Piece – bonutzuu’s manga archive

Piece is a 10-volume manga by Ashihara Hinako. The story centers around college student Suga Mizuho and her quest to find the man who got her friend pregnant before that friend died of cancer. As Mizuho ‘pieced’ together fragments of her friend’s life, she learned more about herself and the people around her.

I don’t really want to spoil the story because it’s just layer upon layer of mysteries and one red herring after the other. It’s not your typical shoujo, that’s for sure.

Gosh, now that I can’t spoil too much, I don’t what to write about lol. Anyway, the stuff Piece discusses is something that’s real in teen societies. I’ve known people who had the same or similar problems to the protagonists. The characters are very much people with their own charms and shortcomings, and that’s what made Piece so interesting to read.

Piece has themes on bullying and child abuse, and it doesn’t end on a perfectly satisfactory note (plus it’s a bit unsettling) so that’s what I want to say to those who might be interested in reading. It’ll give you lots to think about and interpret on your own. I personally think this is a very good manga.

Canon – bonutzuu’s manga archive

Canon is a Thai shoujo manga written and illustrated by Neeracha Sirichai. This looked like something that I would’ve really liked as a kid so I bought and read it. And honestly it was pretty good.

Canon follows a priestess/daughter of the gods Canon who must pray for the stability of the land and not leave the temple. One day she’s just minding her own business when a self-proclaimed famous thief called Theo barged in to steal the holy water stored inside the temple. He accidentally dragged Canon outside while making his escape and found out that she’s actually the big shot.

Rokunin No Akazukin Wa Konya Taberareru – bonutzuu’s light novel archive

Bought this on a whim and was surprised. This book surpassed my expectations.

On the night of the red moon, the beast Chevodon will appear. A wolf larger than a raging ox, fiercer than a mother bear, and cleverer than man – it will hunt down red-hooded girls and all who lend them aid. Only six red-hooded girls remains, and tonight, they will all be killed.

This is a light novel by Korimomo Amayuki, illustrated by Shiso. I ran into this book randomly on Shoppee and decided to get it just out of curiosity. I didn’t expect it to be such a page-turner that I finished the whole book in one night.

This is a mystery/thriller about a bunch of girls and a hunter fighting against a fearsome beast. If the premise interests you at all, I recommend trying this book out without reading spoilers in my post.

Kamitoki no Resist vol 1-3 – bonutzuu’s manga archive

The great Jinkishi, who keeps demons at bay, died. Youkai are on the rise. Yet Shihodo Jin, the sole descendant of the Jinkishi, had no desire to inherit his father’s position.

Fate comes in the form of Araragi Hayato, who came to Kyoto in order to claim the seat of Jinkishi for himself and his family. However, the powers of Jinkishi cannot be passed onto another individual, so Hayato casted a spell in the form of a red thread, a curse that bound him and Jin forever.

Kamitoki no Resist – Tales of Men who Persist Justice and Resist Destiny is a manga by Yamada Shiro, from her experiences living in Kyoto. It looks like BL but no, there’s just some strong energy going on between the two male leads.

Anyway, here’s the story: [spoilers alert! I write everything from beginning to end]

KOBATO (CLAMP) – bonutzuu’s manga archive

I remember watching snippets of the Kobato anime on TV more than ten years ago. I remember not liking it much, because I didn’t like the pressure from having to collect wounded hearts and to never ever take your hat off in public. However, I decided to give the manga a go because it was only 6 volumes long. And wow, what an amazing, fluffy, warm, fulfilling journey.

You can see the sun-licked volume 6 lol, this manga’s been sitting in the publisher’s inventory since forever.

Kobato is a manga by CLAMP, and I think it’s one of their underrated series. Many characters from their previous works appear here as cameo (Angelic Layer, XXXHolic, Tsubasa Chronicle etc.).

