Manga List - August

I've actually been super super busy this semester with uni and finding a job because I WILL BE DONE WITH UNI AFTER THIS SEMESTER (can I have a hallelujah?) but yes, it's been stressful so unfortunately I haven't been reading much!

Ok not much is a bit of an understatement. I've read one new series, and pretty much just been keeping up with the existing ongoing series like ajin, second brain, soredemo sekai wa utsukushii, toukyou kushu, taiyou no ie, and watashi ni xx shinasai.

Taiyou no ie introduced a new character which I'm not too happy about because I'm still basking in the happiness from the last few chapters where things finally started working out and them BAM. No my heart is not ready for this to start all over again.

Watashi ni XX shinasai also suddenly dropped a bombshell. It's been ongoing for quite a while so if you got bored and dropped it (like I did), then perhaps it's time to revisit because drama is heating uppppp!

And also Hirunaka no Ryuusei released two mini chapters with Hibi Chouchou cameo! I looooove Suiren & Kawasumi even though the story is retardedly slow-paced and unrealistic as heck. The cameo chapters are super cute as expected~~ here's to hoping for more cameos!


Right, anyway onto new manga!


Shiki (complete)

"Sotoba is an old-fashioned Japanese village nestled deep in the mountains. It has a small population of about 1300, and the villagers strictly follow age-old traditions and customs.
One sweltering summer, a mysterious and deadly disease begins to spread rapidly among the villagers, affecting young and old alike. In the midst of this spate of puzzling deaths, a family of beautiful and elegant individuals moves into the abandoned 'Kanemasa' mansion on the hill-side over-looking Sotoba... " - Baka Updates
Genre: horror, suspense, drama, mystery, supernatural

 This series started off pretty well - I was very happy with the fact that they started off the story with a girl who dressed in all sorts of alternative jfashion. However, the art wasn't too appealing in any particular way. I guess it worked well for the horror element but it wasn't really creepy/weird enough to actually be scary? Anyway, the story progressed along pretty well, but once the identity of the Shiki was discovered, the story took on a very predictable route and people just started dying left and right not unlike Ousama Game (reviewed in last month's manga list). Also something I didn't like about this manga is that there was no clear protagonist. Out of the three characters that could be the protagonist (Natsuno Yuuki, Muroi Seishin, and Ozaki Toshio), only the ending of the first two was actually defined. WTF happened to Ozaki Toshio?? Anyway the ending was really rushed and left many many many questions.

The last thing that irked me about this story is that it became very very philosophical. About halfway through the plot, the author introduced the story of Cain and Abel as an analogy of the relationship between humans (or just one /possible/ protagonist) and the Shiki. But then they didn't explain it very well so it just became hella confusing.
Rating: 3/5

Apocalypse no Toride (ongoing)

"What can you do when you get mistaken for murder? Nothing. You go to prison. Lucky for you, your inmates are some of the biggest cutthroats in the prison. Seriously, you are lucky. Especially when zombies attack."
Genre: horror, supernatural, sci-fi, mystery, action (LOTS OF ACTION)

This is easily one of the creepiest/weirdest horror manga I have read in recent months. I loooove all the weird as heck mutations the author thought up. Am I weird? Haha either way this manga is ridiculously grossly intriguing and I love it! The art style is perfect too.

The protagonist is not a very well developed character - he sorta just suddenly went from the weakling little nublet to a zero-sympathy plotter with too much power for his own good. Actually he's a pretty stupid character - most of the action fighting is done by his comrades, and then occasionally he swoops in to save the situation by some amazing ability that he doesn't understand. It's kind of weird, but if you don't mind the semantics too much this is a very enjoyable manga.

It's up to chapter 33 at the moment but feels a lot longer (perhaps it's 1 month releases so more pages per chapter?) anyway, I suppose it will go to at least 50 chapters if the plot doesn't extend. Can't wait for the next chapter!!

Rating: 5/5

Actually I spent much of this month trying to find nice shoujo/yaoi manga but somehow all the ones I could bear to even start turned out to be really cliche or grossly cheesy /sigh. Andddd so, this month's manga list is tiny because I really could not bring myself to share stories that were so unspectacular (even unspectacularly bad). SORRY! Hopefully I will find some nice manga next month ne?

Though... it may be a good time to make a start on this season's anime soon..... fufufufufu :3


=^.^=