Manga Review: Betrayed by the Hero, I Formed a Milf Party with His Mom

 NEWS!

Isekai Teen Sleeps with All 4 of His Bullies Moms to Assert Dominance

It feels so strange that I'm actually giving this series a review, because let me be clear. This series is trash. Hot garbage. Very little redeeming content, but good lord the premise is funny, the women are sexy, and I'm dying to see the actual revenge come to fruition...

The title really fully encapsulates the plot of the book. Ceres, the MC, is the backbone of the Hero's Party, in that he does all their laundry, takes care of the paperwork, and makes sure they don't violate any local laws while they're on their quest to kill the demon king. The Hero steals Cere's girlfriend and kicks him out of the party.

Sorry Ceres. Nice guys finish last.... or so you'd think!!

Ceres, then heads off on his own, and finds that the Hero's mom has been sold into slavery by debt-ridden piece of shit husband, so he buys her outright (but doesn't free her.... odd) and turns her into his new girlfriend. She's incredibly happy to be rescued and flattered that he sees her as a proper sexy woman, but she's not happy that all of her former friends are in similar situations: loveless, sexless marriages, with good-for-nothing husbands who don't appreciate or value them.

Thus, with the encouragement of his new Milf/Wife, Ceres begins a new quest to reunite the legendary party of adventurers who gave birth to the current generation's Hero's party, then have sweaty, harem-orgies with all four of them.

The lewd bits are uncensored, but strictly top half only; still this is a manga so echi you won't believe it's not Hentai since they're boning in just about every other chapter after the setup is complete.

As far as critical analysis: Setting is extremely generic, in that isekai-adjacent fantasy way. Art isn't great. Characters are very, very tropey (though I'm a big fan of the warrior mom with glasses and the shredded abs). There's not particularly any deep world building, unique magic systems, or fantasy plot for that matter. Really, if you're reading this, you're here for the meme-factor, and eventually getting to see the reaction of the Hero when he realizes that his former party-mate gone and stole his mom.

This series should probably be like a 2 out of 10 on a critical scale, but I'm giving it a 9/10 after finishing volume 4 (the encounter with the Dark Dragon, powering up Ceres's bedroom stats had me actually dying of laughter). This series is so bad, but I just can't put it down.

Library Updates: 3100 Volumes and Counting

 

My manga library has passed the 3000 volume mark some time ago, but I've been too busy to clean the place up enough to post pics.

Organization-wise, I think it may be high time I make some changes. It's becoming a real pain in the ass to find anything in here with this many different series. I primarily keep all the romance/rom-com/drama/echi series on the right side of the room, and all the action/comedy/suspense/serious series on the left... but.... that's beginning to fall apart as I am getting pressed for space. Now, the motto has truly become: if it fits, it sits.

Things I'd like to change: probably going top pull up the LED's and remove the hanging style Christmassy white lights. I feel like they just get in the way, and I so rarely ever turn them on that it's not worth the hassle of having them up all the time. I'd also really like to do something about all the Funko... maybe move them to the card room (my MTG hobby got so out of hand the man-cave had to dig out another cavern).

This year's goal is to paint the walls which haven't been touched up since the house was purchased back in the 80's, and redo the flooring. I want to put some vinyl/wood floor in that doesn't look like a kid's playroom (which is exactly what this room used to be when I was a wee little child). I'd also really like to put in a hanging lamp, like one of those weird bulbous ones they sell at Ikea. There's a beam that runs across the ceiling, which could definitely support a chandelier of some kind, so I think trying to utilize that would be ideal. Would also be nice to put in some new drapes. 

What I'm Reading and Watching to Kick off 2026

 It's a new year!

Will this year turn out like so many others, with many life updates, but little content?

Who's to say really.

Seeing as I haven't updated this blog since August, I'm afraid it may turn out that way again, but, then again, the holiday retail season has come to an end, and I've taken on less responsibilities at work - maybe I'll have more time to write. Plus: I got a fancy new computer during Black Friday sales; it's got a massive, fancy monitor as well. Perfect for processing many words. All the words.

So, what's been on my Otaku plate as of late....

CURRENTLY READING

About an hour ago I caught up with: "Yane no Shita no Artemis" by Nagi Uraya.

The premise is reminiscent of "We Never Learn" - a somewhat ordinary guy in college has to tutor one of his former classmates who's extremely one-sided genius has prevented her from graduating high school, and now's her final chance before her dream's of becoming a scientist go up in smoke. It's heart-warming, funny, and emotional. The art is sexy, but not fan-service heavy (no nudity). By the current chapter I really got to care for both the main girl, Kobachi, as well as the MC's college senpai. I've been trying to pin down for a while who the male MC reminded me of, but I'm drawing a blank. At times he gives off Onizuka vibes, but at like 1% the energy level. He's smart, and caring, and has a mind for literature, but considering he's there to tutor her in liberal arts, I think there's been only a few chapters where they do any "proper" studying.

I'd say this has really great potential and it's going to be the top of my English license recommendations list in 2026.

You can read it in Japanese here.

UPDATE: I recently found a copy of vol. 2 in the Wild at Kinokuniya in Little Tokyo. Going to try and get my hands on vol. 1 and 3 which I believe are also available now in the states.

I've also been trying to catch up on some of the series in my backlog from my personal collection.

Yesterday I polished off vol. 13 of "How Do We Relationship" by Tamifull.

I've held this series pretty dear to my heart for a long, long time and it will be ending with vol. 14 coming out in April. I really value how well it tackles extremely sensitive topics, and doesn't stray away from confronting relationship problems head-on. Considering most romance manga don't even really let us see the characters together for very long, and even fewer let us watch the characters break up (somehow I think this series had more break-ups than confessions), this one let us watch the characters get together, break up, then do it all over again while struggling with the conflicting emotions from the trauma that gets built up in the time apart. I have a feeling that seeing Miwa and Saeko's story come to an end next volume will probably leave a pretty big hole in my liver after I pour one out for another series I've been invested in coming to a close after a decade.

