Category: Manga Blogging

It is the last round-up post of the Shojo Beat Manga Moveable feast! Thanks to everyone who participated!

Manga Xanadu looks at the first five volumes of gender-based comedy series Otomen. Lori thinks the series is enjoyable due to the cast of characters, especially the male lead Asuka, “I really enjoy the role reversal that Kanno has created with Asuka. He is very much the shojo lead, as all his inner thoughts and turmoil are shared with the reader. He even blushes a lot like most shojo leads. I really love Asuka’s dichotomy of still being a man while having all of these traditionally female hobbies. If only more men could be like him.”

Otaku Ohana examines an author we haven’t seen reviewed during this particular feast yet – Kaori Yuki. He looks at Grand Guignol Orchestra, even including a handy visual comparison with other Shojo Beat titles. He writes of this manga, “If it was an actual person, it would have a dark cloud hovering over it at all times, sulking off in the corner with Depeche Mode playing on the stereo.”

I continue my Arina Tanemura binge and read the first four volumes of Full Moon O Sagashite, which pulls off the feat of featuring a story about a dying heroine without getting on my nerves for being too sentimental.

October’s feast will be hosted by Chic Pixel and will focus on the thematically appropriate topic of Vampire manga!

What are your weekend manga reading plans? I’m going to see if I can get through the entire Full Moon series. We’ll see if that happens. Here are some end of the week Shojo Beat reviews and commentary.

Chic Pixel writes about one of her favorite overlooked series, Meru Puri. She says, “in all honestly, MeruPuri is simply very appealing fluff.” There’s nothing wrong with appealing fluff!

Lori writes about newer title Jiu Jiu over at Manga Village, concluding “While I didn’t really care for Jiu Jiu on the first read, a second read for this review has made me think I should give it a second chance. With all the reflection over (hopefully), and Takamichi, Snow and Night now a team, there can be some actual story going forward.”

Manga Therapy ponders the eternal debate “Are cats better than dogs?” in a Natsume’s Book of Friends post.

Kelakgandy writes about Fushigi Yugi Genbu Kaiden Volume 10, paying particular attention to the excellent female characters in the manga.

Kelakgandy also shares a Shojo Beat license request list with a variety of interesting choices. I will always vote for more Demon Sacred!

I take a look at my two favorite two volume Shojo Beat series, Flower in a Storm and Sugar Princess: Skating to Win.

Shojo Corner posts an appreciation of the main couple from Lovely Complex, Risa and Otani.

I’ve been happy to see participation from some blogs I wasn’t terribly familiar with before! I think I’m all caught up on round-up posts, but please let me know if I forgot to include anything.

I started off my day with a discussion with fellow bloggers from Manga Xanadu and Heart of Manga!

Anna from Tokyojupiter was prompted to write a response post about a Shojo Beat title she doesn’t really care for, Honey Hunt, saying “In Honey Hunt, Aihara has managed to write a story where I found myself not caring about any of the characters. With Hot Gimmick, I still cared about whom Hatsumi ended up with, not so with Yura. All of Yura’s choices seemed equally awful to me, especially since none of them were really concerned about her as a person, but what she represented and what she could do for them.”

There’s a review of A Devil and Her Love Song on Good Comics for Kids from Lori, “A Devil and Her Love Song pairs up two tropes of shojo manga, the new girl who tries hard to make friends and the girl who’s sharp-tongued and difficult to get along with, and does so surprisingly well.”

Also, check out Manga Critic’s take on volume 4 of A Devil and Her Love Song!

Lori reviews Wanted Volume 1 at Manga Xanadu for Talk Like a Pirate day!

Experiments in Manga explores the melancholic Sand Chronicles.

Organization ASG explores Skip Beat Volume 3.

I reviewed the first four volumes of Gentlemen’s Alliance +

That’s it for Wednesday!!!