Author Archives: dakazu

Haven’t You Heard? I’m Sakamoto

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Haven’t You Heard? I’m Sakamoto

A manga about Sakamoto, the perfect high school student who resolves any situation in a stylish way with his coolness.

On paper, this manga sounds completely stupid. But Nami Sano taps into the kind of serious comedy that popularized Prison School. The way Sano portrays Sakamoto as the guy who literally fences a hornet with his compass is the perfect level of absurd that puts a smile on your face.

Check out the great anime adaptation or the English edition from Seven Seas Entertainment.

~dakazu

Detroit Metal City

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Detroit Metal City

A manga about a wannabe pop singer who moonlights as the lead singer for the death metal band Detroit Metal City!

We’ve discussed this series on an older episode.

A solid comedy series. While extremely crude and vulgar, the over-the-top antics found within the book still crack me up. Kiminori Wakasugi utilizes a wonderful Jekyll and Hyde relationship for main character Negishi and his demonic alter ego Johannes Krauser II. Negishi is constantly failing at being a sensitive pop star and all his frustrations get worked out as Krauser II. It’s hilarious to watch as everything usually falls apart and I can’t help but feel Wakasugi captured lighting in a bottle with this debut series. There was a great anime adaptation and even a live-action movie featuring Gene Simmons!

Available in English from VIZ.

~dakazu

291 – One Shot 27 – Memoirs of Amorous Gentlemen

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291 – One Shot 27 – Memoirs of Amorous Gentlemen

Our wonderful co-host Morgana Santilli is back from her maternity leave! She’s been busy being a new mom while reading lots of manga like SPY x Family, Happy Mania, Blue Flag, Kakushigoto: My Dad’s Secret Ambition, and How Do We Relationship?! To celebrate Morgana’s return we review her top manga from 2019, Memoirs of Amorous Gentlemen by Moyoco Anno!!!

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Trigun Maximum

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Trigun Maximum

A manga about an infamous gunslinger Vash the Stampede who travels across the desert planet Gunsmoke while avoiding bounty hunters.

I love Trigun. But when I say that I’m talking about the anime.

While the manga has a crazier story with the most elaborate fights, you just can’t parse what the hell is happening. Yasuhiro Nightow mixes extreme closeups and perspective angles along with inhuman monster designs. The end result is a garbled mess splashed on the page and nothing but confusion.

Since the manga isn’t even available from Dark Horse right now, don’t bother trying to track it down. Go watch the anime instead.

~dakazu

PLANETES

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PLANETES

A manga where space travel has given way to space pollution and follows a group of astronauts who collect debris.

Makato Yukimura is now well known for his current series Vinland Saga but before that he was known for this minor hit series. I really enjoy this book for the hard science approach to space exploration. Yukimura put a lot of thought into the nuances that would go into the daily lives of these astronauts who are basically blue collar garbage men. The story may be based on space but the focus is on human characters and their connections to each other.

There is also a fantastic anime adaptation that really fleshes out the journey of main character Hachimaki from jaded debris collector to enlightened Jupiter explorer. However the story arc that follows Fee Carmichael and explores the politics of space travel hurting 3rd world countries isn’t in the anime. Both are great and I recommend you check them out! English edition available from Dark Horse.

~dakazu

Gambling Apocalypse: KAIJI

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Gambling Apocalypse: KAIJI

A manga about a deadbeat man who falls deeper and deeper into a spiral of debt and gambling where the stakes keep growing.

We’ve discussed this book on an older episode.

I have a hard time recommending KAIJI to new readers because if you’ve never seen Nobuyuki Fukumoto‘s art work, you’d be shocked at how bad it looks. But while Fukumoto can’t even consistent draw body proportions correctly, I and millions of other are drawn to his manga because of his amazing storytelling.

Fukumoto cut his teeth on various mahjong manga where he effectively used bluffing and cheating tactics that lead to dramatic comebacks. KAIJI takes it a step further with various original gambling games that force our protagonist to struggle through betrayal, loss, and redemption. It’s entertainment at its finest.

If the art is keeping you from checking out the English edition from Denpa, you can always check out the excellent anime adaptation.

~dakazu

Holyland

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Holyland

A manga about bullied teenager who teaches himself martial arts and becomes street fighter known as the delinquent hunter.

We’ve talked about this on an older episode.

Holyland is the first Kouji Mori manga I ever read. I was immediately taken with the comprehensive breakdown of martial arts and fighting techniques displayed in this series. You can tell Mori did a lot of research into different fighting styles like boxing, wrestling, karate, kendo, kick boxing, and even knife fighting. Whenever characters would match up for fights Mori would break the 4th wall and address the audience with quick informative panels that broke down the mechanics of the moves. While our co-host Seamus hates this kind of stuff, I personally love it. It gave an extra layer of realism to the fights without sounding like shonen battle exposition. Mori would later use these info dumps for survival techniques in Jisatsutou as well.

A solid fighting manga for sure.

~dakazu

My Brother’s Husband

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My Brother’s Husband

A manga about a single Japanese father who’s visited by his late brother’s Canadian husband.

We’ve discuss this series on an older episode.

Love this series. Kana’s immediate acceptance of Mike is contrasted so well with Yaichi ignorance. As Yaichi begins to understand his brother-in-law it allows him to reconnect with his deceased twin brother as well. It’s all so heartwarming.

This manga might seem really basic with it’s LGBTQ+ themes but that’s because this it’s meant to be an introduction into the world of LGBTQ+. I’m so happy Gengaroh Tagame won the Eisner award for this book as recognition for the issues it addressed.

Highly recommended and it’s available from Pantheon Graphic Library.

~dakazu

Berserk

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Berserk

A dark fantasy about a former mercenary who wields a giant sword and travels the lands to take revenge against the monsters that took everything away from him.

I like Berserk. I like the story despite themes of sexual violence. And this is mostly because Kentaro Miura is a phenomenal artist. There is more detail and care put into a single panel by Miura than an entire volume of some artists. That’s why I’m completely over all the complaints people have about the long delays between new chapters for this book. It takes Miura a long time to draw out the thousands of ink lines that detail everything on the page. The internet loves to shit on Berserk but maybe they should take a moment to recognize how good the art is instead.

Now available in deluxe editions from Dark Horse Comics.

~dakazu

290 – No Longer Human part 2

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290 – No Longer Human part 2

This week dakazu tries to understand the end of Blue Flag and cries ! Then Seamus has some choice words for Junji Ito’s adaptation of No Longer Humanas we finish our Retrospective!!!

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