Manga Review: Vinland Saga Book Four by Makoto Yukimura SPOILER WARNING: This review contains spoilers for earlier volumes. If you have not read them, please see my earlier reviews. This manga’s main protagonist to this point has been Thorfinn, a young Viking serving in the mercenary band of Askeladd. Years before, Askeladd treacherously slew Thorfinn’s… Continue reading Manga Review: Vinland Saga Book Four
Category: manga
Manga Review: Shonen Jump Weekly (USA) 2014
Manga Review: Shonen Jump Weekly (USA) 2014 It’s the second anniversary of this blog, so it’s time for the annual look at the online edition of Shounen Jump Weekly, the best-selling manga anthology in Japan. The big news this year was the end of the long-running and popular Naruto series (see my previous post on the… Continue reading Manga Review: Shonen Jump Weekly (USA) 2014
Manga Review: Naruto
Manga Review: Naruto by Masashi Kishimoto After 700 chapters and fifteen years, an animated TV series, multiple short movies and video games and piles of merchandise, the popular manga series Naruto has ended. For those who somehow missed the last fifteen years of hype, the premise goes something like this. Blond, blue-eyed orphan Naruto Uzumaki is hated and… Continue reading Manga Review: Naruto
Manga Review: Case Closed (Detective Conan)
Manga Review: Case Closed (Detective Conan) by Gosho Aoyama Shin’ichi Kudou (Jimmy Kudo) is a teen genius detective, well known for solving cases that baffle the police. One day while visiting an amusement park with his female friend Ran Mouri (Rachel Moore), he witnesses a murder by two men in black. They catch him,… Continue reading Manga Review: Case Closed (Detective Conan)
Manga Review: Skip-Beat! Volumes 1-2-3
Manga Review: Skip-Beat! Volumes 1-2-3 by Yoshiki Nakamura Kyouko Mogami and Shoutaro “Shou” Fuwa grew up together after Kyouko’s mother largely abandoned her. The Fuwa family runs a chain of traditional Japanese inns, but Shou didn’t want to go into that business, partially because it is the proprietress that is the face of the inn,… Continue reading Manga Review: Skip-Beat! Volumes 1-2-3
Manga Review: Ooku
Manga Review: Ooku by Fumi Yoshinaga In an alternate history version of Japan, disaster strikes during the reign of Shogun Iemitsu (circa 1630). A plague that becomes known as the “red-face pox” sweeps the islands, with a fatality rate of 80% among boys and young men. Within a couple of years, the gender imbalance among… Continue reading Manga Review: Ooku
Manga Review: Sword Art Online: Aincrad
Manga Review: Sword Art Online: Aincrad original story by Reki Kawahara, art by Tamako Nakamura Disclaimer: I received this book in a Goodreads giveaway on the premise that I would review it. It is the year 2022, and commercially viable virtual reality equipment is now on the market. Of course, one of the first… Continue reading Manga Review: Sword Art Online: Aincrad
Manga Review: Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit
Manga Review: Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit by Motoro Mase In an alternate-history Japan, the government immunizes all children as they enter first grade. But one in every thousand injection also contains a nanocapsule that lodges in the child’s heart. and somewhere between age 18 and 24, will activate and stop that heart. There’s a triple-blind… Continue reading Manga Review: Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit
Manga Review: Rin-ne
Manga Review: Rin-ne by Rumiko Takahashi Sakura Mamiya is not quite your normal high school girl. Due to a near-death experience as a child, Sakura can see spirits. One day, she meets the new boy in her class, Rinne Rokudo. She mistakes him for a spirit at first, but the truth is a bit more… Continue reading Manga Review: Rin-ne
Manga Review: The Twin Knights
Manga Review: The Twin Knights by Osamu Tezuka This is a sequel to the classic Osamu Tezuka work Princess Knight (“Ribon no Kishi” or “The Ribbon Knight” in Japanese), about Sapphire, a princess raised as a boy due to strange circumstances. Queen Sapphire is now married and gives birth to twins, Prince Daisy and Princess Violetta.… Continue reading Manga Review: The Twin Knights