Author Archives: dakazu

Egawa to Nishimoto

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Egawa to Nishimoto

A manga covering the real life baseball rivalry of Suguru Egawa and Takashi Nishimoto.

I’m a fan of Yasushi Hoshino’s Tetsuya – Jansei to Yobareta Otoko so I decided to check out his current series. Hoshino’s unique character faces work well to convey the drama between Egawa and Nishimoto as the manga begins with their high school careers and works it’s way to their eventual rivalry to be the ace pitcher for the Yomiuri Giants.

The author Yuji Moritaka is also the writer of the excellent Gurazeni: Money Pitch and I really like how intricately he covers everything from pitching technique to the public hype surrounding these two players.

I’ll definitely be reading more of this.

~dakazu

Change!

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Change!

A manga about a high school girl who gets draw into the world of freestyle rap battles.

While it actually isn’t that unique as a subject for manga, I’m pretty impressed with how rap battles are treated seriously here. I like how Change! follows the growth of the protagonist Shiori as she starts from the bottom and it motivates her to grow and builds her own rapping style.

Masahito Soda has done a lot of different manga and I was a big fan of his racing series Capeta. His artwork works well to capture the kinetic energy of a crowd at a rap battle.

It’s currently running in Monthly Shonen Magazine.

~dakazu

The Seven Deadly Sins

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The Seven Deadly Sins

 

This series will be ending soon and while I’m a bit sad I think it’s a good time to wrap up this epic story. I was personally a little disappointed at how the final battle played out. While it had some problematic things like Meliodas’ casual perverted side, I still think this was a great manga.

~dakazu

238 – Anime Interlude 10 – Dororo

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238 – Anime Interlude 10 – Dororo

Miki’s Stopwatch returns and fights through his audio problems as we discuss anime from the 2019 winter season and new stuff from the 2019 spring season!!

Continue reading →

Soft Metal Vampire

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Soft Metal Vampire

A manga about a girl who becomes targeted by the government and a squad of element manipulating dhampir squad that protects her.

I’m a fan of Hiroki Endo and while it’s nice to see him get back to his sci-fi roots, this series suffers from being pretty generic. The concept of these dhampirs manipulating different elements like Carbon or Nitrogen is something a child would come up with. Even the dhampirs’ mouths open up like a parasitic maw like the vampires from the movie Blade 2.

I will say Endo’s utilizing what he learned from All Rounder Meguru in all the action scene. Unfortunately everything from his monster to armor designs are just super rote and uninteresting.

It’s currently serialized in Afternoon Magazine.

I don’t think I’ll be keeping up with this one myself.

~dakazu

TIEMPO

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TIEMPO

A soccer manga about a timid player who is bullied by his talented senior but it leads to him to display an untapped potential of observation.

A decent sports manga by newcomer Daisuke Iino. It’s always interesting to see how sports manga are done a little differently when they run in a seinen magazine but this one seems like it’s closer to a typical shonen sports book. The best parts so far is seeing the growth of the main character as he unlocks his potential for soccer.

Currently running in Young Jump.

~dakazu

Kikaijikake no Juvenile

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Kikaijikake no Juvenile

A manga that takes place in a world where soldiers are enhanced with cybernetic prosthetics. A young cybernetic mechanic must use this weapon to get revenge on the criminals who murdered his mother.

A new series by PACT creator Shinnosuke Kuji. I really like the intensity of Kuji’s art when he draws characters who are just fuming for revenge. He conveys anger with heavy detailing on faces that juxtapose their overall simple designs.

With PACT I really hated how generic his overall design aesthetic was and unfortunately I haven’t really seen a great improvement here. I’m hoping that the story will makeup for that as I continue to check it out.

Currently running in Young Magazine the 3rd.

~dakazu

Hoankan Evans no Uso: Dead or Love

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Hoankan Evans no Uso: Dead or Love

A manga about sheriff Elmore Evans, who became one of the best lawmen in the West because he wanted to be popular with the ladies.

I really like this fun comedy. I like how Evans comes off as cool and collected to others but his sole motivations for everything is based on his desire for romance. His eternal rival/love interest, bounty hunter Phoebe, is secretly attracted to him and I assume the series will eventually end with them being together.

Honestly I’m surprised the story gimmick hasn’t worn out it’s welcome yet but I’ll keep reading it because I like it.

Currently running in Weekly Shonen Sunday.

~dakazu

Kumo no Graduale

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Kumo no Graduale

A manga about an elite aerial operatives that destroy weapons in a world filled with airships.

I remember this manga because my brother was reading it. He never had the final volume so I’m glad I got to track that down and read it. Too bad it was one of those “End Part 1″ deals.

I liked a lot of the characters and they barely finished recapping the origins of the main girl when it ended. I’d recommend it with the caveat that it’s unfinished.

~dakazu

Farewell, My Dear Cramer

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Farewell, My Dear Cramer

A sports manga that follows a group of high school female soccer players as they work to build a team that can compete in the nationals.

We’ve discussed this on several episodes found here, here, and here.

Our co-host Seamus recommended this one and I really liked it. There are plenty of soccer manga out there but this one is solely focused on female players. I liked how the series even addresses the problems these female athletes face in today’s society where they have such a limited opportunity to pursue a career because of how minor female soccer is in Japan.

A solid sports manga. I’ll be reading more. It’s available digitally through Crunchyroll and comiXology.

~dakazu