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Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

Features

The Manga Review: September in the Rain

September 29, 2023 by Katherine Dacey Leave a Comment

When Crunchyroll purchased retailer Right Stuf in 2022, the streaming giant posted a notice at its site reassuring consumers that this “acquisition aims to serve anime fans and collectors an even wider array of merchandise for online purchase including manga, home video, figures, games, music and everything in between.” The full impact of this decision, however, didn’t hit customers until last week, when Crunchyroll announced that it would be closing down Right Stuf and folding it into the new Crunchyroll Store, prompting fans to express concern about unfulfilled orders, and lament the end of Right Stuf’s discount programs. Over at ANN, Nicholas Dupree and Steve Jones rounded up reactions and offered their own two cents on what this decision means for anime and manga fans. I can’t say that I’ll miss Right Stuf—it was never my go-to site for manga—but this kind of retail consolidation seldom bodes well for consumers.

Elsewhere, Brigid Alverson has the details on a new partnership between Penguin Random House and Tappytoon as well licensing news from Seven Seas and Dark Horse… the Vincent Van Gogh Museum is using a Pokémon exhibit to introduce kids to the Starry Night artist… Manga Planet just revamped its subscription service… the first volume of Haruki Murakami Manga Stories will be released on October 24th… the first ten volumes of George Morikawa’s Hajime no Ippo are now available through the KMANGA app… the first volume of Inio Asano’s Mujina Into the Deep has a nifty-looking trailer… and the final volume of Kentaro Yabuki’s Ayakashi Triangle will arrive in Japanese bookstores around Christmas.

AROUND THE WEB

In this week’s must-read essay, Deshan Tennekoon explains what makes Yotsuba&! such a joy to read. “The premise of the series is simple: it’s about a bubbly, inquisitive five-year-old girl named Yotsuba and her daily adventures in the small Japanese town to which she’s recently moved,” he explains. “Yotsuba’s sunny disposition is her defining trait and Azuma makes it natural and endearing. This is not to suggest she is always chirpy – she has her bad days and her tantrums, too. However she’s doing on any given day, Azuma’s portrayal of her has an honesty to it, and the series is never saccharine.” [SOLRAD]

Justin Guerrero offers a sneak peek at Blood Blade, a new vampire series from Oma Sei. [The Beat]

The Manga Machinations gang convene a roundtable on Susume Higa’s Okinawa. [Manga Machinations]

On the latest episode of Manga in Your Ears, Kory, Apryll and Helen discuss My Brain is Different: Stories of ADHD and Other Developmental Disorders. [Taiiku Podcast]

Will Fabricant 100 flop with David and Jordan? Tune in to find out! [Shonen Flop]

David Brothers leads a lively discussion about Yashuhiro Nightow’s *other* manga, Blood Blockade Battlefront. [Mangasplaining]

Elliot and Andy look at two series by non-binary authors: X-Gender and Until I Love Myself: The Journey of a Nonbinary Manga Artist. [ScreenTone Club]

Over at Dad Needs to Talk, Rob offers his thoughts on a brand-new series from Kodansha, That Time the Manga Editor Started a New Life in the Countryside. [Dad Needs to Talk]

REVIEWS

In a thoughtful review of River’s Edge, Scott Cederlund praises Kyoko Okazaki for being “honest and raw in her storytelling”… Nubia Jade Brice gives high marks to #DRCL Midnight Children… Renee Scott reviews the first two volumes of My Girlfriend’s Child… and Megan D. declares Psychic Academy “one of the ripest, most ridiculous pieces of garbage I’ve reviewed on this site in a good long while.”

New and Noteworthy

  • Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki’s Conjecture, Vol. 1 (Noemi10, Anime UK News)
  • Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki’s Conjecture, Vol. 1 (Danica Davidson, Otaku USA)
  • A Business Proposal, Vol. 1 (Nicki S., No Flying No Tights)
  • Dark Gathering, Vol. 1 (Joel Savill, The Beat)
  • The Deer King, Vol. 1 (Adam Symchuk, Asian Movie Pulse)
  • Game of Familia, Vol. 1 (Adam Symchuk, Asian Movie Pulse)
  • Glitch, Vol. 1 (Sarah, Anime UK News)
  • I Don’t Need a Happy Ending (Rebecca Silverman, ANN)
  • It Takes Two Tomorrow, Too, Vol. 1 (Demelza, Anime UK News)
  • Kagurabachi, Vol. 1 (Matias de la Piedra, The Beat)
  • River’s Edge (Scott Cederlund, From Cover to Cover)
  • Soichi (Jerry, No Flying No Tights)
  • That Time the Manga Editor Started a New Life in the Countryside, Vol. 1 (King Baby Duck, Boston Bastard Brigade)

Complete, OOP, and Ongoing 

  • Case Closed, Vols. 80-82 (SKJAM! Reviews)
  • Love in Sight, Vol. 1 (King Baby Duck, Boston Bastard Brigade)
  • Medaka Kuroiwa is Impervious to My Charms, Vol. 2 (Demelza, Anime UK News)
  • Mieruko-chan, Vol. 8 (Josh Piedra, The Outerhaven)
  • My Clueless First Friend, Vol. 3 (Josh Piedra, The Outerhaven)
  • Undead Unluck, Vol. 3 (King Baby Duck, Boston Bastard Brigade)

Filed Under: FEATURES

Manga the Week of 10/4/23

September 28, 2023 by Sean Gaffney, Michelle Smith, Ash Brown and Anna N Leave a Comment

SEAN: It’s the start of October, let the Halloween manga commence.

ASH: Boo! (As in what a ghost would say; I’m not in the habit of booing manga, Halloween or otherwise.)

SEAN: Airship has one print release, Classroom of the Elite: Year 2 6.

And for early digital we get Adachi and Shimamura 11 and Reincarnated as a Dragon Hatchling 5.

Denpa Books said Today’s Menu for the Emiya Family 5 should be out about now. Rider’s on the cover. Delicious recipes are within.

Two debuts from J-Novel Club. The one with the light novel title is 8th Loop for the Win! With Seven Lives’ Worth of XP and the Third Princess’s Appraisal Skill, My Behemoth and I Are Unstoppable! (Loop 8-shūme wa Shiawasena Jinsei o: 7-shūbun no Keiken-chi to Dai San Ōjo no “Kantei” de Kakusei Shita ore wa, Aibō no Behemoth to Tomo ni Musō Suru). An adventurer who keeps getting betrayed and killed by his friends has finally, in his 8th life, decided enough is enough. Can he change his fate with the help of the princess?

ASH: Probably, but even if not, “behemoth” is a great word.

SEAN: There’s also a manga debut, This Art Club Has a Problem! (Kono Bijutsu-bu ni wa Mondai ga Aru!). This had an anime come out about 8 years ago, so I guess we can call it a classic retro manga release. That said, it’s still running in Dengeki Maoh. A straight woman finds herself in an art club filled with one-note comic characters, and reacts accordingly.

ASH: I thought that title sounded familiar!

SEAN: Also getting a release: My Stepmom’s Daughter Is My Ex 8, Rebuild World 3 Part 1, Taking My Reincarnation One Step at a Time: No One Told Me There Would Be Monsters! 2, and Tearmoon Empire 10.

No print debuts for Kodansha, but we do get Fire Force 34 (the final volume), Lovesick Ellie 12 (the final volume), Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir 2, WIND BREAKER 2, Wistoria: Wand & Sword 6, and Witch Hat Atelier 11.

MICHELLE: I never managed to finish Lovesick Ellie when reading the digital releases, but I will definitely do it this time!

ANNA: I also need to get caught up!

ASH: You’re certainly farther along than I am! And it’s always a good week when there’s a new volume of Witch Hat Atelier.

ANNA: Agreed!

SEAN: Digitally the debut is That Time the Manga Editor Started a New Life in the Countryside (Manga Henshuusha ga Kaisha wo Yamete Inakagurashi wo Shitara Isekai Datta Ken). This seinen title from Evening is… well, its title. Guy decides to take his wife, move to the boonies, and start a farm. Then realizes he’s not isekai’d, so it’s a lot harder than it sounds.

ASH: Lol! It’s the not isekai’d part that makes it work for me. It may not be Solver Spoon, but I am intrigued.

