nobahn's Manga

"The Worst Ending in the History of Best Girl"|Gigguk (Garnt)
Ch.#7

The Eccentric Master and the Fake Lover's sophomore volume is the best kind of surprise – a book that improves on the strengths of the first while downplaying, eliminating, or working with the weaknesses. It's officially become a series to follow, and the developments set up for the third volume (which the author discusses a bit in the afterword) make it sound like this is only going to keep getting better from here.

I Refuse to Be Your Enemy!'s first volume is one of those books that gets better as you go on. By the midway point of chapter two it's become genuinely good, but getting to that point can take a little willpower. It's an enjoyable take on the reborn-in-a-game variant of the isekai genre, however, and the world presented is certainly an interesting one that stands to develop well. All in all it's a good book, and it looks like it may only get better from here.

If you have access to them and don't mind reading, the novel series adds a lot to the anime. A lot of detail, including the basis for the magic is omitted from the anime. It makes the magic seem real, if only one had the talent for it.

Kageki Shoujo!! The Curtain Rises is a real treat: a drama that consistently resists the urge to indulge in histrionics, a shoujo-style manga that draws from tradition while remaining fresh and modern, a tale set in a harsh world without reveling in that harshness. I hope this release is successful, and that it may pave the way for the sequel to be released.

Just what that is may be obvious to seasoned manga readers, and it is some of the other story factors that keep it from feeling too terribly stale. As of this volume, however, it seems clear that the series, which totals twelve volumes, is setting up Yuna and Rio and Akari and Inui to be the main couples, although to be honest, I would not be surprised to see that get a bit changed up going forward. However things progress, Sakisaka does have a deft hand with this brand of shoujo romance, and both her clear, well-planned art and her characters combine with the plot to make it greater than the sum of its relationships, even at this early stage. It also has enough differences from her two previously released series that it doesn't feel like a retread of her own work, which is not only the mark of a skilled author, but also a good sign in general. Add in that this won the 63rd Shogakukan Manga Award for shoujo manga, and any concerns the end-of-volume plot point raise may turn out to be for naught.