Review by Ruki

Probably one of Ito-sensei's masterpieces! If all horror manga were this creepy, I would consume them all. But honestly Ito-sensei's manga are my favourite horror manga! The synopsis simply says: Kurouzu-cho, a small fogbound town on the coast of Japan, is cursed. However, the town is not haunted by a person or a being, but a pattern - uzumaki, the spiral. So it sounds a little ridiculous, right? Yet Ito manages to make such a concept absolutely terrifying! His imagination reminds me of Clive Barkers in so many ways, I almost can’t fathom how they come up with such insane, disturbing ideas. The illustrations are all so detailed and incredible, just mind-bending and horrifying as well as beautiful at the same time. Some will live long in the memory! I loved how each chapter had its own self-contained story or theme, therefore it’s very easy to pick up and read a single chapter and still get a satisfying experience. And yet the story manages to connect all the single stories with an overarching one which leads to an unexpected conclusion! Uzumaki really has it all: terrifying body horror, Lovecraftian elements, boundless imagination, and an unnerving sense of dread that pervades throughout its entirety. Highly, HIGHLY recommend.

Well I first mentioned Shinshi Doumei Cross as the weakest of Tanemura-sensei's stories and conciously didn't count this manga for several reasons. I completed the series to this and have some hindsight to how Tanemura set up TSK. The premise itself is promising: a princess who wants to awaken her sister by finding the Strangers from different tribes on Earth along with her knights while they encounter thieves, dragons, and more. Needless to say, as a 3 volume serial, it's very rushed with a huuuge cast. While Tanemura-sensei's priority is writing romance and some comedy, it would have been nice if there were more intense moments of actions and adventures that could permit the series to be longer than a 3 volumes. But as dar as I know, Tanemura-sensei herself needed to end the series quickly for some reason. In the first volume, Tanemura-sensei sets up a promising conflict: Kyoko doesn't want to reveal herself as the Earth Princess and abide with her classmates as a fellow students. Her only way out is to awaken her younger fraternal twin and harness her powers as the Time Stranger to awaken other tribal Strangers on the clock where Princess Ui sleeps with the help of her knights, Jin Hizuki and Jin Sakataki.

This is the latter half of the story Time Stranger Kyoko. Tanemura-sensei starts off with a minor adventure, primarily to show what Kyoko's abilities can do and the impact thereof as a Time Stranger. Then utilizes the power in the latter half to return to a major event that characterizes Hizuki and Sakataki.But what I never understand in teen manga, is the concept of kissing girls while they are unconscious or out of the ability to give any of their concent. It's a bad massage for young girls. Kyoko is a heroine with flaws that she knows she has to confront, such as her selfishness, though her kindness shines when it's needed the most and has a nice, gradual growth for the first volume. Sakataki is young and serious, yet he still has his very silly moments, especially with Witzig, the leader of the Destroyers. His characterization shown by the time he travels back to see his tribe was very good. Hizuki is very charming, humorous, and level-headed. Witzig brings a lot of zaniness to the story whenever he pops up with Kyoko. Otherwise, the pacing was okay for a first volume, though I think Tanemura wasted time with the latter half of this second. We don't get to know anything or hardly anything about the other Strangers and the story just feels incredibly rushed. But as mentioned before, I think this has been a choice Tanemura-sensei did herself as she felt she had to get done and over with the story. Probably because of her mental health at the time.

Tanemura Arina-sensei prefers confusing story telling. When well-executed, I like those as well. I'm not sure if Shinshi Doumei Cross is a good example of well-told confusing storytelling. After struggling a bit with the first volume of this series it also took a while to read through this one. I think one weakness of this story is the very similar character designs, which mind you also has been an issue in Tanemura-sensei's serieses earlier. But now it certainly is getting easier to recognise all of the characters which makes the story more enjoyable. I liked the reveal at the ending which involves Togu. I think however that Tanemura-sensei delivers some questionable messages such as fatshaming (Haine) which is a no-go nowadays and also that one of her male characters is portraied as gay, which she has apologised for and I think this gives off a very bad image on herself and maybe will put down the young audience she is drawing her manga for.

