Book Review: One-Punch Man Vol. 2

Review:  #937
Title:  One-Punch Man Vol. 2
Series:  One-Punch Man – 2nd volume
Author:  One
Comments:  The second volume of One-Punch Man is a strong and solid volume that further solidifies the tone of the series.  As Saitama continues on his meandering journey of being a hero for fun, he encounters various “strong” villains and destroys them easily with one punch.  At this point in time, even though there doesn’t seem to be some sort of ultimate goal that the plot is heading towards, the quirks of Saitama is interesting enough to carry it along.  The humor is the product of visual gags, dialogue, exaggerations and the cluelessness of the characters.  While the volume covers two scenarios, the pacing is fast enough that they pass by in the blink of an eye.  From defeating a crazy scientist to meeting his rival, all this helps Saitama decide upon a course of action by the end.  Therefore, all the events thus far make them feel like they had meaning.
Rating:  6/10

Book Review: Re:Zero – Starting Life in Another World Ex Vol. 3

Review:  #926
Title:  Re:Zero – Starting Life in Another World Ex Vol. 3
Series:  Re:Zero – Starting Life in Another World Ex – 3rd volume
Author:  Tappei Nagatsuki
Comments:  The third volume of the Ex side series is a collection of short stories centred on a young Wilheim.  It takes place pretty much directly after the last Ex volume, which was already a solid ending, with Wilheim crashing the Sword Saint’s ceremony and stealing her heart.  This is a love story through and through but the pair of lovers has such natural chemistry that you can’t help but laugh and be happy along with them.  While they may be short stories, they take place in chronological order without a long time skip in between.  Wilheim’s straight and cold matter-of-fact attitude is a nice match to Theresia’s warm and innocent personality.  The pair has to face plenty of struggles before and after their wedding.  The struggles range from the mundane of getting the in-laws to accept you to full blown sword fights.  Their love isn’t superficial either, it has substance and is plausible, you can see what each sees in the other.  The returning cast of supporting characters add to the enjoyment when they turn up.  While it does focus a tad more on Carol and Grimm, it is Wilheim and Theresia that takes the spotlight.  By the end of the volume, even though it was a happy ending, you can tell that there will be plenty more troubles ahead.
Rating:  6.5/10

Book Review: Re:Zero – Starting Life in Another World Vol. 10

Review:  #925
Title:  Re:Zero – Starting Life in Another World Vol. 10
Series:  Re:Zero – Starting Life in Another World – 10th volume
Author:  Tappei Nagatsuki
Comments:  Volume 10 is the start of a new arc and it is an explosive one.  It starts off fine and normal, well, as normal as it can be after the cliffhanger than was the ending of the previous volume.  As Subaru is taking stock of what happened now and reflecting on the past, we get a sense of the timing of events and the amount of subtle foreshadowing that had occurred.  After a long time without seeing much of Emilia, she now has a constant presence and maybe because it’s been so long but her personality feels more forward, accepting Subaru’s affections with brutal honesty.  On the other hand, new characters show up and thanks to the hardships that Subaru has endured, we don’t know who can be trusted.  Subaru and Emilia are thrown into trials that they must overcome.  As a part of it, a significant section is dedicated to Subaru’s past.  We had only known him when he was transported into this world but now, we’re given a glimpse of his family and what he was doing before then.  This section is both cheesy and emotional at the same time.  It feels weird with a isekai fantasy setting to suddenly go back to a reality setting, however, the moments where Subaru says goodbye and realizes the significance of his experiences packs quite an emotional punch.  As the volume draws to its end, you experience a rising sense of foreboding.  This leads into yet another out-of-nowhere cliffhanger that’ll led you to yell “WHAT!”  While there are moments of disjointedness, the buildup and sheer amount of character growth is engrossing.
Rating:  6.5/10

