We feature some classic romance titles this week (My Little Monster, Marmalade Boy) to join more modern ones in The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten, which we’ll be reviewing through to its c…
Mar 7, 2023 • Subscribe
Marmalade Boy, My Little Monster, The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten
More like this
Otaku Reader’s Corner: Haikyu, Fairy Tail, and A Wild Last Boss!
Haikyu!! (Chapter 401) After eight amazing years of manga, the story of our favorite volleyball bois from Karasuno and across Japan will come to an end. By the…
Marmalade Boy: Collector’s Edition, Vol. 1
One of shojo manga’s most time-honored plot lines goes something like this: a young girl’s life is turned upside down when her mother or father remarries someone with…
Reader’s Corner: Frieren, Pop Life, and Reign of the Seven Spellblades
Deserter: Junji Ito Story Collection Christmas season is a time for ghost stories, right? Just read A Christmas Carol to get the idea. So how about this collection,…
Reader’s Corner: One Piece, Orient, and Oregairu
Ascendance of a Bookworm: Part 2, Vol. 1 After passing through the ornate gateway marking the threshold of the temple’s courtyard, lavished with lush floral arrangements, our pure-hearted…
Reader’s Corner: Cat + Gamer, The Bride of Demise, and Romance of the Imperial Capital Kotogami
Epic wars, yokai, budding romances, and a kitty mark the releases our writers cover for this week’s column. The reviews include a couple of first volume releases—The Bride…
Reader’s Corner: Ride Your Wave, Saving 80,000 Gold, and Interviews with Miyazaki
Sasaki and Miyano, Vol. 1 Miyano is a Boys Love (BL) manga fan and Sasaki is an older boy who seems to constantly get into trouble. When they…
Reader’s Corner: SAO Project Alicization, Evangelion ANIMA, and Cooking with Fluffy Friends
Ascendance of a Bookworm: Part 2, Vol. 3 Recently, I introduced my sister to the Ascendance series, and she’s hooked. As she gobbles her way through the novels…
Ascendance of a Bookworm, Skip Beat!, Sword Art Online, Your Lie in April
Otaku Reader’s Corner: KH3, Eniale & Dewiela, and Reset!
Eniale & Dewiela, Vol. 1 Eniale is an angel. Dewiela is a demon. But the two of them are buddies. It’s an Odd Couple situation with two celestial…
Reader’s Corner: Wandance, Rooster Fighter, and Rainbow Days
This week’s reviews ask the question: Who’s the king of the roost? Is it the talented but unmotivated boxer, Yu? Kaboku’s high school dance club? Or is it…
Reader’s Corner: Last Dungeon, Talentless Nana, and Oregairu
The World’s Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat, Vol. 1 When a proficient assassin gets “taken care of” after he is no longer needed,…
Reader’s Corner: Alice in Borderland, Fly Me to the Moon, and The Most Heretical Last Boss Queen
Kunoichi Bunny This charming picture book shows the adventures of a young toddler, her dad, and a stuffed bunny as they make a visit to the park. And…
Reader’s Corner: March 12, 2024
This week’s selection of manga and light novels features stunning and unique artwork, high ideals about love, and fantastical elements. In other words, they’re the kinds of creative…
Otaku Reader’s Corner: December 2020
Look Into My Eyes (One Shot) Look Into My Eyes is a one-shot manga about an idol group on the verge of disbanding. While it appears that most…
Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju, Skip Beat!, Descending Stories: Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju
Reader’s Corner: Spooky Halloween Edition!
Happy (almost) Halloween, all you scary readers out there! We don’t review a whole lot of horror on Reader’s Corner, but we have a few that quality (or…
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Lycoris Recoil
Reader’s Corner: Transformers, Big Hero 6: The Series, and The Executioner and Her Way of Life
Big Hero 6: The Series, Vol. 1 Attention BH6 fans: This new manga series is not a reissue or repackaging of the original Marvel. It’s brand new material…
Reader’s Corner: Goodbye Eri, Island in a Puddle, and I’m a Wolf, But My Boss is a Sheep!
