Buddy Strike

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Buddy Strike

A manga about a no control fastball pitcher teaming up with a catcher who’s known as “Death” for destroying the lives of pitchers.

This wasn’t a bad manga by any standards but unfortunately it failed to reach any popularity in Weekly Shonen Jump so it got canceled after 11 chapters. KAITO had found moderate success with the previous Lacrosse manga Cross Manage so trying for another sports manga wasn’t a bad choice. I think that Jump audiences are pretty adverse to sports manga unless it appeals to female readers. This is proven by the success of Haikyu!! and The Prince of Tennis. 

KAITO would go on to their current love story Blue Flag, which is excellent, so all’s well that ends well I suppose.

Fun fact. The baseball team featured in Buddy Strike appear as the high school champions in Blue Flag.

~dakazu

Koi no Mon

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Koi no Mon

A manga about a stone manga artiste who starts dating a cosplay loving otaku girl.

This is a strange manga about an even stranger romance. I loved it.

Jun Hanyunyu has an amazing ability to convey emotion and human reactions with unique perspectives in his panels. He constantly uses strange low angle or fish eye lens shots that were really fun to read. The strange relationship journey the two main characters go on is great. There was a lot of serious comedy because the characters were 100% serious about what their motivations but they came off as humorous to the reader.

Making the male a manga artiste who’s obsessed with rocks is a great hook for a character. He suffers many obstacles before arriving at a point where he can continue his pursuit as a manga artiste and love at the same time. My only complaint was that the story included some sexual assault against the main female character and I wish Hanyunyu didn’t resort to such a rote scenario as the final challenge the two lovers have to face.

Loved it and I’ll be looking into more works by Jun Hanyunyu.

~dakazu

Ne0;lation

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Ne0;lation

A manga about a genius hacker who battles against criminals.

Yet another manga that ended it’s run quickly in Weekly Shonen Jump. While the premise was interesting I thought the characters and storylines were pretty weak so I was not surprised about it getting cancelled. I wonder if author Tomohide Hirao and artist Mizuki Noda should break their pairing and try working with others because this series is pretty forgettable.

Available to read on VIZ.

~dakazu

248 – One Shot 21 – Abara

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248 – One Shot 21 – Abara

On this episode we take a look at Tsutomu Nihei’s short sci-fi series Abara! We talk about Nihei’s focus on bioorganic designs and compare it to his other works BLAME! and APOSIMZ!!!

Abara is available for purchase from VIZ.

Continue reading →

Hinemosu Notari Nikki

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Hinemosu Notari Nikki

A manga diary by legendary Tetsuya Chiba about his current life and how his family escaped from China back to Japan post World War II.

A wonderful new manga by the famous Tetsuya Chiba who created Ashita no Joe. Although each chapter is only 4 pages the entire book is colored. It was equally interesting to read about Chiba’s hardships fleeing through China and his interactions with other famous manga artists through their golf club.

~dakazu

Anonatsu 1959

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Anonatsu 1959

A manga about a high school pitcher who time travels back to 1959 to teamup with his grandfather to become national champions.

As far as sport manga go I’m enjoying this one. Mixing baseball with historical context of how the sport was back in 60′s Japan is an interesting twist. It almost feels like an isekai storyline as main character Natsu possesses modern baseball techniques that overwhelm his opponents. It just started it’s run in Weekly Shonen Sunday and I’m happy to have a new manga that I can look forward to.

~dakazu

Black Clover Review

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Black Clover Review

This review was written with knowledge of the current chapters(as of this writing). But the content of the review mainly cover the first few Volumes. This is not a spoiler free review but we deliberately avoid talking in detail of later story arcs.

If you’ve heard about Black Clover by Yuki Tabata, you’ve likely heard about how derivative it is of Naruto, or maybe you’ve heard of how Shonen Jump is trying to push it and manufacture some sort of popularity. While I can’t speak to the marketing push or resulting fandom, I can speak to the qualities of Black Clover and why it’s my favorite battle manga. It’s a book with a lot of familiar elements, but one that focuses so acutely on the strengths of its characters and genre that any comparisons to juggernauts like Naruto end up being favorable.

Continue reading →

Nano Hazard

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Nano Hazard

A manga where corrupt nanomachines grant humans special powers or kill them.

We’ve discussed this on a previous episode.

Decent sci-fi horror series. The art work by KAZAANA is decent but I think the story from Showshow Kurihara is a little rough. Kurihara is known for his seinen works like the Uramiya Honpo series and I think they struggled a bit with making an engaging shonen storyline. This series was only 3 volumes and I can’t help but feel it was canceled due to lack of popularity.

Available to read on MANGA Plus.

~dakazu

Yona of the Dawn

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Yona of the Dawn

A manga about a princess who must escape her kingdom of Kohka with her bodyguard Hak after her beloved cousin Su-won overthrows the throne.

Really nice series. I’ve heard about this one before but never read it until we covered it for the podcast. I was really impressed with Mizuho Kusanagi’s designs as they give the world a general Asian backdrop. The story is a bit rote so far and Yona herself starts off pretty boring but it’s hooked me enough that I want to keep reading. The epic fantasy featuring many handsome men reminds me a lot of Basara by Yumi Tamura.

Available from Viz Media.

~dakazu

Alice & Zoroku

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Alice & Zoroku

A manga about an old man who ends up looking after a young girl with powers that bring imagination to life.

I really like this one! The odd couple pairing of powerful and arrogant Sana with crotchety old Zoroku works perfectly. Zokuro scolds Sana often but with purpose and she slowly begins to learn right from wrong. I’m really interested in reading more as they escape the organization that kept Sana locked up like a lab rat and other girls with powers start to appear.

This is a side note but they sure love using Alice in Wonderland as a motif in manga.

Available from Seven Seas and there’s an anime adaptation as well.

~dakazu