Review: Goodnight Punpun vol. 2

The first volume of Goodnight Punpun was unlike any manga I have ever read. It was dark, strange, humorous and strangely full of heart. The second volume is similar, but creator Inio Asano has jumped the story forward in time to place Punpun in middle school. It is this leap forward on the timeline that makes this volume different from the first because it gives Asano a bevy of new emotions and events to work with this time around. There is another pretty significant change as Punpun’s Uncle is the focus of most of the volume. His life has taken some strange turns, to say the least. Boiled down to its simplest form his story is an intensely personal look at a time in his life in which he felt temptation by beauty and ended up losing his way in life. On Punpun’s side of the story, he is still pining for his first love. The girl he never got to run away with because of his mother and father. Things get even more complicated when he discovers that she has a boyfriend, and he knows him from the badminton team.

This world is dark and lacking hope. That is not a negative aspect of the story either; that is the difference that sets it apart from any other manga I have read. Punpun and his family’s life are not extraordinary. They are common and relatable because even though this takes place in Japan, it is a story that is likely happening all over the world. There is a twisted family that can’t find happiness or sabotages their life with self-destructive habits anywhere on the planet. Asano clearly understands that and while his message is not “give up,” he also doesn’t pretend to have the answers to why you should not.

This story is just full of sadness. I almost said emotions, but in thinking about it, it is really sadness and depression. Everyone is sad, but love is the cause of the sadness which any moody teenager or person in their early twenties can relate to. Love is great, but losing love is terrible and destructive, and that is something that Asano shows quite well.

Asano’s artwork is some of the best I have ever seen in a manga. Don’t let Punpun and his family fool you with their simple designs; this book is gorgeous and photorealistic through and through. Speaking of the designs, I feel that it is intentional that they look like that. The reason being that their plainness allows for the reader to more easily paint themselves on the canvas that is Punpun’s family. Add the fact that a dialog bubble is never attached to Punpun and you also become his voice. There was clearly a lot of thought put in by Asano on how readers would experience the story. In fact, that is precisely what he has done with the art and panels, created an experience.

There was as much humor in this volume. What is here is pretty dark so if you do laugh a lot… well, you may have some unresolved issues to work out. It is however incredibly difficult to put down once you start reading. I had the same problem with the first volume, so I was glad to see that Asano’s magic was still present. If you are the type of comic reader that doesn’t read manga because of the formulaic writing and story structures, the house styles and dozens of other stock answers, then I implore you to read Goodnight Punpun. You can even start with this volume because you do not need to know anything about the previous volume to appreciate the story here. Do yourself that favor though because this is probably what you are hoping to find when you try a new manga one after the other. I assure you, there’s nothing else in the world of manga or comics that’s like Goodnight Punpun.

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Goodnight Punpun vol. 2 Creator: Inio Asano Publisher: Viz Media Price: $24.99 Format: TPB; Print/Digital

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Review: One-Punch Man vol. 8

Interesting things are afoot in this volume. You can feel the creators catching their breath after the intense buildup and payoff of the previous volume/story arc and so in many ways this volume is starting the process over. There is one spoiler I will address which… it is so small, but it is the lynchpin of the volume, so it needs to be discussed. You have been warned. King is a fraud. He is the guy that’s accidently taken credit for all of Saitama’s deeds before becoming a professional hero. While reading, you had to suspect that someone was getting the credit, but in a hilarious twist writer, One decided the same man would accidently be there five times. Now King is just trying to buy video games and not be recognized, but because of his moniker, he does stop some crimes by just being there. Until a robot programmed to kill him or collect data on him shows up.

King goes to the bathroom to drain the lizard and runs away instead.

No joke, though it is funny. Genos handles the robot while Saitama follows King back to his apartment and plays video games with him. There’s something funny about King as monsters continue to find and attack him no matter where he is. Saitama calls him out for being a fraud, but in a kind way. Then, instead of revealing it to the world, just asks him a simple question. The rest of the volume is spent building up a previously mentioned storyline, and it was okay. There could have been more pages given to this part of the story, but I am sure we will keep seeing this more and more as it looks to be the next big conflict of the story.

As I said in my previous review, One is talented when it comes to threading storylines. The real treat is you cannot tell which one he is going to pull to the forefront. Even know, I am not 100% sure the event above will be the central conflict. It could end up being secondary. What’s noticeable and welcomed with this volume is that while Saitama returns to some familiar habits from the early part of the series, One highlights his growth as a character with his conversation with King. It is also a prime example of why he is a fantastic hero character. Frankly put, there should be more characters and heroes like Saitama in comics.

Here is the part in which I gush about Yusuke Murata’s artwork. As I said in my last review, the latter half of the book, while still great, wasn’t as detailed as the big battle. It was a necessary break if you will. That small break has returned Murata to form in this volume because everything is beautiful and wonderfully detailed again. The simplest things just look incredible. One scene, in particular, is just a third of the page. It is one panel of a dead giant fucking bird laying on some buildings. It is detailed, beautiful and gives the city personality.

One-Punch Man is arguably the best manga produced this generation. It is shown time and time again that its story and art are on another level compared to the rest of manga out there. If you have yet to read One-Punch Man, this is not a bad place to start. You might be confused on some details mentioned, but overall the creative team offers a jumping on point for new readers that’s actually inviting.

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One-Punch Man vol. 8 Writer: One Artist: Yusuke Murata Publisher: Viz Media Price: $9.99 Format: TPB; Print/Digital

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Review: Ultraman vol. 5

Big Ultraman is coming. I know that I should be excited by that. I’m sure that most people reading this new Ultraman series from Viz are probably excited, but I am not. What’s worked incredibly well for this series has been the fact that it hasn’t needed giant monsters and battles that destroy the city. Sure there’s been destruction and some giantness, but it is, and excuse the pun, far more grounded this time around. Which is why this volume is still an incredible read as the battle that was set up at the end of the fourth issue plays out here. It does not go the way you think it does. If anything it will completely blindside you with what’s to come because much like Shinjiro we have walked blindly into the world with more depth than ever realized before. There are plenty of plot reveals early on in this volume making it pretty difficult to go any further without spoilers.

That said, the SSSP is not the only thing back and that this new element is a bit like finding out that there’s an alien city on earth that you can only reach through a portal. It’s that kind of an event in which your perception of this world is entirely changed. The way this story is layered and developed is incredibly smart. Lesser storytellers would have run to these events to show them to the audience, but the team of Eiichi Shimizu and Tomohiro Shimoguchi have instead paced these events in such a way that a metaphor for an onion is needed. No, perhaps a staircase would be a better example as each arc of the story continues to take another step higher thus changing the view of the world. Since not much has been said about this volume, there is one review which is a bit spoilery, but not entirely since it should be expected, but there is a third Ultraman in the mix of things.

The artwork continues to be some of the best I have seen in a manga. The biggest reason being that both creators understand the medium and use the art to tell the story rather than just accompany the dialog. That is a problem that plagues much manga, and it is frankly very off putting when you go from something of such great quality like Ultraman to something that has pretty pictures, but shallow visual storytelling. It is enough to send you running back to Ultraman to re-read it.

While this review ended up shorter than I was expecting, hopefully, you will check out the volume. It has a couple of stumbles and even though it teases “Big Ultraman” for the future of the story, it has been one of my favorites thus far. Don’t let it be the first volume you read, though; you will be very lost, but it is worth catching up on this series as it is hands down one of the best manga out there both regarding art and visuals.

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Ultraman vol. 5 Creators: Eiichi Shimizu and Tomohiro Shimoguchi Publisher: Viz/Viz Signature Price: $12.99 Format: TPB; Print/Digital

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Review: Nisekoi: False Love vol. 16

I’m back for more it seems. After jumping into this series three volumes ago, I’ve kept up on Raku Ichijo’s love…hexagon? Harem rom-com's are usually my thing, but something is missing from this one. Personality.

