Okay, so when I posted up the picture of this first volume, the response was very much "What in the world is this." Let's be real, that was my thought on it too. But, now I've read it. So, let's discuss.
Basic premise - The Joker sets off something that accidentally turns Batman into a baby. The Joker then has the realization that without the Bat, he is incomplete and his crimes are pointless. So, decides to raise the baby Batman into the best Batman he can be.
There is no depth beyond that here. It takes that concept, puts The Joker into situations parents get into on the regular to comedic effect. It's a goofy manga through and through; I for one am here for that. Seeing The Joker complain about child care options in Gotham, changing diapers, or telling Harley to be gentle with a baby is hilarious on its own.
Already pre-ordered Volume 2, we'll see if it came keep this same level of humor throughout this 3 volume series.
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.
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.
This weekend I sat down and read through the manga adaptation of the One Piece side story "Ace's Story." Originally released as a novel entitled, "One Piece Novel A," this manga adaptation was setup by Ryo Ishiyama with art by Boichi of Dr. Stone fame.
The volume is gorgeous and stylish, as is all art from Boichi. The story is well done, telling about how Ace first got his Devil Fruit powers, but also the formation of his original pirate crew, the Spade Pirates.
It follows Ace's initial adventures in piracy, his second in command Masked Deuce, and his plan to take on the powerful pirate, Whitebeard.
Along the way, we meet some familiar faces and it's a great journey focusing in on Ace.
If you like Ace as a character, check this manga adaptation out.
The volume ends with Boichi's adaptation of One Piece chapter 51, "Roronoa Zoro Falls Into the Sea," where Mihawk and Zoro battle for the first time. It's a great chapter, and Boicihi's art just makes it look so cool.
Can't wait to dive into Volume 2, which concludes this side story, when it drops.
The single volume series follows Donald and his buddies José Carioca and Panchito from the classic cartoon #TheThreeCaballeros work for Duck Furnishings in the US. Being that it is this trio, they're always getting into trouble. So, their boss sends the three of them to Japan to become better employees by forcing them to work at a traditional, and very strict, Onsen in Japan.
Basically, it's a goofy story about Donald and friends becoming good at helping / serving others while working at an Onsen. That's it.
I have read this a few times and so have a few of my kids. It's silly, it's relaxing, and I tend to bring it with me on vacations if I'm looking for something quick to read at the beach.
Are there any single volume manga that you go back to and re-read to relax? Let me know in the comments!
This weekend I finally got to reading #SailorMoon Volume 5, from #Kodansha's new Naoko Takeuchi Collection reprint of the series. Let me tell you - fantastic.
This set of chapters introduced us to Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune, who had such a fantastic introduction. The duo as Mugen Academy students infiltrating the school; Sailor Uranus' sexuality and gender expression; and the pair's willingness for brutality introduced some new elements into the series that just made it hard to look away. I plowed through this volume this weekend.
Overall, solid volume, can't wait until the next one arrives for me in January.
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.
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 Manga Read: Fist of the North Star - Volume 10
It has finally happened. I have reached the penultimate battle of the first half of Fist of the North Star!
Kenshiro versus Raoh.
It did not disappoint. This volume (10) revealed more about the history of Yuria, Kenshiro, and Raoh that were fantastically done. The truth about Yuria an her sickness; Raoh's realization that he will never be as vulnerable as Kenshiro were huge moments.
For all the beefy dudes beating each other, which is a core component of Fist of the North Star, the masculinity of Kenshiro isn't toxic, isn't oppressive, and shows true emotion, vulnerability, and sorrow. There is emotional depth to Kenshiro that Raoh is unwilling to have. His own internalized misogyny won't allow Raoh to admit he has these feelings of love, compassion, or fear. Kenshiro allows himself to feel all these things.
As the volume concluded, I found myself far more emotional than I expected for a post-apocalyptic tale about beefy dudes fighting. It was so well done.
Now, I move onto Volume 11 and the time skip.
But here's to the story of Kenshiro and Raoh and a very satisfying ending to their tale.
In case you missed the summary from my first post (or have never heard of this), the basic premise is that after Superman was in Japan fighting crime, he enjoyed their relatively inexpensive Japanese cuisine and is basically obsessed with it now.
So yes, after reading Volume 1, I ordered Volume 2 of Superman Vs Meshi and pre-ordered Volume 3. Expect a review of Volume 3 in February when it releases.
This volume continues where Volume 1 left off with Superman's continued obsession with Japanese cuisine. This volume brings us more special guests including Wonder Woman, The Flash, and Cyborg. Wonder Woman spends her chapter thinking Superman is going to hit on her, only to realize he just really loves food. The Flash took a second job as a delivery...runner for a fictional version of Grub Hub. Cyborg is shown as the introvert of the Justice League until Superman introduces him to some new food. I mean, he's still an introvert, but they start chatting about food.
One thing I will note is that this is absolutely accessible to kids. There is not really any adult topics discussed, violence, cursing, etc. One of my 9 year olds read Volume 1 and basically starred at me to finish reading Volume 2 so she could pick it up next. Definitely a fun one if your kids are interested in goofy manga, super heroes, or learning about Japanese food.
Overall, silly, cute, makes me hungry. Would read again and ready for Volume 3.
I rarely jump into book stack challenges I find online, however, over on Instagram there is a "Manga or Book User Name" stack challenge from users heygingermaenga, dragonballzowie, and mainly.manga. So, I decided to try it out.
