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divineblkpearl's Reviews (732)
emotional
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Review: ‘Maison Ikkoku’ Collector’s Edition, Vol. 1 is Rom-Com Goodness!
Rumiko Takahashi’s classic romantic comedy about finding your path in life back in print!
But here’s the thing: Maison Ikkoku is magical. In its own way. It’s rom-com goodness and I’m so grateful to be able to start reading the series now and appreciate it for what it is. It is a story of a run-down building of people all eccentric and noisy tenants and the new landlady, Kyoko Otonashi who is young, beautiful, and technically single and who brings new life to the party. One of the tenants that has a bigger spotlight is Yusaku Godai who didn’t get accepted into college on the first try, so he’s studying to retake the entrance exams.
But living in a dilapidated building full of folks who nickname him “Ronin”–poking fun at his status of being a failed student who just hasn’t gotten enough purpose of footing in life–he finds it hard to study in peace and gets the results he wants. Now that a beautiful woman has moved in to become the new resident manager, Godai is driven to distraction and so is the rest of the house.
This manga is funny, light-hearted, and a slow-paced read. Very much slice of life–as there aren’t huge stakes like saving your kid sister from becoming a monster or saving the earth as we know if from menaces from outer space–the true conflicts come from the everyday lives of the folks living there like Akemi the young lady who works at a bar and often walks about at home in her nightgowns and underwear, usually hungover from a night’s work. There’s Hanae, the middle-aged married woman with a young son, who is the biggest gossip in town. Yotsuya is another resident of the shared building who is perhaps the biggest pest and mysterious one–not much is known about him.
BUT he’s always catching Godai in the strangest situations like peeping through an actual crack in the wall in their room and pushing dirty magazines in when the struggling student is expecting guests. Like I said there are personalities for days and with Kiyoko, the young, unmarried woman who is the new landlord–she finds that she’d fodder for the gossip mill, and someone new to be entangled in their lives. It is all jokes and silliness and then as I read on I found a really, endearing portrait of the different types of relationships present in the world, defining what the world family means and most importantly: figuring out your own path in life. Whether you’re considering what next to do career wise or considering starting a new romantic relationship with someone.
At more than 300 pages, the first volume is a two in one, perfect for long time fans and new fans alike. The Viz website notes that the rating is “Teen+”. Manga published by them in that category usually is more suitable for older teens and adults. For example, may contain intense and/or gory violence, sexual content, frequent strong language, alcohol, tobacco and/or other substance use. While there isn’t BERSERK level of gore and violence there’s a spot of nudity and lots of slapstick humor and situations that lean more towards adult humor. Certain humorous situations did not age well due to the slapstick comedic effect of male characters being slapped for their lecherous words and actions. Remember how exasperated you felt reading and watching Inuyasha‘s Miroku? YEAH. You’ll feel a bit of that exasperation here too.
A romantic comedy that blends in a little bit everything by Legendary manga creator Rumiko Takahashi, who was finally honored with an induction into the Eisner Hall of Fame back in 2018 means manga fans today get a taste of this veteran’s brilliance. Who is this manga for? The rom-com lovers, the “vintage” manga lovers and most certainly fans of Rumiko Takahashi.
Read more of my review here: https://blacknerdproblems.com/review-maison-ikkoku-collectors-edition-vol-1-is-rom-com-goodness/
Rumiko Takahashi’s classic romantic comedy about finding your path in life back in print!
But here’s the thing: Maison Ikkoku is magical. In its own way. It’s rom-com goodness and I’m so grateful to be able to start reading the series now and appreciate it for what it is. It is a story of a run-down building of people all eccentric and noisy tenants and the new landlady, Kyoko Otonashi who is young, beautiful, and technically single and who brings new life to the party. One of the tenants that has a bigger spotlight is Yusaku Godai who didn’t get accepted into college on the first try, so he’s studying to retake the entrance exams.
But living in a dilapidated building full of folks who nickname him “Ronin”–poking fun at his status of being a failed student who just hasn’t gotten enough purpose of footing in life–he finds it hard to study in peace and gets the results he wants. Now that a beautiful woman has moved in to become the new resident manager, Godai is driven to distraction and so is the rest of the house.
This manga is funny, light-hearted, and a slow-paced read. Very much slice of life–as there aren’t huge stakes like saving your kid sister from becoming a monster or saving the earth as we know if from menaces from outer space–the true conflicts come from the everyday lives of the folks living there like Akemi the young lady who works at a bar and often walks about at home in her nightgowns and underwear, usually hungover from a night’s work. There’s Hanae, the middle-aged married woman with a young son, who is the biggest gossip in town. Yotsuya is another resident of the shared building who is perhaps the biggest pest and mysterious one–not much is known about him.
BUT he’s always catching Godai in the strangest situations like peeping through an actual crack in the wall in their room and pushing dirty magazines in when the struggling student is expecting guests. Like I said there are personalities for days and with Kiyoko, the young, unmarried woman who is the new landlord–she finds that she’d fodder for the gossip mill, and someone new to be entangled in their lives. It is all jokes and silliness and then as I read on I found a really, endearing portrait of the different types of relationships present in the world, defining what the world family means and most importantly: figuring out your own path in life. Whether you’re considering what next to do career wise or considering starting a new romantic relationship with someone.
