Reviews - The Graphic Library

Little witch academia vol 1 by trigger

4/18/2023

Cover of Little Witch Academia volume 1. A witch in colorful, pastel clothing floats above a brightly colored building.

Original story by Trigger/Yoh Yoshinari, illustrated by keisuke Sato

Akko is determined to be a witch. She will follow in the footsteps of her favorite witch, Chariot, who attended Luna Nova Witchcraft Academy. The major obstacle to her attaining her hopes and dreams is that she is not magical -- yet. After a disastrous attempt to get to school that led them through a forbidden forest, Akko and her new friend Lotte make it to Luna Nova. But, going to witch school is nothing like Akko thought it would be! Classes are not as interesting as she would hope, and she hasn't mastered flying a broom. Plus, lots of other witches make fun of her for not being from a magical family. One of the instructors realizes there is tension between the new arrivals, and she matches them up into a "friendly" game of volleyball, hoping they will work out some of their rivalries.

Demon dayS by peach momoko

3/22/2023

Cover of Demon Days. A swirl of reds, whites, and blacks makes up the cover where Mariko and her nemesis share a face - half for each girl - and an oni with a red mask sits below them.

In a little village on the Kirisaki mountains, an oni searches for food and raids the villagers' crops out of necessity. Meanwhile, a serpent yokai they call Venom has taken up residence in the village shrine, and they must make peace with the hungry and angry Hulk Oni to help vanquish the snake devil. We move forward in time to modern day Japan where a teen girl named Mariko has just learned that her family history was hidden from her, and that a powerful oni is after her for her blood. Mariko sets off on a journey to rediscover her past and save the only family she has left.

The moth keeper by k. o’neill

3/15/2023

Cover of The Moth Keeper. Anya holds out her hand for a moth, which is glowing yellow. She's wearing a brown, long-sleeve tunic and has a plaid scarf around her neck. Her chestnut hair falls around her face, and her long ears stick through her hair.

Being a moth keeper means having the fate of the whole Night village on your shoulders. Knowing this, Anya takes the oath anyway and sets about training to become the next moth keeper. She is responsible with guiding the moths out of their home, made from a covered tree stump, but getting them back in by sunrise. The moths then pollinate the most important tree in the village, which will also induce a multitude of other desert plants to grow and sprout flowers. One night, Anya decides she isn’t satisfied with just knowing what life is like in the Night village. She visits the villages of creatures who thrive in daylight. Her exhaustion the next night leads to the moths flying away from her sight, and it's up to her and the power of other moon creatures to get the moths back before the tree withers from lack of pollination.

Weathering with you vol 1 by Makoto Shinkai

3/1/2023

Cover of Weathering with you volume 1. Hodaka is in a dirty white tshirt with his backpack on his back. His face is bruised, and he seems sad.

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 fiancee chosen by the ring vol 2 by Yue Matsuyuki

2/22/2023

Cover of The Fiancee chosen by the Ring volume. Aurora leans out a picture frame in her standard pink dress with pink bow in the front. Her yellow hair and green eyes shine in the light, and she's smiling at us.

Lady Aurora and Lord Felix have been invited to a Lumis party, but Felix’ family is bitter rivals with the Lumises! This causes the family to go into overdrive planning for the two to have a spectacular debut. Felix’ mother and sister prepare them by gathering tons of information on nobles for them to memorize; a beautiful dress is commissioned from one of the kingdom’s most sought-after designers, and there is, of course, dancing lessons. While this started out as mostly a front, Felix begins to fall for Aurora, and his feelings come gushing out of him at the most unlikely of times - at the party in front of tons of nobles!

Mamo by sas milledge

2/15/2023

Cover of Mamo. Jo and Orla are climbing trees with Orla's cat familiar between the two of them.

Jo sets out one day to find someone who can help with the poltergeist in her attic and her ailing mother. She finds Orla, the granddaughter of the last witch of Haresden. Orla has no intention of being sucked back into Haresden’s problems, but Jo is pretty convincing. Orla agrees to fix her problems, but discovers that the magic is off in Haresden because of her late grandmother. She wasn’t buried properly, so her bones have been spread all over the town, causing chaos with the fae spirits and engendering magical problems across the countryside. Orla enlists the help of Jo in gathering all of the bones and setting the magic right again, but the two get more than they both bargained for.