9 out of 10 manga enthusiasts would recommend, but some of the topics may be very sensitive for some.

I also recently finished reading another Yuri series: "Monthly in the Garden with My Landlord" by Yodokawa. 

I'll probably write a full review of the series soon. Overall, I enjoyed it, but it felt like another GL book which was rushed to a conclusion prematurely. 7/10 losing points for squandered potential.

CURRENTLY WATCHING

Winter Anime Season 2026 kicked off with a bang, and good lord, we're eating good.

Not going to go to in depth with everything I'm watching since I'm watching a ton of shows this season, but there's certainly a couple of standouts.

1.    Journal With Witch

This is a series I tweeted about pretty heavily last year. I ended up reading it from start to finish 5 or 6 times and I've been begging for an English release of it for months. (I'm right on the verge of importing the Japanese version myself). It's not often, in anime especially, that a series comes along and perfectly deals with topics like loss and grief, and this one does it especially well. The adaptation is superb with just out of this world voice acting from the main pair and a supporting cast of A-list talent to top things off. Bring a box of tissues.

Rounding out my top 5 are:

2.    You and I Are Polar Opposites: Adorable, fun, high energy. This series scratches the itch I have for more romance anime about the couple together doing couple stuff. Like Horimiya, but much less serious and without all the S&M and off-screen sex.

3.    Tamon's B-Side: God this series is funny and the adaptation is just pure perfection. Given how hugely successful this has been do I think it's possible the author's previous work, Takane and Hana, could also get an adaptation? Maybe, but that's kinda like asking if Fire Punch will get picked up now that CSM's gone mainstream...

4.    The Invisible Man and His Soon to Be Wife: Shit, now I need to buy this book. Looks like the English publication is up to vol. 6 now, with 7 on the way. Strong series giving off high levels of cute, adult romance, strongly reminded me of "The Ice Guy and the Cool Girl." Quasi-supernatural office romance is a truly underrated genre. 

5.    Tis Time for Torture Princess: Maybe after season 2 we'll get VIZ to have enough faith in the series to print it. The translation of the manga is already available, but given it's length, I suppose they're worried about committing to printing any comedies that run 20+ volumes.

Honorable Mention...   In the Clear Moonlit Dusk:  I'm not convinced. The animation and art direction don't really feel like they're doing Mika Yamamori's Shojo series justice. So far this is at best a 7/10 adaptation of a 9/10 series; please refer to Tamon to see what a 10/10 looks like... I was really hopeful that this would be breaking the internet, but doesn't feel like that's happening, which doesn't bode particularly well for Yamamori-sensei's other series getting picked up for anime after this.

The rest of the watch list includes:

Frieren Season 2: 10 episodes though. WTF

Oshi No Ko Season 3: I heard vague rumors of a new ending. I'll cling to hope.

JJK Season 3: Nope

Hell's Paradise Season 2: Eh... manga clears it.

Sentenced to Be a Hero: On my binge list.

Fire Force: I'm not caught up yet.

Fate/Strange Fake: Holy fucking sakuga gods.

Chained Soldier Season 2: It's ok to be horny sometimes.

Shibou Yuugi: I find it funny how they've self-censored all the blood and gore.

The Holy Grail of Eris: Possession is nine-tenths of the law

The Demon King's Daughter is Too Kind: Have to check my blood sugar after every episode

Cosmic Princess Kaguya: When I re-up my Netflix

Love through a Prism: See above

Anyway, if you made it this far, thanks for reading, and stay in touch. Hopefully more posts and reviews to come soon.

I continue to post on that cesspool that is twitter, but you can also find me on Bluesky.

We've got a small discord community as well, though it's not super active. DM on Twitter for invite links.

Manga Review: Snegurochka of the Spring Breeze

In the afterward to the Snegurochka of the Spring Breeze, Hiroaki Samura describes the origin of this one-shot manga:

'This all started from a breathless conversation with the editorial director about creating a story starring "a tsundere girl who's 95% tsun!"'

ME: DOKO GA??! 

How in the hell he goes from that conversation with an editor to a period piece mystery thriller, with not even a single ounce of Tsun, much less Dere, boggles my mind. Then again, this is the same guy who wrote Blade of the Immortal and Wave, Listen to Me. Sensei works in mysterious ways.

This book came plastic wrapped, with a couple pages you might consider to be a good reason for it. Hiroaki Samura's pretty well-known for drawing very graphic, violent, erotic material, but this is almost tame for him, especially when you put it side by side with something like Bradherly no Basha (another of his period pieces - it's really fucked up... you've been warned). If you're just looking for some pulp fiction, pick up Die Wergelder. That one felt like more compressed shock value in a refined form.

As far as this work goes...

The story - adventure? of Snegurochka was truly epic! With twists and turns I probably should have seen coming, but I was way to engrossed to think on a meta level. The art sucks you in with it's rough, but realistic style. I liked the main characters, but also thought the side characters were full of personality and character development of their own... especially THAT scumbag. When you read it, you'll know the one.

9/10!! - some of the pieces felt a bit forced, but ultimately I was super invested and enjoyed the hell out of this. It was a proper rollercoaster ride toward the end, but I actually reread this again today, just 24 hours after finishing it the first time. Gripping stuff!

I'd like to refrain from describing the story in any detail, since I think the mystery, and going in blind, were definitely factors that led to my enjoyment of the book. But, if you scroll down, past the cover art, there's a bit of a spoiler, in the form of an embedded YouTube music video. The ear worm wiggled its way into my head after I hit the big reveal.

So, final spoiler warning...

ANYWAY... 

MASSIVE SPOILER...

You've been warned...

Manga Review: Aria of the Beech Forest

Let me get this out of the way first; I started out enjoying this series a lot, but... only three volumes???

