jocelyne Allen recommends Ami Uozumi’s Tsumetakute Yawaraka, a manga about two thirty-something women dancing on the edge of a relationship. [Brain vs. Book]

Erica Friedman explains why she resonated with the Super Cub anime and manga. “Mainstream media, focused on stories of romance and  – oh, you know straight women doing straight women things with wine and man bashing and other things completely alien to me – rarely shows women just relying on each other, being there for each other,” she observes. “Which is why I so obsess over She Loves To Cook, She Loves To Eat.  Super Cub does tell just exactly this story, from the perspective of a girl who has been so cruelly treated by life, she literally describes herself as having nothing in every way. By the end of this volume, she has one thing – Koguma has a Super Cub –  and that one thing is going to lead her to many other things.” [Okazu]

LISTENING IN

The OverMangaCast gang are “dialing up the patriotism” with a roundtable on volume three of Eagle: The Making of an Asian-American President. [OverMangaCast]

Is Takeki Ryuusei worth a look, or is it just another Fist of the North Star wannabe? David and Jordan investigate. [Shonen Flop]

Honey and Vixen join Ashley for an in-depth conversation about Naoko Takeuchi’s Codename: Sailor V. [Shojo & Tell]

The Trash Manga Friends discuss Dark Gathering, “a supernatural horror manga about one lil’ girl’s quest… to help save her family and friends from eternal damnation.” [Trash Manga Friends]

If you thought Kindergarten Cop was too tame, the Mangaroos have the series for you: Kindergarten Wars, an action-comedy set at a preschool “where the children of the world’s super-elite” are supervised by “lethal assassins.” [Mangaroos]

REVIEWS

Over at Anime News Network, MrAJCosplay describes Tatsuki Fujimoto’s Goodbye, Eri as “a quiet story that plays with your expectations to the point where it feels like you’re questioning reality by the time you reach the end”… the latest Reader’s Corner offers a smorgasbord of short reviews… and Paloma Linares tackles Satoshi Kon’s OPUS, “a mind-bending dreamlike piece of metafiction, which foreshadows the themes and style of Kon’s future projects.”

New and Noteworthy

Complete, OOP, and Ongoing Series

* NSFW content!

Pick of the Week: Butterflies, Akitas and Tinies

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SEAN: I’ve been slacking on my new shoujo series, so Like a Butterfly seems like the perfect time to hop back on board.

MICHELLE: Like a Butterfly is definitely my top pick as well!

KATE: I’m excited for the next volume of Lovely Muco.

ANNA: I’m not going to pass up a chance to pick a new shoujo series, Like a Butterfly is my pick as well.

ASH: Well, since I likewise failed to mention anything about the release of Minami’s Lover last week, I feel like I need to make it my pick this week seeing as I’m always interested in Garo manga. (Though, if I’m picking a release from this week, Like a Butterfly is definitely the debut that has my attention.)

The Manga Review: Love Is All You Need

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With the Fourth of July right around the corner, and two big conventions on the horizon, there were only a handful of real news stories this week. The biggest? Tokyopop just launched an imprint for romance manga called LoveLove, which will offer “age-appropriate content for readers ranging… from 13+ to older teens (16+) to ones aimed strictly at mature readers (18+).” The first title—The Black Cat & The Vampire—arrives in stores on October 12th… Jujutsu Kaisen has sold a staggering 80 million volumes worldwide… Masashi Kishimoto is hard at work on a new Naruto story… and the NBA will be introducing a line of t-shirts, satin jackets, and hoodies that allow fans to express their love of My Hero Academia and their favorite basketball team.

AROUND THE WEB

Kate Sánchez praises Netflix’s new adapation of Ōoku: The Inner Chamber for “staying true to the original manga” while “using animation to bring Yoshinaga’s vision to life with a vibrancy” that “can only be done in animation” [But Why Tho?]

