Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

Anna N

Yona of the Dawn, Vol 13

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Yona of the Dawn Volume 13 by Mizuho Kusanagi

One of the many things that sets Yona of the Dawn apart from other fantasy shoujo series is Kusanagi’s great ability to portray characters with nuance, even those who are villains. This volume is a bit of a departure, as it focuses on Su-Won, who has taken control of the kingdom. Su-jin, the chief of the Fire Tribe has decided that he’s going to be the one to lead a rebellion and assume the mantle of the Crimson Dragon King. Su-jin is absolutely heedless of the suffering he’s going to cause with his actions, and he’s so committed to his vision of himself that he doesn’t realize that Su-Won is a Machivellian master of both statecraft and battle tactics until it is far to late.

As usual, Yona functions as the soul of her country. While she doesn’t engage in the battle directly, she leads her warriors in when the opportunity comes to prevent the suffering of ordinary civilians. While she confronts Su-jin with words he’s incapable of considering, her encounter with Su-Won is limited to a few searing panels as they gaze at each other across the battlefield. This is one of those scenes that can only best be done by sequential illustration, as Kusanagi cuts between their faces, showing Su-Jin’s shock and Yona’s absolute sense of resolution. Whatever someone things of Su-Won as a person, it is hard not to admire him as a leader after this volume, as he adroitly deals with the leadership vaccum for the Fire Tribe, appreciates the way Tae-Jun has changed for the better after Yona’s influence, and even takes measures to protect the rare grain that Yona secured that might actually help solve the humanitarian crisis that many people in the kingdom are suffering.

Some of my favorite moments in this series are when Yona and her warriors are able to relax a little bit, and there are a few pages that push forward her connection with Hak. This volume concludes with a triumphant scene as Hak pushes Yona to take part in an archery contest, and it is a nice way to wrap up this storyline, away from the battlefield. I’m always looking forward to the next volume with this series, which is strongly in the running for my favorite fantasy shoujo series of all time.

Manga the Week of 8/29/18

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SEAN: Last week of August. Should be small, right? Hah. So much Kodansha digital. So much Seven Seas. Yen Press runoff stuff. It’s huge.

ASH: Let’s jam!

We begin with Cross Infinite World, who have another light novel for us with The Eccentric Master and the Fake Lover. Despite the somewhat salacious copy about bodily fluids, I think this is a woman-oriented romance title.

Dark Horse has the 18th and final volume of Neon Genesis Evangelion: The Shinji Ikari Raising Project. Don’t worry, the omnibuses are still going.

ASH: I’m glad that Dark Horse has found ways to keep things in print, but I’ll admit the publisher’s printing (and reprinting) schedule can be frustrating.

SEAN: Ghost Ship has a 6th volume of To-Love-Ru Darkness.

J-Novel Club has two debuts. Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles looks to combine both reincarnation isekai AND the magical academy sort of book.

Sorcerous Stabber Orphen may sound familiar to those with long memories – its anime adaptation aired exactly 20 years ago, and the novels are even older than that. It’s a big ol’ epic fantasy.

J-Novel Club also has a 7th If It’s For My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord, which I believe catches us up with Japan.

Kodansha does have a few print titles next week. There’s Again!! 4, Aho-Girl 8, and the 4th Battle Angel Alita: Mars Chronicle.

MICHELLE: Yay for more Again!!.

ASH: I’m excited to read more, too!

ANNA: Triple yay!

SEAN: The majority of stuff is digital, though. Technically there’s no debut, but Kodansha is releasing digital versions of Peach Girl 1-18. These are the old Tokyopop editions ported over, I think, rather than a new translation, but that’s fine. Enjoy some classic overwrought shoujo!

MICHELLE: Oh, neat! I didn’t know they were doing that. That said, I have a big stack of TOKYOPOP editions that I never read, so… I would like to see them finish Ueda’s Papillon, which Del Rey had been publishing.

ANNA: Yeah, Papillon was good!

SEAN: And there’s Ace of the Diamond 14, Defying Kurosaki-kun 3, Hotaru’s Way 6, I Want to Hold Aono-kun So Badly I Could Die 3, Is Kichijoji the Only Place to Live? 2, Liar x Liar 5, and The Quintessential Quintuplets 3. Phew!

MICHELLE: I regret that I haven’t managed to read Is Kichijoji yet, but still, yay for more sports manga!

SEAN: But wait, here comes Seven Seas, and they’re burying us too. Debuts first. Cutey Honey: the Classic Collection is another deluxe hardcover which collects the original Cutey Honey manga from 1973. It should be complete in one omnibus, and is a must-read.

ASH: Cutie Honey A Go Go! was a lot of fun, so I’m looking forward to reading the original.

