Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

Katherine Dacey

Pick of the Week: Many Picks Make Light Work

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SEAN: Nothing immediately leaps out at me. I think I’ll pick the manga version of Villainess Level 99, because I enjoyed the light novel, and the protagonist has that “deadpan yet earnest” vibe to her.

MICHELLE: In the absence of any exciting-to-me debuts, I’ll choose volume three of Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun!

ANNA: I’m delighted for the next volume of Nina the Starry Bride!

KATE: I’m voting for Issak, which sounds like the kind of entertaining manly-man nonsense that Dark Horse and ComicsOne used to publish by the truckful back in the day.

ASH: All good votes, but I’ll add yet one more to the mix! I will be enthusiastically returning to the Maiden’s Bookshelf for the illustrated edition of Osamu Dazai’s The Girl Who Became a Fish.

The Manga Review: I Had a VIZion of Love

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The July sales numbers are in, and VIZ rules the roost once again, occupying sixteen of the top twenty slots on the Circana Bookscan Top Manga Graphic Novel List. While the list is mainly comprised of long-standing favorites–Jujitsu Kaisen, Spy X Family, One Piece–there are new entries, including Tatsuki Fujimoto’s Goodbye, Eri and Yana Taboso’s Disney Twisted-Wonderland. Manga sales on the whole, however, have been down this year, a point acknowledged by VIZ’s Kevin Hamric in a recent interview with ICv2. “The entire book industry in the US is down 3.2 percent right now,” he noted. Manga, in particular, “is down 23 percent. That’s BookScan numbers; that’s right for what they track.” Nonetheless, he remained optimistic: “If things continue like this,” Hamric explained, “it’ll still end up being the third‑best year on record.”

In other news, Cat + Gamer and Shuna’s Journey are among the titles vying for this year’s Harvey Awards in the Best Manga category… Azuki has teamed up with One Peace Books to release 23 series online… The Promised Neverland may be over, but it’s still selling briskly, with more than 40 million volumes in circulation… Otaku USA has a preview of Ryo Sumiyoshi’s Centaurs… Japanese fans reacted more positively to Netflix’s One Piece trailer than their American counterparts…and speaking of One Piece, Eiichiro Oda reportedly insisted that Netflix showrunners not alter any of the principal cast’s backstories. One Piece begins streaming on August 31st.

REVIEWS

The folks at Otaku USA have been busy: Kara Dennison explains what makes Shojo Null so compelling, while her colleague Danica Davidson reviews Offshore Lightning, Horror at Doll’s Village, and Villainess Level 99. Elsewhere on the web, Grant Jones gives Wolverine: SNIKT! a C+… Renee Scott “can’t recommend Akane-banashi enough” to readers of all ages… and That Manga Hunter offers an in-depth review of Prince Freya.

New and Noteworthy

Complete, OOP, and Ongoing Series

Pick of the Week: Performers and Delinquents

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MICHELLE: I am, of course, happy to see new volumes of Lovesick Ellie and Giant Killing, but this week I’ll pick Delinquent Daddy and Tender Teacher simply because it looks like it could be a lot of fun.

SEAN: Akane-banashi. That is all.

KATE: What Sean said; I’ve been dying to read it since it debuted on the Shonen Jump app!

ANNA: I’m sure I’ll like Akane-banashi, but I’m going with regular favorite Lovesick Ellie for my pick!

ASH: I’ll admit, I tend to enjoy BL in which at least one of the leads is a parent or parental figure, so I’m definitely looking forward to reading Delinquent Daddy and Tender Teacher, but my official pick this week actually goes to the print debut of Akane-banashi!

Pick of the Week: It’s August Again

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SEAN: Given that they not only have the yearly release of Kaze Hikaru, but also new volumes of Kaguya-sama: Love Is War and Yona of the Dawn, I think I’ll just go with Viz Media in general as my pick this week.

MICHELLE: I can get on board with that!

ASH: Definitely a good week for ongoing Viz series, that’s for sure! As for debuts (or at least print debuts), I plan on checking out Wind Breaker. Delinquent manga, for the win!

ANNA: I can’t choose between Yona and Kaze Hikaru either!

KATE: C’mon, you KNOW what I’m going to pick: Kaze Hikaru.

