recommendations

sachi’s book of revelation: an elementary school student is responsible for the fate of humanity. god can’t decide whether to destroy humans or let them keep living. he sends a demon and an angel to earth to follow around sachi, the representative of the human race, and score her based on her goodness and badness. lighthearted and very, very funny. never too saccharine.

domu: a child’s dream: katsuhiro otomo, the legendary comic artist behind akira, crafted one of the most striking short mangas i’ve ever had the pleasure of being exposed to early on in my comics obsession. what appears to be a complex murder mystery unravels into a mind-bending exploration of how to portray psychic powers onto a comic page and make the reader feel it instead of simply witnessing it. the art on the pages swirls and churns, making even the reader dizzy and disoriented. hell of an ending.

dorohedoro: a deliciously grotesque sci-fi/fantasy story revolving around a mysterious, lizard-headed man named caiman (who has an entire man in his head who enigmatically tells caiman’s victims whether or not they were the ones who killed him) and his best friend nikaido. the pair get embroiled in battles against magic-wielding gangsters, petty devils, and knife combat expert drug-dealers, all of whom have a stake in uncovering caiman’s true identity. hysterical, dark, and engrossing with a one-of-a-kind sense of style.

sachi’s book of revelation domu: a child’s dream dorohedoro

the mysterious tatari-chan :an unfortunate girl places curses on her terrible classmates in retaliation for how they wrong her. beautifully inked and feels very 1970s despite being published in the 2000s and often feels like a fun throwback. the author, inuki kanako, has a huge catalog of similarly themed and executed manga which are all loads of cheesy fun. i can never say i was bored reading her back catalog and i was especially engrossed in those gorgeous inks.

hook and loop club: cute one-shot about two boys who find a knife that can slice anything, leaving behind velcro where the object is severed. it’s all fun and games until…well. hopefully there’s a way to put things back together?

ningyou no hitoridachi: a very sweet one-shot about a living porcelain doll that is donated to an orphanage. she befriends the first girl who notices her animation and they learn life skills together.

the mysterious tatari-chan hook and loop club ningyou no hitoridachi

life-man: life man is a superhero who works at an izakaya, watches youtube videos in his spare time, and sometime catches a cold. like “one punch man” if the protagonist didn’t have any powers at all. has a lot of heart, devoid of cynicism, and the humor mostly stems from life man’s ability to communicate with others without speaking a word. he’s a stoic guy externally but on the inside he’s just kind of a guy. there’s no big epic action to be found here, just a regular superhero living his day to day.

paperakyu: one of my favorite comics i’ve read in a long time, as of writing this short review. a virus called “paperakyu” causes people’s heads to turn into butt-crabs. the story follows the ever positive and upbeat sachio, who was born with paperakyu, through his tumultuous childhood and adulthood, but the story is not without some really, REALLY incredible comedy beats and absurd situations. lots of heart, very weird in a really engaging way. takes its subject matter as seriously as required to sell the audience on its story but not to seriously as to lose sight of the silliness of it all. what an incredible story.

samenai machi no kissaten: a woman wakes up one morning to discover that she’s in a coffee shop she often visits in her dreams. with no alarm or sense of urgency to return home, she makes herself useful around the shop and chats with the regulars. very cute. not very deep, but very cute.

life-man paperakyu samenai machi no kissaten

SLAPPY: a one-shot about a washout from idol auditions who finds a new passion in skateboarding. really awesome art style. short and sweet.

spirited cake shop: another one-shot: a high school girl inherits her grandmother’s cake shop after she passes, despite the fact that she hates the taste of cake. it turns out her distaste is the result of a curse put on her by a spirit whose offering she ate as a child. to remove the curse, the girl must learn to bake like her grandmother and satiate the refined tastes of the yokai who have begun to flit to the shop after hours.

teary tantan noodles: one-shot about a young woman who is a regular at an unpopular chinese restaurant. the shop is closing down soon, but before that happens, the typically icy proprietress promises to make her tantan noodles. a little investigation into the depths of loss.

slappy spirited cake shop teary tantan noodles

the fable: what if you were autistic and your special interest was murder. a surprisingly pleasant story about a guy who is kind of weird, but not offputting, just awkward and a little distant from humanity as a result of his upbringing. he and his assistant, who presents herself as his sister, are directed to go “live an ordinary life” for at least a year after being raised to be killers since birth. they’re pretty bad at it and get deep into some hijinks as a consequence of trying to be normal. his sister is one of the most hilariously demented characters of all time.

usotsuki non-chan, jigoku ni ochiro: a short, dark one-shot about two troubled girls and their relationship first as children and then as adults. one girl is a compulsive liar, the other girl is obsessed with her liar friend. intriguing little character study with a satisfyingly unpleasant ending.