SEAN: And then there’s Chihayafuru 40, Life 8, MF Ghost 17, My Master Has No Tail 10, My Wife is a Little Intimidating 4, Piano Duo for the Left Hand 7, Those Snow White Notes 10, and The World is Dancing 2.

MICHELLE: It’s crazy to think we’re coming up to the final stretch of Chihayafuru!

SEAN: One Peace has the 9th manga volume of The Reprise of the Spear Hero.

Seven Seas gives us a bunch of stuff. Cinderella Closet 3, Citrus+ 5, The Dangers in My Heart 7, The Dragon King’s Imperial Wrath: Falling in Love with the Bookish Princess of the Rat Clan 2, Malevolent Spirits: Mononogatari 4, MoMo -the blood taker- 6, Night of the Living Cat 3, Polar Bear Café: Collector’s Edition 3, PULSE 5, Sword of the Demon Hunter: Kijin Gentōshō 3, A Tale of the Secret Saint 4, and There’s No Freaking Way I’ll be Your Lover! Unless… 3.

ASH: That is a bunch.

SEAN: Square Enix gives us Suppose a Kid from the Last Dungeon Boonies Moved to a Starter Town 10.

Udon Entertainment has the 2nd volume of Persona 4 Arena Ultimax.

Viz Media debuts Tamon’s B-Side (Tamon-kun Ima Docchi!?). This Hana to Yume title is about a housekeeper who finds herself at the home of her favorite pop idol… only in real life, he’s an insecure mess who wants to quit. Can she help the boy she stans? This is by the author of Takane & Hana.

MICHELLE: I don’t love the premise, but will read anything by this mangaka.

ASH: I feel like I read a manhwa with a similar-ish sort of premise, but now I can’t remember what it was…

ANNA: Alright, interested in this for sure.

SEAN: Viz also gives us Chainsaw Man 12, Hunter x Hunter 37, The King’s Beast 11, Moriarty the Patriot 13, My Love Mix-Up! 9 (the final volume), Rainbow Days 6, and Spy x Family: The Official Guide—Eyes Only, a guidebook to the series.

MICHELLE: I didn’t realize My Love Mix-Up! was ending already! Two shoujo faves ending the same week.

ASH: I really need to catch up with that one!

SEAN: Yen On has one debut, The Deer King (Shika no Ou). A slave toiling in the mines finds that infected dogs have killed everyone but him and one young girl. Now they have to survive, somehow, even as the infection spreads.

ASH: Oh, this had a recent anime adaptation that I admittedly haven’t watched yet but looked promising!

SEAN: And Yen Press has Goblin Slayer Side Story: Year One 9 and The Witch and the Knight Will Survive 2.

No scary manga yet, but the month is still young. What are you buying?

Filed Under: FEATURES, manga the week of

The Manga Review: Didn’t It Rain

September 24, 2023 by Katherine Dacey Leave a Comment

Congratulations to Lianne Sentar, who was just promoted to a new position at Seven Seas Entertainment: publisher! She’s done a little bit of everything in the manga industry—writing Sailor Moon novels for Tokyopop, freelancing as an editor, starting her own publishing company—and seems like a perfect fit for the job. In other news, Scholastic will be launching its Graphix Manga line with an adaptation of Unico… Studio Ghibli has been acquired by Nippon TV… and a Delaware parent took a public stand on behalf of her kids’ after-school manga club. At issue was the principal’s decision to limit members’ access to manga rated “T” or older, which he felt were inappropriate for middle-school readers. Jennifer Antonik disagreed, and started a petition at Change.org to pressure the school to reverse course.

AROUND THE WEB

If you’re a fan of I’m in Love with the Villainess in any of its incarnations—light novel, manga, anime—you’ll want to check out Erica Friedman’s conversation with inori.-sensei; Mari Morimoto translates. [Okazu]

Toni Sun interviews Kyoko Aiba, author of I Love You Enough to Tie You Up, Derail, and Invisible Me. [ANN]

Muraktama Rodrigues explains why you should check out Rooster Fighter. [How to Love Comics]

In her latest Pubwatch, Masha Zhdanova pans Like a Butterfly, praises DRCL#, and rounds up the latest news from VIZ. [WWAC]

Joe McCulloch, Katie Skelly, and Sally Madden delve into the complexities of Kazuo Umezz’s Cat-Eyed Boy, which has just been reissued in a “perfect edition.” [Thick Lines]

Party like it’s 1985! The Mangasplainers tackle the ultimate 80s cat manga: Makoto Kobayashi’s wonderful, weird, and oh-so-slightly dated What’s Michael? [Mangasplaining]

REVIEWS

SKJAM! reviews Blade of the Moon Princess, an early series from the creator of Spy X Family… Adam Symchuk praises Suzuki Just Wants a Quiet Life, a new mystery series from Hirohisa Satou… and Jon Holt and Teppei Fukuda translate Natsume Fusanosuke’s review of Otomo: The Complete Works.

New and Noteworthy

  • #DRCL: Midnight Children, Vol. 1 (Anna Lindwasser, Comicon)
  • #DRCL: Midnight Children, Vol. 1 (Sarah Musnicky, Nightmarish Conjurings)
  • #DRCL: Midnight Children, Vol. 1 (J.R. Waugh, Attack of the Fanboy)
  • #DRCL: Midnight Children, Vol. 1 (Madalena Daleziou, Epicstream)
  • The Ephemeral Scenes of Setsuna’s Journey, Vol. 1 (Adam Symchuk, Asian Movie Pulse)
  • Jungle Juice, Vol. 1 (Adam Symchuk, Asian Movie Pulse)
  • Like a Butterfly, Vol. 1 (Mark Thomas, The Fandom Post)
  • Superman vs. Meshi, Vol. 1 (Johanna Draper Carlson, Good Comics for Kids)
  • Why I Adopted My Husband (Danica Davidson, Otaku USA)
  • Wind Breaker, Vol. 1 (Demelza, Anime UK News)
  • Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop, Vol. 1 (Vanessa, No Flying No Tights)

Complete, OOP, and Ongoing

  • Assorted Entanglements, Vol. 2 (Matt Marcus, Okazu)
  • Fly Me to the Moon, Vol. 19 (Josh Piedra, The Outerhaven)
  • Hi Score Girl, Vols. 9-10 (Grant Jones, ANN)
  • Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? On the Side: Sword Oratoria, Vol. 20 (Richard Gutierrez, The Fandom Post)
  • Kaiju No. 8, Vol. 7 (King Baby Duck, Boston Bastard Brigade)
  • Moriarty the Patriot, Vol. 12 (King Baby Duck, Boston Bastard Brigade)
  • My Happy Marriage, Vol. 4 (darkstorm, Anime UK News)
  • Phantom of the Idol, Vols. 5-6 (Sarah, Anime UK News)
  • Rent-a-Girlfriend, Vols. 17-18 (Demelza, Anime UK News)
  • Who Made Me a Princess, Vol. 2 (Noemi10, Anime UK News)
  • The Yakuza’s Bias, Vol. 2 (Sarah, Anime UK News)
  • Yumeochi: Dreaming of Falling for You, Vol. 26 (Chris Beveridge, The Fandom Post)

Filed Under: FEATURES

Manga the Week of 9/27/23

September 21, 2023 by Sean Gaffney, Michelle Smith, Anna N and Ash Brown Leave a Comment

SEAN: Better wake up, September’s ending.

ASH: Somehow I thought it was both October already and too early for October…

SEAN: No debuts for Yen, but a few “got bumped one week” books. Yen On has The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten 5.5, Defeating the Demon Lord’s a Cinch (If You’ve Got a Ringer) 5, The Girl I Saved on the Train Turned Out to Be My Childhood Friend 4, and Maiden of the Needle 2.

And Yen Press have No Longer Heroine 4, The Princess of Convenient Plot Devices 3, Sasaki and Miyano 9, and Shy 4.

MICHELLE: I should get back to No Longer Heroine.

SEAN: Viz has the Chainsaw Man Box Set, a collection of the first 11 volumes with a color poster.

And almost 15 years after its original release, Viz now have Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka available digitally.

MICHELLE: Ah, Pluto is so good.

ANNA: Glad it is available digitally!

ASH: This is one of the series that truly hooked me on manga.

SEAN: They’ve also got Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba—Corps Records (a guidebook) and Fist of the North Star 10.

