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Hot Manga of 2015 (so far!)

Taiyo Nakashima Taiyo Nakashima 26/06/2015 6 min read
Time flies, and the first half of 2015 is already over. Today, I’d like to introduce some prominent manga that were released between January and June of this year. First up, we have Ryoko Kui’s “Delicious in Dungeon”, which was released in January. Looking at the pictures, you’d think it was an old-fashioned dungeon crawling kind of adventure. But in reality, it’s a gourmet manga, about adventurers who hunt and cook the monsters that they find in dungeons! Watching the heroes hunt down grotesque monsters, licking their lips, wondering how they’ll taste or how it would be best to cook them is really funny! Word of this manga spread far and wide, and Delicious in Dungeon is continually being sold-out in bookstores. Without a doubt, this manga will be ranked highly by the end of the year. In May, a manga called My Brother’s Husband” was released, and made a splash. The artist, Gengoro Tagame, usually draws for gay magazines, and styles himself as a “Gay Erotic Artist”. Some of his works have been published in France and he’s well-known in the gay community. This time however, for the first time, he has published a work in a normal magazine (The Monthly Action). The story starts with a father, Yaichi, and his elementary school daughter, Kana, living together, when a Canadian man named Mike comes to visit them. Mike announces that he was married to Yaichi’s deceased twin brother, and Kana, getting very excited, asks “Can two guys get married!?” Gengoro skillful depicts Yaichi’s dilemma, and at the same time, through the character of Mike, explains exactly what it means to be gay. On the other hand, it’s also fun to see how Mike approaches Yaichi, who after all looks exactly like the person he loved most in the world! Besides those, there’s also Land, a manga about a small Japanese village that’s isolated from the outside world, drawn by Kazumi Yamashita (well known for her work “Tensai Yanagisawa Kyouju no Seikatsu” – The Life of Genius Professor Yanagizawa),Tonkatsu DJ Agetaro” (by Yujiro Koyama & Ipyao), a bizarre combination of the club scene and… tonkatsu!? (Pork cutlet) and “Mizuiro no Heya” (by Yukiko Goto), a beautiful yet cruel tale that begins with a son witnessing the rape of his mother. What will the next six months bring? What will be the next big hit? I’ll be reporting them to you as soon as they appear, so please check this corner regularly! Article: Korosuke Narasaki Translator & Editor: Andrew L.   Editor’s note: Eating monsters caught in a dungeon!? A DJ cooking tonkatsu!? Japan’s passion for food never ceases to amaze me! They keep coming up more and more original ideas for food manga! “My Brother’s Husband” is also quite revolutionary. Gay marriage has been a major topic in the west these last few years, but Japan (despite all its BL and erotic manga) is still quite a conservative country in many ways. I think the average person on the street could definitely use a manga like this to expand the ways that they think about marriage and sexuality. I’m also looking forward to seeing what the next 6 months of 2015 bring! Keep drawing everyone!
Taiyo Nakashima

Taiyo Nakashima

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