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Suiton Kikou is the first short story collection of Shinya Komatsu which got him a price in the 6th edition of the AX manga newcomers award. Unsurpringly with this kind of underground magazine, it can take a while to get accustomed to the pace of these stories; Shinya Komatsu places the reader as a sheer observer of the wondrous events occuring in the world of Suiton Kikou (which could be translated as “Climate – Slumber – Chaos” )

Phantasmagorical and surrealistic, they are purely meant to surprise the reader at every page and build an unpredictable macrocosm without necessarily bringing answers or conclusions to the ... elements it displays. To corroborate that statement, several stories are only focused on a character traveling from one place to another such as Cycling Life depicting a boy at first riding a normal countryside, the scenery evolving every page to giant trees and honeycombs, clouds, a futuristic megalopolis, to finish his trip on a road among the stars. Some showcase a random supernatural event in our ordinary world like the one where a boy sees mysterious symbols in a rainbow that he’s convinced holds the secrets of the universe or the one where a boy finds a strange egg that turns into the sun; others showcase ordinary events of supernatural world, one where electricity and lightbulbs are created by fairies and giant flying fishes, one where the people are crank handled puppets or one with a clock-head god playing chess with different monuments.

The approach of these short stories feels similar to the series “A Piece of Phantasmagoria” in that Shinya Komatsu likes to connect these bizarro worlds with each other by having reoccuring characters and sceneries interacting the further everything goes along. It create a sense of coherence that is almost dream-like.
If you’d like a more narrative driven manga that still has a fantastical backdrop then I’d recommend checking “Tsurumaki Machi Natsu Jikan” instead.

[Kurenai Sanshiro Review Part 2]

This second part of Kurenai Sanshiro came out when the anime was airing and is much more self-indulgent in being a pure marketing project. The main plot of finding his father's murderer is completely forgotten, what you get are unconnected stories of Sanshiro in America getting into town and fighting random bad guys, the repetitive format I was mentioning before is clearly present there. I already wasn't that big into the first version of Kurenai Sanshiro but there's barely any effort into bringing any intensity into the new villains or to the situations that even fail to make sense.

This time the ... author switched from the youngest to the older brother Tatsuo Yoshida… but only on paper, this part was actually made by Mamoru Uchiyama, one of the internal staff of Tatsunoko Production because Tatsuo was too busy managing it and retired as a mangaka. The artstyle looks very similar and if you weren't told it switched artists, you probably wouldn't notice the difference. I still have the same complaints about it looking messy, the fight choreography is almost non-existent compared to the first part but that's also due to it being very short. The iconic red bike introduced in the anime was brought back here but it doesn't really add anything.

[Kurenai Sanshiro Review Part 1]

Kurenai Sanshiro is mostly known for its animated adaptation, especially in France and Italy in the 80s when it aired under the title "Judo Boy". It is one of the first projects from Tatsunoko Production, and with Speed Racer, one of the first to gain some kind of popularity in Japan. Kurenai Sanshiro stood out mostly by focusing on martial arts with its realistic aspect when their previous projects were all slapstick comedies.

Kurenai Sanshiro was initially a short manga created by Toyoharu Yoshida (under the nickname Ippei Kuri), the youngest of the 3 brothers who founded TatsuPro, however it is still ... felt clearly that it was made to gauge the opinion of the public with an eventual future anime already in mind. It even feels to me like a storyboard for the anime as you can find a lot of its trademark inside and a lot of elements that don't belong that well inside a manga. For example you'll get a narrator regularly summing up the events of the story and flashbacks of Sanshiro's father getting murdered, even in the first chapter. You'll also get these terrible side-characters that are only there as comic relief / romantic interest or to react to Sanshiro fighting and they feel even more useless than ever, only hindering the pace of the manga.

It also looks dated even for the standards of 1969, the action scenes are especially messy with the characters constantly jumping and spinning around and doing these weird acrobatics. What was a small revolution in the anime industry to bring dynamism and life to the characters looks utterly chaotic and confusing here. I can give it the fact that it's not all squares, it occasionally has some diagonals layout and tries to vary quite often the widths and lengths of its panels to convey dramatic intensity but it's miles away from the likes of Ashita no Joe or the works of Ishinomori.

