Bocchi the Rock!, Vol. 4 | By Aki Hamazi | Yen Press - This is not a sports series, but there are certain plot beats that make it FEEL like a sports series, and none more so than the Band Competition arc. It relies on a lot of word of mouth and help from others
Dec 17, 2024 • Subscribe
More like this
Bookshelf Briefs 3/16/24
Bocchi the Rock!, Vol. 2 | By Aki Hamazi | Yen Press - I did not realize that the Bocchi anime only adapted about 1.5 volumes, so the…
Bookshelf Briefs 12/16/21
In which Sean valiantly goes it alone yet again. Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, Vol. 1 | By Kanehito Yamada and Tsukasa Abe | Viz Media – This is…
Bookshelf Briefs 12/16/22
Blue Box, Vol. 1 | By Kouji Miura | Viz Media – Sports manga always sell well in Japan, and high school romantic comedies are also popular. So…
Bookshelf Briefs 11/12/24
Blue Box, Vol. 12 | By Kouji Miura | Viz Media - Of course, I was right. This is the confession volume. But that's not really a spoiler,…
Bookshelf Briefs 10/24/24
Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, Vol. 11 | By Kanehito Yamada and Tsukasa Abe | Viz Media - I suspect that the Frieren author's attempts at explaining the worldview…
Bookshelf Briefs 4/16/21
Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction, Vol. 9 | By Inio Asano | Viz Media – By the ninth volume of Dead Dead Demon, any hope that this series…
Bookshelf Briefs 1/16/2024
A Cat from Our World and the Forgotten Witch, Vol. 1 | By Hiro Kashiwaba | Seven Seas - Jeanne, an elderly witch, summons Torata, an ordinary house…
Bookshelf Briefs 2/16/20
Black Clover, Vol. 19 | By Yuki Tabata | Viz Media – The nature of these volumes is they tend to be between 9-11 chapters no matter what,…
Bookshelf Briefs 8/16/22
HIRAETH ~The End of the Journey~, Vol. 2 | By Yuhki Kamatani | Kodansha Manga (digital only) – In the first volume, we met a girl who’s desperate…
Bookshelf Briefs 11/16/20
A Bride’s Story, Vol. 12 | By Kaoru Mori | Yen Press – Being at a yearly schedule for this series is bad, but it could be worse:…
Bookshelf Briefs 3/16/21
Blood on the Tracks, Vol. 4 | By Shuzo Oshima | Vertical Comics – The first volume of Blood on the Tracks was suspenseful and shocking and I…
Bookshelf Briefs 3/16/23
Confessions of a Shy Baker, Vol. 1 | By Masaomi Ito | TOKYOPOP - Initially, Confessions of a Shy Baker felt to me like a discount knockoff of…
Bookshelf Briefs 1/16/20
Anonymous Noise, Vol. 18 | By Ryoko Fukuyama | Viz Media – Welp, I was wrong. Romantically, the final pairing is not what I expected. That said, romance,…
Bookshelf Briefs 4/2/24
Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, Vol. 10 | By Kanehito Yamada and Tsukasa Abe | Viz Media - Ah, Macht. He may be trying to be a demon who…
Bookshelf Briefs 2/2/24
Bakemonogatari, Vol. 20 | By NISIOISIN and Oh!Great | Kodansha Manga - This continues to take all the remaining arcs that Oh!Great wasn't going to have time to…
Bookshelf Briefs 9/8/24
Bakemonogatari, Vol. 22 | By NISIOISIN and Oh!great | Kodansha Manga - The manga ends here, but of course, the novels are ongoing, and there's almost twenty more…
Bookshelf Briefs 6/9/24
Bakemonogatari, Vol. 21 | By NISIOISIN and Oh!great | Kodansha Manga - Gonna say something controversial here: is the manga the best version of this series? The anime…
Bookshelf Briefs 4/18/24
Blue Box, Vol. 9 | By Kouji Miura | Viz Media - This is still a sports-lite volume of the series, which is good news for the reader…
Bookshelf Briefs 6/30/24
Blue Box, Vol. 10 | By Kouji Miura | Viz Media - There is, thankfully, a bit more sports in this sports-based romance this time around. Chinatsu's team…
Bookshelf Briefs 8/3/24
Adults' Picture Book: New Edition, Vol. 2 | By Kei Itoi | Yen Press - This continues to be really well-written provided that you can deal with awkward…
Bookshelf Briefs 5/17/24
Adults' Picture Book: New Edition, Vol. 1 | By Kei Itoi | Yen Press - Boy, this was weird. And I was already expecting it to be weird.…
Bookshelf Briefs 10/10/24
Friday at the Atelier, Vol. 2 | By Sakura Hamada | Yen Press - The weirdness gets dialed back a lot in this second volume, though we still…
Bookshelf Briefs 2/28/24
Blue Box, Vol. 8 | By Kouji Miura | Viz Media - After a couple of volumes that have been heavy on the sports, it makes sense that…
Bookshelf Briefs 12/5/19
Anonymous Noise, Vol. 17 | By Ryoko Fukuyama | Viz Media – I had thought this would be a race to the finish, but honestly it’s feeling more…
Bookshelf Briefs 12/29/22