ASH: Always glad to see more Fist of the North Star!

SEAN: Tokyopop has some stuff for us. Confessions of a Shy Baker 3, Sengoku Youko 3, and We Can’t Do Just Plain Love 2.

Steamship debuts I Can’t Refuse S (Watashi wa S ni Sakaraenai). A woman has become mistress of a creditor to pay her father’s debt… but he only likes experienced women, and she’s a virgin. It’s up to the handsome butler to teach her. This runs in Mobafura, a josei magazine for plots that sound exactly like that one.

ANNA: It sounds like quite a conundrum.

ASH: Oh, myyyyy.

SEAN: Seven Seas has some manga debuts. Plus-Sized Elf: Second Helping! (Shin Elf-san wa Yaserarenai) has exactly the same plot as the first series – she hasn’t gotten any better at dieting.

The World’s Fastest Level Up! (Sekai Saisoku no Level Up!) is based on the light novel also released by Seven Seas, and runs in Shonen Ace. It’s another “everyone hates me for my useless talent, but it’s actually SUPER AWESOME!” series.

And Seven Seas has a danmei title, The Husky and His White Cat Shizun: Erha He Ta De Bai Mao Shizun 3.

We also see Even Dogs Go to Other Worlds: Life in Another World with My Beloved Hound 2, The Girl From the Other Side: Siúil, a Rún Deluxe Edition IV (the final volume), Homunculus 3-4, Killing Stalking: Deluxe Edition 4, The Legend of Dororo and Hyakkimaru 6, and Reincarnated as a Dragon Hatchling 4.

ASH: Overall a strong week for Seven Seas series I’m interested in for one reason or another.

SEAN: One Peace Books has a 4th volume of Usotoki Rhetoric.

MICHELLE: Yay! Looking forward to this.

ASH: Yes, indeed!

SEAN: Kodansha has a print debut: I’m Giving the Disgraced Noble Lady I Rescued a Crash Course in Naughtiness (Konyaku Haki Sareta Reijo wo Hirotta Ore ga, Ikenai Koto wo Oshiekomu Oishi Mono wo Tabesasete Oshare wo Sasete, Sekaichi Shiawasena Shojo ni Produce). Based on the light novel released by J-Novel Club, a wrongly accused and abused princess winds up at the home of a powerful but misanthropic sorcerer. Sweet romance ensues. This runs in Comic Pash!.

Also in print: Fire Force Omnibus 6, Go with the Clouds, North-by-Northwest 6, Interviews with Monster Girls 11 (the final volume), and When Will Ayumu Make His Move? 13.

ANNA: I need to read North-by-Northwest! I have volumes stockpiled in my house.

ASH: It’s not always what I expect it to be, but I have been enjoying the series.

SEAN: The digital debut is Drops of God: Mariage (Mariage – Kami no Shizuku Saishuushou), the 26-volume sequel to the 44-volume original Drops of God. No, the Mariage is not about a wedding, it’s about the mariage between good food and good wine. This also ran in Weekly Morning.

ANNA: Woah.

ASH: Nice!

SEAN: Also out digitally: Am I Actually the Strongest? 9, Blade Girl 2, Boss Bride Days 9, A Couple of Cuckoos 13, DAYS 37, Gamaran: Shura 12, The Great Cleric 10, My Home Hero 8, Our Bodies, Entwining, Entwined 6, and That’s My Atypical Girl 10.

Debuting from J-Novel Club is The Retired Demon of the Maxed-Out Village (Kansuto-mura no Goinkyo Demon-san). A powerful knight is sent to a village to slay an evil demon… but she finds the demon is a retired old man. What’s more, everyone else in the village is ludicrously powerful. Why is she even here?

They’ve also got Accidentally in Love: The Witch, the Knight, and the Love Potion Slipup 2, Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill 14, the 3rd A Cave King’s Road to Paradise: Climbing to the Top with My Almighty Mining Skills! manga volume, Full Clearing Another World under a Goddess with Zero Believers 9, An Introvert’s Hookup Hiccups: This Gyaru Is Head Over Heels for Me! 4, A Late-Start Tamer’s Laid-Back Life 7, Monster Tamer 15, Perry Rhodan NEO 15, the 5th Rebuild World manga, You Like Me, Not My Daughter?! 2, and the 4th Young Lady Albert Is Courting Disaster manga volume.

Ghost Ship has Ayakashi Triangle 5 and Might as Well Cheat: I Got Transported to Another World Where I Can Live My Wildest Dreams! 6.

Cross Infinite World debuts Fluffy Paradise (Isekai de Mofumofu Nadenade Suru Tame ni Ganbattemasu), a light novel about another dead office lady who reincarnates in a fantasy world. The cheat God gives her is that everyone OTHER than humans adores her. Good thing this world is filled with beastpeople and powerful animals she can hug and pet.

They also have The Do-Over Damsel Conquers the Dragon Emperor 3, The Drab Princess, the Black Cat, and the Satisfying Break-up 3, and Surviving in Another World as a Villainess Fox Girl! 2 (the final volume?).

In print, Airship gives us Irina: The Vampire Cosmonaut 6 and Raven of the Inner Palace 3.

And in early digital it’s Raven of the Inner Palace 4.

ASH: I really need to catch up with this series.

SEAN: The leaves are falling, as are the shelves overstuffed with manga. What are you buying?

Filed Under: FEATURES, manga the week of

The Manga Review: Cliff Notes Edition

September 15, 2023 by Katherine Dacey Leave a Comment

It’s been a slow week news- and reviews-wise, so this installment of the Manga Review is short ‘n’ sweet.

Netflix announced earlier this week that it would be renewing One Piece for a second season. The live-action adaptation of Eiichiro Oda’s hit series is currently Netflix’s top-ranked show in 73 countries around the world… the Blue Giant film is coming to North American theaters in October… Ablaze just licensed Choi Gyu-Seok’s award-winning series The Awl… Brigid Alverson breaks down the August Circana Bookscan numbers… and the Mangasplainers unveiled their latest projects: Search and Destroy, a “fresh take” on Osamu Tezuka’s Dororo, and Wandering Cat’s Cage, a new series from the creator of Sensei’s Pious Lie.

AROUND THE WEB

Over at ANN, James Beckett reassures One Piece fans that Netflix’s adaptation is “really good.” “For all of the (rightly deserved) praise that has been heaped onto the series’ pitch-perfect set designs and costume work—which perfectly evoke Oda’s original vision while still feeling at least mostly plausible when applied to living human beings—One Piece is a story that lives and dies on the strengths of its characters, and if we didn’t immediately fall in love with this iteration of the Straw Hat Crew, things would have been very dire indeed,” he notes. “Somehow, though, the show managed to exceed expectations by finding performers that fit so well into their respective roles that it is virtually impossible not to fall in love with them” [ANN]

Kara Dennison explains why you should be reading MamaYuyu, which just debuted on the Shonen Jump app. [Otaku USA]

Vrai Kaiser interviews artist Aiba Kyoko about the evolution of the BL market over the last ten years. [Anime Feminist]

Letterer Aidan Clark joins the Manga Machinations gang for a celebration of Naoki Urasawa’s work. [Manga Machinations]

The latest installment of Manga in Your Ears focuses on The Gay Who Turned Kaiju and Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End. [Taiiku Podcast]

Let the Mangasplainers convince you to read Not All Girls Are Stupid, “a blistering look at the difficulties of being a woman in your late teens and early 20s.” [Mangasplaining]

Should you add the KMANGA app to your phone? Justin lists the pros and cons of Kodansha’s digital manga platform, praising it for the selection and good image quality, and panning it for its point system: “There’s no getting around the fact that the points structure is an obstacle to really enjoying the service, especially if you’re not a fan of playing games to get points.” [The OASG]

REVIEWS

To honor the start of the academic year, Megan D. has a review of Zero’s Familiar, a high school harem comedy. “Honestly, I debated whether to even bother with a plot summary for Zero’s Familiar because if you’ve read a single magic school harem series before, then you know pretty much all the story beats you’re going to see and all the character types you’re going to meet,” she notes. “You’ve got the everyman Potato-kun protagonist, whose only distinct quality he possesses is his annoyance with his status as a servant and the social class system in general.  You’ve got the primary love interest whose personality begins and ends with ‘tsundere,’ and because this work came out in the mid 2000s she’s also comically tiny… She in turn is surrounded by a horny girl with big boobs, a stoic girl, a comic relief playboy, a perfectly ordinary maid/secondary love interest who is possibly even more boring than Saito, a handful of teachers, and the occasional disposable villain.”

