Volume 8 continued where Volume 7 left off, finishing up the story of the Dead Moon.
It continues with Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask being very sick while the other Sailor Scouts are fighting against the Dead Moon Kingdom. Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask try to come out anyway, and they discover some new powers within Mamoru himself! Also, our Pegasus friend is freed.
A lot happens as we conclude this chapter filled with nightmares consuming the planet. See the third pic for one of Sailor Moon's personal nightmares, and one that will haunt me forever.
The last handful of chapters of this volume are more Sailor Moon side stories telling tales about individual Sailor Scouts, their background, and a quick hit self contained story. They were cute, but I am looking forward to the next volume as we proceed the plot forward overall.
Personally, I have really been enjoying the mainline plot a lot more than the seemingly filler side stories. There have been a few good ones, but overall the mainline plot following all of the Sailor Scouts has been my absolute favorite part of reading this. Can't wait for more when Volume 9 of this edition drops.
My youngest two are 9 and this week they had a Scholastic Book Fair. One thing that they've found is that, from time to time, there is Disney manga at the book fair from TokyoPop. Which, by the way, there were no comic books at Scholastic Book Fairs when I was a kid, but I digress.
As my youngest like Lilo and Stitch, they picked up this volume called "Stitch: Best Friends Forever!" Short version: It's cute.
The story has Stitch's ship crash landing in an island in Okinawa. While there, Stitch becomes friends with a local girl named Yuna and goofiness ensues. This single volume has self-contained stories in each individual chapter of Stitch getting into silly / funny situations with an elementary aged girl and her friends.
This is, however, a compilation volume. There is a full, two volume Stitch manga that was previously released. "Best Friends Forever" picks some fan favorite chapters and mashes them together in what, at times, feels like no particular order. It's not bad, but it does give you kind of whiplash from time to time
Long story short, it's a taste of the Stitch manga. If you enjoy it (which we did), then it's worth checking out the full series (which I probably will with my kids).
It's a cute, all ages manga about Stitch and a different friend in Japan. If you like cute kid's manga, check it out.
New Read - My Lovesick Life as a '90s Otaku, Volume 3
Volume 3 has been read and it was a journey.
Masamune is trying to set up something nice for his sister's birthday. Megumi gets involved, trying to encourage him to do a party and maybe ask his Mom to come. Also, she finally meets Yui in person and finds out that Yui is a boy! And he tries hard to not reveal that he has a huge crush on Megumi.
It's just adorable.
But, Megumi ends up pulled in two directions and her crush / trying to help Masamune pulling her another way and it all comes crashing down as a bag full of her precious manga falls out onto the ground during Masamune's sister's birthday, which had already become a mess because of Masamune's Mom.
The ending of this volume. Ugh!
I don't know how I'm going to wait for the conclusion in Volume 4 which doesn't drop until August. Ugh!
Let me know your thoughts in the comments if you've read this.
New Manga Read - Fist of the North Star, Volume 12
Welcome to the apocalypse!
Volume 11 is about this man on the cover, Falco.
Falco is the inheritor of Gento Kōken (roughly translated as Original Dipper Imperial Fist). The followers of Genko Kōken were sworn to protect the Celestial Emperor (Tentei) from harm.
In this volume, Kenshiro is returning to help the Hokuto Army which is led by Lin and Bat to free those under the thumb of Jaco. Falco, who appears to be nothing but good and compassionate, is somehow the evil Jaco's second in command. Why? Jaco has kidnapped the Tentei and kept them hostage.
This volume is filled to the brim with reveals. Some about Lin. A lot of backstory about Falco, which makes him such a fascinating character. Also, the reveal about the Tentei and who they are was HUGE. Doing minimal spoilers despite this manga being as old as I am.
Falco has a prosthetic leg due to Raoh destroying his leg in the past. Raoh told him that he needed to kill Jaco or, one day, Jaco would manipulate and dominate him. Raoh was right.
While we get a brutal match between Falco and Kenshiro, the ending of the volume is well done with a cliffhanger for the next volume.
ALSO (which I say a lot), Fist of the North Star constantly reminds you that toxic masculinity is bad and that you can be masculine and have feelings / cry. Kenshiro feels, always. Kenshiro allows himself to cry over loss, cry over the suffering of others. He allows himself to feel. There is nothing un-masculine about having emotions. Kenshiro constantly reminds the reader of that...amongst all the brutal violence.