Are you kidding me??

Again?

I feel like I keep falling for fantastic series, with lovable characters, great art, cool - unique premise, that barely make it off the launch pad. I'd love to have a chat with the editors of some of these manga to find out why a series I loved so much didn't make it to even five volumes. The author's brimming with creativity, how're you just going to end this here??????

By the end of the third volume, I was really irritated that I'd invested myself emotionally in another series only for it to end without a satisfying final arc or any big revelations or character development. The only one with a half-decent revelation was Gwyn, but even there, it felt really rushed.

I guess this is a very disappointing way to recommend a series, but I do recommend reading it if you get a chance; but, maybe it's not a book you'll want to invest yourself in, since sadly it didn't end up running very long.

The art was very charming. The characters were fun and original. The premise itself is funky and different. The setting!! - you think you're in for a fantasy, but NO! Rural Ireland, present day. There's even legally distinct trip(s) to McDonald's!! I love it!

But, the ending left me with the biggest question of: Will Aria ever actually do magic??? I don't need McDonald's, I need ANSWERS!

I rate this series a 6.5/10. Great potential, but ultimately it rushed into a less than satisfying ending. 

I'm really looking forward to seeing what the author does next!! (Follow them on Twitter @yu_gi_ri_)

This feels to me like their Eniale & Dewiela. 

That series was also only three volumes, but DAMN, where they packed with potential in terms of artistic presentation, unique ideas, and character. Ultimately, didn't really end up going very far either... but, the author then went on to begin serializing Witch Hat Atelier the next year... so, definitely excited to see what Yugiri Aika's next original work will be.

Mii-chan Wants to Be Kept: Vol. 1 Manga Review

Cat/Girls are cute too

I’m a sucker for cute anime cat-girls, but Mii-chan isn’t exactly what I was expecting...

In this series by Waka Takase, our protagonist Natsume-kun, works in a supermarket, where he gets pushed around by the ladies at his job; but, he’s generally a good guy who’ll pitch in and help out when things get tough – as a result, he’s always exhausted and burnt out.

One day, on his way home, he takes in a stray black cat for the night, even though his building doesn’t allow pets. When he wakes up in the morning, he finds the cat’s gone, but an extremely beautiful (buck-naked) black-haired girl is sleeping in his bed.

The series is only mildly NSFW

As it turns out, Mii-chan, is a seventeen year old runaway cat/girl, who is a human during the day, but turns into a cat at night. The details have yet to be really explained; is it a curse? Is it just in her nature? Not too sure. Will I read on to find out more? Probably.

I really enjoyed the book for the first 90% of the volume. The interactions between the two main characters are pretty funy. Mii-chan’s cute, and the MC dude’s not annoying (honestly the most important thing in any of the manga where the MC is meant to be a self-insert protag). It’s also really funny how he’s got such a soft spot for Mii-chan as a cat, but is really hard on her in her human form.

<<Moderate spoilers for the end of volume 1 to follow, but I think it might affect whether some people pick this book up.>>

Toward the end of the volume, Mii-chan has a conversation with another Cat/Girl, and in that conversation, it’s revealed that one aspect of their “affliction” is that unless they have sex with a guy before they turn 18 they’ll eventually be stuck in their Cat form forever…

I’m generally not too stuck up about stuff like this, but this seemed so contrived and deliberate I got a bit annoyed – especially since the MC is in his early twenties; maybe the age-gap tension will turn into a plot point. I guess it’s always possible Mii-chan chooses to stay with Natsume-kun, but in her cat form, since he’s pretty obviously got a thing for cats. Who knows? I think that’d be kind of a funny possibility. I’m interested enough to see how it plays out that I’ll probably pick up the rest as it comes out. So far, Japan has 3-ish volumes worth of chapters and the manga is still ongoing.

This is one of those weird series where I enjoyed it, but the hook might make it super annoying. Also makes it very hard to recommend, so if this is your kind of jam, go for it.

Volume 2 is due out in August.

Mii-Chan Wants to Be Kept is published by Seven Seas Entertainment.

Purchase at Barnes & Noble for $13.99

Shadow Student Council Vice President Gives Her All - Manga Review

 This manga, by ReDrop, features Meiko Shiraki, the vice-president of the Shadow Student Council from the Legendary Echi manga series Prison School; this one-shot gag spinoff features virtually no dialogue of any kind, choosing to focus entirely on random humorous episodes from Meiko’s dialy life. Basically just a fun little book with lots of over the top sexy panels and echi camera angles. Very NSFW. I thought it was funny - and the over the top lewdness was pretty consistent with the original Prison School source material. 

I picked it up on sale; there are definitely worse ways to spend $15, but this one was certainly a silly pickup. Snag it if you’re a fan.

When a picture's worth a thousand words

A Year in the Life

Good lord, 2023 really went by pretty quick didn't it. What's that? It's almost 2025? It seems we've skipped a year haven't we? Somehow that's usually how things go for me and blogging. I'll set my mind to blog about all the books, or games, or trivial bullshit i'm involved in, and then life will get in the way of my daily posting routine and next thing you know it I've changed adresses three times and moved to another country. I got to go to anime Expo 2024 this year WooHoo!! Had an incredible time in fact! Went to some insane exhibits, saw some wild screenings (Look Back!!), meet and greets with a few really incredible people (HaneAme, NonSummer Jack, and most importantly Witch-Hat Sensei Kamome Shirahama!!). Stayed at the same hotel as the entire Trash Taste cast coincidentally and kept running into Garnt (arguably the one with the least trashy taste) at the elevators since apparently our rooms were on the same floor; wonder if he thought I was a strange, stalkery fan, but I never could get up the courage to ask him for a pic or a handshake or anything out of some strange desire not to make it weird (that probably backfired tremedously in hindsight). All said and done, managed to make it home with my wallet in One Piece *badum tss*. 

