James Nicoll Reviews

Sorata Akizuki’s Snow White with the Red Hair (Akagami no Shirayukihime) is an ongoing shoujo manga. It is very, very, very loosely based on the folktale of Snow White. 

Prince Raji of Tabarun decides to take herbalist Shirayuki as his next concubine. Why? Because her hair is the colour of red ripe apples. It does not occur to him that Shirayuki might have her own thoughts about the matter. He dispatches a summons and awaits his new red-haired lover. 

Rather than submit to being a spoiled prince’s momentary pastime, Shirayuki cuts off her long red hair, leaving it for the prince who valued it so much, then decamps for the neighbouring kingdom of Clarines. Along the way she takes shelter in an abandoned mansion, one that is not so empty as it appears. 

Enter another prince. 

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2019’s The Wandering Earth (Chinese: 流浪地球) is a 2019 Chinese film adaptation of Liu Cixin’s novella of the same name (which I have not read). It is directed by Frant Gwo and stars Qu Chuxiao, Li Guangjie, Ng Man-tat, Zhao Jinmai, Wu Jing, and Qu Jingjing. A major hit in China, it was stealth-released on Netflix on May 6, 2019. 

Bad news for Earth! The Sun is transitioning from a main sequence star to a red giant five billion years ahead of schedule. Life within the Solar System will soon become impossible. 

There’s an alternative to extinction, at least for humanity. Simply move the Earth to the Alpha Centauri system. 

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Kingdom is a 2019 South Korean television series. It was written by Kim Eun-hee and directed by Kim Seong-hun. There are six episodes in season one, of which this is the third. The primary cast are (from Wikipedia): 

• Ju Ji-hoon as Crown Prince Yi Chang 

• Ryu Seung-ryong as Cho Hak-ju 

• Bae Doo-na as Seo-bi 

• Kim Sung-gyu as Yeong-shin 

Prince Yi Chang, crown prince of Great Joseon, is trying to discover just what is going on with his father, the king, who is secluded in his palace. The prince is opposed by his stepmother and her Haewon Cho clan. As a result, the prince is now a wanted man. Oh, and the kingdom is threatened with zombie apocalypse. 

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Gangsta, Volume 1 collects the first five issues of Kohske’s eponymous SF crime manga. First published in 2011, the English language edition came out in 2014. 

Ergastulum is a hive of scum and villainy, populated by monsters and victims. The cops are crooked, the criminals are in charge, and life is for the most part unpleasant. 

Worick Arcangelo and Nicolas Brown are handymen. They handle problems the other people of Ergastulum are unwilling or unable to face. 

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Yes, this is very late. I keep over-scheduling myself. I have only myself to blame.

One-Punch Man Volume Three collects Punches (issues) 16 through 20 (plus some bonus material) of ONE and Yusuke Murata’s ongoing manga. 

Saitama is super-fast, super-strong, and super-invulnerable. He is also super-obscure because neither Saitama nor Saitama’s acolyte Genos have ever bothered to register with the Hero Association. Time to fix that. 

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FLCL is a six-part anime series written by Yōji Enokido, and directed by Kazuya Tsurumaki. It was released in 2000 and 2001. 

Twelve-year-old Naota Nandaba lives with his father and grandfather in backwater Mabase. He grudgingly tolerates the uninvited attentions of high-schooler Mamimi Samejima. 

It’s a humdrum life. To quote Naota, 

​“Nothing amazing happens here. Everything is ordinary.”

Enter attractive maniac Haruko Haruhara, who 

• runs Naota down with her Vespa; 

• gives him CPR; 

• wallops him in the head with her guitar. 

It’s not madness, although Haruko is dubiously sane. She has a plan.… 

Soon after finding himself lip-locked with the madcap Haruko, Haoto finds himself struggling with ill-timed protrusions. 

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Choukakou, which is also known as Chang Ge Xing, Chang Ge’s Journey, or Song of the Long March, is an ongoing manhua (Chinese comic) series by Xia Da. Volume Three collects issues twelve through eighteen. 

Princess Li Chang Ge survived the Turkish conquest of Shuo by transferring her allegiance from the doomed governor of Shuo to General Sun of the Turks. Sun accepted Li Chang Ge as a subordinate. Sun is unaware that: 

• Li Chang Ge is a woman; 

• she is the niece of the Chinese emperor Taizong; 

• Taizong ordered Li Chang Ge’s father and his entire family executed; 

• Li Chang Ge is a wanted fugitive. 

Sun habitually distrusts women and he certainly does not need to be drawn into Chinese dynastic disputes. He has Turkish dynastic disputes to concern him. 

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Kingdom is a 2019 South Korean television series. It was written by Kim Eun-hee and directed by Kim Seong-hun. There are six episodes in season one, of which this is the second. 

Primary cast: 

• Ju Ji-hoon as Crown Prince Yi Chang 

• Ryu Seung-ryong as Cho Hak-ju 

• Bae Doo-na as Seo-bi 

• Kim Sung-gyu as Yeong-shin 

Supporting cast: 

• Kim Sang-ho as Moo-young 

• Heo Joon-ho as An Hyun 

• Jeon Seok-ho as Beom-pal 

• Kim Hye-jun as Queen Consort Cho 

• Jung Suk-won as Cho Beom-il 

The Haewon Cho clan has unjustly framed Crown Prince Yi Chang. They accuse him — correctly, as it happens, although innocence would not have stopped the clan from trying to remove the Prince — of conspiring against his own father, the King of Great Joseon. The Crown Prince has serendipitously left the capital before he could be arrested. 

Great Joseon has problems much larger than mere dynastic conflicts. 

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Tsukumizu’s Girl’s Last Tour, volume six was first published in 2017. The Yen Press translation into English was published in 2019. It collects chapters 41 to 47 of Tsukumizu’s ongoing tale of two girls, Yuuri and Chito, wandering a desolate, doomed Earth. It is the final volume. 

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Adachitoka’s Noragami Volume 11 collects issues 40 to 43 of the adventures of the stray god Yato. The manga was first published in 2014; the English translation was published in 2016. Included in the volume are 

• 40. ​“We Not-So-Humbly Pray” (恐み恐みも白さず ​“Kashikomi mo Mōsazu”) 

• 41. ​“A Picture Together” (一緒に写真を ​“Issho ni Shashin wo”) 

• 42. ​“Causes Nothing but Disaster” (厄災しか起こせない ​“Yakusai Shika Okosenai”) 

• 43. ​“Secrets” (秘め事 ​“Himegoto”)

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