Book Review: Re:Zero – Starting Life in Another World Vol. 8

Review:  #923
Title:  Re:Zero – Starting Life in Another World Vol. 8
Series:  Re:Zero – Starting Life in Another World – 8th volume
Author:  Tappei Nagatsuki
Comments:  Subaru carries on with his plan to save Emily from the Witch Cult.  This story arc is ending up being at quite a significant length.  The whole volume focuses on Subaru and his allies now going through the forest hunting down Petelgeuse and his followers.  Subaru shows off that despite being weak and having little to no combat ability, he manages to still be useful.  While everyone started off doubting Subaru, you can feel that Subaru has finally proven himself and has earned the respect from others.  As a result, the interactions between Subaru and the rest of the supporting characters are the highlights of the story.  The hunt tends to drag on for too long, feeling never-ending.  At this point in time, Subaru is stabbing in the dark and improvising as he goes along.  Just when success feels close, there are significant turns of events.  It’s despairing to see how powerful Petelgeuse is and it keeps up the suspense by hiding his true ability until the very end.  While it may be like that the author undid all the achievements thus far, it really hits it home how frustrating it must be for Subaru to have the special ability that he has.  It is definitely thought provoking in certain scenes and seeing how far Subaru has developed as a character makes this an enjoyable volume.
Rating:  6/10

Book Review: Attack on Titan Vol. 1

Review:  #920
Title:  Attack on Titan Vol. 1
Series:  Attack on Titan – 1st volume
Author:  Hajime Isayama
Comments:  Volume 1 gets off to an explosive start.  Set in a world where humanity is in its last stronghold, surrounded by three massive walls protecting them against the titans.  The titans are mindless giants whose only goal is to eat humans, not for food or anything, but purely for the sake of killing.  They have no intelligence and why humanity was put into this predicament is the underlying mystery propelling the story.  It follows Eren who lives in the town by the wall when titans attack and managed to breach the wall.  The story skips between time periods from time to time so it can make it a bit confusing at first.  The despair that the characters must feel rears its head at the end.  The overwhelming disadvantage that the characters have when compared to the titans is always at the forefront.  The volume ends on a cliffhanger, a surprising one where you are eager to find out the fate of the character.
Rating:  6/10

Book Review: KonoSuba: God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World 7 – 110-Million Bride

Review:  #907
Title:  KonoSuba:  God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World 7 – 110-Million Bride
Series:  KonoSuba:  God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World – 7th volume
Author:  Natsume Akatsuki
Comments:  The volume starts off normally with the usual antics of the party.  Darkness is acting a tad bit weird but off they go to fit against another legendary monster.  Kazuma is also piling it in with the money, becoming ever lazier and less inclined to take on the dangerous bounties.  Things start to go awry when something happens to Darkness.  This is very much a Darkness focused volume and it works really well.  After the previous volumes teased heavily between Kazuma and Megumin, it’s now Darkness’s turn.  The relationship and dynamic of the party just works so well.  They show friendship and gratitude when it is appropriate, disgust when it is required and have the perfect banter for each moment.  Kazuma isn’t as bad as what other people think of him since we know that he is a good guy deep down.  Aqua remains annoying for most of the time (in a good way with her cluelessness) but has her redeeming moments.  Darkness can be frustrating since she refuses to tell anyone about her issues.  Megumin is Megumin, being the hotheaded explosion obsessed mage.  The plot is tightly paced, there doesn’t feel like there is any filler material (no matter how good that filler is in the past volumes) which helps in allowing it to be a lot more focused.  The humor is perfect, every scene seems to throw something different at you and even at the darkest of times, the characters are having fun.  By the end of the volume, it closes a few sub-arcs that were building up thus far.  The ending is also a perfect conclusion even though the characters are being far vaguer than they should.  All in all, this is one of the best volumes in the series.
Rating:  7/10

