Blood,Sweat and Books

Hey everyone, welcome back to another Manga Monday! Since it's inching ever closer to Halloween I figured now would be the perfect time to share some stories that I've yet to read but sound delightfully disturbing to say the least. In no particular order, here are my choices: 1. Jisatsu Circle by Usamaru Furuya This series starts with 54 young women gleefully jumping in front of a train together and committing suicide. One girl name Saya Kota survives unharmed and becomes obsessed with death. She forms a Suicide Club and starts recruiting members to join. Her best friend Kyoko tries to stop her and the other members from completing their task of committing suicide. However, Kyoko quickly realizes other forces much stronger than her don't want that to happen.  If this plot seems familiar it is. This manga is based on the 2001 Japanese film Suicide Club by Sion Sono. The Manga differentiates from the film by adding a survivor to unravel the very complicated plot...

Hey everyone, welcome back to another Manga Monday! Last Tuesday Pokémon International announced that they will be launching a series of animated shorts titled Pokémon Generations on Youtube Friday September 16th. Pokémon Generations will run for 18 episodes before concluding on December 23, 2016. Each episode will be between 3-5 minutes in length and will cover stories from the first through sixth generations of Pokémon games Pokémon Generations will be a way for fans to look back at each generation of the Pokémon video game series. The creators promise that these shorts will give fans the chance to delve deeper into the characters and places they love all while telling new stories not exactly covered in the games. Check out the Pokémon Generations trailer below and don't forget to subscribe, hit that like button and share the love. _______________________________________ Well I guess that's about it for this week. Are you excited for Pokémon Generations ? W...

Last year the Naruto Manga ended it's 15 year run of the series sparking a wave of sadness over the Manga community. At the time, Naruto creator Masashi Kishimoto was recorded as saying he was done with the series. However, fans persisted that more story was left to tell and after the success of Boruto: Naruto the Movie it was confirmed that maybe the fans this time were right and that's how the Boruto Manga series was born. Image courtesy of Viz Media/Crunchyroll Starting Monday May 9th, Boruto will be releasing once a month on  Weekly Shonen Jump (best selling Manga magazine released in Japan). Boruto will will be drawn by Mikio Ikemoto  and writer Ukyō Kodachi will be penning the new series. Don't worry though Naruto fans Masashi Kishimoto will still be sticking around just in a supervisory capacity this time around.  The Boruto manga will focus on the son of Naruto as he forges his own path and steps out of the shadow of his famous father. La...

When many people think of long running anime series, One Piece is the anime that comes to everyone's mind. However, the title of Longest Running Anime series actually goes to Sazae-San a Yonkoma Manga (similar to Comic strips) series originally written and illustrated by Machiko Hasegawa. Sazae-San is a story about family. The main character is a mother named Sazae-san. She lives in a house with her husband, her kids and her parents. It is a very traditional manga, a feel good tale similar to that of say The Partridge Family or The Brady Bunch. The stories are always lighthearted and the characters will always find a lesson in whatever challenge they come up against. In 2013 Sazae-San was awarded the Guinness World Record  as the longest-running animated television series in the world. At that time the series had been on the air over 45 years and had over  2,250 full episodes not including over 7,000 short story clips.  Since the beginning of the s...

Could a Manga Museum become reality? Yes, if the Japanese have any say about it. Japanese lawmakers have formed a caucus to plan a Manga National Center ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The yet unnamed center will focus not only on Manga but it will also showcase Anime and Video Games as part of its exhibits. In other news, Drifters, an up and coming Anime based on  Kouta Hirano's  manga of the same name has recently cast Junko Minagawa (Jeanne d'Arc),Kenji Nomura (Gilles de Rais), Junko Kitanishi (Anastasia), and Masahiko Tanaka (Rasputin). The Anime which centers on the real life Samurai Shimazu Toyohisa is due to release soon but has no set date as of yet. Until that time you can check out the trailer below. Media distribution service Crunchyroll recently announced  that it will stream Anne-Happy, the television anime adaptation of Cotoji's Unhappy Go Lucky! comedy manga. The series will premier on April 7th and will stream exactly as it is seen by...

