Manga Village

Case Closed Volume 40 By Gosho Aoyama • Viz Media • Mystery • Older Teen • $9.99 Conan and his friends have more cases to solve, though only one murder in this volume. First he gets dragged into disrupting a date that ends up involving a drug deal, a suicide that looks suspicious, and a search for Dr. Asaga’s first love. After reading so many shonen, shojo and thriller titles lately, I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed the chase of a good mystery manga, so it was great to get back into a volume of Case Closed. The cases in this volume are mostly light fare, involving the relationships of supporting characters Sato and Takagi and Dr. Asaga. The mysteries involve solving puzzles and reading people. It’s a lot of fun watching the deduction process with Conan and the Junior Detective League. The one murder is fairly obvious about who the culprit is, it’s the way the murder is committed that is the mystery. This was a fun, light read, with three complete cases, and the last chapter being the hook for the next volume. If you need a mystery fix, Case Closed is sadly your only option at the…

Natsume Ono is one of my favorite creators in comics today. Her distinct style and charismatic writing have filled many of my evenings with beautiful imagery of Italy and feudal Japan, and her characters have sparked my imagination and wanderlust. When Ono’s first works were brought to the USA, we started somewhere in the middle – Ristorante Paradiso and not simple were a progression of sorts from La Quinta Camera, which is some of Ono’s earliest work. The series started as a webcomic, and was brought to print in one volume through Viz Media’s IKKI COMIX imprint. Of all the creators popularized by the IKKI format from Viz, Natsume Ono is the most complex, and most wonderful. La Quinta Camera is certainly an expression of that – but Ono has learned much between her initial comics debut in 2003 and her currently running series House of Five Leaves. By Natsume Ono Publisher: VIZ Media LLC; Sig IKKI Age Rated: T for Teen Genre: Slice of Life Price: $12.99 La Quinta Camera is a series of vignettes focusing on four men who live in a five-bed apartment in Rome, and how they use that fifth room; or rather, who they rent…

Irel, Lamia and Clarion fight off assassins, but soon after, Lamia takes off on her own. Irel and Clarion continue to follow the chrism bottle trail, which leads them to the secret society Crossline. Irel’s power grows and it’s enough to get Crossline agents to question their leader, Ian. Lamia goes to an “old friend” and learns the truth of her origins, and it’s relation to Ian, Crossline, and Christianity. Detective Chris and Grace also find Crossline, and, joined by Chris’ partner Aileen, are recruited to try to stop Crossline’s plans. By JinJun Park Publisher: Yen Press Age Rating: Older Teen Genre: Action/Horror Price: $11.99 There is plenty of confusing “zombie battle action”™, but an actual plot does start to show itself in these 5 volumes of Raiders. Lamia’s past is revealed, as is the reason for Chris’ obsession with conspiracies, and most startlingly, the true origins of Christianity, and how it relates to the secret organization, Crossline. I can’t say that I really enjoyed these volumes, but I was fascinated with the way the history/mythology/beliefs of the Christian church was used in the story as well as its references to the use of science. After three volumes of mostly…

The rogue doctor Black Jack is back with more stories of strange diseases and amazing feats to cure them. These three volumes feature stories that move away from the “corruption of the medical system” and focus more on Black Jack’s patients, both the two-legged and four. We also get another glimpse into Black Jack’s past with the appearance of his father and his new family.

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…

Reviews are subjective things. A reviewer is drawing on many things when they write their review. Besides technical things such as story structure, character development and art, a reviewers personal preferences and experiences can affect their feeling about a book. And sometimes, even their gender can make a difference as to whether a book gets a good score or bad. In the following discussions, reviewers Alex Hoffman and Lori Henderson will look at different books and examine the similarities and differences they have over each of them. Dengeki Daisy Volumes 1-2 By: Kyousuke Motomi Publisher: Viz Media – Shojo Beat Age Rating: Teen Plus Genre: Romance Price: $9.99 ISBN: Vol. 1: 978-1-4215-3727-6; Vol. 2: 978-1-4215-3728-3 Lori Henderson: Well Alex, now that you’ve settled down in wedded bliss, are you ready for another round? Alex Hoffman:Ready when you are, Lori! Do you want to give us the rundown on Dengeki Daisy? LH: Sure! Teru Kurebayashi is a high school student and orphan. Shortly before her only relative, her older brother died, he gave her a cell phone and told her it would connect her to “Daisy”, someone who would look after and be someone she could confide to. After being bullied…

A decent read, but not the fun ride volume 4 was.

Life is always about patterns. In the pharmacy world, we look at physician prescribing patterns, dispensing patterns by geographical location, and pricing patterns based on trending legal proceedings. In manga, we see patterns in various genres – the shonen fighting manga, the shojo school-girl manga, all have similar formats that we know sell well, and work well in the Japanese market. Some series attempt to subvert or modify these patterns, which is part of their appeal (or the reason we don’t like them). Even authors follow patterns based on what they are interested in, or what they like to discuss. By Naoki Urasawa Publisher: Viz Media – Viz Signature Age Rating: Older Teen Genre: Thriller Price: $12.99 Naoki Urasawa has a pattern that manifests itself all too frequently in his suspense and thriller manga – when he gets stuck, or doesn’t know how to work his way out of a problem that he has written himself in, he introduces new characters to his stories. In 20th Century Boys, Volume 7, we see Urasawa flounder to produce a back story for the Bloody New Years, and so he introduces a student Koizumi who looks too closely at the history books, and…

Go back to the beginning, when the owner Lorenzo was just opening Casetta dell’Orso. His wife Olga’s particular preference for a certain bartender inspires Lorenzo to hire an entire staff of gentlemen in glasses. Watch the cranky-but-kind Luciano juggle babysitting duty and the advances of an amorous customer. Witness handsome playboy Vito meet a healthy young college student who will eventually become his wife. All this and more awaits you, just beyond that discreet restaurant door… By Natsume Ono Publisher: Viz Media Age Rating: Older Teen Genre: Drama Price: $12.99 Most of the men you see in manga are young and good-looking, almost to the point of being beautiful, in order to appeal to girls and young women. But what if your tastes run toward the older, more “distinguished” looking man? Then this is the title you’ve been waiting for. Gente is a sort of prequel/sequel to Ono’s previous work, Ristorante Paradiso. Gente tells the story of how the bespectacled, older gentlemen came to work at Casetta dell’Orso. It starts with Lorenzo finding and bringing the men together to work at his restaurant, and then each successive chapter tells a tale feature one of the gentlemen, inside and out of…

Amidst the chaos of World War II, two Japanese soldiers hear of Zephyrus, an utterly captivating woman rumored to exist on an island in the South Pacific. The tales of this bold enchantress seducing men to their dooms are both chilling and fascinating. Over twenty years pass, and Zephyrus resurfaces in Japan, seemingly unchanged, to wield her mysterious power over men once more. By Osamu Tezuka Publisher: Digital Manga Publishing Age Rating: Teen+ (16+) Genre: Action/Mystery Price: $24.95 The one man immune to Zephyrus’ charms is simple drunkard, Gohonmatsu Seki, son of one of the wartime soldiers. Employed to spy on Zephyrus, what will Gohonmatsu uncover about her ultimate plot to create international discord and consume the world of men? What brought this woman to conspire for decades against patriarchal society-against an entire gender-and can anything be done to stop her plans? Swallowing the Earth is a strange tale of revenge as a few women start a war against the entire male gender for the wrongs done to the female gender. It takes a long and meandering path to come to a simple conclusion; true happiness is only attainable if one is free of lust, power and greed. Or, as…