Manga and Books

STINGING BEAUTYTsukimi Kurashita has a strange fascination with jellyfish. She’s loved them from a young age and has carried that love with her to her new life in the big city of Tokyo. There, she resides in Amamizukan, a safe-haven for girl geeks who regularly gush over a range of things from trains to Japanese dolls. However, a chance meeting at a pet shop has Tsukimi crossing paths with one of the things that the residents of Amamizukan have been desperately trying to avoid—a beautiful and fashionable woman! But there’s much more to this woman than her trendy clothes! This odd encounter is only the beginning of a new and unexpected path for Tsukimi and her friends.

Bill est tombé sur une information sensible : Louis, le cerf que toute l'école admire, est en fait le rescapé d'un abominable trafic de "proies vivantes'. Mais quand le tigre tente d'utiliser ce tuyau à son avantage, il se retrouve avec un pistolet braqué sur le crâne... L'ancienne victime n'a aucune intention de reprendre le rôle, et les carnivores qui se mettront en travers de son chemin en feront les frais !De son côté, Legoshi est toujours aux prises avec ses émotions. Incapable de s'éloigner de Haru, il finit par lui déclarer ses sentiments, seulement elle ne veut rien entendre ! Les deux lycéens ignorent encore que des fauves tapis dans l'ombre attendent justement la fin de leur conversation pour s'emparer de la petite lapine...

I never thought a manga largely focused around a high school friendship would become so close to my heart. Blue Flag is something simple yet incredible; I love these characters and their bonds more than I can say.Taichi, Futaba and Toma are near perfect protagonists in my eyes. Their personalities are vastly different, yet together they manage to portray a seamlessly accurate dynamic of high school students and their shenanigans + struggles. The school sports festival plotline in this volume made me so happy, it reminded me of all the teams and clubs I had endless fun participating in!It’s hard to say which of the first two volumes I preferred; I adore everything about this series so far, and picking favourites is already difficult (lord help me once I continue with the rest). I’m constantly awed by Kaito’s art; it’s particularly refined with crisp linework, which I prefer to sketch-like styles in mangas. I love the way Kaito’s character expressions—whether comedic or not—are portrayed. The emotion practically jumps through the page! I can’t wait to get my hands on volume three :D

An unexpected love quadrangle with a dash of unrequited love as two classmates, a boy and a girl, begin to fall for each other when each of their best friends have already fallen for them.It’s the last year of high school, and love is in the air. Romantic feelings that have been building up over years of friendship come to light. When Taichi’s classmate Futaba asks him to help her confess to his best friend, Toma, it sparks the catalyst that begins the sweet and heart-wrenching journey of their third and final year of high school. For some reason, Taichi Ichinose just can’t tolerate Futaba Kuze. But at the start of his third year in high school, he finds himself in the same homeroom as her, along with his childhood friend and school sports star Toma Mita. But one day Futaba opens up to Taichi, admitting she has a crush on Toma and asking for his help in confessing to him! There’s just one problem—Toma seems to already have a secret crush on someone else…

Eight magical tales of beastly Boy's Love from the creator of The Girl from the Other Side: Siúil, a Rún!Deep in the forest lies a mysterious school of magic: Wizdoms, an institution attended by beastmen of all kinds. These studious fantasy creatures have come to live, learn, and perhaps even fall in love in this enchanting space. In this collection of BL stories by master mangaka Nagabe, follow the beauty and surprising humor of magical beasts with human hearts.

Behind closed doors, she’s a completely different girl!Taihei’s little sister Umaru is the picture of perfection: elegant, poised, and polite–not to mention drop-dead gorgeous, brilliant, and multitalented. She’s the perfect high school girl who everybody envies and adores. What nobody knows is that this perfect little sister has a big secret!!

An unexpected love quadrangle with a dash of unrequited love as two classmates, a boy and a girl, begin to fall for each other when each of their best friends have already fallen for them.It’s the last year of high school, and love is in the air. Romantic feelings that have been building up over years of friendship come to light. When Taichi’s classmate Futaba asks him to help her confess to his best friend, Toma, it sparks the catalyst that begins the sweet and heart-wrenching journey of their third and final year of high school.

At this high school, instead of jocks and nerds, the students are divided into predators and prey.At a high school where the students are literally divided into predators and prey, friendships maintain the fragile peace. Who among them will become a Beastar—a hero destined to lead in a society naturally rife with mistrust?As gray wolf Legoshi and dwarf rabbit Haru’s relationship intensifies, gray wolf Juno’s jealousy grows. Red deer Louis’s mysterious absence from school has ramifications for both his friends and his enemies. And while the lion gang Shishi-gumi chooses a new leader, Cherryton Academy’s headmaster attends the Council of Living Beings to choose the school’s next Beastar. Plus, a flashback to Legoshi’s and Jack’s puppyhoods and the social engineering following the world war that led to the current fragile truce between carnivores and herbivores.