Altogether pretty swell experience if you ask me. Definitely making plans to go again next year, but preferably in a room of my own next time. Best friendo snores.

In terms of the not so swell, In the year that's passed since my last seasonal anime wrap-up and manga review posts (god, was watching Frieren and Apothecary at the time wasn't I??), my health shit the bed (then recovered, then shit itself again in the past week or so), my dog died (still fucked up over that tbh), and I've gotten promoted at work (twice! - yay?) but as a result now have far, far less free time, and also far less will to live less energy, so blogging has become rather complicated in that it's something that I'd always love to do, but never have the willpower to sit down at my desk and ACCOMPLISH. But, I've now bought myself a swiveling arm-desk thingy so I can sit in my big, comfy leather chair, and not at my crappy pc desk, so I mean to get back to it for a few reasons:

1) I'm broke, and all of my hobbies cost money.

2) I'm broke, and all of my hobbies cost MONEY.

My current obsession is the One Piece TCG. It started casually last year at Christmas. We'd get a few packs in every month at work, and I'd buy them, and rip em open and get nothing of any value. Then, they started getting packs at the local BNoble, which was all in good fun, until I cracked something worth about fifty bucks, that triggered a tragic dopamine reaction in my brain leading down the path of hunting for boxes. Several thousand dollars later and I've opened up close to a dozen by now, sourced from local LGS's (support your local business) - and not even remotely come close to breaking even. I reconciled this by starting to play the game too, instead of just collecting shiny cards, but I'm utterly shit at it, mainly as a result of only playing the Waifu leaders and not the decks that are S-tier in the meta (though my Reiju deck is pretty much tournament-grade, I just need to pilot it better).

Lately though, I've managed to curtail the OPTCG obsession to some extent by just buying singles for the decks I'm playing, and I sold off all the money-cards. I know when set 9 rears its ugly head I'll get sucked back in again though, so I think I need to make a break for it before I do any further lasting damage. Sadly, best friendo is pulling me back to the financial black hole that is MTG, and that's a dark, dark path I'm not keen to travel solo). I figure, the best solution to spending all of my time and money playing trading card games every week is to rededicate that time to pouring over the manga collection I've invested my hard-earned dollars in and write more reviews of the individual volumes/series that I've amassed at break-neck pace over the last few years.  

Maybe even sell some stuff off to make room for all the new series I'd prefer to pick up if I had the space for them, or so I tell myself knowing this will never happen.

Right now, my physical manga hoard is sitting at around 2500 volumes with another 500 or so in digital. Finding space for all these paperbacks has become a major conundrum. Owning my own little manga library used to be the end goal, but I've gone way past that and don't have any room for it anymore. Have had to start spreading the collection out into other spaces of the house - which the rest of the family aren't too keen on (especially since I started moving the mature books into the communal living spaces). They need to experience the culture though, so it's ok.

I've now begun measuring the value of the books I own in terms of missed opportunity cost; specifically as it relates to the value of the Honda I could have purchased had I been someone who made good financial decisions. Currently, we're looking at a nice 2025 Civic LX, but probably couldn't afford the sport, so I guess when all things are considered, that's not that bad right? 

But I digress.

Current life goal #1 is to get this place up off the ground, especially with the site formerly known as Rightstuf burnt to cinders and twitter quickly following suit. I used to post reviews of all the stuff I read on Rightstuf, Barnes&Noble and Goodreads, but then Crunchyroll nuked all the Rightstuf product review pages making that site, for me at least, very much the Wrongstuf. I haven't shopped there much since (did maybe one order to test things out... it didn't go well). I don't know why I never got into Goodreads more, but I suppose I should. Or mabye make a bookstagram? I guess that's a thing, but I'm not sure how I like hearing my voice in recordings. Generally, just want a place to reconcile my thoughts, longform, with words, about the books and anime I'm reading, and I want to do it on a more regular basis. Consistently. 

Over the last year I hit a life milestone with my anime consumption - I cleared the "Year of Your Life Spent Watching Anime" statistic over on MAL. Over 1000 series completed. That's just so much anime - and even with my average score being so much higher than the norm, so much of the anime was just... shit.  Goal #2 is to catch up on all the anime worth catching up on, and polishing off a bunch that aren't anyway, but in all honesty, the amount of anime that exists in the world is currently growing at a rate greater than the amount of time I have free in a week; even if I multi-task and watch anime while reading, or gaming, I still don't have enough hours in a week to watch everything that's airing seasonally taht I actually give two fucks about. This has led to a pretty huge backlog, which I'll gradually get through, but I'm being much less completionist about (and that kills me - really). I do however want to continue contributing anime reviews to MAL, but that site, like Goodreads, is picky about sweary content, so I'll most likely continue to cross-post the uncensored reviews here.

So, I guess expect more posts here from me if you'd care to read them. Or don't. Reading's hard, and nobody has the attention span for it anymore. Suppose I should just train an AI to write my blog for me; that would be the real 2025, way of the future, thing to do. But, sadly, I can't stand the idea that instead of the machines replacing my day job, they're replacing the escapism I used to seek out to get away from my day job. Crazy how things turn out isn't it? 

Manga Review: "I Don't Know Which Is Love" vol.1

I don't know if this is the only harem yuri series that exists...

but it's the only one I think I've ever read.

I'm a sucker for cute romance series. So, when I saw that we were getting a light-hearted new yuri series from Yen Press I decided I had to pick it up. I'd say I'm a pretty big fan of the harem romcom genre to be honest, since I grew up on a steady diet of Tenchi Muyou and the like. So, the idea of a yuri harem series intrigued me. I did a quick google search for "yuri harem manga" and couldn't really find much - certainly nothing on my shelves. So, this would be a first for me.

The plot for this one: In high school, Mei was in love with a girl who left her when she found a boyfriend, now in college, Mei is determined to get a girlfriend. I'd say the struggle in this is going to be making JUST ONE girl happy, because from her first day of school Mei already has a sea of admirers, each of whom falls for a differnet aspect of Mei based on the five senses.

