Love the spotlight on (teen) activism, fighting against pipelines, and the body diversity but the story felt very flat and erratic to me. I do like the twist on the monster though. 

quirky but sort of fun

I enjoyed this. Her incessant need for her mother's validation, her spunkiness, her regrets, and her pompous attitude make Cruella an interesting character. 

 A game of cat and mouse except the mouse is obsessed with the cat and wants to be stomped on.

Not for me. I don’t care for any of these characters. The appeal’s supposed to be marveling at how disillusioned Aoi is and how sexy Kiruru is. The manga never lets you forget it either with its childishly-perverted gaze. But nothing in this story is giving what it’s—y’know.

It still will be slapstick, lighthearted fun for most though. 

A much stronger story than the first. I wish I felt a stronger connection to the characters, but everything else was an improvement. Malik and Karina get more depth to them though I never once felt for their relationship. We get more side characters, but I only cared about Saenma and Hanane, who surprisingly played a big role in my enjoyment.

The stakes were bigger, consequences hd weight, and back stories showed nuance and development. Ife's meta jokes just weren't funny to me at all though I guess that's a sideffect of their otherworldly nature. A third book could've fleshed out the character interactions more and some of Malik's errand-running for Farid could've ideally been condensed. This was a rather long book, but the short chapters helped keep it engaging.

Still, a fitting end. There was a constant thread of action and some unexpected plot twists.

it's different that Karina was the experienced one here. but she didn't make Malik feel bad about his lack of it.

Love the message(s), and I'm always happy to see another dragon boy. This touched lightly on intergenerational trauma

abusive parenting/abusive words

, nasty, insidious self-doubt, selfishness, and not rushing the process. 

The artwork was very cute and relatable for all ages. I wouldn't mind seeing these characters again, but it also had a fitting end.

Lovely.

The artwork is so beautiful and stylish. I love the visuals with James showing how music can take you to another place. You can literally tell how much fun the artist had drawing this. I also liked the relationship drama between Dan and the theater kid. The struggle with James and his parents is also well-executed. I felt his overwhelming frustration and sadness. And the cringe is IMMACULATE. Kawaii desu!

Now, the story’s all over the place leading up to the big anime convention. There’s a weird fixation on James asianness. Toward the latter half, we start getting flashbacks, but it’s hard to tell where the present starts and ends.

But the story is mostly dumb—wonderfully dumb—and it revels in that though it manages to touch slightly on when others stereotype your culture to the smallest parts, inadequacy, financial struggles, same-sex attraction questioning, white and Asian beauty standards, racism and/or colorism in the anime communities (

I thought Maya’s race was ambiguous at first. Because y’know many people think dark skin automatically equals Black. Though she was wearing a bonnet, she looked more South Asian to me. Her mom and Grandma too.

; when will mangakas tire of the Sambo lips, Lord only knows. 

Oh yeah, a character tells Maya they don’t expect her to act Black so don’t expect them to act Asian. Whatcha mean there? Let’s unpack that. Battle of the racial stereotypes, bay-bee! Who will win? *violent eye-roll*

Covering all the relevant issues bogged the story down. I think if the book were published into two parts. The narrative would have read smoother, or some issues should’ve been cut for sake of time.

Overall, mostly good. It’s like Chex mix. The ending ties up the loose ends nicely.