Black Clover

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Black Clover

A manga about a young boy determined to become the Magic Emperor, defender of the kingdom, despite being born with no magic power. He uses anti-magic swords and competes against his childhood friend and rival as he climbs the ranks of the Magic Knights.

…Yeah so this is 100% the plot of Naruto except you’ve replaced ninjas with magic.

Despite the unoriginal setup for this shonen battle manga, Black Clover is really enjoyable. Yuki Tabata’s art style is perfect for his action scenes that use dynamic paneling.

One aspect of this series that I want to praise is it’s refreshing take on the rivalry between Asta and Yuno. Unlike other shonen battle series where the main rival usually hates the protagonist, Yuno respects and believes in Asta and purely wants to compete with him.

One of the highest quality by-the-books shonen titles right now.

~dakazu

Spice Beam

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Spice Beam

A manga about a young man who starts working at the Thai restaurant Chang run by the mysterious master and the beautiful Paula.

This series is EXACTLY the same another series by Akira Fukaya called Spicy Cafe Girl. This book is almost feels like a remake considering it came out 5 years later.

While I liked this book I think I preferred the characters and stories from Spicy Cafe Girl in comparison.

~dakazu

Terror Night

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Terror Night

A manga about a young man who ends up forming a “Teller” and “Terror” duo with the Slit Mouth woman.

A manga focusing on Urban Legends isn’t uncommon but this book mixes terror with comedy as the main character has to deal with appeasing the affections of the Slit Mouth woman or being sliced up instead. Eventually the series turns into a battle manga as different allegories pair up with humans who “Tell” the tales of “Terror”. I would’ve personally been better with just a light-hearted romantic comedy instead. Besides, I feel like this manga has to end with the boy ending up with the Slit Mouth woman so you might as well keep it light.

I will praise Takashi Tsukimi’s character designs as the Slit Mouth woman is a super cute and endearing character.

~dakazu

The Girl from the Other Side

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The Girl from the Other Side

A manga about a young girl protected by a demonic looking man who is an Outsider.

This manga is fantastic. Nagabe’s art work is phenomenal and gorgeous looking. The plot might be a little slow but I really liked how they used that slow pacing to maintain a sense of dread and uncertainty with barely any actions.

We’ve discussed it on this episode if you’d like to hear our detailed thoughts. Highly recommended you check this book out for yourself.

~dakazu

Uramichi Oniisan

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Uramichi Oniisan

A manga about a man who works on a children’s television show who ends up showing his dark, cynic, and pessimistic personality sometimes.

I love this kind of dark comedy. Uramichi bitching about responsibilities of being a functioning adult to the children on his show are priceless.

On an interesting side note, I learned about this web manga series after creator Gaku Kuze posted a small Uramichi Oniisan short on twitter complaining about the state of manga piracy. Somehow it was very fitting for this character to explain why Japanese publishers were hesitant to crack down on manga piracy. It’s a good thing they’ve recently changed their attitude about it.

~dakazu

Yokohamasen Doppelganger

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Yokohamasen Doppelganger

A manga about a man accused of murders he didn’t commit that travel back in time 11 years to team up with his younger self to find the true killer. 

An interesting murder mystery with a sci-fi twist. I really liked the idea of a protagonist who can literally trust himself. There’s some great parallels happening with the future version being obsessed with killing the killer and the past self wanting more to save the victims. I won’t spoil it but I really liked the ending too.

~dakazu

217 – Triple Dip 32 – Kasane, Give My Regards to Black Jack, Higanjima

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217 – Triple Dip 32 – Kasane, Give My Regards to Black Jack, Higanjima

Get ready for another Triple Dip this week with Kasane, Higanjima and Give My Regards to Black Jack!

Continue reading →

Reincarnation no Kaben

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Reincarnation no Kaben

A manga about humans who access the powers of historical figures from their past lives by using transmigration.

While it’s interesting to see how creator Mikihisa Konishi interprets the powers of various historical figures, this book fails on executing it’s story with giant dumps of exposition and some confusing panel layouts.

You can listen to us discuss the series on this episode if you want to hear more details.

~dakazu

Pentabu to Sensha

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Pentabu to Sensha

A wacky comedy about a military otaku who time travels back to join a tank squad during the forgotten Soviet-Japanese war of 1939.

The concept of sending an otaku back in history isn’t unique as I’ve talked about Sengoku Comiket before. The main difference here is the leader of the tank squad has a fetish for tanks and eventually decides to keep fighting so that he can one day attend comiket.

Honestly I’m wasn’t interested in a lot of the moe based jokes so this one fell a little flat for me but I did really like Rem Sakakibara’s character art.

~dakazu

Orebushi

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Orebushi

A manga about a young man who leaves his hometown for Tokyo to become an Enka singer.

I decided to read this because I was immediately intrigued by the art. Seiki Tsuchida uses are very realistic art style and it fits with the tale of young Kouji who tries to overcome his social awkwardness to become a performer. The story is filled with romance and drama. I enjoyed the use of real Enka song lyrics that accentuated the plot, making a kind of soundtrack to for the book.

~dakazu