slice of life ↘↖
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: 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: 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.
Manga Review: Detroit Metal City
Soichi Negishi is a well-mannered and shy musician who left the countryside for Tokyo to pursue his dream to be a pop musician. However, things don’t go according to plan. He is a horrendous pop musician but as it turns out he is an amazing death metal musician. Now Negishi is the lead musician in the death metal band Detroit Metal City. Even though he hates it, Negishi dresses up and becomes Johannes Krauser II, a demon terrorist from hell who killed then raped his parents; often kills police officers; can and is willing to rape everything; and is basically the demonic version of Chuck Norris from hell as he can do impossible acts of vulgarity and evil simply because he is Krauser II. However, Krauser II is far more than an act. No, it is a part of Negishi. When he gets angry out comes Krauser II. Krauser II is basically Negishi’s alter ego. Does Krauser II actually do all these horrible acts that urban legends claim that he did? No, all of his fans simply misunderstand what Krauser II does and blow it up to outrageous proportions and since his fans worship him as a god, they are willing to believe their own lies. After every misunderstanding he becomes more popular, after every time he escapes to Krauser II in his personal life he relies on Krauser II more, and every time he returns to being Negishi he hates himself more. When Negishi tries to run away from this cycle something always brings him back, thus the story continues.
Manga Review: Sangatsu No Lion
It is a hard life for a professional shogi player. Winning a match means everything. Dropping down a rank is extremely challenging to rectify. But what if that proffesional shogi player is only a teenager? Kiriyama Rei is that shogi player. His father was a shogi player, and the only way Rei got his father to play with him was to challenge him with shogi. Now he is all alone and has a past that is too much for him to bare. All he has is shogi and the Kawamoto family. Fortunately, the Kawamoto family is really all Rei needs.
Manga Review: Mushishi
What is like a plant and like an animal but neither? What is a mirage but also physical? The answer is mushi. Mushi are a third type of being. They are not plants they are not animals but a little of both. Few people can see these creatures and even fewer of these become mushishi, wanderers who protect the balance between Mushi and humans. It is best to think of them as wandering healers who are both in tune with humans and mushi. The mangaka often bases the mushi after folk lore and superstitions. By borrowing from such lore we get creatures who have evolved and ripened for countless generations before being used in this work.
Manga Review: Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai
Available here
“Based on the light novel by Hirasaka Yomi & Buriki.
Hasegawa Kodaka has transferred schools, and he’s having a hard time making friends. It doesn’t help that his blond hair tends to make people think he’s a delinquent. One day, he runs into his bad-tempered solitary classmate Yozora while she’s talking animatedly to her imaginary friend Tomo. Realizing that neither of them have any actual friends, they decide that the best way to alter this situation is to form a club and start recruiting.
That is how “Rinjinbu” was formed, a club specifically designed for people who don’t have very many friends. As other lonely classmates slowly join their little club, they’ll try to learn how to build friendships through cooking together, playing games, and other group activities. But will this group of relationship-challenged misfits really be able to get along?” - Mangafox.com
Manga Review: Blood Alone
Available here
“Enter Misaki, perhaps the most innocent and most sincere young lady there ever was. It’s almost inconceivable that she could be a vampire. And with her powers as a vampire, she could easily entice any human to do her bidding… but she chooses not to. Especially when it comes to Kuroe, a young author who has a deep running past with vampires. This wonderful story of pure innocent love charmingly bonds Misaki to the readers. She’ll absolutely delight you with her earnest love for a human and her resolve to protect a willing mutual relationship versus turning Kuroe.
The manga is based on a set of doujinshi released by the same mangaka. Many of the story arcs in the manga are based partially or wholly upon the doujinshi.” - Mangafox.com
Manga Review: Otaku no Musume-san
Available here
“Kanau Yukimura is nine years old and she’s meeting her father for the first time. However, he turns out to be an otaku! The two of them start living together in the same apartment, next to a lot of interesting neighbors. Unsurprisingly, things don’t always go smoothly for these two…” - Mangareader.net
