Manga Sprites: Video Games and Time Travel

In this edition of Manga Sprites, super short reviews of recently read books, I look at the first volume of No Game No Life and the latest volumes (or near-latest) of Kamisama Kiss, Library Wars and Blue Exorcist. Spoilers for the last three series!

No Game, No Life volume 1 by Yuu Kamiya, Mashiro Hiiragi: There was an urban legend that there was a legendary, undefeated gamer called [ ], but in reality he was just a NEET brother and sister called 空 (Sora) and 白 (Shiro). These hikikomori siblings who both refer to the real world as a worthless "Kuso Game" are one day summoned to a different world by a boy calling himself "God".

I tried to enjoy this manga, since it is a favorite of my best friend, but wow it is so terrible. I found the main characters grating, especially the brother's arrogant and lack of empathy towards other human beings. There is a lot of ridiculous fanservice and the amount of panty shots, breast shots, and sexy poses in unsexy scenes had me wondering if NGNL is a h-manga in disguise. There are so many other series about people being pulled into MMORPGs and series about NEETS/hikkikomori as main characters that I don't see how NGNL can be seen as original. I'll probably not be picking up the second volume unless it drops into my lap and I'm so bored I can't help but flip through it.

New Ebook Is Now Available Online: Did You Leave Any For Me

Good golly gosh, remember last year when my first published piece of fiction, Did You Leave Any For Me, premiered in Wayward Ink's anthology, Stranded? Now you can buy just that story in a stand-alone ebook - and it's available starting today! I am excited to share this story with an even wider audience than before, and I hope y'all are excited in turn to read it. I think you'll like it, if you like stories about second chances, bottles of champagne, and questionable bathroom etiquette. And that just covers a small part of this ebook!

Get it in as many sexy, shiny formats as your e-reader can handle, from PDF to Kindle's mobi files. Lots of purchase links are included at the bottom of the post. Further details on the story itself below!

Did You Leave Any For Me: Two ex-lovers, one hotel room, and a random act of technology. Will they fall out, or will they fall back in love? Ollie and Shay are on-again, off-again boyfriends who have performed the "one last fling" dance so many times, it's become routine. This time, however, their last fling might just become the start of something new.

4/8/15: Happy Lost Day (Again!)

Somehow, it feels like I only recently celebrated 815 Day, which is another major day for Lost fandom. Now, we are celebrating a day that will only occur once in our lifetimes: a day when, for literally one second, the date and time become 4/8/15 16:23:42.

Those numbers, of course, are the major driving mystery of the show Lost - from Hurley's lottery ticket to the code imputed into the Swan Hatch computer and gobs more examples I can barely begin to list - so when the calendar and the clock reflects said sequence, we gotta celebrate the occasion!

Funny thing: I didn't watch Lost when it was first airing. I only started watching it seriously in 2013/2014, so I could impress my best friend who is a Lostie, the one who I now refer to as Daniel Faraday for reasons that are only obvious to me and anyone who has ever met IRL Faraday. I did not think I would love it as much as I came to do, but gosh darn it, I did. I laughed, I cried, I wanted to punch certain characters in the place (also known as why I curse at the TV screen any time William Mapother shows up in any other show, eff you Ethan you know what you did).

People Magazine has a worthwhile post on Lost Day and why it's so important in the show's canon. Now go watch some episodes!

PR: Viz and Perfect Square Acquires Yokai Watch Manga

Japan’s Massive Hit Action Series About A Boy That Can See Japanese Yo-kai Launches in the U.S. This Fall

San Francisco, CA, April 6, 2015 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), the largest distributor and licensor of manga and anime in North America, has announced the acquisition of a new manga (graphic novel) property – YO-KAI WATCH.

The supernatural comedy adventure series is inspired by the explosively popular YOKAI WATCH video game created by LEVEL-5 for the Nintendo 3DS and launched to wide acclaim in Japan in 2013. The YO-KAI WATCH manga will be published under the company’s Perfect Square imprint, written and drawn by Noriyuki Konishi under the guidance of the LEVEL-5 team. This September, the phenomenal franchise is finally coming to North America with the launch of the YO-KAI WATCH manga series, fueled as well by the debuts of anime and toy products around the same time.

Yo-kai, inspired by the yokai of Japanese folklore, are not ghosts or monsters or creatures. They can’t be seen by the human eye, but they’re everywhere, and whether they're phantoms or everyday objects discovering their higher purpose, Yo-kai personalities are distinctly humanlike!

The YO-KAI WATCH manga will be rated ‘A’ for All Ages and will be available exclusively in print on a bi-monthly basis. In Japan, the series originally appeared in Coro Coro Comic magazine, published by VIZ Media parent company Shogakukan, and won both the 60^th Shogakukan Manga Award in 2015 and the 38^th Kodansha Manga Award in the Best Children’s Manga category in 2014.

Maka Vs Chrona: Brief Thoughts On Soul Eater 24

DWMA braces for the final showdown as the Kishin awakens from his slumber at the heart of the moon. Unable to contain his rage, Noah is the first to attack, the Book of Eibon and "BREW" fueling his assault. Despite his formidable efforts, though, Noah is overcome not by the Kishin, but by the sudden appearance of Crona. With the world hanging in the balance, DWMA can only wonder who will prove to be the greater foe--the Kishin...or Crona...

This was just a really good volume of Soul Eater. Is it okay to leave it at that? I can't even explain why: it's literally an entire book of Chrona and Maka duking it out on the freaking moon. Actually, yeah, that says it all. It's a big ol' MOON FIGHT, with bonus full-blood-madness Chrona and Maka/Soul really hitting the soul resonance ability with their best efforts since they first partnered.

I am usually bored by so much fighting but this time, I was incredibly entertained. Maybe it was the striking visuals of Chrona's madness, partnered with their abilities in motion and the mirrored calmness of Maka and Soul's wavelength against the darkness. Perhaps it was the fact that one of the moon's teeth is knocked out from Chrona's powers; that scene was both horrifying and hilarious, and it's that combination that pretty much best defines Soul Eater at its best.

I was glad for so many things in this book: the team efforts from Maka and her back-up squad; the usage of Maka's dad as both a paternal figure as a weapon; the callback to Medusa and the horrible psychological damage she did to her own child; the fact that the Kishin is still among them and still a tangible threat. The art was on point, the pacing was fast but not ridiculous, and it ends on a surprisingly badass moment from Death the Kid which just has to be seen firsthand.

I haven't gotten my hands on the final volume of Soul Eater, which I know is already out yet via Yen Press - libraries, man, I don't think manga is high on their priority list! - but judging by this book and the preview for the finale, I already know it's gonna be a doozy. Hopefully, it'll make all of the waiting worth it.