Dustin Cabeal 7/31/18 Dustin Cabeal 7/31/18

Review: Ultraman vol. 10

By Dustin Cabeal

Ultraman has become one of those series that you either enjoy or simply aren’t reading yet. The downside to becoming that way also means that there merely isn’t a lot to say about it from review to review. The story is steady, not slow, but steady. With all the development, battles and conversations it can easily be mistaken as being “shonen slow,” but it’s not. The level of detail that goes into the plotting and art is unlike the vast majority of manga out there.

Dustin Cabeal 7/31/18 Dustin Cabeal 7/31/18

Review: Mobile Suit Gundam: Thunderbolt vol. 7

By Dustin Cabeal

I don’t know if I’ve ever talked about how great the cover feels for this book, but I’m going to take a moment and talk about it. The Viz Signature books are always bigger in size than the mangas they release. I don’t know why they don’t offer a choice between both for each title they print because there are numerous titles that I would like to read in the larger format. Anyway, the Signature series is the premiere format. The paper is a bit better, the cover is about the same, but it’s just nicer in the hands. Thunderbolts cover is the nicest cover of the Signature line. It has a better cover that has a nice texture. You want to hold it. You want to run your fingers up and down it because of how it feels. It almost tricks the mind into thinking that the interior pages feel the same which is crazy, but that’s what it does to me. It is hands down, the best feeling cover of any manga I have read. I have stopped to touch the cover at least three times while writing about it, it’s just that nice to touch, and usually, I don’t excessively touch covers, but with Thunderbolt, I always do.

Dustin Cabeal 7/25/18 Dustin Cabeal 7/25/18

Review: Fire Punch vol. 3

By Dustin Cabeal

Fire Punch has been a bit of a rollercoaster. I know that’s cliché as fuck, but that is the best way to describe the giant ups and downs of the series. The first volume was amazing in what it set up and how it was executed. A character with regenerative powers being lit on fire by a man whose flames will only extinguish with death.

Dustin Cabeal 7/25/18 Dustin Cabeal 7/25/18

Review: Tokyo Ghoul: re vol. 5

By Dustin Cabeal

I’ve been a big fan of Tokyo Ghoul and re-added some interesting elements and has taken a lot of chances. Moreover, Sui Ishida grew and changed as a creator which is an incredibly rare thing in manga. That doesn’t mean it’s all worked out, but it’s made Tokyo Ghoul one of the more interesting franchises to follow.

Dustin Cabeal 4/12/18 Dustin Cabeal 4/12/18

Review: Goodnight Punpun vol. 7

By Dustin Cabeal

There is only one problem with this final volume of Goodnight Punpun, and it’s the white fucking cover. I instantly got the cover dirty from flipping the pages inside because there’s a lot of ink on those pages. Probably because of the hyper-realistic art from Inio Asano, but it fucked up the cover which saddened me. It didn’t sadden me as much as this book though.

Dustin Cabeal 4/12/18 Dustin Cabeal 4/12/18

Review: Tokyo Ghoul: re vol. 1-4

By Dustin Cabeal

If only I hadn’t sat on these books for so damn long. You’re looking at the last holdouts of manga that have been gracing my desk for the past few months. They all four deserve their own review, but that timing is off right now, so here we go with one last big bundle review.

Like most people, I read the manga after watching the show. While I enjoyed the show a lot and would even place it very high on my all-time anime list, I have grown to love the manga ten times more. The main reasons being that there is nothing else like Tokyo Ghoul on the market. The way it looks, the tone, its overall creepiness in design. The violence and the costumes. It’s a world you love but would never want to visit. The art alone is groundbreaking and different from anything else I’ve seen. Perhaps it will one day become one of the “norms” of manga, but for now, it’s originality places it by itself.

Dustin Cabeal 4/4/18 Dustin Cabeal 4/4/18

Review: Mobile Suit Gundam: Thunderbolt vol. 5-6

By Dustin Cabeal

Mobile Suit Gundam: Thunderbolt vol 5 and 6 are very different from each other. Its one of the many reasons this continues to be one of these best Gundam titles in the franchises long lineage. Here comes the “but,” in an attempt to catch up on my reviews I’m going to have to double up on this series, unfortunately, but I will be breaking them down separately.

Dustin Cabeal 4/4/18 Dustin Cabeal 4/4/18

Review: Master Keaton vol. 12

By Dustin Cabeal

Wonderful storytelling like Master Keaton doesn’t exist anymore. Much in the way that writing changed after the TV was invented there will be another large look at how writing changed after the internet was invented. Master Keaton is a look at a bygone era. One in which cellphones and computers weren’t available or used. It’s a wonderful escape from other stories, and I’m sad that this is the last volume for the timeless series.

Dustin Cabeal 4/4/18 Dustin Cabeal 4/4/18

Review: Golden Kamuy vol. 3-4

By Dustin Cabeal

As I wrap up my desk reviews, I’ve decided to combo up some volumes of manga I have left so that I can get a fresh start on new reviews. It’s not a preference of mine to review this way, but with the titles I had left, I ended up not feeling as if I would have too much variety in my reviews if I did them volume by volume. That is especially true of Golden Kamuy.

