Count_Zero

This is a very weak start to the series. The stakes are very low, and I can't I don't have any real driving story for the series in future volumes, unless they're planning on making it a High School Romance series with occasional magical action, which is a plot I'd expect from a light novel series (or an adaptation thereof) not a manga in Shonen Jump. Maybe it will pick up next volume.

Deepsix is certainly an interesting humans-against-nature story, but it's got some real characterization problems. I'll do a full review of this for my web series, and for Bureau42.

We get some interesting character developments in this volume. I'm particularly interested in seeing how Hato's art skills develop, and how he overcomes his artistic hangups.

The Madarame-as-Uke storyline is pretty funny, even as someone who isn't particularly into yaoi. I'm still really enjoying Genshiken, and I'm definitely looking forward to getting around to reading volume three.

There are some good recipes in this cookbook, but boy, are there are some pretty darn yuppie recipes in here. General rule of thumb - if your recipe calls for saffron, you're officially entering into the realm of yuppy cooking.

I'm going to admit that I'm kind of oddly disappointed by the fact that Kenjiro Hato isn't transgender, though as the series stands thus far, it's entirely possible that the character could be revealed down the road as being TG after all, but in denial.

Still, it's a good continuation of Genshiken, and it's a nice new start. It's also nice to be a series focused on otaku that isn't focused entirely on material for male audiences, though we'll probably have some stuff along those lines in later volumes.

I look forward to reading the next few volumes.

This is an interesting Doctor Who adventure. The book certainly has it's flaws, but there are elements of the story that I really liked, especially the elements relating to the Second Doctor attempting to pass a message along to the Seventh.

This story also shows a lot of what they can do now that they're freed from the constraints of BBC standards and practices. The first book in the series amped up the sexuality somewhat to something more frank than pretty much anything that the original series had discussed.

The semi-love triangle between Ace, Raphael and that other girl whose name I can't remember, feels rather forced.

On the minus side, the semi-love triangle between Ace, Raphael and that other girl whose name I can't remember, feels rather forced. Similarly, most of the Panjistri and the Kirithons aren't particularly fleshed out, and the ones who do get some serious development are also the ones who get to be killed off.

Still, fans of Doctor Who - especially fans of the Seventh Doctor, should get something out of this book.

I'd describe this a post-apocalyptic, in addition to being Transhumanist Cyberpunk, for reasons that I can't get too far into due to spoilers. The book has a bit of a rough start for it's first couple chapters. It's an interesting book though, and I'm definitely going to continue reading the series.

I'm probably going to review this for Bureau42 or for a video (or both), but long story short, I enjoyed the book. Kate, the book's protagonist, is an interesting hardboiled urban fantasy detective. However, the way magic works in the setting, and how the cosmology of it works falls into some of the Magic Vs. Technology nonsense that I'm not particularly a fan of.

I'll be reviewing this on Bureau42, so the full review is going to be there. However, the short version is that the manga continues to improve dramatically. The Battle of Jaburo is very well done, and Yasuhiko-san does a tremendous job of pulling off scope here, both in terms of big landscapes (the full page tableau of White Base flying over Jaburo is something I'd love to hang on my wall), and action scenes. Volume V came out just this week, and I've already put it on hold from the Tualatin Library. I look forward to finally getting to read it.

The recipes in this book are certainly interesting, and it definitely provided some useful dishes to add to my culinary arsenal. However, that isn't the focus of this book. The focus of this book is to discuss various eateries and restaurants throughout the US and particular dishes of note. This is great if you can afford to travel. I can't.

Though, fortunately, Portland (OR) did come up on the list a few times, so I'll make a note of the places they suggested in the book for future reference if I'm hungry in Portland with some cash to spare.

This was a textbook I read for class, and it felt a little out of date when I was reading it. I probably won't read this again except for class and for professional reference.

Nice continuation of the series, though the tone manages to be dramatically more dire and bleak than last volume was.

This was a decent read, but I'm really not sure who it's meant for. Most of the material in this book is material that is compiled from the manga, which means that if you're a fan of the manga and you've already read it (and own the volumes), then you've already read everything in here. If you're not a fan of the manga or haven't read the manga yet, you'll either be lost, or have the manga spoiled for you. Honestly, I really don't see much of a reason to check this out.

That said, I did enjoy the book, and little bits of new material we get (including interviews with Kio Shimoku and Ken Akamatsu about anime fandom) are really enjoyable. However, I can't really recommend buying this unless you're a Genshiken completionist.

