Mimi’s Tales of Terror is an adaptation of Hirokatsu Kihara and Ichiro Nakayama’s work adapted into a manga by horror legend Junji Ito. It consists of nine stories with Mimi — “On the Utility Pole,” “The Woman Next Door,” “Rustling in the Grass,” “Grave Placement,” …Read more »
#DRCL: Midnight Children is a unique and provocative take on the Dracula story. While the cover says it’s “based on Bram Stoker’s Dracula,” it is not a straightforward adaptation. A better description would be “inspired by Bram Stoker’s Dracula.” That’s because the characters have been …Read more »
In Panorama of Hell, an artist with different-sized pupils tells the reader that he is “a painter of hell, possessed by the beautiful color of blood.” He cuts himself to use his own blood for paint. With that he makes his “Panoramas of Hell,” and …Read more »
The Black Cat and the Vampire is a BL story that takes place in an all-boys boarding school. The boys are all from well-to-do families, and they’re all very pretty. The main character, Yuki, can come off as cold and aloof, and he takes his …Read more »
The success of The Way of the Househusband has inspired a mini-boom of comedies about tough, macho, or sometimes just improbable characters throwing themselves into feminine-coded activities. The Yakuza’s Bias starts from what may be the funniest of these premises yet: a hardened gangster becoming …Read more »
Manner of Death Volume 1 is very good. I stress that it’s Volume 1 because, being an ongoing mystery story, its serialized nature is more important than in some of the other manga I’ve reviewed recently. It’s a stylish enough BL crime thriller that I …Read more »
“I’m just an ordinary person,” Miyuu Seno says on the first page of The Essence of Being a Muse. “In fact…I’m painfully aware of that.” Manga protagonists have a habit of introducing themselves as regular guys or gals, usually as a prelude to adventures that …Read more »
In I Can’t Refuse S, Miku is in an unfortunate situation. Her father has destroyed the finances, her mother needs to be hospitalized, and the family desperately needs money to stay afloat. Miku has been working all sorts of jobs, but it’s never enough. So …Read more »
My Picture Diary is a work by Fujiwara Maki, the wife of the much more famous mangaka Yoshiharu Tsuge. Each page has a short description on one side of what her day was like, and illustrations showcasing the day on the other side. The descriptions …Read more »
Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki’s Conjecture is a manga based on a light novel series, both of which are being published by Yen Press. Naoya Fukamachi, a new college student, has a mysterious past, where something otherworldly seems to have happened at a Bon festival. He’s …Read more »
Why I Adopted My Husband is a nonfiction manga about a gay couple in Japan choosing adoption because same-sex marriage is not an option there. The couple, Yuta and Kyota, are otaku who fall in love and, after years of being together, want to make …Read more »
In Like a Butterfly, Suiren is a high school student who is very pretty and very shy. Because of this, people refer to her as “Flower,” saying she’s like a beautiful flower that grows on the tallest peak of a mountain. The boys stare at …Read more »
Soichi: Junji Ito Story Collection consists entirely of short stories involving Ito’s character Soichi, a creepy boy who curses people and likes to put nails in his mouth. There are 10 stories: “A Happy Summer Vacation,” “A Happy Winter Vacation,” “Soichi’s Happy Diary,” “Soichi’s Home …Read more »
Mr. Villain’s Day Off is a short, quirky manga about a nameless villain who wants to take over Earth and destroy all humans. But we don’t really see him on his evil days. We see him on his days off, when he might go shop …Read more »
In the manga Ugly Duckling of the Entertainment District, Esora is a young woman who is not in an enviable position. While it’s not entirely clear what her background is, we know she is used to being abandoned by people, we know she’s been abandoned …Read more »
Danica Davidson
![The Yakuza’s Bias [Review]](https://otakuusamagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/yakuzas-bias-v2-crop-202x202.jpg)
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Shaenon K. Garrity![Manner of Death [Review]](https://otakuusamagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/manner-of-death-v2-crop-202x202.jpg)
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Robert McCarthy![The Essence of Being a Muse [Review]](https://otakuusamagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/essenceo-of-being-a-muse-v2-crop-202x202.jpg)
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