Rihito Sajou, a hyperventilating overachiever, winds up attending a high school where the only requirement for graduation is knowing how to write your name. Due to some extenuating circumstances, he is now being tutored by one of the many school idiots, Hikaru “Beyan” Kusakabe. For two students who had never before had a real conversation, what does the future hold now that they are constantly together? Follow these boys as they experience excitement, betrayal, depression, and love; that unyielding, crazy, poignant, and fantastical kind of love.

An unexpected love quadrangle with a dash of unrequited love as two classmates, a boy and a girl, begin to fall for each other when each of their best friends have already fallen for them.Love is already hard enough, but it becomes an unnavigable maze for unassuming high school student Taichi Ichinose and his shy classmate Futaba Kuze when they begin to fall for each other after their same-sex best friends have already fallen for them.The culture festival begins, and Toma and Taichi talk about their futures, but it ends with the two not quite seeing eye to eye. Shortly after, Toma sits down with Mami for a serious discussion, and in response to her earnest openness, he makes a big decision that could change everything. Time keeps moving forward, pushing everyone to the cusp of making critical life choices.

3,5 / 5Un nuevo tomo de Beastars siempre es una buena noticia. Aunque estemos ahora en medio de un momento más transicional, es una delicia la locura de mundo dicotómico que ha planteado Itagaki sensei y sus matices filosóficos sobre la vida. La séptima entrega nos sitúa con un Legoshi en plena evolución. Admite su derrota por el corazón de Hal y se dispone hacerse más fuerte para solo protegerla y que pueda ser feliz. Por otra parte, Rouis dirige los Shisigumi con mano de hierro, sometiendo el mercado negro bajo su cornamenta. Y a la vez en la escuela Cherrytown, se celebra la reunión de evaluación de todos los animales para decidir un nuevo Beastars tras cinco años sin ninguno.Si hay una cosa que me ha gustado del séptimo tomo es como por fin han recuperado la trama que abre la historia de Beastars. El asesinato de Tem la alpaca vuelve a ser importante en el transcurso de los sucesos, sobre todo en el caso de Legoshi. Volvemos en Beastars a tener esos toques de misterio tenebroso que rodean este cruel mundo de la escuela CherryTown. Además, contamos con la leve introducción de un nuevo personaje, el cual en pocas páginas nos deja claro que no será alguien anecdótico. Andaos con ojo Rouis y Legoshi, que os quitan el puesto de favoritos.

It’s a day in the life of your average househusband—if your average househusband is the legendary yakuza “the Immortal Dragon”!A former yakuza legend leaves it all behind to become your everyday househusband. But it’s not easy to walk away from the gangster life, and what should be mundane household tasks are anything but! On what begins as just another shopping trip, Tatsu has a run-in with a thief—of the feline persuasion! When the gangster-turned-homemaker gives chase, yakuza are quickly drawn into the fray, and chaos erupts in the streets of the shopping district. Even everyday errands can turn treacherous when you’re the Immortal Dragon!

In this heartwarming and critically acclaimed manga, an elderly woman and a high school girl develop a beautiful friendship through their shared passion for Boys' Love.Ichinoi, a 75-year-old woman living a peaceful life, unwittingly buys a Boy's Love manga one day...and is fascinated by what she finds inside. When she returns to the bookstore to buy the next volume, the high school girl working there--Urara, a seasoned BL fan--notices a budding fangirl when she sees one. When Urara offers to help Ichinoi explore this whole new world of fiction, the two dive into BL fandom together, and form an unlikely friendship along the way.

At this high school, instead of jocks and nerds, the students are divided into predators and prey.At a high school where the students are literally divided into predators and prey, friendships maintain the fragile peace. Who among them will become a Beastar—a hero destined to lead in a society naturally rife with mistrust?Dwarf rabbit Haru has been abducted by Shishi-gumi, a gang of rogue lions infamous for torturing, murdering and devouring herbivores. The mayor offers to help, but can he be trusted when he himself is a lion? Meanwhile, Legoshi tracks Haru’s scent, determined to rescue her at any cost, while Haru both defies her captors and tries to accept her fate. Elsewhere, red deer Louis is faced with a terrible temptation…

