Kyou no Yokohama-ka
A manga about Ryoichi Yokoyama’s family life.
I liked Yokoyama’s Sengoku Comiket and I also liked this. Yokoyama has a great sense for comedy and I loved all the funny anecdotes about his kids and wife. Stories like how his son being super critical of his manga was hilarious.
I recommend his work and I’m interested in tracking down some of his wife’s manga as well.
~dakazu
Itadaki! Nariagari Meshi
A food manga about a delinquent who decides to use his hobby of cooking to rise up in ranks at his school.
The mix of yankee fighting wtih food seems super odd at first but Hiromasa Okujima’s great drawings make it work. It’s also filled with funny reactions from the other delinquents who get “knocked out” by delicious flavors.
A fun read!
~dakazu
Koori no Joou
A manga about shy high school girl who follows a classmate to the ice rink and finds out he’s a figure skater. She becomes interested in figure skating herself and decides to pursue it as a career.
It’s been a while since a read a shojo manga but this one was pretty alright. Artwork was nice and the story was pretty standard.
The only thing the threw me for a loop was that they end up ditching the main protagonist after 2 chapters and focus on a completely different girl for the rest of the 2 volume series. The other girl wasn’t bad or anything but why setup the story with a character just to dump them so quickly? Weird.
~dakazu
Magical Girl Site
A manga about a middle school girl who’s granted magical powers through a strange website so she can take revenge on her bullies. Eventually she meets other magical girls and is wrapped up in a conflict between them and the website managers who have nefarious intentions.
This is made by the same creative team who did Magical Girl Apocalypse and is a spinoff of that series. While I ended up dropping Magical Girl Apocalypse, Magical Girl Site has been a pleasant surprise. Both the anime and manga start off real rough with brutal bullying scenes but after that the story picks up and I was very entertained reading this book.
It’s still on going and I’m following it for now. However, if they go into time-travel/alternate universes like Magical Girl Apocalypse I might end up dropping this as well. We shall see.
~dakazu
Makanai-kun
A food manga about a college freshman who stays in a house with his 3 older female cousins and cooks their meals.
The presented recipes aren’t bad but for a food manga the food looks very plain and unappetizing. Also I wasn’t a fan of the weird sexual tension between these cousins. I say pass on this one.
~dakazu
Pro Golfer Saru
Fujiko Fujio A.’s sports manga about a monkey-like genius golf boy.
I remember reading a few Saru manga in my childhood and recently got to revisit them. Looking at them now it’s pretty crazy how a series about an alcohol loving monkey boy was marketed as a children’s manga.
Regardless, I was actually really impressed with Fujiko A’s artwork. He uses a lot of shadows and inking in both characters and background speed lines to give this simple children’s manga a more gekiga style. But the designs of the Saru’s golf rivals look so cartoony that I laughed.
I read more of Fujiko F. Fujio’s manga growing up so it was nice to revisit Fujio Fujiko A.’s work instead.
~dakazu
Golden Kamuy
A manga about a Russo-Japanese war veteran who teams up with a young Ainu huntress to track down escaped convicts for their tattoos that will combine into map that leads to a hidden cache of gold in Hokkaido.
Yeah, this is basically a Japanese Western set in a the snowy lands of Hokkaido but it who cares because it’s an amazing manga. I love all the eating scenes and every time Sugimoto shouts “I AM SUGIMOTO THE IMMORTAL!”.
This series even won 2018 Grand Prize for the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Awards. The anime had fantastic casting and the only con was the CG animated animals.
Super entertaining and 100% available in English legally from Viz. Go read it!
~dakazu
Spicy Cafe Girl
A manga about stories revolving around the Thai restaurant Duan in Tokyo. New hire Tetsuya ends up getting wrapped up in some crazy adventures because of the potential shady past of the master.
I’ve talked about Akira Fukaya’s Mitsurin Shounen before. Fukaya likes to create a lot of manga based around South Asian countries and cuisines. The master of the Duan is a reoccurring character in a few other Fukaya titles. I like his art style and loved the fun cast of characters from the little Afghanistan girl to the badass Ellie. I’m sad this is only a single volume release and would have loved to read more stories about them all.
~dakazu
Angolmois – Genkou Kassenki
A manga about disgraced samurai Jinzaburo Kuchii defending Tsushima island from Mongol invasions of the Kamakura period of Japan.
With the recent release of the anime adaptation, a lot of people noticed how this series covers the same subject as the upcoming AAA video game Ghost of Tsushima for Playstation 4. Comparisons aside, I’m unfamiliar with the Kamakura period so this was a fun read. The battles are intense and the story has a good sense of dread as the Mongol hoards keep surrounding the defending samurai forces. My only complaint is the designs for the faces look kinda plain. Especially for Jinzaburou. Otherwise a fun read and I’m currently enjoying the look of the anime as well.
~dakazu
Our Dreams at Dusk: Shimanami Tasogare
A manga about a gay teenager who finds a gathering of fellow LGBTQ+ people in his town that’s run by a mysterious and mystical woman.
I read some of this and my first thought was that it was the most progressive LGBTQ+ manga that I’ve ever read. I find that most manga covering LGBTQ+ topics tend to be behind modern times or are very basic, such as My Brother’s Husband. It was nice to read something more realistic and current.
Everyone is super excited that Seven Seas Entertainment is bringing an official English release and so am I!
~dakazu