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.
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Izumo stands on the edge of a bridge over a high speed rail, ready to end it all, because merely touching another person brings about such unluckiness that the other person is either seriously maimed or outright killed. She thinks ending her life is the best option until she meets an undead man who constantly regenerates when he’s killed or seriously maimed. Izumo decides to call him Andy, as in Ahn-dead (undead), as she is more or less kidnapped and forced to give Andy all kinds of unluck through physical contact. At first, he’s obsessed with cracking the code about how her power works and to see if he can amass enough unluck to finally end his prolonged life. Izumo slowly starts trusting Andy a little more and opens up about how affection can also cause a lot more unluck to befall a person, so Andy’s new pursuit is to get Izumo to fall in love with him so they can have sex. He’s convinced that this final act will allow his to finally die.
Illustrated by Gabrielle Kari
William Shakespeare and his faithful page are leading double lives - while not writing plays or trying get his actors to put on the best plays, William is a crime-fighting masked vigilante known as The Bard, assisted by his helpful Page. The two confront evil-doers such as the crime-boss Falstaff, and the menacing Puck who is working for the vengeful Oberon. During their adventures, The Bard and Page get marooned on an island with a hungry wild beast who teaches Page magic and tricks The Bard into embracing it. They also find themselves in Verona in the middle of a civil war between two powerful houses. 
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.
Mr. Sakamoto, his family, and his two employees enjoy a day at the theme park while dodging assassins who are trying to cash in on the bounty on Sakamoto. The three former assassins try to keep Mrs. Sakamoto and daughter Hana oblivious to the violence going on around them while still trying to keep Sakamoto Family Rule #1: No Killing. An assassin named Boiled and his assistant come after Mr. Sakamoto within a haunted house, and the two taunt Mr. Sakamoto for gaining weight and losing his assassin skills. This prompts Sakamoto into instant weight-loss again, a superpower we first saw in volume 1. Then, another assassin reveals that someone has been killing assassins systematically, and it started about the same time a bounty was put on Sakamoto’s head. Could the two things be related?
Deadpool is in the middle of the fight of his life with Thanos! But he’s got some great supporting superheroes with the Samurai Squad - Sakura Spider, Neiro & Kage the symbiote, Hulk, and… All Might? Loki isn’t finished though, and he summons villains from a bunch of different multiverses and assembled them at Mt. Fuji - including a villain Deadpool is going to have a particularly hard time killing! There are also plenty of fourth wall breaks and jokes at the expense of Japanese and manga culture.
This volume picks up at right at the moment Volume 1 ended, which means the recruits are still in the middle of their entrance test. All hell broke loose right at the end as a very powerful kaiju started sabotaging the test and bringing dead monsters back to life. Kafka and Leno come to Kikori’s aid as a humanoid Kaiju takes her to her limit. Kafka transforms in front of her but ultimately saves her life. The test concludes and the recruits get their results - Leno is in as an officer, but Kafka nearly fails. The review panel brings him in as a cadet as some feel he is a hard worker and can provide some comic relief to the squad. Kafka now has to work twice as hard if he’s going to catch up to Captain Mina, his childhood friend.
This slice-of-life story focuses on several high school students, including one who is a robot. Nano is trying to lead a normal high school life, but the giant wind-up key protruding from her back means all her classmates know she’s a robot despite Nano trying to hide it. Yukko and Mio talk constantly about homework because Yukko often forgets to do it. The serious Mia often times sits out the crazy antics of Yukko or participates in unconventional ways that drive Yukko crazy.
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.
Illustrated by Issei Hatsuyoshiya
Rookie Red Blood Cell navigates through an adult male body, struggling to get his job done in an environment of high stress, skinny arteries, and with foreign toxins constantly being introduced. When the body introduces carbon monoxide, several red blood cells are injured and disfigured as it binds to them and forces them to drop their shipments of oxygen. Later, the Red Blood Cells are sprayed with alcohol, and they take a detour through the liver to have the alcohol cleaned off them. Miss White Blood Cell has her work cut out for her battling against a weak environment that invited in pneumonia and gonorrhea bacteria. |
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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