Tag Archives: Usagi

Book Review: Anyhow, the Rabbit is Infatuated With the Puppy

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Anyhow, the Rabbit is Infatuated With the Puppy     

Author: Nie

Publisher: Seven Seas

American release date: November 28, 2023

Format/Genre/Length: Paperback/Yaoi Manga//234 pages

Overall Personal Rating: ★★★★★

Reviewer: Julie Lynn Hayes

Usagi Akira is a 25-year-old man who works in an office and loves shojo manga. He also loves playing in the MMO Tail Earth. He plays a female character, a bunny named Usaco. In the game, she is in love with a wolf character named Gakuto. The couple are adorable! The two players talk outside of the game, and Gakuto is aware that Usaco is a guy, but he’s cool with that. When he wins tickets to a Tail Earth convention, he invites Usaco to come with him!

At work, Usagi has an annoying boss named Suzumiya, who is always nagging him to come drinking with the other employees after work. But Usagi isn’t interested, although he is finding it increasingly difficult to avoid such events.  Usaco and Gakuto meet up at the convention, and they really click! After the convention closes for the day, they go to a nearby internet café… and they not only click, they kiss!

Even after the convention ends, their relationship only grows deeper. Gakuto invites Usaco to the apartment where he lives with his uncle, who is conveniently gone for the night. Naturally they discuss their characters and decide that an in-game wedding would be wonderful! They start marking preparations for the event. But then things start to get hot and heavy between the two, when all of a sudden Gakuto’s uncle comes home unexpectedly – and turns out to be Usaco’s annoying boss! Can things get any worse?  The answer is… yes! A new girl shows up on Tail Earth, and she seems to have her eyes on Gakuto. Does Usaco have competition for Gakuto’s affection?

This is an incredibly sweet and very hot story of two people who find each other through a shared interest in an online game. They begin as friends, but their friendship develops into something more, and they have to navigate the strange new waters of their romance. I love the artwork and the characters! I highly recommend this book if you enjoy seeing cute boys in love!

Book Review: Alice in Borderland, Vol 2 by Haro Aso

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Alice in Borderland, Vol 2   

Author: Haro Aso

Publisher: Viz Media

American release date: March 15, 2022

Format/Genre/Length: Paperback/Manga/Dystopian/344 pages

Overall Personal Rating: ★★★★

Reviewer: Julie Lynn Hayes

Ryo, Karube, and Chota have teamed with Saori to defeat the land of Borderland and make their escape by playing their stupid games. It’s Karube who figures out they needed to head to the Beach, wherever that is. But then they find themselves playing a game from which only one operson will emerge alive and everything changes.

Afterward, Ryo stops caring about what will happen, unable to stop thinking about his friends and what has happened to them. He is found by a girl named Usagi, who brings him back to a semblance of himself after telling him her story. He decides that they need to fight on together. They decide to carry on the search for the Beach, asking players they run across. But eventually they realize they are talking to the wrong crowd so they decide on a strategy, waiting for the games to be over and talking to the survivors. Through trial and error, and clever deductions, they eventually reach their goal, although it isn’t quite what they expected.

The Beach isn’t an actual beach, it’s a hotel where a number of the players have gathered. On arrival, they are each ranked according to the cards they possess. The goal is to collectively gather all the cards necessary to leave the island, which appears to be the entire deck. But no one knows if more than one person will be able to escape. And some cards are more difficult to acquire than others, while no one has even seen the face cards yet.

But are the players at the top manipulating the others for their own agenda? Can Ryo and Usagi survive this place, and is there any actual chance of escape?

This is certainly a dangerous place to be for all involved, but somehow there is a question that really hasn’t been addressed. Probably because they’re all too busy trying to survive. But I have to wonder who is behind this, and what purpose does this serve? This manga is certainly a dark version of Alice in Wonderland, full of twists and turns. I will have to wait for the next volume because it is just now coming out, so the library won’t have it right away. Looking forward to it.