SEAN: The first week of December seems like a cakewalk compared to the third, but that’s only a matter of degrees. Let’s see what we’ve got.
Dark Horse has an 8th volume of Blood Blockade Battlefront, whose 7th volume came out sometime in the 17th century, I believe.
ASH: That does sound about right.
SEAN: Ghost Ship is the new imprint for Seven Seas’ more racy titles, though honestly I’m not sure how they’re different from a lot of Seven Seas’ other racy titles. They begin with two Shonen Jump titles that Viz never bothered to pick up: To-Love-Ru, a sweet yet ecchi romantic comedy, and To-Love-Ru Darkness, its much racier sequel that verges on hentai at times. We get an omnibus of the first two volumes of the first series, and the first volume of its sequel.
ASH: I’m curious to see how this imprint develops. It’s also incredibly interesting to see Shonen Jump titles from a publisher other than Viz!
SEAN: J-Novel Club has another debut, this one called How NOT To Summon a Demon Lord. I believe the Japanese title mentioned slave magic, so I will withhold my thoughts till I see how it handles it.
ASH: I wonder if Seven Seas might eventually team up with J-Novel Club to print this series, too, since the manga adaptation has also been licensed.
SEAN: There’s also a 5th Mixed Bathing in Another Dimension, which has caught up with Japan so has longer wait times.
Kodansha has STUFF. The first digital debut is Drifting Dragons, which seems to combine dragons and cooking. It runs in good! Afternoon.
MICHELLE: Oooh! And next year we’re getting househunting dragons, too.
ANNA: That sounds fun!
ASH: I would totally read that.
SEAN: The other debut digitally is Ayanashi, a fantasy drama from Shonen Magazine R. World overtaken by monsters, our hero bent on revenge, can he open up to others?
Also out digitally we have Pumpkin Scissors 16 (the Del Rey rescue) Yozakura Quartet 19 (ditto), Altair: A Record of Battles 6, The Full-Time Wife Escapist 7, Hozuki’s Coolheadedness 3, and Real Girl 8. I haven’t even reviewed Wife Escapist 6 yet…
MICHELLE: It’s good!
ANNA: So far behind with Wife Escapist, but I still like it!
SEAN: Kodansha’s print debut is Wake Up, Sleeping Beauty, which is another shoujo title from Dessert but whose premise intrigues me.
MICHELLE: I am always willing to at least try Dessert titles, having liked a lot of them.
ANNA: Me too!
ASH: I am also rather intrigued.
SEAN: If you wanted to pick up the Attack on Titan: No Regrets series but decided to wait till it came out in a Complete Color Edition, have I got good news for you!
ASH: I’m not such devotee that I’ll be double-dipping, but I did like this (shoujo!) spinoff. This will probably be the definitive edition, though.
SEAN: And there’s a 7th Fire Force, which continues to not be Soul Eater.
Seven Seas has 2nd volumes for Akashic Records of Bastard Magical Instructor and Captain Harlock: Dimensional Voyage, two series nothing like each other. We also get a 13th Dragonar Academy and an 8th Magika Swordsman and Summoner.
ANNA: CAPTAIN HARLOCK!
ASH: I liked the first volume! I will read more!
SEAN: Vertical has the 2nd and final Helvetica Standard volume, subtitled Italic.
And it’s the first week of the month, so there must be a ton of Viz. Two debuts. The first is Astra: Lost in Space, a Shonen Jump + series by the author of Sket Dance that looks to be a lot more serious than that title ever was.
The other debut is The Promised Neverland, a Weekly Shonen Jump series that I know little about except it’s become quite popular in Japan. Is it the new My Hero Academia?
ASH: I’m interested in both of these, but Kate recently posted a great review of The Promised Neverland, so I know which one I’ll be starting with.
SEAN: Shonen ongoing series! Assassination Classroom 19, Dragon Ball Super 2, Food Wars! 21, Haikyu!! 18, Kuroko’s Basketball 17-18, a 22nd One Piece 3-in-1, and the 4th Platinum End.
MICHELLE: Yay for food and sports!
ANNA: Indeed!
ASH: That is a pretty great combination, actually.
SEAN: Shoujo ongoing series! The 9th Bloody Mary, a 7th Everyone’s Getting Married (OK, that’s josei), and a 2nd Queen’s Quality.
ANNA: Excited for both Everyone’s Getting Married and Queen’s Quality!
ASH: Same! (Even though I’ve fallen behind…)
SEAN: It’s a mangatopia! What are you interested in?
While I can’t say To Love-Ru itself interests me, seeing someone other than Viz get a Jump title certainly does. I know that the guy who runs Vertical adores Space Adventure Cobra, so maybe it would open the door to them getting it? Or would being part of Kodansha mess that up? Technically though, Barefoot Gen was also a Jump title published by someone other than Viz. Maybe it got so old that it went into “historical” category, opening the way for Last Gap or something, who knows? But To Love Ru is more recent, so I find that more important.