Katherine Dacey

Katherine Dacey · January 4, 2016

We’re kicking off 2016 with a look at the manga titles and trends we’re most excited about. Joining me and Brigid is manga journalist and critic Deb Aoki, former guide to AboutManga.com, current host of Manga Comics Manga, and Publishers Weekly contributor.

What new manga are we looking forward to this year?

BRIGID: Fruits Basket! Natsuki Takaya’s tangled tale of a cursed family was one of the first shoujo manga I ever read, and I’m looking forward to re-reading it with a more experienced eye (and a better translation).

The other upcoming manga that everyone seems to be looking forward to is Princess Jellyfish, which Kodansha is publishing in double-sized omnibus volumes. This josei title about a bunch of nerdy girls living in their own rooming house sounds like it will be a lot of fun.

In terms of continuing series, I loved the first volume of Planetes and I’m looking forward to more. It’s a smart science fiction story with likeable characters and thoughtful storylines, and Dark Horse’s new edition is a beautiful two-volume omnibus that really feels like something special. I can’t wait to read more of Hiroya Oku’s Inuyashiki, about two humans given extreme superpowers in a freak accident—one uses them for good, one… doesn’t—and Yoshitoki Ōima’s A Silent Voice, an amazingly powerful story that’s about bullying but also about alienation and redemption. One more: Your Lie in April, which has kind of slid under the radar, a shonen romance about musicians that, like A Silent Voice, goes beyond the standard shonen romance tropes and has relatable characters experiencing real emotions.

On a general note: When I was compiling my lists of the best new and ongoing manga series of 2015, I was struck by how many really good manga debuted in 2015. From all accounts, 2016 is going to be even better.

DEB: I’m most excited about the trend where manga publishers are taking chances on titles and genres that were once considered the third rail/extra risky to license, like sports manga. Super excited about the Summer 2016 arrival of the first volumes of Haikyu!! by Haruichi Furudate and Kuroko’s Basketball by Tadatoshi Fujimaki from Shonen Jump/VIZ Media! I love Haikyu!! a lot — been watching the first and second seasons on Crunchyroll over and over again. the characters are really wonderful — it’s delightful to see the team grow and reach new heights every time. It’s got lots of heart and humor as well as exciting sports action. It’s now one of my all-time faves!

I’ve also been enjoying the recently released Yowamushi Pedal by Wataru Watanabe, a manga about a hapless anime otaku who discovers that he has a talent for bicycle racing. Big ups to Yen Press for publishing this fairly long series in double-sized volumes.

queen-emeraldas-small Another example of manga publishing biz in the US dipping their toes into riskier fare is the upcoming publication of three classics: Rose of Versailles by Riyoko Ikeda from Udon Entertainment, Queen Emeraldas by Leiji Matsumoto from Kodansha Comics, and Otherworld Barbara by Moto Hagio from Fantagraphics Books. For too long, the classics that are the foundation of manga in Japan have been largely unavailable in English. I’m hoping that these titles succeed so we can someday get more.

Also super excited about having more manga by Asano Inio available in English. Solanin and What a Wonderful World! are go-to recommendations for anyone who loves indie comics and is curious about manga. Now VIZ Media is publishing the mind-bending Goodnight Pun Pun, and A Girl on the Shore, coming from Vertical Comics. Both should be on your pre-order lists, as these are beautifully drawn, thought-provoking books that everyone will be talking about in the months to come.

KATE: I share Deb’s excitement about classic manga. It’s a risky undertaking for any publisher, especially when so many readers are young (under 20) and not particularly curious about the medium’s roots. It will be interesting to see if UDON can pitch Rose of Versailles to the Shojo Beat crowd; though the artwork is a little dated, the melodrama, costumes, and kick-butt female lead have obvious parallels with titles in VIZ, Kodansha, and Yen’s catalogs. Who knows? It could be a surprise hit.

Speaking of vintage titles, I’m ecstatic about Drawn & Quarterly’s new Kitaro volumes. D&Q will be releasing these previously untranslated stories in slimmer, kid-friendly editions–a departure from their 2013 Kitaro release, which screamed “prestige project!” I think that’s a smart move: adults with an interest in Shigeru Mizuki’s work will buy it in almost any format, but younger manga fans need a length and trim size that reflects their own reading habits.

Another title on my must-read list is Jiro Taniguchi’s Guardians of the Louvre, which NBM Publishing will be releasing in April. The previous installment of the Louvre series–Hirohiko Araki’s Rohan at the Louvre–was the ultimate otaku two-fer: a ghost story and a standalone chapter in the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure saga. Taniguchi’s book will undoubtedly be a more sober affair, but one I’m anticipating with the same eagerness: I can’t wait to see how Taniguchi integrates the museum’s famous collection into his story.

In the just-for-fun department, I Am a Hero, a zombie thriller from Dark Horse, is near the top of my list, as are VIZ’s Haikyu! (mentioned by Deb above), Vertical’s FukuFuku: Kitten Tales, and the final installment of DC Comics’ Batman: The Jiro Kuwata Batmanga. I’m also looking forward to Wandering Island, a story about a gutsy young woman who runs an air mail service in a remote corner of Japan. The illustrations are by Kenji Tsurata, the creator of the criminally under-appreciated Spirit of Wonder, which was published by Dark Horse in 1998.

Last but not least, I’d also make a plug for The Osamu Tezuka Story: A Life in Anime and Manga. This visual biography clocks in at a hefty 900 pages, highlighting important periods in Tezuka’s career as an illustrator and animator. Its author, Toshio Ban, worked closely with Tezuka in the 1970s and 1980s, giving Ban a unique perspective on his subject. As an added bonus for American readers, Stone Bridge Press brought in Frederick L. Schodt to do the translation.

How about conventions—does anything look particularly tempting?

DEB: I’m always curious to see what Toronto Comic Arts Festival will be bringing as their guests this May. Last year was Gurihiru and Aya Kanno, prior years brought Konami Kanata, Moyoco Anno, Akira Himekawa, Usamaru Furuya, Est Em, Natsume Ono and Yoshihiro Tatsumi to name just a few. I don’t know what they have planned, but I know it’ll be worth the trip!

As booth space and tickets get harder and harder to get at San Diego Comic-Con, Anime Expo in Los Angeles has turned into the Japanese content biz must-go show. I’ve noticed that more companies from Japan are buying booths, and see lots of meetings / business being conducted at the show.

It’s great that AX is getting bigger and bigger, but I worry that it creates a situation where the anime/manga world becomes even more segregated/separated from the general pop culture community that converges at Comic-Con and similar American shows. This is especially irksome because it seems like most of the Western comics / pop culture press corps basically ignore / don’t report on / don’t attend Anime Expo or any of the announcements that come out of this show.

This pisses me off because anime/manga matter more than ever — especially as its fandom tend to skew younger, are more active, and more interested in all kinds of entertainment from US and Japan compared to their counterparts on the superhero side of the comic shop. So much for my “be less crabby in 2016” resolution… ;-)

KATE: I had a blast attending shows like New York Comic Con and Wondercon in the late 2000s. The last time I attended NYCC, however, I felt that the show had taken a much sharper turn towards the television, film, and gaming industries, and was losing its identity as a comics convention. The manga publishers were still there, of course, but it was harder to circulate and interact with editors and sales reps because of the enormous crowds. That experience pretty much soured me on going to any more big conventions. TCAF always sounds like a blast, but the timing never works for me; I’m always knee-deep in final exams and student papers when it rolls around!

BRIGID: I echo Deb’s concern about AX, but it does seem like this year, the news was spread across a broader swath of conventions—and many of the new licenses, including Fruits Basket, were announced on Twitter. The presence of so many people from the Japanese publishers—not just creators but editorial staff as well—was very noticeable this year and shows that the publishers are taking the American audience seriously. It also enhanced the experience to see, for instance, the editor of Noragami explaining the process of how it went from sketches to finished page. I’m looking forward to more of that at the larger shows as well as the more intimate experience at the smaller shows, where the creators and their readers are not so far apart.

Any predictions about the industry?

DEB: Almost all signs point to a healthier, more robust manga publishing business in 2016, which is a great thing. I don’t see the same rush to publish anything and everything vaguely manga-ish (even crappy manga) that I saw prior to the crash of the late 2000’s — publishers seem to be making more careful choices, more calculated risks. The fact that they’re taking any risks at all — by expanding genres, offering their stories via more digital channels and doing more simulpub/same day as Japan releases, is a good sign.

I’m also intrigued/encouraged by the efforts being made by Japanese manga publishers to welcome submissions by creators from outside of Japan, like Comics Zenon’s Silent Manga Audition contests and the Japanese edition of Shonen Jump’s latest contest to get published in their online magazine, Jump Plus. It’s no secret that many up-and-coming comics creators from around the world are inspired by manga, so it’ll be very interesting to see what happens when more of these creators get exposure in Japan and guidance from Japan’s top-notch manga editors.

KATE: I’m consistently impressed by Seven Seas’ tenacity and business acumen, but not so impressed with the actual titles they license. Last year, however, Seven Seas published The Ancient Magus’ Bride and acquired Orange, neither of which fit the profile of a typical Seven Seas manga; if anything, both seemed like the kind of titles that CMX used to license. That gamble has paid off with Bride, which recently cracked the NY Times Manga Bestseller list. My prediction: Seven Seas will continue to make bold licensing choices in 2016, even as vampire-monster girls remain their core business.

BRIGID: I see publishers taking manga more seriously as the audience expands. While the “pile ‘em high and sell ‘em cheap” attitude that made Tokyopop and Viz’s Shonen Jump lines such a success ten years ago works well with teen readers, who gobble up manga in quantity, publishers are starting to cater to older readers who want a somewhat better experience. The oversized omnibus isn’t that much more expensive than single volumes, but it allows for a more satisfying reading experience, and publishers often include extras like better quality covers and color pages. Viz’s new edition of Monster, Dark Horse’s Planetes, and Yen Press’s Emma are all examples of this, and Kodansha gets a shoutout for not only its superb editions of Vinland Saga but its deluxe Attack on Titan Colossal Edition. This seriousness goes beyond production values to the licensing of quality manga that might not have found a market in earlier years, including Inuyashiki and Naoki Urasawa’s Master Keaton.

gekiga01 If any publishers are reading this, I have a very specific licensing request. There’s a small French publisher called Lezard Noir that is publishing some amazing manga in French; I spoke to the publisher when I was in Angouleme two years ago and was really impressed with his line, which includes Minetaro Mochizuki’s Chiisakobé, Bonten Taro’s Sex & Fury, and Masahiko Matsumoto’s Gekiga Fanatics. I’m not the only one—every year at least one of his books is picked as an official selection by the Angouleme festival. I’d love to see some U.S. publishers pick up these titles in a similar format—I think they would have a lot of appeal to those older, more sophisticated manga readers.

