Review: Recorder and Randsell Vol. 1

For those of you that were like me and wondering what a “Randsell” is, it’s basically a backpack. Or a satchel which is a much better title for this series, but hey… not my job. This was my first experience with a manga that was clearly a comic strip. Each story with the exception of the weekend strips, are four panels running top to bottom. There’s a bit of an overall narrative, but not one that’s strong enough to really be called the main plot. Instead it just follows our main characters, a fifth grade that looks like he’s in his twenties and a sophomore in high school that looks like an elementary student. Miyagawa Atsumi is our high school student and even though she’s half the size of her brother Atsushi, she plays the role of the big sister. The comedy comes from Atsushi though. Because he’s only a fifth grader and looks way older he’s constantly in trouble. A running gag is that the police always pick him up when he walks with other student’s home from school. Another gag comes from his teacher who must remind herself that he’s just a little boy. That’s Atsumi’s role. She reminds you the most that Atsushi is just a kid by helping him with school problems or just telling him no when he wants to eat candy and only candy.

c0128644_4e7855b5e4e07The formula is simple, but I really enjoyed this book. I read it in chunks because otherwise the jokes wear off. I don’t know if this is actually a daily comic strip in Japan, but much like any comic strip they’re funny because you’re only reading one a day. If you blow through the entire book at once then you’re not going to enjoy the latter half of the book.

It is formatted for Japan, meaning you have to read right to left top to bottom. Occasionally, I would forget this and read left to right and spoil jokes. Having only a digital copy I was also forced to read the opposite way a manga is supposed to be read so that too added to the confusion. I imagine that reading it in print would solve a lot of these problems.

The art is really simple, but good. There’s not a lot of detail due to how small the frames are, but you can tell that there’s a lot of skill and design being put into each panel. With only four panels to work with, creator Meme Higashiya does an incredible job of picking what will make the biggest impact or help the joke. The character designs are great as well, the other kids in Atsushi’s class really look like children and that’s the perfect counter to Atsushi’s size and look.

Overall if you’re looking for a laugh then this is something you should check out. The jokes are all within the same range, but if you laugh at one you’ll likely like the others. It’s a fun story and pretty different from any other manga I’ve read.

Score: 4/5

Recorder and Randsell Creator: Meem Higashiya Publisher: Takeshobo/Bamboo Comics Price: $ 4.99 Release Date: 9/1/15 Format: Trade Paperback; Print/Digital

Review: Tokyo Ghoul Vol. 2

Having spoiled much of the story for myself by watching the first season of the anime, I wasn’t terribly enthralled with this volume. I instead noticed the differences and really began to appreciate the extra details that the manga had for me. The differences in characters, especially the Doves. In the anime, the Doves walk this fine line of being terrible because they remorselessly kill Ghouls, but then you kind of have to side with them since they’re human. The balance is that they’re no different from the Ghouls. In the manga, there is a difference. They’re dicks. tokyo-ghoul-manga-vol-2I hated the Doves in this volume and I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to. They’re frustrating because they can’t see that Ghouls are just like humans for the most part and that not all of them are killing machines. That’s a big chuck of the what the story deals with, but the last few chapters are when the volume shines. Touka goes after the Doves and kills one of them, but meets her match with Mr. Mado. It’s quick interaction, but it was probably one of the best scenes. It also led to the most character development for Kaneki and also Touka. Kaneki asks her to teach him how to use his Kagune and it’s nothing like what you’d imagine.

The story was a bit slow in this issue, but it does a great job of building the world and establishing the differences between Ghouls and Humans, but then also the similarities. The character development is a bit slow, but again it proves effective for the story it’s telling.

I continue to enjoy the art for Tokyo Ghoul. Personally the manga surpasses the anime in a lot of ways, but I was a bit disappointed that there wasn’t much focus or even panels for the Kagune or Quinques. If it’s being built up for later then that’s great, but for now there’s been too many opportunities to show it and no payoff to go with it. With as detailed as the art is, this is the weakest part. Otherwise, I love the character designs and the individual character moments. The action is a bit lacking in its fluidity, but the individual moments feel personal and look great.

This is a solid volume for sure, but it doesn’t stand on its own. You need the first volume and with that it means we’re over a hundred pages into this story and still establishing the world. Hopefully the story kicks off more in the next chapter because I’m waiting to see what the manga has to offer compared to the anime. If you enjoyed the first volume though, then you’ll enjoy this volume as well. In fact, you kind of need this volume to go with it.

Score: 3/5

Tokyo Ghoul Vol. 2 Creator: Sui Ishida Publisher: Viz/Viz Signature Price: $12.99 Release Date: 8/15/15 Format: Trade Paperback; Print/Digital

Review: Weekly Shonen Jump #44

My darling Mononofu ceases its "Jump Start" run as One Piece finally has a chapter that breaks up some of this massive tension, despite Oda's reminder that shit is about to get really real. I like Mononofu way more than Samon the Summoner; but, that's to be expected, since one of them is clearly aimed at dudes (Mononofu) and the other (Samon) at least has a potential foothold with female readers.  That's not to say that I'm incapable of enjoying manga with a more female demographic in mind, but it's at least a statistical reality that I'd be more likely to like the one that I do, in fact, like more.

That said... Mononofu is just a better series.  First of all, Ikezawa actually listened to my advice (not really): Mononofu contained at least one real technical nugget about Shogi in this chapter, and I thought it was a real high point for the issue.  But Samon just isn't as clever, nor is the art up to snuff.  It's hard for me to even find Samon's characters all that cute when a lot of the contrast in how the characters are depicted doesn't have much of an impact because they're drawn so washed-out to start with.

wsj 44 coverI don't talk much about Black Clover, mostly because none of the arcs have grabbed me yet.  It's got a lot of typical shonen things going for it and while I love the aesthetic it's just not original enough story-wise for me to latch on.  That doesn't stop me from flipping through the pages every week, however, because the art is setting an incredibly high bar for all new entrants into the anthology.

One Piece puts in another arc wrap-up chapter, but at least this one had no fighting and wasn't super emotional.  All of the Straw Hat bounties have been updated (along with updates to Barto Club's ship) and we got to hear the stakes of the next arc straight from the mouth of the newly-imprisoned Doffy.

I think the Dressrosa arc was a massive success for Oda and for this series.  I have a lot of friends who read One Piece and people who were getting a little weary of things were reinvigorated by the massive, ambitious-even-for-Oda character-work that made up this arc.  One Piece is an incredibly daunting series to just jump into mid-stream (making it inaccessible to a lot of folks given its sheer length), but the other benefit of Dressrosa was the fact that the island has its own monolithic story.  Rather than being driven by worldly, inter-character drama (though the Law-Doffy connection was a huge part of this arc), things like the royal family and Doffy's crew were big enough and interesting enough to warrant attention on their own, without much prior knowledge.

The Kurotsuchi-Pernida fight is over (not sure if you can really say anybody won that one) and we are seriously heading into some shit in Food Wars.  Jump is pretty exciting right now.

