Day 38 – Weekly Reads – Delayed Edition (5th – 11th)

We read a good amount this week since it took a little while to get through the beginning of Mayo Chiki since I already seen it before but, never the less, we got it done!
Since I reviewed two in the previous post, I won’t reiterate it in this one and focus on the others. Spoiler, they are Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt and Spiral.

This weeks reads include:

• Mayo Chiki! Vol 1-7
• Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt
• Paradise Kiss Vol 1-2
• Someday’s Dreamers Vol 1
• Sorcerers & Secretaries Vol 1
• Spiral: The Ring Vol 3

So, let us begin!

First, we have the complete series of Mayo Chiki read and I have to admit, it’s like the anime, well the parts I watched. Like most harem mangas, it shits me at some points but overall, I really enjoyed it and I am pleased with how it ends or even got to the end point.

Sakamachi Kinjiro is as normal as can be, for a chicken with gynophobia.  Like most series of this cliché, it was all kept under control until that fateful visit to the bathroom and discovers the secret of the popular Konoe Subaru and that is that Subaru is not a he but rather a she.
It gets better as the daughter and mistress of Subaru, Suzutsuki Kanade, does everything in her power to keep the secret under wraps and makes it her personal goal to keep Kinjiro quiet and also makes it her quest to help him with his ailments. 

This continues when they go on a wild beach vacation where Subaru seems to be awkward around Kinjiro despite becoming friends. As summer vacation trickles to an end, Kanade tricks Kinjiro with her “hiccups”, spends time playing video games with his sister, listen to Nakaru’s bizarre dating woes and help Masamune at her job at a maid-café. The summer may be ending but things are just heating up for Kinjiro and it’s not just the ladies around him.

In this final conclusion, Kinjiro is reeling from losing his home to a freak lightning strike and ends up taking a servant job at Kanade’s place. As usual, nothing much has changed as things get more bizarre as Kanade self-hypnotises herself and even at 8, she is still her usual self that Kinjiro remembers and to help her return to normal, they have to fill her every desire. 

That’s not all, Kinjiro moves in with Masamune at one point and their neighbours are none other than Kanade and Subaru but that is short-lived as they all end up moving in together as a final bid to see who can win over Kinjiro’s heart!

I have the three-omnibus series of Mayo Chiki and I had moments where I fret over damaging the spine due to its size, which I didn’t thankfully. I enjoyed the cute art, the funny story, the adorable characters but it just kind of reinforces how I feel about fan-service and harem, which is that it can be enjoyable but too much is just boring to me. This will probably be one of the few series I will own from those genres, which is more than enough for me. I would give it a 3.5 out of 5 bookmarks.

At this point of time, I only just started to read Paradise Kiss and at the time of writing this, I just finished the series, so you will hear the conclusion in the next review since this will be fairly long on it’s own without adding in the next weeks or what’s left of it, in this post.

Appearances can be deceiving.
Yukari’s goal in life is to get into a top college but is that all to life? This comes into play when she runs into kids of a fledgling clothing label named Paradise Kiss, her small studious bubble life gets an extreme makeover! This leads to them wanting her to be their runway model and she does wish to add some colour to her drab life. Can Yukari pull of being a student model while being a model student?

In the next volume, she discovers it’s not easy being a beautiful person while trying to juggle being a model and a model student cause being in love with George, the mastermind behind Paradise Kiss, also contributes to the havoc in her life which is causing her to fall behind in class. This infuriates Yukari’s mother who only wants to see her daughter be at the top, but now gives her daughter the choice: leave modelling or else. What does Yukari do with such a choice!?

Now, this is probably one of the few older series I have read recently and the art kind of shows it but then again, it is the style of Ai Yazawa and it makes her works so unique that one can easily find it on the shelves. Now the story is deep and quite the ride and it’s only two of five volumes. I enjoy the characters, though sometimes I want to smack Yukari myself. Personally, I like Miwako and Arashi the most and, trust me, even at the end I still love them the most. My favourite part of the whole story is how often they break the fourth wall with just the smallest of comments and habits, which is a reason why I like Deadpool, it’s different and different is good. Which is why I recommend others to give Paradise Kiss a read. I give this a 4.5 out of 5 bookmarks.

I think the following two mangas seem to be lighter in theme and mood, to me anyway. The story is heavy, but it doesn’t leave me feeling like that and the bonus to them, they both need one more volume in order to tick the complete box, which I only have managed to get one cheap at this present moment and will be involved on this week’s procurement post.

So, let’s start with Someday’s Dreamers.
We follow Yume, who wishes to follow in her mother’s footsteps to become a magic user, but she tends to do what she feels is right and it sometimes backfires on her! In this volume she helps struggling soccer players, the wrongly incarcerated and a student that wishes to give his moon-loving teacher a final gift of an eclipse on a cloudy day. This coming-of-age journey is filled with imagination and a passionate sense of awe as Yume learns that true magic comes from within her heart.

I really love this series because of how sweet things are and it makes me happy reading this because I often root for Yume to do well in her studies.
The art and story are breathtaking, and I can’t but love this series a lot and cannot wait to get in the last volume, but I have to wait until the time is right. I give this a 4 out of 5 bookmarks since I am still reading the series.