Snippet: "For all the missteps in Disney’s approach to Star Wars since purchasing the IP from George Lucas, there’s one aspect to the business they’ve gotten right: the manga adaptations. Heavily influenced by Japanese culture and film, Star Wars is a property that fits like a (black, L-hand 980 prosthetic covering) glove in the anime and manga world..."
Reader’s Corner: Issak (Vol. 7), The Mandalorian (Vol. 2), and SHY (Vol. 6)
May the 4th (give or take a few days) be with you! We've got the latest manga volume of The Mandalorian this week! Oh, not a Star Wars fan? How about superhero fare with the latest volume of Shy? We also have webtoons, romance, and much more this week, including a series we highly encourage you to stay away from.
So, I was tagged on Intagram by facetious_manga to talk about my "Bookstagram Backstory." I don't know if a Pixelfed equivalent exists. Bookselfed? Pixelbook? I don't know, I'll use both hashtags and share.
Regardless. Let's go, I guess.
When did I start on Bookstagram?
This account is and remains a personal account. While I post (often), about manga, this isn't exclusively about books or manga. My first post was in April 2016. Wow...that's a long time ago. I started getting more active in posting about books / manga, participating in things like "25 Days of Manga" in 2020. But it was early 2023 when I started posting a lot more manga pics / reviews.
What inspired your username?
I started on Twitter and needed a small handle. MD - I'm from Maryland, MRN - My initials. 83 - I'm old.
What was your 1st review?
The first "review" I posted was saying that the Free Comic Book Day 2016 Firefly comic was good. It got more detailed in my reviews after that.
Favorite part of Bookstagram?
The community. So may good folks to talk, discuss, and share.
Booksta made me buy?
My Lovesick Life as a 90s Otaku. I couldn't NOT get it, the reviews were just too much and I was not disappointed.
Aesthetic?
Middle aged nerdy, bearded Dad-core? I really have no idea.
Recent reads?
A Silent Voice by Yoshitoki Ōima
Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku by Fujita
Re-Reading Your Lie in April by Naoshi Arakawa
Describe your aesthetic using emojis
🤷♂️🎵🤡🤭🐱👨🦲🧔
Tagging no one. Feel free to participate if you like!
Shadow Eliminators just ended this week. Another week with another series I was reading ending.
However, don't feel that bad about this one. If this series didn't end, I was about to drop it anyway. It went from a story a week with a teenager who could summon spirits to fight evil spirits, freeing them of the burden.
That said, when it started to do world building, IMO, it faltered and the world they built became unnecessarily convoluted.
Manga Review: Bocchi the Rock Vols 1-2, Team Edition
The average anime cour adapts 4-6 volumes of manga; Bocchi the Rock adapts 1.5. Yes, you read that right, one and a half volumes ONLY! Clearly, something unusual is going on with this 4-koma manga.
As a fan of pretty much any series about samurai, Vagabond might be my favorite of the big three seinen manga. It's just too bad it's on indefinite hiatus.
New Read - My Lovesick Life as a '90s Otaku, Volume 2
Okay, internet, I'm caught up!
I finally read Volume 2 of My Lovesick Life as a 90's Otaku and my goodness - the emotions. The feeling of being a nerd in the 90s and trying to be...normal around others. It's too real.
Volume 2 finally sees Meggers embrace her otaku-ness publicly, kind of, but also not. It advances the slow burn romantic tension between the class President and Megumi in such an adorable way. You see Masamune, his anime / manga obsessed Mom, and you see that he's basically solo parenting his siblings. It brings in some sad, but also sweet moments.
Also, Megumi makes an unexpected livelong friend this volume too by defending another girl who has a hard time making female friends. It's adorable and I love every second of it.
I am so glad I jumped into this series and looking forward to Volume 3.
Flying solo today with the kids and Mrs out after I got home from work.
So, decided to get myself some sushi for dinner and catch up on some Sailor Moon. I'm on Volume 7 of the Naoko Takeuchi Collection re-releases of Sailor Moon.
This volume is all plot, no side stories, with a new enemy arriving - the Dead Moon. They set up a circus in town and there's an eclipse; no stars show up in the sky. Throughout the volume, each of the Sailor Scouts loses their power and digs down to find a new, more potent power.
This includes our trio who ran off to raise Sailor Jupiter as a throuple in the woods. They regain their powers, all four of them, and are on their way to rejoin everyone to eventually take on the Dead Moon Circus and their leaders.
It's a solid volume and there's some concerning magical sicknesses hitting Mamo and, by the end, maybe Usagi too. We also meet a powerful new character who can project as an alicorn.