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Monday links

A few quick links for today! First off, I have a review in today’s Manga Minis, for the first volume of Tokyopop’s KimiKiss. This was a fairly depressing read and the best I can think of to say about it is that it is too bland to be offensive. It breaks my heart that this is the kind of manga Tokyopop is putting money into nowadays, while more deserving works languish in cancellation limbo. I realize that sales are (and must be) the driving force behind it all,... 

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Features

Keeping Up Appearances as a Female Fan

This morning as I was scrolling through my LiveJournal friends list, I came across a post by a friend, lamenting the obvious sexism in both the LA Times’ Girls’ Guide to Comic-Con and the upcoming Marvel Divas comics. I bristled, just as she did, at the implication (or perhaps outright statement?) that the only things that could possibly interest women in comics are hot guys, romance, and shoes. It was only after my initial disgust waned a bit that I was able... 

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Recommendations for Yen Press Sale!

For those who don’t know, Right Stuf is having a 33% off sale on all Yen Press books. The sale ends tomorrow, so I thought I’d do my part and recommend some Yen Press titles I’ve enjoyed! My top recommendation is for One Thousand and One Nights (further reviews/rambles to be found here, here, and here), a loose retelling of the original tales with Scheherazade (”Sehara” in this version) cast as male. Sehara’s tales are taken from a wide... 

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Why Manga?

When I was struggling earlier today to begin a post, something that kept coming to me was how much my feelings for music seemed related–or at least similar–to my feelings for manga, both in depth and breadth. This led me to think about why I love both, and then to why I love manga. But to start, I think the question I must begin with is: Why Fiction? Something I’ve always had difficulty relating to is the concept of “real life” as being something... 

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Anime Feature: Natsu no Arashi

I rarely post about anime here, but there is one new series I’m enjoying so much, I really can’t help myself. So here goes! Based on the manga by Jin Kobayashi (School Rumble) and available for streaming at Crunchyroll, Natsu no Arashi is about a middle-school student named Hajime Yasaka who moves from the country into a new town where he will live with a relative. Exhausted by the summer heat, he stops in a small cafe to cool off where he meets Sayaka, the... 

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