Reviews and Comments

I've found most of Tezuka's hard-boiled manga suffers from some degree of tonal whiplash, or otherwise loses its grounding. Ayako on the other hand is a mature work from a steady hand.

The sense of place created with Yodoyama in the shadow of the American occupation is visceral. The Tenge family are clinging to what remains of an old way of life. They are the last rasping breaths of a dying dynasty.

Ayako is a story about Japan and its sequestration in the fallout of the second world war. Suppression is the arm of corruption and domination.

Currently this is my second favourite Tezuka manga after a Phoenix.

More than being propelled by a coherent plot, Gyo is driven by its action. Our protagonist is pulled from one situation to the next as the world gives way to a marine apocalypse.

It lacks a lot of what made Uzumaki so disturbing. You don't have that teleological unraveling of reality. Gyo is a lot more pedestrian in its horror, but that's also what makes it fun. It's kind of Dawn of the Dead with fish.

I think all men, and anyone socialized as a boy will see aspects of themselves in this book. Connell peels back the layers that constitute the practice of gender in a way that will shape my thought forever.

Magic Knight Rayearth has a beautiful aesthetic. Cifero is a rich fantasy setting, but unfortunately you just don't get to see that much of it. Panel layouts are generally incredible. CLAMP's artwork is fantastic, although it often focuses so much on its main cast that you're wanting for a little more variety.

The storytelling is pretty formulaic. I can see exactly how this would map to the Super Famicom RPG. I suspect reading it serialized would have been less trying, where each girl's coming into their abilities wouldn't hit as quite so formulaic.

The abrupt ending is honestly one of the stronger qualities of the story, and it's enough to get me to pick up the second omnibus after some time away.

I really enjoyed this collection but I think her full length work has more to sink your teeth into.

Standouts were the Willow Tree and Iguana Girl.

This book is mostly concerned with the idea that technology CAN produce a post-scarcity society, but if you're expecting a clear picture of what that looks like or what it entails, you're going to be disappointed. I read the third edition which included "Listen, Marxist!" which includes a very valuable anarchist reading of the October Revolution and how power was consolidated.

When Bookchin is rattling off all of the things his enlightened anarchist society can cast off, a lot of it is feminine. It doesn't invalidate the book but it does highlight some of his limitations as a social thinker.

I grabbed this off The Anarchist Library and fixed all of the OCR errors that were made in its production as I read through so if you're looking for a nice digital edition, I can recommend it.

I love it more every read through

But like a really good 3 stars.