Category Archives: dakazu’s reading

Various manga dakazu’s read with some commentary

Manga Poverty

Posted on by

Manga Poverty

A chronicle of manga artist Shuho Sato’s struggle with trying to live off of manga artist wages and his decision to leave print publishers and start his own digital distribution manga website.

Super fascinating and informative read. Sato doesn’t not shy away from his bitter experiences dealing with publishers and how it effected his opinions on the manga industry. Great book and the only shame is that the English version doesn’t come with a manga introduction that was in the original Japanese version.

This is available for purchase on the amazon kindle store and we discussed this with Deb Aoki on a recent podcast.

~dakazu

Kanojo ga Bikini Armor ni Kigaetara

Posted on by

Kanojo ga Bikini Armor ni Kigaetara

A manga about a cute house wife who sometimes returns to her fantasy world where she was the ultimate hero.

Yeah, this is 100% an ecchi manga. It doesn’t shy away from sexual stuff or lots of fan service. I don’t normally care for this kind of stuff but found myself really enjoying the contrasting art style when the wife travels between worlds. The fantasy world in particular had some really nice hand drawn shadows that aren’t used very often anymore. That art style change was good enough for me to finish both volumes.

~dakazu

Tokyo Kakugeki

Posted on by

Tokyo Kakugeki

A manga that follows a family trying to survive after a nuclear strike in the heart of Tokyo.

This was a pretty chilling thing to read considering how everything was presented with realism. The book covers a lot of factual information about what happens during a nuclear explosion along with how to deal with the fallout afterwords. It was surprisingly light on human drama and almost came off as a manga version of a nuclear survival guide.

This series ran earlier this year around the height of the Korean missile scare. I that sense it seems a little opportunistic as was maybe trying to cash into current events. However on the other hand it is very informative and therefore useful. Hard to say if that makes it better all things considered.

~dakazu

Bokko

Posted on by

Bokko

A manga about how a single man named Kakuri answers the call to defend the city of Ryo from an invasion army of Cho during the warring states period of ancient China.

Revisited this manga recently and it’s still so very good. Hideki Mori of Lone Wolf and Cub does some amazing art work that brings Ken’ichi Sakemi novel to life. I find it a little funny how the king of Shin is depicted as the ultimate bad guy in this series but in Yasuhisa Hara’s KINGDOM he’s a hero.

Great series and fun read.

~dakazu

My Darling is a Foreigner: We moved to Berlin

Posted on by

My Darling is a Foreigner: We moved to Berlin

Another volume of Saori Oguri’s chronicle of interracial marriage. This one follows Oguiri as she relocates to Germany.

I loved Oguri’s series since I found it. Her cute drawings work well with a documentary-style storytelling as she explains everything about moving from Japan to life in Berlin. Super fun to read and very informative. I approve!

~dakazu

Ichinichi Gaishutsuroku Hanchou

Posted on by

Ichinichi Gaishutsuroku Hanchou

A lighthearted spin-off of Gambling Apocalypse: KAIJI that follows foreman Ootsuki as he leisurely enjoys his 1-day vacations from the underground debt labor camp.

Compared to Mr. TONEGAWA: Middle Management Blues this spin-off is not purely a comedy. Sometimes the foreman just has a nice time eating good meals and other times he gets into some wacky adventures with his two underlings. I personally like this spin-off more.

My favorite part of this manga is that whenever the series needs to take a short hiatus from it’s serialization in Young Magazine, there’s a page that shows the foreman’s saving are depleted along with the message “We need to save up more money before we can go on another 1-day vacation!”

~dakazu

Mr. TONEGAWA: Middle Management Blues

Posted on by

Mr. TONEGAWA: Middle Management Blues

A comedy spin-off of Gambling Apocalypse: KAIJI that follows the hardships of Yukio Tonegawa as the 2nd in command of an evil corporation run by the crazy old coot Kazutaka Hyoudo.

My initial reaction to this was “another spin-off?” but I was shocked at how great this is. Taking the aspects of KAIJI and turning them on their head for laughs works amazingly. The creators Tensei Hagiwara & Tomohiro Hashimoto do a perfect copy of Nobuyuki Fukumoto’s art style and storytelling. I laughed so hard at the parody of the inspirational ‘Brave Man Road’ monologue that I was crying.

The anime adaptation is even better with the narrator being my favorite character. If you’re a fan of KAIJI than you should definitely check it out!

~dakazu

Busa-men Gachi-Fighter

Posted on by

Busa-men Gachi-Fighter

A manga about a man who is sent to a fantasy RPG world to relive his ruined life. He joking uses the exploit of lowing your physical appearance to get bonus status points and ends up becoming a super overpowered god.

This seems like another typical novel based male empowerment fantasy as the gimmick of being ugly makes you godlike is equal parts gross and stupid. However I was surprised that after the protagonist realizes he’s immortal, he slyly uses his powers to help his fellow teammates. Constantly trying to hide his god-like stats from them and help protect them. The more I read of this I liked.

I’m willing to stick with it for now. Hopefully it won’t devolve into the typical harem style story of most lite novels.

~dakazu

Tokyo Ghoul:re

Posted on by

Tokyo Ghoul:re

I’m happy to say that in the end I really enjoyed Tokyo Ghoul:re. Sui Ishida’s confusing dramatic panel layouts ended up growing on me in the end. I was surprised that the ending was a happy one because they were setting up the finale to be tragic. Still liked it though.

I will definitely watch the 2nd half of the anime coming this fall. Maybe Ishida can get back to writing more of THE PENISMAN (no, it’s not a joke and it was actually really good)

Available through VIZ.

~dakazu

Blaster Knuckle

Posted on by

Blaster Knuckle

A manga about an ex-Heavyweight Boxer fights against the KKK who are secretly demons that devour African Americans in the Wild West.

This book is trying so hard to be Berserk it’s hilarious. The hero’s secret weapon is a modified gauntlet that shoots shotgun shells on impact. Sound familiar?

After this series ended in 3 volumes, Shizuya Wazarai went on to make an awesome gladiator manga called Kentou Ankokuden Cestvs which is so much better. Kinda sorry to see he started off with a blatant copy of Berserk.

~dakazu