Reviews - The Graphic Library

Boys run the riot vol 3 by keito gaku

10/21/2022

Cover of Boys Run the Riot volume 3. Ryō and Tsubasa are both on the cover staring straight at us. They both have on 2 halves of an outfit - one half is the school uniform for boys, the other half is a track suit.

Ryō has to deal with the fallout of having a popular YouTuber out him as transgender. At first, many people at school are supportive, but that quickly diminishes as classmates start asking inappropriate questions about Ryō’s body and sexual attraction. Ryō skips school for a couple of days to do some soul searching while Jin and Itsuka plead with Tsubasa to take down the video. Ryō returns to school and announces to his whole class who he is and apologizes for his silence. No one is more hurt than Chika, Ryō’s crush, who admits she thought they were closer friends. Meanwhile, Tsubasa has an intimate night with a woman, and she posts a photo online that goes viral. This causes Tsubasa's fans to question Tsubasa and criticize them for potentially lying to garner views and profits. The "Boys" create a new shirt supporting Tsubasa and their right to some privacy.

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.

Shino can't say her name by Shuzo Oshimi

8/22/2022

Cover of Shino Can't Say Her Name. Shino is in her school uniform, which has a grey jacket and white shirt. Her hair is short, coming down just below her chin. She is blushing and looking at us with a slightly sad expression on her face.

Shino Oshima practices saying her name over and over, but she just can't get out Oshima. Shino has a stutter, and it makes it extremely difficult to say words that begin with vowels. So the next day, the first day of her high school career, Shino has to introduce herself to her homeroom class, but can't get her own name out. The students laugh mercilessly and Shino feels hopelessly defeated. One day, she gets up the courage to apologize to Kayo who she accidentally injured, but Kayo isn't about to let anyone get close to her so easily after being ostracized in junior high for being tone deaf. The two strike up a rocky friendship, and Kayo realizes Shino doesn't stutter when she sings. They practice together and Kayo tries to break Shino of her crippling shyness by performing outside and signing them up as an entry for the talent show.

Lovesick ellie vol 1 by fujimono

8/15/2022

Cover of Lovesick Ellie vol 1. Eriko has her phone in her hands. She's wearing a white shirt and a skirt that has swirls of reds, yellows, purples, and blues. She's looking over her shoulder at Ohmi, who has his arms draped over Eriko's shoulders. He's also in a white shirt.

Eriko Ichimura is a pretty invisible girl at her high school, so she spends most of her time writing out fantasies on Twitter. She pretends to have a super-hot boyfriend who is strangely very similar to Ohmi-san,a boy at her school who is always surrounded by doting females or having his clothing stolen. When Ichimura accidentally drops her phone where Ohmi can get to it, he finds her Twitter page and reads most of her tweets. The two start an unsteady acquaintanceship that mostly involves Ohmi teasing her or leaving her with half-formed ideas that she could interpret as romantic advances. Ichimura also makes a friend over a review she posts for the library, but she’s worried Sara-Chan is using her to get close to Ohmi. Her fears are unfounded, but that doesn’t stop Ohmi from being strangely protective of Ichimura. In a moment of weakness, Ichimura asks Ohmi to go to the summer festival together, and to her shock, he agrees!

Tokyo Mew Mew vol 1 by reiko yoshida

8/10/2022

Cover of Tokyo Mew Mew volume 1. Ichigo is surrounded by alternating red and yellow stars in a circle. She's in her Mew Mew transformation with her cat tail and cat ears sticking out of her pink hair. She has a pink corset and pink skirt with red gloves and a red bow with a bell on her tail. The rest of the cover is pink with darker pink strawberries all over it.

Illustrated by Mia Ikumi

Earth is under attack from aliens who are disgusted by the way humans are destroying the planet. They infect animals with chimera properties to make monsters. Ryô Shirigane, a rich high schooler, and Keiichirô Akasaka, a “café owner” and researcher, want to protect the world from these aliens. They infuse five girls with “red data” animal DNA - DNA from endangered animals - to become warriors against the chimera animals. When they’re not fighting, the girls work at Café Mew Mew as a way to gather information from customers. Ichigo is the first warrior to awaken to her transformation powers and found by the two guys, and she must find the other four teammates while fending off attacks from Kish, one of the aliens who has keyed in on Ichigo. Ichigo also has to juggle her time with her crush, Masaya, who is also interested in endangered animals and saving the planet.

