The Manga Test Drive

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Reviewing the first volumes of manga to sort out the classics from the clunkers. Check out our sister site Renaissance Josei for longer reviews, essays and more!
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In honor of the Summer Olympics, we're looking at some Olympic sport-style manga this month. Representing competitive biking is Yowamushi Pedal, a former fujoshi favorite that mostly just left me exhausted.

Review: YOWAMUSHI PEDALmangatestdrive.blogspot.com It's once again time for the Summer Olympics, so in turn I'm going to be looking at some sports manga (and in particular those featuring spo...

Just before Pride month ends, I gotta make some time to dig out one last oddity from my boxes of BL. In this case it's a demonic misfire called Mister Mistress, where an incubus does his best to trick his teenaged master into sex.

Review: MISTER MISTRESSmangatestdrive.blogspot.com I can't not close out this month by shooting the metaphorical fish in the barrel - i.e., reaching deep into my boxes of BL manga and findin...

The Ruthless Commander and his Reincarnated Warhorse combines an outrageous premise with the novelty of BL isekai, but it just can't live up to the hype.

Review: THE RUTHLESS COMMANDER AND HIS REINCARNATED WARHORSEmangatestdrive.blogspot.com There's still not a lot of BL isekai out there, but this particular one stands out by virtue of having one of the wackiest premises I've se...

We're keeping things simple this June by reviewing some selections from my many boxes of BL manga. We start with A Foreign Love Affair, an early work from a notable mangaka that demonstrates both her skills as an artist and her early struggles with writing.

Review: A FOREIGN LOVE AFFAIRmangatestdrive.blogspot.com It's time once more for me to dive into my boxes of BL and find a fresh new handful to talk about this Pride month. We'll start off simple ...

Smuggler is a grim and gritty seinen one-shot about a failed actor turned Yakuza underling who finds himself playing the role of assassin to hide his mistakes. It's a bloody, grueling grind of a tale that somehow managed to get licensed twice.

Merry Month of Manga: SMUGGLERmangatestdrive.blogspot.com And now we switch gears hard, going from a sensitive and accomplished coming-of-age drama to a messy seinen crime story. SMUGGLER, by Shohe...

Shino Can't Say Her Name is both a powerful yet simple drama about a teen girl struggling to make friends in spite of her stutter and a welcome departure from Shuzo Oshimi's usual brand of anxiety-riddled horror.

Merry Month of Manga: SHINO CAN'T SAY HER NAMEmangatestdrive.blogspot.com I finally found it - a Shuzo Oshimi manga that doesn't have weird hangups about women! It's a miracle! SHINO CAN'T SAY HER NAME ( Shino-ch...

Tomcats is a BL manga without a lot of actual BL and a whole lot of freaky little cat-people having whimsical adventures. Who is this made for?

Merry Month of Manga: TOMCATSmangatestdrive.blogspot.com One of the advantages of a month of one-shots is that it gives me a chance to do some deep diving in my piles of BL books, since most of tho...

As we enter Year 13 of The Manga Test Drive, we're celebrating with a month's worth of one-shots. We're starting with Short-Tempered Melancholic & Other Stories as once again I try to find an Arina Tanemura manga that I actually like.

Merry Month of Manga: SHORT-TEMPERED MELANCHOLIC AND OTHER STORIESmangatestdrive.blogspot.com As this blog enters its 13th year, I'm celebrating it in the usual fashion: a month's worth of reviews. This time around, it's all One-Vol...

April showers bring not flowers but magical girls here at the Manga Test Drive. First up is Pretear, the manga adaptation of a forgotten early 00s series that tries to improve on its source material but fumbles the presentation.

Review: PRETEARmangatestdrive.blogspot.com Spring is finally springing forth at last, and with it comes a month of magical girl manga here at the Manga Test Drive. Our first title is...

There's one last bit of tidying to do this month now that the Easter festivities are done. A Tale of an Unknown Country is a rare instance of shojo maid manga, but its refusal to let any tension linger undercuts any emotion it tries to build.