Laura Grace posts a new installment of the Shojo Alphabet with a list of great series beginning with the letter “I.” [ Beneath the Tangles]

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Barefoot Gen, Asahi Shimbun traces out the publication history of Keiji Nakazawa’s classic drama. [The Asahi Shimbun]

Over at Anime News Network, Rebecca Silverman interviews Ryo Sumiyoshi about his fantasy series Centaurs. [ANN]

Also worth a look is Christopher Farris’ interview with Jun Mayuzuki, author of After the Rain and Kowloon Generic Romance. [ANN]

Alex, Vrai, and Tony dedicate the latest episode of Chatty AF to Yuri Is My Job!. [Anime Feminist]

If you’ve been curious about the Mangamo! digital platform, check out Gee and Ray’s in-depth review. [Read Right to Left]

Not manga, but relevant: Kazuma Hashimoto traces out the history of the JRPG label, noting the degree to which it influences consumer behavior in the video game marketplace. “It’s clear that the mainstream only courts a specific idea of Japan as being acceptable — often reinterpretations of feudal Japan, largely spanning from the 1500s to late 1800s, when the samurai were still part of Japanese society,” he observes. “This extends to what Japanese-made games Western publishers will support… and this diminishes the rich tapestry of games released under the ‘Japanese role-playing game’ umbrella in order to fulfill a fantasy for non-Japanese consumers.” [Polygon]

For more commentary on the “othering” of Japanese media, see Tony Yao’s essay on how Americans perceive manga, and perceive Japanese culture through manga. [Drop-In to Manga]

REVIEWS

Over at The Comics Journal, Tegan O’Neill reviews Minami’s Lover, new out from Fantagraphics, while Hagai Palevsky tackles the Eisner-nominated horror series PTSD Radio. Elsewhere on the web, Tony Yao gives a “shout out” to Manga in Libraries: A Guide for Teen Librarians… Adam Symchuk reviews two indie titles, The Rabbit Game and Words Bubble Up Like Soda… and the crew at Beneath the Tangles offer pithy assessments of Bloody Sweet, Heavenly Delusion, and Scribbles.

New and Noteworthy

Complete, Ongoing, and OOP

YashaHime: Princess Half-Demon, Vols. 1-2

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YashaHime: Princess Half-Demon epitomizes what I dislike most about IP-driven entertainment. It’s a manga adaptation of an anime sequel to a popular series, made with little involvement from the original author. Though the scriptwriters have created new characters and plot lines for the sequel, YashaHime feels more like the product of a focus group than an organic continuation of the story.

Like InuYasha, YashaHime begins in present-day Tokyo, where one of Sesshomaru’s twin daughters is living with the Higurashi clan. There are a few hints that Towa is troubled—she’s bounced from school to school, never really fitting in with her peers—but she valiantly tries to be a normal teenager. The sudden appearance of a demon at the Higurashi’s shrine sets the plot in motion, whisking Towa back to the feudal era and reuniting her with Setsuna, her fraternal twin, and Moroha, her cousin. Once back in her own time period, Towa joins Setsuna and Moroha on a quest to locate a set of “mystical pearls” and solve the mystery of what happened to their families.

There’s real potential in building a sequel around Sesshomaru and InuYasha’s daughters, but the authors skimp on meaningful character development. Setsuna, for example, is stoic and surly like Sesshomaru, while Moroha is boastful and loud like InuYasha; only Towa feels like a fully realized character. Towa is depicted as a shojo prince, decked out in a white pants suit and cropped haircut that lend her an aura of gender-bending cool—a point reinforced in the early chapters of volume one, when Towa is showered with notes from adoring female classmates. Beneath her cool exterior, however, Towa is haunted by the gaps in her memory, as she struggles to fit in with her adoptive family.

The other big drawback to YashaHime is that the authors lack Rumiko Takahashi’s gift for imaginative, economical storytelling. They shamelessly mine the original series for ideas, staging several action sequences that recall the earliest chapters of InuYasha. (Remember the three-eyed crows? Or the centipede demon who kidnapped Kagome? They’re back for another turn in the spotlight.) In between the demon-wrangling and the unfunny sight gags, the authors fall back on long-winded conversations to reveal how the three girls were separated from their parents, over-explaining everything to such a degree that the story groans under the weight of expository dialogue.

