Bookshelf Briefs

Arakawa Under the Bridge, Vol. 6 | By Hikaru Nakamura | Vertical Comics – There’s an extra metatextual level of weird at the start of this volume of Arakawa. Did Rec really go to Venus and meet with Nino’s parents, in scenes that are bizarre even for this super-bizarre series? Or did Rec merely go to Hawaii and is putting up an act? Elsewhere, Santa is coming, provided we can stop Sister burning everything down to stop him, P-Ko may literally be some sort of vegetable, the Mayor is pregnant, possibly to inspire some fanfics about him, and we learn the hilariously tragic(?) story of Rec’s birth. For a series that was supposedly ending soon in the last volume, things are back to their normal silly and somewhat nonsensical ways. I still say this works better in a magazine as short chapters. – Sean Gaffney

My Hero Academia, Vol. 19 | By Kohei Horikoshi | Viz Media – Having endured a rather harrowing experience for the last few books, we’re still not ready to go back to villains just yet. Also, Eri’s still recovering, and can’t smile. What better way to fix this than a school festival arc! Jirou can sing! Bakugou can play the angriest drums ever! Mina can dance! And Izuku can be a gofer, which as always leads him to run into the actual plot, in this case with a group of mild-mannered villains who are determined to ruin the festival (which, the principal has explained will be totally shut down if there’s even one suggestion of an attack). Can he stop them? Can he make it back to the show in time? And can Eri learn to actually enjoy things again? I love this series. – Sean Gaffney

The Promised Neverland, Vol. 10 | By Kaiu Shirai and Posuka Demizu | VIZ Media – Emma and the other human occupants of Goldy Pond continue their rebellion against the demon quintet that regularly hunts them for sport. Three teams of kids are tackling four of the demons while Emma is tasked with stalling the most ruthless one who is actually kind of, God help me, elegant. Certainly the most fascinating demon character we’ve seen so far, even if he is bloodthirsty. Predictably, things don’t go according to plan and it’s looking like some of the humans aren’t going to make it. It’s too bad that I don’t care more, really, but Emma hasn’t been there long and we don’t really know these kids. The few flashbacks to their backstory don’t help much. That said, it’s very action-packed and exciting with a really satisfying final scene that still manages to be a cliffhanger. Looking forward to volume eleven! – Michelle Smith

Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle, Vol. 7 | By Kagiji Kumanomata | Viz Media – This may be the best volume yet. At the start we’re still going with the premise of Syalis trying to get a good night’s sleep (even if it means her death), but the bulk of it has her returning home in order to get her woolen underwear, with the Demon Lord and associate coming with in vain hopes that this will be simple and that they won’t be discovered. The most wonderful hijinks ensue. We also meet Syalis’ mother, who is (as the manga spells out) a mellow version of her daughter, and she sees what’s going on but is perfectly happy to let Syalis return with the demons if that’s what she wants. For a gag comic that’s supposed to have one joke, this was really well-developed. – Sean Gaffney

10 Dance, Vol. 3 | By Inouesatoh | Kodansha Comics – 10 Dance is really shaping up to be one of the best BL manga I’ve ever read. Did you enjoy Future Lovers? Read this series. Sugiki and Suzuki have developed a routine of dancing all night in a snowy park, each time learning more about each other until Sugiki reveals something unflattering about himself and realizes how much he doesn’t want Suzuki to hate him just as Suzuki realizes how worried Sugiki is about that, culminating with super dramatic big smoochies on a train. They’re falling in love slowly and still confused about what it all means, and man, I’m here for it. Plus, there’s all sorts of dance training going on, with Suzuki getting fired up to compete internationally and Sugiki arranging for him to get instruction from another standard master, all the while thinking, “I don’t want to give him away to anyone.” It’s so good! – Michelle Smith

We Never Learn, Vol. 4 | By Taishi Tsutsui | Viz Media -The series continues to be well-crafted and likeable but as predictable as anything, with not one but two reset buttons to assure that the status quo continues. This isn’t too surprising—fourth volumes are always hard for Jump series, as it’s the first volume past the “you’re cancelled” risk—but it can make things a little trying if you don’t like pure harem comedy hilarity. We also get a new cast member, as Nariyuki runs into a short, cute girl at his cram school who turns out to be older than him—and she has the same situation as the other female leads, trying to get into medical school despite her talents being elsewhere. Certainly I prefer the teasing she gives him to the ongoing attempts to add the teacher to the harem, which bleah. – Sean Gaffney

Yuri Is My Job!, Vol. 3 | By miman | Kodansha Comics – Well, the volume didn’t QUITE end with Kanoko knifing someone, but it’s not for lack of trying. She is obsessed to a terrifying degree, and is thus at odds with Sumika, who is trying to point out that the yuri cafe does not need to get actual romantic feelings involved in it… something she knows from past bitter experience. There’s also the whole fact of her being a “gyaru” type outside the cafe, which creeps Kanoko out. It’s all heading to a climax, but that climax is not in this book, so instead we get a lot of simmering. Actually, I’m finding these two more interesting than the main leads, who are dealing with a somewhat rigged popularity contest, as well as still being uncomfortable around each other. Potboiler, but good. – Sean Gaffney

Black Clover, Vol. 15 | By Yuki Tabata | Viz Media – The tournament arc wraps up, and the winning team is not really a surprise—Asta may be the hero, but he’s not ready to be a winner just yet. That said, he does get to be a Royal Knight because he showed off his skills—along with Noelle and Luck. This means they get to fight against the Eye of the Midnight Sun. Meanwhile, back at the Black Bulls HQ, a new enemy appears, and almost everyone is away except for the most socially awkward of the group. Fortunately, we meet a new member of the group who’s a … ghost? House? Whatever he is, the fight that follows is visually very, very clever. Black Clover is still Jump‘s answer to Fairy Tail, but it’s almost standing on its own by now. – Sean Gaffney

Kino’s Journey, Vol. 2 | By Iruka Shiomiya, based on the novels by Keiishi Sigsawa | Vertical Comics – A word of warning as we get into Kino proper: it’s not the subtlest series in the world. It has a message, and you are going to get that message. This is not to say that I did not very much enjoy this dark little volume, but this is very much a case of “well, it can’t get more horrifying than it already is—oh wait, yes, it can.” At first we see a city with one survivor in it, and learn how majority rule led to its extinction. Then we see a city which is filled with peace—provided you don’t live in the village outside its borders. Kino and Hermes travel through this, making occasional pointed comments but mostly acting as observers who want to get the hell away. Very good. – Sean Gaffney

Love in Focus, Vol. 2 | By Yoko Nogiri | Kodansha Comics – The most interesting thing to me about this volume is seeing Kei instantly regret telling Mitsuru to back off at the cliffhanger to last volume, as it pretty much wasn’t needed at the time, and eventually has the opposite effect. The group goes off to a vacation home for a good portion of the volume, and we see Mitsuru and Mako get closer, as well as some flashbacks that show off how Mako is not merely dense when it comes to romance, but danger in general—seeing her hanging off a ledge to get a good shot was mind-boggling. I was a bit disappointed with the Saionji subplot, which cried out for “they’re a guy” as the answer, but no, it was “they’re married to my brother.” This is still pretty good. – Sean Gaffney

Love in Focus, Vol. 2 | By Yoko Nogiri | Kodansha Comics – I was annoyed with Kei for his possessiveness in the first volume, which renders me even more impressed that Nogiri-sensei manages to flesh him out into a sympathetic character in this one. By having him experience another spate of panic over how close Mako and Amemura seem to be getting, followed by another impulsive declaration (this time telling Mako that he likes her), his warning Amemura away in the previous volume is revealed to be another instance of this same behavior rather than any kind of entitled assholery. Indeed, this volume establishes how very important Mako is to Kei and how he has loved her for a really long time. I thought her ending up with Amemura was a foregone conclusion, but now I’m not so sure. Once again, I end up liking one of Nogiri’s works more than I initially thought I would. – Michelle Smith

Popocomi, Vol. 1 | Published by Eriko Obayashi | Popotame – Between Mejiro and Ikebukuro in Tokyo is an art gallery and bookshop called Popotame, described as “a place full of unique things hard to find anywhere else” by its manager Eriko Obayashi. One of Popotame’s projects is Popocomi, an anthology series featuring artists, illustrators, and designers who also release independent manga. For the 2019 Toronto Comic Arts Festival, fourteen manga published in the original Popocomi collections were selected to be released in English. I found the resulting anthology to be consistently delightful as well as occasionally surreal. And since it’s titled Popocomi 1, I’m hopeful that more will be translated in the future. The volume doesn’t really have an overarching theme or subject, although space and/or aliens happen to be present in a fair number of the stories. The style and tone of the short manga vary as well, but that range is one of the reasons the collection is so satisfying. – Ash Brown

The Quintessential Quintuplets, Vol. 3 | By Negi Haruba | Kodansha Comics – This series isn’t We Never Learn, where you can at least rely on each of the girls being geniuses at something. These five are genuinely not very good at studying or test-taking—which is a problem given that their father sets mid-terms as a drop-dead date—if they don’t pass, Futaro stops being their tutor. This despite the fact that he’s making serious inroads—not in their grades, but getting to know each of them better. There may also be some mysterious past going on here, as Nino briefly wonders why she recognizes a blond guy from a photo—my money’s on our hero, frankly. Will they bond further on a camping trip? Now that they can actually go… This is cute. – Sean Gaffney

Ran and the Gray World, Vol. 3 | By Aki Irie | Viz Media – This is so gorgeous and well-drawn that I am almost tempted to continue to read it despite the fact that I spent the entire time screaming at the pages in rage and anger. But not quite. From the dream-sequence first chapter, where Ran tries to rescue Otaro from his bugs and he rewards her by trying to sexually assault her, to a chapter where Ran’s brother, who seems to be in heat, cannot keep it in his pants (and does not seem to get how much Sango likes him), to the final chapters, where Ran (upset at Sango being “taken away” by Jin), runs off to live with Otaro, who still doesn’t know how young she really is and thus this turns into a cavalcade of NOPE. This series, in the end, really makes me wish the author was drawing something else. (Which they are!) – Sean Gaffney

Requiem of the Rose King, Vol. 10 | By Aya Kanno | VIZ Media – Rumors have been spreading about Richard’s body and Buckingham is determined to learn the truth. Before he can do so, Edward suddenly dies, setting off a whole lot of Woodville scheming for the throne. Richard is determined to defend the Plantagenet line, but when Buckingham literally lays bare his secret, Richard finally admits that he wants the crown for himself. By the end of the volume, Richard and Buckingham have embarked on a twisted sexual relationship and Richard is installed as regent, with only the princes standing between him and the throne. We’re heading into the most infamous part of Richard III’s history and I eagerly anticipate seeing what Kanno does with it. Coldly ambitious Richard is a sight to see, too. Such a great series! – Michelle Smith

Tales of Wedding Rings, Vol. 6 | By Maybe | Yen Press – Is this book about saving the kingdom and getting stronger, or is it about which girl gets to have her virginity taken by Satou? Honestly, it can’t quite make up its mind, and I sort of which it would lean one way or the other. The girl on the cover is NOT a new Ring Princess, but instead Hime’s little sister, who stayed behind to learn magic while Hime was off in another world, and is here to teach it to her big sister like it or not. There’s definitely need for it, sa the evil Abyss King also has a bunch of rings that make him stronger, and now I wonder if there will be EVIL ring princesses. Meanwhile, Satou and Hime… still aren’t getting any. But they’re close. For a harem manga, this is decent. – Sean Gaffney

Creature Girls: A Hands-On Field Journal in Another World, Vol. 1 | By Kakeru | Seven Seas – This was another “I’ll get the first volume, how bad could it be?” sort of book. The answer is pretty bad, at least for readers of my taste. That said, for those in the market this is aiming for, Creature Girls must be a dream come true. A monster girl story with actual coitus, as well as deep down analysis of the girls’ bodies, almost to the point of parody. The plot is the standard “guy transported to fantasy world” stuff, and there’s a few mentions made of battles against enemies that he helps them with. But the target reader is not here for that. He is here to see monster girls show off their boobs, swear they’re 18, and get screwed. This book gives that to you, in spades. I’ll pass on future volumes. – Sean Gaffney

Haikyu!!, Vol. 32 | By Haruichi Furudate | Viz Media – Oh boy, more full volumes of volleyball. They sure do (punches fist in air) PLAY that volleyball, huh? OK, OK, let me see… the twins’ backstory was quite good, and I enjoyed the end, where we see more of Hinata’s growth to the point where Tsukishima even praises him, as much as Tsukishima is ever going to praise anyone. And credit to the author, 32 volumes in, for continuing to find ways to not make volleyball boring. There are great poses and a fast pace which reminds you why this is such a popular series. The pace is not fast enough that the game is over, though, and I’m fairly sure that the next volume will have me groping for words once more. It’s a good series, though. – Sean Gaffney