Book Review: The Burning Maze

Review:  #906
Title:  The Burning Maze
Series:  The Trials of Apollo – 3rd book
Author:  Rick Riordan
Comments:  The Burning Maze has a predictable story in a predictable structure, but it manages to still be enjoyable, albeit a tad bit average compared to the author’s previous works.  The problem here is that the author tends to rely too heavily “modernizing” Greek legends but unfortunately stumbles by trying too hard and not having those modernizations feel fitting.  The other negative is the constant “teasing” of the next significant character or the next major plot point.  It’s quite annoying when it spends paragraphs leading up to the reveal, only to get interrupted and then spends a few more paragraphs before revealing it to you anyway.  The story itself is the familiar Apollo must go ahead and stop the evil emperor.  The emperor himself is set up as the main antagonist but has surprisingly limited appearances.  Instead, the main villain is one of his servants and this makes the climax feel lacking.  The reuse of jokes is tiring and you can see what 90% of the humor is going to be from a mile away, which defeats the purpose.  The plot meanders too much to keep a good pacing.  However, it is surprising that the novel had the courage to kill off characters.  On the flipside, nearly all characters feel one dimension, as if one trait dominates them and that’s all they are.  Recurring characters appear bitter and this makes them unlikable.  Certain subplots that appear to be significant going forward doesn’t get developed or is dropped.  At the end of the story, it doesn’t feel like the series’ overarching plot moved forward at all, The Burning Maze felt more like filler than anything.
Rating:  6/10

Book Review: Armada

Review:  #905
Title:  Armada
Series:  N/A
Author:  Ernest Cline
Comments:  Armada takes place in the present day and currently, there are two VRMMOs that have taken the world by storm.  One is a spaceship dogfighter, while the other has players take control of machines on land.  It follows Zack, an temperamental and unstable character who’s one of the best players of Armada.  Eventually, it is revealed that Armada is a warfare simulation in order to train civilians for an impending alien attack.  The book throws in a lot of pop culture references, mainly gaming references.  Unfortunately, these feel forced, especially if you have some knowledge of what it is referring it.  The author also tries to shoehorn in actual real life people into the story but again, it feels so unlikely that it becomes laughable.  The whole novel seems to take on an amateurish quality in its writing and plot.  As the plot continues, it feels more and more like fan fiction or something from the imagination of a young child.  Everything is too idealistic and predictable, from the romantic interest that the author tries to develop but doesn’t quite achieve it to the climax and big reveal.  You actually don’t want what you expect to happen to happen because it is something you would feel is too lame to happen.  Yet that is exactly what the plot devolves into, a big case of self-wish-fulfillment.  Granted, the background of the aliens and the program was intriguing and when the characters start giving out the answers, it hooks you.  Armada isn’t a bad book just a very average one.
Rating:  6/10

Book Review: Attack on Titan Vol. 9

Review:  #904
Title:  Attack on Titan Vol. 9
Series:  Attack on Titan – 9th volume
Author:  Hajime Isayama
Comments:  This volume is full of intrigue and mystery.  Thankfully, it does it in such a way that isn’t frustrating (yet) because we don’t get any answer at all.  There are heaps of obvious foreshadowing and of characters that know more than what they’re letting on, but they refuse to talk.  Now that the group of characters is further split, it jumps around from viewpoint to viewpoint, which can be a tad bit annoying at times.  Despite that, their stories are interlinked our expectations are constantly being challenged.  A little bit of time is spent on some backstory, which tends to be some of the more boring sections.  In the end, the story wraps you back into it with its promises.
Rating:  6/10

Book Review: Kokoro Connect Vol. 5

Review:  #903
Title:  Kokoro Connect Vol. 5
Series:  Kokoro Connect – 5th and final volume
Author:  Sadanatsu Anda & CuteG
Comments:  While this is the last volume in the series, the story doesn’t really resolve itself since this only finishes off the second arc from the light novel series it was based upon.  Now that the group is being affected by the “unleashing of desire” phenomenon where they cannot control their emotions at random times, we can see how dangerous it could it.  This tears the group apart, each dealing with their own issues and it is a hard situation to watch.  Taichi tries his best to pull the group back together again and it takes the whole volume to do that.  Just as the relationships were getting complicated yet being sorted out at the same time, the whole series end which was a shame.  In this volume, Inaba truly becomes one of the more interesting characters in the series.  It’s such a shame that We’ll never get to see what Heartseed’s motivations were and the other experiments that they had for the group.
Rating:  6/10

