John's nerd corner

Anime and Manga I Enjoyed in 2023

At the end of last year, I wrote a post with little reviews of every new anime I watched. Well, I’m gonna do it slightly differently this year.

Oshi no Ko

Aka Akasaka, known for Kaguya-sama, cements himself as one of my favorite manga writers with Oshi no Ko, which is written by him and drawn by Mengo Yokoyari. This manga has been going for a few years now, and the volumes finally began publishing in English early this year. But here’s a tip: Shueisha has been doing an official online release in English on MangaPlus too! After learning this, I started making my way through the series following the first volume, and let me tell you, I couldn’t put it down.

It’s a little hard to describe Oshi no Ko without spoiling the surprises that happen early on. Normally you’d think, if it’s at the beginning, then how can you spoil it? Trust me, just read the first chapter. It’s much more fun if I don’t tell you what happens.

What I can tell you is that this is a drama that takes place in the entertainment industry. You’ll see things you probably hadn’t thought about before. There’s both triumphs and tragedies. The characters, like with Kaguya-sama, have a lot of wit and humor, but also darkness and self-loathing.

Oh and the anime that aired this year is about as perfect an adaptation as you could ask for. Perfectly cast, beautifully animated, and it even starts with a movie-length episode that covers the entire first volume of the series. How were they even allowed to do something that cool? These are good times.

Kana is my favorite

The Dangers In My Heart

Hear me out on this one. When I saw an anime that was seemingly yet another “weird, quiet guy in class has romance with pretty, popular girl,” I had to scoff. Because it feels like there have been many of those lately. But then you ask, why did I start watching it anyway? That’s because the unique angle here is the boy protagonist is really an edgelord. “I’m so dark and twisted, I’m gonna kill people someday, mwahaha,” he thinks to himself. That sounded kinda funny to me, so I got curious and started watching.

I was really close to dropping the show early on, honestly. Partially because a little dude thinking about killing his classmates is, obviously, pretty dark, but also because of this one side character who says gross stuff…. This show has what I would call “middle school talk,” I will warn you. Anyway. In the end, I didn’t drop it. The first episode doesn’t play its opening song until the end, but once you hear it, you should realize that this is actually supposed to be a warm-hearted show, and a little dude being evil is not the point at all.

The Dangers In My Heart is a manga written and drawn by Norio Sakurai, and it got an anime series during the Spring 2023 season. I think Sakurai’s writing really stands above the crowd and is what makes this series great.

One shortcoming that I think is common in romcoms is when the writer is trying to create an ideal girl whose only flaw might be, like, ditziness, or something. Right in chapter one, though, the female lead Anna Yamada turns out to be a bit of an oddball, and not in some cute way; a lot of people would genuinely find her excessive snacking combined with ape-like noises kind of off-putting. Now that’s not exactly a “flaw” per se, but what I like is that right away, we know Sakurai isn’t trying to show us a perfect person to be worshipped.

Hey remember in the beginning of Horimiya, how the series was described was like “these two people have hidden sides!” and then Hori’s hidden side was just that she takes care of kids? Ooooh so shocking, so crazy. I liked Horimiya, but, you know, I just felt like picking on it. Just for fun.

Anyway, back to BokuYaba.

The series is told from the perspective of the aforementioned male protagonist, Kyotarou Ichikawa, which is how we are able to hear all his supposedly dark and disturbing thoughts (he never expresses them out loud). Unlike some characters who are kind of just chuunibyo for the funniness of it, there are insecurities and anxieties lurking behind his edgelord shtick which are explored in beautiful ways throughout the series.

Ichikawa and Yamada begin having little interactions that always feel natural, and slowly the two grow closer. You never hear what Yamada is thinking, but if you pay attention, you can usually infer from her face. She is more outgoing than Ichikawa, but at the end of the day, she is a kid who has insecurities and will be guarded about her feelings too.

There’s a lovely feeling of youthful innocence to it all. Like these are two kids who got nothing to lose finding each other and falling in love.

On an entirely separate note, Moeko is one of my favorite side characters in anything. She may seem dumb but she speaks only facts.

I really like the manga, and I think the anime is good except I don’t really like that they mess with the order of some things (and can we throw a penalty flag for excessive jiggle?) Also, there’s more Adachi dialogue kind of in the background of the anime, which—ew. Regardless, you’ll get the same good story whether you read the manga or watch the anime, and there’s even a season 2 coming next year. So yeah, even though this show seems dumb, it’s actually one of the best romcoms out there right now.

