What a month. I didn’t get as much reading done as I’d hoped. But with an every growing TBR and dozens of absolutely amazing books being published every month I always feel like I’m not getting enough reading done. This month I got some absolutely wonderful books from publishers, friends, and purchases that I want to tell about.
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Nijigahara HolographNijigahara Holograph by Inio Asano, the creator of the award winning Solanin, is a standalone 300 page manga, and perfect for those who aren’t looking to get into yet another long-running series. The story is one involving alternate timelines, violence, and the surreal. There are frightened whispers among the children about a monster that lives in the tunnel behind the school. The usually beautiful butterflies hold an almost ominous presence, suddenly being found everywhere. The lives of the students and teachers are interwoven in ways unforeseen on the surface, ways that aren’t always visible or expected.
Crayon Shinchan, Volume 1Crayon Shinchan is a very long running anime in Japan which had a shorter run in the US. It’s also an anime I’ve watched over and over again. When I saw the Crayon Shinchan, Volume 1 by Yoshito Usui was available to read on Scribd, I jumped on it.
Buso Renkin, Vol. 1 If there is one genre of manga and anime I love above all else it’s shonen. Recently, I began Buso Renkin, Vol. 1 by Watsuki Nobuhiro, a series I know through the anime but have never read.
Dragon Ball: That Time I Got Reincarnated as YamchaEvery once in a while something magical happens. Sometimes we’re blessed with fanfiction that gets sanctioned by the series. Sometimes, we get manga like this. Dragon Ball: The Time I Got Reincarnated as Yamcha is by Dragongarow Lee, a fan artist who is well known in the community.
All-Rounder MeguruOne of the genres of manga that quickly became an unexpected favorite was sports manga. I’d not heard of All-Rounder Meguru Vol. 1 by Hiroki Endo before so, obviously, I read it immediately upon receiving a copy.
Jaco the Galactic PatrolmanMaybe it’s because I tend to lean towards long-running shonen series, but it isn’t very often I come across a standalone volume of manga. Jaco the Galactic Patrolman by Akira Toriyama is exactly that.
My Hero Academia: Vigilantes, Vol. 3Out of the many spin off series that exist in the world of manga My Hero Academia: Vigilantes is probably my favorite. It offers a very different look at a society where everyone has quirks – superpowers. Instead of following teenagers trying to be young heroes we follow a regular college student named Koichi who moonlights as a vigilante.
Blissful Land, Vol. 1The Blissful Land, Vol. 1 by Ichimon Izumi is a very slow, lovely slice of life manga centered around a 13-year-old boy, Khang Zhipa, who is apprenticed to his father, the town’s doctor. It is a sweet, slow manga that is more iyashiki than slice of life. Iyashikei, for those who are unaware, are very slow manga that focus on the everyday activities of people, the tiny, happy moments in life, and nature as a calming, healing read. The emotional and plot driven stakes are virtually nonexistent, instead presenting the reading with a very calm, mellow story.
There have been a lot of fantastic books this year. Some of my favorites have already been outlined in my Top 2018 Books list. Everything I enjoyed couldn’t have possibly fit in one list, though. And some books I still want to talk about weren’t necessarily full 5 star reads. But they were good nonetheless with interesting plots and themes and characters I really cared about. I noticed something in common with some of these: they didn’t have a lot of reviews on Gooodreads.
Welcome to Looking Glass Reads! We review speculative fiction novels as well as manga, light novels, and graphic novels.
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