Manga the Week of 11/21/18

SEAN: We give thanks for this manga, and it seems appropriate we start by giving thanks for a new manga company.

Denpa is releasing its first two titles next week. The first may be familiar to Crunchyroll manga readers. Inside Mari (Boku wa Mari no Naka) is a seinen series from Futabasha’s Manga Action, where our lead ends up inside the body of the girl he likes, and has to figure out what’s going on and how to act like her.

The other debut is PEZ, by Hiroyuki Asada, best known for Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee. It’s small (just 72 pages), but gorgeous, and published originally in the ROBOT anthology.

MICHELLE: Welcome, Denpa!

ASH: I am definitely interested in both of these (and everything else to come)!

MJ: Exciting!

SEAN: J-Novel Club also has two debuts next week. We start with Apparently It’s My Fault That My Husband Has the Head of a Beast. This one appears to definitely be geared towards female readers, and stars a Princess who shuts herself in because she sees people’s faces as beast heads. Then she meets a prince, who seems unaffected… at first.

The other debut is a one-shot, ECHO, based on a Vocaloid song, a la Kagerou Daze. I know nothing about it except it has excellent buzz.

And for more typical fare, we also have the 11th In Another World with My Smartphone.

This may have been on the list before, but dates slip, you know the drill. Kodansha has Battle Angel Alita: Holy Night and Other Stories, a collection set in the Alitaverse.

ASH: I suspect it’s something that I’ll get around to reading at some point.

SEAN: Print-wise, there’s also Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card 5, UQ Holder 15, and Wotakoi: Love Is Hard for Otaku omnibus 3. Honestly, I’m giving up on Amazon’s dates, as they seem to hate Kodansha right now, and going with the company site.

MICHELLE: Yay for more Wotakoi!

ASH: Yes, indeed! I really do love the series.

SEAN: Digitally, Kodansha debuts Good Dog, Cerberus! (Meiken Keru-chan), a one-volume manga about a cute but clumsy demon dog from Hell. It runs in Kodansha’s Aria, but is being marketed as all ages.

MICHELLE: The cover is crazy cute.

MJ: I’m a sucker for demon dogs from Hell.

SEAN: Also digitally, there is All Out! 7, Are You Lost? 2, Back Street Girls 5, Elegant Yokai Apartment Life 8, A Kiss, for Real 5, and Shojo Fight! 5.

MICHELLE: Shojo Fight! continues to be great.

ANNA: I need to catch up!

SEAN: One Peace has the sequel to the original I Hear The Sunspot, subtitled Limit.

ANNA: Loved the first volume.

ASH: I was really impressed by I Hear the Sunspot, so I’m looking forward to reading more.

MJ: I need this.

SEAN: Seven Seas has a bunch of stuff. Wonderland is the manga debut, and yes, it’s another horror take on the Alice story. This ran in Shogakukan’s Big Comic Superior, which almost never gets English licenses. Premise: everyone wakes up tiny! How can they survive?

Also debuting is a one-shot novel with the misleading title I Want to Eat Your Pancreas. No, it’s not a horror novel, and is well worth your time AND your pancreas.

ASH: I’ve heard good things.

SEAN: There’s also the 5th Akashic Records of Bastard Magical Instructor, a 4th Beasts of Abigaile, the 6th Captain Harlock: Dimensional Voyage, the print version of the 4th Make My Abilities Average light novel, The 3rd and final Juana and the Dragonewts’ Seven Kingdoms, a 9th Shomin Sample, and the 3rd Toradora! novel.

MICHELLE: I look forward to reading more Beasts of Abigaile.

ANNA: Me too! It covers my need for goofy paranormal shoujo manga.

SEAN: Udon gives us more foodie isekai manga with a 2nd Otherworldly Izakaya Nobu.

ASH: While in some ways not as immediately compelling as some of the other fantasy foodie manga being released right now, I did rather enjoy the first volume.

SEAN: Vertical has the 2nd Delinquent Housewife!, and also packs the first 7 Monogatari novels into a nice box, which is sadly only available if you buy the books all over again. (You have been buying the books, right?)

We end with Viz, who also have a debut. Ran and the Gray World (Ran to Haiiro no Sekai) is an Enterbrain title from Harta, something which always makes me happy. It’s about a powerful but immature sorcerer and the big brother who has to be her minder.

MICHELLE: Otherworldly Izakaya, Delinquent Housewife, and Ran and the Gray World are all on my list!

ANNA: Ran and the Gray World looks nifty!

ASH: It really does!

They also have Children of the Whales 7, Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt 9, the 3rd RWBY Anthology, and… drumroll please… Ooku: The Inner Chambers 14! Rejoice Manga Bookshelf writers!

MICHELLE: Verily, I am rejoicing!

ANNA: Indeed, I am rejoicing as well!

ASH: Rejoice! Rejoice!

MJ: What they said!

SEAN: So is your manga a turkey? (In a good way, of course.)