Feb 12, 2018
From Our TBR Pile Manga & Light Novels

Manga Monday – I Am A Hero Omnibus Vol 1 by Kengo Hanagawa

I Am A Hero Omnibus Vol 1
By: Kengo Hanazawa
Translator: Chitoku Teshima
Release Date: April 26, 2016
Publisher: Dark Horse Manga
Series: I Am a Hero
Rating:


Zombie stories is a hit or miss genre for many people. Perhaps this is simply due to oversaturation; it isn’t as if zombie novel, anime, manga, or movies are in any short supply. Yet, one such zombie stories I have heard nothing but praise for is the manga series I Am A Hero. I Am A Hero Omnibus Vol 1 by Kengo Hanazawa is a slow, careful look at and the events that set off an outbreak of a zombie virus.

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Feb 05, 2018
Manga & Light Novels New & Upcoming Releases

#MangaMonday Review – My Hero Academia Vol. 11 by Kohei Horikoshi

My Hero Academia Vol. 11
By: Kohei Horikoshi
Translator: Caleb Cook
Release Date: (English) February 6, 2018; (Japanese) November 4, 2014
Publisher: VIZ Media LLC
Series: My Hero Academia
Received From: Publisher
(All reviews are our own, honest opinions.)
Rating:


Well, here we are. A new volume of My Hero Academia is being released tomorrow, February 6, 2018, and season 3 of the anime is fast approaching. My Hero Academia Vol. 11 by Kohei Horikoshi is a fast paced race to the end of the current arc, filled with battles, fallout from the numerous villain attacks on U.A., and It’s tense. It’s exciting. And if you listen to OST’s from the anime version when reading manga and the song I Am Here happens to begin playing right around page 94 like it did with me, be prepared to cry.

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Feb 01, 2018
Manga & Light Novels Throwback Thursday

Throwback Thursday – Papillon Vol. 1 by Miwa Ueda

Papillon Vol 1
By: Miwa Ueda
Translator: Elina Ishikawa
Release Date: Oct 14, 2008
Publisher: Del Rey
Series: Papillon
Rating:


I won’t lie. I originally checked this book out of the library simply because the title matched the name of Papillon, my favorite villain from Buso Renkin. (What can I say? I like my 90s shonen anime.) Of course, this is a shojo manga, so I wasn’t expecting anything remotely similar to Buso Renkin. But I wasn’t expecting to dislike Papillon Vol 1 by Miwa Ueda even half as much as I did.

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Jan 29, 2018
Manga & Light Novels

Review – Food Wars! Vol. 2 by Yuto Tsukuda and Shun Saeki

Food Wars! Vol. 2
By: Yuto Tsukuda
Illustrator: Shun Saeki
Translator: Adrienne Beck
Release Date: October 7, 2014
Publisher: VIZ Media LLC
Series: Food Wars! (Shokugeki no Soma)
Rating:


It’s going to be a long road while trying to catch up to the current chapters of Food Wars! in Weekly Shonen Jump, but it’s guaranteed to a be a road filled with cooking battles and boys clad only in aprons. A fantastic follow up to the first volume, Food Wars! Vol 2 by Yuto Tsukuda and Shun Saeki is a shonen manga following Soma, the newest student at a prestigious cooking school that boasts a whopping 10% graduation rate. Only the best of the best survive at Totsuki Culinary Academy.

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Jan 27, 2018
New & Upcoming Releases

Review – Binti: The Night Masquerade by Nnedi Okorafor

Binti: The Night Masquerade
By: Nnedi Okorafor
Website: http://www.nnedi.com/
Release Date: January 18, 2018
Publisher: Tor.com
Series: Binti
Received From: Publisher
(All reviews are our own, honest opinions.)
Rating:


The last book in the acclaimed Binti series has been released. Binti: The Night Masquerade by Nnedi Okorafor is the third and last book in the Binti series, a great conclusion to a wonderful series.