SEAN: The other new title is Ultra Kaiju Humanization Project, which is a Young Champion series that imagines an alien invasion that needs Japanese monsters to save the day! There’s just one problem. The monsters are high school girls. This sounds fascinatingly wretched.

And we also have (deep breath) Captain Harlock: Dimensional Voyage 5, Citrus 8, Holy Corpse Rising 5, How to Build a Dungeon 4, Magical Girl Apocalypse 15, Monster Girl Doctor light novel 3, and My Monster Secret 12. There’s a lot of stuff in that list I hate, so I am pleased it ends with My Monster Secret, which is hilarious.

ASH: I need to catch up on Dimensional Voyage, especially since the original Captain Harlock is now being released, too.

SEAN: Vertical Comics has a 2nd Chi’s Sweet Adventures, for all your cute cat needs.

If you prefer snakes, why not read the latest Monogatari novel from Vertical, Inc? Otorimonogatari: Decoy Tale gives us the story of Nadeko Sengoku’s encounter with a snake aberration, but who’s controlling whom here?

Yen Press also has a few titles that didn’t come out last week. Digitally we have Corpse Princess 18, IM: Great Priest Imhotep 7, and Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun 7.

Yen On has the 2nd novel of better-than-it-sounds fantasy Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander the Dungeon.

And lastly, Yen debuts Final Fantasy: Lost Stranger, where a Square Enix employee and his sister die and are reborn in the world of Final Fantasy. Yes, isekai has finally met Final Fantasy. Can we cope with this?

Are you coping with all this manga? What are you getting?

MICHELLE: SuBLime has a small number of digital-only series and my very favorite, The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window, has a fifth volume coming out! I’m snagging that for sure.

MJ: Oh, hey! I need to catch up with that!!

ASH: One of the titles I really wish was getting a print release!

SEAN: Whoops! Pretend I mentioned that up above.

Pick of the Week: We’re Still Amazed This Was Licensed

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MICHELLE: As usual, there’s a lot coming out that interests me, but if I’m honest, it’s the sports manga that calls the most stridently. DAYS, Giant Killing, and Yowamushi Pedal can share my pick this week, for all are awesome, though perhaps the bicycle boys have a bit of an edge.

SEAN: There are a truly ridiculous number of light novels coming out this week, but the one that attracts my attention the most is Kokoro Connect. I loved the anime, I loved the manga, and I expect I will really love the light novel. Also, for once revel in seeing teenage romantic drama written well!

ASH: Yowamushi Pedal continues to be very high on my list, as does Silver Spoon, but I think I’ll throw my pick towards the final volume of the deluxe Battle Angel Alita this week. Not only does the volume include both endings of the series proper (which I’m only now finally getting around to reading), it also collects the related manga Ashen Victor along with in-depth interviews with Yukito Kishiro.

KATE: I only have eyes for one title this week: Silver Spoon, quite possibly my favorite new manga of 2018. You should read it, too. ‘Nuff said.

MJ: I basically have nothing to say except, “What Kate said.”

ANNA: I’m terrible in that I haven’t read volume 1 of Silver Spoon yet. But if I was able to actually keep up on all the manga that I’m interested in, I’m confident that I would love it just as much as everyone else who picked it this week.

Shortcake Cake, Vol. 1

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Shortcake Cake, Volume 1 by suu Morishita

I’m always up for more shoujo series, and Shortcake Cake starts off with a very promising first volume. The story begins with Ten Serizawa dealing with her daily 2 hour commute to school. She gets up early and naps on the bus. But as she hangs out with her school friends, she begins to realize that her commitment to the commute means that she can’t take part in after school gatherings with her new classmates, as she has to keep checking the time to be sure she’s able to catch the last bus back to her more rural home. Ten’s friend Ageha points out how much easier it would be if Ten moved in to her boardinghouse. Ageha sneaks Ten in one day after school (the residents aren’t supposed to have outside guests), and Ten experiences the hazards of boardinghouse crashing, like avoiding the house mom, tiptoeing past the boys’ floor. In the process she has a brief encounter with the handsome bookworm Chiaki, who dazzles her with his good looks and quotes Turgenev at her.

Ten sees that the boardinghouse is much more spacious and nice than she was imagining and decides to move in. She meets another resident, the overly flirtatious Riku. As Ten gets settled in, she starts getting entwined in the lives of the residents. She sees Riku gently turning a girl down who asks him out and points out to him that if he would stop flirting with everyone, random girls wouldn’t get the wrong idea. Riku’s ingratiating manners are looked on as odd by most of the boardinghouse. Riku starts falling for Ten, and can’t act like his normal self around her anymore. The new friends go out on an outing, and Ten learns more about Chiaki’s bookish ways and his reactions to his looks-driven popularity. Finally, a third boy is introduced, Rei, who wears traditional clothing and is drawn to resemble a blond L from Death Note. He’s given to odd insulting outbursts.

