Manga Review: Toilet-bound Hanako-kun, Volume 1, by Aidalro

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5

Publisher: Yen Press

Release Date: January 2020

Volumes: 13+

Spoilers?: No.

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

Volume: 2.

Goodreads Synopsis:

"Hanako-san, Hanako-san...are you there?" At Kamome Academy, rumors abound about the school's Seven Mysteries, one of which is Hanako-san. Said to occupy the third stall of the third floor girls' bathroom in the old school building, Hanako-san grants any wish when summoned. Nene Yashiro, an occult-loving high school girl who dreams of romance, ventures into this haunted bathroom...but the Hanako-san she meets there is nothing like she imagined! Kamome Academy's Hanako-san...is a boy!

Review:

Yashiro hears about the seven mysteries in her new school and immediately goes to the girls bathroom in the old school building and calls for Hanako-san. Only to discover that, not only is Hanako-san a boy, but he also doesn't seem to do much magic, and thus isn't very helpful in her quest for romance and to get her crush to notice her.

Yashiro apparently likes occult stuff and ghost stories, or at least her classmate thinks so. She's definitely a scaredy-cat, though, so I don't see it. She definitely is a romantic, however. She's been rejected before, and yet she still falls for boys without knowing anything about them, and dreams of a prince falling from the sky to her rescue.

Yashiro and Hanako form a bond through friendship, but also through a surprising mermaid curse. It's quite cute, honestly, though they don't seem to have any romantic feelings at this point. Yashiro also has a friend in her class, and then we meet a boy who's determined to exorcise Hanako, and this gives hints to Hanako's dangerous past.

We're left on a bit of a cliffhanger. Since it felt a bit like Hanako was overpowered in the first couple of chapters, I'm curious to see where this plot goes next. This was quite a fun volume. The artstyle is very pretty and the characters are rather cutesy, but there are a lot of dark strokes and inks used, too, and there are definite hints of something darker coming that intrigues me.

I know this series has hit quite big, so I'm intrigued to read more. It's been a while since I've read a high school ghost series, too, and that's a theme I enjoy.

Manga Review: NonNonBa by Shigeru Mizuki

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5

Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly

Release Date: 2012.

Volumes: 1.

Spoilers?: No.

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

Goodreads Synopsis:

The first English translation of Mizuki's best-loved work

NonNonBa is the definitive work by acclaimed Gekiga-ka Shigeru Mizuki, a poetic memoir detailing his interest in yokai (spirit monsters). Mizuki's childhood experiences with yokai influenced the course of his life and oeuvre; he is now known as the forefather of yokai manga. His spring 2011 book, Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths, was featured on PRI's The World, where Marco Werman scored a coveted interview with one of the most famous visual artists working in Japan today.

Within the pages of NonNonBa, Mizuki explores the legacy left him by his childhood explorations of the spirit world, explorations encouraged by his grandmother, a grumpy old woman named NonNonBa. NonNonBa is a touching work about childhood and growing up, as well as a fascinating portrayal of Japan in a moment of transition. NonNonBa was the first manga to win the Angoulême Prize for Best Album. Much like its namesake, NonNonBa is at once funny and nostalgic, firmly grounded in a sociohistorical context and floating in the world of the supernatural.

Review:

This is a big, done-in-one volume of manga. Featuring Mizuki as a kid, the lessons regarding yokai from his grandmother, and how those played out in real life and in his imagination.

This was a really fun volume. We're introduced to some really interesting legends of yokai, and some odd yokai creatures. How they might portray in the real life. And all followed with his grandma, kind of a crazy old woman, but the kind that you love dearly.

It's based in a past time, and the art style is also more childish and not-modern, but in a really endearing way. Big circular heads and cute facial expressions. I quite enjoyed it, even though it's not something I would normally pick up.

Manga Review: Kakuriyo: Bed & Breakfast for Spirits, Volume 4, by Waco Ioka, Midori Yuma, and Laruha

Rating (Out of 5): ~3

Publisher: Shojo Beat (VIZ Media)

Release Date: July 2019

Volumes: 6+

Spoilers?: No.

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

Volume: 1. 3. 5.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Faced with the choice of being married to a strange spirit or being made into dinner, Aoi creates a third option for herself!

