Manga List - July 2014

Akame ga Kill (ongoing)

"AKAME GA KILL!, written by Takahiro and illustrated by Tetsuya Tashiro, follows teenage country-bumpkin Tatsumi, who dreams of earning enough money for his impoverished village by working in the Capital—but his short-lived plans go awry when he’s robbed by a buxom beauty upon arrival! Penniless, Tatsumi is taken in by the beautiful and kindly Lady Aria, but just when his Capital dreams seem within reach once more, Lady Aria’s mansion is besieged by Night Raid—a team of ruthless assassins who target high-ranking members of the upper class! As Tatsumi is quick to learn, appearances can be deceiving in the Capital, and this team of assassins just might be…the good guys?!" - Baka Updates
Genre: shonen, action, fantasy, drama, romance (mostly for humor)

First of all, Akame is the name of the girl in this cover photo for those that are confused. As of where I am right now (chapter 30ish), I still don't know why the title has her name when Tatsumi appears to be the protagonist, and Akame doesn't even get many panels out of the other main characters .-.

This manga is one of my favourites of this type - the art is CUTE but still fitting for the genre, the gags are good, and there is a good amount of gore (though stumpy arms look like sausages but what do you expect right?). Some of the characters have that element of madness which is rather reminiscent of higurashi no naku koro ni.

As usual, I am reading the manga version, but I do know that this has been turned into an anime too and has only recently started airing.. so I guess I'm not too late jumping on the bandwagon! The manga also has a prequel which I look forward to reading while waiting for it to update. The main story is probably going to be veeery long ❤

I think the story starts improving around chapter 20 - up until then, you may have to grit your teeth a bit to get through. The battle scenes are very...fast paced? I get lost a lot in the battle sequence and I feel like too much is missed between the panels, and also it's hard to actually understand each panel. It may be because I skim the battle scenes quickly but still, a little irksome.

For those that like No Game No Life, I think you will like this story too. Though there is a lot more gore, the humor is somewhat similar, and the characters are equally likeable ^^
Rating:  4/5


Jisatsutou (ongoing)

"Treating non-successful suicidal patients requires a lot of money and resources. With low budget and a personal respect argumentation, a doctor will ask a non-successful suicidal patient if he/she still wants to live on or not. If not the government will respect his/her wish. However, the government doesn't just simply kill them." - Baka Updates

Genre: survival, psychological, drama, tragedy

Ok so I usually avoid anything with jisatsu in the title because I had previously read a horror manga and it creeped me out so much (Jisatsu Circle for anyone who's interested. It's a psychological neverending loop horror. Also has a lot of violence and nudity and just overall depressing as heck).

Still thought I'd read this one because the synopsis didn't say much. Perhaps it would become some alternate universe survival action story? No, actually it's just basic human survival set in our universe, nothing sci-fi at all. It's actually kind of nice, reading about how some of these people who previously felt completely useless suddenly realised that they had important survival skills that other people didn't. Despite being a tragedy, I really like how the protagonist thinks about the meaning of life and is empowered / empowers others. This manga also has an over the shoulder narration that forewarns you about the future.

One thing I really don't like about the manga is the art. Can it be any less appealing? This is actually my third time attempting to read it and I'm finally making my way through. The previous two times I just couldn't get past the first chapter.

In a way, I guess this manga is really depressing too. So idk. Perhaps read it if you're super down or being NEET? It's not really something I'd like to pick up any old day lol.

Rating: 3/5

Ousama Game (completed)

"A mysterious command arrives from a "King"-----The life-threatening "Game" has now begun for the 32 students of the first year's B Class. One day, all of the students in Nobuaki's class received their first message from someone calling themselves the "King", in which was written a baffling command. That first command was very easy. However, the commands began to escalate until a life-threatening game had begun--- Failing to obey the orders leads to death!! Their friendships are being undermined by a bottomless terror!!'

Genre: action, drama, horror, supernatural, mystery

The art in this manga is likeable, and makes it really easy to read. As you can guess by the art, the horror aspect of it isn't through being super gruesome (though there are 'gruesome' scenes), but rather just fear of what will happen next. The suspense isn't too strong for me, probably because the art was cute xD

The story was pretty good for the first 2/3 or so, but as it drew closer to the end, the logic started not adding up, deaths happened too fast, and it was all just a big mess of an ending. Perhaps the author's funding got cut or something? Either way, I think the ending could have been executed much much better. On Baka-Updates there are apparently a prequel and sequel to the story which I didn't know about till now. Perhaps I'll give that a go next month.

