Four Interesting Currently Ongoing Manga!

 AI no Idenshi Blue Age - Yamada Kyuri

AI no Idenshi Blue Age - Akita Shoten

A continuation of a classic series that has received widespread praise and the first shounen manga to land an award at the Japan Media Arts Festival. The Blue Age series is a return to the episodic story telling of the first series. This turn to the first series story telling is very much a return to what the series defined itself as to begin. The more story centered series in the form of Red Planet was effective but the world Yamada Kyuri created just has way more stories to tell into these shorter self contained stories. 

This series still explores humanity and artificial intelligence with the same effect as the previous series. It raises many debates over what humanity can look like in a future where artificial intelligence exists. These debates and the questions it raises are dealt so naturally that it has earned the praise of Hideaki Anno and Mamoru Oshii but also experts in the field of AI alike. In part this is because of Yamada Kyuri's knowledge that comes from background as a social studies graduate and person who worked as a reporter for IT news, a news site that focuses on news on technology. He clearly has a personal interest in technology and humans relationship with them which has been a big part of all his manga so far. His knowledge and his subtle story telling allows him to create clear focused stories and explore rather important themes to consider for the future. 

Heterogenia Linguistico - Seno Salt

Heterogenia Linguistico - Kadokawa

Heterogenia Lingistico is set in a fantasy world where humans and monsters reside. Humans live in their own segmented world distant from the world of the monsters. This setting and the use of the world monsters might suggest that this has some sort of battle component between humans and the monsters but thats not what this series is all about. In fact, the word monster might not be quite accurate, a better word would be different species. This is a distinction that is relevant because the story is about studying the lives these species lead and of course their language. 

The story begins when the professor in charge of the research at an university hurts his back and is unable to continue his travels to study in the monsters world. Hence, its he has to entrust his research to one of his students. Our main character Hakaga is the one given this burden by the professor, so he has to go out for the first time to actually see and study the species living in the monster world in person.
The author of this work clearly shows his linguistics knowledge. Not only can he can come up with the various different ways creatures communicate via sounds but also corporally. These are all experience by the main character and he has to try his best to communicate to them by mimesis. 

This is not a trip that last a week or a month, it lasts instead an entire year. The Professor knowing Hakaga had no experience of the monster world gave him a diary of his research and arranged a guide to help with his research that he has to meet in the werewolves village.  This set up is rather interesting because it clearly resembles basically a PHD student in social sciences possibly anthropology to carry out a research project into a particular aspect of the society, and for that they need to live in that society learn the language and experience it with the help of a local.

However, what Hakaga soon learns is that being a student is one thing and part of the story is also how  he realises how complex is gathering data in practice is. His knowledge of different species languages is not directly translated into practice, so he struggles with communicating and adapting to the different cultural and linguistics trait of different creatures and this creates a wonderful atmosphere of adventure. 

An important aspect that is drawn of this is the reflexive nature of the Hakaga and the work more generally, Hakaga meets many different situations many of which are unusual for his own cultural background but he does his best to go along with them. I find this valuable because it naturalises the differences between cultures and how there can be an exchange between them even if they can be very distinct from each other. It is has a valuable theme of understanding cultural differences that it explores through its ethnographic cross cultural outlook and portrayal of linguistics and cultural differences. But if you do not care about anything I just said them there is at least furry loli to keep you interested.  

Hakumei to Mikochi - Kashiki Takuto

Hakumei to Mikochi - Yen Press

An iyashikei blessing, the little life in the forest of Hakumei and Mikochi is one of the most comfortable series to read that are currently ongoing. The setting helps in this as it creates a minuscule fantasy world replicating our own. Hakumei and Mikochi live out their lives in this world and we explore this small society through their eyes. 

Hakumei to Mikochi taps into the iyashikei aspect with precision through its well crafted art and its sweet story telling that is for the most part episodic in nature. It has as a result of that no plot or climax to speak of. It is really just a story about the daily life of Hakumei to Mikochi in this small yet really interesting world. An iyashikei blessing, the little life in the forest of Hakumei and Mikochi is one of the most comfortable series to read that are currently ongoing. The setting helps in this as it creates a minuscule fantasy world replicating our own. Hakumei and Mikochi live out their lives in this world and we explore this small society through their eyes. 

Even if The World is Over, It Is Fun To Live - Tottori Sakyuu

Even if The World is Over, Its Fun To Live - Overlap

A series I stumbled onto recently from Comic Gardo. It is a survival series in a post apocalyptic world in which the world has is covered by a strange mist from time to time, and from that mist emerges monster like creatures seemingly mutated versions of normal animals. In a sense, it is clear this is our world but completely destroyed and devoid of any human life. However, there human like creatures such as the main character who resembles a human but with a miniature size. 

She is trying to survive in this dangerous world swirling with monstrous creatures alongside er friend which resembles a mutated ferret It would be more wise of her to find a place to live distant from the fog however, there are reasons for her travelling and putting herself in danger. One of the reason she is travelling is to fulfil a mission left by her father for her and for that she has to bypass many monsters which requires many battles wit and resilience. 

The setting is not unique. However, it shapes a vast but eerie world to explore in which the main character is never too far from danger. There is a natural tension as a result because of her miniature size in opposition to the creatures at large. However, those things are not exactly what made it stand out for me. What actually did was how it can shift mood from a more on the edge feel into a more comfortable chill one. One of the ways it can do that is with by slowing down the pace and inserting more daily life scenes that help build the characters and the relationships. In this sense, ot feels like a iyashikei series but at the same time not really because it is building a story slowly through pieces given to the reader and things are not peaceful, instead they are often incredibly dangerous. In a sense this is why i feel this series is captivating since it can subtly control the mood from a iyashikei series to a action more dramatic horror series so easily and effectively. 

Another different type of post, hopefully you guys enjoyed it. If you did consider following me on twitter for updates @shonen_mania