New and Noteworthy

  • Akane-banashi, Vol. 1 (King Baby Duck, Boston Bastard Brigade)
  • Batman: Justice Buster, Vol. 1 (SKJAM! Reviews)
  • The Black Cat & The Vampire, Vol. 1 (Demelza, Anime UK News)
  • Game of Familia, Vol. 1 (Richard Gutierrez, The Fandom Post)
  • It Takes Two Tomorrow, Too, Vol. 1 (John, AnimeNation)
  • The Mandalorian: The Manga, Vol. 1 (Tyler Treese, ComingSoon)
  • Persona 4 Arena, Vols. 1-2 (Richard Eisenbeis, ANN)
  • Primus7, Vol. 1 (Marion Pena, The Beat)
  • Saint? No! I’m Just a Passing Beast Tamer, Vol. 1 (Liz, No Flying No Tights)
  • Touring After the Apocalypse, Vol. 1 (Ian Wolf, Anime UK News)
  • The Witches’ Marriage, Vol. 1 (darkstorm, Anime UK News)
  • XOGENASYS, Vol. 1 (Marion Pena, The Beat)

Complete, OOP, and Ongoing

  • Demon Slayer, Vol. 9 (Sara Smith, The Graphic Library)
  • Gakuen Alice, Vol. 1 (Robert Harris, The Fandom Post)
  • Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible, Vol. 9 (Josh Piedra, The Outerhaven)
  • Oshi no Ko, Vol. 3 (darkstorm, Anime UK News)
  • Otherside Picnic, Vol. 4 (Onosume, Anime UK News)
  • The Saga of Tanya the Evil, Vol. 20 (Sakura Eries, The Fandom Post)
  • Sunbeams in the Sky, Vol. 2 (Sakura Eries, The Fandom Post)
  • Usotoki Rhetoric, Vol. 3 (Demelza, Anime UK News)

Filed Under: FEATURES

Manga the Week of 9/20/23

September 14, 2023 by Sean Gaffney, Michelle Smith and Ash Brown Leave a Comment

SEAN: It’s Yen Week, but there’s more than that. Everyone’s got stuff.

ASH: Let’s go!

SEAN: We’ll start with Airship, which has a print edition of Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs 10.

There’s a debut in early digital: Modern Dungeon Capture Starting with Broken Skills (Koware Skill de Hajimeru Gendai Dungeon Kōryaku) is, as you can see by the title, one of THOSE series. Dungeon crawls. Guy with awesome skills. Pixie showing her butt to the reader on the cover.

Dark Horse has the first new manga for Emanon in nearly 4 years, with the fourth volume.

ASH: Oh, that’s great news! I’ve really been enjoying this series.

SEAN: From Ghost Ship we get Do You Like Big Girls? 8.

J-Novel Club has three debuts once more. Hell Mode is a title whose light novel J-Novel Club has been releasing for some time. Now we have the manga, which runs in Comic Earth Star Online. Hardcore gamer finds himself in a world where he’s the only one who has to grind ridiculously hard – and he can’t be happier.

I Want to Escape from Princess Lessons (Kisaki Kyōiku kara Nigetai Watashi) is a J-Novel Heart series about a fiancee who’s determined to break off her engagement, and a prince who’s determined to win her back. Very “shoujo manga” vibes from this one, it had some DISCOURSE on forums.

ASH: Heaven forbid! (Though, now I’m tempted to go see what the fuss was about…)

SEAN: My Magical Career at Court: Living the Dream After My Nightmare Boss Fired Me from the Mages’ Guild! (Black Madōgushi Guild o Tsuihō Sareta Watashi, Ōkyū Majutsushi to Shite Hirowareru: White na Kyūtei de, Shiawase na Shinseikatsu o Hajimemasu!) is also a J-Novel Heart title, featuring a guild worker who loves magic but hates her job. Then she’s fired, and blacklisted. What now? Cinderella story? Cinderella story.

MICHELLE: Heh.

SEAN: Also from J-Novel Club: Ascendance of a Bookworm 27, Black Summoner 14, Chillin’ in Another World with Level 2 Super Cheat Powers 11, The Conqueror from a Dying Kingdom 5, D-Genesis: Three Years after the Dungeons Appeared 4, the 6th Doll-Kara manga, Earl and Fairy 3, Fake Saint of the Year: You Wanted the Perfect Saint? Too Bad! 2, Invaders of the Rokujouma!? 42, Isekai Tensei: Recruited to Another World 5, the 7th The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar manga volume, A Pale Moon Reverie 2, Reincarnated Mage with Inferior Eyes: Breezing through the Future as an Oppressed Ex-Hero 4, and Survival Strategies of a Corrupt Aristocrat 2.

ASH: I’m glad that Ascendance of a Bookworm starts with an “A” and therefore is at the beginning of this list.

SEAN: No debuts from Kodansha in print (I triple checked), but we do see The Great Cleric 5, Sailor Moon 4 (Naoko Takeuchi Collection), The Seven Deadly Sins Manga Box Set 5, and Shaman King: Flowers 4.

No digital debuts either, but we do see Doing His Best to Confess 5 (the final volume), Gamaran 13, Issak 2, Medalist 8, Our Fake Marriage 12, Teppu 3, We’re New at This 14, and Ya Boy Kongming! 13.

MICHELLE: I really gotta read more Medalist.

SEAN: One Peace Books has the 21st manga volume of The Rising of the Shield Hero.

No debuts for Seven Seas, but we see CALL TO ADVENTURE! Defeating Dungeons with a Skill Board 6, the 3rd Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi manhua volume, Headhunted to Another World: From Salaryman to Big Four! 5, Hitomi-chan is Shy With Strangers 6, Kemono Jihen 7, Magika Swordsman and Summoner 16, The Most Notorious “Talker” Runs the World’s Greatest Clan 5, My Sister the Cat 3, and ROLL OVER AND DIE: I Will Fight for an Ordinary Life with My Love and Cursed Sword! 4.

ASH: I’ve been meaning to give the Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation adaptation a try.

SEAN: Square Enix debuts Final Fantasy XIV: Eorzea Academy (Final Fantasy XIV: Shiritsu Eorzea Gakuen), a comedy high school AU of the popular game. It ran in Manga Up!, and is complete in one volume.

They also have Beauty and the Feast 10.

The debut from Viz is #DRCL midnight children, a Grand Jump title (not often we see anything from that magazine) by the artist known for Innocent (which means I am paying attention). It’s a modern-day, but still very goth, take on Dracula.

ASH: This one has my attention, too, for similar reasons.

SEAN: They also have Alice in Borderland 7, Dark Gathering 3, Hayate the Combat Butler 42, Insomniacs After School 3, One-Punch Man 26, and the 2nd and final volume of Until I Love Myself.

ASH: I’ve heard good things about Until I Love Myself.

SEAN: And now it’s Yen Time. Debuting is I May Be a Guild Receptionist, but I’ll Solo Any Boss to Clock Out on Time (Guild no Uketsuke Jō Desu ga, Zangyō wa Iyananode Boss o Solo Tōbatsu Shiyou to Omoimas). A guild receptionist finds herself working overtime because the adventurers can’t get the jobs done. Clearly it’s easier to do them all herself.

ASH: Okay, I find that to be an amusing premise.

SEAN: And Studio Chizu’s BELLE is another title from the creator of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Summer Wars, about a girl in the boonies who is dealing with the death of her mother, but finds a new life in the virtual world.

ASH: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, you say?

SEAN: Yen On also has Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki’s Conjecture 2, Bofuri: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, so I’ll Max Out My Defense 10, Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody 19, The Demon Sword Master of Excalibur Academy 9, Hazure Skill: The Guild Member with a Worthless Skill Is Actually a Legendary Assassin 6, Hell Mode: The Hardcore Gamer Dominates in Another World with Garbage Balancing 2 (print for the JNC title), The Hero Laughs While Walking the Path of Vengeance a Second Time 6, King’s Proposal 3, Magical Girl Raising Project 16, My Instant Death Ability Is So Overpowered, No One in This Other World Stands a Chance Against Me! 2 (another print for the JNC title), Reign of the Seven Spellblades 9, The Saga of Tanya the Evil 12, Sugar Apple Fairy Tale 4, Suppose a Kid from the Last Dungeon Boonies Moved to a Starter Town 13, and The Vexations of a Shut-In Vampire Princess 5.