Review: A TALE OF AN UNKNOWN COUNTRYmangatestdrive.blogspot.com It

Modern maid manga can be horny too, but they tend to be more low-key about it. Just look at The Maid I Hired Recently Is Mysterious, a teasing-style rom-com about a lonely little rich boy and the pretty maid who gently teases him.

Review: THE MAID I HIRED RECENTLY IS MYSTERIOUSmangatestdrive.blogspot.com That

Hanaukyo Maid Team is typical of the kinds of maid manga we got during the early 2000s: a dull harem manga learning hard on "wacky" comedy and fanservice, brought down even further by a shoddy presentation.

Review: HANAUKYO MAID TEAMmangatestdrive.blogspot.com The peak of maid manga came at the beginning of the millennium, when literally any doofus could make a ecchi manga, throw some maids in it,...

It's time for a little spring cleaning here at the Manga Test Drive, which means it's time to look at some maid manga. My Maid, Miss Kishi is a low-key rom-com about a fabulously wealthy (and klutzy) man who only wants show his gratitude to his hyper-competent yet stone-faced personal maid.

Review: MY MAID, MISS KISHImangatestdrive.blogspot.com With spring on the horizon, it's time for some spring cleaning. That makes it the perfect time of year to look at a few of the many maid ma...

Maburaho dares to ask "what if there was a harem manga where all the girls wanted from the protagonist was his sperm?" There's certainly nothing else here that anyone would call desirable (or readable).

Review: MABURAHOmangatestdrive.blogspot.com Well, for once I'm reviewing a harem manga where I understand precisely what the girls see in the lead. It's a terrible reason, but I can co...

I don't know if it's reassuring or not that Kodansha has always been pumping out shojo manga about taming Asshole-kuns, even when they were still Del Ray Manga. Four-Eyed Prince is an early example of such, one that leans heavily on its taboo step-sibling relationship in lieu of likability.

Review: FOUR-EYED PRINCEmangatestdrive.blogspot.com I don't know if it's reassuring or not that Kodansha has always been peddling shojo manga about taming Asshole-kuns to Americans, even when ...

It's time for another round of bad romance manga, and we're starting with You Like Me, Not My Daughter?!. It's the story of a single mom and the college-aged neighbor boy who loves her, but it's propped up entirely by its fetishes insteads of the age-gap romance at its heart.

Review: YOU LIKE ME, NOT MY DAUGHTER?!mangatestdrive.blogspot.com It's time for another round of Bad Romance Month, where I look at some of the weirdest romances in manga. We're starting off with an age-g...

Princess Ai has been naught but a joke for those old enough to remember when Tokyopop tried to turn it into their own homegrown franchise. Is there any artistic value to be found it now, 20 years after its debut?

Review: PRINCESS AImangatestdrive.blogspot.com I know some might fuss over including this title here, considering its reputation and the fact that it was so closely tied to Tokyopop's co...

Gorgeous Carat should be a sparkling, sexy tale of intrigue and gay romantic tension against a backdrop of belle epoque France, but the end result is utterly lackluster.

Review: GORGEOUS CARATmangatestdrive.blogspot.com It's time to dig once more into my collection of BL manga and find a series that looked spectacular at first glance but lost some of its sh...

A new year means another round of Dealer's Choice reviews. I'm starting with another Yu Watase manga: Arata the Legend. While it riffs on some familiar ideas, it does work as a serviceable start for a shonen series.

Review: ARATA THE LEGENDmangatestdrive.blogspot.com A new year means it's time for another round of Dealer's Choice, where the only theme unifying the reviews is their refusal to fit into mos...

It's time to announce this year's Holiday Review Giveaway winner, as well as a time to reflecting on the challenges of this year as we look at 2023 in the Rear View Mirror:

Holiday Review Giveaway Winner & 2023 In the Rear View Mirrormangatestdrive.blogspot.com First of all, it's time to announce this year's winner: Anna ! Who used this year to finally get into a popular, long-running yuri series...

We started these reviews with a long-awaited manga license, and we end it with another - in this case, Ai Yazawa's 90s shojo classic Neighborhood Story.