The Manga Review: SDCC 2023 Round-Up

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Over the last 20 years, SDCC has morphed from a comics-focused show to a pop-cultural behemoth dominated by movie studios and television stars. The ongoing SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes, however, shifted the show’s emphasis back to comics, as many of the big, media-friendly events were scrapped in the weeks leading up to SDCC 2023. Writing for ICv2, Rob Salkowitz described this development as bittersweet. “This year’s San Diego Comic-Con proved that sometimes dreams can come true, even if one person’s dream is another’s nightmare,” he observed. “Despite fears to the contrary that the strikes and Hollywood’s general financial malaise would lead to implosion, SDCC 2023 proved that the industry’s premier event has a path forward even if the world takes a collective step back from the Peak Geek era.” Attendance was robust, dealers reported strong sales, and smaller panels drew bigger crowds, all of which suggest that SDCC, NYCC, and other conventions don’t need A-list actors and blockbuster films to attract fans.

On the manga front, Hayao Miyazaki’s Shuna’s Journey won the Eisner Award for Best US Edition of International Material—Asia, and Junji Ito took home an Inkpot Award for his “contributions to the worlds of comics, science fiction/fantasy, film, television, animation, and fandom services.” Previous Inkpot winners include Rumiko Takahashi and Tite Kubo… the Mangasplainers announced plan to co-publish four new titles with Fantagraphics and UDON Manga… Kodansha unveiled new titles for Spring 2024… ABLAZE licensed Masaaki Nonomiya’s GANNIBAL… Deb Aoki convened her annual Best and Worst Manga panel with Brigid Alverson, Varun Gupta, Siddarth Gupta, Jillian Rudes, and Laura Neuzeth… and speaking of Deb, she gets the last word in our SDCC round-up with Manga Was Marquee at San Diego.

NEWS ROUND-UP

The CBDLF has joined forces with the American Booksellers Association, the Association of American Publishers, and the Author’s Guild to oppose a new law that would require Texas booksellers to use a content ratings system when selling materials to libraries… a Florida woman is suing to have Assassination Classroom removed from high school libraries in Polk County… Hayao Miyazaki’s film The Boy and the Heron will open this year’s Toronto Film Festival… ICv2 names the top ten manga franchises for spring 2023… Brigid Alverson parses the June 2023 Circana Bookscan numbers… Insomniacs After School is entering the final stretch, with just two more chapters to go… George Morikawa’s long-running boxing drama Hajime no Ippo just achieved a new sales milestone… and Otaku USA has previews of two upcoming series: The Poetry of Ran and Tengen Hero Wars.

AROUND THE WEB

If you read nothing else this week, check out Tony Yao’s excellent essay about Kowloon Generic Romance, a series that “starts off as an interesting romance drama” and “becomes an ongoing mystery regarding identity and what it means to live as someone who feels strangely out of place.” Yao’s essay explores the cultural roots of this story, offering a thoughtful reflection on the “persistence of nostalgia” in Hong Kong culture. [Drop-In to Manga]

That Manga Hunter takes a deep dive into the Shojo Beat catalog in search of great josei titles. [That Manga Hunter]

Kara Dennison explains why fantasy fans should read Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End. [Otaku USA]

Researcher Paul DeMerrit-Verrone joins Erica Friedman for an in-depth look at how Japan’s Student Movement (1968-89) influenced the development of shojo and yuri manga. [Yuri Studio]

If you’re a horror buff, be sure to check out Lynzee Loveridge’s interview with Masaaki Nakayama, whose PTSD Radio was nominated for an Eisner Award earlier this year. [ANN]

Slam Dunk fans take note: Aoba no Basuke might just be your new favorite basketball series. [Sports Baka]

School’s in session! Solène Mallet Gauthier and Stephanie Halmhofer dedicate the latest Comics Academe column to SPRIGGAN, “a fun, action-packed mix of archaeology, aliens, and international politics.” [WWAC]

ICYMI: The New York Times recently published a fascinating article on translating manga for English-language audiences, tracing out that history from Epic Comics’ flipped, colorized version of AKIRA through Drawn & Quarterly’s forthcoming edition of Nejishiki. [New York Times]

REVIEWS

Scott Cederlund posts an in-depth reflection on Tatsuki Fujimoto’s Good-Bye, Eri... Sarah reviews The Summer Hikaru Died, one of the year’s most anticipated horror manga… ANN’s Christopher Farris takes Spider-Man: Fake Red for a spin… Otaku USA’s Danica Davidson weighs in on Tokorozawa is 177 cm Tall, a collection of “shojo-ai” stories published by DMP… and Megan D. pronounces The Honor Student at Magic High School a dud.