ASH: So many!

SEAN: Debuting from Yen Press we have The Deer King (Shika no Ou: Yuna to Yakusoku no Tabi), the manga adaptation of Yen’s novel release, which runs in Young Ace. A slave finds himself and a young girl the only survivors of a mining disaster, and he now has to figure out how to live… and why he has super strength.

The Do-Over Damsel Conquers the Dragon Emperor (Yarinaoshi Reijou wa Ryuutei Heika wo Kouryakuchuu) is a manga version of the Cross Infinite World light novel, and runs in Comp Ace. A girl goes back in time to try to avoid her horrible death and ends up proposing to exactly the wrong person!

The Ephemeral Scenes of Setsuna’s Journey (Setsuna no Fuukei) is a manga adaptation of a Yen On light novel, and also runs in Comp Ace. An isekai’d hero finds he can’t do anything because his poor health came with him, and is shut up in a tower till they can summon someone else. Then the ghosts of past heroes visit him.

Glitch is a Comic Beam title from the creator of Lost Lad London. Siblings move to a town and find it far weirder than they expected… time to investigate!

MICHELLE: Ooh. Having loved Lost Lad London, I’ll definitely be checking this out.

SEAN: Jungle Juice is a Korean webtoon title about a boy who grows insect wings, then has to hide himself from the world.

Maiden of the Needle (Hariko no Otome) is based on the light novel Yen is also putting out, and runs in Young Ace Up. A reincarnated in a fantasy world girl struggles with family abuse when she apparently fails to inherit magical gifts. Hrm, this story seems familiar…

ASH: It does, doesn’t it?

SEAN: Stray Cat & Wolf (Noraneko to Ookami) runs in The Hana to Yume, and is from the creator of Cheeky Brat. Girl who is running away from a small town ends up in Tokyo, and now is living in a hot guy’s house?

Also coming out from Yen Press: The Abandoned Empress 6, Apparently, Disillusioned Adventurers Will Save the World 3, Assorted Entanglements 3, A Bride’s Story 14, Chained Soldier 5, Chitose Is in the Ramune Bottle 4, Daughter of the Emperor 5, The Devil Is a Part-Timer! 20, The Essence of Being a Muse 2, The Executioner and Her Way of Life 3, The Girl I Saved on the Train Turned Out to Be My Childhood Friend 4, Handyman Saitou in Another World 2, The Holy Grail of Eris 5, The Horizon 2, I Want to Be a Receptionist in This Magical World 2, I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level 11, Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Familia Chronicle Episode Freya 2, Magical Girl Incident 2, Manner of Death 2, Mieruko-chan 8, Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun 14, My Dear, Curse-Casting Vampiress 2, No Matter How I Look at It, It’s You Guys’ Fault I’m Not Popular! 21, A Reincarnated Witch Spells Doom 2, The Remarried Empress 4, So What’s Wrong with Getting Reborn as a Goblin? 3, SOTUS 3, Spirits & Cat Ears 11, Sword Art Online Progressive: Scherzo of Deep Night 2, Tomb Raider King 4, and Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop 2.

MICHELLE: Oh, a new Nozaki-kun buried amongst all the rest!

ASH: Always happy to see a new Nozaki-kun volume released!

SEAN: So tired. Whadya got?

Filed Under: FEATURES, manga the week of

The Manga Review: Going Merry

September 8, 2023 by Katherine Dacey Leave a Comment

The reviews are in, and One Piece is certified fresh, with an 85% approval rating from critics and a 96% approval rating from audiences. Just about every major media outlet weighed in on the series, from the Hollywood Reporter to CNN, New York Magazine, Rolling Stone, and USA Today. Though many critics applauded the show’s fidelity to the manga, a few—most notably Mike Hale and Alison Herman—felt the show lacked a reason to exist. Writing for the New York Times, for example, Hale argued that One Piece was a bigger misfire than Netflix’s much-derided Cowboy Bebop, while Herman, writing for Variety, asked: “If the best result one can hope for is an approximation of the original, close or far, what does this version of ‘One Piece’ provide that the original can’t?” Other critics were more enthusiastic, praising the performances, costuming, and fight choreography. In a thoughtful, in-depth essay for Geek Girl Riot, Sherin Nicole reassured long-time fans that Netflix stuck the landing: “This series gets it. It’s about found family and freedom; it seeks to dismantle systems of subjugation and its surrogates; it’s goofy and heartfelt.”

AROUND THE WEB

If you ever wondered why your local library doesn’t own a complete run of One Piece, or doesn’t offer free electronic access to manga, I strongly encourage you to read Priya Sridhar’s excellent, in-depth article about the unique challenges libraries face when acquiring longer series. [Anime Herald]

Gab Hernandez explains why Stop!! Hibari-Kun! is “so progressive yet so paradoxically backward.” [Anime Feminist]

Alexis Sara explores the complexities of transgender representation in yuri manga. [Anime Feminist]

Wondering what to read after Fabricant 100? Kara Dennison offers three suggestions, all of which debut this month on the Shonen Jump app. [Otaku USA]

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

The Reverse Thieves name She Loves to Cook, and She Loves to Eat their manga of the month. [Reverse Thieves]

That Manga Hunter delves into the history of shojo manga imprints, from Shojo Beat to Steamship. [That Manga Hunter]

Join comic pros Ed Piskor and Jim Rugg for a lively tour through Katsuhiro Otomo’s earliest work. [Cartoonist Kayfabe!]

Over at The Comics Journal, Austin Price revisits a favorite series—Knights of the Zodiac (Saint Seiya)—and discovers that nostalgia ain’t what it used to be. “I realized what I would find there was only disappointment,” he observes. “Not the true extent of that disappointment, you understand; as I said before, no one can know how wide is the disparity between their idyllic memories and their mundane present until confronted with it.” [TCJ]

REVIEWS

This week’s must-read review comes from Erica Friedman, who praises The Moon on a Rainy Night for resisting the most common tropes around disability. “What we get in Moon on a Rainy Night is the coming together of two people who help one another to become their best selves,” she observes. “It is a fantastic tale of what ‘accommodation’ ought to look like in a perfect world.”

New and Noteworthy

  • Coffee Moon, Vol. 1 (Ian Wolf, Anime UK News)
  • I Don’t Know Which Is Love, Vol. 1 (Nicholas Dupree, ANN)
  • Ms. Itsuya, Vol. 1 (Adam Symchuk, Asian Movie Pulse)
  • Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch: Aqua, Vol. 1 (Rebecca Silverman, ANN)
  • My Picture Diary (Publisher’s Weekly)
  • Nejishiki (Publisher’s Weekly)
  • Record of Lodoss War: The Crown of the Covenant, Vols. 1-3 (Richard Eisenbeis, ANN)
  • A Reincarnated Witch Spells Doom, Vol. 1 (Rebecca Silverman, ANN)
  • Star Wars: The Mandalorian: The Manga, Vol. 1 (Twwk, Beneath the Tangles)

Complete, OOP, and Ongoing

  • Dandadan, Vol. 4 (King Baby Duck, Boston Bastard Brigade)
  • Doomsday with My Dog, Vol. 3 (Sakura Eries, The Fandom Post)
  • Nichijou: My Ordinary Life, Vol. 11 (Ian Wolf, Anime UK News)
  • Otherside Picnic, Vol. 6 (Sandy Ferguson, Okazu)

Filed Under: FEATURES

Manga the Week of 9/13/23

September 7, 2023 by Sean Gaffney, Michelle Smith, Ash Brown and Anna N Leave a Comment

SEAN: Mid-September, and the titles keep rolling in.

There’s just one from Yen, though. Yen On has the 17th and final volume of The Asterisk War. (insert joke mocking Chivalry of a Failed Knight here)

Viz Media debuts Star Wars: The Mandalorian: The Manga. This adaptation of the TV series runs in Big Gangan, and is from the artist behind The Abandoned Reincarnation Sage.

