Illustrated by Kyle Strahm
Twig is late for his very first day of his new job as a Placeling, and he just might destroy the planet because of his error! Twig is tasked with placing a jewel but nothing goes right, and the light in the jewel is gone. Now, he has to journey across the world to find the way to light it up again, and he has a very short amount of time to do it in. With his trusty friend, Splat, Twig gathers components and meets new creatures, some more helpful than others, in a journey that is part self-discovery and
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Illustrated by Kimitake Yoshioke
Iori has just moved to a seaside town to attend university. Luckily, he has an uncle with a dive shop in the town, which means he has a place to stay. What no one warned Iori about was the dive club, a super intense group of (mostly) guys who host lots of drinking competitions and play lots of drinking and other games that rely on losing clothing. Iori gets sucked in to their competitiveness, even though he desperately wants to avoid this type of college experience. He’d rather go to class, meet cute girls, and be low-key. But, two straight nights of drunkenness and arriving to class mostly naked already has Iori starting down the path to a bad reputation. 
Ryō has to deal with the fallout of having a popular YouTuber out him as transgender. At first, many people at school are supportive, but that quickly diminishes as classmates start asking inappropriate questions about Ryō’s body and sexual attraction. Ryō skips school for a couple of days to do some soul searching while Jin and Itsuka plead with Tsubasa to take down the video. Ryō returns to school and announces to his whole class who he is and apologizes for his silence. No one is more hurt than Chika, Ryō’s crush, who admits she thought they were closer friends. Meanwhile, Tsubasa has an intimate night with a woman, and she posts a photo online that goes viral. This causes Tsubasa's fans to question Tsubasa and criticize them for potentially lying to garner views and profits. The "Boys" create a new shirt supporting Tsubasa and their right to some privacy.
Naomi graduated top of her class from Columbia, and could be reporting for any prestigious paper she wants. But, she has good reason to believe monsters are real, which led her into a career writing for the Yellow Stringer, a paper with a reputation for being a gossip rag with outlandish tall tales. Her new partner is Tony, an ex-cop who is looking for a steady job. Their first assignment is to investigate a potential theft at the local museum. Neither fully expected to find zombies involved! A few other cases come their way that shed light on Tony’s past. A bartender provides Naomi a place to recuperate after a terrible date, and the two end up getting tangled in a terribly-planned revenge plot against Naomi.
The heir to the most powerful company in Japan has grown up with the family motto drilled into his head: never owe anyone. So when a girl who lives under a bridge saves his life, he has to do anything she says in order to repay the biggest debt of all. She wants to know what it’s like to fall in love, so he agrees to be her boyfriend and live under the bridge with her. He’s re-christened as “Recruit” or Rec for short, and he meets the rest of the residents with their strange behaviors. Nino, his new girlfriend, claims to be from Venus; the Mayor is a man in a kappo costume; Hoshi wears a star mask that hides his secret identity, which is a moon mask; Sister is a man dressed like a nun who might have a secret-agent past in England; and so many more interesting people. Everyone has a job and contributes to the community, except Rec, who now must find a way to be useful and not continue to be indebted to all these people.
Sakura, Li, Kero-Chan, and Yue all feel it - the presence of Clow Reed. But how is that possible since he died so long ago? Sakura continues to fight a formless enemy who always uses another creature or creates a natural phenomenon that Sakuramust subdue. Each time she does, the Clow Cards she summons to help her are transformed - Reed’s magic circle on the back is changed into a distinct one Kero-Chan believes is a representation of Sakura’s own magic. These new cards are therefore more part of Sakura than Clow. But this takes a terrible toll on Sakura; she leaves battles completely exhausted and begins to run a fever, but even sickness isn't going to stop her from saving her friends and getting to the bottom of this mystery.
Kafka in his Kaiju form battles the powerful Kaiju from volume two and gives him a run for his money, but the bad guy ultimately escapes. Kafka also goes toe-to-toe with Vice-Captain Hoshina. He barely escapes with his life, and Hoshina vows to take down Kaiju No. 8 the next time. The bad Kaiju Kafka fought is given the code name Kaiju No. 9 and becomes a top target for the Japanese Defense Force. Kafka is finally promoted to Officer from Cadet, but there’s hardly any time to celebrate before a new group of Kaiju attack the base itself - tons of wyvern are working together, which they never do, and there's a main humanoid, high-level Kaiju pulling the strings.
Sakura finally collects all the Clow Cards, and doing so triggers the awakening of Yue, the Judge and second guardian of the Clow Cards whose power stems from the moon. We also get to find out what Mizuki-sensei’s roll is in all of this. Once Sakura passes the final judgment, she’s ready for some peace and quiet around Tomoeda Elementary. She goes into the 5th grade, and a new transfer student from England joins her class. Li-San was going to go back to Hong Kong, but there’s something off about Eriol, the new kid, so he’s sticking around. There’s also a new student in Tōya’s class, and she is super high energy and a little sweet on Tōya. When it starts raining only over Tomoeda for several days, Sakura sets out with her guardians to figure out what supernatural power is causing it, but she might have uncovered a new enemy in the process.
Shino Oshima practices saying her name over and over, but she just can't get out Oshima. Shino has a stutter, and it makes it extremely difficult to say words that begin with vowels. So the next day, the first day of her high school career, Shino has to introduce herself to her homeroom class, but can't get her own name out. The students laugh mercilessly and Shino feels hopelessly defeated. One day, she gets up the courage to apologize to Kayo who she accidentally injured, but Kayo isn't about to let anyone get close to her so easily after being ostracized in junior high for being tone deaf. The two strike up a rocky friendship, and Kayo realizes Shino doesn't stutter when she sings. They practice together and Kayo tries to break Shino of her crippling shyness by performing outside and signing them up as an entry for the talent show.
Eriko Ichimura is a pretty invisible girl at her high school, so she spends most of her time writing out fantasies on Twitter. She pretends to have a super-hot boyfriend who is strangely very similar to Ohmi-san,a boy at her school who is always surrounded by doting females or having his clothing stolen. When Ichimura accidentally drops her phone where Ohmi can get to it, he finds her Twitter page and reads most of her tweets. The two start an unsteady acquaintanceship that mostly involves Ohmi teasing her or leaving her with half-formed ideas that she could interpret as romantic advances. Ichimura also makes a friend over a review she posts for the library, but she’s worried Sara-Chan is using her to get close to Ohmi. Her fears are unfounded, but that doesn’t stop Ohmi from being strangely protective of Ichimura. In a moment of weakness, Ichimura asks Ohmi to go to the summer festival together, and to her shock, he agrees!
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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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