Vol 3: Beast Boy Loves Raven, illustrated by Gabriel Picolo
Raven and Gar are on their way to Nashville, separately, but to see the same person, someone named Slade who can help them with their powers. Unbeknownst to Raven, her adoptive foster sister, Max is also tagging along to make sure she’s safe. Once in Nashville, the two teens find out their contact is going to be two days late. They keep bumping into each other and different restaurants, so Gar finally gets up the courage to talk to Raven. Their first encounter doesn’t go so well, but Gar is persistent and eventually gets Raven to come around. The two end up sharing a cheap motel room after Raven’s wallet is stolen, but she’s visited by nightmare visions of her father, Trigon, who is imprisoned in her necklace. When the date of meeting Slade finally arrives, the two go their separate ways to make their meetings. Thankfully, Damien Wayne is also in town to meet with Slade, and he’s a pretty untrusting person. He arrives in time to see Raven abducted, and mounts a rescue mission with Max to spring Raven and Gar from a secret facility.
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One year for his birthday, Yuta's mother gives him a smartphone and requests that he record her often, as she is dying and won't know which moment will be her last. Yuta complies and tries to capture as many memories as he can, but he can't bring himself to go into the hospital to see her last breath. Then, he runs from the building just in time for it to explode. Then, we realize we are in a theater and have been watching a movie Yuta put together of all the footage of his mother, and he's debuting it in front of his classmates. Most of them are horrified, and Yuta takes their criticism very harshly. He runs to the roof with the intention of killing himself, but instead meets Eri, a girl who loved his film but believes he can make a better one. The two of them spend many days in Eri's secret hideout, watching movies together, until Yuta gets the inspiration to make his second film. This film also has a surprise twist, as Yuta can't help himself.
Now that the Japan Defense Force sort of trusts Kafka to not lose himself to his kaiju form, they assign him and and Kikoru Shinomiya go to battle against Kaiju No. 9 with their new squad, an elite group headed by Captain Narumi. Kafka has some initial difficulties transforming into his Kaiju self because he’s afraid of the struggle with the Kaiju he's had internally - the fight he overcame was a little too close for his comfort, and he's worried about losing his humanity completely. Kaiju No. 9 has learned some tricks since last we all saw him, and he's able to transform in the middle of a fight with Captain Narumi.
Vol 4: Bleed, illustrated by Stephanie Hans, lettered by Clayton Cowles
The group has to come to terms with what they have done to this world and still somehow get home. Ash and Izzy discover much of the secrets of how the world of Die came to be, and what toll it exacted from Sol. They create a plan to reunite with the others in order to go home, but first Ash must make a choice about who to use her Voice on. The reunited party They race to the center of Die to try to stop the vicious cycle between Earth and Die. There, they find more questions and more answers as to how this world came to be.
Hachi hates school and would rather nap all day, especially if there's a nice bit of sun to bathe in. Nothing really interests him until the transfer student shows up. Aoi is a lizard boy with his tail hidden in a sleeve, and Hachi, who is a cat boy, finds his coloring and mannerisms to be interesting and soothing. The two start hanging out after school or sneaking away to an abandoned stairwell for lunch. One day, Aoi takes the sleeve off his tail, and Hachi is transfixed. It's a beautiful, bright shade of blue! Hachi lets Aoi pet his tail too as a trade off, and both promise not to share their secret with any other students. But Hachi doesn't really know how to have a friend, and he easily gets jealous when others start to become interested in Aoi. For his part, Aoi doesn't trust predators after a terrible incident at his last school that caused him to lose part of his tail. The two learn to be vulnerable with each other and navigate their (at times) uneasy friendship
Illustrated by Wataru Kubota
Hodaka had run away from his isolated island in favor of the alluring big city of Tokyo. But the city is not kind to a young teen with no work experience and no ID. On the boat ride in to Tokyo, Hodaka met a man who runs a gossip tabloid, so Hodaka reaches out to him for help when he can’t find anywhere else to go. Hodaka’s life changes when he meets a girl working at a local fast food restaurant. She gives the starving Hodaka a burger, and he comes to find out that she can summon the sun from behind rain clouds. For the next several rainy months, Hodaka and Hina market a profitable business of charging for Hina's services to people who desperately need sunshine and can pay for it.
The assault on the Defense Forces' compound continues, and the leader of the pack has taken up fighting with Vice Captain Hoshina. But Hoshina's strength has always been in slashing and quick swordplay. After being told to abandon his fighting style as a youth, Hoshina was recruited by Captain Mina as a perfect compliment to set her up to take lethal shots. She relied on Hoshina to move kaiju into position for her mega-powerful cannon. But, with the Captain gone, Hoshina needs to take down a kaiju who seems to be only getting stronger with each slashing blow he lands. After the kaiju transforms into a humongous creature, Kafka comes to help, but ends up ruining everything.
Kanade is a normal high school girl with favorite banda she likes to listen to. Her friend, Otoha, one day invites her to a music festival because one of Kanade’s favorite bands is going to be playing. Otoha has been to many festivals before, but Kanade has no idea what she’s in store for. She turns out to love every moment of it, including discovering other bands she's never heard of. Otoha’s older brother, Gaku, also loves going to festivals and often goes with his employee and friend, Ritsuru. Gaku can be a lot to handle, and Ritsuru can be pretty self-deprecating. The four decide to go to an overnight festival where there will be camping involved, as well as several days and many stages. Ritsuru reluctantly agrees to go with, if for no other reason than to save innocent Kanade and Otoha from Gaku's perfectionism in setting up the campsite.
This manga is a collection of graphic essays about Hara’s life, where she battled weight as a junior high student, developed an eating disorder, and found body positivity in her young adult years. Hara shares a lot about her struggles with trendy clothing, and how she came to terms with being plus sized and still able to wear clothing she considered to be fashionable and cute. Clothes were an initial trigger for Hara, so it is one of the main foci of her essays. She also shares her development of anorexia that turned into bulimia nervosa in college. She continues to struggle with eating enough food, but through therapy and hard work, she is able to keep her eating disorders in check.
Aoi is starting middle school, and he is supremely sensitive to sound. He's just moved to town and will start middle school with the new term. While exploring his new city, he is drawn to the sound of the choir for his new school during their practice, and he knows he has to join them. Some of the other students, however, resent Aoi’s beautiful soprano voice and his innocent faith. Aoi is also approached by the band's sponsor to join the local Opera association. Her thought is that Aoi needs to show off his beautiful gift before his voice changes and its lost forever, but members of the choir see it as a betrayal, especially because the competition falls on the same weekend as the Opera's performances.
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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 siteRatings, Audience, and Subject Tags
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