Reviews - The Graphic Library

Grim vol 3 by stephanie phillips

12/31/2023

Cover of Grim volume 3. Jess is trying to come up to the top of a body of water but there are chains tied around her feet. Everything is a deep red

Illustrated by Flaviano, colored by Rico Renzi

Jess and Eddie are imprisoned by Adira while Marcel wallows in a layer of Hell, but humans on Earth are still unable to die and the Reapers are starting to get restless. Meanwhile, the deal Adira struck to capture Jess has dire consequences as the soul she traded for Jess releases onto Earth something even worse than the undying. Elsewhere, Life bargains with Lilah, Jess's mom, to try and get her to relinquish her powerful amulet, but first he has to understand what she truly wants after serving decades in prison away from her family.

Grim vol 2 by stephanie phillips

7/21/2023

Cover of Grim volume 2. Jess is kneeling on the ground with her hands touching the ground. Her head is exploding, with half of it already turned into a skull. It's mostly engulfed in a yellow and orange fire. The flames are also in her veins running down her arms into her elbows.

Illustrated by Flaviano, colored by Rico Renzi

Jessica, Eddie, and Marcel start off still trapped in Las Vegas, having learned some secrets to Jess’ lineage. Meanwhile, all over Earth, people aren’t dying like they’re supposed to, as the Reapers are not there to collect the newly departed and the Afterlife is thrown into chaos from Jess’ revelations. Despite not being able to return to the Afterlife, the three find some other figures straight out of Greek Mythology, including the Three Fates that tell Jess how she can fix everything by taking up the mantel she clearly doesn’t want. To make things a little more messy, an embodied form of Life gets entangled with Jess’ mom and tries to pay her a good deal of money for a special necklace in her possession.

Kaiju No 8 vol 6 by naoya matsumoto

7/2/2023

Cover of Kaiju no 8 volume 6. General Shinomiya holds his kaiju infused gloves together and they crackle with electricity. He glares over his gloves and his blonde hair is mostly slicked back.

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.

A school frozen in time vol 4 by naoshi arakawa

12/28/2022

Cover of A School Frozen in Time volume 4. A student lays on his back with random school items surrounding him. He's wearing a grey jacket, white button-up shirt, and red tie. His gray hair is disheveled. Around him are ballet shoes, a wallet on a chain attached to his belt loop, a sunflower, a bag, and a composition notebook.

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.

A school frozen in time vol 3 by mizuki tsujimura

10/17/2022

Cover of A School Frozen in Time volume 3. One of the students is surrounded by candies and other food products. Her pink hair is in pigtails. Her school uniform is a little disheveled.

Akihito relives the day of the festival when their classmate commits suicide, and particular focus is on one student who Akihito could have done more for. Akihito witnesses him constantly being bullied, and often stands up for him, but lets a couple of encounters slide without helping. Akihito wonders if this is the person who committed suicide and trapped them here, and whether it was entirely his fault. After this, Akihito disappears and doesn't get a chance to discuss with the others what he has discovered. Rika also gets separated from the group and has a flashback of her own and also disappears.

Grim vol 1 by Stephanie Phillips

10/12/2022

Cover of Grim volume 1. Jessica is holding her red-tipped scythe, which curves around her face and illuminates her features. Half her face is normal, but the other half of her face is a skull. She has short, bushy black hair that frames her face, and a red iris that looks at us. She's wearing a black turtleneck shirt.

Illustrated by Flaviano, colored by Rico Renzi

Jessica Harrow is a Reaper, responsible for helping the recently dead realize their death and then take them to the afterlife. On one of her many routine missions, Jessica suddenly crosses into the world of the living and interacts with people who are alive! This leads Jessica and her two friends, Marcel and Eddie, to start investigating what could be different and why she has this power that only one other reaper has ever had: the big guy himself, Death.

Phantom tales of the night vol 2 by Matsuri

10/4/2022

Cover of Phantom Tales of the Night volume 2. Owner is in a black yukata and is lounging amongst lots of pink objects. There are some paper lanterns, some pink-colored skulls, and a bunch of other bones around him.

Owner, the spirit who runs the inn, is back again taking secrets from desperate folks or saving them from interesting predicaments. A odd-couple husband and wife come to Owner and find out their individual secrets could have saved them a lot of heartbreak over the years. Owner later tasks Butterfly and Spider to care for a baby who mysteriously shows up at the inn, and the two are terrified when the child starts disintegrating into cherry blossom petals. Afterwards, the two accidentally break one of Owner's clay vessels he uses to contain secrets, and the secret escapes. Spider and Butterfly must now learn how to make a new vessel out of bone clay, and they must retrieve the secret to replace it.

Kaiju no. 8 vol 3 by naoya matsumoto

9/6/2022

Cover of Kaiju No. 8 volume 3. Kikori and her giant ax are standing at the ready after presumably killing the giant kaiju lying dead behind her. The background of the book is a bright yellow.

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.

Can't stop cursing you vol 1 by Kensuke Koba

7/25/2022

Cover of Can't Stop Cursing You volume 1. Saeyama is staring at us through parts in his jet-black hair. His eyes are glazed and reddened. He has a smirk on his face. Out of his mouth sticks his opium pipe, which has a small trail of smoke rising out of the end. Around him and behind him are splotches of rainbow paint.

Illustrated by Natsuko Uruma

Kiyoharu Saeyama is currently posing as a high school biology teacher, but that's only because he's really a Curse Breaker on the hunt for the next Curse Killer. He's contracted to find those who make pacts with Curse Gods, and break their contracts before too many people die. He has some special abilities that help him trace Curse Killers - he's able to ask the dead one question about their contractor in the hopes of narrowing down the suspect pool. Curse killings also come with several unbreakable rules, and they're not exactly spelled out for the Killers. So, while they're busy making sure they meet their quota of kills per month, Killers must also find out the rules and make sure their kills go off without a hitch. If they successfully fulfill the terms of their contract, the Curse Gods will bestow on them immense power.

Kaiju no 8 vol 2 by naoya matsumoto

5/7/2022

Cover of Kaiju no. 8 volume 2. Leno holds up a gun towards us, and he's a little banged up. He has blood on his neck, cheek, and a busted lip. The background behind him is a solid blue.

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.