 Hey everybody, welcome back to the channel. Today we're gonna talk about four brand new manga that I recently acquired And I have been anxiously waiting to talk about it with all of you So let's get started. The first one here is a blood blade volume one This is published by codoncha and it is written and drawn by Oma say and it tells the story of the famous Count Dracula in an alternate history Europe as he is reborn as a katana wielding Vampirus now soon after this at the start of the story We find the character of Clara She is on the run from a certain bad guy and she turns out to be this golem Or at least inspired by Frankenstein's monster chased down by an assassin Clara stumbles upon Vlad Who is now this young girl with a sword and an assistant alongside her Vlad then rescues her from this bad guy And we soon find out about both of these girls origins Long story short our evil doer does show up again And we do find out that he is part of an evil human organization called Cerberus and their goal is to harness monster powers and eliminate these creatures So characters like Vlad and Clara are now seemingly teaming up and look for a supposed monster island as stated by Dr Frankenstein and Clara herself an island where supposedly there will be no human interference And these monster creatures can live in peace without being hunted and persecuted by humanity That's sort of a generalized plot description of this series What's interesting here for blood blade and I find it pretty noteworthy Is that Oma say and codoncha here have teamed up to publish this manga in english first So we are getting the heads up for this series and it will eventually be published in japanese I think that's pretty awesome. And I hope to see that format in the future. Okay, so on paper I would be down a hundred percent for this book. It has monsters. It is violent It has all the folklore and a history of these famous characters So what is not to love this manga is action packed I really enjoy the art style from Oma say it's very detailed But also retains sort of the cutesy element when certain facial expressions are around But it's not afraid to show you the grotesque and the hyper detailed Violence and blood and all that stuff because at the end of the day This is a creature horror story that focuses on Dracula the violence in this thing is intense. I like it I also enjoy the fact that it hits the ground running right away It wastes no time with introductions You see Vlad she spots clara in danger swoops in and the two meet and the story just goes off from there We find out about Cerberus and the introductions for these characters that clara is this golem creature created by Dr. Frankenstein and Vlad of course is a reincarnated count Dracula now in the body of a young girl with Katanas that's odd, but let's go with it because it's pretty freaking badass now unfortunately I do want to point out some negatives. The first one is the Translation now by no means am I an expert in the Japanese language? This is obviously written in Japanese and translated first for the English market before being released over there However, the dialogue in this series is very clunky at times the way Characters are being addressed and the way they behave and tell their narratives and all that stuff It all felt kind of jumbled at times. I don't know if it's my copy from kodansha But this one feels of a lesser quality the paper stock is very thin and the printing itself the inks and all that stuff It just looks I don't know a little Less than standard from what I'm accustomed to when it comes to kodansha releases It might be my copy or it might be every copy. Who knows? And the last thing i'm going to mention when it comes to negatives is the Paneling and art direction here from the mangaka oma say there are a lot of panels and headshots that are Reused time and time again when I first noticed it. I thought huh, okay Well, it makes sense that you would use like the cover here with blad you would think okay. That's a cool pose That's an actual scene from the story and the author copies it a couple pages later in another shot Which okay happens all the time, you know, you you make that uh cost effective But then I saw it a third time and a fourth time and sometimes even a fifth time It got pretty funny trying to spot it and there are other reaction shots Or certain drawings of these characters where you see them time and time again now. I can't draw I used to but i'm not good at it anymore. So I don't want to criticize that. I'm just pointing these things out It's pretty funny and it made it a little bit less enjoyable because I was focusing on these technicalities instead of enjoying this action romp be monster type story Of fricking Dracula as a katana wielding princess, but I still want to read this There's so much fun to be had with this story. So by all means do not take this as me not recommending it I think it's awesome. So if you're a fan of horror stories and creatures folklore monsters action Blood and and all that gore goodness Then you'll be right at home with blood blade But do be aware of some of the issues that I pointed out here on this many first impressions slash review The next one that we are talking about is a kingdom of quartz. This is volume one by This was one of my most anticipated books from this batch I was really looking forward to reading this and the reason this video came out so late is because I was waiting for this book to arrive It finally did and I was able to read through it pretty quickly the scenes flow pretty easily here But it was a lot of fun. This is labeled as a sumptuous dark fantasy We follow an orphan girl named blue who lives in this kingdom that is segmented into like four districts And they protect the crowning kingdom of quartz It's all surrounded by angels and it takes a lot of cues from judaeo christian iconography and mythology and all these things where we have