Everything in Nisekoi is paint-by-numbers. The hook of the keys and a bunch of kids that can’t remember ten years ago is nice, but not long-lasting. The added mix of the Yakuza, Mafia and police could be interesting, but at the end of the day, it’s only vaguely mentioned and never has any real consequences on the story. Which is the worst thing about this book because it has all these components to really do something different and it doesn’t. I’m not suggesting that it would need to change genres to do this, just embrace the elements that are there and work them into the goofy formula that it uses.

In this volume, they add a Prince and the Pauper moment in which Chitoge meets her exact and I mean exact lookalike, who is a princess from either a made up land or one that I’m unfamiliar with and don’t care to look up. Taking pity on her situation of not having enough personal freedom they make the reckless choice of switching places so that Raku can show the princess a lovely time around Japan.

Gosh, I sure hope she doesn’t fall in love.

She does, but hopefully, won’t be added to the story after the main love triangle is revealed to her. The rest of the volume develops some sub-characters aka the friends of two main characters, and that was the part that I enjoyed the most. The character I dislike the most Tachibana (which is strangely a fan favorite) attempts to overcome her fear of animals. This part of the story just highlights Chitoge’s compatibility with Raku and builds up how nice of a guy he is. Nothing more.

Even though the keys are never mentioned in this volume, I still enjoyed it slightly more than the previous three I read. Mostly because it took a break from all that and instead chose to give all of the characters (there’s plenty of smaller stories I left out) a moment to shine and develop their love for Raku or each other. I enjoyed it, but it didn’t win me over or make me a fan of the series for the reasons I listed in the beginning.

The art is pleasant. It’s not bad, it’s better than average, but again has no personality. The characters mostly look the same, and this problem is illustrated in the character intro at the front of the volume. That’s right, the actual illustrations illustrate the problem, because without a name to the side I would just be numbering the characters and calling it a day. There’s no real storytelling done with the artwork; it’s just pictures accompanying dialog. Comics are comics regardless of who makes them, and this one’s biggest downfall is that it doesn’t use the gutters or the medium to the fullest. It’s just a classic example of cute art and average story.

I have another volume to read, but at that point, I’ll know if I should spend any more time with Nisekoi. Ultimately, this is a paint by number Harem that could be so much more but refuses to embrace the world that it’s created leaving it feeling hollow and generic. Maybe the next volume will win me over, but somehow I honestly doubt it.

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Nisekoi: False Love vol. 16 Creator: Naoshi Komi Publisher: Viz Media Price: $9.99 Format: TPB; Print/Digital

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Review: Ultraman vol. 4

If you read the previous volume of Ultraman, then you already know that Moroboshi is a dick. Shinjiro didn’t know that, but after Moroboshi arrives wearing his version of the Ultraman suit and tells him to “Deal with it,” I’m pretty sure he knows now. This volume of Ultraman continues with Shinjiro dealing with the notion that he must kill some of the aliens he encounters. It doesn’t sit well with him, but after seeing Moroboshi and helping a little girl with a balloon, he sees how many people he’d put at risk. He’s then tested by Red and Jack and pushed to the point of unlocking a new power. The rest of the volume deals with Rena, the serial killer and a pissing contest between Moroboshi and Shinjiro.

The story for this new Ultraman continues to be tightly woven. There’s clearly an over-arcing storyline that’s in play, but what has made these first four volumes particularly tight is that all of the subplots have been connected and are now coming funneling together for a resolution. In a way, the A, B, and C storylines have all focused on different characters or aspects of the story, and now they’re heading to a collision. It’s too soon to say how it will change the landscape of the world.

It’s easy to be fooled by this trade because compared to the previous installments there’s no big reveals or action sequences. There’s a little bit with Red, but there aren’t any consequences outside of unlocking Shinjiro’s potential. Yet with seemingly so little going on, it’s easy to miss the character development and the footwork that’s done to move the story along. And it could have all ended up being very boring, but it’s anything but. The aspect that stands out the most ends up being Shinjiro’s character development as he deals with the notion of taking a life, learning he’s not the only Ultraman and unlocking a new skill. It’s a lot for him to take in and it’s a testament to the quality of the story that it doesn’t forget to show this struggle. It would be very easy to show Shinjiro accepting everything and just moving on, but instead the story allows you time to get to know the lead character.

The art on this book is stunning. I won’t rank or compare it to other series because that doesn’t matter. It doesn’t take away from how impressive the details are from start to finish. The world of Ultraman feels alive because of the art. It’s easy to get lost in the clean linework, the black and white pages and a style that is easily recognized for being from Japan. The real challenge is not being blind to the details and raw emotion that the artwork has. The battles never seem laidback, but rather a fight with real consequences and damage. You can dislike the style (I don’t know why you ever would), but you can still appreciate the skill that goes into this series.

With as many Western/American style comics that I read, I don’t keep up with too many Manga series. I would love to, but the reality is that I have more to read than I do time to read. The ones I do continue to follow, like Ultraman or One-Punch Man, have such talent and quality of stories that I do keep up with them. With that said, if you’re not caught up on Ultraman you need to do yourself a favor and get caught up.

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Ultraman Creators: Eiichi Shimizu and Tomohiro Shimoguchi Publisher: Viz Media Price: $12.99 Format: TPB; Print/Digital

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Review: One-Punch Man vol. 7

The seventh volume of One-Punch Man is perhaps one of the most important volumes in the entire series. Not just because of the big showdown with the alien invaders in which artist Yusuke Murata delivers some of the finest pages to grace any comic on the face of the planet. Rather it’s importance comes from the storylines that it subtly builds in this volume. It is a statement from creator/writer One, in which he says, “We’re not going anywhere, we have so much more to show you.” Part of this statement is due to the manga market in which the reliance on individual popularity in the weekly shonen magazines determine if a series lives or dies. At some point though the creators become established and in a way safe. You can usually spot this stage because it’s when the story suddenly expands. The strange thing about me is that when I hit this point in most Manga, it's the very point in which I stop liking the series because a poor storyteller reveals themselves at this point. When the fear of cancellation is gone, they suddenly inflate the world with supporting characters or too many sub-plots that original reason you had for liking the story is gone. That doesn’t always happen of course, but One makes it look easy. In fact, you may not even notice that he treads the storyline for not one, but three arcs while continuing an arc that he’s already been building throughout the series. Add on top of that two subplots that aren’t a distraction from the story and suddenly a lot is going on, but it doesn’t feel that way.

One-Punch Man’s strength has always been how naturally the story flows. For instance, the final fight between Saitama and the alien leader. It’s an epic battle, but not only does it not take up the entire volume like it easily could, but the story flows right into the fight. It checks in with the other characters for just the right amount of time before the transition and then brings you right back out at the end.

As I said, the volume could have very easily made this boss fight last the entire volume. I was half expecting it since it’s practically the norm for the genre, but One surprised me again. Granted part of it is the editor that decided what chapters to place, but really if One hadn’t paced the story the way he did it wouldn’t have mattered where they cut. As it stands, though, there’s enough time for smaller stories including one in which Saitama gets arrested. It starts an interesting thread for the series, even if the scene has a relatively quick resolution.

Going back to the art, is there anyone better in Manga right now than Yusuke Murata? Sure the latter half of the book eases up on the stunning details, but can you blame him after seeing the incredibly detailed set pieces and backgrounds of the first half of the comic? The man’s hand must hurt 24/7. Even having written what I’ve written, I must give proper credit for the latter half because it is still better than any other manga I’ve ever read. It’s just such an impressive work of visual storytelling that can be appreciated by anyone that enjoys comics in any country on the planet. That’s an incredibly rare feat, but that’s how damn good his artwork is.

If volume seven is the first time you read One-Punch Man, that’s okay. As I stated in the beginning, it’s likely to be one of the most significant volumes of the series and due to One’s talented writing on the comic, it manages to recap the entire world for you while you’re reading it. You can come away with a general understanding of the whole series just from this volume. I don’t know if you can say that about too many comics.

Sometimes when a franchise booms, it just hits the market at the right time. I could make this argument for a lot of popular franchises in the North American market. Other times, there’s just a collective appreciation of the material in which the more people experience it, the more people understand that they’re witnessing something special, but you’ll have to read it to decide for yourself.

