SEAN: There’s record-breaking cold, snow squalls, high winds… it’s a nightmare out there in the United States. Stay in and read some manga!
First, apologies to Denpa for missing them last time. Inside Mari 2 is out this week.
ASH: Whoops, that was an oversight! Denpa is doing great work. I’m looking forward to reading more of Inside Mari.
SEAN: J-Novel Club has its first print releases! They put out a few via Seven Seas before, but these are straight from the publisher. You can get How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord and In Another World with My Smartphone Vols. 1-2 next week.
ASH: Oh, I had missed that J-Novel Club was starting to directly release books in print! That’s good news for me.
SEAN: They also have a new digital debut. Cooking with Wild Game is the combination isekai and cooking title that everyone has been waiting for. It’s also got a hefty number of volumes, so settle in.
J-Novel Club also has new volumes for My Next Life As a Villainess! (2) and Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles (3).
Not sure if Kodansha has any February debuts yet, but digitally we do see the 4th and final Can I Kiss You Every Day?, the 10th and final Liar x Liar, the 5th Magical Sempai, the 6th digital volume for The Quintessential Quintuplets, the 2nd Red Riding Hood’s Wolf Apprentice, the 5th You Got Me, Sempai, and the 22nd Yozakura Quartet.
Print-wise, Kodansha has a 4th Boarding School Juliet and a 2nd Eden’s Zero.
Seven Seas has a digital light novel debut – the print will follow this spring. Classroom of the Elite is hideously popular in Japan, but had not been licensed over here, possibly as it’s not an isekai, fantasy, or magical academy story. There is an academy, though, as you may have guessed.
They’ve also got a print omnibus of the 4th to 6th Boogiepop light novels, a print version of the 9th Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash novel, a 3rd manga volume of How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord, the 4th volume of the Kobayashi Maid spinoff Kanna’s Daily Life, a 3rd Soul Liquid Chambers, and the 4th Toradora! Light novel.
ASH: This Boogiepop omnibus includes material not previously released in print in English (books four and five). I’m very excited.
SEAN: Speaking of unlikely licenses, Vertical has the first Kino’s Journey manga. A very popular series, we will try to forget what happened with Tokyopop and the novels and read this manga.
MJ: Okay, this has my attention. Hm.
SEAN: GIANT PILE OF VIZ! No debuts, though, so let’s talk shoujo and then shonen. Shoujo-wise we have Ao Haru Ride 3, Oresama Teacher 25 (yay!), Shortcake Cake 3, Takane & Hana 7, and Yona of the Dawn 16. A lot of Manga Bookshelf favorites.
MJ: I’m definitely in for Ao Haru Ride and Shortcake Cake.
MICHELLE: I am literally going to read every one of these!
ASH: That’s mostly true for me, too. Oresama Teacher and Yona of the Dawn is where I’m starting, though.
ANNA: I’m excited for the shoujo!!!
SEAN: On the shonen end, we have Black Clover 14, Black Torch 3, Food Wars! 28, the 10th and final volume of the 3rd Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, Stardust Crusaders (don’t worry, Diamond Is Unbreakable follows and has much the same cast), the 3rd Juni Taisen: Zodiac War, the 17th My Hero Academia, the 89th One Piece, the 8th volume of The Promised Neverland, and a 2nd volume of We Never Learn.
MICHELLE: I have really been enjoying catching up with My Hero Academia . I love it so and volume 17 will be the one I finally get current with!
SEAN: Are you reading manga next week? Or are you frozen solid?
I’m probably the only one, but I was a bit underwhelmed by Shortcake Cake. :/ Kino to the rescue!