Manga Bookshelf

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Ash Brown

Manga the Week of 10/27/21

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SEAN: BOO!

ASH: Aaah!

MICHELLE: Ack!

ANNA: EEK!

MJ: … erk?

SEAN: We start with Yen On, which has The Detective Is Already Dead 2, the 15th KonoSuba, and Solo Leveling 3.

ASH: I really ought to give Solo Leveling a try before I get too far behind.

Two new series from Yen Press. The first is the manga version of I’m the Villainess, So I’m Taming the Final Boss, whose light novel came out earlier this month.

The other is Never Open It: The Taboo Trilogy, a short story collection by famed creator Ken Niimura.

ASH: I am so excited for this one! I really enjoy Niimura’s work.

ANNA: This looks interesting.

SEAN: Also from Yen: Gabriel Dropout 10, Mint Chocolate 4, My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong As I Expected 16, and Wolf and Parchment 2.

Udon Entertainment has the 8th Otherworldly Izakaya Nobu.

Seven Seas doesn’t have much, but what it has are mostly debuts. Boy Meets Maria is an LGBT title from Printemps Shuppan’s Canna, and I hear it’s quite powerful, but also quite dark. It’s finished in one volume.

ASH: I’ll be giving it a read, for sure.

MICHELLE: Same here.

MJ: Oh, interesting!

SEAN: Necromance is a shonen title from Kodansha’s Magazine Pocket. A hero becomes an undead to save the world… but now he can’t even touch the girl he loves! Can he find a way to return himself to life?

ASH: I don’t know about the manga, but that title is great.

MJ: Agreed.

SEAN: Sarazanmai: The Official Manga Anthology is what it says – a collection by many artists based around the popular series.

ASH: I like seeing these types of anthologies released.

SEAN: The Walking Cat: A Cat’s-Eye View of the Zombie Apocalypse is a Futabasha title from Manga Action. Zombie apocalypse meets cat manga. It’s a 550-page omnibus with all 3 volumes in 1.

ASH: That’s quite the tome! Count me curious.

MICHELLE: Huh.

ANNA: Hmm.

SEAN: One Peace has The Rising of the Shield Hero 21.

Kodansha has a debut in print… well, a spinoff. The Seven Deadly Sins: Original Sins Short Story Collection is what it sounds like. It also includes the original “pilot” for the series.

Also in print: Grand Blue Dreaming 14, To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts 12, Whisper Me a Love Song 4, and With a Dog AND a Cat, Every Day is Fun 5.

MICHELLE: I really liked the first volume of With a Dog AND a Cat, Every Day Is Fun. I should read more of it.

SEAN: Digitally Kodansha debuts Even Given the Worthless “Appraiser” Class, I’m Actually the Strongest (Fuguushoku [Kanteishi] ga Jitsu wa Saikyou Datta – Naraku de Kitaeta Saikyou no [Shingan] de Musou Suru), which runs in Magazine Pocket. It is what it is.

Also out digitally: Back When You Called Us Devils 6, Chihiro-kun Only Has Eyes for Me 3, DAYS 26, Farewell My Dear Cramer 6, The Girl, the Shovel and the Evil Eye 2, Harem Marriage 10, Mr. Bride 3, and Saint Cecilia and Pastor Lawrence 5.

Remember all those print titles from J-Novel Club I talked about last week? They got bumped. Insert them here.

ASH: I’ll be on the lookout.

SEAN: Their digital light novel debut is A Late-Start Tamer’s Laid-Back Life (Deokure Tamer no Sonohigurashi). A gamer is excited to start a new VRMMORPG… but quickly finds the class he chose is not really suited to being awesome, but to slow life.

Also out digitally next week: Ascendance of a Bookworm 15, Campfire Cooking in Another World 5 (manga version), The Greatest Magicmaster’s Retirement Plan 11, How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom 14, Mapping: The Trash-Tier Skill That Got Me Into a Top-Tier Party 7, My Friend’s Little Sister Has It In for Me! 4, Reincarnated as the Piggy Duke: This Time I’m Gonna Tell Her How I Feel! 3, and Sorcerous Stabber Orphen: The Wayward Journey 14.

Dark Horse gives us a 7th Mob Psycho 100.

Cross Infinite World has the 3rd volume of Reincarnated as the Last of My Kind.

Lastly, Airship has The Most Notorious “Talker” Runs the World’s Greatest Clan in print.

And in early digital versions they have Reincarnated as a Dragon Hatchling 2 and The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent 4.

What manga are you trapped inside, face pressed against the pages, unable to escape?

Pick of the Week: Confessions and Titans

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SEAN: This may be the first time I’ve ever picked as Pick of the Week a book I not only plan to not read but plan to actively avoid. But man, Attack on Titan is ending, and it’s just been so influential on the past few years of manga. It blew up here in North America, for good and ill, and it had some great set pieces. But I fear its attempts to tell an anti-fascist story got muddled along the way. Still, I will toast it here.

MICHELLE: I suppose I’ll go with Doing His Best to Confess, since it looks cute. That’s my whole justification this time: it looks cute.

ASH: That’s a justification that I can get behind, and a manga that I’m interested in, too! Sean also makes an excellent case for Attack on Titan as a pick. Novel-wise, however, I’m going to go with The Haunted Bookstore.

ANNA: I’ll also go with Doing His Best to Confess, it sounds like the most appealing option for me this week.

Manga the Week of 10/20/21

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SEAN: As we inch ever closer to Halloween, beware of the manga yokai, which look like Shonen Jump volumes but lure children to their doom.

ASH: I absolutely believe this tale to be true.

MJ: Okay, I lol’d.

SEAN: Airship has two print light novel debuts. We get print versions of The Haunted Bookstore – Gateway to a Parallel Universe and The NPCs in this Village Sim Game Must Be Real!.

ASH: Looking forward to giving The Haunted Bookstore a try now that it’ll be in print!

SEAN: Also in print (and same-day digital): Monster Girl Doctor 8.

Early digital volumes include Adachi and Shimamura 7, Didn’t I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?! Lily’s Miracle (a side-story), and Drugstore in Another World: The Slow Life of a Cheat Pharmacist 3.

Ghost Ship has World’s End Fantasia 5.

J-Novel Club has a bunch of print titles. We see the debut of Her Majesty’s Swarm, as well as the first Ascendance of a Bookworm Fanbook. We also get By the Grace of the Gods 6, I Shall Survive Using Potions! 6, In Another World with My Smartphone 18, Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles Omnibus 3, and The Unwanted Undead Adventurer 2.

ASH: I’m still delighted to see things like fanbooks being released these days.

SEAN: Digitally we see Guide to the Perfect Otaku Girlfriend: Roomies and Romance 3 and My Next Life As a Villainess 10.

Kodansha has a new print omnibus of Attack on Titan, containing the first three volumes, back when the story was at its best and the art was at its worst. We also get Attack on Titan 34, the final volume, which is the opposite.

ASH: Oh, how the times have changed!