So a romance being set up where many people slowly fall in love with a relatively ordinary girl is familiar shoujo manga territory, but the situation in Shortcake Cake doesn’t feel artificial or unearned, because Ten is objectively pretty adorable with her Sailor Moon style pigtails and her quirky hobby of following along with radio exercise programs. Morishita does a great job with character development in this volume, leaving just enough mystery for the reader to become invested in finding out why Chiaki is so withdrawn and wonder why Riku is overcompensating by acting superficially pleasant to most of the girls he meets. The volume ends on a cliffhanger which shows Ten forcing a confrontation about something that most shoujo heroines would leave unsaid for 5-6 volumes, which instantly got me onboard for the rest of the series!

Morishita’s art features a liberal amount of screen tone, and her characters quickly switch back and forth between regular and exaggerated facial expressions. Ten frequently shifts into cat face mode whenever she’s being mischievous or startled. The production for Shortcake Cake sets it apart from other Shojo Beat volumes, with matte covers and a cute strawberry on the spine. There are some additional black and white illustrations for chapter covers included as a bonus in the back of the book. I can see why this shoujo series was so highly anticipated, and I’m looking forward to reading more.

Manga the Week of 8/22/18

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SEAN: Let’s face it, even without Yen Press this would be a really heavy week. With Yen it’s absolutely terrifying.

But first, the non-Yen offerings. Dark Horse gives us the first Gantz omnibus, in case you want to catch up on your lycra.

Haikasoru has the 7th volume of Legend of Galactic Heroes. If it’s the one I think it is, oh dear.

MICHELLE: Someday, I really will read these. My intentions are good!

ANNA: I have good intentions about reading this as well.

ASH: I’m a few volumes behind, but I’ve been enjoying them!

J-Novel Club announced a bunch of stuff at Anime Expo, and this is what I was most excited about. I loved the Kokoro Connect manga when it came out years ago, and wished we could read the light novels. Now we can! The first one is out next week.

J-Novel Club also has the 3rd Infinite Stratos novel.

Kodansha has some print manga for all of you. Attack on Titan: Before the Fall 14, Battle Angel Alita Deluxe Edition 5, Love and Lies 7, and That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime 7.

ASH: Oh, print manga! The deluxe edition Battle Angel Alita is really nice, and I’ve been enjoying That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime more than I expected.

SEAN: There’s five debuts in their digital lineup though, all one-volume BL titles. They seem to be from their Honey Milk magazine, and are: Intertwining Lives, Keeping His Whims in Check, Key Ring Lock, Stray Bullet Baby, and Trap in a Skirt. Looking askance at that last one, but kudos to Kodansha for reaching out to a new audience.

MICHELLE: Very much the same re: askance looks, but otherwise I’m fairly intrigued.

ANNA: Glad the BL fans are getting some content!

MJ: I’m looking askance, mostly at some of these titles. Trap in a Skirt?

SEAN: They also have many ongoing digital titles, with DAYS 9, Giant Killing 13, Kakafukaka 2, Karate Heat 2, and Perfect World 5.

MICHELLE: All of which I intend to read at some point, probably starting with the soccer titles.

ANNA: I wish there was more print sports manga in general, my kids love it.

SEAN: Seven Seas has no debuts this week, but they do have a 4th Akashic Records of Bastard Magical Instructor, a 13th Arpeggio of Blue Steel, and a 3rd Saint Seiya: Saintia Sho.

Vertical gives us an 11th Devils’ Line.

Oh boy, more titles I have nothing to say about. Viz has Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt 8, the 2nd RWBY Anthology (which focuses on Weiss), and Tokyo Ghoul: re 6.

ASH: I haven’t gotten into Tokyo Ghoul to the same extent that a lot of people seem to have, but I’m glad to see it doing well enough to bring in the other related series.

SEAN: And Yen. So much Yen, particularly if you read their light novels. A debut and a one-shot this month. The debut is Defeating the Demon Lord’s a Cinch (If You’ve Got a Ringer). A hero is summoned to another world, and he and his party need to defeat the demon lord. Sadly, the hero and his party are useless, so it’s up to the priest trailing behind to save them from their own awfulness. Expect comedy here.

ASH: That does sound rather amusing.

SEAN: The one-shot is another novelization of a popular movie, this one called Fireworks: Should We See It from the Side or the Bottom?. I’m thinking it’s your name-y.

