Went back and finished Alexandros. It picks up after that first fifty pages, and I did find myself enjoying Alexander’s arc, but I also strongly felt that I was missing out on an element of it by not being some history nerd.
Read all of Blue Heaven last night (three volumes), and I would also say this is good but missing something. Interesting characters, but the spoken moral of “never give up!” felt weirdly anime and even just vague in context. But the translation wasn’t amazing (I am becoming much more aware every time a character says “can’t be helped”) so that may explain that. The were two short stories by the author also included. I found 69 to be completely throwaway, but Route 69 was a much more interesting character study.
I haven’t touched Prison School but one of my exes was a big fan of it. I read the 14 chapter spinoff Fukukaichou Ganbaru (apparently by a different artist, the recently and it’s definitely the same brand of absurdly over-the-top eroticism paired with slapstick and melodrama that makes it so funny. All fourteen chapters are also almost entirely nonverbal which is always a worthwhile effort in my book.
Junji Itou’s Cat Diary: Yon & Mu is perfect in every possible way, please read this comedy by a horror writer.
I’ve read the first volume of Fujiyama-san wa Shishunki and it’s about some punk ass kid who gets a crush on a 5’11" girl and is therefore a story about me. It is really cute and gentle so far. The girl’s name is Fujiyama, but Fujiyama-san also translates to “Mt. Fujiyama”. IT’S A TALL JOKE.
And lastly I’ve three volumes deep into Ushio & Tora which is old shonen (well, '90-'96) and therefore intrinsically good. I enjoy when I can get a feel for the amateurishness in a manga’s artistry because it makes me feel like the gap between me and the professionals is smaller. There’s 33 volumes in all, so I’ll die of old age before I reach the end.