ASH: I’ll have to admit, I’m even more woefully behind with my watching than I am with my reading, but a lot of my friends are really into The Mandalorian.

ANNA: I want to see manga Grogu.

SEAN: Viz also has Animal Crossing: New Horizons 5, Call of the Night 13, Fly Me to the Moon 19, Helck 5, Mao 13, Mashle: Magic and Muscles 13, Pokémon Adventures: X•Y 6, Wolf Girl and Black Prince 3, and Yakuza Lover 10.

SuBLime has a one-shot, Old-Fashioned Cupcake with Cappuccino. This is a sequel to Old-Fashioned Cupcake from a few months back. It runs in ihr HertZ.

ASH: This still looks delightful.

SEAN: And there’s also His Favorite 13. (Catching up with Japan sucks, doesn’t it?)

ASH: Oh, His Favorite! I remember that one.

SEAN: Steamship has a 4th volume of Ladies on Top.

Square Enix debuts a novel that puts other light novel titles to shame. NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139…: Project Gestalt Recollections–File 01 is presumably based on the game whose guidebook I put on here two weeks ago. I think I’ll wait for ver.2.0 myself.

ASH: Got to get all those bugs worked out.

ANNA: I will wait for the 360 version.

SEAN: From Square Enix we also get Daemons of the Shadow Realm 2, My Happy Marriage 4, and The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest 14.

Seven Seas has the debut of Life with an Ordinary Guy Who Reincarnated into a Total Fantasy Knockout (Fantasy Bishoujo Juniku Ojisan to). This series that runs in something called Cycomics has an anime as well. It’s on the comedic end of the spectrum as far as trans issues go, but it does at least vaguely touch on them. The title is the plot.

ASH: Huh.

SEAN: They also give us The Country Without Humans 4, The Duke of Death and His Maid 8, The Eccentric Doctor of the Moon Flower Kingdom 3, Kiruru Kill Me 5, Soloist in a Cage 2, Who Made Me a Princess 2, and Yakuza Reincarnation 7.

And for danmei fans, we also have Heaven Official’s Blessing: Tian Guan Ci Fu 7.

One Peace Books has a 2nd manga volume for The Death Mage.

Kodansha debuted The Darwin Incident (Darwin Jihen) last week, but didn’t update their site till this week, so here it is. It’s an award-winning manga from Afternoon about a half-human, half-chimp becoming involved in terrorism. I beg the Manga Bookshelf team not to pick it as Pick of Last Week and further compound my shame.

No print debuts for Kodansha THIS week, but we do see print volumes of Battle Angel Alita Mars Chronicle 9 (not the final volume, but the series is on hiatus in Japan), Gleipnir 13, Shonen Note: Boy Soprano 5, and Welcome Back, Alice 5.

MICHELLE: I want to read both Shonen Note and Welcome Back, Alice at some point.

ASH: Shonen Note is high on my list, too.

ANNA: Mine too!

SEAN: The digital debut is Cells at Work: Lady. When Cells at Work debuted in 2015, I had no idea it would be the Alice in the Country of Hearts of the 2020s. This runs in Morning Two, and has cells dealing with things like menstruation, pregnancy, and childbirth.

ASH: I’m not sure any of us were expecting that!

ANNA: The world of manga publishing is surprising and amazing.

SEAN: We also get Ace of the Diamond 45, The Fable 18, Gang King 9, Girlfriend, Girlfriend 15, Love, That’s an Understatement 3, Quality Assurance in Another World 9, and The Untouchable Midori-kun 5.

MICHELLE: Ace of the Diamond is almost done! Just two volumes to go. I hope Kodansha releases the sequel.

SEAN: Print from J-Novel Club gives us Ascendance of a Bookworm 20, Marginal Operation 15, Tearmoon Empire 9, and the 9th The Unwanted Undead Adventurer manga volume.

ASH: Woohoo, Bookworm!

SEAN: There are three digital debuts. Back to the Battlefield: The Veteran Heroes Return to the Fray! (Arafō ni Natta Saikyō no Eiyū-tachi, Futatabi Senjō de Musō Suru!!) is a series about a group of heroes who saved the world 25 years ago. Now… they gotta do it again.

The Frontier Lord Begins with Zero Subjects: Tales of Blue Dias and the Onikin Alna (Ryoumin 0-nin Start no Henkyou Ryoushusama) is a manga based on an as-yet unlicensed novel. Our hero is rewarded by the kingdom with land!… which turns out to be empty fields with no one in them. Fortunately, he finds a demon girl. This runs in Comic Earth Star Online.

Lucia and the Loom: Weaving Her Way to Happiness (Fukushokushi Lucia wa Akiramenai: Kyō kara Hajimeru Kōfuku Keikaku) is a spinoff of the Dahlia in Bloom series, featuring Lucia, Dahlia’s friend in the garment factory.

ASH: It seems like there has been a few fabric arts related series of late.

ANNA: Were there knitting manga? Where’s the knitting manga at?

SEAN: There’s also the 7th Cooking with Wild Game manga, I Parry Everything: What Do You Mean I’m the Strongest? I’m Not Even an Adventurer Yet! 3, The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar 24 (the final volume), Private Tutor to the Duke’s Daughter 9, Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles 23, and Villainess Level 99: I May Be the Hidden Boss but I’m Not the Demon Lord 2.

Ghost Ship has the 6th manga volume of JK Haru is a Sex Worker in Another World.

This is already out, but Denpa has Under Ninja 2.

Airship, in print, has Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear 15.

And for early digital we see Classroom of the Elite: Year 2 7.

If it’s September, why is it still hot? Any manga heating you up?

Filed Under: FEATURES, manga the week of

The Manga Review: Deep in the Heart of Texas

September 1, 2023 by Katherine Dacey Leave a Comment

A television station in Houston reports that the Klein Independent School District (ISD) has been bypassing the usual administrative procedure for removing controversial books from its shelves, instead treating those titles as old or out-of-date materials that need to be purged. The majority of books on its list will be familiar to anyone who’s been following the conversation around race, gender, and “age appropriate” works for younger readers—The Bluest Eye, Fun Home—but the list also includes volumes of popular manga such as Assassination Classroom, Black Butler, and Soul Eater. The Texas chapter of the ACLU is currently investigating.

In other news, Brigid Alverson reports that a Texas judge has blocked the implementation of the READER Act, which “would require booksellers to assign ratings to all books they sell to schools and recall any ‘sexually explicit’ books that had already been sold”… Brigid Alverson also has the scoop on Burst Angel, which was rescued from licensing purgatory, as well as four new additions to the Yen Press catalog… Cutie Honey will celebrate her 50th birthday this November… The Witch and the Knight Will Survive will be complete in three volumes… Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction is coming to the big screen next year… the United Workers of Seven Seas just voted to ratify their first contract… and The Beat posted a generous preview of Issaka Galadima’s Clock Striker, “which follows a young Black girl in her quest to become an elite engineer warrior.”

AROUND THE WEB

Matt Alt explains how some of Japan’s most time-honored methods for cooling off in the summer are disappearing in the face of modernization and global warming. [The New Yorker]

Eiichiro Oda sat down with the New York Times to talk about Netflix’s upcoming adaptation of One Piece, and why he thinks his series will be a hit with international viewers. [New York Times]

Shelby Tozier examines the legacy of Arina Tanemura, author of such shojo classics as Phantom Thief Jeanne and Full Moon o Sagashite. [Anime Feminist]

Also at Anime Feminist: Sarah Guinevere Smit uses Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou to explain “what many transgender people went through during the pandemic.” She explains: “In the solitude and desolation of COVID-19, cut off from the pressures and expectations of society, there was a silent wave of transgender people coming to the realization that they no longer needed to pretend to be someone they were not, beginning their transitions in the midst of death, despair, and loneliness.” [Anime Feminist]

To mark the tenth anniversary of Radiant‘s debut, Dark Aether offers an in-depth look at the series. [AniTAY]

Wondering what to watch this fall? Kara Denison has prepared a helpful list of anime whose source material is already available in English. [Otaku USA]

Jocelyne Allen sings the praises of Hokago no Etude, a BL manga about a ballet troupe. “For a BL manga, it has a real shojo vibe to it at times,” she notes. “Dance scenes get room to breathe, while the sexy times have closely packed panels, loads of dialogue and sound effects, for an overall intensity that makes those scenes even more effective.”  [Brain vs. Book]

REVIEWS

Erica Friedman argues that Otherside Picnic is “one of the most extraordinary explorations of physical, emotional and psychic boundaries that I have ever read”… librarian Ashley Hawkins has a brief but excellent review of Susumu Higa’s Okinawa… Adam Symchuk explains how Yokohama Station SF finds its footing in volume two… Megan D. reads Corrector Yui so you don’t have to… Sarah gives two thumbs up to After We Gazed at the Starry Sky… and the gang at Beneath the Tangles post a fresh batch of short reviews.