New and Noteworthy

Complete, OOP, and Ongoing Series

Pick of the Week: Midsummer Manga

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MICHELLE: I don’t know how I could resist Steampunk BL from the author of Guardian! It’s Stars of Chaos for me this week.

SEAN: I’ll read Guardian, but probably not this. So I’ll make my pick a perennial “yes, always”: the new volume of Ascendance of a Bookworm.

ASH: Stars of Chaos is probably the debut that most interests me this week, but my official pick goes to What Did You Eat Yesterday?; I’m always glad to see a new volume released in that series.

KATE: Oof… so many manga, so few I want to read! I’m voting for Soichi even though I still haven’t finished the other two Junji Ito anthologies sitting on my nightstand. The evil you know, I guess.

Pick of the Week: Pore Hikaru Is Daid

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SEAN: I fear that the sheer amount of stuff out this week is making my eyes glaze over. That said, there are two “based on a light novel I enjoy” series out this week, so my co-pick goes to the debuts of I Want to Be a Receptionist in This Magical World and Secrets of the Silent Witch.

MICHELLE: I think The Summer Hikaru Died gets my vote here, and not only because my reply to Sean’s “The Night Chicago Died” joke just made me laugh again with how dumb it is.

KATE: I agree with Michelle: my vote goes to The Summer Hikaru Died, if only to encourage publishers to license horror titles by authors who are not Junji Ito.

ASH: As much as I like Junji Ito’s work, I do like seeing a wider variety of horror manga being released, too. And a BL-adjacent horror manga? I can’t pass up The Summer Hikaru Died.

The Manga Review: It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s Manga Superman

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Earlier this week, DC Comics unveiled a new feature on its DC Universe Infinite platform that will enable readers to experience Jiro Kuwata’s Batman in its original right-to-left orientation. Two titles are now available in this format with more in the pipeline… Brigid Alverson parses the June Circana Bookscan data… Brian Mariotti, the CEO of Funko, just stepped down… Saiyuku Jump will serialize a color version of Akira Toriyama’s Sand Land… Kiminori Wakasugi (Detroit Metal City) has begun work on Akina-chan Kamigakaru, a comedy about an aspiring manga artist… sales of the Oshi no Ko manga have tripled since the anime debuted… the final chapter of Space Brothers will be published in September… and How Do You Live?, Hayao Miyazaki’s last film, arrives in Japanese theaters today. Richard Eisenbeis has an early review. Last but not least, the finalists in the Comedy Pet Photography Awards were just announced and, as you might expect, there are plenty of hilarious images of flying poodles and soccer-playing cats. Go, enjoy!

AROUND THE WEB

How will artificial intelligence impact the anime, manga, and video game industries? In a recent survey of 27,000 Japanese professionals, more than half “worried AI will cost them future jobs and opportunities.” They also expressed concern about copyright infringement and unauthorized use of their work to train AI. [Otaku USA]

Muraktama Rodrigues explains why Slam Dunk “is your favorite sports manga,” even if “you just don’t know it yet.” [How to Love Comics]

Danica Davidson interviews Vernieda Vergara, author of My Manga Collection: That Time I Read So Much Manga That I Needed This Tracker to Record Everything, from the God-Tier Volumes to Trash Faves and Must-Reads! [Otaku USA]

Elliot and Andy are back with a new installment of Screen Tone Club. On the agenda: My Home Hero andThe Valiant Must Fall. [Screen Tone Club]

The OverMangaCast gang discuss the first the three volumes of Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead. [OverMangaCast]

Buckle up: the Manga Machinations crew are taking Eldo Yoshimizu’s Ryuko for a test drive. [Manga Machinations]

Helen, Kory, and Apryll dedicate the latest episode of Manga in Your Ears to After Hours and Good-Bye, My Rose Garden. [Taiiku Podcast]

REVIEWS

Four volumes in, Arpad Okay is still digging Dandadan… Justin checks out the first ten chapters of Kindergarten WARS… Megan D. revisits The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi-Chan… Johanna Draper Carlson praises The Way of the Househusband: The Gangster’s Guide to Housekeeping… Adam Symchuk recommends Don’t Count Your Tanukis… and my Manga Bookshelf colleague Sean Gaffney reminds us that he’s not just a light novel guy; he reads a lot of manga, too!

