Chuni no Danshi to Dairokkan
A story about a bullied 8th grade boy and his imaginary female friend, ‘Master’, who mentors him.
Shigeyuki Fukumitsu is known for his autobiographical diary stuff so reading a story-based fictional manga from him was refreshing. He’s relatively unknown in the West but I recommend reading any of his work because it’s all entertaining.
~dakazu
Nobunaga no Chef
Gourmet manga about a man who’s time traveled to the Warring States period of Feudal Japan. He becomes the personal chef of Nobunaga Oda and uses his modern cooking for diplomacy to end conflicts. A fun alternate history/fish out of water story.
It’s been adapted to a live action television series and we’ve discussed it on a previous podcast as well.
~dakazu
Sousei no Taiga
New manga by Kouji Mori of Jisatsutou fame. This one is another survival manga that takes place when a group of teens are transported 40,000 years into the past. Love Mori’s work and this is no exception.
~dakazu
Kiritani-san Cho Sore Kuunsuka!?
A wacky comedy gourmet manga about high school girl Kiritani who has an appetite for bizarre foods. The jokes are a little one-note but it’s still pretty entertaining.
~dakazu
Kichikujima
Horror manga where a group of teenagers get stranded on an island ruled by crazy murderers. The murderer’s are a family heavily inspired by Texas Chain Massacre. The gore is over the top and the story has a bit of a supernatural element that grants the murderers immortality. It’s alright, not great.
~dakazu
153 – Manga in Motion 20 – Death Note 2017
This week dakazu’s been reading a lot! He’s amazed that Mizuki Shigeru was writing Watashi no Hibi when he was 91, checks out a decent rugby manga called Full Drum, sick of edgelord gore manga like Pygmalion, and finds a similar loser protagonist in Boys on the Run. Also, Seamus checks out volume 2 of Girl’s Last Tour, we check in with our weekly BEASTARS update, and dakazu has been deceived by the false advertising of GAMERS. Then we examine Netflix’s version of Death Note! We recap the original source material and weigh in on whether this movie is a good adaptation or not!
Continue readingWatashi no Hibi
Mizuki Shigeru’s last serialized autobiographical manga. He started this when he was 91 years old!!! A true legendary manga author, right up there with Osamu Tezuka and Shotarou Ishinomori.
~dakazu
Pygmalion
Another ‘our daily lives are destroyed by invading creatures’ manga. This one is about evil Mascot characters brutally murdering the masses. It’s very much in the same vein as Magical Girl Apocalypse. Not very good.
~dakazu
Gurazeni: Money Pitch
Unique manga dealing with the money contracts of Professional Baseball players.
The title literally means “money buried under the pitcher’s mound” and the protagonist is obsessed with each player’s yearly earnings. It works both as a informative insight into the business behind Baseball and a dramatic sports manga, which is a bit surprising considering the plain art style. An anime adaptation is coming next year.
~dakazu
King Golf
I’ve read a couple golf manga but a lot of them are (understandably) geared toward adult readers. This one is more shonen based with a cliche delinquent protagonist. It cracks me up because with so many scenes of people crying you’d think that golf is the most dramatic emotional sport to ever exist.
~dakazu