Category: Manga

[Manga Musings on Mondays] A Distant Neighborhood – Review

by Armitage, posted in Manga, Manga Musings on Mondays, Reviews by Armitage

    Created by: Jiro Taniguchi

    Chapters: 15

     

    Hello and welcome to Manga Musings’ Week 2! This time around, I look back at another series which is a favorite of mine but is not as popular among modern manga fans, Jiro Taniguchi’s opus, Haruka na Machi e or A Distant Neighborhood. Let’s dive in:

     

    THE PREMISE:

    48-year-old Hiroshi Nakahara is mysteriously transported to his 14-year-old-self back when he was in high-school, with the memories of the life he’s lived still intact. He slowly comes to terms with being out-of-time and out-of-place and even starts enjoying being given an opportunity to relive his life once again, only to realize that his actions have consequences on the future in ways beyond his control.

     

         

     
    Continue reading “[Manga Musings on Mondays] A Distant Neighborhood – Review” →

[Manga Musings on Mondays] Let’s Talk About Ethics. – Review

by Armitage, posted in Manga, Manga Musings on Mondays, Reviews by Armitage

 

Hello, one and all!

As you must be well aware, all the shows airing this season have been adversely affected in various stages of production which has led to multiple delays or a considerable decline in quality. These are not the most exciting of times for following seasonal anime but on the flip-side, it’s a great time to sit in the comfort of our homes and read up on some manga!

And so that we can read along together, I shall be starting a new weekly series: Manga Musings on Monday. As the title suggests, every week, I would be going through a manga and posting a write-up with my thoughts on it on, well, Mondays. The manga I’d write about would be decided on the basis of a poll at the end of each post (scroll down to see the one for next week). The poll options would be a mix of series from my personal TBR and your suggestions (feel free to comment down below the series you’d like me to cover next and I’ll make sure to add it to the next poll).

Though, there are some ground rules put in place.

 

Firstly, due to the self-imposed constraint of posting the write-up every week, I would also have to finish the manga I start each week before the following Monday, at the latest. So, it would be preferable if you would recommend and vote on shorter series. Over time, I do plan to cover series like Kingdom, Holyland and Psyren but that will have to be done in chunks (maybe a few volumes per week) and for the time being, I want to put my best efforts into making MMOM a weekly feature.

Secondly, I would not be covering massively popular series like Demon Slayer, MHA or Yakusoku no Neverland. Instead, my main objective behind starting MMOM is to highlight lesser-known and under-appreciated gems of the medium. Also, I don’t dislike any particular genre but have a soft spot for josei, seinen and stories with dark, psychological undertones. So, covering something along those lines would be right up my alley!

Alright, with that all said, let’s dive in to the first manga!

Continue reading “[Manga Musings on Mondays] Let’s Talk About Ethics. – Review” →

Fire Punch Manga Review – The Wondrously Absurd Trainwreck

by AidanAK47, posted in New Manga Spotlights

Once upon a time I listed Fire Punch as a manga to take a look at during one of of manga Spotlights and back then Fire Punch was a manga with a pretty basic revenge plot that had some interesting quirks. Now Fire Punch is a completed manga with 83 chapter story spanning 8 volumes and what that story become is something I don’t think anyone could have predicted. Let me lay out the basic rundown by saying that Fire Punch is set in a world which is filled with snow and an environment so harsh that people struggle to survive. In this world certain individuals are born with “Blessings” which are some kind of supernatural ability and our protagonist Agni and his sister is gifted with the power of regeneration. Both essentially can heal from any wound and regrow limbs though the sister has a slower regeneration rate. The village which they live in has decided to use this ability to produce a near limitless supply of food by the Agni chopping his arms off to use as meet. He does so willingly and despite circumstances lives rather happily with his sister. However a group attack the village and a man with the power to shoot flames out of his hands that will never go out unless the target is dead, burns his village to the ground, killing the Agni’s sister and leaving him burning alive. However his regenerate manages to make it that the fire never truly kills him and he becomes a man constantly burning alive. With time he comes to bear the pain and use his new status as a source of strength to seek out the one that killed his sister.