Sailor Moon R wakes so many nostalgic memories and I'm very happy to have this collection of well-known good old Sailor Moon music! It's very cool to see that this music is still available to newer fans as well.

I think, compared to other manga by Tanemura-sensei, I think this story is the weakest, although it is still an enjoyable story. It depends on what type of story you gprefer, and while I do adore Tanemura-sensei's art and some other things, I can't say this type of story is mine. Shinshi Doumei Cross is a typical sugary, cliche-filled, shoujo manga with a rather overused type of heroine. I felt Tanemura-sensei tried too hard to portray Haine as a strong girl with a sensitive side - it just came off as annoying after a while.There are a lot of contradictions that make her character inconsistent which may annoy some people. I do like that the author went into some depth with the main- and side-characters' backstories, and some of the supporting cast are pretty good for side characters, but be warned there is barely a plot since it focuses mostly on Haine trying to win over her crush. In this series Tanemura-sensei struggles to find a strong series of events that could make a convincing plot. Overall, it's a non-fantasy story with a lot of cheese and fluff - best for romantics I guess.

The pace of the manga is really well, although I think the newer release is much smarter in putting more chapters from the original release together. Because vol. 2 from ribbon mascot was a little bit boring - even if that was very important to establish the characters too! So here we're already through parts of it and also learn more about Eiichi-kun as well. I think the cute tone is still present in the manga, but there's a good amount of foreshadowing for later plot points.

Fullmoon wo sagashite is going down the river in this volume :) There are many revelations and new things to learn about the characters which you never knew would get such a good backstory. I can really recommend this manga, it's one of Tanemura's best ones :)

This volume is all about resolutions. Acceptance of things you can't change in life. It's about dreams and how you want to use your own life. For a brief glimpse of glory or growing old to fit in and have a lesser form of glory is all very admirable. Not only Mitsuki and Takato will meet an end, but also the other Shinigami and the producers. You will definitely enjoy this volume. The only things I have to critizise is the last bit of the ending, but I don't want to spoil that one. It's just y'know not my cup of tea but other might like how it is executing :)

Who remembers the first musical part of Touken Ranbu? Me!! This very first trial version is very unusual looking back to it, the characters are silly and a bit uncoordinated. The musical is a bit shorter than the re-run version and the Paris version. You could also say that the Paris version is a continuation of this first version as we know these Touken Danshi have traveled this timeline several times. If you watch this and compare it to one of the other two versions, you will also realise how much the actors grew as both singers and actors, since you really can see that they are pretty green behind their ears :)

The reason why I got this part is the white outfit variations. Performing at Itsukushima Jinja has to have been absolutely magically at least that what it looks like. The concert is rather short compared to other musical and speacials, but it's really worth it. The atmosphere and performances are great and my very favourite song of all Touken Ranbu musical follows on an extra CD: mahoroba no. Since this musical concert was held in Musical Touken Ranbu's early existence the numbers cover Atsukashiyama Ibun and Bakumatsu Tenrouden and their respective idol live numbers. Absolutely enjoyable to watch!

This is my absolute favourite musical part of Touken Ranbu! This is the musical which made me really fall for the musical adaptations! The sortie is superb, the actors are all great and it's about Minamoto no Yoshitsune again. There's a lot of drama in it, Mikazuki Munechika is acting shady and internal conflicts are growing explicitly in the story. There's comedy in some scenes as Welly so it's not all dark. Tsuwamonodomo has one of the coolest themes songs "Be in sight" and I'm really in love with all the Mikazuki Munechika focused songs. I can highly recommend this musical part. By the way it's the last part which you can watch independently from other parts. From here on onwards all musicals are connected and create a broader and wider plot, so I suggest you to be aware of small details when you watch this musical part. Also the idol live part has some great outfits and songs as well!

