The Failure at God School is the latest story from Apothecary Diaries creator Natsu Hyuuga, but beyond its supernatural trappings it's very much the kind of the school misfit story you've read a million times before. mangatestdrive.blogspot.com/2026/09/revi...

ICYMI: We've got a brand-new Disaster Report on 2012's Psychic School Wars! Learn how one man turned a classic YA novel about fighting fascism into an over-animated Makoto Shinkai knockoff about how much he hates cell phones. renaissancejosei.blogspot.com/2026/09/disa...

Disaster Report: PSYCHIC SCHOOL WARS

The last twenty years has been a good time for original anime films.  Studio Ghibli has (mostly) relinquished its dominance of the scene, th...

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Over at Renaissance Josei, we've got a brand new Disaster Report on 2012's Psychic School Wars! This hyperactive, hollow Makoto Shinkai knockoff failed not just as an adaptation and a romance but also at taking the director's career to the next level. renaissancejosei.blogspot.com/2026/09/disa...

Disaster Report: PSYCHIC SCHOOL WARS

The last twenty years has been a good time for original anime films.  Studio Ghibli has (mostly) relinquished its dominance of the scene, th...

renaissancejosei.blogspot.com

There are plenty of manga out there about super-special music schools, but most of them are not as narratively mixed-up as Alice the 101st. mangatestdrive.blogspot.com/2026/09/revi...

Review: ALICE THE 101ST

Of course, there are plenty of shojo titles about schools (and music schools in particular), but few of them are as messy as this one. ALICE...

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I've got a BRAND NEW Disaster Report going live next weekend, but paid members of my Patreon can read it right now! Won't you chip in and join them? www.patreon.com/MeganD/posts...

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We're going back to school at The Manga Test Drive and we're starting with Negima! This series isn't strictly a magic school harem title, but it does combine magic, school, and an oversized harem to create an irritating, chaotic, brainlessly horny mess. mangatestdrive.blogspot.com/2026/09/revi...

Did YOU know there was a manga version of All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku? No? Well, that's probably because there's not much to it despite the involvement of two notable artists. mangatestdrive.blogspot.com/2026/08/revi...

Review: ALL PURPOSE CULTURAL CAT GIRL NUKU NUKU

This is a manga release I suspect most of you didn't even know existed.  As we'll see, maybe there's a good reason for that. ALL PURPOSE CUL...

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Old School Month returns to the Manga Test Drive, and we begin with a lesser-known bit of post-apocalyptic sci-fi from Katsuhiro Otomo: The Legend of Mother Sarah. mangatestdrive.blogspot.com/2026/08/revi...

Review: THE LEGEND OF MOTHER SARAH

It's time for yet another Old School Month here at the Manga Test Drive, and we're digging deep into the Dark Horse library to dig up a forg...

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Over a decade ago, I reviewed Gravitation. Now it's time to look at its sequel, Gravitation EX, to judge what improved about it over time...and what didn't. mangatestdrive.blogspot.com/2026/07/revi...

Review: GRAVITATION EX

It's time to return to one of the landmarks in millennial BL   and see how its sequel fares. GRAVITATION EX, by Maki Murakami.  First publis...

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We're doing another round of manga sequels, prequels and spinoffs at The Manga Test Drive, starting with a supernatural mystery series set in the world of The Ancient Magus' Bride: mangatestdrive.blogspot.com/2026/07/revi...

Review: THE ANCIENT MAGUS' BRIDE: JACK FLASH AND THE FAERIE CASE FILES

Both the summer movie season and the summer anime season is loaded with sequels, so it's as good as a time as any for us to cover some more ...

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At Renaissance Josei, I talk about Tokyopop's latest attempt to turn themselves into a multimedia empire by selling shares of themselves. Let me convince you on The Perils of Investing In Tokyopop: renaissancejosei.blogspot.com/2026/06/the-...