essentially a story about angels versus demons and the character of blue She's always dreamt of becoming an angel But there is some prejudice because of her unusual black wings She is saved from a prank gone wrong as she was trying to stop these kids from bullying another And she slipped from a balcony and fell and was saved by one of the top ranking Angels in this kingdom when people notice that she had black wings They of course tried throwing food at her and cursing at her telling blue that she was a demon so we see a lot of discrimination towards characters like that and other angel characters that have One wing or I guess I shouldn't call them angels because you have to take a Certification exam to become one they sort of act like knights in the kingdom think of it like that They can fly and have Abilities I guess with swords and all that and makes for a very engaging beautiful read one of the best aspects of this volume Is the art I did not know about bum hat I hope i'm pronouncing this correctly and this creator just is wickedly talented. I love the art here It's a cross between cartoonish and elegance with a little fantastical thrown into the mix the villains or the demon themselves They are based on the biblically accurate angels if you've seen the drawings on those and that took me by surprise I thought they were going to be drawn like oni or traditional like Lucifer type demons and stuff like that, but no they're more weird and Eldritch in nature But really the star of this series aside from the Art is blue. I really enjoy this character. She's awesome a very wholesome optimistic character And one of my favorite panels from this aside from the gorgeous visuals when she's staring face to face This giant eyeball of a demon is when she remembers her caretaker and one of the heads of the orphanage And she tells her that even though when she was young she lost one of her wings in an accident She was thrown out and people Said she was cursed and could sympathize with blue for being ostracized for her looks and being quote unquote different But she tells her that she doesn't know why blue was born with black wings But believes everything happens for a reason and one day you will find your purpose until then have faith that scene was my favorite thing out of the whole book and found myself in those shoes for certain reasons outside of YouTube or whatever and really got motivated by that and a little teary eyed and Made me want to root for this character even more after certain events happen There is sort of this training arc that starts and ends in a cliffhanger So I am very much looking forward to blue's adventures and the possibility of her becoming an official angel for the Kingdom and defending the goddess and all that stuff So definitely do give a kingdom of quartz a shot if you like the whole angels versus demons and the underdog story of blue An orphan trying to become something much greater than herself It's a very universal theme that I know a lot of people can get behind so definitely do give it a shot I think codoncha knocked it out of the park with the release for this one compared to blood blade I don't know. Maybe i'm salty with that blood blade qc issue, but that's just me The next one is Smoking behind the supermarket with you. This is published by square enix manga and that is pretty awesome This is a story that is written and drawn by genushi and if memory serves me right the mangaka has published most of this on Twitter or drawings of it and This is collected from that. It tells the story of a 45 year old office worker called sasaki Who is going through that corporate grind? He is exhausted by Being overworked his boss isn't necessarily the kindest and there's just a lot of stress with his corporate job And one of his highlights, which is pretty pathetic, but kind of relatable is that at the end of the day He can leave work go to the local convenience store on his way home Buy some cigarettes and food from a lovely young girl called yamada who is one of the cashiers at the convenience store So at the start of the manga sasaki follows this routine and finds that yamada is not present That day at the convenience store a little bummed out He leaves but catches a glimpse of somebody behind the supermarket who is smoking Cigarettes she is a stunning young girl who invites him to share a smoke with her Her name is tayama and sasaki doesn't realize that he Kind of already knows her of course tayama is aware that sasaki is kind of clueless And does not realize that she is yamada So she has a perfect opportunity to tease our protagonist by creating two different personalities Obviously she is tired of behaving nicely So she takes this opportunity to vent her frustrations I guess and smoke it out at the end of a work shift at the back of the store So there is some relation between the two characters in this aspect sasaki is too wholesome naive and good spirited He doesn't realize that he's making a fool of himself by thinking that these are two separate characters And will tell tayama of yamada and confess about You know, uh, his corporate grind and wanting to see yamada every day because it sort of Alleviates his soul because she is so nice tayama Blushes but keeps up with the gags and wants to tease him further So if you read stuff like teasing takagi san or uzaki chan wants to hang out You know of the teasing sub-genre in manga and this pretty much is an adult version of that It also has that style and cool factor that reminds me of things like call of the night For example from kotoyama where you have sort of these characters Going through the motions of life and meeting at this specific place most of the time at night under the Lights of the convenience store and just sharing a cigarette I guess using that to vent away their frustrations and form a relationship this gag manga slash slice of life slash romance if you will is really sweet and earnest It has