For those of you new to Manga Monday or don't really remember when I started this last year, Manga Monday is a blog feature that exists alongside Book to Movie Monday where I talk about Anime, Manga's, Graphic Novels and Comics. This feature will sort of be a catch all for all of the above. Some weeks I might just showcase a title, others I might talk about an artist or even (least here's hoping) feature an interview or two. We'll just sort of roll with the punches together. Sound good? I think so! This week I'll be talking about popular dramas that started off as manga. Some of these you might already know or have even watched yourself, others might surprise you. First up is Playful Kiss . This Drama is based on the Japanese manga Itazura Na Kiss written by Tada Kaoru. Over the years the manga series has had 4 adaptations (that I know of) The taiwanese based It Started With a Kiss (2005) and the sequel They Kiss Again (2007) the Korean based Playful Kiss (2...

For those of you new to Manga Monday or don't really remember when I started this last year, Manga Monday is a blog feature that exists alongside Book to Movie Monday where I talk about Anime, Manga's, Graphic Novels and Comics. This feature will sort of be a catch all for all of the above. Some weeks I might just showcase a title, others I might talk about an artist or even (least here's hoping) feature an interview or two. We'll just sort of roll with the punches together. Sound good? I think so! This week I wanted to talk about Anime's that ended before their full story could be told whether caused by creative differences or because the Manga was not yet finished by the end of the Anime's run. Now obviously this a truncated list to ones I enjoyed or followed but feel free to share ones I might have missed below. 1.) Vampire Knight created by Matsuri Hino Original Air Dates: Apr 8, 2008 to Jul 1, 2008 Total Number of Episodes: 13 Season 2 Air Dates:...

Manga Monday is a new feature to the blog which will be replacing (or at least existing alongside) Book to Movie Monday. Although I don't talk about them much on the blog, I am actually a huge, huge fan of Anime, Manga's, Graphic Novels and Comics. This feature will sort of be a catch all for all of the above. Some weeks I might just showcase a title, others I might talk about an artist or even (least here's hoping) feature an interview or two. We'll just sort of roll with the punches together. Sound good? This week, I'll be reviewing the Omnibus of the Manga Another by  Yukito Ayatsuji Pages: 720 Art Design: Hiro Kiyohara Publisher: Yen Press Publication: October 29, 2013 In the spring of 1998, Koichi Sakakibara transfers into Class 3-3 at Yomiyama North Middle School. But little does he know...his new class has a horrible secret. When he takes his seat in class for the first day of school, Koichi is unsettled by his fearful classmates. Desp...

Manga Monday is a new feature to the blog which will be replacing (or at least existing alongside) Book to Movie Monday. Although I don't talk about them much on the blog, I am actually a huge, huge fan of Anime, Manga's, Graphic Novels and Comics. This feature will sort of be a catch all for all of the above. Some weeks I might just showcase a title, others I might talk about an artist or even (least here's hoping) feature an interview or two. We'll just sort of roll with the punches together. Sound good? As you watch, read or play Japanese games and anime you'll probably start to notice that the same types of character archetypes pop up time and time again. The most commonly used archetypes among these are known as the “deres”: tsundere, kuudere, dandere, and yandere. The term “dere” comes from the Japanese word “deredere” (デレデレ) which roughly translated means to be lovey dovey or lovestruck.  By combining this word with other words, we get these new ...

Manga Monday is a new feature to the blog which will be replacing (or at least existing alongside) Book to Movie Monday. Although I don't talk about them much on the blog, I am actually a huge, huge fan of Anime, Manga's, Graphic Novels and Comics. This feature will sort of be a catch all for all of the above. Some weeks I might just showcase a title, others I might talk about an artist or even (least here's hoping) feature an interview or two. We'll just sort of roll with the punches together. Sound good? So, what is a Manga? Well, in short, it's a comic style created in Japan, or by Japanese creators in the Japanese language, conforming to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century.  Manga stories are typically printed in black-and-white (although full-color manga certainly exist) and they happen to be read back to front instead of the typical western style being front to back. If you'd like to know more, I highly suggest checking out A Brief His...