Content Warning: Several of the comics discussed include adult themes or adult situations. Yuri, the genre focused on female/female romantic relationships. It started in the early 70s with the publication of Shiroi Heya no Futari. These early works often ended tragically with one of the characters dying. This changed over the years, and in the…
Saso Akira has caught my attention with his older work Shindo. Saso is an award-winning mangaka and manga lecturer known for stories about uncomfortable subjects; Kodomo no Kodomo, for example, is about pre-teen pregnancy, and Toto’s World is about a child who is mute. He also produced an adaptation of the controversial film Departures/Okuribito, a story about undertaking. Shindo is a manga…
Barakamon, Volume #5 Satsuki Yoshino (mangaka); Krista Shipley & Karie Shipley (translation); Lys Blakeslee (lettering) Yen Press, June 2015 Disclaimer: A review copy was provided by Yen Press. Volume 5 of Barakamon is just as full of childhood hijinks and warm feelings as earlier volumes. City calligrapher Seishuu Handa has by now more-or-less fully adapted…
Aldnoah.Zero, Vol. 1 Olympus Knights (story); Pinakes (art); Sheldon Drzka (translation); Brndn Blakeslee, Lys Blakeslee (lettering) Yen Press, Dec 2015 Disclaimer: Yen Press provided a complimentary review copy upon which this article is based. After the first few pages, I wanted to call Aldnoah.Zero a space opera. After another few pages, I wanted to call it a…
Whether you’re a fan of video games, television, or comics, odds are you’ve heard buzz surrounding Yo-Kai Watch, the latest Japanese franchise to take off around the globe. At the very least, you’ve probably seen some clickbait-y links hailing it as “the next Pokémon.” Curious about the next generation of mon adventures? Desensitized to the…
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Shotaro Ishinomori (mangaka); Dan Owsen (translation); Yukiko Whitley (cover & interior design) VIZ Media, May 2015 Disclaimer: this review is based upon a review copy provided by the publisher and contains light spoilers. So there’s this boy with blonde hair, pointy ears, and a green outfit….
The Science of Attack on Titan Writer: Rikao Tanagita Illustrations: Hajime Isayama and Maru Fujishima Translation: Ko Ransom Kodansha Comics June 2015 The ubiquitous Attack on Titan strikes again! We have the original manga, spin-off series, light novels, anime adaptations, live action movies, videogames, and now…a pop science book? Not the first thing that would…
Love at Fourteen, Vol. 1 and 2 Fuka Mizutani Yen Press 2015 I don’t know about you, but my middle school years weren’t half as dream-like as Love at Fourteen envisions. Fuka Mizutani takes a simple love story between two middle-schoolers and splits it into interludes, operating under the assumption that the reader will go along…
Karneval, vols. 1 & 2 Mangaka: Touya Mikanagi. Translation: Su Mon Han. Lettering: Alexis Eckerman. Yen Press March 2015 & July 2015 Review copies were provided by Yen Press. Just imagine: what if Cirque du Soleil were actually a band of government-sanctioned assassins dedicated to fighting an underground ring of genetically engineered criminals? Can you…
(Spoiler Warning: This article contains spoilers for Skip Beat!) Shoujo manga—or manga produced for girls—is often dismissed by casual readers as manga brimming with stereotypes. In fact, oftentimes shoujo stories are not taken seriously solely because they are aimed at young girls. Despite the popularity of serious manga like Fruits Basket and Boys Over Flowers,…
(Disclaimer: Review copies of Legal Drug and Drug & Drop vol. 1 and vol. 2 were supplied by Dark Horse. This essay also contains some light spoilers.) First, a primer! If you’re familiar with boy’s love, girl’s love, yaoi, yuri, shonen-ai, or shojo-ai just go ahead and skip this paragraph. For those of you who…
