Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews
MICHELLE: Well, Sean called it. Half Is More definitely looks like the most significant release, this week.
SEAN: Yeah, at Anime NYC last year they talked about this title, and I’m delighted to see it licensed. Half Is More definitely my pick.
KATE: And more than half of us have made it our Pick of the Week! (See what I did there?)
ANNA: Maybe more than more than half of us are making it our pick!
ASH: In fact, both halves are! Half Is More has been wholly selected as this week’s pick.
SEAN: I have often found that when the first volume of a manga has the two main characters just standing straight and staring at the reader with a blank face, it’s inevitably really good. Hence, my pick this week is for Chiisakobee, which has exactly that.
KATE: Make mine Chiisakobee, too. Something about that cover really speaks to me!
ASH: That cover really is great. So count me in for Chiisakobee, too! (Although I’ll also probably be taking a closer look at Ask Iwata when I have a chance.)
MICHELLE: Sure. I don’t have any better ideas, really.
ANNA: I guess I’m gonna go with the consensus this week!!
KATE: As a musicologist who happens to like manga, I whole-heartedly endorse Crescent Moon Marching and Girl Meets Rock—the former because I played tenor drum in my high school marching band, and the latter because I teach Rock History. As I’ve learned from both gigs, playing in a band of any kind means drama. I’m here for all of it: tears, rivalries, romances, and rehearsals.
MICHELLE: I am absolutely interested in Crescent Moon Marching, but for this one week of each year, it’s just gotta be Kaze Hikaru, for me.
ANNA: I will not pass up the chance to celebrate a new volume of Kaze Hikaru!
ASH: Marching band manga??? Marching band manga?!! As soon as I learned about it, I wanted to read Crescent Moon Marching; I’m very excited that its time has come. I loved being in marching band in high school and college (usually playing mellophone) and I still enjoy watching performances immensely, so I suspect I’ll appreciate this series, too.
SEAN: I mean, yes, it’s Kaze Hikaru, the Excel Saga of the 2020s, but if I make my pick what I’m most interested in, it’s definitely Girl Meets Rock!.
ASH: There are a few ongoing series being released this week that I’ll be making a point to read, but as far as debuts go, Smells Like Green Spirit is what has my attention. Growing up in a rural area myself, I suspect this manga will resonate. (And I appreciate that it’ll be available in a single volume!)
SEAN: I was pretty charmed by the simple plot of The Mortifying Ordeal of Being Seen, so the second volume is my pick this week.
KATE: I freely admit that this week’s new arrivals didn’t set my heart (or wallet) aflame, so I’m going off list to recommend Akari, which was nominated in the Best One-Short category for this year’s American Manga Awards. It’s beautifully illustrated and genuinely moving—keep a box of Kleenex handy! You can order copies directly from Glacier Bay Books.
MICHELLE: I’m also down for Smells Like Green Spirit this week.
ANNA: There’s honestly not a lot that appeals to me this week, so I’m just going to highlight the Red River rerelease as my pick. It is such a treat when series that came out some time ago get new editions!
SEAN: Inklore has some yuri, and I like yuri (is it yuri if it’s Korean?), so I will make Sora & Haena! my pick this week.
MICHELLE: I’m intrigued by Strange Pictures, but potentially more inclined to read the original novel, instead. (A subsequent novel, Strange Houses, is very much up my street, pun intended.) So, instead I’ll go with the BL angst of Forest of the Rabbits.
KATE: I share Michelle’s interest in <i<Strange Pictures, but am also eyeing Drops of God: New World for some over-the-top representations of wine growing (and wine tasting).
ANNA: Out of everything coming out this week, I think I’m most intrigued by Renjoh Desperado, so that’s my pick!
ASH: I’ve been meaning to read the Strange Pictures novel for what seems like ages now, along with Strange Houses and, more recently, Strange Buildings. So I’ll make the manga adaptation my pick this week, hoping to jumpstart some of the related reading. Though I will admit to being curious about Renjoh Desperado, too!
