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Holiday Review: DO YOU LOVE YOUR MOM AND HER TWO-HIT MULTI-TARGET ATTACKS?
This year, the flood of isekai titles has continued unabated. Luckily, most of this has stayed in the realm of light novels, but a few managed to make their way into the manga world on the backs of...
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Holiday Review: ASCENDANCE OF A BOOKWORM
Yet from the dregs of countless isekai adaptations came the slow and steady return of shojo isekai. Most of it is still confined to light novels, but one managed to cross over and completely charm...
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Holiday Review: MAGUS OF THE LIBRARY
In the sea of isekai-based fantasy manga, it was a pleasant surprise to discover just a straightforward kid-friend fantasy tale just out there, waiting to be discovered.MAGUS OF THE LIBRARY (Toshoukan...
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Holiday Review: EMANON
There were some interesting and thoughtful manga out there for those willing to seek it out, such as Dark Horse's latest offering from Kenji Tsuruta.EMANON (Omoide Emanon), based on the story by Shinji...
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Holiday Review: GO WITH THE CLOUDS, NORTH-BY-NORTHWEST
Emanon wasn't the only series this year to focus on slightly mystical journeys. Vertical brought us another one from the creator of one of my guilty pleasures, Ran and the Grey World.GO WITH THE...
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Holiday Review: BEASTARS
Yet one of the most emotionally complex and interesting manga was a school-based murder mystery about anthropomorphic animals, and that's just wonderful.BEASTARS, by Paru Itagaki. First published in...
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Holiday Review: HAPPY SUGAR LIFE
It's good that we've had such interesting manga to counter the steady stream of media that seems to confuse edginess for quality, like this one.HAPPY SUGAR LIFE (Happi Shuga Raifu), by Tomiyaki...
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Holiday Review: EVE AND EVE
Meanwhile, Seven Seas's domination of the American yuri market continued mostly unabated. As they continued to expand their yuri offerings, we got books like this that experiment not only with genre...
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Holiday Review: MONSTER AND THE BEAST
BL continued to expand across all the major publishers this year (as well as a number of digital ones), and I guess it was inevitable that we would find the intersection between BL and the...
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Holiday Review: OUR DREAMS AT DUSK
Also continuing this year was the increase in queer manga - not just romantic fare like BL or yuri, but ones dealing with real-world experiences. The stand-out was easily this one, a fictional tale...
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Holiday Review: MAIDEN RAILWAYS
Josei manga continues to creep into the US, helped along in no small part thanks to publishers like Denpa Books.MAIDEN RAILWAYS (Tetsudo Shojo Manga), by Asumiko Nakamura. First published in 2011 and...
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Holiday Review: SECRETLY I'VE BEEN SUFFERING ABOUT BEING SEXLESS
One of the most interesting josei manga I read this year was also another example of the sorts of confessional webmanga that have been making a splash on the American market.SECRETLY I'VE BEEN...
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Holiday Review: BLANK CANVAS - MY SO-CALLED ARTIST'S JOURNEY
This year continued to be a good one not just for josei fans, but fans of Akiko Higashimura in particular. We got a big fancy boxset for Princess Jellyfish, we got Tokyo Tarareba Girls in print, and a...
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Holiday Review: KAKURIYO - BED & BREAKFEST FOR SPIRITS
Meanwhile, shojo manga was certainly...well, present. There's still plenty of trend-chasing like what's going on with this series.KAKURIYO: BED AND BREAKFAST FOR SPIRITS (Kakuriyo no Yadomeshi), based...
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Holiday Review: ASAHI-SEMPAI'S FAVORITE
And of course there was plenty of digital-only shojo books that don't make their way to print because they're too dull, too douchey, or a bit of both like today's selection.ASAHI-SEMPAI'S FAVORITE...
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Holiday Review: KAIJU GIRL CARAMELISE
That being said, my shojo series is technically not shojo (it runs in Morning Two, a seinen magazine), but for all intensive purposes is the best and weirdest shojo manga to come out in English this...
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Holiday Review: PHANTOM TALES OF THE NIGHT
As we wind things down, I like to reflect on some of the manga that didn't necessarily fit any trends but simply made an impression on me like this one.PHANTOM TALES OF THE NIGHT (Bakemono...
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Holiday Review: WITCH HAT ATELIER
That being said, nothing that came out before or since this year prepared me for just how amazing today's selection was or how much I was going to love it.WITCH HAT ATELIER (Tongari Boushi no Atelier),...
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Holiday Review: SAINT YOUNG MEN
In any other year, Witch Hat Atelier would have been my final review, but then I remembered that this came out and the choice was all too obvious.After all, the mythology of Christmas is all about...
View ArticleHoliday Giveaway Winner & 2019 in the Rear View
First of all, time to announce this year's winner of my Holiday Giveaway: AmonduulUS!Probably a tie between Go With the Clouds, North-by-Northwest (hard to beat a guy who talks to cars and drives...
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