Now what I stated here isn’t really anything that groundbreaking and while there are some odd elements we do still have a standard revenge plot. But it is at this point where I will go into spoiler territory as to discuss just what happens after this as I think that I cannot really express my feelings about this story without going into detail so if you have any intention of reading this I would suggest stopping here and doing so. But if you don’t really care to read this manga then continue reading this post and you may change your mind. So what I have stated so far has been straightforward but the game changer is when Agni confronts the target of his revenge, Domu and during the fight we are are given one of the most jarring character introductions in manga. During the fight we are shown panels of a girl named Togata speaking directly to the reader in documentary style. She’s a movie buff, a girl whose spend hundreds of years alive and finds everything boring besides movies. Unfortunately someone burned down her house and her collection of movies which has caused her to lose her will to live. However upon hearing of a man constantly on fire she decides to seek him out, in order to film him and create a brand new movie. Togata manages to not only find but save Agni after his humiliating defeat at the hands of Domu but then starts grooming him to become an action star for her new movie. To put things quite frankly, Togata is completely and absolutely insane which causes the narrative to turn from predictability to utter chaos.

How does one even put into context just what this story becomes? Almost a game of the author working to pull as many things out of left field to throw the reader off balance as possible. We have a man declaring to two people that he has decided their new job will be to have sex with two dogs. We have a man on fire seemly playing in the water with a girl carrying a severed head. We have Agni defeat an enemy, only for her to lose her memory which cause both of them to go into a nearby house where she then tries on a bunch of outfits to see Agni’s opinion. Halfway through the story the main villain who supposedly caused the destruction of the entire world and plans to rebirth it, declare that her primary motivation was because she wants mankind to create a new Star Wars movie for her to watch. It is completely ridiculous and yet through all this the story somehow remains engrossing and even progaint at times. It’s hard for me to look at Fire Punch and call it a good manga. Interesting, unique, and addressing fascinating issues yes. Good? hmmm…The pacing tends to be jumpy and you hit climaxes and anticlimaxes with sudden immediacy. It’s hard to get a grasp of an overarching goal or even a plot and while characters have some degree of interesting traits but a tendency to act randomly. It’s tone can be slapstick and shift to dire dark straits within moments. Most of minor antagonists are ridiculously cartoonishly evil to a comical degree. However despite all this one can see that the mangaka can pull these story elements off well but it’s just that the story he has chosen has kind of run away from him. There is a few pages of the manga which were dedicated to a joke where Togata was driving a truck and was repeatedly getting attacked which has minimal dialogue and is one of the funnest scenes of slapstick in manga I have seen in a long time. There is also a scene of Domu discussing with Agni about the need for righteous education which was excellent. When looking at things, the mangaka’s next work ChainSaw Man does a much better job of juggling his strengths and looks to be a stronger story than this one. Yet…there is something distinctly fascinating about Fire Punch.

Film seems to be a primary theme of the story as a whole as it influences many of the characters. Togata is the obvious example but may of the characters have motivations tied to film. Our main villain’s motivation for a new Star Wars movie is one and as silly as it sounds I think many of us could go to absurd lengths if it meant getting more of a show we loved. Domu who acted as main antagonist for a time reveals that his actions were in service of his god whom he watched a video of him fighting demons and he later came to realise that his god was from a B-movie that Togata claims was a piece of utter crap. Upon being asked about Heaven, Togata claims that it is a cinema, something which Agni takes very to heart. Even the main character Agni is influenced by movies as he claims that most of his life he has been acting and is pushed to act more by Togata. Throughout the story he begins to try to act in a manner that he would believe the protagonist of a movie would act only to find that his real feelings push him towards something more nefarious. People build a religion around him based on a boy that saw him like an action hero which turns into a cult of desperation. The utter hopelessness of Agni who has long gone insane and just wants to die, constantly being told to live by those he cares about. Nihilism runs through the story with peoples gods being fake illusions to avert their eyes from the most certain death of the world and Agni’s once righteous crusade being revealed to be something more selfish and personal that breaks him down into a sad shell of a man. This manga is a mess really but there is something honestly genuine about it that I think makes for a interesting read and I can be sure it will never get an anime adaption. It’s not a manga for everyone or even many people but upon finishing it I found it rather cathartic and it’s given me hope that the Mangaka can really take ChainSaw Man to interesting places. Well…provided that he doesn’t go completely insane.

