Kingdom of Z, Spy Family, and Syrup Review

I have another Dan here aka the Comic Concierge

and this is one of my graphic thoughts videos.

This is where I go through three graphic novels,

trades, or mangas I've been reading and give

you my thoughts and opinions about them. Don't

worry, I won't get into any major spoilers, but

if you're worried at all, check down below for

chapter titles and timestamps, so if you wanna

skip a book, you have that option there for you.

But let's talk about the books we'll be getting

into this week. First up, we have Kingdom of

Z, volume one. Next up, we have Spy Family. Lastly,

we have Syrup. When you talk about the books,

one thing I do try to see, is there any linking

elements to the... graphic novels or books i'll

be talking about and this week that that linking

element is pretty simple it's the fact that all

three of these are are mangas including the first

book which is kingdom of z volume one and so

this book is by satsui harada with art by lone

wakanuki and i apologize if i pronounce those

incorrectly and the story is about satsu who

is this individual who is when we meet him surrounded

by zombies and it seems like his life is about

to end. However, he's saved by an unlikely source

of Corinne and Miki who are, let's just say,

rather eccentric in their execution of killing

zombies and definitely will utilize their sexuality

when necessary, but they take out the zombies

with reckless abandon, killing them. Relatively

easy at first he thinks that he's you know, he's

excited excited because not only he saved by

these zombies But you know being saved by two

great gorgeous looking women That around your

age is it's not a bad way either to spend the

last days of earth, but he finds out that you

know They really pay him no mind They they really

talk down to him and in a way they're they're

a bit crazy Mickey for example wants to create

her own army of the undead to take over the world

and they're a bit sadistic at times and he's

like a little a little concerned about his safety

is running wondering if he's gonna got into the

the wrong group of individuals and he does wonder

too like they take these zombies out with reckless

abandon like this seems like they're they have

out powers or something that that are a bit supernatural

with the way that they're able to kill these

people but maybe they're just really good at

fighting or they maybe they simply just have

have no filter because of that there will Go

out when necessary. I will say that this was

a book that is I think not necessarily for me

and I Ended up just being a book that I would

say is okay. The first volume doesn't cover much

again It really covers the them fighting off

these zombies kind of figuring out this world

and by the end of it You're setting up The next

issue where next volume where they're going to

deal with some other individuals beyond themselves

and as are searching for supplies It doesn't

to me do much to extend the zombie genre that

it just the zombies are just zombies There's

really nothing nothing new there and to like

I mentioned how they utilize their sexuality

and to me sometimes to kind of a Uncomfortable

degree not that sexuality is bad, but there's

a lot of like upskirt shots and things like that

where it's like Okay, like it just seems a bit

pervy in a way and I guess and that's because

they're certainly calculated in what they're

doing there They're certainly trying to I think

knowing that they can utilize that get people

off their game and make people uncomfortable,

take advantage of individuals, including Sato.

But at the same time, it just felt a bit exploitive.

And I felt like maybe they'll get into that further

down the road. I could see that becoming more

than just this element of exploitation. But I

just felt like at times it was like, OK, I get

it. It just became repetitive to a great extent,

a little bit cheesy in a way. Where it just felt

like it kind of took me out of it and generally

it just felt if fit the mold of your Of a zombie

story in not much else. You got to kill zombies.

