Category Archives: dakazu’s reading

Various manga dakazu’s read with some commentary

Saeism

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Saeism

A manga about a bullied girl saved by the school idol Sae, only to become the target Sae’s obsessive and controlling love.

We discussed this on a previous episode.

This one is pretty interesting. My only complaint is that the story sets Sae up to be this omnipotent character that is impossible to beat. She counters any obstacle put in her way with ease and it makes her way overpowered.

I’ll keep reading it for now mostly to see if Sae will ever get her comeuppance and hopefully it won’t feel like it’s dragging on.

~dakazu

Beet the Vandel Buster

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Beet the Vandel Buster

A manga about a boy warrior who inherits the weapons of his idolized heroes and begins his journey to rid the world of demonic Vandels who plague the lands.

Riku Sanjo and Koji Inada worked together on Dragon Quest – Dai no Daibouken, which is one of my favorite manga I read growing up. Beet the Vandel Buster is very similar but allows these two to create an original adventure without the trappings of Dragon Quest that’s just as good.

I was really saddened when the series went on hiatus in 2006 after Inada became ill. Miraculously it’s been revived a decade later and I’m super happy I get to keep reading this great shonen series.

I also loved the anime and it’s opening themes by the now defunct music duo sunbrain. Our podcast outro will always be wishmen from the 2nd opening!

~dakazu

given

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given

A manga about a teenage boy who reluctantly teaches another boy how to play his inherited guitar.

I watched the anime and ended up reading the manga. The art by Natsuki Kizu is good but I was disappointed with the generic way the romance between Ritsuka and Mafuyu. Mafuyu’s tragic backstory seemed really rote and ultimately uninteresting. It’s a bit unfortunate because the manga has turned me off of watching any more of the anime and I enjoyed the actual music from the show. I just don’t want to bother with the story.

Anime is available to watch on Crunchyroll.

~dakazu

Shinkyu Chie no Osake no Ojikan desu

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Shinkyu Chie no Osake no Ojikan desu

A manga from Chie Shinkyu enjoying food and drinks at home.

Another great non-fiction from the creator of Wakako Zake! I liked her series Shinkyu Chie no Neko Bitashi which was about her cats. Now she’s focusing on her wheelhouse of booze and sharing stories about drinking at home. Love it!

~dakazu

Tenchou, Dame, Zettai

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Tenchou, Dame, Zettai

A manga about how a college student finds the dandy man of her dreams only to find out he’s actually a mature looking 16-year-old teenager.

I gotta say I can get behind this kind of shoujo manga. It’s reminiscent of My Love Story!! in a lot of ways. There’s a lot of good comedy to be had with a male love interest as muscular and manly as Duke Togo and juxtapose that with him dressing in a school uniform and riding a bicycle.

I really enjoyed this one.

~dakazu

Nekoze wo Nobashite

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Nekoze wo Nobashite

A collection of depressing stories about Rensuke Oshikiri‘s life.

I love Rensuke Oshikiri and it’s always fun to read any of his non-fiction works like Pico-Pico Shounen or this one. The stories here range from the time Oshikiri lived with his mother in a small apartment to his school life where a violent teacher almost dropped him off the roof.

Oshikiri is always able to weave an entertaining story. I was particularly impressed with how he changed his art style for many of these stories into one that looks like it was drawn with heavy black lines. It gave everything a really melancholy look to it.

~dakazu

Katteni Shirokuma

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Katteni Shirokuma

A manga about a polar bear cub being raised by in a family of brown bears.

A pretty interesting series. I’ve read other works by Koji Aihara and between his distinct art style and really low-brow sense of humor, it makes his manga different than other mainstream titles. And I’m not joking about his comedy sense. There’s a lot of jokes about defecating and sexual reproduction with the forest animals. It comes off as juvenile humor for adults.

Fun fact. The same polar bear shows up in Aihara’s Shin Ishu Kakutou Taisen as one of the animals battling in a tournament for supremacy of the animal kingdom.

~dakazu

Yutai Nova

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Yutai Nova

A manga about a young man who spies on his crush through astral projection until he meets another astral projected girl.

As far as a title from Shuzo Oshimi goes, I have to say that this one isn’t that great. I think everything he did before The Flowers of Evil fall under the category of ecchi seinen genre like Devil Ecstasy. There are some small glimmers of dark psychological motifs but it’s hard to parse them from scenes of an astral projection gang bang. It’s not surprising that one was seemingly canceled after 2 volumes.

Probably not worth reading even if you’re a huge fan of Oshimi.

~dakazu

Ride-On King

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Ride-On King

A manga where the president of Pursia, Alexander Purchinov, who is obsessed with riding on top of things gets sent to a fantasy world where he will now ride mythical creatures.

Yasushi Baba got popular with the martial-arts genre and has slowly veered off into serious comedy. This series seems like the end result of his journey into absurdist territory. I’ve talked about how crazy Golosseum was and now Baba has taken his parody of Vladimir Putin and done an isekai series about riding dragons and wyverns. It’s bizarre to say the least.

~dakazu

Iwa kakeru! Climbing Girls

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Iwa kakeru! Climbing Girls

A manga about a former national champion puzzle gamer who uses her ability of analysis to become a natural at climbing.

This is a typical setup for sports series where a complete amateur just so happens to have a particular ability that makes them excel at a sport. In this case, it’s climbing.

There’s a lot of emphasis on girls wearing tight fitting sports gear climbing which means there’s a lot of fan service pleasing perspectives. If that’s your thing then you’ll probably enjoy this but I think I prefer Kabedon! because it tackles the sport of climbing without excessive T&A.

Also is there a climbing boom in Japan or something?

~dakazu