Katherine Dacey · December 30, 2015

After a two-year hiatus from blogging, I donned my critic’s cap again in 2015. I’ve enjoyed writing my quasi-weekly column, but composing a year-end list reminded me why I stepped off the reviewing treadmill in 2012: mediocre books! This year yielded a veritable bumper crop of so-so manga, titles that were competently executed but otherwise unmemorable thanks to an abundance of generic characters, cliché settings, and predictable plot twists; you’d be forgiven for feeling that you’d read many of 2015’s debuts before, even if the artists were new to the US market.

Lurking among the paint-by-number romances and boy-saves-world titles, however, were a few gems. I’ve done my best to highlight the titles that made me feel something, whether that feeling was love, hate, or a mixture of both. To that end, I’ve included my nominees for the worst manga of 2015 alongside the books that made me laugh and cry.

Best New Series: Yowamushi Pedal
By Wataru Watanabe • Yen Press
You know the rap on sports manga: American readers won’t buy it, and don’t like it. Yowamushi Pedal might just change that, however, thanks to a story that plays well across the nerd-jock divide. Onoda, the hero, is a self-professed otaku whose weekly bike rides into Akihabara have transformed him into a secret Lance Armstrong clone. Though Onoda wants to revive his school’s anime club, his amazing hill-climbing skills and stamina get noticed by more seasoned riders, all of whom convince Onoda to join the cycling team. The series’ races are nail-biting, page-turning affairs, but it’s the in-between stuff that makes Yowamushi Pedal work. Onoda doesn’t just discover a new skill; he discovers a community of people who share his passion for riding and respect his talent. In short, Yowamushi Pedal is a coming-of-age story in which a bike becomes the nerdy hero’s vehicle—pun intended—for self-actualization.

Best New Shonen Series: One-Punch Man
By ONE and Yusuke Murata • VIZ Media
One-Punch Man is the ultimate have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too manga. On the surface, it’s an affectionate spoof of shonen clichés that pokes fun at goofy costumes, over-the-top training sessions, and speech-prone villains. On a deeper level, however, One-Punch Man is a great adventure series about an ordinary but strong-willed individual who sets out to rid his city of monsters, only to discover that there’s a much greater threat to mankind than the lobster-men and were-lions that roam the streets. The result is a sincere, gut-bustingly funny manga that reads like a Silver Age superhero comic, splats and all. (Reviewed at Manga Blog on 6/12/15.)

Best New Romance Manga: Horimiya
By Hero and Daisuke Hagiwara • Yen Press
Horimiya is one of 2015’s most pleasant surprises, a teen rom-com that avoids cliché situations by focusing on the characters’ lives outside school. At first glance, its lead characters look like opposites: Kyouko is the class queen, while Izumi is a quiet loner. When they bump into each other off campus, however, they quickly realize they have more in common than their carefully constructed identities would suggest–a realization that leads to friendship and flirtation. In less imaginative hands, Kyouko and Izumi’s budding romance would be subjected to endless tests–school plays, beach trips, hot transfer students–but the authors resist the urge to trot out these over-used scenarios, relying instead on more ordinary settings for comedic (and dramatic) grist. It’s the perfect antidote to the wacky misunderstandings that drive the plots of Cactus’ Secret, Special A, and a dozen similar titles.

Best New Gag Manga: Junji Ito’s Cat Diary: Yon & Mu
By Junji Ito • Kodansha Comics
Draw a Venn diagram that shows the overlap between Junji Ito fans and cat lovers, and you’ve found the small but perfect audience for Junji Ito’s Cat Diary, a collection of anecdotes about Ito’s beloved pets Yon and Mu. Though the manga’s jokes explore familiar terrain, Ito’s exaggerated reaction shots are priceless, capturing the mixture of love and disgust that cats inspire in their owners. (Imagine Edvard Munch drawing a gag manga about cats, and you get the general idea.) Ito is refreshingly honest about the way animals change the dynamic between people, too; in some of the manga’s most memorable scenes, Ito and his fiancée compete fiercely for their cats’ affection, plying Yon and Mu with toys, treats, and cuddles. Though the prevailing tone is campy, Ito’s obvious affection for his cats helps prevents the Diary from becoming too arch. (Reviewed at Manga Blog on 12/12/15.)

Best Historic Title: Ludwig B.
By Osamu Tezuka • DMP, Inc.
Left unfinished at the time of Osamu Tezuka’s death, Ludwig B. is a fictionalized biography of Beethoven. Tezuka only completed two volumes, but oh, those two volumes! Tezuka draws evocative scenes of Beethoven at the keyboard, using striking visual metaphors to convey the sound of Beethoven’s music. Tezuka also does a good job of capturing the dynamic between Beethoven and his father, revealing the extent to which Johann’s drinking, gambling, and stage-parenting cast a long shadow over Beethoven’s adult life. Purists should note that Tezuka takes frequent liberties with the historical record, creating a mustache-twirling villain named Franz Kreuzstein to serve as a foil for the young, determined Beethoven. If you’re not offended by such creative license, however, Ludwig B. offers an interesting glimpse into Beethoven’s development as a composer, and Tezuka’s lifelong fascination with Beethoven.

Best Reprint Edition: Planetes
By Makoto Yukimura • Dark Horse
Listen up, manga publishers: if you’re going to do a new edition of a fan favorite, Dark Horse’s two-volume omnibus of Planetes is a swell example of how to do it right. The story has a crisp new translation, full-color pages, and a bigger trim size that gives Makoto Yukimura’s artwork room to stretch out. Better still, the new edition collects more chapters in each volume, allowing newcomers to read far enough into Planetes for Yukimura’s episodic character studies to gel into a more coherent story about space travel and social inequality; by the time newbies reach the end of volume one, they’ll be hooked, too.

Best Manga I Thought I’d Hate: Haven’t You Heard? I’m Sakamoto
By Nami Sano • Seven Seas
In theory, Haven’t You Heard? I’m Sakamoto is a one-note samba: the titular character is handsome, good at everything, and unfailingly logical in all situations. In practice, however, Haven’t You Heard? is the Goldberg Variations of gag manga, taking stock scenes and putting a bizarre twist on them. The secret? Sakamoto is just a little too perfect, behaving more like a well-programmed android than a flesh-and-blood person. His peculiar brand of sangfroid confounds enemies and admirers alike; no one can decide if he’s cool or crazy, or where his loyalties might lie, making it impossible to predict how he’ll respond to each new challenge. (Reviewed at The Manga Critic on 8/7/15.)

Worst Manga I Thought I’d Love: JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Part 1: Phantom Blood
By Hirohito Araki • VIZ Media
At the risk of becoming the Armond White of manga critics, I’m nominating Hirohito Araki’s bone-crunching, chest-thumping saga for Most Exhausting New Series of 2015. That’s because Phantom Blood is a prime example of all-caps theater, the sort of manga in which every word balloon is filled with emphatic punctuation, and every plot twist seems like the brainchild of six teenage boys hopped up on Mountain Dew. In small doses, this more-is-more approach to storytelling can be amusing, but in longer installments, the cumulative effect of so much narrative excess is numb resignation; I didn’t feel entertained so much as punched in the face. (Reviewed at Manga Blog on 5/22/15.)

Most Disappointing Manga: Shigeru Mizuki’s Hitler
By Shigeru Mizuki • Drawn & Quarterly
Shigeru Mizuki’s Hitler is one of the artist’s lesser works, uncomfortably see-sawing between character study and history lesson in its efforts to show us the man behind the Third Reich. Mizuki’s signature blend of cartoonish figures and photo-realistic backgrounds have been deployed to powerful effect in Non Non Ba and Onwards Towards Our Noble Deaths. Here, however, Shigeru’s hybrid style is a poor match with the subject; seeing Hitler reduced to a crude caricature makes it all too easy to view the book as a curiosity, rather than a serious meditation on evil. The virtual absence of the Holocaust is an even greater shortcoming; Shigeru Mizuki’s Hitler never grapples with the Fuhrer’s most disturbing legacy save for one blurry image of stacked corpses. Perhaps Mizuki felt the subject was too complex to explore in this biography, but it’s hard to imagine any dramatization of the Fuhrer’s life that fails to examine his virulent anti-Semitism.

* * * * *

So what are other folks saying about 2015’s best titles? My Manga Bookshelf colleagues just posted their Pick of the Year, with Ash Brown posting a separate, more detailed run-down of his favorite titles at Experiments in Manga. At the B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog, Brigid Alverson has posted separate lists for her favorite new and continuing series.

Katherine Dacey · December 12, 2015

2015 has been a banner year for Junji Ito. In April, VIZ re-issued Gyo, Ito’s ick-tastic classic. Two months later, VIZ introduced readers to Fragments of Horror, the first new Ito title to arrive in the US in a decade. That was soon followed by the stateside debut of Junji Ito’s Cat Diary: Yon & Mu, a humorous anthology published by Kodansha Comics. I first heard about Cat Diary back in 2011, when Ryan Sands posted a few images at Same Hat! It sounded like something I’d like–I’m on record as being an animal sap–so I was delighted when Kodansha announced plans to release it this year. Here are my somewhat biased thoughts on Yon & Mu.

Junji Ito’s Cat Diary: Yon & Mu
By Junji Ito
Rated T, for readers 13+
Kodansha Comics, $10.99

On the surface, Junji Ito’s Cat Diary is a gag manga. J-Kun–a lightly fictionalized version of the author–reluctantly agrees to let his fiancee bring two cats into their home: Yon, a black-and-white cat with sinister markings on his back, and Mu, a Norwegian forest cat with a cute face and a wicked bite. Each story depicts Yon and Mu doing normal cat things, from coughing up hairballs to resisting unsolicited human affection. Readers familiar with Ito’s previous manga will get a chuckle at J-Kun’s over-the-top reactions to cat poop, scratched floors, and feather wands, as his grotesque facial expressions have been swiped from the pages of Gyo and Uzumaki. Surprisingly, these grimaces work just as well in the context of a domestic comedy, capturing the mixture of revulsion and love that cat behavior elicits. The uninitiated reader may also find these scenes amusing, if a bit excessive; surely a grown man realizes that cats can be jerks?