Our selection of reviews this week include a couple shoujo titles, a self-published work, a throwback as we dig into the modern classic, The Ancient Magus Bride, and…
Reader’s Corner: True Beauty (Vol. 2), A Pale Moon Reverie (Vol. 1), and Me and My Beast Boss (Vol. 1)
In today’s column, we journey into a story from a long time ago in a galaxy far away, investigate folklore and myth while getting tangled in possibly supernatural…
Girl Friends and The Bride Was a Boy
The White Sox won a game today, so it was a good day. This time we’re talking about Milk Morinaga’s Girl Friends and Chii’s The Bride Was a…
Reader’s Corner: SHY, Solo Leveling, and Insomniacs After School
A number of the releases we cover this week correspond with upcoming anime, and judging by these volumes—including those from SHY and Insomniacs After School—you should be anticipating…
Reader’s Corner: Solo Leveling, Horimiya, and Love in Focus
My Best Friend’s Little Sister Has it in for Me, Vol. 1 Ten or fifteen years ago, I was involved in a roleplay writing community. For those that…
Otaku Reader’s Corner: Slayers, Spirit Photographers, and Sayonara, Football
Inside Mari (Series) Every so often I’ll jump into the two main manga reading apps I use (Crunchyroll and Shonen Jump) and look for a completed series. I…
Reader’s Corner: Honey Lemon Soda, Doomsday with My Dog, and A Galaxy Next Door
Relationships take central focus in this week’s Reader’s Corner: that between would-be lovers and those seeking to take the next step in intimacy; between adventurers who have trust…
Otaku Reader’s Corner (March 4, 2020)
By the Grace of the Gods (Vol. 1) Sometimes, I don’t want a story with lots of action or drama; I just want a nice, laid-back story about…
Otaku Reader’s Corner: Great Pumpkin Edition
Hello dear readers, and welcome to a special edition of Otaku Reader’s Corner as we delve into works that are atypical for us—those involving horror or at the…
Reader’s Corner: Skip and Loafer, Zom 100, and Megumi Hayashibara’s Characters
A Sign of Affection, Vol. 3 A Sign of Affection continues to sweep me off my feet! Volume three begins with all the giddy expectation that volume two left…
Reader’s Corner: Bless (Vol. 2), Your Letter, and Re-Living My Life with a Boyfriend Who Doesn’t Remember Me (Vol. 1)
This week’s Reader’s Corner features reviews of two premieres: that of a “starting-over” romance, Re-Living My Life with a Boyfriend Who Doesn’t Remember Me, and a supernatu…
I'm Giving the Disgraced Noble Lady I Rescued a Crash Course in Naughtiness
Reader’s Corner: A Sign of Affection, Dragon and Ceremony, and My Next Life as a Villainess Side Story
My Youth Romantic Comedy is Wrong, As I Expected @ comic, Vol. 17 The final arc of Oregairu (this is the 17th of 19 manga volumes) shifts heavily…
Otaku Reader’s Corner: Zipman, Marielle Clarac, and My Brother’s Husband
My Brother’s Husband (Vol. 1) On the last day my library was open before it was closed due to the pandemic, I picked up all of My Brother’s…
Reader’s Corner: Ayashimon, Sweet Poolside, Tezcatlipoca, and Guardian of Fukushima
Fantasy, romance, and shonen feature prominently in our reviews this week, but so, too, do two rarer releases for manga-associated brands. They include Guardian of Fukushima, a Franco-Belgian…
Reader’s Corner: One Week Friends, Failure Frame, and SAO Progressive
Failure Frame: I Became the Strongest and Annihilated Everything With Low-Level Spells Mimori Touka and his classmates are spirited away to a fantasy world where they’re given skills,…
Reader’s Corner: Higehiro, True Beauty, and The Saint’s Belated Happiness
Reviews of The Ancient Magus Bride (Vol. 5), Higehiro: After Being Rejected, I Shaved and Took in a High School Runaway (Vol. 1), A Returner's Magic Should Be…
Reader’s Corner: She’s the Cutest, Mint Chocolate, and Assassin’s Creed
Mint Chocolate, Vol. 1 Of all the variations of the incest romance one might find out there, the “stepsiblings who meet as teens” variant is probably the most…
Reader’s Corner: Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint (Vol. 1), My Lovesick Life as a ’90s Otaku (Vol. 1), and Insomniacs After School (Vol. 4)
Need recommendations for manga and manhwa to gift this Christmas season? No need to worry—we’ve got you covered this week with new and recent series that would make…
“In This Corner”….
