Giant Killing

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Giant Killing

A manga about a former ace soccer player, Takeshi Tatsumi, who becomes the coach at his the club he once abandoned, East Tokyo United. ETU is one of the weakest teams in the league but Tatsumi takes out stronger opponents with his “giant killing”.

When I discovered this manga I immediately checked to see if giant killing was real. After learning that it is I dove into this series and found it really engaging. It was exciting to see the usual dramatic approaches to sports applied to professional adult players. There’s a great adversarial dynamic between Tatsumi, his players, and even the local fans. Everything builds up but gets resolved nicely.

Giant Killing is well written underdog story by Masaya Tsunamoto and Tsujitomo has really distinct looking characters that look great. It’s a long running series but definitely worth checking out. Available in English from Kodansha Comics.

~dakazu

Nohara Hiroshi Hiru Meshi no Ryuugi

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Nohara Hiroshi Hiru Meshi no Ryuugi

A food manga staring the father Hiroshi Nohara from Crayon Shinchan. Follows Hiroshi as he eats various meals during his lunch break at work.

We discussed this on a recent episode.

What a strange spin-off creation. I’m really confused why they decided to make a food manga staring Shin-chan’s dad but it’s a decent food manga. Hiroshi picks a meal and sometimes he orders too much or sometimes it ends up being a nostalgic meal from his younger days. Regardless of Youichi Tsukahara using a different art style than Yoshito Usui‘s original comics, he always does a good job making the food look delicious so this was still enjoyable to read. But I’ll forever be confused about the randomness of making a food manga about Shin-chan’s dad.

~dakazu

To Your Eternity

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To Your Eternity

To Your Eternity

A manga about an immortal being who slowly learns about humanity through the experiences it accumulates interacting with individuals over multiple generations.

We’ve discussed this manga on a recent episode.

This is Yoshitoki Oima‘s follow up to her award winning masterpiece A Silent Voice. I’ll be honest. It took me a long time to really get into this manga because it’s such a slow burn. It takes multiple story arcs for the immortal Fushi to even learn how to speak and interact properly with humans around him. I think volume 8 is where I finally got into the story and now there’s been a wild change that’s got me hooked to read the newest chapters.

Currently To Your Eternity isn’t as good as A Silent Voice but I’ll continue to read this unique series by Oima until it’s complete. It’s available in English from Kodansha Comics.

~dakazu

Mingo: Italia-jin ga Minna Moteru to Omou na yo

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Mingo: Italia-jin ga Minna Moteru to Omou na yo

A manga about Italian otaku Mingo who lives in Japan and trys to fight against the stereotype that all Italians are popular playboys.

We’ve discussed this on a recent episode.

When this started I thought it was a pretty interesting manga and unique to have an Italian protagonist. After the series ended I finally realized that the creator Peppe was Italian himself and it was a big deal that he became a serialized manga artist in Japan.

I really liked the start of this story where the titular Mingo just wanted to enjoy his anime and manga but he gets roped into becoming a model just because he’s Italian. There were lots of humorous encounters Mingo had with his fellow Italians and how they played into their own stereotypes for attention. But the ending of the manga was nonsensical and off-putting. Mingo messes up his chances with the girl he likes but for no reason what-so-ever they end up back together. It felt really forced and I suspect the series was cancelled so Peppe just rushed this ending so it could be a happy ending.

Not sure if I would recommend this series but I’m very impressed with Peppe for becoming a serialized manga artist. I hope he continues with a new series otherwise this will seem like it’s been just a publicity stunt.

~dakazu

My Hero Academia: Vigilantes

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My Hero Academia: Vigilantes

A spin-off manga to My Hero Academia. It follows a young man that uses his insignificant quirk to help clean trash around town who is suddenly thrown into the world of illegal heroes known as vigilantes.

We’ve discussed this on an older episode.

A really decent spin-off. Since manga has decided to go the way of western comics and franchise their most popular series, there have been a lot of subpar comics that are just cashing in. Luckily, My Hero Academia: Vigilantes stands out on it’s own with a really nice art by Betten Court. I do fell bad for the author Hideyuki Furuhashi because he’s limited by events from the main series. Since Vigilantes is set before the events of My Hero Academia, Furuhashi can’t write anything that would break the status quo of all the main stay heroes that make cameos in Vigilantes. In that sense Furuhashi has done a good job of keeping the story fresh and entertaining throughout this book.

