Manga the Week of 11/27/24

SEAN: Let’s all give thanks for manga!

ASH: Thanks!

SEAN: No debuts for Yen On, but we do see Astrea Record: Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Tales of Heroes 3 (the final volume), The Detective Is Already Dead 9, The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady 8, and Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- 26.

Yen Press has one new title. April Showers Bring May Flowers (Busu ni Hanataba wo) is a seinen romance from Young Ace. An unpopular girl is caught one day by the class hottie when she’s in the classroom by herself “pretending to be a heroine”. Now he’s promising to support her with everything he’s got?

ASH: Sounds like it could be cute!

SEAN: Also from Yen Press: Adults’ Picture Book: New Edition 3 (the final volume), Aria of the Beech Forest 2, Bocchi the Rock! 5, Bofuri: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, so I’ll Max Out My Defense 8, CLAMP Premium Collection Tokyo Babylon 5, GOGOGOGO-GO-GHOST! 2, If the Villainess and Villain Met and Fell in Love 2, In Another World with My Smartphone 13, Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Familia Chronicle Episode Freya 4, She Likes Gays, but Not Me 3 (the final volume), and A Sinner of the Deep Sea 2.

ASH: A good reminder that I should read the first volume…

SEAN: Viz Media has JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Part 6–Stone Ocean 7 and a huge 584-page hardcover omnibus, Kiki’s Delivery Service Film Comic: All-in-One Edition.

ASH: That is rather large!

SEAN: From Tokyopop we get Boys Gilding the Lily Shall Die!? 2, Lullaby of the Dawn 2, and My Beautiful Man 2.

Square Enix debuts Always a Catch!: How I Punched My Way into Marrying a Prince (Nigashita Sakana wa Ookikatta ga, Tsuriageta Sakana ga Ookisugita Ken). Based on an as-yet unlicensed light novel, it’s about a girl who spent her childhood learning martial arts now finding that all the bachelors are taken. Can a different kingdom help her find her true love?… wait, broken engagement? Huh? This runs in Manga Up!.

ASH: Okay, this is exactly the sort of ridiculous premise I can get behind.

SEAN: Seven Seas debuts a manga whose light novel came out digitally just last week. Heroine? Saint? No, I’m an All-Works Maid (And Proud Of It)! (Heroine? Seijo? Iie, All Works Maid desu (ko)! @COMIC) is a Comic Corona title adapting the comedy OP maid novel.

Todai Revengers is a parody spinoff of Tokyo Revengers which runs in Magazine Pocket.

The third debut is Wild Roses and Pretenders (Nobara to Pretender), a BL title from Magazine Be x Boy. A man, trying to support his sickly mother, becomes a manservant to a Lord. Unfortunately, the Lord wants to avoid getting married, so demands his new manservant pose as his male lover!

ASH: That always goes well.

SEAN: Also from Seven Seas: 7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy! 6, Black Night Parade 5, CANDY AND CIGARETTES 10, Chillin’ in Another World with Level 2 Super Cheat Powers 9, The Dungeon of Black Company 11, Headhunted to Another World: From Salaryman to Big Four! 7, I Think I Turned My Childhood Friend Into a Girl 7, I’m the Evil Lord of an Intergalactic Empire! 5, Let’s Buy the Land and Cultivate It in a Different World 6, and Otonari Complex 2.

MICHELLE: I need to get on the Otonari Complex train before it leaves me behind.

SEAN: One Peace Books has a 10th manga volume of The Reprise of the Spear Hero.

Kodansha Books debuts Shimazaki in the Land of Peace (Heiwa no Kuni no Shimazaki e), a Weekly Morning title about a boy who was kidnapped and forced to join a revolutionary army. Now, thirty years later, he’s free and returns to Japan… can he really go back to an ordinary life? Despite sounding like Full Metal Panic!, this is apparently quite serious.

ANNA: Interesting.

SEAN: Also from Kodansha: The Boy I Loved Became the Jaded Emperor 2 (the final volume), EDENS ZERO 30, The Heroic Legend of Arslan 20, I Cross-Dressed for the IRL Meetup 2, I’m Standing on a Million Lives 18, and Ninja Vs. Gokudo 4.

ASH: Oh, I had somehow forgotten about Arslan.

SEAN: Digitally we see The Café Terrace and Its Goddesses 15, A Couple of Cuckoos 20, and Gamaran: Shura 26.

J-Novel Club has one debut. Lady Bumpkin and Her Lord Villain (Imokusa Reijou desu ga Akuyaku Reisoku wo Tasuketara Kiniiraremashita) is about a noble girl who is ridiculed for her outdated fashion and heavy makeup. But she’s really sweet. She goes to a ball in a last ditch attempt to get a man, and meets the fiance of the princess… right before the princess breaks off her engagement, branding him a villain! Nice reversal.

They’ve also got the 2nd The 100th Time’s the Charm: She Was Executed 99 Times, So How Did She Unlock “Super Love” Mode?! manga volume, Black Summoner 19, the 4th Butareba -The Story of a Man Turned into a Pig- manga volume, the 5th D-Genesis: Three Years after the Dungeons Appeared manga volume, the 4th Duchess in the Attic manga volume, Heavenly Swords of the Twin Stars 4, I Parry Everything 7, In Another World With My Smartphone 30, Management of a Novice Alchemist 3, and the 3rd My Quiet Blacksmith Life in Another World manga volume.

Hanashi Media has the 4th volume of Tsukimichi: Moonlit Fantasy.

Ghost Ship gives us Ayakashi Triangle 12 and The Witches of Adamas 9.

And for mature Seven Seas titles, we see Hate Me, but Let Me Stay 2 and You’ve Got Mail: The Perils of Pigeon Post – Fei Ge Jiao You Xu Jin Shen 2.

ASH: Speaking of ridiculous premises, really do need to give that one a try at some point.

SEAN: Cross Infinite World debuts How I Became King by Eating Monsters (Monster no Niku wo Kutteitara Oui ni Tsuita Ken). A young prince is at constant risk of assassination… mostly from the prime minister… and so goes out to hunt his own food. There he meets an eccentric swordswoman who tells him that eating monsters makes you stronger!

ASH: Makes sense!

SEAN: Also from CIW: The Former Assassin Who Got Reincarnated as a Noble Girl 2, Soup Forest: The Story of the Woman Who Speaks with Animals and the Former Mercenary 2, and Third Loop: The Nameless Princess and the Cruel Emperor 3.

Airship, in print, gives us the debut of Mushoku Tensei: Redundant Reincarnation (Mushoku Tensei: Dasoku-hen), the “after story” to the main series.

And they have Sword of the Demon Hunter: Kijin Gentōshō 7.

And the early digital debut is A Tale of the Secret Saint ZERO (Tenseishita Daiseijo wa, Seijo de Aru Koto wo Hitakakusu Zero), the story of Princess Serafina’s adventures 300 years before being reincarnated as Fia.

Hope none of these mangas are turkeys!