Hm. My interests in anime have clearly shifted towards series that explore humans and their emotions and fears and all that everyday stuff.

Skip and Loafer

Speaking of which.

Skip and Loafer is perhaps the pinnacle of what “slice of life” can be.

I have a grudge against the term “slice of life” after some Internet commenters seem to use it to mean “any show where there’s not action.” It’s like they’re making the term so general that it becomes absolutely useless as a genre descriptor.

Regardless. Skip and Loafer is a show about a girl who moves to the city from the country. She goes to school and makes a group of friends, including this one nice dude.

Now which one is Skip and which one is Loafer? Did they ever clarify?

So what makes it good? It’s because this show simply understands humans. The insecurities we feel, the jealousy. But it is not a dark show at all. It’s warm, it’s sweet, it’s feel-good.

Is this also a romance? Well, maybe someday, but that’s not really the main point. The show is interested in all of its characters.

I haven’t read the manga. But I absolutely recommend the anime. It looks great (the opening is especially beautiful), it’s a good story for all of you intellectuals who can appreciate slow-paaced, drama-lite stuff. And I really have no caveats.

Funny thing is, the show mainly caught my attention because Rikako Aida sang the ending song. It might’ve passed me by otherwise. Another W gained from being a Love Live fan.

Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror

SPEAKING OF WHICH.

Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror is a spinoff of Love Live! Sunshine!!and was my most anticipated anime of the year. A whole new season of Aqours, but in a fantasy setting? Sign me up.

So did it live up to the hype? Well, uh, I mean the show was pretty good.

I honestly expected the show to go crazier. Like, in a spinoff, you can just do whatever you want, right? But they really took it seriously and wrote a character-focused story where none of the girls are exactly who they are in the normal world. Yohane is the protagonist, of course, and she’s trying to figure out who she’s supposed to be. That probably makes for a better show, in the end.

Don’t get me wrong though; it’s not like they don’t have fun with it. Dia is secretly like a Super Sentai hero with a motorcycle and everything, and Ruby, who is a fairy, goes inside the motorcycle to power it up somehow, I think? Chika and her sisters have also become masked heroes, though I admit Dia looks cooler. Kanan has a talking robot, and You flies around town by being shot out of a cannon. And Mari is like a demon queen or some such.

The most painful shortcoming in the show for me is that I don’t really feel a connection between characters for the most part. It’s like everyone was kind of just generally acquainted with each other, but no one was ever close in the past. It’s not like it is in Sunshine!! where Kanan and Mari or Chika and You were old friends. I find this strange. The exception to this is that Yohane and Hanamaru were apparently friends as kids. And the Guilty Kiss trio does become closer midway through the story. But overall, it felt like they didn’t pay as much attention to relationships as I would have liked.

The other problem with the show is that there’s a section in the middle where not much really happens. The ending was pretty strong. But in the middle, it was like… if we’re gonna kill time, can we do it in a more exciting way?

But yeah, it was a good time overall. Beautiful art direction, good songs as always, and the same fantastic voice actors.

Mari says “Shiny!” in a different way from how the normal Mari says it and I kinda love it.

Maison Ikkoku

I’ve read or watched a lot of romcoms this year, but Maison Ikkoku, by Rumiko Takahashi, is one of the granddaddies, having started its run back in 1980.

And it’s a fun time. You feel this sort of oddly lovely tension. Like yeah, obviously these two like each other. They know they like each other! Sooner or later they’re gonna figure out the things that are keeping them apart and the tension will break for real. But when? Not till the end, buddyboy.

Yeah, sometimes as the reader, I am frustrated. Why are they being dumb? Why are there these silly misunderstandings? But that’s part of the fun of a romcom manga, man.

What adds depth to this story is that the leading lady Kyouko has recently lost her husband at a young age. Can she even love someone else? It’s really a touching story in that regard.

Boy, there’s also a section where Godai is finishing college and looking for a job and nothing is going right for him and he just can’t catch a break. I related to that.

I will say, the eventual resolution to the “will they won’t they”…. I didn’t really love it. But hey, still a happy ending afterwards.

Don’t Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro (Season 2)

While I think this show has always been pretty dumb, it became much funner when Nagatoro’s friends stopped trying to tease senpai (what is his actual name again?) and instead sort of treated him as part of the group.

Actually, at the end of the season, the friends are trying to interfere with senpai and Nagatoro’s date, and it’s super goofy. So I honestly had a great time with this season.

Tengoku Daimakyo (Heavenly Delusion)

Do you want a sci-fi show that’s thrilling and unpredictable? Here you go.