For many of us, bookstores are a place of magic and wonder: places we go to find a new story to lose ourselves in – but have you ever wondered what goes into running one? Here with the answers is Skull-face Bookseller Honda-san, which takes a look at what it means to work in a bookshop in Japan!The story follows Honda-san, a skeletal bookseller who’s in charge of foreign comics and art books in the bookstore he works at. Alongside his co-workers Honda-san does his best to meet the varied and sometimes weird requests of the shop’s customers as he juggles his everyday tasks in this workplace comedy.It’s not just the customers Honda-san has to help, as he also has to reject pushy sales people who are trying to get their books promoted! Naturally no bookstore has the space to promote every new book in a given week, but despite this, the publishers try their hardest to get stores to advertise their wares – and Honda-san has a difficult time saying no…Some of you may already be familiar with Skull-face Bookseller Honda-san thanks to the anime that aired last year. The series took the internet by storm when Honda-san encountered a father on the hunt for a ‘special yaoi book’ for his daughter in one of the early episodes. For a book lover like me it was an unforgettable story, and I’m so glad that the manga has now reached our shores. Like the anime, the manga goes in-depth on what it means to work in a bookstore. It’s full of interesting information I never knew before, but it’s not just informative. It’s also great fun! The characters we meet throughout this first volume are varied, from yaoi fans to shonen collectors and those who’ve come from overseas. Both the cast themselves and their interactions with Honda-san are all very unique and a real joy to flip through.This manga is based on mangaka Honda’s real life experiences working as a bookseller, which gives the series a very genuine feeling. Although Skull-face Bookseller Honda-san would have undoubtedly been a fun read without this ‘inside knowledge’, it’s hard to deny that the wacky antics are easier to buy into when you know they’re true to life.If you’re even remotely a fan of books (not necessarily manga, but that helps!) then you’ll have a great time reading the series. No doubt if you work in retail yourself you’ll also get a kick out of the interactions Honda-san shares with his coworkers, who all have problems of their own in their various store sections. Speaking of Honda-san’s coworkers I feel it’s worth mentioning that they’re all given fantastical designs like Honda-san. Each individual has a unique mask or piece of headgear that they’re identified by. For example: Fox-san and Lantern-san, named after the fox mask and lantern helmet the two sport. It’s a fun idea and adds a lot to the comedy element of the series.Where artwork is concerned, this first volume looks fantastic. If you’ve watched the anime then you’ll already know what to expect, as it’s very true to the manga. For those of you who haven’t seen the anime, the artwork for Skull-face Bookseller Honda-san is very detailed, expressive and fun. There’s a lot going on from panel to panel but, with clear and distinct outlines for the cast, it’s easy to follow what’s happening on the page and distinguish what’s important from any given scene. The series’ humour relies on the visuals and the mangaka does a fine job of making sure every joke lands perfectly. The only downside for some readers is that there are a lot of references to manga and anime made throughout this volume, and some of the jokes don’t quite work if you don’t get them. This volume includes lots of translation notes at the back of the book to try and help you through, but I’m sure it could become annoying to go back and forth for them if you aren’t getting any of the references. Skull-face Bookseller Honda-san comes West thanks to Yen Press. The series has finished in Japan at just four volumes and Yen Press currently have Volume 2 scheduled for an October release, with Volume 3 in January 2020. Volume 1 has been translated by Amanda Haley and the translation reads well. I think praise is especially deserved for how well Haley manages to convey scenes where Honda-san is dealing with English customers and speaking in broken, stuttered speech. It does a great job of both showing that Honda’s out of his comfort zone and that he’s struggling to communicate. Overall, Skull-face Bookseller Honda-san is a real treat for book lovers. If you’re an existing fan thanks to the anime then the manga is well worth jumping into, but newcomers will also greatly enjoy their first steps into Honda-san’s world. I’m certainly looking forward to Volume 2!

School is back in session after summer break, and Taichi and Futuba are slowly transitioning their relationship from friends to something more. Suddenly, Mami starts being unusually friendly with Taichi, leaving Futuba feeling anxious. Taichi, unsure of Mami’s true intent, can’t help but get dragged along in her wake. Their situation attracts attention, more people become involved and soon everyone is questioning everyone else’s relationships!

Gray wolf Legoshi confirms the identity of alpaca Tem's murderer after a Drama Club member is maimed during rehearsal. In the wake of the incident, the Cherryton Academy administration resolves to segregate classrooms and disband interspecies clubs. The edict causes an uproar, and the absence of red deer Louis's leadership is keenly felt. However, Bengal tiger Bill and Angora goat Els, as well as gray wolf Juno, gain insight into themselves and their relationships. Plus, a flashback to Legoshi's tragic childhood and family.

An elegant new action manga for fans of Sailor Moon and the litany of comics and animation that it inspired, Land of the Lustrous is set in a far future Earth, where humanity's distant descendants live on in a small group of sexless crystalline beings who must fight off an invasion from the Moon. The young gem Phosphorite can't seem to do anything right. "Phos" has nothing but a big mouth and guts. Cinnabar, a classmate, is a loner, shunned by the other gems because of the toxins emitted from their body. But when they get together, they will learn that they both have an essential role to play in the fight against the Moonfolk, who are intent on coming to Earth to abduct the gem folk and destroy their world. A beautifully-drawn new action manga from Haruko Ichikawa, winner of the Osamu Tezuka Cultural Prize.