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Review Archive

To see a list of reviews in alphabetical order, please see our review index.

Review: Soul Eater Not! (Vol. 01)

Posted by Lissa Pattillo on Monday, August 20, 2012

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Manga-ka: Atsushi Ohkubo
Publisher: Yen Press
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Release Date: July 2012

Synopsis: “Ding-dong! DEAD-dong! Class is about to begin, and you don’t want to be late on your first day of school! Join Tsugumi Harudori in the NOT class at Death Weapon Meister Academy, a school dedicated to training transforming Weapons like Tsugumi and the Meisters who will wield them. Many NOT (Normally Overcome Target) students aspire to join the elite EAT (Especially Advantaged Talent) class, but it may take Tsugumi some time to find her confidence—and a partner—at this crazy school!”

Soul Eater Not! is a spin-off of Atsushi Ohkubo’s Soul Eater. It introduces a new cast of characters who attend the same school as those in Soul Eater, but focuses more on their friendship, schooling and quirky personalities than the monsters and battles those traits are used for by the previous leads. As someone who couldn’t really get into the first series, and who doesn’t usually find shonen slice-of-girl-life stories interesting, I went into this book with low expectations. To my pleasant surprise, however, I closed this book upon completion with a smile on my face and an eagerness for volume two.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: Manga, Yen Press

Review: Bunny Drop (Vol. 06)

Posted by Lissa Pattillo on Saturday, August 18, 2012

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Manga-ka: Yami Unita
Publisher: Yen Press
Rating: Teen (13+)
Release Date: August 2012

Synopsis: “As Daikichi continues to juggle work with raising a teenager, Rin struggles with the relationship between her and Kouki, her childhood friend. The last ten years have brought about a variety of changes to their friendship—some subtle, some not so. Kouki may always have been head over heels for Rin, but the choices he’s made in the past seem to have put a wedge between them. And when a scorned ex sets her sights anew on Rin as the object of her rage, the tricks up this girl’s sleeve threaten to nip Kouki’s potential romance with Rin in the bud for good. As Rin’s sixteenth birthday approaches, will there be cause for celebration? Or will Daikichi have a crisis of the heart on his hands?!”

The previous volume of Bunny Drop really disappointed me. Here we had an utterly charming series about a single, middle-age man adopting a little girl and learning how to care for her. In volume five, we had a time jump that took us forward to the child, Rin, now being a teenager. Volume six doesn’t do anything like take us back to those more charming and educational days (save for a few flashbacks) but at least now that we’re over the shock of the transition, we can appreciate the story more for what it’s become. Still, teenage school drama, haven’t we seen it all?

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: Bunny Drop, Manga, Yen Press

Review: Bakuman (Vol. 13)

Posted by Lissa Pattillo on Thursday, August 16, 2012

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Author: Tsugumi Ohba
Manga-ka: Takeshi Obata
Publisher: Viz Media
Rating: Teen (13+)
Release Date: August 2012

Synopsis: “After being told their current series Perfect Crime Party will not be turned into an anime, Moritaka and Akito start planning on ways to create a second series. Their best chance might be to do well in a new contest where they will compete with their rivals over who can create the best romance story!”

The irony of this volume’s showdown of the romances results won’t be lost on the many who love Bakuman for its passionate telling of manga making but begrudge it’s weak coupling subplots. While the romantics have never been the series’ strong point (granted I do at least favour the Kaya and Akito couple quite a bit), other relationships between characters still continue to be one of the most compelling aspects, whether it’s between partners, rivals, editors or audience.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: Bakuman, Manga, Shonen Jump, Viz Media

Review: Kaze Hikaru (Vol. 20)

Posted by Lissa Pattillo on Tuesday, August 14, 2012

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Manga-ka: Taeko Watanabe
Publisher: Viz Media
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Release Date: August 2012

Synopsis: “Hijikata decides to make use of Kamiya’s feminine features and sends “him” out dressed as a woman on a spy mission. Her assignment: to ascertain the whereabouts of the notorious enemy leader Sakamoto Ryoma. Soji, left in the dark about the secret mission, sets off to find Kamiya. The two get more than they bargained for when they come face-to-face with the enemy himself!”

Be still my beating heart and gleeful cheers; after a long year of waiting we finally have a new volume of Kaze Hikaru. The decisions in the previous volume set in motion potentially dire events for Kamiya as a photographer arrives to deliver the finished product of her day out with Soji. What it results in is a volume full of humour and heart, most notably both from Soji, who is being forced to confront his own feelings a lot sooner than he’s likely ready for. We’re quite ready for it though!

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: Kaze Hikaru, Manga, Shoujo Beat, Viz Media

Review: Black Butler (Vol. 10)

Posted by Lissa Pattillo on Monday, August 13, 2012

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Manga-ka: Yana Toboso
Publisher: Yen Press
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Release Date: July 2012

Synopsis: “With his royally sanctioned dinner party a shambles and a murderer on the loose, Earl Ciel Phantomhive is a veritable prisoner in his own home, alongside those of his guests who still live. And in the most shocking of turns, the young earl now finds himself without his indispensible manservant, Sebastian. But as the mystery deepens, there arrives upon the young earl’s doorstep an odd vicar, wearing an insolent smile and an Inverness cape that flaps and splashes behind him… Is this mysterious thirteenth guest the perpetrator of the crimes that have bloodied the halls of Phantomhive Manor?”

The murder mystery resumes, taking us into the third volume of Black Butler‘s Phantomhive Manor who-dun-it. I was a little surprised to see this story arc lasted even this long, going right up to the final page of this tenth volume of Black Butler and beyond. None the less it gives secondary characters time to shine, and introduces a new character with some secrets of his own that bring about a conclusion that really couldn’t have been put off any longer.

