Manga Village

While we here at Manga Village love all the new manga coming out each week, there’s over 20 years of manga releases that we love and want to recommend too! So, in each column, we will look at a genre, or creator, or even publisher to come up with the best titles that we want to recommend to you! This Month: School Manga! September is traditionally the time kids go back to school, so this month we’re looking at titles that take place mainly at school. School is a big part of life and is often used promptly in teen manga titles. So here’s our some of our favorite manga that takes place at school! Alex Hoffman: There are a veritable ton of manga series that are set around a school – more shojo series than shonen, I would think, but there are quite a few of my favorite shojo series set in a school – Monkey High!, Kimi ni Todoke, and Otomen, just to name a few. If you are looking for specialized schools, well, there are plenty of those too! Mixed Vegetables is set in a cooking school, and Twin Spica is set at a school for astronauts….

Syaoran, Fai, Kurogane, and Mokona are returning to the Kingdom of Clow–and toward an ultimate showdown with the ruthless Fei-Wang Reed. But entering a world that is cut off from time endangers the very existence of the once-happy villagers, as the final story arc of the Tsubasa epic begins! Review written by Dan Polley By CLAMP Publisher: Del Rey Manga Age Rating: 13+ Genre: Fantasy/Adventure Price: $10.99 The two Syaorans face off while the rest of Princess Sakura’s group until Sakura unexpectedly shows up in the middle of the fight. But one of the Syaorans cannot act how he wants to act. The dream world fight intensifies as both Syaorans vie for the princess’ feather. And then, the unthinkable happens. It’s hard to imagine the outcome of the battle hinging on such a move, yet that is exactly what happens. In flashback form, Fei explains part of his mission and how Princess Sakura and one of the Sayorans factor into the plan. All of this planning and scheming for power that “goes beyond space and time.” In the aftermath of the fight in the dream world, Sakura and Syaoran begin to understand how the events that have unfolded have brought…

It is said that the road to hell is paved on good intentions, and if that particular idiom proves to be true in any manga ever published in English, Alive: The Final Evolution is the story that seems to be laying down the bricks as quickly as possible. The first volume of Alive seems to be changing gears in the middle of the first volume, changing its tone and its storytelling technique within the first 3 chapters. Written by Tadashi Kawashima and Illustrated by Adachitoka Publisher: Del Rey Age Rating: T for Teen Genre: Action/Sci-Fi/Shonen Price: US $10.95 ISBN: Vol. 1 – 0345497465   The beginning seems interesting enough – Taisuke Kano and his friend Hirose always seem to be on the wrong end of the fights around school. Hirose is small and picked on, and Taisuke, while he talks a big talk, is a total wimp himself. Still, he’s an admirable guy, sticking up for his friends. The resident heroine, Megu,  is a cute tomboyish girl who gives Kano and Hirose a hard time for being goofballs and getting beat up before school. It’s obvious she cares about the two of them, and she falls under the typical shonen…

Because of our Thanksgiving holiday, American Football, and the Fall season, this is a big food month here in the States. So, for the month of November I’m going to review cooking manga. I love cooking manga. In my mind, cooking manga demonstrates everything that comics can be—all about great stories about something everyone does. I mean, let’s face it; everybody eats. We all do, and the popularity of television like Iron Chef and the Food Network, and books like , Eat, Pray, Love and In Defense of Food or Like Water for Chocolate, they all speak to something inherently dramatic and fascinating about food. Cooking manga is shonen, shojo, seinen, yaoi—it cuts across genres in ways that other types of stories don’t. I just think it’s cool how creators play with food and cooking to come up with so many different situations, characters, plots. Plus, there’s some inherent difficulties in representing food in comics—the visual pleasures of food are not easily re-created in black and white line drawings, and the obvious draws—smell and taste—are not available to the mangaka. Yet the best cooking manga make you hungry! For my first review, I’m talking about Kitchen Princess, volume 1: Publisher’s…

