While there are plenty of manga about robots or dystopian futures, it doesn’t seem to me like there are many old-fashioned men in space science fiction manga available in English. The first volumes for two recent series dealing with life in space have recently been published, so today I’ll take a look at Vertical’s Twin Spica and Viz’s Saturn Apartments. I think both series would appeal to science fiction fans, but I found one charming and the other left me cold.
Twin Spica by Kou Yaginuma
Tiny thirteen year old Asumi’s greatest …

Online manga can be a little difficult to track down if you are trying to avoid the many sites that exist to host scanlations (fan translations), or in the most egregious cases, hosting scans of the American manga editions. Fortunately in recent months more American publishers are putting manga online for free sampling or to make it easy to subscribe for electronic access. I’ll give an overview of some of the places you can go to read manga online legally.
FREE ONLINE MANGA
Viz Media caused a stir when it started serializing …

Fumi Yoshinaga is probably the most critically acclaimed female manga artist among the pool of creators that have had their works translated in the US. She’s won many awards in Japan for her work and has been nominated for Eisner Awards. Her series frequently end up on YALSA’s Great Graphic Novels for Teens lists. She got her start in shonen ai and yaoi manga, but her best works transcend the limitations and storytelling conventions usually found in these genres.
Today we’ll take a look at her most accessible work. There’s something …

It is easy to find plenty of manga about intrepid boy ninjas or vampire boarding schools on the crowded shelves of your chain bookstore, but it is sometimes difficult to distinguish manga titles aimed at adults.  This column will provide an overview of the best manga out there featuring characters in their twenties.
Ohikkoshi by Hiroaki Samura (amazon)

This is a single volume of short stories by the creator of the sprawling samurai saga Blade of the Immortal. Samura uses the short story form to indulge in writing humor and as a …