Category: Manga

Posted on

Disappearance Diary

By Hideo Azuma
200 pages, black and white
Published by Fanfare/Ponent Mon

At some point in time, I think everyone’s wanted to "get away from it all" and just escape. It’s a pretty normal urge—even if most people don’t actually follow through on it. Maybe that’s why I was almost instantly attracted to the idea of Hideo Azuma’s Disappearance Diary, an autobiographical story of how a manga artist suddenly snapped and decided to become a homeless man. The reality of his situation? Perhaps not what you would expect.

Continue reading “Disappearance Diary”

Posted on

Blade of the Immortal Vol. 19: Badger Hole

By Hiroaki Samura
168 pages, black and white
Published by Dark Horse

About ten years ago, I picked up the first collected volume of Blade of the Immortal; Dark Horse started publishing Hiroaki Samura’s fantastical samurai story in the late ’90s, and I’d heard enough good things about the series to give it a try. I was hooked, and for years I read each new volume as it showed up. Then, about four years ago, I got the idea that I’d re-read the entire series when the next volume was released. I kept buying the new volumes even as I put them aside, unread, while telling myself that sooner or later I’d tackle such a feat. Suddenly I realized that I’d stockpiled no less than eight volumes of Blade of the Immortal (how did four years pass by so quickly?), and if there was ever a time to finally catch up, this was it. And oh, how things had changed since I’d last read the book.

Continue reading “Blade of the Immortal Vol. 19: Badger Hole”

Posted on

Real Vol. 1

By Takehiko Inoue
224 pages, black and white
Published by Viz

It’s hard to miss that I’m a big fan of Takehiko Inoue’s Vagabond, his re-telling of the life of Miyamato Musashi. As a result, there was no doubt in my mind that his other ongoing series, Real, would also be on my to-buy list. It’s not the first time Inoue tackled basketball—before Vagabond his series Slam Dunk was a huge hit in Japan (and is set to be reissued in English from Viz later this year)—so the fact that he was coming back to the subject immediately grabbed my attention. And now that I’ve read the first volume? It simultaneously is and isn’t what I had expected.

Continue reading “Real Vol. 1”

Posted on

Toto!: The Wonderful Adventure Vol. 1

By Yuko Osada
208 pages, black and white
Published by Del Rey

I think it was the cover of Toto!: The Wonderful Adventure that instantly grabbed my attention. It’s simple enough, a young boy pulling a pair of goggles on, with a dog on his shoulder, a map on his back, and the background being a map as well. But I have to give Yuko Osada credit, that was just enough that made me want to see more, promising some sort of rollicking adventure within its pages. And happily, that’s exactly what you find here.

Continue reading “Toto!: The Wonderful Adventure Vol. 1”

Posted on

Me and the Devil Blues Vol. 1

By Akira Hiramoto
544 pages, black and white
Published by Del Rey

Robert Johnson was probably one of the greatest blues musicians of all time, his skills like no other and his influence continuing to musicians today. For that alone, I was interested in reading Akira Hiramoto’s Me and the Devil Blues, his story of the life of this amazing artist. What I probably should have done before I started reading the book, though, was pay a little more attention to the back cover copy. Had I looked at that a little more closely, maybe then I wouldn’t have been quite so surprised by its contents.

Continue reading “Me and the Devil Blues Vol. 1”

Posted on

COWA!

By Akira Toriyama
208 pages, black and white
Published by Viz

When Viz published Akira Toriyama’s Sand Land a few years ago, I was excited to see something that post-Dragon Ball coming into English. And while I enjoyed Sand Land, it was merely good, not great. Well, it turns out what I was really hoping for all along was COWA!; sure, I’d never heard of it and I’m still not entirely sure what the title even means, but none the less, this was it.

Continue reading “COWA!”

Posted on

Vagabond Vol. 26-27

By Takehiko Inoue
208 pages, black and white
Published by Viz

2008 appears to be the year that Takehiko Inoue gets a huge push in North America. Viz is bringing his new series Real into English, as well as reviving Slam Dunk (which was part of Gutsoon Publishing’s now-defunct English-language publishing line). Two Inoue art books are scheduled for this year, as well as adding Vagabond to the VizBig collected editions line. It’s worth nothing, though, that for those who are already know when it comes to Inoue, Vagabond‘s been published for several years now in English. And, quite frankly, it’s the best series out of Japan currently being translated.

Continue reading “Vagabond Vol. 26-27”

Posted on

Color of Rage

Written by Kazuo Koike
Art by Seisaku Kano
416 pages, black and white
Published by Dark Horse

Kazuo Koike is probably best known in North America for Lone Wolf and Cub, his 28-volume epic that was one of the early comics translated from Japanese to English, and which was finally reprinted and completed in translation in 2003. The problem is, while Koike and Goseki Kojima’s collaboration was great—as well as other works from the duo like Path of the Assassin and Samurai Executioner—there are an awful lot of other works written by Koike that just don’t measure up. And to that list, I’m afraid I have to add Color of Rage.

Continue reading “Color of Rage”

Posted on

Abandon the Old in Tokyo

By Yoshihiro Tatsumi
224 pages, black and white
Published by Drawn & Quarterly

While cleaning house, I recently uncovered a copy of Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s Abandon the Old in Tokyo. I’d read his first collection in English, The Push Man and Other Stories, and thought it was good enough to buy the second one. And then, somehow, I’d lost and forgotten about the book. Determined to read the book that I’d misplaced for so long, I sat down and started reading it—and couldn’t stop until I was done. I certainly won’t be misplacing Tatsumi’s books again.

Continue reading “Abandon the Old in Tokyo”

Posted on

Gimmick! Vol. 1

Written by Youzaburou Kanari
Art by Kuroko Yabuguchi
224 pages, black and white
Published by Viz

There are some basic hooks for stories which we’ve seen over and over again—princess in need of rescuing, evil businessman tries to take over the world, that sort of thing. And then there are ones that, when they do show up, make you genuinely wonder why we don’t get them more often, because they’re so full of possibilities. That’s how I feel about Youzaburou Kanari and Kuroko Yabuguchi’s Gimmick!, in which a makeup/special-effects artist and a stuntman keep finding themselves solving other people’s dilemmas. When you think about the skill sets of those two characters, well, the possibilities are endless.

Continue reading “Gimmick! Vol. 1”