Missing Manga Gems 1

With the amount of mangas being released monthly across the United States ranging in genres from shonen and shoujo to seinen and josei, there are two manga series that were released during the 2000s that were never released here, but in all fairness should have because of their great action and story lines.  They are Medaka Box and History’s Strongest Disciple Kenichi.  Both are shonen mangas meant for older teens and because of their action, comedy and martial arts, they are very popular and their animes based on them are very popular as well.  I was lucky to have read them thanks to the great fan translating community, but I would love the physical copies to have in my collection just because they are among my all time favorite series. Probably one of the main reasons why their anime adaptations remained incomplete is because since they did not have the western release of their manga’s it was hard to gauge true interest in the show.  This western market is very important now to animation studios because knowing whether a show is licensed for release in the west can determine if it gets a second season or not.  If one of the series got licensed, hopefully that would draw interesting in completing their anime adaptations because they truly are underrated masterpieces.
   

One solution I feel could work is for one of the publishing companies to announce the mangas in the form of a kickstarter to gauge interest and have the manga volumes as the pledge goals.  So say for $5 you get a digital copy of the first volume for $10 you get a physical copy as well as the digital copy.  From there the rewards keep stacking in increments until you get to the large prizes.  So with Medaka Box and its 22 volumes it would very easy to break into individual increments or put the whole collection in a one of the new Viz Box collections or in omnibuses.  There are many ways now for the publishing companies to engage fans to see what they would want as the next major series release.  While Kenichi is a much longer work, i feel something along the same lines could be done for a such a great series as well.

Wolfsmund Vol 1

Wolfsmund is a very dark manga where the separate stories all come together at the border castle at St. Gotthard Pass.  Set in during an oppressive time period where Switzerland was under Austria’s iron thumb, the border castle guards the mountain pass between the Swiss Alps and the Italian Alps.  From rebels and bodyguards to Wilhelm Tell and his son, all are forced to have to cross the high mountain pass guarded by a ruthless bailiff known as the Wolf of the Maw who revels in interrogation and torture of dissidents.  He’s a genius at spotting lies and forgeries, and then he exploits that weakness which usually ends quite terribly for our poor waylaid heroes.  Its to the point where Wolfram is even angering his allies with his callous and cruel nature because they fear he is helping inspire the rebellion by being excessively cruel in his actions.

The artwork has a very dark and mature tone of it perfectly matching with the even darker storylines.  For people who have only read typical shonen manga, this lesser known sienen series will shock people with the lack of good endings for the characters in the stories.  Made up of about 3 separate stories that tie together; the protagonists are left usually trapped in the twisted web that Wolfram has set up among Gottard Pass town and border crossing where he is able to anticapte the actions of people and predict accordingly.  I am excited to see what awaits in the later volumes.

I enjoy the separate stories that all focus on the actions of the bailiff known as the wolf of the maw.  The way the manga has built up Wolfram’s villainous and cruel nature was enjoyable as we learned in each chapter just how far he will go to instill fear into the hearts of the Swiss countryside.  Its exciting to see American manga publishers starting to print these lesser known sienen mangas that are a huge jump from the normal cookie cutter shonen and shoujo mangas you can find on most store shelves.  this shows the growth of the manga market in the United States that smaller lesser known mangas like this, Dorohedoro, and Uzumaki which I should have reviews for soon.

Author - Mitsuhisa Kuji
Publisher - Vertical
Date - July 2013

Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma Vol 2 Review

   

 The second volume of Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma, continues the story of Yukihira Soma in Tootuski Academy as he starts life at his new school.  After completing his first assignment in the school, he has to search for the on campus housings and is forced to make a dish by the headmistress Fumio.  Forced to cook only leftover ingredients, Yukihira uses his masterful skill to prepare a dish that gains him entry into the Polar Star Dormitory on his first attempt.  From there he has welcome party given to him by the other member of the dorm, including Tadokoro Megumi, his partner from class.  He learns that his resident junior, Isshiki, is actually the 7th best chef in the entire school and bestowed with title the 7th Seat similar to how Erina Nakiri is 10 seat of Tootsuki High School.  Although he challenged the Isshiki for the position of the 7th seat, Yukihira learns he can’t actually challenged someone unless he has the weight or something to give in return and then its hosted on campus in a shokugeki match.  Soon thereafter Yukihira finally has his first shokugeki match with Ikumi Mito, one of Erina’s cronies, over the fate of the Donburi Research Society club.  Although a tough match, Soma emerged victorious and saved the club forcing Ikumi to join.  The manga volumes closes with the first years of the Polar Star Dormitory preparing for the Tootsuki Cooking Camp which has been known to have an expulsion rate of over 50%.

