Insect manga

I wouldn’t have noticed Cagaster if it was not for its anime adaptation you can watch on Netflix. I was curious about its manga source, so I decided to give it a try. I knew it probably wouldn’t fit my usual reading taste, but I was willing to be surprised. Well, this really was not my thing. Hashimoto’s art itself is not bad or anything. It’s pretty clean and neat and nice to look at. I wish we got more of world building because I was mostly curious about the disease itself. You thought you’d get to look at the insect mutants? Wrong. At least not in the first volume. This was also my biggest issue. I wanted action. I didn’t want to watch some orphan girl getting scolded by adventurer. Ilie should have been left out completely, her character doesn’t suit the plot at all. So… would I recommend Cagaster? Sure. It got interesting premise and world building. Is there action? No, not yet. 2.5/5*

‘Moriking’ Vol. 2 review: Gag manga, insect lovers style

Serialization in Weekly Shonen Jump is competitive and constantly changing. This is no surprise given how many hits the magazine has churned out; the titles that don’t cut it tend to be canceled quite quickly. Unfortunately this can result in underrated manga ending far too soon. Such was the case with Tomohiro Hasegawa’s Moriking, one of my favorite new Jump titles in years. Fortunately Viz has at least released digital editions so fans and new readers can still enjoy the series in English. Vol. 2 is out this week and it adds several new characters to its cast of wacky insect-people. So, is it good?

Take for instance a sand sculpture building contest which Shota wins by constructing a hyper realistic depiction of several insect species which he titles “Flight” and explains with a long speech about evolution. Sure, Shota’s enthusiasm is part of the joke, but it feels like the manga is laughing with him, not at him. This is a series that loves and respects its characters, absurd as they may be. Another great scene is when Moriking decides to show another character what a day in the life of a king looks like, just to spend it all clinging around a tree or burrowed underneath the ground. Sure, there are occasionally jokes where the delivery is a tad off, but there aren’t any clunkers by any means.

Comedy Manga Reimagines Real Samurai as Insect in Modern Japan