catch the smile!: extremely stupid one-shot about a cool and collected celebrity thief and the extremely weird cop who chases him. i laughed. i don’t know!

the fable usotsuki non-chan, jigoku ni ochiro catch the smile!

i tried crayfish fishing at the sanzu river: one-shot about a recently deceased woman who comes to the shore of the sanzu river and is encouraged by another spirit to take a closer look at the strange ecosystem surrounding the shores of the dead. really cute. 

i want to go back home: an ordinary japanese salary man is transported to another worl- hey! come back here! i saw you start to turn to leave as i described an isekai! what if i told you it had a vintage manga style reminiscent of shigeru mizuki and was mostly focused on the gormless non-adventures of the protagonist. he gets shifted around from nation to nation taking on new, menial jobs because he’s kind of a shitty gacha pull. really charming in spite of the stink isekai recommendations come with. trust me here!

eko eko azarak and mansect: two 1970s manga by koga shinichi with very different paces and executions. eko eko azarak is an episodic manga dedicated to the black magic exploits of misa, a girl from a family of black magic practitioners who isn’t afraid to turn her skills on her classmates for both just and spurious reasons. her fickle nature is a charm point, in my opinion, because she always keeps me guessing. on the other hand, mansect feels like you’re running a marathon: the story starts and does not stop to take a breath until the story just ends as bizarrely as it came. two great early horror manga, one of which wavers between disturbing and sweet, the other a balls-to-the-wall, nonstop bad dream.

i tried crayfish fishing at the sanzu river i want to go back home mansect

there’s no way i can draw yuri manga!: if i say anything, it will spoil it. very funny little one-shot.

yuka’s way of expressing love: one-shot about yuka, who is trying to ask out her clueless moron classmate. unfortunately, she’s weird, so it’s not really getting through to him.

shinya shokudou: absolutely wonderful manga about an izakaya that’s open until the wee hours of the morning. if you can name it and they have the ingredients, the shop owner will try his best to make it. the actually meat of the manga is the stable of unusual customers making unusual requests. because of his business hours, the owner’s main clientele are sex workers, gay club owners, yakuza, troublemakers, salarymen avoiding going back home, and older people looking for something to do. they’re pleasant, gruff, offputting, affectionate, annoying people. just like real life. one of my favorites. extremely charming art style as well.

there’s no way i can draw yuri manga! yuka’s way of expressing love shinya shokudou

the ghost doesn’t show up: an occult club consisting of an experienced exorcist senior, a ghost-sensitive (and displeased about it) young man, and a ghost photographer who can’t actually see ghosts, get into all kind of trouble trying to find unexplainable phenomenon. the photographer is actually a gifted, almost god-like, natural at dispelling ghosts…which would be useful if she could see them. really funny and cute. the characters are a real treat in this one. 

nikubami honegishimi: a delectably creepy manga that’s episodic with a long, overarching plot. the artist has a serious knack for making a horror manga that isn’t just chomping “fuan no tane”‘s flavor. the art is legitimately novel and fresh feeling, instilling each page with an increasing sense of palpable unease as the protagonists in the past, as well as their family in the current day, try to delve into the darkest secrets they can dig up. another horror manga with a winning main cast, in my opinion. their diametrically opposed designs are really striking.

thermae romae (redux): an all time great manga, now with a sequel! an ancient roman architect specializing in bathhouses keeps slipping through time to modern day japan, where he takes what he learns about bathing culture back with him to rome. hysterical. all the people in japan just think he’s a kind of weird westerner.

the ghost doesn’t show up nikubami honegishimi thermae romae

more to come!

anti-recommendations

green box: utter dogshit manga building off an archetype that was evidently inescapable at its time of publication: the light yagami wannabe. the protagonist is stuck in an inescapable green box and can only request items if he is willing to press a button that kills everyone in a country of his choosing. the twist is so unbelievably stupid it must be read to be believed.

mister ajikko: hands down the most bullshit cooking manga i’ve ever read in my entire life. makes you questions whether or not the author has any concept of what food is supposed to taste like or its purpose in human culture. the titular ajikko is a child whose cooking is inexplicably viewed as delightful by all the adults around him despite the fact that he keeps doing shit like replacing rice with croutons or potatoes with avocados or such nonsense. vile. a must read if you want to get mad for no reason.

dead word puzzle: another manga featuring not-light yagami, but this time he has to solve crossword puzzles in a random, senseless death game. good thing he’s the most brilliant, special boy in the whole wide world ever. stupid ass manga. i don’t know if something’s getting lost in translation or what but i found this to be impenetrable b.s.

green box ajikko-san dead word puzzle