SEAN: November does not have quite as many books as October, but that’s only due to Thanksgiving week providing a minor break. The other three weeks try harder to drown us in books.
Dark Horse finishes off its Trigun re-release with the 5th Trigun Maximum omnibus, depriving me of additional attempts to mock Nightow’s art style, at least until the next Blood Blockade Battlefront comes along.
Attack on Titan 14 focuses more on Levi and Hange, for fans of those two (no, it doesn’t have any shipping fuel).
ASH: I found the thirteenth volume of Attack on Titan to be particularly good, so I’m looking forward to reading the fourteenth.
SEAN: The third and final volume of Alice in the Country of Clover: Knight’s Knowledge will no doubt see if Alice and Ace can resolve their respective psychoses and find peaceful happiness. God, I hope not. They’re far less interesting that way.
Seven Seas has been hyping their print release of Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer, and with good reason: it’s an excellent series, with a nice take on ‘what if the superheroes who had to save the world wanted to destroy it instead?’ It’s come out digitally twice, but get it in print, it’s worth it.
ASH: I plan on checking this series out!
ANNA: Huh, this wasn’t on my radar before, but this sounds interesting!
MJ: What Anna said!
SEAN: The Sacred Blacksmith lost me with Vol. 5, so I have no further jokes to spend on Vol. 6.
And the penultimate volume of Zero’s Familiar Chevalier, which will hopefully be able to wrap things up nicely by the final volume, as the author has passed away, making more series unlikely.
Vertical has the 5th volume of seinen foodie manga What Did You Eat Yesterday?.
MICHELLE: Yay!
ASH: Yay, indeed!
ANNA: Triple yay!
MJ: There cannot possibly be enough YAY!
SEAN: The rest is all Viz. Black Rose Alice was pretty dark in its first volume. Will this second one lighten things up a bit, or continue on its gothic pace?
MICHELLE: I found this quite a unique take on vampire mythology, so I’m looking forward to volume two.
ASH: Although I was sad to see the story leave Vienna so soon, I loved the first volume of Black Rose Alice and am very curious to see how it continues to develop.
ANNA: I enjoyed the first volume too. It has an interesting take on vampires, which is quite tricky to pull off. Also the thematic tone of this series sets it apart from other supernatural manga.
MJ: I’m so happy to be reading this series, and I can’t wait to dig into the second volume!
SEAN: Bleach hits Vol. 62, and I think a person is fighting with another person somewhere in it. At points they brag about how they can’t be defeated, I’m guessing.
MICHELLE: Ha!
SEAN: Blue Exorcist looks like it was getting ready to head into a darker arc last time, and I think that’s what we’ll get here. Can’t wait, this is always good.
There’s also a 5th D.Gray-Man 3-in-1, speaking of shonen series with a high female readership. In fact, in North America I’d argue D.Gray-Man has an almost exclusively female readership…
Dengeki Daisy is almost over! Waaaah! Here’s the 15th, penultimate volume.
MICHELLE: I haven’t always loved this one, but I’ll miss it when it’s gone.
ASH: I’ll miss it, too.
ANNA: I love this series. This is one of those manga that’s going to have a permanent place on my bookshelves.
SEAN: High School Debut has its 4th 3-in-1 as well.
MICHELLE: Getting closer to the one with new material!
ANNA: There’s a volume coming out with new material? I am excited!
MJ: Wait, what? New material? Ooh.
MICHELLE: Yep! The fifth omnibus will contain volumes 14 and 15, which I believe will contain short stories published after the series officially ended.
SEAN: Kiss of the Rose Princess is this month’s new series, from Shojo Beat. It’s an Asuka series, so I expect it’s most likely fantasy, and also probably reverse harem. Am I right?
MICHELLE: I don’t know yet, but I’ll check it out.
ANNA: Surprising no one, so will I.
MJ: Surprising… also no one. Me too.
SEAN: And for non-reversed harems, here’s the 6th volume of romantic comedy Nisekoi.