About the best I can say for YashaHime is that Takashi Shiina has done an admirable job of capturing the charm of InuYasha‘s character designs while making them look a little more up-to-date. Though Shiina’s linework is more angular than Rumiko Takahashi’s, the characters strongly resemble Takahashi’s original creations. All three leads have features that recall their famous fathers—Setsuna’s fluff is a particularly nice touch—while the human characters from InuYasha have aged in a naturalistic fashion. The demons, too, are drawn with care; Myoga, Jaken, and Kirara are all immediately recognizable.

I wish I enjoyed this series more, as I’ve been an InuYasha fan for almost twenty years. Part of the reason I loved the original series was that it felt like a real work of imagination, with odd flourishes of horror and genuine moments of pathos. YashaHime, by contrast, is so beholden to Takahashi’s original text that it never takes the kind of creative risks that would elevate it beyond the level of corporate doujinshi. There’s nothing as deeply unsettling as the sight of Naraku’s flesh bubbling in a cauldron, or as poignant as Kikyo and InuYasha’s final conversation; everything has a warmed-over quality, even when Shiina and Katsuyuki Sumisawa’s script explores new ground. Not recommended.

YASHAHIME: PRINCESS HALF-DEMON, VOLS. 1-2 • STORY AND ART BY TAKASHI SHIINA, MAIN CHARACTER DESIGN BY RUMIKO TAKAHASHI, SCRIPT COOPERATION BY KATSUYUKI SUMISAWA • TRANSLATED BY JUNKO GODA • ADAPTED BY SHAENON K. GARRITY • LETTERING BY JAMES GAUBATZ • VIZ MEDIA • 200 pp. • RATED TEEN (Fantasy violence, horror)

Pick of the Week: Edges, Goodbyes, and Homunculi

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MICHELLE: Psychological josei drama from Kyoko Okazaki? Gotta be River’s Edge this week.

SEAN: Much as I would love to pick the Okazaki, I know it’s gonna be too dark for me. So I’ll go with the final volume of The Reincarnated Princess Spends Another Day Skipping Story Routes, one of the better villainess series I’ve been reading.

KATE: Someone has to pick Good-Bye, Eri, so I’ll do it. Them’s the rules.

ANNA: I’m ready to go dark with i>River’s Edge.

ASH: Homunculus is one that I’ve been curious about for a while now, but I can’t pass up the opportunity to pick up another work by Kyoko Okazaki, so it’s River’s Edge for me, too!

The Manga Review: Back in the Saddle

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After almost two years of planning and procrastinating, my husband and I finally got around to putting in a garden last Friday. It was cold, grey, and raining, but I’m pleased to say we got the job done. By the time we finished, though, I didn’t have a lot of energy for manga blogging—we got soaked to the skin in the final stages of planting—so I skipped last week and hoped my Feedly folders wouldn’t be too full when I sat down to write this post. Boy, was I wrong…

NEWS ROUND-UP

Brigid Alverson breaks down the Circana Bookscan numbers for May 2023. “Webtoons and manhwa continue to dominate the Author chart,” she notes, while Blue Lock and Oshi no Ko are making headway on the Manga chart… For the first time in fifteen years, VIZ will be raising the price of its manga from $9.99 to $11.99 per volume… and speaking of VIZ, the publisher announced nineteen new licenses, including manga by Taiyo Matsumoto and Kazuo Umezz, as well as a Food Wars/One Piece mash-up and a One Piece novel. For more insight into VIZ’s spring 2024 line-up, check out the latest Manga Mavericks episode.

In other news, Azuki added a new sci-fi series to its library: Mecha-Ude: Mechanical Arms. Look for chapters one and two in July… Ize Press just acquired Finding Camellia… GKIDS will bring Blue Giant to North American theaters for a limited run this year… Tezuka Productions is using ChatGPT to create a new Black Jack story for publication this fall… Netflix has unveiled a new One Piece trailer… and  Matthew Levay interviews Tony Davis, owner of The Million-Year Picnic, the oldest comic shop in New England (and a cool place to browse, I might add). 

