Hono Natsuna’s Pupposites Attract volume 2 continues to be cute. (I reviewed volume 1 previously.) The new character this volume intrigues me. Chako dresses very hip and modern, but her job is very traditional. She has a Shiba Inu that wears a cute kimono-like wrap, and she calls him Aniki, which means “big brother” but can also mean, in a way, “mentor”. She listens to his guidance, too, which is odd but needed. (As with the two main characters, her ..read more

I should have enjoyed The Troublesome Guest of Sotomura Detective Agency by Sakae Kusuma more than I did. There’s a grumpy detective with an “only one bed”-type pairing, but the book fell flat for me, as the various elements were underbaked. Private detective Matsuda is unlucky in both life and career, perhaps because he’s too nice a guy, or maybe he’s just a pushover. We first see him waking up naked in a hotel, where his boyfriend has deserted him ..read more

It’s been a while since Adachi has actually been a wizard. He and his boyfriend Kurosawa have settled into a relationship, and as he’s no longer a virgin… Anyway, as you can gather from the cover, Cherry Magic! volume 10 is the wedding! There are a variety of viewpoints leading up to the big event. Coworkers ask the two men about their partners, as both have started wearing rings, although the colleagues assume each has a girlfriend. We see the ..read more

My Lovesick Life as a ’90s Otaku volume 4 concludes the series by Nico Nicholson, leaving me wanting more. Events are told to us rapidly, explaining how Megumi got from high school to the forty something single mother she is now, and how she looks back at her fandom and her choices. By this point, we know that Megumi’s crush has to take care of his six brothers and sisters because their single mother frequently escapes into her fandoms and ..read more

How to Grill Our Love is a romance manga by Shiori Hanatsuka about a couple bonding over cooking meat. It’s published digitally by Kodansha, and nine volumes have been translated into English so far. Kenta is 30 and keeps getting stood up, until he meets Yamaguchi. He’s a bit nerdy, she’s a tad aloof, but they get along well, and then his job transfers him. So they get married after knowing each other for three months. They’re still living separately ..read more

I learned about rakugo, the Japanese performance art of storytelling, from the series Descending Stories: Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju. One of the most intriguing plotlines for me was the one about women being banned from performing the traditional style. So when I heard about Akane-Banashi, the story of high schooler Akane and her quest to perform rakugo, I was intrigued. It’s written by Yuki Suenaga and illustrated by Takamasa Moue. Since this series runs in Shonen Jump, it skews younger ..read more

In Cat + Gamer volume 5, the second cat, Soboro, who joined the family in volume 4, has settled in. That brings this series back to what appealed to me about the first volume: continuing comparisons of raising healthy, happy kitties and gaming activities ..read more

Mr. Kanda takes his cat to visit his father-in-law, with flashbacks to how he met his wife and the benefits of taking in strays ..read more

I Want to Be a Wall volume 2 by Honami Shirono continues the story of this non-traditional couple. Yuriko -- an asexual fangirl of Boys Love stories -- and Gakurouta -- a closeted gay man in love with his childhood best friend -- are getting to know each other better ..read more

The author of Yokai Cats, featuring Japanese demons as felines, takes the concept to an area more familiar to American readers. Monster Cats, by Pandania, is an adorable set of short (four-panel) comic strips about a wide range of European monster types, if they were cats. The creatures include vampires, dragons, mummies, brownie spirits (a set of kittens), gargoyles, an invisible cat, and the giant white yeti. There are lots more, though. The gags are very soft and comfortable, playing ..read more