Short Takes: 'Witchcraft Works Vol. 2' January 15, 2015
Second verse of this fantasy-comedy, a bit less interesting than the first, as coincidence and contrivance take precedence over invention and storytelling
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Short Takes: 'Witchcraft Works Vol. 1' December 3, 2014
Magical hijinks in high school are the jumping-off point for this enjoyable story with no small amount of potential, but also unnecessarily confusing visuals
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Tsutomu Nihei's 'Abara': A Dead-Tech Sampler December 10, 2018
This one-shot story from the creator of 'BLAME!' and 'Knights Of Sidonia' serves as a useful entry point to the man's carbon-black universe of Giger-goth techno-body-horror
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'The Ghost In The Shell: Global Neural Network': Four Ways Into The Shell December 3, 2018
Four teams of writers and artists from Western comics deep-dive into the 'Ghost In The Shell'-verse, and arise with four divergent and arresting visions
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'A Shameful Life': Osamu Dazai's 'No Longer Human', All Over Again November 26, 2018
An all-new translation of Osamu Dazai's bleak masterwork brings fresh clarity and immediacy to a staple of modern Japanese literature
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'Illang: The Wolf Brigade': Defanged November 19, 2018
Jee-woon Kim's live-action adaptation of Mamoru Oshii's 'Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade' is passable on its own, but doesn't come close to the primal shadow-play sorcery of the original
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Natsuo Kirino's 'Out': The Katori Corpse Disposal Service November 14, 2018
Natsuo Kirino's nervy thriller pits four working-class women against Japanese society -- not just its seedy underbelly, but its whole stacked deck of capital, class, and sex
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'Yoshitaka Amano: The Illustrated Biography' October 29, 2018
The man who gave us the visuals for 'Vampire Hunter D', 'Final Fantasy', 'Angel's Egg', and much more, finally has his own story in print for English-speaking audiences
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'AKIRA' At 30-Something: The Manga At The End Of The World October 16, 2018
On having a reckoning with the god-emperor of modern manga, in a restored English-language edition at last
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'Bleach' (2018): Kid Janitor Of The Spirit World September 19, 2018
A dialed-down take on elements from the first major story arc of Tite Kubo's long-running shōnen actioner, it's no classic but no disaster either
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Let's Film This Again: 'Vampire Hunter D' September 17, 2018
Yes, it's been done before, but the possibilities of all-new adaptations of Hideyuki Kikuchi's long-running gothic-Western-punk light novel series are wider than ever
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'Un-Go': The Truth Will Out September 3, 2018
These cyberpunk/SF mysteries drawn from the works of Ango Sakaguchi are intriguing for how they adapt a classic author, but grow far too gimmicky for their own good
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