On a completely unrelated note I would like to give a call out to Spy X Family. A brand new series with just two chapters out so far but I have a feeling this one might turn out to be something quite special. I wouldn’t see surprised to see an anime adaption in a few years time.

New Manga Spotlight – Yakusoku no Neverland, Maou-jou de Oyasumi and Uratarou

by AidanAK47, posted in New Manga Spotlights

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Yakusoku no Neverland [The Promised Neverland]

Emma and her friends have a pretty good life at the orphanage they grew up in. Though the rules may be strict, the caretaker is kind. But why are the children forbidden from ever leaving…?

As you have likely have guessed, the Orphanage isn’t quite what it seems to be but as to why that might be I will avoid spoiling. It will be difficult to really go into detail as that would ruin the surprise(Though it isn’t all that surprising but regardless) but the rundown is that these kids need to escape the Orphanage. So what we have here is a kind of Great escape story where the kids formulate a plan while avoiding attracting the suspicions of the caretaker. It’s pretty tense and the artist really know how to make some unnerving imagery. I can really see this becoming an anime in the future and if so it could be really something. Highly recommend this.

Maou-jou de Oyasumi [Sleeping in Devil’s Castle]

The time when humans and demons once existed. A demon king, the existence that throws off that balance of perfect stability, kidnapped a human princess and confined her in his own castle.
People raged, and sent a hero on a journey to rescue the princess to the castle she was confined in. She was supposed to be weeping, despairing, and waiting for a rescue, but… Having so much spare time, aside from sleeping she has nothing else to do.
Now, the “imprisoned princess” does as she likes in the demon king’s castle in a seek of a quiet sleep!
This is a sleeping short comedy!!

The hero and demon king routine has become rather stale a premise in regards to anime but this manga is different in just who it decides to focus on. This a about a captured princess who loves to sleep but is constantly finding problems coming up which prevent her from getting her precious nap times. So this tale is about her overcoming such problems no matter what gets in her way, even if she has to make a bed monster hunter style. The story is pretty simple and there really isn’t much more to it than that but the humor just really works. The stories are short and sweet while never failing to bring a smile to my face.

Uratarou

As a child, Princess Taira Chiyo escaped from being captured by the Minamoto army due to the the sacrifice of her mother. Now at the age of 15, she travels the land searching for immortality. Following the rumors about an immortal named Kijin-sama, Chiyo actually finds him! But all he wants is to die?

Clearly based on the legend of Momotarou, this manga isn’t really what I would call a masterpiece. But it remains a pretty fun shounen adventure regardless with a decently original hook. It does show dangers of becoming a rather generic shounen battle manga but at this point in time I don’t see any harm in recommending it. Plus I really like a one shot the mangaka made called Zombie Maria and his artstyle is really great for detailing gory fight scenes. In fact the artwork is pretty great in general as you can likely see from the above.

 

Other Notable New works

Red Sprite (Sadly this one was recently axed but it’s still a nice read.)