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Tags: Black Butler, Manga, Yen Press

Review: My Cute Crossdresser

Posted by Lissa Pattillo on Monday, August 6, 2012

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Manga-ka: Mitohi Matsumoto
Publisher: Project-H
Rating: Mature (18+)
Release Date: July 2012

Synopsis: “A bunch of nerdy guys (without girlfriends) get together to try to catch a perverted predator on a crowded train and decide to run a sting operation. But… how will they do that? Who or what would they use for a decoy to catch this predator? Oh, we know! Let’s dress up one as a girl! He looks so cute! He’s just perfect and anyone would fall for him… including his classmates!”

When I first read the synopsis for My Cute Crossdresser, I knew I had to read this book. As a story about boys loving crossdressing boys, it seemed an odd addition to Digital Manga’s hentai imprint, Project-H. My Cute Crossdresser sounded more appropriate for one of their several boys’ love imprints. Now that I’ve read it, it really is a tricky title to categorize. It’s tone doesn’t feel BL appropriate, but simultaneously this title falls short of earning the blood-spurting logo of Project-H.

Read more…

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: Boys' Love/Yaoi, DMP, Hentai, Manga, Project-H

Review: The One I Love

Posted by Danielle Hoar on Saturday, July 28, 2012

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Manga-ka: CLAMP
Publisher: Tokyopop
Rating: Teen (13+)
Release Date: July 1995

Synopsis: “Combining CLAMP’s legendary storytelling, color artwork, and elegant prose, The One I Love provides insight into the creators’ intimate lives and passions. This unique and romantic 12 story anthology dives into the heart of the matter of insecurity and honesty, marriage and independence, and, of course, the single subject CLAMP seems to know best: love.”

The One I Love, consists of twelve collected works by CLAMP. The series of stories was in progress late 1993 and was published about a year and half later. Their work was mostly targeted towards younger girls before this book was created and at the time was CLAMPS first original, non-series anthology. The main female protagonists are each in their own walk of life, the ages varied and their relationships different.

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Tags: CLAMP, Manga, Tokyopop

Review: Alice in the Country of Hearts (Vol. 01-03)

Posted by Lissa Pattillo on Sunday, July 22, 2012

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Alice in the Country of Hearts (Vol. 01)

Author: Quinrose
Manga-ka: Soumei Hoshino
Publisher: Yen Press
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Release Date: June 2012

Synopsis: “Alice is having a nap in her garden when suddenly before her there appears a young man with rabbit ears! He whisks her away to a fantastic (but dangerous) world that seems straight out of a fairy tale, but one where every resident brandishes a weapon…Will Alice ever find her way back home? “

The plot of this story feels like a no-brainer based on the source material – a young girl transported to a magical world who meets an assortment of strange men and women. Harem set-up perfection, right? You guessed it, they all fall in love with her. Not nearly as pervy as CLAMP’s Miyuki-chan in Wonderland, and impressively more twisted in some ways than the original, Alice in the Country of Hearts takes a harem twist on an old classic and yet makes it so much more than you’d expect. Packaged pretty by Yen Press and released all at once for your curious convenience, Alice in the Country of Hearts is a trio of books worth seeking out.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: Alice in the Country of..., Manga, Omnibus, Yen Press

Review: Ouran High School Host Club (Vol. 18)

Posted by Lissa Pattillo on Thursday, July 12, 2012

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Manga-ka: Bisco Hatori
Publisher: Viz Media
Rating: Teen (13+)
Release Date: June 2012

Synopsis: “In this screwball romantic comedy, Haruhi, a poor girl at a rich kids’ school, is forced to repay an $80,000 debt by working for the school’s swankiest, all-male club–as a boy! There, she discovers just how wealthy the six members are and how different the rich are from everybody else… Final Volume!”

There are plenty of series that stop after the big love confession – take several of CLAMP’s work, for example – and while sometimes I look at that as a lazy exit, most times I’m grateful. It drives me nuts when characters fall in love and suddenly they seem to lose all their individual traits that made them so likeable when ‘single’. Now they’re just ‘in a relationship’, like it’s a package-deal personality set. Ouran High School Host Club, however, doesn’t do either of these things and for that is easily one of the best finale volumes I’ve ever read.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: Manga, Ouran High School Host Club, Shoujo Beat, Viz Media

Review: Your Story I’ve Known

Posted by Shannon Fay on Friday, July 6, 2012

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Manga-ka: Tsuta Suzuki
Publisher: June
Rating: Teen (13+)
Release Date: June 2011

Synopsis: “Hart Matsumoto will never be able to erase the painful memories of his abusive mother and her rotating cast of lovers…but he also can’t help but be drawn to Shibuzawa, one of the kindest men to ever set foot in his tumultuous home. Is this strange yakuza actually the best thing in Hart’s crazy life? And how will Shibuzawa react once he discovers Hart’s true feelings?”

Short story collections of boys’ love are kind of like buffets, in that you get your pick of several different dishes. In Your Story I’ve Known, there’s a story between a yakuza and a naive young man, another featuring two high school students, another one about a teenage boy and the ghost of a long-dead samurai, and a romance between two co-workers. But, while you can count on buffets and BL anthologies for variety, sometimes the quality isn’t as good as you’d get in a normal restaurant or single story graphic novel. Sometimes you’ll love one dish and the others will leave you wanting. And, unlike a buffet, you can’t go back for more of the dish you like.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: Boys' Love/Yaoi, June, Manga, Tsuta Suzuki