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Part 4: Diamond Is Unbreakable, Vol. 1 | By Hirohiko Araki| Viz Media – Ten years after the final battle between Dio and Jotaro in Cairo, the fourth part of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure returns to Japan. In the first volume of Diamond Is Unbreakable, Jotaro has come to the town of Morioh to investigate a series of crimes and to search for Josuke Higashikata, his uncle and the illegitimate son of his grandfather Joseph Joestar. When Jotaro finds Josuke he discovers a high schooler with a very powerful Stand and a hair-trigger temper (both literally and figuratively) to go with it, a potentially dangerous combination. JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure continues to be a violent and grotesque series—the human and animal cruelty present will be too much for some readers—but I continue to love it for its strangeness, over-the-top action sequences, and ridiculous characters. Josuke in particular is one of those delinquents with a heart of gold that brings me tremendous delight. – Ash Brown

Kakuriyo: Bed & Breakfast for Spirits, Vol. 3 | By Waco Ioka and Midori Yuma | Viz Media – I’m wondering how much of this series is going to be Aoi healing people’s hearts through the power of delicious food. Oryo spends most of the volume sick (well, the impression is she’s also hiding), but even she will eat Aoi’s food. We also get backstory on Suzuran and Akatsuki, and take a trip back to Japan so that Suzuran can pay her respects to the late Shiro, and also stay behind. It’s a perfect opportunity for Aoi to stay behind as well, something her captor knows only too well, but she chooses to return anyway. This series looks pretty slow burn, so I think the food may outweigh the romance for a while yet. But I’m OK with that. – Sean Gaffney

Kiss & White Lily for My Dearest Girl, Vol. 9 | By Canno | Yen Press – Half this volume is Yukine and Ayaka, who are coming to realize that “winning” or “losing” is not the be-all and end-all of their relationship. Good thing too, as Ayaka finally wins. Elsewhere, we see a girl who’s a repeater (she was injured and couldn’t get attendance credits), so is something of a loner, but also a cosplayer. She ends up falling for a younger, puppy-dog sort of girl, but it’s hard to get over putting people at a distance, so they end up breaking up quickly. But is it really over? This volume frames the “main” pairing right in the middle, with the ‘volume’ pairing as a bookend, and it woks very well. Next volume is the last, so I suspect it will be all Ayaka and Yukine. – Sean Gaffney

Little Witch Academia, Vol. 3 | By Trigger, Yoh Yoshinari and Keisuke Sato | JY – The spinoff comes to an end here, and there’s no real climactic finale—they have to win a flying contest against another school, but Diana is ill, so Akko tries her hardest (and mostly fails) and succeeds in the end, because she’s just that plucky. In the end, I think this spinoff probably works best for the groups it’s marketed for—kids and those who watched the anime. I wasn’t as fond of it as I was the other ones, as it’s clear that any character development is going to be in the main series. But as an advertisement for the main series, it’s excellent—I certainly would like to see more of everyone. Something to get your niece for her birthday—at three volumes, it’s even affordable. – Sean Gaffney

My Monster Secret, Vol. 16 | By Eiji Masuda | Seven Seas – Every new volume of the series after its first “ending” seems to be designed to annoy me—something that also befell the very similar Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches, if I recall. As the cover might give away, this volume doubles down on the teacher-student romance between Akari (who has at least appeared a lot) and Sakurada, best known as the least developed one of Those Three Guys, who looks much older than he is, which I guess is supposed to take the curse off the creepiness but doesn’t. Elsewhere, there is still some good comedy—I particularly liked the chapter with the supermarket sale—but more and more it appears this should have ended with the mutual confession. – Sean Gaffney

One-Punch Man, Vol. 16 | By ONE and Yusuke Murata | Viz Media – Still far too serious, and now faced with Saitama barely being in it. Certainly if you like cool fights it’s a good read, but I can get that from a dozen other manga titles. I read this for silliness, and that’s in short supply here. I did like the idea of the superhero “Megane,” who is pretty much just a guy with glasses. There’s also some good development from Garo, whose analysis is top tier, but who sadly is a bit too focused on the wrong things. But then again so are the A-rank heroes—there’s a fair bit of hypocrisy here. At least Genos knows what’s what, and we also get the return of Bang, who has a grudge of his own. It looks like Saitama will show up soon, and thank goodness. Who needs a totally serious One-Punch Man? – Sean Gaffney

Ooku: The Inner Chambers, Vol. 15 | By Fumi Yoshinaga | VIZ Media – Revolution is approaching as the most senior of Iesada’s ministers signs a trade treaty with America without waiting for Imperial approval. This fellow silences his detractors with harsh punishments and winds up assassinated by the end of the volume for his trouble. Meanwhile, the pregnant Iesada has evidently been gotten out of the way by somebody, but it’s unclear who, leaving her bereaved consort Taneatsu in the dark about her demise for a full month. Now he’s doing his best to guide her clever successor, who has just been married to an Imperial prince. She was concerned about deceiving the emperor, since the shogunate’s part of the deal was to oust foreigners, but a big reveal in the final pages proves they’re the ones who’ve been deceived. Still great, if sad. Poor Taneatsu. – Michelle Smith

Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization, Vol. 3 | By Tomo Hirokawa, based on the story by Reki Kawahara | Yen Press – The danger is ramped up a lot more in this volume, which also comes with the return of a familiar face from the Progressive series. When it comes to “NPCs can surpass their programming,” no one’s done it more often than SAO, with the current Alicization arc being all about that. Kizmel was (storywise, at least) first, though, and it’s heartwarming to see Kirito and Asuna reunite with her, even if she doesn’t know who they are. That said, this side story is still all about Premiere, who has a role that she is clearly there to fulfill… and also there’s more than one of her? Not for casuals, but SAO fans should find this a lot of fun. – Sean Gaffney

Yowamushi Pedal, Vol. 11 | By Wataru Watanabe | Yen Press – The joy of our whole team of six catching up with one another is tempered by the reminder that there can be only one winner of this race… and that the others are going to drop back and fail. It’s a hard lesson for Onoda to absorb, and by the end of the book he’s still struggling to. The rest of the book is filled with the most manly cycling ever, fortunately, and I have to say pound-for-pound this series even manages to out-shonen the Jump titles. That said, holy hell, this is a long race, and we’re still not done. Sports manga go on forever, and nothing says that better than this omnibus, which equates to vols. 21-22 of the original. I hope Sohoku eventually wins. And by that I mean Onoda. – Sean Gaffney

Anne Happy, Vol. 9 | By Cotoji | Yen Press – This is the second-to-last volume, but while there are a few hints of plot (Hibari’s family is lampshaded a bit), for the most part it’s devoted to another test of “happiness,” this time by a VR environment that causes everyone to resemble children. Given our main cast already know each other and are pretty good friends, the stakes are honestly pretty low, and there’s a bit less “everyone is useless” here—I don’t even think Botan coughed up blood once. It does make it feel like this is a series that needs to come to an end, though, which is why it’s good that it’s about to. If you’ve been following Anne Happy, this is a pleasant enough volume, and there’s no reason to stop just before the end. – Sean Gaffney

Blank Canvas: My So-Called Artist’s Journey, Vol. 1 | By Akiko Higashimura | Seven Seas – I’d loved everything by Higashimura that I’d previously read—Princess Jellyfish and Tokyo Tarareba Girls—so I was looking forward to the release of the award-winning Blank Canvas a great deal. After reading the first volume I can confidently declare that I’m still enamored with Higashimura’s work. Blank Canvas is an autobiographical series in which Higashimura, now a successful manga creator, reflects back upon her early days as an artist. The first volume shows her in high school as she’s preparing to apply for art school, a somewhat daunting challenge since up until that point she’d largely been coasting through her clubs and classes. Determined to become a famous shojo creator, she enrolls in a community art program, the teacher of which isn’t about to let her get away with slacking off. Told with Higashimura’s characteristic mix of humor, heart, and honesty, Blank Canvas is a tremendously engaging manga. – Ash Brown

Dr. STONE, Vol. 5 | By Riichiro Inagaki and Boichi | Viz Media – Tempted as I am to just copy/paste my review of the fourth volume here, I will try to say something new. It’s hard, though, as the same two things I spoke about last time are focused on this time. Senku is very invested in science, but it’s a ridiculous shonen kind of science. Also, ridiculous is the order of the day elsewhere, as this series really goes over the top in everything it does. Thankfully, the tournament arc doesn’t last too long. The winner may surprise you, unless you’ve read any other shonen manga ever. I admit I laughed at Ruri’s sprint across the village. But we’re getting a backstory flashback as well, as Ruri knows Senku’s last name. How? We’ll find out next time. – Sean Gaffney

Eve and Eve | By Nagashiro Rouge | Seven Seas – Between Seven Seas and Yen Press, we’re getting quite a few yuri anthologies in 2019. This one is a collection of yuri-themed stories by the same artist, and the title comes from the first of these. They’re fairly explicit—Seven Seas actually labeled the title Mature, something they rarely do—and a few of them range towards science fiction. Two of them also involve getting pregnant in a handwavey sort of way, and in fact those ran in “Yuri Pregnancies” in Japan, which I assume is an anthology and not a magazine. There was nothing earth-shaking in here, but nothing truly bad either. If you like yuri, and don’t mind that it gets sexual (or the magical pregnancies), it’s a good volume to pick up. – Sean Gaffney

Haikyu!!, Vol. 32 | By Haruichi Furudate | VIZ Media – Karasuno’s game against Inarizaki continues in (and beyond) this volume. The plot = “volleyball,” but that allows Furudate’s artistry to shine. Getting caught up in the drama of who will win is unavoidable, but I also marvel at the skill with which Furudate fleshes out the opposing team and imbues moments of individual victory with significance. For example, I loved when terminal bench-warmer Kinoshita thinks he’s missed his chance at heroism only to be credited by Nishinoya for helping him practice a move that pays off on the court. And I especially loved when Hinata not only manages to perfectly return an intimidating serve but proves so defensively competent that even Tsukushima comes to rely on him. That’s major progress! I love this series so much. – Michelle Smith

Hitorijime My Hero, Vol. 3 | By Memeco Arii | Kodansha Comics – I’m happy to report that Hitorijime My Hero has improved a lot since its first volume, which left me with some trepidations. In this volume, Masahiro’s friends find out about his relationship with Kousuke and one reacts badly, though it’s mostly coming from a place of feeling like he was the last to know something so important. Starting with volume two, Kousuke has been worried that Masahiro might focus on him instead of his “youth,” so he gives some good advice that helps them sort things out. I also appreciated that Kousuke’s friends are really concerned about his choices and grill Masahiro a bit to find out how much of a threat he poses. No, Kousuke doesn’t actually get arrested—although one of his friends is a cop, he’s an absolutely useless cretin—but it’s nice that it’s acknowledged that he could be. I’ll keep reading. – Michelle Smith

Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, Vol. 8 | By Aka Akasaka | Viz Media – After the plot-filled seventh volume, we’re back to wacky gag chapters in this book. Which is good, as this series does comedy well. It’s still working Ino into the fun, but even when the humor is based around a Japanese concept (one chapter talks about collecting bellmarks, which helpfully is so old in Japan that it’s explained in the text) there’s still laughs. My favorite chapter might be the one where Chika tries to tell Kaguya about the one she likes, and paranoia makes everything so much worse (and also reveals Chika is well aware of Kaguya’s ambiguity towards her). As for our lead couple, well, even Kaguya literally collapsing and going to the hospital can’t stop the laughs—or get them together. Great fun. – Sean Gaffney

Laid-Back Camp, Vol. 6 | By Afro | Yen Press – There’s some actual character development here, though for the most part the series still runs on ‘cuties camping’ for all its attention. Nadeshiko has been sort of the airhead of the group for most of the series, and I was expecting her desire to own the camping lantern to be blown up in some way, but no—she gets a part-time job, is decent at it, and buys the lamp. The author even toys with us, having her trip and almost break the lamp, but then catching it. What’s more, she wants to try solo camping. Hopefully her camping goes better than Inuko, Aki and Ena, who try a cold-weather campout and thankfully don’t die—though they need a little help to avoid it. This is getting better as it goes on. – Sean Gaffney

Murcielago, Vol. 10 | By Yoshimurakana | Yen Press – I never thought I’d say this, but this is actually a pretty sedate volume of Murcielago. Oh sure, Kuroko finds a new girl she wants to seduce, and there’s some naked bathing, but there’s no sex in this one. Even the violence is relatively behind-the-scenes here, though I have a feeling the volume after this will take things up a notch. We’re at a fishing village with a dark secret at the local church, one that’s led to an awful lot of dead people being eaten by sharks. And, of course, Kuroko’s new girl turns out to be the key to it all—or rather, the rosary left to her by her late father is. Will Kuroko and Hinako save the day? Can Suiren avoid getting seduced? Likely no to that second one, but that’s what makes Murcielago what it is. – Sean Gaffney

