slice of life comics

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Lenni Reviews: “Komi Can’t Communicate” Vol. 32, by Tomohito Oda

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*This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review.

Waka finally confesses to Manbagi, Ogiya teaches Komi tea ceremony, and Tadano and Komi struggle to have more time together that isn’t school or studying.

This volume is very episodic exploring a wide range of characters and situations. It’s fun, amusing, and reads really fast. With such a collection, I realized just how wacky a lot of these kids are more than normal. You kinda forget when Komi and Tadano are the focus when one of them has a creepy obsession with Komi and another wants to be a baby and will not remove the pacifier from his mouth. Absolutely wild. Oh, and Komi is now up to 80 friends! 4 out of 5.

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Lenni Reviews: “Insomniacs After School” Vol. 7, by Makoto Ojiro

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*This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review.

The consequences of Magari disobeying her parents come when they ban her from seeing Nakami outside of school. With their relationship a secret and Magari grounded, the future of the astronomy club is in jeopardy.

Yup, the parents were as thrilled about that little excursion as I thought they would be. The kids seem to take it in stride and are focused on their fledgling club and taking any opportunity to promote it. Not much progress is made towards that and I wish we had more emphasis on Nakami’s photo; the photo taken on the trip that cause all this drama in the first place. It’s just kinda dropped in exposition and I’d hoped to see more about that contest. 3.8 out of 5.

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Lenni Reviews: “I Wanna Do Bad Things with You” Vol. 1, by Yutaka

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*This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review.

Mamori has always felt ignored and weak and her classmates judge her for being so tall. Her classmate, Fuji, is jealous of his perfect older brother. When they meet, they not only find a kindred spirit but decide to stir up some trouble to get back at those who ignore and underestimate them.

This is a cute start to the series with our two misfits deciding to be misfits together. Mamori is relatable and adorable and Fuji has some depths to be explored in the future. His older brother seems sus (a LOT sus, actually) but we’ll see what’s done with his character. I do hope Fuji doesn’t get too manipulative with Mamori because she’s a total pushover. 3.5 out of 5.

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Lenni Reviews: “The Way of the Househusband” Vol. 12, by Kousuke Oono

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*This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review.

In this volume, Tatsu participates in a baseball game against some window breaking kids, helps his friend Masa with his food tasting videos, visits a new food cart with some very odd food combinations, takes a traffic safety class, and deals with some Halloween trick or treaters.

The stories are rapid fire in this and feel shorter than in previous volumes but they’re still funny and clever so, I’ll take it. Better to keep it pithy and entertaining than try to pad things out and get boring. I still would like more backstory on Tatsu, though. 4 out of 5.

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Lenni Reviews: “Hirayasumi” Vol. 2, by Keigo Shinzō

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*This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review.

Hiroto and his cousin, Natsumi, start their summer, the tightly wound real estate agent in charge of Hiroto’s property, Yomogi, insists on doing repairs herself. Hiroto’s friend, Hideki, is nervous about his impending fatherhood and Nastumi gets a job; gaining more confidence; especially when it comes to her judgmental classmates.

Yomogi does a lot for just a real estate agent. Maybe it’s different in Japan but, I’d expect a repair service to handle repairs and not a real estate agent? I dunno. It seemed like extra stress for an already stressed out person. Other than that, I’m glad out little cast is rounding out. A bit of a spoiler but we get some insight into Hiroto’s past where he wasn’t so happy go lucky and his family and friends do their best to keep up his chill attitude. This volume of slice of life has some slow moments but, I really like it. 4 out of 5.

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Lenni Reviews: “Hirayasumi” Vol. 1, by Keigo Shinzō

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*This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review.

Hiroto Ikuta works part time, has never fallen in love, and spends most of his free time with his elderly neighbor, Hanae Wada and develops a close relationship with her. They are such good friends, Hanae leaves Hiroto her home when she passes away. Since he lives alone, his cousin, Natsumi, comes to live with him while she attends art school.

Hiroto’s chill attitude towards life is refreshing rather than coming off at lazy. In fact, he’s quite diligent about his job and housework, he just doesn’t stress over every little thing. He has a positive influence on his cousin and obviously impacted Hanae deeply enough for the woman to leave her home to him. It’s  nice slice of life manga with nice vibes and some touching moments. 4 out of 5.

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Lenni Reviews: “Komi Can’t Communicate” Vol. 30, by Tomohito Oda

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*This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review.

While the “competition” for Tadano’s affections ends in Komi’s favor, she still tries to make amends with Kawai in order to convert her into another one of her friends.

As I’d said, I am a little bummed that Kawai didn’t end up a non-friend but not a rival but there is an aspect of this series that tends to take something earnest and make it weird.  It was funny that Tadano was just unaware of all of this going on. But after that’s done, it goes back to Komi being her adorable and earnest self and the side characters have some interesting “screen” time as well. 4 out of 5.

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Lenni Reviews: “Boy’s Abyss” Vol. 6, by Ryō Minenami

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*This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review.

Author Esemori met Yuko – Reiji’s mother – as a teenager after he moves to the small town when his father abandoned him and his mother. They became close, implying Esemori and Reiji may have a closer connection than previously believed.

This town is a black hole for joy. Despite basically all the adults being fucking terrible, I still think Ms. Shiba is the worst but Yuko is battling for that spot. All these people are just so broken and twisted that none of them are thinking clearly or logically and are reacting poorly to their deep, DEEP trauma and passing it on to their kids. It’s so depressing. But seriously, fuck Ms. Shiba. 3.5 out of 5.

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Lenni Reviews: “Love’s in Sight!” Vol. 7, by Uoyama

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*This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review.

There’s been an accident at the train station where a young person with a cane was hurt. Yukiko and her friends scramble to fins out who it was, thinking it could be someone from their school. The whole incident drives Morio to learn more about what he can do to protect Yukiko.

After what is more exposition heavy discussion about train station safety, this volume returns to it’s fun slice of life tone. We have Yukiko getting a new bathing suit for summer and her sister Izumi learns her existence doesn’t revolve around being a caretaker and she can have her own life. It’s a little heavier than previous volumes but it’s still fun. 3.9 out of 5.

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Lenni Reviews: “Mr. Villain’s Day Off” Vol. 3, by Yuu Morikawa

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*This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review.

This volume has fun with The General as he interacts with a stray cat and agonizes over whether or not to have ramen as a late night snack but the emotional punch of this is learning about the Rangers. I almost wish the stories were reversed; the fun stuff with The General taking place after the Rangers because the kids getting their powers and being trained is kinda sad. Cute but sad. It would have been a nice palate cleanser to have some stray cat and ramen fun after the hard truths about becoming a Ranger. I do like it, though. It shows a nice balance between the opposing forces and the series is overall still fun. 4 out of 5.

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