It’s a testament to skill and focus of mangaka Nobuaki Tadano that the intimacy of this series isn’t lost when things start happening on a much larger scale than we’ve seen before.  With the entities Maelstrom and Horizon now both residing in Hikaru’s body, you’d expect a volume full of “Odd Couple” shenanigans.  Wouldn’t you?  […]

A few months back, I was really bitchy somewhat critical of the titles Kodansha announced after they assumed control of Del Rey’s line.  It’s not that any of those titles sounded bad, just that there didn’t seem to be any targeted to me to a more mature readership.  Flash forward to earlier this week and […]

This volume represents the longest story the series has told to date.  In fact, it’s so long that I didn’t realize at first that it actually started in the previous volume.  Go figure.  Anyway, Misaki is still on vacation at a hot springs resort in Hakone, trying her best to escape from the pressures and […]

Yes, it’s still incredibly awesome.  I’m not going to bore you with the details since you’re all well aware that I drank the Kool-Aid for this series quite some time ago.  Instead, some observations: If you told be back when I was reading, say, vol. 3 that twenty volumes later that the Itto-Ryu’s ambitions would […]

We’re entering the home stretch here as the series is set to conclude with vol. 6 in May.  In exploring this strange new world, Zoichi is taken to the village of the “people” he met at the end of the previous volume.  They’re such a peaceful and friendly people that it should surprise no one […]

With the series’ focus narrowed to showing what makes great Shonen Jump manga, it narrows the focus further still as aspiring creators Mashiro and Takagi now have to determine what kind of manga will work well in Jump.  Smartly, they realize that pirates, ninja, and shinigami have already been taken, so they have to come […]

It’s inevitable that after thirteen volumes detailing the exploits of Osamu Tezuka’s maverick medical maestro you’d get the feeling that you’ve seen everything this series has to offer.  After all, virtually each story features the doctor addressing some unusual medical condition which turns into a morality or cautionary tale in the execution.  The reason I’ve […]

The anime series that was adapted from this manga was trash of the highest caliber.  A violent and gory romp about highschool kids trying to survive against the hordes of the living dead, it featured lots of fanservice in the form of well-rendered guns and gunplay, scenes of its female cast jiggling away in various […]

I didn’t review the first volume of this series because I was planning on saving it for a potential podcast about taking established characters and transplanting them into all-new settings.  (See also:  DC’s Elseworlds comics.)  That hasn’t happened yet, but I might get around to it later this year.  Anyway, the first volume of “Campus […]

I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned this before, but I read a lot of the scanlations for “Gantz” prior to picking up Dark Horse’s English release of the series.  I had read up to vol. 14 around four or five years ago before stopping for reasons that I can’t remember.  Now that vol. 15 is finally […]