Honey So Sweet, Vol. 2 | By Amu Meguro | VIZ Media- The vast majority of this volume is definitely super, super sweet. Nao sorts out who she truly has romantic feelings for, and her subsequent rain-soaked confession scene to Onise is one for the shoujo hall of fame. Reader, he cries and it is adorable. I also loved the scene where her uncle Sou warms to Onise, seeing in him the same desire to make Nao happy that he himself possesses. Also, there is an incredibly cute turtle. I can’t help, however, feeling apprehensive about this new friend Onise has made. Perhaps Ayaha is completely straightforward, but does he have ulterior motives? He makes me nervous. I will definitely be following this series ’til the end. – Michelle Smith
Kiss Him, Not Me!, Vol. 4 | By Junko | Kodansha Comics – I did say last time that this is not a title one reads for the depth. In many ways, it’s like The Wallflower, in that four hot guys are forced to deal with the antics of an eccentric girl. Unlike The Wallflower, though, they all have feelings for her… or, to be more accurate, desires. Shinomiya is the focus of the last half, and being “the other blonde” in the group, he desperately needs it. But let’s face it, I think BL fans read this series more than typical romance fans, so the soccer backstory and rivalry between Igarashi and Nanashima will be far more interesting. As for Kae, she proves once more to be nice, sweet, batshit about BL, and utterly unaware that there’s a three-way battle for her going on (does Mutsumi count?). Mildly recommended. – Sean Gaffney
Magi, Vol. 17 | By Shinobu Ohtaka | Viz Media – I’ll admit, this volume went in a direction that I was not expecting, as the evil Dumbledore tries, in his classroom, to explain to Aladdin and company why they are using the human underclass as magic livestock and letting them suffer. It turns out to be a cyclical abuse story, with magic users once being worked to death by uncaring humanity, including killing the daughter of the headmaster. That said, I’m fairly certain that this explanation is not going to fly with Aladdin, no matter how many cute little girls we see on the cover you save. Even worse, we see two warring countries trying to use the magic city for their own ends… and one side as Alibaba on it. I expect a lot of battling next time. – Sean Gaffney
My Monster Secret, Vol. 2 | By Eiji Masuda | Seven Seas – Having set up last time that this series consisted mostly of girls who are secretly “monsters” in some way, shape or form, and that it was going to be dedicated to gags rather than a serious romantic or thrilling plot, we can expect the second volume to expand the cast accordingly. And so we see Shiho, who seems to be a werewolf guy but is in reality a sex-changing werewolf with a lusty side… and by side I mean all of her. And there’s Akane, the school principal, who’s a demon that’s MUCH younger than she looks and whose great-granddaughter is their seemingly normal teacher. Not a lot happens to push the plot forward here, but there’s lots of great laughs, and that’s really all that matters. – Sean Gaffney
School Judgment: Gakkyu Hotei, Vol. 2 | By Nobuaki Enoki and Takeshi Obata | VIZ Media – I may not be the target audience for this series—someone out there must’ve really appreciated all of the emphasis on sixth-grade boobies, but it wasn’t me!—but I am a big fan of mysteries, so hoped I could at least enjoy that aspect of it. Sadly, I found the whodunits in this volume to be deeply boring, particularly the interminable plagiarism case. I’m not sure what it is that makes reading this such a slog for me. My interest did perk up when we got more information about the deadly classroom arbitration in Inugami’s past, for which he and two other surviving classmates were initially held responsible until they studied law and proved their innocence. The real perpetrator and motive are still unknown, and something tells me the third and final volume will deal with solving that case. I hope so, at any rate. – Michelle Smith
School Judgment: Gakkyu Hotei, Vol. 2 | By Nobuaki Enoki and Takeshi Obata | Viz Media – Shonen Jump is supposedly for young Japanese boys, around he ages of 8-12. In reality, of course, it tends to skew towards kids of all ages, and adults of all ages as well. So, for the kids, we have the story itself, which continues to deal with wrongful accusations, this time also extending outside the classroom environment, and introducing a second attorney to be a slightly better rival than Pine—though he ends up losing just the same. On the down side, we have lots of sexual shots of grade-schoolers in bikini swimsuits, as if they’re meant to be the same age as Nami or Orihime. Thankfully, this ends in one volume, where we’ll presumably meet the third wrongfully jailed contemporary of Abaku’s. – Sean Gaffney
A Silent Voice, Vol. 6 | By Yoshitoki Oima | Kodansha Comics – The entirety of this volume deals with what happens in the first few pages, where Shoya is able to rescue Shoko from leaping off of her apartment balcony, but ends up falling himself and going into a coma. What follows is an explosion of emotions from everyone, and I hope you don’t shy away from people being hit, because there’s a whole lot of that going on. Shoya’s friends have to examine their own actions, and wonder if they’re really done enough to reach out and heal wounds, or have they just gone with the flow? I liked Miyoko’s plot, and Naoka’s is fascinatingly realistic, but this volume is mostly all about Shoko and her suffering, which I hope lessens by the finale. – Sean Gaffney