New and Noteworthy

Complete, OOP, and Ongoing Series

* Final volume

Pick of the Week: Hitting People Very Hard

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MICHELLE: I know nothing about Teppu other than the fact that it’s sports manga, which is enough for me to award it my pick this week.

SEAN: I also know nothing about Teppu, but boy did it excite some people whose opinions I respect, so we’ll go with it.

ASH: I still am print-preferred, so my pick of the week goes to the debut of the Tearmoon Empire manga, but I’m definitely interested in Teppu!

KATE: I’m going to put in a word for Phantom of the Idol, which is the perfect beach read. Six volumes in, it’s still silly, fizzy, and fun, demanding little of the reader other than the willingness to chuckle at a decent sight gag or a music industry joke.

The Manga Review: Straight, No Chaser

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If you weren’t able to attend Anime Expo, fear not: Brigid Alverson has a handy round-up of major licenses from Kodansha, which include a new edition of Initial D and a new series from Tsutomu Nihei (Blame, Knights of Sidonia), while Josh Piedra runs down the licensing news from Square Enix, VIZ, and Yen Press.  Also of note: Noir Caesar will be teaming up with Tezuka Productions for a new graphic novel based on Alabaster… UDON announced four new acquisitions… and the final volume of Mashle: Magic and Muscles will be published in Japan on October 4th.

AROUND THE WEB

This week’s must-read essay focuses on Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou, “the poster child of mono no aware works in otaku media.” It’s a lovely reflection on why this series remains a touchstone nearly three decades after its initial publication, and how it inspired more recent titles such as Girls’ Last Tour. [Sakuga Blog]

Jon Holt and Teppei Fukuda translate Natsume Fusanosuke’s essay “Memories of the Live-In Age: Hayashi Sei’chi and Kamimura Kazuo’s Dōsei Manga.” [The Comics Journal]

The Mangasplainers share an excerpt from Akino Kondoh’s delightful Noodling in New York, an autobiographical comic about her life in the Big Apple. [MSX: The Mangasplaining Extra Newsletter]

Martin de la Iglesia just published The Early Reception of Manga in the West,  which “examines what the first translated editions of Kazuo Koike and Gôseki Kojima’s Lone Wolf and Cub and Shôtarô Ishinomori’s Japan Inc. looked like, and how readers in the United States and in Germany reacted towards these manga.” [The 650-Cent Plague]

Vonmandelbrot offers his thoughts on the value of slow reading. [The Taishō Café]

Bill Curtis compiles a list of July’s new manga and light novel releases. [Yatta-Tachi]

New month, new manga: The Reverse Thieves name Summer of You as their pick of the month. [Reverse Thieves]

If you’ve been curious about Akane-banashi, let Chike Nwaenie persuade you to try this entertaining series about a young woman breaking into the male-dominated world of rakugo. [How to Love Comics]

Jocelyne Allen recommends Ami Uozumi’s Tsumetakute Yawaraka, a manga about two thirty-something women dancing on the edge of a relationship. [Brain vs. Book]

Erica Friedman explains why she resonated with the Super Cub anime and manga. “Mainstream media, focused on stories of romance and  – oh, you know straight women doing straight women things with wine and man bashing and other things completely alien to me – rarely shows women just relying on each other, being there for each other,” she observes. “Which is why I so obsess over She Loves To Cook, She Loves To Eat.  Super Cub does tell just exactly this story, from the perspective of a girl who has been so cruelly treated by life, she literally describes herself as having nothing in every way. By the end of this volume, she has one thing – Koguma has a Super Cub –  and that one thing is going to lead her to many other things.” [Okazu]

LISTENING IN

The OverMangaCast gang are “dialing up the patriotism” with a roundtable on volume three of Eagle: The Making of an Asian-American President. [OverMangaCast]

Is Takeki Ryuusei worth a look, or is it just another Fist of the North Star wannabe? David and Jordan investigate. [Shonen Flop]

Honey and Vixen join Ashley for an in-depth conversation about Naoko Takeuchi’s Codename: Sailor V. [Shojo & Tell]

The Trash Manga Friends discuss Dark Gathering, “a supernatural horror manga about one lil’ girl’s quest… to help save her family and friends from eternal damnation.” [Trash Manga Friends]

If you thought Kindergarten Cop was too tame, the Mangaroos have the series for you: Kindergarten Wars, an action-comedy set at a preschool “where the children of the world’s super-elite” are supervised by “lethal assassins.” [Mangaroos]

REVIEWS

Over at Anime News Network, MrAJCosplay describes Tatsuki Fujimoto’s Goodbye, Eri as “a quiet story that plays with your expectations to the point where it feels like you’re questioning reality by the time you reach the end”… the latest Reader’s Corner offers a smorgasbord of short reviews… and Paloma Linares tackles Satoshi Kon’s OPUS, “a mind-bending dreamlike piece of metafiction, which foreshadows the themes and style of Kon’s future projects.”

