Clik here to view.
Merry Month of (Shojo) Manga: FOUR SHOJO STORIES
This month The Manga Test Drive celebrates its seventh birthday! I know we've been a little absent lately thanks to work on Sakuracon panels, but doing those has left us in the mood to talk about...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Merry Month of (Shojo) Manga: HAREM DAYS: THE SEVEN-STARRED COUNTRY
Now we go from one of the oldest shojo manga releases to a recent one from an all-digital publisher. Is it good enough to stand out in a sea of physical releases from bigger name companies?HAREM DAYS:...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Merry Month of (Shojo) Manga: MAMOTTE! LOLLIPOP
Shojo manga is made for girls, but back in the day there was a larger focus on making comics not just for teen girls, but pre-teen and younger audiences as well. It's tricky for series like that to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Merry Month of (Shojo) Manga: QUEEN OF RAGTONIA
One of the joys of doing these month-long marathons is digging deep into my collection of books to review and finding some hidden treasures - oddball series from obscure (and often long-gone)...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Merry Month of (Shojo) Manga: MORE STARLIGHT TO YOUR HEART
When it comes to shojo manga heroines, there's a fine line between 'cute and spunky' and 'too juvenile and naive to function,' and this series all but stumbles clutzily over that line.MORE STARLIGHT TO...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Merry Month of (Shojo) Manga: PEACH GIRL
It's weird to see gyaru show up in modern manga when they were all the rage in shojo manga in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and few were as successful and remembered (even today) as this series.PEACH...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Merry Month of (Shojo) Manga: CRIMSON HERO
There's a long tradition of shojo manga about volleyball, going all the way back to Attack No. 1. Today's selection is an example from the 2000s that would be great...if not for the lack of actual...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Merry Month of (Shojo) Manga: BLUE INFERIOR
I was recently reminded of Key to the Kingdom, which led me to take a look at the only other Kyoko Shitou manga released in English.BLUE INFERIOR (Buru Infiria), by Kyoko Shitou. First published in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Merry Month of (Shojo) Manga: PHANTOM THIEF JEANNE
Today's shall be a two-for: a magical girl story and yet another attempt at finding an Arina Tanemura manga that I like.PHANTOM THIEF JEANNE (Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne), by Arina Tanemura. First published...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Merry Month of (Shojo) Manga: HYPER RUNE
Shojo and sci-fi are two flavors that go together like chocolate and peanut butter, but there are definitely ways to screw up that combo and today review is an example of just that.HYPER RUNE (Saiba...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Merry Month of (Shojo) Manga: BRIDE OF DEIMOS
Let's take things in an older, spookier, and deeply dramatic direction with an obscure little gem from ComicsOne.BRIDE OF DEIMOS (Deimosu no Hanayome), written by Etsuko Ikeda & art by Yuho Ashibe....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Merry Month of (Shojo) Manga: FROM FAR AWAY
While Fushigi Yugi was the first manga series to popularize the concept of shojo isekai in the 90s, there was a series that came out at the same time that in my opinion is far more interesting (and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Merry Month of (Shojo) Manga: PORTRAIT OF M & N
Shojo manga is frequently all about romance, but seldom about the kinkier side of it. Is it still possible to make the audience's hearts pound when it's less about holding hands and first dates and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Merry Month of (Shojo) Manga: DEFYING KUROSAKI-KUN
The trashier side of shojo can be a safe space for young girls and women to explore their fantasies, but I have some serious words about the sort of fantasy that books like today's selection have to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Merry Month of (Shojo) Manga: THE HEIRESS AND THE CHAUFFEUR
You know what we need more of? Manga set in the Taisho era. I don't need more samurai or Shinsengumi - I want more spunky schoolgirls in fancy hakamas like today's selection.THE HEIRESS AND THE...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Merry Month of (Shojo) Manga: MIRACLE GIRLS
From the creator of Ultra Cute comes a series that tries to combine your standard, slice-of-life school romance with psychic shenanigans. The results are...mixed, at best.MIRACLE GIRLS (Mirakuru...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Merry Month of (Shojo) Manga: MOON CHILD
You know what? Let's get weird today. Let's get "gender-changing amnesiac merperson from space falls for human dancer" weird.MOON CHILD (Tsuki no Ko), by Reiko Shimizu. First published in 1989, and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Review: FALSE MEMORIES
Once again, it's time for another month of cleaning out my giant box of BL books BL reviews! I want to start things on a good note, so let's take a look at one of the better offerings from...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Review: GERARD AND JACQUES
Whenever I review BL, I always have to promise myself that I cannot front-load it with all of my favorites. I only get one slot for the likes of est em or Fumi Yoshinaga, and I'm using it this year to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Review: BLEACH
Weekly Shonen Jump has been producing big shonen manga hits since the 1960s, and it's time that we here at the Manga Test Drive dedicate a month to some of the many titles to come from its pages,...
View Article