Volume 7 of Kuzushiro’s school life drama, finished up the school festival arc and, while it had its fair share of maid costumes and cat-eared girls, it also resolved one of Kanon’s lingering akashic ties – her relationship to her former best friend, Ayano. Both young women have changed in the days since they last […]
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Amayo no Tsuki, Volume 2 ( 雨夜の月)
In Volume 1, we met Saki, a high school student who plays piano, and her classmate (and piano teacher’s daughter), Kanon, who is hard of hearing. Kanon is…
Amayo no Tsuki, Volume 4 ( 雨夜の月)
Well, wow. A whole lot of story happened in this volume. First, Saki finds Kanon’s former best friend – the one Kanon feel betrayed her – and learns…
Amayo no Tsuki, Volume 5 (雨夜の月)
In my fevered anticipation for The Moon on a Rainy Night, Volume 1 coming from Kodansha next week, I was thrilled to have the newest volume of the…
Amayo no Tsuki, Volume 6 (雨夜の月)
Do you remember Morinaga Milk’s series Girl Friends? It was an incredibly popular and influential Yuri manga in the early 2010s, so more than a decade ago. The…
Amayo no Tsuki, Volume 7 (雨夜の月)
Amayo no Tsuki, Volume 7 (雨夜の月) is absolute perfection. It was so good, that the moment I finished it, I started from the beginning and read it again.…
Amayo no Tsuki, Volume 3 ( 雨夜の月)
2022 has been an absolute celebration of amazing Yuri manga licenses and releases. Almost everything I wanted to have been licensed has been. Of the two remaining that…
Uyanotsuki, Volume 1 ( 雨夜の月)
Saki loves piano. Or does she? She loves taking lessons with her teacher, she’s sure of that. But her teacher is leaving… In Uyanotsuki, Volume 1 ( 雨夜の月),…
Tsuki to Suppin, Volume 2 (月とすっぴん)
This past March I became enamored of Akegata Yuu’s Tsuki to Suppin, a Jousei Yuri manga from Feel Comics, about Akari and Shiho, an odd-couple who are nonetheless…
Tsuki to Suppin Volume 1 (月とすっぴん)
Akegawa Yuu’s Tsuki to Suppin, Volume 1 (月とすっぴん) is an absolutely delightful odd couple romance story. Shiho is a quiet, reserved photographer for bands, with a fondness for…
Oni to Yoake Yuzikiyo (鬼と夜明け 夕月夜)
While shopping in random bookstores in Japan at the end of last year I kept seeing book,s with girls in school uniforms wielding swords. I did that thing…
Kaketa Tsuki to Donuts, Volume 3 (欠けた月とドーナッツ)
What is love? How do we fall in love? What does that even mean? How do we make space in lives that are full already, for other people?…
Kaketa Tsuki to Donuts, Volume 1 (欠けた月とドーナッツ)
Uuno Hinako always looks good. Her dress and makeup are always spot on, her hair is always done. She’s always got a smile on her face at work,…
Kaketa Tsuki to Donuts, Volume 2 (欠けた月とドーナッツ)
In Volume 1, we met Hinako, a woman who is crumbling under pressure to conform to society’s requirements for a “good” life and Asahi, a woman who has…
Kaketa Tsuki to Donuts, Volume 4 (欠けた月とドーナッツ)
Let’s start with the most important thing in Kaketa Tsuki to Donuts, Volume 4 (欠けた月とドーナッツ) – this was the perfect, most exactly correct ending to this series that…
Throwback Thursday: 三月のライオン (Sangetsu no Lion)
As we close out 2020, and complete our 10th year anniversary celebration, we’ve been posting a final series of Throwback Thursday posts from writers, past and present, revisiting…
Asakusa no yoru / 浅草の夜 (‘Asakusa at Night’, 1954)
Obscure Japanese Film #156 Ayako Wakao and Machiko Kyo Setsuko (Machiko Kyo) is a dancer at a theatre in Asakusa, where she’s been havin...
