Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Too tropey high school survivalist story makes me feel old

Classroom of the Elite vols 1-5 by Yuyu Ichino, Syougo Kinugasa

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Classroom of the Elite might be a sign that I’m getting too old for some things. In particular, the high school set manga in which the kids are allowed to rule their schools, even to the extent of life and death (kind of but probably not really) competitions for status. The Advanced Nurturing High School (ironically named, at least to me) seemingly encourages a cut-throat atmosphere where the graduates are basically guaranteed good college, good job, etc. Naturally, most of our characters are in the […]

Three Great Manga Short Story Collections

All My Darling Daughters by Fumi Yoshinaga

Don't Say Any More, Darling by Fumi Yoshinaga

Sneeze by Naoki Urasawa

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I read these three books today as a relaxing re-read of two of my favorite manga artists. Fumi Yoshinaga and Naoki Urasawa have very distinct sensibilities, but I think they both have a facility with emotion and the ability to pack a lot of characterization, both spoken and unspoken, into a drawing. All three of these books are short story collections, which enables you to see more of the breadth of both authors’ work. All My Darling Daughters is made up of interconnected short stories […]

“I think everyone should just figure out what works for them and enjoy it on their own terms.”

I Think Our Son Is Gay Vol. 3 by Okura

I Think Our Son Is Gay Vol. 4 by Okura

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This is a very sweet slice-of-life series that follows Tomoko, a mother who suspects that her son Hiroki is gay. Throughout the course of the series, she challenges her own internalized prejudices and learns more about how to support her son even if he’s not able to come out to her yet. I think what stands out to me the most with this series is how grounded in reality it is. The author, Okura, is gay, and I think that lends itself to the books […]

Kafka Goes Kaiju

Kaiju No.8 vol. 1 by Naoya Matsumoto

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It’s rare where you have a “I have a dream and I will win” under-dog protagonist who turns out to be special who has odds to overcome, starts towards that dream, and turns out to be in his 30s. Kafka (name might have suggestions I’ll get to) Hibino is 32, works in Kaiju disposal (someone has to clean up when the heroes take down the monsters), and has dreamed of working on the Japan Defense Force (the heroic monster killers led by Kafka’s childhood friend […]

The Neverending Battles Get Old

Black Clover vols. 28-31 by Yuki Tabata

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I hadn’t realized how long I’d kind of ignored the Black Clover manga series until I was in the library and saw that I was at least 4 volumes behind; this seems to happen with shonen fighting-based series an awful lot – the pattern of lots of fights with sudden power-ups that feel preprogrammed because the user automatically knows what and how to use the newly developed ability. I’ve gotten behind/bored with quite a few series where this happens; at least Yugi-Oh! had the sense […]

“My suffering was washed away along with my tears. But somewhere mother’s tears remain in stasis, jelled.”

A Drunken Dream and Other Stories by Moto Hagio

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This is a very nicely packaged hardcover collection of manga short stories by Moto Hagio. The stories are varied but they have strong emotional themes connecting them, mainly dealing with feelings of lonliness/isolation, societal pressures, and tragedy/grief. Hagio’s beautiful art wonderfully coveys the emotions of the characters and the plots. Her art is delicate and finely detailed. The stories are uniformly very strong. My favorites are “Angel Mimic,” “Iguana Girl,” and “The Child Who Comes Home.” “Angel Mimic” deals very deftly with themes of suicide, […]



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