Manga Tak

A young girl is given a rose signet ring by a mysterious prince who saves her life... But when she grows up and finds herself at Ohtori Academy, where the student council also hold matching rings and end up challenging her to duel, what is young Utena Tenjo to do but throw herself in head first? 

This week, Mat is joined by Sarah and Joe of the Shoujoe Podcast to discuss Revolutionary Girl Utena by Chiho Saito and Be-Papas! As Shoujoe are currently watching Utena for their podcast, we spend a lot of this episode comparing and c...

Stranded on a desert island with no hope of rescue, an unnamed writer suddenly finds himself face to face with a young pirate by the name of Portgas D. Ace. While he isn't much to look at, just a scrawny kid in a hat, after saving the writer's life and accidentally eating the mysterious Flame-Flame Fruit, it becomes clear that maybe he's destined for greatness!  

This week, Mat is joined once again to discuss One Piece: Ace's Story (the manga) with Art by Boichi, Storyboards by Ryo Ishiyama, based on a concept by Eiichiro Oda, but more s...

Eugene Korekishi is the smartest kid in his class, but despite his Grandma's promise to one day come back to haunt and hang out with him, he doesn't believe in ghosts. That is until one day, a young exorcist in training named Mogari Shishikuno joins his class! 

While Mogari can't see or hear ghosts himself, he can perform exorcisms by eating spirits who refuse to pass on! Another handy trick he has up his sleeve is the ability to touch someone with a supernatural ability and borrow their powers... Given this high school is seemingly filled to t...

Love can hit you when you least expect it... Sometimes it's up close with a 9mm, other times it's at a distance from an semi-automatic! Some people even end up falling in love as collateral damage from a stray grenade... All is fair in love and war when cupids are involved! Anything to earn that karma to get re-incarnated! 

This week Mat's once again joined by Behind The Manga co-founder Winter Venom to discuss Love Bullet by inee! We get into the book's premise, a yuri manga where gun-toting cupids take matchmaking to the extreme, discuss it's p...

Daisuke Niwa's 14th birthday isn't going according to plan: rejected by the girl he has a crush on, and receiving no sympathy from his mother, Daisuke suddenly feels a weird transformation coming on... but this isn't puberty, it's something in his DNA! Before Daisuke knows it, he's transformed into Dark Mousy, the legendary phantom thief! 

With the only way to break the curse being to get his crush to return his affection, and his classmate, Satoshi Hiwatari turning out to be a young prodigal detective, Daisuke's going to need more than angelic powers: he's going to need a...

Buntarō Mori transfers to a new school in the hopes of being left alone... Only for a school bully to send his life down an unexpected path: a new passion for solo climbing! Mori, a gloomy loner, soon opens up under the watchful eye of his teacher, Oonishi and the students form a climbing club... But after a climbing trip gone wrong, Mori's life starts to catch up with him... Maybe this is one climb he must face alone!

This week, Mat is joined once again by Georgie (aka Mainly.Manga) to discuss The Climber by Shin-ichi S...

The passing of world-renowned wine critic Yutaka Kanzaki sends shockwaves through the industry... but perhaps nobody is more surprised by his passing than his son, Shizuku, who has been estranged from his father for many years and in an act of defiance after his harsh upbringing, never touched a drop of wine...

But upon hearing from his father's lawyer, Shizuku discovers that if he wants claim his inheritance, the world's most expensive wine collection, he must correctly identity 13 wines: 12 'apostles' and a wine cryptically referred to as 'The Drops of God' in a competition against another renowned...

After agreeing to marry a mysterious, beautiful girl after a near death experience, Nasa Yuzaki has his world turned upside down on his 18th birthday when she suddenly appears on his doorstep with a marriage form in hand! Who is this woman and why does she remind him so much of the fabled moon princess Kaguya?

This week on Manga Tak, Mat is joined once more by AC Yoshimura (aka prodtally) to discuss T̶o̶n̶i̶k̶a̶k̶u̶ ̶K̶a̶w̶a̶i̶i̶ Fly Me To The Moon by Kenjiro Hata! Join us as we discuss t...

In the world of competitive ballroom dancing, there are two competing styles: standard and latin, but in order to be the best in the world, two Japanese 'kings of ballroom' will have to come together in order to rise to the challenge of 10Dance: a glittering triathlon that would see them compete in both styles! 

This week, Mat is joined once again by Ida to discuss 10Dance by Inouesatoh. It's the first BL on the show, so after taking some time to discuss what the genra is and isn't, we get into what's so appealing about the b...

Just a quick message from me to ask with your help picking the manga and guest for the 100th episode of the show! 

Get your vote in now using this link - https://forms.gle/oiXmaX24ry6sHvEf9

Voting will close on February 20th, so be sure to get your vote in ASAP!