Its premise can't be said to be anything exciting as the tale of the boy trying to avenge the murder his father is severely boring and generic but it at least avoids the purely repetitive format that I would've expected by only focusing on 2 arcs in a somewhat coherent manner, don't expect any kind of conclusion as to the identity of the one-eyed man, it was left unfinished just like its anime counterpart.

Gönülden Gönüle Yol Vardır - There is a way that connects hearts to one another -

Shiroi Machi no Yoru-tachi (published in France as "Les Nuits d'Aksehir") is a title that could almost have its place in Harta along titles like Bride Stories, Isabella Bird or Gisele Alain. Though it takes place in a contemporary setting, it strives to make its readers want to travel and discover the beautiful country that is Turkey.

Due to a chance encounter, Ayako will come to work part-time in a small Turkish restaurant in the middle of Tokyo. As it is the main stage of the story, the traditional food ... from there is taking a big place in it obviously; even though it is considered by some as one of the 3 great cuisines of the world with the French and Chinese, it all remains very unknown apart from the kebab.
Moussaka, tavuk Sote, Manti, raki, ekmek, meze, karniyarik, kemalpasa, meneken, kiymali, dolma, kofte… all kinds of appealing and exotic dishes, it has a very didactic approach of presenting them, detailing the cooking methods and the situations in which each meal is usually served, tidbits on their history and lots of comparisons with more well-known dishes so you're never lost on what they are.

Cooking is not the only focus here as it also revolves around other aspects of its culture: electrifying and dancing with an anatomical precision is Zakuro, organizing spectacles every night in the restaurant, there are again many different styles of dancing from the Middle East that we get to learn as well as how these styles got modernized because of the occidental influence. Her attires and accessories, used to differentiate the different styles, will play a big importance and be closely linked to Ayako as she will take great influence from her clothes for her work at the design school she's in, as well as from the elaborated motifs of the ceramics.

These elements of Turkish culture leads Ayako to get interested in their religion and to visit Tokyo's mosque, also called Tokyo Camii. This part made me a bit worried that it would turn into some sort of religious pamphlet with Ayako seemed suddenly all too ready to convert to Islam right after talking to the imam and goes a bit on a tangent about how Islam is only about love and will save everyone's soul. It's a known fact that Raku Ichikawa is a devout believer and carries a Koran at all time, I'll try to believe it's due to bad storytelling to the extent that there's some criticism of it, although very limited: it illustrates for example the contempt of Muslims on women, looking down on belly dancing because it's too sexy and provocative. It also portrays spiritual gatekeeping with the imam explaining how real believers have to listen to Koran's chanting in Arabic (but this part can be interpreted as an incentive rather than gatekeeping)

This conversion arc is also part of a larger side-story about Ayako's friend trying to commit suicide which is mostly the reason why I'm thinking more of bad storytelling as the different side-stories included in Shiroi Machi feel awkward and amateurishly written and deteriorate what could've been a simple but genuinely enjoyable slice of life. A boring one about Ayako's classmate getting jealous of her or a conflict between the restaurant owner and his wife that only gets resolved when the restaurant burns down (and it doesn't elaborate further than that)

One could regret it doesn't really broach the topic of actual history of the country or its traditions but Raku Ichikawa moved to Turkey after finishing this manga and wrote a 2 volumes autobiographical manga called "Watashi, Ima Toruko desu" which has more nuance and carefully explains her everyday life there, her status as an immigrant and as a woman, weddings, the lifestyle of Turkish people and comments on terrorist acts commited there and especially on the 2016 coup d'état.

Shiroi Machi no Yoru-tachi shines by the entrancing oriental atmosphere and should be read by anyone who would want to learn a bit more about Turkey but is hindered by exploitative sidestories around suicide, jealousy and religious preachings.

