If you’re a connoisseur of British crime procedurals, you’ve undoubtedly watched one or two episodes of Midsomer Murders, England’s answer to Murder, She Wrote. It isn’t the edgiest or smartest mystery series on television, but it is among the most consistently enjoyable, delivering a satisfying answer to the question, “Whodunnit?” at the end of every episode. Part […]
Recent Posts
On the Shojo Beat With Matt Thorn
Good news for manga scholars: Matt Thorn is in the process of rebuilding her site on shojo manga! Among her most recent posts is a fascinating look at Ribbon and Shojo, two of the most popular girls' magazines in mid-century Japan. Thorn's goal in revisiting these issues is to highlight some of Osamu Tezuka's overlooked peers -- an important project, I think, as American readers are fixated on the idea that Tezuka "invented" modern manga with stories like New Treasure Island and Princess … [...]
Golden Kamuy, Vol. 1
If you have a strong constitution and a healthy appetite for adventure, you'll cotton to Golden Kamuy, a solid, if sometimes workmanlike, manga that reads like a mash-up of The Revenant and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Golden Kamuy takes place on the Hokkaido frontier. Saichi "Immortal" Sugimoto, a battle-scarred veteran of the Russo-Japanese War, has traded his rifle for a sluice and pan in hopes of finding gold. After a chance encounter with a chatty ex-con, Sugimoto learns about a … [...]
