527- One Shot 79 – The Music of Marie
dakazu is back from Japan to talk about random connections with Akiko Higashimura, the Tokiwaso Manga Museum, and more! Then we dive into Usamaru Furuya‘s The Music of Marie where interesting aesthetics clash with questionable philosophy!!!
Continue reading444 – Triple Dip 70 – [Oshi no Ko], My Home Hero, Heavenly Delusion
This week we talk about collectables, The Files of Young Kindaichi, Ninja Batman, Skip and Loafer, and more! Then we examine three series that have new anime this season! We’ve got a Triple Dip on [Oshi no Ko], My Home Hero, and Heavenly Delusion!!!
Continue reading397 – Manga in Motion 55 – Nicky Larson
For the final installment of our City Hunter Multimedia Retrospective we’re joined by our friend Dawn from the Anime Nostalgia Podcast to discuss the 2018 French action comedy Nicky Larson! We also have spoiler-talk for volume 18 of BEASTARS and impressions on the new Star Wars: Mandalorian and Star Wars: Visions manga!!!
Continue reading394 – Saikyo Selections 15 – City Hunter
Welcome to the start of our Multimedia Retrospective on City Hunter! Throughout the rest of this month of May we’ll be looking at various iterations of the girl chasing private detective, Ryo Saeba! For this first episode we will be examining the original manga and the various spinoffs by Tsukasa Hojo! And stay tuned after the episode for a bonus spoiler discussion on The Batman!!!
Continue reading352 – One Shot 42 – I Love You So Much, I Hate You
Morgana is off this week but that doesn’t stop us from continuing our Pride Month Spectacular with a One Shot on I Love You So Much, I Hate You by yuni! What will the guys think of this yuri series about an office affair between superior and subordinate? Also, dakazu discusses the recently concluded Soloist in a Cage and spoils the strange premise of Oshi no Ko!!!
Continue reading339 – One Shot 37 – Beast Complex 1
This week is all about Paru Itagaki as start with an extensive spoiler discussion on BEASTARS volume 11! Then we examine her debut manga Beast Complex, a collection of different stories that take place within BEASTARS’ complex animal society!!!
Continue readingOshi no Ko
A manga about a mega popular 16 year-old idol who becomes pregnant with twins. When her mega-fan obstetrician is suddenly murdered, he finds himself reborn as one of the idol’s babies.
This manga is a collaboration between Kaguya-sama: Love is War writer Aka Akasaka and Mengo Yokoyari of Scum’s Wish fame. The premise of this series is pretty complex but you understand where story is headed in after the initial chapters. Yokoyari’s artwork is so great and I give Akasaka huge props for writing both this and Kaguya-sama: Love is War in Weekly Young Jump. I do question how Akasaka is bringing up the topic of social media’s effect on celebrities in the newest chapters, but I’ll have to read more to see if it’s handled appropriately.
~dakazu
Kaguya-sama: Love is War
A comedy manga about a prestigious academy’s student council vice president Kaguya and student council president Miyuki who both try to make the other confess their feelings of love.
I got into this series when the anime adaptation started. I really enjoyed the anime and started reading the manga. This is one of those rare cases where I really prefer the anime over the manga. I think Aka Akasaka art is solid and I love this serious comedy about these two elite students who are too prideful to just admit their mutual attraction. It’s just that the anime voice cast really brings the characters to life and accentuates their likability while the manga versions sometimes comes off as cold. I’ll personally stick with the anime myself.
It’s available in English from VIZ.
~dakazu