At more than 300 pages, the first volume is a two in one, perfect for long time fans and new fans alike. The Viz website notes that the rating is “Teen+”. Manga published by them in that category usually is more suitable for older teens and adults. For example, may contain intense and/or gory violence, sexual content, frequent strong language, alcohol, tobacco and/or other substance use. While there isn’t BERSERK level of gore and violence there’s a spot of nudity and lots of slapstick humor and situations that lean more towards adult humor. Certain humorous situations did not age well due to the slapstick comedic effect of male characters being slapped for their lecherous words and actions. Remember how exasperated you felt reading and watching Inuyasha‘s Miroku? YEAH. You’ll feel a bit of that exasperation here too.
A romantic comedy that blends in a little bit everything by Legendary manga creator Rumiko Takahashi, who was finally honored with an induction into the Eisner Hall of Fame back in 2018 means manga fans today get a taste of this veteran’s brilliance. Who is this manga for? The rom-com lovers, the “vintage” manga lovers and most certainly fans of Rumiko Takahashi.
Read more of my review here: https://blacknerdproblems.com/review-maison-ikkoku-collectors-edition-vol-1-is-rom-com-goodness/
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
fast-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
“Legendborn is a resounding, defining example of why I love YA and why continue to read the genre.”
Big Thanks to Simon Teen (Simon & Schuster) for the physcial ARC, and Netgalley for the digtal.
Tracey Deonn’s Legendborn opens to death. Black Death. Sixteen year-old Bree Matthews is stunned by the news that her beloved mother has left this earthly plane of existence tragically, by way of a car accident. She can recall feeling like the world has stopped, for her, it has as she sits in the hospital with her father trying to process this new world. This new world without her mother. It is a perhaps a risky way to start a novel and a heartbreaking circumstance in which to introduce our protagonist Bree, who is attempting to move forward while trying to forget who she was before this tragedy.
A riskier move, in my opinion? To take a beloved literature fixture like the story of King Arthur, Merlin, and the Knights of the Roundtable and plate it for a newer audience in a modern world. Praytell beloved, …and the payoff? A debut that I will be talking about for years and years to come. (Trigger Warnings include: Death of a parent and traumatic grief/flashbacks, racist macro and microaggressions)
I want to paraphrase a quote that in my heart I want to attribute to Jason Reynolds or Jacquline Woodson (Heaven help and forgive me if it is neither one of them!) : “When I start writing, I begin with a trauma and work through 200 pages of getting to the heart of it to bring healing.” I thought of these words as I pressed forward and thought of the bigger picture. I thought of how this tragic event had an interesting event towards the end of this soul compressing event at the hospital: Bree, on this night saw a bit of magic.
On a night when her world was ending, she was seeing a bit of what would shape her life in the world to come, this new world without her mother–this new world of figuring out who she is now, this new normalcy. It is a situation that so many of us are finding ourselves in now, and Bree’s story comes at a relevant time when every day the world seems to be ending.
~
Brianna Irene Matthews aka Bree leaves home to attend an early college type program at the university of her dreams. She’s still raw, still grieving and attempting to do the whole college experience with her best friend Alice–the only person from back home who sees her as the person she is now. A version of herself that is trying but lost without much of a paddle to navigate the waters…sometimes rocky, sometimes calm. It is here at the place of her mother’s college days that Bree finds more magic, more mysteries, and more about herself that she’d never imagined she would find. Stumbling upon a secret society, an ancient order tasked with protecting humankind, she finds the Order of The Round Table. The last descendants of King Arthur and his loyal knights all young people, her age, who have a safehold here and have protected society from Shadowborne, demons who would wipe out life here as we know.
Perhaps one of my favorite aspects of this novel is the world building. We have here this fleshed out, realized world that is one that I, as a reader can imagine myself in. This is the world with cars and modern architecture and where the internet all exists. It is also a world where weapons and armour can materialize at the drop of a hat, where healing properties can be grabbed out of the air, invisible to the sight of a normal human being–Oncebornes. And foul creatures from the other side that seek to create harm and chaos.
It is also a world where Bree lives and finds herself a child of two worlds. Again, a struggle that is relevant and timely as so many Black folks feel like second class citizens in whatever country they live in, and furthermore, how so many of us feel as if we are living through two different pandemics here in 2020. First and foremost, she’s a Black teen girl who knows that her skin and gender will make others actively work in dismissing, harassing, belittling, and attempting to erase her. Point blank, it makes her a target–to be treated differently. To endure silently the sly comments from school deans. To have to sit in a police car when her white classmates are told simply to return to campus. To be sized up in the worst way in the eyes of young men who only see her Black body as a means to an end.
Beloved, as readers, we aren’t thrown into a world where magic exists and microaggressions don’t. We are not thrown into a world where a Black girl is not aware that the many great institutions we uphold were built on the backs of people who look like her. It would be unrealistic if Deonn penned this adventure this way and for that I am grateful. For Bree, it already wasn’t uncommon to find herself as the only person in the room with her features, her hair type, her shared life experiences.
~
Throughout the fantasy genre, we see protagonists, especially children and teens without parents, without many mothers and fathers around. It is not uncommon to see the chosen ones running about as orphans or missing a parent–And in too many beloved stories and franchises mothers have a very obvious and depressing absence. Now writing this review, I see how this could be the book’s greatest criticism. And while Legendborn perhaps doesn’t fully subvert this trope, the author manages to effectively and brilliantly craft a story about a motherless child getting the chance to have a piece of her mother, again. Without heading into spoiler territory: this is the tale of a Black girl who gets to reclaim her mother–and her mother before her in a moving story about taking everything you are and everything you have–being your ancestor’s wildest dream and becoming the hero you need to be....
Read more of my review here: https://blacknerdproblems.com/legendborn-review-even-when-magic-exist-you-may-still-be-the-only-black-girl-in-the-room/
