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Merry Month of Manga: ORFINA
It's time to take a look at another failed fantasy manga from CMX, although this one is less about fairy tale romance and more about epic ba...
Merry Month of Manga: BLACK CLOVER
Weekly Shonen Jump doesn't dabble too much in fantasy these days, and the most recent example is...divisive, to say the least. BLACK CLOVER ...
Merry Month of Manga: DRAGON GOES HOUSE-HUNTING
What's the bigger fantasy here: a gentle dragon who only wants a house of his own, or the very idea of being able to afford to buy or…
Merry Month of Manga: BEYOND THE CLOUDS
Thankfully, there are more recent fantasy series that is not only appropriate for kids, but also legitimately good all on its own. BEYOND TH...
Merry Month of Manga: PRINCESS PRINCE
Once upon a time, if you wanted a fairy-tale-style shojo fantasy, you had to settle for books like this. Thank goodness for progress. PRINC...
Merry Month of Manga: MUSHOKU TENSEI: JOBLESS REINCARNATION
Isekai fantasy manga are all too often power fantasies for their readers, and sometimes those power fantasies can go in some obnoxious or da...
Merry Month of Manga: LOUIE THE RUNE SOLDIER
LOUIE THE RUNE SOLDIER ( Maho Senshi Riui ), based on the light novel series written by Ryou Mizuno and character designs by Mamoru Yokota...
Merry Month of Manga: KONOSUBA: GOD'S BLESSING ON THIS WONDERFUL WORLD
It's a miracle! A modern isekai manga that neither bored nor infuriated me! KONOSUBA: GOD'S BLESSING ON THIS WONDERFUL WORLD ( Kono Subarash...
Merry Month of Manga: MOURYOU KIDEN: LEGEND OF THE NYMPH
Once again I found myself staring down another Tamayo Akiyama manga. Could it possibly fare better than the likes of Zyword and Hyper Rune...
Merry Month of Manga: SLEEPY PRINCESS IN THE DEMON CASTLE
Finding a modern fantasy manga that has nothing to do with light novels is hard enough. Finding one of those that's a comedy is rarer still...
Merry Month of Manga: THE DUNGEON OF BLACK COMPANY
Today's review exists because someone said "you know what a dungeon-crawling fantasy needs? CAPITALISM!" THE DUNGEON OF BLACK COMPANY ( Me...
Merry Month of Manga: RESTAURANT TO ANOTHER WORLD
When it comes to fantasy manga these days, it seems that the only thing more popular than sending random Japanese people to alternate world...
Merry Month of Manga: THE DEVIL IS A PART-TIMER
You know, we see so many stories about people travelling (by choice or by death-induced force) to other worlds. What you don't see as ofte...
Merry Month of Manga: THE LIZARD PRINCE
It's been too long since we've covered a CMX manga on here. They always had shojo fantasy series that were always interesting, even if they...
Merry Month of Manga: DRAGON HALF
This month marks the ninth anniversary of The Manga Test Drive. It's honestly kind of fantastical that I've been doing this for so long, mu...
Review: DEMON SLAYER
The 2010s was a sterling decade for Weekly Shonen Jump as far as content was concerned, with a steady and fairly diverse selection of big ...
Review: BOBOBO-BO BO-BOBO
The 2000s produced a lot of Weekly Shonen Jump 's bigger (and longer) hits, but for every hit there were duds like this. BOBO-BO BO-BOBOBO, ...
Dr. Slump, Fist of the North Star, Oh! My Goddess, Oh! My Goddess
Review: YU-GI-OH!
People forget this particular series started out as a Weekly Shonen Jump series, but is it worth remembering over 30 years later? YU-GI-OH!...
Review: DR. SLUMP
Once again we're looking at a month of Weekly Shonen Jump titles, starting with one of the oldest titles from the magazine to ever see prin...
Review: VOICES OF A DISTANT STAR
A romance set against the backdrop of space sounds epic, but stories like this prove that it can be intimate and longing as well. VOICES OF ...
Review: SATURN APARTMENTS
Of course, not every sci-fi work is so old, so storied, so action-packed. Sometimes it's more about just trying to live your life while li...