This volume is absolutely fantastic. This is the best volume of the series thus far, and probably one of the best volumes of a SF Comic I've read in quite some time.

This was a textbook I read for class, and I'm only really including it on my Goodreads, because I don't want the readings I've been doing for class to throw off my book count for the year.

Also, I find it somewhat hilarious that while I'm not supposed to cite or reference Wikipedia articles in my writing for class, but this textbook is able to get away with it.

This is an interesting manga, with some interesting world building. Though, I think this volume plays the fujoshi pandering a little too hard.

The volume is visually interesting, but the plot is basically nonexistent.

I've got a review scheduled to go up on Bureau42 in a few weeks. In short, I enjoyed this manga, though it has some issues with the flow of the action early on.

Biomega reads a lot like a late '80s-early '90s OVA, in the sense that the manga has an incredibly tight focus on action. While there is a narrative there, the story spends more time on the action sequences. To be fair, there isn't anything wrong with that - the manga gives the action sequences the time they need to flow properly, and allow the reader to keep track of everything. There are a lot of manga artists who could probably learn something form Nihei.

This book's main problems, and they're minor ones, are twofold. The book features anime that weren't available in the US as of the date the book was released, and the book features anime which have since gone out of print. The latter problem isn't the author's fault in the slightest - they can't have predicted what would or would not still be in print years down the road.

On the other hand, the shows that aren't available are a bit more of a nuisance, as in order for prospective fans of anime to check out those works, they would have, at the time, needed to rely on fansubs, which is a bit much to ask of new fans. That said, some of the offending works have since been licensed for release via streaming (particularly the Captain Harlock TV series). However, other works aren't as accessible, like Mazinger Z and Cyborg 009.

I still think the book holds up well as a good piece of reference material though. I'd say that it doesn't work as well as a reference material for new fans who are looking for material to find on their own, as much as it works as a gift to a new fan from a long time fan, who wants to give the new fan an idea of what's out there, wants to help the new fan figure out what he might like, and who knows how to get ahold of some of the harder to find works, in case those catch the new fan's attention.

I haven't read any of Attack on Titan yet. Nor have I seen any of the show. However, I have a really good understanding of the work's tone, and I think Knights of Sidonia pulls off that kind of tone better than I've heard Attack on Titan does. The action is gruesome, but it manages to do so without falling back on the same kind of beat over and over, which by accounts Titan does.

The monsters are visually unnerving, without the potential for the designs to become quite as unintentionally comic, as some of the Titan designs can be, due to the monsters being totally inhuman - Spoileruntil they kill a human and transform their appearance into a 30' form of that human..

Also, in this volume, while the body count is lower than the body count from the start of Attack on Titan, the stake's feel just as high, and the writers don't have to casually massacre hundreds of civilians to get the stakes across. Only one character dies in this volume, and it's enough to sell the threat.

So, one would think that Heavy Metal musicians would be terrible cooks. This line of thinking is horrifically wrong. Considering that at various points in their careers most musicians end up on tight budgets, the ability to cook becomes something of a necessity. Thus, they tend to come up with interesting recipes of their own.

This leads to this book, which is basically a collection of recipes which aren't necessarily complicated to prepare, generally aren't expensive, and which don't use a lot of dishes. Some of the recipes could be described as “advanced bachelor cooking”, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The recipes do err on the side of spicy, but as someone who likes spicy food, I don't really have a problem with that.

This book has one minor problem that isn't exactly a problem. While some of the contributors have figured out the proportions of the ingredients in their recipes so they can be reasonably re-created by someone else, others aren't. Consequently, I've encountered a few recipes where I felt kind of lost without some idea what the end result should look like.

Otherwise, I'd say this is a really good cookbook for the aspiring home chef - particularly ones who like spice, like heavy metal, or both.

Golgo 13 is entertaining in spite of it's main character. The art is very well done, and the characters are interesting... except for Duke Togo. Golgo 13 is generally a dull Gary Stu. The way that characters repond and react to his presence is more interesting then the character himself, to the point that of the two stories in this volume, the most interesting one is the one that Golgo doesn't appear in at all.

I'd certainly recommend reading the manga. However, after reading it, at the suggestion of Helen McCarthy, I cannot, for the life of me, see the appeal of Duke Togo outside of being a wish fulfillment character for people with limited imagination.

This is a good primer on Japanese arcade gaming culture in most of its forms. At $20 it's a little steep on the price side for its length though.