Rating: 2/5 (because the ending was just terrible)

Second Brain (ongoing)

"Ichihara is a boy living with supernatural powers and is treated differently by everyone except by his mother. He is trying to live a normal life but instead everyone wants to fight him and calls him a monster. One day an android with supernatural powers, named number 5 kills Ichihara's mother when she tries to protect him. How will the story unfold?" - My Anime List

Genre: action, sci-fi, shonen

First of all, the art and the fight scenes are very likeable. So far, there are 5 chapters out in English, and the story has been paced pretty well. I'm expecting this series to be fairly good, but the storyline isn't all too exciting. I'm a sucker for stories with curious powers xD

The story has a very un-turbulent (is that a word?) progression. That's why I categorized it shonen. Personally I'd like there to be some heavy conspiracy and whatnot but there's none of that here!

Somehow the world in this manga reminds me of another manga, but I can't remember which at the moment... Will edit this post if I ever remember.

I would wait a while before starting on this series, since the updates are a little slow and with only 5 chapters out, it's not hard to just throw it aside. It will be good!

Rating: 4/5

Tokyo Ghoul / Toukyou Kushu (ongoing)

"The suspense horror/dark fantasy story is set in Tokyo, which is haunted by mysterious "ghouls" who are devouring humans. People are gripped by the fear of these ghouls whose identities are masked in mystery. An ordinary college student named Kaneki encounters Rize, a girl who is an avid reader like him, at the café he frequents. Little does he realize that his fate will change overnight." - My Anime List

Genre: horror, action, tragedy, sci-fi, mystery, drama

I've been seeing posts about this EVERYWHERE recently, so I finally went and took a look. Tenshi and I watched the first 2 episodes together, but because not many episodes were out, I hopped on over to read the manga which is weirdly only listed as Toukyou Kushu instead of the English name (much confusion).

It is 110% worth the hype. Out of the recent manga I have been reading, this one wins by miles and miles. It has the tragedy, mystery, backstabbing, drama all down pat PLUS some pretty awesome superhuman skills. The fight scenes were really confusing on the anime, but in the manga it was alright. I think the anime version of this story isn't bad per se compared to the manga, but the censorship is hella annoying.

The only thing to be aware of with the manga right now is that for some stupid reason, the chapters aren't being consecutively uploaded.

Because Shingeki no Kyojin scenes jumped all over the place, I thought perhaps this manga just had the same issue. NOPE I just skipped a whole bunch of chapters ==;

I am so mad right now. Of all the ways I could have been spoilered. Seriously. I was starting to be annoyed at the main character gaining strength and status so quickly, but now I know it's not the mangaka's fault, but rather because I had pretty much been jumping my way through 30 chapters. Fair enough.

Anyway, if you read the manga, just watch out and stop before you skip chapters and it'll be all good. 87 chapters right now is a pretty good amount to read until they fill in the missing chapters anyway ^^

Rating: 5/5

There is such a distinct lack of good shoujo manga right now that I want to cry inside. I used to never venture into shonen but there's legit nothing left to read. It's really sad ~.~

Anime I plan to watch this year

Of the spring 2014 anime, Selector Infected WIXOSS and Isshuukan Friends are the two cryfest series I have yet to take a look at, but plan to do so eventually. The first one was recommended by Tenshi so it's definitely going to be good! I also watched the first episode of M3 ~Sono Kuroki Hagane~ and it was very very disappointing. Don't think I will bother with the rest of the series.

From summer 2014 (which I haven't started on at all), I really want to watch season 2 of Free! but I will hold out until I can marathon the entire season. Also want to watch Love Stage!! which uses the seiyuu for Rei and Nagisa (my favourite ship from Free!) for the main characters but Tenshi told me the anime is pretty awful :'(

Also SAO 2, I will hold out until it's completed ;v;

For the fall series, I am really looking forward to

• Psycho-Pass 2
• FSN: Unlimited Blade Works (I am a massive FSN fan, though I wish they'd make an anime for Hollow Ataraxia so I can creepily admire Saber in casual clothes)
• Kiseijuu sounds pretty interesting, but I'm definitely not feeling the art

It's a little sad, but I think I will be very bored this winter. The only definite series that I am interested in is Romantica Clock, but it's by the artist of Pika Ichi / Aishiteruze Baby, etc. and I prefer her manga. No anime for me this winter it seems ~ QAQ

=^.^=