The Strange Tale of Panorama Island

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The Strange Tale of Panorama Island

A manga adaptation of the novel Panorama Toukidan drawn by ero-guro master Suehiro Maruo. Unlike Maruo’s other more extreme works, there is very little gore and violence in this adaptation. Instead he focuses on using his elaborate backgrounds and elegant designs to tell the story of a man who assumes the identity of his deceased look-alike friend to steal his fortune and build an hedonistic island paradise. An excellent manga and I’m glad I got to see another side of Maruo.

Available from Last Gasp.

~dakazu

Toumei Ningen no Hone

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Toumei Ningen no Hone

A manga about a teenage girl who uses her ability to become invisible to murder her violent father that beats her mom.

I was surprised with how this series wasn’t about some kind of revenge fantasy. The main character, Aya, ends up spending the majority of the manga dealing with the aftermath of the murder and being haunted by a ghost of her father. I was really impressed with Aya’s character development. She goes from being a loner to someone who develops real relationships with friends and eventually decides to face the consequences of her actions. It really helped that almost all characters were deep and complex in their own way.

Good human drama with a hint of fantasy. I liked it a lot.

~dakazu

Jinmen

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Jinmen

A manga where all animals suddenly have human faces and start murdering humans.

A pretty typical “____ starts attacking humans” story but using animals with faces aka jinmen was fairly unique. The art is good and the human/animal designs are very creepy. Oddly enough, my favorite parts were the bonus 4-panel style comedy strips they had at the end of each volume.

~dakazu

Hawkwood

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Hawkwood

A manga that follows a mercenary group fighting in the the 100 years war during the 14 century.

This manga was pretty good. The medieval Europe setting was very similar to Berserk sans demons and monsters. It’s a bit short and kinda has a non-ending but was worth reading.

~dakazu

Boku no Lunch wo Jamasuruna!

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Boku no Lunch wo Jamasuruna!

A manga about a freshman in high school who’s obsessed with making box lunches for himself. He constantly has to prevent others from eating his finely prepared meals which lead to comedic situations but he starts making friends though it as well.

A good food manga. Lots of the recipes they use are original and look very tasty. You can tell manga artist Kaho has experience drawing BL because there were heavy BL undertones, especially with the main character. Regardless I enjoyed this one.

~dakazu

Fuku wo Kiru Nara Konna Fuu ni

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Fuku wo Kiru Nara Konna Fuu ni

A manga about a young man who rediscovers his fashion sense after his sister helps him out.

I’ve read plenty of DIY/self improvement manga (mostly about food) but this is the first one I’ve seen that covers fashion. I didn’t really like it because pointing out flaws in someone’s fashion sense came off as pretentious instead of helping. This becomes more relevant later in the series when new characters show up that need to have their fashion “fixed”.

Not really for me and happy to read something else instead.

~dakazu

199 – Anime Interlude 7 – Megalo Box

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199 – Anime Interlude 7 – Megalo Box

It’s once again that time of the year for our anime expert Miki’s Stopwatch to join us and review the last season of anime. We pick our favorites and also give quick takes on some of the new summer anime as well!

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Meshiage!!

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Meshiage!!

A manga about the food Japanese soldiers ate during the Russo-Japanese war.

It was fun to read about what soldiers ate during this time period. My main complaint is that there wasn’t enough distinction between characters because they all wore the same uniform and had similar haircuts.

~dakazu