The Perils of Investing In Tokyopop

I swear, I don't mean to keep picking on Tokyopop. It's just that this company has done so many notably dumb things over the years.  It has ...

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Hey folks! Sorry for the extended break, but we've got a brand new piece coming out tomorrow on Renaissance Josei! Meanwhile, our $5+ Patrons can read it right now: www.patreon.com/MeganD/posts...

Sneak Peak! The Perils of Investing in Tokyopop | Megan D

Sneak Peak! The Perils of Investing in Tokyopop by Megan D on Patreon. Join Megan D's community for exclusive content and updates.

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Our month of flowery titles continues with The Eccentric Doctor of the Moon Flower Kingdom. It's a title that clearly owes a lot to The Apothecary Diaries but doesn't have a lot of original ideas of its own to offer. mangatestdrive.blogspot.com/2026/04/revi...

Review: THE ECCENTRIC DOCTOR OF THE MOON FLOWER KINGDOM

It was inevitable that the success of The Apothecary Diaries would spawn imitators.  Those imitators can be enjoyable in their own right, ...

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April showers bring flowery titles to The Manga Test Drive, starting with Sakura's Dedication. Dedication to what, you might ask? Why, being the the blandest shojo romance I've read in a while. mangatestdrive.blogspot.com/2026/04/revi...

Review: SAKURA'S DEDICATION

April showers are bringing us a month of manga with flowery titles.  It's also the season for sakura blossoms, so naturally we should start ...

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We're not going to forget the many shojo heroines who have had to pose as boys over the years. Vampire Dormitory is just one of the latest examples...but not one of the better ones. mangatestdrive.blogspot.com/2026/03/revi...

Review: VAMPIRE DORMITORY

Don't think that I'm going to leave the ladies out of this month, though.  There's a long tradition of girls posing as boys in shojo manga ...

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Yubisaki Milk Tea seemed to promise something different: a straight teen romance starring a casually cross-dressing lead. Too bad it's mostly focused on awkward fanservice and making excuses for the lead's mixed messages to deliver on that promise. mangatestdrive.blogspot.com/2026/03/revi...

Review: YUBISAKI MILK TEA

Puberty is a time when a lot of people (be they real or fictional) explore their gender presentation.  This particular manga is not the best...

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This month I'm looking at some the different ways manga plays with gender. Since it's also the time of year when the new school year start in Japan, I thought I'd start with Thigh High: Reiwa Hanamaru Academy. It takes your standard fluffy girls' school premise and changes only the sexes involved.

Review: THIGH HIGH: REIWA HANAMARU ACADEMY

This month we'll be looking at some the ways that manga plays with flipping sexes and genders.  Since March is also the time for the start o...

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Happy Crappy Life is a rare sort of BL that acknowledges the messiness and awkwardness of small-town life, second chances, and butt sex, all while looking gorgeous and being laugh out loud funny to boot. mangatestdrive.blogspot.com/2026/02/revi...

Review: HAPPY CRAPPY LIFE

It takes a lot of talent to write a BL comedy about two messy dudes trying to fix their respective lives and make it work, and this manga is...

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It's hard enough to find a good sex comedy manga (pun not intended), and mean-spirited, cowardly crap like Peter Grill and the Philsopher's Time isn't helping things. mangatestdrive.blogspot.com/2026/02/revi...

Review: PETER GRILL AND THE PHILOSOPHER'S TIME

It's so hard (pun not intended) to find a good sex comedy manga, and crap like this isn't helping things. PETER GRILL AND THE PHILOSOPHER'S ...

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It's another month of Bad Romance manga, and what could be worse than a romance that begins with a demand for divorce? To Sir, Without Love: I'm Divorcing You should be a tawdry bodice-ripper, but it's too cold and unbalanced to be any fun. mangatestdrive.blogspot.com/2026/02/revi...

Review: TO SIR, WITHOUT LOVE: I'M DIVORCING YOU

February means another round of Bad Romance manga here at the Manga Test Drive, and it's only fitting to start with a romance that begins w...