Catch These Hands!, Vol. 3 | By murata | Yen Press – This volume takes us back to Takebe’s initial thought process: all her former gang friends have…
Bookshelf Briefs 12/17/20
Chainsaw Man, Vol. 1 | By Tatsuki Fujimoto | Viz Media – It’s a little hard to live up to the hype that this title has gotten on…
Bookshelf Briefs 12/29/19
As Miss Beelzebub Likes, Vol. 8 | By Matoba | Yen Press -Aside from the cute slice-of-life aspects of the series, much of it revolves around the fact…
Bookshelf Briefs 12/13/19
Arifureta: I Heart Isekai, Vol. 1 | By Misaki Mori, based on the novel by Ryo Shirakome | Seven Seas – This pretty much delivery exactly what it…
Bookshelf Briefs 12/1/20
Cutie and the Beast, Vol. 1 | By Yuhi Azumi| Seven Seas – This looked cute, and gave off a very My Love Story!! vibe, but I was…
Bookshelf Briefs 12/21/19
Daytime Shooting Star, Vol. 3 | By Mika Yamamori | Viz Media – There’s less humor and more romantic drama in this volume, but that’s OK as the…
Bookshelf Briefs 12/11/23
The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, REALLY Love You, Vol. 8 | By Rikito Nakamura and Yukiko Nozawa | Ghost Ship The first half of this…
The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, REALLY Love You
Bookshelf Briefs 2/20/21
Chihayafuru, Vol. 24 | By Yuki Suetsugu | Kodansha Comics (digital only) – Hooray, I’m finally caught up again on Chihayafuru! This volume finds Chihaya and friends lending…
Bookshelf Briefs 5/19/20
After-School Bitchcraft, Vol. 1 | By Yu Shimizu and Kazuma Ichihara | Yen Press – Afterschool Boobcraft would be a better title for this supernatural romance about Ririki,…
Bookshelf Briefs 1/4/21
Black Clover, Vol. 23 | By Yuki Tabata | Viz Media – Given we came to the end of a very long arc last time, it makes sense…
Bookshelf Briefs 10/28/21
BL Metamorphosis, Vol. 5 | By Kaori Tsurutani | Seven Seas – The bonds that Urara made with Ichinoi don’t have to end here, but they are going…
Bookshelf Briefs 7/19/23
Delicious in Dungeon, Vol. 12 | By Ryoko Kui| Yen Press - And here we are at the apocalypse. Marcille is being sweet-talked by the lion/book into essentially…
Bookshelf Briefs 4/4/22
Falling Drowning, Vol. 1 | By Yuko Inari | Kodansha Comics (digital only) – On the surface, Falling Drowning looks like cookie-cutter shoujo. Our protagonist, a high school…
Bookshelf Briefs 5/18/21
Doughnuts Under a Crescent Moon, Vol. 1 | By Shio Usui | Seven Seas – It’s always worth buying a new yuri volume that features two adults, and…
Bookshelf Briefs 8/19/20
In which we extend our profound sympathies to Sean, languishing without internet thanks to a hurricane and his crappy ISP. The Dorm of Love and Secrets, Vol. 4…
Bookshelf Briefs 3/28/20
The Ancient Magus’ Bride, Vol. 12 | By Kore Yamazaki | Seven Seas – I’m still really enjoying reading The Ancient Magus’ Bride, but there’s no denying that…
Bookshelf Briefs 6/20/21
As Miss Beelzebub Likes, Vol. 12 | By Matoba | Yen Press – When you have a main couple as innocent and naive as this one, it’s going…
Bookshelf Briefs 10/4/21
Do You Like Big Girls?, Vol. 1 | By Goro Aizome | Ghost Ship – The cover art and publisher of this particular title tells you exactly what’s…
Bookshelf Briefs 11/14/21
Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction, Vol. 10 | By Inio Asano | Viz Media – The end of this volume states in big, bold letters that there’s twelve…
Bookshelf Briefs 9/27/22
D-Frag!, Vol. 16 | By Tomoya Haruno | Seven Seas – This new volume (by now the series is annual) involves a massive parody of “trapped in a…
Bookshelf Briefs 4/20/23
The Ancient Magus' Bride, Vol. 17 | By Kore Yamazaki | Seven Seas - It's been a long time since I reviewed this series, but I have been…
Bookshelf Briefs 3/7/20
Ao Haru Ride, Vol. 9 | By Io Sakisaka | VIZ Media – Ao Haru Ride is probably the most straight-up dramatic shoujo that I am reading at…
Bookshelf Briefs 5/4/22
Minami Nanami Wants to Shine, Vol. 1 | By Bana Yoshida and Yuki Yaku | Yen Press – For most of the volume, this feels like a typical…
Bookshelf Briefs 9/20/22
Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro, Vol. 11 | By Nanashi | Kodansha Manga – I haven’t actually briefed this for a long time. Since I did, in…
Bookshelf Briefs 8/21/23
Blue Box, Vol. 5 | By Kouji Miura | Viz Media - Sometimes trying to be kind can just look like mixed signals. That's what Taiki's having to…
Bookshelf Briefs 10/22/20
Arifureta: I Heart Isekai, Vol. 3 | By Misaki Mori, based on the novel by Ryo Shirakome | Seven Seas – This is keeping up a fast pace,…