But there’s more. So much more. The Asterisk War 7, Baccano! 8, A Certain Magical Index 16, The Devil Is a Part-Timer! 11, KonoSuba 6, I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years 2, Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers 5, Sword Art Online 14, and That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime 3. That’s a lot of Yen On’s best-sellers. And also Index.

Believe it or not, Yen has some manga as well. Quite a bit, in fact. Debuts? Sure. Chio’s School Road is a Comic Flapper title showing our heroine walking to school every day and getting in the most amazing predicaments.

And deep breath, let’s pound through the ongoing titles out next week. ACCA 4, Angels of Death 4, Aoharu x Machinegun 12, Black Butler 26, BTOOOM! 22, The Case Study of Vanitas 4, Dimension W 11, Forbidden Scrollery 4, Hatsu*Haru 2, Re: Zero Arc 3 Volume 4, the 8th and final volume of Scum’s Wish (though there’s a sequel, as yet unlicensed), Silver Spoon 4, Tales of Wedding Rings 3, Today’s Cerberus 10, Trinity Seven 14, and Yowamushi Pedal 9. (breathes) In that list, Silver Spoon and Yowapeda are what excite me most.

MICHELLE: I share your enthusiasm for those particular titles, though I also want to get caught up on Hatsu*Haru and ACCA.

ASH: That is a lot! ACCA, Silver Spoon, and Yowamushi Pedal are mostly where I’m at.

MJ: Silver Spooooooooooon! I’ve fallen behind on The Case Study of Vanitas after being disappointed with its start, but I’ll always give Jun Mochizuki a chance, so I should get back to that.

SEAN: So, you reading anything? Or just giving up?

ANNA: I’m giving up! My to read manga pile got so big it toppled over the other day!

Pick of the Week: Sleepy Blue Skies

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SEAN: I’ve heard good things about That Blue-Sky Feeling, but feel fairly confident the rest of the team will be weighing in on that one. So my pick this week is Accomplishments of a Duke’s Daughter. I’m a sucker for isekai with a female lead, and this one has the basic premise of the heroine ending up in the otome game she’s played… as the main antagonist. Should be great fun.

MICHELLE: I don’t read much in the isekai genre, but Accomplishments of a Duke’s Daughter might be the exception. Still, Sean is right that I’m most eager to read That Blue-Sky Feeling. Slice-of-life sounds like just the thing.

ASH: Sean has me pegged, too! While as always there are multiple releases that interest me this week, That Blue Sky Feeling is without a doubt my pick. I’ve likewise heard great things about this thoughtful and sweet gay coming-of-age story.

KATE: Since it’s been hot and sticky this week, my vote is for fun. I’ll be picking up the third volume of Toppu GP, which I’ve been enjoying despite my total lack of interest in motorcycles, and the second volume of Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle, which I just reviewed and adored.

ANNA: Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle Volume 2 for me as well! I’m in the mood for a pleasant diversion, and I enjoy the way this fantasy comedy manga subverts the familiar trope of a princess in distress.

Amigurumi: San-X Crochet Patterns

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Amigurumi: San-X Crochet Patterns

I was excited when I saw that Viz was getting into the crafting book business, since there are so many great Japanese pattern books out there. Amigurumi: San-X Crochet Patterns is an English translation of a super cute guide to San-X Crochet. The first half of the book has over 30 color pages showing multiple poses of the amigurumi you can make with the book, including extensive accessories and costumes. I enjoyed the amigurumi sitting in tiny eggshells or lounging around the most.

Japanese knitting and crochet books almost universally rely on charts for pattern information, and this book has charts and construction schematics, followed by a basic stitch guide so someone new to charted knitting can figure out the directions. So, this book might seem a bit unfamiliar to people who are mostly used to written directions, but it shouldn’t be a problem. There are plenty of beginner books out there and I think that there space in the crafting marketplace for a book like this, which is a straight translation of a Japanese book, without any extras added in for an English language audience. There are so many youtube tutorials and other crafting guides like this on the web, I feel like most people can figure out what they need to know in order to follow a chart. I’d be excited to see more Japanese craft books translated like this! I tend to buy single patterns on ravelry instead of books, but this book is the type of thing I’d like to collect in print form for all the great photo illustrations.

I have a gazillion knitting projects going on right now that I want to finish up, but I’ll update this review later with a crochet creation. I think I’m going to start with either the teeny tiny toast and eggs, or Sumikkogurashi.

Manga the Week of 8/15/18

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SEAN: 30 manga enter! One manga leaves! It’s manga madness!

But let’s start with light novels, as Bookwalker has a 5th volume of The Combat Baker and Automaton Waitress.

Dark Horse has the 3rd and final RG Veda omnibus, after much delay.