Holy carp I'm so excited to finally having obtained this musical and then it is even the Limited Edition!!! I'm over the moon! So let me just tell you the extras on the special discs are so worth the money and struggle! I'm so impressed by the actors, especially Kuroba Mario who was on the verge of tears several times during the numbers. The musical part features the most iconic songs of a wide variety of musical parts and the idol live numbers also are catchy and the funniest thing is that they're performing in suits and evening wear. Kotobuki Ongyokusai is alongside the Itsukushima Jinja and 2019 Ongyokusai specials my favourite. I can only recommend you to get this, either as the limited edition or the normal edition. If you're interested in interviews and backstages please get the limited edition because you'll have 5 discs to go through.

This musical part is one of my favourites! And I finally have it on my shelf as well! First off, this part is not easy to follow or understand. It's all a psychological story and gives us a first glimpse of a "isolated" timeline and we also get first hints about Mikazuki Munechika's overarching plot and what he's been up to since Tsuwamonodomo. Also the idol live number is so great as well! Thanks to this musical I turned into a bog fan of Oodenta Mitsuyo. This one is highly recommended!

I'll be honest when I first watched this part of the musicals I really missed Kashuu, but the addition of Mutsunokami Yoshiyuki and Tomoegata Naginata is worth the change. As expected of a cast of Bakumatsu-era swords, this one is really dramatic! There are more effects here, which are splendid and the cast grew a lot when it comes to singing. They're performing really well, so I can just say I like this part as much as the others.

I have owned this manga in English for more than 10 years, maybe even 15 years, but now I thought it would be a good idea to get my favourite manga in Japanese. I'm very glad to have this version, the small postcard is adorable and I'm honestly very reliefed that the new drawing style by CLAMP is only on the cover. CLAMP has been one of my favourite mangaka for this particular detailed, dynamic and baroque style. I'm very sad that they changed it so much. However, Magic Knight Rayearth remains one of their very masterpieces. The story starts out quick but not too fast so it doesn't feel rushed. There are a lot of characters to keep in mind, but they're all adorable. Also, this part ends with a cliffhanger!

Part two of Magic Knight Rayearth comes with Umi as the main focus on the cover, and she is my favourite character beside Doushi Clef. Again, not happy for the modern drawing style on the cover, which doesn't fit the rest of the manga which has the typical 90's style by CLAMP. This is the style I love the mangaka group for. But for this part of the manga, there's a loooot of character growth in this volume and the story progress is again very well-paced. You learn a lot about the villains' motivations and the three main girls are getting stronger, both in their magic but also in their personality. I would recommend this manga to all who like magical girls - or not. Because the story is so good that you don't even have to be afraid to give girls a go :)

The 3rd (and final volume of part 1) of Magic Knight Rayearth gives us a final conclusion, which is not really final. Fuu is the main focus on the cover, which is again - for consistency reasons - drawn in CLAMP's modern, simple drawing style. But don't worry, if you love CLAMP for their 80's to 90's drawing style, then you will be very delighted to hear the manga is stil kept in the style. Now, we have the final insight to the villain's and the princess' motivations and thoughts and well, the conclusion of the first three volumes left me really, really in tears. I was a teenager when I read it for the first time and I was like "wow you can't end this manga like that!?". Well knowing CLAMP they could have done so, but luckily there are still three other volumes of MKR 2 to get my hands on :)

Tian Guan Ci Fu is one of my favourite two Japanese BL novels. It's such a beautiful and magical story with so many very multilayered characters. Reading the Japanese version is such a delight! It's closer to the original than when I read the novel in English - and yes, I now own this novel in almost every language I know. If you're in for a really well-told and slowly build up fantasy story, you won't regret getting this one. I was really hooked reading about San Lang and Xie Lian and yeah this first volume has everything that makes a good start for a really long story!

This volume is full of flashbacks! You'll read about Xie Lian's past, a hopeful young prince seeking (and suceeding) to ascend to the Heavens as a God. But being a God has a lot of different rules so you'll see how such an inspiring young man as Xie Lian slowly struggles with life. I can only recommend TGCF as a novel. The Japanese translation is really great and I have to say it's so much fun reading it in Japanese vs. the English version.