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One-Punch Man vol. 7 Writer: One Artist: Yusuke Murata Publisher: Viz Media Price: $9.99 Format: TPB; Print/Digital

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Review: Gangsta vol. 7

I have a bit of a strange relationship with Gangsta. Upon hearing about the anime in the works, I bought the first volume. I had heard a lot of praise for the series ranging from the story to the artwork. Unfortunately, due to just how much I have to read for review, I never got around to reading the first volume until after watching the anime. It ended up that I only moderately cared for the anime, but when I went to read the manga… I disliked it. I questioned whether or not I should even read this volume. The reason I did is that the anime ended abruptly. I don’t know if it was the ratings, money, laziness, or some combination of all three. Frankly, I wasn’t a big enough fan to find out. I was curious, though, and figured the seventh volume would probably pick up just after the tenth episode of the show or overlap it slightly.

It’s does. Perfectly.

That was a bit of a relief because I didn’t have any desire to read something I had already struggled through watching. The crazy thing… I liked this volume. I liked it a lot actually, and I don’t know why.

My problem with Gangsta is that it has this excellent idea that it continues to fuck up over and over. The idea of the handymen being this neutral party made them interesting and unique to follow. The “Dog Tags” were this aspect of the story that could represent many things; race, national origin, pretty much anything that people could be afraid of because they were different. And they had extra abilities which made them more impressive.

The ranking system for the Dog Tags ended up being the double edge sword that began the descent of the series for me because I loved the idea of these higher ups fighting each other and having video game rankings. Then there were low-level Dog Tags introduced that were just people mainly. At that point… I didn’t understand why they would even be considered a Dog Tag which left me wondering what the fuck was the point of the Dog Tags. To be frank, I’m still not entirely sure. If I remember the anime’s details correctly, they were created by the government for a war that is always brought up in the story, but then the same government wanted them all killed… or something. That’s the part that I don’t get. I don’t understand how these people with Dog Tags are created and given tags, but then also hunted and killed by the same individuals?

This volume introduces us to Hunters, or I should say continues the introduction of the Hunters. They’re ordinary people with the speed and skills to kill Dog Tags… which is just fucking confusing as well. How the fuck am I to believe that? Why would they even hate Dog Tags considering they’re just the next generation? And I wouldn’t even bother thinking of this shit if it wasn’t brought up so much in the story.

Nevertheless, the Hunters have a former Hunter’s wife, who’s not his wife because that would make shit too easy. If they were both on social media, they would list their relationship status as “complicated.” That’s pretty much it. We learn about Marco; we see his not-wife wife get her arm chopped off, and he has a tearful goodbye with a girl he raised like a daughter for fifteen years. His friend and co-worker join him in his fight, and I have to admit for a volume that removes its two main characters, this was a hell of a story. Enough so that I got excited about the spinoff starring the character Marco aka Spas.

The art and art style have always been the draw for me on this title. Kohske’s artwork stands out for a variety of reasons. It’s uncharacteristic of the genre; it’s gore and violence is teetering into the “ultra” category and above all else, it’s just really detailed and gorgeous to look view. Along with that is the panels and layouts; Kohske breaks a lot of the norms in manga. That’s my opinion, but having a bulk of manga in the last year, this one stands out because of the use of the gutters. Even though I didn’t care for the first volume, I enjoyed the art and layouts.

It’s also worth mentioning that this is a part of Viz’s Signature imprint, meaning the print is worth the money. The cover has a great feel to it. It’s coarse, smooth, and has almost a plastic feel to it. It’s also a bit bigger than most manga trades, but that’s my preference as it’s easier to hold and read without breaking the spine.

If you too wondered what the hell happened at the end of the anime, then this seventh volume is the start of the answer to that question. The main characters aren’t developed and have a slight role in the story, but the secondary characters’ shine. For as much action and violence that this story has, this particular volume has a lot of heart and character development.

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Gangsta vol. 7 Creator: Kohske Publisher: Viz/Viz Signature Price: $12.99 Format: TPB; Print/Digital

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Review: Weekly Shonen Jump #36-37

Weekly Shonen Jump has off next week, so this week we get a double-numbered issue with over 300 pages, including the third-to-last chapter of Bleach. The official announcement of Bleach's end, despite being totally expected, was still shocking to me.  Even though we were obviously in the midst of the final fight starting just a few weeks ago, I figured the ultimate fight of such a long-running series would last at least twice as long.  Of course, what made Bleach's finish so good was that Kubo by-and-large threw out the playbook: he made sure to emphasize that the series was about more than just Ichigo or the fate of the world or anything like that.  This was a series that was about a lot of different, fantastic characters, and the final showdown was really better explicated as an entire series of final showdowns, all of which were compelling final moments for the various captains.  Even with just two issues left, it's hard to tell what kind of footing Kubo is finally going to land on.

Last week a new Jump Start The Promised Neverland premiered, from writer and artist duo Kaiu Shirai and Posuka Demizu.  The Promised Neverland centers on a series of kids at a gated orphanage who have numbered tattoos and take extreme written tests every day.  The three most clever kids discover that they're actually being raised to be fed or at the very least harvested for some use by large demon-like creatures, and a chess-like battle of intrigue ensues between these young geniuses and the matron in charge of their distribution.

I think this series has some promise.  I'm not sure how far they can go with this premise, but so far the story has been built so that the readers don't really have a grasp on the full scope of the premise quite yet.  Still, there's a good mix of having a big unknown world and a more intimate setting (what's more intimate than a big cage, afterall).  Demizu's art can be fairly raw at times, with his faces suffering from some inconsistencies; but, the demons that we finally get to see at the end of the first issue are really interesting, original designs.  The layouts are haphazard enough for someone like me to enjoy, given the fact that I'm always looking for folks to do way more with their layouts.  The high point of this chapter was watching the main characters use their big brains and the power of inference, a series of moments which was punctuated by some of Demizu's better work.  The lynchpin of this series going forward will be whether or not Shirai can really build on and sell these cerebral aspects.

As Food Wars continues its trek through Hokkaido, I have to once again praise the excellent pacing of this series.  I started reading Food Wars around the current anime arc (the "Autumn Elections" arc).  The final shokugeki of that arc (almost exactly where I started reading) was a whopping seven chapters.  Compare this to the current Hokkaido challenges: they've been about a chapter a piece, with a small cliffhanger straddling each chapter.  Obviously all good shonen has major and minor story arcs.  What sets Food Wars apart is that its overall story structure has the kind of rigorous pacing that you'd expect to find among panels in a single issue.  When Rindo revealed the next challenge at the end of this issue, it felt like a huge story moment specifically because the last handful of chapters have been so rhythmic.

I'd love to write more about Boruto, especially now that the first volume is out in Japan, but it's still a rehash of the movie.  They've done a great job transferring the movie into the pages of the manga, but until they get passed the plot of the movie I feel like I'm watching it in slow motion.  I'm looking forward to whatever new character designs come out of the newest pieces of the series.  Black Clover finally wraps up the big battle at the water temple, as Midoriya gets some new moves in Academia.  Last, but not least, it looks like people can finally shut up about Lola being Big Mom's daughter: it's confirmed, guys.  Relax.

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Weekly Shonen Jump #33 Writers: Various Artists: Various Publisher: Viz Media Price: $0.99 Format: Anthology; Digital

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Review: Black Clover - Vol. 1

I’m going to be the Hokage! Wait, wrong manga. I’m going to be Pirate King! Nope, sorry, still the wrong manga. I’M GOING TO BE THE WIZARD KING! There we go. Welcome to Black Clover, ladies and gentlemen. Yes, Black Clover is your typical shonen manga. Asta, a boy conveniently born without magical powers, wants to become the Wizard King of his Village. He’s an orphan and is being raised at a church. Because he lacks any magical powers, he is often ridiculed, but never phased by it. His rival, Yuna, is also an orphan - they were both left at the church at the same time - and is the complete opposite: loved by all, has great magical powers. Hell, people even claim he’s going to be the next wizard king.