New and Noteworthy

  • After We Gazed at the Starry Sky (Adam Symchuk, Asian Movie Pulse)
  • Disney Twisted-Wonderland: The Book of Heartslabyul, Vol. 1 (Mark Thomas, The Fandom Post)
  • The Essence of Being a Muse, Vol. 1 (Rebecca Silverman, ANN)
  • Horimiya Memorial Book Page. 100 Art Book (Mark Thomas, The Fandom Post)
  • I Don’t Know Which Is Love, Vol. 1 (darkstorm, Anime UK News)
  • I Don’t Know Which Is Love, Vol. 1 (Luce, Okazu)
  • The Illustrated Guide to Monster Girls, Vol. 1 (Adam Symchuk, Asian Movie Pulse)
  • My Darling Detective: Mitsuko’s Case Files, Vol. 1 (Katherine Dacey, The Manga Critic)
  • My Mate Is a Feline Gentleman (Rebecca Silverman, ANN)
  • Oshi no Ko, Vol. 1 (Liz, No Flying No Tights)
  • The Reformation of the World as Overseen by a Realist Demon King, Vol. 1 (MrAJCosplay, ANN)
  • Seraph of the End Guren Ichinose: Catastrophe at Sixteen, Vol. 1 (Demelza, Anime UK News)
  • Touge Oni: Primal Gods in Ancient Times, Vol. 1 (Kate O’Neil, The Fandom Post)

Complete, OOP, and Ongoing Series

  • Beast Complex, Vol. 3 (King Baby Duck, Boston Bastard Brigade)
  • Beauty and the Feast, Vol. 9 (Krystallina, The OASG)
  • Bofuri: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, So I’ll Max Out My Defense, Vol. 6 (Justin, The OASG)
  • A Business Proposal, Vol. 2 (Adam Symchuk, Asian Movie Pulse)
  • A Certain Magical Index, Vol. 27 (Antonio Mireles, The Fandom Post)
  • Choujin X, Vol. 3 (Josh Piedra, The Outerhaven)
  • Doomsday with My Dog, Vol. 3 (Adam Symchuk, Asian Movie Pulse)
  • The Eminence in Shadow, Vol. 6 (Antonio Miereles, The Fandom Post)
  • Fly Me to the Moon, Vol. 18 (King Baby Duck, Boston Bastard Brigade)
  • The Girl I Like Forgot Her Glasses, Vol. 5 (Josh Piedra, The Outerhaven)
  • Magu-chan: God of Destruction, Vol. 8 (King Baby Duck, Boston Bastard Brigade)
  • Master Keaton, Vol. 10 (Frank Plowright, Slings & Arrows)
  • Romantic Killer, Vol. 4 (King Baby Duck, Boston Bastard Brigade)
  • Trigun, Vol. 1 (Megan D. The Manga Test Drive)
  • Unnamed Memory, Vol. 3 (Demelza, Anime UK News)
  • Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-Kun, Vols. 2-3 (Noemi10, Anime UK News)

Filed Under: FEATURES

Manga the Week of 9/6/23

August 31, 2023 by Sean Gaffney, Michelle Smith, Anna N and Ash Brown Leave a Comment

SEAN: School days, school days, dear old golden rule days. Also, manga.

ASH: Manga is always a welcome distraction from the chaos of a new semester.

SEAN: We start with Airship, which has two print books. There’s No Freaking Way I’ll be Your Lover! Unless… 2 and The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick Up Trash 4.

And in early digital we see Free Life Fantasy Online: Immortal Princess 4 and Reborn as a Space Mercenary: I Woke Up Piloting the Strongest Starship! 7.

Dark Horse Comics has the 12th volume of Mob Psycho 100.

ASH: I should probably catch up with this series at some point.

SEAN: From Ghost Ship, we get a 7th volume of The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, REALLY Love You.

ASH: This one, too, from what I’ve heard.

SEAN: It’s a quiet week for J-Novel Club, though they are debuting three manga series digitally. An Archdemon’s (Friend’s) Dilemma: How to Babysit a Crybaby Knight (Akuyuu no Ore ga Ponkotsu Kishi wo Miterarenain da ga, Dou Sewa wo Yakya Ii? – Madome Gaiden) is a manga spinoff from the Archdemon’s Dilemma series, focusing on the pathetic not-quite-romance between Barbatos and Chastille. I think it’s in Comic Fire?

The Conqueror from a Dying Kingdom (Horobi no Kuni no Seifukusha – Maou wa Sekai wo Seifuku suru you desu) is based on the light novels also released by J-Novel Club. A Japanese NEET is reincarnated in a kingdom as a commoner boy, but quickly realizes this Kingdom doesn’t have much longer to go. This runs in Comic Gardo.

I’ll Never Set Foot in That House Again! (Nido to Ie ni wa Kaerimasen!) is based on the light novels also released by J-Novel Club. It also runs in Comic Gardo. It’s for people who think My Happy Marriage is too depressing.

ANNA: Who are those people?

SEAN: And they also have the 11th and final volume of Culinary Chronicles of the Court Flower.

Apologies to Kaiten Books, as I missed this last week: Welcome to the Outcast’s Restaurant!’s 3rd manga volume should have been on that list.

Kodansha’s print debut is The Moon on a Rainy Night (Amayo no Tsuki), a Comic Days series about a deaf high school musician and the girl who gets closer to her despite her best efforts. I have heard VERY good things about this series.

ANNA: OK, this does sound intriguing.

ASH: Oh, my interest is piqued!

SEAN: Kodansha Manga, in print, also has 10 Dance 7, Don’t Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro 15, Noragami Omnibus 7, and Noragami: Stray God 26.

MICHELLE: Yay for more 10 Dance!

ASH: Yes, indeed!

SEAN: And for digital titles they have Blue Lock 21, How to Grill Our Love 4, Life 7, My Wife is a Little Intimidating 3, Shangri-La Frontier 12, Those Snow White Notes 9, Tying the Knot with an Amagami Sister 10, and Wandance 6.

One Peace Books gives us the 8th volume of Multi-Mind Mayhem.

Seven Seas debuts Soara and the House of Monsters (Soara to Mamono no Ie), a Shonen Sunday S series. A girl who spent her childhood preparing to fight monsters is now at a loss since the kingdom and monsters came to an agreement. Can she find a new career building monster homes?

Seven Seas also has Dinosaur Sanctuary 3, Free Life Fantasy Online: Immortal Princess 5, Magical Angel Creamy Mami and the Spoiled Princess 5, Otaku Elf 6, Tokyo Revengers 13-14, Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs 8, and What He Who Doesn’t Believe in Fate Says 2.

Square Enix has My Clueless First Friend 3.

Tokyopop has a 4th volume of Our Not-So-Lonely Planet Travel Guide.

Udon has a third volume of Record of Lodoss War: The Crown of the Covenant.

The debut from Viz is Blade of the Moon Princess (Gekka Bijin), a Jump Square series from the author of Spy x Family. This was his debut. A bratty young moon princess is sent to Earth in order to avoid a coup on the moon, and must learn to grow up.

There’s also two anime coloring books out from Viz, one for Bleach and one for Naruto Shippuden.

ASH: Is there still the same demand for coloring books that there used to be?

SEAN: We also see Blue Box 6, Dragon Ball Super 19, The Elusive Samurai 8, Ima Koi: Now I’m in Love 7, Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible 9, Like a Butterfly 2, and My Hero Academia 35.

Yen On debuts Liar, Liar. A school where everything depends on your rank has a new top dog, entering the school with the highest academic rank! There’s just one problem… this is all a lie. For fans of light novel covers that look like this one.

ASH: Ha!

SEAN: Yen On also has Your Forma 4.

