Manga Review: Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku, Volume 3, by Fujita

Rating (Out of 5): ~4.5

Publisher: Kodansha Comics

Release Date: November 2018

Volumes: 7+

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. RightStuf.

Volume: 1. 2. 4.

Goodreads Synopsis:

A tall, quiet gamer boy and a geeky girl whose life revolves around yaoi manga are old friends, but when they start working in the same office, they decide to date. It's a relationship of convenience at first, but could it become something more? This manga comedy is now a hit streaming anime!

Extra-long book includes 2 Japanese volumes!

Narumi and Hirotaka are, by all appearances, a power couple. They're young, good-looking professionals. But they have secrets from everyone but each other: They're serious geeks! Narumi is a fujoshi, and Hirotaka's a hardcore gamer. Their sweet, awkward love story started life as a webcomic before becoming a full-blown manga series by popular demand, and is about to become a major anime series!

Review:

It feels like it came on very suddenly, but I am now obsessed. I love Naoya, so much. He's my favorite.

This series seems like it should be more episodic, more of a 4-koma style, and yet it has more ongoing plot than that. It's also just so good, and keeps my attention all the way through.

There's lots of fun geekiness in this volume—including a convention and cosplay—as well as lots of gaming and arguments and other fun. There's also some couple stuff—they go to a hot spring in the second half.

But back to Naoya. After finding out that Ko is a female, he freaks out a bit, and then feels awful because of how it upset Ko. It's all super adorable. And then they end up on a double date with Narumi and Hirotaka, which is adorable, and also really good for them. They're all very geeky, and it's super cute. Even though Naoya doesn't quite understand just how much of an otaku any of these people are.

He's literally so cute it hurts me. I love him so much it doesn't make sense.

I need more of this so badly, I'm probably going to end up watching the anime while I wait.

Manga Review: Horimiya, Volume 2, by Hero and Daisuke Hagiwara

Rating (Out of 5): ~4.5

Publisher: Yen Press

Release Date: January 26, 2016

Volumes: 8+

Spoilers?: Not really.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells. RightStuf.

Volume: 1. 3.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Youth, ultra-lightly carbonated!!
At first glance, the ultra-popular Hori-san seems like a flashy high school girl, but in reality, she's plain, practical, and domestic. On the other hand, the bespectacled Miyamura-kun comes across as an average, gloomy fanboy, but he's actually liberally pierced and tattooed and downright gorgeous. Now that Hori and Miyamura are keeping each other's secrets after their little run-in outside of class, the distance between them is shrinking bit by bit...

This bubbly, sweet, "aww"-inspiring tale of school life continues!

Review:

I can’t believe how instantaneous my obsession with this series is, but I love it. I can’t get enough. Why isn’t there more already? Seriously?

Miyamura is still getting used to having friends. There’s a really sweet scene between him and Ishikawa in this volume, as Miyamura realizes that he does have friends now. He’s not seen as the lone weirdo anymore. And it’s just so goshdarn sweet. Their bromance is the best. This is then contrasted when they have a fight over Hori—a fight that’s not really out of anger as it is instinct, which is hilarious.

Hori is being used by the student council, her kindness being taken advantage of to do their extra work. This leads up to Hori having an argument over Miyamura, in a fantastic scene where she fights for her place over him, without him knowing. It just makes me extremely happy.

Miyamura is still learning how to have friends, so having actual feelings for Hori, and her returning them, hasn’t really processed as a possibility. So the scene where their hands touch, and tangle, is incredibly sweet and important and I love it.

I want more of this series. It’s ridiculous how in love with this series, with these characters, that I am. The humor, the sweetness, the emotions… I love everything about it and I want a dozen more books right now please.

Manga Review: Library Wars: Love & War, Volume 14, by Kiiro Yumi and Hiro Arikawa

Rating (Out of 5): ~4.5

Publisher: Shojo Beat (VIZ Media)

Release Date: October 2015

Volumes: 15.

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells. RightStuf.

Volume: 1. 13. 15.

Goodreads Synopsis:

In the near future, the federal government creates a committee to rid society of books it deems unsuitable. The libraries vow to protect their collections, and with the help of local governments, form a military group to defend themselves--the Library Forces!

The Library Forces have decided that a censored author, Toma, must defect. But as he and the LF attempt to leave the courthouse, the roads are blocked by Media Betterment Committee troops!

Library Forces member Iku Kasahara and her sergeant (and secret crush) Dojo make off in another direction with Toma. But when Dojo is injured in the escape attempt, Iku is charged with protecting both the endangered author and the man she loves!

Review:

My god, do I love this series.