On a deeper level, however, Cat Diary is a meditation on human relationships. Though the ostensible plot focuses on J-Kun’s struggle to overcome his dislike of cats, the real story is Yon and Mu’s role in bringing J-Kun closer to his fiancee. J-Kun comes to love the cats–spoiler alert!–but the way in which he expresses those feelings demonstrates his journey from “me” to “we,” as his selfish concerns about the house give way to a shared sense of responsibility for the cats’ welfare. This human dimension of Cat Diary infuses it with a warmth that’s frequently missing from Ito’s work, and prevents the stories from reading like a collection of cat GIFs. (I can haz laffs now!)

On a totally shallow note, reading Cat Diary made me want to get my own Norwegian forest cat. I’m not sure if that’s an endorsement of Ito’s comedy chops, but it’s proof that he can draw the hell out of cute, furry things.

The verdict: You don’t need to be a cat person–crazy or otherwise–to enjoy this idiosyncratic manga, though a healthy respect for cats definitely helps.

Reviews: In the mood for shojo? Megan R. of The Manga Test Drive has you covered with in-depth reviews of The Demon Prince of Momochi House, First Love Monster, L♥DK, and Requiem of the Rose-King. Comics Alliance contributor Tom Speelman reflects on the legacy of Naruto, one of the world’s most popular manga.

Michael Burns on vol. 4 of Akame ga Kill! (Ani-TAY)
Megan R. on The Angel of Elhamburg (The Manga Test Drive)
Jordan Richards on vols. 5-7 of Assassination Classroom (AiPT!)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 7 of A Bride’s Story (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Sheena McNeil on vol. 56 of Case Closed (Sequential Tart)
Lindsey Tomsu on vols. 1-3 of Dictatorial Grimoire (No Flying, No Tights)
Nick Smith on vol. 1 of Dragons Rioting (ICv2)
Michael Burns on vol. 8 of Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma (Ani-TAY)
Justin Stroman on vol. 1 of Horimiya (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Lindsey Tomsu on vols. 1-9 of Kanokon (No Flying, No Tights)
Jordan Richards on vol. 2 of Komomo Confiserie (AiPT!)
Karen Maeda on vol. 4 of Master Keaton (Sequential Tart)
Sarah on vol. 1 of Merman in My Tub (Anime UK News)
L.B. Bryant on vol. 1 of Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-Kun (ICv2)
Sarah on vol. 1 of Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-Kun (Anime UK News)
Austin Lanari on vol. 7 of New Lone Wolf & Cub (Comic Bastards)
Chris Beveridge on vol. 1 of Planetes (The Fandom Post)
Matt on vol. 2 of Prison School (Ani-TAY)
Matt on vol. 1 of School-Live! (Ani-TAY)
Josh Begley on vol. 6 of Vinland Saga (The Fandom Post)

Katherine Dacey · November 27, 2015

The November release of Jinsei Kataoka and Tomohiro Maekawa’s Livingstone provided me a nifty excuse to try Deadman Wonderland, an earlier series written and illustrated by Katoaka. Fans of Deadman Wonderland may know its complex licensing history here in the US: Tokyopop was its first publisher, releasing five volumes before going bankrupt in 2011. VIZ acquired the series in 2013, and is now just two volumes shy of the series’ grand finale, which arrives in February 2016. Whether you’re new to Kataoka’s work or have been a long-time fan, this column has something for you–so read on!

Deadman Wonderland, Vol. 1
Story & Art by Jinsei Kataoka and Kazuma Kondou
Rated T+, for Older Teens
VIZ Media, $9.99

In the not-so-distant future, visitors flock to Deadman Wonderland, a prison-cum-theme park in Tokyo Bay where inmates fight to the death in front of paying crowds. Our guide to this Roman circus is newly minted prisoner Ganta Igarashi, an ordinary fourteen-year-old who’s been wrongfully convicted of murdering his classmates. Ganta’s fundamental decency is challenged at every turn; try as he might to cling to his humanity and clear his name, the prison’s arbitrary rules and roving gangs make it hard to be principled.

From my thumbnail description, you might conclude that Deadman Wonderland was cobbled together from parts of Judge Dredd, Rollerball, and Escape from New York–and you wouldn’t be wrong. What prevents Deadman Wonderland from reading like Rollerball 2: The Revenge is imaginative artwork. Jinsei Kataoka and Kazuma Kondou have created a Bizarro World Disneyland with rides, concessions, grinning animal mascots, and attractions like the Happy Dog Run, a lethal obstacle course featuring swinging blades and spike-filled pits. The characters who inhabit this landscape are a motley crew: though some telegraph their bad-guy status with tattoos and goofy haircuts, there are enough ordinary-looking prisoners that it’s impossible to judge who’s trustworthy. That uncertainty creates a strong undercurrent of tension in every scene, making Ganta’s routine activities–a conversation in the bathroom, a trip to the cafeteria–as fraught with peril as an actual contest.

The manga’s other great strength is pacing. Kataoka and Kondou resist the temptation to dole out too much information in the first volume; we’re never more than a clue or two ahead of Ganta, though perceptive readers may finish volume one with some notion of the prison’s true purpose. The authors’ expert timing also prevents us from dwelling on the story’s most shopworn elements, instead focusing our attention on how Ganta responds to new characters and new challenges.

All of which is to say: Deadman Wonderland is more fun than it has any right to be, considering the high body count and recycled plot points. Count me in for the next twelve volumes!

The verdict: Great art, smart pacing, and an appealing lead character make Deadman Wonderland a winner. (A note to parents, teachers, and librarians: this manga’s rating is justified.)

Livingstone, Vol. 1
Story by Tomohiro Maekawa, Art by Jinsei Kataoka
Rated 16+
Kodansha Comics, $10.99

Livingstone is a handsomely illustrated bore, the kind of manga in which the writer has dressed up a simple concept with a profusion of fussy details that don’t add depth or interest to the story. The title refers to human souls–or, more accurately, the rock-like form that human souls take after a person dies. Sakurai and Amano, the manga’s protagonists, work together to harvest livingstones, thus ensuring that a soul is properly passed from one person to the next. If a person dies before his appointed time, however, his soul curdles into a gooey blob of bad juju.

The manga has the rhythm of a cop show: in each chapter, Sakurai and Amano solve or prevent one unscheduled death, usually by negotiating with someone who’s planning to kill himself. Livingstone‘s intense fixation on suicide is off-putting; none of the would-be victims are particularly sympathetic, and Sakurai and Amano’s ministrations are so tone-deaf that it’s hard to know what message author Tomohiro Maekawa is hoping to impart to readers. Sakurai and Amano’s antagonistic bickering is supposed to inject a note of levity into the proceedings, I think, but the timing of the jokes and the staleness of the characterizations do little to offset the dour tone. By the end of volume one, I found myself feeling bummed out and irritated–never a good sign for a series that’s exploring a subject as serious as death.

The verdict: Nice art, lousy script; I liked this story better when it was called The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service.

Reviews: At Comics Worth Reading, Johanna Draper Carlson dives into the eleventh volume of Fumi Yoshinaga’s Ooku: The Inner Chambers, which she describes as “something like Macbeth in kimonos.” Megan R. of The Manga Test Drive offers an in-depth assessment of Oishinbo, “the longest running food manga in Japan,” while Seth Hahne, proprietor of Good OK Bad, weighs in on Yamada-Kun and the Seven Witches. Feeling crafty? Vertical Comics shares some early reviews of their latest Arnazi Aronzo book Cuter Stuff.

Connie on Alice in the Country of Hearts: Ace of Hearts (Slightly Biased Manga)
Lindsey Tomsu on The Celebration of Haruhi Suzumiya (No Flying No Tights)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 5 of A Certain Magical Index (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Wolfen Moondaughter on vol. 27 of Claymore (Sequential Tart)
Allen Kesinger on vols. 1-2 of D-Frag (No Flying No Tights)
ebooksgirl on vol. 2 of The Devil Is a Part-Timer! High School! (Geek Lit Etc.)
Ken H. on vol. 1 of Devil Survivor (Sequential Ink)
Connie on vol. 32 of Eyeshield 21 (Slightly Biased Manga)
Kory Cerjak on vol. 50 of Fairy Tail (The Fandom Post)
Troy Nikandler on vol. 1 of Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? (Otaku Review)
Holly Saiki on Junji Ito’s Cat Diary: Yon & Mu (Examiner)
Karen Maeda on vol. 1 of Komomo Confiserie (Sequential Tart)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of Log Horizon: Game’s End (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Connie on vol. 1 of Meteor Prince (Slightly Biased Manga)
Wolfen Moondaughter on vol. 2 of My Hero Academia (Sequential Tart)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vols. 4-6 of My Love Story!! (Comics Worth Reading)
Justin Stroman on Oh! My Goddess (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Kane Bugeja on vol. 6 of Seraph of the End: Vampire Reign (Snap 30)
Matthew Warner on vol. 18 of Tegami Bachi (The Fandom Post)
Wolfen Moondaughter on vol. 8 of Tiger & Bunny (Sequential Tart)
Frank Inglese on vol. 7 of World Trigger (Snap 30)
Sheena McNeil on vol. 1 of Yo-Kai Watch (Sequential Tart)
Dustin Cabeal on vols. 1-2 of Yo-Kai Watch (Comic Bastards)
Paige Sammartino on vols. 1-2 of Yo-Kai Watch (Women Write About Comics)

PS: Our Manga Bookshelf colleague Ash Brown is giving away the first volumes of four awesome shojo titles from Kodansha Comics, including LDK, Let’s Dance a Waltz, My Little Monster, and one of my personal favorites Say I Love You. Don’t dally; the contest closes on December 2nd!

Katherine Dacey · November 20, 2015

File this column under I’m Not Dead Yet! November has been hectic, and it shows; my last post was over a month ago. Today’s column is an attempt to get back on track with regular updates. On the agenda are reviews of Kill la Kill, an adaptation of the wildly popular anime, and Platinum End, a new shonen series with an impeccable pedigree.

Kill la Kill, Vol. 1
Comic by Ryo Akizuki; Story by TRIGGER and Kazuki Nakashima
No rating (best for readers 13+)
UDON Entertainment, $12.99

In my small and unscientific sampling of manga based on anime, I’ve read a lot of duds. Wolf’s Rain and Cowboy Bebop, for example, both fell flat in print, conveying little of the personalities or plot intricacies that made both animated series compelling. Kill la Kill is a more artful transfer of show to page, but suffers from some of the same issues as other anime-cum-manga.

Like the anime on which it’s based, the Kill la Kill manga see-saws between flamboyant parody and straight-faced action, mixing jokey conversations with bone-crunching fights. Navigating these tonal extremes in print proves challenging, however. The manga is funniest when skewering tropes that don’t need sound effects or color to make the joke stick–like equipping characters with goofy weapons or populating Honnouji Academy with students who look like extras from Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome.