    As usual the artwork by Shun Saeki does not fail to disappoint, especially during the “foodgasms” sequences people have when they food made by Soma and the other aspiring young chefs.  As usual its filled with great comedic moments and throwback parodies to other series that you have to have some knowledge of old anime series and whatnot.   Meanwhile Yuto Tsukuda has done a great job of crafting a compelling story that continues from it first volume and is great in its 3rd.  

    With the recent news that this great manga series is being adapted into an anime for next year, I hope more people take the time to start reading the manga before it premiers on tv.  It is one of the lesser known gems being published by Weekly Shonen Jump at the moment but with its continued success both in Japan and its successful  American release probably helped with the greenlighting of the anime project.  This delay is a blessing in disguise because it has given time for the manga to have of the story published so we can either have a longer more complete tv series, or one that just doesn’t add un-needed or unwanted filler.  this has been a pet peeve i have had with many new mangas and light novels, is I feel they have gotten a tv series way too soon and then never got a second season so you are left at a cliffhanger as the main plot of the only starts to be revealed.  That was the case with Aesthetica of the Rogue Hero and So I Can’t Play H among others.  That or you get something akin to the Rosario II Vampire anime series almost completely disregarded the manga series and just had filler original stories which when compared to the main story of the manga were ultimately disappointing.  With almost over 100 chapters published, and with the conclusion of the cooking festival arc to be wrapped up in the upcoming months, here’s hoping we get an anime series that does this great manga series justice.

Story - Yuto Tsukada

Art  - Shun Saeki

Publisher - Viz Media

Date - October 2014 

One Piece Skypiea and Water 7 Box Set

The second One Piece box set that Viz Media has released, this covers the Skypiea Arc and the Water 7/Enies Lobby Arc of the series.  The Latter being one of my favorite arcs in the series and where One Piece truly distanced itself from its contemporary shonen series. With over 22 volumes of manga, you should be set reading for a while as Luffy explores the Sky Islands and battle with forces of the god tyrant Enel and then risks everything in his fight to rescue Nico Robin from the World Government and CP9.  Some of the best fights and moments take place in the pre-Time skip arc especially Luffy vs Rob Lucci and the shooting of the World Government Flag

Packaged in a large beautiful box, for anyone who hasn’t started collecting the One Piece mangas seriously, Viz has released another great box set for manga fans.  These box sets which come packaged in a large beautiful box, usually cover the entire manga series, or a good portion of their volumes so that fans have a way of getting all the books at a reasonable price.  for anyone just getting into the One Piece manga and has become hooked like I have, I recommend picking this up along with the first box set which covered the East Blue Arc to the end of the Baroque Works saga.  Most likely fans will have to wait till next year for the next box set covering the next 20+ something volumes, but i will happily wait because the collections are nice.  if you were lucky and ordered from Rightstuf, you also got a special gift collection of postcards from Eiichiro Oda, many of why look very nice.

    One thing i would like to see when buying manga collections or volumes in general would be a code to get the digital version for either free or discounted price.  I do not know how many times i have been travelling and just to take out my tablet and be able to read all the manga i have hard copies for would be great.  Amazon has done something like this with music CDs, where if you bought some CDs, you got them placed in your music library as well.  Since I like the feel of the hard copy book when I read at home, I usually buy the physical copy.  But when I’m travelling i would like to be read the manga digitally without having to pay double for the book.  This is the one thing I would love Viz Media in general to do since they release many of the manga volumes that I read but i would love if all companies that printed manga did this as well.

Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma Vol 1 Review

A relatively new manga, Food Wars! is the brainchild of Tsukada and Saeki.  It focuses on Yukihira Soma, an apprentice chef at his family restaurant who starts high school in the most prestigious cooking high school in Japan after his dad closed the restaurant.  Forced to take the transfer exam, he comes into contact with Nakiri Erina, one of the top ranked freshman and the headmaster’s granddaughter.  In order to pass the exam and gain acceptance to the school, Soma must cook a dish that satisfies her notoriously hard to please palate.  Soon after gaining acceptance, he teams up with Tadoroko Megumi in order to pass the first of many trials at his new school.

Yuto Tsukada and Shun Saeki have a done a great job of capturing every aspect of the manga. Shun Saeki’s artwork especially shines during the reactions shots of the tasting of the food and during the actual cooking of the food.  Additionally this manga contains what could be considered the pilot chapter for the actual series, so you get 4-5 chapters of the actual story and then you get a nice 30 page pilot chapter which I found enjoyable because its always interesting to see how the manga itself differs from its pilot.

