[continued from previous message]   
      
   isn't enough to change it right away.  The overall tone is happy, as several   
   characters have found or returned to family, but there's a wistful tinge to   
   it.  Recommended.  $2/month unlocks the entire series.   
      
        A couple of the books below I first read on LibraryPass (Cat + Crazy,   
   Infini-T Force), but paper copies arrived in the mail in time to make the cut   
   for August.   
      
        Expected next month: As usual, I dunno.  The final Adventure Finders   
   epilogue might hit, but Espinosa has a lot of outside paying work these days,   
   which is good.   
      
      
   Manga Collections:   
      
        Most of these are "tankobon" or collections of work serialized in a   
   weekly or monthly publication, although some were written directly for the   
   collection.  All of them have been translated from Japanese (or maybe Korean,   
   although I don't think I'm reading any manhwa) into English.  Things with a   
   manga aesthetic but done in English originally will go in one of the sections   
   below as appropriate.   
      
        Gunsmith Cats Omnibus vol 2: Dark Horse - I only got about halfway   
   through before giving up on this and the series in general.  Maybe had I read   
   this when it first came out thirty years ago I'd have been more into it, but   
   frankly the whole "evil lesbian domme who drugs and sexually abuses Rally"   
   thing puts me off these days.  Especially since she doesn't even get killed   
   off like most antagonists in this book, so there's a chance she'll be back.   
   Even if she never did come back, I do not like at all the fact Sonoda left   
   the option open.  A pity, because when the story's not being extremely skeevy   
   there's some good stuff here and there, but...nope.  Avoid.  $29.99/$39.99Cn,   
   parental advisory sticker and a lot of nudity and the aforementioned SA.   
      
        Cat + Crazy vol 1: Dark Horse - I didn't even realize this was coming   
   out, having missed it in my skimming of upcoming manga, but it showed up on   
   the LibraryPass site and after reading about a third of it I decided to grab   
   it.  By the same creator as Cat + Gamer, this seems to be a place for story   
   ideas that were too weird or unrealistic for Cat + Gamer.  On the one hand,   
   there are so far no "cat POV thoughts" like in the chapter-end bonus bits of   
   C+G.  On the other, cat-based martial arts and a protagonist who follows the   
   local feral cats and takes notes with the intensity of Midora's superhero   
   note-taking in My Hero Academia.  (The protagonist has to go with ferals   
   because everyone else in his family is horribly allergic to cat hair and he   
   can't get a pet cat.)  As someone who's been feeding and observing local   
   ferals for a few years now, this feels like the "I'm in this picture and I   
   don't like it" meme.  :)  Recommended.  $12.99/$17.50Cn, all ages.   
      
        Go! Go! Loser Ranger! vol 14: Kodansha - After 25 chapters, the   
   Three-Way Melee finally wraps up, but it's not the end of the story...just an   
   opportunity to dig deeper into the corruption of the Ranger Force.  I suspect   
   that the end of the Deathmecia fight was originally planned to be a possible   
   series end, but even a couple volumes ago the groundwork was being laid for   
   the longer term plot...in a not terribly shocking twist, the Ranger Force is   
   not merely a bunch of bullies clinging to power in a world that technically   
   no longer needs them (which I actually prefer to all the "the monsters are   
   gone and now the Rangers need to get real jobs" stories out there), it's   
   looking more like we might have a full on Kyubey situation here.  Or maybe   
   3/4 of a Kyubey.  Not a great place to be if you're a monster, anyway.  I did   
   quite like that Fighter D spent a big chunk of the climax in his back cover   
   pose (mostly, he lost part of a leg to a Divine Weapon last volume).   
   Recommended.  $10.99/$14.99Cn, rated Older Teen 16+ (lots of black and white   
   blood and trauma).   
      
        Wolf's Daughter: A Werewolf's Tale vol 1: Seven Seas - This is one of   
   those books I saw on the upcoming releases lists and thought, "Interesting,   
   but I'll wait to see if it's on the shelf."  The week and month of its   
   scheduled release, nothing, so I passed on.  But this month I did see it on   
   the shelf, so picked it up.  Structurally, this is a pretty standard "Young   
   woman on the cusp of adulthood is torn between a nice guy and the jerk bad   
   boy who she finds inexplicably compelling," romantic angle (it's not a   
   triangle unless the guys are into each other too, and Seven Seas is way more   
   into yuri than yaoi so I don't think that'll happen).  However, as the title   
   states, she's a werewolf.  And both guys are werewolves.  And in the   
   mythology of the series, there are two tribes of werewolves descended from   
   the first "messengers of the gods," with the nice guy being from the more   
   socially integrated rural tribe and the jerk being from the literal lone wolf   
   mountain tribe...they hate each other on an institutional level.  And Tsukina   
   (yes, tsuki means moon) isn't part of either clan.  The nice guy is named   
   Hayate, which is a legendary and loyal dog's name.  The jerk's name has not   
   been revealed yet, but I'd bet it has "lone wolf" symbolism.  So, yeah,   
   there's the usual romance tropes available, but it's also as if Romeo and   
   Juliet faked their deaths, then gave their kid up for adoption in another   
   city, only to have the kid roll into Verona and immediately get clocked as   
   being half-Montague and half-Capulet.  So...speaking as someone who doesn't   
   generally read romance, this has my interest.  Recommended.  $13.99/$17.99Cn,   
   rated Teen 13+ (romantic themes, suggestion but not depiction of bad things   
   that could happen to a girl on her own).   
      
        Spy x Family vol 14: Viz Media/Shonen Jump - With a main plot that's on   
   a clock and a series that has gotten very popular, the writer needs to find   
   ways to stretch things out.  The first academic term finally ends this   
   volume, a pacing worthy of Dumbing of Age, but it's been loaded with side   
   stories and flashbacks.  This volume demonstrates this, because more than   
   half the pagecount delves into the shared history of two of the Respectable   
   Old People in the story (elegant cover character Howard Henderson, and the   
   attendant of the Blackbells usually seen with Anya's friend Becky, Martha   
   Marriot).  In a world that is sort of like the 1950s/60s Cold War as seen in   
   spy movies, Howard and Martha's story starts before this world's version of   
   World War One.  Lots of parallels to Loid's own WWII-ish flashbacks.  On the   
   one hand, the focus is mostly off the characters who drew me into the series.   
   On the other, I appreciate taking a joke character like Mr. Elegant and   
   giving him depth and something more than a catchphrase to define him.   
   Recommended.  $11.99/$15.99Cn, rated Older Teen (a lot of war stuff).   
      
        The Way of the Househusband vol 14: Viz Media - I keep dreading the   
   point at which the joke has been played out, it doesn't seem like it   
   should've made it even THIS far without starting to sputter out.  And there's   
   been a few volumes that were a little weaker, I admit.  But the worldbuilding   
   just keeps on going, giving Tatsu more foils and giving more depth to the   
   ones he has.  Even relatively one-note characters at least get a second   
   partial note here and there, and Tatsu himself is not forced to carry the   
   incongruity humor all by his lonesome, as sometimes he gets to be the one   
   boggling at someone else's "gangster behavior that is not appropriate here."   
   The two major new (likely recurring) characters this volume are the ghost of   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)