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Gate Keepers isn't just a failed sci-fi manga from a forgotten franchise. It's also possibly the most blatant Sakura Wars knockoff I have ever seen. mangatestdrive.blogspot.com/2026/01/revi...

Review: GATE KEEPERS

Of course, for every successful sci-fi manga there are far more that fail to find an audience outside of Japan and this is just one of them....

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Suihelibe! is obscure even by CMX standards, the story of a boy and an alien girl trying to capture creatures as part of the school biology club that's too lifeless to be fun. mangatestdrive.blogspot.com/2026/01/revi...

Review: SUIHELIBE!

This one is a decidedly more lighthearted take on sci-fi, dug up from the dregs of the CMX library. SUIHELIBE! ( Suieribe! ), by Naomi Azum...

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This month we're looking at sci-fi manga, and you'd be hard-pressed to find a more hard sci-fi manga than Planetes. It's the story of working-class space junk collectors from the creator of Vinland Saga. mangatestdrive.blogspot.com/2026/01/revi...

Review: PLANETES

This month we're reviewing science-fiction manga, and you'd be hard-pressed to find one that's more "hard" sci-fi than this one. PLANETES (...

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Let's wrap things up for The Manga Test Drive this year with our annual look in the Rear View Mirror and announce this year's Holiday Review Giveaway winner: mangatestdrive.blogspot.com/2025/12/2025...

Our final Holiday Review is another miracle manga license: Stop!! Hibari-Kun, an early 80s comedy manga with a trans heroine that has aged way better than you could imagine: mangatestdrive.blogspot.com/2025/12/holi...

Holiday Review #25: STOP!! HIBARI-KUN

With so many long-shot older manga releases coming out this year from so many different publishers, it was legitimately hard to pick one to...

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We got a lot of older manga licenses this year, and that includes the first-ever English release of Cat's Eye. This classic phantom thief story from WSJ has plenty of style, but it's brought down by its repetitiveness and the dumbest detective ever. mangatestdrive.blogspot.com/2025/12/holi...

Holiday Review #24: CAT'S EYE

This year also brought us quite a few older manga titles from some surprising sources.  Kana took advantage of their French heritage and tha...

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This year saw a lot of miracle manga licenses. That includes Viz's release of Kingdom, a long-running shonen spin on China's Warring States period. For me, it was not worth the wait, as I found this first volume DEEPLY underwhelming. mangatestdrive.blogspot.com/2025/12/holi...

Holiday Review #23: KINGDOM

They say Christmas is a time of miracles, and there certainly were a lot of manga license miracles happening this year, including this long...

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Of course, it's also fun to see manga creators take traditional horror creatures like...oh, idk, a vampire, and put them somewhere unexpected for laughs and cozy fish-out-water humor. Maybe someplace like a bathhouse? mangatestdrive.blogspot.com/2025/12/holi...

Holiday Review #22: A VAMPIRE IN THE BATHHOUSE

Of course, it's also fun to take figures of horror and put them into wacky situations for the sake of comedy.  For example, you could have....

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Mansect is a 1970s horror manga about guys who turn into vaguely insectoid melted monster men, but somehow its gender politics are even scarier than that. mangatestdrive.blogspot.com/2025/12/holi...

Holiday Review #21: MANSECT

With so many horrors happening in the real world, it's almost a relief to turn to one of Living the Line's latest horror manga releases and...

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2025 was a good year for Apothecary Diaries writer Natsu Hyuuga. You Can't Bluff the Sharp-Eyed Sister is one of 2 manga adaptations of her work that came out here, a mystery series that will feel familiar...maybe a little too familiar. mangatestdrive.blogspot.com/2025/12/holi...

Holiday Review #20: YOU CAN'T BLUFF THE SHARP-EYED SISTER

These last few years have been great one for Natsu Hyuuga, mostly due to the incredible success of The Apothecary Diaries .  This year we s...

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