Genkaku Picasso

Welcome to Kuriousity

News, reviews and features with a focus on manga, self-published works and a Canadian perspective. Enjoy fulfilling your Kuriousity!

SITE RETIRED - Thank you for the years of support and readership!

About

WHAT IS KURIOUSITY.CA?

Kuriousity is a manga news and review website, focused on the English manga industry. The site is non-profit with any revenue garnered from affiliate links put towards hosting fees. Site updates consist of reviews, press releases, news postings and editorial posts that we, and thus hopefully our manga-fan readers, find of interest!

In regards to the naming choice, Kuri is a nickname I (Lissa, the site’s editor) was given years ago online, compliments of one of my first big anime attachments – Akira Toriyama’s Dragonball. I’ve always been attached to the name so Kuri + curiousity = Kuriousity!

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COMMENTS: All comments are screened and must be approved before appearing on posts. This is because of high spam counts. I check my site frequently to approve comments, however sometimes I’m unable to check the site for a little while. Don’t worry if your comment takes a little time to appear, chances are I just haven’t been able to click approve yet :)


REVIEWERS

Lissa Pattillo My name’s Lissa Pattillo, owner and editor of Kuriousity. I live in Nova Scotia, Canada and have dealt with my manga obsession for over ten years (and have quite enjoyed it).

I started this website as a way to have my manga collection serve a purpose past hours of entertainment. I post near-daily reviews that I have written from books both purchased by me and supplied by publishers, in order to share my thoughts with fellow readers on both the good and the bad. I enjoy all sorts of genres, from seinen to shoujo to boys’ love and I like to offer this variety through my reviews.

I have a personal portfolio at LissaPattillo.com for my web and  graphic design, while my ‘day’ job is that of a graphic designer for print production. Along with my reviews here on Kuriousity, I’ve written about manga and drafted con reports for several other sources including Anime News Network, Otaku USA and The Coast.

View all posts by Lissa Pattillo


Victoria MartinHi everyone! My name is Victoria K Martin. I’ve been obsessively in love with manga for the last seven years, ever since I discovered its existence (and yes, Katie, I still blame you for that!).

I have a BA in English, which pretty much means I’m really good at reading books and manga are definitely one of my favourites to dig into. I particularly love anything by Yuu Watase or Ai Yazawa, though I read a whole bunch of work from others as well. I also love anime, as well as television/movies/books … really any form of storytelling will get me there.

I used to write reviews for the site Manga Life, but since it has closed down I was happy to find myself here at Kuriousity, especially since Lissa, Andre, and I all share a connection the the wonderful convention Animaritime, which I have sadly missed these last few years but plan to be at again at some point in the future. If you’d like to read more of my non-manga reviews, or read some of my creative writing, please check out my website.

View all posts written by Victoria K Martin



Hi there, my name’s Shannon Fay. I’ve been an anime and manga fan ever since junior high when a friend showed me a raw VHS tape of ‘Sailor Moon Stars.’ After watching it, I knew I didn’t want to live in a world that didn’t include magical transvestites and alien boy bands. In the end, I settled for reading about them in manga.

I recently got a journalism degree (and a really nice frame to go with it). Aside from manga and comics, I’m a big radio nerd and listen to various CBC programs in my spare time. As far as manga goes, I’m a sucker for well done romantic-comedies. I’m really happy to be able to help out Lissa by reviewing books for Kuri-ousity.

*Along with her reviews on Kuriousity, Shannon Fay has also written manga reviews for Manga Life and (the now offline) Anime Fringe. She is also a freelance manga adapter and is currently working with the manga licensor Seven Seas.

See all reviews written by Shannon Fay



Hi, I’m André, a long time comics and animation fan who draws assorted webcomics like Jeepers, and designed the mascots for Animaritime. I have a scary anime collection, about 900 dvd’s and tapes, and have been reading comics for 15 years. Somewhere in there I got an English degree, but spend most of my time now reading [strike]junk[/strike] comics and fantasy novels. I mostly tend to like cheesy anime, Disney, X-men stuff, Transformers, and CLAMP.