Our Dreams at Dusk: Shimanami Tasogare, Vol. 1 | By Yuhki Kamatani | Seven Seas – Tasuku Kaname has recently transferred to a new high school. His classmates are friendly enough, but soon a rumor starts circulating that he’s gay. Tasuku is quick to deny it, though the truth is he’s struggling to come to terms with his sexuality since it carries such a large social stigma. It’s only after he meets and learns the stories of several other people who are likewise not straight that Tasuku starts to feel less isolated and is able begin to accept himself. The fear, anxiety, and agony that results from not being able to freely live true to oneself both inwardly and outwardly is exceptionally well-conveyed by Kamatani in Our Dreams at Dusk. But while the first volume is at times heartbreaking, it’s also not without hope. Emotionally intense and tear-inducing for both sorrowful and joyful reasons, Our Dreams at Dusk is off to an incredibly compelling start. – Ash Brown

A Strange & Mystifying Story, Vol. 7 | By Tsuta Suzuki | SuBLime – And so, A Strange & Mystifying Story comes to an end. I could quibble with some aspects of this finale, like how Tsumugi convinced grief-stricken Magawa to give up on his destructive quest with ease to spare, but since it led to a happy ending for all concerned, I’m not going to argue with it. There are some great moments between Tsumugi and Kurayori, especially a tearful and relieved two-page hug once the effect of Magawa’s spell is reversed, and I adored their first love scene. It’s fumbling and awkward and loving and entirely about the characters. It felt necessary and not gratuitous. This series stumbled a little in the beginning but I’m glad I kept with it because from the third volume on, it became something special. I recommend it highly. – Michelle Smith

DIVE!!, Vol. 2 | By Eto Mori and Ruzuru Akashiba | Yen Press – DIVE!! is not a bad series, but it really needs to slow down and breathe a bit. If we just had more time to get to know these characters, then Tomoki reconciling with his friends, or losing his girlfriend to his younger brother, or making peace with the sacrifices he’s got to make in order to get better at diving would probably mean something. But as it is, everything just moves on too briskly. Tomoki mopes for a couple of weeks across the span of a few pages, and then before you know it, it’s time for the meet that decides which three competitors get to attend a training camp in Beijing. Unfortunately, unlike most sports manga, this one is extremely short. It ends in the next volume, in fact, so we’re likely never going to feel anything for this story that might’ve been so much better. Too bad. – Michelle Smith

Golden Kamuy, Vol. 9 | By Satoru Noda | Viz Media – Golden Kamuy honestly requires a reread every time there’s a new volume, and I found myself getting lost at times. The funny part of the book involves Shiraishi’s backstory of escaping from prisons, which is truly ludicrous in the best Golden Kamuy way. More serious involves our heroes arriving at an Ainu village that may not be as Ainu as they’d like to pretend, and it has Asirpa being clever (and unfortunately getting captured) and Sugimoto getting angry, though not as angry as the caged bear that gets loose right near the end. Golden Kamuy tends to run on mood as much as plot, and so I continue to enjoy the series even as I wonder how long it’s going to stretch out its main plotline. – Sean Gaffney

Hakumei & Mikochi: Tiny Little Life in the Woods, Vol. 5 | By Takuto Kashiki | Yen Press – While Hakumei may deny that she’s married to Mikochi as they’re both girls, the series remains quite content to treat them as a couple anyway, as we see Mikochi trying to endure fishing even though she doesn’t like it because Hakumei loves it, and the two of them going on a long trip to try to meet Hakumei’s old mentor. I also really liked the Halloween episode, with everyone trying to scare the kids and lots of fake vampire teeth. There’s never going to be much of a plot to this, so it helps that all the characters are so much fun to read about, even when they’re just doing normal everyday tasks—which is most of the time. – Sean Gaffney

Hatsu*Haru, Vol. 6 | By Shizuki Fujisawa | Yen Press – Last time I mentioned that Takaya did not seem to be all that into Ayumi, despite their fake relationship, and in this volume we see why, and as a word of warming it might annoy some people. Stepsibling love is a thing in Japan, and to the manga’s credit, it seems unlikely to consummate that love. Plus Ayumi is awesome—I could read about her all day. In the meantime, we have our main couple… or are they a couple? There are still some mixed signals going on, but it looks like Kai and Riko are finally a couple, and can go on adorable dates with each other. This is the shoujiest of shoujo manga, but I’m loving it more with each ongoing volume, and am happy there’s a lot more to go. – Sean Gaffney

Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic, Vol. 35 | By Shinobu Ohtaka | Viz Media – The majority of this volume of Magi involves a lot of debating about the nature of fate vs. freedom of choice, and how we can allow humanity to choose when they might choose evil. It’s given art that’s filled with cool pew pew light show battles, but if you’re not interested in philosophy, this volume might bore you. The highlight is showing us the immediate aftermath of Alibaba getting killed a few books back, and how he managed to come back from that. The motion of “heaven” served up here may not appeal to everyone, but as the series speeds towards its climax, it’s still holding my interest. That said, I hope for a bit less debate club next time around. – Sean Gaffney

Nyankees, Vol. 2 | By Atsushi Okada | Yen Press – I didn’t want to give up on Nyankees so I came back for one more volume. And I do think it has improved. It’s true that the basic plot is still pretty boring: Ryuusei, the tough new tabby in town, is searching for a calico tom who used to be his closest buddy before suddenly turning on him. Intel leads to one tough calico boss, who turns out to be female. She’s so impressed with Ryuusei that she offers to bear him a litter, causing her subordinates to immediately begin grooming themselves in agitation, and it’s this sort of thing that has improved. Cat jokes. Another fun moment is when they have a fish scraps and catnip spree in the park that turns into a kitty dance party in the moonlight. I can forgive a lot if there’s sufficient whimsy, so I’ll be back for volume three. – Michelle Smith

Sacrificial Princess and the King of Beasts, Vol. 5 | By Yu Tomofuji | Yen Press – As you might gather by the cover, there’s a lot of backstory for our chief “villain” here, showing us how he got to be so close to the King and why he’s so dead set against Sariphi. Meanwhile, a ceremony is in danger because the King is in his human form… and can’t change back! This could spell disaster, but luckily, we have the power of Sariphi’s shininess, which even begins to thaw Anubis by the end of this book, though he’s still determined to find some sort of fault with her eventually. If you’re looking for shoujo fantasy, this remains a highly underrated series. Plus His Majesty looks pretty glorious in all his naked beast form posing. – Sean Gaffney

Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle, Vol. 6 | By Kagiji Kumanomata | Viz Media – This was another strong volume in this very funny series, and my joy these days comes from seeing the expression on Syalis’ face every time she tries something amazingly stupid, and the minion’s looks of horror. Here we see her escaping to the human world so that she can get another fancy sleeping pillow, and the chaos that follows then the main demons escort her. It’s becoming more and more apparent that the Princess has no desire whatsoever to return, if only as she can continue to torture everyone as much as she likes in the Demon Castle. This remains hilarious fun, though it’s best not to take any of it too seriously, or you may find Syalis appalling. – Sean Gaffney

Species Domain, Vol. 6 | By Shunsuke Noro | Seven Seas – I like Dowa better with the beard, but dwarf beards (and mustaches) make up a large part of this volume of the series, where we see how far Dowa will go to try to stay attractive in her not-quite-boyfriend’s eyes. Meanwhile, the current sort-of-student council is looking for replacements, and comes across our main cast. That said, the roles they’ll be filling are… not quite what you’d expect. I admit I was not thrilled with the new character Kuroki, who hits a few tropes that I’m not particularly fond of. But for the most part this is still fun and goofy, and a good recommendation of a monster people series that doesn’t rely on fanservice. – Sean Gaffney

Wandering Island, Vol. 2 | By Kenji Tsuruta | Dark Horse Comics – For a series with relatively little plot, Wandering Island still has plenty of mystery. It’s a very atmospheric work almost entirely carried by the strength of Tsuruta’s art. In fact, there’s barely any dialogue at all in the second volume. Mikura manages to relocate Electric Island and, after more or less getting herself stranded there, begins to explore the island and its less than welcoming community. It’s peculiar, but engaging, and Tsuruta’s illustrations are striking, conveying a marvelous sense of wonder and place. The volume concludes with a lengthy essay by Dark Horse editor Carl Gustav Horn describing the history of manga publishing practices in North America, comparing them to those of the Japanese manga industry—included mostly, it seems, to explain why it will probably be a while before the next installment of Wandering Island will be released in English. Whenever that is, I’ll definitely be picking it up. – Ash Brown

Arpeggio of Blue Steel, Vol. 14 | By Ark Performance | Seven Seas – Last time I wondered if Arpeggio of Blue Steel really was going to become a high school series, and it’s certainly trying its best, with a School Festival arc in the offing. That said, the tone of the series is still very much Tom Clancy, with much of the volume taken up by I-402’s negotiation with retired general Ryokan on behalf of the Fog. Meanwhile, we also get a flashback as to how Gunzou started all this in the first place (Iona basically forced it on him, but it doesn’t take much pushing), and start to see pieces shifting into position for the next big battle. Will that battle take place at the school? It might start there, but my guess is we’ll be back to the Navy before long. Still underrated. – Sean Gaffney

Crocodile Baron, Vol. 3 | By Takuya Okada | Kodansha Comics (digital only) – Crocodile Baron comes to an end without evolving much since volume two. Alfardo and Rabbit Boy run into the former’s bad older brother, who seemingly turns his life around after eating some ramen. Alfardo eats spicy curry with a desperate warthog and possibly saves his marriage. Rabbit Boy hates Christmas because it’s his birthday and buys a cake from a camel. A lovelorn elephant filmmaker finds his muse and eats pond smelts. They have an Okinawan adventure during which Rabbit Boy nearly drowns. Honestly, I cared about no one and found it all boring. If there had been more emphasis on the food, I might’ve felt differently, but this was a big ol’ yawn banquet. – Michelle Smith

High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even in Another World!, Vol. 3 | By Riku Misora and Kotaro Yamada | Yen Press – Again, I beg the authors for a character sheet. There are quite a number of interesting things going on in this volume, but I suspect the reader may have trouble finding them among all the bouncing boobs. The fanservice is laid on with a shovel here, and can be hard to take. That said, there’s a nice scene with Tsukasa and Lyrule where she berates him for feeling guilty over not prioritizing saving her. The bulk of the serious plot goes to Shinobu and Elch, gathering intel at a seemingly friendly village with a very dark secret. Fortunately (assuming that it’s not a double cross), she may also have come across the resistance. Too many boobs spoiling the pie, alas. – Sean Gaffney

How to Treat Magical Beasts, Vol. 3 | By Kaziya | Seven Seas – Lest we try to run on “the sweet and heartwarming adventures of a vet” for too long, this volume introduces a smiling maybe-villain-maybe-not, who helps Ziska with a cat’s injury and then takes her way out into danger to attend to a wounded Greif, because no series with apprentices and magic is quite complete without a test to see if they’ve got the right stuff. I assume Ziska does have the right stuff, but we’re caught up to Japan, so it may be a while till we find out. In more sweet news, that is one adorable gargoyle, and I’m happy it’s found a friend. Seven Seas has carved out a genre niche with these types of series, and I quite enjoy it. – Sean Gaffney

Mob Psycho 100, Vol. 2 | By ONE | Dark Horse – I keep wanting to call this MPD Psycho, but that is something very different. This is the story of an unassuming boy named Shigeo Kageyama who possesses super powers but wants to live without relying on them. This challenges the worldview of another superpowered boy named Teru, who spends two-thirds of the volume flinging his power at Kageyama in order to make him fight back. (Kageyama is resolute that he won’t use his powers against another person.) The anger meter appears again (with a fun gag about how Teru’s exorcism of Mob’s sycophantic spirit companion doesn’t actually change it at all) and only when his life is in true peril does Kageyama reach “???%.” Will he wreak havoc in the next volume? The story’s definitely getting more interesting, but I’m still not in love with the art. – Michelle Smith

My Hero Academia: Vigilantes, Vol. 4 | By Hideyuki Furuhashi and Betten Court | Viz Media – This gets better with each volume. I had not realized that the Vigilantes series takes place a few years before the main series (though the authors cheat (and say so) for the extra side story). I had suspected that Knuckleduster was somehow connected with the villains, but that connection turns out to be much closer than imagined, and leads to possibly the best fight of the series. Meanwhile, Pop Step finds her confidence and does something only she can do to help out. All this and one of the most horrific images in the manga to date (which also made me wonder if the authors had seen a certain meme about bees). This has become essential. – Sean Gaffney

