The unceasing march of time continues, and VIZ media continues to release cool new comics! This month we’re catching up on previously-reviewed series Hirayasumi and Trillion Game and introducing the buzzy new shojo manga Colette Decides to Die. But first, the news.
Kazuo Umezz passes at the age of 88
Kazuo Umezz, a horror mangaka whose works were published by VIZ, died of stomach cancer on October 28. I’ve reviewed some of his books, including Orochi, Cat-Eyed Boy, and My Name Is Shingo in pubwatches past, always positively. He was a highly influential horror mangaka with Junji Ito particularly citing his work in the shojo magazine Ribon as an inspiration to him as a child, and his contributions to comics can never be forgotten.
New old anime now on YouTube
VIZ media’s YouTube channel has added a number of anime series that you can now watch in full for free right on their YouTube channel (in select locations). New additions include all of the Naruto and Naruto Shippuden movies, the original Ranma ½ show (if you want to compare and contrast with the remake currently airing on Netflix), Captain Tsubasa, and Vampire Knight, as well as other anime films. Hooray for free anime!
Did you know you can read simulpubs on the VIZ app? VIZ wants you to know that.
VIZ made an entire blog post explaining that select series are simultaneously published in English on the VIZ app and website as they come out in Japan. Komi Can’t Communicate and Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End are probably the most popular titles to get the simulpub treatment, but new viral hit Magical Girl Dandelion also has two new chapters coming out per month, and my personal favorite How Do We Relationship? which has me eagerly looking forward to a new chapter every month. There is so much manga available on the VIZ app now, and it’s very easy to use compared to other manga apps out there. Hooray for free manga!
That’s all the news I have for this month! Now it’s time to take a look at…
What I’m Reading
Hirayasumi, Volume 3
Keigo Shinzo
November 19, 2024
I reviewed volume 1 back in May, so I was happy to pick up volume 3 and see how Hiroto and Natsumi are doing now. This volume focused a lot more on Natsumi, Hiroto, and newly introduced minimalist writer Ishikawa’s relationships to their different creative fields. Natsumi is making the first steps in her career as a mangaka by winning her first contest and meeting an editor, but is having difficulty with making storyboards that the editor is willing to greenlight for her magazine debut. Relatable! Hiroto, watching her struggles, remembers his past as an actor and how he quit rather than having to think more about audience expectations than his love of the craft. And award-winning novelist Ishikawa has been in a slump for years… until adorable real-estate agent Tachibana brings him out of it. It’s rare to see a slice of life story have such a clear thematic throughline in a single volume, but it felt very coherent as a standalone work. And there’s a lot of fun character actions in this volume too, with the core cast and with Natsumi’s new college friends too. The art is just as cute as always. Above all, Hirayasumi continues to be a pleasant reading experience.
Trillion Game, Volume 2
Writing by Riichiro Inagaki, Art by Ryoichi Ikegami
November 19, 2024
I keep enjoying this more than I expect to enjoy it. I think the structure is what makes it work: each challenge Haru and Gaku face is set up like a puzzle, and they have to think outside the box to solve it, and that unexpected, clever solution is what makes it satisfying. The way they handle that security competition against all odds was a lot of fun to see. I was intrigued by the way they decide to use “AI” for their first business: advertise that it’s an AI giving you advice on something you’re too embarrassed to ask a real person and actually have a real person answer it because AI would not do nearly a good enough job. Makes sense, does not shatter my suspension of disbelief. And the new characters introduced in this volume are pretty fun so far, too. There’s fanservice in this volume that feels like it was mandated by the editor or something, extremely detached and not at all erotic to a degree that made it feel out of place. It wasn’t clear to me if Haru was supposed to be into the sex or not.
The art style continues to be just a shade too realistic to be appealing to me personally, but it might be right for you. The plot is fun, though! And I like how despite it being a clever-puzzle-solving story, it uses the visuals as much as text to convey information (unlike, for example, Cipher Academy and Death Note, both of which relied on walls of text to tell you how clever their puzzles were.) Trillion Game keeps being pretty fun.
Colette Decides to Die, Volume 1
Alto Yukimura
November 5, 2024
This manga was widely hyped up by shojo manga fans online, so when I saw it was available I figured it was as good a time as any to check it out. The title made me expect something a lot darker at first, but it’s actually very sweet, and probably best suited for a younger-YA audience. Colette is an overworked apothecary who’s so exhausted that she accidentally falls into a well that leads right to the Underworld. Fortunately, Hades is a hot boy who needs medical attention, and Colette can provide it! She ends up going back and forth between the mortal world and the underworld, treating Hades as well as her human patients while trying to carve out more time for herself as well. There isn’t much romance so far, but it seems to be building slowly as they get to know each other more. The character designs are adorable, reminding me of one of my friend’s middle school art. Colette is a sympathetic and relatable protagonist, and Hades a quintessential brooding man of mystery. What they both have in common is a devotion to their work and a habit of neglecting their health for the sake of it. The world is vaguely inspired by Ancient Greece crossed with that generic Middle Europe Fantasyland most fantasy manga take place in, but that looks cute too, and the Greek influence makes it just that much more memorable on its own. I also liked the unrelated bonus one-shot at the end of part 1 of this volume. Yukimura builds up a romance between two former high school band kids really convincingly within a fairly short page count. Overall, very cute first volume, fairly original fantasy shojo.
That’s it for this month! See you in December for more VIZ news and reviews!