Marry Me!(Yuuki Miku)

Murenase! Shiiton Gakuen

Rike ga Koi ni Ochita no de Shoumeishitemita

Gendai Majo no Shuushoku Jijou

Shitei Bouryoku Shoujo Shiomi-chan

Amalgam of Distortion

Shiro no Koukoku Monogatari – Chapter 41 Review

by K-Off, posted in Shiro no Koukoku Monogatari
Shiro no Koukoku Monogatari - Chapter 41 Review
Shiro no Koukoku Monogatari – Chapter 41 Review

Beat by beat from last time, it’s pretty clear that this is the start of Meriela’ & Friends’ arc, as well as a sort of soft recap on all the central character relationships that we left behind at the capital. A potential rivalry (which I look forward to seeing) between Riede and Meriela is implied, and some loose ends are tied up on their end from the last arc. Contrary to what I thought on my chapter 40 review, the pacing doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon; a new character is introduced despite my prediction that we’d be spending more time between Lectival and Meriela before moving on with the plot. We still are, but it’s moving along a lot faster.

(Read More)

Manga Shelf – Girl the Wild’s, Seitokai Yakuindomo, Tomo-chan wa Onnanoko, & More

by K-Off, posted in Girl the Wild’s, Manga Shelf, Seitokai Yakuindomo, Sumikko no Sora-San, Tomo-chan wa Onnanoko

Well, this is going to be interesting. I made a decision to review as much regular manga that I can, so even shonen comedies shouldn’t be beneath me. I generally make a point of actively avoiding talking about comedies, because what do we know, there’s only so many ways to say something just isn’t funny. But screw conventions, if I have to write 4 sentence reviews then so be it.

Here’s every single manga (with an SK webtoon) that I’ve read this week, along with three or four among them that I’ll cover from here on out. I’ll be writing separate reviews on the latest chapters of the manga that I’ve decided to cover here on out from this list, where I can get more in-depth.

Seitokai Yakuindomo Chapters 1-392

Seitokai Yakuindomo
Seitokai Yakuindomo Chapters 1-392

I admit it here, Tozen Ujiie’s works have been a “guilty pleasure” of mine for quite some time now, to the point that as far as his 4koma are concerned, I’m convinced that the man is a comedy genius. For the uninitiated, his style of humor is stupidly crude, consisting primarily of dick jokes and enema gags – it’s anti-PC humor at its finest, but I don’t like it just for the sake of it being different.

I’m someone who can appreciate both spectrums of comedy, be they lowbrow dick jokes or “highbrow” humor – so, what actually grabbed me with SYD more so than any of his previous work was its quirky cast, and Ujiie’s really creative word-play on the Japanese language to come up with clever puns. Though I often lose his comedic intent through translation, it’s pretty neat when I can catch onto something. A story is nowhere to be found in SYD, but I see it as the equivalent of a Japanese comedy skit in manga form, where on the other hand Puchi Puchi Tan Tan has a little bit more cohesion as a story (at the cost of consistency in comedic tone). I look forward to talking about this and learning more about Ujiie’s wordplay.

Yuragi-sou no Yuuna-san Chapters 1-30

Yuragi-sou no Yuuna-san
Yuragi-sou no Yuuna-san Chapters 1-30

You know when you read a new shonen manga, and it instantly feels like an illustrated storyboard for an anime? This is about our protagonist as he deals with a ghost girl who lost her memories and (for the sake of To Love Ru level of fan service) can strip her ghostly clothes.

Yeah I hate this very much, maybe if the fan service was toned down by 100% I could appreciate the light-yet-brandless level of comedy offered here. The main character is also stupidly overpowered, so there’s no reason for me to care about anything at stake. Quite possibly the extreme spectrum away from the average spineless harem male lead. But oh well, this is bound to get an anime adaptation so I’ll probably have to talk about it then (I predict it’ll come out in Spring 2018).
Continue reading “Manga Shelf – Girl the Wild’s, Seitokai Yakuindomo, Tomo-chan wa Onnanoko, & More” →

New Manga Spotlight – Happy Sugar Life, Jigokukoi; Death Life, Niehime to Kemono no Ou, Canaria-tachi no Fune and Kangoku Jikken

by AidanAK47, posted in New Manga Spotlights

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Happy Sugar Life

High-schooler Matsuzaka Satou has a reputation for being easy, but one day her lifestyle of sleeping with one boy after another comes to an end. It happens when she meets the child Shio, for whom she is convinced she feels true love for the first time. Satou may seem sweet and innocent, but there is nothing she won’t do to protect their life together, including committing murder. But from where did she acquire the little girl, and how long can their “Happy Sugar Life” together last?