KATE: As an official member of Gen X, I feel morally obligated to choose The Credits Roll Into the Sea. Any story about a middle-aged person bravely deciding to buck convention has my full support!
MICHELLE: BL baseball manga is thoroughly my thing, so it’s Blue Summer Haze for me.
ASH: I’m certainly not going to say no to Blue Summer Haze, but this week I’m all for The Credits Roll into the Sea. I’ve been looking forward to this release ever since it was first announced!
ANNA: I’m won over by the enthusiasm for The Credits Roll into the Sea too!
SEAN: Ditto – The Credits Roll Into the Sea looks fantastic, has great buzz, and is apparently getting a movie. I can’t wait.
MICHELLE: As interested as I am in Fish and Water, I think josei wins the day for me, this week, so I’m going with Whoever You Are, I Love You.
SEAN: I have heard *very* good things about Set Sail: The Art and Making of One Piece, and the live-action series really is incredible, so that’s my pick this week.
ASH: I’m with Michelle this week, although I’m going to flip the order around. I’m definitely intrigued by Whoever You Are, I Love You, but I love that we’re getting the full range of Gengoroh Tagame’s work in English and that I’ll be able to recommend Fish and Water to a wider audience than I would some of his other manga.
KATE: One order of Fish and Water for me, please!
ANNA: I’m most likely to check out Whoever You Are, I Love You, so that’s my pick!
SEAN: I admit it looks a bit too depressing for me, especially given when it takes place, but there’s no doubt that cocoon is the eye-catching prestige title of the week.
KATE: cocoon is 100% in my wheelhouse: Historical setting? Check! Graceful artwork? Check! Tragedy and heartbreak? Check and check! That said, I also want to make a plug for Dark Horse’s new coffee table book The Art of Star Wars: A New Hope–The Manga. If you haven’t read the original Star Wars manga, you should: it’s stylish, funny, and very much its own thing while still hewing closely to the film.
MICHELLE: It’s cocoon for me, as well!
ASH: I have already heard so many great things about cocoon that it’s absolutely my pick this week, too. That being said, I also expect it to be heart-wrenching, so suspect I will need to be in a very particular mood to read it.
ANNA: I agree that cocoon is absolutely the pick of the week, but I want to take some time to celebrate Mars being reprinted in such a deluxe edition too! It is nice that this shoujo classic is being re-released.
SEAN: In a battle between legendary manga authors, it is hard to choose. Billy Bat has more buzz, though, so I’ll go with that.
MICHELLE: There’s a lot of good stuff out this week! I’m intrigued by Billy Bat and Secondhand Sisters, but I’m No Angel takes the spot by virtue of Ai Yazawa, alone.
KATE: C’mon, gang, you could write this for me: Billy Bat is my top pick! If I was feeling a little more spendy at the comic book shop, though, I’d add I’m No Angel and Secondhand Sisters to my shopping basket.
ASH: Yes, to all of the above! But I’d also like to add The Delinquent and the Transfer Student to my pile; it looks like it should be delightful.
ANNA: This is a pretty amazing week, I’m for sure interested in I’m No Angel and Secondhand Sisters, but I’ve also got to go with Billy Bat!
MICHELLE: I, of course, want to read Scenes from Awajima and that cover for Beacon of Light in the Dark Sea is really pretty, but I think it’s just got to be Yotsuba&! this week. I actually have two volumes to catch up on, and am looking forward to it!
SEAN: Agreed, it has to be Yotsuba&!, which I keep forgetting how good it is and then I read a new volume and am reminded.
KATE: I can’t believe it’s been FIVE YEARS since the last installment of Yotsuba&!! That is definitely five years too many. Let this week’s column be a reminder that Yotsuba&! is that rare series that just about anyone can enjoy whether you’re ten or 50.
ANNA: I agree! Looking forward to this new volume!
ASH: Who am I to go against the trend, especially when such a delightful series is involved? Yotsuba&! it is!
SEAN: I’m going to go with Unsung Epics of the Hero’s Journey, because it looks kind of slow life, yuri and epic at the same time. I like that in a book.
