It only took fourteen (thirteen and half if you want to be specific), but it’s official now:  Kaguya Shinomiya and Miyuki Shirogane are now officially a couple.  That this has happened should not strike regular readers, or really anyone who has even heard of this series, as a spoiler.  It was always going to happen.  […]

You might say that I jumped the gun on doing a podcast about this series with the appearance of this volume.  The catch is that you can’t really vol. “18+1” a proper volume of “Barakamon.”  It’s a collection of oddball short stories and ton of color art that you won’t find anywhere else (in a […]

Another volume, another threat to Arslan’s quest to restore his kingdom.  This time it’s coming from the Not-Mongols — I mean, the Kingdom of Turan who has an army of riders capable of swiftly conquering any army they come across.  They’re not so good at siege warfare, however, which is what they find themselves stuck […]

Three volumes in and this series is still pleasant fantasy comfort food reading.  I still can’t help but feel that it should be more than that, and this volume doesn’t do much to get me to think otherwise.  After an opening chapter of goofy comedy about who drew a picture of a sleeping Vannie, the […]

I was hoping this arc was going to bring the series back to its old, nasty roots.  Having it involve a crazed serial killer living in the sewers who takes bites out of girls will do that to you.  What it ultimately winds up being is little more than a riff on your average underground […]

I’ve been banging on for a while about how this series has lacked for a strong narrative direction, even as most of the stories being told are still quite good.  Well, this volume has finally addressed this issue.  “Diamond is Unbreakable” finally has a direction again:  Finding and stopping the serial killer lurking within Morioh.  […]

The wheel-spinning is over and vol. 8 finds this series returning to its usual standard of quality.  This standard usually involved a lot of heartbreak, and that’s exceptionally true here.  It starts with Shiva’s disappearance at the end of the previous volume being resolved in short order while also causing Teacher to come to a […]

You know, I bet there are some readers of this series who are so into it that they reached the end of this volume and felt legitimate suspense at its conclusion and the possibility it represents.  Most readers, I would imagine, got to the end of vol. 14 and probably felt their stomach turn a […]

Now I can say that I’ve read at least one of the manga nominated for the “Best U.S. Edition of International Material — Asia” Eisner this year.  Thank Amazon’s recent “Buy 2 Get 1 Free” sale and my love of anything that features cats for that.  As for the volume itself, you can thank the […]

Yoshitoki Oima showed with “A Silent Voice” that she could mix serious social issues with heartfelt melodrama and interesting characters to tell an interesting story in the present day.  Even if the first volume and its illustration of bullying was a full notch above the six that followed.  Her follow-up series is miles away from […]