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Turn down the lights, pour a glass of moonshine, and join us for another installment of requested manga theater. Wherein our free will is taken away and we’re forced to read things sent to us. To cope, we will undoubtedly be tapping into something delicious or at least highly alcoholic. Just as long as we don’t start dipping into mixed drinks.

Tim reviews Platinum End. A manga brought to us by the same people who gave us Death Note. We start off with our main character deciding it’s time to kill himself, climbing to the roof of a skyscraper, then taking an asphalt swan dive. He gets saved feet before death by an angel. She offers him the ability to tavel anywhere on earth nearly instantly or to fire arrows that make people love him. He says he’ll consider not dying if she gives him both. Turns out he’s one of twelve people who have guardian angels who are playing last man standing with the winner getting to take the place of god. It squeaks into a Crackers and will be worth a follow up.

Weltall then reviews Umineko: When They Cry. It’s set on the eighties where the Ushiromiya family gets summoned to the island they own. There’s a legend that grandpa Ushiromiya got the seeds of their fortune by making a deal with a witch. But if he doesn’t pay her back by a particular time and date, she’ll exact a price from the family. There’s excellent pacing and well assembled pacing that erans it a solid Read It Now

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Like an expensive sweater gifted to a nephew, we’ve returned quicker than anticipated. It’s another week, another drink and another manga. This time some self selected materials as we’ve got a few requests coming down the pipeline in the form of physical copies.

Tim reviews Marry Grave. It has a lighthearted style reminiscent of late nineties comedy manga. Our protagonist lives in a world that’s been invaded by goblins. He carries a coffin and is doing a world wide scavenger hunt attempting to raise his wife from the dead. There’s an interesting twist where we find out he died on his wedding night and his wife spent the rest of her life doing the same to resurrect him. It gets a Read it Now for being inventive and interesting.

Weltall reviews To Your Eternity. It begins with an alien lifeform landing on earth and copying a dying wolf. After taking it’s form, it wanders into an empty encampment where it finds a lone boy who’s been living along for a few years. It follows him along until he dies and takes his form. It’s very well paced and the story get more interesting from that point on, ending one a hilarious note made funnier by the serious tone thus far. It comfortably earns a Read it Now

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We like to have some post show discussions once in awhile. They usually aren’t recorded as they’re not very long. Tim is always begging off because he says he needs to go eat. This is accompanied by him dramatically clutching his middle and collapsing into a heap while asking for soup or breadsticks like this is an Olive Garden and not a makeshift recording studio.

Appropriate then that Tim reviews Shokugeki no Soma. Soma is a student who works at a ramen shop and is attempting to best the owner in a cooking contest by making odd dishes like peanut butter and squid. One day he is forced to defend the shop from evil land developers by cooking with limited ingredients. It turns out he’s quite good when he’s not experimenting with things and saves the day. So the owner shuts down shop and sends him to a prestigious cooking school. It gets a Borders for being a rice cake of a manga.

Weltall reviews Tales of Wedding Rings. Our dish rag du jour is Sato who’s childhood friends with Hime. Some time in the indeterminable time between high school or middle, Hime ends up traveling into another dimension and Sato tags along. She is betrothed to a prince who is about to marry her right until a demon attacks. Hime kisses Sato which makes him married to her and grants the power to defeat the demon. Realm saved, right? Wrong. Sato now has to go out and collect his harem to gain enough power to beat the big bad. It also gets a Borders.