SEAN: Other omnibuses in print: Love in Focus Complete Collection (the entire series), The Seven Deadly Sins 1-3, And That Wolf-Boy Is Mine! 3-4. There’s also Eden’s Zero 13 and The Heroic Legend of Arslan 15, which are not omnibuses.

And we get a print release for Vampire Dormitory, whose ebook came out two years ago.

Digital debuts? We get Doing His Best to Confess (Natsuaki-kun wa Kyou mo Kokuhaku shitai), a Betsufure title which has a seemingly cool and aloof guy turn out to just be shy and awkward. Can he confess to the girl he likes?

MICHELLE: This looks pretty cute. I tend to like stories about seemingly cool and aloof guys who are just awkward (see Lovesick Ellie).

ANNA: That does sound cute.

ASH: Agreed!

SEAN: The other debut is Tesla Note, which is a shonen series that runs in Weekly Shonen Magazine. It’s filled with action and conspiracies, is from the author of Tiger & Bunny, and its anime has bombed so bad possibly no one will care enough to get the source.

Also out digitally: Blue Lock 8, The Decagon House Murders 3, Defying Kurosaki-kun 17, A Girl & Her Guard Dog 6, Nina the Starry Bride 5, We’re New at This 9, and You’re My Cutie 2.

MICHELLE: At some point I will actually read Blue Lock.

SEAN: One Peace Books has Hinamatsuri 13.

Seven Seas has three debuts. Creepy Cat is a full-color graphic novel based on the popular webcomic which balances between cute and scary.

ASH: Always curious about a new cat comic!

SEAN: Kiruru Kill Me is a new Shonen Jump Plus series from the creator of Pretty Face and Mx0. A young man is rich and successful, but has no one to love. Then he falls head over heels… for an assassin. There’s only one thing to do: order a hit on himself.

ASH: I’ll admit to being curious about this one, too.

Monster Guild: The Dark Lord’s (No-Good) Comeback! (Yuusha ni Haiboku Shita Maou-sama wa Kaerizaku Tame ni Mamonogirudo o Tsukuru Koto ni Shimashita) runs in Shinchosha’s Comic Bunch Web, about a dark lord defeated by an OP Hero, who manages to survive and now forms… you guessed it… a ragtag band of misfits.

Also from Seven Seas: Even Though We’re Adults 3, GIGANT 6, Kingdom of Z 4, and Peter Grill and the Philosopher’s Time 6.

MICHELLE: At some point I will actually read Even Though We’re Adults!

ASH: I’ve been picking them up as they’ve been released, but have not actually read any of the volumes, yet.

SEAN: Tokyopop has the 2nd volume of Her Royal Highness Seems to be Angry.

Viz debuts Burn the Witch, from the creator of Bleach. Indeed, it’s set in the same world as Bleach, albeit a little further into the future, and in London. Two agents trying to get easy assignments they can turn into cash instead end up in fantasy misadventures.

Also from Viz: Asadora! 4, No Guns Life 11, No. 5 2, and The Creative Gene, a collection of essays by the creator of Metal Gear Solid.

ASH: Happy to see the next volume of No. 5 coming out!

SEAN: Yen On has two light novels: A Sister’s All You Need 11 and Solo Leveling 3.

Yen Press’s sole title is a digital-only debut: If You Could See Love (Moshi, Koi ga Mieta Nara). This yuri series runs in Shonen Ace Plus. Have you ever seen those complicated love charts fans make with arrows pointing forward and back? Our heroine can see them… including two pointed at her. But… this is an all girls’ school!

ASH: The premise sounds like it could be promising.

SEAN: Are you haunted by manga? Or by the spirit of Sasha Braus demanding a potato?

Pick of the Week: Knights and Kings

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MICHELLE: There’s so much good stuff coming out this week, though most of it new installments in series in which I’m woefully behind. My heart, however, most goes “squee!” at the prospect of getting caught up with Knight of the Ice, so that’s what I’ll go with this week.

SEAN: A lot of good stuff, yes. New Komi Can’t Communicate, new Rose King. That said, I will stay on brand and pick a light novel, I’m the Villainess, So I’m Taming the Final Boss, because I just can’t get enough of this type of story.

ANNA: I’m with Michelle, Knight of the Ice is consistently enjoyable, looking forward to the new volume.

KATE: I gotta admit that I’m not really feeling this week’s list; I’m so behind on Knight of the Ice that I don’t know if I can still recommend it. But if pressed to the wall, I’d throw my weight behind Wave, Listen to Me!, if only because I’m one of those dinosaurs who still listens to the radio.

ASH: I’ll be waiting for the print edition, but Wave, Listen to Me! is such a good choice. As for my pick, I’ll be going with Requiem of the Rose King as I still cannot resist its sensuous drama. (Not that I’m trying to resist it…)

MJ: Hello, there is a new Requiem of the Rose King and that’s the end of the selection process for me. Yep.

Manga the Week of 10/13/21

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SEAN: Mid-October and we’re still seeing a lot of great books.

ASH: I’m okay with this, although I am terribly behind.

SEAN: Yen On has a debut, with a title that might sound a bit familiar. I’m the Villainess, So I’m Taming the Final Boss (Akuyaku Reijo nano de Last Boss wo Kattemimashita) is a light novel with a premise that readers are no doubt aware of. This one’s quite popular, though, and an anime was just announced, which is a rarity for villainesses not named Catarina.

Other light novels next week include Banished from the Hero’s Party, I Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside 4, The Demon Sword Master of Excalibur Academy 4, Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World 7, and The World’s Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat 3.

As for Yen Press, they have Angels of Death 12 (the final volume) and Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun 10.

ASH: Good reading for the spooky season.

SEAN: Viz Media gives us Call of the Night 4, Case Closed 80, Fullmetal Alchemist: A New Beginning (a new light novel in the series Viz started back in the 00s), How Do We Relationship? 4, Komi Can’t Communicate 15, the 10th and final volume of Pokémon Adventures Collector’s Edition, and Requiem of the Rose King 14.

ASH: Always glad for a new volume of Requiem of the Rose King! And thanks for pointing out that the Fullmetal Alchemist novel is a new volume rather than a new printing; it’s been a while since I’ve read any of those.

ANNA: Agree about Rose King, I need to get caught up.

MICHELLE: Same here!

MJ: Okay, Requiem of the Rose King, yes please. Also, I can’t believe I never really got into that Fullmetal Alchemist light novel series. I will have to check it out!

SEAN: Tokyopop has Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Blood Brothers and Konohana Kitan 10.

Square Enix has By the Grace of the Gods 3.

No debuts for Seven Seas this time around, but we do get Arifureta: I Heart Isekai 4, Happy Kanako’s Killer Life 2, High Rise Invasion 19-21 (which wraps up the series), The Invincible Shovel 2, Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka 12, Non Non Biyori 15, Precarious Woman Executive Miss Black General 7, The Tale of the Outcasts 3, and Wonder Cat Kyuu-chan 3.

ASH: I still need to check out Wonder Cat.