The state we are in is called Gereksiz. It happens in some rare occurences, when someone's presence makes no more difference than if he did not exist, when his impact on the world is completely void. It doesn't matter whether you're a good or a bad person but rather if you're straight in the middle.

Tatsumi Onishi had to drop school at 16 to help his father manage his baumkushen shop in order to erase the debt he contracted. He never had a girlfriend or even a real friend for that matter, the first half of his life only being defined by his work at the ... baum shop.
The day of his 40th birthday is the time where he will try and accost the first woman he ever fell in love with, a stranger that he always sees in the nearby park. Turns out he's the only one that can see her and the moment he starts talking to her, her head distorts into a sort of giant egg.
Invisible, unable to see or talk to anyone and stuck in this place for over 20 years with no memory of its identity, in limbo between life and death; at her contact, Onishi will suffer a similar fate, transformed into a weird tiny creature (portrayed on the cover) he will go on an adventure to regain his original appearance back.

I love Minoru Furuya's way of dealing with societal issues and outcasts mixed with absurd psychedelic humor, Gereksiz's biggest issue lies in the fact that it very much looks axed and past the initial situation, everything goes at lightning speed, barely exploring its concept or its mystic mythology that it briefly sets up. It just pulls a "it was a dream all along" ending without any character progression which makes it feel like a waste of time since that should be the main focus, I've never been disappointed with him until now.
Part of a project for the 15th anniversary of the Evening magazine (15のイフ（if）ニング), my conjecture is that either the series length was planned to be short all along (most authors involved submitted one-shots parodies of their own series) and Minoru Furuya had trouble wrapping it up or his humor wasn't well received by this new public since it was the first time that Minoru Furuya ever published a manga in a magazine that wasn't Young Magazine.

A great start that doesn't live up to expectation, a shame because it's filled with set-ups and themes on loneliness that beg to be expanded.

Utsuutsu Hideo Nikki or Depression Diary was released in France a few years after Disappearance Diary. I takes a different form than its prequel since it is now a private diary where he recounts almosts every day of his life from July 7, 2004 to February 16, 2005. 6 years sober after a stay a rehab clinic and attending meetings at the Alcoholic Anonymous, he struggled to try and become a proper member of society once again but his life is anything but exciting. Poor and jobless, he manages by selling fanzines and drawings to various expositions but barely has any motivation an can only ... bring himself to draw a mere 2 hours a day.

Hideo Azuma himself starts this manga by stating that this manga doesn't have any twists or turns and probably isn't worth reading: it couldn't be any more true. Every day related in this book seems to be exactly the same, inane and devoid of purpose, describing what kind of food he ate, how he read such and such book and what he watched on TV, over and over and until the very end of it.

Depression Diary is an inconceivable chore to read and could easily rank amongst the worst experiences I've had with a manga. It does have a saving grace in the fact that it doesn't only have flat pictures of himself but almost every page has one of his famous lolita he's known for depicted on it. They're mostly some of his creations with different costumes but it does also have characters from the manga and anime he would've read that day (A few I could name are Cardcaptor Sakura, Touhou, Chobits, Marco, Saishuu Heiki Kanojo, Binchou-tan, Nausicaa, Teke Teke My Heart, Sailor Moon, Chihiro, Sakura no Uta and Lucky Star). It doesn't ultimately makes it an enjoyable read but being a fan of his style, I like seeing it being applied to all of them.

There really isn't anything more to get about the industry or about Hideo Azuma's state of mind with this book , I can get why it was made but I still find it strange why this particular manga was chosen to be translated instead of the one relating his stay at the hospital or one of his shorter gag manga in order to get an idea of his work or a contrast with how he ended up to be.

Love Live! School Idol Diary Special Edition originally started serialization in 2016 in Dengeki G but only gained more popularity as it was republished in the official Love Live Days magazine which was the time when it also finally got printed.
It is considered a spin-off of the School Idol Diary series because it isn't based on the novels but its status as such is a bit weird since both of the mainline SID manga weren't either straight adaptation of the novel series and also had a lot of original material so it isn't that different at the end of the line.