There's:

Riri Shirosawa, a fellow freshman, who's also a pin-up idol, but is very shy, and doesn't like being surrounded by men. She's soft, and squishy, and loves holding Mei's hands. 

Next up:

Maria Todomeki - she's a teacher in the psychology department who becomes Mei's advisor. She's great at reading body langauage, and especially likes looking at all of Mei's different adorable reactions to things. She's got that mommy-energy too, which Mei might be a bit into.

Then we've got:

Minato - she's a bit boyish and works in the cafe (reminds me a lof of Kashima a.k.a. "The Prince" from Nozaki-kun) She's a couple years older and Mei's senpai. She's an audio tech for the drama club - and she's really into sound; bordering on ASMR fetishist. She falls for Mei's voice

Also:

Karin Ajima, also of the drama department! She's an actress, but only as a hobby. She's also really into taste: especially the taste of girls lips - she's very, very kissy and aggressive. How in the world is Mei going to fend off her advances?? 

Lastly:

There's Kaoru - who's got a very good nose. She's going to be Mei's roommate in the dorms. She hates the smell of fabric softener, but loves the smell of Me (I can't believe I just wrote that sentece). She's a bit silly, but also smart; strict, but fair. Seems like a really nice senpai to have around.

And thus the stage is set for an epic battle for Mei's heart.

I was delighted by volume 1 of this series. I went in knowing nothing about it other than yur+harem, but what I got out of it far exceeded my expectations. All the characters are fun, and the art is really great. Mei's blushing, normy-in-distress vibe is a perfect compliment to each of the over the top characters gunning for her heart. 10/10 for a volume 1. I'll be eagerly awainting volume 2! Looking forward to reading more from Tamamushi Oku! You can give them a follow on twitter @tama_64.

"I Don't Know Which Is Love" is published by Yen Press and comes out on August 22nd! (probably in your local book store already!!)
Retail price is $13.00
Find it at your preferred retailer, none of these are affiliate links, I just want you to buy this book!
Barnes & Noble 

Right Stuf

Amazon

Manga Review: "Run Away With Me Girl" vol. 2

I had Norah Jones's "Come Away With Me" stuck in my head after reading this for some reason

I was on the fence about whether or not I was going to continue this series after the first volume, despite giving it five stars, but after reading the 2^nd book I’m glad I did. The ‘running away’ starts here and I definitely enjoyed seeing them escape. I’m very hopeful for the relationship between Maki and Midori and I wish them the best (reasonably sure we’re heading toward a happy ending now not some lovers’ suicide/tragic thing, but who knows). More than anything I just want Midori’s fiancé to disappear from existence. Dude is a scumbag. Hoping he’s not in book 3 much. This manga has this weird way of flittering between beautiful and depressing that it’s rather tough to read, but I think it’s worth it. When we see Midori from Maki’s perspective and she’s always sparkling it really hits me with a sense of wonder – but then you see the world from Midori’s side and things are rarely ever that dazzling. On a side note: really enjoyed meeting Komori for the first time. Her addition was welcome.

REVIEW OF VOLUME 3 COMING SOON!

If you'd like to purchase, do so at these links (not sponsored):

Barnes & Noble

RightStuf

Amazon

Manga Review: "Run Away With Me Girl" vol. 1

The Cover was Beautiful until I realized it reminded me of Midsommar

When I started to think "I really wanted to YEET Midori's Fiance into the sun." I realized that this series was going to be one I couldn't drop.

I bought this book on a whim when I was on a Yuri reading kick not really knowing how dark the plot is. TW: there’s some very serious and disturbing content. The plot centers around two high school more-than-friends reuniting after many years. When they were in school, they ‘played’ at being girlfriends, but for one of them, Maki, the relationship ended up leaving an everlasting impression. For her, their reunion means a LOT. The other woman, Midori, is now in a very serious relationship with a man, but the relationship is so TOXIC it might as well be radioactive. I found the first volume to be a good hook for me, but half of me is reading just to make sure that I see the horrible relationship Midori’s in come to an end. I suppose it comes off as kind of a footnote, but I want to add that I adore the art in this book, especially with the way Battan is able to shift from SPARKLES to glooooooom. Strong recommend as long as you’re able to stomach the sensitive material.

REVIEW OF VOLUME 2! 

This manga is published by Kodansha.

Buy it here (currently, I get nothing out of this, just think you should read the damn book lol)

Barnes & Noble 

RightStuf

Amazon

Manga Review: "She Loves to Cook, She Loves to Eat" vol. 2

Hungry for Volume 3

Sorry, I couldn't resist the urge to pun. But for real. When is volume 3 coming out, cus I need another serving of this pronto. (again, I apologize for the food jokes).

With that, my thoughts...   ...5/5 by the way. I'll say that up front. 

There's your TL;DR if you only wanted to see a score.

If you missed my review of volume 1, you can find it here.

Manga Review: "She Loves to Cook, She Loves to Eat" vol. 1 

Book 2 was great. Just great. There were a number of new and delicious looking dishes and each and every one of them made me hungry. Actually, physically hungry. This manga is a feast for the eyes. It's been years since I lived in Japan (I left in 2015 to return to the US for health reasons), but this has me hankering for Japanese cuisines I've not had in ages. Roll Cake, Character Bento, Stollen, Anko. Good lord I need to go order food.... 

Hopefully listing a bunch of the foods they eat in this volume didn't spoil anything, I'll talk some very spoilery things later, but i'll be sure to put a warning. In typical manga fashion, one of the characters gets sick in a chapter here (not really a spoiler, I promise! it's a regular occurance in all slice-of-life series); the other prepares a glorious bowl of kitsune udon. 

Oh. My. God. 

It really struck me, both in the heart and in the stomach. 

