Category Archives: dakazu’s reading

Various manga dakazu’s read with some commentary

Fukujuu Toshi

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Fukujuu Toshi

A manga where clothes become monstrous creatures who being devouring humans.

Yeah….

Another apocalyptic gore series. The only difference is the really dumb premise of clothes being a plot by alien invaders who were secretly biding their time to wait until their numbers had spread so they can take over the earth. The protagonist has somehow kept his clothes from fully taking over his body and he must now try and survive both clothes monster and other human survivors who question him.

Just writing this about this is enough to roll my eyes. Hard pass on this one for me.

~dakazu

We Never Learn

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We Never Learn

A romantic comedy about a male high school student who must tutor two girl geniuses in subject they are incompetent in.

I tried.

I really did, I swear.

The anime started and I tried to actually get into this manga but I just can’t.

Too much typical harem-style plots and excessive fan service for me.

~dakazu

Noise

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Noise

A manga about a small and quiet country town that must deal with a stranger that is a criminal on the run.

Really interesting series. The story setup is almost more suited for a drama than a manga. After young men of the town deal with the stranger they must continue to hide what they’ve done as more people arrive to investigate their small town.

Also the title as very apt as the ‘noise’ of what happens begins to grow out of control.

I’m really interested to see how everything will end up playing out.

~dakazu

Tonari no Akujo

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Tonari no Akujo

A manga about a woman who plots to steal her childhood sweetheart’s love by moving in next door and ruining his girlfriend’s life.

I enjoyed Tamaki Vanessa Chihiro’s Yokohama Doppelganger so I checked out this new book she did. This series is hella creepy because the evil woman Kanon takes her time to slowly manipulate her love and the girlfriend.

It’s a good slow burn.

~dakazu

H.P. Lovecraft’s The Hound and Other Stories

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H.P. Lovecraft’s The Hound and Other Stories

Checked out another round of H.P. Lovecraft stories adapted into manga by Gou Tanabe. Tanabe’s artwork continues to be amazing as it really brings out the majesty and horror of Lovecraft. ‘The Temple’ might be my favorite one I’ve read so far.

Highly recommend these books for fans of both Lovecraft and horror in general.

~dakazu

Bokura wa Mahou Shounen

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Bokura wa Mahou Shounen

A manga about a boy with a strong sense of justice who dreams of becoming a superhero getting magic powers that turn him into a magical girl.

This manga is interesting because it plays with the concepts of gender stereotypes. At first the boy is embarrassed at transforming into a cute outfit. Eventually he must overcome his own feelings and accept that he is cute which in turn makes him more powerful.

I questioned how creator Teppei Fukushima would handle issues of gender identity but so far the series has done a good job with representation.

~dakazu

8 Tales of the ZQN

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8 Tales of the ZQN

An anthology manga based on Kengo Hanazawa’s I am a Hero.

This is an awesome collection by a star-studded group of manga artists. You have Mengo Yokoyari of Scum’s Wish doing a great backstory on Hiromi, horror master Junji Ito doing a story about fast vs. slow zombies, and Koji Yoshimori doing a manga biography on Hanazawa’s life, just to name a few. Even with my reservations about aspects of I am a Hero, I highly enjoyed this anthology!

~dakazu

Akuma-kun

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Akuma-kun

A horror series about a young boy who wants to open a portal to hell and summon demons.

Wow.

My first exposure to Shigeru Mizuki’s classics Akuma-kun series was the 90′s TV show reboot. It’s probably my favorite Mizuki series just because I loved the monsters who fought along with Akuma-kun to rid the world of evil. I think Mizuki really got to stretch his creative wings from his Japanese horror roots. But I never knew that his original origins were so sinister.

The Akuma-kun here is a horrifying child who ultimately wants to take over the world with monsters. It reminded me a lot of the anime Hakaba Kitarou, which was also a dark version of it’s original series.

~dakazu

Mato Seihei no Slave

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Mato Seihei no Slave

A manga where a connection to another dimension filled with monsters cause all women to develop superpowers. A high school boy enters becomes a slave soldier for a female anti-demon hunter but in exchange receives perverted rewards.

Making the world where men have become inferior but the protagonist just happens to have a hidden talent that makes him strong is some needlessly over complicated setup for a typical male empowerment harem story. Add in the fact that the female members must repay him by granting his sexual desires and it’s hard not to laugh at the extent the author Takahiro is going to get to that “sweet fan service” from a stupid ecchi series. It’s a shame too because I think the art work by Youhei Takemura is very good, especially his fight scenes.

It’s currently running on Jump+ and it’s 100% not for me.

~dakazu

Reversibleman

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Reversibleman

A manga where people who’ve turned inside out become monsters who only live to full fill their darkest desires. A high school girl uses her failed “reversible” ability to store guns in her body to get revenge against the monster who killed her sister.

This is just a mediocre manga. There’s a lot of gory body horror with scenes of people turning inside out but the artwork is mediocre. If I’m going to suffer through something with gross stuff like that it needs to be stylized or unique in a way that should capture my intention. Instead I was endlessly eye rolling from the scenes of human intestines attacking people like tentacles or 10 guns being pulled from inside a small high school girl’s body.

It might sound interesting when I describe it but I assure you this one is really just meh.

~dakazu