Once a year, a ceremony is held for all the fifteen year olds. At said ceremony, the master of Grimoire Tower awards the teens with a grimoire, a book of magic, so to speak, that increases their magical abilities. Low and behold, everyone BUT Asta receives one. Yuno, in all his glory, received the four leaf clover grimoire, the very same the previous Wizard King had. After the ceremony, Yuno is stopped by someone trying to steal his newly acquired grimoire. A scuffle ensues and of course Asta comes to the rescue; however, as the thief is about to lay the finishing blow on Asta, a grimoire pops out from behind a brick and makes it way to him. The five leaf grimoire, the grimoire of anti-magic: a sword that can repel magic, which is pretty cool if you ask me. It goes without saying that Asta takes care of business and he and Yuno vow to see who becomes the Wizard King. Whew. That was just the first chapter!

Six month pass and all the newly acquired grimoire users are attending the Magic Knights Entrance Exam where they’re pretty much soliciting themselves to the nine squads in hopes of getting recruited. If this doesn’t sound familiar, you must not be acquainted with Fairy Tale: joining a guild,taking on missions, protecting the village/country. Same thing. I will say that this concept is presented a lot better and I’m way more intrigued here than I was with Fairy Tale. That shit got boring, fast. Anyway, our story continues from there after Asta has been recruited, welcomed and accepted by his group the Black Bulls, a lively bunch I might add. A big battle is going down on his first mission and in typical fashion, the volume ends in the middle of it. Damn you!

One aspect that I appreciated was that even though Asta and Yuna are rivals, they’re not of the bitter variety. They actually do care about each other, almost as if they’re brothers or best friends. There have been times when Yuna was in a pickle and Asta came to the rescue, even if it resulted in him getting his ass handed to him. If the opportunity arises, Yuna would do the exact same for Asta. It’s a nice dynamic to see and not your run of the mill forced to work together rivalry.

Enough bashing of the cheesy story (it gets better after chapter 4, I promise!) and let’s get to where this manga is exceptional: the art. Holy shit can Tabata illustrate. His character designs are some of the best I’ve seen. Yes, Asta is doofy looking, but what main character in this type of genre isn’t? There’s even a character, Gordon Agrippa, and he’s a spitting image of Marilyn Manson. Whether that was intentional or not is beyond me, but it just goes to show the diversity in each character and their design. The action sequences in this book are really cool. Action is not something that’s easily to pull off, especially in manga form, but Tabata really knocks it out of the park. It’s something that if translated to anime, would work really well.

Is Black Clover a real game changer? Hardly. Is it bad? Not at all. Although it follows the shonen formula to a T, it’s actually fairly entertaining. And while the storyline is generic, the art is good enough to keep you wanting to dive further into this. If you’re new to the shonen genre, I would definitely recommend you give this a whirl. It’ll take it a step further and say even if you’re not new to this, still check it out.

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Black Clover - vol. 1

Creator: Yūki Tabata

Publisher: Viz Media

Price: $9.99

Format: TPB; Print/Digital

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Review: Food Wars! vol. 12 & 13

I decided to review volumes 12 and 13 of Food Wars because they’re so interwoven in their start at this point of the series, that it makes more sense to just discuss them together. As with any manga volume of an Shonen style story, it’s not set up to be a standalone story. it’s not like an American graphic novel which typically has a goal of each volume standing on its own. With that, volume 12 gives a bit of rollback conclusion to volume 11. Then volume 13 is the conclusion to volume 12 and the fall classic. If you’re watching the second season of the anime, then you should just stop reading this review because I’m very sure that the conclusion to this story arc is going to be the entire second season of the show which does a hell of a job following the source material.

Volume 12 sets up the three-way showdown between Soma, Ryo and Akira which is of course the first time in the history of the school. The ingredient is revealed as well and while I actually won’t tell you what it is, it’s deceptively simple. This factors into the story of course because Soma is behind the curve compared to his two other opponents. The big day comes and we get to see what trick Soma has up his sleeve and of course what the other two are up to as well. What’s particularly interesting about volume 12 isn’t the outcome or the battle. Instead it’s what we learn about Soma and the forces at work behind the scenes that are trying to defeat him. There’s a great scene flashing back to his dad’s visit that is really important to the entire series because it lays out the creator’s views of what makes Soma special.

In volume 13 we of course learn who the victor is from the fall classic and I won’t spoil it for you. Frankly it doesn’t really matter because it doesn’t factor into the next chapter of the story, but instead builds a three-way friendship between the three cooks that faced off. Which is probably the most interesting development thus far. The rest of the volume is spent on the next challenge that is a bit like the student’s time in the hotel hell week. This time they’re sent out on location and asked to make a visual accomplishment… which is vague to say the least. Thankfully this part of the story only follows Soma who is paired with Hisako Arato aka Erina’s assistant. Erina is paired with Megumi which is pretty damn great though I found how they both passed the test to be a bit strange. Erina takes over the kitchen completely which I think would go against the point of the test and Megumi made one alteration which was really the only thing to happen. The rest is just funny because of Megumi’s personality and responses.

The next volume will continue the Stagiaire Challenge which should provide some interesting challenges depending on where the creator goes with it. Otherwise the character development for Soma and his cast of characters continues to be spot on and well-paced. I’m still not particularly fond of the harem-esque quality that the story presents as it doesn’t seem to do anything for the overall story and has hinder one character’s development, but it’s a minor gripe in the scheme of things.

The artwork is of course great because you don’t get into a top monthly manga without having great art. In particular I enjoy the comedic moments and artwork more than the serious moments, but they too are great looking. Also I appreciated that it didn’t get too crazy with the “foodgasam” parts during the final test because it really wouldn’t have taken away from the outcome which is basically what everyone wanted to see. That’s smart storytelling on every level.

If you’ve been reading along with Food Wars, then these are the two volumes you’ve been waiting for and they are worth the wait. I continue to be really impressed with this series and can understand why it’s been one of the top new franchises. It goes to show that great idea aside, great storytelling will stand out more.

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Food Wars vol. 12 & 13

Writer: Yuto Tsukuda

Artists: Shuan Saeki with Yuki Morisaki

Publisher: Viz Media

Price: $9.99 each

Format: TPB; Print/Digital

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Review: Prison School – Vol. 4

If you’ve been following my reviews for Prison School and still haven’t checked it out, then I don’t know why you’d be back to read this review. If you need one last thing to convince you to read this fantastic series… then this is the volume that will convince you. If you watched the anime, then me put volume 4 in perspective for you. It has two of the best comedy sequences contained within this one volume. As we learned in volume 3, the boys were set up to fail, but upon learning this have launched a defense to save them from expulsion. This requires a distraction involving the Vice President. They devise a plan to arm wrestle here and figure that they can stall for ten minutes… they’re wrong of course, but there’s not one, but two incredible bits of comedy during this sequence.

The first is between Kiyoshi and the Vice President and sets the stage for the second gag. It’s a gag with layers. What’s also really funny about this entire sequence is that all of the guys feel the need to take their shirts off and show off the muscle they’ve built while working at the school. The second gag involves Andre and his nipple. It is hilarious because he and the Vice President trade position over and over. She can’t get over something disgusting about him and he gets weak when she yells and spits at him for being disgusting. All the while Gackt is installing the free software that should recover the documents. It doesn’t work and they lose hope.

At least for a while. Gackt goes crazy which is just really, really funny. For his last meal he orders deep fried grasshoppers and the Vice President not only catches them, but cooks them as well. Kiyoshi comes up with a plan to stall for more time for them which works… because he’s an ass man and there’s no such thing as a bad ass man. Again, another great bit of humor and perversion.

The final and funniest and yet strangest sequence involves Hana who has remembered the incident in the nurse’s office. On the guys last night, when they need to get the documents, Hana strikes against Kiyoshi. He uses this to his advantage for the most part, but much like with Andre and the Vice President they trade positions of advantage. The sequence and the outcome… are both shocking, hilarious and probably nothing like I’ve seen in a manga or anime before.