Score: 4/5

Weekly Shonen Jump #44 Writer: Various Artist: Various Publisher: Viz Media Release Date: 9/28/15 Format: Weekly; Digital

Review: Weekly Shonen Jump #43

Mononofu continues to increase and further abett my budding shogi obsession, as Samon the Summoner premiers and Academia continues to impress. The newest "Jump Start" is Samon the Summoner, from neophyte mangaka Shun Numa.  Samon follows high schooler Sakura Teshigawara as the new weirdo student, Samon, turns her life upside down by summoning demons in an attempt to corrupt her overly  nice ways.

Numa showcases a great sense of humor during the inciting moment of this manga, but for the most part, the art is just too lackluster for this manga to last.  I think that the story itself is a gag that will wear thin eventually (even with the probably weirdly appealing demon-summoning bad-boy angle), but man is this art spotty.

I think some people will peg Numa for being a little more cartoony than others in the anthology, but the line work isn't just cartoony: it's sparse, and far too sparse to meet the proper level of detail that people expect form something taking up a spot in Jump.  If the demons themselves were something super special, I would be singing a different tune.  Alas, they are not.

WSJ 43Meanwhile, Mononofu is on the cusp of being a solid series.  So far I'm enjoying the character work, and while the art isn't killer, it's definitely way more solid than its partnered "Jump Start" title.  The pacing is there, the drama is there, and there is plenty of potential for more interesting characters and situations.

There are two things I see potentially holding Mononofu back.  The first is the possibility that Ikezawa does not embrace the potential for interesting characters whose personalities are bound up with their shogi strategies.  I think Ikezawa has definitely embraced this for the main character, but it's less clear with others, and if Food Wars has proven anything, it's that people will embrace being bombarded with interesting characters whose styles are bound up with their personalities.

The other problem: not quite enough shogi.  Again, I think Food Wars is instructive of a working formula for niche mangas like this one: you need to treat your audience like it is willing to learn about the subject when it's time to be a student.  There is always room for drama (goodness knows Food Wars is currently aware of that), but there needs to be a place in the manga for education as well, especially since shogi is such an interesting and expansive game.

Then, of course, there is Academia.  A lot of people are buzzing about One-Punch Man, and I hope that they take the time to jump over to Academia, which is similarly taking the western superhero model and dressing it up with shonen goodness.  The rise of the series' ultimate villain, All for One, draws a sharp dichotomy between good and evil that's built around the concept of the perils of selfishness and the importance of a teaching lineage built on sharing knowledge and power with the populace.  

That's some deep shit, but boiling it all down, essentially, into two or three characters, and giving them not-so-thinly-veiled names like, "All for One" and "One for All" is a great, quintessentially shonen way of reducing these complex ideas down into a form that is digestible for a wide audience.

Bakuman is back with a prequel miniseries, but I'll talk about that more next week because I've got shogi to play.

Score: 4/5

Weekly Shonen Jump #43 Writer: Various Artist: Various Publisher: Viz Media Release Date: 9/21/15 Format: Weekly; Digital

Review: Weekly Shonen Jump #42

Super excited for some new "Jump Starts," starting this week with Mononofu, a manga about shogi, a Japanese version of chess.  Also, OH MY GOD Food Wars!!! I like chess a lot.  I was really into it when I was a kid, but that was just because my goal was to get good enough to beat my dad.  Once I did, I pretty much stopped playing.  I think I'm better than the average person who doesn't play much, but that's obviously not very good.

I first got interested in shogi when I was watching/reading Naruto, since it was the game of choice of some of my favorite characters.  The game is most notable for allowing you to drop pieces you've captured back onto the board under your control at any time, with surprisingly few restrictions as to how you do this.  It's a hard game to pick up outside of Japan unless you have somebody to learn with (apps and learning resources are scarce), but Mononofu has the potential to spark some interest.

The first few pages from Haruto Ikezawa (a former assistant of Oda!) are a little too frantic.  Ikezawa is trying to give a reader a sense of what a klutz the main character is, but in the process puts together some ironically scatter-brained pages where the dialog is a bit obtuse.  Eventually it comes together, and Ikezawa throws together a promising (if fairly typical) cast of characters.

wsh 42 coverIt's not clear how well Ikezawa will be able to illustrate shogi games and situations.  I think Mononofu has the potential to do well only insofar as Ikezawa is able to immerse the reader in the shogi game itself.  Doing this will require educating the reader about the game of shogi, which further requires clear, easy-to-follow artwork.  Of course, Mononofu is not a textbook: the art is going to need to be interesting, and the development of his characters is going to have to carry the reader’s interest for a majority of the time when they're not at the shogi board.

I thought that Food Wars was on the verge of a bomb drop, but I did not see this coming.  To avoid spoilers, I won't say much here, but essentially the entire face of this series just got changed, which is not something I gave much thought to headed into this fairly typical, fairly innocent arc.  Food Wars, by all accounts, has its first really menacing villain.

I can't get over how good this series is.  It took Tsukuda two issues to introduce the villain and insert him into the role in which he will drive conflict.  That's absolutely stellar writing.  It didn't feel quick, it didn't feel out of left field: we had been set up for this and we didn't even know it.  What's better is that the villain is particularly tuned to be a troublesome antagonist for Soma in particular, so we're primed (again, in two issues!!!) for the exact type of trouble this fellow is going to cause.

Bleach and Academia continue to roll along and make me giddy, and the next "Jump Start," Samon the Summoner, starts next week.

Score: 4/5

Weekly Shonen Jump #42 Writer: Various Artist: Various Publisher: Viz Media Release Date: 9/14/15 Format: Weekly; Digital

Review: Weekly Shonen Jump #41

Bombs getting dropped all OVER this issue of Weekly Shonen Jump. Last week, we saw that Luffy was acknowledging the changing landscape of politics and his powers: it was time to start taking fights with admirals head on.  His encounter with Fujitora is silly and awkwardly heartwarming, which is the exact kind of weird mix of emotions I expect in a minor-but-major confrontation straight from the mind of Oda.

The ending was a massive bomb drop.  Again, I don't want to spoil something like that if you're late to the chapter, but something like the end of this chapter is the beginning of a new phase of One Piece... maybe.  If you know the main character of this series at all, then you shouldn't be too excited about this chapter end: he may very well deem this turn of events ridiculous, and we're back to square one.  Still, whether or not things pan out as the end of this chapter suggests, Luffy's role in the political landscape is serious business.

Meanwhile, in Food Wars, Erina's estranged father has shown up.  I'm not sure what angle the story is playing with this yet, but it's a pretty heavy amount of tension for this series.  Sure enough, along to break up the drama is Soma at a pivotal moment.

WSJ 41Academia is similarly gearing up for some big-baddy-establishing stuff going forward, and my current darling Bleach is rolling along with the Kurotsuchi/Pernida fight with things looking increasingly desperate for the Soul Reapers.

I don't care much for Seraph of the End (despite loving the concept), but I thought Blue Exorcist was quite a bit of fun this time around.  I really believe that Blue Exorcist suffers from the spaced-out publishing schedule that it has, but there's not much that can be done about that.

Suguro's prospective apprenticeship with Lightning is really exciting, since Suguro seems to be a reader favorite (he's probably my favorite character, at least); but, because of the delayed schedule on which Blue Exorcist is published, Suguro has been merely asking to be an apprentice--sitting in a damn classroom--for two months!

