Comic Reviews
What I bought - 4 November 2009
- by Greg Burgas
- Thursday, November 5th, 2009 at 10:03 PM EST
You know, your menstruating heart just isn't bleeding enough for two.
Danielle Leigh's Reading Diary -- Hero Tales vol 1
- by Danielle Leigh
- Thursday, November 5th, 2009 at 5:30 PM EST
Hero Tales may be of special interest to North American manga readers -- it is drawn by Hiromu Arakawa (of Full Metal Alchemist fame) and written by Huang Jin Zhou (who is perhaps not an actual person but a "unit comprised of Hiromu Arakawa, Genco and Studio Flag" according to bakaupdates.com...whatever that means). However, the [...]
Danielle Leigh's Reading Diary -- Beast Master vol 1
- by Danielle Leigh
- Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 at 4:14 PM EST
Beast Master, by Kyousuke Motomi, is one of the few contemporary shojo manga titles I know of that was created by a male artist. How does it stack up as a shojo work?
Danielle Leigh's Reading Diary -- Boys Love
- by Danielle Leigh
- Sunday, November 1st, 2009 at 2:34 PM EST
Kaim Tachibana returns to the basics of the yaoi genre in the appropriately entitled Boys Love. While she doesn't subvert a number of traditional yaoi tropes, she does depict a relationship not bound by some of the usual "rules" of yaoi.
What I bought - 28 October 2009
- by Greg Burgas
- Friday, October 30th, 2009 at 2:10 PM EST
You can just forward my mail to me in Hell, okay?
Danielle Leigh's Reading Diary -- Halloween Extravangza!
- by Danielle Leigh
- Thursday, October 29th, 2009 at 3:37 PM EST
I discuss three manga volumes with appropriately spooky themes -- you've got your ultimate undead!fighter!, your fanservice-y vampires, and your bishonen zombies (a very *special* kind of undead). So there's a little something for everyone!
What I bought - 21 October 2009
- by Greg Burgas
- Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 9:36 PM EST
Man, was I sick last week.
Danielle Leigh's Reading Diary -- What a Wonderful World vol 1 and 2
- by Danielle Leigh
- Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 11:05 AM EST
Today I examine Inio Asano's (also the creator of solanin, which was reviewed for this site by the very talented Melinda Beasi here) short story collections, What a Wonderful World. Just released last week by Viz, these works are required reading for those of us who are avidly following the maturing manga market in the [...]
Danielle Leigh's Reading Diary -- Nightschool vol 2
- by Danielle Leigh
- Thursday, October 22nd, 2009 at 3:22 PM EST
I continue covering Halloween-y books in my own little unofficial countdown to the best holiday of all. Today I take a quick look at the second volume Svetlana Chmakova's Nightschool.
Danielle Leigh's Reading Diary -- Vampire Knight vol 8
- by Danielle Leigh
- Tuesday, October 20th, 2009 at 2:55 PM EST
The eighth volume of Matsuri Hino's Vampire Knight offers one of those rare moments in shojo / shonen manga, where the original playbook is thrown out entirely, and the title as a whole is entirely the better for it.
Danielle Leigh's Reading Diary -- Cirque du Freak vol 3
- by Danielle Leigh
- Thursday, October 15th, 2009 at 8:20 PM EST
I continue to cover manga with "supernatural" themes as we start the countdown to Halloween (see reviews of RIN-NE and Soul Eater I posted earlier in the week). Tonight I take a quick look at Darren Shan and Takahiro Arai's Cirque du Freak (which as some might also know, has been adapted to a U.S. [...]
What I bought - 14 October 2009
- by Greg Burgas
- Thursday, October 15th, 2009 at 5:52 PM EST
"We want to find a funny, upbeat way of bringing the issue of homelessness to TV. So we've got three wacky homeless characters. But they're wise. They're wacky and wise."
Danielle Leigh's Reading Diary -- Soul Eater vol 1
- by Danielle Leigh
- Tuesday, October 13th, 2009 at 3:08 PM EST
In Soul Eater, Atsushi Ohkubo brings together Japanese and Western horror traditions, myths and legends with shonen manga staples such as a battle-oriented narrative structure and excessive fanservice.
Danielle Leigh's Reading Diary -- RIN-NE vol 1
- by Danielle Leigh
- Monday, October 12th, 2009 at 4:22 PM EST
RIN-NE -- Rumiko Takahashi's (Inuyasha, Ramna 1/2) latest shonen work -- is a solidly entertaining series, even if it is not the most original contribution to the "girl who sees ghosts" genre.
Danielle Leigh's Reading Diary -- Ninja Girls vol 1
- by Danielle Leigh
- Saturday, October 10th, 2009 at 4:15 PM EST
There are many, many reasons I thought I wouldn't like Ninja Girls. It pretty much screams its fan-service-y orientation on its cover. In spite of that, the first volume not only entertained, it even made me laugh out loud a number of times.