Having someone make you a big bowl of soup, when you’re too weak to do it yourself. It has a very comfy, healing warmth to it, even when you're just reading it happen to someone else. Almost makes me want to pull a Ferris Bueller and call out sick today (but who’d be there to make me Udon?).

 Beyond the food though, this volume really expanded on the relationship between Nomoto and Kasuga and cements the romance plot. In my mind, this volume moves it from the sub-plot to the main plot. I'll discuss more in length just after wrapping up the review portion here...

Lastly, I really appreciated learning more about each character’s backstory. They've definitely gotten more depth of character after this volume. This elevates the manga for me in a big way. I like three dimensional characters. Just like I'd like a third volume of this manga. Nowish. Sadly, there's no pre-order available yet, but hopefully we'll see an announcement of one soon.

I highly recommend this series, so, again, I don't get anything out of it, but here's the links to buy this book at your preferred place of book buying. "She Loves to Cook, She Loves to Eat" is published by Yen Press and has an MSRP of $15.00.

Barnes & Noble

Rightstuf

Amazon

.....

NOW

THIS IS WHERE I TALK SPOILERS

You've been warned...

A warning page from the editor. I feel like I've seen a couple pages like this in books before; one in 'Witch Hat Atelier' stands out in my mind. I'm on the fence about them, but I suppose it's a good thing. The way it's done here feels like they're protecting the publisher more than giving a trigger warning though. Still, I understand that I think this is done with good intentions. Probably.

FOR REAL THOUGH

HUGE

MEGA-SPOILERS

Don't blame me.

I warned you.

This page appears before a fairly poignant chapter featuring one of the main characters going through the realizaton process that she's a lesbian and in love with the other woman. It's a pretty dark awakening. I thought it was a very good chapter. Felt like a brick to the face a little bit, but It certainly moves the story forward in a very, very big way. In the first volume, there were hints of a romance subplot developing, but volume 2 makes it extremely clear where this series is headed.

I like this manga a lot. I appreciated that it took itself seriously, when needed, but didn't get stuck being a SERIOUS book. The manga was light-hearted, even if there's a chapter or two that really stand out as being tonally different; that's usually a big offender for me - when a book can't stick to a tone, I end up getting turned off because it puts me in a different mood when I finish it, then when I started. This one didn't. So, I'll take that as a good thing.

I'm eager to see how the romance plays out.

Manga Review: "She Loves to Cook, She Loves to Eat" vol. 1

I'm getting hungry just reviewing this manga

Full disclosure, I'm writing this review after I've already read vol. 2, but I tried my best to review it based on the first impression I got from the first volume when I read it originally.

Nomoto is an OL with an Instagram and loves sharing picutres of her cooking, but she has a problem. She's always wanted someone who can really pack it in. She wants to craft mega-sized dishes like bucket-pudding, or giga-pancackes. Huge omelettes. Great overflowing bowls of curry. The urge to just go nuts in the kitchen is welling up inside her. However, she's just one woman, living alone, and not interested in marriage (and especially not interested in becoming a 'good wife' for some random male coworker).

Then, one night, Kasuga appears, carrying buckets of KFC... which she will eat. By herself.

When trouble happens at work, and Nomoto goes a LITTLE overboard de-stressing with some serious kitchen time; a steak donburi of epic proportions is born, and the only way to keep it from going to waste is by having her neighbor help her polish it off.

And thus begins a beautiful friendship... and maybe, in the future, more...

This volume was great. I’ve reread it multiple times since it came out. I really like food centered manga (but especially ones that have a bit of romance to them - guess the way to my heart, ultimately, really is through my stomach); when the visuals are so good that you can smell the dishes, and get hungry yourself, that’s when you know you've got a hit. This manga definitely did taht for me. Every time I read it (i think i'm up to four times now) I end up needing to go grab a snack. I blame this series for my recent craving for Yaki-onigiri (gonna try it with Miso the way they do in the manga) and going on a hunt for the best Karage in the county… (I ended up finding a really good spot too! I've started getting takeout karage-bowls now after work). I’m sure this book has put a few pounds around my waist. This series also has the ‘Yuri’ tag on it, but I’m not sure if I’d call it a main plot, or a sub-plot; here in volume 1, there is a lesbian romance going on under the surface, but it has yet to develop into a mutual relationship yet. Hoping in the future both Nomoto and Kasuga realize their feelings for each other. But I feel like that’s where it’s going because I don’t see it becoming a one-sided affair.

This is an easy 5/5 for me. I've already bought and read vol. 2, with review of that one coming (shortly, and i'll spoil for you... my score doesn't go down).

She Loves to Cook, She Loves to Eat is published by Yen Press. MSRP $15

You can buy it at the following. I don't get anything for these links, but I loved the manga, I'ma recommend you just go right over and pick it up yourself.

Barnes & Noble

Amazon

Rightstuf


Now, if you'd like to read my take on volume 2... check it out here...

Manga Review: "She Loves to Cook, She Loves to Eat" vol. 2

Manga Review: "A Condition Called Love" vol. 2

Learning what 'Love' is for the First Time

The second volume of this manga really helped deepen our understanding of the characters; Hananoi has a decidedly darker past than what I originally expected, and Hotaru has her own trauma to deal with too. I’d say Hananoi’s borderline brooding with how territorial and possessive he’s become, but in a caring/nice way. Waiting for his girlfriend after work, walking her home, it’s all very well-intentioned, but somewhat overbearing the top. Hotaru’s understanding of how love works levels up a bit in book 2 as well. I found it really, really funny watching her friends listen to her and losing their minds trying to get it through to her that the feelings she’s experience ARE love, but Hotaru has to figure that out herself. I’d say that volume 2 improved my appreciation for this series, cementing it as one I’ll actually continue collecting. This couple has some very cute moments together which bring my shriveled up old heart joy. Very curious where things will go from here.