Aoi Tsubaki inherited her grandfather’s ability to see spirits—and his massive debt to them! Now she’s been kidnapped and taken to Kakuriyo, the spirit world, to make good on his bill. Her options: marry the head of the inn her grandfather trashed, or get eaten by ayakashi. But Aoi isn’t the type to let spirits push her around, and she’s determined to redeem her grandfather’s IOU on her own terms!

Aoi is finally ready to open her restaurant on the grounds of the Tenjin-ya inn, but not everyone is as excited about it as she is. Some of the chefs of the main restaurant are doing everything they can to destroy her business before it even has a chance to start! Aoi is determined to keep going, but her detractors are deadly serious about stopping her.

Review:

In this volume, Aoi is finally opening her new restaurant, Yugao. They're setting everything up, preparing, and even having a soft opening. They're trying hard and getting good responses from the people who come, and yet someone is trying to make this harder on her. Someone doesn't want this restaurant to work, and their plans are working, since no one is showing up. Their location is just too hard to find, it seems.

This volume was all right. Aoi is working hard, and she's a good cook, but she's fighting against yokai who have been there a lot longer than her. Her relationship with the ogre seems to be getting better, and I like how it appears that he likes her. They're forming a kind of friendship, I think, or at least growing more comfortable with each other, which I like.

It's very clear that this is trying to be a food manga, and yet I forget that, because there just isn't enough food in it. The things Aoi makes sound good to me, but there isn't enough detail or description in any of it, for me to consider this a food manga.

This is an all right shojo. I don't mind it, but it feels very meh and not fleshed-out enough, still.

Manga Review: Kakuriyo: Bed & Breakfast for Spirits, Volume 1, by Waco Ioka, Midori Yuma, and Laruha

Rating (Out of 5): ~3

Publisher: Shojo Beat (VIZ Media)

Release Date: January 2019

Volumes: 5+

Spoilers?: No.

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

Volume: 2.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Faced with the choice of being married to a strange spirit or being made into dinner, Aoi decides to create a third option for herself!

Aoi Tsubaki inherited her grandfather’s ability to see spirits—and his massive debt to them! Now she’s been kidnapped and taken to Kakuriyo, the spirit world, to make good on his bill. Her options: marry the head of the inn her grandfather trashed, or get eaten by ayakashi. But Aoi isn’t the type to let spirits push her around, and she’s determined to redeem her grandfather’s IOU on her own terms!

Aoi wants to work off her debt to the Tenjin-ya inn, but she only has one day to find a position and none of the managers are willing to hire a human! If she can just get someone to see past her family background, Aoi is certain she can prove her worth!

Review:

 

 Aoi's grandfather just passed away, and she's trying to clean up his affairs, his belongings. Unbeknownst to her, her grandfather made a deal with a yokai, and thus sealed her as a bride to a yokai inn owner. She's always been able to see yokai, as she bonded with her grandfather over this, but she hasn't dealt too much with their world.

Now that she's thrown into this yokai inn, she refuses to marry this yokai, and thus tries to prove her usefulness in other ways to pay off the debt. But the inn is already being taken care of as it should, and the other yokai aren't so welcoming to her.

This was definitely a start to a new series. Aoi finds one friend in the inn, but her betrothed, the ogre, doesn't seem too bad to me. Aoi's grandfather put her in this position, and didn't seem like a great guy, but she was still close to him.

I'm feeling optimistic about this series at this point. I don't feel like I got enough to go on quite yet, as I'm not sure where the romance is going or even where her place at the inn is going from here. It could be interesting, though.

Manga Review: Black Torch, Volume 1, by Tsuyoshi Takaki

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5

Publisher: Shonen Jump (VIZ Media)

Release Date: August 2018

Volumes: 5.

Spoilers?: No.

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

Volume: 2.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Ninja and animal lover Jiro Azuma’s life is changed forever when he finds himself in the middle of a war with ninjas vs. demons.

Jiro Azuma is descended from of a long line of shinobi, and he also can talk to animals. One day, he rescues a very unique black cat named Rago, a supernatural being, and is dragged into a secret supernatural war.

Although he may appear rough-and-tumble, Jiro Azuma’s compassionate side emerges when it comes to the furry critters he can communicate with. But Jiro's soft spot for animals gets him in major trouble when a suspicious stray cat fuses with him, granting him exceptional power but also dragging him into humanity's hidden battle against powerful Japanese spirits, mononoke.

Review:

At the start of this volume, it gave me the feeling of Black Cat and Bleach. The former I've read none of, and the latter I've read very little of. But in a good way. Sometimes action shonen are just fun.

