SNL meets Mad Magazine but the sensibilities of Family Guy and TED takes on Japanese manga.

Otaku
Devastator #11
Devastator Press
September 2014

The gags go on and on and come in a ton of different guises. There are joke ads (like Joe Lo Truglio, of Brooklyn 99 fame, in PillowMingle.love, where he, ahem, meets his pillow match), written transcripts (like Phoenix Wright’s Asinine Attorney court case), manga parodies (Sailor Moon, etc), and a lot more. To truly enjoy the parodies one would need to be very familiar with the original content. Speed Racer’s suicide dictation (after he determines that he can no longer stand Americans putting words in his mouth – dubbing) make so much sense for fans of dubbed Japanese cartoons.

What you need to know upfront is that there are really funny parts of this book. But this is definitely for those who enjoy potty humor. This is not a “clean” book. So those who mind harsh language may want to pass on this. But if you can stomach it and you love manga this will be really funny distraction. In my opinion, while there are very funny parodies there are too many jokes that end, basically and literally, with an F bomb. While a shocking expletive can be a funny way to end a joke it shouldn’t be the main way. Shock really only works once or twice. After that it can be very ho-hum.

This is the 11th Devastator published on different topics. Even with some of the flat jokes (no pillow pun intended) I still eagerly checked out the other topics and would have read them with gusto. (Who wouldn’t read parodies of the Apocalypse or Toys and Games?) So there is that.

@ashertopia is the Managing Editor of BookGateway.com. He is an avid reader and a lifetime learner. His favorite genres include science fiction, fantasy, as well as theology and Christian living. His personal blog is AshertopiA – a land flowing with milk and honey… and a lot of sticky people.

This book was provided by the publisher as a review copy.