What is just truly great about this series time and time again, is the fact that the story and storytelling are wonderful with or without the fan service. The scene with Hana doesn’t technically have genuine fan service and even if it were censored, it would still be an incredible scene between these two characters. The fan service really exists to make the story funny. Without it, this would just be a really serious prison escape story set in high school. And it would be wonderful just as that because of the meticulous planning with the plot and the attention to detail. Even more so this story stands out to me time and time again because no character is left undeveloped. Sure, some of them are at different points in their development, but for a cast of characters this large that’s still incredible. Everyone grows, every has changed from the beginning of the story to this point and nowhere is that highlighted more than when Gackt lists all of the embarrassing things he’s done. As he puts it though, it was all worth it to find friends he feels that he belongs with. I was choked up and that brings me to Akira Hiramoto’s artwork.

This scene… this scene between these boys on the cusp of becoming adults is extremely touching. It shows you that for all the fan service, for all the gags and gross-out humor, that there is so much goddamn heart to this story. Hiramoto’s range of skills is on full display this volume. From action, to every evolution of humor, to the heart and soul of our characters. Even the Vice President at one point seems to think she’ll miss our peeping toms. Of course you’ll gather as much for yourself between panty shots and nipple slips. Oh, and the fan service is incredible. It’s not that I don’t appreciate it. In fact, I think I’m completely spoiled on this series to the point that if fan service isn’t handled with this level of detail and care that I just won’t waste my time with it. Hiramoto is one of the few manga artists that has a style that stands out as being original and unique. He is one of the few that I will follow until the end of their career.

At this point if you’re not willing to check out this manga then I don’t know why you’re reading the review. Hopefully this review will get you to read it but if not I’ll be back for the next volume. If you are following the manga or maybe you watched the anime, then we’re one volume away from venturing into new territory. I’m excited about that. Knowing what’s coming in the manga hasn’t made it less enjoyable, but knowing there’s something new makes reading it all worthwhile at this point. That and these thick ass books look great next to each other on a book shelf. I know I recommend a lot of stuff to read. You can go broke reading everything that comes from this site and I understand that. But you will not regret picking up Prison School. It is the one favor I can give you to recommend this series. And I will tell you this, I’m spending my money on it. I’ve never gotten a review copy and instead have purchased and pre-ordered every volume I could. Hopefully that means something to you because it does to me.

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Prison School – Vol. 4 Creator: Akira Hiramoto Publisher: Yen Press Price: $20.00 Format: TPB; Print/Digital

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Review: Everyone’s Getting Married – Vol. 1

Everyone’s Getting Married is a bit ironic since everyone in Japan is not getting married. According to my friend who lived there for close to five years and has since followed the country closely, marriage is at an all-time low.  None of that has anything to do with my review, but he pointed it out to me when I mentioned on some facet of social media that I was reading this book and I thought, “what a great opening.” I was probably wrong. The story isn’t a complex one to explain. A woman and a man meet each other one fateful night and their destinies become intertwined because of the people they’re friends with and location. Location always plays a big role in love, no joke. The catch is that our main character Asuka Takanashi wants to be a house wife when she gets married, but for actually really good reasons. She wants the home to be a bright shining spot in the family’s lives. A place you want to be and want to come home to. The man she meets, though, and may or may not end up dating, hates marriage.

Ryu Nanami is a bit of a player. He’s back from New York (which is apparently where you’re sent if you mess up in Japan… you know, the hardest media market in the world) and he’s not looking to settle down. In fact, he has a list of flight attendants the call if he gets lonely and once was having an affair with a married celebrity.

Asuka and Ryu’s path continue to cross each other and while they have a difference of opinion on marriage they continue to find that everything else about the other is right for them. They don’t judge the other for having a different belief. This does make it harder for Asuka who realizes that she might be falling for him, but is looking for marriage. Not that it’s entirely easy for Ryu because he’s heard how fantastic Asuka is at her job and finds it strange that she would give that up.

What really worked for me on this Shojo story is that it felt like it took place in the real world to an extent. Sure some aspects of it were too easy, but that’s the nature of the story. If everything was terrifyingly realistic then it would be a drama and not a rom-com.

This wasn’t my first time reading a Shojo, but it was the first one that I actually enjoyed. There’s a very slow build between the main characters. They share moments, they learn about each other and they let down their guard around each other. In that aspect Izumi Miyazono captures real relationships quite well. There’s still room for this story to get messy. For the characters to stumble away from each other and hopefully back to each other again. Miyazono has a done a wonderful job of creating a relationship that is messy, just like real relationships.

The pacing of the story is one of the strongest aspects. They’re not just thrown together and that’s it. Instead, well over half the volume is just them running into each other and getting to know one another. It’s not until the very end of the book that something romantically inclined happens between them. While that seems really drawn out, I assure you it’s not. It gives you a chance to become immersed in the story.

If you don’t like that Shojo style, then you’ll probably dislike the art. It’s not extremely detailed at first. There’s a lot of what I call “wipe” paneling in which the page is split diagonally. Eventually though Miyazono finds a paneling that works for the story rather than the genre. I actually enjoyed the character designs which isn’t uncommon. I usually don’t read Shojo because of the lackluster stories, not the art. If you want to see a creator grow as they create then pay attention to this first volume.

Everyone’s Getting Married may not be for everyone… just like marriage isn’t for everyone. If you’re looking for a story with some romance that doesn’t hammer you over the head with it, then you should check this book out. Don’t let the title scare you away because really this is a story of opposites attracting and I’m sure that 90% of people out there can completely relate to that.

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Everyone’s Getting Married – Vol. 1 Creator: Izumi Miyazono Publisher: Viz/Shojo Beat Price: $9.99 Format: TPB; Print/Digital

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Review: Weekly Shonen Jump #33

OH MY GOD IT'S SANJI'S DAD. *Ahem*, sorry.  Whole Cake Island is fraught with weird, almost fairy-tale like dangers, but the most awesome thread going in One Piece right now is easily the exposition of Germa 66 and the Vinsmoke family.  Sanji has always been a compelling character; for years, I've been turning people onto One Piece and insisting that the point at which they'd be able to figure out whether it was for them was the arc in which Sanji is introduced.  But this is one of the many things Oda does incredibly well: he is able to emphasize that each person has their own set of stories that make them unique, even if they may come from a family with so much baggage that it has a mythology of its own.  Our family's and their legacies can shape our place in the world to some extent, but that never ceases the potential for us to have our own adventures.  That's like, the cheesiest thing I've written in ages, and I completely blame Oda for being so good at communicating life lessons with cartoons.

The current My Hero Academia chapters felt like a break from the action and, as usual, Horikoshi still found a way to use them as an opportunity to develop his already stellar roster of characters.  While the characters all see each other's new dorm rooms and rate them, it emerges that Tsuyu felt guilty for not being on board with the rogue Bakugo rescue that the students performed.  And this is one of the things that really sets Horikoshi apart.  There's an explicit pluralism in his work, a real sense that a lot of people have a lot of different opinions and ways of doing things, even when (and perhaps especially when) they are on the same side.  Be the characters evil or on the side of justice, there are a lot of ways to approach both.  Having Tsuyu voice her concerns and be met with forgiveness by her classmates is a great way of demonstrating this, and showing that what's most important when people have differing ways of doing things is for them to fucking talk.

Bleach has finally revealed the moment long-time fans have been waiting for: Aizen has been released from the bonds keeping his soul pressure in check.  It's pretty late in the game for this moment to feel as dramatic as it might have before Kubo went off the rails, but it's still a huge moment nonetheless.  The visual contrast between neat (like, OCD neat) Aizen and bold, flowing, heavily-inked Haschwalth is yet another example of Kubo demonstrating his game is at its peak.  We're talking hundreds of chapters worth of material and within a single page Kubo contrasts these two hulking villains.  It looks like it's going to be everybody vs. Haschwalth, and I can't wait to see what Kubo does with it.

Food Wars has its first quasi-romantic moment between Erina and Soma and I was a complete sucker for it.  For the first time I'm realizing I can't wait to see where their relationship goes, despite the fact that I'm really just in it for the food.  Black Clover continues to be excellent with one of its most visually striking chapters yet, as the young Black Bulls all push their limits against the strongest opponent in the series to date.

