Manga Village

The fifth grade. The threshold to puberty, and the beginning of the end of childhood innocence. Shuichi Nitori and his new friend Yoshino Takatsuki have happy homes, loving families, and are well-liked by their classmates. But they share a secret that further complicates a time of life that is awkward for anyone: Shuichi is a boy who wants to be a girl, and Yoshino is a girl who wants to be a boy. Written and drawn by one of today’s most critically acclaimed creators of manga, Shimura portrays Shuishi and Yoshino’s very private journey with affection, sensitivity, gentle humor, and unmistakable flair and grace. Book One introduces our two protagonists and the friends and family whose lives intersect with their own. Yoshino is rudely reminded of her sex by immature boys whose budding interest in girls takes clumsily cruel forms. Shuichi’s secret is discovered by Saori, a perceptive and eccentric classmate. And it is Saori who suggests that the fifth graders put on a production of The Rose of Versailles for the farewell ceremony for the sixth graders — with boys playing the roles of women, and girls playing the roles of men. By: Shimura Takako Publisher: Fantagraphics Books Age…

Comparison is one of the great powers of the human mind. We categorize and store information throughout our lives, and then at every step necessary, recall and compare, oftentimes synthesizing new information and opinions. It is hard to review Usamaru Furuya’s Lychee Light Club for the simple fact that there is very little that I have ever read that would allow me to compare, analyze, and then synthesize an opinion of the work. When the mind cannot find the most immediate comparisons, it digs harder and deeper, looking for the things it has experienced before to connect the dots. It is in the shadows of Lychee Light Club and its distinctive beginning that make it such a strange, visceral experience. By Usamaru Furuya Publisher: Vertical, Inc. Age Rating: 18+ Genre: Seinen/Horror Price: $16.95 Lychee Light Club is, if I describe it in general terms, is a Lord of the Flies with an added bonus of homemade robots programmed to find beautiful girls to worship. The characters of Lychee Light Club are all adolescent, prepubescent boys, who are unsustainably obsessed with beauty and androgyny. Lychee, the robot, is probably the most human of the entire cast. There is internal conflict over…

Iku Kasahara has dreamed of joining the Library Forces ever since one of its members saved her book from a MBC raid when she was in high school. A new recruit in the Library Forces now, Iku is training hard to become a full-fledged member, but is finding that not everyone is like her Prince. Especially not Sgt Dojo, her drill instructor, who seems to have it in for her!

Let’s face it – every single person reading this review right now has seen a sitcom. These shows are a pervasive part of TV culture in the United States, and the reason that they do well is because they are very easy to relate to. But sitcoms come and go. There are only a few names that stick out when I think about sitcoms, because the shows are a dime a dozen. Sitcom pitches happen each season, and only a few manage to make it. The reason for this is that it takes a special type of writer to understand what makes a sitcom tick. There have to be plenty of zingy one-liners, sure. But what makes a sitcom a powerful show as opposed to a string of laugh tracks is its human interactions and family dynamics. Written and Illustrated by Fumi Yoshinaga Publisher: Viz Media Signature Series Age Rating: OT for Older Teen Genre: Slice of Life/Josei Price: US $12.99 ISBN: 1421532409 I would like to say that the reason why All My Darling Daughters by Fumi Yoshinaga is so wonderful is due to its strength in these areas. It does have zing, it does have great interactions and…

By all appearances, Soichi Negishi is a sweet, well-mannered boy who loves Swedish pop music, trendy boutiques, and all things fashionable. But at the same time he’s also Krauser II, front man for Detroit Metal City, an indie death metal band whose popularity increases by the day. Once the DMC makeup goes on and Soichi takes the stage, his natural talents as a death metal god can’t help but flourish. Is this the band he’s truly destined to be in? By Kiminori Wakasugi Publisher: Viz Media – Signature Age Rating: Mature Genre: Music/humor Price: $12.99 When Detroit Metal City was first announced, there was a lot of excitement for the series, and reviews of the first volume were well received. By Volume 5 though, some of that excitement waned, and the cursing and jokes got tiresome. Now at volume 9, and not even having read the first 8, the jokes still come off as tiresome, but by the end, some plot-ty stuff leading up to the end of the series breathes back some life. DMC comes off as the same joke told over and over with some profanity to up the shock value. The series started with jokes about Soichi…

Raiko, the demon hunter who has been staying at Misao’s house, is determined to save her–even if that’s the last thing she wants! Kyo won’t allow a threat to Misao to go unchecked and plans to take care of the problem in his own special way. Misao, however, hopes that she can broker a peace between Raiko and Kyo before things get out of hand. But when Raiko’s attempts to “free” Misao fall, he hatches a devious new plan that will use Misao’s bond with Kyo to destroy him!

New maid Keiko Kinoshita enters the Ashida household under the guise of helping out, but she’s actually a spy for the vice president of Soichiro’s company. As Sumi struggles to keep her past a secret, will Keiko’s insidious schemes destroy the couple?

Since the death of her father, Hikaru has been withdrawing from the world, hiding being her headphones drown out everything around her. While on a school trip, she sees a shooting star that seems to turn right for her! What seems like a dream becomes a horrible reality as she learns that she died, and is only alive now because of an alien entity called Horizon, who needs Hikaru’s help to find Maelstrom, another alien intent on destroying all life on Earth. But the only way to help Horizon and get her life back is to reach back out to the world she’s been trying to escape from. By Nobuaki Tadano Publisher: Vertical, Inc. Age Rating: Older Teen Genre: Sci-fi Price: $10.95 7 Billion Needles is a sci-fi story that was inspired by a classic sci-fi story, Needle by Hal clemet. It uses Needle‘s basic premise of a human and alien having to work together to stop a different alien threat, but then branches off in its own direction. while having plenty of action and suspense, this story really examines what it means to be human through Hikaru and Horizon’s interactions. When we first meet Hikaru, she is pretty much…

I’ve been fairly candid in the past about mentioning my love for Bunny Drop, a Yen Press title with a twice-yearly release. The series so far has been an absolute delight to read. I’ve neglected reviewing the first two volumes, so I will try to rectify that issue with a review of the third volume.

Some of my critics are quick to point out that I don’t give very many high scores on my reviews. I generally don’t have nice things to say about the books I read, and I don’t really give out high marks on my reviews at Manga Village. I don’t know if this is because I have a high standard for the materials I read, or if I just want to be as honest as possible about the content so that people can get an opinion before they go out and buy the manga. I think it is probably a mix of these two personal factors and one key point I constantly fail to remember: the manga I read and review oftentimes are not written with me in mind. By: Mitsuru Adachi Publisher: Viz Media – Shonen Sunday Age Rating: Teen Genre: Sports/Drama Price: $19.99 When I received the Cross Game omnibus a few weeks ago, I worked through it with a bit of trepidation. I love baseball, so I was worried that the manga would either be too preachy about the rules or have large errors in gameplay that would make my enjoyment suffer. My misgivings were buffered by the…