There aren't a lot of convenient places to jump on this anthology, but this is as good of a time as any.  One Piece is going to come back from its hiatus after next week having finished a major arc while already teasing a picture of things to come, and Academia is setting up its next major arc, which will be the biggest yet.  No matter what, you're going to play some catch-up on the series you want to read, so I would recommend either WSJ 42 or 43 for people looking to check out whether this anthology is a good value for them.

Score: 4/5

Weekly Shonen Jump #41 Writer: Various Artist: Various Publisher: Viz Media Release Date: 9/7/15 Format: Weekly; Digital

Review: One-Punch Man Vol. 1

I’ve been waiting to check out One-Punch Man. Yes, I know I could have done so already in the pages of Weekly Shonen Jump, but for some series I like reading the entire volume to start off with. You just get more time with the story and world that way. One-Punch Man is perfect for any superhero comic fan. Not any superhero manga fan, but any superhero comic fan. Much like My Hero Academia, One-Punch Man is a superhero story. Unlike MHA, OPM is a very true Japanese superhero story. There’s insect ladies, giant exoskeleton dudes smashing shit and monster men that look like something out of old Ultraman TV episodes.

The premise is very easy to sum up. Our main character Saitama is a casual hero. He does it for fun and the thrill of the challenge. The problem being, he’s too powerful. Every villain he goes up against, he defeats them in one-punch.

This is illustrated by our opening scene when a rampaging monster lands in City A and begins destroying everything. Also he looks like a bigger version of DBZ’s Piccolo which was pretty cool. Our monster informs One-Punch Man who arrives on the scene, that he’s the creation of years of pollution and there to ravage mankind. One-Punch Man destroys him in one punch which is very unsatisfying to him.

That’s the charm of this world. He’s the strongest man on the planet most likely, but he’s so tough and so strong that nothing is a challenge. Nothing is thrilling. We see this over and over for a bit before diving into Saitama’s back story, but no one is more frustrated with defeating a villain in one punch than One-Punch Man.

One-Punch Man Vol. 1Frankly the book is ridiculously funny. I read it from beginning to end with a big goofy grin. A lot of this comes from the art from Yusuke Murata. One-Punch is drawn in a different style than the rest of the comic. This is very intentional as it adds to the humor. Murata’s artwork is very detailed and some of the best I’ve seen in recent years. He has that manga style that people think of when they think of the style. Photo-realistic and yet he’s creating these monsters and characters that are out of this world. Except for One-Punch. One-Punch constantly looks like he’s in a comedy. His costume is baggy. He’s bald and expressionless and overall just looks goofy. And yet there’s so much more work that goes into him being that way then the rest of the photorealistic world.

I commend writer One on the story. The gimmick of defeating every villain in one punch instantly made me wonder how they’d tell any kind of long story sequence with this world. For a while, it’s just Saitama being bored and showing how powerful he is. Then the bigger story kicks in and I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised that it had legs to stand on. The volume ends leaving you wanting more and wondering where it will go next.

I said in the beginning that this is a superhero story and with that comes tropes of the genre, but here’s also where One excels at writing. He uses those tropes, but changes them with comedy. For instance, a villain is gloating that a student of One-Punch’s will never beat him because he’s the third strongest of their group, not knowing that the second strongest is already defeated. When One-Punch shows him what’s left of the second strongest, the villain instantly changes his tune and cooperates with them. Typically, there would have been another fight or whatever, but by playing to the tropes and then go against them, the story manages to stay fresh and funny.

I was very pleased with One-Punch Man. Now granted, if you’re looking for stories to have deep character moments and battles with a lot of satisfaction then this isn’t the story for you. Personally though, I welcomed the change of pace and was just glad to find a story that was entertaining and actually very funny. What was even better was that the art was fantastic and the prefect compliment for this world. I will be reading more One-Punch Man and soon, but in the meantime check out this first volume and have a laugh.

Score: 5/5

One-Punch Man Vol. 1 Writer: One Artist: Yusuke Murata Publisher: Viz/Shonen Jump Manga Price: $9.99 Release Date: 9/1/15 Format: Trade Paperback; Print/Digital

Review: Weekly Shonen Jump #40

There is a ton of great stuff in Weekly Shonen Jump this week. One Piece, Academia, Bleach, Food Wars, and One-Punch Man were all excellent this week.  Really very awesomely excellent.  Each is at a critical point (Food Wars being a little more laid back, but still pretty serious for at least one character), and all of them are showing what makes them unique.

One Piece flexed the age and development of its characters with a pretty killer finish.  I don't want to spoil it if you haven't checked it out yet, but suffice it to say Oda knows his characters really well.  Luffy isn't behaving as if he hasn't been through some shit, and that gives this series yet another leg up over some other weathered series who find backdoor ways to evince character growth.

It's been awhile since Saitama has had a chance to live up to his titular strength and this week saw him in his first encounter with the hero hunter, Garo.  Garo has been a really great device in terms of meeting all kinds of heroes and seeing their different abilities showcased.  Of course, that all comes full circle when we see him meet Saitama, since ultimately this manga is about how far ahead of everyone else Saitama is.

WSJ2015_08_31_CoverAcademia put a lid on the latest arc that saw the neophyte heroes facing off against the fairly powerful (and awesomely designed) "Hero Killer."  The whole arc was really fun to watch, but what grabbed me about this chapter was the maturity with which it capped off the conflict.  Rather than ending the conflict with head-pats and thumbs-up all around, Horikoshi took the time to depict the tenuous relationship between law enforcement and the heroes.  Even more impressive, he hinted that we were only just starting to see the impact that the hero life was going to have on these kids.

The most impressive thing about Naruto to me will always be the emphasis on war's impact on the youth, especially the young generation which is serving in the war for the first time.  That's a fairly mature topic, and it's a damn important one.  Being a superhero almost surely places the similar burden of growing up too fast on kids in these fictional worlds.  Now that Midoriya and others are out in the real world doing their heroing thing, I'm very interested to see how Horikoshi treats this theme.

Bleach and Food Wars both stuck to the roots of what makes their respective series great.  Bleach continues to showcase Kurotsuchi's personality in a showdown that, at least to me, screams death knell for the ridiculously smart captain.  Meanwhile, Food Wars uses Soma to channel an important theme that I think is often too subtextual in shonen comics: letting people inspire you.  It's really a hallmark of these young heroes that they constantly want to work harder and be better, but Soma often showcases the fact that other people inspire him really explicitly.

Three out of five of these series are pretty young (and One Piece will probably just never end).  That's exciting: they still have a long time to develop these great characters and ideas.

Score: 4/5

Weekly Shonen Jump #40 Writer: Various Artist: Various Publisher: Viz Media Release Date: 8/31/15 Format: Weekly; Digital

Review: Tokyo Ghoul Vol. 1

Usually I don’t do both the manga and the anime, but with Tokyo Ghoul I had to check out both. Mostly because the art direction on the comic is a bit different from the anime. It’s a style that really only works in print format, so I’m actually glad that they switched it up some for the anime. Now, I won’t be constantly comparing the two. Frankly the anime is the anime and the manga is the manga. There’s always going to be things different in the adaptation from the source material, because like the art there’s things that only work in print. That and the second season of the anime apparently goes in a completely different direction than the manga. The story is set in Japan, but the catch is there are Ghouls. These Ghouls can only live off the flesh of human beings. They’re feared, they’re hunted and they’re definitely a bit of social commentary on the class system of Japan.