Did you not pick up One Piece? Shame on you. Here’s a 2nd giant Box Set so you can catch up all at once. Now. I’ll wait here all night if necessary.
The 5th and final volume of Phantom Thief Jeanne should wrap everything up, though I’m not sure if it will be happy or bittersweet.
ANNA: The ending of Phantom Thief Jeanne is bonkers in the best possible way.
SEAN: The 5th Ranma 1/2 omnibus introduces Ukyou Kuonji, who is another character who invites controversy. Well, they all do, really. It’s that kind of fandom.
Have you had enough 3-in-1 omnibuses yet? No? Good, here’s Skip Beat! with its 9th.
Spell of Desire’s first volume was solid but didn’t wow me. I’m hoping for more wow in this second one.
MICHELLE: And more kittens!
ANNA: I’ve read this already and I continue to enjoy this series.
MJ: I talked about this a bit in Monday’s Off the Shelf. I’m not exactly *wowed*, but optimistic about this series.
SEAN: Tegami Bachi, you’ve hit Volume 17. As ever, I have no idea what to say about you. You seem to have caught up with Japan now.
Ultimo hits double digits even as it’s been announced it’s ending soon.
Lastly, if the One Piece box set wasn’t enough for you, here’s one for Vampire Knight.
If you were expecting the manga deluge to end, more fool you. What suits you from this tsunami of manga?
AshLynx says
October 30, 2014 at 7:48 pmI love how comic shops only care about street dates for regular comics. When it comes to manga, most of them are like “we got a box in? Just shove it up, whatever” (they only really seem to respect Dark Horse on manga street dates, but of course unlike most manga publishers, they publish regular comics too). Therefore, I already have D.Gray Man, Skip Beat, Black Rose Alice, Blue Exorcist, and Tegami Bachi. I could’ve gotten the other ones too, but I don’y collect Bleach, and Kiss of the Rose Prince is short and I’m trying to collect fewer series so, library. Oh and one of my guy friends, he’s read some D.Gray-Man too. Then again, I simply don’t know anyone really reading it in the first place (except on here). I actually got the art book at the comic shop cus it was somehow $5 or something, why not? Now for the kicker, I’ve still only read the first 3-in-1. I know…
When What Did You Eat Yesterday? and Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer come out, those two I’ll get. I don’t plan to return to the comic store until black friday though.
lys says
October 30, 2014 at 11:45 pm“The ending of Phantom Thief Jeanne is bonkers in the best possible way.” …gave me a burst of laughter as I recalled the ending from CMX’s release. Yeah, that is a good and accurate description :)
Wisteria says
October 31, 2014 at 1:36 pmI’ll be picking up Tegami Bachi, hoping it doesn’t turn out like so many other series that have gone on indefinite hiatus. It seems like there’s still so much story to be told that couldn’t fit into one volume, but I’ve been surprised before.
I’ll also be getting Knight’s Knowledge and completely agree that I hope Ace and Alice don’t exactly find peaceful happiness. Their being lost and especially Ace’s quick “trigger finger” mixed with Alice’s uneasiness towards killing are what make their story very unique. Ace of Hearts failed quite miserably to carry out anything but the usual happy love-sick ending. I’m hoping this spin-off will deliver a bit more of a twist ending to make it stand out from the others.
Conner Crooks says
October 31, 2014 at 3:22 pmWhoop, whoop Biscuit Hammer!
Thanks for the hype, everyone. Just one correction, Sean: There’s still a fourth volume to Zero’s Familiar: Chevalier (coming out in January), which will end the series.
Sean Gaffney says
October 31, 2014 at 5:14 pmOh, I know. I said penultimate. :)
JRB says
November 1, 2014 at 12:55 pm“Black Rose Alice was pretty dark in its first volume. Will this second one lighten things up a bit, or continue on its gothic pace?”
Not gonna spoil anything, but V2 is still mostly in tutorial mode, getting you used to the characters and the premise, setting up the fluffy start to V3 which of course then goes and rips your heart out… So not as dark as V1, but don’t expect that to last.