Category Archives: dakazu’s reading

Various manga dakazu’s read with some commentary

Dandadan

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Dandadan

A manga about a high school girl who gains psychic powers after being attacked by aliens and a high school boy who becomes cursed by the Turbo Granny curse.

We’ve discussed this on Darfox Dabbles.

As the description implies, this series has a really bizarre premise. However, despite the convoluted setup, Yukinobu Tatsu‘s fantastic art helps carry the story along. Tatsu was a former assistant under Chainsaw Man‘s Tatsuki Fujimoto and it totally shows. The action scenes are dynamic yet easy to parse. It’s easy to see why the manga community was excited for this new series.

Unfortunately Dandadan isn’t available legally in English. It is on MANGA Plus but only in Spanish. Hopefully that means an English release is being worked on by a publisher right now, and we’ll eventually get to read it soon.

~dakazu

New Japan Academy

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New Japan Academy

A manga about wrestler Tetsuya Naito and his journey to become the champion at New Japan Academy

We’ve discussed this on a recent episode.

This is a weird manga. And I say that specifically because it is taking the “career” of New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s Tetsuya Naito and putting that into a fictional story.

Professional wrestling is a fascinating form of entertainment that becomes a mix of reality and fiction. I would’ve preferred an interview style manga that exposed some behind-the-scenes facts about the biggest storylines in New Japan. Instead we get a generic school setting and a retelling of events that are the equivalent of the WWE comics.

Hiroku‘s cute character designs also didn’t seem to match the wrestlers. But this series is 2 volumes total so I might revisit this to see if they get into Naito’s evolution of his character.

It’s available in English from Yen Press.

~dakazu

Seven Shakespeares

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Seven Shakespeares

A fictional story about the origins of William Shakespeare.

We’ve discussed this on a recent episode.

While Harold Sakuishi may be taking some interesting historical liberties for the sake of storytelling, this series is very entertaining. Sakuishi is basically creating a narrative that includes every conspiracy theory about William Shakespeare. While some of his choices feel shallow and misrepresentative of cultures, you can’t deny his mastery of the visual narrative. My main complaint for this series is that unlike Sakuishi’s representative series BECK, this manga takes a long time until the story really starts getting into Shakespeare creating his famous plays in London.

Regardless, I am a big fan of this series and I’m very grateful that Harold Sakuishi returned to it after a 5 year hiatus with 7-nin No Shakespeare NON SANZ DROICT. That series has been rolled into Kodansha Comic‘s English editions of Seven Shakespeares.

~dakazu

Oshi no Ko

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Oshi no Ko

A manga about a mega popular 16 year-old idol who becomes pregnant with twins. When her mega-fan obstetrician is suddenly murdered, he finds himself reborn as one of the idol’s babies.

This manga is a collaboration between Kaguya-sama: Love is War writer Aka Akasaka and Mengo Yokoyari of Scum’s Wish fame. The premise of this series is pretty complex but you understand where story is headed in after the initial chapters. Yokoyari’s artwork is so great and I give Akasaka huge props for writing both this and Kaguya-sama: Love is War in Weekly Young Jump. I do question how Akasaka is bringing up the topic of social media’s effect on celebrities in the newest chapters, but I’ll have to read more to see if it’s handled appropriately.

~dakazu

Harigane Service

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Harigane Service

A sports manga about a high school volleyball player who can’t jump but his serves are 100% accurate.

We’ve talked about this on an older episode.

I’ve been enjoying Harigane Service since it started. The art style was so similar to Hideyuki Yonehara I was surprised to learn this is actually drawn by Tatsuya Ara. Ara had decent art work but the action is definitely not as dynamically exciting as Haikyu!! or other popular sports manga. However, I really like the story that follows this timid athlete who slowly overcomes his trauma thanks to his teammates. Currently the sequel Harigane Service Ace is serialized in Weekly Shonen Champion and it continues to be an entertaining series for me.

~dakazu

Caterpillar Girl and Bad Texter Boy

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Caterpillar Girl and Bad Texter Boy

A manga about a socially awkward teenage boy who’s popular childhood friend transforms into a giant caterpillar monster.

We’ve discussed this on a previous episode.

I really enjoyed this book. It reads a bit like a dark fairytale and I really loved Sanzo’s simple but effective art. The design of the caterpillar monster was equally cute and creepy. If you want to read a bittersweet romance between a man and a monster, then this is a good book for you!

Available in English from Yen Press.

~dakazu

Pollyanna

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Pollyanna

A collection of comics and essays in celebration of the Mother/Earthbound video game series from 35 contributors.

We’ve discussed this on a previous episode.

This is a fantastic tribute to Nintendo’s quirky role-playing-game Mother/Earthbound! It took a long time for me to acquire this book because shipping was limited due to the pandemic but I was so happy when I finally got it. Some well known manga artists like Taiyo Matsumoto and Inio Asano and even Toby Fox, creator of Undertale, contributed to this collection. I love all the different stories that celebrate the wonderful world of Mother/Earthbound!

~dakazu

The Promised Neverland

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The Promised Neverland

A manga about an orphanage that is actually a human farm for demon consumption.

We’ve discussed this on a previous episode.

The Promised Neverland was a hit series that ended this year after 181 chapters. I was personally never a big fan because Posuka Demizu‘s character art never resonated with me but I still skimmed through each new chapter in Weekly Shonen Jump.

This series took a turn after the story left the original setting and I can’t help but feel that Kaiu Shirai carefully crafted that first section of the story but hadn’t with the rest. The narrative never rebounded and it led to a subpar ending. It’s a shame that this series fizzled out at the end but I still think the beginning is good and I highly recommend the anime adaptation.

Available in English from VIZ.

~dakazu

Demon’s Plan

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Demon’s Plan

A manga about two orphans friends, Boro and Carlos, who obtain powers through an evil artifact known as Demon’s Plan.

Sometimes you read a manga and you can immediately tell it won’t succeed. Unfortunately Demon’s Plan was one of those manga. Basically everything from the character designs to the story structure seemed lacking compared to other series in Weekly Shonen Jump. This is another manga that might have found success in something like Weekly Shonen Champion but in Jump it fell flat and was canceled in 12 chapters.

Yoshimichi Okamoto hasn’t put out any other works since Demon’s Plan so they might have quit drawing. A sad fact that many manga artists quit before finding success.

~dakazu

Ole Golazo

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Ole Golazo

A manga about disgraced former Japanese Taekwondo Junior Champion Masami Banba who uses his dynamic kicking ability to play soccer.

What do I say about sports manga in Weekly Shonen Jump? They don’t succeed! Ole Golazo is no exception! So while Moue Takamasa‘s art is fine and the hook of applying skills from a martial art to a team sport is fun, it was more or less doomed to from the start!

~dakazu