You’re the ones who’re horny every freaking single day of the year! By: Jun Yuzuki Publisher: Del Rey Genre: Comedy Romance Age: OT 16+ Price: 10.99 US As I stated in earlier reviews, I tend to be a reader of seinen manga, and as an adult male, that is the demographic that I fall into. However I try and read all genres and give them a fair shake, or at least an alternative perspective. Although I have found plenty of gems outside of the seinen genre, there are also plenty of head-scratchers as well. Unfortunately Gakuen Prince falls more into the second catagory than the first. Just like the schools in at least 50% of shoujo manga, Jyoshien Gakuen Private High School used to be an all-girls school, but not long before our story begins boys were admitted for the first time. Rise Okitsu is a plain jane (until she removes her glasses) who just wants to survive high school life. She is hazed by her more fashion and make-up conscious classmates, and Rise just tries to shrink and hide. However, this is the first day of school for the tall, dark and brooding Azusa Mizutani. All boys like Azusa…

I have read and enjoyed a few reviews of Mizutaka Shihou‘s Samurai 7. However, none of the reviews I have read have been written by people who have seen Seven Samurai, the Akira Kurosawa classic movie the manga is based on. I hope here to give a different perspective on what potentially might be a great manga. By: Mizutaka Suhou and Akira Kurosawa Publisher: Del Rey Age Rating: OT 16+ Genre: Action Price: 10.99 USD Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai is one of the best movies ever made in the history of cinema. It stands with Citizen Kane and The Godfather as one of the three best films ever made…ever. Maybe this is the general opinion, or maybe this is my opinion, but this is the opinion I took when cracking open the first volume of Samurai 7. And I broke the seal of the first volume of Samurai 7 with nothing short of reverent fear. I love Seven Samurai. It is one of my favorite movies of all time. However I was not disappointed by Samurai 7. It took a modern approach at retelling a perfect movie, and that may be its undoing. Seven Samurai is Akira Kurosawa’s swan song,…

Written by Antony Johnston; Illustrations by Wilson Tortosa Publisher: Del Rey Manga Genre: Superhero OEL manga Age Range: T 13+ Price: 12.99 USD I am not generally a fan of OEL manga, but have been a fan of X-Men for longer than I am willing to admit. This is probably the opposite of the audience Del Rey and Marvel had in mind for this retelling this origin story of the X-Men’s certainly most well-known and crotchety member. The blurb on the Del Rel homepage was not encouraging: “The gripping, all-new adventure of the x-men’s greatest icon, comletely reimagined in the Manga style This is not the Wolverine you know.” Despite the lack of a proofreader (like I am any position to cast stones), what worried me here was the term “Manga style” (capitalized, when “x-men” is in lower case). As we discussed in the last Manga Village round table, the question becomes, “who are Del Rey and Marvel trying to sell this to?”. Are they trying pull X-Men readers to manga? Manga readers to X-Men? Probably not the latter, as this is released just weeks before the Wolverine Origins movie hits theaters. But also, probably not the former, as this…

It’s where Mom and Dad were supposed to go… Art by Natsumi Ando; Story by Miyuki Kobayashi Publisher: Del Rey Manga Genre: Shoujo Age: T (13+) Price: 10.99 USD Ask anyone who has spent any time in Japan what they miss the most, and without a doubt the food will be in their top three choices. Naturally, native Japanese cuisine won’t be better anywhere else, but many are surprised to hear how many delicious breads and desserts can be found in Japanese bakeries invariably found on any shopping street or decent grocery store. I believe the reason for this is triple-fold: 1) throughout history Japan has scoured the world for the the most delicious recipes and adapted them to Japanese tastes, 2) Japanese cooks know less is more, and a sprinkle of dark chocolate has a more subtle and palatable finish then cup after cup of sugar, and 3) bakers take so much pride in their work (and there is no shortage of competition) that every bite a customer eats should be nothing short of perfection. Though the results may not be perfection, Manga writer Natsumi Ando brings these sensibilities to her best abilities in Kitchen Princess‘s ninth volume. Shoujo…