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 TIME (Pita Guriru to Kenja no Jikan), by Daisuke Hiyama.  First published in 2017 and first published in North America in 2020.

PLOT:

Peter Grill has proven himself to be the strongest warrior in the land.  He hopes that this amazing feat will finally allow him to marry his beloved but deeply sheltered girlfriend Luvellia, but things get complicated when he's cornered by the ditzy but determined ogre sisters Mimi and Lisa.  They want him to impregnate them both with the strongest warriors, and they're not above using both blackmail and Peter's own weak will against him.

Now Peter is caught in the midst of his hardest battle yet, as he tries to hide his affairs from Luvellia (and her extremely strict father/guild master) all while fending off a growing harem of demi-human ladies demanding his seed in increasingly outrageous ways.

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 with a demand for divorce.

TO SIR, WITHOUT LOVE: I'M DIVORCING YOU (Haikei Mishiranu Danna-sama, Rikonshite Itdakimasu), based on the light novels by Kori Hisakawa and character designs by Airumu, with art by Iroto Tsumugi.  First published in 2023 and first published in North America in 2025.

PLOT:

The last thing Byletta wanted was marriage.  Unfortunately she does not get a choice in the matter, as her father has married her off to a promising military officer named Arnald Swangen.  No sooner is she brought to her husband's household than he departs for war.  That's no problem for Byletta, as it gives her plenty of time to focus on setting up her own dress shop, winning over her younger sister-in-law, and reforming her drunken, wayward father-in-law.  In return she has only one condition: when the war ends, she wants a divorce.

Eight years later, the war is over and the first letter Arnald receives is Byletta's divorce ultimatum.  He has no desire to let her go and she has no desire to stay, so the two make a wager: he will grant her a divorce...if he cannot manage to impregnate her within a month's time.

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.