Jiro is a ninja who can talk to animals, and he stumbles into a fight between Mononoke. This has a surprising twist that I didn't expect, but that I appreciate. Jiro meets his to-be-boss Ryosuke, and his potential partner Ichika, but then he has to finish some things, take care of some loose family ends, before he agrees to join them.

I really enjoyed this first volume. It's very action, supernatural shonen, and I liked that. I'm looking forward to reading the next one.

A review copy was provided by the publisher, VIZ Media, for an honest review. Thank you so, so much!

Manga Review: In/Spectre, Volume 1, by Kyo Shirodaira and Chashiba Katase

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5

Publisher: Kodansha Comics

Release Date: November 2016

Volumes: 6.

Spoilers?: No.

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

Volume: 2.

Goodreads Synopsis:

KINDRED SPIRITS
The 17-year-old Kotoko has a unique situation. When she was a child, she was kidnapped by spiritscalled yokai, and returnedmissing one leg and one eye. Since then, she has been able to communicate with otherworldlyforces, both benevolent and dangerous. Kotoko is alone in her power until she learns that the crush she's watched from afar, Kur, has had his own encounter with yokai! As if being touched by the supernatural wasn't enough, Kur 's personal life is also in shambles. With their shared experiences and understanding, Kotoko and Kur form a partnership to deal with mysteries, from ancient demons to the ghost of an idol. But for a girl who's used to dealing with spirits, winning love might prove to be the bigger challenge!

Review:

This series intrigued me a little when I first heard about it, but it's taken me a while to get around to starting it. The artwork is pretty, though I hadn't really read the description.

We meet Kotoko at the beginning, a girl who was kidnapped by yokai when she was young, and has to visit the hospital regularly for check ups. She has a crush on Kuro, a boy who also regularly visits the hospital, but she hasn't really talked to him until now. He also has an interesting connection to yokai that Kotoko is curious about.

I like Kotoko from the beginning. She's tiny, looks much younger than she is, but she's smart and she doesn't mind the scars she's earned to be where she is now. She's very upfront and shameless in the way she talks, and I appreciate that.

In the second half of the volume, we skip forward some, and we see what a different character has been up to. I'm intrigued to see where the next volume goes, given the switch of characters, and I like what I've seen so far.

Manga Review: Noragami: Stray God, Volume 12, by Adachitoka

Rating (Out of 5): ~4

Publisher: Kodansha Comics

Release Date: March 22, 2016

Volumes: 16+

Spoilers?: Some.

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

Volume: 1. 11. 13.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Noragami: Stray God volume 12 features story and art by Adachitoka.
Furious that Yato has released her, the stray plots revenge against her rival. While Kōto has Yato distracted, she confronts Yukiné and lets him know that the gods have a secret…and it’s one Yato will do anything to keep. Hiyori is curious about this secret, too, but keeping Yukiné’s past a secret may be the key to protecting him.

Review:

We get a couple of revelations in this volume. One of them being what the gods’ secret really is, but also relating to that, we get to see Yato’s past.

The gods’ secret at first just seems very sad for both parties, but the reveal at the end is horrible and not quite what I expected. Yato’s past is just horrible and sad and I hate his father. When he was a kid he was taught horrible things, because he was made to be a certain type of god that he’s rebelling against now. Seeing a kid killing people will always be a terrible image, especially when done gleefully, ugh. Horrifying. Even worse when you already love the character.

Seeing him start to learn that other people don't find killing good, and when he wants so bad to make people happy, is so sweet though.

I don’t see how his father is ever going to be seen as a good character in any way, and I really hope that doesn’t happen. What he did to Yato, and how he treated Hiiro as well. There’s no coming back from that.

I’ve said this before, but I love how this series can have such serious moments, but so smoothly mix in some humor to lighten it up. Like when Yato finds out that Hiyori and his father know each other, and went to the amusement park together? Hilarious.

This series is just excellent, and I’m kind of obsessed with it at this point. I can’t wait for the next one.

Manga Review: The Demon Prince of Momochi House, Volume 1, by Aya Shouoto

Rating (Out of 5): ~4

Publisher: Shojo Beat (VIZ Media)

Release Date: July 7, 2015

Volumes: 7+

Spoilers?: No.

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

Volume: 2.

Wishlist Thursday.

