Tag: manga

Book Review

Moon Reads: Bless

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Bless (Vol1 and 2) by Yukino Sonoyama

Rating: MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px

Nothing is perfect, and as such, the reviews in this blog are chaotic. My main aim is to share my thoughts, joy and opinions on a book, not make a publication perfect review. This blog endorses authenticity, showing up and joy over perfection. 

I heard Bless was being made into an anime and the little snippets that were seen reminded me of Paradise Kiss (one of the first manga and anime I consumed and I was won, it's all about fashion and modelling), and Princess Jellyfish (also about clothes and fashion and being yourself), so one about makeup and modelling sounded right up my street (and the snippets were utterly drop dead gorgeous)

The first volume is a good introduction to the two main characters: Aia, who has been scouted as a model and is utterly stunning, but what he really cares about is makeup and is always dreaming up makeup for others. The other is Jun, who is the quiet tall classmate who is always hunching and hiding to be less noticeable, particularly as she has a bunch of freckles.

They end up being the ones representing their class in the school runway fashion contest, low expectations for them, but he convinces to her to be the model and let him do the makeup and look, an as they team up they discover they are both very similar in having secret ambitions of wanting to be more than what everyone assumes for them and also different in one is super organised and the other chaotic and distracted. 

Now, the premise is really awesome, with Aia wanting to do makeup but being stuck as the model and Jun wanting to be a model but thinking she's not the right fit, and then reversing those roles and putting themselves out there. The whole plot/story that follows them while they complete the challenge in school and their first tempting steps attempting to go outside of the school with those dreams was superb. The one downside is that makeup benefits from colour actually being used and the manga is black and white, so the descriptions don't match what you end up seeing on the page and therefore you're less amazed (though some of it is done beautifully). 

The other thing for me was that once the main challenge goes, with the school competition happening and suddenly realising they each wants to pursue this further, we get a bit of Jun pursuing modelling, but we mostly get Aia being super confident and yet not enough, the balance is ood where he doesn't seem entirely true to himself through the two volumes. The Aia you encounter int he first, is not exactly the same throughout the second volume, and we barely see Jun in the second volume. We mostly focus on Aia and makeup, but barely anything for Jun and it almost seems like she was there purely to advance his plot and that's it (which fair but the premise and summaries hint that it's about both of them).

There are some fun moments thoughout boht volumes particularly as they try to figure out what the focus of their school contest entry will be. But also as Aia continues trying to find what he wants to do with makeup and how he wants to approach.

My overall verdict was that it's a story that for once I think I'd rather watch as an anime than read as a manga and I will wait for it to come out to continue the story.
Book Review

Moon Reads: Ghostly Things

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Ghostly Things (Volumes 1, 2 & 3) by Ushio Shirotori

Rating: MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px Grey

Nothing is perfect, and as such, the reviews in this blog are chaotic. My main aim is to share my thoughts, joy and opinions on a book, not make a publication perfect review. This blog endorses authenticity, showing up and joy over perfection.

Welcome to a full series review because sometimes trying to review a single manga volume feels like I am vaguely triyng to not spoil the plot or some volumes are just hard to describe without a lot of references to previous volumes.

Ghostly Things was a whim purchase and after reading the first volume I immediately had to go buy the other two (or initially as many as there were in the story). So that already tells you it was very enjoyable.

The premise is that we meet Yachiho who is moving into her new house on her own because her father is overseas, and the house comes with a few quirks and hauntings. But this does not discourage our lovely gentle heroine, and instead she decides to brave things and keep searching, because she has her own motives to have moved in alone.

The volumes cover a few plot lines, one is the mystery of the house and what it hides, then there is the search Yachiho is doing for a Book of the Dead, we also have our usual school and friends side story, though this adds flavour and some extra adventures, and some antagonists to the mix, and allows the town to show as part of where our story develops.

There is also a little spirit that helps her and is trying to guide her to do the right thing, but the spirit has its own motives and secrets.

The overall story was cute and the creatures, characters and environment were nicely drawn in lots of detail and very fun. The story flows, even though as times it feels a little too short, and I did wish it had one or two more volumes to expand on some parts, but it was still done well in three volumes.

If you like stories about yokai, the spirit world and a few mysteries thrown into the mix, I can recommend this one as a quick read since it is only three volumes and goes by really quickly for an afternoon read if like me, you can’t wait to read the next one.