Thank you in advance!

Mat

Thanks to Juliano Zucareli for our theme music!

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A young Fujino publishes a weekly comic strip in her school paper to the fanfare of all her classmates, dreaming to become a Mangaka when she grows up... However, after another student named Kyomoto is published in the same paper, the way Fujino and her classmates see her work changes forever. It's the start of an unlikely friendship and a tragic story: one that echoes it's creator's feelings and real life incidents. But is it worth reading?

This week, Mat is once again joined by writer and illustrator, A.C. MacDonald, to discuss Look Back by Tatsuki...

Looks can be deceiving. Kaoru Suzuki is a towering boy who strikes fear into the hearts of his classmates with his intimidating looks... If they just got to know him, they're realise he's a kind, gentle boy but unfortunately nobody takes the time! 

That is until one day on the train to his new high school, he’s saved by a delicate but tough boy called Arata Haruna. The two boys hit it off immediately and slowly Suzuki begins to come out his shell to his new classmates, by revealing his unexpected passions for baking and gardening!

Duranki is book with two tales to tell... On one hand, it's the story of an androgynous child named Usumgal, born of the gods, but who is neither god nor human, neither male nor female. On the other, it's an experiment by Kentaro Miura to see if his manga studio, Studio Gaga, would be able to produce a work that could reach the high bar set by his masterpiece, Berserk. 

Unfortunately, with Miura's untimely passing in  2021, neither of these stories will see an ending. Like the ancient myths on which Duranki is based, we're only left with a...

If you've spent years thinking that the work of Mitsuru Adachi isn't for you because you have no interest in baseball, pull up a chair! 

This week on Manga Tak, I talk to designer and illustrator Bastian Najdek, to discuss Short Game! A collection of 5 short stories from one of Japan's masters of romance, that proves that while the book is about baseball, it also REALLY isn't!

Join us as we take the field to discuss Adachi's beautiful compositions and writing, spend a little time in the outfield discussing badly dubbed Polish anime, before swinging f...

Vikings have seen a resurgence recently thanks to shows like (ahem) Vikings, and games like Assassins Creed Valhalla and Valheim, but what if I told you the best piece of Viking fiction of the past 20 years was actually a manga? And more importantly, that it's story is based on real vikings!

This week, Mat's not only joined by another passionate lover of comics, but a descendant of Thorfinn Karlsefni himself: author and translator, Árni Beck Gunnarsson! 

Join us as we really dive into Vinland Saga by Makoto Yukimura! We not only explore the book's story an...

Takumi Fujiwara is a kid who doesn't really care about cars... Every morning he has to get up at the crack of dawn to make deliveries for his father's tofu shop. To him it's a hassle because of the strict requirements his father places on him... but those same requirements have also moulded him into the fastest racer on the Akina slope!

This week, Mat is joined once again by Georgie (aka Mainly.Manga) to discuss Shuichi Shigeno's 1995 racing manga Initial D! With the volume being rolled out once more in sleek new omnibus editions (on which...

After starting High School, Ruri Aoki thought that she was ready to deal with changes in her life... That was until she woke one day with a pair of horns growing out of her head, and her Mum told her it's because her Dad's actually a dragon!

But this isn't a fantasy shonen title! In fact, it's actually a slice of life! Rather than battling mythical creatures with her newfound powers, Ruri is just trying to navigate the usual challenges of high school like meeting new people and fitting it... which isn't the easiest thing when your...

Hiroto Ikuta is a carefree, and optimistic guy who's totally fine taking each day as it comes. While those around him worry he's approaching 30 with no real ambitions or love life, he's not worried at all! However, after the older woman he befriended passes away and he inherits her house in Tokyo, his life begins to change in unexpected ways! 

The most notable of which is his cousin, Natsumi, moving in! She's struggling to figure out who she wants to be and trying to adapt to her newfound independence, but won't open up about it to Hiro! C...

All you need to do to hire the service of the City Hunter is to write XYZ on the bulletin board of Shinjuku station and they’ll do the rest.... These Sweepers are guns for hire, with no case to big or small: anything goes...

This week I'm joined once again by Tom to discuss the '80s cult classic City Hunter by Tsukasa Hojo! While the series debuted in Weekly Shonen Jump in 1985, it's living proof that manga and the magazine have changed a lot in that time, and this one's definitely more of a seinen tit...

Being an over 30's Toykoite is difficult: it's hard to find a man, you lose your passion for your work and your only way to let off steam is to goto the local Isakaya with your friends to let of some steam. But what if that's part of the problem?

After being caught off guard by the announcement of the Tokyo Olympics, Rinko vows to get married before 2020! But being single is the least of her worries as things around her begin to fall apart thanks to a handsome but brash model named Key... Can Rinko get...

