306 – Fantasy Magazine 2 – Science Fiction
Seamus is out this week so Morgana, Darfox, and dakazu submit their top science fiction manga picks they’d like to license for another edition of Fantasy Magazine! We also discuss Monster #8, Chainsaw Man, I Had That Same Dream Again: The Complete Manga Collection, Lv1 Maou to One Room Yuusha, Mieruko-chan, and more!!!
Continue readingJuuman
A manga about 5 people who grow giant and must devour an alien blob called Manjuu to keep it enveloping the world.
This is one of the best and unique sci-fi stories I’ve read in a long while. Jun Hanyunyu is basically doing a take on the popular Ultraman series. The 5 humans are all different with their own unique problems that prevent them from working together effectively. As the story progresses they continuously fail at containing the manjuu until everything falls apart. I really enjoyed the dark ending because none of these terrible people should ever be able to enjoy a happy ending.
Short and sweet. I continue to enjoy Hanyunyu’s stuff.
~dakazu
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
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.
247 – Manga in Motion 38 – Mind Game
It was a surprise that Seamus was available this week so we changed our schedule around to bring you another Manga in Motion instead! We take a look at the trippy avant-garde animation sequences in Masaaki Yuasa’s directorial debut, Mind Game!!!
Continue reading