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

D-Fragments Manga Vol 1 Review

Many of you would know D-Fragments from the hit 2013 anime series of the same name.  This comedy manga by Tomoya Haruno like its anime is very funny.  The book is centered on Kenji Kazama a 2^nd year delinquent who seeks to take over the school as the top delinquent.  He and his gang’s first target is the Game Development Club where they hope they can score some free video games from the nerds they think manage it.  Unfortunately for them things rapidly spin out of control.  They are instantly captured and tortured by the girls until Kenji joins the club.  From there Kenji becomes the straight man to the eccentric antics of the different club members: Roka Shibasaki, Chitose Karasuyama, Sakura Mizukami, and Minami Osawa, the club adviser.  After joining he comes into conflict with a rival game development club and its president, Takao who hates Roka and her (fake) Game Development Club.  Kenji takes it upon himself to fix the rift between both game development clubs when the volume ends.

As is typical with most comedy manga; the art is focused on the characters with the backgrounds just there to set the mood.  Tomya Haruno does a very good job of capturing the characters as they switch from normal to chibi form and somehow keeps the controlled chaos under control.

Overall, if you are a fan of the anime series, you will certainly enjoy the manga it was based on.  It’s full of the same humor and general hilarity they would come to expect.  I eagerly await the volume 2 release of the manga as well as the release of the anime.  If you want a good comedy anime or manga series I recommend your picking up either the manga or anime as they are released.

Story and Art - Tomoya Haruno

Publisher - Seven Seas Manga
Date of Release - August 2014

Is this a Zombie Vol. 8 Manga Review

The final volume of the “Is this a Zombie” manga series, this wraps up the story Ayumu Aikawa and his harem are stuck dealing with the curse that the Queen of Villiers inflicted upon Ayumu from the previous volume.  Sticking with absurdity that’s become commonplace in this story, Aikawa has to think of a way for all the girls around him to remember who he was after the queen cursed him and the women around him.  The curse caused the girls who had feelings for Aikawa to continuously lose their memories of him, because for Aikawa his relationships with the girls are what’s most precious to him.  With typical humor and ecchi antics, Aikawa and his crew start taking steps to break the curse so they can get on with their everyday lives.

Sacchi’s art style is consistent throughout the manga and if you have read the previous volumes, it’s pretty much more of the same, with most of the emphasis focusing on the characters and the background being left blank until it becomes relevant to the plot.  Being the final volume in the series, it has additional artwork in the back of the book of the characters.

As the final volume of the series it wraps everything quite well and covers the bases pretty well.  Since there probably won’t be a light novel release and there has been no news on a 3^rd season of the anime, this is probably as close as what we are going to get for a full resolution of the story.  The one thing I wish it did a little more was address the nature of the relationship between Ayumu and Seraphim.   For the manga there haven’t been enough instances where they have improved their relationships like he has with the other women so their dynamic in my opinion has always been a little off.  Overall this is a good final chapter to a very funny manga series and if you are a serious fan of the series, a must buy.


Story - Shinichi Kimura
Art - Sacchi
Publisher -  Yen Press
Date of Release - August 2014

Find-anime.com

Find-anime.com is a new site dedicated to make finding anime and manga faster and easier than ever before.  Using the latest web technology, and with just a few clicks, it makes it possible to find what you are searching for in a matter of seconds. 

Searching by type, genre, theme, and year has never been easier and with just few clicks it is possible to narrow down your search in a way that no other site can replicate.  With so much anime and manga being made, it can be almost impossible to find exactly what you are looking but with this site we hope you have a much easier time finding it.  

By selecting a few boxes, I was able to find all supernatural anime made between 1995-1999 in less than 20 seconds; it is that easy.

Thank You,
Narukami Brando