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Random Anniversary 8: My Brain
The random anniversary comes sooner than usual, not even a full year from the last one! Does this mean I was writing in my journal more, or was…
Zettai BL ni Naru Sekai VS Zettai BL ni Naritakunai Otoko: Konkici
Hot on the heels of last week’s Mission!! comes another powerful title! It was honestly the “zettai” in this one that had me walking to the register with…
Mission!!: Irie Kiwa
How could I resist a book with a title like this? Mission! It immediately conjures up adventure and action, maybe because of the whole Mission: Impossible connection. But…
Ie ga Sukina Hito: Ida Chiaki
I am one of the people in the title of this book—I am a person who loves my house. Well, it’s an apartment, but a quirk of my…
Kamakura Bake Neko Kurabu: Igarashi Daisuke
Cats! Manga! Who doesn’t want to read a cat manga?? There’s a whole magazine dedicated to cat manga! Volume after volume after volume of cat manga! Is it…
Warui Otoko: Nakamura Asumiko
Friends, I have a confession to make. Not only did I not post anything on the smuttiest day of the fujoshi calendar (August 1 because 8/01 can be…
Kujaku no Dance, Dare ga Mita?: Asami Rito
In case you have not guessed from the extreme book nerd vibe of this site, I am not a sporty person. I mean, I have played sports in…
Senjo no Hito: Komiya Lisa Marina
Torch is out here knocking it out of the park again! I know I’ve said it before, but I must say it again: there is maybe no other…
Mochizuki no Karasu: Abe Chisato
Imagine my delight when I popped into my favourite Tokyo bookstore to kill time before meeting a friend for dinner only to find a display of the latest…
Mebaeru: Takase Junko
This novella was yet another random bookstore pick that completely won me over in the first few pages! Sometimes, you just have to trust that the shelves will…
Ball and Chain: Minami Q-ta
I need to take a second here to stretch my writing muscles. I mean, I’ve been writing this whole time, obviously. My job is to write other people’s…
Artist wa Hana o Fumanai: Kohinata Marco
Books so often just sort of happen to me, and I love it that I’ve managed to set my life up in such a way that this is…
Kamimachi: Kyo Machiko
(Before you dig into this post, you should know that it’s all about the ways girls are harmed and how our systems fail them. The discussion is in…
don’t like this: Tsurutani Kaori
Vancouver! Do you want to hang out? Well, good news! I am coming to your warmer climes next month both as a featured guest of the fine Vancouver…
Itemo Tattemo Irarenaino: Battan
My return to Canada is always a bit of a bummer, even beyond the jetlag that grows increasingly terrible the older I get. While I’m delighted to be…
Hon no Sebone ga Saigo ni Nokoru: Shansendo Yuki
I did it once again! I packed up my Tokyo apartment just in time for the Kuroneko guy to come and whisk my bags off to the airport.…
Hikaru ga Shinda Natsu: Mokumokuren
Oof! It’s been a year compressed into a month, friends. Feels like I only yesterday I was telling you about the delights of Edo-era artisans, and yet! It…
Kanda Gokura-cho Shokunin Banashi: Sakaue Akihito
One of the many cool things about bookstores in Japan is they generally have sample booklets of a few of the manga on display, so you can check…
Ironna Watashi ga Honto no Watashi: Various
Am I a bad person for never having heard of Nagashima Yu? I mean, I’m supposed to be at least aware of the general situation in the Japanese…
Famiresu Iko.: Wayama Yama
Obviously, I was going to pick this one up. I love Wayama’s current series in Feel Young, Onna no Sono no Hoshi, and I had a lot of…
Kuroema: Umino Tsunami
The thing about books is that there are a lot of them. And more keep being published literally every day! Not to mention if you’re bilingual or trilingual…
2023: It Happened
Can you believe it? We made it. We’re here at the end of another tumultuous year of plague, still standing. Mostly. The plague part feels less uncertain and…
Harumagedon Densetsu: Yamada Mineko
In my quest to read all the old-school shojo, I keep coming across Sun Comics. They published so many of the books I pick up from the seventies,…
Bye-Bye Atashi no Oniichan: Takeuchi Sachiko
One of the great pleasures of an inveterate book nerd like myself is discovering a new book by an author you love that you had no idea existed…
Nichi Getsu Jittan: Ed. Mateusz Urbanowicz
A thing I am coming to realize is that all worlds are small. If you work in an industry long enough, you will eventually come to know many…
