270 – One Shot 25 – The Ghost and the Lady
On this episode Morgana loves the wholesome Nicola Traveling Around the Demons’ World while dakazu reads Nagata Kabi’s newest book and absolutely hates the illogical Kunihachibu. We also discuss updates to piracy litigation and Japanese censorship laws. Finally, we dive into Kazuhiro Fujita’s historical ghost story about the Man in Grey and Florence Nightingale in The Ghost and the Lady!!!
Continue readingManga Machinations on the Manga Mavericks BEASTARS podcast
We were asked by Manga Mavericks to come talk about one of our favorite series, BEASTARS! Lots of discussion about everything we love about BEASTARS, from the epic world building to the unique art style Paru Itagaki utilizes.
Download it here or go to the Manga Mavericks website!
Komi Can’t Communicate
A manga about socially anxious high school girl named Komi who wants to make 100 friends.
Super cute series. I like it how funny it is but I can’t help but feel like it’s going to become a harem situation because Komi’s first friend fits that mold of “best boyfriend but not actually anyone’s boyfriend”. Thankfully this series barely has any fan service.
I’m also sad because in the English edition they can’t play up the different character names that represent who they are. Hitohito Tadano is “Tadanohito” which means ordinary guy, Najimi Osano is “Osananajimi” which means childhood friend and so on and so forth.
But my nitpicks aside, this is still a great manga and available from VIZ.
~dakazu
Gohan no Otomo
A collection of stories about people and their favorite side dishes that go well with rice.
Love this. Artist Tana has such a cute art style. This also has a lot of color pages which is pretty uncommon for manga. The stories follow different characters but they all exist in periphery of each other that as you read more you’ll see them pop up in the background. Some tales are humorous and others are touching. And to top it off each chapter ends with a recipe page which teaches you how to make the side dish.
A lovely manga that fills both the heart and belly!
~dakazu
Jisatsutou
A manga about suicidal patients who have been stranded by the Japanese government to a lawless island to fend for themselves.
Fantastic survival series. We discussed this one all the time in the early days of our podcast. Kouji Mori has a really interesting writing style where he’ll address the audience directly to give information about survival tips or comments about fishing and eating deer.
The story follows a young man named Sei who teaches himself how to hunt wild game with a bow. The beginning of the series is very intense as many of the stranded immediately start killing themselves in despair. Sei lives up to his namesake(which means live) and changes himself as he learns to hunt for food. There’s also plenty of conflict as the island is lawless and certain groups use power to oppress and steal. There’s even a queer character who gets decent representation.
Everything about this series is engaging and exciting. I think it’s a real shame we haven’t seen any of Mori’s manga get official English releases because they’re all great.
Mori is currently writing a prequel series called Muhoutou. It’s good but I’m not sure how things will go considering the fate of those survivors was already established in this series.
~dakazu
Kekkai no Noah
A manga about passengers trapped on a cruise ship that is actually a dining ground auction site for vampires.
Pretty good horror series. The story is a nice slow burn as the human passengers gradually realize they’re lives are in danger. My favorite part was the vampires putting on an live execution masked as a magic show to the passengers. Really dark stuff. They imply that different blood types are poisonous to the vampires so I’m interested to see how the humans will try to escape their grisly fate.
~dakazu
8-nengoshi no Hanayome: Kiseki no Jitsuwa
A non-fiction manga about a man who cared for his comatose fiance and finally married her 8 years after their original wedding date.
The first thing I did after reading this was check the internet to see if it was true and indeed, it is. The couple got engaged 1 year after first meeting and set their wedding date for March 11, 2007. 2 months before the date the bride-to-be Mai became ill and suffered from hallucinations brought on from Anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis. She was hospitalized where her heart stopped beating and she was put on an artificial respirator. From there she remained unconscious for over a year. During that time the fiance Hisashi visited her everyday for her recovery. When she finally regained consciousness she underwent years of rehabilitation to recover basic functions and had no memories of her fiance. Despite this Hisashi continued to help her with rehabilitation and in 2014 they finally got married, 8 years after their engagement.
The story is incredibly touching and moving. This manga adaptation by Junko Tamura is decent but I could tell they dramatized somethings because Mai standing up from her wheelchair to tell Hisashi she loves him doesn’t come off as actual fact. Didn’t keep me from crying while I read it though.
~dakazu
Solfege
A collection of BL stories by Fumi Yoshinaga.
I love Fumi Yoshinaga but these stories weren’t great. They’re overly dramatic and don’t get away from the classic yaoi relationships that are basically sexual assault.
The longest multi part story is about a music teacher who sleeps with his student. I will say that I am really sick of stories involving romantic relationships between teachers and students. I’m a teacher myself and I think it’s one of the most overused plots that personally infuriate me. The music teacher is the one to come onto the student so that’s awful. The student is characterized as being somewhat dimwitted which makes it worse. And the happy ending to the story seems to justify that everything that happened was OK. It’s terrible.
Also you don’t say a student isn’t understanding solfege when you’re playing a random note on the piano. You’re mixing sight-singing with notating a melody!
~dakazu
269 – New Chapter Check-in 1 – Haikyu!!
Welcome to New Chapter Check-in where dakazu and Darfox8 will be talking full spoilers about the newest story arcs for popular manga every month! Our inaugural episode will cover Black Clover, Haikyu!!, My Hero Academia, and more!!! Also bonus discussion about Death Stranding!
Continue readingDai Dark
A manga about a young man who is hunted through the darkest reaches of space for his bones that will supposedly grant any wish if captured.
This is Q Hayashida‘s newest manga and it’s just as strange and wonderful as Dorohedoro. This one takes place in space but everything has that unique Hayashida aesthetic. Spaceships and spacesuits alike have a very flesh-like look to them. Even the protagonist Sanko wears a skin of darkness that looks like a tattered robe. He wields an axe that easily separates the bones from it’s victims. Even his backpack transforms into a walking skeleton companion.
It’s really interesting to see the theme of bones throughout this manga so far but like any Hayashida series I’ll have to read more to learn about everything.
~dakazu