The artists’ desire to spoof other cliches fall flat. On the page, heroine Ryuko Matoi’s barely-there power suit seems like blatant pandering to the male gaze; the artistic team lavishes considerable attention on Ryuko’s body, lovingly depicting her torso and buttocks from myriad angles. On the screen, however, the addition of sound puts a different spin on the material. The cheerful voice acting, peppy music, and snappy sound effects transform an exploitative sequence into an absurd riff on the indignities of fighting in a costume that consists of two well-placed suspenders and a dinner napkin. It isn’t deep, but it is funny, highlighting the stupidity of the “power up!” sequence that’s ubiquitous in anime, manga, and tokusatsu.

The manga suffers from the absence of color and sound in other passages, too. Without a voice actor to modulate the dialogue, almost EVERY PAGE READS LIKE THIS!!! OMG!!! ARE YOU LAUGHING YET??!!!! By the end of volume one, I felt pummeled into submission rather than amused by the affectionate send-up of Japanese pop culture’s most ubiquitous storytelling conventions.

The verdict: The manga looks like a million bucks, but the script strains too hard for effect.

Platinum End, Chapter 1
Story by Tsugumi Ohba, Art by Takeshi Obata
Rated T+, for teens over 13
VIZ Manga, $.99 (digital only)

Over the last twelve months, VIZ has been experimenting with digital-first releases, a strategy that’s worked well for high-profile shonen titles like One-Punch Man and Tokyo Ghoul. It’s not surprising, then, that VIZ is using the same roll-out for Platinum End, the latest collaboration between Death Note creators Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata. This time, however, VIZ is making the first chapter of the series available as a stand-alone option–a decision that may backfire if other readers find it as off-putting as I did.

The main issue is the story. It’s mawkish and violent, shamelessly manipulating the reader into feeling sorry for a sullen protagonist by mining familiar adolescent themes: “I was born into the wrong family!” “No one will miss me when I’m gone!” “They’ll be sorry when I’m powerful/rich/famous!” We’re first introduced to Mirai as he’s leaping to his death. As we learn through flashbacks, he was orphaned at eight, and forced to live with an aunt and uncle who treated him like a slave. Nasse, a guardian angel, foils Mirai’s suicide attempt and grants him superpowers that are supposed to make him happy.

Lest you worry that Ohba and Obata have lost their taste for violence, Mirai’s first road test of these newfound abilities results in a gruesome, sexually charged scene. Ohba and Obata have stacked the deck firmly against the victims, but the characters are so cartoonishly evil (and visually repulsive) that their punishment registers not as a justifiable act of vigilantism, but as a plot contrivance. Ohba takes other narrative shortcuts in these opening pages, saddling guardian angel Nasse with dialogue that baldly explains her reasons for helping Mirai–an amateurish and lazy way to justify her part in the drama.

Perhaps the most disappointing element of Platinum End is Obata’s artwork. Though the human characters are drawn with consummate attention to detail, Mirai’s angelic sidekick is utterly generic: she’s a wide-eyed cutie with wings, ringlets, and halo. When placed side by side with Obata’s greatest supernatural creations–Death Note‘s Ryuk and Rem–the paucity of imagination is startling. Obata’s shinigamis looked like otherworldly rock stars with their glassy eyes, Frankenstein scars, and feathery protrusions, whereas Nasse looks like something traced from How to Draw Manga (or perhaps a volume of Kobato). That’s a pity, because Obata’s artwork has carried me through rough patches in his other series; here, however, it doesn’t really do much other than emphasize how thin the story is.

The verdict: Platinum End may find its footing in later chapters, but the first 70 pages are such a let-down that I won’t be tuning in for later installments.

Reviews: At Adventures in Poor Taste, Jordan Richards posts a more positive assessment of Platinum End (though he shares some of my reservations about the lead female character). Also weighing in on the first chapter of Platinum End is Justin Stroman, who offers an in-depth, spoiler-heavy review at Organization Anti-Social Geniuses. Foodies may prefer to visit The Manga Test Drive, where Megan R. samples two culinary comics: Mixed Vegetables, a shojo rom-com about rival teen chefs, and Not Love But Delicious Foods Make Me So Happy!, an older Fumi Yoshinaga title.

Mark Pellegrini on vol. 2 of AKIRA (AiPT!)
Connie on Alice in the Country of Clover: Lizard Aide (Slightly Biased Manga)
Helen on The Ancient Magus’ Bride (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Lori Henderson on Awkward (Manga Xanadu)
ebooksgirl on vol. 12 of Chi’s Sweet Home (Geek Lit Etc.)
Connie on vol. 2 of Citrus (Slightly Biased Manga)
Theron Martin on vol. 27 of Claymore (Anime News Network)
Chris Sims on COWA! (Comics Alliance)
Connie on vol. 13 of Dorohedoro (Slightly Biased Manga)
Terry Hong on Fragments of Horror (Book Dragon)
Jordan Richards on vol. 1 of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 2: Battle Tendency (AiPT!)
Christophe on Junji Ito’s Cat Diary: Yon & Mu (Anime UK News)
Ken H. on vol. 1 of Kiss Him, Not Me! (Sequential Ink)
Demeiza on vol. 1 of Livingstone (Anime UK News)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 4 of Love Stage!! (Comics Worth Reading)
Wolfen Moondaughter on vols. 3-4 of Maid-Sama! (Sequential Tart)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 1 of Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-Kun (Anime News Network)
Kane Bugeja on vols. 1-2 of One-Punch Man (Snap 30)
Al Sparrow on vol. 1 of Pandora in the Crimson Shell: Ghost Urn (Comic Spectrum)
Sean Gaffney on vols. 21-22 of Ranma 1/2 (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Kristin on vol. 2 of Requiem of the Rose King (Comic Attack)
Alice Vernon on vol. 1 of Rose Guns Days: Season One (Girls Like Comics)
Sarah on vol. 3 of Servamp (Anime UK News)
Robert Prentice on vol. 8 of Food Wars! Shogugeki no Soma (Three If By Space)
ebooksgirl on vol. 1 of School Live! (Geek Lit Etc.)
Nick Creamer on vol. 3 of A Silent Voice (Anime News Network)
Danica Davidson on vol. 1 of So, I Can’t Play H (Otaku USA)
Jordan Richards on vol. 1 of UQ Holder (AiPT!)
Austin Lanari on issue 51 of Weekly Shonen Jump (Comic Bastards)
Ash Brown on vol. 8 of What Did You Eat Yesterday? (Experiments in Manga)
Wolfen Moondaughter on vol. 4 of Yukarism (Sequential Tart)

Katherine Dacey · November 19, 2015

I feel bad for [Manga Panda]. They were doing good for the community. Luckily piracy isn’t killed so easily.” Other posters offered more specific justifications for their scanlation habit:

Katherine Dacey · October 16, 2015

The theme of this week’s column: New(ish) Titles from Vertical Comics. Up for review: The Complete Chi’s Sweet Home, an omnibus treatment of Konami Kanata’s beloved cat comic, and Tokyo ESP, a new series about mutant teens with superpowers who want to save the world.

The Complete Chi’s Sweet Home, Part One
By Konami Kanata
No rating; Suitable for all ages
Vertical Comics, $24.95

When I first reviewed Chi’s Sweet Home in 2010, I described it as “a deceptively simple story about a family that adopts a wayward kitten.” I argued that “Chi is more than just cute kitty antics; it’s a thoughtful reflection on the joys and difficulties of pet ownership, one that invites readers of all ages to see the world through their cat or dog’s eyes and imagine how an animal adapts to life among humans.”

Revisiting Chi’s Sweet Home five years later, I stand by my original assessment. I still found Chi’s behavior adorable — or should that be adowable? — and her family’s amused and exasperated reactions true to my own experiences as a cat owner. At the same time, however, I appreciated the opportunity to read more of Chi’s story in one sitting, as Konami Kanata does a fine job of recreating the day-to-day rhythm of living with a kitten or puppy, from the obvious — accidents, clawed furniture — the to subtle — mastering the art of jumping onto a table or chair, examining strange new objects. As an added bonus, the Complete edition includes a sprinkling of chapters from Kanata’s first big hit, FukuFuku: Kitten Tales, and a larger trim size that gives Kanata’s playful, charming watercolors more room to breathe.

The verdict: Chi is an indispensable addition to any animal lover’s bookshelf. Look for Part Two (which collects volumes 4-6) on January 16, 2016.

Tokyo ESP, Vol. 1
By Hajime Segawa
No rating; Suitable for older teens
Vertical Comics, $15.95

On paper, Tokyo ESP sounds like The X-Men or The Fantastic Four: a group of Tokyo residents begin manifesting cool new powers — teleporting, walking through walks — after exposure to a supernatural phenomenon. Some ESPers embrace the criminal possibilities of these gifts, while others vow to use them for good, pitting the two groups against each other in epic fashion.

Perhaps mindful of the similarities between his creation and Stan Lee’s, Hajime Segawa makes a game effort to individualize his creation with an abundance of quirky details: a flying penguin sidekick, a night sky filled with glowing fishes. As a result, long stretches of Tokyo ESP feel more like a spaghetti-throwing exercise than genuine world-building; the reader is never certain if there’s an underlying logic that would explain what we’re seeing, or if Segawa is making it up as he goes along. By the end of volume one, you may remember the flying penguin more clearly than anything that actually happened in those first nine chapters, as the plot is standard shonen fodder: super-powered teens saving the world.

The verdict: Your mileage may vary; some readers will undoubtedly find the sleek character designs and out-of-left-field plot developments appealing, while others will find the storytelling too frenetic to be engaging.

Reviews: Sean Gaffney takes a fond look at the final volume of Oh! My Goddess, which arrived in stores this week. Over at Comics & Cola, Zainab Akhtar reviews the fifth and final volume of Taiyo Matsumoto’s bittersweet Sunny.

