I Am Here! is a five-volume manga series written and illustrated by Ema Toyama. For the English release, Del Rey published in two omnibus editions. The story focuses on Hikage Sumino, a “plain” girl in the eight grade who is invisible to her classmates, almost literally! No one seems to even remember […]
This week I’m looking at another Arina Tanemura’s shojo series Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne, also known as Phantom Thief Jeanne. It was originally published in Japan by Shueisha from 1998 until 2000. The seven volumes were then originally released in English by CMX Manga, which later went defunct. I think it was […]
Natsuki Takaya’s critically acclaimed shojo manga series Fruits Basket is often listed among manga readers top ten series of all time. It is certainly one of mine! Spanning 23-volumes, it was originally released in Japan from 1999 to 2006; it was translated to English and released in North America by the now […]
Kitchen Princess by Natsumi Ando and Miyuki Kobayashi is a ten-volume shojo series that ran in Japan from 2004 to 2008. It was originally published in the US by Del Ray Comics and then rereleased in 2010 to 2013 in omnibus format by Kodansha Comics USA. There is also a light novel set […]
Beast Master is a short two-volume shōjo manga series written by Kyousuke Motomi. It was originally released in Japan in 2007, and then released in the USA by Viz Media in 2009. In this romantic comedy, Yuiko is an animal lover who has one little problem: she gets so excited […]
Full Moon o Sagashite, Full Moon for short, by Arina Tanemura has regularly been noted as being “a story about a little girl dying from cancer!!!!” (yes, lots of exclamation marks). But it really is so much more than that. Originally released from 2002-2004, it spans seven volumes. Viz Manga licensed […]
Hybrid Child is a one-shot shōnen-ai manga title by Shungiku Nakamura. It was originally published in Japan in 2005 and released in North America by Digital Manga Publishing in 2006. Rather than a single story, it is actually a collection of three shorts that center on the titular creations: essentially androids […]
Unlike last week’s Chibi Vampire, Nobuhiro Watsuki’s Rurouni Kenshin is squarely in the shōnen realm. It ran in Japan from 1994 to 1999, with the bound releases spanning 28 volumes. It was licensed in the US by Viz Media, which later re-released the series in a more affordable omnibus format. If you do […]
Yuna Kagesaki’s 14 volume shonen series Karin ran in Japan from 2003 to 2008. A nine volume light novel series ran concurrently with it, and midway through the manga a 24 volume anime series was adapted from it. In the US the manga and light novels were released by Tokyopop […]
Sakura Tsukaba’s nine volume shojo series Land of the Blindfolded was originally released in Japan between 1998 and 2004 then published in the US by the now-defunct CMX Manga. Trivia note: about halfway through their release, CMX changed how they formatted their manga releases. So the first printings of the earlier volumes are slightly […]