MICHELLE: I actually forgot this was even coming out.

ASH: (Really) slow but steady, I guess?

SEAN: J-Novel Club’s debut is An Archdemon’s Dilemma: How to Love Your Elf Bride (yes, they sensibly changed the title after they first announced it), which is apparently cute and adorable.

There’s also new volumes of Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash (10), I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse (9), and The Magic in This Other World Is Too Far Behind! (5). J-Novel cornering the market in long light novel titles.

Kodansha. A whole lot. Starting with print, we have an 11th Fire Force, an 8th In/Spectre (always a favorite of mine) and the 3rd Toppu GP (in which instead of a harem it’s just bikes.)

Kodansha’s digital debut is Back Street Girls, which I have to admit has one of the more “…what, really?” premises out there. Three yakuza guys who’ve failed one too many times are punished by… getting sex reassignment surgery and becoming an idol group. I admit I’m curious, but let’s face it: it’s morbid curiosity.

MICHELLE: *dubious face*

ASH: Dubious morbid curiosity about sums it up for me, too. (Also, I had completely forgotten about this license.)

ANNA: Feeling enthusiastic about skipping this manga!

SEAN: But there’s plenty of other digital volumes out next week. Aoba-kun’s Confessions 7, Boarding School Juliet 4, Drowning Love 10, Kamikamikaeshi 3, Kasane 13, Lovesick Ellie 6, Those Summer Days 3, and Tokyo Alice 2. Tokyo Alice interests me most in that stack.

MICHELLE: I’m definitely down for Tokyo Alice, and the covers for Those Summer Days make me think I’ll like it as well, but mostly I’m happy for more Lovesick Ellie.

SEAN: One Peace has the 12th The Rising of the Shield Hero light novel.

Seven Seas has a debut with Accomplishments of a Duke’s Daughter (Koushaku Reijou no Tashinami). Based on a sadly unlicensed light novel, it’s part of a rising trend of isekai books where a young girl is reincarnated into a fantasy world… as the villain. And she’s about to get the “bad end”. What is she to do? This runs in Young Ace Up.

MICHELLE: That sounds kinda neat.

ASH: It does seem to be a fresher take on isekai than some others we’ve seen.

SEAN: And there is a 5th Bloom Into You, and a 5th Species Domain.

SuBLime gives us a 4th volume of A Strange and Mystifying Story. Honestly, after four volumes it should be less mystifying.

ASH: This is the first newly translated volume, too!

MICHELLE: *snerk* They did switch up the main couple in volume three, so as to keep the mystification going, one assumes.

SEAN: Vertical has a 4th omnibus of deeply strange Arakawa Under the Bridge.

Viz has a debut this week with That Blue-Sky Feeling (Sorairo Flutter), a Gangan Joker series about a new transfer student who hears a rumor that his classmate is gay. I’ve heard very good things about this one.

MICHELLE: I flipped through a review copy the other day and it looks pretty great. Looking forward to getting around to reading it.

ASH: Same!

ANNA: Me too!

SEAN: Viz also gives us the 2nd hardcover collection of Fullmetal Alchemist, the 31st Magi, and the 2nd Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle.

ASH: The first volume of Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle was delightful. I’m looking forward to reading more.

ANNA: It was uncomplicated fun.

SEAN: Who won? Who lost? You decide!

ASH: I think we’re all winners here, Sean!

Pick of the Week: Our Favorite Yearly Pick

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MICHELLE: It’s the first week of August and that can mean only one thing: my annual opportunity to pick Kaze Hikaru! I am also super excited about the new volume of What Did You Eat Yesterday?, however.

ASH: As Sean recently noted, there’s lots and lots and lots being released this week. Shoujo, shonen, seinen, and even josei manga are all represented and I’m reading SO MUCH of it. However, the release that I’m perhaps most interested in this week actually isn’t manga at all but Shinsuke Nakamura’s autobiography King of Strong Style.

SEAN: I suspect Anna will also be picking Kaze Hikaru, so I’ll pitch in for her and make my pick the lucky 13th volume of Yona of the Dawn. Every volume deserves to be read and reread, like a favorite childhood story. I love it to bits.

ANNA: It is such a tough choice because I love Kaze Hikaru and Yona of the Dawn so much! But with only one volume of Kaze Hikaru coming out a year, I have to take the opportunity to highlight it whenever I can. It is such a great, underappreciated series.

KATE: Kaze Hikaru. ‘Nuff said.

Manga the Week of 8/8/18

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SEAN: August is here, and it’s punishing. There’s lots and lots and lots.

So much I have trouble keeping up. Apologies to-J-Novel Club, as I should have had the 15th Invaders of the Rokujouma!? On last week’s list – it’s out this Friday.

