258 – State of Shonen 1 – We Never Learn
When Seamus is away, shonen will save the day! Morgana is back as an official member of the hosts this episode so we discuss the current arcs and happenings of our favorite shonen manga series, such as We Never Learn, Black Clover, Fire Force, and more!!!
Continue readingShigeru Mizuki’s Hitler
A manga biography by Shigeru Mizuki about the rise and fall of Adolf Hitler.
Another power non-fiction work from Shigeru Mizuki. I was really impressed with Mizuki’s ability to seamlessly mix his cartoony characters with realistic backgrounds. There’s extreme attention to detail as Mizuki also recreated many famous photos of Hitler but through his own unique drawings. The subject matter is tough to read at times but this book handles these events with a serious tone that you’d expect from a history novel.
~dakazu
Motokare ga Fudanshi ni natte orimashite.
A manga where an office lady accidentally runs into her ex-boyfriend from high school who has become a BL otaku because of her.
Pretty entertaining series. Definitely similar to Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku with a similar cast of adult otaku. The only difference here is that the guy is into BL and also a huge fan of the doujinshi that the main character puts out. She keeps this a secret from him and it leads to hilarity between them.
The themes here are definitely adults who have to hide their perverse hobbies. It’s playing with troupes of adulthood in society and poking fun at otaku culture.
A fun read.
~dakazu
Pop Team Epic
A series of irrelevant 4-panel strips staring Popuko and Pipimi.
Yeah… This really isn’t for me.
The humor is completely random to the point of not being appealing. I can deal with wacky humor to an extent, and that extent being anything by Kyosuke Usuta. Bkub Okawa on the other hand seems to have written jokes while they were tripping on some drugs.
I will say the anime is enjoyable because they filled it with creative alternative animation. The paper animated Hellshake Yano segment is particularly impressive.
I say just watch the anime and skip the manga.
~dakazu
Rice Shoulder
A manga about a giant woman who gets scouted to become a professional boxer.
This was a good sports manga! I’ve read Tsuyoshi Nakaima‘s golf series Ougon no Rough before and I’ve enjoyed his cartoony art work. Even though boxing is represented well through the action, this is filled with comical scenes that give it a whimsical feel.
A solid and fun read!
~dakazu
Nikujo no Susume
A manga about an office lady who has a complex about what she looks like when she eats her favorite food: meat.
I liked this series but man o man, does it feel like fetish bait. Various characters indulge in eating their favorite foods while giving orgasmic expressions. It’s very similar to Meshinuma in that sense.
The main character even cries because her boyfriend dumped her for how she looked while eating. This also leads a potential romantic relationship with a co-worker’s who’s erectile dysfunction gets fixed after he sees her devouring her meal. Eventually she makes friends with other female co-workers and they start hanging out together to eat various meat dishes.
It’s a weird concept where I really feel a culture gap with Japanese society. Is there as stigma against women who eat meat and enjoy it in Japan? Possibly, but this manga sure leans into that hard and it comes off a bit ridiculous.
~dakazu
Area 51
A manga where a human detective solves cases in the mysterious 51st state of America that is the collecting ground of mythological creatures, aliens, and even gods.
We discussed this on a recent episode.
This manga looks CRAZY good. Masato Hisa‘s art uses extreme contrasts with blacks and whites. It really reminds me of Frank Miller’s Sin City. Hisa’s style makes this series a fun read. I enjoyed the episodic nature of different cases that need to be solved and all the unique creatures that get introduced. There is a larger plotline dealing with the backstory of the protagonist but I’m not sure if it will lead to anything deep or interesting yet.
I’ll definitely keep reading this for now.
~dakazu
257 – One Shot 22 – not simple
On this episode dakazu talks about Kimi ga Bokura wo Akuma to Yonda Koro, Shigeru Mizuki’s Hitler, and Ichigeki! Then we dive into the tragic tale of Ian in Natsume Ono’s not simple!!!
Continue readingClaymore Memorabilia
An art book of illustrations from Claymore.
One of the best parts of Claymore was the striking artwork by Norihiro Yagi. This book is filled with some really gorgeous pieces that capture the haunting world of the manga. My only complaint is that I wish it was bigger and contained more extras like BLAME! and so on.
~dakazu
Razor
A manga about a former Japanese policeman who ends up in New York city where he lives and does how he pleases during the turn of the 20th century.
It’s really, really, really fortunate that I didn’t find this manga before we did our Creator Cross Section on Kazuo Koike because everything in this series is awful.
The protagonists rapes every woman he comes across and that causes them to fall madly in love with him…
He somehow escapes death JUST BECAUSE…
The mob boss he fights against is a literal copy of Vito Corleone from The Godfather…
That mob boss is killed and returns to life at the end of the series to fight him…
A female assassin claims to be Maria Okulani, daughter of the last sovereign queen of Hawaii Liliʻuokalani, despite the fact that Okulani was NOT her last name…
This is so bad and clearly ripping off the settings of Gangs of New York. There’s no excuse for why Koike didn’t do any research into any of the historical context of the story.
This is probably the worst thing I’ve read in recent memory and I READ A LOT OF BAD THINGS.
~dakazu