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Weekly Shonen Jump #33

Writers: Various

Artists: Various

Publisher: Viz Media

Price: $0.99

Format: Anthology; Digital

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Review: Twin Star Exorcists Vol. 2 & 3

Unfortunately, I wasn’t given the first volume of Twin Star Exorcists to review. So I figured I would let the anime play out some and then just jump on. That was a complete and total mistake. I almost didn’t even bother to read the manga after watching the first three episodes of the anime. Now I wish I had never watched the anime because unlike a lot of the other recent adaptations, One-Punch Man, My Hero Academia; Twin Star Exorcists isn’t a page by page adaptation. At least from what I saw of the show and read of the manga because the reveals and setup are completely different. Let’s recap the volumes really quickly.

Volume 2: We meet the Kagare that killed Benio’s parents and we learn that some Kagare can talk. This Kagare is a real piece of shit by the way and I fucking loved her character. The Twin Stars also learn that they can combo their power together and thus increases their power. We end with meeting Rokuro’s former teacher who reveals to Benio that Rokuro is the sole survivor of the tragedy that he survived, but that he actually killed everyone. Hell of a cliffhanger, which is why I read both volumes back to back and you’re getting a combo review.

Volume 3: We learn what really happened at the Hinatsuki Drom and you really can’t fucking blame Rokuro for not wanting to be an exorcists and really fuck everyone that gave this guy a hard time. Another character is revealed to us and it’s used to make Benio’s character even more tragic than she was before. Also Rokuro’s master is pretty badass, but the story kind of neuters him by the end. Oh and we learn what a Kagare Curse is and what it does, pretty interesting.

Why is this manga so much better than the anime? The pacing. The anime’s pacing is all over the place and with the changes in the reveals and story structure it really never stood a chance against the manga. That’s the last comparison I’ll make, but that really is what makes the manga so good, the pacing. Yoshiaki Sukeno perfectly paces both volumes. I’m going to do my best to describe it, but it’s a bit like a conductor bringing up the action at just the right time, then lowering the action for character moments only to hit with the percussion and reveal major aspects of the world. And Sukeno does this over and over again. The pacing is perfect and not just for the genre, but just for storytelling in general.

The artwork is also really on point. Due to the tragedy that bestowed upon both characters, there’s a lot of emotion to this book. Sukeno’s line work captures that in a way that really hits home. The action is easy to follow and really detailed to look at. A lot of manga artists tend to drop background details when illustrating artwork and it makes it look posed, thus breaking from the reality of the story. With Twin Star Exorcists you’re not removed from the world instead feel as if you’re on the demon plain with the characters.

What keeps these two volumes from being perfect is the premise that’s brought up over and over. This story could very easily hide the fact that these two are destined to get married and produce the chosen one child that will destroy all the Kagare. Instead it led with that. Almost as if it was pitched to the publisher and they said lead with that, rather than build towards it. Because it leads with what would have been the biggest reveal of the series, we’re instead constantly reminded of the fact. We’re not shown it or building towards it, we’re just reminded over and over that these two middles schoolers will have a baby one day. It’s a joke for the story, rather than something important to the world of the story and each time it’s brought up it weakens the overall story. Eventually, as is the case with all manga that lead with their “hook”, it won’t be brought up as much; which begs the question, why bring it up in the first place?

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Twin Star Exorcists Vol. 2 & 3

Creator: Yoshiaki Sukeno

Publisher: Viz Media

Price: $9.99 each

Format: TPB; Print/Digital

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Review: Weekly Shonen Jump #30

Viz has finally overhauled the Weekly Shonen Jump homepage and it looks like the start of some very good things. I've been reading Weekly Shonen Jump as an official subscriber (hey you, stop reading illegal scans: 50 cents a week for all this content is worth paying for) for two years.  I didn't read the English-language version of the magazine that was available when I was a kid, but by the time I became interested in manga, it was no longer serialized, and WSJ wasn't available as a digital service yet.  I was mad when I found out about it because I felt it could have been advertised a lot better, and instead it was just sort of in a corner of Viz Media's webpage.

But things have come along in the last two years.  Digital manga bundles are now on sale very often from Viz's site, and they effectively use WSJ as a platform for promoting those sales.  I personally still like owning manga in hard copy whenever I can (tankobons might be my favorite trade format, despite the small art), but if you like owning digital comics, Viz has come a long way in making its properties available.  One of my favorite additions came last year with the Naruto app which serializes a rotating sequence of Naruto chapters.  Now, on the main site, it looks like they've taken that idea and applied it across a bevy of their popular titles.  Even if it's not quite as sequential as the Naruto app, making these chapters available for free encourages people to give the best English version of the product a try legally, in vicinity of mouse-clicks where they can purchase more.

Sorry to go on about such business-leaning minutiae; but, the more time you spend in the comics world, the more you realize that an integral part of watching these publishers is watching them make... weird decisions, often underselling what they have.  And I can't think of another product on par with WSJ in the amount of and quality of the work that they have to put out every single week.

Ok fine, I'll talk about the words and pictures.

The beginning of what looks to be Bleach's final fight started a little slow.  Kubo has quickly racheted things up to the nth degree, as he has been prone to do in these final fights, and the last couple of chapters (this one in particular) are visually and thematically some of his best in recent memory.  Kubo has quickly and definitively positioned Yhwach as being Ichigo's better, juxtaposing his powers with all of Ichigo's accomplishments.  Visually, Yhwach dominates pages.  Normally, the precise contrast of black and white defines Kubo's best pages.  Yhwach completely blows this out of the water by spilling black across the pages haphazardly, whether it be with his movement or his mere presence.

Black Clover is at another milestone, as Noelle looks to finally awaken the true power we've been waiting to see.  What I love about this development is how natural Tabata made it feel.  Week-in and week-out I point out the typical shonen stuff that unfolds itself in these pages, but I'm always more interested in exploring how a particular creator fit that into their story in a unique way.  Here, Tabata places Noelle's ascension in a fight that feels decidedly not about Noelle in particular.  When Yami told Asta to surpass his limits in the previous fight with the Eye of the Midnight Sun, it was a much more straightforward type of development, one where Tabata was using Yami to crudely reach through to the reader and say, "SEE, Asta's leveling up guys!"  Of course, this did fit Yami's crude characterization, but Noelle's moment will allow her to shine in a much more interesting way.

Things in One Piece are nuts right now: I can't believe how quickly things escalated after the amount of time they took to set up this arc.  As Jimbei prepares to leave Big Mom and join Luffy's crew (I can't even believe I'm saying that already), Luffy and his Rescue Sanji squad are descending on Big Mom's home island.  Even though we're not even at whatever big story moment is about to go down, the resulting chapter is one of Oda's best in awhile.  Despite his imagination being constantly on display, I wouldn't say he's had a particularly visually interesting chapter in a couple of months at least, since each one was kind of the same conversational setup.  Despite this chapter being conversation-heavy as well, the character designs on display were bold and full of life.  The Sun Pirates are all very rich character designs (I love Aladdin's design in particular) and the whole chapter just felt like it got a little more love than the last few.

Food Wars has built the foundation of its next big arc by sending the students off to pass tests in Hokkaido, the northernmost major island of Japan.  I couldn't be more excited about this: any time there are tests, this series brings out the best in its culinary exploration and in its character work.  I'm especially excited to learn a bunch of oddly specific things about Hokkaido cuisine.

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Weekly Shonen Jump #30

Writers: Various

Artists: Various

Publisher: Viz Media

Price: $0.99

Format: Anthology; Digital

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Review: Blue Exorcist Vol. 15

Comics and manga are weird. People get intimidated by the number on the book, like there’s no possible way for them to figure out what’s happening in the story because they haven’t read everything before it. What people fail to realize is that good writers will bring you into the fold rather than tell you to start at the beginning. That said, most people still want to start at the beginning, but won’t. Which is crazy because the books are always available if you have the interest. With all that said, I’m not the type to shy away from starting in the middle. I figure if I like a book enough I can always go back and check it out later and so this was my first reading experience with Blue Exorcist and it was not a good place to start. Remember… I said a good writer will bring you into the fold. Not that I felt left out, but there are a couple of things that need to be said about this volume.

