Drifters

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Drifters

A manga where historical figures are summoned into a fantasy realm to do battle.

A interesting series to say the least. Kohta Hirano is best known for his Hellsing series and his distinct art style carries through in this one. Unfortunately I’m completely ignorant when it comes to history so it was difficult to understand the references with some of the historical characters. I felt similarly when I read Alan Moore’s The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

Regardless, this is a decent action manga and available in English from Dark Horse Comics.

~dakazu

World Trigger

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World Trigger

A manga where a special defense agency protects a city from the invaders of another dimension known as “neighbors”. A young agent meets a humanoid neighbor and changes everything about what he knew.

2018 marked the miraculous return of World Trigger after nearly a 2 year hiatus. I had largely given up hope that the series would return after the first year so I overjoyed when it did.

I was a fan of Daisuke Ashihara’s work since his previous series Kashikoi Ken Rilienthal. Ashihara likes to create many characters that are genuinely good people and I really like that about his stories. His artwork has improved during the course of this series though I’m slightly concerned with the huge amount of characters he keeps adding to the story.

Super happy that we get to read more of this great manga!

~dakazu

Mado kara Madoka-chan

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Mado kara Madoka-chan

A manga about a silent lady who changes the window into her apartment to various stores.

What a cute series! I really like the relationship between Madoka-chan and the salesman who always comes by her window. She always wants to impress him with different stores that vary from carnival games to restaurants and he always  plays the straight man. She’s also a silent character so the hapless salesman always narrates her colorful expressions to the reader. It has some obvious fan service but it never felt excessive enough to ruin the fun. Also, the series ended with volume 5 so the gimmick never got old.

A lovely manga that I enjoyed!

~dakazu

Kendo Shitouden Cestvs

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Kendo Shitouden Cestvs

A manga about a young gladiator slave who fights to win his freedom in the during the Roman era. Sequel to Kentou Ankokuden Cestvs.

Cestvs is basically a boxing manga with an ancient Roman empire setting. The action is well drawn and the fights are exciting. Shizuya Wazarai incorporates facts about martial arts as the main character faces off against various opponents. It reminds me a lot of Holyland.

Wazarai has been drawing this series for over 20 years now and I hope he’ll finish it soon because I want to read the ending!

~dakazu

BEASTARS

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BEASTARS

In a world of anthropomorphized animals who live in a society where carnivores are forbidden to eat herbivores, a young grey wolf falls in love with a dwarf bunny.

If you’ve listened to any of our episodes you know that we are HUGE fans of BEASTARS here at Manga Machinations. Our co-host darfox even wrote an excellent essay about it.

We’re overjoyed to hear that VIZ will be publishing this amazing manga next summer so people can finally read it legally.

~dakazu

223 – Triple Dip 33 – The Full-Time Wife Escapist, Rainbow: Nisha Rokubou no Shichinin, Bokutachi ga Yarimashita 

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223 – Triple Dip 33 – The Full-Time Wife Escapist, Rainbow: Nisha Rokubou no Shichinin, Bokutachi ga Yarimashita 

On this episode we look into the first volumes of The Full-Time Wife Escapist, Rainbow: Nisha Rokubou no Shichinin, and Bokutachi ga Yarimashita for another round of Triple Dip!

Continue reading →

Ōoku: The Inner Chambers

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Ōoku: The Inner Chambers

A manga about an alternate history of the Edo period of Japan where a disease wipes out 90% of the male population and the government is ruled by female shoguns who make use of a special male harem to produce offspring.

I love Fumi Yoshinaga’s work but when I started reading Ōoku I felt I had to take notes because there were SO MANY characters spanning various timelines of different rulers. The alternate history aspect was also fascinating but hard to follow because I’m so ignorant of Japanese history. The use of early modern English in the translation also didn’t help.

I recently read the newest volume and was reminded of how beautifully crafted this series was. Despite my ignorance with the historical references, I couldn’t help but be invested in the characters and their motives within the Japanese court.

The series is phenomenal and available in English from VIZ. I highly recommended it.

~dakazu

I Want to Hold Aono-kun so Badly I Could Die

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I Want to Hold Aono-kun so Badly I Could Die

A manga about a girl who can see her the ghost of her deceased boyfriend.

I’ve always seen this manga in the manga magazine Afternoon but never read it until recently. Really shocked to see how it really has a lot of horror elements. Whenever the boyfriend ghost merges into another human it reminds me of full on body horror from John Carpenter’s The Thing.

There are many questions that both the girl and reader have for the existence of the ghost and I’m interested in reading more to find out more about him.

~dakazu

Anime Prison School wo Tsukutta Otoko-tachi

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Anime Prison School wo Tsukutta Otoko-tachi

A manga about the creation the Prison School anime and the men who were involved.

I love how this is a hilarious serious comedy just like Prison School. Almost each chapter is devoted to a specific person who was involved in the anime. My stories were about each voice actor who played the different characters were my favorite. I never knew the voice of Gakuto, Katsuyuki Konishi, was a giant fan of Prison School! There’s even a chapter dedicated the serious debates over the color of the vice-president’s underwear.

A perfect companion piece to the official series and a fun read.

~dakazu

Gunsmith Cats Burst

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Gunsmith Cats Burst

A sequel to Gunsmith Cats: about 2 female bounty hunters in Chicago, Rally and Minnie-May.

This series has some old school roots as it was published by Dark Horse back in the late 90′s. I remember reading it back then and being amazed at how violent and full of sexual content. It makes me laugh sometimes that this is supposed to be representative of USA. Mad Bull 34 was similarly over the top with it’s representation.

Read this sequel series earlier this year and it was alright. Kenichi Sonoda’s aesthetic is really representative of anime during the 80′s and 90′s with it’s focus on sexy ladies and violence.

There was a recent Kickstarter campaign for a new anime staring the Bean Bandit character so I’m sure I’ll be checking that out when it comes out.

~dakazu