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149 results, page 1 of 3
Review: IMADOKI! NOWADAYS
School clubs as a venue for friendship and romance are just as common in shojo manga as they are in shonen, but this one brings at least one...
Review: HAGANAI - I DON'T HAVE MANY FRIENDS
September means back-to-school time, complete with kids joining and rejoining school clubs. We'll be doing the same by reviewing a month's ...
Review: EXCEL SAGA
Older comedy manga don't always age well, but here's a rare example of one that has. EXCEL SAGA ( Ekuseru Saga ), by Rikdo Koshi. First pu...
Review: BOMBA!
Let's take a look at one of the most recent retro releases from this year - a new selection from the vast library of Osamu Tezuka. BOMBA!…
Review: REBEL SWORD
It took me a bit to recover from the excitement of Otakon, but I'm back to deliver yet another Old School Month! Let's start with an obscur...
Review: MY DAD'S THE QUEEN OF ALL VTUBERS?!
Maybe I should shift my focus away from more old-school notions of otaku-dom to more modern concepts like this one. MY DAD'S THE QUEEN OF AL...
Review: MANIAC ROAD
It's not like manga that are all about glorifying otaku and Akihabara are anything new, as this manga clearly demonstrates. MANIAC ROAD ( Ma...
Review: OTAKU ELF
This month I'll be attending two different anime conventions , so I figured that the blog might as well get into the same spirit by reviewi...
Review: INNOCENT BIRD
Tokyopop was one of the first manga publishers to find success in BL manga, first with their release of FAKE and Gravitation and later on ...
Angel Sanctuary, Gravitation TV, Junjo Romantica, Karas, Sanctuary
Review: ONLY THE RING FINGER KNOWS
Central Park Media might have been the first manga publisher to tackle BL, but DMP became famous for publishing nothing but BL, starting wit...
Review: GOLDEN CAIN
The history of BL manga in the US begins in the early 2000s. The first company to try their hand at it was Central Park Media, as part…
Review: TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE ETERNAL HEART
Once again, we're doing a month of BL manga reviews here at the Test Drive, but this year it's going to be double the reviews! We're starti...
Review: THE APOTHECARY DIARIES
As this 10th edition of the Merry Month of Manga comes to an end, it's time to cover one last oversight. This has been one of my favorites...
Review: DI GI CHARAT: DEJIKO'S ADVENTURE
Broccoli was a short-lived anime and manga publisher in the US, but during their short time they did their best to promote their most profit...
Review: X-KAI
It's never a good sign when a manga reminds me of one of the worst anime I have ever watched. X-KAI, by Asami Tohjoh. First published in 19...
Review: THE GORGEOUS LIFE OF STRAWBERRY-CHAN
No mangaka is perfect. At some point they will produce a less than great work, and it's worse when they work in comedy manga. THE GORGEOUS ...
Review: THE LIFE-CHANGING MANGA OF TIDYING UP
A month like this gives me room to talk about manga that don't really fit any theme, which itself is fitting for a manga that's all about fi...
Review: ST. DRAGON GIRL
The older I get, the more I struggle with shojo manga. It's hard to maintain one's enthusiasm when faced with so many titles like this. ST....
Review: SEVEN OF SEVEN
There are certain people in Japanese media who are just as adept with anime as they are with manga. Today's review is not an example of that...
Review: BAMBI AND HER PINK GUN
When it wasn't churning out one mediocre BL manga after the next, manga boom-era DMP would sometimes go out on a limb and license something...
Review: GENJU NO SEIZA
Sadly this is the last remaining title from Matsuri Akino to talk about here, so let's make this review a good one. GENJU NO SEIZA, by Matsu...
Review: PARADISE RESIDENCE
It's always hard for a mangaka known for one long-running series to branch out and try something new. This series is certainly proof of tha...
Review: CHIKYU MISAKI
During the manga boom of the 2000s, it seems that publishers would put out anything. We got a lot of garbage titles out of it, but we also…
Review: BTOOOM!
Remember the old days, when getting sucked into a video game was all the rage in video games? This manga certainly does. BTOOOM!, by Junya ...
Review: MY ANDROGYNOUS BOYFRIEND
The constant cry of the modern josei manga fan is "where's all the new josei titles?" They are out there, but like today's review a lot of ...