Eita Ichiyoshi is a young man being driven slowly mad by the mundanity of his job at a confectionary factory. That is until while walking home alone on Christmas Eve, he catches a mysterious bouncy ball that he decides to take home. After throwing it to relieve his frustrations, he can’t believe his luck when it turns into a beautiful, naked woman with perfect lips!

But all it took was a kiss for Ichi to regret his actions! The girl suddenly begins to shoot more balls into the room that transform into more women! These monstrously st...

The bike's charged, the skies are blue and the open road is calling.... there's one issue: there's seemingly only two women left to burn rubber and explore it! After leaving their bunker, Youko and Airi set out to retrace Yuoko's sister's footsteps by following her old social media... Why were they in a bunker? What happened to everyone else? Why are penguins so adorable? These are questions we hope to answer as we read Touring After the Apocalypse by Sakae Saito!

This week, Mat is joined once again by Tom to cancel the apocalypse by reading a...

Jiro Azuma isn’t your run of the mill Ninja though, oh no - he also has the unique ability to talk to animals. It’s this special skill that leads him to nurse a dying cat back to health… but this isn’t just any cat: it’s Rago, the Black Star of Doom: a Mononoke of incredible power. Before he knows it, Jiro has fused with this vengeful spirit in the middle of a fight to the death and is immediately taken into custody by the Bureau of Espionage… But seemingly with the fate of the world at stake, ca...

Rintaro Tsumugi attends Chidori High. It's a boy’s school that only takes the dregs of society, which just happens to stand next door to the prestigious Kikyo Girls’ High! While the girls from this elite school never dream of socialising with anyone from Chidori, Kaoruko just happens to have a sweet tooth and when she notices Rintaro behind the counter of his family’s Cake Shop, suddenly pastries aren’t the only thing she’s got her eye on! Can these 'star crossed lovers' from two different schools make it work?

On this week's episode of Manga Tak...

CONTENT WARNING: This episode deals with some pretty heavy themes including suicide and physical abuse, so skip this one if you're not comfortable with those topics!

After a small, octopus looking alien from the Planet Happy arrives on Earth, determined to spread happiness to everyone he meets, he runs into a morose young girl called Shizuka who isn’t impressed with his happy gadgets... In fact, maybe it'd be better for everyone if he didn't get involved at all...

This week, Mat is joined by RAMZEE for one of the most difficult books we...

Ten hopeful candidates embark on a test to survive for 53 days aboard an abandoned space shuttle to earn themselves a place at the prestigious Cosmo Academy. However, once inside the airlock they realise something is amiss: they are now eleven. Can they put their suspicions aside in order to pass? Or will the threats they face cause them to give into despair and abandon the test, and with it, their chances of getting into the academy?

On this week's episode, Mat's joined not only by Georgie (aka Mainly.Manga) but also Pippa (aka StrawberryShojo) to talk about M...

In a world populated by mechanical 'creatures' and humans, where the lines between man and man-made are blurred, a girl called Hyaku straddles the line between human and mechanical. Fuelled by rage, she is targeting the high profile krechs of the underworld to seek vengeance, and her stolen body parts! Will it ease her pain? And more importantly, in doing so, will she regain her humanity?

On this week's episode, Mat's joined once again by Tom to discuss Search and Destroy by Atsushi Kaneko, published by Fantagraphics in partnership with MSX! We get into our knowledge of...

This is the story of Shuuko, Eika, Misaki and Shio: four best friends who share an apartment together in the heart of the city. While they might share a roof, they all face individual problems! For Shuuko, it's the societal pressure to get married, for Eika, it's how to climb the corporate ladder. Misaki's trying to figure out her situation-ship and Shio's in a panic about how to balance her work / life balance now she's become a freelancer. 

Is isn't easy being in your twenties, but at least they've got each other!

On this week's e...

After the failure of his last project, Mr. Shiozawa quits his job as a Manga editor after 30 years and ponders his next move. But try as he might, the medium he loved, the calling he devoted his professional life to, has a hold on him that he isn't quite ready let go. Suddenly he finds himself deciding to put together 'the perfect manga' and to do so, he's going to need a little help...

This week on Manga Tak, Mat is joined by Dave 'Ziggy' Greene  (of Jam) to discuss Taiyō Matsumoto's Tokyo These Days. We scratch be...

On this Manga Tak-ked On (i.e. a Bonus Episode), Mat is joined one again by Georgie (aka Mainly.Manga) to talk more on Yan by Chang Sheng now that Volume 2 has dropped!

Join us as we discuss how our fears over volume 1's huge setups were mislead, the book's ability to ramp up an already action packed first volume, and honestly just how much enjoyed the middle instalment of this trilogy! 

Thanks once again to Titan Manga for sending us advanced copies of this book, available now wherever good comic bo...