Sarah on vol. 2 of The Ancient Magus’ Bride (Anime UK News)
Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of Assassination Classroom (Good Comics for Kids)
Matt Brady on vols. 2-4 of Assassination Classroom (Warren Peace Sings the Blues)
L.B. Bryant on vol. 6 of Assassination Classroom (The Otaku Review)
L.B. Bryant on vol. 1 of Black Bullet (ICv2)
Justin Stroman on vol. 1 of Bodacious Space Pirates: Abyss of Hyperspace (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Connie on vol. 8 of Cross Game (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 16 of Dengeki Daisy (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 11 of Dorohedoro (Slightly Biased Manga)
Helen on Fuuka (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Ash Brown on vol. 3 of Hide and Seek (Experiments in Manga)
Ian Wolf on vol. 1 of Komomo Confiserie (Anime UK News)
Austin Lanari on vol. 10 of Lone Wolf and Cub Omnibus (Comic Bastards)
Megan R. on Neon Genesis Evangelion: Angelic Days (The Manga Test Drive)
Steve Bennett on vol. 1 of One-Punch Man (ICv2)
Dustin Cabeal on vol. 2 of One-Punch Man (Comic Bastards)
Anna N. on vol. 1 of QQ Sweeper (The Manga Report)
L.B. Bryant on vol. 1 of Rose Guns Days: Season One (ICv2)
Jocelyn Allen on vol. 1 of Shashinya Kafka (Brain vs. Book)
Sean Gaffney on Showa 1953-1989: A History of Japan (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Alice Vernon on Sword Art Online: Progressive (Girls Like Comics)
Erica Friedman on vol. 4 of Tsuki to Sekai to Etoile (Okazu)

Katherine Dacey · October 11, 2015

Good news for manga readers: 2013-2014 was the first time since the mid-2000s that the industry enjoyed two consecutive years of sales growth. While the manga market isn’t as red-hot as it was in Tokyopop’s heyday, publishers released almost 800 new volumes in 2014, up 25% from 2013. [ICv2]

At its Friday panel, VIZ Media unveiled a diverse slate of titles that ran the gamut from shonen (Black Clover) to josei (Everyone’s Getting Married). Among the most interesting licenses were two sports manga: Haikyuu!, which focuses on a volleyball team, and Kuroko’s Basketball. VIZ also confirmed that it will be publishing Seventh Garden, Monster Hunter: Flash Hunter, and fan favorite Yona of the Dawn. [Crunchyroll]

Yen Press announced five new manga at NYCC, including an adaptation of Space Dandy and a new series by Yuji Iwahara (Cat Paradise, King of Thorn) called Dimension W. Also joining the Yen line-up in 2016 are Scumbag Loser, a cautionary tale about lying to your peers; Corpse Party: Blood Covered, another entry in the teens-fight-to-the-death-in-an-alternate-universe genre; and Unhappy Go Lucky!, a comedy about a group of unlucky middle-school students. [Anime News Network]

Yen isn’t the only company on the Space Dandy bandwagon: Kodansha Comics will be publishing I Am a Space Dandy!, another manga spin-off of the popular anime. Kodansha also revealed plans to publish the 4-koma Spoof on Titan. [Anime News Network]

At the Crunchyroll panel, the company introduced fans to its newest offerings, which include Arakawa Under the Bridge, a drama by Saint Young Men creator Hikaru Nakamura; Gugure! Kokkuri-san, a comedy about a little girl who inadvertently summons a fox demon; and Cuticle Detective Inaba, a supernatural comedy-thriller about a detective who’s half wolf, half man. (The “cuticle” in the title refers to the character’s pronounced interest in hair. Oh, manga…) [Anime News Network]

In a further sign of manga’s global reach, two companies announced that they would publish comics inspired by a signature title in their catalogs. Kodansha’s Attack on Titan and Dark Horse’s Lone Wolf and Cub 2100 projects will feature original stories by Faith Erin Hicks, Gail Simone, and other creators active in the American industry. [A Case Suitable for Treatment]

Although Vertical Comics did not announce any new manga acquisitions, it did give con-goers a sneak peek at an intriguing new project: audio light novels with music, sound effects, and voice acting. Look for the product line’s debut in spring 2016. [Crunchyroll]

Tokyo Ghoul, One-Punch Man, and Attack on Titan are fighting for the top spot on this week’s New York Times Manga Best Seller list. [New York Times]

Reviews: Michelle Smith and Sean Gaffney post a new set of Bookshelf Briefs, with short reviews of Assassination Classroom, He’s My Only Vampire, and QQ Sweeper.

Lori Henderson on vols. 1-2 of Beast Master (Manga Xanadu)
Terry Hong on The Complete Chi’s Sweet Home: Part One (Book Dragon)
Richard Gutierrez on vol. 2 of Is It Wrong to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? (The Fandom Post)
Wolfen Moondaughter on vol. 23 of Kaze Hikaru (Sequential Tart)
Kat Stevens on vol. 1 of L-DK (AiPT!)
Terry Hong on vol. 1 of One-Punch Man (Book Dragon)
Amy McNulty on vol. 72 of Naruto (Anime News Network)
Megan R. on Neon Genesis Evangelion (The Manga Test Drive)
Jordan Richards on vol. 6 of Noragami: Stray God (AiPT!)
Sheena McNeil on vol. 1 of QQ Sweeper (Sequential Tart)
Kate O’Neil on vol. 1 of Rose Guns Days: Season One (The Fandom Post)
SKJAM on Sanctuary (SKJAM! Reviews)
Wolfen Moondaughter on vol. 6 of Seraph of the End (Sequential Tart)
Rebecca Silverman on vols. 1-3 of Servamp (Anime News Network)
Anna N. on vol. 3 of So Cute It Hurts! (The Manga Report)
Plutoburns on Terra Formars (Pluto Burns)
Richard Gutierrez on vol. 1 of Tokyo ESP (The Fandom Post)
Garrett Gottschalk on vol. 1 of Ultraman (No Flying No Tights)
Ken H. on vol. 6 of Vinland Saga (Sequential Ink)
G.B. Smith on vol. 7 of Witchcraft Works (The Fandom Post)
Lori Henderson on Yurei Attack! The Japanese Ghost Attack Survival Guide (Manga Xanadu)

*Indicates YouTube review

Katherine Dacey · October 2, 2015

This week, I’m catching up with Say I Love You, a shojo romance that’s been garnering strong reviews here and elsewhere since Kodansha began publishing it last August.

Say I Love You, Vols. 1-3
By Kanae Hazuki
Rated OT, for older teens
Kodansha Comics, $10.99

Back in the 1980s, filmmaker John Hughes peddled an intoxicating fantasy to thirteen-year-old girls: you might be the class misfit–the kid who wore the “wrong” clothes, listened to the “wrong” music, and had the “wrong” friends–but the hottest guy in school could still fall for you. Better still, he’d like you for being a “real” person, unlike the two-faced girls who inhabited his social circle. You’d have a bumpy road to your happily-after-ever, of course, since his friends felt compelled to say that you weren’t in his league, but in the end, your sincerity and quirkiness would prevail.

Say I Love You reads a lot like a manga version of Pretty in Pink or Some Kind of Wonderful, right down to the meet-cute between Mei, a moody loner, and Yamato, the most popular guy in school. Mei mistakenly believes that Yamato tried to peek up her skirt, and responds with a powerful roundhouse kick. Though Yamato’s friends demand an apology from her, Yamato is intrigued by Mei’s display of bravado and asks her out.

Mei is initially bewildered by Yamato’s courtship: why would someone as outgoing, handsome, and well regarded find her interesting? (You, dear reader, may also wonder why Yamato pursues Mei, given her generally sullen demeanor.) As Mei soon discovers, however, Yamato’s dating history is more complicated than she assumed; his good looks belie an earnest, thoughtful person who lost his virginity before he met someone he really cared about. He’s willing to endure a few tearful outbursts–not to mention some mixed signals–if it means he’ll get to know the real Mei before they go all the way.

And speaking of mixed signals, Say I Love You is refreshingly honest in acknowledging the full spectrum of teenage desire. Some characters embrace their feelings in healthy ways; others use sex to fill a void in their emotional lives; and still others are just beginning to explore their sexuality. Though many of the sexual encounters in the series are ill-advised, the teenage logic that underpins them rings true; an adult may feel an uncomfortable pang of recognition while reading Say I Love You.

The series’ greatest strength, however, is that author Kanae Hazuki is unusually generous with her supporting players. We’re privy to both Mei and Yamato’s thoughts, of course, but Hazuki also pulls the curtain back on other characters’ interior lives. In volume two, for example, mean girl Aiko becomes the temporary focus of the story, narrating her own transformation from a plump, pretty girl to a skinny, angry young woman who is furious that Yamato doesn’t like her. Her blunt self-criticism and body hang-ups remind younger readers that everyone wears a mask in high school; even students who seem outwardly blessed with good looks or talent are wrestling with the familiar demons of self-doubt and self-loathing.

If I had any criticism of Say I Love You, it’s that the plot twists are a little too by-the-book, with beach visits, Valentine’s Day agita, and misunderstandings of the “I saw you kiss her!” variety. In volume three, for example, Hazuki introduces Megumi, a model who’s hell-bent on making Yamato her boyfriend. When a direct approach doesn’t work–Yamato, of course, rebuffs Meg’s initial proposition–Meg transfers schools and ropes Yamato into becoming a model himself. I realize that “model,” “celebrity,” or “singer” epitomize a thirteen-year-old’s dream job, but the artifice and obviousness of diving into the modeling world feels like an unnatural direction for such a finely observed romance.

Perhaps the best compliment I could pay Say I Love You is that it has all the virtues of Pretty in Pink and Some Kind of Wonderful: it’s got a proud, tough heroine who’s skeptical of the popular kids, a sincere hot guy who can see past her bluster, and a veritable Greek chorus of peers who chart the ups and downs of their relationship. All it needs is a killer soundtrack.

Reviews: At Brain vs. Book, Joceyln Allen sings the praises of Takehiko Moriizumi’s Mimi wa Wasurenai, an untranslated short story collection. “It’s okay if you don’t read Japanese,” she explains, “you can just stare at the beauty on every page. Moriizumi makes manga like nothing I’ve ever seen before.” Go see for yourself!

Saeyong Kim on vol. 1 of 21st Century Boys (No Flying No Tights)
Jessikah Chautin on Awkward (No Flying No Tights)
SKJAM on vols. 1-2 of Captain Ken (SKJAM! Reviews)
Kat Stark on vol. 1 of Devil Survivor (AiPT!)
Jessikah Chautin on vol. 1 of Durarara!! Yellow Scarves Arc (No Flying No Tights)
SKJAM on Gimmick! (SKJAM! Reviews)
Kat Stark on vol. 1 of Kiss Him, Not Me! (AiPT!)
Ian Wolf on vol. 1 of the Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service Omnibus (Anime UK News)
David Brooke on vol. 1 of Ninja Slayer Kills (AiPT!)
Anna N. on vol. 2 of Requiem of the Rose King (The Manga Report)
Ian Wolf on vol. 2 of Requiem of the Rose King (Anime UK News)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 1 of Rose Guns Days, Season One (Anime News Network)
Marissa Lieberman on vol. 1 of Seraph of the End (No Flying No Tights)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 11 of Umineko: When They Cry (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Ash Brown on vol. 2 of Wayward: Ties That Bind (Experiments in Manga)
Ken H. on vol. 3 of Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches (Sequential Ink)

Katherine Dacey · September 25, 2015

In principal, a video game or visual novel ought to be a solid foundation on which to build a manga: the designers have already done the hard work of creating characters, endowing them with powers (or weapons), and setting them loose in a richly detailed environment. In practice, however, many game-franchises-cum-manga are a dreary affair, with thin plots and two-dimensional characters. I’ve largely sworn off the genre, but when my Manga Bookshelf colleague Sean Gaffney sang the praises of Rose Guns Days Season One, I thought I’d take it for a test drive.