My Pink Is Overflowing, Vol. 1 | By Yuki Monou | Kodansha Comics (digital only) – I bought this hoping it would be hilariously trashy, and for the most part it was. The premise has a girl who’s tired of being screwed over by pick-up artists decide she’s only going to date virgins from now on… then find out that her boss, seemingly an overly serious taskmaster, is one! They enter into a relationship so fast it boggles the mind, especially since their first kiss is interrupted by her having an orgasm as she does it. At its heart, this is a “ditzy girl/serious guy” title with a decent heart, but the girl can get very over the top at times, and the series seems to want to go as far as it can while keeping the hero a virgin. Plus there’s that title. For fans of Cosplay Animal. – Sean Gaffney

Teasing Master Takagi-san, Vol. 4 | By Soichiro Yamamoto | Yen Press – It has to be said, a lot of the teasing that’s going on here is Takagi-san being as obvious and blatant as she possibly can that she loves Nishitaka. You’d have to be a brick—or a male protagonist—not to get it, and indeed sometimes it’s so blatant he almost shows sings of figuring it out. But this is a long-running series, and resolution just isn’t in the cards right now. So we get Takagi-san visiting his room, playing poker, chasing cute cats, and getting each other’s emails so that now she can tease him whenever she wants to (and have cute photos of her on his phone). Everyone else in their class knows they’re going out. Most of what they do qualifies as a date. But… so dense. Love this series. – Sean Gaffney

Witch Hat Atelier, Vol. 1 | By Kamome Shirahama | Kodansha Comics – Even before it was licensed in English, Witch Hat Atelier was a series that had caught my attention, in large part due to Shirahama’s gorgeous, sumptuous artwork, but also because my Japanese-reading friends spoke so highly of it. At times, the exposition is a little heavy-handed in the first volume as the premise of the the world’s history and magic are introduced. (I expect this to become less of an issue as the series progresses.) However, the explanations are regularly incorporated in a way that makes sense—Coco, the story’s heroine, is also new to the basics and she’s learning right alongside the readers. Coco is a young woman who has always been fascinated by magic not realizing that she has a natural talent for it. Unfortunately, the initial budding of her magical skills ends in tragedy as she hasn’t had the training needed to fully understand or control them. – Ash Brown

Yowamushi Pedal, Vol. 11 | By Wataru Watanabe | Yen Press – No, the Inter High still hasn’t come to an end, but this is still a pretty satisfying volume, what with all the inspirational performances and teary appreciation of same! Watanabe does a good job getting readers to root for Hakone, too, and we learn why Arakita is so motivated to propel Fukutomi to the finish line, right before he runs out of speed. Yes, it’s a harsh truth that all six members of Sohoku aren’t able to ride together for long. The first-years prepare themselves to make the sacrifice for their teammates, but that isn’t how it turns out at all. I was fully expecting that Kinjou would be the one to win this, given his experience in the previous year’s competition, and was honestly surprised when he’s sidelined by injury. I suppose the next book will wrap things up but I kinda don’t even remember what this series is like when it’s not the Inter High! – Michelle Smith

Yuri Is My Job!, Vol. 2 | By miman | Kodansha Comics – Now that Hime is aware of who Mitsuki was in her past, everything is terribly awkward, and the number of times “she must really hate me” is said in this volume boggles the mind. If you guessed it’s all based on misunderstanding what the other is thinking, give yourself a gold star. For all that Hime tries to be the perfect little sister, it’s only when she’s honest with herself that things really take off in the cafe. I’m hoping that things will improve soon, but there’s also the problem of Kanoko, Hime’s best friend from school whose phone turns out to be entirely devoted to Hime. I dislike the term “yandere,” but I have a sneaking suspicion we’re going to see the tropes that lead to its overuse in the next book. – Sean Gaffney

Accomplishments of the Duke’s Daughter, Vol. 3 | By Reai and Suki Umemiya | Seven Seas – Things get a bit more interesting with the third volume of this series. First of all, we have a potential love interest for Iris, who has not really been thinking about love ever since her exile. That said, he’s more than what he appears, and I suspect once Iris finds this out any love that is happening may hit the side of the road. Meanwhile, we also return to the school she was exiled from, to meet her former love interest and his new fiancee, who… well, let’s just say she’s no Maria Campbell. The book ends with a cliffhanger, as Iris is invited to a royal ball, where she will no doubt be pilloried. Hopefully she can withstand it. I also hope Dean is a good guy. So “I’m an otome villainess” is a huge genre now, huh? – Sean Gaffney

Ao Haru Ride, Vol. 4 | By Io Sakisaka | Viz Media – Just because we have had a love epiphany does not mean everything is hunky dory. We’re still getting tastes of Kou’s past, and why he keeps walling himself off from people. His mother’s death hit him hard, and he’s annoyed at Futaba less for being nosy and more for the fact that she’s refusing to be upset by him and pull away. Her resolve to continue to bring him closer to people—even if through the use of righteous violence—is the highlight of the book. There’s also Yuri, who is trying hard to win Kou’s heart but really has gotten there far too late. The end of this volume comes full circle, with Kou inviting Futaba to keep the appointment that they never did years ago. A very well-handled shoujo romance. – Sean Gaffney

Himouto! Umaru-chan, Vol. 5 | By Sankakuhead | Seven Seas – This series has gradually moved from amusing jokes about Umaru’s double life as a perfect student and a hikki otaku to the family that the core cast are becoming, and while there are still some great punchlines, we’re moving into the “here for the sweet bits” category. Tachibana may not know who Umaru’s alter ego really is, but she’s damn enthusiastic about being the best friend ever, and while I wish Umaru would just come clean, the Christmas ending was really nice. Speaking of which, Ebina has gradually been coming out of her shell, to the point that the cliffhanger of the volume seems to involve her confessing to Taihei. We’re not even halfway through the series, though, so don’t hold your breath. – Sean Gaffney

My Sweet Girl, Vol. 2 | By Rumi Ichinohe | Kodansha Comics (digital only) – Tsugumi Koeda is thin and tiny, and never felt she was the sort of person who would get to experience love, but that changed when she met Masamune Sena. In this volume, summer vacation has arrived and Tsugumi and Masamune visit the sea with friends. Then, he gets sick and she makes rice porridge. And then it’s suddenly the school festival and Tsugumi is playing Cinderella. If you think these sound like major shoujo clichés, you’re absolutely correct. I wish I could like My Sweet Girl more, because I appreciate its themes of self-acceptance, but the shoujo-by-the-numbers approach holds me back. For every genuinely cute moment between Tsugumi and Masamune (and I did appreciate that they’re already open about their feelings), there’s a lame trip-and-fall moment or some randomly snide strangers in a coffee shop. I like it enough to keep reading, though, and to continue hoping it improves. – Michelle Smith

Ran the Peerless Beauty, Vol. 2 | By Ammitsu | Kodansha Comics (digital only) – As with the first book, it’s hard not to compare this series to Kimi ni Todoke. If the latter had a more laser focus on the main relationship it might seem a bit like this. Ran and Akira slowly grow closer, despite her introversion and second-guessing of herself. There’s a great bit where she helps out at his flower shop, thinking it’s a good opportunity to grow closer, only to castigate herself when she realizes he’s worried about his sick mother. (We also meet the mom—she’s great.) There are also moments of great character humor, such as an athletics festival that ends with a “princess carry,” which you think is going to be triumphant and… isn’t. It’s sweet, though. As is the whole series. – Sean Gaffney

Smashed: Junji Ito Story Collection | By Junji Ito | Viz Media – Gathering together thirteen of Ito’s short horror manga in a single, hardcover volume, Smashed is the most recent installment in Viz Media’s ever-expanding catalog of the master creator’s work. A rather disturbing and disturbed individual named Soichi is featured in three of the stories, but otherwise the tales collected in the volume aren’t directly related to one another. But even so, all of the manga work nicely together as an anthology. The Japanese word that has been translated as “smashed” is “kaidan,” a homophone of which gives name to a particular type of ghost story, urban legend, and uncanny tale. I can’t imagine this was an accident since the manga in Smashed either firmly fall within or are strongly reminiscent of the category. Some of the stories are less memorable than the others, but as a whole, Smashed is still a solid collection of engaging horror manga. – Ash Brown

The Water Dragon’s Bride, Vol. 9 | By Rei Toma | Viz Media – Much as this series has been a romantic drama, it’s also looks at the nature of gods and belief, and how easily that can be swayed by the environment, particularly when bad people are helping to do the swaying. The Emperor has been dethroned, the Water God is particularly unpopular right now, and, in the most chilling scene in the book, Kurose’s desire to resurrect his dead little sister figure has been completely papered over with generic “dark evilness”—this is what being dedicated to revenge gets you. There’s only two volumes to go after this one, and I admit I’ve no idea where the ending is going to go. This has become my favorite Rei Toma series. – Sean Gaffney

We Never Learn, Vol. 3 | By Taishi Tsutsui | Viz Media – Since my last brief, the anime version of We Never Learn has debuted, and having watched it, I think it’s safe to say I prefer its fanservice in print form. The author is sometimes clever in getting us that service—one chapter has everyone hearing that studying in the bath works better, so we see them all bathing, complete with fantasies they’re doing it together. The series continues to balance the romance with the studying, working them together a lot. We have two obvious pairings now, mostly as Fumino is still trying to be a good friend towards the other two—or just hasn’t realized it yet. As for Kirisu-sensei—well, she turns out to be a bit of a disaster… and also has a tragic past. Mildly recommended. – Sean Gaffney

World’s End and Apricot Jam, Vol. 3 | By Rila Kirishima | Kodansha Comics (digital only) – Anzu finally stops fighting against his feelings for Hina and they start dating. After a chaste month passes, during which they only manage two smooches, Hina returns from a school trip to find Anzu’s apartment empty. It turns out his band has been signed to a major label and their new producer has demanded that Anzu move out of Apricot House and break up with Hina. Anzu continues to date her in secret, however, and the volume ends with them apparently busted. It’s shoujo drama at its finest. What I don’t like are the mixed singles Anzu sends, particularly when he breaks bad for a second and acts out the scenario Hina most fears, in which he tells her it was all just a game to him. He genuinely makes her cry for a moment, and it was kind of shitty. – Michelle Smith

Bloom Into You, Vol. 6 | By Nakatani Nio | Seven Seas – The bulk of this volume is the play, and I was very much reminded of the play in the Kare Kano manga, which filled much the same function. We see a woman wondering which of the “sides” she sees was the real her, and the answer of course is to look forward. It’s really well done, but it’s uncertain how this will affect relationships between Touko and Yuu. We’ve seen Yuu struggle to define how she feels towards Touko—and indeed love in general—and now she seems to have her answer, but it’s not making her very happy. (I do love the brief POV of her older sister, who gives her good advice and resolves to support Yuu whenever she decides to admit it to her family.) Still great. – Sean Gaffney

Chihayafuru, Vol. 16 | By Yuki Suetsugu | Kodansha Comics (digital only) – Mizusawa has managed to win the team portion of Nationals! Chihaya’s tearful happiness is heart-wrenching, and I loved that she was able to remind Arata of the joys of competing with teammates. She seems to have fractured her right index finger, however, and though she makes it through the first couple of rounds of the individual tournament by playing left-handed, when facing Shinobu she chooses to go with her right. She makes one really impressive play, but then the pain is too much and she loses by a huge margin. Still, she’s made an impression on Shinobu now, and we see how much it would mean to the latter to have a friend her age who doesn’t expect her to go easy on them. Meanwhile, Taichi has made it to the Class B finals and Arata will soon move to Tokyo. Tune in next time! – Michelle Smith

CITY, Vol. 5 | By Keiichi Arawi | Vertical Comics – After a fourth volume with a long-running story, we’re back to brief snapshots in this volume, which means, of course, it’s not quite as good. A lot of gags land. I liked the photography session chapter, as well as the one with the soccer team’s “accidental” ball control. And the names of the Tekaridake Troupe made me giggle. But a lot of this is random for randomness’ sake, and features recurring bits that I’m not as fond of, like the manga artist who is likely meant to be Arawi himself. I suspect he’s trying not to make it too much about the “main trio” as he wants to avoid having it be Nichijou Mk. 2, but the main trio are where the best chapters lie. Still worth reading, but very up and down. – Sean Gaffney

Juni Taisen: Zodiac War, Vol. 4 | By NISIOISIN and Akira Akatsuki | Viz Media – I didn’t brief the second and third volumes of this, but you can likely guess what happens. In this, the final volume, we’re down to the last few survivors. The best part of the book is the section dealing with, in my opinion, the two best characters—Tiger and Ox. Their backstory, and the discussion of “how to do the right thing,” resonates strongly. Sadly, the zombie rabbit and the almost deliberately personality-less Rat take up most of the end of the volume, and that’s not quite as good. In the end this seems to have been Nisioisin’s attempt to write a Battle Royale-style story, and it works best with his Medaka Box partner on it, but four volumes is definitely enough. – Sean Gaffney