Goodreads Synopsis:

On her sixteenth birthday, orphan Himari Momochi inherits her ancestral estate that she’s never seen. Momochi House exists on the barrier between the human and spiritual realms, and Himari is meant to act as guardian between the two worlds. But on the day she moves in, she finds three handsome squatters already living in the house, and one seems to have already taken over her role!

Review:

This might actually be my favorite Aya Shouoto book yet. And even I’m surprised to say this.

Himari gets left a house she didn’t know about on her sixteenth birthday. She’s been on her own for most of her life, living in an orphanage but with no family. She hears that the house she inherited is haunted, but she goes on anyway. And when she gets there, she finds the house trashed with three boys inhabiting it. They try to warn her away, but she refuses to listen, stubbornly sets in and fights them about it, even when they try to scare her.

Himari is a great heroine. She’s strong, charging forward, not letting herself be afraid. And she wants a family. She tries to be firm with the boys, either to kick them out or demand rent, but she’s okay with them just being family, if that works out.

Aoi is the human boy who lives there, as the omamori, or the demon prince who guards the house. They have a lot of demons inhabiting and invading the house at all times. His main companions are the two demons who help him and protect him. We don’t know too much about those two, but I think Aoi is a sweetheart. He’s trying to do what’s best for Himari, but he also likes her and wants to protect her, and he has no qualms with touching her and sleeping with her. He’s a sweetie who also just wants a family, to do good, and I love him already.

Like a lot of people, I got the feel of Kamisama Kiss from this series, but it is very different. I suppose there are some similarities, but the overall feel and the characters are very different.

This might actually be my favorite of Shouoto’s already, and I am really excited for the next one. I kind of can't believe how fast this series grew on me.

Oh, also! Color pages! There are two color pages at the beginning of the book, much like in Kiss of the Rose Princess, and they are very pretty! The art style is also similar to He’s My Only Vampire, but the storyline doesn’t seem as dark, which is good.

Manga Review: Natsume's Book of Friends, Volume 15, by Yuki Midorikawa

Rating (Out of 5): ~4.5

Publisher: Shojo Beat (VIZ Media)

Release Date: January, 2014

Volumes: 16+

Spoilers?: Not really.

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

Volume: 14. 16.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Takashi Natsume can see the spirits and demons that hide from the rest of humanity. He has always been set apart from other people because of his gift, drifting from relative to relative, never fitting in. Now he's a troubled high school student who has come to live in the small town where his grandmother grew up. And there he discovers that he has inherited more than just the Sight from the mysterious Reiko.

Natori summons Natsume to help him with an odd exorcism case. A retired exorcist can no longer see yokai, even the ones who are his servants, and strange things have started happening at his house. Are his bound yokai trying to kill him to release themselves from their contract?

Reads R to L (Japanese Style) for teen audiences.

Review:

God, I just freakin’ love this series. It gets better every volume, and now my heart just swells with it every time I look at the books. It seems like this series gets looked over a lot, which I hope isn’t true, because it’s so good. It just takes a few volumes before it gets really good. But then it is and there’s no looking back.

The first chapters featured a story with Natori and a friend of his. This was interesting, not overly exciting or anything, but sweet. It seems like we might meet some of the new characters again, though, which would be nice. It also seems like Natori might be figuring something important out about Natsume, and that could cause some problems, or be really good for them. I’m looking forward to seeing where that goes.

I’m intrigued by Natori. He’s so different from Natsume, and I vastly prefer Natsume, but I’m interesting in Natori’s development, in his growth as a person. I’m intrigued by him, and by Natsume’s influence on him.

Then there was a sweet story featuring a mushroom yokai.

Then there was a story that was just fantastic, a special featuring Natsume’s aunt and uncle, Toko and Shigeru. This was before they took Natsume in, and a little bit of the beginning of his living with them. And it was just so sweet I wanted to cry. I love the two as a couple, they’re adorable together, and it’s obvious they’ve been together a long time and still really love each other, and that was so nice to see. They want a kid, and after Shigeru sees Natsume and how no one else wants him, it’s obvious they’re going to take him in and love him. And they’re so good for him.

I loved getting to know them as people and a couple, but I also really like seeing them caring for Natsume. I’d like to see Natsume leaning on them a little more, being more open with them, as I know they’d help him with anything he needed.

I just love all of them so much. 

I have no idea how long this series is going to be, or how long till the next volume, but I’m so excited for it.