manga review ↘↖
Manga Review: Yokohama Kaidashi Kikō
The post-apocalyptic future, as told by Yokohama Kaidashi Kikō, is much calmer than most stories portray it. The difference between robots and humans, artificial and natural, has been blurred to the point where their is little difference between the two. In this calm yet unusual future Alpha Hasseno, runs a little coffee shop in her owner’s absence. Alpha lazily passes the time in her cafe between the seldom customer. Her world slowly expands as new customers visit and she meets new people on her various trips and excursions.
Winner of 2007 Seinen Award for Best Manga.
Manga Review: Otogi Matsuri
In the quite little town of Miyakono life takes a drastic turn for many residents. The residents have forgotten the old traditions and have abandoned the gods. By destroying the mountain and filling in the rivers an ancient charm was broken. This charm protected the town from the onslaught of the ten Kenzoku. These ancient and monstrous creatures gather the souls of their victims to resurrect their creator. The only humans that can fight these beings are those who have been chosen by the four gods guarding the town. These gods are: Suzaku, who protects the south, Seiryu, who protects the East, Genbu, who protects the North, and Byakko, who protects the West. Upon contact with the gods the chosen must give up their most precious thing in exchange for a jingi, a sacred weapon. They, along with the few who have spiritual sense, are the only ones who can see the Kenzoku and thus must fight together to save the greater population who are unaware of the danger. Still, the Jingi users are only human and their weakness causes many deaths, some unavoidable, some harrowing.
Manga Review: Magi
Magic comes in the form of magoi and blesses only a select few. These people blessed by magoi have the capacity to not only successfully traverse through one of the mysterious dungeons and reach the riches within, which is called capturing a dungeon, but also to be deemed worthy by the dungeon’s djinn. Upon being deemed worthy, the djinn lends his or her power to the one who captured the dungeon by possessing an object, called djinn containers. Djinn containers grants the wielder the immense powers of the djinn held within. As such, many try to capture dungeons but few survive and even few succeed. These few often have the mysterious capacity to be kings. A candidate is chosen by a magi, a being who can interact with rukh, collections of souls that guide the living in the form of fate, and produce infinite magoi, and is led on the path of the King. But a king of what?
Manga Review: Usagi Drop
Upon the death of his grandfather, Daikichi Kawachi returns to his hometown. At the family gathering he meets a little girl who he had never seen before, Rin Kaga. As it turns out Rin is, supposedly, the illegitimate daughter of Daikichi’s grandfather. As the rest of the family falls into a petty argument over who takes Rin, Daikichi decides that Rin deserves better and takes Rin under his wing. Daikichi, who is single and 30-years old, now has the life of an innocent six year old on his hands. Usagi Drop is the tale of Daikishi, as he learn the joys of parenthood— albeit awkward at first, and Rin, as she learns to love and be a normal girl.
Usagi Drop was a candidate for the 2011 Eisner Award in the Best U.S. Edition of International Material-Asia Category.
Manga Review: Island
From the manhwa writer that wrote Shin Angyo Onshi and Defense Devil comes a story of demons, death, history, and vengeance. Island centers around Won Miho who, ever since she came to Cheju Island, has attracted the attention of the native demons. Her only line of defense is Pan, a serial killer who hunts these demons. This mysterious man uses Buddhist chants and his jade dagger to defeat both god and demons alike. He is unpredictable, to say the least, and Won has to resort to money in order to keep Pan defending her. However, these demons are the least of Won’s worries as she gets caught in a history of hate between Korea and Japan which manifests itself in supernatural killing and battles.
Manga Review: Parasyte
Even in real life, humans are slowly destroying the planet. However, in Parasyte Earth may have a chance due to alien invaders. These aliens are parasitic, sometimes symbiotic, creatures that attempted to take over human bodies when they first invaded. Most Parasites succeeded and took control over human brains. Others failed to take over humans but succeed in controlling other animals, although this is considered a failure by the Parasite population. These Parasites develop a need to eat others of the same species as their host. Thus Parasites in human hosts eat other humans. Another failure is when a Parasite fails in taking over a human’s brain and instead controls a different part of their body. This is the case of Shinichi Izumi who has a Parasite in his right hand.
Manga Review: Karakuri Odette
Odette Yoshizawa can be best described by her classmate’s reaction, “She looks like a doll.” In one sense of the meaning Odette is very beautiful. However, in the other sense of the meaning she looks like a doll, this is because she is an android. Created by the renown Professor Yoshizawa, Odette is the closest thing machines have ever become to humans. She can express all human behaviors and movements, is intelligent, and has great physical prowess. To an untrained eye she is the perfect human. But there is something that Odette is missing. To find out what is different between her and human girls she convinces the Professor to let her go to school. In school she makes friends, develops a sense of right and wrong, learns about human society, and slowly becomes more like a human.
Manga Review: Natsume Yuujinchou
Great spiritual power is required to see spirits but it takes even greater power to bind spirits to your will. Natsume’s grandmother, Reiko, had enough power to beat spirits in games and bind their souls to their names which she collected. The names she collected she put in the book she which she called her “Book of Friends”. Perhaps she referred to the spirits as her friends because she didn’t have any human friends. Regardless of who she though of the spirits they now want their names back. However, Reiko is long dead and it is now up to Natsume to return the names taken out of loneliness with kindness.
Manga Review: Kamisama Hajimemashita
I have a weakness for Japanese superstition and religion. Kamisama Hajimemashita fills my need for this and my need for romance. This fantastic romance, pun very much intended, follows Nanami Momozono as she grows into her job as a Land God and as a God of Marriage. A mortal god is rare but not unheard of, they are rarely acknowledged by immortal gods and often fall pray to yokai. Luckily, Nanami has Tomoe, her familiar and ex-yokai, to protect her and teacher her. This manga follows the adventures of Nanami as she tries to prove herself to other gods, does her duties as Land God, and gets involved with the affairs of yokai. The taboo relationship between yokai and human is also explored, even by just reading this paragraph it is quite obvious who the yokai and human in question are. If you still don’t know who the character in question are I will give you a hint: I only introduced two characters so far.
Manga Review: Tomehane!
Returnee Yukari Oe has been in school for a week now, he has no friends but isn’t bullied either. He yearns for something more. Fate answers his call, in a way Oe would never expect, by getting him threatened to join the calligraphy club. Still needing one more member, the club tricks Yuki Mochizuki into joining by playing the responsibility card as she accidentally broke Oe’s dominant hand. The addition of these two eager first years drives the tepid calligraphy club to new heights. This manga explores the many different types of Japanese calligraphy, how to draw it, its modern applications, and its history.
