Introduction
In terms of manga, 2023 was a pretty unique year. I don't think I finished a single manga which is why I didn't write any reviews. Though, I have been reading manga weekly or monthly throughout the whole year which I could have written an update about but just didn't. Maybe I could look into doing something like that in the future. But for now, these are the manga I want to talk about on some level. This isn't all the manga that I've been reading, but I feel like these are the ones that I have the most to immediately write about.
Kaiju No. 8
I've been reading and enjoying Kaiju No. 8 since it came out, so I can easily tell you that this show had a massive dip in how positive I feel about it for a while. It focused on characters then we were presented to for a while to focus on a captain that we are supposed to care about for some reason and the result is decent, but not the hype or intrigue that we were all expecting from this manga.
I said had because the latest arc has Kaiju No. 8 return to form. The entire assault on Tokyo has been done in a way that gets so much out of the characters that the manga originally focused on as well as those characters that are there for some reason. Mainly because each captain involved in the fight is fighting a mirror of themselves so basically, each one has to defeat a mirror of themselves and not be crushed by self doubts. Combine that with solid action and it's just excellent stuff. The cliffhanger in a later chapter drives up the drama in some excellent levels there too. I definitely still recommend this manga even with that quality dip.
Show-ha Shoten
This is a monthly manga that I learned to really love because its art is fantastic and its characters are amazing. This is a manga about comedian duos and it's very much a tournament style manga but with some of the most hilarious jokes ever written. Those even being translated into English really worked. The journey of Shijima and Higashikata with their baggage and everything was interesting, but then it moves onto other characters and it hits just as hard. Highly worth reading.
Beat & Motion
This is a monthly manga series that started this year and I really enjoy it. This one is about the artist Tatsuhiko Hirayama and singer Nico Kashikaga struggling to become bigger stars. Tatsuhiko is currently working on a piece of animation for a contest and Nico was about to debut as a new singer, but is now a song writer instead and it's really gone into such interesting directions. It's not perfect, but there have been a lot of good emotional resonant moments that make it worth reading.
Dogsred
Welcome to Satoru Noda's (the mangaka behind Golden Kamuy) new manga based around hockey. It has all the comedy and weird moments in it that you would kind of expect for it to happen. This one being about the award winning figure skater Rou Shirakawa who just won a competition and then just completely destroyed the set around him after winning. We never know why, but his family moved to Hokkaido after his mom's death and now he is starting his foray into hockey. It's still early days so nothing is explained yet but it's been a lot of fun.
SpyXFamily
This year, this manga has had two very heavy arcs that I don't think anyone is going to be ready for. There is a spy mission which Loid almost fails and Anya gets caught in a school bus hijacking. That's all I'm going to say, but I don't think anyone is ready for these. Just know in general that Yor does get a more important part and the Forger family does grow in some ways.
Chainsaw Man Part 2
The first part of Chainsaw Man was great and honestly iconic. This second part doesn't have much of a linear focus as the first one because the character we focus on is not Denji, but Asa Mitaka who dies and gets caught into the world of devils by fusing with the war devil. We see where Denji shows up later as the series explores what it means to be a Chainsaw man. So there is a story of Denji dealing with the random church of Chainsaw man becoming a thing and Asa exploring her identity as seeing more of herself by connecting with the war devil. It's really good stuff and yeah, I will write a post about it when it ends. Just know that Part 2 is messy but really works regardless.
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