In the year 2080, Christmas a thing of the past: declining birthrates have meant fewer children, changes in climate have distorted the seasons and the disappearance of Santa has relegated 'The Most Wonderful Time of the Year' to an ancient tradition. But on December 25th, the conditions have been met to break the curse robbing the world of old Saint Nick, with the death of Kazushige Sanda revives Santa for a new era! Can this descendant of Santa help Fuyumura find their missing classmate Ichie Ono? And more importantly, can he bring back Christmas to children the world over?

In a world where everyone has a 'quirk' the gives them super human abilities, a young boy called Izuku Midoriya who is born without one may have to give up on his dreams of becoming a super hero. That is until one day after trying to rescue a classmate, he is given the opportunity of a lifetime by the world's Number 1 Hero, All Might: Will Midoriya accept his quirk, a mysterious ability called 'One for All' and with it, the mantle of hero?

This week Mat's joined once again by Tom to discuss the Weekly Shonen Jump...

Sometimes all it takes is a kiss to send you spiralling. Years after putting an unrequited college love behind her, Sayuri Terazono is a working professional at a prestigious company. Her life is forever changed one day when that girl from college, Risa Nakayama, shows up at Sayuri's office as a new hire in her team! And all it takes is one bold move from Risa makes Sayuri question everything: becayse while a kiss can send you spiralling, it can also be the key to open your heart.

This week, Mat is joined once again by Siddharth...

Worn down by the daily grind of being a 40 something salary-man, Sasaki has found a cure to his working blues: the warm smile of Ms. Yamada at the local S Mart. However after arriving late one day after a grueling shift, he misses his chance to see Ms. Yamada, but somehow ends up behind called behind the super market for a smoke instead by 'Tayama' an employee he's never met before... or at least, so he thinks! 

This week Mat is joined once again by Georgie (aka mainly.manga) to discuss Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You b...

At a loss after no longer being able to find delicious Guyabano juice in their local world food store, a plan is quickly hatched and travel booked. The location? The Philippines. The Goal? To hunt down, and devour, a Guyabano fruit. Guyabano Holiday, the titular story of Panpanya's story collection, is just one of the surreal and dreamlike short stories that await you, dear listener! 

This week, Mat is joined once again behind the brains behind Twistwood Tales, AC MacDonald, to discuss this wonderful collection of short stories! We try to define just what qualities make Panpanya's w...

They say that if you go to the third stall from the end of the girls' bathroom on the third floor of the old building... You'll find Hanako-kun! And after knocking three times on the door, maybe Nene wishes she hadn't! After finding herself bound to the spirit of one of the school's Seven Mysteries, Nene begins to assist Hanako-kun in his job as caretaker for the spirits of Kamome Academy! 

This week, Mat is joined by illustrator and designer Irene Chin to talk about Toilet Bound Hanako-Kun by artist/writer duo AidaIro. We discuss the book's m...

After realising her dreams of art school aren't as close as she thought, a young Akiko Hayashi finds herself out in the sticks attending an unconventional art class, run by a bamboo sword wielding teacher who tells her she'll need to come to class everyday if she has any hope at succeeding. But Akiko realises that this seemingly brash teacher has a heart of gold, and just maybe, might be able to help her achieve her dream of becoming a Manga-ka!

On this week's Manga Tak, Mat's joined once more by Tsutsudae to discuss Akiko Higashimura's autobiographical...

All of humanity's waste finds its way into The Pit... even those society deems unworthy of living on The Sphere. After being convicted of a murder he didn't commit, Rudo finds himself in a place where trash monsters roam and the other humans he finds have become ruthless in order to survive. Fortunately for Rudo, he soon meets Enjin, who offers him a chance at salvation and the answers he seeks: he just needs to join The Cleaners first!

On this week's episode, Mat sits down once again with 7 time guest (!) Zane Taichou from Undisputed Anime to...

When high schooler Light Yagami discovers a mysterious “Death Note,” he dismisses it as a prank... That is until he writes a name inside and someone dies! With the death god Ryuk as his guide, Light embarks on a quest for global domination, earning the moniker “Kira” as bodies pile up. But with Interpol’s enigmatic detective “L” closing in, who will be the first to discover the other's true identity?

On this episode of Manga Tak, Mat sit's down once again with Tom to discuss one of the biggest names in Weekly Shonen Jump's history: Death Note by Tsugum...

In a world where magic is everything, being born without it means death. Raised in secret by his father Regro, Mash Burnedead has trained his body to impossible limits to survive.

After being discovered by the Bureau of Magic, Mash is given a deadly ultimatum: enrol in Easton Magical Academy and earn the title of ‘Divine Visionary’, the school’s highest honour, or he and his Father will be killed!

How does a magic less boy complete in a world of wizards? Simple: BRUTE FORCE.

On this week's episode, Mat is joined once again...