SEAN: We’re back with another edition of JManga the Week of! And there are some great new digital titles hitting the site next week.
TAVERNA, Dark Cooking Club of St.George’s Girls’ School is such an awkward mouthful that it can only be a 4-koma series from our friends at Takeshobo. And indeed it is, running in the magazine Manga Life Win. Vol. 2 is out next week. It seems to be a cooking manga, only moe! … Do those two audiences even cross?
MJ: 4-koma tends to lean towards the “miss” side of hit-or-miss with me, but I’m usually willing to give it a try. Usually. We’ll see. The “cooking” bit does give it an edge—which is odd, actually, since I hate cooking.
MICHELLE: Yeah, I’m pretty wary, but the cooking part is at least kind of different.
SEAN: A Kiss on Tearful Cheeks is the 2nd title from Futabasha’s Comic Mahou no Island in 2 weeks, but this one seems to be slightly less off-putting than My Sadistic Boyfriend. Despite apparently starring a girl who can’t stop crying. Vol. 4 is out next week.
MJ: Oooooh, I just don’t know if I can take all the crying. I just don’t know.
MICHELLE: Ugh. I am totally making gross assumptions here, but I predict that the boyfriend makes her cry (or that she invents reasons for herself to cry) and then ends up repeatedly comforting her. It just sounds so dreary and, like, spirit-sapping. No thanks.
SEAN: The big debut title for me next week is Sekine’s Love, a josei-ish title that runs in Ohta Shuppan’s sui generis manga magazine Manga Erotics F. It’s a title about a stoic and unemotional man who starts trying to find someone who can make him feel. The audience, meanwhile, is attracted to him because his indifference is hilarious. I’ve heard great things about this, can’t wait to give it a read. (And no, it’s not – to my knowledge – BL.)
MJ: What readers don’t know, is that Sean sent out a pre-column email of squee over this title earlier today. And reading this, I’m inclined to agree with him. I’ll definitely be checking this out!
MICHELLE: I had never heard of this one prior to this afternoon, but it does sound intriguing. I guess JManga is trying to cover their bases—moe fans, check! Black Bird-type relationship fans, check! People who are weary of those other things and want something unique, check!
SEAN: Also, when finding the cover art for this post, I noted the cover says “A gentleman good at knitting is not good at knitting the love!” Is this the anti-Ninja Papa?
I know very little indeed about pupa, except that its title is in lower case and it’s from Earth Star Entertainment, whom JManga have done several series with recently. Judging from the cover, I’m guessing fantasy?
MJ: Looks kind of interesting, actually. Is that a teddy bear in there?
MICHELLE: I am just distracted by the title on this one.
SEAN: And Tokyo Girls Destruction is by Court Bettan, author of the cancelled Tokyopop series Harukaze Bitter Bop. It’s from Mag Garden, running in their seinen magazine Beat\’s (no, not a typo, that’s how it looks). It would appear to be another in a long line of Battle Royale clones, featuring cute girls all beating the crap out of each other.
MJ: Zzzzzzzzzzzz…
MICHELLE: For, like, half a second I though this was some kind of 51 Ways to Save Her series. Alas, ’twas not to be.