284 – Girls’ Last Tour part 1
On this episode Darfox rejoices in the English release of Blood on the Tracks while dakazu checks out a new manga made by an Osamu Tezuka AI called Paidon! Then we begin our retrospective on the empty world of Girls’ Last Tour by Tsukimizu and discuss it’s themes of finality.
Continue readingYutai Nova
A manga about a young man who spies on his crush through astral projection until he meets another astral projected girl.
As far as a title from Shuzo Oshimi goes, I have to say that this one isn’t that great. I think everything he did before The Flowers of Evil fall under the category of ecchi seinen genre like Devil Ecstasy. There are some small glimmers of dark psychological motifs but it’s hard to parse them from scenes of an astral projection gang bang. It’s not surprising that one was seemingly canceled after 2 volumes.
Probably not worth reading even if you’re a huge fan of Oshimi.
~dakazu
Happiness
A manga about a boy who’s world turns upside down after he’s bit by an ancient vampire.
This series starts kind of slow but once you get to the part with the protagonist looking up at the sky that looks just like Van Gogh’s Starry Night you’ll be hooked.
Shuzo Oshimi takes his art to a whole different level in this on-going series. Story-wise it goes into some truly twisted places but that shouldn’t any surprise to fans of Oshimi’s work.
Highly recommended and also available in English through Kondasha Comics!
~dakazu
209 – Seamus on Seinen 1 – Happiness
Darfox is out this week so we’ve picked a wide array of seinen titles for Seamus to check out!
Continue readingChi no Wadachi
A fantastic thriller about a mother obsessed with her son.
The chilling tension that Shuzo Oshimi brings us in this series is amazing. It’s such a slow burn but that makes the tension more palpable. It’s definitely my favorite book that Oshimi has done to date.
~dakazu
154 – Anime Interlude 5 – Welcome to the Ballroom
On this episode our buddy Miki’s Stopwatch stops by to join us in discussing this season’s hot(mostly not) anime and older stuff as well: Welcome to the Ballroom, Magical Circle(Mahoujin Guru Guru), Made in Abyss, Restaurant to Another World(Isekai Shokudou), Haibane Renmei, Ashita no Joe, Snow White with the Red Hair(Akagami no Shirayuki-hime), Love and Lies(Koi to Uso), Gamers!, Kakeguri: Compulsive Gambler, My First Girlfriend is a Gal(Hajimete no Gal), Clean Freak! Aoyama-kun(Keppeki Danshi! Aoyama-kun), and RIN-NE(Kyokai no Rinne)! Also, Miki praises BEASTARS & The Ancient Magus’ Bride, we talk about the money behind anime streaming services, we talk about finding a theater that will show obscure anime movies, we talk about the New York Review of Books reviewing Ichi-F, darfox notices a change in Shuzo Oshimi’s art style, dakazu loves a tale of imaginary girl training victims in Chuni no Danshi to Dairokkan, and we debate the appeal of dark, weird, interesting manga like Naraku no Hitsuji!!!
Continue reading129 – Saikyo Selections 5 – Patlabor
This week Seamus is looking into the history of post-World War 2 Japan with Shigeru Mizuki’s Showa and Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s Abandon the Old in Tokyo and Good-Bye, we discuss the representations of racial stereotypes in Japanese culture, darfox is enjoys the use of back lighting in Chi no Wadachi, and dakazu ponders if Inio Asano’s new series Reiraku, about a depressed manga-author, is autobiographical! Then our deliberations over the upcoming stage-version of Inuyasha and adaptations of manga into other media leads us to our Saikyo Selection on Patlabor! We explain it’s origins as a media mix project and get into what we like about the series!!!(covers volumes 1-2)
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