Mao vol 5 by Rumiko Takahasi

2/7/2023

Cover of Mao volume 5. Kamon is in his signature green vest with button-up white shirt. Across his shoulder is his katana.

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.

The fiancee chosen by the ring vol 1 by yue matSuyuki

1/31/2023

Cover of The Fiancee Chosen by the Ring volume 1. Lady Aurora Porta is lying down with her embroidery supples around her - two spools of thread and a loom with embroidery cloth. She's in her signature pink dress with white lace down the middle on her front. At the top of her bodice is a pink bow. Her blonde hair frames her face. She's looking at us with two green eyes and smiling slightly.

Adapted and illustrated by Jyun Hayase

Lady Aurora Porta is the daughter of a minor count and doesn’t get invited to high society functions all that much. But when she does, she takes the opportunity to indulge in one of her favorite pastimes - studying embroidery. At parties, she’s specifically looking at patterns on the ladies’ dresses and trying to learn more for her own embroidery patterns. At the latest affair, she is hit in the forehead with a ring, a ring that was chucked by Sir Felix, who is so tired of his constant barrage of suitors that he chucked his ring randomly and declared who it hit to be his bride-to-be. Between Sir Felix' duties as a guard for the Crowned Prince and Lady Aurora's special embroidering, the new couple has a lot on their plate in this slightly humorous romantic fantasy.

Wynd vol 3 by james tynion iv

1/11/2023

Cover of Wynd volume 3. Wynd is in full transformed mode - he has large black wings, black fur covering his body, blue glowing eyes, sharp teeth, and sharp claws on his hands. He's flying over a snowy landscape that has spears sticking out of the snow. There are also a few spears in the air flying at him.

Vol 3: The Throne in the Sky, illustrated by Michael Dialynas

Our heroic band of kids is on the run, including from Duke Yadriel, who was supposed to be their savior! So now, humans, faeries, and those pesky vampires are wanting to overtake the group for a variety of reasons. The most terrifying presently is General Eks, a ruthless faery who believes the children are responsible for the destruction of an entire city. A suggestion is thrown out that they take the mountain pass to avoid being tracked, but this terrifies Merien. Faeries aren't built to withstand such extreme temperatures, which might be good for evading Eks, but not for their friend. While refreshing themselves at a mountain hot springs, the kids are picked up by Strawberry, a seemingly-friendly giant, who takes them to the ruins of an ancient city. Merien and Wynd discuss using his likeness to the Winged Ones to win allies, but Wynd still rejects the notion that he's descended from the original creators of the world.

Strange vol 1 by jed mackay

12/20/2022

Cover of Strange volume 1. Clea Strange wears the Cloak of Levitation and it billows around her. She has two magic circles casting from her hands. Her hair is silver fire, and her eyes glow red. She's yelling and has a look of deadly intent. She's wearing a black body suit that fits her tightly. Behind her, there's a silver flame explosion.

Vol 1: I Belong to Death, penciled by Marcelo Ferreira, Inked by Don Ho & Roberto Poggi, colored by Javier Tartaglia & Felipe Sobreiro, lettered by Vc Cory Petit

Stephen Strange has died from the actions of The Death of Doctor Strange, and his wife, Clea, has become the Sorcerer Supreme of Earth. But Clea's lineage has also afforded an already immeasurable power. She’s the niece of Dormamu, a daughter to a Warlord, a Faltine, and the Sorcerer Supreme of the Dark Dimensions. While the two Sorcerer roles wage war inside her, she has made it her mission to resurrect Stephen. For this, she needs to tangle with Death. But before she can do that, she gets mixed up with a local gang that's creating powerful monsters using the collective power of thousands of souls. Clea’s tangle with them brings face-to-face with The Harvestman, a servant of Death, and possibly closer to her goal of waring with Death herself.