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.

GATE KEEPERS (Geto Kipazu), based on an original story by Hiroshi Yamaguchi with art by Keiji Goto.  First published in 1999 and first published in North America in 2003.

PLOT:

It is 1969, and Shun Ukiya is hoping just to make a good impression on his first day of high school.  On his way there he is waylaid by a strange man with a suitcase machine gun.  Shun escapes with the help of a girl in a mask named Ruriko and by producing an equally strange power from his own hands.  No sooner is Shun saved than he is swept up by AEGIS, a secret organization using his school as a front while protecting the world from alien invaders.  He is immediately declared captain of the "Gate Keepers," which just so happens to be a team of cute and quirky high-school girls ready to fight back against alien invaders and the human traitor worki
ng with them.

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 Azuma.  First published in 2006 and first published in North America in 2008.

PLOT:

Tetsu just wanted to join a club, but when he pokes his head into the biology club's classroom, he finds a cute girl climbing out of a crashed UFO.  This is Lan from the planet Noid, who needs to capture a variety of escaped alien lifeforms so she can graduate.  The student council are all too ready to shut down the biology club due to its lack of members, so it's up to Tetsu and Lan to convince others to join them all while capturing more alien creatures and trying (and failing) to keep Lan's identity a secret.

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 (Puranetesu), by Makoto Yurikuma.  First published in 1999 and first published in North America in 2003.

PLOT:

In 2074, humanity has finally ventured beyond Earth, thanks in no small part to the discovery of practical nuclear fusion and the beds of helium-3 needed to fuel it.  One of the side effects of all the increased space travel is an increase in space junk orbiting around Earth itself, where every piece is a potential threat to every ship and satellite that passes by.  It's up to lowly junk collectors like Hachi, Fee, and Yuki to collect this low-orbit garbage while dealing with the highs and lows of their everyday lives.

2025 In the Rear View Mirror

 First of all, it's time to announce this year's Holiday Review Giveaway winner! gimmickpunk decided to revisit a shonen classic this year, one that's near and dear to my own heart:

Tis the season! I finally started reading the FMA manga this year and I’m loving it as much as I did both shows way back when.

Congratulations!  To claim your prize, just reach to us via DM to our Bluesky account with a viable email address so we can get your Bookshop.org gift certificate to you in time for some New Year's shopping.

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 close out this year's Holiday Reviews.  This one was special though, not just because of its place in the history of Weekly Shonen Jump but its place in the history of queer representation in manga, and that's absolutely something worth celebrating this Christmas.

STOP!! HIBARI-KUN (Sutoppu!! Hibari-Kun), by Hisashi Eguichi.  First published in 1981 and first published in North America in 2025.

PLOT:

After Kohsaku's mother dies, he's taken in by Ibari Ozora, a Tokyo-area Yakuza boss.  It's not long after he steps into their home that he meets the beautiful, charming Hibari.  Hibari is trans, much to the despair of her father, her elder sisters, and Kohsaku.  Hibari's not bothered, though, as she's both strong and clever enough to evade her father's attempts to make her more manly, the attempts of the local mean girls to take her down a peg, and keeping Kohsaku from chasing the cute girl managing the school boxing club.