The main character of the story is Ken Kaneki. He’s a college student who has no family and lives on his own. His best and only friend Hide, is the closest thing he has to family. We’re given a solid introduction to the world and ghouls before we dive into Kaneki’s story. He’s quite taken with a young woman that he’s seen reading the same book as him. Eventually this woman, Rize, approaches him and asks him out.

Tokyo Ghoul Vol. 1He of course jumps at the chance since he likes her and feels they have a ton in common. The date seems to go well until Rize reveals that she’s a Ghoul and that she’s been “hunting” Kaneki. She’s what’s known as a “binge eater”, because a normal Ghoul can live for weeks off of one meal, but she eats whenever she wants. Things don’t go according to Rize’s plan as some construction beams are dumped on her and Kaneki. Kaneki survives, but he’s injured due to Rize. In a controversial move, the doctor uses Rize’s organs in Kaneki to save his life.

This kicks off the big part of the story in which Kaneki is now a half-Ghoul. He begins to slowly figure it out when he hears a specialist talking about it on TV and notices that his sense of taste has changed completely. Now everything he eats tastes terrible to him, but what really gives it away is when he starts drooling uncontrollably around a large group of people. That’s not his only problem though, he knows nothing about Ghouls and the way they live making his encounters with them jarring and difficult. Coupled with the fact that he refuses to eat people because he’s not a Ghoul. At least not in his eyes.

The story is frankly amazing. It’s one of the most interesting stories I’ve read in a long while. With the manga I really liked all the extra elements that we’re given as the reader. Kaneki has a random encounter with a Ghoul which leads him to meeting two significant characters in the series. The volume actually goes into this random Ghouls backstory and you actually feel for him. He’s no longer just a two page character there to introduce other Ghouls.

The writing also excels beyond world building. The characters are tremendous. Kaneki’s battle with his new self is just amazing. Yeah he cries and yells a lot, but I think any normal person in this situation would do exactly the same. If you woke up the next day and found out that you had to eat people to stay alive and normal… well, I doubt anyone would take that news well. His emotional plight is very believable and deep.

As for the artwork, it’s very impressive. Here I will compare it to the anime and say that it’s much softer than the cartoon series. The character’s faces are rounder and overall the artwork has a smooth look to it. The linework isn’t harsh, but rather clean and thin for the most part. The character designs are very cool looking and again one of the reasons that this series has stood out to me so much.

The action sequences and gore are great, but not as great as the emotion. The art really excels with the emotion. Kaneki on his knees crying at to the world after trying to eat normally is just painful to see. Back to the action and gore scenes. The action is fluid on the page. It’s not choppy at all. The gore isn’t overkill and thankfully isn’t as censored as the anime. The art does a lot of work for this story and maintains an impressive amount of detail from beginning to end.

The book itself has a great cover. The paper stock isn’t the usual stock for Viz’s mangas, but then this is my first Viz Signature series volume. The interior paper stock is about the same, but the cover is smooth and beautiful looking. It’s also a little bigger which made it nice to hold and read without busting the spine.

If you like horror-esque stories, then you absolutely want to check out Tokyo Ghoul. It has the gore, but it also has an incredible story and world to go along with it. I usually don’t like to read and watch the same story because eventually something big gets changed which ruins one or the other for me (cough Maken-Ki), but this first volume of Tokyo Ghoul has made me want to read the series just as much as I wanted to watch it.

Score: 5/5

Tokyo Ghoul Vol. 1 Writer/Artist/Creator: Sui Ishida Publisher: Viz/Viz Signature Price: $14.99 Release Date: 6/19/15 Format: TPB; Print/Digital

Review: Weekly Shonen Jump #39

The Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V manga makes its premiere as a few other titles are in-between the action. A fixture of my Saturday mornings in high school was the original Yu-Gi-Oh! anime.  I could care less about the card game, to be honest: I spent my summers back then as a camp counselor confiscating the cards from campers and I think I might have kept a Blue Eyes because I knew what it was.  The mix of strong character work, suspense, and awkward ancient Egyptian mystery made it easy to look forward to the series every week.  The villains were quintessential petty, malicious creeps, and Kaiba really had a great Vegeta thing going on.

... I have almost no love for any of the sequel series.  There are motorcycles and giant world-destroying monsters and I don't know what the hell is going on or why I'm supposed to care about the characters.  Additionally, the fact that the same aesthetic (like, the exact same aesthetic) is used for the lead character designs throws me a lot.  I know a lot of series have similar character designs throughout sequels and such, but the original Yu-Gi-Oh! character designs were iconic.  Seeing those eyes and haircuts recycled is confusing.  I straight-up thought Yugi was in a panel of this comic.  In the black-and-white realm of manga, this is especially problematic.

WSJ 39 coverI haven't caught any of the Arc-V anime yet, so I don't have any strong feelings positive or negative about the series.  I didn't think the first chapter was anything to write home about, but let's be serious here: this series pretty much just exists to sell trading cards.  There is nothing immediately wrong with that, since there have been some amazing cartoons that exist solely because their being licensed might boost toy sales.  Just read the first chapter of this series and you'll understand, however, that there's not really anything to look forward to unless you're going to read a Yu-Gi-Oh! series no matter what.

Ignoring the impressively meh premier of Arc-V, One-Punch Man is a great read, when it's actually in the anthology.  The first print trades come out in a few weeks and, not having had the experience of reading chapters back-to-back, I'm curious about how much the series benefits from not being so spaced out from serialization.  In any case, where some other ongoing manga like Inuyashiki feature art that makes the simple seem extravagant, One-Punch Man crams a ton of obviously extravagant stuff into simple encounters.

It's no surprise that Murata is able to depict otherwise normal encounters with incredible exaggerations on the speed and physical limits of the people involved: Eyeshield 21 showcased this exact skill set.  In the world of One-Punch Man, however, Murata's unique brand of organized, cleanly-inked chaos defines our perception of how this world works.  I'm very interested to see how the anime draws on Murata's style which draws much of its impact from being in a static form.

Score: 4/5

Weekly Shonen Jump #39 Writer: Various Artist: Various Publisher: Viz Media Release Date: 8/24/15 Format: Weekly; Digital

Review: The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service Omnibus Edition - Book One

The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service Omnibus Edition Book One is a pretty sizable bargain, containing well over 600 pages (for twenty bucks!) of this charmingly light-hearted horror-mystery-comedy mashup. The first omnibus collection in this series collects the first three volumes, each of which showcases a big leap forward in the storytelling of writer Otsuka and artist Yamazaki. The first volume introduces the world of The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service in a fairly unorthodox fashion: it contains four stories on the longer side, but each of which are self-contained. Many series have to find their sea legs and then impress readers with their first major story arc (if they manage to impress readers at all, that is). KCDS comes out swinging with four stand-alone stories, each of which carries its own weight.

These are stories about a team of students at a Buddhist university who each have unique abilities, most of them supernatural, and all but one of them very useful. The main character can speak to the spirits of the dead when he makes contact with them, another can dowse for corpses, and another has a sock puppet on his hand which channels the voice of an alien who likes to curse a lot. Other non-supernatural powers include an expert embalmer and a crack team-head who can find out anything about anything. Anchored by Kuro who talks to the dead, they find out the last wishes of the deceased and see them fulfilled posthumously.

