Versailles of the Dead, Vol. 1
Kumiko Suekane’s Versailles of the Dead feels like a kissing cousin of Seth Grahame-Smith’s Pride & Prejudice & Zombies. It’s a clever and handsomely drawn manga that also inserts zombies into...
View ArticleKakuriyo: Bed & Breakfast for Spirits, Vol. 1
One occupational hazard of reviewing manga is the powerful sense of déjà vu that a middle-of-the-road series can induce. I experienced just such a flash while reading Kakuriyo: Bed & Breakfast for...
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Ryuko, Vol. 1
With its potent mix of violence, yakuza intrigue, double-crosses, and barely-clothed assassins, Eldo Yoshimizu’s Ryuko has the pulpy soul of a Kazuo Koike manga and the brash attitude of a James Bond...
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The Poe Clan, Vol. 1
Since its debut in Bessatsu Shōjo Comic (now Betsucomi), Moto Hagio’s The Poe Clan has proven almost as enduring as its vampire protagonists, living on in the form of radio plays, CD dramas, a...
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The Right Way to Make Jump
Most books about the manga industry fall into one of two categories: the how-to book, which offers advice on how to draw proportionate characters, plan a storyboard, and buy the right pens; and the...
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Go With the Clouds: North by Northwest, Vols. 1-2
I’ve never used the word “shambolic” in a review before, but that was the first adjective that came to mind as I read Go With the Clouds: North by Northwest, a handsomely illustrated series that can’t...
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No Guns Life, Vol. 1
No Guns Life is a textbook example of “robo noir,” a story that borrows tropes from Double Indemnity and The Maltese Falcon and transplants them to a not-too-distant future where old and new...
View ArticleBecome You, Vol. 1
Ichigo Takano’s orange may be one the of best shojo manga published in the last ten years, offering readers a vivid, sympathetic portrait of five friends who get an unexpected chance to save a suicidal...
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The Way of the Househusband, Vol. 1
If you’ve seen Lillehammer or My Blue Heaven, you’ll immediately recognize the foundation on which The Way of the Househusband is built: a mafia don or hit man renounces his old life and joins the...
View ArticleShojo & Tell: Moto Hagio Edition
To celebrate the release of Moto Hagio’s The Poe Clan, Shojo & Tell host Ashley MacDonald invited me to join her for an in-depth conversation about three of my all-time favorite manga: A, A’, They...
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Short Takes: Museum and Phantom Tales of the Night
I have a confession: I am a complete chicken when it comes to horror movies. I watched Alien through my fingers and made it to the end of Fright Night by staring at the ingredient list on a candy...
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The Drifting Classroom Signature Edition, Vol. 1
In a 2009 interview with Tokyo Scum Brigade, Kazuo Umezu acknowledged that his debt to Osamu Tezuka went beyond storyboarding and character designs. Tezuka “didn’t pull any punches for children or dumb...
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Cats of the Louvre
Weird. Uncanny. Melancholy. Beautiful. Those were just a few of the adjectives I jotted down while reading Taiyo Matsumoto’s Cats of the Louvre, the latest volume in the museum’s ongoing graphic novel...
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Short Takes: Levius/est, No Guns Life, and Ryuko
This month’s Short Takes column looks at three series: Levius/est, a sequel to Haruhisa Nakata’s steampunk spectacular Levius; No Guns Life, a sci-fi thriller whose principled hero sounds like Sam...
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Junji Ito’s No Longer Human
Of all the famous works of literature to get the Classics Illustrated treatment, Osamu Dazai’s No Longer Human is an odd choice. Its protagonist is Oba Yozo, a tortured soul who never figures out how...
View ArticleMs. Kozumi Loves Ramen Noodles, Vol. 1
Ms. Kozumi Loves Ramen Noodles is… well, pretty much what you’d expect from the title: a manga about a high school student whose interest in noodles crosses the line from simple enthusiasm into...
View ArticleSkull-Face Bookseller Honda-san, Vol. 1
If you’ve ever worked a thankless retail job, you’ll appreciate Skull-Face Bookseller Honda-san, a semi-autobiographical look at the ups and downs of customer service. The titular character works in...
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Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace
As The Rise of Skywalker brings the Star Wars saga to its official close, now seems like the right time to revisit the very first chapter in the series, The Phantom Menace. Episode I debuted in 1999,...
View ArticlePENGUINDRUM, Vol. 1
PENGUINDRUM is an odd duck (if you’ll pardon the expression): it wants to explore difficult emotional terrain with honesty, but chooses a convoluted plot device to achieve its catharsis. The story...
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The Wize Wize Beasts of the Wizarding Wizdoms
“Whimsical tales of anthropomorphic beasts in love”—or so the dust jacket of The Wize Wize Beasts of the Wizarding Wizdoms promises. The eight stories in this collection do feature a race of...
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