Book Review

Moon Reads: The Invisible Man & His Soon-to-Be Wife

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The Invisible Man & His Soon-to-Be Wife by Iwatobineko

Rating: MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px Grey

Nothing is perfect, and as such, the reviews in this blog are chaotic. My main aim is to share my thoughts, joy and opinions on a book, not make a publication perfect review. This blog endorses authenticity, showing up and joy over perfection.

As you may already know, I have a soft spot for manga, and when this popped up on my recommendations (I can’t remember where) I had to try it out. The art style looked adorable and the premise too.

The series basically asks, what would happen if you had an invisible man and a blind woman work together and fall in love?

Yakou Shizuka, who is quiet, bashful and blind works at a detective agency as a secretary and assistant. Her boss, Tounome, is a gentleman and the main investigator, with the added talent of being invisible. This is particularly helpful for investigations, even if it can generally be a bit of a difficulty for relationships and other things, but this is not an issue at all for Yakou as she can sense him and know when he’s near.

The fact that Yakou can sense him makes Tounome interested even more on her and so it starts that he decides to invite her out for a date and woo her slowly. So you get a cute slow burn romance story, and you also get a few mysteries and detective agency plots to keep the overall story going. On top of that the agency has two more characters, a human who is super good at tech and a wonderful tracking beastwoman, who also do detective work, and who are quite invested in the developing relationship between Yakou and Tounome.

The first volume is utterly cute and very sweet, it is quite slow but will make you root for them and giggle while the story develops. The “chapters” are short and quick, but they still are fun to read and there is more plot than just their relationship, including the world building happening as the investigations happen, and learning more about the coworkers.

I would recommend it as a soft romance with a little bit of disability, and an interesting take on how to coexist with variety of differences. Very sweet overall.

Book Review

Moon Reads: Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle Vol. 1

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Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle Vol. 1 by Kagiji Kumanomata

Rating: MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px Grey

Read before: No

Ownership: Bought for me since it sounded fun

I can’t remember if this was a recommendation or if it was an accidental find while browsing for new manga to read, but what I do know is that I bought it, and forgot about it until I felt like reading manga again and decided that I really ought to read this first volume and check if I wanted to keep it or not.

Well, I have to say at first I went unsure how this could be a whole series given the premise of a princess that just wants to sleep and is being kept prisoner in a castle by a demon. I was so wrong and I am glad about it.

Our princess is an interesting character that doesn’t actually want to escape, all she wants is to be able to sleep well and you know, have a little bit of peace. So when she starts finding demons and items that might make her sleep better, well, she is a princess on a mission and nothing, not even death will stop her!

I laughed a lot as I read this one. It is a light read because the adventures of her finding a specific item/quest/idea are just small manga chapters and are all very enjoyable. They introduce new demons or characters that the princess focuses on and also new areas at times or new mechanics, and it is fun because you keep seeing what is happening outside the castle and then comparing it to what the princess is doing in the castle and you can’t help but enjoy the whole chaos of it.

I think if you like chaos, a humorous take on the princess kept captive by an evil enemy and what demons do, this is a delightful and funny read with easy breaks in the story and lots of potential and surprises that keep coming through it.

Book Review

Moon Reads: Yuzu the Pet Vet (Vol 1 & 2)

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Yuzu the Pet Vet Volumes 1 and 2 by Mingo Ito

Rating: MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px Grey

Read before: No

Series: Yuzu the Pet Vet

Ownership: Bought it on a shopping trip to London because they looked cute.

Yuzu the Pet Vet starts quite slow, with Yuzu having to move to live with her uncle since her mum is sick and in hospital, but her uncle is a vet and she has to help a little with the animals. But the catch si that she is afraid of animals. However, as you read, the little adventures mean that Yuzu starts paying more attention to the animals and gains confidence.

Each volume was a bunch of short stories, each focused on a visitor to the vet and how Yuzu helps, but it also overall includes more plot like her adapting to her new life, a new school, and dealing with her feelings of how to cope with having her mum being sick in the hospital and not being able to see her much, or feeling it is difficult to see her and not wanting to. They also encourage taking good care of animals and loving your pets, alongside learning from each interaction between the owners of the specific pet and the pet, and it is very cute.

The art style is adorable and the animals are always very cute, and the stories are soft and very child-friendly while at the same time dealing with hard topics at times like illness, death and other challenges but also fear and nicer things like making friends or gaining confidence.

Overall, a nice manga to read with children or to give to children to enjoy on their own. Very soft and lovely, but may cause people to want a pet and to want to be involved more with animals.