The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service Omnibus Edition - Book OneAnd it's damn funny. The alien sock puppet (I can't believe I started a sentence like that) is often the most obvious comedy-bomb that gets dropped in a given scene. But the story itself, mostly in terms of the characters, lends itself to a sort of aloofness that can be very uplifting given the subject matter. We're talking about a series where dead bodies are sometimes coming back to life and mauling people; but, when you witness how dedicated the members of KCDS are to taking it all in stride (mostly because they're just college kids and have no idea what they're doing), the series stays on a very Zen-like even keel.

Coming face-to-face with the reality of things like suffering and death is a central aspect of Buddhism. Yet, another part of Buddhism is that you shouldn't take things so damn seriously. KCDS embodies these kinds of things without ever really focusing on them too much. The fact that the horrors of death and the frivolities of life so often interweave in this series is no coincidence, and yet you can completely ignore the interplay between the two if it suits you.

Where the first volume showcases Otsuka and Yamazaki's willingness to tell effective one-shot stories, volume two on its own constitutes an entire story arc. Frankly, the themes that this arc deals with--death (of course), revenge, forgiveness--and how it deals with them run so deep that the discussion is worthy of its own essay, so I won't dive in too far. Suffice it to say, volume two does what volume one foregoes by showcasing Otsuka and Yamazaki's ability to tell a satisfying story in a longer form.

Volume three is right in the middle, featuring not four stories, not one story, but two, two-issue stories. What impresses me most throughout the first three volumes is that neither writer nor artist is focused on hanging his hat on something specific about this series. It's not about topping an arc or even creating a story arc that needs topping: there is equal care being put into stories of different sizes and shapes wherein the quality of the mystery is never compromised. The thing that stands out about volume three is Yamazaki taking his art to the next level. Readers feeling like Yamazaki needs to step his game up just a touch in order to push his horror work over the edge will find what they're looking for in the third volume.

I can't wait to catch up on this series and talk more about it. I'm very interested to see how the rest of the series develops along storytelling lines, and I'm still sort of blown away by how killer of a value this omnibus edition is.

Readers curious about all things Japanese will be very happy to know that all of the original Japanese sound effects are kept in the art. What’s more exciting, especially for those who are just curious in general, is the exhaustive glossary of those sound effects at the end of each volume. Again, this is another very interesting thing about this omnibus that warrants a much lengthier discussion, so I'll just point it out and if it sounds cool you now have an extra reason to check out this collection.

Score: 4/5

The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service Omnibus Edition - Book One Writer: Eiji Otsuka Artist: Housui Yamazaki Publisher: Dark Horse Comics Price: $19.99 Release Date: 8/19/15 Format: Trade Paperback, Print

Review: The Art of Satoshi Kon

The Art of Satoshi Kon is a lovely and unique companion to any collection of Kon's animated works. Let me start this off with the most boneheaded thing I have to say: I'm no art critic.  I don't really care that much about art qua art and I've never offered what I thought was a meaningful, reliable interpretation of a painting in my life.  I have far more interest (and ability) in dissecting the formal qualities of things with more... motion; things that have narrative structure.  And it is the genius of Kon's work with visual narratives in film that has made him one of my favorite creators.  My interest in this art book is because of how much I love his work overall.

If you asked me what made Satoshi Kon great, I would never point you towards an art book, nor would I point you towards his manga (at least not first off).  I would point out how he shored up his consistently surrealistic style by masterfully deploying simple but underutilized film techniques.  In his manga work, particularly OPUS, Kon builds just enough normalcies into his world to give the surrealistic high points of his story a little extra oomph.  But because both of these mediums showcase Kon's talents specifically because of their narrative structures, I expected to find very little illuminating about his art book.

The Art of Satoshi KonInstead, what I found was a charming and almost unwitting guide, narrated by Kon himself, to a visual style that acts as the foundation of his higher-level narrative flourishes.

The thing is, though Kon's strongest ability is manipulating sequential visual narratives--both static and moving--to heighten surrealism, these narratives themselves are not playing out in a normal world.  These are worlds where the lines are often literally blurred between fact and fiction.  So, it's not enough that he is able to present the events of this world as unfolding in an idiosyncratic way; rather, the world itself must be fuzzy around the edges, comprised of weird little bits that fluctuate between hiding in the shadows and making themselves far too familiar.

Much of Kon's ability to build a weird but familiar world visually is on display in familiar promotional images from all of his films.  These are welcome and necessary, but really only add to his corpus by being accompanied by Kon's own words about them in the appendix.  What are far more interesting are the glimpses at the concept art that Kon worked on, some which Kon himself points out pre-date any official work on the title itself.  One portrait pre-dating Millennium Actress shows Chiyoko as a young woman with a background consisting of dated wallpaper and the iconic key from the film simply hanging on her neck.

But of course, one of the reasons the concept art is so powerful is because it displays Kon's singular vision for his films.  I swear that someone familiar with Kon's work could look at this portrait of Chiyoko and feel many of the same things that the film itself elicits from its viewers.  I am similarly taken by his proposal art for Paranoia Agent.  What are more indicative of who Kon was as an artist at a very basic level are the original works towards the back of the book which tell their own story, as well as the few glimpses of concept art for works which will likely never be released.  These works are accompanied by nothing, but display the same kind of blurry-but-distinct visual surrealism that Kon was so talented at putting in motion.

To study Kon, watch his films and his shows.  To peer deeper into his style and see his raw talent, read his work on manga.  To understand a little bit extra about how Kon saw the world--or at least, his world--this book is a welcome addition.

Score: 4/5

The Art of Satoshi Kon Artist: Satoshi Kon Publisher: Dark Horse Comics Price: $29.99 Release Date: 8/5/15 Format: Art Book, Hardcover; Print

Review: Weekly Shonen Jump #37-38

Weekly Shonen Jump is off next week, so we get a double-ish issue in which Bleach completely kicks ass. Holy crap Bleach is fun right now.  Seeing the reasoning of really smart dudes at work is a hallmark of a lot of great shonen comics, and Kurotsuchi is up there with the all-time greats.  It's a big-time bonus that the stakes are this high, making Kurotsuchi's super-intelligent, care-free but skillful style of battle way more full of suspense than it would normally be.  When dudes like Kenpachi are getting ganked out of the blue, it's hard to assume a fight with a Captain is going to unfold along normal lines.

WSJ 37-38 coverBlue Exorcist is a beloved series of mine.  I haven't been a fan for long, but I have fond memories of hanging out back in Texas watching its run on Toonami.  The problem Blue Exorcist has is a hard one to overcome: I just don't think it's the kind of series that holds up well with a monthly publishing schedule.  I think it survives because it really has a lot of charm, aided mostly by Kato's stellar and varied character work.  The new chapter was a lot of fun, and of all the characters, I've always wanted to see Suguro reach a new level of awesome.

Academia is doing such a good job of moving fights along while injecting significant character moments and keeping things smart.  Once I get a damn job, I'll be proud to start collecting volumes of this series and showing them off.  This is the kind of series where you should really try and hop on from the beginning if you haven't already.  I would say the same thing about Food Wars, but that one has over twice as many chapters (though, the anime will help you catch up).