I’m in love with the villainess vol 1 by inori

8/6/2022

Cover of I'm in Love with the Villainess volume 1. Claire and Ray are in each other's arms like they are dancing. Both are wearing their school uniform, which is a red coat and gray skirt. Ray has short brown hair, and is smiling at Claire. Claire is blond with ringlet curls and is surprised as she looks back at Ray.

Adapted and illustrated by Aonoshimo

Rei is a corporate drone who finds happiness after hours playing her favorite dating sim. As the main character, she’s supposed to choose from between three handsome princes, but the person she’s most interested in is the rival, Miss Claire. One night, while playing, Rei is transported into the game as the main character, Rae Taylor, a commoner at an elite academy, who can now pursue Miss Claire without the pesky game getting in the way! But, as her rival and a noble, Miss Claire thinks lowly of Rae and constantly teases her. Rae loves the attention, which drives Miss Claire even crazier. After some time, Rae becomes employed as Miss Claire's maid. Now, she can be around Miss Claire at school and at home!

Apple Black vol 1 by Odunze Oguguo

8/2/2022

Cover of Apple Black volume 1. Sano is draped in a flowing white cape. His special wand, which is his left arm, is out in front of him, clenched in a fist. He is smirking. His black hair is also flowing but it's tied behind in a pony tail.

Growing up, Sano received private instruction from powerful sorcerers and was trained to become the world's savior, the Trinity. Against their better judgment, Sano's guardians have decided to let him complete his training with other magic users, all who knows of the Trinity and want to test Sano's skills. If his classmates and teachers weren't enough, evil forces that have threatened their world for centuries have also begun to infiltrate the Academy in hopes of disrupting the society and derailing the savior. While not in detention or constantly having to prove himself, Sano must also escape attempts on his life and navigate a tricky political landscape, and keep his grades up to stay at the Academy.

Jujutsu Kaisen vol 3 by Gege Akutami

7/20/2022

Cover of Jujutsu Kaisen volume 3. Itagaki's classmate, Kugisaski, is about to throw several sharp darts at someone off page. She has a few sticking out of her mouth but is wound up to throw some with her hand.

Gojo has a theory that curses and cursed energy are becoming more powerful and more deadly, on both sides of the fight. The higher ups with the Jujutsu Order don’t necessarily want to hear him out, but his case is proven for him with the next bad guy we meet. He can transform the soul of anything he touches, and his current delight is experimenting on humans to see how far he can take them. His latest experiment is witnessed by Junpei, who wasn’t particularly fond of the three boys he saw transformed. Mahito, the cursed spirit, takes Junpei back to his lair and reveals some of his evil plan while bonding with Junpei over the evilness of humans. Itadori and a Grade 1 sorcerer, Kento Nanami, are put on the case to investigate, and this leads to Itadori becoming somewhat of a friend to Junpei. The two bond over their love of movies. Junpei, though, is used by Mahito to get to Itadori, and tragedy strikes close to home, causing Junpei to lash out with murderous intent.

Nightmare in savannah by lela Gwenn

7/19/2022

Cover of Nightmare in Savannah. Underneath moss-covered trees, the four girls stare at us with different looks, some annoyed, some hopeful.

Illustrated by Rowan MacColl

Alexa moves in with her grandpa in Savannah after her parents are arrested for nonviolent offenses. Her google-able past makes her an instant target for the school bullies, but she also finds some friends a group of three girls: Chloe, Skye, and Fae. The four blow off some steam after school one day with a drunken bonfire in the forest, and they come back with more than they bargained for. All four start exhibiting signs that they've delved into the Fae world and are slowly transforming into fairies. To make it worse, Alexa's grandpa starts dating a woman who also seems like she has fairy magic, and she's not leaving Alexa's family and friends alone until she restores a powerful fairy to the Fae world - someone she feels is in Alexa's friend group.

Blue period vol 2 by tsubasa yamaguchi

7/13/2022

Cover of Blue Period volume 4. One of Yatora's blonde classmates holds a drawing pencil in one hand and is drawing swirls on the

In volume 2, Yatora attends a summer prep academy to help hone his skills for the TUA (Tokyo University of the Arts). The classes focus on oil paintings, which is one part of the lengthy admissions process to get into the university. The instructor, Ooba-sensei, doesn’t pull any punches when letting Yatora know that his art is lacking in composition, originality, and expression. She urges him to study composition, and to look at art to figure out what he likes. Yatora goes to a couple of museums with some classmates and finds a few pieces he likes. He also practices with tons of different art pieces and enrages his classmates with his lack of understanding of composition, but by the end of the volume, he's done a lot of hard work and improved moderately in these important aspects of creating art.