The issue I had was that it was really hard to find an R book.
So, here is how I laid out MDMRN.
M - My Father is a Unicorn
D - Donald Duck Visits Japan
M - My Broken Mariko
R - Return of the Jedi (Pop-Up Book)
N - (The) Nightmare Before Christmas
This was a fun challenge and thanks to the three of you for putting this out there.
New Manga Read - Fist of the North Star, Volume 11
Volume 11 is the first volume of Hokuto no Ken (Fist of the North Star) after the time skip. This volume includes a bonus chapter that Buronson wrote and Tetsuo Hara drew from 2014 that fills in the gap between the end of Part 1 to the beginning of Part 2 where Bat and Lin are now adults leading an army of rebels called the Hokuto Army.
Ken had been isolated with Yuria until her death. Now he's returning to the world to help make things right and destroy some enemies. This volume introduced some new characters and the adult versions of both Bat and Rin are well presented.
Bat is brash and bold, trying to protect others. Rin is soft and kind, but also ready to fight if needed. They are, in many ways, the two sides to Kenshiro himself. And I love to see it.
The volume ends on such an unexpected moment that I really can't wait until Volume 12 finally drops on my lap.
Sand Land is interesting. This was a single volume, self contained story from the late Akira Toriyama. It tells the tale of the titular "Sand Land," where after a major apocalyptic event, there is limited water and the King hoards what remains, selling it to the people at high rates. There are also demons walking the world for reasons.
Enter our heroes - Thief, a sneaky and balding demon; Beelzebub, the son of the King of the Demons; and Rao, a human on the mission to find a secret water supply to the south to free the people from the King's tyrannical rule.
The story follows this trio as they travel south, run into various fights, and eventually save the day. In the process, the story rails against those who hoard resources and has some social commentary about how governments / militaries lie to their people. There is also sub-textual commentary about climate change and how certain governments treat indigenous populations and (sometimes purposefully) disregard their existing knowledge of the world after crushing them.
Overall, it's a fun story and I'm glad I had a chance to re-read this great, physical edition before the new anime / video games drop. Toriyama gave us a bunch of stories before he passed and I hope you get a chance to check out some of his stories outside of Dragon Ball.
From Halloween until Christmas is, officially, The Nightmare Before Christmas Season! So, let's talk abut the official manga adaptation.
Do you already like the movie a lot and are super familiar with the plot? If so, this is a welcome addition to any collection you may have for that series. If you are not, watch the movie first. While the art is great and fitting for the series, the pacing is okay but moves a bit too quick through certain plot points that without some baseline familiarity with the material a person may get lost.
That said, I've seen the movie likely a hundred times at this point in my life. So, I enjoyed it!
Have you read the manga adaptation? Or have you seen any of the spinoff manga?
New Read - My Lovesick Life as a '90s Otaku, Volume 1
Mangagram had been talking about this nonstop it felt like, so I decided to pick up Volume 1.
Now, before I get much further into anything review-esque, let me tell you a bit about myself. I have always been a big nerd. In the mid to late 90s, I was a teenager who loved comic books, Dungeons and Dragons, and video games. Me and a friend created our own card game called "Tragic: The Saddening," a spoof on Magic the Gathering. I tried to be as normal as possible at school, but I was a socially awkward teenager who said the weirdest things sometimes which led to awkward moments of my peers just looking at me.
By the time I was a senior, I had learned to fake being more average and sociable, a skill which I have honed to this day.
I did not discover anime or manga until college cause, I'm an American and where I grew up it wasn't really accessible.
However, all of this is to say that this series was relatable. Socially awkward teenager who has crushes and is trying not to gush about their geeky hobbies. Check and check.
I plowed through this first volume so fast and already pre-ordered the remaining 3 volumes.
Suffice it to say, I enjoyed it and am looking forward to reading more.
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.
As we're closing in on Christmas, I decided to bust back out Sweet Rein and give it a re-read. I had not read it since 2021 and let me tell you, it's cheesy, but fun.
For those who don't know much about it (which may be many), Sweet Rein is about a girl named Kurumi who bumps into a boy named Kaito. Afterwards, a long invisible rein appears between the two of them, tying them together!
What we learn is that Santa (or Santas) are everyday people who connect with a human-reindeer to give out presents in their specific area once a year. This boy, Kaito, is Kurumi's reindeer. The story then follows Kurumi and Kaito as they are clearly having a crush on each other and also give out presents, work as Santa for Christmas, and overall try to make people's days brighter.
It's cute. I don't remember how it ended, so I'll have to finish it up before Christmas!
Have you read Sweet Rein? If so, what did you think of it?
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!
This weekend I read Volume 2 of One Operation Joker. Much like Volume 1, it continued with the parenting jokes. This time we brought in Harley Quinn a couple times to help the Joker get baby Batman into a good daycare facility. Also, Alfred Pennyworth showed up as said daycare facility happened to be owned by Wayne Enterprises.
It's such a goofy concept and it was able to keep the gag going through a second volume. I feel like this series maxing out at 3 volumes is probably for the best because I'm not sure how much more they can do with this same baby Batman gag.
I have never really done #ShelfieSunday before, mostly because I do not own tons of physical manga. I also have a gaggle of kids who take up shelf space, so I have more in stacks in my room 🤭
Here are a couple quick pics of some of my manga shelved. There's some other random books intermixed.
Feel free to comment below on what stands out to you!
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.
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.
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..."