The first is that this is a payoff volume. If you’ve been reading the series for a long while it’s going to have a bunch of key moments that are payoff moments to the series. Not that this was lost on me, but without that extra context, I wasn’t moved by it. The second is that it becomes painfully clear that this story is finding ways to stretch itself out. This being my first volume I could no wrap my head around why the good guys and the bad guys were taking it slow and waiting to fight. The one and only purpose is to continue the story and that’s not something I want to read. In a lot of ways, it reminded me of American comics when they start as a mini-series and get extended for an ongoing due to sales and then suddenly they’re just watering down the story to make more issues.

Due to the nature of the story, there’s a lot of characters. It also means that there’s a lot of character development and while that’s usually a good thing, there’s too much of it here. I don’t know anything about the main character other than what was in the recap. I know way too much about the supporting cast and that’s just too much. The main character should still always be our main focus and that’s not the case here.

Then there’s the fact that the story, for some reason, has given the main character a smarter twin brother, but no one thought to see if he had human/demon blood as well. I mean… twin brother. Why the fuck would one of them be Satan’s son and the other just be human? This was a breaking point for me which will ultimately keep me from reading more because it’s just so utterly ridiculous. It’s an afterthought of an idea to make a storyline in the future. Really, it just shows how shortsighted this story idea originally was and the weakness of the storyteller.

The art actually has some uniqueness to it. A lot of manga has a similar look and even bad stories can have great art. The art is what kept me reading this volume because I did genuinely enjoy the look of it. There’s too many damn characters so the pages are cluttered with people, but when they’re given a solo panel, its quite good. The demon designs are uninspired, but hey, it’s a story that is trying to make demons seem like they’re not that bad. I do hate the fact that color of “flames” are even mentioned because the book is in all black and white. It’s just really pointless to mention it over and over when clearly it’s just pining for an anime adaptation.

Really, the twin blood thing and the fact that there’s a demon working with the good guys and is an obvious deus ex machina waiting to happen to the story to continue it further; this book is okay. I won’t be reading more, but I can completely understand why a lot of people like it. Just from reading one volume, though, I can tell it has a lot of filler and that’s not something I care to read more of.

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Blue Exorcist Vol. 15

Creator: Kazue Kato

Publisher: Viz Media

Price: $9.99

Release Date: 5/3/16

Format: TPB; Print/Digital

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Review: Weekly Shonen Jump #29

Fair warning: I used to keep spoilers out of my Weekly Shonen Jump reviews: I'm not doing that anymore.  If you aren't caught up with the titles I usually talk about and are hyper-sensitive to spoilers, make sure you catch up before you read.

My Hero Academia has cemented its place as the flagship young series of the current WSJ lineup.  It was always sort of implicit that All Might didn't just figuratively pass on his power to Midoriya: he literally passed the power on, and in a complete sort of way.  Finally, it seems that the battle with All For One has sapped him of the last flickers of One For All.  The battle with All For One was something the series was obviously going to build towards, but how quickly it got there was pretty striking.  Horikoshi had no intention of making that a final showdown; instead, he treated it as a means of passing the torch and putting the weight of the series squarely on the shoulders of the Shigaraki-Midoriya generation of villains and heroes.

I can't say enough good things about what Horikoshi has done with this series over the past few months.  The ambush to kidnap Bakugo was probably his most intensely and consistently excellently rendered series of pages yet.  Getting to depict all of the life-or-death action in the dark forest brought out the best in Horikoshi's dramatic inking abilities.  Through all of it, his detailed lines never lost a step, and his layouts remained varied.

Rescuing Bakugo proved to be a much shorter set of chapters, but therein lies quite a bit of what makes Horikoshi such a capable storyteller.  He is willing to front-end-load a lot of the drama and intrigue of a major plot arc so that simple but massively dramatic confrontations can take place in a way that allows his art to shine.  In other words, Horikoshi had an opportunity that I think many others would have taken to really stretch out and put a lot of time into the All Might vs. All For One confrontation; instead, he made it equally about the kids and the generations who came before, all by chipping away at these plot threads in the arcs leading up to this massive battle.  All Might has become so iconic for the series' readers that his final moments of heroism in his super muscle-y form carried as much weight for us as they did for the onlookers.  Something has been lost for this series, and the amount of pressure that is now on Midoriya will bring his saga to new heights.  The fact that others now know he carries One For All means that all that pressure will be coupled with (hopefully) a lot of invaluable support from his peers.  Seeing everybody rise to bear the hero torch of their generation makes this series an absolute must-read for fans of the hero genre of comics.

The crazy thing about reviewing Jump right now is that I want to spend ages on Academia for how outstanding this last arc has been.  It's not that often that you get to witness a story this early on reach such a critical moment in its existence.  Food Wars has taken a similar pivotal turn in that Erina has embraced her leadership role and is going to put the "divine tongue" to use in bettering the first-years.  While this is also a big deal for this series, it just doesn't feel as dramatic or important as the turn Academia has taken.  Some of this obviously owes to Food Wars' more levity-laden tone and the fact that the fate of restaurants in Japan is a markedly less dramatic end result compared to villains killing the shit out of a bunch of people.  At the same time, though, it points to the fact that Food Wars has really been dragging things out.  While Academia steadily foreshadowed things and then quickly crescendo'd to the series' biggest moment, Food Wars had a lot more heavy-handed foreshadowing and flashback use, and for a longer period of time.

Black Clover is also at a critical juncture, but it's all action.  This week's chapter was one of the more clever little fight sequences in awhile, as the Eye of the Midnight Sun goons continue to tear apart the Black Bulls.  We get to see the always-morphing Grey's true form, which was a great gag to end the chapter on; but, we also get to see Grey use her transformation powers in a really clever way.  Tabata continues to show he is unafraid to inject humor into dire situations, and goodness gracious is he good at putting together some brutal fight sequences.

Finally, in One Piece, as we all sort of figured, Big Mom's true nature is revealed.  As has been a theme from the very beginning of this series, the thing that separates the truly villainous figures from everyone else is their complete disloyalty and disrespect for the people who trust them.  It's a constant lesson that Oda teaches us over and over.  Each circumstance is so unique and strange in a way that only Oda could give us, though, so it never really gets old (or at least, it hasn't yet for me).  When an emperor of the sea has a sweet tooth and the power to straight-up consume someone's lifespan (not to mention her willingness to consume an entire section of her own capital), things are looking at least as scary as they were against Doffy, if not even more so.

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Weekly Shonen Jump #29

Writers: Various

Artists: Various

Publisher: Viz Media

Price: $0.99

Release Date: 6/20/16

Format: Anthology; Digital

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Review: Weekly Shonen Jump #26

The newest Jump Start is a disappointment, but all of the core series are firing on all cylinders with excellent art and huge story moments. Jump in general has been on a roll for a few months, ever since Black Clover, My Hero Academia, Food Wars, and Bleach all launched into major story arcs.  During that time, I was disappointed by the lack of Jump Starts, and the newest one really feels weak in the shadow of everything else that's going on. Takuan & Batsu's Daily Demon Diary is the latest in a string of new shonen entries focused on a male-female team hunting demons.  A topic that is obviously a shonen staple isn't ever really going away, but given that the most successful of these titles recently has probably been Kagamigami (which was not ultimately all that successful in itself), I'd think they wouldn't keep green-lighting the same mediocre-performing type of story.  If I'm not mistaken, in fact, the first appearance that neophyte mangaka Kentaro Itani's story made in Jump's pages was in Japan last year at the same time as another title with the same kind of premise, Samon the Summoner.

Samon was different because it was clearly aimed at girls, whereas Demon Diary leans less on the presence of a dashing bad boy and more on constant unrepentant ecchi.  Every time something inappropriate happens between Takuan and the devil's daughter Batsu, Batsu demands that the scales be balanced.  So, each gratuitous upskirt is followed by Batsu demanding to see Takuan with his pants down.  Some of this humor is just the kind of silliness that does well on one side of the world and not on the other; however, the gags are so constant and the premise is so generic that Itani's average draftsmanship does little to make the title interesting.

