Author Archives: dakazu

Tokyo Toy BoxES

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Tokyo Toy BoxES

A manga about a genius fighting game player who’s been kicked off her team and ends up being scouted by a private school that is starting an e-sports curriculum.

So apparently this is a sequel series to Tokyo Toy Box which was about game development. Since I’m unfamiliar with Tokyo Toy Box I can’t comment on any connection between these two but I recognized the creator Ume from some of their other manga like STEVES or Nangoku Tom Sawyer. The story here is that Ren Azumino is an excellent player but she deals with prejudice for being a girl. The setup is simple and it addresses the issues with sexism in professional gaming but since this manga is relatively new, I’ll have to keep reading more to see if it handles these issues with some tact. But so far I’m enjoying this manga and I’ll probably look into reading Tokyo Toy Box as well.

~dakazu

Versus Earth – War Hammer

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Versus Earth – War Hammer

The sequel series to Versus Earth.

We’ve discussed this on a recent episode.

I was equally surprised and excited to learn that Kazutomo Ichitomo took it upon himself to draw the continuation of Versus Earth with Versus Earth – War Hammer. He originally started posting new chapters over on Pixiv until he was able to self publish them through Denpa Bato. Since Ichitomo was just the writer of Versus Earth there is an obvious change in art style here. I don’t think Ichitomo does a bad job but I miss the shonen action style of Yoshihiko Watanabe.

So I was all ready to read the ending of this series when I found out Versus Earth – War Hammer is also unfinished! It’s been on hiatus since 2017 when Ichitomo got busy with other projects. At this point I doubt I’ll ever get to read the end of Versus Earth. Maybe somethings were never meant to be.

~dakazu

Sake no Hosomichi

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Sake no Hosomichi

A manga about an everyday salary man who loves drinking and eating.

I was initially drawn to Roswell Hosoki‘s simplistic art style when I picked up this series. I didn’t know Hosoki has been drawing Sake no Hosomichi since 1996 and that it’s still on going. Each chapter is super short story and focuses on either food or alcohol or some aspect of both. You can tell Hosoki loves to partake in both himself and that enthusiasm spills over into these stories. Hosoki has made a career out of drawing many different seinen series about food and drink. They’re all enjoyable to read and also full of great recipe tips as well. Love this book!

~dakazu

Air Gear

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Air Gear

A manga about a teenager who begins his journey to become the best Air Trek rider and become a Storm Rider and reach the pinnacle at Trophaeum Tower.

I went back and started reading this series and boy does it not hold up. Oh!great‘s art work is so detailed it borders on excessive sometimes. Dramatic poses are filled to the brim with background effects that are so impressive to read. But this shonen battle manga by Oh!great is equally filled with excessive fan service. Oh!great started as a hentai artist and it shows. I’m not opposed to T&A but when the first chapter of this manga has implied sexual assault I just disengage from the story content.

Air Gear just has an aggressive tone within the characters and the story and that combined with the beautiful but blinding art work does not make for an enjoyable experience. I’m pretty sure I ended feeling this way when I read through this manga the first time. This type of manga worked well for the early 2000’s but I’ve moved past any interest I had with Oh!great‘s titles.

~dakazu

311 – One Shot 29 – Buffalo 5 Girls

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311 – One Shot 29 – Buffalo 5 Girls

This week Seamus revisits Yuichi Yokoyama with World Map Room and Iceland, Morgana picked up Magician A on a whim, and dakazu talks about the bittersweet Caterpillar Girl and Bad Texter Boy! Then we dive into the world of sex workers and outlaws with Buffalo 5 Girls! This unfinished series by Moyoco Anno raises many questions like “Who did the coloring?” and “How was the story going to end?” for the hosts!!!

Continue reading →

Devil’s Line

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Devil’s Line

A manga where vampires known as devils blend in among the human population. A young woman begins a dangerous relationship with a half-devil secret agent who is attracted to her.

We’ve discussed this manga on an older episode.

I would hear about this manga a lot while it was serialized but I never got around to reading it until we did for the podcast. Turns out, I really enjoyed this mostly generic vampire drama. Ryo Hanada isn’t the most talented artist so sometimes the action happening wasn’t that clear on the page. Also the story was heavy with government conspiracies so I had to read it the English editions from Kodansha to fully parse the story. While Darfox and Seamus didn’t enjoy this title, anyone like Morgana who likes reading about emo vampires will surely enjoy this manga.

~dakazu

Versus Earth

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Versus Earth

A manga where humanity is battling against deadly pillars who threaten to exterminate them appear from the ground. Teenager Haruto Teragane is dragged into this battle after becoming partially infected by a pillar shard.

A very decent sci-fi shonen action series. I enjoyed reading it in Weekly Shonen Champion. I thought Yoshihiko Watanabe‘s action scenes were engaging and while the story setup by Kazutomo Ichitomo was a bit generic I still enjoyed reading about Haruto learning to harness his pillar powers for good.

Unfortunately this series was canceled mid-story after 9 volumes. I was pretty bummed about it but I just learned that Ichitomo went on draw a sequel series called Versus Earth – War Hammer. I’m excited to track it down so I can finally finish this story!

~dakazu

A Silent Voice

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A Silent Voice

A manga about a bully who harassed a deaf girl who grows up and tries to find a way to atone for his sins.

We’ve covered this series as a Retrospective.

This is one of the best manga we’ve read for this podcast. Yoshitoki Oima does a fantastic job crafting a story that truly examines all aspects of bullying. I think her visual representation of placing “x” marks on characters faces is genius. The anime movie is good but suffers from having to cram 7 volumes worth of material into 2 hours. I highly recommend this series that’s available from Kodansha.

~dakazu

Kekkon Afro Tanaka

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Kekkon Afro Tanaka

The latest in the Afro Tanaka comedy series about the life of afro haired Hiroshi Tanaka that focuses on his life as a newly married man who is starting a family.

Masaharu Noritsuke‘s Afro Tanaka series has been running since 2002 in Big Comic Spirits. It started with Hiroshi in high school and followed his life as he drops out of school, moves to the city, travels throughout Japan, starts a relationship, and now focuses on his married life. And throughout this long running series Noritsuke’s jokes are so good I’m still enjoying this latest iteration. Afro Tanaka works because it combines dumb happenings, sharp wit, and extreme overreactions into a perfect blend of comedy. I’m sure it will never be published in English which is a damn shame because it’s one of my favorite comedies.

~dakazu

Tokachi Hitoribocchi Nouen

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Tokachi Hitoribocchi Nouen

A diary manga by Yuji Yokoyama about moving to Tokachi, Hokkaido and starting a farm to grow vegetables from scratch to make curry to serve other manga artists like Gosho Aoyama and Mitsuru Adachi.

We’ve discussed this on an older episode.

This is one of the only manga I look forward to reading in Weekly Shonen Sunday. I just love the ridiculous set up for this series. Yokoyama’s previous title was an interview manga so the editorial department came up with this crazy project to have him grow vegetables from scratch and make curry as a thanks to the manga artists he got to interview.

It’s a wild idea but also totally hilarious as Yokoyama draws about how he had to buy land, buy a car, and find a place to live before he even begins to try growing vegetables. I love the cute super deformed character art Yokoyama uses because it works so well as he continues to make mistakes over and over. This is a hilarious non-fiction series and I’m surprised it runs in Sunday.

~dakazu