Rose Guns Days Season One, Vol. 1
Story by Ryukishi07, Art by Soichiro
Rated OT, for older teens
Yen Press, $13.00

Rose Guns Days has an intriguing premise: what if Japan had surrendered to the Allied Forces in 1944 instead of fighting until the bitter end? In Ryukishi07’s scenario, American and Chinese troops occupy Japan, carving out distinct spheres of influence while rebuilding the country in their respective images. Japanese citizens, meanwhile, are struggling to get by: work and food are scarce, creating an environment in which smuggling and prostitution flourishes.

Sounds interesting, no? If only the story was as compelling as the universe in which it unfolds! A close examination of Leo Shisigami, the principal character, offers insight into why Rose Guns Days reads like a pale imitation of better series. Shisigami’s got the skinny suit, tousled hair, and dangling cigarette made famous by Cowboy Bebop‘s Spike Spiegel, but their resemblance is pure surface; Leo is a cheerful blank whose only quirk–if it can be called that–is a fondness for pasta. After a meet-cute that’s shown not once but twice, Leo becomes a bodyguard for Rose Haibana, a pretty madam whose establishment caters to foreigners. The next 100 pages are a riot of kidnappings, fisticuffs, and golden-hearted hookers–no cliche goes unturned.

The artwork is similarly pedestrian. Though the supporting characters are rendered with loving attention to costumes, facial features, and body types, Rose looks like something pilfered from a twelve-year-old’s Deviant Art account: she barely has a nose or mouth, and her face is framed by two immobile locks of hair. The backgrounds, too, run the gamut from meticulously rendered to barely-there. Only a few panels capture the disruption and poverty caused by the occupying forces; most scenes appear to be taking place in a no man’s land of Photoshop fills and traced elements. What’s most disappointing, however, is that the artwork does nothing to bring depth or nuance to the original visual novel concept. Each scene feels like a collection of artful poses, rather than a dynamic presentation of a story with fistfights and car chases. With so little effort to adapt the material for a different medium, it begs the question, Why bother?

The verdict: Unless you’re a devotee of the visual novel series on which Rose Guns Days is based, skip it.

Reviews: Seth Hahne posts an in-depth assessment of Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit, while Erica Friedman reviews the Japanese edition of Rose of Versailles. Over at Snap30, Frank Inglese test drives the new Weekly Shonen Jump series Samon the Summoner, which debuted on September 21st.

Mark Pelligrini on vol. 1 of AKIRA (AiPT!)
Tyler Sewell on Bat-Manga! The Secret History of Batman in Japan (AiPT!)
Michael Burns on vol. 1 of Black Bullet (AniTAY)
Connie on vol. 31 of Blade of the Immortal (Slightly Biased Manga)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 1 of Chiro: The Star Project (Anime News Network)
Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of The Complete Chi’s Sweet Home (Good Comics for Kids)
ebooksgirl on Cromartie High School (Geek Lit Etc.)
Vernieda Vergara on Gangsta (Women Write About Comics)
Patrick Moore on Fragments of Horror (Bento Byte)
Erica Friedman on vol. 2 of Iono The Fanatics, Special Edition (Okazu)
Helen on King’s Game: Origin (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Jennifer Wharton on vol. 1 of Kiss of the Rose Princess (No Flying No Tights)
Kristin on vol. 1 of Komomo Confiserie (Comic Attack)
Megan R. on La Esperanca (The Manga Test Drive)
Thomas Maluck on The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (No Flying No Tights)
Nic Wilcox on vol. 1 of Log Horizon (No Flying No Tights)
Amy McNulty on vol. 71 of Naruto (Anime News Network)
Sean Gaffney on vols. 1-2 of One-Punch Man (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Connie on vol. 5 of Phantom Thief Jeanne (Slightly Biased Manga)
Ian Wolf on vol. 2 of Requiem for the Rose King (Anime UK News)
Jordan Richards on vol. 1 of Rose Guns Days Season One (AiPT!)
Karen Maeda on vol. 1 of Ultraman (Sequential Tart)
Austin Lanari on issue #43 of Weekly Shonen Jump (Comic Bastards)
Adam Capps on vol. 6 of Witchcraft Works (Bento Byte)
Connie on vol. 4 of X: 3-in-1 Edition (Slightly Biased Manga)
Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of Yu-Gi-Oh: 3-in-1 Edition (Good Comics for Kids)

Katherine Dacey · September 18, 2015

Apologies for missing last week’s deadline – the first week of the semester is always chaotic, and manga reviewing took a back seat to lesson prep. Now that school is underway again, however, the Manga Revue will run weekly on Fridays, as it did this summer.

Komomo Confiserie, Vol. 1
By Maki Minami
Rated T, for teens
VIZ Manga, $6.99 (digital)

Flip through The Big Book of Shojo Plotlines, and there – between “I’m Having an Affair with My Homeroom Teacher” and “I’m a Spazz Who’s Inexplicably Irresistible” – you’ll find another time-honored trope: “I Was Mean to My Childhood Friend, and Now He’s Hot!” Komomo Confiserie embodies this plot to a tee: its wealthy heroine, Komomo, was spoiled rotten as a child, with an army of servants at her disposal. It was her special delight to order fellow six-year-old Natsu to make her sweets–he was the pastry’s chef son, after all–and terrorize him when he didn’t comply. When Komomo turns fifteen, however, her family loses everything, forcing her to get a job and attend public school. Natsu–now a successful baker in his own right–makes a seemingly chivalrous offer of employment to Komomo, who’s too guileless to realize that she’s walking into a trap.

You can guess the rest: Natsu revels in his new-found position of power, directing Komomo to perform menial tasks and scolding her for lacking the common sense to sweep floors or boil water. The fact that he’s cute only adds salt to the wound; Komomo vacillates between plotting her escape and speculating that Natsu bullies her out of love.

Whatever pleasure might come from witnessing Komomo’s comeuppance is undermined by the author’s frequent capitulations to shojo formula. Though Natsu frequently declares that bullying Komomo is his privilege – and his alone – he routinely helps her out of jams, bakes her sweets, and behaves a lot like someone who’s harboring a crush on her. Komomo, for her part, behaves like such a twit that it’s hard to root for her; even when she has an epiphany about friendship or hard work, her insights are as shallow as the proverbial cake pan.

The series’ redeeming strength is the artwork. Though Maki Minami frequently resorts to pre-fab backgrounds and Photoshopped elements, she does a fine job of representing the emotional rush that a sugary treat can elicit in even the most jaded adult. Komomo’s food reveries are a swirl of flowers, tears, and lacy doilies that neatly suggest the mixture of joy and sadness she experiences whenever a macaroon or a petit-four stirs up childhood memories. Too bad the rest of the story isn’t as sharply observed.

The verdict: Saccharine plotting and unsympathetic leads spoil this confection.

Reviews: Sean Gaffney and Michelle Smith post a fresh crop of Bookshelf Briefs, while Claire Napier kicks the tires on Ichigo Takano’s ReCollection and Kate O’Neil reminds us why a new installment of Kaze Hikaru is worth the wait. At Contemporary Japanese Literature, Kathryn Hermann posts a glowing review of Yurei: The Japanese Ghost, a collection of essays by manga scholar and translator Zack Davisson.

Erica Friedman on 2DK, G Pen, Mezamashidokei (Okazu)
Matthew Warner on vol. 5 of Ajin: Demi-Human (The Fandom Post)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 1 of Alice in Murderland (Anime News Network)
Jordan Richards on vol. 1 of Attack on Titan: Colossal Edition (AiPT!)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 16 of Dorohedoro (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Jordan Richards on vol. 1 of Inuyashiki (AiPT!)
Justin Stroman on vol. 1 of Inuyashiki (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Megan R. on Here Is Greenwood (The Manga Test Drive)
Saeyoung Kim on K-On! High School (No Flying No Tights)
Sheena McNeil on vol. 2 of Love Stage!! (Sequential Tart)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 3 of Love Stage!! (Comics Worth Reading)
Anna N. on vols. 1-2 of Maid-sama! (The Manga Report)
Ash Brown on Maria the Virgin Witch: Exhibition (Experiments in Manga)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 4 of Master Keaton (Watch Play Read)
Matthew Warner on vol. 3 of My Neighbor Seki (The Fandom Post)
Ash Brown on vol. 5 of Mushishi (Experiments in Manga)
Al Sparrow on vol. 1 of Nurse Hitomi’s Monster Infirmary (ComicSpectrum)
Joseph Luster on One-Punch Man (Otaku USA)
Sheena McNeil on vol. 4 of Pokemon X.Y. (Sequential Tart)
Sean Gaffney on vols. 19-20 of Ranma 1/2 (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Matt on vol. 1 of Rose Guns Days: Season One (AniTAY)
Vernieda Vergara on The Science of Attack on Titan (Women Write About Comics)
Ken H. on vol. 2 of A Silent Voice (Sequential Ink)
Matt on vol. 3 of Sword Art Online Progressive (AniTAY)
Frank Inglese on vol. 7 of Terraformars (Snap30)
David Brooke on vol. 1 of Vinland Saga (AiPT!)
Frank Inglese on vol. 6 of World Trigger (Snap30)

Katherine Dacey · September 4, 2015

I’m fresh out of snappy intros, so I’ll cut to the chase: this week’s column looks at Inuyashiki, The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service Omnibus Edition, and Tokyo Ghoul.

Inuyashiki, Vol. 1
By Hiroya Oku
Rated OT, for older teens (16+)
Kodansha Comics, $12.99

Bette Davis famously declared that “Old age is no place for sissies,” a statement borne out by the first chapters of Hiroya Oku’s grimly compelling Inuyashiki. Its hero, a 58-year-old salaryman, is a picture of despair: his family loathes him, his co-workers ignore him, and his health is failing. In a blinding flash of light, however, his life changes. He wakes up to discover that his memories are intact but his body has changed; his once-frail limbs and failing eyes are now military-grade weapons, capable of withstanding lethal force. What to do with this gift? That question animates the final pages of volume one, as Ichiro tests his new body’s limits for the first time.