Holiday Review #25: NEIGHBORHOOD STORYmangatestdrive.blogspot.com We started this year's reviews with a long-awaited license, so it's only fitting to end it with one as well. As much as I might complain a...

Witch Hat Atelier Kitchen is a cozy spin-off where Qifrey, Olruggio, and the girls get to relax, hang out, and enjoy some good food together. What could be more Christmas-y?

Holiday Reviews #24: WITCH HAT ATELIER KITCHENmangatestdrive.blogspot.com It's the time of year where many of us are busy in the kitchen with holiday meals and goodies galore, so there couldn't be a better time to...

Of course I had to cover the latest Gundam manga, so naturally I had to talk about Beltorchika's Children. Based on one of the books that would become Char's Counterattack, it attempts to not just adapt Tomino's original take on the story but streamline it for modern audiences.

Holiday Review #23: MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM: CHAR'S COUNTERATTACK - BELTORCHIKA'S CHILDRENmangatestdrive.blogspot.com There's no way that I wasn't going to talk about this, the latest Gundam manga to hit our shores (especially since it had been delayed for ...

Even though the notion that a manga set in the 90s could be considered "historical" makes me want to shrivel in to dust, My Lovesick Life as a 90s Otaku is a goofy shojo romance written by someone who knew first-hand what it was like to be a cringey teen otaku.

Holiday Review #22: MY LOVESICK LIFE AS A '90S OTAKUmangatestdrive.blogspot.com And now books set within my lifetime could technically be considered "historical." If you'll excuse me, I just have to go sit in the corner...

Innocent was one of my most anticipated manga of 2023, and it more than lived up to the hype with its heady and thematically dense exploration of Charles-Henri Saison, France's last royal executioner.

Holiday Review #21 INNOCENTmangatestdrive.blogspot.com Y'all know I love historical manga a lot, and I've always had a fascination with the French Revolution and the time period around it, so th...

One of my favorite historical manga of the year was My Dear Detective: Mitsuko's Case Files, a charming mystery series about a stubborn lady detective and her highborn assistant solving crimes in 1930s Tokyo.

Holiday Review #20: MY DEAR DETECTIVE - MITSUKO'S CASE FILESmangatestdrive.blogspot.com When it comes to historical manga from 2023, my personal favorite came from the relatively new digital manga service Azuki . In recent year...

I love historical manga and this year brought us a bounty of it, including The Knight Blooms Behind Castle Walls. It's a kid-friendly tale of a young girl training to become a knight's squire that's full of trivia and the creator's love of medieval history.

Holiday Review #19: THE KNIGHT BLOOMS BEHIND CASTLE WALLSmangatestdrive.blogspot.com I love historical manga, and this year gave me quite a few of them to talk about, including this underrated little gem. THE KNIGHT BLOOMS B...

OK, I need something restore my faith in manga romance (and quality). For once, Kodansha is here to save the day with their recent physical release of the shojo adventure series Nina the Starry Bride.

Holiday Review #18: NINA THE STARRY BRIDEmangatestdrive.blogspot.com Ok, I need to talk about a manga that isn't twisted, clumsy, or just plain bad. For once, Kodansha is here to help me out with a shojo ser...

My Secret Affection became a bit of a notorious meme for its 'last straight girl in the world' premise, but in truth it was just a rookie mangaka thoughtlessly trying to dress up an otherwise mundane and weepy shojo romance.

Holiday Review #17: MY SECRET AFFECTIONmangatestdrive.blogspot.com Of course, I can't talk about bad romance manga from 2023 without talking about the one that became a meme onto itself when it was licensed...

From the creator of Rent-A-Girlfriend come The Shiunji Family Children, a throwback not just to the wretched days of imouto manga but also to the dark days of Love Hina-style harems.

Holiday Review #16: THE SHIUNJI FAMILY CHILDRENmangatestdrive.blogspot.com As if that last review wasn't enough to make you question if The Straights Are Alright, here comes Rent-A-Girlfriend creator Reiji Miyajima...