AROUND THE WEB

Anita Mowete explains how Blue Lock gave her a new respect for soccer. “As I read through this series, for the first time I understood how people can get so excited over football,” she observes. “I now understand how it gets people pumped up to maximum excitement or brings them to tears. You get a glimpse of the culture that surrounds football, the stories of each participant and the years of dedication that led up to the critical points in make-or-break matches.” [How to Love Comics]

In honor of Pride Month, Women Write About Comics convened a roundtable on the current state of LBGTQ+ manga. [WWAC]

Camil V. Ristè explores Keiko Takemiya’s early career, from Pharaoh no haka (1974-1985) to Toward the Terra (1977-1980). [Anime Feminist]

The Manga Machinations crew weigh in on the live-action adaptation of What Did You Eat Yesterday? [Manga Machinations]

The Reverse Thieves name Skull-Faced Bookseller Honda-san their manga of the month. [Reverse Thieves]

Kory, Helen, and Apryll discuss Until I Meet My Husband and She Loves to Cook, And She Loves to Eat. [Manga in Your Ears]

Did the Shonen Flop crew give Ginka & Glüna a frosty reception, or did they warm to this adventure series about a magical snowman? Tune in and find out! [Shonen Flop]

The Mangang dedicate their latest show to JH’s The Boxer, a Korean drama about a boxing prodigy. [Mangasplaining]

In a letter to readers, Beneath the Tangles’ editor-in-chief explains why the site won’t be covering the new Rurouni Kenshin anime. [Beneath the Tangles]

William Schwartz offers an in-depth look at Joseon Attorney, a Korean webtoon that’s equal parts historical drama and legal procedural. [The Comics Journal]

Jocelyne Allen sings the praises of Ryo Ikeumi’s Kiyouko Iwaka, a series that “has everything I want from shojo: reasons to cry, interior monologues questioning all emotions everywhere, secret handholding, and dramatic vengeance being exacted with the throwing of a whole tub of paint on a person.” [Brain vs. Book]

REVIEWS

Andy Oliver reviews Gengaroh Tagame’s Our Colors, “a tenderly told tale of two gay men from different generations”… Adam Symchuk praises All-Rounder Meguru for its “dedication to authenticity and ability to break down a fight with technical precision”… SKJAM! tackles Deserter, an anthology of early Junji Ito stories… Helen pronounces Osamu Tezuka’s Apollo’s Song “bloated” and pointlessly transgressive… and Kara Dennison has an early look at Susumu Higa’s Okinawa.

New and Noteworthy

Complete, Ongoing, and OOP

Pick of the Week: Cupcakes, Demons, and Idols

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ASH: I feel like to keep the peace at home, my pick this week should be Spider-Man: Fake Red (I may need more than one copy). But while the kids are busy reading that, I’ll more likely be perusing Old-Fashioned Cupcake for myself. I simply can’t pass up vaguely food-releated BL.

MICHELLE: I have to hurry up and read volume one of Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun before Tuesday so that I am not already behind when my official pick, volume two, comes out!

SEAN: There’s nothing I’m super excited for this time, so I’ll go with a default, as there’s a new Kageki Shojo! out, and those are always terrific.

KATE: I can’t say no to an idol manga, so my pick is If My Favorite Pop Idol Made it to the Budokan, I Would Die.

The Manga Review: Another One Bites the Dust

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CBR—formerly Comic Book Resources—announced that it would be restructuring, and laid off several key staff members, including Editor-in-Chief Adam Swiderski, Senior Editor Stephen Gerding, and Featured Editor Christopher Bagget. Though the site had a long and celebrated history of covering the comic book industry, CBR’s focus began to change after Valnet acquired it from founder Jonah Weiland in 2016, morphing into a pop-cultural news site that published more listicles and press releases than news stories or reviews. As Heidi MacDonald observes, the current economic turndown is partially to blame. “Advertising is way down, even more so than usual,” she notes. She also points to the “looming threat” of artificial intelligence, “which can take over the scut work of human drones (rewriting press releases, making explainers, etc) in a frightfully efficient (but unverified) manner.” There are still a handful of comics-focused sites—The Beat, ICv2, Women Write About Comics, and AiPT! among them—but, as MacDonald observes, AI “could kill sites like the one you’re reading right now with a ruthlessness Thanos would find cold-blooded.”