Dustin Cabeal 3/28/18 Dustin Cabeal 3/28/18

Review: Fire Punch vol. 2

By Dustin Cabeal

The first volume of Fire Punch was one of the weirdest, graphic manga I have ever read. Following Agni, a “blessed” person with the ability to regenerate, his sister and town are struck down by a holy crusade and another “blessed” named Doma. Doma’s ability is to set things on fire, and his flame won’t extinguish until it’s out of fuel. This puts Agni in a difficult position as he regenerates quickly. After years and years, he learns how to regenerate in a way that he can function and begins walking to find Doma… to kill him.

Dustin Cabeal 3/28/18 Dustin Cabeal 3/28/18

Review: Tokyo Ghoul vol. 14

By Dustin Cabeal

This marks the end of Tokyo Ghoul proper. I will decline reading wiki-pages that would clarify everything going on, but the gist is that after this volume is Tokyo Ghoul: re. Which is sure to confuse anime viewers when the third series by that name starts this month but is not the continuation of root A from what I understand. Pretty much, if you’re a Tokyo Ghoul fan, then who cares? Read it all, watch it all, just fucking enjoy it.

Dustin Cabeal 3/21/18 Dustin Cabeal 3/21/18

Review: Ultraman vol. 9

By Dustin Cabeal

The last volume wrapped up a big chunk of the story and began threading the needle for the next big arc. In a way, this volume feels like a brand-new volume. It follows a new character and introduces not one, but two new Ultramen… damn series is going Ultra crazy with the Ultramen if you ask me, but it always works out.

Dustin Cabeal 2/8/18 Dustin Cabeal 2/8/18

Review: Fire Punch vol. 1

By Dustin Cabeal

I judged Fire Punch by its cover… and the name. Even as a reviewer, as someone that’s constantly surprised by the things he reads, I still judge books by their cover. The thing I have going for me is that I don’t stop there, and still give it a shot. Sometimes I’m right; sometimes I’m wrong. I always want to be wrong, and I’m glad to say that in the case of Fire Punch, I was very wrong.

Dustin Cabeal 2/8/18 Dustin Cabeal 2/8/18

Review: RWBY vol. 1

By Dustin Cabeal

RWBY is a straightforward concept. The title of the books is not only a combination of the main character’s names but also the colors that they wear. Did I mention it’s straightforward? Starting off as something from Rooster Teeth, RWBY has been one of, if not the only crossover hit to come from American and navigate its way into Japanese manga. The manga is made by Shirow Miwa and is adapted to the manga style both in its characters and the world.

Dustin Cabeal 1/19/18 Dustin Cabeal 1/19/18

Review: Children of the Whales vol. 1

By Dustin Cabeal

When I saw that there was an anime version of this manga, I knew I wanted to at least read the first volume before checking out the show. Now, I’m not sure I can watch the show because I might just stick to the manga. Anytime I read a story that makes me pause and say out loud, “Well, I did not see that coming”, then I’m usually all in on checking out more.

Dustin Cabeal 9/1/17 Dustin Cabeal 9/1/17

Review: Golden Kamuy vol. 2

By Dustin Cabeal

The first volume of Golden Kamuy was interesting, but ultimately it lacked something special to hook me on the story. It made jumping into the second volume a bit harder because I wasn’t excited enough to want to continue reading the series. It happens all the times, especially with manga and indie comics, in that the quality of the product is fine, but the interest is never there.

Dustin Cabeal 7/10/17 Dustin Cabeal 7/10/17

Review: Goodnight Punpun vol. 6

By Dustin Cabeal

I have looked at this volume sitting on my desk for a few weeks now. Originally, I wanted to jump right into it like I do when I received a new volume of Prison School (which is tied with Punpun for the best manga currently in the market). The difference being that I knew I was in for a heavy trip once I started this volume for Goodnight Punpun has become increasingly dark as the series reaches its conclusion.

Dustin Cabeal 7/10/17 Dustin Cabeal 7/10/17

Review: Ultraman vol. 8

By Dustin Cabeal

Ultraman is exactly what I wish DC had done with The New 52 or what Marvel started doing with their Ultimate line of books. The story keeps what came before it, but has flashed forward to a world that’s just starting to get and understand Ultraman once more. He’s not going large and fighting a new monster every week, but instead, he’s still learning how to control his power that’s buried deep inside him.

Dustin Cabeal 6/29/17 Dustin Cabeal 6/29/17

THE LEGEND OF ZELDA Manga Creators Announced For 2017 New York Comic Con

Dustin Cabeal 6/14/17 Dustin Cabeal 6/14/17

Review: Mobile Suit Gundam: Thunderbolt vol. 3

By Dustin Cabeal

War is hell. There are no two ways about that and Mobile Suit Gundam: Thunderbolt shows that constantly. After the second volume, I was looking forward to the showdown between the Zeon and Gundam. How mistaken I was, how much I wish that didn’t happen after it was all said and done.