Category: Manga

Manga

The Wonders of Doujinshi

by Rosina @ Lace and Dagger BooksLeave a Comment on The Wonders of Doujinshi

Zines are something that is slowly getting more popular. Whether you’re looking for fandom zines advertising on Twitter or Tumblr or the more traditional zines with unusual poetry and pictures, you can always find something for you. Zines themselves aren’t new, they’ve been around for many years, but in Japan, there’s been a particular form of manga that are essentially zines.

Doujinshi.

So today, I want to talk a little about doujinshi. I’m going to explain what it is for those who don’t know and just say why you should all think about getting some. Or, y’know, try drawing some if you’re into that.

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Manga, Review

I Read A Yaoi Audiobook

by Rosina @ Lace and Dagger BooksLeave a Comment on I Read A Yaoi Audiobook
I Read A Yaoi Audiobook

If you haven’t noticed now, I’m a massive anime/manga/game nerd. I’ve posted about josei manga, light novels, and I’ve even reviewed a few volumes. Over the last few months, I’ve gotten back into manga and games in a way that I haven’t been for years. I’ve never stopped enjoying it, but I did sort of fall out of it for a while. Even if my last few obsessions have been anime and games, my focus was only on the individual series. Not manga and games as a whole.

Once again, I’m desperate to visit Japan. It’s not something that I will be able to afford any time soon, so I’ve been watching videos of people living in Japan on YouTube instead. It has been a lot of fun, and one that I stumbled upon last night was a British voice actor living in Japan…producing an audiobook of a yaoi manga in a month. The manga was called You Are My Princess, and the project was pulled together by CDawgVA, which you can check out here.

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Manga, video games

Where To Buy Japanese Anime/Game Merch

by Rosina @ Lace and Dagger BooksLeave a Comment on Where To Buy Japanese Anime/Game Merch
Where To Buy Japanese Anime/Game Merch

A bit of a different post for me today, but my birthday has just been, and you know I spent some money on merch. Not birthday money, what I got cost too much for that, but it’s something that I do often spend as much money on as I do books. I’ve been thinking about these sites I’ve learned about over the years and thought I’d recommend a few.

If you’re heavily involved in anime or game fandoms, you may already know all these resources. They’re all pretty well known, even if I only figured out one recently. Sometimes I can be a little slow, but that’s okay. This post is for the people who maybe only got into anime or Japanese games recently or the people who just don’t know where to look.

I won’t be including the obvious places like Depop, eBay or Amazon. I’m also not going to list particular UK stores. The shops on this list will be based in Japan, so you can order from them wherever you are in the world. I’ve bought from all but one, but the other is one that I’ve known a friend use before.

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Manga, Review

Manga Review: When Will Ayumu Make His Move? volume 1 by Soichiro Yamamoto

by Rosina @ Lace and Dagger BooksLeave a Comment on Manga Review: When Will Ayumu Make His Move? volume 1 by Soichiro Yamamoto
Manga Review: When Will Ayumu Make His Move? volume 1 by Soichiro Yamamoto

It’s been a little while since I reviewed some manga, but when I saw this one I was curious. I’ve watched a little bit of Yamamoto’s previous series Teasing Master Takagi-San on a friends recommendation. It was pretty and funny and cute, so I was hoping that this would be too.

When Will Ayumu Make His Move follows two high school students who are the only members of a shogi club. Ayumu has a crush on his senpai, Urushi, but refuses to admit his feelings until he can beat her in a match. He’s not that subtle though, and she keeps trying to get him to admit his feelings.

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ARC, Manga, Review

Manga Review: She’s My Knight volume 1 by Saisou

by Rosina @ Lace and Dagger BooksLeave a Comment on Manga Review: She’s My Knight volume 1 by Saisou
Manga Review: She’s My Knight volume 1 by Saisou

I seem to keep stumbling across shoujo manga series on NetGalley that I’ve never heard of before its translation has appeared. Which is a lot of fun. But it is making me start to wonder how much I actually like shoujo manga these days. I enjoyed this volume. I did. But it wasn’t quite for me, and I’ll get into why down below.

That being said, I won’t be giving this a low rating, and I’d definitely recommend it to shoujo lovers. I just might be growing out of it.

She’s My Knight was apparently called Ikemen Kanojo to Heroine na Ore!?, which people translate to mean ‘She’s the Prince and I’m the Princess!?’. That should tell you all you need to know about this series. It follows Ichinose Haruma, an incredibly handsome teenage boy who is used to the girls flocking all over him. But he’s not the most charming person in school. That title goes to Mogami Yuki. A girl who is taller, even more handsome. And also happens to be the person Haruma has a crush on. This is a silly series about Haruma trying to be the suave guy to impress Yuki, but he keeps failing.