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Jan 25, 2018
From Our TBR Pile Manga & Light Novels

Review – Tales of the Abyss: Asch The Bloody by Hana Saito and Rin Niyjo

Tales of the Abyss: Asch the Bloody Vol 1
By: Hana Saito; Rin Niyjo
Release Date: August 23, 2011
Publisher: Bandai Entertainment
Series: Tales of the Abyss: Asch the Bloody
Rating:


I’ll be honest. I think I may have actually squealed out loud when I discovered Tales of the Abyss: Asch the Bloody in their manga collection. I have been a fan of the ‘Tales of’ games for a long time, and Tales of the Abyss remains my favorite of the franchise. Though I initially picked it up out of pure fandom, I found myself intrigued upon reading the description. Tales of the Abyss: Asch the Bloody by Hana Saito and Rin Niyjo follows the story set in the game not from the point of view of Luke, the original main character, but that of Asch, one of the villains and someone very close to Luke.

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Jan 20, 2018
From Our TBR Pile

Review – Down Among The Sticks And Bones by Seanan McGuire

Down Among the Sticks and Bones
By: Seanan McGuire
Website: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31450908-down-among-the-sticks-and-bones
Release Date: June 13, 2017
Publisher: Tor.com
Series: Wayward Children #2
Rating:


I have always loved portal fantasies, those books where a group of children fall through the back of a wardrobe and enter a world of fantasy and magic. Last year, Every Heart A Doorway piqued my interest based on its new spin on this familiar scenario – what happens when someone comes back to our world? Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire is dark, stunningly written, and utterly beautiful.

Down Among the Sticks and Bones has some of the loveliest prose I have read in quite some time. It’s the sort of writing that normally makes my father look fondly at the book in hand and say ‘people don’t write like this anymore’. Reading McGuire’s work is a real treat. I devoured this book; it was a one sitting read.

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Jan 15, 2018
Manga & Light Novels New & Upcoming Releases

Review – Juana and the Dragonewts’ Seven Kingdoms Volume 1 by Kiyohisa Tanaka

Juana and the Dragonewts' Seven Kingdoms Vol. 1
By: Kiyohisa Tanaka
Translator: Adrienne Beck
Release Date: (English) January 16, 2018; (original)
Publisher: Seven Seas
Series: Juana and the Dragonewts' Seven Kingdoms
Received From: Publisher
(All reviews are our own, honest opinions.)
Rating:


I’m always looking for a new fantasy story, a genre which has been just a little bit hard to find these last few years as the isekai genre has taken over just about everything. Juana and the Dragonewts’ Seven Kingdoms by Kiyohisa Tanaka is a beautiful, fun fantasy with a lot of heart. I’ve heard it related to the Ancient Magus’ Bride, and while I’m not completely up to date with either the manga releases or the anime, I can see why. This is a fantasy story, one where a human girl, maybe the last one, finds herself amid a realm of dragon like creatures. But instead of being from the point of view of a human suddenly plunged into a fantastical world, we are given the opposite – a fantastical creature living in a fantastical world finds a human without fully knowing what it is or what to do with it.

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Jan 08, 2018
From Our TBR Pile Manga & Light Novels

Review – Haven’t You Heard? I’m Sakamoto, Vol. 1 by Nami Sano

Haven't You Heard? I'm Sakamoto
By: Nami Sano
Translator: Adrienne Beck
Release Date: (English Translation) August 4, 2017; (original) January 15, 2013
Publisher: Seven Seas
Series: Haven't You Heard? I'm Sakamoto
Rating:


I have made a point to borrow as many manga from my local library as possible. This decision was fueled partially to fray the costs of buying hundreds of volumes a year, but also as an attempt to get the library to purchase more manga titles. One of my recent borrows was Haven’t You Heard? I’m Sakamoto Vol 1 by Nami Sano, a manga in a genre my husband refers to as ‘strange people doing strange things’ but but would also fit into the wonderful ‘beautiful boys who do things well’ genre.

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Jan 04, 2018
From Our TBR Pile Manga & Light Novels

Review – Chi’s Sweet Home Vol. 1 by Konata Konami

Chi's Sweet Home Vol. 1
By: Konata Konami
Translator: Ed Chavez
Release Date: June 29, 2010
Publisher: Verticle
Series: Chi's Sweet Home
Rating:


There are certain books you stumble across repeatedly whether they are mentioned by friends or are included in lists or articles online. One manga I kept coming across is a story about a cat that looked absolutely adorable. I’ve finally read Chi’s Sweet Home, Vol. 1 by Konata Konami.

The story follows Chi, a cute little kitten that gets separated from its mother and siblings only to be found by a little boy visiting a park. Chi is taken home by the family even though they aren’t allowed pets in their apartment. What follows are a series of cute happenings and hi-jinks around Chi’s new home.

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