My Hero Academia: Vigilantes looks like it’s ending soon but I’m glad to see that it had good success as a manga spin-off, which is something you definitely can’t say the same for stuff like Attack on Titan: Junior High.

~dakazu

Atarashii Ashi de Kakenukero.

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Atarashii Ashi de Kakenukero.

A manga about a teenager who lost his left leg in an accident decides to become a para-athlete after meeting a prosthetic orthopedic and learning about running blade prosthetics.

This is a pretty unique manga. Since 2019 I’ve seen a lot of manga tie-ins for the now delayed Tokyo 2020 Paralympics. Shueisha has put out Paralympic Jump and they even did anime crossovers with Yowamushi Pedal and Captain Tsubasa for Anime x Para. Atarashii Ashi de Kakenukero. seems to be in the same vein of putting a spotlight on para-athletes.

It’s a good sports manga that rightfully considers the main characters reservations about returning to athletic competition after he was forced to give up on them. Since the Olympics were canceled due to COVID-19, they also include that real world event in this manga, and that ramifications all the canceled high school sporting events caused. I really appreciate that they’re incorporating the effects of the corona virus on our world today. This is well drawn by Wataru Midori and I will keep reading it.

~dakazu

309 – Kasane part 5

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309 – Kasane part 5

It’s time to bust out your Manga Machination bingo cards as we hit on all our classic references for this final Retrospective episode on Daruma Matsuura’s Kasane! The hosts share their thoughts on the mawkish and shocking ending and the series as a whole! We also tease future BEASTARS volumes and have a lengthy conversation about depictions of sexual violence in shonen manga!!!

Continue reading →

Toriko

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Toriko

A manga about Toriko, a hunter who travels and battles his way across the gourmet world in search of delicious foods so he can complete his full-course meal.

Toriko was my absolute favorite shonen action manga when it started in 2008. Since I love food manga, it was the perfect fit to have a battle manga focused on capturing creative foods. This was a solid series until the last quarter of the story got real bizarre and strange with it’s concepts. It definitely fizzled out by the end but in it’s heyday Toriko even knocked out Bleach and took its place in the Jump trifecta with One Piece and Naruto.

Unfortunately I feel pretty discouraged about Toriko now that I know the artist Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro was arrested multiple times for soliciting underage prostitution. This happened in 2002 before he began Toriko but if I had known this I probably would have reconsidered buying every volume of this series. I’m glad Shimabukuro found success but it still feels wrong that he never served prison time for what he did. Similar to Nobuhiro Watsuki‘s meager child pornography fines, it’s sad to see how Japan weighs the child pornography charges against absolutely vilifying drug charges.

~dakazu

Jagaaaaaan

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Jagaaaaaan

A manga where strange parasitic frogs transform people into monsters representing their most base desires. Shintaro Jagasaki is a police officer who gains the ability to shoot blasts from his right hand and uses it to hunt down other monsters.

We discussed this on an older episode.

This is a a good action manga. Since this runs in Big Comic Spirits it doesn’t shy away from sexual content. But the focus here is on the monster designs and exciting action drawn by Kensuke Nishida. The author Muneyuki Kaneshiro is known for his work on As the Gods Will series and they’re also currently writing Blue Lock for Weekly Shonen Magazine. Kaneshiro does a good job examining Jagasaki’s guilt of killing people with his powers and the pleasure he feels by destroying his enemies. It’s makes for a dark super hero story where the protagonist isn’t necessarily a good person.

My main complaint about the story is it’s treatment of female characters. They’re mostly used as victims or even if they have powers they’re killed off or sidelined to make way for the male characters. Unfortunately it’s not surprising to see in these types of seinen action manga but I’m still enjoying Jagaaaaaan for what it is.

~dakazu

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Paruno Gurafiti

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Paruno Gurafiti

A collection of autobiographical stories by Paru Itagaki about her family.

We’ve discussed this on a recent episode.

Man this is a terrific series. I learned so many interesting things about Paru Itagaki, like her eldest sister with the visage of Buddha that never changes or her other sister who taught her about adultery and blackmail when they played with dolls. Interesting enough, Paru had to come clean about legendary manga artist Keisuke Itagaki being her actual father because she started this series. I also love how Paru draws her father as a scary looking dark figure to drive home the fact that their family dynamic was very strange at home since Keisuke Itagaki was usually off drawing Baki at his studio.

These stories just got collected and released as a tankobon in Japan. Since VIZ has already licensed BEASTARS and now Beast Complex, I hope they’ll try to bring this manga over in English as well!

~dakazu