Bleach vols. 41-43Story & Art: Tite KuboTranslation: Joe YamazakiAdaptation: Lance CaselmanPublisher: Viz Even after all these years reading this manga I still play the Number one song in the back of my head when reading the fighting sequences.  While the world may not ever know why Tite Kubo decided to call this book Bleach, but at this point does anybody really care what this series is called?  Anyone else find themselves calling Ichigo Bleach at times?  I can’t be the only one. The stakes have never been higher. Orihime is still held captive at the hands of Aizen and Ichigo and pals have to rescue her before it’s too late. …

5 Centimeters per SecondStory: Makoto ShinkaiArt: Yukiko SeikeTranslation: Melissa and Taka SanakaPublisher: Vertical Boy having a kid and updating your website really takes a toll on you.  Anyway after a small break.  Your manga review crew is back! We start off with a book based on one of my favorite anime.  It is based on the movie with the same title by Makoto Shinkai.  I remember watching Voices of a Distant Star and people comparing Shinkai to Miyazaki and his movies to those of Studio Ghibli.  For some reason I seem to be the only to disagree and compare him to Nicholas Sparks.  I always end up crying tears of…

Airgear vol. 21Story & Art: Oh! GreatTranslation: Stephen PaulLettering: Dave SharpePublisher: Kodansha I ever reveal that anytime I read this series, I want to dust off my old rollerblades and go outside and bust my ass?  Because, that is exactly what would happen if I did that.  I’m 33 now, I can’t be doing silly things like that; bones would take too long to heal and then I’d have to take time off work.  Oh to be young again, thank you Airgear for making me relive those young days, however.  If you aren’t familiar with AirGear it is a manga by Oh Great, who not only has a badass name,…

Story & Art: Hiro MashimaTranslation: William FlanaganPublisher: Del Rey I was surprised by how much I enjoyed volumes 1 and 2 of this series. I’m not a big wizard fan (let the Harry Potter fan-boy emails come) and I really got bored with Rave Master, because Mashima never stepped outside of his formula and the story was going nowhere. But, this was something that brought me back to my child hood and I really got that sense of adventure when Natsu, Lucy, and Happy took off for Fairy Tail. Now the Dark Guild Eisenwald are going head to head with Fairy Tail for the Lullaby (no, not what you think,…

Castlevania Curse of Darkness vol. 1Story & Art: Kou SasakuraTranslation: Ray YoshimotoAdaptation: Jeremy BlackPublisher: Tokyopop As a kid I don’t there was a better videogame experience then locking my room in the middle of the night and playing through Castlevania in the middle of a storm. All the sense of excitement and horror was intensified by the crack of thunder. This is the first time I have read a Castlevania comic. I wasn’t at all interested in the IDW series, but the cover to Curse of Darkness really got my attention. Although this particular manga is not based on Simon Belmont’s story, it is based on one of my favorite…

Dr. Slump vol. 15Story & Art: Akira ToriyamaTranslation: Alexander O. SmithPublisher: Viz I always wondered if his editors at the time had made Toriyama keep going with this series if it would have turned into something like Dragon Ball Z. I can see it now: Dr Slump Zeta!!! It’s a good thing that his editors weren’t that pushy back then. There is a new kid in the Norimaki household and his name is Turbo! If you were expecting a normal baby without powers, well you are reading the wrong manga! After being ran over by a spaceship and brought back to life Turbo develops telekinetic powers and that makes changing…

Cowa!Story & Art: Akira ToriyamaTranslation: Alexander O. SmithPublisher: Viz Being a Toriyama fan has been really hard over the years. After reading everything he has done and collecting the Japanese tonkabon, it gets really hard to wait for the next Toriyama project. I remember seeing Cowa pictures a few years back, but I’m really glad Viz went on and brought the manga over to the States. This particular work contains all of the things people expect of Toriyama; action, gags, and Toriyama’s signature drawing style with a kiddie twist. There are also elements in this book I have never seen in a Toriyama book; a real kiddie simple story, that…

Aspirin vol. 1Story & Art: Eun-Jeong KimTranslation: Soo-Kyung KimAdaptation: Che GilsonPublisher: Tokyopop I’m not sure how many reviews you are going to read that include a joke about having a headache and getting some Aspirin…so I will spare you the lame intro and just move on to the book. Hell, even in the back of the book they make a joke about temporary relief of pains and side effects. I guess I really didn’t do that good of a job at sparing you a lame intro, sorry. Lord When Ondar accidently breaks the crystal orb he accidentally releases three powerful demons loose and King Dan-Goon orders the fool Ondar to…

Berserk vols. 21 & 22Story & Art: Kentaro MiuraTranslation: Duane JohnsonPublisher: Dark Horse Alright, it has been a while since we have done manga reviews. Getting married and going on your honeymoon does put a damper on things. But, we are back and took some manga to read with us on the plane. Of course you know that I had to take Berserk with me, I have stated before that every time I get a new volume, I put everything else I’m doing down and read non-stop. There is nothing better than the sensation you get when reading about demons eating and destroying humans while your plane hits some heavy…

This Review was Submitted by Thomas Pfeiffer Story & Art: CLAMPPublisher: Del Rey Watanuki’s a normal teenaged high school kid, well except for the fact that he’s suffering from the Ichigo epidemic of seeing ghosts and ghoulies, who accidentally stumbles into a mystic shop run by an arrogant, crazy lush named Yuko, the space-time witch. Yuko’s specialty just so happens to be in fixing people’s “problems” in exchange for something equally important. For Watanuki that happens to be his “ghost-seeing” problem in exchange for Watanuki becoming the indentured servant for the witch. Watanuki’s day to day adventures include cooking, cleaning, shopping, acquiring the latest alcoholic beverage Yuko has the taste…