Hana no Asuka-gumi Infinity, Volume 8 (花のあすか組 ∞インフィニティ )
A few weeks ago, I reviewed HabuCore F, the 10-years-later epilogue to a series Hayate x Blade (はやて×ブレード), which I described as “a gonzo battle/school manga series.” I…
Wolves of the Night (夜の狼, Yoichi Ushihara, 1958)
A heartless yakuza becomes conflicted on being confronted with the consequences of his actions in Yoichi Ushihara’s slice of Nikkatsu Noir.
Anata no Yoru ga Aketera (あなたの夜が明けたら)
Anata no Yoru ga Aketera (あなたの夜が明けたら), translated on the cover as After Sunrise, Haru Harukawa Collection is a collection of shorts by, obviously Harukawa Haru. Some of these…
Manga Kodomo Bunko (まんがこども文庫) June ED (6月の歌) - Lullaby of the Rain (雨のこもりうた)
Sung by (歌): Naoko Watanabe (渡辺直子) Lyrics (作詞): Tomoko Koike (小池知子) Composition and Arrangement (作曲・編曲): Tokuhide Niimi (新実徳英) Very special thanks to PopKorn Kat for transferring and scanning this record!
August in the Water (水の中の八月, Sogo Ishii, 1995)
How does the world, or perhaps the cosmos, attempt to communicate with us? As Douglas Adams once did, August in the Water (水の中の八月, Mizu no naka no Hachigatsu)…
Remembering Every Night/全ての夜を思い出す
In 2017, director Kiyohara Yui released her first feature film, Our House (私たちの家), and established herself as a talent to watch. Though that film at times felt a…
Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou., Volume 8 (私の推しは悪役令嬢。)
Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou., Volume 8 (私の推しは悪役令嬢。) is the climax of Yu’s arc and, as a result it is poignant and touching in about 4 different…
Yume no Hashibashi, Volume 2 (夢の端々 下)
In Yume no Hashibashi, Volume 1, we took a journey backwards through the years, following Kayoko and Mitsu as adults. From their senior years back through their different…
Yume no Hashibashi, Volume 1 (夢の端々 上)
Yume no Hashibashi, Volume 1 (夢の端々 上) is a story told by leaps backwards in time, of a relationship between two women that would never have been allowed…
Hametsu no Koibito, Volume 1 (破滅の恋人)
We recently had the pleasure of three guest reviews for Plongée dans la nuit, the French edition of Yoru to Umi, by Goumoto. I had read the first…
Moonlight Whispers (月光の囁き, Akihiko Shiota, 1999)
A pair of teenagers find themselves in an accidentally sado-masochistic relationship without the ability to understand what exists between them in Shiota’s unconventional teen romance.
Kaiju No. 8 (Volume 8) – I’ll Teach Ya How to Fight!
It’s been one month since Reno first tried to use Weapon No. 6 and he’s been training hard. So hard, in fact, that he’s ready to give it…
Brief Thoughts On: Umi no Yami, Tsuki no Kage
Umi no Yami, Tsuki no Kage earns a stellar recommendation. It's a fine addition to the wonderful niche of vintage shoujo horror anime.
Rainbow Over the Pacific (夜明けの二人, Yoshitaro Nomura, 1968)
An unserious man begins to grow up while chasing love in Hawaii in a cheerful if ultimately downbeat musical celebration of the centenary of Japanese migration to Hawaii.
Episode #54 – Night and Fog in Japan (日本の夜と霧)
In the final episode of the season, Kota of the Against Japanism podcast brings his extensive knowledge of Japanese politics and the Japanese left-wing to bear in this…
Kaiju No. 8 (Volume 5) – I Expect Results!