Tengoku Daimakyo takes place in a ruined future. It follows two separate stories: on one side is a pair of teenagers traveling through the wastelands of Japan, battling monsters and troublemakers. On the other is a strange place where children grow up, isolated and safe from the outside world. But why?

What I loved about this series was the mystery. I left with so many questions that just made me want to see more.

The only problem I had was that this one incident occurring towards the end of the season was handled, in my opinion, so poorly, that it kind of spoiled my enjoyment. But hey, don’t let that stop you from watching… right?

Insomniacs After School

Insomniacs After School is another cozy romcom slice-of-life. I thought the first episode was very well-done, production-wise. However, after that, I didn’t notice anything particularly impressive.

The story, too, didn’t blow me away at any point, but it was consistently pleasant. Basically, this dude can never sleep. He finds this hidden sort of attic at the school, but to his surprise, there’s a girl there who has the same problem. And then they like end up reviving the school’s astronomy club so they can keep using the space and you end up learning about photographing the stars….

It’s wholesome, and wholesome is good. But, other shows on this list have more interesting character writing.

The ending song is a good vibe.

There is a manga, and it recently finished. Have not read it. But I would guess that’s gonna be the only way to get the rest of the story.

Tomo-chan is a Girl

Honestly I just found this anime visually unappealing.

It’s based on a 4-panel manga, and I remember seeing some pages of it randomly and finding them pretty funny.

But I feel like when adapting a 4-panel series, the anime really has gotta have some special juice. K-On. Nichijou. Bocchi the Rock. And this one just didn’t do it for me.

But it was decent.

Daemons of the Shadow Realm

Hiromu Arakawa, best known as the creator of Fullmetal Alchemist, is back with a new original manga: Daemons of the Shadow Realm.

Well, this series actually started in December 2021, but I’ve decided to only read the volumes, so… I’m not caught up.

So, if you haven’t been keeping up with Arakawa’s work, her most recent completely original series was Silver Spoon, a realistic story with an agricultural setting (which you should absolutely read). But this one returns to the fantasy genre—only this time, we’re in the modern world, for more of an urban fantasy type thing. There are these creatures, invisible to most people, who are super powerful, and they always come in pairs. They come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, and they work for humans. Naturally, whenever you have something powerful like that, there’s going to be conflict—people fighting in the shadows for control.

Basically, I have complete faith in Arakawa at this point. The way she writes characters and develops them over time—I doubt she’s lost touch with that. Her sense of humor is certainly still here, from what little I’ve read so far.

Actually, in volume 3 there was one part where she really had me going thinking the nice mangaka guy was evil… It was so brilliantly funny.

I say, get on board now before they eventually make an anime of this. But man, I just don’t want to use Square Enix’s pain in the butt app to read it…. That’s why I’m getting the physical books.

Chainsaw Man (manga)

Last year the Chainsaw Man anime aired, and I wrote about it. I had not read the manga at that point except for like the first two chapters. I wasn’t as hot on the anime as I think I expected to be, and I don’t think that was an uncommon reaction.

See, what everyone forgot when hyping up the anime was that the anime wouldn’t get to “the good part” of the story.

I mean, sure, the stuff it covered is good, but afterwards it’s like the story just starts to click more. I suddenly start to have more clarity about what it means for Denji to be having all these different encounters with women—Makima, Power, Himeno, and then Reze—how that will shape his character.

Some absolutely insane stuff also happens with some of the most visually memorable pages of manga I’ve encountered in my short few years of reading the medium. You will be asking what the heck is going on but loving every minute of it.

I’m actually not caught up on the series, but I did finish part 1. The anime is coming back with a movie covering the next arc, it’s been recently announced. So that’s exciting! But man, what a great manga.

I appreciate the anime’s unique direction. But what makes me love the manga even more is that visually, it’s not beautiful. It can look crude. That, combined with just the way it’s paced, made me find the manga a whole lot funnier than the anime.

Creator Tatsuki Fujimoto seems to write manga unapologetically true to his own personality, and the result feels like something no one else in the world could ever imitate. That’s a beautiful thing. So yes, definitely read Chainsaw Man if you like stuff that’s crazy, violent, and sometimes a bit horrifying—yet strangely profound.

The Dreaming Boy Is a Realist

The main character of The Dreaming Boy Is a Realist has one of the worst cases of “generic light novel protagonist” I’ve ever seen, but I just like the energy of this show. It’s like the same energy Toradora has. Not to say it’s anywhere as good as Toradora, or even that similar to it, but it has kind of that whimsical feel to it—like yeah this is a high school, but crazy stuff can happen. It’s fun. The character designs are cute, too.

