Manga Reviews

Cells at Work! Bacteria Shows the Grosser Side of the Body

Each Cells at Work! spinoff has its own flavor while keeping the style of the original. So if Cells at Work! Baby is cute and Cells at Work! and Friends is about foibles, then Cells at Work! Bacteria is . . . well, gross. But it’s …Read more »

Venus in the Blind Spot Highlights Some of Junji Ito’s Best Scary Work

September 9, 2020

Danica Davidson

Junji Ito is one of Japan’s best known horror manga creators, and anyone who reads Venus in the Blind Spot can see why. This collection of short manga stories highlights his artistic and storytelling talents, showing how he can give you delicious chills and keep …Read more »

The Death of Replicist is a Moody and Delicate Yuri Manga

September 4, 2020

Danica Davidson

The Death of Replicist is a moody, avant garde manga from Digital Manga Publishing’s yuri imprint, LILYKA. The main character is Mori, a shinigami (usually translated to English as “god of death”) who looks like a beautiful young woman with blond hair. It’s her job …Read more »

My Broken Mariko Tells an Intense Josei Story

August 31, 2020

Danica Davidson

My Broken Mariko is a heavy duty josei manga about friendship, abuse, and loss. Shiino is eating a meal at a restaurant when she hears the news that her best friend, 26-year-old Mariko, committed suicide. It’s pretty clear from the pains Mariko went to that …Read more »

Mujirushi: The Sign of Dreams [Manga Review]

August 31, 2020

Shaenon K. Garrity

For fifteen years, the Louvre has commissioned graphic novels from top cartoonists around the world. Seinen manga legend Naoki Urasawa (20th Century Boys, Pluto, Monster) joins the ranks of Louvre artists with Mujirushi, a heist thriller that combines the brainy eccentricity of a colorful French …Read more »

Primitive Boyfriend [Manga Review]

August 31, 2020

Shaenon K. Garrity

In Primitive Boyfriend, Mito Kamigome looks like a typical sparkly-eyed teenage manga heroine, but she comes from a farm family and comes by her beauty through hard labor and a diet of home-grown produce. Though her school is populated with stock types from a girls’ …Read more »

Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai Gives Both Fanservice and Heart

August 30, 2020

Danica Davidson

Sakuta Azusagawa, a high school boy with a cutting wit and no use for cell phones, is at the library one day when he notices a young woman walking around in a Playboy Bunny outfit. It’s Mai Sakurajima, the famous actress and his senpai (hence …Read more »

Cosmo Familia [Manga Review}

August 29, 2020

Che Gilson

Confusing at first, Cosmo Familia settles into a weird groove by the end of the first volume. It begins with mystery heaped upon mystery, with so many things going on and so little context that it’s hard not to feel dislocated. The patient reader will …Read more »

Spy x Family [Manga Review]

August 29, 2020

Michael Goldstein

Sometimes a family is a child, a mommy, and a daddy. Sometimes a family is a daddy, another daddy, and a child. Sometimes a family is a mommy, a dragon, and a smaller dragon. In the first volume of Spy x Family, a family is …Read more »

Goodbye, My Rose Garden [Manga Review]

August 28, 2020

Brittany Vincent

In the Victorian setting of Goodbye, My Rose Garden, a young Japanese woman named Hanako has traveled to England to pursue her dream of becoming a novelist. Her first step is to speak with the author whose work has resonated with her the most, the …Read more »

The Kingdom of the Gods [Manga Review]

August 27, 2020

David Estrella

BURNING HELL KAMI NO KUNI © 2015 In-wan YOUN, Eun-hee KIM, Kyung-il YANG/SHOGAKUKAN American readers may not be familiar with the names on the cover of The Kingdom of the Gods, but there’s a good chance they’ve come across Kingdom while scrolling through their Netflix …Read more »

Sweat and Soap [Manga Review]

August 26, 2020

Brittany Vincent

You’ve never seen a meet-cute like the one in Sweat and Soap. Count on it. This romcom manga follows a young woman’s connection to a man who becomes attracted to her because of, to put it bluntly, her smell. Asako Yaeshima is a timid office …Read more »

Not Your Idol [Manga Review]

August 26, 2020

Brittany Vincent

After being assaulted by a fan, idol singer Nina Kamiyama decides to abandon not only show business but femininity. Once the most popular member of the idol group Pure Club, she returns to high school and assumes an entirely different, more “masculine” identity. But ordinary …Read more »

The Sky is Blue with a Single Cloud is 19 Stories of Haunting Darkness

August 26, 2020

Danica Davidson

The Sky is Blue with a Single Cloud is a collection of short manga stories written during the 1960s to 80s by Kuniko Tsurita, the only female mangaka to habitually contribute to Garo magazine during its early days. Garo, like Tezuka’s COM, was a magazine …Read more »

Act-Age [Manga Review]

August 25, 2020

Daryl Surat

Editor’s Note: This review was written prior to the arrest of Act-Age writer Tatsuya Matsuki and the cancellation of the series in Jump. It’s sometimes hard to remember, but several of the titles in Viz’s online Shonen Jump magazine have nothing to do with people beating one another up. …Read more »