Haikyu!, Vol. 5 | By Haruichi Furudate | Viz Media – Well, I was wrong about training harder. They do, but we don’t see it much. Instead, we head right into the big tournament proper, and get the first two matches. The first one is against an old classmate of Sawamura’s, and we see how far along our heroes have come compared to the other teams. There’s a great shot halfway through showing all the losing teams—including the Karasuno Girls’ team, whose captain clearly has a crush on Sawamura, always a danger in a manga with a 99% female fandom. The rest of the book shows their match against the team that beat them last year, though, and they’re still tough as nails. But now we have our short but valiant secret weapon! Very shoneny, in the best way. – Sean Gaffney
Liselotte & Witch’s Forest, Vol. 2 | By Natsuki Takaya | Yen Press – Well, I did ask for more on Liselotte’s past, and I certainly got it. We also get a lot of her channeling her inner Tohru, trying to meet the witches in the forest to assure them that she means them no harm but merely wants to live here in peace and harmony. Of course, that’s easier said than done, especially when an assassin is sent after her, complete with an eyepatch so that you know he’s a true rogue. And we learn a bit more about Engetsu, who is sort of Liselotte’s old dead love Enrich, but also sort of not. How this plays out is anyone’s guess, but it certainly looks pretty, and has some nice cool fighting. I still find it a bit underwhelming, but honestly that’s been true of any non-Furuba Takaya title. – Sean Gaffney
Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic, Vol. 20 | By Shinobu Ohtaka | Viz Media – The most important thing in this volume for me is that Morgiana returns, and she does what we love to see her do best: rescue Alibaba and princess carry him. She seems to be a lot less stoic after her trip of awesome training. The rest of this volume consists of a) lots of battling against the big evil thing of evil, which proves quite difficult to defeat as it is literally made of evil; b) a lot of backstory that shows that Aladdin has a lot more going on than everyone expected, which honestly most readers had guessed; and c) theoretically killing off some characters (I’ll believe it while I see it), while bringing the most obvious one back from the dead right after he’s passed. Fun, but I really want a new arc. – Sean Gaffney
Maid-sama!, Vols. 11-12 | By Hiro Fujiwara | VIZ Media – This is a fairly uneven installment of Maid-sama!, though the one constant throughout is Misaki attempting to come to grips with and then successfully express how she feels about Takumi. First, they go on a double date to the hot springs, and then Takumi’s family drama suddenly ramps up. Next, it abruptly turns back into a comedy as his half-brother has a penchant for making his valet dress up like a ninja as he spies on Takumi. Throughout, there are various assertions that Misaki isn’t good enough for Takumi, with Takumi dissenting, et cetera. And then, at the end, Aoi designs some costumes and briefly stops being a jerk. I don’t know why I kind of expected a volume of Maid-sama! to be uniformly good, but I did. In any case, it’s decent enough and the story is moving along. Sort of. – Michelle Smith
Missions of Love, Vol. 13 | By Ema Toyama | Kodansha Comics – You know how most people were about Black Bird? Or Hot Gimmick? That’s how I’ve come to feel about Missions of Love. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love it. I love seeing these damaged, deeply manipulative teens walk all over each other. I love the fact that Yukina is amazed that she might still be ignorant of what love is, despite the entire series being based around that premise. (“Apparently I’m frigid.” made me laugh out loud.) And then there’s Mami and Akira, whose plotline keeps happening just off camera, all the better to keep Yukina guessing. And of course there’s Shigure, who is understandably frustrated at being away from all of this. Good thing she’s dragged to him for the cliffhanger. Read this amazing trash. – Sean Gaffney
One-Punch Man, Vol. 9 | By ONE and Yusuke Marata | Viz Media – The deeper stuff I mentioned last time is continuing, as the villain we met last time decides to go around beating up literally everyone he comes across, and most of the heroes seem to be able to do little to stop him. I’m sure Saitama and Genos will end up in his path eventually, but in the meantime we have Blizzard, a stereotypical yakuza boss who’s also a hero, and decides that Saitama is good enough that she wants him to be part of her hero gang. Naturally, Saitama is unimpressed, and has some nice lectures on what it means to be a hero. Also naturally, most of her bluster is just that—she’s the Tornado of Terror’s little sister, and it weights on her. I love how this series views superheroes. Highly recommended. – Sean Gaffney
Oresama Teacher, Vol. 21 | By Izumi Tsubaki | VIZ Media – For a while there, it looked like we weren’t going to get any follow-up to the “Hayasaka finds Super Bun’s scarf in Mafuyu’s closet” cliffhanger, and so I was doubly disappointed by the boring hometown interlude set during winter break. Happily, once school reconvenes, we learn that Hayasaka has been waiting for the opportunity to ask Mafuyu about it, but just then, a Super Bun impostor is sighted, and the rest of the volume primarily consists of chase scenes. That probably sounds boring, but it’s actually something fun and different. I can’t remember if we’re supposed to recognize the dude who’s behind it all, and I’m sure it’ll end with Hayasaka still not learning the truth, but for now it’s quite enjoyable. – Michelle Smith
Shuriken and Pleats, Vol. 2 | By Matsuri Hino | VIZ Media – Mikage Kirio is attempting to leave her past as a ninja behind and fulfill her late master’s wish for her to lead the life of a normal high school girl. There are a couple of nice moments when she achieves this, reflecting on the warm welcome she receives from her new group of friends, and marveling at their skill in finding the most delicious meat buns in town, but most of the volume is in a hurry to wrap up the not-very-interesting seeds-as-bioweapon plot. It’s not exactly unsuccessful—it all makes sense, at least, which is more than I can say for some series—but it’s terribly rushed. Still, it’s nice to see serious Mikage smiling for once, and overall the series has left a pleasant impression. – Michelle Smith
Toriko, Vol. 36 | By Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro | Viz Media – We wrap up one arc and start another here, so there’s not really a lot of fighting. What there is is backstory and explanations, so many of them in what is almost one big infodump. Some of it is truly interesting—I love the idea of the Earth as a meal that’s almost finished cooking, and it’s nice to see that the chefs are all going to have their own little adventure (led, no doubt, by Komatsu, who apparently awoke his own gourmet cells—he’s come a long way.) But yeah, much of this is setup for the volumes to come, with Sunny griping as always, Coco being the sensible one, and Toriko and Starjun having to work together—something which comes surprisingly easy to them. Solid, but unexceptional. – Sean Gaffney