You got to find supplies the characters You know,

they're fine, but they're like sato was as a

character is hard It was a bit hard to get behind

like he He just seems like a bit lost and you

know, hopefully you'll see more development with

him to be more than this guy that just kind of

is pushed around to the extreme extents and doesn't

really do much. But, you know, it was an awful

read. It wasn't anything that I said, like it

was, I'm mad that I read it, but I felt... The

entertainment value rather than the commentary

rather than in the way that it handled the genre

itself Just kind of paint by numbers and that

was my biggest with it with this it did feel

rather paint by numbers It was leading the fact

that like all these are girls who can kick ass

and they look great and That felt like it's selling

point and the fact is that we have a lot of comics

like that So I just read this and felt like I'm

not against like I hate the criticism that there's

nothing new because I feel like it's an easy

criticism but To me, it's not necessarily that

there was nothing new. There just wasn't a lot

of depth here for one volume to really get me

hooked into anything else. It's, again, a quick

read. I guess if you love zombies, you want something

that is rather fun and easy, there you go. This

is your thing. But it wasn't one for me. And

it's not one that I really have any interest

in continuing. So I don't think I'll continue

with volume two. I'm going to get to a comic

I really did enjoy. And this is Spy Family. And

this is actually I read volume two and volume

three. And I'll back up just to kind of give

you. General premise of spy family, which is

I just love the abrasiveness of spy family in

the way that it just like we're gonna be bold

and crazy with our ideas and you just kind of

have to accept it it's about it's basically taking

the idea of mr. Nanny that classic Hulk Hogan

movie from the 90s and putting it through the

lens of the manga universe and He had this individual

who's like the best spy in the world and he's

given a task where he has to take out This important

government official, but it's really hard to

get to the person link Weakness in his armor

is by finding the way to get access to his kid

or access through the school that his kids attend

Because that will allow him to kind of get in

and assassinate him in the ways that's necessary

without causing too much suspicion. Unfortunately,

the spy doesn't have any kids, so how does he

go about doing that? He ends up adopting this

kid, making it, and goes to the oven and then

she picks up a random child. And that random

child, just to make things even more fun, has

the ability to read minds. Because why not? Is

it really explained why? Kind of. Is it necessarily?

Does it make sense in this world? Not necessarily,

but it's important to the story. And then, despite

the fact that he has a kid, he realizes that

getting into a strategic school is very difficult.

It's like the Harvard of, like, grade schools.

Challenge that you get in and it has a limited

enrollment You have to be relatively genius to

even get in there or like have it someone you

know That's an important person like even you

know Like huge people that are within certain

industries can't get their kids in because they

don't have enough pull So there's a lot of challenges

in that and he needs Ultimately someone that

can help him with that because he needs to have

a complete family because not having a wife is

going to Be points against them. So what to do

he hire someone to be his wife His wife also

happens to be an assassin. He doesn't know that

like their lives or they don't realize that he's

a spy. He doesn't realize she's an assassin,

but she takes him up on his offer because she

has her reasons as well. I just love the fact

that like this is an insane concept, but it's

just a hell of a lot of fun. Unlike Kingdom of

Z that I felt like did not do much with like

the genre that it's in, this does do a lot. And

I love the fact that it's committed to like giving

these characters so many different challenges

and how getting into the school. This second

volume is when they begin actually in the school,

because the spoiler that she does make it, of

course, otherwise she wouldn't have a comic.

But now that she's in, kind of like she was on

the waiting list and having having to find a

way to get her in there and then the challenges

that ensue because I also read volume three uh

again I really like this is one of my favorite

mangas in the last few years and I just love

the dynamic between them and you see this the

growing kind of connection with with these characters

you know what starts as this ploy to you know

find a way to kill an individual they kind of

become this weird family but there's always fun

new challenges like the assassin's brother becomes

a major player because he's also a high ranking

official in the government and this government

is basically this fascist like government that

has taken over and if you're considered at all

a spy it's going to lead to a lot of torture

and death and the fact that like her brother

is in this role and They have a dinner sequence

which is a lot of fun and it never gets itself

easy out which I thought was great because her

going to school, this young girl going to school

and the complications of that, even being able

to read minds to think like oh she'll be able

to cheat. on test because she can just read the

minds, but realizing that she'll read the wrong

mind and get bad answers or something. And there's

the challenges of being a father. Like he just,

he doesn't understand those challenges. Yeah,

he can like be this master of disguise and kind

of, you know, be like a James Bond -esque person,

but being a dad is something he did not prepare

himself for and all those different challenges.

So, I don't know. I just, I just find it fun

in a good time. The characters are strong. They

are so dedicated to do a specific trope. But

I think they have really done a good job of expanding

them beyond it. And the art itself, again, it's

well executed. The action is there. There's not

a lot of action. One of the biggest action set

pieces in this is actually a dodgeball game.

And I do love how it kind of picks apart the

tropes of anime in the way, like, there's great

moments in that. It's one of the funniest moments

in the entire series thus far was that dodgeball

game, because it does get into those classic

motion lines, how it would... Adjust perspective

to put a lot of energy on the page But knowing

it's this dodgeball game with like basically

kindergarteners was you know, it just added to

it It's right rights of lying that being a spoof

comedy per se like it's not a book that all takes

itself seriously But it's not all comedy as well.