As for next week, their debut is Lazy Dungeon Master. It’s an isekai, but this time the hero is in charge of a dungeon full of monsters beset by adventurers. “Hero” may not be the most accurate description.

They’ve also got a 7th Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest, and the 3rd and final volume of Me, a Genius?.

Kodansha has some print in amongst their avalanche of digital. The 4th Colossal Edition of Attack on Titan, Descending Stories 8, the 4th and final Fairy Tail: Blue Mistral, and the 2nd print volume of Tokyo Tarareba Girls.

MICHELLE: Man, I’ve really gotta catch up on Descending Stories.

ASH: Same! I’ve greatly enjoyed what I’ve read so far. Also, hooray for more Tokyo Tarareba Girls (in print)!

ANNA: Yay!

SEAN: On the digital front, there’s a lot more. The debut is My Boy in Blue (P to JK), a Betsufure shoujo series that seems to be the police equivalent to My Boyfriend in Orange. But it’s won awards, so sounds interesting.

MICHELLE : It gives off a *very* similar vibe.

SEAN: And we also have All-Rounder Meguru 7, Beware the Kamiki Brothers! 4, Black Panther and Sweet 16 8, Can You Just Die, My Darling? 3, A Kiss, for Real 3, and Space Brothers 32. Man, the manga bust years seem so long ago…

MICHELLE: So much!

SEAN: Quirk books has a YA Attack on Titan novel written by Rachel Aaron, Garrison Girl.

Seven Seas time. On the light novel side, we have a 5th digital volume of Boogiepop, and a 3rd digital edition of Make My Abilities Average. On the print side, we have the 2nd print volume of MMAA as well, and the 3rd Arifureta novel. And both print and digital is the 2nd Toradora! Novel.

ASH: Oh! I didn’t realize the new Boogiepop volumes would be released so quickly! Definitely picking the omnibus up when it comes out in print.

SEAN: Manga-wise, we’ve got a 2nd Devilman vs. Hades and the 8th Lord Marksman and Vanadis.

ASH: I’m liking all the Devilman manga being released these days.

SEAN: Vertical has a 13th volume of What Did You Eat Yesterday?, delighting Manga Bookshelf folks who have found Pick of the Week a bit thin on the ground lately.

MICHELLE: Yay!!!

ANNA: Woo hoo!

SEAN: And, as always, there is Viz. The shonen debut is Black Torch, a fantasy series from Jump Square involving talking with animals and ninjas.

Also out on the shonen front are Black Clover 12, Food Wars! 25, Haikyu!! 26, the 8th hardcover of the 3rd arc of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, the 13th Kuroko’s Basketball 2-in-1, a 14th My Hero Academia, One Piece 87 (Christ, 87 volumes…), Platinum End 6, The Promised Neverland 5, and the final 43rd volume of Toriko.

MICHELLE: Dang.

ASH: Lots of good shonen stuff.

ANNA: Awesome!

SEAN: The shoujo debut sounds pretty sweet – literally. Shortcake Cake is from Margaret magazine (yes, actual Margaret! Not Betsuma or Ribon!) about a girl with a hideously long commute to school who moves into a boardinghouse full of guys. This actually looks better than it sounds (or at least less of a cliché).

MICHELLE: Somehow, I had missed this one! I typically like stuff from Margaret.

ANNA: Looking forward to this!

SEAN: Other shoujo. It’s August, so it’s time for our annual release of Kaze Hikaru! This is Vol. 26! It came out in Japan in 2009! But it’s awesome, and I thank Viz for continuing it.

MICHELLE: I can’t believe I actually forgot about this!

ANNA: Every year I look forward to the annual Kaze Hikaru release. It is SO good!

SEAN: And there’s Takane & Hana 4, Vampire Knight: Memories 2, and Yona of the Dawn 13.

ASH: Lots of good shoujo stuff, too!

ANNA: Indeed. My kind of week!

SEAN: Lastly, not manga but coming from Viz Media, we have King of Strong Style, the biography of renowned wrestler Shinsuke Nakamura.

ASH: This is supposed to be pretty great. I’m not especially into wrestling, but I still plan on picking it up.

ANNA: I picked up the ARC at ALA. My friends who like wrestling are super stoked for this.

SEAN: That’s a lot! But also a lot of awesome. What’s in your bookshelf by next week?

Young Master’s Revenge, Vol. 2

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Young Master’s Revenge Volume 2 by Meca Tanaka

This manga continues to be perhaps the most adorable revenge story ever illustrated. Leo, bent on revenge and managing his crippling fear of turtles, continues to pursue his horrific yet benign agenda against fallen heiress Tenma with an unwavering devotion that could only be love. As the volume begins Tenma decides that she has to transfer to Suzaku High which is the public high school down the road from Genbu. Cue massive jokes about references to the Four Gods!