But you know, I don’t even completely understand why this series is called what it is.

Anyway, the story can be summed up by the chorus of that Cake song “Let Me Go.” Well, sort of.

See, the male main character has been talking to this cute girl every day even though she’s like, “Ugh, you’re annoying.” But then he stops. The majority of the following episodes feel like the primary focus is on introducing additional cute girls, one by one, while progress with the “main girl” takes a backseat and she just kind of starts to realize she has feelings for him in the background. It’s sort of like a harem anime, except it never feels like there will be romance with any of the “secondary” girls.

It wasn’t that great of a show, but it was fun and cute. And I like tsundere. I give it a six out of ten.

My Happy Marriage

My Happy Marriage looks really gorgeous.

Ayane Sakura seems to have carved out a niche for “girl who screams like a maniac.” Remember in Attack on Titan The Final Season when Gabi was like “REINERRRRRRR!” That’s what I mean. I hope Sakura’s voice is ok from all that.

I’m gonna be honest, I haven’t finished this one yet. Although I loved the beginning, I was feeling a little irritated around episode 9 with how much the main character kept talking about needing to be a proper wife. Like bro, talk about something else.

Akane-banashi

This is a manga about rakugo. What is that? It’s kind of like a one-man play. The manga will explain pretty clearly.

But seriously, this crud is super entertaining. A girl goes on a revenge quest after her father was expelled as a rakugo master’s student. Like a sports manga, she’ll learn skills from those around her and face increasingly difficult competition.

No seriously, I would describe it as “like a sports manga but you also get to learn various entertaining folk tales.”

Witch Hat Atelier

I’m not super far into this one yet, but it’s a beautiful fantasy manga featuring a cast of youngsters learning magic. And the magic system is based on drawing symbols. There are rules and logic to it, and it’s really cool!

This one is confirmed to be getting an anime, and I’m pretty sure it’s gonna be big. ‘Cause the manga is good.

Girlfriend, Girlfriend

Bro this show is terrible! But actually it’s not that terrible.

The premise of this series is that a guy has a girlfriend but then another girl confesses to him. He feels bad for the second girl, so he has an idea: see if his girlfriend will let him date both of them. And somehow, she agrees?

This is a shounen series, by the way, for better or worse. Just to let you know what sort of writing to expect.

All of these characters are idiots, and the writer knows it. I guess I tend to enjoy that style of comedy, and so yeah, there are definitely funny parts of this series.

Ayane Sakura plays the airheaded Saki Saki in the anime, and she’s very funny in the role. (See? She doesn’t just play crazy girls screaming).

Despite everyone being idiots, the author put thought into their motivations, and their feelings are taken seriously. Saki is the childhood friend and original girlfriend, who maybe seems to take the male main character, Naoya, for granted at times, but also gets insecure about her desirability. Which seems like a natural consequence if your boyfriend wanted a second girlfriend. Nagisa is the girl who confessed to Naoya after he was already dating Saki, and she had worked hard to make herself more attractive beforehand. Given the situation, she tends to be pretty accommodating.

Where things really get fun is when Rika comes in. She finds out about the situation and is like, “Break up with them and date me instead, or I’ll tell people about this,” although she doesn’t really care about Naoya. But then she actually falls for Naoya, and becomes obsessed with trying to make him fall for her and getting him to dump the other two. And that’s what I like about her: she’s a real villain, but I kinda want to root for her.

Then there’s yet another twist where Shino, who is Saki’s friend, also secretly likes Naoya, but ends up making an alliance with Rika. She originally seemed like the only one with a brain, but that didn’t last.

I dunno, I just find this all less annoying when reading the manga. When watching the anime I’m like “what am I doing with my life.” Too much yelling, too.

And while I said it was sometimes funny, it is often incredibly not funny.

Well, it’s a stupid series, but at least it’s still far more enjoyable than Rent-a-Girlfriend, which has the most detestable protagonist ever devised by man. Like, I can actually respect Naoya.

I Want to End This Love Game

As you may know, the “I love you” game is a game where you take turns saying “I love you” and whoever gets embarrassed loses. Or something like that. In this manga, two childhood friends have been playing this game for many years. And now they’re in high school. Would it surprise you to hear that they’re also secretly in love?

