I really liked this volume.  The problem is that I’m not sure I liked it for the reasons that mangaka Gamon Sakurai intended me to. In a move that I hope surprised absolutely no one (And if it did, welcome to the world of fictional genre stories.  Be sure to remember that whenever the author […]

This volume arrived on Monday.  If I had more foresight I would have had that WTH revelation lead directly into this review, because… Revealing that charismatic Ainu revolutionary Kiroranke was one of the people who assassinated Russian Tsar Alexander II certainly ranks as one of the more outrageous backstories in this series.  I’d go so […]

Are we done here?  Nope! How do you follow up a volume that combined Russian wall-fighting, manly steam baths, and wolverines?  By having the majority of it take place at the circus!  After an urchin steals one of their bags, Sugimoto’s group tracks him back to Yamada’s Circus who are back in Japan after a […]

Yes, there is a trend here… Given that a not-insignificant portion of this volume is given over to wolverine fighting, I was a little disappointed that nobody tried to sneak in a “The best it is at what it does” joke in the script.  Anyhow, an actually significant portion of this volume involves the manly […]

How close am I to the bottom of my “To Review” pile?  You’re about to find out… Vol. 13 left off with Immortal Sugimoto about to face down the guards of Abashiri Prison, who were facing the imminent threat of Lieutenant Tsurumi’s forces.  In short, that cliffhanger ending promised a volume where all hell broke […]

I talked about the first volume of this series with Rob and Myron almost two months back, and while we had some reservations about it, we generally liked vol. 1.  Yes, it’s a world whose level of realism is set at “Bond Movie Featuring Roger Moore,” but it had lots of charm to complement its […]

“Silver Spoon” is a lot of things, including a romantic comedy.  Only in the sense that Hachiken and Mikage’s romance has been played for nothing but laughs since the start of the series.  However, as the series heads into its final stretch, mangaka Hiromu Arakawa finally has to get around to making them an official […]

We get another volume-length story, right after the one featured in vol. 3, and it’s a much better one too.  Picking up right after the last-panel cliffhanger, the Quin Zaza isn’t able to avoid being clipped by the ship it crosses paths with.  The damage is enough to ground the draking ship, and that has […]

Mob’s brother Ritsu has been kidnapped by the evil organization known as Claw.  They’re a group of psychics who are combining their power in order to bring about a revolution where they’re in charge of the world.  It’s a simple plan, and one that stands a good chance of working given the quality and variety […]