This final scene is a neat illustration of what’s good — and not so good — about Inuyashiki. Oku stages a suspenseful confrontation between Ichiro and a gang of teenage thugs; though we sense that Ichiro will prevail, how he gains the upper hand is a nifty surprise made more effective by Oku’s meticulously detailed illustrations. The incident that precipitates the showdown, however, is saddled with a heavy-handed script; Oku stokes the reader’s sense of righteous indignation by revealing that the thugs’ intended victim is a good but vulnerable man. By overemphasizing the victim’s inherent decency, Oku reduces him to a saintly caricature, a problem that also mars Ichiro’s early interactions with his family. (His kids are such ungrateful jerks you may root for Ichiro to use his powers on them.)

Even if Ichiro’s catharsis is less earned than contrived, watching him transform from terminal sad-sack to indestructible bad-ass is a deeply satisfying experience. He’s found his purpose and his spine, even if it’s taken him 58 years to do so. Now that’s a fantasy that any middle-aged reader can get behind.

The verdict: Pour yourself a scotch before reading; you’ll need the emotional fortification to navigate the early chapters.

The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service Omnibus Edition, Book One
By Eiji Ōtsuka and Housui Yamazaki
Rated OT, for older teens (16+)
Dark Horse, $19.99

Scooby Doo for grown-ups — that’s how I’d describe The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, a macabre comedy about five cash-strapped college students who drive around in a van solving supernatural mysteries. The Kurosagi gang’s bread-and-butter are mysterious (and often violent) deaths. Through dowsing and channeling, they discover how and why their “clients” died, enabling the victims’ spirits to cross over to the other side.

The new omnibus edition — which collects the first three volumes of KCDS — includes two of the series’ best stories: “Lonely People,” in which the gang stumbles across a portable altar with a mummy inside, and “Crossing Over,” in which the gang searches for the victim of an organ harvesting ring. Though the denouement of both “deliveries” include a few gruesome panels, the deadpan dialogue, expressive character designs, and snappy pacing prevent KCDS from sinking to the level of torture porn; the horrific imagery functions as a rim shot or an exclamation mark, not the main attraction. The self-contained nature of the stories is another plus: you can begin your KCDS odyssey almost anywhere in the series and still grasp what’s happening, though the crew’s origin story (“Less Than Happy,” the very first chapter) offers an interesting window into Buddhist university culture in Japan.

The verdict: If you haven’t tagged along on one of the Kurosagi crew’s “deliveries,” the omnibus edition gives you an economical way to do so.

Review copy provided by Dark Horse.

Tokyo Ghoul, Vol. 2
By Sui Ishida
Rated OT, for older teens (16+)
VIZ Media, $12.99

The first volume of Tokyo Ghoul reads like an urban legend: Ken Kaneki, earnest college student, goes out for dinner with a pretty girl, but wakes up in the hospital with a brand-new set of organs… that used to belong to his date. Within a few days of his release, Kaneki begins turning into a flesh-eating monster, a side effect of the transplant surgery. Volume two picks up where volume one left off: now caught between the human and demon worlds, Kaneki casts his lot with the demons of cafe Anteiku. They teach him tricks for passing as a human, and warn him about the deep divide between the ghouls who embrace their predator status and those who feel some kinship with humanity.

Although volume two introduces several new and potentially interesting characters, Kaneki’s wet-blanket personality continues to put a damper on the story: he whines and frets and refuses to do anything that might compromise the reader’s good opinion of him. As anyone who’s read Death Note knows, however, a charismatic, intelligent protagonist doesn’t have to be good or right to command the audience’s sympathy. Someone who’s flawed, misguided, or tempted to abuse a new-found power might actually invite more self-identification than a goody two-shoes lead.

The verdict: Tokyo Ghoul isn’t bad, just a little too obvious to sustain my interest.

Review copy provided by VIZ Media.

Reviews: Joe McCulloch looks at the new English-language version of Comics Zenon, Michelle Smith and Anna N. post a fresh set of Bookshelf Briefs, and Vernieda Vergara asks if Bleach has overstayed its welcome.

Connie on vol. 19 of Bakuman (Slightly Biased Manga)
Julie on The Desert Lord’s Bride (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Ash Brown on Dr. Makumakuran and Other Stories (Experiments in Manga)
Connie on vol. 3 of Earthian (Slightly Biased Manga)
Kory Cerjak on vol. 47 of Fairy Tail (The Fandom Post)
James Ristig on Full Metal Alchemist (How to Love Comics)
Matthew Alexander on vol. 1 of Hayate Cross Blade (The Fandom Post)
Connie on vol. 11 of Kamisama Kiss (Slightly Biased Manga)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 23 of Kaze Hikaru (Anime News Network)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 1 of Komomo Confisere (WatchPlayRead)
Jordan Richards on vol. 1 of Komomo Confiserie (AiPT!)
Connie on vol. 14 of The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service (Slightly Biased Manga)
Angel Cruz on vols. 1-2 of Love at Fourteen (Women Write About Comics)
Lori Henderson on vols. 1-3 of Neon Genesis Evangelion (Manga Xanadu)
Ken H. on vol. 1 of Ninja Slayer Kills! (Sequential Ink)
Matthew Warner on vol. 10 of Nisekoi: False Love (The Fandom Post)
Connie on vol. 4 of No. 6 (Slightly Biased Manga)
Jocelyn Allen on Nobara (Brain vs. Book)
David Brooke on vol. 1 of Noragami: Stray God (AiPT!)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 1 of One-Punch Man (WatchPlayRead)
Kristin on vols. 1-2 of One-Punch Man (Comic Attack)
Jordan Richards on vol. 2 of One-Punch Man (AiPT!)
Matthew Warner on vol. 18 of Rin-ne (The Fandom Post)
Sarah on vol. 1 of The Royal Tutor (Anime UK News)
Al Sparrow on vol. 1 of So I Can’t Play H (Comic Spectrum)
Helen on Sweetness and Lightning (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Dustin Cabeal on vol. 1 of Tokyo Ghoul (Comic Bastards)
Matthew Warner on vol. 1 of Tokyo Ghoul (The Fandom Post)
Connie on vol. 6 of Toradora! (Slightly Biased Manga)
Sheena McNeil on vol. 29 of Toriko (Sequential Tart)
Adam Capps on vol. 1 of Ultraman (BentoByte)
Michael Burns on vol. 3 of Yamada-Kun and the Seven Witches (AniTAY)

Katherine Dacey · August 31, 2015

Good news for folks who like fantasy: Vertical Comics just confirmed that it will be publishing MAYBE’s The Abandoned Sacred Beasts, which is currently running in Bessatsu Shonen Magazine. Look for volume one in May 2016.

The latest volumes of Tokyo Ghoul, Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, and Monster Musume top this week’s NY Times Manga Best Seller list.

On September 4th, the NHK will begin airing the four-part series Urasawa Naoki no Manben. Each episode will focus on a different manga-ka, offering the viewer an in-depth look at the process of creating a series. Among the featured artists are Akiko Higushimura, Inio Asano, and Takao Saito.

Naruto creator Masashi Kishimoto has begun dropping hints about his next manga project, fueling speculation that he will formally announce the title at New York Comic Con.

Justin Stroman interviews Sekai Project publishing director Evan Mapoy about the company’s plans to license manga for the American market.

With 10 days to go, Last Gasp has raised $18,430 in its efforts to publish and distribute 4,000 copies of Keiji Nakazawa’s Barefoot Gen to schools and libraries around the country.

How should translators handle the catch-phrases that give JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure its unique flavor? Deb Aoki posed the question to Twitter, sparking a lively debate about the challenges of localizing manga for American audiences.

Headed to London this fall? The British Museum is sponsoring an exhibit called Manga Now: Three Generations, which will feature three commissioned works by Chiba Tetsuya, Hoshino Yukinobu and Nakamura Hikaru. The exhibit runs from September through mid-November.

Anime News Network is looking for a freelance reporter to cover movie screenings and events in Tokyo. More details here.

What’s arriving in bookstores next week? The Manga Bookshelf gang investigates.

It’s the end of the month, which means that Ash Brown is once again giving away manga. This month’s prize is Chicago, a two-volume series by Basara creator Yumi Tamura. The deadline to enter is September 2nd, so hop to it!

News from Japan: Yuu Watase has put Arata: The Legend on hiatus again, while Akiko Higashimura has just announced that she will debut a new series in Cocohana magazine this November: Bishoku Tantei, which translates to Gourmet Detective. (The tagline writes itself, doesn’t it?) Topping this week’s Japanese manga bestseller list are the latest volumes of Detective Conan, Terra Formars, and–what else?–Attack on Titan.

You know you want to read it: Hiro Mashima just published a Fairy Tail/Parasyte crossover story in the October issue of Afternoon.

The latest chapters of Yuichi Okano’s autobiographical manga Pecoross no Haha no Tamatebako (The Treasure Chest of Pecoross’ Mother) explore the impact of the 1945 Nagasaki bombing on its youngest survivors.

Reviews: Ian Wolf posts an early review of Inuyashiki, Claire Napier shares her thoughts on Space Brothers, and Austin Lanari tackles the latest issue of Weekly Shonen Jump. Over at the Smithsonian’s awesome BookDragon blog, Terry Hong looks at the latest volumes of Wandering Son and What Did You Eat Yesterday?, while Japan Times contributor Kanta Ishida writes about Hiromu Arakawa’s agro-centric manga Gin no Saji (Silver Spoon).

