Vanilla Spider

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Vanilla Spider

A manga about a teenage boy with no presence who hunts alien creatures with a faucet pipe to protect the girl he’s stalking.

I’ve talked about Youichi Abe’s other manga Chimoguri Ringo to Kingyobachi Otoko before and this is another book with a similar concept of teenagers fighting against evil creatures with a mix of everyday items and gory monsters. 

I really enjoy the way Abe uses white lines against black clothing to create shadows in his artwork and the designs of his monsters are always creative and creepy looking. I’ll make sure to check out other manga by him in the future.

~dakazu

Yaomori no Elie

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Yaomori no Elie

A manga about a young man who starts working for a produce distributor to help sell the food farmers grow to the grocery stores.

This is a first for me as I haven’t seen a manga that focuses solely on distributing produce. You learn a lot about the plight of both farmers and produce stores that struggle to make ends meet.

I enjoyed seeing a manga cover something different and liked it!

~dakazu

Plus-Sized Elf

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Plus-Sized Elf

A manga about an Elf and other fantasy supernatural beings who need help slimming down after losing weight.

This manga is 100% fan service. Don’t let the tips about losing weight fool you. The concept of this manga is to have chubby female versions of various RPG fantasy beings in tight clothing. I can see the appeal of this series but after 1 volume I was personally alright with never picking this up again. I’d rather read something with more substance that isn’t so blatantly fan service.

This is available in English from Seven Seas Entertainment.

~dakazu

Ramenya no Yome

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Ramenya no Yome

Super cute manga about a wife who works to support her husband’s dream of starting a ramen shop.

I loved the chibi art style of this manga and the lighthearted story presented 4-panel style. In between chapters the husband and wife would review real ramen joints from Japan!

~dakazu

Rin to Cheer.

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Rin to Cheer.

A manga about high school freshman Rin who aspires to be a male cheerleader like his older brother was. He helps rebuild his school’s cheerleading squad and gathers other members.

What a great manga with a positive message about breaking stereotypes and social norms. Not only does Rin have to fight against the stigma of being a male cheerleader, he deals with a difficult situation at home. Rin’s brother ran away  after their mother rejected him as a transwoman and now she’s obsessed with keeping Rin “manly” and opposing his dreams of cheerleading. By the end of the story Rin is able to convince her that cheerleading is his passion and gets her to reconnect with his brother. There’s also another character that’s dealing with her romantic feelings for her female best friend. Lots of LGBTQ+ issues are addressed throughout this manga along with what masculinity means in society.

A short and sweet series. It ran in Young Jump so I hope VIZ will consider bringing it over.

~dakazu

Kyou no Yokohama-ka

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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

204 – One Shot 15 – Nijigahara Holograph

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204 – One Shot 15 – Nijigahara Holograph

On this episode we review Inio Asano’s Nijigahara Holograph! Will dakazu, Darfox, and Seamus be able to decipher this strange story?

Continue reading →

Itadaki! Nariagari Meshi

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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

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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

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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