MICHELLE: Jeez, volume two of Happy Kanako already?!

SEAN: One Peace debuts Higehiro: After Being Rejected, I Shaved and Took in a High School Runaway (Hige o Soru. Soshite Joshikousei o Hirou), the manga adaptation of a popular light novel which has been licensed in English by Kadokawa’s new publishing arm here. The title is the plot.

Kodansha, in print, has Knight of the Ice 7.

ASH: Yay!

ANNA: One of the few series I’m not behind on, it continues to be delightful.

MICHELLE: I’m behind, but I still say “Yay!”

SEAN: Digitally there is a bit more. The debut is Our Bodies, Entwining, Entwined (Karada, Kasanete, Kasanatte), a “shousei” title from Palcy. A woman who was dumped years ago for being “boring” at sex is in a new relationship, but her boyfriend also has issues having sex. Can the two of them satisfy each other?

Also digital: Altair: A Record of Battles 24, Ex-Enthusiasts: Motokare Mania 6 (the final volume), Giant Killing 27, My Pink Is Overflowing 5, Perfect World 8, Police in a Pod 5, Space Brothers 39, Wave, Listen to Me! 7, and Yamaguchi-kun Isn’t So Bad 3.

MICHELLE: I thought Ex-Enthusiasts: Motokare Mania was quite fun and, of course, I adore Giant Killing and Wave, Listen to Me!.

J-Novel Club has two debuts. Hell Mode ~The Hardcore Gamer Dominates in Another World with Garbage Balancing~ (Hellmode ~Yarikomi Suki no Gamer wa Haisettei no Isekai de Musou Suru~) is about a hardcore gamer looking for a challenge, who finds himself reincarnated in a very difficult game world.

The other is Maddrax, a German SF series from J-Novel Pulp.

Also out next week: An Archdemon’s Dilemma: How to Love Your Elf Bride 12, Black Summoner 6, How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord 14, and the 8th manga volume of Infinite Dendrogram.

Ghost Ship gives us World’s End Harem 12. The back cover promises this is the climax, but (unsurprisingly in this sort of manga) the climax may wait a bit longer, as there’s more to come.

ASH: Ha!

SEAN: Airship debuts in print Disciple of the Lich: Or How I Was Cursed by the Gods and Dropped Into the Abyss!.

Also out in print: Reincarnated As a Sword 9 and The Strange Adventure of a Broke Mercenary 2.

Digitally there’s early volumes for My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero’s 2 and She Professed Herself Pupil of the Wise Man 2.

Are these books great? Judge them. Judge them with your EYES.

Bookshelf Briefs 10/4/21

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Do You Like Big Girls?, Vol. 1 | By Goro Aizome | Ghost Ship – The cover art and publisher of this particular title tells you exactly what’s going to happen, and that’s what happens. The premise is that a short college guy takes over managing his sister’s girls’ volleyball team, and they’re almost all very tall, big-breasted women. The actual premise is that he screws through the entire team, one chapter and one girl at a time, with the exception of his sister, but you get the sense that that exception will fly out the window when the second volume comes around. That said, the sex is consensual all around, the girls are fun, and the coach of the team is bi, something he has to repeat twice because our hero assumes bi = gay. If you’re looking for fun softcore porn, this is pretty good. – Sean Gaffney

I Wish I Could Say “Thank You” | By Yukari Takinami | Fanfare/Ponent Mon – When I think of Fanfare/Ponent Mon, I tend to first think of Jiro Taniguchi, but the publisher does in fact release work by other manga creators, all of which are also worth a look. I Wish I Could Say “Thank You” is one such volume, an autobiographical comic about the experiences of the creator and her family after her mother is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. With this diagnosis also comes the knowledge that her mother does not have long to live, a shadow with which they will all have to come to terms. I Wish I Could Say “Thank You” is an honest work, simply but effectively told and illustrated. And though its subject matter is obviously serious, the manga is also not without humor, Takinami skillfully balancing hard-hitting moments with light-hearted ones as she delves into the complexities of familial relationships made even more complicated by an incurable illness. – Ash Brown

Laid-Back Camp, Vol. 10 | By Afro | Yen Press – Rin frequently takes off from the main cast to do her own thing, but this time around she’s almost absent for a good chunk of the manga, as the rest of our camping kids all have fun without her, doing things like making makeshift stoves and homemade sausages. The back half does have Rin, but without Nadeshiko, who is taking a train towards their destination—instead Rin and Sakura do a little mini-tour of the area they’re going to, showing off once again how much the author loves the Japanese countryside, as well as the country 80 million suspension bridges. That said, discussion of the prices of camping equipment in this volume reminded me how expensive a hobby this really is. Can they keep up the financial pace? – Sean Gaffney

Mr. Bride, Vol. 1 | By Natsumi Shiba | Kodansha Comics (digital only) – Boy, I wanted to like this more than I did. It has a cute premise, as a woman who has it together at work but is a complete mess at home ends up having her horrified co-worker move in and become a “wife” as he’s actually really hardcore about cooking and cleaning properly. It even runs in Kiss! The trouble is… I really don’t like the female lead, who seems to be taking this very much for granted. I admit that it’s exactly the sort of thing I’d also hate if the genders were reversed, and I can see this appealing to women who want a little fantasy of being cared for, but I think this relationship, such as it is, is a bit too unbalanced to really appeal to me. – Sean Gaffney

My Hero Academia, Vol. 29 | By Kohei Horikoshi | Viz Media – Sometimes, as heroes, you can come up with a brilliant plan, execute it perfectly… and it turns out not to work after all. This is what we see with our 1-A kids here, as between Yaoyorozu, Ashido and Kirishima they deliver a sleep dose right into Gigantomachia’s mouth… which is then pretty much shrugged off, as he continues to head for the heart of the city. Things aren’t much better there either, as Shigaraki and Izuku battle to see who can kill who the fastest, and the collateral damage gets wider and wider. And isn’t the named hero body count a bit small so far? Even if the heroes do win this battle, they may never be able to recover from the fallout. And it’s still going on. – Sean Gaffney

Ran the Peerless Beauty, Vol. 10 | By Ammitsu | Kodansha Comics (digital only) – I am a bit disappointed, I will admit, that the cover art is the only bit we get showing our hero and heroine getting married—the actual final volume itself is simply content to end at graduation. There’s one last problem left to solve, as Ran has to confront the guy who caused her to not get into the right school and assure him that it’s OK. He turns out to have his own issues, being the only med school student in a family of doctors who isn’t a natural born talent. But honestly, most of what we get here is Ran being gorgeous and kind, with the occasional full-page shot reminding us how gorgeous and kind she really is. This is Kimi ni Todoke-lite, and the lite is a flaw, but I still greatly enjoyed it. – Sean Gaffney

