Book of the Month - September 2006

Welcome to the NHK

Volume 1

Some stories are pretty, but they’re not real. A bizarre premise notwithstanding, Welcome to the NHK feels real, and sometimes that’s not pretty. A vicious combination of comedy and character study, it’s not remarkably coherent, but it might still leave a mark.

Book of the Month - August 2006

A Little Snow Fairy Sugar

Volume 1

You could spend the rest of your life looking, but chances are you wouldn’t find a manga that’s as ridiculously adorable as A Little Snow Fairy Sugar. Created by Haruka Aoi and illustrated by BH SNOW+CLINIC, Sugar tells the story of Saga Bergman, an 11-year-old girl who lives with her grandmother in the German town of Guttenburg. Despite losing her mother in an accident three years ago (not to mention the unexplained absence of her father), Saga gets along quite well in life, thanks to the strict schedule that she keeps for herself.

Book of the Month - June 2006

Basilisk

Volume 1

The first page of Basilisk lists credits for a translator and letterer, but you may not even notice they exist. With a manga like this, you tend to mentally thumb over the word balloons with your eyes, the dramatic scenes serving mainly as a lull to catch your breath before the next maelstrom of black ninja death. It’s the Berserk approach to action—all the fun, all the exhilaratingly detailed carnage, and no dowdy morals to get in the way.

Book of the Month - May 2006

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Angelic Days

Volume 1

Evangelion seems to polarize anime fans like no other series. Some people still believe it’s the best show ever made. Others wonder about the mental situation within director Hideaki Anno’s mind. Still others write multi-thousand-word treatises about the symbolism and philosophy behind the show—I should know, ’cuz I helped write one nine years ago, and no you can’t see it.

Book of the Month - April 2006

Chibi-Vampire

Volume 1

Pity Karin Maaka. The more she tries to fit in and be normal, the further away from normalcy she gets. Part of it stems from her kooky home life. She’s the oddball in a family of European vampires who’ve relocated to Japan; instead of being a ravenous blood-sucker that wouldn’t be caught dead outside during the daylight, Karin’s a blood-maker that has no aversion to the sun’s life-giving rays. And that’s not all—when it gets to be “that time of the month” (ask your mother), her body goes into overdrive, producing so much of the red stuff that it makes her ill.

Book of the Month - March 2006

Someday’s Dreamers

Volume 1

Every once in a long while, a fantasy story comes along that not only lets you escape to another world, but also hits so close to home that you can’t help but learn meaningful lessons about your own world. Someday’s Dreamers is a smart example. It’s ostensibly about a young wizard learning how to use her powers to help people, but it’s really about the difference between what people think they want and what they actually need. Each chapter is a bittersweet tale of loss and reclamation, with a keen understanding of the human condition, and the result is an extremely strong title that transcends the fantasy genre.