This is a story about love. But not in the sense of “Let’s get married and live our lives together” but more along the lines of “I will stalk you and watch you as you sleep at night, breathing heavily.” This story is about Yanderes and it certainly has them of all kinds and sizes. What you are going to get out of this depends on whether you like dark stories like myself. In this case everyone in this story is messed up in some way or another and it brings some great twists to the table. If you watched Mirai Nikki and thought that it would have been more interesting if it focused primarily on Yuno then this is the manga for you. Admittedly the main characters preaching on other characters “Love” is somewhat grating and this does depend a lot on it’s shock value. Still I think it has merit in that there are so few of these kinds of stories pulled off this well.

 

Jigokukoi; Death Life

Another series by the author of Jigokuren ~Love in Hell~. Set in the same world as Love in Hell but with all new characters.

A love comedy in hell you say? Well this isn’t necessarily a new title as the author has used this setting before in a similarly titled manga. But damn if it isn’t an interesting setting. Basically our protagonist dies and goes to hell. Hell in this universe happens to be everything you expect it to be besides the cute demon girls as it is their job to torture their subject in order to gain some level of status and money. Oh and by torture I really mean that in every sense of the word. If you are not a fan of gore you would do better to stay away from this as it does not hold back with it’s artwork. There’s people getting skinned alive, having their intestines nailed to a wall and even chopping off…yeah that’s too painful for me to even type. Regardless of the damage inflicted, once a person dies they just revert back to their old selves and thus the torture can begin anew. Despite how dark the subject material sounds this is actually more of a dark comedy that doesn’t take itself too seriously. I would recommend reading the prequel to this as I am not too fond of the new characters dynamic. The best comparison i could make for this is that it’s like Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan.

 

Niehime to Kemono no Ou

Saliphie, the 99th sacrifice to the terrifying demon king, learns two secrets about the king: The first, that he has been letting the sacrifices go in secret. The second, that half of his blood is that of a human. She gets to know the king’s kindness and sorrow, and then it’s announced that the king has taken Saliphie, who wishes to become a source of energy for the king, as his queen, and…?

Well it’s beauty and the beast without the stockholm syndrome. This is an odd choice for me as I generally don’t go for these kinds of stories. However I must admit that their is something rather charming about this one. Maybe I just like the Dynamic between the king and the sacrifice girl as he tends to act menacingly while the girl just sees right through him. Plus i really love the design of the king and the setting of the monster kingdom. Of course there may be those of you being put off by the fact that the King is a lion and that this story looks like beastitly. Don’t worry, the king has a human form and their relationship is not sexual. I am not exactly crazy about this one but I admit that I rather enjoy reading it. It’s a very warm and fuzzy love story.

 

Canaria-tachi no Fune

Yuri is just a normal girl in high school: she loves hanging out with her friends, she has dreams, and she has worries. But one day, she wakes up in a strange forest she’s never seen before beside a man named Chihiro. As the two of them learn more about the place they suddenly find themselves in, and the oddly real dream they had of being abducted by aliens, the dark secret of where they are and what has happened to them will begin to unfold.

A man and a girl find themselves on an Alien planet without any real knowledge of why they are there. Once again this is a pretty dark story as the two come to terms with their alien surroundings. Artwork is great and so far the story has had some interesting turns. Might need a bit more time to show where it really is going but the general mental breakdown of the protagonists is enough to keep me intrigued.

 

Kangoku Jikken

Eyama Aito, a high school student, is the victim of daily bullying. One day a strange letter arrives inviting him to a “captivity game.” He may choose one person to hold captive for one month with a chance at winning a large amount of money. He chooses the ringleader of his bullies, Aya Kirishima, and the only rule of the game is to not kill her. Everything else is fair game. Eyama’s revenge begins!

