I reviewed this cute yet complicated love story for this month's BL Bookrack column at Manga Bookshelf. I really, really enjoyed the romance between a somewhat relationship-scarred bookstore employee and his huge younger lover, and it made me realize I haven't read anything by Toko Kawai that I didn't like! You can find that review here. Review copy provided by the … [Read more...] about Café Latte Rhapsody by Toko Kawai: A-
Comics
Garden Sky by Yuko Kuwabara: C+
I reviewed this quasi-BL collection for this week's BL Bookrack column at Manga Bookshelf. The book is divided into two sets of stories that are boring while underway, feature extremely similar characters, and go nowhere in the end. This makes for quite a dull read. You can find that review here. Review copy provided by the publisher. … [Read more...] about Garden Sky by Yuko Kuwabara: C+
Eyeshield 21 1-3 by Riichiro Inagaki and Yusuke Murata: B
Though I've long professed an ardent love for sports manga, I did secretly wonder if my enthusiasm would wane when the featured sport is one in which I have zero interest, like, say, football. Would the inherent charms of sports manga be able to compensate for my real-world disinterest? Eyeshield 21 has proven to me that the answer to this question is “yes.” Sena Kobayakawa … [Read more...] about Eyeshield 21 1-3 by Riichiro Inagaki and Yusuke Murata: B
Tidbits: Three from DMP
Welcome to the first installment of Tidbits, a periodic column featuring short reviews of multiple titles. In this post, I check out the latest volumes of three continuing series in the Digital Manga Publishing catalog. First up is volume two of Alice the 101st, followed by the third volume of the shoujo classic Itazura Na Kiss, and the second volume of Maiden Rose. Alice the … [Read more...] about Tidbits: Three from DMP
Silver Diamond 5-7 by Shiho Sugiura: B+
My darling Silver Diamond! How I have missed you! There was almost a year between the releases of volumes four and five, but TOKYOPOP is on the road to recovery (yay!) and the series is now on a quicker release schedule. In volume four, Rakan traveled to the other world in the company of Chigusa, Narushige (and Koh!), and Tohji. Pretty quickly they encountered a group of … [Read more...] about Silver Diamond 5-7 by Shiho Sugiura: B+