By Masaya Tsunamoto and Tsujitomo | Published digitally by Kodansha Comics Although I genuinely, deeply love shounen sports manga, I can't deny that most follow similar story beats. I knew going in that Giant Killing is actually seinen, but wasn't prepared for what a breath of fresh air it would be. Instead of some first-year joining his high-school team, the protagonist … [Read more...] about Giant Killing, Vol. 1
Ace of the Diamond, Vols. 1-2
By Yuji Terajima | Published digitally by Kodansha Comics Eijun Sawamura really wanted to make some good baseball memories with his middle-school friends, but even though they practiced hard, they couldn’t win a single game. Although he shows talent as a pitcher, his unsportsmanlike behavior after a bitter defeat means most of the good baseball schools are no longer … [Read more...] about Ace of the Diamond, Vols. 1-2
Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James, Books 5-8 by Deborah Crombie
Dreaming of the Bones After making my way through the first four books in this series with reasonable alacrity, I really stalled out on Dreaming of the Bones at first. A large part of the problem for me was that it had to do with the death of a poet five years prior, and was thus strewn with quotations of both poetry and flowery letters. Once I summoned the fortitude to … [Read more...] about Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James, Books 5-8 by Deborah Crombie
Random Reads 3/29/17
All hail the debut of a new recurring column of sorts, collecting reasonably short reviews of disparate books. A Banquet of Consequences by Elizabeth George While A Banquet of Consequences is not the best Lynley and Havers mystery I have read, it’s still great heaping loads better than the last one (Just One Evil Act). In fact, in my review of the latter, I wrote “I wanted … [Read more...] about Random Reads 3/29/17
Tokyo Tarareba Girls, Vol. 1
By Akiko Higashimura | Published digitally by Kodansha Comics I spent all my time wondering “what if,” then one day I woke up and I was 33. Thirty-something Rinko Kamata and her two best friends from high school, Kaori and Koyuki, are still single. They’ve happily spent the last decade getting together regularly for girls’ nights out, during which they get sloshed and … [Read more...] about Tokyo Tarareba Girls, Vol. 1