After doing a couple of comic edition mini reviews, I thought it would be fun to do a manga one! In the last six months or so I started reading manga and I’m really enjoying it. I have quite some on my wishlist and am currently in the middle of a couple of series. Let’s take a look at a couple I finished lately.

The Promised Neverland vol. 1 – Kaiu Shirai

I picked this one up on a whim, mostly because the title spoke to me. The synposis sounded interesting enough and I decided to get it. First off, I think the art work in this manga is really beautiful. I loved the drawings and that is just so important in this type of storytelling. You can see a bit of that style on the cover, I just wished manga’s had more color on the inside!

This story starts out with kids in an orphange and all seems very normal. However, they’ve never been outside and the more you read the more kind of strange things are going on. Two kids find out a horrifying secret and I must say, I did NOT see that twist coming! I flew through this story and I can’t wait to start the second volume. This is a pretty dark story, a lot darker than I was expecting but I really enjoyed it. I think this one was a good intro into the story and sets up for a lot of scary adventures. The characters were really cute and super smart. I definitely want to read more about them!

My Hero Academia vol. 1 – Kohei Horikoshi

I recognized this title from a tv show and knew it was about a boy wanting to become a superhero. In this world, 80% of the people have ‘quirks’ and only 20% are powerless. Our main character, Izuku, wants nothing more than to become a superhero and train at the U.A. High School. This one sounded like a fun superhero story and that’s all it basically is.

Once again, I liked the art style in this one and before every chapter there is a little explanation about one of the characters by the author. I thought that was really enjoyable! There are quite some characters in this story and while they all look quite different I did have trouble keeping it all straight. The names were what tripped me up the most, sometimes they use their first names, sometimes their last names and a couple also have a nickname! I hope this will all get easier to follow after reading some more volumes.

This first volume is mostly about setting up the world, and following Izuku on his quest to get in U.A. High School. I really liked reading about the trials and enjoyed Izuku’s encounters with All Might. Izuku is a great and loveable character, he still has a lot to learn but he has a great heart and always wants to help others. Those are some great qualities and he’s cute to read about. I will be continuing this series!

Gangsta vol 1 – Kohske

This adult manga really took me by surprise! I didn’t really know what this one was about and the story doesn’t give much away either. You follow two guys, doing some jobs for the police but don’t seem to be good guys exactly. The city this takes place in seems to be some kind of alternate Italian city, although that might just be my interpretation as it has some mob families in there. I like the diversity in this story, one of our main characters is deaf and this is encorporated in the pictures in a great way in my opinion. I’m not deaf myself so I can say any of this for sure but it looked really legit to me.

I really enjoyed this story and it is pretty gory. However it made some confusing jumps every know and then making me go back and look if a skipped a page multiple times. Slowly you start to learn more about what is going on in this story but there are quite some mysteries that aren’t solved right away.

I liked that not all characters are introduced right away, slowly more characters are added but you spend some time with the new ones first so you get to know them a little. I liked the way this one done, after reading a bit more about new characters I think they will stay with me more accurately. This is another story I absolutely flew through and I can’t wait to continue this series.

These were some of the manga I read recently. Funnily enough they were all 4 stars! Do you read manga, and have you read any of these? Please let me know in the comments and I would love to get some recommendations!