In other news, Seven Seas announced that it will be issuing box sets for The Ancient Magus’ Bride, orange, and two other series… Azuki just added seventeen new titles to its library, including The Mermaid Prince and Gourmet Glutton… Hiro Mashima (Fairy Tail) has begun work on a new series…. Makoto Yukimura, creator of Vinland Saga, will attend this year’s San Diego Comic Con… and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is working closely with several organizations to challenge an Arkansas law that makes it a misdemeanor to “furnish a harmful item to a minor,” a law with potentially terrible consequences for librarians, teachers, and booksellers.

AROUND THE WEB

Palomo Lin-Linares revisits Shuzo Oshimi’s squirm-inducing masterpiece The Flowers of Evil. “The Flowers of Evil is not escapism, it’s more akin to being trapped in a situation with the characters,” he observes. “It isn’t a manga you read to lose yourself in a story, but rather the opposite, you read it to discover the most unsavory parts of your character.” [Asian Movie Pulse]

Anyone hankering for a good mountaineering manga will want to check out Ichi’s feature on Yama o wataru (Crossing Mountains), which focuses on group of college students who climb some of Japan’s most daunting peaks. [Sports Baka]

Speaking of sports manga, Tony Yao makes the case that Medalist may be the best title you’re not reading. “I don’t know a damn thing about figure skating, but I sure as hell know a great manga when I see it,” he notes. “And Medalist is just that.” [Drop-In to Manga]

Alexis Sara explores non-monogamous relationships in yuri manga. [Anime Feminist]

Josephine Bowman discusses the quietly subversive premise of Akane-Banashi. [Anime Feminist]

Wondering what to read next? That Manga Hunter has compiled a great list of 2023’s most anticipated series. [That Manga Hunter]

Also worth a look: Elias Rosner sifts through the August 2023 release calendar and highlights 20 can’t-miss manga. [Multiversity Comics]

Danica Davidson interviews Centaurs creator Ryo Sumiyoshi about his influences, his work on Monster Hunter, and his interest in mythology. [Otaku USA]

Kara Dennison ponders the deeper meaning of Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead. “What starts as a wholesome but ultimately self-centered journey in Zom 100 turns into something surprisingly empathetic,” she notes. “Once everyone has their immediate wants and needs out of their systems, they begin looking outward. How can they show kindness to their families and friends? Their fellow survivors? Heck, even to the people who walked all over them? The group’s bucket list soon stretches beyond paddleboard yoga and penthouse suites into doing legitimate good for the world.” [Otaku USA]

REVIEWS

Over at Anime UK News, Sarah describes Manner of Death as a “twisty murder mystery in which the author delights in misleading the reader”… That Manga Hunter reviews Is Love the Answer?… Erica Friedman reminds us why Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou is worth reading… Jocelyn Allen explains why you should pick up a copy of Let’s Go Karaoke!… Ichi offers an in-depth look at the cycling drama Wind Breaker! … and the latest Reader’s Corner focuses on the latest volumes of Ima Koi: Now I’m in Love, Ex-Yakuza and Stray Kitten, and A Condition Called Love.

New and Noteworthy

Complete, OOP, and Ongoing Series

The Manga Review: Scrolling Down the River

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Kicking off this week’s news round-up is Shueisha’s announcement that it will launch its own manga app in 2024. The twist? Jump Toon will publish stories in a vertical scrolling format… will Netflix’s upcoming One Piece adaptation satisfy fans or alienate them?… Golden Kamuy creator Satoru Noda will be launching a new series this summer in the pages of Weekly Young Jump… Yen Press just unveiled six new licensing acquisitions… and Shueisha has teamed up with Marvel on a new manga: Spider-Man: Octopus Girl, in which Doc Oc finds himself trapped inside the body of a Japanese schoolgirl.