I feel that I will never understand the magnitude on the Japanese psyche regarding WWII and the dropping of the bombs. It permeates every fiber of their being…
Reader’s Corner: Stitch and the Samurai, Kaiju No. 8, and Lily’s Miracle
A Late-Start Tamer’s Laid-Back Life, Vol. 1 Yuto starts the VRMMO RPG Law of Justice Online looking forward to playing as a Tamer, but due to his randomly-acquired…
Reader’s Corner: Springtime of My Life, Fly Me to the Moon, and the Star Collector Audio Manga
The Springtime of My Life Began with You, Vol. 1 It is honestly times like these where I wish I could collect digital manga in paperback. The Springtime…
Reader’s Corner: Days With My Stepsister (Vol. 1), Itaewon Class (Vol. 3), and Horimiya (Vol. 17)
There are a lot of questions in the volumes we’re reviewing this week: Will Akane win in the final round of the tournament? Is Days with My Stepsister…
Reader’s Corner: Unnamed Memory, So What’s Wrong with Getting Reborn as a Goblin, and Rainbow Days
Are you using the holidays to catch up? We’re doing a bit of the same here, with just a scattering of new entries this week and mostly reviews…
Rainbow Days, The Eminence in Shadow, The Executioner and Her Way of Life, Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Reader’s Corner: Frieren (Vol. 5), Penguin & House, and A Silent Voice
While so many manga cross somewhat into the fantasy realm, our reviews this week focus on series firmly set in that genre, with cooking penguins, talking books, and…
Reader’s Corner: Unnamed Memory, Assassin’s Creed Dynasty, and The Faraway Paladin
Unnamed Memory, Vol. 3 SPOILER WARNING: Spoiler-free tl;dr: I greatly enjoyed this volume and recommend this series. I also recommend that you start with the first volume and…
Reader’s Corner: Solo Leveling, My Special One, and Alice in Borderland
Oh, the games we play! In our everyday lives, “playing games” could refer to video games or board games or, more figuratively, relationship games. But the world of…
Alice in Borderland, Alice in Wonderland, Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Reader’s Corner: 86, After-School Hanako-kun, Batmanga, and Marie Kondo
86–Eighty-Six, Vol. 1 The recent anime adaptation piqued my curiosity about this series, and the first volume didn’t disappoint. A country steeped in racism and greed uses child…
Kimi ni Todoke: From Me to You, One Week Friends, 86 EIGHTY-SIX
Reader’s Corner: Bofuri, The Catlords’ Manservant, and Chasing After Aoi Koshiba
Love Me, Love Me Not, Vol. 8 Love Me, Love Me Not is a simple story. The characters are basic, and though they have their struggles—as do all…
Reader’s Corner: An Angry Royal Highness, Babysitting Yakuza, and Mysterious Maid
Gacha Girls Corps, Vol. 1 Gacha Girl Corps imagines that a gacha addict—in this case, series protagonist Heihachi—is isekai’d into his mobile game and discovers that his rolls…
Reader’s Corner: Yoshida the Catch, Falling Drowning, and Yu-Gi-Oh!
Fungus and Iron, Vol. 1 Dante is an unusual case among the soldiers of Amigasa. He doesn’t become angry on cue at their enemy, the Ether. He complains…
Reader’s Corner: Demon Slayer, Nerdy Nurse, and Play It Cool, Guys
Date A Live, Vol. 1 Having enjoyed the Date A Live anime, I was curious to check out the source material, and the first volume didn’t disappoint. It’s…
Reader’s Corner: Ima Koi, Uncle from Another World, and The Otherworlder
The Girl I Saved on the Train Turned Out to Be My Childhood Friend, Vol. 1 This is an adequate high school romantic comedy. Ryou helps a girl…
Otaku Reader’s Corner: Smile Down the Runway, Bibliophile Princess, and Oregairu
Tearmoon Empire (Vol. 1) As Tearmoon Empire vol. 1 opens, protagonist Princess Mia (clearly inspired by Marie Antoinette) dies on the guillotine…only to wake up as a twelve-year-old!…
Reader’s Corner: Rooster Fighter, The Remarried Empress, and Tower of God
Reader's Corner: Rooster Fighter, The Married Empress, and Tower of God via @laura_a_grace @GamesAndGod @thetangles
Reader’s Corner: Mission: Yozakura Family (Vol. 1), Wandance (Vol. 2), and I Will Forget This Feeling Someday
Among the offerings we cover this week are a couple of one-volume releases from the mangaka of Beastars and the author of I Want to Eat Your Pancrease,…