As Tenma transfers Leo decides to accompany her mostly to protect her, but also because he finally realizes that his high school is named after a turtle god. The new students then engage in introductions for their new classmates, where Leo’s practiced charm wins everyone over and Tenma’s awkwardness makes everyone assume that she’s a horrible rich snob. When Tenma sees that the public school students have their resources even more limited because the rich Genbu high kids are allowed to take over their practice fields whenever they want she decides that she has to stand up for her new classmantes.

The Suzaku kids now have to fight for the sanctity of their school property. Leo’s manipulation skills are deployed to hilarious effect. One of the reasons why this manga is so amusing is that the revenge plot is such a great contrast to the real feelings of the characters. Tanaka has a way of drawing such endearing facial expressions, it is easy to be captivated by Tenma’s direct yet innocent nature and Leo’s unwavering lack of insight into his own emotions. Things seem to be coming to a turn though, as Leo is forced to confront the thin line between love and hate towards the end of this volume. It is impossible to put this manga down without feeling warm and fuzzy.

Pick of the Week: Wandering Off the Map

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MICHELLE: There’s not much on the manga front this week that really calls to me, so instead I’ll devote my pick to a charming graphic novel that came out a couple weeks ago. The Adventure Zone: Here There Be Gerblins is adapted from a great podcast in which three brothers play Dungeons & Dragons with their dad. The graphic novel cuts out most of the out-of-character interaction and presents as more of a straightforward fantasy story, but with loads of jokes (and profanity). Also, it’s the first graphic novel to score the #1 position on the New York Times Paperback Trade Fiction list! Check it out, won’t you?

KATE: I’m with Michelle: this week’s manga list is just not ringing my bell. So I’ll use today’s column to shamelessly plug one of my favorite ongoing series, Hiromu Arakawa’s Silver Spoon. It’s funny, wise, and surprisingly serious at times, but so well done that you will laugh AND cry at least once per volume. The first three volumes are available right now, giving you a chance to catch up before volume four arrives in August. Not convinced? Here’s what I had to say about volume one.

SEAN: I will stick with the actual list, but I’ll go with prose this time around. I keep waiting for it to get so dark I lose interest, but through the last two volumes, The Saga of Tanya the Evil has proven to be an excellent, if very long, read. I look forward to the third novel.

ASH: While I certainly have plenty of reading to catch up on, it is an extremely rare week that there isn’t at least one release I’m looking forward to getting my hands on. This week that release is the most recent omnibus of I Am a Hero. Even having grown tired of the inundation of zombie media, I still find this series to be one heck of a ride.

ANNA: There isn’t much coming out this week that I’m interested in, which is good, as I’m going to use the time to get caught up on my reading. One recent release that is non-manga that I think is cool is Viz getting into translated amigurumi books! San-X Crochet Patterns is my pick.

Manga the Week of 8/1/18

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SEAN: Remember, it’s not really August 1st but July 32nd! Treat this as a 5th week, which means expect oddball stuff.

ASH: I rather appreciate oddball stuff.

ANNA: Maybe time to make a dent into my unread manga piles!

SEAN: Cross Infinite World has another debut. Despite not being your “standard” light novel, it’s a mouthful. Dawn of the Mapmaker: The Surveyor Girl and the Forbidden Knowledge.

Dark Horse gives us a 7th omnibus of I Am A Hero.

ASH: This is such an intense series!

SEAN: Kodansha Comics is pleased to announce that finally, after nineteen months, thanks to the sacrifice of twenty-thousand Kodansha editors who valiantly gave their lives so that you, the reader, might experience it, we finally have the 5th and final omnibus of Attack on Titan Junior High. (salutes, cries)

ASH: Indeed, a great achievement.

SEAN: In other Kodansha print titles, we have the Attack on Titan Season 2 Box set, the 8th Clockwork Planet manga, a 5th volume of Ninja Slayer KILLS!, and the 14th UQ Holder.

Perhaps sensing the market begging for mercy, Kodansha has only one digital title this week, another debut: The Prince’s Romance Gambit. Not to be confused with The Prince’s Black Poison, I’ve heard this title (which ran in Aria, then Nakayoshi – or possibly the other way around) is very silly.

MICHELLE: Hm. Better silly than cringey, I suppose.

ANNA: Glad there are no new digital titles I want to read since there are so many digital titles I haven’t read!

