Arai Rie: X ~ Peke vol. 3
Peke, I think, is usually regarded as the first progressive yonkoma of mainstream shojo manga. It was about the first one to contain violence, sex, black humour, and absurdities, when the majority of shojo manga comedy at the time...
Ayahana Min: Akazukin Chacha vol. 08
I'm not interested in the anime Akazukin Chacha, but I've read the manga since it began to run in Ribon, and I've always loved it. It's one of the veeeeeery few Ribon manga that actually crack me up (the...
Ayahana Min: Akazukin Chacha vol. 09
I love this cover. Seravy/Dorothy is one of the very few het pairings I wholeheartedly support. But only because it's so funny. The cover fits this volume well. If I loved Riiya in volume 8, I love Seravy in...
Ayahana Min: Akazukin Chacha vol. 10
This might be the most hilarious volume of Chacha in a while. From the first episode, in which Seravy's father turns out to be a beautiful lady who is actually a giant lizard, to the yonkoma manga at the...
CLAMP: RG Veda vol. 1-10
As CLAMP manga goes, I thought RG Veda was very good. Up until about volume seven or so, I was reading it with much pleasure. The dark storyline fits my taste, the characters are no-too-stereotypical, and even the hinted...
Ikeno Koi: Tokimeki Midnight vol. 1
Ikeno Koi's Tokimeki Tonight was one the first manga I ever read and also one of my first and biggest fannish obsessions. (That is, along with Patalliro. Because dude, Patalliro.) Tokimeki Midnight can be considered an alternative universe fanfiction of...
Ikeno Koi: Tokimeki Tonight ~ Hoshi no yukue
Tokimeki Tonight is the longest running series of Ribon magazine, and one of the longest shojo manga ever. It began serialization in Ribon in 1982, and concluded in 1994 with 30 volumes of tankobon. It was one of the...
Ima Ichiko: Hyakkiyakôshô vol. 8
One warning: if you do not actually understand Japanese fully but can follow most manga, you probably shouldn't pick up Ima Ichiko. She'll ruin your confidence in your Japanese abilities. So much text! No furigana! Not-linear-at-all stories! But it's...
Kawahara Izumi: Kôshien no sora ni warae!
When it's hot outside, it's nice to be reminded of people who have it a hundred times hotter than me. In this case I'm talking of the highschool baseball teams of Japan, who gather at Kôshien (name of a...
Kishimoto Ryoko: Hiizuru tokoro no tenshi bunko vol. 1
A fictional account of the life of the historical figure Shôtoku Taishi, who was a member of the ruling class of Japan a thousand and some years ago. The only thing I know about Shôtoku Taishi is how he...
Kouga Yun: LOVELESS vol. 01-04
I've told this story a few times before, but I don't think here. Stop me if I'm beginning to sound like an old lady who can't even remember what she babbled about to her grandchildren this morning. I first met...
Maki Yoko: SoraSora (in Ribon)
First impression: Wow, Maki Yoko surely had improved her art since this ... Second impression: Wow, she sure has forgotten how to construct a plot since this ... Maki Yoko is drawing Aishiteruze Baby in Ribon right now, and...
Maya Mineo: Astarot bunko vol. 1
Astarot is, according to this manga (I have little knowledge of Christian/Jewish mythology), a "Devil Duke" and one of the four strongest demons of Hell. He has long black hair and is rather good-looking, but his personality is comparatively...
Maya Mineo: Patalliro! vol. 19
Patalliro! (this being the official spelling, though you'll also find the variations Patariro and Patarillo) is a series about crazy kids who happen to be kings, gay MI6 agents, and bad puns. I don't really care to explain the...
Maya Mineo: Patalliro! vol. 20
The end to the Balcolan vs. Balcolan arc. "Tanuki" makes me laugh no matter how many times I look at the page; I just love it that Patalliro crashes into the final battle to ruin he serious atmosphere totally....
Maya Mineo: Rashaanu! vol. 1
What Maya Mineo wrote before he hit a goldmine with Patalliro. Actually the structure of those two series are pretty similar, so I don't know why Rashaanu ended after eight volumes and Patalliro continued to well over 70 volumes...
