277 – Manga in Motion 41 – Mary and the Witch’s Flower
On this episode dakazu checks out more volumes of Maiden Railways, Darfox experiences his first Kazuo Umezu manga with The Drifting Classroom, and Morgana wasn’t expecting the dark turns in BEASTARS. Then we compare Studio Ponoc’s debut movie, Mary and the Witch’s Flower, to Ghibli films for Manga in Motion!!!
Continue reading271 – Fantasy Magazine – Horror
This week we launch our new format called Fantasy Magazine! Morgana, Darfox8, and dakazu have all drafted non-licensed or out-of-print series to create their ultimate horror-themed manga magazine! Listen in as we present our picks of Petshop of Horrors, Dai Dark, and Jisatsutou and then debate whether or not they fall under the category of horror!!!
Continue readingNekoze wo Nobashite
A collection of depressing stories about Rensuke Oshikiri‘s life.
I love Rensuke Oshikiri and it’s always fun to read any of his non-fiction works like Pico-Pico Shounen or this one. The stories here range from the time Oshikiri lived with his mother in a small apartment to his school life where a violent teacher almost dropped him off the roof.
Oshikiri is always able to weave an entertaining story. I was particularly impressed with how he changed his art style for many of these stories into one that looks like it was drawn with heavy black lines. It gave everything a really melancholy look to it.
~dakazu
Misu Misou
A manga about a middle school girl who takes murderous revenge on a group of bullies who burned her house down and killed her family.
Man the violence in this manga is something else. It’s quite shocking to read this if you only know Rensuke Oshikiri from his video game romance Hi Score Girl. The book is filled with so many gritty scenes of dismemberment, gore, and blood splatter, it really feels like a terrifying horror movie. The reactions of the victims particularly bring a real unsettling sense of reality to the violence that is often forgettable in other manga.
I really like how Oshikiri tells this tragedy. A single event compounds the problems between the students that lead to circumstances where everyone meets a gruesome end. Also, it has the worst and pathetic teacher I’ve ever seen in fiction
It’s a dark story but enjoyable if you can stomach the violence.
~dakazu
Youkai Massage
Manga about a girl who works a spa that specializes in giving Japanese folklore monsters massages. It’s written by Hi Score Girl’s Rensuke Oshikiri.
Unfortunately this manga is a shallow premise that only exists for the sake of pervy fan service. Every chapter ends with a female exploding in moans of ecstasy from pressure point massage. It’s really gross and disappointing coming from Oshikiri but erotic stuff definitely has a market so to each their own I guess.
~dakazu
Hi Score Girl
We love this manga here at Manga Machinations. Super excited for the anime coming this summer. It’s going to be CG but Land of the Lustrous was legit good so fingers crossed that it will be like that and nothing like anything from Polygon Pictures. I wonder if they’ll feature any SNK games considering the lawsuit?
~dakazu
175 – Princess Jellyfish part 3
We continue along with our Princess Jellyfish retrospective this week and come to the conclusion that this manga has much more in common with American sitcoms than Romantic Comedies!
Continue reading174 – Princess Jellyfish part 2
On this episode we get back to our Princess Jellyfish retrospective to debate whether this is just another generic romantic comedy or something more!
Continue reading161 – Triple Dip 23 – Arakawa Under the Bridge, Princess Jellyfish, Toaru Ossan No VRMMO Katsudouki
This week dakazu is back and it’s time to talk about the first volumes of three different manga for our Triple Dip section!
Continue reading099 – One Shot 2 – Misu Misou
On this episode Seamus explains the relevance of certain characters related to Norse Mythology in Vinland Saga, dakazu loves the Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji comedy spin-off about evil organization middle management in Mr. Tonegawa: Middle Management Blues(Chuukan Kanriroku Tonegawa), and we catch up on another chapter of Billy Bat! Then for our One Shot retrospective, we look at Rensuke Oshikiri’s tragic tale of murderous middle schoolers in Misu Misou!!!
Continue reading