AROUND THE WEB

The Manga Machinations gang dig into the VIZ Signature archives to review three titles: Orochi, House of Five Leaves, and Saturn Apartments, all of which are now available on the VIZ Manga app. [Manga Machinations]

Robert Adams has the scoop on Yumi Tamura’s much-anticipated series Don’t Call It a Mystery. [Dad Needs to Talk]

Andy and Elliot dedicate the latest installment of Screentone Club to March Comes in Like a Lion and Crescent Moon Marching. [Screentone Club]

The hosts of Manga Kaiwa gush over the first new chapters of Berserk to be published since Kentaro Miura’s untimely death in 2021. [Manga Kaiwa]

Bill Curtis compiles a list of June’s new manga and light novel releases. [Yatta-Tachi]

If you’ve been curious about Dandadan, let Muraktama Rodrigues persuade you to give this exuberant supernatural comedy a try. “The creature designs are amazing,” he notes, “borrowing from different mythologies, urban legends, and even western horror comics, once again favoring the weird, ridiculous, and funny rather than the horrifying and disgusting.” [How to Love Comics]

REVIEWS

Palomo Lin-Linares pronounces The Strange Tale of Panorama Island “quite tame compared to other Suehiro Maruo works”… Kristin gives high marks to the 35th anniversary edition of AKIRA…. Megan D. revisits Shirahime-Syo, “a beautiful little oddity from CLAMP”… That Manga Hunter reviews the full run of Love and Lies… and my Manga Bookshelf colleague Sean Gaffney offers brief reviews of Blue Box, Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction, and The Yakuza’s Bias.

New and Noteworthy

Complete, OOP, and Ongoing Series

Pick of the Week: Don’t Call It Mystery

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SEAN: Gosh, I wonder… I suspect we will get a unanimous call for Don’t Call It Mystery, and honestly, I have to agree.

MICHELLE: Ironically, it’s no mystery whatsoever.

ANNA: Yes, i am HYPED!

ASH: I mean, I feel like I need to at least give a passing shout out to The Surgery Room… but, yeah, Don’t Call It Mystery is my pick this week, too.

KATE: Aye!

The Manga Review: Simply the Best

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Words like “icon” and “legend” are so overused today that when a true pioneer dies, it’s hard to describe their legacy. By any reasonable measure, though, Tina Turner was both an icon and a legend, a ground-breaking figure in R&B and rock music whose expressive voice and commanding stage presence radically transformed American popular music. Her voice could be seductive or powerful, heart-breaking or soul-stirring, embodying the real emotion behind even the most banal lyrics. (Who but Tina Turner could make “River Deep, Mountain High” into something glorious?) That she had her greatest success in her forties is perhaps the most astonishing part of her story. At an age when women are often pushed to the margins of the popular music industry, Turner packed stadiums around the world, sold millions of albums, and won legions of new fans through her music videos and standout performance at Live Aid, reminding all of us that artistry is a life-long pursuit. As much as I love her earlier work, though, the song I come back to is one of the last recordings she made: “Edith and the King Pin,” a Joni Mitchell cover she recorded with Herbie Hancock in 2007. The whole album is terrific, but Turner’s contribution is revelatory, a stellar jazz interpretation of Mitchell’s song that is delicate, lyrical, and yet unmistakably Tina Turner:

RIP, Acid Queen!

AROUND THE WEB

Otaku USA has a preview of Alpi: The Soul Sender, a new series from Titan Manga; look for volume one in early October. [Otaku USA]

Tony Yao explains why Tokyo Revengers’ Chifuyu Matsuno is one of his all-time favorite supporting characters. [Drop-In to Manga]

Something old, something new: Kory, Apryll, and Helen compare notes on Lil’ Leo and Oshi no Ko. [Manga in Your Ears]

Join the OverMangaCast gang for a lively discussion of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure—specifically, the Battle Tendency arc. [OverMangaCast]

Place your bets: Sean, Mike, and Phil have just embarked on their annual Trashtacular Tournament Arc, sifting through the good, the bad, and the ugly so that you don’t have to. [Trash Manga Friends]

REVIEWS

Over at Anime Collective, Kristin reviews the deluxe versions of 20th Century Boys, Blade of the Immortal, and Pandora Hearts… Megan D. jumps in the WABAC Machine for a look at Cipher, a manga with “a great cast, a compelling premise, and great art that looks as fresh as it did nearly 40 years ago”… Adam Symchuk weighs in on Small Nozomi and Big Yume… and the latest Reader’s Corner looks at Helck, Honey Lemon Soda, and the final volume of Horimiya!

New and Noteworthy

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