It's not like it's naked gone or something like

that It's it's really I it's hard to link it

to anything because it's a lot of different things

And it's clever twist on all those so to me like

this is spy family is how you do it kingdom of

z is not. The next we're going to talk about

is syrup volume one and this is an anthology

series dedicated to women in love and the ups

and downs of their everyday life and it's just

from a number of different creators artists and

it's a lot of really quick snippets of life where

with anthology series I tend to think you know

short stories in a way ones that have a beginning

middle end and these are really you know to use

a cliche term like very thin slices of life moments

in people's lives like one of the opening stories

is someone who goes through a laundromat is reading

something and strikes up a conversation with

someone about manga, they go back to their house,

they read manga, she goes out and like... They

end up having this weird relationship. It's another

one actually dealing with someone on a porn set

and You have this kind of veteran porn star and

a news star and it gets kind of awkward and weird

But then you learn maybe that was purposeful

and there's this like a lot of the stories are

just a few pages long So you're not getting huge

complex stories just kind of general things about

people in life and business So it's interesting

in that sense because I talk about with manga

one thing I do try to find her books that are

more, you know human drama not You know with

the books that I've talked about thus far are

dealing with genre stories You know that are

genre stories first and foremost because I get

a lot of that in comics already Like I'd like

to read something that is beyond that and that

is very much this like this This is you know,

there's not a lot of stories in here about zombies

or spies or like superpowers These are human

beings going through their life and it was nice

in that sense to just see that this the different

ways culture experiences relationship and Seeing

that on the page. I will think though one of

my one of the issues is you see with manga is

that the one of my biggest criticisms and one

way reasons I was always like hesitant to get

into is like I always felt that I our styles

were lack diversity in to a great extent and

you could probably make the same complain about

a lot of Comics as well general American comics

and it's valid but I think in this to sing it

and anthology series and just seeing how There's

not a lot of variety in when it came to the art

styles everything like, you know, if you told

me was the same artist I wouldn't necessarily

Disagree with you and there's stories themselves.

I did Think did very they weren't ones at all

felt the similar but none of them felt like complete

stories Like I mentioned they're you know interesting

kind of quick views into people's lives But in

the sense of if you're a person that likes anthologies

because you're getting small stories pushed into

one That's not what this is and maybe that's

just the way this is again only the first volume

so also don't know if like volume 2 will continue

some of these stories because I do think a lot

of them could continue like they like to mention

the one with person meeting someone at the laundromat

like you could really further that that it almost

felt like an opening trailer the opening scene

of a longer film that could dive further into

that relationship and maybe that will be the

case for um for future volumes now the quality

of the stories themselves aren't necessarily

bad they're enjoyable they're just they're it's

hard to really get invested because by the time

you're at all invested, it's over. Which I know

is an issue of people tend to bring up a lot

with anthologies, which I don't necessarily mind.

But this one was just certainly noticeable just

because the length of them was relatively short.

They were effective in that. I think they utilized

the page count to feel like you were getting

a complete sense of these people in the character

sense. Like that was impressive because you did

not have a lot of pages and you were able to

at least establish characters in the relationships

relatively, whether it was people that were meeting

for the first time or those that had kind of

longer stances. relationship so... That was impressive

being economical in that standpoint. So I didn't

dislike this book. It just, you know, it was

a good read. There wasn't anything that I was

like super excited about. I will probably try

volume two just to see like, do any of these

stories continue? Are there any others out there

that do kind of shine more so than others? Again,

the art wasn't bad. The art was effective. It

just, one thing I love about anthology books,

to me, a great anthology book tends to have a

huge diversity and talent in storytelling and

art design. And that really wasn't here to any

great extent, unfortunately. So maybe that's

what want when it comes to manga maybe they have

certain expectations and you know when that's

why you're not seeing that much with this series

maybe that will change in future volumes or maybe

there is just because my American eyes are so

tuned here I'm missing a lot of the changes which

is something I'm completely open to maybe I'm

missing kind of the actual diversions and style

that to me i'm just glossing over because i'm

just focusing on just the larger aspects of design

rather than the more specifics which you know

i'm much more trained reading american comics

so i can point things out a lot more compared

to something like this so again i'm i'm learning

when it comes to manga so if you're a huge manga

fan please bear with me because i've only really

started reading manga in the last you know a

few years you know i've probably read maybe like

50 mangas at the most, but if there's any manga

you would advise, you know, to me, what I do

is just go to the library and pick ones up, see

if they're interested. And sometimes I end up

loving them with spy family. Sometimes I don't,

but I'm also open for recommendations, anything

that, especially like I mentioned, anything that's

along the lines of human drama or anything that's

just really great, that's outside of the norm

of the mangas you always hear about, like My

Hero Academia or One Piece. Like I thought that

I'm against reading those, but I'm always. fascinated

by the ones that don't get that amount of attention

and ones that maybe deserve similar amounts of

attention, let me know in the comment section

below. But that's it for me for this week. Thanks

for taking the time to check out this channel.

Let me know what you're reading, what I should

be reading down in the comment section below.

I know there's a ton of comic book channels out

there, so I appreciate any comment, any like,

any reaction I get. Thanks for taking the time.

Just remember, comments are for everyone. The

key is finding the right one. Until next time,

keep reading.