View all reviews written by Andre



Jaime SammsHi! I’m Jaime Samms, also known as dontkickmycane in live journal land. I’ve been writing gay romance and fiction for quite some time now, and reviewing it for almost as long, since I tend to have lots of opinions. I’m published with e-publishers Freya’s Bower, Lovyoudivine Alterotica and soon, Total e-Bound and Drollerie Press. Writing is quite a passion for me. I’ve been asked many times why write about love affairs between men, when I clearly am not one, and really, it feels right to me. Not a terribly informative answer, but there it is.

I live a little west of the others here. Ok, by a few provinces, in Ontario, but details. I’m married with two kids. We home school them, and serve a host of feline royalty. Between hubs and I, we can grow just about anything that will grow in this climate (and a few things that really don’t, but we’re stubborn) and we were doing DIY projects way before it became fashionable. At heart, we’re just a bunch of hippies.

I’ve got a diploma in Fine Arts, which means I officially know how to draw stuff. Actually, I majored in textile art, but indulge in all kinds of creative endeavours. Once in a while, I am actually gainfully employed, though I do try to keep my time working out of the house to a minimum. My love for all things Yaoi is what brought me here, and I’m so pleased to join the team. I have no complaints about all the reading I’ll have to do, either!

See all reviews written by Jaime Samms


Jenna McClellanHey-o, my name is Jenna McClellan, I’m an avid fan of anime and manga. My true love is cosplaying (even if I’m not that great)! I’ve always been very interested in writing, and so writing reviews here seems like a good start!

I live in the great big town of Antigonish with my boyfriend and two super annoying but super cute cats. We are both huge gamers and have a giant collection. But we mostly just play League of Legends. I am an artist, I love all mediums, sewing, painting, drawing, sculpting they’re all my favorite things.

My favorite manga are definitely horror/thrillers like Rabbit Doubt and Uzumaki.

View all posts by Jenna


Hi there, Marsha Reid here (also known as Kagami Hanei). As you might have guessed by my review, I’m a manhwa nut – it’s my not so guilty pleasure and my one true love. Lissa is kind enough to enlist my help once in a while, when the manga mountains get a little to high, by tossing some lovely Korean art my way. We used to be room mates and at the time numbered about seven hundred books between us, by now that has grown to much, much more. Naturally when someone has that much of something they learn to share it with the world, and she’s really done a super job with that.

Other then digging Lissa out of a manga pile I have a group called Anime at Large, which has become much like a full time job to go along with my full time job at the theater. Random facts about me; I like fluffy animals (even though I’m allergic), manga/manhwa, anime, and make Lolita costumes in my spare time. Yay me!

View all posts by Marsha Reid


GizmoI’ve never been huge on writing stuff like this, mostly because I never have any sweet clue what to write when I do! Whatever the case, I’m going to give it a go anyhow. So my name is Shevaun Morrison. Online, I usually go by Gizmo. Given that if Gizmo is taken, I am likely to just use Shevmo. If they’re both gone…I think of something.

I’m easily distracted, and usually rather excitable. I don’t really have a favorite type of anime or manga, and will read or watch just about anything. Although I do have a tendency to like things that are extra shiny And/or have a punk/gothic look to it. I am a role-play nerd, and love RPG video games too, and board games. Oh yeah, I play D&D. And have LARPed. I’m also a huge fan of cosplay, even if I haven’t actually managed to make a costume yet. I’m working on it, though!

Currently I am going to school so that I can learn to become a pastry chef. Because some day, I’m going to have a cute little café of my own! To serve teas and pastries and all sorts of delicious things.

View all posts by Shevaun


CONTACT
Anyone wishing to get in contact with us with questions, kind hellos or requests to have their book(s) reviewed here on Kuriousity can feel free to send an e-mail to lissa (a) kuriousity.ca or use this handy e-mail form.

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