Another dark concept to add to the mix. The bully and bullied which places when a boy enters the girl that torments him in a game. The rules of the game are simple, enter a name and that person will be abducted and held in a facility for one month. In that one month the one who entered the name can do absolutely anything to the victim. As long as it doesn’t kill the victim or remove their ability to speak then anything is fair game. However at the end of each week the victim is given an opportunity to guess the name of their capturer. If they guess right they get 10 million yen paid by capturers pocket. If they fail to guess the name in that month then the victim pay the capturer 10 million yen. What makes this one interesting is that their are others in the game as well who take part for different reasons.Our protagonist looks to be someone who is a potential sadist and has at least some degree of intelligence. I am hoping it doesn’t pull the rape card as that would be cheap however so far it looks like it’s sticking to just physical and psychological abuse. It might need some time before we can really see where it goes but for now I am rather fascinated.

 

Other Notable New works

Goblin Slayer

Shinyaku Marchen

Wombs

Bokura no Fushidara

Unbalance School Life

Kami-sama, Ki-sama o Koroshitai

K-Off’s Ongoing Manga Recommendations (embedded links)

by K-Off, posted in Anime Reviews, Manga Experiment

If you frequent the frontpage of Imgur or r/manga often, you may have seen some of my past manga recommendation lists before, but here’s some ongoing manga that I’ll recommend for now. This is in no particular order of best-worst, I’ve also embedded the links to the scanlations into the images for your convenience.

1. Kumo desu ga, nani ka?

1. Kumo desu ga, nani ka?

A girl is mysteriously taken from her classroom and is reincarnated as a spider in an RPG-like fantasy world. Now at the bottom of the food chain, she needs to adapt to the current situation with willpower in order to live. Adapted from a novel, it only has a handful of chapters out so far but as far as I can tell the release schedule isn’t too bad and the art suits the comedic narrative. It’s about a spider willing to do whatever she can to survive. That’s the extent of the story but it’s fun to read. I can see the premise becoming overly gimmicky later down the line, but I’d still give this a shot.

2. Katsute Kami Datta Kemonotachi

2. Katsute Kami Datta Kemonotachi

During a war, a handful soldiers volunteer to undergo experiments to become beasts to serve their country. When the war is over, they find that the country they served no longer has a place for them back home and it’s about the daughter of one of these monsters who wants to avenge her father. Great action, good art, but it’s let down by its pretty weak narrative and overly fast pacing. Despite that, its story isn’t all that difficult to follow and the characters are interesting, I especially like the background story into the war. That being said, I can see the story working better as an anime adaptation.

3. Kanojo wa Rokurokubi

3. Kanojo wa Rokurokubi

A story about a long-necked girl’s love life: Kanoi Natsuki, a Japanese traditional long-necked creature Rokurokubi, and her childhood friend Itsuki, visit the same school and there seems to be more between them besides friendship. This is undoubtedly much more interesting than most other manga of this type. It’s supposedly by a hentai artist, but it’s really pleasant to see so little fan service. This is an all around fluff-comedic twist on japanese horror that’s yet another nice, slow-paced series from the looks of it so far.

4. Sumikko no Sora-san

1. Kumo desu ga, nani ka?

About a philosophizing tortoise named Plato who, after moving to the countryside with his owner, finds a young girl named Sora whom he mistakes for Socrates and goes on adventures with, not much to say about its plot. I’m not big on philosophy but this is a really pleasant series to follow. If you don’t mind a slow, meandering series that doesn’t have an over-arching plot, this is looking good so far.