New and Noteworthy

Complete, OOP, and Ongoing Series

* NSFW content!

Pick of the Week: Butterflies, Akitas and Tinies

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SEAN: I’ve been slacking on my new shoujo series, so Like a Butterfly seems like the perfect time to hop back on board.

MICHELLE: Like a Butterfly is definitely my top pick as well!

KATE: I’m excited for the next volume of Lovely Muco.

ANNA: I’m not going to pass up a chance to pick a new shoujo series, Like a Butterfly is my pick as well.

ASH: Well, since I likewise failed to mention anything about the release of Minami’s Lover last week, I feel like I need to make it my pick this week seeing as I’m always interested in Garo manga. (Though, if I’m picking a release from this week, Like a Butterfly is definitely the debut that has my attention.)

The Manga Review: Love Is All You Need

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With the Fourth of July right around the corner, and two big conventions on the horizon, there were only a handful of real news stories this week. The biggest? Tokyopop just launched an imprint for romance manga called LoveLove, which will offer “age-appropriate content for readers ranging… from 13+ to older teens (16+) to ones aimed strictly at mature readers (18+).” The first title—The Black Cat & The Vampire—arrives in stores on October 12th… Jujutsu Kaisen has sold a staggering 80 million volumes worldwide… Masashi Kishimoto is hard at work on a new Naruto story… and the NBA will be introducing a line of t-shirts, satin jackets, and hoodies that allow fans to express their love of My Hero Academia and their favorite basketball team.

AROUND THE WEB

Kate Sánchez praises Netflix’s new adapation of Ōoku: The Inner Chamber for “staying true to the original manga” while “using animation to bring Yoshinaga’s vision to life with a vibrancy” that “can only be done in animation” [But Why Tho?]

Laura Grace posts a new installment of the Shojo Alphabet with a list of great series beginning with the letter “I.” [ Beneath the Tangles]

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Barefoot Gen, Asahi Shimbun traces out the publication history of Keiji Nakazawa’s classic drama. [The Asahi Shimbun]

Over at Anime News Network, Rebecca Silverman interviews Ryo Sumiyoshi about his fantasy series Centaurs. [ANN]

Also worth a look is Christopher Farris’ interview with Jun Mayuzuki, author of After the Rain and Kowloon Generic Romance. [ANN]

Alex, Vrai, and Tony dedicate the latest episode of Chatty AF to Yuri Is My Job!. [Anime Feminist]

If you’ve been curious about the Mangamo! digital platform, check out Gee and Ray’s in-depth review. [Read Right to Left]

Not manga, but relevant: Kazuma Hashimoto traces out the history of the JRPG label, noting the degree to which it influences consumer behavior in the video game marketplace. “It’s clear that the mainstream only courts a specific idea of Japan as being acceptable — often reinterpretations of feudal Japan, largely spanning from the 1500s to late 1800s, when the samurai were still part of Japanese society,” he observes. “This extends to what Japanese-made games Western publishers will support… and this diminishes the rich tapestry of games released under the ‘Japanese role-playing game’ umbrella in order to fulfill a fantasy for non-Japanese consumers.” [Polygon]

For more commentary on the “othering” of Japanese media, see Tony Yao’s essay on how Americans perceive manga, and perceive Japanese culture through manga. [Drop-In to Manga]

REVIEWS

Over at The Comics Journal, Tegan O’Neill reviews Minami’s Lover, new out from Fantagraphics, while Hagai Palevsky tackles the Eisner-nominated horror series PTSD Radio. Elsewhere on the web, Tony Yao gives a “shout out” to Manga in Libraries: A Guide for Teen Librarians… Adam Symchuk reviews two indie titles, The Rabbit Game and Words Bubble Up Like Soda… and the crew at Beneath the Tangles offer pithy assessments of Bloody Sweet, Heavenly Delusion, and Scribbles.

