Tag Archives: Manga

Fragments of Horror – Review

Posted on by

I reviewed some Junji Ito this week, his first horror stories in a fair number of years. And that kind of shows in the result – Ito’s work has always been strange, and often relied on horror ideas that other people wouldn’t necessarily find horrifying, but some of these stories are just flat bad. There are also some real hits though, and his visual style remains uniquely creepy throughout, so overall I had a good time with this collection. Manga short story collections are fun – I’d dearly love to get some Nickelodeon over here to review, but I’m sure the chances of that are basically next to nothing.

You can check out my full review over at ANN!

Fragments of Horror

A Bride’s Story, Volume 4 – Review

Posted on by

Time for A Bride’s Story! ANN already had reviews for the first three volumes of this one, so I’m picking up where Rebecca left off. Volume four is all about the twins Laila and Leily, whose irrepressible scampishness makes this the most comedy-heavy volume yet. That means Kaoru Mori doesn’t get to indulge in quite as many breathtaking full-page spreads as usual, but the volume’s still a lot of fun. A Bride’s Story is good, you should read A Bride’s Story.

You can check out my full review here!

A Bride's Story

Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer, Vol. 5-6 – Review

Posted on by

Back to the manga front, with some more Biscuit Hammer. This story is just getting consistently better at this point, with the story and characters gaining complexity and poignancy as everyone moves towards the endgame. The art is also improving, though it’s still a mix of highlights and lowlights – some of the shots of the horse in particular made me kinda wince. If you can’t draw a horse, it is pretty ambitious to make a Horse Knight one of the main characters of your story. But that’s beside the point – this story is great, and you should buy it. I hear the manga hasn’t been a success for Seven Seas, which is a shame, because they really deserve to be lauded for bringing this one over.

Anyway. Here’s my full review over at ANN, and you can check out my chapter notes below!

Continue reading →

The Ancient Magus’ Bride, Vol. 1 – Review

Posted on by

Manga trawl continues, with another very solid series! This one may go in any manner of weird directions, since its premise is so incredibly loaded, but the story so far is just totally enchanting. It’s basically holding to one of my favorite styles of magic, the one that builds off of old stories and treats magic as beautiful and dangerous and tends to feel vaguely European. It’s a style I strongly associate with Diana Wynne Jones, since her Chrestomanci stories were very formative for me, and it’s used well here. Definitely worth a look.

Here’s my full review over at ANN. Notes below!

Continue reading →

Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer, Volumes 3-4 – Review

Posted on by

More manga reviews! Branching out this time, switching from the ever-enjoyable Genshiken to the cult classic Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer. I wasn’t so hot on Biscuit Hammer’s first couple volumes, but it really clicked for me this time – with what seems like the full cast introduced, the story’s gaining a lot of interesting texture while maintaining its great personality. The art’s still crappy, but hey, it’s an endearing kind of crappy. Anyway!

My full review’s available over at ANN. Manga notes below!

Continue reading →

Genshiken Second Season, Volume Six – Review

Posted on by

Genshiken reviews continue! The manga has largely regained its stride at this point, and seems fairly comfortable in its more romance-heavy New Normal. Hato and Madarame are working well as the dramatic centerpieces, the side characters are stepping it up, and everything’s getting more awkward and emotionally loaded by the second. We’re also finally into territory I haven’t read before, so I’m as interested in seeing where this goes as anyone.

Here’s my review of the volume. Notes below!

Continue reading →

Genshiken Second Season, Volume 5 – Review

Posted on by

Kinda behind on linking these, but I’ve been busy with stuff! Anyway, I got a bit negative on this one, since we’re now right in the unsteadiness of Genshiken shifting towards a more full-drama style. The whole Madarame harem thing doesn’t kill the manga for me, but it certainly tends to make it lean into a more heightened reality than the story normally evokes. I guess we were all guilty of loving Madarame just a little too much.

My review is here. Notes below!

Continue reading →

Genshiken Second Season, Volume 3 – Review

Posted on by

Back on the Genshiken train! I had a whole ton to say about this volume, since these chapters really dig into a lot of the nerd culture and identity stuff that makes Genshiken so interesting. Stuff about social cues, stuff about gender performance, basically just all sorts of interesting stuff. It’s nice to have a work to talk about that rewards these discussions!

Anyway, here’s my full review over at ANN. Lots of notes below!

Continue reading →

Cross Game and My Father

Posted on by

I’ve never been much of a sports guy.

Shocking, I know. Somehow, my appreciation of boys kicking or throwing various projectiles could never quite match my love of writing, videogames, and Japanese cartoons. I stayed inside, I played Zelda, I chortled while talking about the “jocks” playing sportball. I was above all that.

Continue reading →

Genshiken Second Season Vol. 2 – Review

Posted on by

Genshiken reviews continue! This volume felt a bit bumpier than the first, mainly because the Angela drama felt kind of artificial. Madarame’s harem is beginning to assemble, which… yeah, I don’t even know what to say about that. But the best elements here were the same stuff Genshiken’s always been good at (natural banter, brief, bracing moments of personal truth, graceful character work), and Genshiken remains good at that, so I can’t really complain. And who wouldn’t fall for Madarame, anyway?

My full ANN review is available here. Notes below the cut!

Genshiken

Continue reading →