Author Archives: dakazu

After Hours

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After Hours

A manga about a young woman Emi who meets a DJ named Kei and steps into a new world of club culture and relationships.

A cute yuri story. My co-host Seamus recommended it to me and I enjoyed it. The character designs weren’t really my style but the art in general reminded me a lot of Laid-Back Camp and was done well. I’m glad it wasn’t very long because I probably wouldn’t care enough about it to continue a really long story. Pretty predictable as far as where the relationship between Emi and Kei goes but it was done well and I liked that it didn’t take place in a school setting.

If you’re into good yuri manga then I’d recommend this. Available through VIZ media.

~dakazu

Me and the Devil Blues

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Me and the Devil Blues

A fictionalized tale about the legendary blues musician Robert Johnson who sells his soul to the Devil in exchange for the gift of music.

It’s pretty interesting to see Akira Hiramoto use his realistic art style not for comedy, like in Prison School. It really makes you realize how good his ink work and shadowing really are.

I enjoyed what a read and hope to read more! Published by Del Rey.

~dakazu

Destiny Lovers

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Destiny Lovers

A manga about a group of male versions being held against their will in a prison run by sexy officers who need to take their virginity to save the world.

….It’s really dumb and makes me questions the type of manga that get’s put on these publisher’s official web-manga sites.

No surprise that artist Kai Tomohiro has experience drawing hentai given all the situations they put the characters in. Also this has been really popular online and I’m not surprised.

I can understand the appeal of this but it’s a little too much for me.

~dakazu

Cells at Work [BLACK] 

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Cells at Work [BLACK] 

A manga about the hustle and bustle of cells trying to keep an unhealthy human host alive.

A spin-off of the popular Cells at Work series, this manga is about a human who’s riddled with health problems like smoking, alcohol addiction, and STDs. Just like it’s title, the tone is much darker and grimmer. It also gender swaps the main red blood cell and white blood cell characters.

Funny story is that before the anime started I had only read this manga so I was pleasantly surprised to learn that this was a spin-off specifically following an unhealthy human. I recommend watching the anime or checking out the original because the tone of this one is just too depressing.

~dakazu

211 – Manga in Motion 33 – Animal World

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211 – Manga in Motion 33 – Animal World

Apologies in advance as Seamus had to skip this week’s podcast so we changed from our planned retrospective to another Manga in Motion instead. So at darfox’s request we look at the Chinese Animal World based on Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji!

Continue reading →

Butsu-Zone

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Butsu-Zone

A manga about the 1000 hands Senju who must protect a young girl who is the reincarnation of Gautama Buddha and help her reach enlightenment.

This is the debut work of Hiroyuki Takei, who is most well known for his ultra popular Shaman King series. Although Butsu-Zone ended early, you can see hints of motifs and designs that Takei would eventually use in his future projects. Even the popular character Anna Kyoyama was originally used in this book and some of the mech-like armor designs would be used in Takei’s Jumbor series.

It’s an interesting manga to see where Takei started.

~dakazu

Buggy Whip

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Buggy Whip

Sports manga about a high school boy with terrible tennis skills named Arata that get’s trained by Sakura, a former genius upperclassman.

A pretty decent realistic take on the sport of tennis, similar in feel to Baby Steps. Compared to typical shonen sports manga, this series isn’t about Arata’s journey to become the number one player in Japan. Instead it follows him as he slowly breaks through his own inferiority complex while butting heads against his mentor and it ends quickly once that resolution is reached. This kind of story progression might be why this ran in the seinen magazine Monthly Afternoon. My only complaint was that there wasn’t enough distinction between characters because many of their faces look too similar.

A solid sports manga that was interesting for it’s story.

~dakazu

Prison School

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Prison School

A manga about 5 boys who attend the recently co-ed elite private boarding school Hachimitsu Academy and are imprisoned on campus after peeking the girl’s bathing area.

This is a manga that fits the concept of a serious comedy, that was described in the manga Bakuman, to a T. All characters are 100% serious about their actions and motivations but they are so extreme and over-reacting that it looks absurd from the reader’s perspective. The extreme part helps me look past the insane amount of fan service and T&A in this series because at the manga is so self-aware of what it’s doing. Though I do think Akira Hiramoto is having his cake and eating it too when it comes to the vice president character.

This manga is hilarious. The anime and live-action were also hilarious. Available from Yen Press.

~dakazu

Hyouge Mono

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Hyouge Mono

A manga about Sasuke Furuta, a samurai under Nobunaga Oda who was obsessed with the ways of tea and sought the path of being a comical fellow rather than a warlord.

A great series that mixes history with humor. Yoshihiro Yamada is a master of over the top expressions. Despite the heavy historical setting and deep political intrigue, these colorful reactions help keep the story fun and jovial. I’ll admit that toward the end of this series I had a very hard time following all the various characters. Despite that I would recommend this series to anyone looking for a very different take on the popular warring states period of Japan.

~dakazu