Book Review: Kokoro Connect Vol. 4

Review:  #902
Title:  Kokoro Connect Vol. 4
Series:  Kokoro Connect – 4th volume
Author:  Sadanatsu Anda & CuteG
Comments:  The first half of the volume is a bit light and feels more like your standard slice-of-life.  We have Yui going on a date with her secret admirer and just generally getting confused at where she stands and whether she is ready to go out with someone.  However, the next arc begins in the second half and it is a natural extension of the experiment by Heartseed.  It’s a twist on the whole body swapping thing and it is something a lot more dangerous and risky.  It raises the stakes high and it’ll be interesting to see how this develops and the how the characters react.  Already we see how easy it is to do something they shouldn’t.  The manga has also noticeably improve upon its humor, with a lot of funny little background events that really add to the atmosphere.
Rating:  6/10

Book Review: Kokoro Connect Vol. 3

Review:  #901
Title:  Kokoro Connect Vol. 3
Series:  Kokoro Connect – 3rd volume
Author:  Sadanatsu Anda & CuteG
Comments:  This is where things get really interesting.  Now that most of the club members’ flaws and insecurities are revealed, the ones behind it are playing around with them.  This leads to a very interesting situation where one of them are in imminent danger.  They are forced to make a choice to determine to let one of their friends die or sacrifice themselves instead.  It’s a tough dilemma and this brings out the worries of the ever carefree and nice Taichi.  It’s surprising at how emotional the final scenes were, as the group comes to grip with their decision.  It truly is cruel of the ones who put them in that situation.  As they are recovering from the events afterwards, the plot moves on and it is a bit more lighthearted.  Nevertheless, it touches on themes such as social norms and expectations, setting up for the next volume.
Rating:  6.5/10

Book Review: Kokoro Connect Vol. 2

Review:  #900
Title:  Kokoro Connect Vol. 2
Series:  Kokoro Connect – 2nd volume
Author:  Sadanatsu Anda & CuteG
Comments:  The second volume continues exploring the friendship within the group and the various problems that slowly surface due to the predicament they find themselves in.  It feels a lot more personal, particularly since we see some of their deepest secrets, things that affect them as a person to their very core.  It’s an interesting premise and it works well here.  We follow Taichi who is too much of a nice guy, to the point where it hurts the others.  There are some funny dialogue and scenes, especially when Taichi has to compromise in an effort to help the others.  The problems that the others face are very real; they’re something that you would also be suffering from if you were in their shoes.  It finishes with a cliffhanger involving a character whose problem you’d thought was resolved, this was actually a pretty nice touch.
Rating:  6/10

Book Review: Kokoro Connect Vol. 1

Review:  #899
Title:  Kokoro Connect Vol. 1
Series:  Kokoro Connect – 1st volume
Author:  Sadanatsu Anda & CuteG
Comments:  Kokoro Connect, like a lot of other manga, has an interesting premise.  Set at a high school, following a club of five students, they experience the phenomenal known as body swapping.  They only swap bodies between the five of them, and this can happen randomly with no warning.  It is a mystery as to why this occurs and the only hint they got was that they were being observed.  Throughout it all, the story focuses upon the effects this has on their friendship and their fears.  There starts to be no secrets between them and while the pacing drags on for most of the volume, it picks up towards the end when one character reveals their past trauma.  It was an interesting facet of their personality.  Although there are few panels of pure fan service (of the clichéd kind), there is something promising here.
Rating:  6/10

Book Review: Tintin and Alph-Art

Review:  #897
Title:  Tintin and Alph-Art
Series:  The Adventures of Tintin – 24th and final book
Author:  Herge
Comments:  Tintin and Alph-Art is the unfinished and unreleased volume of Tintin.  Published posthumously in a draft sketch form with accompanying text, it is actually a really engaging and interesting mystery.  Involving Captain Haddock purchasing some art in the new alph-art style, it quickly turns involves various recurring characters, disappearances and pulling Tintin in to uncover who is behind the scenes.  To be fair, even the rough outlines gives a pretty good indication of what is going on.  Unfortunately, we never see the end of the story because it stops roughly two-thirds into the story, and the last few pages were more and more incomplete.  It is a shame that the series finished like this because you could see the massive potential that it had.
Rating:  5/10