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ARC, Manga, Review

Manga Review: Those Not-So-Sweet boys by Yoko Nogiri vol 1

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Manga Review: Those Not-So-Sweet boys by Yoko Nogiri vol 1

Sometimes you just want to dive into a fun shoujo manga. And that was why I was so excited to read this manga. It wasn’t one I’d heard of before. I hadn’t even heard of the manga-ka before, but the art looked nice, and the plot sounded fun.

Midori is a teenage girl whose family situation means that she has to take on a part-time job in a café bar. But working part-time is against the school rules, and she could lose her scholarship. The school chairman gives her an out though, if she can get three boys to come back to school, then she’ll keep her scholarship and be given a new school-approved job. What she doesn’t know is that even if she manages that? She still has a lot more work to do to keep them in line.

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ARC, Manga, Review

Manga Review: Star-Crossed!! Volume 1 by Junko

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Manga Review: Star-Crossed!! Volume 1 by Junko

Does anyone else see the name Junko and just think of Dangranronpa? It can’t just be me, surely. But this is a newly translated series by the manga-ka of Kiss Him, Not Me a series that the very idea of makes me cringe. But this one just sounded so fun that I had to check it out. I recieved a free copy of this book through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Azusa is a massive fan of idol group Prince 4 U, especially Chika-kun. When she goes to their latest concert, she manages to get front row seats. But an accident happens, and without thinking, she tries to save her idol. Unfortunately, they both end up dead. Cue God coming up to them and telling them this was a mistake so they can return to life. Only, something else goes wrong and they wound up in each other’s bodies.

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Manga

Manga 101: Light Novels

by Rosina @ Lace and Dagger Books7 Comments on Manga 101: Light Novels
Manga 101: Light Novels

You guys have no clue how happy I am to be sat here telling you about light novels. Way back when I was attempting booktube, I actually recorded a video talking about them. But it never made it up there, and the video files have long since disappeared. So I guess I’ll just have to stick to writing about them, sigh. I type that like it’s a problem, but let’s face it, it’s actually preferable.

Light Novels are an area of Japanese media and manga that I don’t see enough people talking about. They are things that do get translated, just not as often. We’re more likely to see the anime or manga adaptations rather than the novels themselves.

A light novel is something you might also refer to as a manga novel. It’s what I did when I first discovered them. It’s one of those books you pick up in the manga section, flick through and see that it’s actually mostly words with a few illustration pages here and there. Yeah, that’s right, you can get illustrated books aimed at teenagers and older without it being a full-on graphic novel.

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Manga, Review

Manga Review: Servamp Volumes 1 -3 by Strike Tanaka

by Rosina @ Lace and Dagger BooksLeave a Comment on Manga Review: Servamp Volumes 1 -3 by Strike Tanaka
Manga Review: Servamp Volumes 1 -3 by Strike Tanaka

My first manga review did surprisingly well. So, I decided to post a poll to see what manga series that I’ve already started I should review. I want to be able to continue to review the books as I get them. I just summed up what they were about rather than listing the title, and Servamp won with three votes!

This is a series about a teenage boy who rescued a stray cat he found on the street he named Kuro. When he gets home from school that day, he finds a guy playing video games in his apartment and that, the cat he rescued? Yeah, he was actually a vampire. The vampires in this world are forms of the seven deadly sins with the villain being an extra one and each of them may take on Eves, which are humans who they connect with and can use their powers. This series is very action-packed and a little bit ridiculous, but it’s one that you can have a lot of fun with and is still being published both here and in Japan.

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Manga, Review

Manga Review: Spy x Family: vol. 1

by Rosina @ Lace and Dagger Books2 Comments on Manga Review: Spy x Family: vol. 1
Manga Review: Spy x Family: vol. 1

I never thought that I’d be reviewing manga. Well, that’s not entirely true. I’ve done a few mini-reviews for manga I’ve gotten on NetGalley but they were only on NetGalley.

I’m moving into the big time by reviewing one on my actual blog! Yeah, okay, no, I’m not. But I am most definitely going to be talking about manga a lot more on here. And what best to start with then a manga book I acquired for Christmas and was super excited to read?

Spy x Family is a shonen comedy series by Tatsuya Endo. It follows a master spy known as Twilight in a country very reminiscent of Germany during the Cold War. Being a spy series, this makes perfect sense and you definitely get a feel for that sort of time period with how people dress and behave. Twilight has been given a new mission but the only way to complete it is if he gets married and has a school-age kid. Sounds like a mess, right?

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