News and reviews for the discerning manga fan
To mark the official beginning of summer, I’m dedicating this week’s Short Takes column to three series with serious beach-reading potential: the first volume of sci-fi conspiracy thriller Afterschool Charisma (VIZ), the fifth volume of sports comedy Bamboo Blade (Yen Press), and the first volume of Higurashi When They Cry: Time Killing Arc (Yen Press). [...]
Part Bad News Bears, part Boys of Summer, Diamond Girl follows a time-honored sports-comedy formula in which a team of losers have their pennant dreams rekindled after an unlikely but undeniable talent joins their ranks. In Diamond Girl, those hard-luck athletes are Baba, Seto, and Takagi, the heart and soul of the Ryukafuchi High School [...]
Earlier in the week, I examined three manga for the under-twelve set; today, I review three seinen and shonen titles. The first, Inubaka: Crazy for Dogs (VIZ), focuses on the Woofles Pet Store, where exasperated owner Teppei works side-by-side with the ditzy but dog-savvy Suguri. (She’s so devoted to canids that she wears a collar [...]
This week’s column is all about shonen manga. First up: volume thirty of Case Closed (VIZ), a detective series about a first grader who solves gruesome murders. Next on the agenda is volume five of Takehiko Inoue’s best-selling Slam Dunk (VIZ), a sports manga about a flame-haired rebel who takes up basketball to impress a [...]
Dangerous Minds, Dead Poets Society, Stand and Deliver, and To Sir, With Love all depict teachers who are heroic in their self-sacrifice, renouncing money, family ties, and even their reputations in order to inspire students. Kojiro Ishido, the anti-hero of Bamboo Blade, won’t be mistaken for any of these noble educators. He’s bankrupt, morally and [...]
Slam Dunk may have been the series that put Takehiko Inoue on the map and introduced legions of Japanese kids to basketball, but for me, a long-time hoops fan who grew up watching Larry Bird lead the Celtics to numerous NBA champtionships, Slam Dunk was a disappointment, a shonen sports comedy whose goofy hero desperately [...]
When I lived in New York City, I went on my share of awesome first … [Read More...]
GTO: 14 Days in Shonan is loud and silly, the kind of manga in which … [Read More...]
Among the many books I read and loved as a child, few left as … [Read More...]
Below is a list of helpful English-language web resources about manga and manhwa. I update this page … [Read More...]
Since joining the Good Comics for Kids team in 2008, I've reviewed a variety of comics, graphic … [Read More...]
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