Jumps editors are clearly fully aware of this, though: the third chapter of this Jump Start occurs towards the back of the latest issue, leaving room for all of the action in the main titles to kick things off.  Black Clover shifted settings from its first major plot showdown to a fun underwater temple confrontation.  Now, however, things have quickly shifted, as an Eye of the Midnight Sun goon has showed up and is killing the shit out of everyone.  Tabata finally has enough of his canon established that he can have some of his Big Bads crash the party.  We saw that in the last arc while Asta was simply saving some children and we're seeing a more ramped-up, high-stakes version now.  Tabata's combat art continues to impress as he walks a fine line between playing things loose and keeping the action reliably tight.

My Hero Academia just unleashed its biggest reveal yet, with All Might's condition being shown on national television for all of the public to see.  One-for-All is proving to be a predictably powerful villain, but what has really driven home the character for me is Horikoshi's design for him and just how menacing he has already been proven to be.  Here I think is a good place to talk about Oda as well, who uses a completely different storytelling style that achieves the same kind of things.  This week in One Piece we not only got another rare look at Big Mom, but at the kind of villain she is: frankly, it's creepy, original, and wonderful.

Horikoshi obviously has a much more brutal, almost horror-y approach to telling his story, with the villains being depicted with thick blacks and ink spatters.  Seeing Big Mom and her army of talking desserts sing a scary song about the arrival of Luffy, however, proves just as menacing and, importantly, just as interesting in terms of developing a compelling villain.

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Weekly Shonen Jump #26

Writers: Various

Artists: Various

Publisher: Viz Media

Price: $0.99

Format: Weekly; Digital

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Review: Prison School - Vol. 2 & 3

I really didn’t want to review these two volumes together, but the only way that was going to happen was if I didn’t read them together. Here we are. Reviewed together because I couldn’t help but read these two massive sized manga back to back. I mean we’re talking 380 pages each. Together that’s 760 pages! Yes, I did pause to use a calculator. Don’t you judge me! If that’s not a statement of just how damn good this series is then I don’t know what is. There is no other series that I can say that I sat down and read 760 pages in one sitting, no breaks. None. If the next volume was out I would have read that as well. If I hadn’t read the first volume already I would have read that as well. Okay I know that number really isn’t sinking in so here’s a picture of the side profile of the books together with a normal size manga to compare.

Now, I wholeheartedly recommend that you just go read the series. Watch the anime, whichever or both they’re great. But for those of you that need some kind of summary of the volumes here you go:

Volume 2 finds Kiyoshi and Gackt totally fucked by the fact that their hole in the wall has been covered. Gackt has given up seven years of his life and shit himself for nothing. Kiyoshi desperately comes up with another idea… cross-dress. His plan is to steal a girl’s uniform and just walk out the front gate. Gackt goes along with the plan, but adds to it by being a total ass to the President and Vice President. To make amends he has the VP shave his head. He then gives the hair to Kiyoshi who thinks it’s really fucking gross… and it is. I mean hair? Come on… that’s gross. Spoiler for volume 2, the plan works, but Kiyoshi makes the discovery that Chiyo is the President’s sister and the Chairman’s daughter meaning he gets busted… she also now finds him gross because he somehow managed to steal her uniform to sneak out.

Volume 3 is fan-fucking-tastic because the power dynamic of the prison has changed. Kiyoshi has covered for Gackt's role in his escape, but now finds himself on the outs with the other boys. He’s started to earn their trust back, which is good since he’ll need them unite if they’re going to stop from getting expelled. Why? Because the Shadow Student Council has enacted E.B.O. aka Expel the Boys Operation… and it’s working. Also, more fun with Hana as she takes Kiyoshi to the nurse’s office after getting stabbed in the ass with a sharpened stick. She wants to pee on him and see him pee… while he’s putting ointment on his asshole. They end up bottomless together under a cot when Chiyo comes to check on Kiyoshi. Let’s just say that nature takes its course and little Kiyoshi reaches out and touches faith… I mean Hana. Hilarity ensues.

To say that this series is hilarious is a bit of an understatement for me. It’s funny all the time. Everything that feels serious like the fan service is actually just satire. We spoke in great lengths about this on this week’s episode of Super-S so I actually recommend listening to that in addition to this review. Aside from the comedy and the satire there’s this realistic prison story going on still. There’s shanking, there’s “rats”, escape plans, a pecking order. There are all these things that on their own would actually make for a hell of a prison story. It’s the fact that its paired with the comedy and the satire that makes it so good, but what makes it great is that it’s a high school. It’s very easy to forget that at times, but when you remember that all of this is in high school it makes it so damn funny.

Akira Hiramoto’s art continues to be some of the best I’ve ever seen in a manga or a comic book period. I recently read 7^th Garden and while the art was technically great, it lacked personality and passion. When I look at something like Prison School it’s oozing with passion and trickling with personality from every page. There’s never a wasted panel. A filler page. All of the art has beauty and meaning to the story. The art tells so much of the story on its own and is really a display of a master at work. To put it plainly I lack the knowledge to praise the art any further, but fully acknowledge that it deserves more praise.

Volume 5 of Prison School isn’t out until July 26^th… that’s a long time to wait in my book, but this series is absolutely worth the wait. Sure I could find it online to read, but there is something beautiful and wonderful about the trade paperbacks. The covers are classic and the additional pages of character art are beautiful. And if you haven’t read the series yet, well then you have roughly 60 days to read 1,140 pages of a story that is bound to be a classic.

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Prison School Vol. 2 & 3 Creator: Akira Hiramoto Publisher: Yen Press Price: $20.00 each Format: TPB; Print/Digital

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Review: 7th Garden Vol. 1

Get ready for demons and angels because that’s the foundation for 7^th Garden. In the typical manga twist though the demons are kind of alright, while the angels and religion are of course really evil. It’s an formula that’s been used just as many times as any other manga formula. When you boil it down though its all about A) the journey B) the characters and C) the art. Let’s start with “A” shall we? The journey is pretty damn boring. Dude wakes up a sleeping demon, demon is of course fan serviceable and must sleep in the nude. Shit happens in town when the church comes to kill everyone… who knows why, they're just getting their purge on. Dude must make a deal with the demon who for some reason allows him to go back to his normal life and decides to become a part of the maid staff at the house dude works at. I’m not using names because we’ll cover that in “B”. Eventually dude and demon woman team up to fight other dude and angel woman… spoiler, the demon used to be an angel and she now wants to rule the earth. But like the proper way. Naked in bed I assume.

As for the characters, the dude is named Awyn Gardner… he’s also the fucking Gardner. A little too on the nose. He has super impressive knife and fighting skills because of whatever past he’s running away from. It’s teased some, but at awkward points in the story making it feel out of place. The demon woman’s name is Vyrde and we don’t learn that until the 76^th page and then the last page we learn her angle name... way too long to wait for either. She’s just the fan service character. In this world the demons/angels become weapons for humans so it really makes their power seem shitty when they need someone to wield them. The other main character is Awyn’s boss/love interest. She’s so one-dimensional that I’m not going to talk about her in any depth. The characters aren’t unique and they’re not interesting. Awyn’s name sucks a lot and his gimmick of loving to garden is just… blah.

As for “C” the art is serviceable. My problem with it is the character designs that lack any imagination. They look recycled from other properties and I know that’s really mean, but it’s sadly true. There’s not a hint of originality to them. The art is detailed, but it lacks personality and doesn’t bring the world to life. It’s just there. There’s no emotion emitting from it. Instead it looks like an artist that’s lost their passion or is being too heavily edited. Especially the action which seems like it’s always missing just one extra panel.

Since this series started in 2014 there’s probably a decent amount of material for it so if anything I said struck your fancy then you’ll have plenty to look forward to. For me, I’ve seen and read too much that’s similar to this to really be interested. It definitely gets better by the end of the volume, but the pacing is a mess throughout. It loves just showing a flashback in the middle of telling you the story and that breaks you from the story. I didn’t hate it, but by no means did I love it. It was just sadly average and while average is nice sometimes, I needed a bit more here.

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7^th Garden Creator: Publisher: Viz Media Price: $9.99 Release Date: 7/5/16 Format: TPB; Print/Digital

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