Katteni Shirokuma

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Katteni Shirokuma

A manga about a polar bear cub being raised by in a family of brown bears.

A pretty interesting series. I’ve read other works by Koji Aihara and between his distinct art style and really low-brow sense of humor, it makes his manga different than other mainstream titles. And I’m not joking about his comedy sense. There’s a lot of jokes about defecating and sexual reproduction with the forest animals. It comes off as juvenile humor for adults.

Fun fact. The same polar bear shows up in Aihara’s Shin Ishu Kakutou Taisen as one of the animals battling in a tournament for supremacy of the animal kingdom.

~dakazu

255 – Manga in Motion 39 – Mirai

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255 – Manga in Motion 39 – Mirai

This week we take a look at Mamoru Hosoda’s latest anime movie, Mirai! Tune in to hear what we thought about this story about a boy learning to accept his baby sister and how it compares to Hosoda’s other films!!!

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Yutai Nova

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Yutai Nova

A manga about a young man who spies on his crush through astral projection until he meets another astral projected girl.

As far as a title from Shuzo Oshimi goes, I have to say that this one isn’t that great. I think everything he did before The Flowers of Evil fall under the category of ecchi seinen genre like Devil Ecstasy. There are some small glimmers of dark psychological motifs but it’s hard to parse them from scenes of an astral projection gang bang. It’s not surprising that one was seemingly canceled after 2 volumes.

Probably not worth reading even if you’re a huge fan of Oshimi.

~dakazu

Ride-On King

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Ride-On King

A manga where the president of Pursia, Alexander Purchinov, who is obsessed with riding on top of things gets sent to a fantasy world where he will now ride mythical creatures.

Yasushi Baba got popular with the martial-arts genre and has slowly veered off into serious comedy. This series seems like the end result of his journey into absurdist territory. I’ve talked about how crazy Golosseum was and now Baba has taken his parody of Vladimir Putin and done an isekai series about riding dragons and wyverns. It’s bizarre to say the least.

~dakazu

Iwa kakeru! Climbing Girls

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Iwa kakeru! Climbing Girls

A manga about a former national champion puzzle gamer who uses her ability of analysis to become a natural at climbing.

This is a typical setup for sports series where a complete amateur just so happens to have a particular ability that makes them excel at a sport. In this case, it’s climbing.

There’s a lot of emphasis on girls wearing tight fitting sports gear climbing which means there’s a lot of fan service pleasing perspectives. If that’s your thing then you’ll probably enjoy this but I think I prefer Kabedon! because it tackles the sport of climbing without excessive T&A.

Also is there a climbing boom in Japan or something?

~dakazu

Boukyaku Battery

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Boukyaku Battery

A manga about a middle school ace pitcher and his genius partner catcher who disappeared suddenly, only to show up at a high school with no baseball team because the catcher lost his memory and turned into a buffoon.

When I first checked out this series on Jump+ I was taken back by how good Eko Mikawa‘s art was. Then I was laughing at how much witty comedy was done with such stylish looking characters. While the story setup is pretty typical for a baseball manga I really like Mikawa’s comedic sense.

It makes me laugh and I’d like to catch up to the current chapters if possible.

~dakazu

Archimedes no Taisen

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Archimedes no Taisen

A manga about a mathematical genius who wages a personal war to prevent the Imperial Japanese navy from constructing it’s largest battleship, the Yamato.

This is a really unique historical war manga because the main character works to prevent Japanese involvement in World War 2. There’s a lot of military babble that went over my head but I’m still reading new chapters as they appear in Young Magazine.

I give Norifusa Mita a lot of credit because, while his artwork is not as bad as someone like Nobuyuki Fukumoto of KAIJI fame, I wouldn’t say it’s good either. Despite his artistic limitations Mita has created lots of popular manga in a variety of genres. This one is his first foray into the historical military genre and I have to say I’m impressed with it’s interesting premise.

~dakazu

Abyss Rage

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Abyss Rage

A manga about a blind martial artist who must battle for his life inside a remote island prison to save his girlfriend from the evil warden.

We’ve covered this manga on Darfox Dabbles.

I’ve enjoyed Nariaki Narita‘s Macho Gourmet series in the past. Reading this one has kinda pointed out how Narita falls in the category of artists who draw all characters and faces similarly. Also the antagonist of this series is a bald buff martial-arts freak with African facial features and he enjoys beating opponents with his fists before raping them. It’s problematic to say the least.

A decent martial-arts manga but I’ve read better. Available to read on Mangaplus.

~dakazu

254 – Tokyo Tarareba Girls part 4

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254 – Tokyo Tarareba Girls part 4

On this episode we reach the end of our Tokyo Tarareba Girls Retrospective! The hosts and Morgana “Manga Maven” Santilli discuss the ending and how they feel about the series as a whole!!!

Make sure to follow Morgana on Twitter and check out her website!

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253 – Anime Interlude 11 – Sarazanmai

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253 – Anime Interlude 11 – Sarazanmai

This week our buddy CrossXhunteR joins us as we talk about Sarazanmai and other anime from the 2019 spring season along with new series from the 2019 summer season like Vinland Saga!!!

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