Review: MUSASHI #9
We could always use more action-oriented heroines in shojo manga...maybe just not like this particular one. MUSASHI #9 ( Kyuban no Musashi )...
Review: FROM THE NEW WORLD
In their time, Vertical Comics had a passionate fanbase of readers who considered the company to have better-than-average taste in licenses....
Review: STRAVAGANZA
Good news! I found a fantasy manga to review this month that isn't an isekai light novel adaptation! The bad news? Well... STRAVAGANZA (...
Review: GIANT SPIDER & ME: A POST-APOCALYPTIC TALE
Never has a post-apocalyptic story been so fluffy. GIANT SPIDER & ME: A POST-APOCALYPTIC TALE ( Owari Nochi, Asanagi Kurashi ), by Kikori M...
Review: SHORT SUNZEN
The Tokyopop library is riddled with manga like this - no-name titles with a few interesting ideas that were unceremoniously dropped because...
Review: AWKWARD SILENCE
No mangaka, however great they may be, can churn out hits forever. Sometimes they're going to miss, or in the case make something that is d...
Review: RUMIC THEATER
Finally, a Rumiko Takahashi manga with all the quality of her best-known works but doesn't require committing an entire shelf to it! RUMIC T...
Review: ARIA
Oh god, I'm totally going to get cancelled for not liking this iyashikei classic. ARIA, by Kozue Amano. First published in 2002 and first ...
Review: QWASER OF STIGMATA
You have to try really hard to make an ecchi manga that stands out, particularly if you were making one in the time before monster girls. T...
Legend of the Crystals: Final Fantasy, The Qwaser of Stigmata
Review: WALKIN' BUTTERFLY
There's a lot of great josei that got completely overlooked in the 2000s, and few were as overlooked as this title. WALKIN' BUTTERFLY ( U-ok...
Review: SEIMADEN
SEIMADEN, by You Higuri. First published in 1993 and first published in North America in 2005. PLOT: Hildegarde is a beautiful, graceful da...
Review: MARIONETTE GENERATION
Sometimes a character designer can successfully make the leap from animation to manga. Today is an example of a beloved old-school designer...
Review: A CENTAUR'S LIFE
I want to state for the record that I am NOT anti-monster girl. I'm just very particular about the kinds of monster girl manga that I like....
Review: WANTED
I was hoping that this book could provide some summer fun in shojo manga form. What I got couldn't be more different. WANTED, by Matsuri Hi...
Review: HINADORI GIRL
Nothing hurts like getting your hopes up only to be disappointed, even by obscurities like this. HINADORI GIRL, by Mari Matsuzawa. First p...
Chobits, Inukami!, Love Hina, Recently, My Sister Is Unusual
Review: HIGH SCHOOL PRODIGIES HAVE IT EASY, EVEN IN ANOTHER WORLD!
Of course, I can't do nothing but review stone-cold classics that are both old and new. That would just get dull after a while. This mont...
Review: DICK FIGHT ISLAND
Look, I'm not above cashing in on social media trends around here, especially if it means righting a wrong from last year's Holiday Reviews...
Review: PEEPO CHOO
I can hardly believe it, but this month marks the tenth anniversary of this humble little review blog. What started out as a mere hobby bl...
Review: SHIRLEY
This month has mostly been full of duds, so thank god that there's still one good maid manga out there that I hadn't talked about yet. SHIR...
Review: MAID SHOKUN
I was hoping to find a shojo maid manga when I picked this one up. What I got was...certainly something else. MAID SHOKUN , written by Nank...
Review: ENMUSU
More often than not, maids are used as fetish fuel in manga, and today's review is one of the more unfortunate examples of such. ENMUSU ( Re...
Review: MOE USA
It's time for a spring cleaning before our big TENTH ANNIVERSARY, so let's do a month of maid manga! Sadly, I reviewed the best maid manga ...
Review: REVOLUTIONARY GIRL UTENA - AFTER THE REVOLUTION
Despite the date on this review, this is no trick - it's not only a sequel manga to my favorite anime (and its rather underrated manga adapt...
Review: SARAZANMAI - REO & MABU
Let's take a look at a much more recent manga prequel to the latest outing from one of anime's critical darlings. SARAZANMAI: REO & MABU ( R...
Review: MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM WING: BATTLEFIELD OF PACIFISTS
There are LOADS of Gundam manga spinoffs to pick from for this month, and that's doubly true for Gundam Wing manga. MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM WING:...