KATE: Any week that includes a new installment of Hirayasumi and a re-issue of Pink is a good one in my book.
MICHELLE: I’m glad to see Pink reissued (somehow, I missed it the first time around), but my heart belongs to the second installment of Our Dining Table: Seconds, Please!.
ANNA: Pink is my pick of the week, or pink of the week as well! Great to see such an iconic manga get reissued.
ASH: I am likewise very glad to see Pink being released again. But as for debuts, Unsung Epics of the Hero’s Journey is the release I’m most curious about, mostly for the same reasons mentioned by Sean.
SEAN: My pick this week is a manga that wasn’t on my radar till I saw some of the reviews on ANN. Stella Must Die sounds like another in the ‘disgraced noble’ throne war sort of genre, maybe with a dash of action, but let’s just say “for fans of Parasyte” is the real draw.
KATE: With so many companies publishing manga in the US right now, it’s easy to overlook Abrams’ Kana imprint. That’s a shame, because they’ve been putting out some incredible books—Leviathan is one of my current faves—and re-issuing older work by artists such as Tsukasa Hojo. If you didn’t realize that Kana is re-introducing American readers to Cat’s Eye (1981-85), I have good news: the third omnibus edition arrives in stores this week.
MICHELLE: I’m definitely interested in Cat’s Eye, but am most excited about a new Natsume’s Book of Friends.
ASH: I’m looking forward to all of those releases, but I’m also tempted by Voices in the Sea Foam. Reincarnation? Mermaids? BL? I’m here for it.
ANNA: I’m going to have to go for the new fancy edition of Witch Hat Atelier, I don’t usually purchase series twice but this is a special series and I’m quite tempted by this especially after the recent art book release.
MICHELLE: Honestly, I’m not entirely sold on Merit and the Egyptian God, but I do like grumpy love interests and it’s from Hana to Yume, so those things convince me to give it a shot!
SEAN: I just can’t resist the look and the idea behind DOGGO, so I’m picking that this week.
ANNA: I’m generally intrigued by Hana to Yume titles, so I’m going to join with Michelle in picking Merit and the Egyptian God.
ASH: And just to even things out, I’m going to make DOGGO my pick. I’m in the mood for something ridiculous and/or absurd; it seems as though this series should fit the bill.
KATE: Sign me up for a taking yakuza pug! DOGGO is my pick as well.
MICHELLE: I am absolutely unable to resist a josei series in which someone goes back in time to their high school years, so it’s Drawing From Your Memory for me!
ASH: Drawing From Your Memory definitely intrigues me, but I’m still going to have to make Shigeru Mizuki’s The Definitive Yokai Field Guide my official pick this week. According to the translator, Mizuki specifically requested that this be released in English “felt it was the culmination of his work both as a cartoonist and a folklorist.” I’m very excited for it.
SEAN: I am going to agree with Ash, though I will admit I am tempted by Apprentice Nail Artist in a Foreign Land, where it turns out that an isekai’d girl’s nail art abilities make her the most valuable person ever in fantasy world. Commit to the bit.
KATE: I second (third?) Shigeru Mizuki’s The Definitive Yokai Field Guide.
ANNA: Did you say josei??? Drawing From Your Memory is for me!!!
SEAN: I have no idea what this title is really like, and its publisher, Alien Books, is also new to me (it seems to be another Penguin Random House imprint), but Kinryo Rock – Code Amrita looks and sounds cool, so I’ll make that my pick for this week.
MICHELLE: Yeah, it’s hard to beat a synopsis like “humans and vampires must team up with the power of rock and roll!” I’ll endorse this pick, too.
ANNA: Me too, I hope vampires and rock is a winning combination.
ASH: Likewise! I am more than willing to give a new series and a new publisher/imprint a try when a supernatural music manga is involved.
KATE: The plot summary at the Penguin site makes zero sense, but I, too, like the idea of human/vampire crossover, especially if there’s a killer guitar solo involved. Add me to the Kinryo Rock—Code Amrita fan club.