April 2015 Manga Pick

Look at that incredible artwork.

Having gone back to reading manga, I brushed up on my usual picks like Shokugeki no Soma and occasionally check if Usogui or Nobunaga no Chef got updated. This month I'll introduce some mangas that I never wrote about before.

Kyou Kara Ore Wa

If you really like delinquent mangas, this one might be for you. Kyou Kara Ore Wa is a comedy about two young boys on their way to be the baddest delinquents. Mitsuhashi encounters Itou on their way to a hair salon before their first day of school. Both of them secretly think the other guy is a wimp so they get delinquent hairstyles, Mitsuhashi with bleach blonde hair and Itou with a hair cut that allows his hair to stand up high. There is a lot of slapstick humor and pranking going on. Stuff like picking fights to impress girls is pretty damn common in this series. I also think it's a cute series because deep inside these two boys, Mitsuhashi and Itou, have a heart of gold. Itou's hair may be extremely intimidating, but he's really sweet deep down inside. I recommend this series if you enjoy comedy and fights a lot. It's more like watching these two protagonists get into trouble each chapter. 

Addicted to Curry

I can't believe I never wrote about this series as part of a monthly pick. Yui stumbles upon a young man on the street and accidentally kicks him when she intended to help him. She runs away back to her father's curry restaurant and the young man follows her curry scent on her clothes. It turns out he is Koenji Makito, a former student of Yui's father and is currently looking for him. Seeing that the restaurant is failing ever since Yui's father left the place, Makito decides to repay an old debt by helping out. What I liked about this series is that the curry recipes used are the real deal and they are included in each chapter. It explores a large variety of curries and different ways to create new curries. Curry being a very specific type of food has been expanded in the manga to become a very versatile dish. I learned a lot more about spices just by reading Addicted to Curry. As of now, the series has progressed far away from saving the restaurant and falls into the trap of becoming predictable. There's definitely a lot of drama going on between characters like the romantic tension between Makito and Yui and in future chapters with other characters. Makito being a perv throughout the series results in a lot fanservice and more than just panty shots. That's my little disclaimer for readers who may be put off by the ecchi.

Y+M The Yagyuu Ninja Scrolls

I have been meaning to start this series since I finished watching Basilisk. The Yagyuu Ninja Scrolls as some readers may know it as, is another ninja series by the same author based on a novel. Set some time after the events of Basilisk, Kato Akinari and his Seven Spears round up members of the Hori clan for going against him. The Seven Spears make their way to Toke-ji temple where the Hori women are hiding. The rules of the monastery states that no men are able to enter the temple grounds. Despite this, the Seven Spears charge in and ruthlessly murder the nuns and Horu women in front of their husbands. Through the intervention of Senhime, sister of the current Shogun, the seven remaining Hori women at the temple were spared. Senhime enlists the help of Yagyu Jubei with the full intent of having the seven surviving women to avenge the deaths of their clan members. Unlike Basilisk where characters were manipulated, from the very beginning it's made very clear that there is a very evil set of antagonists. As a reader you are very eager to see them die. It is a very violent series and is written this way to show the perverse ways of Kato and his Seven Spears. This is a full on revenge story for readers who enjoy action.

One Punch Man

A lot of people had suggested that I give One Punch Man a try. The title says it all. Saitama is just an average guy who became extremely strong by training very hard to the point where he lost his hair and is able to end fights with just a single punch. The story is set in the future where there is some serious twisted evolution going on resulting in hybrids of powerful monsters that continue to attack the Earth. I just began this series and I find it pretty funny. The art is really well done, not just some sloppy mess. It's like your typical shonen series with fantastical enemies and super powers, but with the author's riff of adding the average Joe kind of touch. I don't know what else is going to happen, but I'm guessing so far it's going with the rhythm of defeating powerful enemies. If it keeps going on and on without anything new, I'm going to get bored. Well let's see if the next few chapters will hint at new plot devices.