A Sign of Affection, Vol. 4 | By Suu Morishita | Kodansha Comics (digital version, print due in December) – One of the great things about A Sign of Affection is that, while Yuki is deaf, the manga is not about her being deaf, nor is it about how deaf people do romance. It’s simply a cute and budding romance between two college kids, one of whom is deaf. They’re finally a couple here, and are doing things like going on camping trips where they can point at things and learn what the sign language is for that particular object. We also get a bit more happening with our beta couple, as Rin and Kyouya are clearly into each other but reluctant to take the next step, though after the events of this volume that may start to change. We’ve been getting a lot of really sweet shoujo lately, and I for one love it. – Sean Gaffney

Sweat and Soap, Vol. 8 | By Kintetsu Yamada | Kodansha Comics – Kotaro ad Asako are still a brand new couple, and they got together very fast, so there are still a few things they get very embarrassed about, ranging from Asako’s worries that she’s gaining weight to the joys (?) of taking a bath together. That said, as the cover art may indicate, the main chunk of this book is taken up with a company beach party, which allows everyone to show off their swimsuit (or to wear a hoodie over it because you’re shy) and demonstrate their beach volleyball skills. The most important chapter, though, may be the one where they see a family while out shopping and both imagine how good a parent the other one would be. Two volumes still to go in this sweet romance. – Sean Gaffney

Pick of the Week: Mixed-Up Picks

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SEAN: Lotsa stuff this week, including 80 gabillion Yen On light novels, as well as a new Shojo Beat title. But I’m gonna go with the new volume of Sunshine Sketch, because, like Yotsuba&!, it’s been three years since the last volume. I miss my vaguely yuri art college kids.

MICHELLE: This week has Wotakoi, Chihayafuru, Spy x Family, Yona of the Dawn, and Yowamushi Pedal. In a regular week, I could happily endorse any one of those. But it’s the new Shojo Beat title, My Love Mix-Up!, that interests me most. I loved the artist’s work on My Love Story!! and am intrigued to see how it pairs with a different writer’s story.

KATE: I heartily second Michelle’s pick since I also adored My Love Story!!. But I’m also stoked for another volume of Boys Run the Riot, a series I’ve been enjoying and vowing to review when I find the time.

ANNA: There’s a lot of great series coming out this week, and I’m totally going to read My Love Mix-Up!. But on a week when Yona of the Dawn is also coming out, that’s always going to be my pick.

ASH: I’m looking forward to every series mentioned so far, but the debut of My Love Mix-Up! is the one that I’m most curious about, essentially echoing Michelle here.

MJ: Well, My Love Mix-Up! seems to have my name written all over it, so I’m gonna have to go with that, no question!

Manga the Week of 10/6/21

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SEAN: October! Time for scary manga!

ASH: Ooooooo!

MICHELLE: Scary manga and super creeps?

SEAN: Airship has, in print, Monster Musume The Novel – Monster Girls on the Job!, a spinoff of the popular monster girl manga series.

We also get an early digital release for Accomplishments of the Duke’s Daughter 3.

Dark Horse has the 7th Gantz omnibus.

Denpa gives us a 4th volume of Pleasure & Corruption.

Ghost Ship debuts Do You Like Big Girls? (Ookii Onnanoko wa Daisuki Desu ka?), a series that runs in Takeshobo’s Kissca, and combines ‘volleyball manga’ and ‘borderline porn’… well, OK, the porn is like 5/6 of it, the volleyball 1/6. But at least it’s all consensual, that’s a plus.

ASH: That is a plus!

SEAN: Also from Ghost Ship is SUPER HXEROS 4. This actually jumped from Seven Seas’ main label to Ghost Ship before the last volume, so presumably the sexual content also bumped up.

ASH: Sometimes you don’t know where a series is going to go until it goes there.

SEAN: J-Novel Club has lots of stuff, including 3 titles that should have been on last week’s list, apologies, the month change confused me. J-Novel Pulp’s John Sinclair: Demon Hunter 4, The Magician Who Rose From Failure 3, and Reborn to Master the Blade: From Hero-King to Extraordinary Squire ♀ 2.

As for actual next week stuff, for manga there’s Der Werwolf 3 and Marginal Operation 9.

For light novels, we get Are You Okay With a Slightly Older Girlfriend? 5, Cooking with Wild Game 14, Holmes of Kyoto 6, In Another World with My Smartphone 23, Infinite Dendrogram 15, Monster Tamer 6, and She’s the Cutest… But We’re Just Friends! 2.

Kodansha has print manga for us. There’s Boys Run the Riot 3, Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card 10, Orient 5, Rent-a-Girlfriend 9, That Time I got Reincarnated as a Slime 17, and Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku 5.

ASH: Boys Run the Riot has been great so far. I’m really looking forward to reading more of Wotakoi, too; it seems like it’s been awhile.

MICHELLE: Hooray for more Wotakoi!

ANNA: Already so behind on Boys Run the Riot.

SEAN: Kodansha’s digital debut is Love After World Domination (Koi wa Sekai Seifuku no Ato de), a Weekly Shonen Magazine series about a hero who falls in love with a villainess. I think this is getting an anime.

Also out digitally: Chihayafuru 28, GTO: Paradise Lost 15, I Was Reincarnated as the 7th Prince so I Can Take My Time Perfecting My Magical Ability 3, My Dearest Self With Malice Aforethought 9, My Sweet Girl 13 (the final volume), My Unique Skill Makes Me OP even at Level 1 6, ONIMAI: I’m Now Your Sister! 2, Saint Young Men 13, Sweet Sweet Revenge 2 (also a final volume), With the Sheikh in His Harem 6, and Ya Boy Kongming! 5.

MICHELLE: I’m most excited for Chihayafuru, of course, but I did start My Sweet Girl and liked it well enough. Probably I should attempt to finish it.

ANNA: Waves with intention to read one day at Chihayafuru.

SEAN: Seven Seas continues to push out titles after the early September lull. Lots of debuts again.

ASH: Woo! Here we go!

SEAN: DUNGEON DIVE: Aim for the Deepest Level (Isekai Meikyuu no Saishinbu o Mezasou) is an isekai manga from Overlap’s Comic Gardo. Based on an (unlicensed) light novel, its premise is the same as any other manga with ‘isekai’ and ‘dungeon’ in the title.

Headhunted to Another World: From Salaryman to Big Four! (Salaryman ga Isekai ni Ittara Shitennou ni Natta Hanashi) is an isekai manga from Overlap’s Comic Gardo. Not based on a light novel, it has a salaryman summoned by the demon lord to keep her minions in line. This seems like a comedy.

Hitomi-chan is Shy With Strangers (Hitomi-chan wa Hito Mishiri) is NOT an isekai manga from Comic Gardo. This runs in Akita Shoten’s Manga Cross, and seems to be their attempt to do Komi Can’t Communicate with the serial numbers filed off.

Time Stop Hero (Jikan Teishi Yuusha – Yomei 3-ka no Settei ja Sekai o Sukuu ni wa Mijika Sugiru) is an isekai manga from Kodansha’s Shonen Sirius, which seems to combine the subtleties of isekai series with the sensitive and caring aspects of the 1982 sex comedy “Zapped!” starring Scott Baio.

MICHELLE: lol.

