News and reviews for the discerning manga fan
Katherine Dacey has been reviewing manga since 2006, when she joined PopCultureShock. Over the next two years, she worked with webmaster Jon Haehnle and fellow contributor Erin Finnegan to transform Erin’s “Manga Recon” concept from a bi-monthly column into a full-fledged website covering manga, anime, and Japanese pop culture. She stepped down from her post in January 2009. Kate’s resume also includes serving as a panelist at the American Library Association's national conference, New York Comic-Con, and Wondercon; contributing to Chopsticks, a “comprehensive guide to Japanese culture in New York City”; and contributing to the School Library Journal’s Good Comics for Kids blog, where she writes Good Manga for Kids, a column that focuses on manga for pre-teen readers. When she isn’t writing about manga, Kate swings a golf club, plays the oboe, runs long distances, watches old movies, and frolicks with her dog Grendel. Kate lives in Boston, MA.
Like many folks who discovered manga in the early-to-mid 2000s, one of my gateway titles was CLAMP’s X/1999. I hated myself for loving it as much as I did; the ridiculous costumes and purple dialogue alone were reason enough for my inner snob to dismiss it as angstful trash. For all its silliness, however, X [...]
This is a big, heart-felt thank-you to everyone who entered last week’s Great Omnibus Giveaway! I was delighted to see so much interest in Osamu Tezuka’s Dororo, and grateful for the warm wishes from readers. Three years feels like a lifetime on the internet, and it’s heartening to know that some folks have been following [...]
Would you still respect me as a critic if I admitted that I loved Honey Darling? Before you answer that question, consider the following evidence: Exhibit A: The Cover. One of the characters is wearing cat ears and holding a cat. Gotta cover all the bases, I guess. Exhibit B: Logic-Free Plotting. Chihiro rescues a [...]
Today, May 12th, is Magnificent 49er Moto Hagio’s sixty-third birthday. Hagio made her professional debut forty-three years ago with the short story “Lulu to Mimi” (1969), which appeared in the pages of Nakayoshi. Over the next ten years, she contributed dozens of stories to shojo magazines, including “November Gymnasium” (1971), one of the first examples [...]
In 2007, NBM Comics-Lit published Nicolas de Crecy’s Glacial Period, the first in a series of graphic novels commissioned by the Louvre Museum. The goal of Glacial Period — and the four books that followed it — was to introduce readers to the richness and complexity of the Louvre’s vast collections through a familiar medium: [...]
Over at Otaku Champloo, the awesome Khursten Santos has just posted an announcement for this month’s Manga Movable Feast. The ostensible subject is Oishinbo, an epic series documenting the father-son rivalry between two food critics. Bloggers are also encouraged to write about other food manga (Khurtsen provides a handy list of titles that have been [...]
If you grew up in a small town, you probably knew someone like Takao Kusagi, the nebbish-hero of The Flowers of Evil. Kasuga is a precocious middle-schooler who copes with provincial life by burying his nose in a book. His peers tolerate him, but find him a little too smug and strange to be one [...]
May 3rd marked the third anniversary of The Manga Critic. I contemplated several ideas for celebrating the occasion before deciding on a manga giveaway: what better way to say thank you to loyal readers than offer the opportunity to win free stuff? To that end, I’m running a weeklong contest in which I’m giving away [...]
Earlier this week, Tokyopop announced that it had partnered with Right Stuf! and Gentosha Comics to re-release volumes one and two of Hetalia: Axis Powers.* Fans greeted the news with excitement, though a vocal minority complained about the cost: $15.99/volume, or $5.00 more than the original retail price for both volumes. Given how expensive these [...]
Between the Manga Movable Feast and end-of-the-semester duties, I’ve fallen hopelessly behind in my reviewing. Today’s column is a first step towards conquering my towering pile of unread books. On the agenda are two new series: Durarara!! (Yen Press), a wacky comedy set in Tokyo’s Ikebukuro district, and Kamen (Gen Manga), a martial-arts manga that’s [...]
I’m not a big fan of squirm-inducing comedies like The Office; it’s hard to root for a loser who … [Read More...]
Are you an adult reader new to manga? Or a librarian who's looking to add more graphic novels to … [Read More...]
Back in the 1990s, Matt Thorn labored hard to make Keiko Nishi a household name among American manga … [Read More...]
Between the Manga Movable Feast and end-of-the-semester duties, I've fallen hopelessly behind in my … [Read More...]
Below is a list of helpful English-language web resources about manga and manhwa. I update this page on a regular basis, so … [Read More...]
Since joining the Good Comics for Kids team in 2008, I've reviewed a variety of comics, graphic novels, and manga for younger … [Read More...]
Though Vertical has published two series by Keiko Takemiya, the Magnificent 49ers' work remains largely unavailable in … [Read More...]
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