Random Anniversary 7: My Brain
The plague continues, but the journal, comprising a finite number of pages, must necessarily end! And end it has, in just under two years. In my defense, it…
Akari: Kohinata Marco
First things first: this book is gorgeous. Like you feel compelled to linger lovingly on nearly every single panel on every single page levels of gorgeous. Maybe it’s…
Yurei-dan: Yamagishi Ryoko
If I seem to be dipping into Yamagishi’s large oeuvre rather at random, it’s because I am. When I really fall in love with an artist (like battan…
Umi ga Hashiru Endroll: Tarachine Jon
Oof. It’s been a minute, huh? Past me made some scheduling decisions that future me would have immediately rejected had she been consulted. But alas! Time travel is…
Kowai Hanashi: Flowers Anthology 3
It’s certainly an odd feeling to step into the grocery store out of 35-degree heat and see the fall-flavoured snacks on the shelves. Like the shift from short…
Hokago no Etude: Hirune Cyan
All BL all the time! After (way too) many years, it’s time for a new editorial policy here at Brain Central, and I am pleased to announce that…
Smoke Blue no Amenochi Hare: Hamada Kamome
I told you August was going to be a month of BL here at Brain Central, and I would never lie to you. I know August is women…
Through Romance: Fuyuno Umeko
I was talking with a non-manga person the other day about how the manga demographic classifications are more of a holdover from back in the day than a…
Shigoto Owari no Rendez-Vous: Kusama Sakae
Happy Smutmas, friends and fujos! I hope visions of yaoi hands are dancing through your heads, and those stockings hung by the chimney with care are stuffed full…
Seimeishiki: Murata Sayaka
Did you hear the big news? My friends over at Mangasplaining Extra have licensed the dystopian tale Wandering Cat’s Cage by my other friend Torikai Akane. Friends helping…
Tsumetakute Yawaraka: Uozumi Ami
If you follow me on Twitter—the app that is slowly crumbling into the digital sea and leaving us all adrift, trying desperately to stay afloat while we sign…
Genesis—Kono Hikari ga Ochinai Yo Ni: Kohama Tetsuya (ed.)
I’m going to level with you, friends—Tokyo is hot. Real hot. Hotter than I remember. Hotter than my J-friends remember. Hotter than the host of my favourite radio…
Kiyoku Yawaka: Ikuemi Ryo
It is some frantic times over here at Brain Central, folks. While it might feel like I only just got back from Tokyo, by the time you are…
Karaoke Iko!: Wayama Yama
After I read (and loved) Onna no Sono no Hoshi, more than one of you lovely readers came forward to tell me that I should really read Karaoke…
The Transgender Issue: Shon Faye
I really wish this book didn’t need to be written, and I didn’t need to be writing about it. But here we are in TERFacist 2023 when a…
Chakkun: Sora Mizusawa
TCAF was last month, and it was my first time not working the festival since…2008? Usually, I’m glued to the side of a Japanese guest, interpreting for them…
Ryukyu Kitan Bebeku no Noroi: Kohara Takeshi
Have you been to Okinawa? If not, I recommend it. But not in the summer. You will melt. The winter, though! Just when temperatures are dropping in Tokyo,…
Fire!: Mizuno Eiko
Fire is a legend. If you start getting into the history of shojo or just reading older shojo, you will come across people talking about Fire. You don’t…
Parade no System: Takayama Haneko
There’s this D.H. Lawrence quote that’s been hanging around in my head for decades now, but in the vague way of an idea, words from a page you…
Dobugawa: Ikebe Aoi
Since I got back to Canada, I’ve been feeling oddly disconnected in a way that I felt back when I first moved to Japan. I used to feel…
Doujinshi Round-up: Time is a Flat Circle Edition
I keep saying “a couple of years ago,” and then catch myself and have to clarify, “a couple of years before the pandemic, I mean.” It feels like…
Daru-chan: Haruna Lemon
I’m sure I’m not the only book nerd out there who falls in love with a new author and then immediately buys every single other thing said author…
Onna no Sono no Hoshi: Wayama Yama
This is one of those books that chased me around the city until I finally gave in and bought it, much like Harada’s Color Recipe. I’d seen it…
Fashion: Haruna Lemon
It’s no secret that I like clothes. I like the fabric, the notions, the patterns, the styling, the combinations, the occasions. The only shop I like better than…
Kaguyahime: Shimizu Reiko
The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter has long been a favourite of mine, if only because every time I come across it, I am honestly blown away by…