Ascendance of a Bookworm: I'll Do Anything to become a Librarian! Part 1: If there aren't any books, I'll just have to make some!, illustrated by Suzuka
Myne continues her quest to make paper and books even though her first several experiments have failed miserably. This time, she wants to try making washi, a traditional paper method in Japan. She enlists the help of her friend Lutz, and she repays him by getting him an introduction with Mr. Otto. Lutz wants to become a traveling merchant, and Mr. Otto used to be, but instead, Otto brings along Mr. Benno, who is a merchant in town. Benno sees talent and wants to make both kids his apprentices when they are baptized in the next year, but their test will be to make paper and make him lots of money.
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Senzou the black fox was a terribly powerful bakemono - a magical beast - but he was finally brought down by the sun goddess and a legion of wolves. He was imprisoned for 300 years while the goddess siphoned his power away. Now, he’s been released, and he must serve out his penance: raise a little tanuki to be a good servant of the gods, or be constantly tormented by a magical pearl necklace that delivers pain kind of like a shock collar. In addition to raising the tanuki, whom he calls Manpachi, the pair must help 8 million gods with whatever problems they have.
Tetsuo is starting to lose control on his power, and it's causing his body to bulge and grow exponentially. Kaneda and Kaisuke pilot a modified robot with lots of guns on it; Joker pilots his flying scooter also with lots of guns; Kei has been imbued with the power of Lady Miyako, Kiyoko, and Masaru; The American soldiers arrive and use an airborne chemical to take out anyone with psychic powers; and Kaori continues to worry about Tetsuo's state, but is powerless to help him. As Tetsuo is attacked from the multiple fronts, his body expands to absorb the bullets, Kei's psychic attacks, and the America's poison gas. The Americans also start to drop bombs on the city from their jets. Tons of destruction rains all around our characters as they have a final psychic showdown that pulls in Kaneda and Kei, threatening to wipe them from existence.
Hotaru is pretty sure she’s the type of person who will never fall in love. So she thinks nothing of it when she shares her umbrella with the despondent Hananoi, who has just been dumped. He asks her out and thinks she’s the girl of his dreams, but Hotaru only agrees to go out with him on a trial basis for a month. Hananoi is determined to do everything to get Hotaru to love him, so he does extreme stunts like digging in the snow for a few hours to help find a lost hair pin. To her surprise, she enjoys spending time with him, but by the end of the trial period, she still hasn’t figure out if she loves him or not. Is what she feels actually love, or just fondness for a person?
Illustrated by Jo Mi-Gyeong, colored by Brittany Peer
Eve spends most of her days learning skills preparing for future tasks with her father. He continuously tells her she’s the one who is going to save the world someday. She learns science, survival skills, and swims in the ocean. Then, she wakes up. The world has been destroyed by humans, and what remains is a deadly virus that changes children, as they hit puberty, into flesh-eating monsters they call Sumers. Eve’s favorite teddy bear, who is actually a complex android named Wexler, tells her she needs to travel across the country to a vault that contains the tools to hopefully save the planet. Eve finds out so much on her journey that her parents didn’t plan for, including clones, dangerous robots, and so much more. 
Nasa and Tsukasa go on a sort of honeymoon to a hot springs with a private bath in their room, but both are too shy at the beginning to bathe in front of each other. By the end of the trip, they are able to get into the same bath but only at night with the lights off. We also finally meet someone claiming to be Tsukasa's guardian, and she chides Tsukasa for not bringing Nasa around for her approval, but gives it by the end of the conversation. When they get home, they decide to get an air conditioner for their small apartment and they find relief from the hot summer days, but they can’t agree on a temperature at night, vacillating between too hot or too cold with just a few degrees adjustment.
Nagate has lived in the inner belly of Sidonia his whole life, but the death of his grandfather forces him out into the upper layer of the colony ship where the rest of the human race lives. After the destruction of Earth and the Solar System by the Gauna, Sidonia is now home to the only remaining humans in Space, searching for a new home and a refuge away from the aliens who still threaten them. Nagate is given a terribly strong weapon and becomes a pilot for a large robot space suit. He and a team of pilots are sent on a routine mission to mine an asteroid, but things go sideways when they find a Gauna under the surface.
Twilight intrudes upon a private moment between his target, Donovan Desmond, and his son, Damien, but plants the seed of recognition. After that chapter, we get some glimpses into the lives of the other characters. We follow Yuri, Yor's brother, on a secret police mission to apprehend a journalist who is spreading lies about the country. We get a pretty hilarious chapter featuring Bond, where he has a premonition that he will die in several different was (one of which is if he eats Yor's cooking). There's also one chapter dedicated to Damien and his friends as they experience some of the wilderness of Eden Academy. In another chapter, Yor and Franky try to find a missing cat, which obviously gets more intense than it needs to. In the end, the Thorn Princess (Yor's assassin name) is given a job on a cruise ship, the same voyage Anya happens to score free tickets on, so the whole Folger Family is off on a vacation where they'll continue to try not to blow their cover in front of one another.
Hideki and Minoru use all the tricks they know to find who kidnapped Chi. They’re sent a cryptic photo that turns out to be a map of a neighborhood of Tokyo, and the search leads them to the house of a user named Dragonfly who posts on the same forums as Minoru. He has Chi plugged into several other persocoms, but the attempt to break her defenses backfires, and he ends up strung up by wires. Hideki takes the man’s laptop persocom as proof that he kidnapped Chi, and Dragonfly becomes fairly cooperative. Hideki and Chi return to the bakery, and they are unknowingly followed and observed by Yumi, a girl who used to work there and was in love with the bakery’s owner, Ueda. After running away and being chased down by Hideki, she tearfully reveals that Ueda used fo be married to a persocom, and the thought of him comparing their relationships makes her distraught.
Illustrated by Greg Smallwood and Jordie Bellaire
Marc Spector wakes in a mental hospital, where he has obviously been thoroughly mistreated, judging by the black eyes and a number of other bruises. His psychiatrist, Dr. Emmet, is dismayed by the lack of progress he's made, especially in that he continues to talk about his other personas. He often slips in and out of his mind to talk to Khonshu, his patron god, who is also disappointed that Marc hasn't seen through the lies and broken out of the hospital yet. Marc starts to recognize some of the other patients - Frenchie, Gena, Marlene, Crawley - as people who have been helpful or important in his life. The facade of the hospital starts to crumble, and Marc begins to see the hospital staff as agents of Ammit, with crocodile heads and very foul tempers. Marc struggles to escape the hospital with his friends and maintain a handle on what he knows to be true, while slipping in and out of his other identities: Steven Grant, the successful Hollywood producer; Jake Lockley, a scrappy cab driver; and Moon Knight, the Fist of Khonshu and protector of travelers at night. |
About MeI've been reading manga and comicbooks for years. Now, I write reviews and other helpful things for School Librarians, teachers, parents, and students. Search this site
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