No Guns Life

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No Guns Life

A manga that takes place in a future where cybernetically enhanced soldiers called Extended are common place. Juzo Inui, a Gunhead Extend with amnesia, works as a detective and has just had a kid with a mysterious power everyone wants is put in his care.

This manga is aesthetically super cool. Tasuku Karasuma deserves some high praise for the unique design of Inui. But while I was interested to learn more about the hardboiled cyberpunk world Karasuma created, I ran into the same complaints I had with Yasuhiro Nightow and Sui Ishida works. It was hard to parse what was happening during the action sequences. Sometimes you just couldn’t tell what was occurring based on the perspective presented in the panels. I ended up dropping the book and now I’m watching the anime instead which is always a shame.

This is available in English from VIZ.

~dakazu

313 – Retrospective Redux 3 – A Silent Voice

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313 – Retrospective Redux 3 – A Silent Voice

This week we dive into spoilers for volume 8 of BEASTARS, Morgana checks out Pop Life from Star Fruit Books, dakazu loves Requiem of the Rose King, and we rejoice at the upcoming release of Tokyo Tarareba Girls Returns! Then we revisit one of our beloved Retrospectives with A Silent Voice and find ourselves with a lot of critiques for Yoshitoki Oima’s beloved series!!!

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Totsuidemo Otaku desu

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Totsuidemo Otaku desu

A sequel to Renai Sanjigen Debut ~Sanjudai Otaku Mangaka, Kekkon e no Michi.~ that follows manga artist Ayami Kazama‘s heavily otaku-like married life.

We’ve discussed this on a recent episode.

While I enjoyed Renai Sanjigen Debut ~Sanjudai Otaku Mangaka, Kekkon e no Michi.~ a lot I was disappointed to learn Kazama had married Azure Konno. I honestly should’ve stopped there but in my haste I bought this sequel already so I figured I’d read it. Kazama continues with her eccentric otaku approach to most practical things. Instead of stopping her husband from spending money on mobile gacha games she encouraged him. When Kazama and Konno visit cake shops together they compare them to sleeping with different types of girls This book is filled with many of these types of stories and they’re all well drawn and equally humorous.

~dakazu

Okera no Tsubasa

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Okera no Tsubasa

A comedy manga about rich playboy who is saved after a fatal car crash by a god of misfortune and now is unable to use money in any form until he dies.

This is such a beautifully cruel manga. The main character Tsubasa is such a scummy and shallow guy it’s both hilarious and satisfying to see him get put into this terrible situation. He argues and cries and tries to weasel his way out of paying for rent or anything but eventually he ends up homeless. His journey takes him to an ocean side town where a caring man feeds him and houses him and it ends up teaches him humility and the importance of kindness. All in all Masaharu Noritsuke ended up writing a nice story under the premise of a comedy. Not bad for a manga he drew between while making his main Afro Tanaka series. Well done!

~dakazu

Destroy and Revolution

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Destroy and Revolution

A manga about a teenager with a supernatural ability called “oneness” who teams up with his friend to become terrorists in order to destroy the corrupt Japanese government.

This is another entertaining series by Kouji Mori. I was initially surprised that Mori started this science fiction story but it shares a lot of introspective scenes from the main characters which is a common theme in his other works like Jisatsutou and Holyland. Mori does a great job building the story slowly as the protagonist takes time opening up to his friend’s ideals about forcefully fixing society. Even after they being performing acts of terrorism there’s plenty of moments showing how complex the issues are. They actually don’t succeed despite growing more members who can access the powers of “oneness” and the story eventually leads to them taking on the American government as a world power. It’s all well drawn and engaging to read.

Mori is such a talented manga artist and this is just another example to his amazing body of titles.

~dakazu

Honjitsu no Burger

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Honjitsu no Burger

A manga about a genius chef who opens a restaurant that only serves burgers.

Pretty good series! I like food manga that limit themselves to a specific recipe or technique because it can stand out among others. Every chapter of this series introduces “Today’s Burger” which focuses on different burger recipes. The author Rei Hanagata does a good job connecting burger recipes from around the world as requests from restaurant patrons. This story setup reminds me a lot of Shinya Shokudō. Artist Umetaro Saitani makes all the burgers look delicious so reading this book makes me hungry! I think I’ll go make some cheeseburgers for dinner.

~dakazu

Rave Master

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Rave Master

A manga about a boy who embarks on a quest to find the 4 Rave stones and defeat the Dark Bring to save the world.

This is Hiro Mashima‘s debut work. It’s a pretty standard shonen action manga but you can see how he started with this book before moving on to his acclaimed Fairy Tail series. Fairy Tail is more refined in comparison but I find myself enjoying the stranger aspects of Rave Master, like the weird mascot Plue.

If you’re a fan of Fairy Tail I think you’ll find a lot to enjoy reading this. It’s available from Kodansha Comics.

~dakazu

Kaguya-sama: Love is War

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Kaguya-sama: Love is War

A comedy manga about a prestigious academy’s student council vice president Kaguya and student council president Miyuki who both try to make the other confess their feelings of love.

I got into this series when the anime adaptation started. I really enjoyed the anime and started reading the manga. This is one of those rare cases where I really prefer the anime over the manga. I think Aka Akasaka art is solid and I love this serious comedy about these two elite students who are too prideful to just admit their mutual attraction. It’s just that the anime voice cast really brings the characters to life and accentuates their likability while the manga versions sometimes comes off as cold. I’ll personally stick with the anime myself.

It’s available in English from VIZ.

~dakazu

312 – 6 Year Anniversary Guest Gaiden 7 – Translating and Publishing Doujinshi with On Takahashi

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312 – 6 Year Anniversary Guest Gaiden 7 – Translating and Publishing Doujinshi with On Takahashi

We’ve reach another milestone in Manga Machinations with our 6 year anniversary! We’re celebrating by interviewing On Takahashi, CEO of Irodori Comics and translator for game localization group Warlocs! On shares his childhood experiences learning Japanese through manga and anime, talks about his job working as a lecturer at a Japanese university, recounts his tough work schedule translating high profile video games, and stresses the importance of crediting localization staff. He breaks down the process of publishing doujinshi, informs us about the Japanese politics that will effect manga piracy, discusses the complicated issues of problematic content, and much more! Also, tune in after the outro for a bonus Death Stranding discussion by On and Darforx8!

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Meshi ni Shimashou

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Meshi ni Shimashou

A manga about a manga assistant who cooks experimental meals for a manga artist who is perpetually behind schedule.

We’ve discussed this on a recent episode.

I’ve always seen this manga in Evening Magazine but only skimmed through it. It wasn’t until we did our Kasane Retrospective did I learn this series was inspired by Doumu Kobayashi working as Daruma Matsuura‘s assistant! Suddenly jokes about the manga artist falling asleep with their mouth open painted a picture of Kobayashi catching Matsuura dozing off! The thought of Kobayashi farming ideas from his experiences cooking for Matsuura got me to reread this manga and search for potential behind-the-scenes events that could have happened!

As far as a food manga goes this book has two unique qualities. First, the recipes for the meals are often experiments so they don’t always yield a delicious dish. Second, the series features lots of surreal humor that removes it from reality. At one point, the Roomba becomes sentient and an ongoing character. So besides searching for insight into Matsuura’s work place, I also enjoyed the unique food and wacky comedy.

~dakazu