5. Chikyuu no Houkago

6. Chikyuu no Houkago

In the year 20xx, thousands of mysterious entities called Phantoms appear in cities around the world and people begin to disappear enmasse. Exactly one year later after their initial appearance, a group of students in Japan are seemingly the only people left in the world, and this is about how they go about their lives regardless of the post-apocalypse. This is by far the best of its genre in my opinion, the fan service gets tiresome and irritating at times but that’s just personal. Otherwise there is lots of intrigue around the Phantoms and it hits a soft spot for me as a fan of post-apocalyptic stories.

6. Watari-kun no xx ga Houkai Sunzen

7. Watari-kun no xx ga Houkai Sunzen

Watari Nao’s life revolves around taking care of the only remaining person in his family, his little sister after their parents pass away. This is pretty risky for me to recommend because it’s currently going on a nosedive for me personally as it’s now devolving into a yandere-harem story with an awkward sense of narrative structure, but if you like that genre this is alright I guess. The “little sister” element isn’t much of a problem by the way, it’s frankly annoying at times but at least the writer never uses her for fan-service.

7. Ajin-chan wa Kataritai

8. Ajin-chan wa Kataritai

Succubus, Dullahan and Vampire. They are known as Ajin, or “Demi”s and are slightly different than the average human. They have lived alongside humans for ages under persecution. However, in recent years, they have become accepted as members of society. This manga follows a high school biology teacher who has a great interest in Demis and his interaction with the various Demis in his school, each with their own first-world problems. For a story involving succubi, vampires, etc, there is no fan service at all and this is a really unoffensive slice of life. I highly recommend reading this if you’re into comedies with a great male lead and interesting side characters.

8. Asagao to Kase-san

9. Asagao to Kase-san

Yamada, the Plant Appointee to her high school and responsible for weeding the campus grounds, catches the attention of the school’s track and field star, Kase and this is about two young girls’ romance. This is probably one of the best yuri slice of lifes out of the few I’ve read, the art style is airy and the story itself is great without becoming too angsty at any point. I almost always do not have the patience for a series like this but this one was approachable and easy to follow, thanks to Mike for this recommendation. Even if you’re not into shojo/yuri manga, I’d recommend you give this one a try, it reads more like a shonen along the lines of Horimiya in terms of its target demographic. This series officially ended with issue 14, but it’s still being continued by the writer online but a group has unfortunately yet to pick them up. But the chapters that are currently translated are pretty much good on their own.

9. Exciting Feelings

10. Exciting Feelings

This is currently one of the best yuri stories out there, recommended again by Mike (or was it realjustified, can’t remember) from this site. This follows the story of two college girls, each with their own problems, tired by the drudgery of a typical college romance. The build up to their romance is simply very well paced, the writer has explicitly stated he won’t ever rush the pacing. Support the artist by only reading it from the link above, because it doesn’t cost much to support the author via viewcounts. This link shows you how to read the English translated chapters on Comico. You can try reading a few chapters yourself on Imgur here but again I’d recommend you read this via the link I’ve embedded into the image.

New Manga Spotlight – Konya wa Tsuki ga Kirei Desu ga, Toriaezu Shi ne, Shoujo Fujuubun and Shimanami Tasogare

by AidanAK47, posted in Anime Reviews, Manga Experiment, New Manga Spotlights, Reviews by AidanAK47

Konya wa Tsuki ga Kirei Desu ga, Toriaezu Shi ne

Two chapters so far. Ah love, that sweet nectar which all seek to experience. And truly there is nothing more romantic than gathering up your courage, inviting the girl you love up to the roof, taking her by the shoulders and proclaiming with all your heart “I want to murder you.” Yes this isn’t some nice little tale about true love but rather something darker. Our protagonist is in love with a girl he’s been friends with for a long time. The love looks to be clearly mutual but he can’t seem to gather the courage to confess. However one night he tries to stop a man assaulting a girl and is infected with some kind of virus. On the plus side he gains immense supernatural strength for short periods. But on the negative side he is now feeling massive urges to kill people and his feelings are directed strongest at the love of his life. He finds himself daydreaming about strangling her with her own intestines and stabbing her to death. It’s still up in the air to where this is going but so far I am liking it. The changes in the protagonist from a demoore cleaning addict to a dangerous psychopath is a good sign and one his classmates are becoming aware of. There are also hints that maybe the girl he loves is infected with the same disease. I am really quite interested to see what happens with our disturbed couple.