I've been digging here and there, expanding my exposure to different types of seinen manga lately, and shonen still hasn't lost much allure for me.  Sure, I can't touch a series like Nisekoi with a several-thousand-mile-long-pole; but, even when executed along archetypal lines, shonen stories, both in Jump and elsewhere, hold up to a lot of material aimed at older readers.

Score: 4/5

Weekly Shonen Jump #37-38 Writer: Various Artist: Various Publisher: Viz Media Release Date: 8/10/15 Format: Weekly; Digital

Review: Weekly Shonen Jump #36

So many high points of so many series right now and oh my goodness the last of the Yonko get revealed in One Piece! We finally get to see Kaido!  This is an entirely new level of villain for Luffy and the Pirate Alliance.  I know that it's typical shonen to keep up-scaling villains like this, but Oda is unique in how he has dealt with this kind of issue.  Where other series constantly scale up villains from out of left field, Oda has set up a pecking order in this series from day one.  Sure, we found out about the Shichibukai, the Yonko, and the various admirals over a great deal of time; however, it was still established comparatively early on.  He would have to turn this series inside-out and essentially ruin it in order to buck this positive trend in his writing.

WSJ 36 coverTsukuda and Saeki continue to do awesome things with Food Wars.  This week marked the typical turning point for Soma in an arc that has seen him tangle with some of the Council of Ten in the unfamiliar area of regional Chinese cuisine.  I will always love to see Soma take something from his diner and transform it with the nuances of his international culinary experience.  It would be a tired gag if the creative team behind this series didn't have such interesting foods, in such interesting culinary situations, with so many interesting characters.  This series will be a textbook lesson in how to execute painfully-specific genre manga for a long time.

Black Clover, Bleach, and Academia especially were all excellent.  It is really fun to finally see Todoroki and Midoriya in real danger and thus real action.  That series continues to be a smart but viscerally satisfying and, most importantly, fresh take on learning to be a superhero.  Academia has borrowed thematically from a lot of shonen manga, but is doing things its own way and I couldn't be happier to watch this series and its characters grow.

Score: 4/5

Weekly Shonen Jump #36 Writer: Various Artist: Various Publisher: Viz Media Release Date: 8/3/15 Format: Weekly; Digital

Review: Weekly Shonen Jump #35

One Piece was off in this week's Weekly Shonen Jump but Black Clover, Academia, and even Bleach were all excellent. After drooling over the first few chapters of Black Clover, I got pretty quiet about the series for the duration of its first couple of arcs.  It's pretty easy to go from enthralled with a series to lukewarm; just look at School Judgment, which is no longer serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump since it got booted over to Shonen Jump +, where it had its final chapter.  I was crazy about that series when it started (mostly because the other Jump Starts were not viable at all), and continued to be a fan right up until the last little story where it started to get a little repetitive.  Similar to Black Clover, School Judgment had incredible visuals (some of the most ambitious layouts I've ever seen in a manga), but ultimately fell flat.

Black Clover is doing much better, despite a much more familiar premise.  One of the reasons for its success is no doubt the theme of class division that was at the forefront of this chapter.  Asta is a typical shonen hero who is completely clueless and stubborn regarding the norms of his society.  Seeing him butt heads with what is essentially a caste system has been uniquely entertaining.  I will admit, though, that I flip-flop often on how entertaining I find his less political hijinx.  The starry-eyed gag that gets pulled in every other page where he's not fighting only lands with me some of the time.

WSJ 35Meanwhile, Horikoshi continues to step up his game on Academia, and just in time for the first volume's English-language release next week.  I continue to be very impressed with all of the heart that goes into this series.  What particularly grabs me are the fight scenes.  If I'm going to be a heathen for a second, I think that one of Kishimoto's weak points was choreographing a fight scene for a page of manga.  It seems as if Horikoshi has taken some cues from some of the better sequential artists in the western world, because he often takes his time to make big moments of a fight not just big, but clear.

The tenth story page of this week's Academia is not only clear but visceral.  I can feel Midoriya winding up to deliver a blow.  By providing a clear, visceral page for this moment of the fight to take place, Horikoshi is further accentuating the prototypical-manga-style jagged vertical close-ups of the characters in the fight that follow on the next page.  It's not just a bunch of visual posturing: it adds to my experience of the fight as a reader.

And then, there's Bleach.  Oh, boy.  I haven't slogged through all of this series quite yet, but in the parts I have experienced, Kenpachi is by far my favorite character.  Watching last chapter as he inexplicably lost his arm was painful, and this chapter was even more painful.  To be fair, the series is still ridiculous, but getting to experience Kenpachi's awesomeness and Kurotsuchi's ridiculous, care-free, mad-scientist attitude is a good taste of how Kubo can make this series work, sometimes.  Beating the Quincies is going to mean we get to see all of the characters we love (or at least, used to love) in this series at their best.  Every time I think I'm done with this series, Kubo makes me excited for what will happen next week.  Sigh.

Score: 4/5

Weekly Shonen Jump #35 Writer: Various Artist: Various Publisher: Viz Media Release Date: 7/27/15 Format: Weekly; Digital

Review: Gantz Vol. 36

Volume 36 of Gantz is the penultimate volume of the series and the best volume in quite some time; though, that's not saying much. The centerpiece of this volume is the main characters finally finding out what this whole entire series has been about.  I won't spoil it for you if you're one of the poor souls struggling to limp along with this series to its finish, but it's not the most unsatisfying reveal I have ever seen in a manga.  Big, ambitious series like Gantz usually just drag things along until they're forced to give an explanation, and it's typically one that just keeps the story plodding along without much direction (I'm looking at you, Billy Bat).  I am sure some readers will be underwhelmed at how simple the explanation of this series is, but at least it's an explanation at all, let alone one that makes sense and is final.

The problem I had with this chapter is that the reveal of what this series has been about took a back seat to Gantz's obsession with overwrought emotional drama stemming from a bunch of characters who can't let go of loved ones.  This has been a constant theme of Gantz, and I've never been happy with how it's executed: the series constantly acts as if it's not really about alien wars and tries to plunge deeper into meditations about one's own death and the loss of loved ones.

Gantz-Vol-36But there's a difference between exploring the concept of death and constantly pelting the reader with situations in which characters demonstrate that they have no clue how to deal with death.  Gantz, instead of offering any novel or nuanced take on the impact death has on us and the ones we love, offers caricatures of people who have no idea how to grieve and refuse to take stock of their very small place in a big, scary, infinite universe.

Maybe there's a point to that: maybe Oku is out to demonstrate how unwilling the average human is to face the reality of their inevitable death, and these characters are a parody of that real attitude.  There might be some truth to that.  On that interpretation, Gantz can be seen as being a series about the willingness of people to fight wars, both figurative and literal, rather than deal with the inevitability of death.

That sounds nice, but I think it is way too charitable.  If that's true, then I should be looking down on nearly all of the main characters, especially the two main protagonists.  I should be pitying them, I should see them as pathetic, I should be rooting for them all to go off and just die.  That's strange.  And yes, Gantz is a strange manga, but I am guessing the average person reading this series is rooting for all these loving couples to end up back together, which runs completely counter to the only way I could read this series and not want to gag.

