New year, new manga! For our first VIZ Pubwatch of 2021, we’ll be taking a look at some classic long-running series as well as newer, less-established work. But first, the VIZ news.
VIZ Media Pubwatch: December 2020
‘Tis the season to… read manga! Welcome to the December VIZ Pubwatch. This month we’re taking a look at both new and established series in a wide range of genres, including How Do We Relationship? But before that, some news from VIZ.
Tangerines, Berries, Pirates: Finding your Family in One Piece
A centering theme prevalent across the whole of Eiichiro Oda’s long-running opus One Piece is families, or more specifically found families. In the framework of early One Piece (the East Blue Saga), this is most strongly seen in the context of the Arlong Park arc with Nami, the Straw Hat pirates’ navigator.
Viz Pubwatch November
What a year this month has been. With everything going on in the world recently, you might have missed these news items and volume releases from VIZ media. Luckily, the monthly VIZ Pubwatch is here! This month we’re mostly focusing on long-running fan favorites and some classic series, including Mermaid Saga by Rumiko Takahashi. First,…
REVIEW: Revolutionary Girl Utena: After the Revolution: … Is Less Than Revolutionary
Revolutionary Girl Utena is a shojo classic that I only recently read. Because of my recent exposure, news of an addition to the series, After the Revolution, released in 2020 in English excited me. Overall, I see threads in the series that a younger me would have loved. Unfortunately, neither the original Utena series nor…
REVIEW: Moriarty the Patriot is SO MUCH
Blond pretty boy Moriarty haunts my nightmares. Moriarty the Patriot is a manga series written by Ryōsuke Takeuchi and illustrated by Hikaru Miyoshi as a prequel to the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, from the perspective of Sherlock Holmes’s nemesis Professor Moriarty. Though there are twelve volumes published in Japan, the first…
VIZ Pubwatch October
Welcome back to the monthly VIZ Pubwatch, where we take a look at news and new releases from VIZ media. This month we’re talking about the start of the fall anime season, including Burn the Witch, and some interesting first volumes, both promising and not-so-promising.
REVIEW: Fangirl the Graphic Novel, Volume 1
Fangirl Vol. 1 by Rainbow Rowell, Sam Maggs, and Gabi Nam adapts Rainbow Rowell’s original novel to a manga-inspired, black-and-white graphic novel for VIZ’s new imprint VIZ Originals. Like its source material, Fangirl Vol. 1 tells the story of Cath, a popular fanfiction author struggling with adjusting to her first semester at college, meeting new…
Crying Freeman by the Numbers: Rhythm in Panelling
As a critic, I am called to say things that will irritate and annoy people and as such I would like to begin here by graciously sharing that I hate it very much when writers say things like, “I keep my panel per page count low, because someone has to draw it!!” I appreciate all…
VIZ Media Pubwatch
Welcome to the first-ever monthly VIZ Pubwatch! VIZ is the largest publisher of graphic novels in the United States, bringing an extensive catalog of manga and anime from Japan to English-speaking audiences. From simulpublishing Shonen Jump chapters online, to releasing the newest hit anime on DVD and Blu-Ray, VIZ has been a force in Western…
Tokyo Tarareba Girls: A Love Letter To My What-If Women and Third Places
I didn’t know where to start this piece. I am overwhelmed and tired all the time. But through the quarantine there has been Tokyo Tarareba Girls (TTG) by Akiko Higashimura. From its first full page, TTG was a shock. The banner congratulating Tokyo for hosting the 2020 Olympic Games was such a rude reminder of…
[PATREON EXCLUSIVE] Bakuman Is a Comic about Death Note
In 2003, writer Tsugumi Ohba and illustrator Takeshi Obata collaborated for the first time on a manga called Death Note, serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump from 2003 to 2006. Death Note was a huge hit across demographics, later turned into an anime, stage play, and multiple live action adaptations. This article will discuss the manga…