My Hero Academia: Vigilantes, Vol. 4 | By Hideyuki Furuhashi, Betten Court, and Kohei Horikoshi | VIZ Media – As a neighborhood department store plans to reopen after a monster attack, Pop is invited to take part in a celebration. Makoto parlays this into an appearance from Captain Celebrity and, meanwhile, Hachisuka plans to crash the party with her Trigger-augmented monsters. I probably should’ve guessed the reveal about Hachisuka here, especially considering what happened with her classmate before, but it was fairly cool. I liked learning more about Knuckleduster, and it was nice seeing Pop give a competent (and pretty heroic!) performance at the concert. I’ll likely keep reading this series, as I enjoy how it’s fleshing out the world, but I am a little bummed that I just don’t love any of these characters like I do the kids in the main series. They’re not complex enough. I guess nothing will ever really measure up to the original. – Michelle Smith

Takane & Hana, Vol. 8 | By Yuki Shiwasu | Viz Media – The rule of thumb for this manga seems to be that whenever one of the two leads decides to seriously romance the other intentionally, it never quite goes the way they want it to. That’s certainly the case in this volume, where Takane is still on the rise, and he’s not quite out to romance Hana—he just wants his revenge. As a result, he runs her ragged, in what’s probably the funniest chapters of the book. I’m not sure how I feel about the final cliffhanger, though, which seems to be another setup on the part of Takane’s grandfather. The series is 16+ volumes in Japan, so it could simply be the author setting in for the long haul. As long as the power balance is kept even, this is still great. – Sean Gaffney

Wonderland, Vol. 2 | By Yugo Ishikawa | Seven Seas – At heart, this is survival horror, which is not really my thing. As with a lot of things that are not really my thing, I have a number of exceptions to the rule. And Wonderland is so weird and trippy that it fascinates me more than it depresses me. As could probably be predicted, Alice may be responsible for what’s actually going on here, even if she’s not telling the main group that. The “main group” also gets winnowed way down here—Yukko even loses her dog, though he does show up later, in the funniest scene of the book (especially for long-haired dog owners). And of course I haven’t even mentioned Alice’s evil twin, who can turn babies into ZOMBIE BABIES. Wonderland is a trip. It deserves its title. – Sean Gaffney

Akashic Records of Bastard Magica Instructor, Vol. 6 | By Hitsuji Tarou, Tsunemi Aosa and Kurone Mishima | Seven Seas – I was sort of hoping that Rumia would do something other than hang around and get saved, but alas. Most of the character work in this goes to Re=L, whose past turns out to be not quite her own, and the brother she’s so devoted to also turns out to be not what he seems. It’s filled with tragedy and manipulation, but fortunately Glenn is able to see her through it. And thus we move on to the next arc, which seems to be introducing a dead past love for Glenn… who happens to be a dead ringer for Sisti! Who is pretending Glenn is the man she’s going to marry. This remains middle-of-the-road manga, but it’s still interesting enough to make me get the next book. – Sean Gaffney

Berserk: Deluxe Edition, Vol. 1 | By Kentaro Miura | Dark Horse – Due to the price point, Dark Horse’s deluxe treatment of Berserk will likely appeal most to already established fans of the series (a group to which I belong), but it is a striking release nonetheless. The first deluxe omnibus collects the first three volumes of the manga in a single, massive, hardcover tome with a large trim size that showcases Miura’s artwork. There isn’t really any new or added content, although the covers of the individual volumes are included as color pages. It’s been a while since I’ve read Berserk from the beginning. The initial chapters feel a little directionless at times, nothing more than an excuse to have an astonishingly badass swordsman with a mysterious but obviously tragic backstory taking out demons, but soon the manga builds and coalesces into something truly epic. What remains constant is that Berserk is a violent, brutal, horrifying, and frequently disturbing dark fantasy. – Ash Brown

My Hero Academia, Vol. 18 | By Kohei Horikoshi | Viz Media – This is definitely a manga of two halves. The first is serious as can be—we have a major hero death, Mirio does NOT magically get his powers back, and Eri is saved but traumatized. Our main cast are changed as well… Ochaco now wants to save people as a main goal, and Kirishima also notes he’s shaken up. Fortunately for the reader, we have the back half of the manga, which introduces the REAL Camie (whom Toga had impersonated) and has the Remedial Hero License Exam… which involves winning over a class of spoiled kindergarten brats. It’s pretty hilarious all round, with some great gags and also showing us that Bakugo CAN learn and grow as well. An excellent volume of an outstanding series. – Sean Gaffney

My Hero Academia: School Briefs, Vol. 1 | By Kohei Horikoshi and Anri Yoshi | VIZ Media – The things the cretinous Mineta says in this prose spinoff are so vile that they eclipse the things he says and does in the manga/anime, and that’s really saying something. I appreciate the reactions from some classmates, like Tokoyami glaring at him with “utter contempt” and Kaminari getting a chance to show that his own horniness has limits, but I must remind the author… Mineta didn’t have to get this much of the spotlight, you know? Anyway, Parents’ Day is at hand (which makes for some drama at the end of the volume) but first several of the boys rescue a girl at an amusement park while three of the girls go to a supermarket. The latter story was promising until was revealed that the shoplifter they caught had crapped himself. So puerile. I wanted to like this but in the end it just pissed me off. – Michelle Smith

My Monster Secret, Vol. 15 | By Eiji Masuda | Seven Seas – This mostly expands on the new plot twists from last time. Shiho is still trying to find a way to avoid fate, which doesn’t work, but she, Mikan and Nagisa all reveal their secrets to each other at the same time, which is probably the funniest scene in the book, and leads to a lot of “yeah, so, most of us are supernatural in some way” scene. There’s also a summer beach chapters, which leads (chanks to Akane) our main couple getting left behind and stranded. They grow closer, there’s a kiss…. and then there’s a bite. Now it’s time for Akane to point out that biting for vampires isn’t just kissing, it’s a lot more serious. And finally, a reminder—again—that Youko is a vampire. Are we finally going to dark places? – Sean Gaffney

Otherworldly Izakaya Nobu, Vol. 3 | By Natsuya Semikawa and Virginia Nitouhei | Udon Entertainment – The “cute food manga” is still there, but things get a lot more dramatic in this third volume. We actually get some backstory for Shinobu, the heir to a restaurateur who is fleeing and arranged marriage, and Nobuyuki, her restaurant’s cook who had just quit. In the fantasy world, the asshole villain from last time is back, and trying to get the izakaya shut down—and its owners executed—for the beer they’re selling, as it’s actually lager, which is illegal in this world. This is one of those “every minor character who had loved their food comes together to help” plots that I really love, and it makes this volume the best of the series to date. – Sean Gaffney

That Blue Sky Feeling, Vol. 2 | By Okura and Coma Hashii | Viz Media – Noshiro may be a giant bundle of extrovert, but that’s not always a good thing, as this volume demonstrates. Whether Noshiro is gay or not is still up in the air—certainly Sanada thinks he’s straight—but his attempts to solve Sanada’s problems just lead to more problems, as Ayumi and Sanada cannot go back to what they were before, and underclassman Makoto (who has a giant crush on Noshiro) is another spanner in the works. Noshiro has to be reminded that “Oh, he’s gay!” is not just something you can say in a modern Japanese high-school environment… and Sanada has to be shown that it’s not the end of the world. Still surprisingly sweet. – Sean Gaffney

UQ Holder, Vol. 16 | By Ken Akamatsu | Kodansha Comics – After a Vol. 15 that I gave a full review to as it wrapped up Negima properly, we’re back to the actual main cast of UQ Holder, who have been shown how to abuse time travel by Negi and company and are now abusing that for their own ends. It’s a good philosophical argument held here—we can’t save everyone vs. can we just let everyone die? We also get some insight into Jinbei and Gengoro and what kind of immortality they have, as well as the type of person they are—though honestly, Akamatsu tends to lean towards “battle crazy” a whole lot. One other thing I want to note is that, now that UQ Holder comes out in a monthly magazine rather than weekly, and the chapters are longer, it’s much better paced. – Sean Gaffney

Yona of the Dawn, Vol. 17 | By Mizuho Kusanagi | VIZ Media – A new arc begins in this volume, as the five-tribe council agrees to war with South Kai in order to reclaim Kin Province, lost in a previous war. Yona and company have befriended a kid from Kai and, after helping him get back home, witness firsthand the atrocities committed by the Kai soldiers after their defeat by Kohka. Meanwhile, several of the dragons have fallen ill and there is ominous talk (and, later, a bonus story about) what happens to the existing dragon when a new one is born. They decide to hide the fact that they are short-lived from Yona, and it’s perhaps because this put the idea of their demise into my head that I completely fell for a fakeout that ensues. I appreciate the opportunity to learn more about the mysterious Zeno, and continue to love this series very much. – Michelle Smith

Ace of the Diamond, Vol. 21 | By Yuri Terajima | Kodansha Comics (digital only) – It’s still the finals of the West Tokyo preliminaries for Koshien, and Seido is still facing off against Inashiro Industrial. Tanba is obviously in trouble, and since what trailing Seido needs is an injection of heart, it’s Eijun to the rescue. His confidence and trust in his team exude from his every pore and it’s this spirit that gets the momentum going in Seido’s favor. It’s so nice to see Eijun doing really well and exhibiting some reliability—after spending so much time with him as a hothead with poor pitching control—and that his grandfather is there to see it. Of course, there’s yet another cliffhanger, as we make it to the bottom of the ninth with two outs to go before the volume ends way too soon. Can Seido manage to hold onto their lead? Tune in next time! – Michelle Smith

A Centaur’s Life, Vol. 16 | By Kei Murayama | Seven Seas – In this volume we get: social justice discussion; historical backstory with violence and slavery; Nozomi dressed like a girl and getting hit on; volleyball fanservice complete with a double-page “swimsuit malfunction” spread; the triplets somehow traveling in time to the past and meeting their big sister as a little kid; Kyouya talking with one of her male classmates who’s pretty good-looking and nice, but she’s not really that into him; How To Centaur For Beginners; a human teacher dealing with her new job at a frog school in a very clear racism allegory; a girl telling her male date—after the date—that she’s gay, and Manami’s Daily Life. All in a day’s work for a series that is anything but predictable. – Sean Gaffney

The Delinquent Housewife!, Vol. 4 | By Nemu Yoko | Vertical Comics – Everyone gets shot down here. Yoshino is too nice to go through with her “revenge,” and gives up on Dai. Dai and Komugi takes longer, and is more problematic, but eventually he gives up on her as well. The best parts of the book deal with Komugi and her mother-in-law, who discovers the truth and has to deal with it, as well as resolving to “train” Komugi as a housewife. As expected, the series ends with Tohru coming home; also as expected, we do not see this homecoming, cutting out just before it happens. This series lived and died on its premise, and I must admit I found Komugi’s struggles as a housewife more interesting than the romantic entanglements. I’m still happy I read it, though. – Sean Gaffney

The Girl from the Other Side: Siúil, a Rún, Vol. 6 | By Nagabe | Seven Seas – The good news is that Shiva and her teacher actually touch in this book, and nothing untoward happens to her, so his fears were not justified. The bad news is that, of course, he has been distancing himself from her all this time because of that. Oh yes, and also everyone else is still after them, because Shiva’s uniqueness makes her either something to kill or something to experiment on. We also get a bit of teacher’s past as a doctor, though not much, as he doesn’t recall it himself. Throughout the series, it’s been Shiva’s innocent conversation that’s kept me reading, and that’s still true here, in a lighter volume for this series—and given how dark the volume gets, that says something about the series. – Sean Gaffney

Kiss & White Lily for My Dearest Girl, Vol. 8 | By Canno | Yen Press – Yukine and Ayaka crawl towards being a couple, but we’ve got two volumes after this, and it’s clearly the endgame, so it’s only a crawl. As is the case with this series, most of the focuses goes on another couple, Hikari and Nagisa, whose first names just make me think of Strawberry Panic!. They’re both running for student council president, despite living together due to circumstances. (Ayaka is ALSO asked to run, but decides against it.) As is often the case with this series, both Hikari and Nagisa are nicer than the other one thinks they are, and slowly fall in love, though given they’re the volume couple, not AS slowly as our heroines. This is good, but I’m ready for the end. – Sean Gaffney

MachiMaho: I Messed Up and Made the Wrong Person into a Magical Girl!, Vol. 2 | By Souruu | Seven Seas – How long I stay with this series depends on how much it can continue to be ridiculous. It does its best her—I liked the reporter girl who’s dragged along by events, as well as a taste of Kayo’s actual home life and what she’s rebelling against. When there’s a more serious plotline, such as when Nako’s seemingly dead classmate is possessed and Nako has to be convinced to fight against her, it can’t quite ride the cliches as fast, and gets stuck. Kayo is a very entertaining and foul-mouthed main character, though, and despite a high death count this does not seem to be “watch magical girls suffer” like some other series. Mildly recommended. – Sean Gaffney