Anyway, if we just ignore all the messy philosophical bull shit, the American squad is knee-capping the last giant aliens in the war and the fight scenes are pretty bad-ass.  If I turn off my brain while reading Gantz, it's a nice mix of violence, boobs, and half-wrought philosophical drivel that you would hear from a kid who read a few pages of Nietzsche and Marcus Aurelius in high school before going out and buying his first fedora.

Score: 3/5

Gantz Vol. 36 Writer/Artist: Hiroya Oku Publisher: Dark Horse Comics Price: $13.99 Release Date: 7/22/15 Format: Trade Paperback, Print/Digital

Review: The Demon Prince of Momochi House - Vol. 1

The Demon Prince of Momochi House is an interesting concept, but suffers from a lack of character development. That’s the short version of this review. I’ve read manga primarily geared towards women before so while this was my first Shojo Beat, it wasn’t my first dip in this pool. The overall idea behind the story is that Himari Momochi inherits a house on her sixteenth birthday. Since she’s an orphan she decides to move into the house right away, but finds people squatting inside. Well, actually she finds a naked boy her age inside and becomes confused by the entire situation. She’s told to leave the house by the squatters, but she ignores them and begins cleaning up her house. The leader of the squatters and our formerly naked dude, Aoi Nanamori, is the first to encourage Himari to leave. He’s not threating about it, but rather concerned. Eventually there’s a spiritual attack and Aoi is revealed to be the guardian of the house and of the spirit and human world. He’s the only thing stopping the spirit world for seeping into our world.

Demon Prince vol. 1It also becomes clear that this job was meant for Himari, but due to the death of her parents it never happened. We also learn that Aoi has basically been stuck in the house ever since he discovered it and that his friends are actually spirits as well. Things get interesting when the house starts listening to Himari, the proper owner.

I dug the concept, but there’s a lot of belief that you have to suspend in order to buy into the story. That parts not impossible and hey and I’ve read enough manga and seen enough anime to just buy whatever plot element removes the parents from the scenario.

The problem I had with the story was the characters. Aoi doesn’t have enough personality and Himari’s is too inconsistent. She’s lovestruck and then ruthless all in the same scene. I especially lost interest in her character when her gimmick became that of “landlord” and she tried to collect money from the spirits. It just really made me sigh. The rest of the cast of characters where architypes which didn’t make them interesting.

The art is great though. I loved the balance between humor and seriousness, even if I wasn’t laughing at the jokes. The visuals where really impressive. I have to imagine that the art is a big selling point to this title since it’s very clean and detailed all the way through.

The Demon Prince of Momochi House isn’t a bad story, but I don’t know if there was enough to interest me into coming back for more. I think Aya Shouoto’s artwork is incredible, but this isn’t the series for me. I will keep my eye out for whatever she ends up doing when this eventually concludes. If a supernatural love story sounds interesting to you then check it out, but if you like strong characters then you may find yourself smitten with the art more than the story.

Score: 3/5

The Demon Prince of Momochi House Vol. 1 Story & Art: Aya Shouoto Publisher: Viz Media/Shojo Beat Price: $9.99 – P, $6.99 – D Release Date: 7/7/15 Format: Trade Paperback; Print/Digital

Review: My Hero Academia – Vol. 1

If there is one genre of comics that’s overcrowded its superheroes. In fact, I would argue that in the early days of widespread manga in America it was the fact that they weren’t superhero stories that made them so popular. The strange thing is that being a manga fan doesn’t necessarily mean you’re a comic fan and vice versa. For me, comics are comics. As for superheroes, well I’m basically burnt out on them. I’ve read so many that it’s really hard to excite me with the eternal battle of good versus evil. I basically try to avoid the genre as much as possible, but it’s impossible to ignore it all together.

The funny thing is, I didn’t want to avoid My Hero Academia. I was curious for the first time in a long time for a superhero title and I think it was because it was from Japan. That’s not to say that Japan doesn’t have superheroes, but that they tend to be different and branded differently. But here was My Hero Academia, a Japanese superhero title.

my-hero-academia 1The premise of the story has two well-worn plot devices if I’m completely fair to the story. The world is filled with people with powers. To the point that everyone basically can be a superhero or villain, but there’s only so many positions open so a lot of people just have “quirks”, which is what they call powers in the story. The other device is a superhero high school. Which again isn’t new, but it’s handled in a fresh way.

The story follows the “quirkless” Izuku. He’s a middle school student with no powers basically, but he’s obsessed with heroes to the point that he can shout out their stats while watching them battle in the streets. Even without a quirk he still wants to be a hero which annoys one of his classmates to no end.  When their teacher points out that they’re applying for the same high school, which happens to be the top hero school and incredibly difficult to get into. This sets Katsuki off on Izuku and we see how belittled Izuku feels as he’s treated poorly for not having a quirk of some kind.

Everything changes though when a villain attempts to harm Izuku and his idol and the arguably the greatest hero in the biz, All Might, steps in and saves him. Izuku latches on to his leg and asks All Might if he could ever be a hero without a quirk and his idol tell him no. This is the final straw that breaks Izuku’s back, but as he heads home he sees the same villain taking control of Katsuki’s body. While everyone else is on standby waiting for a hero that can properly deal with the villain to show up, Izuku jumps to action and shows that even without a quirk he has a heart of a hero.

Izuku’s reckless actions change his destiny as All Might shows up in his alter ego and tells him he’d like to pass his quirk on to him due to the heroics he displayed despite his disadvantage.

The story continues from there, but even though a lot happens and a lot of ground is covered it still feels as if the story is just getting started. As you may have guessed, Izuku does get the power passed on to him, but it doesn’t turn him into an invincible powerhouse. Rather he can’t really control the power and injures himself using it. Personally that’s what I really liked about My Hero Academia because so often superhero titles just give someone powers and have them master it two pages. Instead, Izuku has a long road ahead if he’s going to even be able to control his power and a longer road to master it. It was very believable and All Might even tells him that it will be rougher for him because he didn’t have a quirk beforehand.

My only real gripe is that because this is a weekly serialized story, it has a very continuous nature to the reading. While that’s pretty much the norm for manga, for this particular volume it leaves the story in a very anti-climactic setting. I’ll still be back for more, but it wasn’t because the ending left me wanting more.

Now I’ve read a fair share of manga, but there’s definitely a few styles that I’m drawn to more than others. The style for My Hero Academia is one that I’m not big on. The hair is huge and wild and at times it has a slapstick comedy look to it. At first I wasn’t sold on all of it. The heroes looked great, but the rest was kind of goofy.

About half way through though, I dug the art. I liked that certain characters where almost intentionally illustrated differently. All Might in particular is done in a more American superhero style and there’s even some jokes about it in the background of the comic. There’s a lot of variation at times, but in the end it all adds to the character of the world and the story.

This is probably one of the first manga I could offer to an American comic reader and have them enjoy it. I don’t have to say what genre it is or what it’s like, I can just say it’s a superhero story and have them enjoy it. Maybe that’ll get them to check out more manga that isn’t superhero themed, but then that logic doesn’t even work on American comics so probably not. What I can say for certain is that anyone that reads this book is sure to enjoy it because even though there are familiar elements, at the end of the day they’re combined to form something new and the way they’re handled is very endearing. If you’re a fan of heroes or underdog stories, you’ll be a fan of My Hero Academia.