New and Noteworthy

Complete, Ongoing, and OOP

YashaHime: Princess Half-Demon, Vols. 1-2

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YashaHime: Princess Half-Demon epitomizes what I dislike most about IP-driven entertainment. It’s a manga adaptation of an anime sequel to a popular series, made with little involvement from the original author. Though the scriptwriters have created new characters and plot lines for the sequel, YashaHime feels more like the product of a focus group than an organic continuation of the story.

Like InuYasha, YashaHime begins in present-day Tokyo, where one of Sesshomaru’s twin daughters is living with the Higurashi clan. There are a few hints that Towa is troubled—she’s bounced from school to school, never really fitting in with her peers—but she valiantly tries to be a normal teenager. The sudden appearance of a demon at the Higurashi’s shrine sets the plot in motion, whisking Towa back to the feudal era and reuniting her with Setsuna, her fraternal twin, and Moroha, her cousin. Once back in her own time period, Towa joins Setsuna and Moroha on a quest to locate a set of “mystical pearls” and solve the mystery of what happened to their families.

There’s real potential in building a sequel around Sesshomaru and InuYasha’s daughters, but the authors skimp on meaningful character development. Setsuna, for example, is stoic and surly like Sesshomaru, while Moroha is boastful and loud like InuYasha; only Towa feels like a fully realized character. Towa is depicted as a shojo prince, decked out in a white pants suit and cropped haircut that lend her an aura of gender-bending cool—a point reinforced in the early chapters of volume one, when Towa is showered with notes from adoring female classmates. Beneath her cool exterior, however, Towa is haunted by the gaps in her memory, as she struggles to fit in with her adoptive family.

The other big drawback to YashaHime is that the authors lack Rumiko Takahashi’s gift for imaginative, economical storytelling. They shamelessly mine the original series for ideas, staging several action sequences that recall the earliest chapters of InuYasha. (Remember the three-eyed crows? Or the centipede demon who kidnapped Kagome? They’re back for another turn in the spotlight.) In between the demon-wrangling and the unfunny sight gags, the authors fall back on long-winded conversations to reveal how the three girls were separated from their parents, over-explaining everything to such a degree that the story groans under the weight of expository dialogue.

About the best I can say for YashaHime is that Takashi Shiina has done an admirable job of capturing the charm of InuYasha‘s character designs while making them look a little more up-to-date. Though Shiina’s linework is more angular than Rumiko Takahashi’s, the characters strongly resemble Takahashi’s original creations. All three leads have features that recall their famous fathers—Setsuna’s fluff is a particularly nice touch—while the human characters from InuYasha have aged in a naturalistic fashion. The demons, too, are drawn with care; Myoga, Jaken, and Kirara are all immediately recognizable.

I wish I enjoyed this series more, as I’ve been an InuYasha fan for almost twenty years. Part of the reason I loved the original series was that it felt like a real work of imagination, with odd flourishes of horror and genuine moments of pathos. YashaHime, by contrast, is so beholden to Takahashi’s original text that it never takes the kind of creative risks that would elevate it beyond the level of corporate doujinshi. There’s nothing as deeply unsettling as the sight of Naraku’s flesh bubbling in a cauldron, or as poignant as Kikyo and InuYasha’s final conversation; everything has a warmed-over quality, even when Shiina and Katsuyuki Sumisawa’s script explores new ground. Not recommended.

YASHAHIME: PRINCESS HALF-DEMON, VOLS. 1-2 • STORY AND ART BY TAKASHI SHIINA, MAIN CHARACTER DESIGN BY RUMIKO TAKAHASHI, SCRIPT COOPERATION BY KATSUYUKI SUMISAWA • TRANSLATED BY JUNKO GODA • ADAPTED BY SHAENON K. GARRITY • LETTERING BY JAMES GAUBATZ • VIZ MEDIA • 200 pp. • RATED TEEN (Fantasy violence, horror)

Pick of the Week: Edges, Goodbyes, and Homunculi

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MICHELLE: Psychological josei drama from Kyoko Okazaki? Gotta be River’s Edge this week.

SEAN: Much as I would love to pick the Okazaki, I know it’s gonna be too dark for me. So I’ll go with the final volume of The Reincarnated Princess Spends Another Day Skipping Story Routes, one of the better villainess series I’ve been reading.

KATE: Someone has to pick Good-Bye, Eri, so I’ll do it. Them’s the rules.