New Game!, Vol. 5: The Spinoff! | By Shotaro Tokuno | Seven Seas – This is something rare for a 4-koma series like this—a full-volume flashback, that was not serialized, that shows Aoba and Nene in high school, and how Aoba came to work at Eagle Jump straight out of it. We are introduced to two other “regulars” for this volume: Hotaru, a frail art student who is actually better than Aoba, and is going to art college; and their teacher Chinatsu, who is a “Sensei-chan” type who is one of the girls but occasionally dispenses good advice. There’s so much cute 4-koma humor that this could easily be a volume of Hidamari Sketch or GA: Art Design Class instead, but it does show us how Aoba got up the gumption to follow her dream. – Sean Gaffney

Precarious Woman Executive Miss Black General, Vol. 3 | By jin | Seven Seas – I still enjoy laughing as I read this very dumb but very funny title. MVP this time around goes to the evil overlord’s secretary, who I’ve taken to calling Riza Hawkeye because of her general appearance and disposition. She’s attacked by a rival henchwoman, and also accidentally drinks a love potion. Hijinx ensue. As for the General and Braveman, situation much the same. We do get a beach episode, which shows us that even on vacation, everything still descends into chaos. The funniest chapter sees the urban legend Slit-Mouthed Woman attack some little boys… and General, trying to recruit her, instead verbally tearing her apart completely Silly, silly, silly. – Sean Gaffney

That Blue Sky Feeling, Vol. 2 | By Okura and Coma Hashii | Viz Media – I greatly enjoyed the first volume of That Blue Sky Feeling and was very pleased to find the second volume is just as strong if not stronger. The series is both heartwarming and heartbreaking, realistically addressing with compassion some of the challenges faced by gay high school students. A large part of the manga’s effectiveness is due to the exceptionally well done characterizations of its two main leads. Noshiro is an earnest if somewhat naive young man. He has such an incredibly kind heart but in his efforts to help others he still makes the occasional mistake. As for Sanada, it’s wonderful to see him start to open up a little bit more in this volume. But, because of his sadly understandable efforts to protect himself, he hasn’t yet been able to be completely honest with even his closest friends. I look forward to seeing their friendship continue to develop. – Ash Brown

Total Eclipse of the Eternal Heart | By Syundei | Seven Seas – Nearly a hundred years ago, a famous novelist raped and murdered nine boys, all of whom he subsequently wrote about in one of his books. Now, Yamada Omihiko, a teen who writes exactly like that novelist, is classmates with (and on the verge of becoming more-than-friends with) a boy named Hoshino Terumichi, who keeps having a recurring dream about the death of a boy named Tsukimura Shou. It’s not much of a spoiler to say that reincarnation is a factor here. I enjoyed the bulk of the story, though the ending is a little baffling, and much of that is owing to Syundei’s easy-to-read retro-ish artwork. I’ve said previously that her style reminds me of Rumiko Takahashi, but owing to this volume’s theme, I actually got more of a Please Save My Earth vibe, which I’m not complaining about whatsoever. I’m definitely keen to see more of Syundei’s work translated in the future! – Michelle Smith

Anonymous Noise, Vol. 13 | By Ryoko Fukuyama | Viz Media – I’m not quite sure if the artist is going for “being happy in love damages your creativity” or “being with the wrong guy damages your creativity,” but either way I’m not wild about the fact that Nino is having trouble singing again after her confession to Momo. Yuzu’s forceful kiss is not really helping there, either. That said, it certainly helps keep up the potboiler aspect of this. I was more interested in Kurose and An, as even if she’s clearly a “last-minute pairing” addition, I like her style, and honestly Kurose is better off with her, though we aren’t there yet. Add to that the fact that the volume runs short so we can have another of the author’s early short stories, and it’s only an okay volume. – Sean Gaffney

As Miss Beelzebub Likes, Vol. 5 | By Matoba | Yen Press – We get a lot more of Sacchan in this volume, and that helps explain why the anime expanded her role as well. Clearly she’s more popular as a blushing mess than she is as a violent stoic, and so that’s what we see here, as she clearly likes Astaroth but his playboy tendencies and her self-image issues torpedo any chances. As for Mullin and Beel, anime-watchers will no doubt recognize the cherry blossom chapters, but they’re sweet, and also help to give a bit of backstory to Pandemonium, which is getting to be less “Hell” and more “we’re moving to the next town over” in terms of wars with God. Still as light as a feather, but cute and sweet. – Sean Gaffney

Candy Color Paradox, Vol. 1 | By Isaku Natsume | SuBLime – Onoe is a journalist working for a weekly magazine and he’s less than enthused when he’s assigned to partner with Motoharu Kaburagi, a photographer whom he considers his rival. Worse, it appears that Kaburagi has never even noticed him. When they go out on assignments together, Onoe keeps screwing up and eventually becomes downright incompetent at his job after he realizes he’s attracted to Kaburagi. Kaburagi notices, of course, and somehow finds Onoe’s tsundere-tastic protestations to the contrary endearing, so ends up falling in love with him. The parts of this volume I liked best were the few pages where they’re working together successfully and getting scoops, but now that they’re officially a couple, I’m pretty sure journalism is not going to be the focus. I’ll give it one more volume at least to see how it goes. – Michelle Smith

Log Horizon: The West Wind Brigade, Vol. 11 | By Koyuki and Mamare Touno | Yen Press – “The operation was a success but the patient died” would be a good summary of the final volume of West Wind Brigade, as Kuroe is able to revive and save everyone, but the cost is very high. It’s a surprisingly serious ending to what has been a relatively light-hearted spinoff, so it makes sense that the actual ending is a festival with everyone trying to get Soujirou to take them around. This whole thing taking place in the first five or so volumes of Log Horizon, there’s not really a lot of plot-advancement it can do, though we see Shiro at the end, despairing about Soujirou’s harem and also talking about the nature of the world they’re in. This was fun. – Sean Gaffney

Love in Focus, Vol. 1 | By Yoko Nogiri | Kodansha Comics – I did very much enjoy this volume, for those worried about a “Vol. 1” appearing in Bookshelf Briefs; it’s just I don’t have much to say about it. It’s cute. It reminds me a lot of Shortcake Cake, though the dorm situation is most likely why. Mako is attending a high school far from her home due to its photography club, and bonds with a sullen dark-haired boy with a secret past and her childhood blond-haired friend who “sees her as a sister,” except that’s totally not true. A love triangle is in the works, though as with most of these series the final result is pretty obvious from the get go. It’s only three volumes, though, so I’m happy to read more of it. – Sean Gaffney

Love Massage: Melting Beauty Treatment, Vol. 1 | By Toki Sunazuka | Kodansha Comics (digital only) – Honestly, I don’t know what compelled me to read this. It’s exactly what you would expect, going by the cover. Shiho Sannomiya is a lonely office worker who is surprised when handsome Haruki Toudou shows up when she schedules an in-home massage. She immediately begins sexually fantasizing about him, which makes it awkward when he’s transferred to her workplace. Dreams become reality when they immediately start making out. Various interruptions prevent them from doing the deed, including a note from another female client that leads Shiho to feel foolish for feeling special. But not to fear, for Haruki has immediately fallen in love with her! Everything happens swiftly and with zero depth whatsoever. I shan’t be reading volume two. – Michelle Smith

Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic, Vol. 34 | By Shinobu Ohtaka | Viz Media – I avoided reading this for a while as I knew what was coming. Yes, Sinbad has a plan, and that plan involves mind-controlling everyone into being totally fine with being killed and “reborn” in a better world. This unfortunately includes Morgiana, though at least she seems to be fighting it off. It does not include Judar and Harukyu, however, who were too evil to be affected, apparently. And so now they have to go battle Sinbad, which means conquering all the dungeons that he conquered when he was younger. This is pretty much the last arc of this title, so it makes sense that we’re back to dungeon crawling after so long. I do wish Morgiana could be part of it, though. – Sean Gaffney

Skip Beat!, Vol. 42 | By Yoshiki Nakamura | Viz Media – After the last couple of volumes showed Kyoko’s growth as an actress, it makes sense that here we see she has a ways to go. In particular, her concentration is very touch-and-go, and almost loses her the role when she gets distracted. Thank goodness for Moko, then, who saves her butt, though she has to endure a little bit of devotion afterwards. It’s a kickass moment for her, but the cliffhanger worries me—I suspect we will not be seeing the Kyoko/Momo show we’ve all been waiting for. Still, there’s some fantastic acting here from Kyoko, as well as seeing how far an actress will go to win a role. Skip Beat! doesn’t come out as often anymore, but I’m always waiting for it. – Sean Gaffney

Sword Art Online: Girls’ Ops, Vol. 5 | By Neko Nekobyou and Reki Kawahara | Yen Press – This was popular enough to get a second arc, so we get a new character, a complete newbie whose friends seem to enjoy fucking with her because she’s pretty gullible. Fortunately, she runs into our heroines, who help to set things straight. They also run into an old face from SAO… or rather from SAO Progressive, who hasn’t met the main cast here but is very familiar with Kirito and Asuna. And they’re going to need all the help they can get, as they’ve got to take on a new quest that has another group wanting it far more… enough to pay big money for it… or just beat them up for it. This isn’t as sweet and fluffy as it was before, but it’s lots of fun. – Sean Gaffney

Total Eclipse of the Eternal Heart | By Syundei | Seven Seas – Go For It, Nakamura! was one of my favorite manga released last year, so I was very excited when another of Syundei’s works was licensed. Be warned, though—the two volumes are vastly different in tone. While there are a few adorable and heartwarming moments to be found in Total Eclipse of the Eternal Heart, it is still very much a horror manga. If anything, the incongruity of its charming elements actually contributes to the underlying unease and disquieting mood of a story about serial killings, reincarnation, revenge, and corrupted love. It’s a blood-soaked and disturbing tale, and deliberately so. Admittedly, the dramatic climax does bring the volume to a rather abrupt and somewhat unexpected close, but overall Total Eclipse of the Eternal Heart is horror that is both effective and affective. I very much appreciate the creator’s versatility and sincerely hope to see more of Syundei’s manga translated. – Ash Brown

Behind the Scenes!!, Vol. 6 | By Bisco Hatori | Viz Media – This is coming to a close soon, and you can sort of tell—despite the plot complication showing us that Goda still really wants to direct, there’s just not a lot of special effects work here. Instead, we see the romantic pairings start to resolve, though resolve does not, in this case, mean “start a relationship.” I like this, as it shows how it can be difficult but not impossible to carry on working and being friends with someone after you’ve been rejected. Ruka, though, may have a tougher row to hoe here, and I have a suspicion that her arc is going to be the resolution of the series. Which is in the next volume, hopefully coming out a bit sooner than the year between books five and six. – Sean Gaffney

Dr. STONE, Vol. 4 | By Riichiro Inagaki and Boichi | Viz Media – This is a Shonen Jump series, and I think that fans of Dr. STONE are simply going to have to accept that we are not dealing with science, but with SCIENCE!, shouted like the Thomas Dolby song. In other words, leave your disbelief at the door, it is not welcome here. Meanwhile, we do find out why the girl wears a watermelon on her head—she’s half-blind without glasses, which don’t exist here. Glass is important, as it will allow Senku to help save the girl, but before he can do that, there’s a tournament arc coming up, which everyone enters with lots of “we will fix the bouts” plans which all get torpedoed instantly. This series is pure dumb fun, almost JoJo-esque at times. – Sean Gaffney

Everyone’s Getting Married, Vol. 9 | By Izumi Miyazono | VIZ Media – Despite the fact that Asuka suggested that she and Ryu break up at the end of the previous volume—having seen how he flourished in Washington, DC and not wanting to hold him back—there was really zero chance that the series would end without them tying the knot. Apparently, they had a three-year separation where they were still in love but focusing on work and didn’t talk at all. They meet again at their friends’ wedding and suddenly it’s proposal time! It’s pretty anticlimactic, but there were things about the final volume I did like, like Kamiya assuming Asuka was crying over the breakup only to find her clear-eyed and also that Asuka came to appreciate her challenging job and changed her mind about quitting to be a full-time homemaker. I’d probably read something else by this author. – Michelle Smith

Fate/Zero, Vol. 8 | By Gen Urobuchi, Type-Moon, and Shinjiro | Dark Horse – Given this is the eighth of fourteen total volumes, we are at last starting to cull some of the cast, and thank goodness it involves Caster and his master being taken down, though honestly I could have done without the “Jeanne forgives me for killing all those little kids!” bit. We also get to see how overpowered Gilgamesh really is, as if we didn’t know that already, and find that the Lancer/Sola-Ui team is also getting removed from the equation. We do finally get more Tokiomi, at last, but ugh, he’s a really horrible father, even if you aren’t a Sakura fan. Since I am, I regard him with revulsion, even as I know that Kariya is on the losing end here. Well-written apocalypse manga. – Sean Gaffney