[button btn_url="" btn_color="teal" btn_size="large" btn_style="default" btn_outlined="no" link_target="blank" link_rel="" icon_left="" icon_right=""]Score: 4/5[/button]

My Hero Academia – Vol. 1 Story & Art: Kohei Horikoshi Publisher: Viz Media/Shonen Jump Comics Price: $9.99 Release Date: 8/4/15 Format: Trade Paperback; Print

Review: Ultraman - Vol. 1: This Is the Beginning of a New Age

Ultraman was one of the first things from Japan I was ever exposed to. I had a plastic Ultraman figure growing up, it didn’t have any articulation, but I loved the hell out of that figure. From that point on I tried to find and digest as much of the franchise as I could and until the arrival of the internet, that was pretty difficult. Since the internet, I’ve become lazy in my hunt for all things Ultraman. When I saw that there was a new Ultraman I got excited because just look at that art… no seriously look at that art… drool. That’s right I was sold on this just from the cover art because that was the sickest looking Ultraman I had ever seen!

As for the story it’s been kind of billed as a reboot of sorts and I guess that’s fair, but in a way it’s not. It acknowledges the past, in fact the story beings by explaining the past and it feeds heavily into the new story. Without spoiling it, I’m going to say it’s pretty brilliant how they do it.

Now as I said, the story begins by explaining a bit of the past. That Ultraman the alien, finished his mission and returned to space and his human host lost all memory of the event and returned to a normal life.

New UltramanWe pick up with that normal life as our former Ultraman Shin Hayata, now the Defense Minister, as he takes his son Shinjiro to visit the Giant of Light Memorial Museum aka the Ultraman Museum. Shin runs into a former SSSP (Science Special Search Party) team member and while they’re chatting Shinjiro falls over the ledge and lands three stories below. Rather than freak out that, Shin wants to take his son home because he knows that he’s okay. Soon it’s reveals that Shin and Shinjiro are both have residual effects from Ultraman’s visit. Shin goes back to talk to his former teammate and he reveals that he thinks he might have been Ultraman, to which his teammate assures him that he was and that the SSSP is still functioning.

The story jumps further in the timeline as we follow Shinjiro who is now in high school. He has a tight group of friends, but love alludes him because he’s begun to figure out he’s different. We find him testing his powers and you begin to wonder if his dad ever told him about them before. Eventually father and son come face to face as a new threat attacks Shinjiro trying to destroy him because of the power he contains.

The action in this story is great. Aside from just being wonderfully illustrated, the scenes are very kinetic and alive. There’s a real sense of motion to the movement. When the fighting expands and begins taking down structures it’s an impressive scene of damage that thankfully doesn’t have any civilian casualties.

Overall the story is pretty damn great. Again, I don’t want to spoil what happens at the end. While its nothing huge and kind of obvious, it’s still a pleasant surprise. The writing is spot on with the characters and the pacing is very tight. Each scene lasts as long as it needs to without it being too long or too short. The balance for the writing is perfect from beginning to end.

Obviously what helps this story a lot is the artwork. Even though we spend a lot of the story with Shin and Shinjiro in civilian clothing, the Ultraman moments are eye catching and worth the wait. It’s that special treat that has always made Ultraman great. If you spent all the time with Ultraman, the novelty would wear out.

The linework is very detailed and there’s not a single panel that I would describe as lazy or rushed. This story is detailed and cared for from beginning to end. The collected volume has some colored pages at the beginning and let me tell you… it’s gorgeous! If those became a poster I would buy them. Hell if it was a blanket pattern I would buy it.

I wasn’t surprised by how good Ultraman Vol. 1 is; if anything I was just surprised by what they chose to do with the story and the direction of the universe. Ultraman has always been good and this new series has pushed it to a new level making for a great new story to enjoy whether you’re a new or old fan of the franchise. Personally I’ll be waiting patiently for the second volume and look forward to following the new Ultraman for years to come.

Score: 5/5

Ultraman - Vol. 1: This Is the Beginning of a New Age Story & Art: Eiichi Shimizu, Tomohiro Shimoguchi Publisher: Viz Media/Viz Signature Price: $12.99 Release Date: 8/18/15 Format: Trade Paperback; Print

Review: Weekly Shonen Jump #33

This was a relatively short but solid issue of Jump as One Piece quickly moves forward with the fallout of the events in Dressrosa and a new Jump Start series, Best Blue, enters the fray. The newest Jump Start is here by writer/artist Masahiro Hirakata: a swimming manga called Best Blue.  I've surely implied this before, but have never outright said that I am not a huge fan of sports manga.  Most off-genre, super-specific manga actually do pretty well and translate into anime after not too long.  The only ones I've liked are Food Wars and Bakuman, the latter of which was mostly of interest to me as someone who writes comics and is fascinated by the production of manga in Japan.  Food Wars really fires on all cylinders, and most if not all of the sports manga I've read have, by contrast, really contrived drama, bland characters, and only work insofar as they supply scripts for an anime that portrays the dynamic actions of the sport much better.

Weekly Shonen Jump #33Best Blue was far from exceptional in this respect.  Sure, we've got the typical Shonen hero (with blue in his hair and in his name to boot!), but for a manga focused on competitive swimming the pace is slow.  Worse yet, the big reveal in this issue was telegraphed and impersonal.  The success of the current king of swimming anime, Free! is in its fan-service and its out-of-the-pool soap opera qualities (and in the fact that they never even tried it as a manga!).  Best Blue isn't drawn well enough to make up for the fact that competitive swimming itself is just not a suitable subject for a pictorial narrative done in this straightforward kind of manga style.  There's no real twist to this series, no reason to come back unless you really really enjoy swimming and, even then, it's going to be hard to get too invested in this series.  It won't be around very long.

Oda is so damn smart: Dressrosa, the most grandiose and successful arc post-timeskip, literally just ended, and he is leveraging all of the drama to begin changing the political landscape of the world of One Piece.  Last week, I mentioned that Fujitora's apology was a huge moment in this series, and now that Sukizaka has banned him from setting foot in any naval base without Luffy and Law in tow, this arc is really going to come to its final conclusion.  Fujitora really seems uneasy about this entire arrangement, and the ultimatum given to him by the elders and Sakazuki has brought the entire situation--the world government's support of pirates via the navy, Fujitora's distaste for the use of pirates by the navy, the pirate alliance, AND the revolution--to a critical juncture.  It all rests on exactly what Fujitora has in mind now, and will foreshadow the political landscape going forward not just between pirates and the navy, but between the navy and the world government.

I can't wait to see what Soma is up to in Food Wars, having placed last on the first day of the Moon Festival after being a moron and placing his dinky little food cart across from a restaurant being run by Kuga.  This series stays relatively formulaic in terms of Soma's last-second, unexpected antics, but the art never falters and the humor and quick story pacing is always there.

Score: 3/5

Weekly Shonen Jump #33 Writer: Various Artist: Various Publisher: Viz Media Release Date: 7/13/15 Format: Weekly; Digital