I enjoyed this manga for several reasons.  First, it is a fresh spin on the typical shounen battle manga that has grown increasingly common over the past 20 years.  Like Toriko, it focuses on food, but where Toriko focuses on the capture of the ingredient as the main plot device, Food Wars focuses on the cooking of the dishes and pits the chefs into competition with each in order to make the most delicious dish.  Secondly, thanks to the talents of both Tsukada and Saeki, their joint efforts really make this manga shine.  It is very funny and very well drawn and easy to get into.

Story - Yuto Tsukada

Art  - Shun Saeki

Publisher - Viz Media

Date - August 2014 

Witch Craft Works Vol. 1 Manga Review

    Another manga that had a winter 2014 anime, this one is about Honoka Takamiya, a run of the mill high school sophomore who has the misfortune of sitting next to the most popular girl in school, Ayaka Kagari.  While normally this would be a good thing, Kagari has rabid fanbase who delight in assaulting anyone who they believe is getting to close to the “Queen” of the campus.  After a normal day of being assaulted by the goon squad, Takamiya is on classroom cleanup duty when he is suddenly attacked and then rescued by Ayaka.  It is then he finds out that she protects him every day from witches who are after his power.  From then on, Ayaka and Honoka travel out in public and the goon squad lays off him after she threatens to burn them.  He then meets and learns more about the witches who are after him and he starts learning about magic itself from Ayaka.

    The art quality in this manga is very good, especially during the action scenes like when Kagari goes on the attack with her flame magic and causes explosions.  Its a pity that the manga is in black and white and not in color for many scenes because the black and white scale just don’t do justice to a lot of the scenes.  There is also a lot of detail in the faces of every named character as Kagari, Honoka, and the Animal-Ears Girls gang have a myriad face expressions during battles, school, or being captured by Kagari.  Kagari’s deadpan expressions coupled with Honoka’s over reaction’s is always a hilarious contrast so it can take a couple readthroughs to catch all the little things that the illustrators show.

    Overall, this is a solid Vol. 1 release of a pretty good manga series.  It introduces the characters, and provides good starter action as it sets the mood.  There is a good blend of action and comedy throughout the book and anyone familiar with the anime series knows it doesn't disappoint.  There are some translator's notes and other additional information that help the reader understand some of whats going on towards the end of the volume.  With more volumes on the way and western release for the anime, there is a lot for fans to be excited for in the upcoming months.

High School DxD Manga Vol. 1 Review

Just starting to be released this year, the High School DxD manga series is based on the light novel series of the same name.  Already a hit anime series in Japan and the United States, Yen Press just started printing the manga series this summer.  Covering the first 4 chapters of the story, it introduces Hyoudou Issei, a high school student and pervert, who is killed in the opening pages by Raynare, a fallen angel, who was pretending to be his girlfriend.  As he lay dying, Rias Gremory appeared before him and offered to resurrect him as a devil.  From there, Issei learns more about what it means to be a resurrected devil and meets the other members of the Rias Gremory devil family: Akeno Himejima, Kiba Yuto, and Koneko Toujou.  While performing devil duties, he meets a nun, Asia Argento whom he instantly befriends.  Later on that night, he learns that she is forced to worked with a very cruel and evil exorcist who tries to kill both him and it is only with the intervention of the entire Gremory Group and Asia that Issei survives.  The manga closes with Issei promising to rescue Asia.

Hiroji Mishima has done a very good job of capturing the character designs of Zero Miyama, the artist from the light manga and promo material.  It being an action comedy ecchi manga, he seamlessly blends the comedic elements with the fight scenes and Issei’s interactions with his female companions.  As it is the first volume of the series, there is not a lot of extra stuff at the end of the manga, just some translator’s notes but the two color pages in front are nice.

Personally, I have been a fan of the DxD series for a while now. I've watched both anime series, and read fan translated versions of the light novels and I was excited to hear that this manga series and it spinoff were being released by Yen Press this year.  I hope soon they decide to do the light novel series because they are very fun reads.  I liked this manga too; it captures the essence of the DxD Light novels, and provides its own humor and emotions to many of the scenes you previously only had words to imagine it with.  It is still very ecchi, so it’s not recommended for younger audiences but if you want a funny action packed harem manga, Irecommend you pick this up.  And with a English dub of season 2 being released in November and season 3 in pre-production in Japan, there is much more of this series that there is to look forward to.

Comic - Hiroji Mishima

Story - Ichiei Ishibumi

Character Design - Zero Miyama
Publisher - Yen Press
Release Date - May 2014