Reviews written between bursts of hectic activity
Life has been crazy lately, but the reviews keep on going up! There’s a new title, Ōoku, in this batch, and I’ve been really looking forward to reading it. It’s by Fumi Yoshinaga, the author of Antique Bakery, Flower of Life, and a number of other things, and it’s an alternate history story in which 3/4 of Japan’s male population dies in a plague and women take on most or all of the vital roles in society. I didn’t write much about the characters in my review, for reasons which I hope I explained well enough, but it’s very interesting.
Since I’m talking a bit about individual series here, I also want to recommend Kaze Hikaru. I hadn’t read it before I started getting review copies (around vol. 10), and have never read the earlier volumes (since the local library system sadly doesn’t have it), but it’s really good. It’s…also a historical story, actually, about a girl who disguises herself as a boy and joins the Shinsengumi. It’s funny and touching and generally awesome.
Anyway, these are the reviews that have gone up on MangaLife recently:
Crimson Hero vol. 11 (B-)
Kaze Hikaru vol. 14 (B+)
Ōoku: The Inner Chambers vol. 1 (A)
S.A (Special A) vol. 11-12 (C-)
Late July/early August adaptations, and the periodic review link roundup!
Last week may have been a first for me: three of my adaptations were released all at once. DN Angel vol. 12 (one of TOKYOPOP’s two most popular advance August releases at SDCC, according to their Twitter), Phantom Dream vol. 3 (now with a glossary and character list), and Zone-00 vol. 1 (created by the Trinity Blood artist).
Recent reviews over at MangaLife, all from VIZ:
Black Bird vol. 1 (B)
B.O.D.Y. vol. 6 (C+)
Kimi ni Todoke: From Me to You vol. 1 (A-)
Ouran High School Host Club vol. 12 (A)
Skip Beat! vol. 18 (B+)
We Were There vol. 5 (A)
A Radical Interpretation of the Text 