ANNA: I’m ready to go dark with i>River’s Edge.

ASH: Homunculus is one that I’ve been curious about for a while now, but I can’t pass up the opportunity to pick up another work by Kyoko Okazaki, so it’s River’s Edge for me, too!

The Manga Review: Back in the Saddle

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After almost two years of planning and procrastinating, my husband and I finally got around to putting in a garden last Friday. It was cold, grey, and raining, but I’m pleased to say we got the job done. By the time we finished, though, I didn’t have a lot of energy for manga blogging—we got soaked to the skin in the final stages of planting—so I skipped last week and hoped my Feedly folders wouldn’t be too full when I sat down to write this post. Boy, was I wrong…

NEWS ROUND-UP

Brigid Alverson breaks down the Circana Bookscan numbers for May 2023. “Webtoons and manhwa continue to dominate the Author chart,” she notes, while Blue Lock and Oshi no Ko are making headway on the Manga chart… For the first time in fifteen years, VIZ will be raising the price of its manga from $9.99 to $11.99 per volume… and speaking of VIZ, the publisher announced nineteen new licenses, including manga by Taiyo Matsumoto and Kazuo Umezz, as well as a Food Wars/One Piece mash-up and a One Piece novel. For more insight into VIZ’s spring 2024 line-up, check out the latest Manga Mavericks episode.

In other news, Azuki added a new sci-fi series to its library: Mecha-Ude: Mechanical Arms. Look for chapters one and two in July… Ize Press just acquired Finding Camellia… GKIDS will bring Blue Giant to North American theaters for a limited run this year… Tezuka Productions is using ChatGPT to create a new Black Jack story for publication this fall… Netflix has unveiled a new One Piece trailer… and  Matthew Levay interviews Tony Davis, owner of The Million-Year Picnic, the oldest comic shop in New England (and a cool place to browse, I might add). 

AROUND THE WEB

Anita Mowete explains how Blue Lock gave her a new respect for soccer. “As I read through this series, for the first time I understood how people can get so excited over football,” she observes. “I now understand how it gets people pumped up to maximum excitement or brings them to tears. You get a glimpse of the culture that surrounds football, the stories of each participant and the years of dedication that led up to the critical points in make-or-break matches.” [How to Love Comics]

In honor of Pride Month, Women Write About Comics convened a roundtable on the current state of LBGTQ+ manga. [WWAC]

Camil V. Ristè explores Keiko Takemiya’s early career, from Pharaoh no haka (1974-1985) to Toward the Terra (1977-1980). [Anime Feminist]

The Manga Machinations crew weigh in on the live-action adaptation of What Did You Eat Yesterday? [Manga Machinations]

The Reverse Thieves name Skull-Faced Bookseller Honda-san their manga of the month. [Reverse Thieves]

Kory, Helen, and Apryll discuss Until I Meet My Husband and She Loves to Cook, And She Loves to Eat. [Manga in Your Ears]

Did the Shonen Flop crew give Ginka & Glüna a frosty reception, or did they warm to this adventure series about a magical snowman? Tune in and find out! [Shonen Flop]

The Mangang dedicate their latest show to JH’s The Boxer, a Korean drama about a boxing prodigy. [Mangasplaining]

In a letter to readers, Beneath the Tangles’ editor-in-chief explains why the site won’t be covering the new Rurouni Kenshin anime. [Beneath the Tangles]

William Schwartz offers an in-depth look at Joseon Attorney, a Korean webtoon that’s equal parts historical drama and legal procedural. [The Comics Journal]

Jocelyne Allen sings the praises of Ryo Ikeumi’s Kiyouko Iwaka, a series that “has everything I want from shojo: reasons to cry, interior monologues questioning all emotions everywhere, secret handholding, and dramatic vengeance being exacted with the throwing of a whole tub of paint on a person.” [Brain vs. Book]

REVIEWS

Andy Oliver reviews Gengaroh Tagame’s Our Colors, “a tenderly told tale of two gay men from different generations”… Adam Symchuk praises All-Rounder Meguru for its “dedication to authenticity and ability to break down a fight with technical precision”… SKJAM! tackles Deserter, an anthology of early Junji Ito stories… Helen pronounces Osamu Tezuka’s Apollo’s Song “bloated” and pointlessly transgressive… and Kara Dennison has an early look at Susumu Higa’s Okinawa.

New and Noteworthy

Complete, Ongoing, and OOP