Midorikawa Yuki: Akaku saku koe vol. 1
A series of short stories focusing on Karashima, a boy with a voice so beautiful he can make anyone do anything just by speaking to them. The premise is lovely and so is the title, but I have to...
Midorikawa Yuki: Akaku saku koe vol. 2
I think this series relies a bit too much on its premise. The general theme is "Karashima has an ability which could potentially make him a very dangerous person; Karashima tries to supress this possibility by keeping away from...
Nasu Yukie: Flower Destroyer
I don't really like this series. It may have something to do with how I read the sequel (Dark Age) before this one, I'm not sure. Or maybe it's just because the protagonist is boring and the other characters don't...
Nasu Yukie: Sorekara doshitano? Koneko-chan
For a brief while I considered writing something about Yoake mae, bokura wa ... which is another one of Nasu Yukie's recent BL tankobon, but then I thought, "Why? Why would I want to review it knowing full well that...
Ohkami Mineko: Gekka kajin ~ Lumen Lunae vol. 02
I currently have Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor For Organ (BWV 565) playing in the background. (It's the scary ta-ta-taaaaa ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta organ thing you hear in cheesey horror flicks.) It's very appropriate, although I didn't calculate it...
Osakabe Mashin: Toriko vol. 2
I haven't read volume one, but I don't expect that's necessary. Osakabe Mashin always seems to write porny shojo-manga about a pre-pubescent young girl bought by a handsome guy and made his sex toy. Then this pre-pubescent young girl...
Ragawa Marimo: Shanimuni GO vol. 17
I am forever one volume or two behind in this series (18 came out just a few days ago, I think). That combined with Ragawa taking periodical breaks in Hana to Yume with this series and the tankobon publishing thus...
Shimizu Reiko: Himitsu ~ The Top Secret vol. 1
This is a good book. Good characters, good art, good original concept, good story. I'll never again read it, though. Nope, not me. Himitsu is a collection of two short stories, not related to each other besides in basic...
Shimizu Reiko: Wild Cats vol. 1
Features two short manga about a boy who finds a lion kit on the street and takes it home. Yes, it's set in Japan. No, I don't know what the lion was doing there. But that doesn't matter! It's...
Takemiya Keiko: Isalone Densetsu vol. 1
Takemiya wrote the very first real shonen-ai manga back in the 70s and is as such most famous for that, but she's a prolific and diverse lady who has written historical epics, space opera epics, fantasy epics, and all...
Takemiya Keiko: Isalone Densetsu vol. 2
At the end of volume one Tiokia (the hermaphrodite prince of Isalone) had entered a gate to an ancient civilization while Isalone attacked Ishka. Inside the gate and under Ishka they found an ancient city with advanced magic/science (?)...
Takemiya Keiko: Isalone Densetsu vol. 3
This volume is mostly dedicated to Lukish. The deal with the supporters go as far as to an attempted assassination of Lukish (his mother dies instead), and seeing that it has gone far enough, the supporters decide to marry...
Tanemura Arina: Fullmoon o sagashite vol. 6
Errrr. Don't ask me to summarize this? Please? I honestly can't remember what happened in volume five, except Izumi-kun was captured by Jona-san, and I have no idea how Ôshige found out about Fullmoon's disease. As I can't really...
Tanemura Arina: Fullmoon o sagashite vol. 7
On the version I have there is an ad for the Shueisha "Summer Comic Fair" of 2004. They abbreviate this to ... "NatsuKomi". Which just happens to be an abbreviation of "Summer Comic Market", too. You know, Comiket? That...
Yoshinaga Fumi: Kodomo no taion
Yoshinaga Fumi has this odd ability to write good manga with happy endings which make me depressed. Take the story, Kodomo no taion. A 13-year-old boy comes to his father and tells him he might have made a girl...
Yoshizumi Wataru: Ultra Maniac vol. 1
Ayu is an ordinary junior high student who has never been interested in supernatural things. She is in love with Kaji-kun, the ace of the baseball team, and she acts cool and collected so he's going to think well...
Yoshizumi Wataru: Ultra Maniac vol. 2
Wah, a lot of things happen in this volume and in a convoluted way, it's difficult to make a summary. Following the events of volume one, Nina tries to tell Ayu about the true Kaji-kun, but Ayu won't believe...