SEAN: It’s Valentine’s Day, or Galentine’s Day, or whatever you might celebrate. What manga do we have?
We’re still in a kinder, gentler time when Yen Press no longer has sliding release dates, so we start with Viz. Their debut is the one shot The Girl That Can’t Get a Girlfriend (Kanojo ga Denai Onna), which ran online on various services like Tapas and pixiv, and which Viz is publishing as a collected volume. It’s an autobiographical story of love, and what to do when that love does not work out.
ASH: I’ve been curious about this one since I first heard about it.
MJ: I hadn’t heard about it, but it does sound interesting!
SEAN: Viz also has The Hunters Guild: Red Hood 2, Komi Can’t Communicate 23, Radiant 16, Sakamoto Days 6, and Splatoon 16.
Tokyopop debuts Confessions of a Shy Baker (Futari de Okashi na Kyuujitsu o) which runs in the amusingly named magazine Flat Heros. A real estate agency owner worries that advertising the agency as LGBT-friendly might out him. Fortunately, he bakes, so there are always sweets.
ASH: I generally avoid Tokyo these days, but I am seriously tempted by some of these titles.
MJ: Must… stay… strong..
SEAN: They’ve also got Formerly, the Fallen Daughter of the Duke 3.
SuBLime has a debut. Megumi & Tsugumi (Megumi to Tsugumi) runs in Qpa. It’s an Omegaverse story, so the plot is basically all about that sort of thing.
Also from SuBLime, Candy Color Paradox 6.
ASH: Though I’m a little behind, I have been enjoying this series.
SEAN: Square Enix has My Isekai Life: I Gained a Second Character Class and Became the Strongest Sage in the World! 5 and Tokyo Aliens 2.
Seven Seas gives us two debuts. Gap Papa: Daddy at Work and at Home (Shokuba to Jitaku de Gap no Aru Papa) is a Kadokawa title based on a webcomic. It’s about a cool, distant work colleague who turns into a sweet and doting husband and father at home. The Gap is as in “gap moe”.
MICHELLE: Hm. Possibly cute!
ASH: Awkward title, but promising premise.
SEAN: The other debut is Marmalade Boy: Collector’s Edition. Originally running in Ribon in the early 1990s, getting a very popular TV anime, and then getting a Tokyopop release in 2002, it’s getting a deluxe reissue here, with color pages and a new translation. Miki is horrified to find her parents are swapping spouses with another couple! And they’re all living together! And her new stepbrother Yuu, is such a jerk! Voted “most likely to read badly in retrospect” by old-school manga fans. Don’t mention Namura.
MICHELLE: It’s been 20 years since I read Marmalade Boy so I’m really looking forward to revisiting it. I hope I won’t be too horrified.
ANNA: Ha, I still have my old edition of Marmalade Boy, maybe I’ll check out the new version.
ASH: I somehow haven’t actually read this series yet, although I definitely know about it!
MJ: I also still have my old editions of Marmalade Boy, and I’ll probably leave it at that.
SEAN: Also from Seven Seas: CANDY AND CIGARETTES 3, Correspondence from the End of the Universe 2, Monologue Woven For You 3 (the final volume), and The Most Heretical Last Boss Queen: From Villainess to Savior 3 (the final manga volume).
One Peace Books has a 2nd volume of Usotoki Rhetoric.
MICHELLE: Yay! I really liked the first volume.
ASH: As did I! Really looking forward to reading more.
SEAN: Kodansha has a print debut, a 528-page done-in-one collection. Break of Dawn (Bokura no Yoake) ran in Afternoon, and it’s by the author of Alice & Zoroku. A young boy watches everyone else in the country be obsessed with a comet, but he’s found something even more out of this world.
ASH: This seems like something I would be interested in (and as a single volume, might actually have a chance of reading in a timely fashion).
SEAN: Also in print: Drifting Dragons 12, The Iceblade Sorcerer Shall Rule the World 4, Parasyte Full Color Collection 2, Phantom of the Idol 4, Real Account 18-20, and Wandance 4.
MICHELLE: I’ve already fallen behind on Wandance.
SEAN: While digitally we see The Fable 11, Fungus and Iron 2, Gang King 2, Giant Killing 35, The Girl, the Shovel, and the Evil Eye 4, Girlfriend, Girlfriend 12, Island in a Puddle 5 (the final volume), A Kiss with a Cat 5, Police in a Pod 21, Rent-A-Girlfriend 17, Tokyo Revengers 29, and The Witch and the Beast 10.
Kaiten Books has the 8th manga volume of Loner Life in Another World out digitally.
J-Novel Club has some print titles. We see the debut of Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles, the manga version, which runs in Comic Fire. We also get I Shall Survive Using Potions! manga volume 9, Infinite Dendrogram 17, and The Unwanted Undead Adventurer 9.
Digitally they’ve got Backstabbed in a Backwater Dungeon: My Trusted Companions Tried to Kill Me, But Thanks to the Gift of an Unlimited Gacha I Got LVL 9999 Friends and Am Out For Revenge on My Former Party Members and the World 2, Black Summoner’s 10th manga volume, Death’s Daughter and the Ebony Blade 3, The Mythical Hero’s Otherworld Chronicles 2, and Reincarnated as an Apple: This Forbidden Fruit Is Forever Unblemished! 2 (the final volume).
Lastly, Airship has the print debut of Raven of the Inner Palace, which was excellent.
ASH: I really ought to pick this one up now that it’s in print!
SEAN: And we get early digital for I’m the Evil Lord of an Intergalactic Empire! 4 and Though I Am an Inept Villainess: Tale of the Butterfly-Rat Body Swap in the Maiden Court 3.
What manga are you grateful for?