Book Review: Tintin and the Picaros

Review:  #896
Title:  Tintin and the Picaros
Series:  The Adventures of Tintin – 23rd book
Author:  Herge
Comments:  The final full color and completed volume of the Tintin series and it has a solid story filled with returning characters.  Once again, it involves General Alcazar who is overthrown and currently leading a revolt to take his country back.  There’s an interesting subplot involving Captain Haddock who cannot stomach alcohol anymore (which is shocking in and of itself) as well as Professor Calculus having done something mysterious.  That being said, the running joke of Professor Calculus misinterpreting conversations because of his bad hearing is wearing thin as he is more annoying than funny.  The plot doesn’t carry any surprises since you know Tintin will be able to get out of the scrape he is in, that he will succeed in helping Alcazar and that things will always go his way.  Nevertheless, it doesn’t detract from the charm of the characters.
Rating:  6/10

Book Review: Flight 714 to Sydney

Review:  #895
Title:  Flight 714 to Sydney
Series:  The Adventures of Tintin – 22nd book
Author:  Herge
Comments:  Flight 714 to Sydney starts off normally enough.  Tintin and Captain Haddock are travelling to Sydney, Australia before they are sidetracked.  They stumble into a kidnapping plot and end up stuck on an island.  The story isn’t as fun or engaging as some previous entries but what makes this one different is the direction it takes towards the end.  Supernatural and extraordinary explanations were already hinted upon in previous stories but it is more explicit here.  This makes it intriguing except for the fact that it doesn’t elaborate or explore any of it.  As a result, the story feels somewhat flat the whole way through.
Rating:  6/10

Book Review: The Castafliore Emerald

Review:  #894
Title:  The Castafliore Emerald
Series:  The Adventures of Tintin – 21st book
Author:  Herge
Comments:  The Castafliore Emerald has the ingredients for a good story but ends up lacking because it feels pointless by the end.  The plot is set up as a mystery where Castafiore comes to Marlinspike to temporary stay there but then loses her previous jewels.  Over the course of the volume, there are numerous suspects, some more suspicious than others.  Interspersed are a bunch of running gags and everyday events, or as normal to everyday events as it can be with a famous person staying.  The flaw is that the plot never has a sense of urgency and never quite builds up, such that when the ending comes and the culprit is revealed, it feels anticlimactic, especially when it doesn’t seem quite like the focus.
Rating:  6/10

Book Review: Tintin in Tibet

Review:  #893
Title:  Tintin in Tibet
Series:  The Adventures of Tintin – 20th book
Author:  Herge
Comments:  Tintin in Tibet is perhaps the best Tintin book so far, containing a charming and intimate story.  Tintin is happily enjoying some downtime in Marlinspike when he learns that his friend Chang (from a few volumes ago) is coming to visit.  Unfortunately disaster happens and Tintin must travel to Tibet to find Chang.  Tintin’s dedication along with his resolve is much to be admired about.  Perhaps the best thing about the plot is how for the first time, Tintin doesn’t rely on any lucky coincidences for escaping tight situations.  The jokes work wonderfully and the scenes help showcase Tintin in a positive light.  Captain Haddock, despite what he says, has a heart of gold and their friendship is heartwarming.
Rating:  6.5/10

Book Review: The Red Sea Sharks

Review:  #892
Title:  The Red Sea Sharks
Series:  The Adventures of Tintin – 19th book
Author:  Herge
Comments:  The Red Sea Sharks sees the return of more than just a few characters who had appeared in previous volumes.  Unfortunately, the plot feels like it meanders for quite a way and never really focuses on an objective.  The Emir is in trouble and sends his troublesome son to Marlinspike who causes chaos.  In return, Tintin and Captain Haddock travel to see if they can help solve the problem but before they can even get there properly, they are forced from detour to detour.  Most of the volume then takes place on the sea and while it was interesting and fun, it’s hard to see what it is trying to lead to.  That being said, the humor still remains spot on and the characters being charming.
Rating:  6/10