Manga Reviews

[Review] Monster Hunter: Flash Hunter

Monster Hunter: Flash Hunter does a good job of making its story accessible to readers with no background in the Monster Hunter video game franchise. Understanding the story doesn’t require any prior knowledge of the series and the jargon is kept to a minimum. As …Read more »

[Review] Corpse Party: Blood Covered

September 13, 2016

Jason Bradley Thompson

On a dark and stormy night, eight students and a teacher sit in an empty classroom at Kisaragi High School, telling ghost stories. Their tales soon turn to Kisaragi itself, built on the site of another school, Tenjin Elementary, that was supposedly the scene of …Read more »

[Review] Not Lives

September 11, 2016

Che Gilson

Mikami Shigeru not only plays video games to win, he’s also a designer. He’s programmed and sold a number of casual games, but he’s looking for the ultimate game experience, and he hopes someday to create that ultimate experience himself. That is until he finds …Read more »

[Review] Battle Rabbits

September 10, 2016

Evan Minto

In Japan, they don’t have the “man on the moon”—in its place is the “moon rabbit” or tsuki no usagi, best known by anime fans for inspiring the punny name of Usagi Tsukino in Sailor Moon . In Battle Rabbits , a manga by story/artist duo …Read more »

[Review] Servant x Service

September 8, 2016

Jason Bradley Thompson

“Be ready to work yourselves to the bone as the public’s dogs!!” That’s how new employees are greeted at the Health & Welfare Department, where patient bureaucrats sit behind windows answering the public’s questions and telling people how to fill out forms. Into this public …Read more »

[Review] Goodnight Punpun

September 7, 2016

Joseph Luster

Everyone has some kind of youthful awkwardness plodding behind them like a fading shadow. Punpun Punyama is practically the physical embodiment of this in Inio Asano’s Goodnight Punpun . He has to deal with his parents’ rocky, abusive relationship on top of all the woes …Read more »

Kuma Miko Manga Lives a Peaceful Life with Bears

September 7, 2016

Danica Davidson

It’s not unusual to see shrine maidens in manga, but Kuma Miko has a special kind of shrine maiden: one who hangs out with a talking bear. In fact, all the bears in 14-year-old Machi’s rural village are able to talk. They trace this back …Read more »

The Manga Guide to Regression Analytics

September 4, 2016

Norbert Daniels Jr.

© 2016 Shin Takahashi and TREND-PRO Co, Ltd. The Manga Guide to Regression Analytics is exactly what the title says: it’s a textbook on mathematics that teaches the reader through manga. As much as that sounds like a joke, it actually is successful at its …Read more »

[Review] The Honor Student at Magic High School

September 3, 2016

Jason Bradley Thompson

In the year 2095, magic is just like science. “Magic technicians” are a highly valued national resource of Japan, trained at one of nine accredited magic schools, like the Tokyo high school attended by Miyuki and her brother Tatsuya. (Of course, though it’s the year …Read more »

[Review] RG Veda

August 31, 2016

Jason Bradley Thompson

The first series by manga superteam CLAMP, RG Veda is a sumptuous fantasy loosely based on Vedic (Hindu) mythology. In the first few pages Taishakuten, the thunder god, rebels and deposes the king of the gods. A prophecy tells that a child will be born …Read more »

[Review] The Gods Lie

August 28, 2016

Jason Bradley Thompson

Ever since his father died, 11-year-old Natsuru lives with his mom, an author. He’s at the age where he loves soccer and doesn’t care about girls, but that’s before he meets Suzumura, tall and boyish and quiet, a girl whose eyes seem to look on …Read more »

[Review] Wandering Island

August 27, 2016

Shaenon K. Garrity

© Kenji Tsuruta 2011 / Kodansha Ltd. On one of the countless tiny islands on the edges of Japan, ocean-loving Mikura runs a seaplane freight service with her tough old salt of a grandfather. Then her grandfather dies, leaving her to carry on alone. In …Read more »

Kuroko’s Basketball Manga Plays Ball Shonen-Style

August 25, 2016

Danica Davidson

A lot of people know what it’s like to feel invisible, and they usually don’t like it. Tetsuya Kuroko feels invisible all the time and he’s fine with it—it helps him play a mean game of basketball. The new high school students are signing up …Read more »

Scum’s Wish [Manga Review]

August 24, 2016

Brittany Vincent

It’s easy to find a romance manga that coddles and flaunts its star couple, but how often do you find one that exploits a seemingly “perfect” couple with deep, dark secrets? Scum’s Wish does just that, with a fervor that’s matched only by titles such …Read more »

[Review] The Other Side of Secret

August 21, 2016

Robert McCarthy

© Hideaki Yoshikawa 2014 The Other Side of Secret has an interesting question at its heart: “What happens to the kid who stays home in a portal fantasy?” Yuuto's sister vanished through a dimensional gateway years ago and he misses her. Suddenly the portal opens …Read more »