Book Review

Moon Reads: Nagata Kabi Manga

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Today I am doing a review of multiple titles because it felt right to bundle them together.

Nagata Kabi has a very interesting set of manga at hand with My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness and the follow-up stories. They are very much a reflection on her life and the challenges she encounters. The very first one talks about how she feels lonely even in company and also trying to discover her identity. Her making this into a manga and sharing it gives her the opportunity to be more “successful” and to have a career, but then she struggles with further mental and more books happen.

The books are intense and very honest about her perception of things as they go, but as you read more and more and get through the volumes she also self reflects on her previous works and how she may have got some things wrong and misunderstood things.

Part of it focuses on her sexuality and the loneliness she feels, that she feels like she cannot cope on her own. It also focuses on the concept of adulthood and what this implies, what success may be conceptualised as, and that sometimes we assume someone has it together but they do not .

The set also explores health and burnout, and other health issues, but overall there is a big focus on mental health and on figuring life out. I found I partly wanted to rush through it but also there was a lot to ponder and reflect on and at times it hit hard and made me ponder my past or decisions. It does have an interesting viewpoint and gives some insight I hadn’t expected to find in this manga and collection of them and I want to keep on reading on how her life goes on and does.

Book Review

Moon Reads: RWBY The Beacon Arc (Full Series)

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RWBY: The Beacon Arc (Full Series) by Bunta Kinami

Rating: MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px

Read Before: Yes, I tried to read the first volume but wasn’t in the mood, apparently, later on I was.

Series: RWBY The Beacon Arc

Ownership: Bought and preordered respectively.

Another Full Series review and this was a short series. For some reason, I had high hopes for it and I struggled a lot to get on with the art of it mixed with the writing. I did enjoy the characters a lot but they were a little too similar in the manga to be able to distinguish them as much as I would have liked, which is why it didn’t get a high rating. It also assumes you have watched the anime, which is all fine but there is no catch-up, nothing beyond “hi, welcome to this story where we gloss over 90 of everything and just do action scenes”.

The story is basically about Ruby getting to the Beacon Academy because she is very talented and can become a Huntress against the Grimm which are monsters in this world. As she starts, she defeats a big villain no one else can and then becomes the captain of her team because she wins a challenge, and then goes on about hunting the big villain and making her way as a team with her enemy.

It felt a little too much of a “perfect one heroine” that does no wrong and if she does, the day still gets saved, her clumsiness is cute and basically it is a collection of all the possible cliches and Mary Sue like things you’d expect but in drawn form in a fantasy world, plus a lot of fan service in how the characters are dressed nad how they show in the manga. It was still an interesting plot and the world is interesting but it was too much a “perfectly perfect cute lady that wow, does no wrong, saves the day can think better than the best adults ever, and wow, so young, much amazing”.

Still, it was a good waste of time and therefore I decided to review it.

Book Review

Moon Reads: Goodbye, my Rose Garden (Full Series)

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Goodbye, my Rose Garden by Dr. Pepperco (Full Series)

Rating: MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px

Read before: No

Ownership: Bought for my personal collection

Series: Goodbye, my Rose Garden, 3 volumes total.

I have been reading a lot of series, particularly graphic novels and manga, and sometimes it is hard to review a single book without adding spoilers, so now I will be adding some Full Series reviews.

Today I will talk about Goodbye, my Rose Garden. It is a female to female (F/F) series set in semi Victorian era England and focuses on Hanako, who dreams of becoming a novelist. Of course, this is not an easy path so she finds a job as a personal maid to a young noblewoman/lady. This seems to be a wonderful job since the lady, Alice Douglas, likes reading and encourages Hanako’s dream until she makes a very unusual request. Hanako has to kill Alice and end her suffering as she doesn’t deserve to be alive.

Initially, Hanako refuses but agrees to consider it if necessary. And so the story develops into a slow burn romance where Hanako feels it is not suitable to fall for her employer and therefore should tread lightly, but also, she is her personal maid and as such should do her best to help her lady. Alongside this, she has to figure out if she can convince Alice to bail out of the request to kill her, or why she thinks she should be killed. Add to that the path of attempting to become a novelist, Alice’s jealous fiance, and Hanako’s own past, and it is a soft romance with some high stakes.

I usually try the first volume of a series and decide, and wasn’t sure what to expect, but honestly, as I read I knew I had to get the rest. Goodbye, my Rose Garden packs a lot in very little space and it also does a good job of keeping all the plot lines and subplots going rather than abandoning them or half forgetting they are there, which was part fo what made it much dearer for me.