The concept here seemed quite similar to Kaguya-sama, but there are several huge differences. Kaguya-sama is supposed to be a battle between two really smart people (as the full title of the series implies—man the official English title is inadequate). It’s also a battle between two people who, in the beginning of the series, won’t admit their own feelings to themselves, even though those feelings are ridiculously obvious to the audience. Instead, Kaguya has convinced herself Miyuki likes her, and vice versa. They scheme deviously to attempt to make the other person make a love confession—it’s an absurd game which no one but the omniscient narrator acknowledges out loud. Love Game, however, leans more into a more traditional youthful innocence angle. The main characters are openly trying to win the game, but the game is also what gives the characters an excuse to interact daily. They have a very playful relationship. They’re crushing on each other, but of course, it’s the classic “what if he/she doesn’t like me back” scenario, so they hide it. So, when I really think about it, the two series are pretty different, but yes, they both involve a game of love.

Anyway, is this series the funniest? No. Does it have the most unique-looking characters? No. But I can say that it’s one of the sweetest, sugariest, most health-risk-inducing things I’ve ever read.

But then the main dude will do something cringey like try to imitate a character from a shoujo manga, so that way you won’t become sick from too much sweetness. You have to have some contrast, you know?

So yeah, if you want some more high school romcom cuteness… Here you go.

Blue Box

I’ve been reading Blue Box since chapter one of its serialization. Feels like a lot happened in the series this year.

Blue Box is a Weekly Shounen Jump manga where a high school boy who’s on the school badminton team has a crush on a girl a grade above him on the girls basketball team. She’s a hardworking athlete, and he sees her in the morning practicing.

But then, by some miraculous chance, she ends up having to live in the same house as him and his family? Ehhh????

And then there’s this other girl who does gymnastics and is a friend of the main guy—and you can already smell a bit of a love triangle, can’t you?

Seriously though, when it comes to wholesomeness, this one charts pretty high. It’s not a series with heavy drama or ridiculous antics. Or cringe anime romcom tropes. Just a nice, relaxed story with some nice people.

And sports are part of it too. But actually, they don’t really go into detail on the sports most of the time. It’s much more about the relationships.

Guess what else? An anime has been announced, and I think it’s gonna be really good. Watch it.

Beat & Motion

A dude wants to be an animator and a girl wants to be a singer. Can they team up and achieve their dreams?

This manga just started this year. I jumped on board early, because stories about people trying to do creative stuff tend to be interesting, I guess. Plus the girl seemed kinda cute.

The only thing I dislike about this series is that there’s a lot of scenes of characters yelling their feelings and opinions. It’s not very naturalistic, right? And their faces look funny in those scenes.

But I think it’s a good story so far.

My Love Story with Yamada-kun at Lv999

A college girl starts playing an MMO game because her boyfriend is into it. Then her boyfriend ends up dumping her because he met another girl in the game. While she’s wallowing in self-pity, she encounters a guy in the game who seems cold and indifferent—and then she encounters him in real life.

When I was watching this anime, I was thinking about whether I considered this series a ‘six’ or a ‘seven,’ and I was pretty torn on it. The series does nothing to offend me. I mean, I don’t think I cringed once. And the production quality is consistently pretty good. The story is solid; I was invested during the whole thirteen episodes. So I settled on seven.

But the reason I also considered a potential six is really just that the story didn’t wow me. The characters aren’t particularly deep. Probably the biggest negative I can say about the story is that a competing female love interest who was obviously not going to win was introduced pretty late—which felt kinda mean to her!

Romance is certainly a significant part of the show, but the majority of episodes don’t focus a whole lot on it—which is not necessarily a negative. After all, there are other relationships to explore. But if you compare the show to Skip and Loafer from the same Spring 2023 season, that show brings a much more interesting, deeply empathetic perspective to all its character writing. These characters, eh, like I said, they’re just kinda basic.

But ultimately, it is a sweet show I think anyone can enjoy. Especially if you like stories where two people are very different and clash at first but soon start to like each other a lot.

Can I just say that the main girl Akane is really cute? In the first episode she’s such a mess and I love her.

You know something interesting this show does? So there’s this thing in a lot of manga where there are little extra comments to the side of the speech bubbles (and sometimes I’m not sure what order I’m supposed to read them in). Instead of putting those in dialogue, this anime just puts the comments onscreen like it’s still a manga. I don’t think I’ve seen that before. Saves time, doesn’t it? I kinda like it.