MJ: I also lol’d.

SEAN: And we have ongoing series. The Ancient Magus’ Bride 15, The Demon Girl Next Door 4, How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord 12, Kageki Shojo!! 2, Level 1 Demon Lord and One Room Hero 2, the third and final volume of Rainbow and Black, and Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs 2.

ASH: Oh, there’s a few ongoing series here that i’m reading; I better get ready!

MICHELLE: I could go for some The Ancient Magus’ Bride.

SEAN: Tokyopop gives us Laughing Under the Clouds 4.

Viz gives us one debut, a Shojo Beat title from Betsuma. My Love Mix-Up! (Kieta Hatsukoi) features a new author but the artist is the one who did My Love Story!!. Guy likes girl, but she seems to like another guy. What’s more, the other guy now thinks that HE likes him. Bisexuality ahoy!

ASH: My Love Story!! is a favorite of mine, in part because of the artwork, so I’m definitely planning on giving this one a try.

MICHELLE: Ooh.

ANNA: Unsurprisingly, me too!

SEAN: Viz has a new My Hero Academia: School Briefs light novel, the 5th in the series. It seems to take place right after the My Villain Academia arc (though is about the heroes, of course).

We also get Blue Exorcist 26, Chainsaw Man 7, Jujutsu Kaisen 12, Moriarty the Patriot 5, One-Punch Man 23, Seraph of the End 22, Spy x Family 6, We Never Learn 18, and Yona of the Dawn 32.

ASH: Solid showing from Viz this coming week.

MICHELLE: No kidding!

ANNA: Yay for more Yona especially.

SEAN: Lastly, there’s Yen Press, who moved a lot of September stuff to October. Yen On’s debut is The Undead King’s Reign of Peace (Fusetsu no Fushiou no Saiseiki), the story of a girl saved by the undead king, a powerful skeleton. (See, more skeletons in light novels.) Sadly, while he wants peace for all, most everyone wants him dead.

ASH: I don’t mind the skeleton trend, honestly.

SEAN: Also from Yen On: Bofuri: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, so I’ll Max Out My Defense 3, Date a Live 3, Hazure Skill: The Guild Member with a Worthless Skill Is Actually a Legendary Assassin 2, The Hero Is Overpowered but Overly Cautious 7, High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even in Another World! 5, My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong As I Expected 12, No Game No Life Practical War Game, Strike the Blood 19, Suppose a Kid from the Last Dungeon Boonies Moved to a Starter Town 7, Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina 6, and Woof Woof Story: I Told You to Turn Me Into a Pampered Pooch, Not Fenrir! 7.

No debuts from Yen Press, but we do get Adachi and Shimamura 2, Bungo Stray Dogs 20, Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody 11, I’m the Hero, but the Demon Lord’s Also Me 2, Im: Great Priest Imhotep 11 (the final volume), Love of Kill 4, Plunderer 8, Sunshine Sketch 10 (which, like Yotsuba&!, also had its last volume come out in 2018), The Vampire and His Pleasant Companions 4, and Yowamushi Pedal 18.

ASH: I’ve actually been binging Yowamushi Pedal lately to catch up to this volume.

MICHELLE: I really need to catch up, too! Maybe singing “hime, hime” will help me to do so.

ANNA: My kids are into Yowamushi Pedal so I gotta order that.

SEAN: I think the scariest thing is how big this list is.

ASH: It is pretty big.

Pick of the Week: Old Favorites and New Delights

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ASH: There are some great manga being released this week and, while I can’t bring myself to choose only one as my official pick, I did somehow manage to narrow it down to two. Debut-wise, I’m particularly curious about The Masterful Cat Is Depressed Again Today, which looks like it should be delightful. But I also want to highlight the final volume of BL Metamorphosis, which has been a truly wonderful and special series.

SEAN: Those are both fantastic choices, and I’m also very interested in J-Novel Club’s new shoujo light novels. But I have to pick Yotsuba&! 15, because it’s been so long, and it’s so heartwarming.

MICHELLE: There is so much good stuff coming out this week! I am really looking forward to The Masterful Cat Is Depressed Again Today, but since we can extoll the virtues of volume two in November, I’ll join Sean in choosing Yotsuba&! this week, since I might not get another chance until 2024.

KATE: I’m always down for a new installment of Yotsuba&!, but I won’t lie: I need a Masterful Cat in my life right now, since I’m just getting the hang of commuting and working with other people in person again.

ANNA: There are quite a few intriguing titles coming out this week, but the one that is going to rocket to the top of my to-read list is Witch Hat Atelier.

MJ: There’s a lot for me to choose from this week, for once! And I truly am torn, even though many of the series I’m most interested in are those I haven’t yet (but plan to!) begin. So I guess, like Michelle, I’ll take this opportunity to appreciate a long-awaited new volume of Yotsuba&!.

Manga the Week of 9/29/21

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SEAN: The end of September brings some nice books, but also a long-awaited new volume of a beloved series, so let’s start with that.

Yen Press has Yotsuba&! 15! Do you know when the last Yotsuba&! came out? 2018, that’s when. Rejoice!

ASH: Ah! A great series to start us off with!

ANNA: Wow!

MICHELLE: When last we left off, Yotsuba and her dad were acquiring a car, so I look forward to some fresh new adventures.

MJ: Oh!!

SEAN: Yen Press also has A Certain Magical Index 24, Combatants Will Be Dispatched! 5, In Another World with My Smartphone 3, Love and Heart 3, Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story 3, and Star Wars: Rebels 2.

Apologies to Udon, who I forgot about last week. They have already out Steins;Gate 0 Volume 1, an alternate universe manga set after a Bad End from the original game. This is an omnibus of the first two volumes.

Square Enix has By the Grace of the Gods 3.

Seven Seas has been awfully quiet all month… TILL NOW. Get ready to be buried.

ASH: I am prepared.

SEAN: We start with the Bloom Into You Anthology, a collection of manga by various artists revolving around the cast of this yuri manga.

ASH: I like seeing these anthology volumes released. Once upon a time, seeing them licensed was somewhat rare.

SEAN: Hello World, the manga, is a complete in one omnibus retelling of the light novel. It ran in Ultra Jump.

Karate Survivor in Another World (Yajin Tensei) is a Dengeki Daioh title for those who wish that more isekai titles were like old-school Shonen Champion “teens fight” manga.

ASH: I am interested in portrayals of karate in manga, but am significantly less interested in isekai these days.

SEAN: The Masterful Cat Is Depressed Again Today (Dekiru Neko wa Kyou mo Yuuutsu) is from Kodansha’s Suiyoubi no Sirius, and is about a young woman who takes in a giant cat… who’s really good at nearly everything. Better than her, at any rate. Cats and comedy, love it.

ASH: Indeed! Love a good cat manga.

ANNA: Sounds promising.

MICHELLE: Ooh.

MJ: This sounds fantastic!

