Tag Archives: Manga

UQ Holder, Volume 3 – Review

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The UQ Holder reviews continue, through a volume that… still isn’t particularly good. There’s plenty of spectacle here, but not much reason to care – the manga’s characters are still pretty one-note, and there are no tangible stakes in most of these fights. Writing a manga about immortal characters who already start the series with incredible powers is a pretty tall order, and it feels like Akamatsu still hasn’t quite figured out how to make that interesting. Fortunately, having read further ahead of this myself, I can say there is hope on the horizon! Three lousy volumes is a harsh way to start a series, but it turns out Akamatsu does have some good ideas hiding in here after all. Just gotta soldier through.

You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my frankly pretty limited chapter notes below.

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The Song We Heard When We Were Young: Solanin

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“Solanin” is the correct title for this story – but I’ll get to that later. First, as these things generally go, I should lay out some context.

Written and drawn by Inio Asano when he was around twenty-four years old, Solanin is roughly as twenty-four years old as any story can be, complete with faded jeans and tacky shoes and shirts you probably should have left at college. The story’s protagonist is Meiko Inoue, a girl stuck in a job she hates a year and a half out from an aimless formal education. Her boyfriend Taneda lives in her apartment with her, not because this is a considered long-term arrangement, but because his part-time design work doesn’t pay enough to cover rent. Meiko is stressed about her work, but doesn’t see any alternatives; Taneda is supportive to a fault, but insecure about his own expectations and about what Meiko wants him to be. Together they are nervous and unsure and basically the same as any other young person who feels like this can’t be what adulthood is really like.

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A Silent Voice, Volume 5 – Review

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Dear lord this manga is good. Stepping back and looking at it, this is probably the single best media object I am currently engaging with. I guess you could make an argument for Rakugo being a more holistically impressive production, what with its gorgeous combination of direction and storytelling – but when it comes to character work, dear lord does Silent Voice blow everything else out of the water. This is a phenomenal work, every single volume continues to impress, and I am so god damn excited for Yamada’s adaptation. This is pretty much a genie-wish production here. Please, please, please be at least half as good as you could theoretically be.

Er. Anyway. You can check out my actual potentially informative review over at ANN, or the ol’ chapter notes below!

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One Piece – Volume 2

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With Zoro now on the team, One Piece’s second volume digs into a longer narrative on just one island, as Luffy and Zoro wander their way into the territory of Buggy the Clown. The first volume of One Piece was a collection of scattered small adventures, stories reflective of the clear Toriyama influence that still shows through in moments like the early dragon-ride coloring image. There’s still more of that here, from the wild expression work and character designs to the slapstick and word game silliness that flavors Buggy’s entrance. But we’re already stepping into longer narrative territory, and though One Piece is still a generally light and very readable production, it’s also starting to demonstrate some interesting thematic teeth.

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UQ Holder, Volume 2 – Review

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Love Hina was a legitimately formative experience for me, and Negima! also an off-kilter favorite, so it was pretty much inevitable that I eventually check out Akamatsu’s most recent manga. Unfortunately, so far this investigation has not been rewarded – UQ Holder has been a slog, frankly, possessing none of the creativity or hooks that made his last work fairly reliably rewarding. And this one doesn’t even start off pretending it’s a harem – it jumps straight into shounen territory, but that shounen is just not at all entertaining. Negima! has demonstrated Akamatsu can do some fantastic things in this genre, so hopefully UQ Holder finds its feet eventually.

You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my chapter notes below!

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My Monster Secret, Volume 1 – Review

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Back to the manga review grind, with a new release that arrives in the wake of the summer anime – My Monster Secret, the more conventionally (and googlably) titled localization of Actually, I Am…

I enjoyed the few episodes of this show I watched, but not enough to continue – it struck me as the kind of wacky comedy that would actually come off as more enjoyable when I could burn through the gags at my own reading pace. The manga somewhat bore that impression out, though it also made it clear that the adaptation had made a number of its own improvements – namely, getting the initially rough art up to a higher general standard of character designs, and also cutting some very weak early chapters. But those issues aside, this was still a reasonably charming and very breezy read. It’s nice to have some popcorn manga around.

You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my chapter notes below!

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Genshiken Second Season, Volume 7 – Review

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Yep, Genshiken has somehow shifted into full harem mode. I don’t know how we got here, I don’t know why this happened, but this is where we are and I guess I gotta make the most of it. Genshiken is still very acute in its small character moments, but the overall movements of this plot have basically shifted the series into a fundamentally different genre/world space than it previously occupied. We’re in anime-land now – there are things characters do because they’ve learned all their social cues from anime, and there are things characters do because they are anime characters, and Genshiken has floated majestically from the first category into the second one. I can’t say I’m happy about it, but it is what it is.

You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my chapter notes below!

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The Ancient Magus’ Bride, Volume 3 – Review

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And we’re back to ye olde fairy tales. This volume of Ancient Magus’ Bride was actually fairly light on the magical vignettes, because it was instead focusing on what has always been the most difficult element of the story – the uneven relationship between Chise and Elias. I’ve pretty much been continuously worrying about how the story would eventually handle this, and this volume went a great distance to assuage my fears. It’s clear in how Chise is framed and how those around her talk to her that the story understands this is a messed-up situation born of an unhealthy psychology on Chise’s part. She’s a broken person, and that’s a big part of the story. I’m happy the manga was willing to directly engage with this, and impressed with how well it used Chise’s story to reflect Elias’ own narrative in contrast. Ancient Magus’ Bride continues to be a very engaging story all around.

You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my chapter notes below!

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One Piece – Volume 1

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So here I am, embarking on a journey through the first volume of one of the longest and most storied shounen manga out there. I have to assume this is some kind of ploy – funding just the first volume of a monolith like One Piece only makes sense if you’re assuming it’s a strong enough hook to do the rest of the work by itself. I’ll read the first volume and then get dragged along by my own momentum, trapped in the story that has become almost synonymous with manga itself. I’ll start One Piece and that will be the end of me.

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Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer, Volume 9-10 – Review

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And so Biscuit Hammer ends, with a final volume that pays back all my investment and then some. Biscuit Hammer’s conclusion is spectacular, a sequence of battles and moments of emotional catharsis more consistently rewarding than basically anything else in the series. I still had issues with these chapters, from the awkwardly welded-on nature of Anima and Animus to the ever-messy art, but the overall effect of this finale was so strong that I can’t really complain. Biscuit Hammer will always be a messy work, but it’s a passionate and worthy one all the same. If you haven’t checked it out yet, definitely give it a try.

You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my chapter notes below!

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