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A First Look at Ashidaka: The Iron Hero
Ashidaka: The Iron Hero begins in media res, with two young men hunting beetle-shaped droids. Over the course of ten brisk pages, we learn their identities—Geji and Ashidaka—and their unusual powers:...
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Chainsaw Man
There comes a moment in every manga reader’s journey when they’re no longer dazzled by the sheer variety of genres, styles, or outrageous storylines that an issue of Weekly Shonen Jump or Big Comic...
View ArticleSaint Young Men, Vol. 1
Saint Young Men sounds like the set-up for a George Carlin routine: Jesus and Buddha spend a “gap year” on Earth, sharing an apartment in present-day Tokyo while wrestling with the temptations and...
View ArticlePersona 5, Vol. 1
If David Letterman was still compiling his nightly Top 10 lists, he’d have a field day with Persona 5, a veritable catalog of Things You Find In a Video Game Comic. There are lead characters who are...
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A Man & His Cat, Vol. 1
In the spirit of full transparency, you should know that I’m a cat owner and animal sap, both of which make it impossible for me to offer an objective assessment of A Man & His Cat. As someone...
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Where to Buy Manga in a Pandemic: Comicopia
One of my favorite places to shop for manga is Comicopia, a small but well-stocked comic shop in the heart of Boston’s Kenmore Square. I’ve been a loyal customer since 2008, the year I relocated from...
View ArticleThe Way of the Househusband, Vols. 2-3
The Way of the Househusband has the rhythms of a good sitcom: it has a simple, well-defined premise, a few lead characters with strong personalities, and an episodic formula that’s flexible enough to...
View ArticleThe Girl with the Sanpaku Eyes, Vol. 1
Google the term sanpaku, and you’ll quickly discover why the word resists easy translation. In its most basic sense, sanpaku means “three whites,” a condition in which the iris sits a little higher or...
View ArticleKing of Eden, Vol. 1
Is it too soon to enjoy a pandemic-themed manga? That question was foremost in my mind as I read King of Eden, a new thriller that pits a group of globe-trotting scientists against an assortment of...
View ArticleZom 100: Bucket List of the Dead, Vol. 1
If your chief criticism of King of Eden was “not enough boobs,” have I got the manga for you: Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead, a comedy about a corporate drone whose life is transformed by the onset...
View ArticleDownfall
Downfall is the story of Karou Fukazawa, a deeply flawed, forty-something manga artist whose career has stalled, marriage has soured, and self-esteem has curdled into a toxic form of self-pity. He...
View ArticleDays on Fes, Vol. 1
Like many Gen-Xers, I cut my musical teeth at rock concerts. I didn’t have much experience going to festivals—they were rare in the 1980s—but I did catch the first Lollapalooza tour as it passed...
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Chainsaw Man
There comes a moment in every manga reader’s journey when they’re no longer dazzled by the sheer variety of genres, styles, or outrageous storylines that an issue of Weekly Shonen Jump or Big Comic...
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Sakamoto Days, Vol. 1
The opening pages of Sakamoto Days unfold with ruthless efficiency: in just a handful of panels, author Yuto Suzuki shows us how twenty-two-year-old Taro Sakamoto, once Japan’s most “feared and...
View ArticleCrazy Food Truck, Vol. 1
Crazy Food Truck isn’t the worst manga I’ve read this year, but it’s one of the most disappointing, marred by lazy writing, paper-thin characterizations, and excessive fan service. The most basic...
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The Best and Worst Manga of 2022
When I sat down to compose my Best of 2022 list, I was certain I’d compiled a similar one as recently as 2017, only to discover that I hadn’t done so in almost seven years. In looking over some of my...
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Blood on the Tracks, Vols. 1-5
One part Mommie Dearest, one part Kids, Blood on the Tracks is an unsettling depiction of the toxic parent-child relationship between Seiko, an overbearing mother, and Seiichi, her thirteen-year-old...
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Marmalade Boy: Collector’s Edition, Vol. 1
One of shojo manga’s most time-honored plot lines goes something like this: a young girl’s life is turned upside down when her mother or father remarries someone with a teenager of their own, usually a...
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Insomniacs After School, Vol. 1
First published in 1911, Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden has beguiled millions of readers with its portrait of Mary and Colin, two sickly children who heal themselves by finding a forgotten...
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