SEAN: It’s 2025! OK, most of these come out on the 31st of December 2024, but still! Only 500 years to the song In the Year 2525!
ASH: So close, and yet so far away!
SEAN: Airship’s print debut is A Tale of the Secret Saint ZERO (Tenseishita Daiseijo wa, Seijo de Aru Koto wo Hitakakusu Zero), the prequel story of Princess Serafina’s adventures 300 years before being reincarnated as Fia.
Also in print: The Strange Adventure of a Broke Mercenary 9.
And for early digital we see Adachi and Shimamura: Short Stories, Reborn as a Space Mercenary: I Woke Up Piloting the Strongest Starship! 11, and There’s No Freaking Way I’ll be Your Lover! Unless… 6.
Cross Infinite World has Fluffy Paradise 6 and Since I Was Abandoned After Reincarnating, I Will Cook With My Fluffy Friends: The Figurehead Queen Is Strongest At Her Own Pace 6 (the final volume).
Ghost Ship has She’s the Strongest Bride, But I’m Stronger in Night Battles: A Harem Chronicle of Advancing Through Cunning Tactics 2 and the 18th and final volume of World’s End Harem.
The debut from J-Novel Club is From Villainess to Healer (Kaifukushoku no Akuyaku Reijou), whose manga adaptation came out from JNC two weeks ago. Our protagonist is dumped for having evil dark magic rather than good healing magic, so she goes to another country, changes her class to healer, and vows to forget all about him.
ASH: As she should.
ANNA: She doesn’t need that guy!
SEAN: Also from J-Novel Club: the 6th The Invincible Little Lady manga, Isekai Tensei: Recruited to Another World 9, Jeanette the Genius: Defying My Evil Stepmother by Starting a Business with My Ride-or-Die Fiancé! 3 (the final volume), Nia Liston: The Merciless Maiden 5, the 9th Now I’m a Demon Lord! Happily Ever After with Monster Girls in My Dungeon manga, Reborn to Master the Blade: From Hero-King to Extraordinary Squire 12, and the 4th A Wild Last Boss Appeared! manga.
No debuts for Kodansha. In print they have Am I Actually the Strongest? 8, Blue Lock 16, and The Spellbook Library 2.
ASH: Oh, I was supposed to read the first volume of The Spellbook Library, wasn’t I?
ANNA: Tell me if you like it!
SEAN: Digitally we see Altair: A Record of Battles 27 (the final volume) and Issak 11.
One Peace Books has a 5th volume of The Death Mage light novel.
The debut for Seven Seas is a mature BL oneshot, Wanna Be My Dress-Up Lover? (Nee, Onnanoko ni Shite Ageru). This ran in Reijin, and stars an office manager who relieves his stress by working at a cross-dressing cafe… but then his sarcastic employee shows up!
MICHELLE: I do like sarcastic guys in BL…
ASH: Saaaaaame.
ANNA: Indeed!
SEAN: Also from Seven Seas: Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest 13, Box of Light 3, Dance in the Vampire Bund: Age of Scarlet Order 13, Dungeon Builder: The Demon King’s Labyrinth is a Modern City! 10, I Get the Feeling That Nobukuni-san Likes Me 5, I Swear I Won’t Bother You Again! 5, Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid: Fafnir the Recluse 4, My Deer Friend Nokotan 5, My Girlfriend’s Child 6, She Professed Herself Pupil of the Wise Man 12, and Skeleton Knight in Another World 13.
Steamship has the 4th and final volume of Revenge: Mrs. Wrong.
And one title from Yen Press, a debut for Yen On: Monsterholic. This is by the author of Days with My Stepsister and My Friend’s Little Sister Has It in for Me!, but this is definitely a different genre. A vampire and a werewolf patrol a government-approved slum, trying despite that to fight crime.
MICHELLE: Huh.
ASH: That is quite the genre switch.
SEAN: End of the year is always short. What are you buying with your New Year’s money? Assuming you are Japanese and get New Year’s money.