I’d previously passed by this series, the newest from Natsumi Ando (Kitchen Princess), because of its lame-duck status, as one of the last releases from the now-departed Del Rey Manga. I recently picked up Arisa volume 1 on a whim (to fill out a mail order, if you must know), and now I’m glad i did, because it was a gripping and enjoyable read. At first, it reminded me of Papillon. Both are about twin sisters, reunited after significant time […]

Hikage Sumino is a shy, plain girl with no friends who is invisible to a ridiculous degree. For instance, she gets hit with a motorbike because the driver didn’t see her in the road while she was saving a cat crossing the busy street. Hinata and Teru are the most popular boys in their middle school. While nursing a sunflower plant, Hikage and Hinata talk — he’s noticed her, knows her name, and says he’s been watching her for a […]

I was curious about the upcoming Del Rey Manga omnibuses (omnibi?). Instead of continuing to publish single volumes for certain series, they’re releasing two (Samurai Deeper Kyo volumes 37/38) or three books’ worth of material in one binding. I just got a chance to flip through School Rumble volumes 14/15/16, due out later this month, and here’s some notes and thoughts on the format: If you’re a fan of the series and would be buying all these entries in the […]

When I heard that the premise of Moyasimon by Masayuki Ishikawa was a guy who could talk to germs, I expected cute humor. Instead, what I got was a typical coming-of-age story, only with some surprisingly gross moments. Tadayasu is headed off to agricultural college in Tokyo, accompanied by childhood friend Kei. The two young men are ready to start their lives as adults, figuring out what to be and how to chart their future. Tadayasu is a typical guy, […]

When I started this series, I read an awful lot into the first volume. Based on what I saw, I was expecting a dramatic exploration of the contrasts between appearance and behavior as twins were set in opposition to each other, layered over with the message of optimistic struggle making a dream come true. So when I read the second volume, I was shocked to find that it went in a radically different direction, with a very different kind of […]

Earlier this year, Del Rey (in conjunction with Marvel) published Wolverine: Prodigal Son, a shonen manga take on the loner with a healing factor. I thought it wasn’t bad, but I was really looking forward to this take on the characters, also part of the deal: X-Men: Misfits is a shojo approach to the classic mutant superhero team. I’ve always wanted to like the X-Men more than I did. I like the characters, and I like the angsty approach (when […]

Subtitled The Power of Negative Thinking, this series by Koji Kumeta is the story of depressed, suicidal schoolteacher Nozomu. (The title translates as “Goodbye, Mr. Despair”.) Except, not really. It’s really a device to tell stories about his various students, all of which have their own unusual problems. I found it first shocking and then wonderful, because I like black humor. In the opening scene, the eternally optimistic and hopeful Kafuka comes across her teacher trying to hang himself, as […]

When I hear the term “harem manga”, I think of one of those series where a goofy guy has his pick of zaftig girls. I’d never seen the opposite — but I may just not have been looking hard enough. It seems that harem manga aimed at girls differs from that aimed at boys in three major ways: There are fewer boys involved, usually 3, instead of a half-dozen or more girls. There may be some plot beyond “falling in […]