SEAN: The NPCs in this Village Sim Game Must Be Real! (Murazukuri Game no NPC ga Namami no Ningen to Shika Omoenai) runs in Young Ace Up, and is based on the novel. I enjoyed the novel much more than expected, so the manga should also be fun.

Reincarnated as a Dragon Hatchling (Tensei Shitara Dragon no Tamago Datta – Saikyou Igai Mezasa Nee) runs in Comic Earth Star, and is ALSO based on the novel. I didn’t read that one, but I assume it is cute and has dragons.

That is SIX debuts. Wow. We also get BL Metamorphosis 5 (the final volume), How to Build a Dungeon: Book of the Demon King 7, Mushoku Tensei: Roxy Gets Serious 6, Pandora in the Crimson Shell: Ghost Urn 14, She Professed Herself Pupil of the Wise Man 2, and We Swore to Meet in the Next Life and That’s When Things Got Weird! 3 (the final volume).

ASH: BL Metamorphosis is wonderful; I’m so glad that it was translated.

MJ: I never managed to start it, but now is the time!

SEAN: One Peace has the 16th manga volume for The Rising of the Shield Hero.

Kodansha gives us the first volume of the updated Eternal Edition re-release of Codename: Sailor V.

Also in print: Eden’s Zero 12, Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest 8, Fire Force 24, Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie 6, To Your Eternity 15, UQ Holder 23, and Witch Hat Atelier 8, the most important of those titles. (Please buy Witch Hat Atelier.)

ASH: Yes, please do! I’m a little behind in my reading, but To Your Eternity is a favorite of mine, too.

ANNA: Witch Hat Atelier is one of the few series I’m not behind on!

MICHELLE: I totally am!

MJ: I’m… I can’t even bear to speak of it.

SEAN: Digitally, our debut is The Girl, the Shovel, and the Evil Eye (Youjo to Scoop to Magan Ou), a Shonen Sirius title whose content is not as cute as it sounds. A man dies and is reincarnated as a worker in a mining camp, without any powers, even! But when he tries to help a bullied girl, will he have powers after all?

Also out digitally: Am I Actually the Strongest? 5, Back When You Called Us Devils 5, Chihiro-kun Only Has Eyes for Me 2, Fate/Grand Order -Epic of Remnant- Pseudo-Singularity III: The Stage of Carnage, Shimousa – Seven Duels of Swordmasters 3, The Great Cleric 7, Harem Marriage 9, Mr. Bride 2, Saint Cecilia and Pastor Lawrence 4, That’s My Atypical Girl 2, and What I Love About You 7. Half that list is just the title of the Fate book.

J-Novel Club has 4 debuts, three light novels and one manga. Dahlia in Bloom: Crafting a Fresh Start with Magical Tools (Madougushi Dahliya wa Utsumukanai) is a J-Novel Heart series about a woman who was isekai’d after overworking herself to death. She’s not a villainess… but she’s still dumped by her fiancee. She’s been trying to be quiet and get on with life… well, screw that. Now she resolves to make a career for herself.

Min-Maxing My TRPG Build in Another World (TRPG Player ga Isekai de Saikyou Build wo Mezasu) is a series that features, well, an isekai’d guy using game mechanics in another world, but apparently the audience for this is more 45-year-old D&D players than teen MMO gamers.

The Reincarnated Princess Spends Another Day Skipping Story Routes (Tensei Oujo wa Kyou mo Hata o Tatakioru) is a villainess otome game series from J-Novel Heart. In this game, most fans agreed that the support guys were better than the love interest. Our villainess is going after one… but the heroine is determined to stop her. We shall see.

Also out as a light novel: Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill 10.

On the manga front, we get the debut of My Instant Death Ability Is So Overpowered, No One in This Other World Stands a Chance Against Me! —AΩ—. Based on the light novel, it runs in Comic Earth Star.

We also get the 4th Record of Wortenia War.

Ghost Ship debuts Manga Diary of a Male Porn Star (AV Dan’yuu Hajimemashita), a Shinchosha title from Kurage Bunch about a young man who moves to Tokyo to enter the world of Adult Videos. It’s… harder than it looks. No pun intended.

ASH: I’ll admit to being curious.

MJ: Same.

SEAN: Cross Infinite World gives us Return from Death: I Kicked the Bucket and Now I’m Back at Square One With a Boyfriend Who Doesn’t Remember Me. As you might guess, it’s a Peggy-Sue story a la Tearmoon Empire, and the title is also the plot.

Lastly, we have Airship. In print, they debut She Professed Herself Pupil of the Wise Man, and we also get Classroom of the Elite 9 and The Hidden Dungeon Only I Can Enter 5.

And we get an early digital release of Berserk of Gluttony 4.

Ooof. The Suez is unstuck, folks, and the September of Quiet is over. What are you getting?

Pick of the Week: A Wide Variety

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SEAN: This week I am torn between debuts and final volumes. I really should be picking When Will Ayumu Make His Move?, as I love the author’s other stuff, and it looks cute and fun. But I’m sorry, it’s the final volume of Ran the Peerless Beauty, Kodansha’s answer to Kimi ni Todoke, and that has to be my pick, because it’s been regularly terrific.

KATE: I’m on Team VIZ; anytime there are new volumes of Maison Ikkoku and The Way of the Househusband is a good week in my book.

MICHELLE: I am sincerely looking forward to the finale of Ran the Peerless Beauty, but I just can’t pass up the chance to pick something that looks as sweet as Would You Like to be a Family?. I’m still wary of TOKYOPOP, but I must admit they’ve really been putting out some great BL oneshots lately!

ANNA: I could really use a comedic pick-me-up, and The Way of the Househusband always delivers.

ASH: I feel like I’m behind the times because, well, I am, but the release that I’m most interested in checking out this week is Tearmoon Empire. I’ve heard really good things about this series; now that it’ll be available in print, I’ll be able to see for myself!

MJ: Okay, nothing is strongly calling out to me this week, though I am always ready to cheer on Maison Ikkoku. But perhaps I’ll through a hesitant vote towards When Will Ayumu Make His Move? which sounds fun and revolves around a strategy game, so worst case scenario, I can pretend I’m reading Hikaru no Go.

Manga the Week of 9/22/21

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SEAN: Even the Delta variant cannot stop the flow of manga coming through.

ASH: Which is impressive, really.

SEAN: Airship, in print, gives us the third volume of Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs.

For early digital titles, we get Mushoku Tensei 13 and Reincarnated As a Sword 9.

Ghost Ship gives us Parallel Paradise 6.

J-Novel Club has some new print titles, the biggest one of interest being the print debut of Tearmoon Empire. The story of a spoiled princess who, after being executed, finds herself in her 12-year-old self, I highly recommend it to all light novel readers.

ASH: I’ve been looking forward to giving this one a try now that it’ll be available in print!

SEAN: Also debuting is the manga version of The Unwanted Undead Adventurer.

They’ve also got Ascendance of a Bookworm’s 7th manga, Infinite Dendrogram Omnibus 3, and Marginal Operation 7.