Michael Burns on vol. 6 of Barakamon (Ani-TAY)
Henry Ma on chapter 639 of Bleach (Ka Leo)
Gabriella Ekens on vols. 1-4 of Blood Blockade Battlefront (Anime News Network)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 1 of Core Scramble (Anime News Network)
Anna N. on Cosplay Basics (The Manga Report)
Sheena McNeil on vol. 1 of The Demon Prince of Momochi House (Sequential Tart)
Matthew Warner on Dream Fossil: The Complete Short Stories of Satoshi Kon (The Fandom Post)
ebooksgirl on vol. 1 of The Devil Is a Part-Timer! (Geek Lit Etc.)
Kory Cerjak on vol. 46 of Fairy Tail (The Fandom Post)
Dae Lee on Fragments of Horror (Otaku Review)
Erica Friedman on vol. 1 of Iono The Fanatics: Special Edition (Okazu)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 23 of Kaze Hikaru (Anime News Network)
Bruce P. on Kinoko Ningen no Kekkon (Okazu)
Helen on Lucky Star (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Kimber on Manga Classics: Emma (The Book Ramble)
Lisa Rabey on Manga Classics: Emma (No Flying No Tights)
Adam Capps on vol. 1 of My Hero Academia (Bento Byte)
Justin Stroman on vol. 1 of My Hero Academia (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Matthew Warner on vol. 2 of My Neighbor Seki (The Fandom Post)
Sheena McNeil on vol. 10 of Nisekoi: False Love (Sequential Tart)
Jessikah Chaustin on vol. 1 of Puella Magi Tart Magica: The Legend of Jeanne d’Arc (No Flying, No Tights)
Jocelyn Allen on Rafnas (Brain vs. Book)
Ken H. on vols. 5-6 of Say I Love You (Sequential Ink)
Ken H. on vols. 7-8 of Say I Love You (Sequential Ink)
Nick Creamer on vol. 1 of A Silent Voice (Anime News Network)
Michael Burns on vol. 2 of A Silent Voice (Ani-TAY)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 5 of Spell of Desire (Anime News Network)
Ash Brown on vol. 5 of The Summit of the Gods (Experiments in Manga)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 7 of Terra Formars (Anime News Network)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 7 of Tiger & Bunny (Comic Book Bin)
Matthew Warner on vol. 2 of Ubel Blatt (The Fandom Post)
Isaac Akers on vol.1 of Tokyo Ghoul (Otaku Review)
Chris Sims on vol. 1 of Ultraman (Comics Alliance)
Kelly Harrass on vol. 1 of Ultraman (Panels on Pages)
Kristin on vol. 1 of Ultraman (Comic Attack)
Sakura Eries on vol. 12 of Voice Over! Seiyu Academy (The Fandom Post)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 9 of What Did You Eat Yesterday? (Comics Worth Reading)
Adam Capps on vol. 5 of Witchcraft Works (Bento Byte)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 6 of World Trigger (Comic Book Bin)
Matthew Alexander on vol. 3 of xxxHolic Rei (The Fandom Post)

Katherine Dacey · August 28, 2015

In a sure sign that the dog days of August are upon us, Manga Bookshelf’s most productive reviewer announced that he is taking a few days off for a well-earned vacation. We’re also in favor of poolside margaritas, so we decided to follow Sean’s lead this week. Never fear: we’ll be back in the saddle next Friday with reviews of Inuyashiki, The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service and Tokyo Ghoul.

Still looking for something to read? We’ve got you covered with a handy index to all the books we’ve reviewed this summer:

Total Number of Manga Reviewed: 19
Total Number of Books Reviewed: 1
Most Viewed: Alice in Murderland and Demon From Afar
Most Tweeted: Haven’t You Heard? I’m Sakamoto, My Hero Academia, and My Neighbor Seki
Favorite Manga of the Summer: One-Punch Man
Least Favorite Manga of the Summer: Twin Star Exorcists

Alice in Murderland, Vol. 1 (Yen Press)
The Ancient Magus’ Bride, Vol. 1 (Seven Seas)
A Brief History of Manga (Ilex Publishing)
Demon From Afar, Vol. 1 (Yen Press)
The Demon Prince of Momochi House, Vol. 1 (VIZ)
Dream Fossil: The Complete Stories of Satoshi Kon (Vertical Comics)
Evergreen, Vol. 1 (Seven Seas)
Fragments of Horror (VIZ)
Haven’t You Heard? I’m Sakamoto, Vol. 1 (Seven Seas)
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Part One: Phantom Blood, Vol. 1 (VIZ)
Love at Fourteen, Vol. 1 (Yen Press)
My Hero Academia, Vol. 1 (VIZ)
My Neighbor Seki, Vols. 1-3 (Vertical Comics)
One-Punch Man, Vols. 1-2 (VIZ)
Prison School, Vol. 1 (Yen Press)
Seraphim 266613336 Wings (Dark Horse)
A Silent Voice, Vol. 1 (Kodansha Comics)
Twin Star Exorcists, Vol. 1 (VIZ)
Ultraman, Vol. 1 (VIZ)
Your Lie in April, Vol. 1 (Kodansha Comics)

We’d also like to hear from you: Are there great reviewers or websites that we’ve overlooked in our weekly round-ups? Is there a series that you’d like to see featured in the Manga Revue? Have we neglected a genre or artist that you feel deserves a bigger audience? Tell us about it in the comments–and be sure to include links!

Katherine Dacey · August 21, 2015

Ultraman made his television debut in 1966, defending Earth from the dual scourge of aliens and giant monsters. What began as a 39-episode series soon blossomed into one of Japan’s most prolific franchises, yielding dozens of sequels, spin-offs, movies, video games–and now a manga, which has been running in Monthly Hero’s magazine since 2011. Today’s column looks at this incarnation of the Ultraman story, which arrived in stores on Tuesday.

For extra insight into Ultraman‘s history, I encourage you to check out Brigid Alverson’s interview with Tomohiro Shimoguchi and Eiichi Shimizu, the creators of the latest Ultraman manga.

Ultraman, Vol. 1
By Eiichi Shimizu and Tomohiro Shimoguchi
Rated T, for teens
VIZ Media, $8.99 (digital edition)

Dusting off a beloved franchise and making it appeal to a new generation is a hazardous undertaking: stray too far from the source material and incur the wrath of purists, but hew too closely to the original and risk camp. Manga-ka Eiichi Shimizu and Tomohiro Shimoguchi have found an elegant strategy for introducing Ultraman to contemporary readers, using the original premise of the 1966 TV show as a starting point for a new chapter in the story.

The prelude to volume one neatly outlines Ultraman’s origins. Shin Hayata, member of the Science Special Search Party (a.k.a. the Science Patrol), unwittingly becomes the host for Ultraman, a powerful alien tasked with ridding Earth of dangerous monsters. Only a few members of the Science Patrol know Ultraman’s true identity–a secret they keep from Hayata, who is unaware that he is the vessel for Ultraman’s powers. The story then leaps forward thirty years: Ultraman has returned to his own world, Hayata has retired from the Science Patrol, and his son Shinjiro is beginning to manifest powers of his own.

In contrast to the introduction, which is a model of economy, the first chapter sags under the weight of too much expository dialogue. The characters relate their histories and concerns in such bald declarations that the entire chapter reads like a rejected Mystery Science Theater 3000 script. (A sample exchange: “We certainly don’t see much of each other these days.” “Right, even though I work at the Ministry of Defense, too.”) The pace improves with the sudden appearance of Be Mular–one of Ultraman’s old adversaries–who lures the inexperienced Shinjiro into a rooftop battle. Although the script has a familiar rhythm–powerful attacks punctuated by snappy one-liners–the fight choreography is well executed; you can almost feel the force of Shinjiro’s punches. Equally important, the fight’s outcome is not a foregone conclusion: the chapter ends on a cliffhanger just as Shinjiro realizes that he isn’t strong enough to protect his family from Be Mular… yet.

If the 2.0 version of Ultraman sounds like a radical departure from the original series, rest assured that Shimizu and Shimoguchi haven’t strayed too far from the show’s roots. The proof lies in the character designs: they’ve done a nice job of bringing Ultraman and Be Mular’s appearance in line with contemporary seinen aesthetics while preserving the look and feel of the original characters. Ultraman and Be Mular don’t exactly resemble their rubber-suited predecessors, but a long-time fan will recognize them as spiritual descendants–a fair compromise for a series that’s toeing the line between 1960s kitsch and 2010s pop culture.

The verdict: The first chapter is a tough slog, but the combat is staged with enough panache that I’ll be checking out volume two.

Review copy provided by VIZ Media.

Reviews: Here at Manga Bookshelf, Sean Gaffney and Michelle Smith tackle the latest volumes of Black Rose Alice, Citrus, Evergreen, and Food Wars! Further afield, Megan R. takes a nostalgic look at Kare Kano: His and Her Circumstances; Aimee A. deconstructs shojo stereotypes in Skip Beat!!; Seth Hahne praises Ajin: Demi-Human for its “fantastic cat-and-mouse” plotting; and Erica Friedman reviews Manga de Tsuzuru Yurina Hibi, a “non-fiction comic essay” about the relationship between a businesswoman and her girlfriend.

Alice Vernon on Akame ga Kill! (Girls Like Comics)
Wolfen Moondaugter on vol. 22 of Arata: The Legend (Sequential Tart)
Austin Lanari on The Art of Satoshi Kon (Comic Bastards)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 5 of Assassination Classroom (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Nick Smith on Awkward (ICv2)
Emma Weiler on vols. 1-5 of Crimson Spell (No Flying No Tights)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 10 of Deadman Wonderland (WatchPlayRead)
Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of The Demon Prince of Momochi House (Manga Xanadu)
Frank Inglese on vols. 5-6 of Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma (Snap30)
Sheena McNeill on vol. 7 of Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma (Sequential Tart)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 10 of Happy Marriage?! (Comics Worth Reading)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 1 of Haven’t You Heard? I’m Sakamoto (Anime News Network)
Erica Friedman on vol. 2 of Hayate x Blade (Okazu)
Allen Kesinger on vols. 4-5 of High School DxD (No Flying No Tights)
Matthew Alexander on vol. 6 of Judge (The Fandom Post)
Sarah on vol. 2 of Karneval (Anime UK News)
Anna N. on vol. 5 of Kiss of the Rose Princess (The Manga Report)
Austin Lanari on The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service Omnibus Edition: Book One (Comic Bastards)
Ian Wolf on vols. 1-2 of Maid-Sama! (Anime UK News)
Kristin on Manga Classics: Emma (Comic Attack)
Ken H. on vol. 1 of My Hero Academia (Sequential Ink)
Ash Brown on The Science of Attack on Titan (Experiments in Manga)
Frank Inglese on vol. 1 of Tokyo Ghoul (Snap30)
Michael Burns on vol. 1 of Tokyo Ghoul (Ani-TAY)
Michael Burns on vol. 2 of Tokyo Ghoul (Ani-TAY)
Julie on vol. 2 of Tokyo Ghoul (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 1 of Ultraman (WatchPlayRead)
Elizabeth Lotto on vol. 1 of Ultraman (The Outer Haven)
Nick Lyons on vol. 1 of Ultraman (DVD Corner)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 9 of What Did You Eat Yesterday? (Anime News Network)
Wolfen Moondaugter on vol. 2 of The World’s Greatest First Love: The Case of Ritsu Onodera (Sequential Tart)

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