If you want a soft F/F manga set in early twentieth-century England, that focuses on the love of reading and on roses and just being dedicated to living life, this is the one for you.

Book Review

Moon Reads: The Demon Prince of Momochi House

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The Demon Prince of Momochi House by Aya Shouoto

Rating: MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px Grey

Ownership: Bought the first one to try, enjoyed it a lot, and bought the rest of the series.

Total volumes: 16

Series: Yes, it is complete.

This is a series review, which means I won’t review just one of the books but rather the series as a whole, mostly because it is hard to not spoil a review when you do it by volume, but doing the whole set is probably a better way to bring others to read it.

The Demon Prince of Momochi House follows the story of Himari Momochi as she inherits a house at 16. When she comes to it, she finds there’s already a young boy and his companions living there as “squatters”. But in truth, they are there because it is their duty to protect the gate between the Ayakashi and the humans.

Himari decides to stay as she owns the house and she is the “landlady”. The manga follows the story of Himari and Aoi, who is the appointed Nue, or keeper of the House and the powers that keep Ayakashi at bay from entering the human world. There are several plots going through the volumes and several subplots that may last for a volume of two.

The central plot points are around Aoi and his past, and what made him come to Momochi house. We also explore a little of Himari and her past, but mostly we explore her own feelings, how she is managing with moving and what she wants to do in the future. She’s a cheerful and loving person so this whole thing is interesting. Then we have the Shikigami of Aoi, who are Ayakashi bound to him, and we follow their stories and why they came to be with Aoi. There is also a plotline about the human world and Himari being in school, and the friendships she makes there.

Overall, it is a fun book to read, it does have some slightly cringy moments, but in general, it does a good job at developing each of the plots and giving the characters life. As I got closer and closer to the final volumes I kept wanting more and by volume 14 I couldn’t believe there were only two more to go before the story ended. But by the end of it, initially, I was surprised by how it was meant to end, or at least how the volume was setting it up to end, but actually was satisfied with the true ending of it.

I like the fact it is a closed story, and complete, the magic and spiritual elements kept it fun and the characters that appear and become regulars become quite dear to you. Overall it is a silly cosy story about a house that has personality and the people in it trying to keep everyone safe in their own way.

Book Review

Moon Reads: Paradise Kiss

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Paradise Kiss (20th Anniversary Edition) by Ai Yazawa

Rating: MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px Grey

Read before: Yes, just not this particular omnibus presentation

Ownership: Bought as a treat once I found it existed.

Spoiler free review: No

Series: Paradise Kiss, this edition contains the full series.

Content warnings: Nudity, mild violence, mild sadomasochism, sexuality/sex

Paradise Kiss was one of my first mangas I ever read and to this day I still love it. It is about a young student, Yukari, who is trying to find meaning in her life and is doing her best to fulfill expectations, until she accidentally gets “discovered” by a group of fashion design students who think shed make the perfect model for their final project.

The full story follows Yukari and George, alongside the rest of the atelier and Yukari’s own friends and family as she initially rejects the proposal to be a model and then realises that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. So she “joins” the atelier as their model and starts spending more and more time with them, which also means more time with George, with whom she establishes a relationship.

The manga is full of fashion desing, lots of amazing looks, a lot of relationships happening and things going on and it is just a delight to read, or at least it was to me. One thing ot mentionis that George has an interest in sadomasochism and can be manipulative nad abusive at times to Yukari, but it is part of the story that their relationships develops as it goes. There is also the relationship of the other atelier members and how they visualise George.

Overall, it has a special vibe and the young me that wanted to be a fashion designer loved it, plus it explores bisexuality, has a queer character and a lot of representation and alternative ways of life that show that it isnt all one way to make it and way to live. On top of that, the story doesn’t end when Yukari models for them, instead it suddenly opens a world of opportunities for her and a modelling career, so it is a good interesting show of what choices one can make and opportunities that we take or not.

I cannot recommend this enough as a manga to read, however, as per above I do highlight that it has some interesting topics and some content warnings that are there for a reason. This isn’t all honey and fashion and good vibes. It has a lot of tough topics and a lot of hard moments.

If manga isn’t your thing, you can always go the anime or live action way. I have watched the anime a few times but still haven’t the live action. It is good fun and only 12 episodes long. And overall, regardless of format, it is a well contained story that shows many sides of a coin and about making choices and taking opportunities.