February 2012
7 posts
5 tags
Review: Soulless: The Manga, Vol. 1
Soulless is saucy in the best possible sense of the word: it’s bold and smart, with a heroine so irrepressible you can see why author Gail Carriger couldn’t tell Alexia Tarabotti’s story in just one book. [Read the rest of the review here.]
2 tags
3 tags
Review: Drifters, Vol. 1
Back in the 1980s — the heyday of Dolph Lundgren, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Sylvester Stallone — Hollywood cranked out a stream of mediocre but massively entertaining B-movies in which a man with a freakishly muscular physique and a granite jaw battled the Forces of Evil, dispatching villains with a catch-phrase and a lethal weapon. I don’t know if Kohta Hirano ever watched Predator or Red...
1 tag
3 tags
5 tags
Review: GTO: 14 Days in Shonan, Vol. 1
What makes 14 Days in Shonan work is its sincerity. In many stories told from the teacher’s point of view, the teacher is a sardonic observer of student behavior, bemoaning his charges’ lack of knowledge, manners, or interest in the subject. 14 Days in Shonan, however, offers a rosier picture of teaching, one in which a good educator plays a decisive role in improving his students’ lives, whether...
1 tag
Call for Participation: Osamu Tezuka Manga Movable... →
2 tags
4 tags
3 tags
Review: Yakuza Cafe
Yakuza Cafe is a pleasant surprise, a cheerful, smutty send-up of gangster manga that playfully mocks maid cafes, foodie manga, and yakuza culture.
The titular gangsters are the Fujimaki Clan, a once-feared crime syndicate who’ve launched a legitimate business: a yakuza-themed cafe, staffed by the clan’s former foot soldiers. Though the food is tasty, and the waitstaff comely, the cafe is all but...
January 2012
17 posts
4 tags
1 tag
2 tags
3 tags
Review: Hyakusho Kizuko, Vol. 1 →
“Arakawa shares humorous anecdotes about her ongoing war with the Hokkaido squirrel, a skilled crop thief, as well as her family’s penchant for using animal medicines to cure their own ailments. She also waxes poetic about the temperament of cows — apparently, they make great pets — and celebrates Hokkaido’s important role in feeding the rest of Japan…
Arakawa doesn’t neglect her...
2 tags
2 tags
Review: A Devil And Her Love Song, Vol. 1 →
“Maria Kawai, heroine of A Devil and Her Love Song, is a cool customer. Not only is she beautiful, talented, and smart, she’s also tough — so tough, in fact, that she was expelled from a hoity-toity Catholic school for beating up a teacher. Her blunt demeanor further cements her bad-girl impression; within minutes of enrolling at a new high school, she antagonizes all the girls in her...
1 tag
4 tags
Review: Yakuza Moon: The True Story of a... →
“In the popular imagination, the yakuza are modern-day samurai, observing a rigid code of honor, decorating their bodies with elaborate tattoos, and meting out swift punishments to anyone who encroaches on their territory. It goes without saying that yakuza stories focus on men: bosses, assassins, fathers, sons, brothers. When women appear in yakuza stories, they are usually unwitting...
4 tags
3 tags
4 tags
3 tags
Review: Fluffy, Fluffy Cinnamoroll, Vol. 1 →
December 2011
17 posts
The Best Manga of 2011: The Manga Critic's Picks →
1 tag
4 tags
2 tags
The 2011 Manga Hall of Shame Inductees →
Moto Hagio and Keiko Takemiya in France
Via fuckyeahmotohagio: Planète Manga! is a special exhibition dedicated to manga and asian pop culture that will be held at the museum of contemporay art Centre Pompidou (Paris) from 11 February to 27 May, 2012. Among other (yet to be announced) personalities, Keiko Takemiya and Moto Hagio are confirmed as guests.
4 tags
5 tags
Review: Stargazing Dog →
“Perhaps the best compliment I can pay Murakami is to acknowledge just how much Stargazing Dog moved me. Not in a cheap, dog-in-peril sort of way, but in the same way that Vittorio de Sica’s Umberto D. touched me: as a beautiful meditation on the human-canine bond, one that acknowledges the complexity and inequality of that relationship, as well its enduring power.”
2 tags
3 tags
5 tags
Review: The Drops of God, Vols. 1-2 →
“Reading The Drops of God is like drinking a good table wine: the flavor may not be as complex as a finely aged varietal, but it goes down easily, leaving a pleasant aftertaste of melodrama, intrigue, and romance.”
9 tags
Manga auctions on eBay! →
I’m auctioning four batches of manga/manhwa on eBay. All four auctions close tomorrow evening (12/18) around 9:45 PM EST. Up for sale are:
RED MOON, Vols. 1-6 (Mina Hwang; ComicsOne): Red Moon is one of the very first manhwa ever translated into English! All six volumes are in great condition; two are still in their original shrink wrap!
CODENAME: SAILOR V, Vols. 1-2 and SAILOR MOON, Vols....
2 tags
1 tag
2 tags
2 tags
November 2011
13 posts
1 tag
3 tags
Review: No Longer Human, Vol. 1 →
“First published in 1948, Osamu Dazai’s No Longer Human became one of the most widely read books in post-war Japan. The story, modeled on Dazai’s own life, chronicles a dissolute young man’s profound estrangement from his family and peers. The protagonist’s life follows a trajectory similar to Dazai’s: convinced that his life is an empty charade, Yozo drops out of school; joins the...
4 tags
2 tags
A brief but thoughtful appreciation of Moto... →
4 tags
Review: Dawn of the Arcana, Vol. 1 →
As predictable as the plot may be — would you be surprised to learn that Caesar soon becomes smitten with his ginger-haired bride? — Dawn of the Arcana proves engaging nonetheless, a heady mixture of palace intrigue and romance. Nakaba, in particular, is a winning heroine: she’s tough and principled, but savvy enough to appease Caesar and his family when it suits her own agenda. (Early in...
4 tags
1 tag
3 tags
Great review of Princess Knight on Tumblr →