a lot of fun poking at our main protagonist and his clueless nature But I fear that as we keep reading more and more volumes It's going to be more of the same and I mean this in the most positive way If you read this volume, you pretty much have the highs and lows Story beat wise and you don't really need more You want more because you can't get enough of these two characters and you want to see what else happens to them What other Hilarious moments they get caught in but again It's a slice of life where you have this character Revisiting the convenience store and not figuring out that yamada and tayama are the same So that gag gets repeated over and over so I could see some people being turned off by that But again, if you enjoy these two characters their relationship and the jokes and all that stuff I think you'll be happy to come back for a volume two One of the aspects that I thought I was going to be a hundred percent on board But I wasn't a huge fan of was the art It's not necessarily for me a hundred percent of the times, but I do like it. It's charming enough. It's well drawn It's just not to my preferred styles But I do recommend it regardless if you like a good comedy series with Romance and slice of life elements and all that stuff smoking behind the supermarket with you Might be that something that you can relate to these are characters that are very down to earth and have very Human problems. There are no deos ex machina. There's no other worldly plot. It's not an isekai. None of that It's just characters going through the motions of life and its hardships and connecting on the most simplest of things Of just sharing a cigarette and being friends The last book that we're going to talk about is a nude model and other stories from subasa yamaguchi She is the same mangaka that created blue period Which is also a manga based on art and this was Light the experience as you know in this channel. I love talking about short story collections They're some of my favorite things to collect when it comes to comic books and manga And we get three short stories here that tackle similar themes of obsession Love and even eroticism. So in the first story nude model We have the story of a delinquent young man who is Dared by his other delinquent friends to seduce this introverted girl who draws and As part of this really sick cruel game that first the boy is eager to participate But as soon as he starts interacting with this girl things begin to change in a very interesting way The dynamics change and the relationship becomes a little bit twisted The second story is called girl and this one threw me for a loop. This is very Not safe for work in nature. It even carries a warning label for sexual assault and it tells the story of this boy who I guess to fulfill his erotic needs has an unusual auditory fetish where he records himself and That leads into other hijinks in this book and the third story is called Kamiya, which is about a doctor who can't stand the sight of blood and she Overcomes her phobia thanks to a host club staffed by vampires Now what's cool about this book is that all three stories I think definitely stick the landing you don't see the twist coming and it makes for a much More engaging read. I don't necessarily want to spoil what happens in here because I want you to experience it So I'm just giving you my impressions and my overall spoiler free review, but this was really freaking good I enjoyed all three stories subasa yamaguchi does a fantastic job of tackling these narratives and creating something unique I love the idea that with kamiya, for example, it's a doctor She is expected to handle all sorts of dangerous things and cases and patients and moments with blood and all that but she's afraid of blood and You sneak in the supernatural with this supposed nightclub of vampires and they're known for consuming blood So mixing those two elements together makes for a very compelling character progression for the main doctor here As she grows to overcome her fear and just for the hell of it the author throws in a phenomenal Aspect to it that when it hits it hits hard and I was not expecting that finale I loved it girl, even though it's the most erotic in nature because of this character having this Need to record himself doing this and word gets around so people get excited But the main character has some very not so good opinions about girls in general So that's an interesting subject here with the characters dealing with being teenagers in school and sexuality how hormones can basically drive kids to do and say the most absurd things and nude model I thought was the Most romantic story out of the bunch and was actually pretty sweet There is some malice to it But the characters as they get to know each other they evolve and change Their perception of things and that is awesome to see so even though these three stories might not be not safe for work They are really good reads and teaches you about understanding your fellow human being in a Darker twisted and kind of erotic way. I know it's unorthodox But I think the mangaka does a great job at it So I highly recommend it if you're a fan of short stories or if you are a fan of blue period You might want to check out nude model with these three stories. Definitely do give it a shot I think this is a really cool release from codoncha So there it is folks another reading vlog I genuinely enjoyed going through these four books And I'm actively looking forward to volume twos for three of the books that I talked about here But what about you guys? Have you read these books? Let me know in the comment section down below if you have and if you haven't what are some other Similar books that you think I should check out Thank you everybody for liking commenting and being a part of manga geekdom I truly do appreciate it. That's gonna be it for now. God bless. Stay safe out there I will catch all of you on our next video