Fullmetal Alchemist: The Complete Four-Panel Comics | By Hiromu Arakawa | VIZ Media – This slim volume collects not only the four-panel comics from the 27-volume Fullmetal Alchemist manga series—about which I’d forgotten everything save for a memory that Alphonse was drawn very cutely—but also those included in DVD releases for the first anime and Brotherhood and “rare strips from Japan.” The contents are organized by source. Some strips are more amusing than others, of course. Jokes about Edward’s height became tiresome, but I did like quite a few of them, particularly one in which a gorilla dude is disappointed that a lion dude doesn’t have toe beans and the one featuring some sheep terrorism. The volume is certainly cute and a must-have for completists, but not earth-shattering. It does make me want to reread the series, though! – Michelle Smith

Golden Kamuy, Vol. 8 | By Satoru Noda | Viz Media – Sometimes Golden Kamuy ditches its dark humor or its politics or its action adventure or even its food. Yes, sometimes it’s pure horror, and that’s what we get for a lot of the first half of this volume, which is stomach-churning. I imagine anyone who would have truly been upset by this long since dropped the title, but Edogai (who premieres at the start of the volume and is dead by the end of it) is a real piece of work, and leads to some of the grossest art in the series. Thankfully, it’s not all taxidermy gone wrong, and there is a bit of food, as well as an exciting and lethal mining adventure. But I must admit, I’m hoping the next volume steps back just a bit from seeing how horrifying it can get. – Sean Gaffney

Haikyu!!, Vol. 31 | By Haruichi Furudate | Viz Media – It’s not going to be easy for Karasuno, who lose the second set here, and need to find a way to regain the momentum. That said, the other team is really good. Here we see how everyone has evolved to use their bad habits for good—Kageyama’s drive to win and succeed no longer is at the expense of everyone else, and Tsukishima’s insults and sneering are almost weaponized, too. The art is also getting more assured, showing off some really nice angles and making you want to go see a volleyball game in real life. But I gotta admit, in the end this is a lot of pages about a volleyball game in progress, which means I enjoyed it but don’t have a heck of a lot to say. – Sean Gaffney

The Quintessential Quintuplets, Vol. 2 | By Negi Haruba | Kodansha Comics – This series runs on—in fact its main reason for being is—pulling a shell game to see which heroine will win. As such, we need to balance out the heroines. Since Miku got so much attention last time, we move to the others. Nino is upset that Futaro can read her like a book. Itsuki bonds with his younger sister at an arcade, and gets the “wow, we look like a family” picture. And Ichika, the short-haired twin, has to deal with an acting audition being at the same time as a festival, meaning she has to break a promise with her sisters. This isn’t all that original, but I like everyone—even Nino, who’s written to be unlikable here. A fun romantic comedy where I’m still not sure who wins. (My money’s on Itsuki.) – Sean Gaffney

Tomo-chan Is a Girl!, Vol. 3 | By Fumita Yanagida | Seven Seas – This may be rising up to become one of my favorite 4-koma manga of all time, as it moves from strength to strength. This despite the revelation that Carol’s mother had her when she was thirteen years old (which is commented on as creepy in the text). We find that, just as Tomo takes after her mother, so do Misuzu and Carol with their respective mothers. As for Tomo and Jun, well, she stays the night at his place, and later on bonds with him while dressed in a nice dress and wig (so he doesn’t know it’s her). They’re adorable and awkward. We also get to see what good friends our main trio are coming, and while I like Jun, and wish I could see more of Kosuke, I’m delighted with that. Excellent title. – Sean Gaffney

The Ancient Magus’ Bride, Vol. 10 | By Kore Yamazaki | Seven Seas – Welcome to the first volume of Chise Potter, though hopefully we won’t get a Professor Quirrell. Chise gets settled in at college, choosing a dorm by choosing cats, which in my opinion is how every college should do it. Elias follows along, of course, as a teacher, and there’s a gaggle of new characters, most of whom I didn’t really get much from at all. Chise is, thankfully, much less awkward at being social than she used to be—in fact, it’s her roommate who’s the tough nut to crack. That said, most of this volume was pure setup, and I suspect it will read better after I’ve read the next two. I’m definitely grateful that this series is continuing, though, and it’s worth the eventual reread. – Sean Gaffney

Cutie Honey: The Classic Collection | By Go Nagai | Seven Seas – My first real introduction to Cutie Honey was through Shimpei Itoh’s modern manga adaptation Cutie Honey a Go Go!. It was a fun series, so I was looking forward to delving into Go Nagai’s original manga from 1973. Fortunately, along with an essay by novelist Hirayama Yumeaki and an afterword by Go Nagai, Seven Seas has collected the entirety of Cutie Honey in a single hardcover omnibus. Cutie Honey is an entertaining if somewhat absurd series. Much of the manga’s humor tends towards the lewd and admittedly some of the jokes aren’t as socially acceptable as they may have once been. Between the titular heroine’s transformation scenes and the frequency of characters’ clothing being ripped to shreds, there’s a fair amount of nudity in the action-oriented manga. Since the cast is primarily made up of women, it’s mostly female nudity, but the men aren’t immune from sudden clothing loss either. – Ash Brown

Durarara!! re: Dollars Arc, Vol. 4 | By Ryohgo Narita, Suzuhito Yasuda, and Aogiri | Yen Press – Once again, I’m left feeling that the anime and novels handled this material better—the wait between releases doesn’t help, plus the author’s plotting, which involves everything happening at once, makes the manga more diffuse and confusing than it has any right to be. The best bits probably involved Ruri and Shizuo’s brother, who bond over their difficulty with basic human emotions, like so many other Narita couples. Last time I said Izaya was about to jump start things, but he’s absent from this book, meaning that it meanders a bit too much. It really needs someone making everyone’s lives miserable again. Which I’m sure will happen soon. Maybe. – Sean Gaffney

Everyone’s Getting Married, Vol. 9 | By Izumi Miyazono | Viz Media – The final volume of this series ties up everything that’s been getting in the way of Asuka and Ryu getting married. Ryu decides he does love Asuka and resolves to return and fight to save their relationship. Asuka realizes that she doesn’t have to get married NOW and uses that to spend three years doing so well at her job that she can now take a year off to get married and have a baby and NOT have to worry about being fired for being a married woman. Heck, even Asuka’s friend who was perfectly happy to not get married is getting married. So in the end the title proves to be true, and you’re really happy to see the two of them finally work everything out. A very good josei series, bring on more of them. – Sean Gaffney

Hakumei & Mikochi: Tiny Little Life in the Woods, Vol. 4 | By Takuto Kashiki | Yen Press – I joked on Twitter that after the girls from Girls’ Last Tour died, they were reincarnated as Hakumei and Mikochi, and while Hakumei may be a bit too sensible for that to map exactly, there is very much the sense of exploration across both volumes, even though the two should be more familiar with their setting. We meet Mikochi’s sister in this volume, who is a writer and a tease, not in that order. There’s a festival chapter (sort of), a hot spring chapter (sort of), and a chapter which will make you cry at the death of a coffee grinder. In short, most of why readers read this series is on full display here. I enjoy this more and more with each volume, and always smile as I read. – Sean Gaffney

Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, Vol. 7 | By Aka Akasaka | Viz Media – There’s some good comedy here at the head and tail of the book. My favorite chapter was probably the one involving Miyuki, who is no longer sleep-deprived, losing the bags under his eyes—which terrifies everyone and makes Kaguya realize that her love of them may be a fetish. But the bulk of this book is to introduce a new major character, Miko, the girl on the cover who is super earnest and also super awkward. She’s running against Miyuki in the election, and her ideas are great but her stage fright isn’t. Fortunately, Miyuki takes a page from Hachiken’s book and makes himself the bad guy to fix things—fortunately he wins anyway. I want to see how Miko adds to the dynamic. – Sean Gaffney

Kakuriyo: Bed & Breakfast for Spirits, Vol. 2 | By Waco Ioka and Midori Yuma | Viz Media – I enjoyed this second volume more than the first, not uncommon with Shojo Beat stories. Aoi’s still having trouble getting anyone to give her a job, but after she gives some home-cooked food to a passing drunk who turns out to be really important, she’s making important connections. More to the point, Aoi compares her story explicitly with Beauty and the Beast, and she’s not wrong. There’s also a jealous woman who attempts to sabotage things and is caught and about to be humiliated. That said, that’s the cliffhanger, and I’m fairly certain Aoi’s going to save her with the power of niceness. I am OK with following this yokai series now that Kamisama Kiss has ended. – Sean Gaffney

Maiden Railways | By Asumiko Nakamura | Denpa – Somehow, I’d gotten the impression that this was a girls’ love anthology, but in reality, only one couple depicted herein fits that bill. Instead, we get stories about a pickpocket helping an inattentive husband make up with his wife, a girl who’s moving away seizing the moment to confess to a boy, a ghost with lingering regrets, and a guy whose wife thinks he’s cheating on her because he works late and brings home cake. Trains figure prominently in each story—in a couple we get some detailed timetables as one party tries taking a different train to catch up with someone, but in some stories the action is just rooted around a train station, or perhaps about a beloved late relative’s model train set. They’re all low-key and they’re all enjoyable, even if they ultimately don’t leave a strong impression. I look forward to Doukyuusei by this author, coming soon! – Michelle Smith

Skip Beat!, Vol. 42 | By Yoshiki Nakamura | VIZ Media – Kyoko’s audition for the role of Momiji continues. She’s emerged victorious over the scheming Kimiko in terms of swordfighting, but that alone isn’t enough to convince the director to cast her. Overhearing another actor deduce that Kyoko likes Ren, Kimiko manages to convince Kyoko that Ren is in love with her, with nearly disastrous results. There are some frustrating things in this volume, like Kyoko almost telling Moko about her feelings for Ren but chickening out and her taking in some intel about Kimiko liking some other guy without actually questioning her conclusion that Ren’s secret love is Kimiko. I know, I know. Shoujo gotta shoujo. But I am just so ready for some real movement on this point, as much as I love seeing Kyoko kick ass career-wise. Soon, please? – Michelle Smith

ACCA 13-Territory Inspection Department, Vol. 6 | By Natsume Ono | Yen Press – And so, ACCA ends as it began, with endless discussions between relatively stoic middle-aged people. This is pretty much the definition of Natsume Ono’s career, so no complaints here. Things work out. Being the leader of a revolution is the last thing that Jean wants, and it’s amusing to see how he’s theoretically promised something to every single territory without actually promising anything. Moreover, ACCA manages to threaten the new ruler without actually removing him, and there are hints that he’ll be nicer—to Jean’s sister if no one else. Six volumes seems like the exact length for this series, and I’m happy to have read it, even when it was intensely talky. – Sean Gaffney

The Ancient Magus’ Bride, Vol. 10 | By Kore Yamazaki | Seven Seas – It’s a new direction for The Ancient Magus’ Bride, as Chise is off to attend the alchemist college. The alchemists want to study Chise in hopes of creating an artificial sleigh beggy substitute and in return she gets to audit classes for free. I liked that her primary goal is learning how to help people without sacrificing herself (with the side goal of thus keeping Elias from undertaking any more the-ends-justify-the-means efforts to save her) and also potentially find cures for the two curses now afflicting her arm. Many new characters are introduced, Chise is reminded that she’s “really bad at dealing with people and school,” and the church realizes that Elias’ observer has been lax and prepares to send out someone different. I’m enjoying this arc so far and remain very glad I got caught up on this series when I did! – Michelle Smith

Anonymous Noise, Vol. 13 | By Ryoko Fukuyama | VIZ Media – Yuzu’s back and just in time for In No Hurry to participate in the Tokyo Sailing concert series. The only problem is that Nino is “catastrophically terrible” in rehearsals, which she attributes to having nothing left to yearn for now that she and Momo have finally gotten together. A lot of angst ensues, culminating in a performance where Nino seems unconcerned that she’s damaging her voice, convincing the two main guys in her life that she’s planning on giving up singing. Yuzu seems poised to try to reign her in by joining her on vocals—this would be a huge development—buuuuut then we end the main story to make way for a bonus story that is fine, I guess (it does have a cute cat), but not what I wanted to be reading. This series is still occasionally infuriating, but I guess I’m hooked now. – Michelle Smith