Now onto the final manga of todays post, Sorcerers and Secretaries.
Nicole Hayes likes to daydream, especially during the boring times, including her job as a secretary. When alone, she crafts a fantastic story of magic, which allows her imagination to run wild. Meanwhile, Josh tries to still win over Nicole, who doesn’t seem to notice his advances, he sometimes wishes he could peek into her imagination and maybe use it to win her over.

I like this since it seems different, maybe cause it’s a flopped manga and more western take on manga but the story is both serious and sweet, as we follow a girl going about her day as it is mixed with fantasy as we are able to peek into her story. I personally cannot wait to get the final volume and see how it all ends. I’m kind of glad this came in the bundle when I was trying to procure a certain cover of Paradise Kiss. I gave it a 3 out of 5 bookmarks but I think it will go up as I finish it off, I am excited at the thought.

Now, we finally reached the end of the post and I do apologise on the delay since life got the best of me and I am pretty happy that I still manage to get this out. I hope you give all these mangas a gander cause they all deserve some love and care, since that is what manga is created for, besides giving us a new world to dwell in. This time, I swear to keep posts up to date as best as I can but until then, read all the things!

Day 25 – Manga Procurement Squad #5

The recent unofficial collector has picked up a huge bundle for me and they are added to the collection quite nicely. Not all are from that bundle but there is a few that I got from Lifeline and the rest are either cute knick knacks, books and even sweets from the ever so amazing Mouse. Trust me, I will mention which come from where and the usual info, sadly I been a bit slow on reading but hopefully I can fix that up within the coming weeks, since I am reducing on buying the lovely mangas, unless they are a good bundle for a good price.

The newest children are:

• Mayo Chiki (Complete) Omnibus 1-3
• Mysterious Girlfriend X 1
• Genshiken (Complete) Omnibus 1-3
• Yotsuba&1-3
• Beast Master 1
• God Child (Complete) 1-8
• Alice in the Country of Clover: Cheshire Cat Waltz 1-2
• Vampire Game 1-6
• Black Clover 1
• Hana-Kimi Omnibus 1
• Pokemon 1
• Crazy Rich Asians
• 3 Lying Cats
• Basilisk

So, let’s begin with the mangas that I got from facebook.
One bundle consisted of Beast Master, God Child and Alice in the country of Clover and they are pretty good condition, minus the fact that God Child needed a wipe down due to the dirt or what not on the covers. I enjoyed reading the Alice mangas and waiting till I get Cain Saga before I can read God Child as well. Beast Master was an amazing read as well, if it was any longer, it would have been ruined but then again, there is a review about it on this blog.

Bundle two off of Facebook is basically the Omnibus collection and Yotsuba&.
I started to try and Yotsuba& but I was a little turned off from the yelling in it, but I am hoping to read the others to see if it gets better, for now they are on the backburner in regards to buying them.
Mayo Chiki, Genshiken and Mysterious Girlfriend X are a few I am quite happy with and cannot wait to read them. Mysterious only has five more volumes until it is complete while the other two are complete. They came in such amazing conditions and the price made it worth procuring, even the one I am very iffy with.

Now, the rest of manga is the ones from Lifeline.
First we have a lovely collection of Vampire Game where I am only missing, oh, 9 volumes until it is complete.

Black Clover has up to 19 volumes out and surprisingly, not a bad series and I hope to procure the rest at a later time.

Now, Hana-Kimi, I enjoyed a lot and knowing I can get about 7 more volumes to complete, what is normally a 23 volume series, is even better. I enjoy the concept of seeing a girl survive in an all-boys school just to be close to her idol amuses me to no end.

Pokemon was todays purchase and I am kind of hoping to see if it is like the original series but I don’t have the highest of hopes, but I do hope it’s entertaining either way.

The condition of the mangas are pretty amazing for mangas being left in a second-hand store and I am very happy to have them in my collection. I also cannot wait to read them after I finish Sankarea, especially Pokemon.

Now onto the last bits of this purchase/acquisition phase.

I have four new pop friends in the form of Harry Potter’s Basilisk, three Lying Cats and one of them seems to have a lot of fun eliminating a foe. I may not have read Saga, but I do enjoy the looks and concept of the Lying Cat and I only did a bit of research, just to have a little idea of what I bought.

I also recently got Crazy Rich Asians since I did watch the movie, very much enjoyed it and hope the book is just as amazing or even better than the film. It’s just a pity that I haven’t been motivated to read as much as I should have but either way, I am glad to see it join the growing ranks of novels.

The final item is the box of chocolates my lovely partner got because it was a great price and he knows that I absolutely love Cookies and Cream anything. He claims it’s for Valentines and I just glad he got me something I’d enjoy and share with him cause they are so yummy.

So that’s the huge procurement bundle I got some time ago and I am so glad to share these and the others I got because I just a sucker for a good deal. Next coming up is the mail haul, which is a few rare mangas for an even cheaper price than these ones and they were pretty damn cheap. I really need to start reviewing and less procurement stuff. Until next time, read more stuff!