Beauty and the Beast Girl | By Neji | Seven Seas – This seems to be complete in one volume, and despite a lot of backstory angst edges on the side of sweet. A monster girl living in the woods meets a blind girl (literally, her last name is Blind, but she is also blind) and starts to tell her stories in an effort to hide why she’s living alone in the forest. Naturally, their backstories merge together. Also naturally, they fall for each other hard and must therefore deal with the other humans who are horrified that Lily would be with a monster. It all works out in the end, though, as true love can defeat all. This is one of a number of “cute but slight” yuri titles we’ve seen here recently, and while it’s not the most subtle manga in the world, I’d say it’s worth a read. – Sean Gaffney
Black Clover, Vol. 14 | By Yuki Tabata | Viz Media – More tournament arc. Asta’s fight is fairly typical, involving a large dose of “I want to fight TOGETHER with you” to get the loner to actually do something. The more interesting fight, though, is between Finral and Langris, as you might guess by the cover art. There’s a lot of bad blood between these two, and all sorts of fears and jealousies come rolling out during the fight, which rapidly starts to turn a lot more deadly than expected. (Without any actual death—at least not yet.) There’s also another character who believes in beautiful things getting completely wrecked, which may be a Jump thing, as we also saw it happen in Toriko. All this plus tragic backstory to show off that true magical knights care about people! – Sean Gaffney
DAYS, Vol. 12 | By Tsuyoshi Yasuda | Kodansha Comics (digital only) – Seiseki’s game against Toin continues and Tsukamoto is playing his heart out. It’s gratifying to see the coach of the opposite team notice a change in Seiseki since the previous year, and also gratifying to see Ubukata recognized for her strategic analysis that resulted in Kazama scoring the goal that ties the game at 1-1. There are a lot of missed shots and squandered opportunities and moments where you think that finally Tsukamoto will triumph but instead Toin gets a penalty kick, etc. We also finally learn the significance of the series title—Tsukamoto’s dad died when he was little, and he’s learned never to take the present for granted. “Because someday, this will all be over. But if I try, maybe I can make these days last just a second longer.” I’m a sucker for sentiment in my sports manga. Recommended. – Michelle Smith
Girls’ Last Tour, Vol. 6 | By Tsukumizu| Ywn Press – This is the final volume of the series. Last time I asked if it would end in death. Technically we don’t see the girls die, but the end of their journey certainly seems to be The End of Their Journey, if you know what I mean. That’s the trouble with post-apocalyptic After the End series; unless you pull a fast one to find civilization has simply moved elsewhere (for a moment I wondered if they were going to get on a rocket and go to space in this volume, but that’s probably also a bad idea) you’re left with the fact that humanity has died. There’s some good bits here. I loved Chiro finding the massive library, as well as Yuuri’s calming presence. It was a sad journey in the end, but I’m glad I took it with them. – Sean Gaffney
Laid-Back Camp, Vol. 5 | By Afro | Yen Press – I was very pleased to see that, after last volume’s “camping with friends is fun!,” which Rin agreed with, that nevertheless almost all the camping this time around is by Rin by herself, because she loves camping by herself. This despite the fact that you can get trapped somewhere due to impassable winter roads. Fortunately for Rin, this is the modern age where cell service is everywhere, so even when camping by herself, she’s in constant contact with the others. Nadeshiko also meets up with Rin and introduces her to the wonders of expensive eel, as well as showing off a childhood friend and the fact that she’s lost a ton of weight recently. (She seems very cute either way.) This is such a peaceful series. – Sean Gaffney
Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic, Vol. 34 | By Shinobu Ohtaka | VIZ Media – Sean warned me that this volume had some creepy scenes, but I was not prepared. Sinbad has succeeded in becoming the god of the world and has rewritten the rukh so that everyone agrees with his methods for securing a peaceful future. This includes reverting the world to rukh, thereby killing everyone. Watching the populace cheer, and tearful kids looking excited to die, is seriously disturbing (in a good way). Alibaba and Aladdin are immune, and debate whether they have a right to try to change a fate everyone else seems to want, until a conversation with a brainwashed Morgiana convinces Alibaba that the present is worth fighting for. And so our heroes, accompanied by Judar and Hakuryu, must conquer, like, seven facets of Sinbad or something. It’s vague, but fine. I’m glad things are seemingly wrapping up. Three volumes left! – Michelle Smith
Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle, Vol. 5 | By Kagiji Kumanomata | Viz Media – I was not expecting the hands-down funniest chapter of this volume to be our princess trying to find a toilet so that she could pee, but there we are. The chapter ends up being hysterical, particularly the facial expressions. Elsewhere, we see the princess has a poor memory for names… and faces. We also see (as if we hadn’t guessed) that she’s an incredibly poor communicator. Even when things AREN’T her fault it’s pretty easy to blame her—a chapter where she tries to be nice and do good things leads merely to fear and paranoia from the demons. There’s no real ongoing plot here, but as long as Princess Syalis remains who she is, there’s certainly ongoing laughs. – Sean Gaffney
A Strange & Mystifying Story, Vol. 6 | By Tsuta Suzuki | SuBLime – Man, A Strange & Mystifying Story has evolved sooooo much since its early volumes. Now it’s a gripping supernatural drama and it’s easy to forget it started out as something smutty with consent issues until Setsu shows up and gives Tsumugi terrible advice on how to make Kurayori his. Kurayori has been holed up in his shrine and just when he finally emerges to talk with Tsumugi, Magawa and Kai arrive to cause problems. I’m surprised Suzuki-sensei has made me like and sympathize with Kai so much so quickly, but she has. He may be a monster, but his desperate desire to be useful to mentally unstable Magawa so that he won’t disappear is genuine. Plus, we got a bonus chapter with my favorite couple! The next volume is the last and I’m really looking forward to seeing how everything plays out. – Michelle Smith
Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization, Vol. 2 | By Tomo Hirakawa, based on the story by Reki Kawahara | Yen Press – There is still a modicum of danger here—the threat to NPCs is still real, and Kirito by his very existence will attract trouble. That said, the fact that everyone is alive in this version of SAO (well, OK, not Sachi, but the cliffhanger included an appearance from someone I definitely was not expecting to see) and that we get chapters devoted to things like teaching Yuuki how to do school homework properly (which leads to helping dead school ghosts to pass on, much to Asuna’s horror) makes it feel sort of like the Today’s Menu for the Emiya Family of SAO. Instead of food, though, we get cool battles and cute interactions. Fun, though again confusing for non-gamers. – Sean Gaffney
Urusei Yatsura, Vol. 1 | By Rumiko Takahashi | Viz Media – While Urusei Yatsura became one of Rumiko Takahashi’s first major successes in Japan, the small portion of the series that was initially translated into English has been out-of-print for the better part of two decades. Happily, Viz is once again hastening “The Return of Lum” by releasing Takahashi’s highly influential manga in a new omnibus edition. For the most part the series is episodic in nature. Although there are recurring characters and jokes, overarching plotlines are virtually nonexistent. The basic premise remains consistent from chapter to chapter, though—Ataru Moroboshi, a lustful high schooler, is a magnet for the absurd and supernatural. Early on he manages to accidentally engage himself to Lum, an alien princess. Honestly, I wish Lum held more of the series’ focus than Ataru, but I still get a kick out of the manga. In particular I appreciate Urusei Yatsura‘s numerous references to Japanese mythology and literature. – Ash Brown