Director Shinomiya has decided to use Kafka Hibino as a soldier rather than turning his body into a weapon. He has too much power to risk it sitting…
Kaiju No. 8 (Volume 1) – I Found You
After being left on a church step as a baby, Asta has developed some wild ideas. Despite his inability to use magic, he is determined the become the…
Kaiju No. 8 (Volume 10) – The Second Wave!
Despite being put under incredible pressure, the JAKDF managed to neutralize all of the targets. Then, a new reading appeared – a fortitude 9 Daikaiju appeared before Narumi.…
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Phew. For a manga that started as a light-hearted romp through Yuri tropes, this series sure has got intense. Hey, wait, I’m sure I’ve said that about other…
Fuzoroi no Renri, Volume 4 (不揃いの連理)
Fuzoroi no Renri, Volume 4 (不揃いの連理) by Mikan Uji, is both a whimsical look at several Yuri odd couples and a profouns story about about found family and…
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Mikanuji’s Fuzoroi no Renri, Volume 5 (不揃いの連理) continues as a smorgasbord of miscellaneous relationships between various couples. In this volume, we take time to expand on a few…
Fuzoroi no Renri, Volume 2 (不揃いの連理)
In Volume 1, we met Tanaka Iori, a careerwoman with a job that she does not love, and a former juvenile delinquent girlfriend, Minami, whom she does. Ultimately,…
Fuzoroi no Renri, Volume 3 (不揃いの連理)
In Volume 1, we met Iori and Minami, an career woman and a server at a izakaya whose relationship is surprisingly not fraught, and Saori and Shizuku, Iori’s…
All the Long Nights (夜明けのすべて, Sho Miyake, 2024)
Mismatched colleagues struggling amid contemporary corporate culture find unexpected solidarity in Sho Miyake’s gentle human drama.
Kaiju No. 8 (Volume 6) – An Incredible Next Generation!
Kafka has been given a chance to prove his worth, but he’s finding it impossible to transform, which is really bad news as they are facing Kaiju No.…
Kaiju No. 8 (Volume 2) – Fight by Her Side
Kafka transformed into his kaiju form to save Kikoru, however, it wasn’t enough to get him an officer position. Vice-captain Hoshina saw something that no one else did…
Kaiju No. 8 (Volume 9) – Harbingers of the Cataclysm!
Strange Kaiju have been sighted all across Japan, however, they disappear before the JAKDF can get there. There were no casualties each time, but the entire thing was…
Thousand and One Nights (千夜、一夜, Nao Kubota, 2022)
Two women are united by the search for answers in the disappearances of their husbands but take very different paths in Nao Kubota’s melancholy tale of unanswerable longing.
Shinyaku Ribon no Kishi, Volume 1 (新約・リボンの騎士)
Today’s review is in part thanks to the constant evangelizing of Raybon No Kishi on Twitter, who alerted me to some interesting plot complications in this recent reworking…
Rhapsody in August (八月の狂詩曲, Akira Kurosawa, 1991)
Three generations reckon with the wartime past after receiving news from estranged relatives in Hawaii in Kurosawa’s humanist drama.
Otherside Picnic, Volume 8
Otherside Picnic, Volume 8 was a mind-blowing, fabulous “wow.” In this horror/scifi Yuri series by Iori Miyazawa, there have been two key mysteries; The true nature of the…
Yuri Manga: Sore ha, Haru no Arashi no You ni, Volume 1 (それは、春の嵐のように)
Aoi is an office lady who dreams of a “normal life.” She tells her her friend that she wants to get married. Chi-chan appears to accept it. Aoi,…
Tsuki ga Michibiku Isekai Douchuu S2 - Episode 8 - Karen Force Blushes
Karen Force, a new student of Makoto's, is more than she seems. Demons are curious about a Hyuman. Tsuki ga Michibiku Isekai Douchuu S2 - Episode 8
Kaiju No. 8 (Volume 11) – I Don’t Want to Die…
The Daikaiju are causing problems. Each one had been prepared to prey on the weaknesses of each of the strongest members of the JAKDF. If they are to…