Kyoushirou and the Eternal Sky (Shattered Angels) – bonutzuu’s manga archive

Let me tell you a bit of why I only have volume 3 of a 3-volume manga. Volume 1-2 went out of print, so I ordered the third book online, and a day later received an email from the publisher saying that the manga’s been sitting in their warehouse for so long that the cover’s colors have faded and the laminate (is that the word?) came off. They said they’d choose the one that looks best for me, so I said okay, I just wanna read the content, I’m not interested in collecting. And so here it is. Honestly it looks better than some first-hand books I got from other publishers lol. You should’ve seen my Deadman Wonderland. Looks like it’s been dipped in water before shipping to me.

Now on to the content.

Aria the AVVENIRE / CREPUSCOLO / BENEDIZIONE – healing&nostalgia

I first saw Aria when I was in elementary school, so when Avvenire came out when I got to highschool, I was like ‘hurray more Aria, I’ll watch it if I have time’. But then I got around to watch it eight years later lol. Thank you Muse Asia for bringing it to Youtube.

Anyway, I think it’s good that I watched it when I did. Aria strikes a different cord when I watched it as an adult. When I watched Aria the Animation, Natural, and Origination when I was about 9-10 years old, I remember being fascinated by the beautiful scenery and fantasy world, and just enjoying the ride with the cast. You could say that I was like the singles training to become primas, a kid studying hard to become an adult. Now that I’m an adult, it’s less about Neo-Venezia’s fantastical world and more about the people and wonders in it.

I got myself stuck in a productivity trap, which gave me a really bad burnout that progressed into depression. I started doubting all my life choices and why I’m even here. I started questioning why I was not happy despite having wonderful parents, a house to live in, a bunch of lovely dogs, and great friends that I can always talk to, and that questioning made me feel even worse. What I forgot was the lesson that Aria taught me since elementary school: appreciate the small ‘miracles’ in life. The little things, the little wonders that fill your days.

Muteki Banjo Bakuraiga (Super Universe Bakuraiga) – bonutzuu’s (obscure) manga archive

Cheesy and over the top mecha for kids that escalated into Evangelion by the drop of a hat.

Bakuraiga is a one-volume manga by Eichi Shimizu and Tomohiro Shimoguchi. This post will be pretty short because honestly, I have no clue what happened.

Bakuraiga combines mecha with motorcycle gangster aesthetics. Basically this Baku dude and his sidekick fought against this random ‘banjo’ to rescue his childhood friend and Asuka Langley-lookalike whose name I forgot. Baku’s dad brought his son to his secret base and showed him the superpowered mecha Bakuraiga that he prepared. His dad became known as the ‘muteki banjo’ (invincible sovereign) in order to fight against an organization called ‘Dragon Circus’ or DC for short. DC is anti-god, anti-everything, and it’s got a pretty confusing ideology in general so I’m not going into that.

Anyway, the story is your classic villain-of-the-week morning anime kid stuff until halfway through the volume… where the story introduced us to ‘Seigi’, a very promising character with complex stuff going on inside his head. On one hand, he’s hell bent on serving justice, on the verge of using his sense of justice to cover his thirst for blood, which one of the villain quickly pointed out. But then what happened? All that got thrown aside when Bakuraiga got the ‘axe’ warning, and the authors decided to shove everything they planned for the manga into a few chapters, resulting in a mess as if it’s hit by the Third-Impact. A cheesy and cliched overpowered mecha manga turned into Evangelion both in plot and mood, and it really caught me off guard. I only have images for two pages but I think you get the idea.

So overall, I would like to leave Bakuraiga in the realm of oblivion and just forget about it for good.

Kiraboshi no Gotoku – bonutzuu’s manga archive

Kiraboshi no Gotoku is a collection of four short stories published in 2014 by Mochida Aki, centering on girls who chase their own happiness.

[Note: I only know the Japanese name for the titular one-shot, Kiraboshi no Gotoku. I only know the Thai names for the other three, so it may not be accurate as to the original Japanese names.]

Hatsukoi Rocket (Happy Princess) – bonutzuu’s manga archive

I have no idea why the localized Thai version called this book Happy Princess, but oh well.

This is a one-volume collection of one shots by Taamo, published in 2005 by Shogakukan.