Danielle’s Reading Diary
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.
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!
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. [...]
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.
Danielle Leigh's Reading Diary -- Shojo Beat Two-Fer!
- by Danielle Leigh
- Tuesday, October 6th, 2009 at 3:02 PM EST
Today I catch up with the second volumes of two of Viz's newer Shojo Beat titles, Kimi ni Todoke and Black Bird.
Danielle Leigh's Ready Diary -- Nabari no Ou vol 2
- by Danielle Leigh
- Thursday, October 1st, 2009 at 5:40 PM EST
Yuhki Kamatani's Nabari no Ou is an engrossing take on the whole culture of battling "ninja clans", thanks to strong characterizations and a gripping art style, both of which compensate for somewhat erratic world-building.
Danielle Leigh's Reading Diary -- 20th Century Boys vol 4 & 5
- by Danielle Leigh
- Tuesday, September 29th, 2009 at 4:21 PM EST
With volumes 4 and 5 of his epic 20th Century Boys, Naoki Urasawa delivers not "a gripping drama about men who save the world from annihilation," as one character requests of two unsuccessful manga artists in volume 5, but a story that is much more complicated and brave than that.
Danielle Leigh's Reading Diary -- Detroit Metal City vol 2
- by Danielle Leigh
- Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009 at 6:01 PM EST
In Detroit Metal City, Kiminori Wakasugi plays vulgarity like a perfectly tuned comedic instrument in his absurdist tale of a nice young man who just wants to make beautiful pop music but somehow finds himself headlining a death metal band as the terrifying "Krauser II."