In digital, we get the manga debut of The Emperor’s Lady-in-Waiting Is Wanted as a Bride. Also out in manga form: Black Summoner 4, Cooking with Wild Game 5, and The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar 6.

Light novels out next week include The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar 17, Seirei Gensouki 16, and Slayers 10.

Kodansha’s print debut is When Will Ayumu Make His Move? (Soredemo Ayumu wa Yosetekuru), from the author of Teasing Master Takagi-san. This is a Weekly Shonen Magazine title about a girl who is trying to get a guy to confess to her, and a guy who only wants to confess after he’s beaten her in shogi. As you guessed, he’s terrible at shogi. This seems fun.

ASH: That does sound like it could be fun.

MJ: Sounds fun indeed!

SEAN: In print, Kodansha has Bakemonogatari 10, The Daily Lives of High School Boys 7, Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro 8, Drifting Dragons 9, Heaven’s Design Team 6, Living-Room Matsunaga-san 7, Peach Boy Riverside 2, Rent-a-Girlfriend 8, Sachi’s Monstrous Appetite 4, Star⇄Crossed!! 3, Sweat and Soap 9, and Those Not-So-Sweet Boys 4. Printer finally delivered the books, huh?

MICHELLE: Definitely looking to the shoujo offerings in that lot.

ASH: Ditto! I’m glad to see more Drifting Dragons in there, too.

SEAN: Digitally our debut is You’re My Cutie (Kawaii Nante Kiitenai!!), a new Betsufure series about a girl who loves manga about cute kohais falling for cool sempais. Then she meets her own kohai… and reality is not like the manga.

MICHELLE: Hm. Maybe.

MJ: What Michelle said.

SEAN: Also: Blue Lock 7, The Decagon House Murders 2, Dr. Ramune -Mysterious Disease Specialist- 5, In the Clear Moonlit Dusk 2, Living-Room Matsunaga-san 10, My Darling Next Door 3, Our Fake Marriage 7, Ran the Peerless Beauty 10 (the final volume), Will It Be the World or Her? 9 (also a final volume), and You Got Me, Sempai! 10 (also also a final volume).

MICHELLE: Must finish Ran the Peerless Beauty!

SEAN: Seven Seas debuts My Wife Has No Emotion (Boku no Tsuma wa Kanjou ga nai), a Comic Flapper title about a salaryman and his robot, and their growing closeness. Um…? Robot?

ASH: I will admit to being intrigued.

SEAN: Seven Seas also has The Dangers in My Heart 2.

Square Enix has The Apothecary Diaries 3 and The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest 5.

Tokyopop has Would You Like to be a Family? (Kazoku ni Nattemimasen ka?), a BL title from Gush about a soft-spoken man drawn into his loud co-worker’s life… complete with loud co-worker’s child. This looks sweet.

MICHELLE: Ooh.

SEAN: Viz gives us BEASTARS 14, Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction 10, Fist of the North Star 2, Hell’s Paradise: Jigokuraku 10, Maison Ikkoku Collector’s Edition 5, and The Way of the Househusband 6.

ANNA: Always glad for more Househusband.

ASH: Same! And I’m still super excited we’re getting Fist of the North Star, too.

SEAN: Actually, come to think of it, this IS less than usual. Manga, are you OK?

ANNA: I am concerned!

ASH: Supply chain disruptions are real!

Pick of the Week: Mao and Meow

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ASH: While I haven’t read everything by Rumiko Takahashi available in English, I have enjoyed everything that I have, so this week I’m particularly looking forward to giving the debut of Mao. The manga also has the advantage of at least partly taking place in Taishō period Japan, a setting which seems particularly well-suited for supernatural horror. (At least it worked for Nightmare Inspector!)

SEAN: Despite the fact that Rumiko Takahashi has tended to do a lot of the same sort of thing lately, I’ll pick Mao as well. Sometimes you want McDonald’s.

MICHELLE: I’m definitely going to check out Mao, but I am really looking forward to another heartwarming installment of A Man and His Cat. I think I’ve gotta make that my pick this week.

KATE: At the risk of being predictable, I’m throwing my weight behind Mao, too, and crossing my fingers that it’s a worthy successor to Mermaid Saga and InuYasha.

ANNA: I’ll pick Mao as well!

MJ: I’m a bit hit or miss with Takahashi, but Mao really does sound like it could be a hit with me. So I’ll jump on this bandwagon as well!

Bookshelf Briefs 9/13/21

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A Certain Scientific Railgun: Astral Buddy, Vol. 4 | By Kazuma Kamachi and Yasuhito Nogi |Seven Seas – Despite the cliffhanger from the last book, Junko and Gunha are too similar to really be enemies, and are both quite happy to resolve things via punching and GUTS!. Other than that, this is a good final volume to this unlikely spinoff, hitting on the best moral lessons from Railgun. (Everyone on the science side is terrible, but no one is truly irredeemable, especially the kids.) There’s also a PILE of yuri here, between Misaki and Junko, of course, but also Misaki and Kuroko, of all people, who is reminded that, at the end of the day, she will never be able to do anything but watch Mikoto’s back. Well worth the time for any fan of Railgun and its ilk. – Sean Gaffney

The Girl Without a Face | By tearontaron | Yen Press – I’m always interested in manga that feature yokai, so naturally I was intrigued by The Girl Without a Face, one of the most wholesome examples that I’ve read so far. The volume collects a series of short manga originally released by the creator on Twitter which focus on an extremely lovely-dovey couple living together as boyfriend and girlfriend. He’s a human while she’s a noppera-bo, a yokai that looks human except for the lack of facial features. (Granted, it appears as though the boyfriend’s the only human resident in a town full of yokai, so he’s arguably the stranger one of the two.) Most of the short vignettes follow very similar patterns and beats, the stories focusing on the power of the couple’s love and devotion to see them through any sort of communication challenge. The Girl Without a Face is admittedly repetitive, but it’s also very cute and sweet. – Ash Brown

Skip and Loafer, Vol. 1 | By Misaki Takamatsu | Seven Seas – This story about a girl from way out in the country and her adventures in the city shouldn’t work as well as it does, but it DOES work very well, being an incredibly strong debut. Mitsumi may have a lot of Manic Pixie Dream Girl to her, but instead of just one guy (Sousuke, who is clearly the Cheerful Guy With A Bittersweet Past), it’s an entire group from her school—the desperate social climber, the easygoing popular girl, and the shy nerdy girl. All of them are trying hard to deal with the ins and outs of high school cliques and pressures, only to watch Mitsumi sail right over it all. All this plus some excellent subtle trans representation make this a definite one to buy. – Sean Gaffney

Snow White with the Red Hair, Vol. 14 | By Sorata Akiduki | Viz Media – I have expressed my displeasure before with Hakusensha shoujo seies padding out a volume by only having the main title for 2/3 of it and then putting in older, one-shots by the same artist to pad things out. We get that again here, and it’s still annoying. Especially because I’m really enjoying the actual story we get here. Despite the threat of Shirayuki and Zen being separated for a long stretch, they reunite here, if only temporarily. The bond between them reminds me that Obi fans really have a long way to go to convince the author. I also really appreciate the attention paid to medical research, how hard it is, and how often it doesn’t work. It gives this series a depth beyond the romance. – Sean Gaffney

