The Ancient Magus’ Bride, Vol. 10 | By Kore Yamazaki | Seven Seas – Welcome to the first volume of Chise Potter, though hopefully we won’t get a Professor Quirrell. Chise gets settled in at college, choosing a dorm by choosing cats, which in my opinion is how every college should do it. Elias follows along, of course, as a teacher, and there’s a gaggle of new characters, most of whom I didn’t really get much from at all. Chise is, thankfully, much less awkward at being social than she used to be—in fact, it’s her roommate who’s the tough nut to crack. That said, most of this volume was pure setup, and I suspect it will read better after I’ve read the next two. I’m definitely grateful that this series is continuing, though, and it’s worth the eventual reread. – Sean Gaffney
Cutie Honey: The Classic Collection | By Go Nagai | Seven Seas – My first real introduction to Cutie Honey was through Shimpei Itoh’s modern manga adaptation Cutie Honey a Go Go!. It was a fun series, so I was looking forward to delving into Go Nagai’s original manga from 1973. Fortunately, along with an essay by novelist Hirayama Yumeaki and an afterword by Go Nagai, Seven Seas has collected the entirety of Cutie Honey in a single hardcover omnibus. Cutie Honey is an entertaining if somewhat absurd series. Much of the manga’s humor tends towards the lewd and admittedly some of the jokes aren’t as socially acceptable as they may have once been. Between the titular heroine’s transformation scenes and the frequency of characters’ clothing being ripped to shreds, there’s a fair amount of nudity in the action-oriented manga. Since the cast is primarily made up of women, it’s mostly female nudity, but the men aren’t immune from sudden clothing loss either. – Ash Brown
Durarara!! re: Dollars Arc, Vol. 4 | By Ryohgo Narita, Suzuhito Yasuda, and Aogiri | Yen Press – Once again, I’m left feeling that the anime and novels handled this material better—the wait between releases doesn’t help, plus the author’s plotting, which involves everything happening at once, makes the manga more diffuse and confusing than it has any right to be. The best bits probably involved Ruri and Shizuo’s brother, who bond over their difficulty with basic human emotions, like so many other Narita couples. Last time I said Izaya was about to jump start things, but he’s absent from this book, meaning that it meanders a bit too much. It really needs someone making everyone’s lives miserable again. Which I’m sure will happen soon. Maybe. – Sean Gaffney
Everyone’s Getting Married, Vol. 9 | By Izumi Miyazono | Viz Media – The final volume of this series ties up everything that’s been getting in the way of Asuka and Ryu getting married. Ryu decides he does love Asuka and resolves to return and fight to save their relationship. Asuka realizes that she doesn’t have to get married NOW and uses that to spend three years doing so well at her job that she can now take a year off to get married and have a baby and NOT have to worry about being fired for being a married woman. Heck, even Asuka’s friend who was perfectly happy to not get married is getting married. So in the end the title proves to be true, and you’re really happy to see the two of them finally work everything out. A very good josei series, bring on more of them. – Sean Gaffney
Hakumei & Mikochi: Tiny Little Life in the Woods, Vol. 4 | By Takuto Kashiki | Yen Press – I joked on Twitter that after the girls from Girls’ Last Tour died, they were reincarnated as Hakumei and Mikochi, and while Hakumei may be a bit too sensible for that to map exactly, there is very much the sense of exploration across both volumes, even though the two should be more familiar with their setting. We meet Mikochi’s sister in this volume, who is a writer and a tease, not in that order. There’s a festival chapter (sort of), a hot spring chapter (sort of), and a chapter which will make you cry at the death of a coffee grinder. In short, most of why readers read this series is on full display here. I enjoy this more and more with each volume, and always smile as I read. – Sean Gaffney
Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, Vol. 7 | By Aka Akasaka | Viz Media – There’s some good comedy here at the head and tail of the book. My favorite chapter was probably the one involving Miyuki, who is no longer sleep-deprived, losing the bags under his eyes—which terrifies everyone and makes Kaguya realize that her love of them may be a fetish. But the bulk of this book is to introduce a new major character, Miko, the girl on the cover who is super earnest and also super awkward. She’s running against Miyuki in the election, and her ideas are great but her stage fright isn’t. Fortunately, Miyuki takes a page from Hachiken’s book and makes himself the bad guy to fix things—fortunately he wins anyway. I want to see how Miko adds to the dynamic. – Sean Gaffney
Kakuriyo: Bed & Breakfast for Spirits, Vol. 2 | By Waco Ioka and Midori Yuma | Viz Media – I enjoyed this second volume more than the first, not uncommon with Shojo Beat stories. Aoi’s still having trouble getting anyone to give her a job, but after she gives some home-cooked food to a passing drunk who turns out to be really important, she’s making important connections. More to the point, Aoi compares her story explicitly with Beauty and the Beast, and she’s not wrong. There’s also a jealous woman who attempts to sabotage things and is caught and about to be humiliated. That said, that’s the cliffhanger, and I’m fairly certain Aoi’s going to save her with the power of niceness. I am OK with following this yokai series now that Kamisama Kiss has ended. – Sean Gaffney
Maiden Railways | By Asumiko Nakamura | Denpa – Somehow, I’d gotten the impression that this was a girls’ love anthology, but in reality, only one couple depicted herein fits that bill. Instead, we get stories about a pickpocket helping an inattentive husband make up with his wife, a girl who’s moving away seizing the moment to confess to a boy, a ghost with lingering regrets, and a guy whose wife thinks he’s cheating on her because he works late and brings home cake. Trains figure prominently in each story—in a couple we get some detailed timetables as one party tries taking a different train to catch up with someone, but in some stories the action is just rooted around a train station, or perhaps about a beloved late relative’s model train set. They’re all low-key and they’re all enjoyable, even if they ultimately don’t leave a strong impression. I look forward to Doukyuusei by this author, coming soon! – Michelle Smith
Skip Beat!, Vol. 42 | By Yoshiki Nakamura | VIZ Media – Kyoko’s audition for the role of Momiji continues. She’s emerged victorious over the scheming Kimiko in terms of swordfighting, but that alone isn’t enough to convince the director to cast her. Overhearing another actor deduce that Kyoko likes Ren, Kimiko manages to convince Kyoko that Ren is in love with her, with nearly disastrous results. There are some frustrating things in this volume, like Kyoko almost telling Moko about her feelings for Ren but chickening out and her taking in some intel about Kimiko liking some other guy without actually questioning her conclusion that Ren’s secret love is Kimiko. I know, I know. Shoujo gotta shoujo. But I am just so ready for some real movement on this point, as much as I love seeing Kyoko kick ass career-wise. Soon, please? – Michelle Smith