SEAN: January continues apace, and so do releases, though as I noted last week, it’s still a bit muted compared to the last few months.
If you’re tired of Joss Whedon projects but still love vampire slayers, Drawn and Quarterly can help you with Kitaro the Vampire Slayer, the latest release in their series.
ASH: I still love Kitaro, which is why I’ll be picking it up!
Another J-Novel Club series comes to an end with the 6th and final volume of Paying to Win in a VRMMO, starring the smuggest hero ever.
Kodansha has another pile of digital releases, as we get Chihayafuru 8, DEATHTOPIA 8 (which I believe is the final volume), Elegant Yokai Apartment Life 5, Fuuka 15, Kasane 9, The Prince’s Black Poison 2, and Real Girl 11.
MICHELLE: Hooray for Chihayafuru!
ANNA: YAY!!!!!
SEAN: Lest Ash despair, they also have some print volumes. We get Waiting for Spring 4 and Wake Up, Sleeping Beauty 2.
MICHELLE: I am working on getting caught up on these.
ASH: My despair has been tempered as I am enjoying both of these series so far. (In print!)
One Peace continues to deliver on volumes of Maria Holic, this time giving us lucky Vol. 13.
Seven Seas has three ongoing titles. A Certain Scientific Accelerator 7 is pretty much caught up with Japan. My Monster Secret 9 has a ways to go before it catches up to Japan, as it recently ended with Vol. 22. And Pandora in the Crimson Shell: Ghost Urn is still two creators reinforcing each other’s worst habits, but we’re at Vol. 9 anyway.
Their debut is Juana and the Dragonewt’s Seven Kingdoms (Ryuu no Nanakuni to Minashigo no Juana), a Mag Garden title that, given it stars dragonewts, I’m going to guess is a fantasy.
ASH: I am very curious about this debut!
ANNA: Hmm, sounds interesting.
SEAN: Vertical has a 4th volume of Mobile Suit Gundam Wing.
Viz’s ongoing series give us the 2nd Children of the Whales (I wasn’t as impressed as I expected to be) and the 20th Terra Formars.
MICHELLE: Children of the Whales is literally on top of my to-read pile.
ASH: I think you’ll like the series, Michelle! Overall, I really enjoyed the first volume and look forward to seeing how the manga continues to develop with the second.
ANNA: I wish it had less world building and more character development, but maybe things will settle down a bit in the second volume.
SEAN: Debut #1 is Fire Punch, a shonen series from the Shonen Jump + line, and oh my god it looks super, super dark. Not sure how I’ll do with this one.
ASH: Oh, super dark, you say? I don’t know much about the series, but that’s enough to at least pique my interest.
ANNA: I enjoy both fire and punching.
SEAN: The other debut is actually done in one – RWBY, a manga that ran in Japan’s Ultra Jump based on the anime-style American series created by Rooster Teeth. I’m hoping for “cool” here.
ANNA: It does look super stylish.
SEAN: Are you excited? And you just can’t hide it?
I already got in and read my Fire Punch vol 1. It is dark, it kind of takes place in Narnia when it was in perpetual winter so everyone is starving and stuff, but some people have magic abilities. And when you have instant regeneration, the manga is more than happy to give out fates worse than death. But at least it doesn’t feel pointlessly dark, it does seem to work into the world and I am quite interested to read more, actually. But I’ve certainly read darker, like Wolfsmund.
I also already read Children of the Whales 2 and it expanded its world building more, which I approve of. I’m enjoying it so far.