 

Shoujo Fujuubun

Two chapters so far with this one. So our protagonist is cycling and happens to spot a terrible car accident which involves preschoolers. However he manages to notice that after the little girls friend gets hit by a truck, she takes special care to save her game on a gameboy she was playing before running over to help her friend or even reacting to it. Unfortunately for him the little girl knew he noticed her odd action and seems to be targeting him. It looked to be hint that this girl is some kind of demon aiming to keep him silent. The end of the second chapter is quite creepy but it is still up in the air about what this story is really about. The artwork is great and we have a college student in the lead instead of a high school student. It looks like these two are going to have some kind of partnership which will likely involve this little girl creature harvesting souls. But that’s just me spitballing here. Besides we have Niso Issin here, author of the monogatari series whose heavy on dialogue and light on sense. Perhaps this may turn out to be a back and forth talking battle between a weird little girl and an aspiring author.

 

Shimanami Tasogare

After recently moving to Onomichi, Hiroshima, high school student Tasuku Kaname is thrown into despair at the possibility that he may have been outed for being gay. Convinced his life is over, his despair turns into shock when he sees a woman jump out of a window of a nearby house. Tasuku races to the house in a panic only to discover that it’s a public meeting lounge owned by the woman he saw before. Tasuku comes face to face with the woman as she walks past him unharmed, but not before she implies that she had been watching him from afar. Confused, Tasuku follows her up to the top of a steep hill where she offers to briefly listen to what’s on his mind. Although Tasuku doesn’t go into too much detail, he later accepts her invitation to come to the lounge to meet others with similar troubles.

So by pure bad luck our protagonist is found out to be gay by his classmates after they search his phone history. The main bulk of the story seems to be about homosexuality and the problems that come with coming out of the closet. Getting ostracised and disowned or even coming to terms with it yourself. I would like to think that homosexuality isn’t quite as discriminated against as it was in the past. Though who knows how its viewed in a traditional heavy society like Japan. The good thing about this series is that it treats how this discrimination works. It’s not some in your face kind of obnoxious level where you have some ignorant jackass practically shouting utter bile at him. Instead it’s a much more subdued and insensitive level. The kind of discrimination you would expect in real life. Our protagonist finds a bit of a safe haven in a lounge that has others with problems like himself and an enigmatic person who may even be somewhat supernatural. The series may go beyond just homosexuality as there do seem to be other residents in this lounge with their own stories to tell. I think it’s nice to see this subject dealt with in a more serious manner rather than the heavy homosexual caricatures present in anime or the blatantly fan pandering nature of BL.

 

Some Quick highlights

 

Good Night World

This has more chapters than usual with about ten chapters out. It’s about a group of players who live as a loving family in a virtual online MMO. They each do this to escape their dysfunctional family but are completely unaware that they are genuine family in real life. So we have a family who ignore each other in real life and focus on playing an MMO so they can play fake family with some other MMO players while all of them being completely unaware that the members of their fake family are in fact their real family in disguise. It’s confusing but you will get it when you read it. It’s strange as these people cannot get along with each other in the real world yet unknowingly are the perfect caring family in the virtual world.

Fire Punch

This is a cautious recommendation as I feel this title is trying a little too hard to be edgy with it’s so far one chapter. It does have it’s interesting points and reminds me of Attack on Titan in both good and bad ways. The idea of a frozen world where the protagonist has control over fire and wishes to take revenge on an oppressive military regime has me somewhat interested.

Criminale!
This is pretty much a harem with some pretty eccentric characters. It gets points for having the girls have genuine negative traits instead of good traits disguised as bad ones. Otherwise it’s pretty standard.

~AidanAK47~