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 […]

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 […]