Just look at how cute they are

I'd give this a 4.5 out of 5 if I could give half stars. 9/10

There's still some room for improvement, but I'm thoroughly enjoying this manga now.

"A Condition Called Love" is published by Kodansha and retails for $10.99

Maybe I'll start putting some store links around here... thoughts in the comments??

Manga Review: "Under Ninja" vol. 1 - 10/10

 Ninjas. Ninjas Everywhere.

This is a very, very much extended review of "Under Ninja" vol. 1. I posted a shorter, abridged version up to other sites, but I had quite a bit to ramble on about with this one, but for the TL;DR - easy 10/10 or 5/5 on whatever scale you're grading on. I enjoyed it; plan to continue to collect it. With that, let there be ninja.

This is not a manga about a dude in his underwear pretending to be a ninja.

I really don’t know where I got that idea from… I’m sorry.

Wait, actually, I do! I very specifically remember seeing someone post THIS random frame on twitter, totally out of context, from this first volume where the main character tries on a woman’s bra; from that I somehow formulated a weird, twisted idea of what I thought the manga would be about. I formulated an image in my head of something like “Hentai Kamen” or “Raw Hero”. This was definitely no “Hentai Kamen”. That being said, just because I was expecting it to be something completely different, doesn’t mean it was bad. It’s pretty damn good actually (i just gave it a 10/10 remember). Just not Hentai Kamen. I should really learn to read summaries for a series before I buy them.

To be clear, the main character trying on a woman’s undergarments had very little, if anything, to do with the plot and in no way spoils anything, so hopefully nobody gets bent out of shape; it also certainly has nothing to do with the ‘Under’ in the title. In this series, ninjas live among us (at least in Japan), working in boring jobs as office workers, retail employees, and delivering your mail. These normal folk are also performing secret missions on the side – UNDER cover if you will. If you’ve never wondered, “hmm, maybe that Pizza delivery guy is actually a Ninja,” you will now. I like the premise for this a lot, because it’s just plausible enough that you can imagine it being based in reality. In fact, I’m sure there are ninjas running all over Japan, doing secret missions for the government. Hell, there probably are here in America too. Ninja epsionage taking place in 2023? Of course. We live in a cyberpunk dystopia these days.

I haven’t read Hanazawa Kengo’s previous work, “I am a Hero”, which is about suriving in a zombie apocalypse (it’s on my tbr, but that list grows faster than i can collect) so I can’t really compare it to this one. The art style though certainly seems to be pretty consistent across both, juding from what I've seen. This series DID remind me of Gigant though, both in terms of aesthetics and tone (except without the titan-sized porn actress trouncing buildings all over Tokyo). The tone in this is peculiarly-comedic, but not really in a laugh-out-loud kind of way. More funny odd, than funny ‘haha’. I really like it, but I’m kind of funny myself. 

Both Hanazawa Kengo and Hiroyu Oka (author of Gantz, Gigant, Inuyashiki) share this very realistic artist style where the backgrounds and set dressing are all done in an almost photo-realistic way. 

This is one hell of a cool spread that I'd mistake for a photo were it not for the SFX

I’m not sure what the technique is behind this is, or if it’s just pure skill, but it’s really cool. The characters also have a very different feel to them than you see in most manga, although I’m not sure I’d call them realistic, so much as based in reality (have yet to witness any 900 year-old vampires masquerading as 8 year-olds). I will say though that the main character looking like he’s been unemployed for a decade, in need of a good shave, but turning out to be just 17, ready to go to high school, seems like something straight out of mid 2000’s WB drama.

In terms of story, this DEFINITELY felt like a part 1 of many. Consulting the ‘ol Wikipedia tells me that it’s currently in its ninth volume on the Japanese side of things, with an anime due out in October (ooh, nice – *adds that to the TBW list on MAL*). So, this book in particular is still just barely an introduction to the setting/world/characters etc. But, that’s fine. I wasn’t expecting them to plot dump the entire thing all at once. RIGHT at the end, they gave us something REALLY, REALLY cool though, which had me going, “OOOOOH! this is gonna be super good”.

Production value isn’t something I usually bring up in my manga reviews, because I don’t think it should be something I base my decision to buy a series on, but I’ll say it this time. Denpa knocked it out of the park with this one. 

This back cover is awesome

This book has no business being this gorgeous. This series is some very pulpy fiction, not exactly a high-brow art-comic. Despite that, the paper quality is superb, the cover is sturdy and thick and even has out-folding flaps. What in the world did we do to deserve this?? Would love it if publishers put out books like this more often. So, as you can imagine, I’m very much looking forward to the next volume. Barnes & Noble has it listed for publication as May 16^th 2023, but that could be pretty tentative given Denpa’s busy publishing schedule. Either way, it will be something I pre-order.

Manga Review: "Insomniacs After School" #1 ---- 10/10

For a manga about two characters with Insomnia, they certainly seem to sleep a lot

This is a really charming book. It belongs in that wonderful niche slice-of-life genre called ‘Iyashikei’ [healing type]. Ganta Nakami and Isaki Magari are both high school students suffering from terrible insomnia, but they find themselves able to sleep, together (not in a dirty way), at school, in the old abandoned observatory. They revive the astronomy club in an effort to secure themselves some much needed rest. The vibe in this series is really great, reminding me of Call of the Night to some extent, just without all the vampire business. The characters are very average looking, maybe a bit frumpy even. I felt at ease watching them doze off in the middle of the day. It feels really weird saying that I was HYPED UP to read this series, especially when the energy level in it is beyond low. It’s chill. Unassuming. Just a nice little volume to help you relax. Will definitely look forward to volume 2 and the anime.

One thing that I think gets really underrated in a lot of manga is the backgrounds, especailly nature/weather shots. They've really done a great job in this book with capturing some very pleasant scenes.

