Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Tensions building

The King's Beast vol. 5 by Rei Toma

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Volume 5 of The King’s Beast is starting to build up all the tensions; Rangetsu realizes she likes her Prince when he thinks she’s a guy body-guard, she finds out that the attendant Taihaku knows what she is but might be willing to help her keep the secret until she can avenge her brother’s murder, there’s a strong hint who may have been responsible although it’s really not that surprising, one of the other Princes may be onto Rangetsu as well, and Prince Tenyou is […]

It might be time for a break

Black Clover vols. 26-27 by Yuki Tabata

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So I think I might be getting to a moment when I need to step away from the action-adventure manga. I spent most of volume 26 of Black Clover being annoyed at how cliched everything seemed. Basically the whole storyline for the whole volume was people yelling cliches like “We are absolutely going to win for the sake of our truly kind friend!” and “Unless you take me down, they’ll keep right on coming back! Are you into this now, {character name}?” “You are absolutely….GOING […]

I don’t think they’ve come back to reality quite yet…

My Alcoholic Escape from Reality by Nagata Kabi

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I saw My Alcoholic Escape from Reality on a list of the best graphic novels of 2021, and the novelty of it caught my attention. An autobiographical manga artist is hospitalized for pancreatitis thanks to her alcoholism, then decides to make an autobiographical manga about this experience as well. I admittedly wasn’t familiar with her other work, but I do have a fondness for seeing writers examine and expel their own demons through the process of writing about them. Sometimes it can feel disingenuous, like […]

In which the villainess and final boss might be worth rooting for

I'm the Villainess So I'm Taming the Final Boss vols. 1-2 by Anko Yuzu, Sarasa Nagase, Mai Murasaki

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I’ve been following another series in which the protagonist wakes up to realize she’s been reincarnated into a dating sim video game as the villainess and has to use whatever knowledge she has of the game from her previous life to not end up dead/exiled/or whatever other fantasy ending the villainess might end up with. The basic premise of I’m the Villainess So I’m Taming the Final Boss takes that premise and actually gives it some interesting characters and situations that add a little bit […]

Not a bad ending but a little uneven with the science and the story

Cells at Work! vol. 6 by Akane Shimizu

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There’s seems to have been some drama behind the scenes before Cells at Work! Vol. 6 came out; a few years ago (pre-pandemic I think) it was listed for pre-order then disappeared. Now, it’s out as the final volume of the original series that’s now got a few spin-offs and an animation. Overall, the basic premise of real biology science presented through manga/anime tropes is still here and fun, although maybe worn a touch thin in places. This volume feels a bit more episodic than […]

When fan fics get old

My Hero Academia: Team Up Missions 2 by Yoko Akiyama

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Sometimes with popular series, when the author starts branching out into side series’, it can get a little overdone. My Hero Academia: Team-Up Missions started out what felt like the fan fics they basically are but entertaining. This does mean you need to know at least something of he main series; in this case, I do. Volume 2 of the Team-Up Missions spin-off continues that effect but it’s not nearly as entertaining. Why? Because the scenarios and combinations just aren’t all that interesting, and in […]



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