Sweat and Soap, Vol. 7 | By Kintetsu Yamada | Kodansha Comics – Asako may sweat a lot naturally, but she also tends to sweat a lot because of her tendency to get stressed out. Thus the idea of finally meeting Kotaro’s parents has her wiping herself down multiple times a day. That said, this is not really a manga for extended drama, so no surprises to hear that the visit goes pretty well. The surprise is that Kotaro’s mother is blind, having gradually lost her site after she got married, but this is handled subtly and without calling too much attention to it. Kotaro also runs into the guy who hit on Asako earlier, but even then they end up bonding and discussing the importance of floral arrangements at a convention dedicated to scented products. This runs on pure sweetness. – Sean Gaffney

Manga the Week of 9/15/21

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SEAN: Gonna start reversing the list more often as, no offense to Seven Seas, I am tired of Airship getting the first image every week.

So we start with Yen On, who have a plethora of “delayed from August… and July” debuts for us! Four of them, in fact.

Bond and Book (Musubu to Hon) is a new series from the author of the Book Girl light novels, which I greatly enjoyed when they came out ages ago. Sadly, they came out before the LN boom, so sold poorly – I hope this does better. It seems to be a linked story series, as the books overall involve a young man who can “hear the voices of books”, and each book has him dealing with a specific problem. The first is called The Devotion of “The Surgery Room” (a short story by Japanese author Kyōka Izumi).

ASH: This sounds right up my alley. I, too, enjoyed what I read of Book Girl and I like book-ish type stories.

SEAN: Second we have If the RPG World Had Social Media… (Moshi Role Playing Game no Sekai ni SNS ga Attara), a series which I’m going to take a wild guess is a comedy. Would you challenge the demon lord via text?

Third we have Magistellus Bad Trip. A Certain Magical Index may be dead in North America, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have a new series by the same author. A VR city with gambling and high stakes is about to be taken by a young man and his succubus partner.

Lastly, we get a spinoff from The Irregular at Magic High School, the appropriately named The The Irregular at Magic High School. Seems to be more of a continuation than a legit spinoff – they’re even keeping the numbering, as this is Vol. 17. But it has to be a new series, I’m sure.

ASH: Huh! That’s an interesting way of doing it.

SEAN: Viz Media debuts Mao, the new Rumiko Takahashi series. This runs in Weekly Shonen Sunday, and is definitely a step back towards serious supernatural/horror themed stories.

MICHELLE: Kinda curious about this one.

ASH: Same!

MJ: And me!

SEAN: Also from Viz: a double shot of Kenjiro Hata, as we get Fly Me to the Moon 7 and Hayate the Combat Butler 38. Other than that, it’s tie-ins galore, as we see Kirby Manga Mania 2, Pokemon: Sun & Moon 11, Splatoon 13, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess 9, and YO-KAI WATCH 18.

Tokyopop has A Gentle Noble’s Vacation Recommendation 4.

SuBLime debuts Black or White (Kuro ka Shiro ka), which runs in Kadokawa’s Emerald. Two actors who are typecast in roles they’d rather not be doing are secretly lovers.

ASH: I’m looking forward to giving this one a try.

MJ: That does sound interesting, actually.

SEAN: Also from SuBLime, we have Jealousy 4 and Given 6.

MICHELLE: I am so behind on Given already.

ASH: I’m a bit behind, too, despite enjoying the series!

SEAN: Square Enix has the 4th volume of A Man and His Cat.

MICHELLE: Yay!

MJ: Another yay!

SEAN: Another small week from Seven Seas. They have The Ideal Sponger Life 9, Plus-Sized Elf 7, and Reincarnated As a Sword 7.

One Peace debuts Multi-Mind Mayhem (Isekai Tensei Soudouki), based on the as yet unlicensed light novel. This story of a man with three different souls in his body – his own, a Japanese samurai, and a Japanese otaku – comes from Alpha Polis.

ASH: I am possibly intrigued.

SEAN: Kodansha, in print, has Orient 4 and A School Frozen in Time 3.

MICHELLE: I enjoyed the first volume of A School Frozen in Time.

ASH: I still need to read it, but I do have a copy!

SEAN: Digitally, as always, much more. Two debuts. Turns Out My Online Friend is My Real-Life Boss! (Online Game Nakama to Sashi Off shitara Shokuba no Onijoushi ga Kita) is a BL title from Ichijinsha’s Gateau, about a guy who tries to destress after days dealing with his evil boss by talking with a gaming friend online. then they meet up in real life and… yeah, you guessed it.

The other debuts is also BL and also from Ichijinsha’s Gateau. We’re On Our Own From Here (Konosaki wa Futarikiride) is a high school romance between two boys, spurred on by a girl seemingly confessing to one.

MICHELLE: This looks really cute!

MJ: I’m a sucker for this type of story.

SEAN: There’s also Abe-kun’s Got Me Now! 7, Ace of the Diamond 34, Giant Killing 26, Police in a Pod 4, The Springtime of My Life Began with You 4, Tokyo Revengers 22, We Must Never Fall in Love 8, and Yamaguchi-kun Isn’t So Bad 2.

MICHELLE: Lots of stuff here that I’m interested in! Mostly the sports, not gonna lie.

ASH: I’ll admit to being fond of sports manga, too.

SEAN: J-Novel Club debuts Dragon Daddy Diaries: A Girl Grows to Greatness (Totsuzen Papa ni Natta Saikyou Dragon no Kosodate Nikki: Kawaii Musume, Honobono to Ningenkai Saikyou ni Sodatsu), a title from the author of Sexiled and A Lily Blooms in Another World, so again, I would not worry about daddy-daughter issues here. This looks super cute, and is about what you’d expect: a dragon adopting and raising a human child.

ASH: Another book to add to the list to check out!

Also on the light novel tip from J-Novel Club: The Apothecary Diaries 3, Culinary Chronicles of the Court Flower 3, Perry Rhodan NEO 3, The Sidekick Never Gets the Girl, Let Alone the Protag’s Sister! 2, and A Wild Last Boss Appeared! 6.

Lastly we have Airship. In print, they’ve got How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom 12 and Muscles Are Better Than Magic! 3.

Two early digital debuts. The Most Notorious “Talker” Runs the World’s Greatest Clan (Saikyou no Shien-shoku “Wajutsushi” Dearu ore wa Sekai Saikyou Kuran o Shitagaeru). Sigh. Weak. But really strong. Betrayed. Evil? Probably, but he’s our hero. Moving on.

Planet of the Orcs is from Kodansha’s Legend Novels line, and therefore I expect it to be pretentious as hell, even though when I look at the premise all I can do is sing “ORCS WITH GUNS!” to the tune of Duran Duran’s Girls on Film.

That’s a big chunk of stuff… but is it for you?