Barakamon, Vol. 17 | By Satsuki Yoshino | Yen Press – Hiroshi’s absence is felt here, mostly as he does NOT call home all the time or immediately return. Hilariously, Handa tries to fix things by dying his hair blond and doing incredibly bad Hiroshi impressions. The bulk of the humor in this book, though, comes from the arrival of a two-person documentary team, here to videotape the countryside but not really prepared for the sheer presence of most of the cast, (and also having tremendous trouble not flirting shamelessly with each other, something everyone picks up on). Barakamon is wrapping up next volume, and that seems about right—this volume seems to be dragging things out a bit, and most of the main plot points have been wrapped up. – Sean Gaffney

Gabriel Dropout, Vol. 6 | By Ukami |Yen Press – The last half of this volume of Gabriel Dropout deals with the school trip, and has some good laughs, including two times where I literally laughed out loud (both involve Gabriel). Which is good, because that’s the main reason anyone is reading this series. The characters are not really here to develop, even as we introduce more of them. Another human girl gets a spotlight here, trying to make friends with Mei despite her being a devil and also really shy. Raphiel gets to snark, Vignette gets to overplan, Satanichia gets to do her “evil ojou” impersonation… everything is present and correct. Should you still read this series? Yes. It’s funny. It’s not deep, but I always smile at the end of it. – Sean Gaffney

Hatsu*Haru, Vol. 5 | By Shizuki Fujisawa | Yen Press – If a direct confession doesn’t work, well, try the forceful kiss again, I guess? Really, a lot of Hatsu*Haru revolves around how bad Kai is at being a cool shoujo lead, and I don’t expect this to end well for him. Meanwhile, Riko’s crush is finally married, so she can theoretically move on—though most of this volume is about how moving on is hard. And in a blow to my shipper heart, Ayumi and Takaya are faking a relationship in order to try to get Kai and Riko together… but don’t actually seem to have any sublimated feelings for each other. Darn. Ah well, the manga is still young. Till then, please enjoy teens being really emotional and awkward about romance. – Sean Gaffney

In/Spectre, Vol. 9 | By Kyo Shirodaira and Chashiba Katase | Kodansha Comics – Again we get two stories in this volume, one shorter and one long. The short one shows us Kotoko in high school, being asked to join a mystery club that’s about to be dissolved and in her spare time figuring out that the club is more about a forbidden romance than any actual mystery, though I was amused at “spoiling” a mystery that isn’t a spoiler in the first place. The longer story is more serious, about a young woman with a deadly past that… is not being brought up by the media, and about Kotoko and Kuro solving the mystery and also revealing a lot to us about lucky cat statues. There’s less of Kotoko being silly and horny in this one, but the stories are fun. – Sean Gaffney

NE NE NE | By Shizuku Totono and Daisuke Hagiwara | Yen Press – The opening scene of NE NE NE shows the wedding between Koyuki and Shin, an arranged marriage in which the groom is twenty years older than his teenaged wife. While this premise certainly had the potential to enter into somewhat questionable territory, the manga is actually quite charming and sweet. I’m not sure that I was ever entirely convinced by the difference in Koyuki and Shin’s ages based on how they were portrayed as individuals, but I did enjoy seeing their relationship naturally deepen over the course of the volume. Of the two leads Shin is the more fully-developed character—he at least gets a backstory while almost nothing is known about Koyuki beyond the fact that she desperately wants to be a good wife. But even so, they’re adorable, both together and on their own. With an additional dash of humor and magic, NE NE NE is a delight. – Ash Brown

Ran and the Gray World, Vol. 2 | By Aki Irie | VIZ Media – The opening chapter of this volume pissed me off righteously, as it involves teen-version Ran hanging out with Otaro the creeper and telling him, “You’d better not touch me” only for him to immediately glomp her. Actual quote from my notes: “THIS FUCKER DOES NOT LISTEN AT ALL. I WANT TO KICK HIM INTO THE SUN.” He promises he’s got “lots more” in store for her, but thankfully her new magic teacher arrives and the story moves on to deadly magical insects (one comes thiiiiiis close to killing Otaro but, sadly, he survives), magical training, and classmates who have crushes on Jin and Ran. I vastly prefer Ran’s age-appropriate love interest, Hibi, and sincerely hope having a friend her own age inspires her to stay away from Otaro. At least Jin is on to his womanizing ways. – Michelle Smith

Ran and the Gray World, Vol. 2 | By Aki Irie | Viz Media – The good news is that all the reasons that I enjoyed the first volume are here again. Ran is a delight, I also like her brother (and his maybe relationship with a new girl whose looks and personality remind me of Hinata Hyuuga), the bug subplot is creepy but also drives the story forward well, and the art is absolutely gorgeous. The bad news is that the main thing I didn’t like about the fist volume is also here: Otaro, the sleazy older guy from the first volume, is back and still trying to get into Ran’s pants. Even if she weren’t really a young girl using magical shoes, he’d still be the absolute worst, something the manga artist knows—they show him being reprehensible. Maybe he’ll die in the next book? Nah, I’m not that lucky. – Sean Gaffney

Tales of Wedding Rings, Vol. 5 | By Maybe | Yen Press – I was prepared to meet the fifth Ring Princess in this book, which we do (she’s on the cover, in case you hadn’t guessed). It’s the rest of the book that took me by surprise. Things go very bad very fast, and all of our main harem end up being shunted back to Earth in order to save them from the encroaching doom. This is… annoying given that Satou and the Ring Princesses’ sole purpose is to save the world from encroaching doom. It does mean we get to see cute things like shopping for clothes and going to libraries. It’s also fortuitous, as the fifth princess was on Earth all along. Will we be headed back next volume? And will Satou ever manage to go all the way with Hime? Honestly, I suspect no, but this is still fun to read. – Sean Gaffney

Beauty and the Beast Girl | By Neji | Seven Seas – This seems to be complete in one volume, and despite a lot of backstory angst edges on the side of sweet. A monster girl living in the woods meets a blind girl (literally, her last name is Blind, but she is also blind) and starts to tell her stories in an effort to hide why she’s living alone in the forest. Naturally, their backstories merge together. Also naturally, they fall for each other hard and must therefore deal with the other humans who are horrified that Lily would be with a monster. It all works out in the end, though, as true love can defeat all. This is one of a number of “cute but slight” yuri titles we’ve seen here recently, and while it’s not the most subtle manga in the world, I’d say it’s worth a read. – Sean Gaffney

Black Clover, Vol. 14 | By Yuki Tabata | Viz Media – More tournament arc. Asta’s fight is fairly typical, involving a large dose of “I want to fight TOGETHER with you” to get the loner to actually do something. The more interesting fight, though, is between Finral and Langris, as you might guess by the cover art. There’s a lot of bad blood between these two, and all sorts of fears and jealousies come rolling out during the fight, which rapidly starts to turn a lot more deadly than expected. (Without any actual death—at least not yet.) There’s also another character who believes in beautiful things getting completely wrecked, which may be a Jump thing, as we also saw it happen in Toriko. All this plus tragic backstory to show off that true magical knights care about people! – Sean Gaffney

DAYS, Vol. 12 | By Tsuyoshi Yasuda | Kodansha Comics (digital only) – Seiseki’s game against Toin continues and Tsukamoto is playing his heart out. It’s gratifying to see the coach of the opposite team notice a change in Seiseki since the previous year, and also gratifying to see Ubukata recognized for her strategic analysis that resulted in Kazama scoring the goal that ties the game at 1-1. There are a lot of missed shots and squandered opportunities and moments where you think that finally Tsukamoto will triumph but instead Toin gets a penalty kick, etc. We also finally learn the significance of the series title—Tsukamoto’s dad died when he was little, and he’s learned never to take the present for granted. “Because someday, this will all be over. But if I try, maybe I can make these days last just a second longer.” I’m a sucker for sentiment in my sports manga. Recommended. – Michelle Smith

Girls’ Last Tour, Vol. 6 | By Tsukumizu| Ywn Press – This is the final volume of the series. Last time I asked if it would end in death. Technically we don’t see the girls die, but the end of their journey certainly seems to be The End of Their Journey, if you know what I mean. That’s the trouble with post-apocalyptic After the End series; unless you pull a fast one to find civilization has simply moved elsewhere (for a moment I wondered if they were going to get on a rocket and go to space in this volume, but that’s probably also a bad idea) you’re left with the fact that humanity has died. There’s some good bits here. I loved Chiro finding the massive library, as well as Yuuri’s calming presence. It was a sad journey in the end, but I’m glad I took it with them. – Sean Gaffney

Laid-Back Camp, Vol. 5 | By Afro | Yen Press – I was very pleased to see that, after last volume’s “camping with friends is fun!,” which Rin agreed with, that nevertheless almost all the camping this time around is by Rin by herself, because she loves camping by herself. This despite the fact that you can get trapped somewhere due to impassable winter roads. Fortunately for Rin, this is the modern age where cell service is everywhere, so even when camping by herself, she’s in constant contact with the others. Nadeshiko also meets up with Rin and introduces her to the wonders of expensive eel, as well as showing off a childhood friend and the fact that she’s lost a ton of weight recently. (She seems very cute either way.) This is such a peaceful series. – Sean Gaffney

Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic, Vol. 34 | By Shinobu Ohtaka | VIZ Media – Sean warned me that this volume had some creepy scenes, but I was not prepared. Sinbad has succeeded in becoming the god of the world and has rewritten the rukh so that everyone agrees with his methods for securing a peaceful future. This includes reverting the world to rukh, thereby killing everyone. Watching the populace cheer, and tearful kids looking excited to die, is seriously disturbing (in a good way). Alibaba and Aladdin are immune, and debate whether they have a right to try to change a fate everyone else seems to want, until a conversation with a brainwashed Morgiana convinces Alibaba that the present is worth fighting for. And so our heroes, accompanied by Judar and Hakuryu, must conquer, like, seven facets of Sinbad or something. It’s vague, but fine. I’m glad things are seemingly wrapping up. Three volumes left! – Michelle Smith

Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle, Vol. 5 | By Kagiji Kumanomata | Viz Media – I was not expecting the hands-down funniest chapter of this volume to be our princess trying to find a toilet so that she could pee, but there we are. The chapter ends up being hysterical, particularly the facial expressions. Elsewhere, we see the princess has a poor memory for names… and faces. We also see (as if we hadn’t guessed) that she’s an incredibly poor communicator. Even when things AREN’T her fault it’s pretty easy to blame her—a chapter where she tries to be nice and do good things leads merely to fear and paranoia from the demons. There’s no real ongoing plot here, but as long as Princess Syalis remains who she is, there’s certainly ongoing laughs. – Sean Gaffney

A Strange & Mystifying Story, Vol. 6 | By Tsuta Suzuki | SuBLime – Man, A Strange & Mystifying Story has evolved sooooo much since its early volumes. Now it’s a gripping supernatural drama and it’s easy to forget it started out as something smutty with consent issues until Setsu shows up and gives Tsumugi terrible advice on how to make Kurayori his. Kurayori has been holed up in his shrine and just when he finally emerges to talk with Tsumugi, Magawa and Kai arrive to cause problems. I’m surprised Suzuki-sensei has made me like and sympathize with Kai so much so quickly, but she has. He may be a monster, but his desperate desire to be useful to mentally unstable Magawa so that he won’t disappear is genuine. Plus, we got a bonus chapter with my favorite couple! The next volume is the last and I’m really looking forward to seeing how everything plays out. – Michelle Smith

Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization, Vol. 2 | By Tomo Hirakawa, based on the story by Reki Kawahara | Yen Press – There is still a modicum of danger here—the threat to NPCs is still real, and Kirito by his very existence will attract trouble. That said, the fact that everyone is alive in this version of SAO (well, OK, not Sachi, but the cliffhanger included an appearance from someone I definitely was not expecting to see) and that we get chapters devoted to things like teaching Yuuki how to do school homework properly (which leads to helping dead school ghosts to pass on, much to Asuna’s horror) makes it feel sort of like the Today’s Menu for the Emiya Family of SAO. Instead of food, though, we get cool battles and cute interactions. Fun, though again confusing for non-gamers. – Sean Gaffney

Urusei Yatsura, Vol. 1 | By Rumiko Takahashi | Viz Media – While Urusei Yatsura became one of Rumiko Takahashi’s first major successes in Japan, the small portion of the series that was initially translated into English has been out-of-print for the better part of two decades. Happily, Viz is once again hastening “The Return of Lum” by releasing Takahashi’s highly influential manga in a new omnibus edition. For the most part the series is episodic in nature. Although there are recurring characters and jokes, overarching plotlines are virtually nonexistent. The basic premise remains consistent from chapter to chapter, though—Ataru Moroboshi, a lustful high schooler, is a magnet for the absurd and supernatural. Early on he manages to accidentally engage himself to Lum, an alien princess. Honestly, I wish Lum held more of the series’ focus than Ataru, but I still get a kick out of the manga. In particular I appreciate Urusei Yatsura‘s numerous references to Japanese mythology and literature. – Ash Brown