There's something about the sound of rain that always managed to help me wind down. It's gotten to the point where I've compiled an entire playlist on YouTube of nothing but just rain tracks, since, sadly, I live in probably one of the dryest parts of the USA. Generally we get about 14 inches of rain in an entire year... so, I've had to make do with the artificial stuff. I'll tell you though, seeing pages like these, gives me exactly that same mood that I'm trying to find.

Ultimately this series is exactly what I wanted it to be. A kind of sleepy, calming experience. I'm always up for more of those. Life is too busy. I need a book like this every once in a while to take it slow. I wasn't really expecting a romance subplot, but perhaps we'll get one??? There definitely seemed to be a couple sparks there in the first few chapters, but who knows if that'll actually happen, and if it does, when. Either way this series is already a 10/10 for me with just the first volume.

Manga Review: "My Clueless First Friend" #1

The premise for “My Clueless First Friend” is very cute and simple. There’s a girl in class with a bit of a dark and gloomy appearance, who’s being bullied by the other kids in class. They make fun of he, in typical fifth grader fashion, calling her names like ‘grim reaper’. Takada, the new kid in school, who moved in from the country, is a complete airhead, and doesn’t understand she’s being picked on – only that Grim Reapers are A W E S O M E!!! So, he’s quick to befriend her, and constantly presses the fact that he finds her wonderful in all different manner of ways. This series is super formulaic. XYZ happens which triggers Takada to say something completely outrageous that embarrass Nishimura, causing her to blush like wild. This is played out every chapter. It definitely can get a bit repetitive if that’s not your thing, but for the most part, I enjoyed this book. That said, not sure how I’ll like it after 7 more omnibus. Will definitely peep the anime though.

TL;DR - It's a Cute Premise, But it Got a Bit Repetitive 4/5

With that said, I don't think that necessarily repetitive is a bad thing. Rather, I like it a lot. When you've got a good formula, use it. The problem I think I had with this book, that I didn't have, for example with "When Will Ayumu Make His Move" is a combination of a couple factors.

1) The Formula Being Too Simple

        The formula used in this manga is really, really basic. Boy says something, makes girl blush.

It's cute, but it's definitly not rocket science. That's fine, really. Ayumu has the same thing going for it. Very simple premise, repeated every chapter for the entire series. The part that I think became an issue for me was that...

2) Repeated Too Much in One Book

        This book is an omnibus, so it's really two, much smaller tankoubon, which have been sewn together. That's usually fine. It makes things more affordable and less risky to publish. The problem I think here is that since it's an omnibus, you get the same gag repeated like 50-60 times in one book, because in this series, the same formula gets repeated more than once each chapter, and this book is 30 chapters long...

Thats.... a bit too much for me to handle.

I actually had to break up reading this book over several sittings because it was just too much all at once.

I still genuinely really enjoy it, but I think the format doesn't really do it any favors unfortunately. If I was getting this on a weekly basis, in a magazine, I think i'd have really loved it a lot more. Could have been very fun reading online as well, but trying to tackle the whole thing at once was too much of a good thing.

Manga Review: "Call of the Night" #11 (UNCENSORED + SPOILERS)

This volume was exceptional. It’s very hard to talk about what happens in it though without spoilers, so I’m going to keep this review pretty short, but elaborate on things down there, near the bottom of the review, so if you don't wanna be spoiled, leave after the cover art. There was a point in this book that I literally jumped out of my chair from a combination of shock and hype (I'll talk about what part that is down below). The way that Kotoyama does the paneling in this is a thing of beauty. It’s weird to praise a cover, but I’m gonna do that too. That ALL WHITE cover is just so damn clean. This series remains pretty firmly in my top 10 ongoing manga at the moment (position fluctuates based on my mood) despite the fact that the tone of the series has changed dramatically from the first few volumes. What started out as a more laid-back, romcom has evolved into a much more serious series with very dramatic twists and a good deal of action. I’m not sure it’s an improvement, since I liked the laid-back vampire romcom, but this is also good.

Stick around afer this cover art for some more spoilery content.

OK!!! You've been thoroughly warned.

From here on out there be spoilers and discussion of content.

So, in volume 10 Ko became a vampire! Congratulations I guess? But, unfortunately the transformation is only half-baked and he can’t really control it. This begs the question – what does this mean for Ko’s one-year time limit on vampire transformation??? We still don’t really know. However, with volume 11 we get to see him really VAMP out when he confronts his friend Mahiru regaring the relationship Mahiru’s having with a vampire who’s significantly played up as the series’ main villain to this point. Kiku’s been revealed to be the big bad evil gal who turned Anko’s dad, and is generally a very bad bitch. Now, Mahiru’s cuddling up to her, and trying to get turned just like Ko, but basically everyone is against the idea though, except of course the dumb boy in question.

Now, what happens when Mahiru doesn’t like the fact that Ko’s confronting him about it.

Fist fight in the street.

Only problem with that is that Ko’s now a pseudo-vampire and the man unleashes hell on Mahiru.

(This is the part, by the way, that had me out of my chair. Page 71 to be precise. Nothing like a fat middle finger to your BFF followed by a vampire-rage fueled sucker punch to the face.)

Soooooooooooo, things between Ko and his human friends are in a rocky position, but it’ll all work out in the end… right? However this leads into one of the funniest sequences we’ve had in volumes, in which Nazuna abducts Akira to try and have her talk some sense into the two boys. But first… she’s gotta drag her to the maid café so they can set up this hilarious gag.

The vampire training sequence toward the end of the book actually had me on the edge of my seat the whole time as well, though I didn’t jump out of it. It was a bit hard watching Ko kick the shit out of Nazuna though. Damn man, don’t hold back huh?.

Pre-Orders for vol. 12 are up – releases June 13th 2023.

This book can’t come soon enough, because this is a series I actively seek out as soon as I can get my hands on it. It’s a must-read each time, because I’m trying desperately to avoid spoilers from scanlations. The cover of volume 12 has me intrigued though, because it looks like we’re going to meet some new characters.