Manga – Lace and Dagger Books

Anime, Manga and the Female Gaze

April 2, 2022March 28, 2022by Rosina @ Lace and Dagger BooksLeave a Comment

I love anime, manga and video games. I talk about them on my blog and all my social media. I’m majorly into a mobile game right now, one that has an anime series, including an upcoming film, and I’m even writing fanfiction for it. Some of the series I love are the popular ones you see a lot of people talking about, and you can easily get merch for in the west. But those series tend to be shonen or seinen series. That’s not to say I don’t love any series where the target audiences are girls and women. My current obsession is definitely aimed at girls, and it definitely has a fairly large fanbase but is it promoted as much in the West? No.

In fact, very few female-targeted series get promoted as hard in the West.

I did a poll on Twitter recently asking people whether they thought female-targeted series are promoted as much in the West, and 5 out of the 6 people who answered agreed that they aren’t. There is something incredibly sad about this, and I want to talk about it.

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Manga

Josei Manga Recommendations

February 3, 2022February 1, 2022by Rosina @ Lace and Dagger BooksLeave a Comment

I’ve been wanting to do another manga recommendations list for a bit. And I decided that this time, I just have to go for josei manga. Josei manga is manga series aimed at women 16+, and is, therefore, a little more mature than shoujo. That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re smutty, and there are actually quite a few series that are fantasies focused on male protagonists, but they still have pretty art styles.

As someone who loves fantasy with pretty boy characters, and doesn’t mind a bit of fujobait as unpopular as that can be (I understand queerbaiting is wrong, but it’s still fun to see these pretty boys have fun interactions), that kind of josei is definitely for me.

Most of the series on this list will be fantasy josei, as that’s the kind I tend to read. So if you’ve wandered over here from my BL list, there will be stuff you will enjoy too. I do have to say that one of these series is a little older and maybe a bit more difficult to get, but I had to include it.

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Manga

BL Manga Recommendations

December 16, 2021December 6, 2021by Rosina @ Lace and Dagger Books3 Comments

It’s time for a manga recommendation post. And not just any genre of manga but BL. For those of you who didn’t read the I Read A Yaoi Audiobook post, BL stands for Boys Love. It’s a genre that, in the past, was split into shonen-ai and yaoi. Shonen-ai translates as Boys Love, but this is more commonly used now.

If you’re already immersed in the manga scene and like picking up BL manga, this post won’t be for you. I’ve only recently started reading the genre again, and my recommendations here are well-known series. Some of them are difficult to get your hands on at the moment, but volumes are still being published. There is one exception which I’ll list at the bottom, but I can’t talk about BL and not mention this one-volume manga and light novel series.

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Manga

The Wonders of Doujinshi

November 25, 2021November 24, 2021by Rosina @ Lace and Dagger BooksLeave a Comment

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

November 18, 2021November 17, 2021by Rosina @ Lace and Dagger Books1 Comment

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

November 4, 2021October 30, 2021by Rosina @ Lace and Dagger BooksLeave a Comment

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

October 23, 2021October 23, 2021by Rosina @ Lace and Dagger BooksLeave a Comment

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

April 1, 2021by Rosina @ Lace and Dagger BooksLeave a Comment

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

February 21, 2021February 21, 2021by Rosina @ Lace and Dagger BooksLeave a Comment

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

February 15, 2021February 10, 2021by Rosina @ Lace and Dagger BooksLeave a Comment

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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Category: Manga

Anime, Manga and the Female Gaze

Josei Manga Recommendations

BL Manga Recommendations

The Wonders of Doujinshi

I Read A Yaoi Audiobook

Where To Buy Japanese Anime/Game Merch

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

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

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

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

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