To start off is the ... obligatory comment on Yuuki Takami because new series means new artist, and while it's certainly flawed with all character designs looking exactly the same and a lot of reused expressions, I still think it satisfying in rendering the playful, upbeat and childish personalities of the members of muse which is precisely what I like in them. It pales if you have to compare to Masaru Oda but it's all in all very energetic and has a great flow to it so I don't have a lot of room to complain.

Now the biggest quality of this special edition is how it carries that will to insert itself into the continuity of the series and I personally see it as a perfect companion to the movie, it really follows into the same theme of school idols being not just a goal in itself but a way of personnal fulfillment for each of them. The series starts off with mini-arcs focusing on a different duo (and not necessarily the obvious ones) and shows how their time together allowed them to better themselves, get some access to their dreams for the future, dealing with the expectations of the people around them, there's also some more context to some of the character's meeting and to some of the romance. It manages to have the right amount of actual character progression to not be bloated.

The last part called epilogue deals with the 3rd years graduating and I like it much better than the official sequel written by Sakurako Kimino that veered into more needless drama and unnatural interactions to please the fans. It's an honest lookback on everything the franchise has accomplished over the years and just like the movie perfectly illustrates them overcoming the sadness of their separation and their wish to live inside everyone forever.

Adapting an entire game into a single volume might seem like a very bad idea and something that can only feel rushed…but here's the deal: Shin Megami Tensei If is easily the worst game in the franchise and had little to no story at all: Ideo Hazama has linked his school to the demon realm and our 2 main characters, Nobu and Yumi, will have to go through a series of dungeons before fighting Hazama. Of course the manga gets rid of the dungeons since they're useless anyway and goes to the essential.

Working with a poorly made game can hardly make for a good manga, ... the story is very straightforward, it has every main plot elements in less than 140 pages. While simply adapting If in itself doesn't have any real purpose, its role becomes meaningful when you know Kazuaki Yanagisawa decided to link the events of If to those of the original Shin Megami Tensei reinterpreted in Kahn.

The biggest flaw in If is that it is merely a prologue to something bigger, characters are still bland and lacking motivation and some demons like Anly Manyu find no real purpose here but Kahn reuses everything introduced here (although not for the best and the series is not fully translated in english)

Let's keep it straight and simple: THIS IS A FUCKING REMAKE OF THE ORIGINAL CHI MANGA!

That's it, just the original stories crammed in the 4-koma format and without the peculiar pastel artwork, no added value whatsoever. I have no idea why this thing is advertised on every website as an adaptation of the new TV series but this is wrong and while I'm not a big fan of it, it at least had the decency to try and invent new scenarios around the Yamada household.

Chi's Sweet Adventures is an effortless way of selling even more copies of the same thing to kids, it's just ... "one more" to the tons of side merch Chi already has. Don't bother with it.

Loosely based on the Grimm's brothers' story, Hansel and Gretel is the 2nd adaptation of a fairy tale that Junko Mizuno has created after Cinderalla and the only one I've read yet.

If you're considering buying this, you shouldn't have any great expectations story-wise. First of all don't expect a reinterpretation of Hansel and Gretel because the only link with the original story is the general obsession of the people with food. Secondly, the story is overly short and simplistic, the inhabitants of Hibari get kidnapped by Queen Marylin and hold them under her spell and Gretel has to save them, nothing more to it.

The main ... selling point of this book is that it looks absolutely gorgeous, drawn in full colour, it's very flashy and every element of the page pop out and especially fits to represent the weird psychedelic culinary world with houses made of ice cream and lollipops or pigs that cut their own flesh to feed the population. I wish it had real fighting scenes because Gretel is the badass sukeban but all her confrontations are resolved quickly and in the same way everytime. The backstory of the villain also comes out of nowhere and not the most inspired one.

Hansel & Gretel is a fun read with untapped potential and a boring formula, I sure hope her other works based on fairy tales will be better.