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Recipe: LOVE RECIPE
The only thing worse than a bad BL romance is a bad BL romance that ruins an otherwise good concept for a manga.LOVE RECIPE, by Kirico Higashizato. First published in 2005 and first published in North...
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Review: LA CORDA D'ORO
Let's make this a March of musical madness as we cover manga all about music, even if that means including mediocre reverse harem manga about music school students.LA CORDA D'ORO (Kin'iro no Koroda),...
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Review: BLUE GIANT
Of course, I can't spend all month ragging on music-related manga. I also need to cover better, more earnest stories learning one's craft and embracing the love of music.BLUE GIANT, by Shinichi...
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Review: BB EXPLOSION
Why is it so hard to find a good shojo manga about music?BB EXPLOSION (Hajikete Bi Bi). by Yasue Imai. First published in 1997 and first published in North America in 2004.PLOT:Airi is a small-town...
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Merry Month of Shojo Review #1: SKIP BEAT
The Manga Test Drive turns 11 this year! To celebrate this blog's entry into its pre-teens, we're once again going to enjoy an entire Merry Month of Manga Reviews! Once again, we're dedicating this...
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Merry Month of Shojo Review #2: THE FIANCEE CHOSEN BY THE RING
One of the few upshots of the rise in villainess isekai stories is that it's allowed a small but particular subset of romance manga to get licensed - frothy light-novel-based romances that are lightly...
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Merry Month of Shojo Review #3: CANON
It figures when I need to talk about a good but overlooked shojo manga from the past, I can always turn to CMX.CANON (Kanon), by Chika Shiomi. First published in 1994 and first published in North...
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Merry Month of Shojo Review #4: KARAKURI ODETTE
Sci-fi and shojo is a combination we don't see a lot of in English, and that's a real shame because this series demonstrates just what kind of potential it has.KARAKURI ODETTE, by Julietta Suzuki...
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Merry Month of Shojo Review #5: MAID IN HEAVEN
I swear, I'm not always trying to pick on Kodansha and their digital shojo offerings. It's just that they keep picking up the most questionable titles...MAID IN HEAVEN (Meido in Hani), by Mari...
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Merry Month of Shojo Review #6: JOSEPHINE THE FRENCH ROSE
It's hard to believe that the only Yumiko Igarashi manga available in English is this curious little digital artifact, a shojo manga that feels out of place and time.JOSEPHINE THE FRENCH ROSE (Bara no...
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Merry Month of Shojo Manga Review #7: KAZE HIKARU
There are few Shojo Beat releases as notorious as this - not because of its content or quality, mind you, but because of how poorly it has sold and how long its release has been dragged out.KAZE...
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Merry Month of Shojo Review #8: FLOCK OF ANGELS
I'm sure that the mangaka had nothing but good intentions with this one, but good intentions only get you so far with metaphors handled this badly.FLOCK OF ANGELS (Tenshi no Mure), by Shoko Hamada....
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Merry Month of Shojo Manga Review #9: CROSS
Shojo manga loves to play with Christian imagery, but that doesn't always means it's tasteful about it.CROSS (Juuji Kurosu), by Sunuko Amakawa. First published in 1997 and first published in North...
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Merry Month of Shojo Manga Review #10: UNICO
Let's look at a slightly unconventional bit of old-school shojo, one that's better known for its animated adaptations than the original source.UNICO, by Osamu Tezuka. First published in 1976 and first...
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Merry Month of Shojo Manga Review #12: THE SAVIOR'S BOOK CAFE STORY IN...
You'd think I would have loved this series, considering its older heroine and appreciation for reading as a hobby. Alas, it's an idea that's more interesting in concept than execution...THE SAVIOR'S...
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Merry Month of Shojo Review #13: OTOMEN
Shojo manga's relationship to gender performance can sometimes be kind of fraught, but this series strives to be a little more understanding. Does it work out?OTOMEN, by Aya Kanno. First published in...
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Merry Month of Shojo Manga Review #14: GOLDEN JAPANESQUE: A SPLENDID YOKOHAMA...
And now here's a modern manga with an old-fashioned setting.GOLDEN JAPANESQUE: A SPLENDID YOKOHAMA ROMANCE (Kin'iro Japanesque: Yokohama Kako tan), by Kaho Miyasaka. First published in 2018 and first...
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Merry Month of Shojo Review #15: CIPHER
And now let's switch things around to the opposite: an old-school series set in (what were then) modern times.A series that's literally as old as I am....oh dear.CIPHER, by Minako Narita. First...
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Merry Month of Shojo Review #16: STELLAR WITCH LIPS
This titles is a veritable mash-up of shojo sub-genres, along with influences both old and new. If only that mash-up were as graceful as the magical girls on its pages.STELLAR WITCH LIPS (Majo Kaito...
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Merry Month of Shojo Review #17: NEW VAMPIRE MIYU
It's time for me to take a look at a once-beloved shojo horror franchise, long forgotten but not unloved.NEW VAMPIRE MIYU (Shin Kyuketsu Hime Miyu), written by Toshihiro Hirano with art by Narumi...
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