Most of this volume focuses on the continuing of the library forces protecting the author. When the judgment is decided, they have to hurry with their plan to get him out of the country. This plan is impeded a couple of times, including injuring Dojo. But Iku is doing her best to follow through with the author’s wishes and get him out.

The biggest moment in the volume is when Dojo is hurt and Iku has to carry him along, then when they have to separate. I won’t spoil the hugest moment in the volume, what Iku does, because it’s a surprise and it’s heartbreaking that she has to leave him right after. And it’s so sweet and aww… I’ve been waiting for this moment, and now I have to wait for the next volume to see what happens after. Ugh!

There’s more behind the scenes stuff, as the rest of the task force deals with the fallout of what they’re doing with the author. Shibazaki works to find out who leaked their plans, and then they all have to worry about what Iku and Dojo are doing, until they find out he’s been injured. It shows how close Dojo and Komaki really are, too, when we see how worried he is about him.

Ah, I just want the next one! I can’t wait for it.

Novel Review: Isla and the Happily Ever After (Anna and the French Kiss, #3) by Stephanie Perkins

Rating (Out of 5): ~4.5

Genre: YA Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Dutton (Penguin)

Release Date: August 14, 2014

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Teaser Tuesday. Wishlist Thursday.

Goodreads Synopsis:

From the glittering streets of Manhattan to the moonlit rooftops of Paris, falling in love is easy for hopeless dreamer Isla and introspective artist Josh. But as they begin their senior year in France, Isla and Josh are quickly forced to confront the heartbreaking reality that happily-ever-afters aren’t always forever.

Their romantic journey is skillfully intertwined with those of beloved couples Anna and Étienne and Lola and Cricket, whose paths are destined to collide in a sweeping finale certain to please fans old and new.

The Cover:

I really like this cover. Of course, it drives me crazy that it doesn't match the previous books on my shelf, but I still think it's really pretty. It's simple, modern, very pretty to look at. The background represents the setting in the book (which is significant to the books), as well as giving a kind of understated love story feel. The physical books also have that odd (rubbery?) finish on them that I think fits. I think it's lovely.

Quotes:

• "My mouth is painted red. Maman once told me to place the boldest color where I want people to look.” (Hardback, pg. 76-77)
• "'For a certain type of person, high school will always be brutal,’ the head says. ‘The best advice that I can give you is to figure out what comes next, and work toward that.’” (Pg. 221) [The head, as in the principal of the school.]
• "'And it started these ideas in my head about how maybe I wasn’t the person that I thought I was. Maybe I’m not a city girl. Maybe I was only thinking about Paris versus New York, because nothing else seemed real, somehow. Like, everywhere else just seemed like something—‘
  ‘You’d read about in a book.’” (Pg. 298)
• "'Artists are inspired by blank canvases.’ […] ‘A blank canvas,’ Josh continues, ‘has unlimited possibilities.’” (Pg. 329)

Review:

This book was pretty much everything I wanted it to be. I mean, I don’t think anything can beat Lola and the Boy Next Door, but this one was just as good as the first. I loved it. It was everything I hoped it would be.

Isla has been in love with Josh for about four years now, but she’s barely talked to him, and is pretty sure he doesn’t even know she exists. Her best friend, Kurt, has autism, and they’re pretty much loners. But then Isla runs into Josh while high on Vicodin, and thus starts her budding romance with him.

I liked Isla, a lot. She’s shy, clumsy, and doesn’t know how to really make friends. She does some growing up, though. She’s a little angsty over Josh for a while, but not in a way that bothered me even a little (although, I don’t know, maybe it will some people?). But she realizes that she’s her own problem, and she needs to put herself out there and grow. I think I actually related to Isla the most of the three so far. Kurt was great, too, and it was nice to see them grow apart while still being best friends.

Josh is great. I really like that both characters have to do a lot of growing up, together and apart, and that they realize this. Josh has to grow up about his parents and his life, and he has to learn to look at his comic with at least some objectivism.

Similar to in the previous book, the characters realize that they need to know who they are as a person, on their own, before they can really be in a committed relationship with someone else, but that they can also learn and explore who they are with someone else. That’s important, and I like the focus it had.

The writing was great, and the book went by much too fast. The pace was perfect, I think, not too little or too much time on anything. The only reason I would have wanted more would be to have more time with the characters. There were cameos from the other characters, and I loved that. I always want more time with the previous characters (always), but we got enough of a glimpse to really see them, see how they’re doing, along with a very nice update on two of them.

The humor was perfect—I’m always smiling and laughing while reading Perkins’ books. The romance was also very good, with a lot of swoon, a lot of cute and sweet scenes. The ending was fantastic.

Overall, this book was everything I wanted it to be. I’m perfectly happy with it, and of course excited for anything else Perkins publishes next.