Category: Manga Musings on Mondays

Created by: Kei Hamuro

Chapters: 19

 

That’s right, people! Your eyes are not deceiving you. Manga Musings is BACK!

Um… kinda.

Like most people all over the world, I too have been feeling a general sense of demotivation and have been procrastinating endlessly for the past few months (Well, the procrastination was always there, the lack of motivation is new). I had been going through a terrible anime/manga slump and thus, for a long long time, I was on the lookout for a manga to rekindle my love for the medium.

After months of fruitless toil, I finally chanced upon this lovely little story of four high school girls just hanging out and being nice to each other! Continue reading “[Manga Musings on Mondays] Our Wonderful Days – Review” →

Created by: Momochi Reiko

Chapters Read: 16

Hello and welcome to another Monday. Like the first day of every week, today I am supposed to talk about the manga I read in the last few days and review it by breaking down its positives and negatives. But this week, I am afraid I am going to do something different. This is not a traditional review by any stretch but is instead going to a rant about how much I LOATHED this manga. Now, I have read some pretty messed up stuff when it comes to the medium but this is the very first time that a story has infuriated me to my core.

What exactly did this one do to make me feel this way? I’ll tell you.

 

THE PREMISE:

A depressed high school girl forms an unlikely friendship with a classmate after watching her get bullied by her friends. The two plan to kill themselves in the most fun way possible.

Continue reading “[Manga Musings on Monday] Confidential Confessions – Review” →

Created by: Shuuzou Oshimi

Chapters: 75 (Ongoing)

 

Greetings and welcome to another Monday week and as usual, it brings with it another manga review! This time, I look at a manga which has been getting a lot of buzz around lately (yes yes, it was the Super Eyepatch Wolf video which made me interested in this in the first place) and for good reason. Chi no Wadachi or Trail of Blood is the latest work by the mangaka of Flowers of Evil so you can expect a lot of messed up psychological elements and the thrilling setup aims to provide just that, but does the overall execution deliver on the promise? Let’s find out!

 

THE PREMISE:

An overly caring mother goes to great lengths to protect his son’s happiness and to make sure that he never comes in harm’s way.

Continue reading “[Manga Musings on Mondays] Chi no Wadachi – Review” →

Created by: Satoshi Kon

Chapters: 19

 

Hello everyone and welcome back! Today, we resume usual serialization of Manga Musings by talking about probably the most metafictional manga I have ever read in Satoshi Kon’s Opus. As a fan of most of his works (I still maintain that the final third of Paranoia Agent is bonkers for bonkers’ sake), I went into this completely blind but with relatively high expectations. Does the story hold up to Kon’s high standards or does it fall woefully short? Let’s find out.

 

THE PREMISE:

A manga author gets sucked into the lives of his characters (literally) and realizes that not everything is entirely in his control in either world.

 

Continue reading “[Manga Musings on Mondays] Opus – Review” →

Created by: Souhachi Hagimoto

Chapters: 31 (Ongoing)

 

Hello and Welcome to the Wild-Card Monday of Manga Musings. As mentioned last week, today I will be talking about a manga which wasn’t chosen by the votes of the readers of our Star-Crossed blog but was instead personally recommended to me. I found it to be highly enjoyable and more than deserving of being highlighted in this humble weekly project. The manga being Souhachi Hagimoto’s debut, Asper Girl – a story about a loner carrying the scars and sorrows of their past who finds another loner to be alone with.

 

THE PREMISE:
A girl living with Asperger’s Syndrome reaches out to a small-time manga author to thank him for creating a story which made her feel like there was someone out there who sees the world through her eyes and who can relate to the lives which people like her lead.

 

Continue reading “[Manga Musings on Mondays] Asper Girl – Review” →

 

Created by: Takuma Yokota

Chapters: 21

 

Another Monday has presented itself to us, folks. And you know when that happens, we present something in return, right? Another manga review! (Yes I know, it’s Tuesday already but I’m sorry I have been real busy with my end-term preparations, although I did read the manga well before Monday, so let’s say it counts.) This week, I will be telling you about my thoughts on Takuma Yokota’s comedy (satire? parody?) manga, Chikan Otoko or Molester Man. A manga with the most outrageous setup for a love story I have ever seen and which might just be the very definition of not judging a book by its cover. Let’s talk about it.

 

THE PREMISE:
A girl assumes a man to be her stalker and the misunderstanding caused by the confusion gives the man a window of opportunity to get to know her and her circle of friends better. A series of rom-com shenanigans ensue.

 

          

Continue reading “[Manga Musings on Mondays] Chikan Otoko – Review” →

 

Created by: Junji Ito

Chapters: 7

 

Greetings, fellow manga fans. As is norm, every new week, a new monday rolls around and as has now become tradition, a new manga review comes along with it! This week, we talk about Junji Ito’s short story collection Voices in the Dark. Is it genuinely scary or overhyped like some of the creator’s other works? Read on to find out!

 

THE PREMISE:
Seven horror short-stories filled with plenty of nightmare fuel.

 

WHY YOU SHOULD READ IT:

For anyone even remotely read in popular manga, the name Junji Ito needs no introduction. Even if you may not have read his works, you surely must be familiar with the notorious reputation he’s amassed over his illustrious career. His works have become iconic pieces of Japanese manga which are deemed impossible to translate to screen and that’s why, any attempts to do so up until now have expectedly, been failures. Hence, it’s become common belief that there’s nothing quite like reading a Junji Ito manga. That’s why, a couple of years ago, when I started reading Gyo, I was all braced up to descend into the dark world of sleep-depriving atrocities.

 

 

Continue reading “[Manga Musings on Mondays] Voices in the Dark – Review” →

 

Created by: Inio Asano

Chapters: 12

 

What do I see here? It’s another M in the Day’s column of the calendar. And you all know what that means, don’t you? Uh-ha! It’s time for another manga review!

This week around we will be talking about quite possibly my favorite mangaka of all time, Inio Asano and his nearly impenetrable puzzle-box of a manga, ironically titled Nijigahara (Rainbow-Field) Holograph. Let’s break it down.

 

THE PREMISE:
A set of interconnected stories spanning 10 years in the lives of people who inhabit a city and have nothing in common apart from knowing a girl who sits by the Nijigahara embankment and says that a monster will come and bring an end to the world as we know it.

 

       

Continue reading “[Manga Musings on Mondays] Nijigahara Holograph – Review” →