SEAN: Seven Seas’ new debut is also very silly: Precarious Woman Executive Miss Black General. This runs in Fujimi Shobo’s Dragon Age, always a strike against a new title for me, but I found its attempts to be ecchi fairly harmless. At heart this title would rather be ridiculous. Also, that’s totally not Batman. You must be imagining things.

They also have a 7th Dreamin’ Sun, the 3rd Made in Abyss, the 3rd Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka (which just got an anime announcement), the 10th Non Non Biyori, The Testament of Sister New Devil 9, and a print release of the 3rd Occultic;Nine novel which J-Novel Club already released.

MICHELLE: I need to catch up on Dreamin’ Sun. It’s been a little while.

ASH: I really like this J-Novel Club/Seven Seas partnership.

SEAN: Yen Digital has a couple ongoing series, with the 16th Saki and the 17th Sekirei.

They also have three light novels, one of which is a debut. The title – and I am not making this up – is WorldEnd: What Do You Do at the End of the World? Are You Busy? Will You Save Us?. A human is the sole survivor of an apocalyptic future. There’s various new races around, but they don’t need him. And when he joins the military he finds they’re training girl fairies as weapons. I’ll be honest, this sounds FAR too dark for me, but we shall see.

There’s also The Saga of Tanya the Evil 3 (also fairly dark) and So I’m a Spider, So What? 3 (not quite as dark).

Does this interest you? Or is there simply too much manga still?

ASH: Never too much! Mwahaha!

ANNA: There is, indeed, a lot.

Kenka Bancho Otome, Vol. 2

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Kenka Bancho Otome Volume 2 by Chie Shimada

Kenka Bancho Otome, with a storyline about a girl who is forced to dress up as a boy and attend a high school for juvenile delinquents, is an excessively silly manga, which one would expect from an otome game adaptation, but in just two volumes it manages to pull off being a fun summer read as long as the reader isn’t looking for deep thoughts.

In the concluding volume Hinako continues her misadventures at Shishiku Academy, where most of her new friends seem to be on the verge of falling in love with her in her top-secret disguise as her brother Hikaru. Yet another emotional minefield is introduced with the arrival of Houou Onigashima, an upperclassman with a tough-guy jacket that he constantly wears slung over his shoulders like a cape. Houou just happens to be Hikaru’s older brother and Hinako is overcome at the idea that she has yet another brother! But when she returns to tell Hikaru about her discovery he inexplicably becomes extremely upset. The rest of the volume consists of a summer vacation episode with plenty of shirtlessness, school sports day, where Hinako has to cross-dress as a cheerleader with provocative results and a bonus giant schoolyard fight where Hinako further strengthens her platonic friendships with Kira and Totomaru, much to their mystified chagrin. At two volumes long, this series wraps up more nicely than most two volume series, which sometimes suffer from the author being forced to resolve a bunch of plot points quickly in a final chapter. I would have been fine with 3 instead of 2 volumes, if there might have been a little more time to delve into the hints about Hinako’s unconventional family and have her embark on an actual romance. Overall, the art was attractive if a bit generic. I enjoyed the story enough that I would totally play the Otome game that the manga was based on if it came out on android!

kenka bancho otome 2

Pick of the Week: A Week Loaded with Goodies

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SEAN: For me it’s a week where I could easily pick six or seven things. Another digital Kodansha debit, Is Kichijoji the Only Place to Live?; the dark but amusing The Voynich Hotel; Mari Okazaki’s new title Will I Be Single Forever?; the adorable looking Hakumei ad Mikochi; or my usual go-to obsession, Umineko: Then They Cry. But as I already indicated, my pick this week is Teasing Master Takagi-san, which simply puts a smile on my face. Teen romance was never this cute.

MICHELLE: What a position to be in, struggling to choose between two terrific-looking digital josei debuts! I really want VIZ’s experiment to succeed, as it might encourage them to release more stuff digitally (7SEEDS! ), but Is Kichijoji the Only Place to Live? looks like such a breath of fresh air. I think I’m gonna have to go with the latter.

KATE: This week’s new arrival list is one of the most eclectic of the year! If I had to pick just one title — and death was not an option — my vote would go to Mari Okazaki’s Will I Be Single Forever?, as I adored Suppli. If I could pick a second book, however, I’d add The Voynich Hotel, which sounds weird and funny (in a good way). What’s not to like about a manga starring a yakuza hitman, a witch, and a hotelier in a luchador mask?

ANNA: For me there is no question. I’ve often wished for more Mari Okazaki manga, and am delighted that there’s a manga of hers being translated again. Will I Be Single Forever? is my pick.

ASH: If Will I Be Single Forever? was being released in print, it would without question be my pick for this week. Alas, it’s only available digitally (for now???). I am rather curious about The Voynich Hotel, though, so I’ll happily be choosing that instead.