Genshiken Volume 9
The otaku/manga/anime fan series by Kio Shimoku comes to an end with this volume and school graduation. The club president’s American friends have returned. Sue, the bad-tempered yaoi fan, now has a...
View ArticleThe Wallflower Volume 13
I liked the premise behind this odd series by Tomoko Hayakawa — four gorgeous guys hired to bring a geeky horror fan out of her shell — but when I sampled The Wallflower before, I could never get into...
View ArticleThe Reformed
Writer Christopher Hart is responsible for more than 60 how-to books about creating manga and comics, including the incredibly popular Manga Mania and its many spinoffs. But I’d never heard of him...
View ArticlePapillon Volume 1
Hana was raised in the city, and she’s pretty, popular, and outgoing. Her twin sister Ageha lived with their grandmother in the country, and she’s shy and plain … although, obviously, that’s more in...
View ArticleParasyte
This has been quite a year for realizing that rules don’t apply. I used to say “I don’t like horror comics”, but I should say, “I don’t like most horror comics”, because I enjoy Parasyte. That’s...
View ArticlePapillon Volume 2
Well, that was a twist. Volume 1 was about twin teens thinking they were in love with the same boy. Volume 2 heads off in a very different direction with all kinds of over-the-top events. Shy Ageha has...
View ArticleWolverine: Prodigal Son
Wolverine, the Marvel Comics superhero with the mysterious past and the magical healing factor, has been reinvented as a lonely teen martial artist in Wolverine: Prodigal Son. This manga-style...
View ArticleGakuen Prince Volume 1
I don’t know whether to be amused or appalled by this “opposites attract” rape comedy. The back cover blurb is generic, describing an all-girl elite high school that’s only recently started admitting...
View ArticleOrange Planet Volume 1 and Male Harem Manga
When I hear the term “harem manga”, I think of one of those series where a goofy guy has his pick of zaftig girls. I’d never seen the opposite — but I may just not have been looking hard enough. It...
View ArticleSayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei Volume 1
Subtitled The Power of Negative Thinking, this series by Koji Kumeta is the story of depressed, suicidal schoolteacher Nozomu. (The title translates as “Goodbye, Mr. Despair”.) Except, not really. It’s...
View ArticleX-Men: Misfits
Earlier this year, Del Rey (in conjunction with Marvel) published Wolverine: Prodigal Son, a shonen manga take on the loner with a healing factor. I thought it wasn’t bad, but I was really looking...
View ArticlePapillon Volume 4
When I started this series, I read an awful lot into the first volume. Based on what I saw, I was expecting a dramatic exploration of the contrasts between appearance and behavior as twins were set in...
View ArticleMoyasimon: Tales of Agriculture Volume 1
When I heard that the premise of Moyasimon by Masayuki Ishikawa was a guy who could talk to germs, I expected cute humor. Instead, what I got was a typical coming-of-age story, only with some...
View ArticleDel Rey Omnibus Manga: School Rumble 14/15/16
I was curious about the upcoming Del Rey Manga omnibuses (omnibi?). Instead of continuing to publish single volumes for certain series, they’re releasing two (Samurai Deeper Kyo volumes 37/38) or three...
View ArticleI Am Here! Volume 1
Hikage Sumino is a shy, plain girl with no friends who is invisible to a ridiculous degree. For instance, she gets hit with a motorbike because the driver didn’t see her in the road while she was...
View ArticleArisa Volume 1
I’d previously passed by this series, the newest from Natsumi Ando (Kitchen Princess), because of its lame-duck status, as one of the last releases from the now-departed Del Rey Manga. I recently...
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