Manga Worth Reading August 2014

I guess the month’s just about over. That pretty much means it’s time for looking back at the month and declaring what you read the best. Or something.

Before that, with September upcoming, and then soon October, I’ll be looking forward to doing a bunch of things that I was not able to do last year. Why yes it does involve NYCC. I think. It probably also involves some projects, especially anime related projects, which I haven’t been working on as much as I had hoped. Annnnndddd I’ll possibly be caught up on everything I’ve watched this summer.

Well, probably not.

…Anyways, I did read something great this month. So did Neomo and Kuuki. So, here’s some manga worth reading this month!

Justin: Manga reading was actually pretty light for me. I’ve mostly been reading novels (and even light novels nooooooo), anddd I’ve finally been trying to study Japanese…again (it’s a long story).

That said, with my job, I’ve been able to sample some manga this month. For example, I ended up checking out the debut volumes of D-Frag! and The Heroic Legend of Arslan. I also blazed through Yamada-Kun and The Seven Witches, and Girl May Kill on Crunchyroll. So I’ve taken a chance with some stuff, and so far I’ve been rewarded.

Only Monster, a series I’ve already read way back when I was a broke college student, would take the top spot for manga of August for me.

Despite the fact that I know what’s gonna happen, reading the Perfect Edition of Naoki Urasawa’s Monster made me realize just how goddamn clever it is. You already know the story: extremely talented surgeon is the best at his hospital. He’s getting married to the hospital director’s daughter. He has it all. But one decision he makes changes everything completely…and the only real truth that took place is this: he did do his job. His job is to save lives. Little did he know that losing his top standing at the hospital and his engagement would matter so little in the grand scheme of things when a natural killer that he saved is on the loose. The depth of each moment feels like it matters, and time has done nothing change how great Monster is. And now, I get to read 2 volumes in one! Yeah, I wish it was 3, but I guess towards the end that’s gonna happen. Whatever the case, if you have not picked up or read Monster somehow, I feel so sorry for you, but you can still save yourself. Please go read this. It’s great.

Neomo: After watching The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, I felt what a lot of people thought: poor Yuki.

I wanted to see a future of this story, and so The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan arrived to soothe my ‘poor Yuki’ emotion. I sound such a soppy fool for saying that.

Yuki Nagato’s role is no different as in the original light novel/manga/show: president of the Literature Club. And just as in The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya light novel/movie, she has her best friend and mother hen with her morning, noon and night, Ryoko Asakura; in the original, she was a ‘humanoid interface’, just like Yuki, only she went over the rails when Haruhi got bored, but here’s she’s just your everyday normal schoolgirl, who only wants to take care of someone she loves dearly.

Kyon’s a member too and, just like in the light novel/movie, Yuki falls for him instantly. Ryoko already knows she has a crush on him, so her whole process of shaking Yuki into confessing is, so far, the large part of the content of the manga. But then Haruhi arrives onto the scene, catching the eyes of all the members of the Literature Club, making them wonder if she genuinely is just some regular girl whose curiosity has taken the better of her, or if she has other intentions.

The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan makes the franchise into a slice-of-life story, stripping most of the science fiction and comedy out, and turning it into a cute and lovable romantic comedy-drama that can be read and loved alongside the original story.

Yen Press has translated the manga into English, and there’s an anime adaptation that’ll be out sometime next year too!

Kuuki: My favorite manga I bought and read this month has to be Ad Astra by the mangaka Mihachi Kagano. This manga is about the battles between Hannibal and Scipion. Strangely enough, this is one of my most hated history periods. Seriously, whoever tries to study this part of European history must be crazy, I sure as hell don’t have any good memory from this class.Either way, my point was to prove the greatness of Ad Astra. Because I can only go through something Roman history related if it’s really good.As with many historical works of fiction, one of the the things that makes it compelling is the fact you get to know the “characters” more closely. I really enjoy finding out how their childhood might have played out, obviously it isn’t completely historically accurate but I found it good enough to get a insight of how societies worked at the time and how people lived. The mangaka has obviously done a bit of research. (Only a bit though.)As I said, the characters are the thing I enjoyed most. Scipion and Hannibal are two of the most well-known generals and their rivalry is legendary. Seeing them thinking about each other and finding out about the other and his potential is really awesome.Storywise, well, it’s a war story set in ancient times that is inspired from real events, there isn’t exactly a lot you can do with that. At the very least it is well done. My one complaint might be that it is a bit too fast, at the end of the first volume we’re already getting to the legendary elephants. On the plus side, you’re never bored.

Either way, I have a really great time whenever I read Ad Astra, it obviously isn’t a history manual but it’s good enough for a manga trying to go through the mess that was Europe at the time.

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Justin

Justin is the founder of Organization Anti-Social Geniuses. Anime & manga fan that likes to blog about anime and manga, is addicted to sports, and weak to crossovers. You can follow Justin on Twitter @Kami_nomi.

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