My review of vol. 1 of 13th Boy is now up at Manga Life. An excerpt:
High school romances in shojo manga and sunjeong manhwa are a dime a dozen, and any series that hopes to find an audience will have to find some way to stand out from the crowd. Some attract readers with unusual spins on the usual formulas, while others rely upon their skillful storytelling or gorgeous art. The best, of course, do a combination of all three. 13th Boy doesn’t even manage to do one.
:(
I hope you’re offered something more textured to review next time, or soon. Things that aren’t showstoppingly wonderful need reviews written about them, but something rewarding to read would be nice, too, I suspect.
Well, I am pretty philosophical about it, given that Sturgeon’s law applies to review copies as much as it does to anything else; plus, the review copies are making me read outside my comfort zone, which is always a good thing. And I don’t grade on a curve, so the lack of high marks doesn’t always mean that I completely hated something.
But I may start doing some non-review copy manga blogging here again if my offline life ever calms down enough to give me time to do so!