You and I are Polar Opposites

This crud is so cute. Originally it was a one-shot. I haven’t read the one-shot, but the first chapter of this serialized manga does tell a nice little story by itself: a popular girl who is too concerned about how others perceive her is in love with a boy who is quiet yet speaks his mind honestly. By the end of the chapter, she decides to be more like him and speak her mind. As a result, the two are able to become a couple.

So if that’s chapter one, does it work as an ongoing series? Yeah. There are more stories to tell about the main couple, as well as about other characters who are equally as cute.

The drawings are so good because frequently the main girl looks all extra-round and squishy.

Good writing, too. There’s this one character whose anxieties I can really relate to.

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off

Screw it, let’s talk about the Scott Pilgrim Netflix show. Is this actually anime? Well considering that the whole production was a collaboration with the studio Science Saru, I’m gonna say yes. This isn’t one of those cases where they simply shipped the storyboards off to an overseas studio to do the animation (which is pretty much how all American cartoons are made). Science Saru has done some incredible anime, by the way, like Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! back in 2020.

The show also has an opening song by Necry Talkie, which makes it a masterpiece. Wait, would that mean the first season of Girlfriend, Girlfriend is a masterpiece? Ok I take back what I said. But it’s still a great opening.

I think every episode of this show had an action scene, and it was beautifully animated, eye-popping, and just plain exciting every time.

The story, which is not the adaptation you may have been expecting, is a lot of fun. I’m not gonna go in-depth on this one. But you definitely should watch it if you’re at all interested.

I think my favorite joke of the series was “I couldn’t even get a reservation at McDonalds. They laughed when I called!”

Monster

Oh yeah. I almost forgot that I read a lot of Naoki Urasawa’s Monster this year. The anime also came to Netflix like right after I started reading it. But I admit I have not finished either.

If you don’t know Monster though, it’s a very interesting series. It stars this Japanese doctor in Germany. On one fateful night, he chooses to perform surgery on this young boy, disobeying his superior, who wanted him to operate on someone else. But then, uh oh, this boy ends up killing people soon after. Basically now Dr. Tenma has to go figure out what the deal is with this boy and you know, hopefully stop any more killing. But he is pursued by an obsessive detective who is convinced Dr. Tenma is behind all the murders.

It’s good stuff and is just different from most anime you’ll see. It’s a fascinating thriller. Yeah… I really gotta get back to it.

You know, nowadays if I have the choice between a manga and its anime adaptation, usually I’d rather read the manga first. It’s the original work, after all! It’s (hopefully) the purest expression of the creator’s vision! Of course, my issue with anime adaptations is usually not that they deviate too much from the source material. Rather, many adaptations do too little to take advantage of the medium of animation. They add color and a bit of movement to the manga panels, and you get to hear some great actors. But they don’t go beyond the bare minimum, and watching a “bare minimum” adaptation just feels like somewhat of a poor use of time.

I mean reading manga is definitely faster than watching anime, you know.

The thing is, if you’re looking for official sources for manga, yes you can buy the volumes. But with anime, you get access to far more content for your money thanks to streaming services. Which is why I still tend to end up spending more time watching anime than I do reading manga. This landscape has been changing in recent years, though. Viz’s Shonen Jump service has offered a large library of on-demand manga for a very low monthly subscription cost for several years now. There are only so many Shonen Jump titles that interest me, however. Luckily, this year, Viz launched another service called Viz Manga that offers a lot more variety beyond the Weekly Shounen Jump stuff. That’s what I used to read Maison Ikkoku, and the service has all sorts of stuff, from Junji Ito to Shounen Sunday titles. It really is a solid library.

Other competitors are stepping up their English offerings too. Poorly. But they are doing more than nothing. Square Enix and Kodansha both launched new manga apps, but their pricing structures are absolute headaches, so I just don’t want to bother with them. Will they ever just simplify their strategy and copy Viz? Let’s hope so. Until then, when it comes to any Kodansha or Square Enix releases… I’ll just read the volume releases.

And by the way, remember that a lot of Shueisha chapters (including Weekly Shounen Jump) are absolutely free to read for the first few weeks after they come out. Like I mentioned earlier when I was talking about Oshi no Ko, there are some titles which you can read through in their entirety a single time on the Manga Plus app (yes, you don’t get to re-read the chapters for free). Some absolute page-turners, made available for free from the actual publisher.

Anyway, all that said, I’m going to continue watching anime, including adaptations of manga I really like. But I’m just saying that I appreciate manga more and more.

That’s about all I have to say for now. It’s gonna be a good year. I dunno what’s coming out—except apparently the second season of The Dangers In My Heart is already here this season??? Cool.