In a hamlet in Europe, The Count, who is a young girl with a samurai sword, looks over the people and keeps them safe from monsters. One day, another girl stumbles into the forest around the village being chased by a monster-hunter. In saving her, the Count intends to study her or make her into her next meal, for the Count is actually a vampire! Clara awakens and tells Count Vlad of a group of monster hunters on their way to take them both out, and she pleads with her to come back to Monster Island where they can both be safe. Count Vlad tells Clara of her past - that she's actually the reincarnation of Vlad the Impaler, so she has nothing to fear from these monster hunters.
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Illustrated by Rachel Distler, colored by Francesco Montalbano
A group of young orphan adventure seekers put together an investigation force to figure out some of the strange happenings around their town. One of their first cases is for their friend whose parents seem to have been replaced by lookalikes who are werewolves, but their investigation proves there is more than they first believed. Meanwhile, Mr. Jacob, who runs their orphanage, has a mysterious past that isn’t just connected to his history of making scary movies, and his daughter, Marysia, is recovering memories from her childhood that don’t add up. To complicate matters further, a hunter named Greta shows up in town to hunt the werewolves, and she also has some history with Mr. Jacob that isn’t all friendly.
Illustrated by Chris Shehan
Best friends Kenny and Ted live in a small town in Ohio in the 1980s. Ted plays on the baseball team, and Kenny is trying to hide the fact that he's gay and has a crush on his best friend. One day, they find an advertisement for wish-granting glasses in the back of an old comicbook. They think nothing more of it until the specs arrive, un-summoned. When they decide to use a wish to make the town bully disappear, they start down a dark path of wishes as they try to fix their mistake, and as Kenny tries to make life better for himself and Ted. Rarely does any wish turn out without unintended consequences, so Kenny descends into an out-of-control spiral of wishes and ramifications.
In the skies above Japan, a passenger plane starts to free-fall. But, somehow, everyone on board makes it to the ground safely! In this uncertain time after major forces in the world have made their wars, super-human Choujin have made their marks as heroes and villains, wreaking havoc or saving everyone. As is the case with the passenger plane, a choujin saved everyone. But when high schoolers Tokio and Azuma are accosted on their way home and forcibly made into choujin, they now have to navigate their new powers and decide for themselves who they will be.
Kamon comes face-to-face with Shiranui, the powerful water caster who has been plaguing Mao for several volumes. Back in her own time, Byoki manages to track down Nanoka, but mostly to warn her. He begins to tell her why she should stop giving her blood to Mao, but then Uozomi saves her before he can finish his thought. Later, Mao is called on to assist another doctor who fears for one of his former patients. Another family has moved into the manor, but the doctor swears he saw his patient in the window of the second story. Who are these strangers who have taken over the house? Later, a nasty metal shikigami attacks Mao and Nanoka, and once again, she might be the only person who can save him.
Shide may be on his own now, but that doesn't mean he's any less deadly. He's determined to take the source of Shin's time loop power, which will make him even more powerful than Heine. Shin has to rally everyone together for one final offensive measure. But first, he has to work out where some allies are after his latest time loop.
Takano has precious little time to finish solving the mystery, as the clock has started again, and there are only a few classmates left. Suddenly, he realizes what he's been missing the whole time. We get a few scenes of flashback to fill in some details between Takano and some of the other students, including the one who took their own life and set this all in motion. There are a couple of other reveals that make the timeline of events make more sense, and there are a few characters who have been illustrated similarly that Arakawa makes sense of as well.
With the startling realization that Shide is more than meets the eye, Shin and friends are set on trying to find Shide's other form and weaken him that way. Shin loops a few more times with Shiori/Heine going along for the ride and gaining even more insight into what Shin is planning. As before, when Shin loops with another person beside him, he sees their past. This time, he sees Hizuru's memory of her and her twin brother, Ryunosuke, before he was killed. Hizuru shows Shin that she and Heine were friends, but Heine's insatiable hunger led to the tragedy that trapped Ryunosuke inside Hizuru's body. On the latest loop, Heine sets up a trap for Shin: save Hizuru-sensei, who as Ryunosuke, is battling Shide, or save all his other friends who are about to be devoured by the largest shadow on the island.
Shinpei starts his fifth loop and realizes that the event horizon for his looping is catching up with him. If he is killed again too soon, he won't haven enough time, and everything will be set in stone. Heine, in the form of Shiori, has also started looping with Shin, and she susses out quite a bit about what Shin's been doing. The mark on Shin's arm also allows the Shadows to find him quickly. With these added challenges, the group must prepare their next stand against the Shadows. Ushioh, who now has the honor of being referred to as Ushio without the Shadow moniker, once again proves pivotal with her advanced Shadow powers. She helps bring other islanders to the cause by sharing her memories. She can also sever the link between Heine and other Shadows, which brings more Shadows over to help Shin's group. The reinforced group lays a trap for Shiori and Shide, an ultimate shadow with four arms and immense power.
Illustrated by Sana Takeda
Twins Milly and Billy have some polar-opposite parents - their father is open, honest, and loving; their mother, Ipo, is cold, chain-smokes, and cares only for her plants. Despite the lack of love they might have felt, the two have grown up, gone off to college, and returned to run a fairly successful restaurant that's surviving during COVID precautions. The biggest blight on their lives is the house across the street, where their elderly neighbor was murdered, and the plant life has taken over the structure. No one seems to be interested in buying the place in its current state, so Ipo forces the twins to help her get the place back into shape, including taking care of the supernatural entities that still haunt the space. |
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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