Review: ASTRO BOY
This month we're going to look at some science fiction manga, and if we're going to do that we might as well start with the sci-fi manga th...
Review: YOU'RE MY PET
Of course, just because a romance is strange does not mean it is inherently bad or that the manga itself is lacking, as today's example pro...
Review: PRIMITIVE BOYFRIEND
Normally we here at the Manga Test Drive spend February looking at bad romance manga, but after this last year we need something of a break ...
Review: TOKYO BABYLON
Since we have been mercifully spared the anime adaptation of this series until the spring, now's the time to talk about one of CLAMP's most...
Review: SUKI: A LIKE STORY
Well, it might have gotten off to a slow start, but it's January, which means it's time for yet another CLAMP Month. This one is going to ...
2020 In the Rear View Mirror (and Holiday Giveaway Winner)
First of all, I have to thank everyone who participated in this year's Holiday Review Giveaway. I've never gotten so many responses in the 8 1/2 years I've…
Holiday Review: THE ROSE OF VERSAILLES
Yeah...anyone who has been reading this blog for a while or follows me on Twitter knows that this review has been a long time coming. After...
Holiday Review: SPY X FAMILY
The holidays are a time about gathering with family and loved ones, something that's a lot harder to do this year, so why not read a manga t...
Holiday Review: ENIALE & DEWIELA
Speaking of making great art this year, there are few mangaka making art as great as Witch Hat Atelier creator Kamome Shirahama. This year...
Holiday Reviews: KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF EIZOUKEN!
We've spent most of this month honoring some of the best (and worst) art that manga in 2020 had to offer. It's only fitting then that we lo...
Holiday Reviews: BLOOD ON THE TRACKS
If you wanted something just as serious as My Broken Mariko but far more chilling, then 2020 delivered just that with Vertical's release of...
Holiday Review: MY BROKEN MARIKO
There was another notable josei one-shot that came out late this year. It's all about grief and loss. In that sense, it feels like the per...
Holiday Review: MAKEUP IS NOT (JUST) MAGIC
The strangest josei manga we got this year was also technically another nonfiction manga in the same vein as something like My Lesbian Exper...
Holiday Review: SWEAT AND SOAP
Is it strange that one of the sweetest, sexiest romance manga I read all year wasn't the one about buff fireman but instead one involving a ...
Holiday Review: FIRE IN HIS FINGERTIPS
This year has been a stellar one for manga aimed at adult women. Not all of them are strictly josei, but the variety and amount out there ...
Holiday Review: THE WITCH AND THE BEAST
But that's enough of high fantasy. Let's wrap up this subject with some urban fantasy aimed at an older audience. THE WITCH AND THE BEAST ...
Holiday Review: A WITCH'S PRINTING OFFICE
Naturally we have to cover at least one isekai title. The more of them we get in the US, the more esoteric their particular gimmicks get. ...
Holiday Review: WHO SAYS WARRIORS CAN'T BE BABES?
That being said, there was a lot more fantasy manga starring women this year, especially after the success of series like Ascendance of a Bo...
Holiday Review: TO SAVE THE WORLD, CAN YOU WAKE UP THE MORNING AFTER WITH A DEMI-HUMAN?
Fantasy manga continued to dominate 2020, the majority of it being isekai stories. You'll still books about older trends like 'monster girl...
Holiday Review: GOODBYE, MY ROSE GARDEN
Yet my favorite yuri series of the year wasn't a modern series, but instead a beautiful historical melodrama that evokes the history of the...
Holiday Review: HOW DO WE RELATIONSHIP?
Thankfully, there's been a lot more yuri manga in 2020 that have focused not just on older couples but also on relationships that are a lot ...
Holiday Review: BREASTS ARE MY FAVORITE THINGS IN THE WORLD!
The market for yuri manga continues to grow with each year, and as it does we see a wider variety of yuri manga out there. We have your…
Holiday Review: GIGANT
This year saw the announcement of a lot of new titles from established creators. Unfortunately, that included Hiroya Oku. GIGANT ( Giganto ...