SEAN: Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Best wishes from Manga Bookshelf!… wait, there’s manga out this week?
ASH: As if there was any doubt!
SEAN: Yen On has one title, and it’s a debut. Before the Tutorial Starts: A Few Things I Can Do to Keep the Bosses Alive (Tutorial ga Hajimaru Mae ni: Bosschara-tachi wo Hametsu Sasenai Tame ni Ore ga Dekiru Ikutsu ka no Koto) is a “I am the weakest, but really the STRONGEST” title combined with “I’m reincarnated as a pathetic villain” with a dash of “my sister is dying”.
MICHELLE: That’s kind of a lot.
SEAN: And Yen Press has Excellent Property, Rejects for Residents: Baths, Lavatories, and Angels Are Communal 2 and Final Fantasy Lost Stranger 11.
Viz Media has the 15th volume of Fist of the North Star.
ASH: Always happy for a new Fist of the North Star volume!
SEAN: Steamship debuts The Yakuza and His Omega: Raw Desire (Gokudou to Omega – Mukidashi no Katsuai), a josei omegaverse title from Pinkcherie. A romance writer wants to interview a famous alpha who’s also head of the local yakuza. Little does she know that… drumroll, please… she’s really an omega!
ASH: Surprise! (Still glad we’re getting steamy josei in the mix.)
ANNA: Me too, I’m glad that some steamy josei is being published.
SEAN: Square Enix has Final Fantasy VII Remake: Material Ultimania Plus, a big hardcover artbook.
I feel like sticking the Mature Seven Seas titles with Ghost Ship isn’t working, so I’ll go back to listing them with the main label. The debut is a mature BL title, Our Sweet One-Room Apartment (Sweet Our 1R) is from Magazine Be x Boy, and complete in one volume. Two college kids live together, it looks very cute.
ASH: It does!
SEAN: From Seven Seas we see Chronicles of an Aristocrat Reborn in Another World 11, the 2nd KinnPorsche novel, Level 1 Demon Lord and One Room Hero 7, My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! 10, Perfect Buddy 2, Time Stop Hero 11, and The World’s Fastest Level Up 4.
Kodansha has the debut of the week with Ashita no Joe: Fighting for Tomorrow, the legendary 1968 Weekly Shonen Magazine manga that inspired almost every shonen series that came after it. The story of a ne’er-do-well who finds his fate lies with boxing, it’s coming out in hardcover format as a 600-page omnibus. Calling it: This is our pick of the week. And possibly the year, despite coming out at the end of it.
MICHELLE: Yeah, I’m a sucker for these “adrift person finds the place they belong” stories. Of course, I’m inclined to say “It reminds me of Slam Dunk!,” though I realize it’s the other way around.
ASH: I am so excited for this release!!
ANNA: Me too, happy to see a classic title get translated.
SEAN: Also in print: Kusunoki’s Flunking Her High School Glow-Up 3 and That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime: Trinity in Tempest 9.
And for digital we see As the Gods Will 2, Bootsleg 5, Gamaran: Shura 27, I Want To Hold Aono-kun So Badly I Could Die 12, and My Home Hero 19.
No debuts for J-Novel Club, but we do see Ascendance of a Bookworm Part 3 Book 4 manga, the 18th Black Summoner manga, the 5th Hell Mode manga, I Could Never Be a Succubus! 5, An Introvert’s Hookup Hiccups: This Gyaru Is Head Over Heels for Me! 9, the 4th A Late-Start Tamer’s Laid-Back Life manga, A Livid Lady’s Guide to Getting Even: How I Crushed My Homeland with My Mighty Grimoires 4, Min-Maxing My TRPG Build in Another World 9 Part 2, Now I’m a Demon Lord! Happily Ever After with Monster Girls in My Dungeon 11, Private Tutor to the Duke’s Daughter 14, Taking My Reincarnation One Step at a Time: No One Told Me There Would Be Monsters! 7, The Tales of Marielle Clarac 11, and the 9th Welcome to Japan, Ms. Elf! manga.
ASH: No debuts, but still plenty to fall behind on!
SEAN: Ghost Ship has The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, REALLY Love You 12 and the 2nd Do You Like Big Girls? omnibus re-release.
ASH: One of these days I really, really, really, really, REALLY will give The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, REALLY Love You a try.
SEAN: Denpa Books has, per retailers, March Comes in Like a Lion 3.
MICHELLE: I’m dubious, but we’ll see if my pre-order ships!
ASH: Fingers crossed!
ANNA: Also hoping here!
SEAN: In print, Airship has Heroine? Saint? No, I’m an All-Works Maid (And Proud of It)! (Heroine? Seijo? Iie, All Works Maid desu (Hokori)!). A former Japanese farm girl is reincarnated and becomes a maid to a poor noble family. Except… she seems to have holy magic? And men are flocking to her? Is she a heroine? Meh. Who cares? She’s a maid!
Also in print: Reincarnated Into a Game as the Hero’s Friend: Running the Kingdom Behind the Scenes 3 and The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick Up Trash 8.
And early digital has She Professed Herself Pupil of the Wise Man 12 and Though I Am an Inept Villainess: Tale of the Butterfly-Rat Body Swap in the Maiden Court 8.
That’s actually not bad compared to the last two weeks of hell. What’s in your stocking?