On the Yen Press side, we see two debuts. Game of Familia (Game of Familia: Kazoku Senki) is from Dragon Age, so you know it’s trash of the highest order. A high school student moves in with his new family, including three stepsisters. But then the entire family is isekai’d!

The Witches’ Marriage (Majo no Kekkon) is a yuri series from Comic Newtype. A witch gets married to another girl in order to gain more power… but finds that the other girl is adorable.

And there is also Tales of Wedding Rings 12 and Trinity Seven 28.

It’s always September somewhere on the mangasphere! What are you buying?

Filed Under: FEATURES, manga the week of

Manga the Week of 8/30/23

August 25, 2023 by Sean Gaffney, Michelle Smith, Anna N and Ash Brown Leave a Comment

SEAN: As August sinks slowly in the West, what manga is left over?

Yen has a few more leftovers than usual. The debut from Yen On is Looks Are All You Need (Kao Sae Yokereba Ii Kyōshitsu), from the creator of My Friend’s Little Sister Has It In for Me!. A shut-in girl can’t deal with people, so how can she possibly attend the looks-oriented prestigious arts school she wants to get into? By utilizing her VTuber skills.

ASH: Seems like that could work.

SEAN: And there’s also I’m the Villainess, So I’m Taming the Final Boss 6, where Aileen is about to be executed. Again.

In manga, the first debut is Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki’s Conjecture (Junkyouju Takatsuki Akira no Suisatsu), based on the light novel that came out a month or two ago. It runs in Comic Gene.

ASH: I’m still interested in folklore studies and this title; I haven’t managed to find time to read the novel yet, but maybe I’ll have the chance to fit the manga in.

SEAN: I Don’t Need a Happy Ending: A collection of short stories (Mikanuji Tanpenshuu: Happy End wa Iranai) is a yuri collection from the creator of Assorted Entanglements. Expect spiciness.

The Illustrated Guide to Monster Girls (Kaibutsu Shoujo Zukan) is a shoujo manga from Asuka. Monsters are supposed to scare people. Sadly, this manga concerns itself with a group of poor monster students who get scared instead.

And Mieruko-chan Official Comic Anthology is what it sounds like.

Also from Yen: Doomsday with My Dog 3, I’m Quitting Heroing 3, and Pandora Seven 2.

Viz has the digital-only WITCH WATCH 7. I will die on this hill.

Square Enix Manga has Grimoire NieR: Revised Edition, which… is a game guide, so not sure why I have it here.

And they also have SINoALICE 4, which is merely a death game manga.

Seven Seas has a big danmei debut: Guardian: Zhen Hun. A supernatural detective comes across a mysterious professor in his investigations. Is he connected? Are they both really hot? Of all the danmei series I’ve heard about, this is the one I’ve heard about the most.

MICHELLE: *Kermit flail*

ASH: I have heard good things and an looking forward to this one, too.

SEAN: The manga debut is The Knight Captain is the New Princess-to-Be (Himegimi wa Kishi Danchou), a shoujo series from LaLa about the Knight Captain agreeing to pretend to be the Prince’s fiancee for political reasons, but finding being a royal more difficult than she expected.

Also from Seven Seas: Does it Count if You Lose Your Virginity to an Android? 2, Don’t Call it Mystery Omnibus 3-4, How Heavy are the Dumbbells You Lift? 12, This Is Screwed Up, but I Was Reincarnated as a GIRL in Another World! 8, and The Valiant Must Fall 2.

MICHELLE: *further flailing* (for Don’t Call It Mystery, specifically)

ANNA: *joins in on the flailing* for Don’t Call It Mystery

ASH: Didn’t the first volume just come out? I’m behind already!

SEAN: One Peace Books has the 3rd volume of The Death Mage.

From Kodansha Books, we get My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 3.

From Kodansha Manga, the big news is the 11th volume, and the return, of Nichijou! We haven’t had a volume since the series ended in 2017. Cannot wait.

ASH: Oh, wow!

SEAN: Also in print: Blue Lock 8, EDENS ZERO 24, Go! Go! Loser Ranger! 6, I Was Reincarnated as the 7th Prince so I Can Take My Time Perfecting My Magical Ability 7, Real Account 23-24 (the final volume, at last), the 2nd Saving 80,000 Gold in Another World for My Retirement manga volume, and Shangri-La Frontier 7.

ASH: Real Account lasted longer than I thought it would.

SEAN: The digital debut is Blade Girl (Blade Girl: Kataashi no Runner), a josei manga from Be Love with a familiar premise – it’s the exact same as Run On Your Two Legs. A girl who lost a leg a year ago is frustrated and angry… but what if she finds the answer with prosthetics meant for the paralympics?

ANNA: Yay for josei!

ASH: Oh! Maybe this one will eventually be released in print, too!

SEAN: Also digital: Guilty 12, Wandance 6, and With You and the Rain 5.

J-Novel Club has a new digital light novel debut. Moon Blossom Asura: The Ruthless Reincarnated Mercenary Forms the Ultimate Army (Tsuki Hana no Shōjo Asura: Gokuaku Hidō no Yōhei, Tensei Shite Saikyō no Yōheidan o Tsukuru ) is a dark fantasy about a soldier of fortune who finds herself reincarnated into a fantasy world… so now she’s killing people WITH MAGIC. For those who like evil protagonists.

They’ve also got Cooking with Wild Game 22, the 2nd Dragon Daddy Diaries: A Girl Grows to Greatness manga, Enough with This Slow Life! I Was Reincarnated as a High Elf and Now I’m Bored 3, the 5th Isekai Tensei: Recruited to Another World manga, Lady Rose Just Wants to Be a Commoner! 4, My Quiet Blacksmith Life in Another World 7, and Record of Wortenia War 20.

Ghost Ship has World’s End Harem 15 – After World.

Cross Infinite World has a debut. Rising from Ashes: My Dear Emperor, You’re Putty in My Hands! (Torotoro ni Shite Sashiagemasu, Kōtei Heika. Moto Konyakusha ni Ie o Yakareta Tsuihō Miko wa, Ringoku Kōtei ni Chōai Sarete Sainō o Hanahirakaseru), a novel which has otome game villainess, ex-fiancée finds love in the neighboring kingdom, AND Inner Palace politics all in one. This is the 3rd series by this author licensed by CIW.

They’ve also got The Dragon’s Soulmate is a Mushroom Princess! 3 and Revolutionary Reprise of the Blue Rose Princess 2.

Lastly, no print light novels from Airship, but they do have an early digital: Loner Life in Another World 7.

Sic Transit August. All manga must pass.

Filed Under: FEATURES, manga the week of

The Manga Review: The Dog Days of August

August 25, 2023 by Katherine Dacey Leave a Comment

Pour one out for Comic Book Resources: on Wednesday, a staff member hijacked CBR’s official Twitter feed to decry parent company Valnet for firing editorial staff and abandoning the site’s commitment to in-depth reporting and thoughtful criticism. Heidi MacDonald has the details. In other news, Kadakowa’s recent efforts to remove pirate manga apps from Apple and Google went unheeded, so the publisher is taking steps to find out who created those apps… the production of Susumu Higa’s Okinawa was delayed after the original printer demanded editorial changes to the book… the live-action version of Rohan at the Louvre arrives on Amazon Prime next month… Titan Manga has rescued Speed Grapher from publishing limbo… ABLAZE announced its fall 2023 publishing plans… Harta will publish the final chapter of Delicious in Dungeon next month… Yuki Kaku has collaborated with Givenchy on a one-shot story for UOMO magazine… and Nami Sano, the creator of Haven’t You Heard? I’m Sakamoto passed away at age 36.

AROUND THE WEB

Marion Pena sits down with former NBA player Johnny O’Bryant to discuss his latest venture: Noir Caesar. The company just released two news series, XOGENASYS and Primus7, and has several other projects in development, including an adaptation of Osamu Tezuka’s Alabaster and a live-action version of Me and the Devil Blues. [The Beat]

In the latest installment of My Fave Is Problematic, Rebecca Fleeman puts JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure under the microscope, noting the degree to which the series often conflates queerness with villainy. [Anime Feminist]

Anime Feminist polls its readers for the best beginner yuri manga. [Anime Feminist]

Jon Holt and Saki Hirozane translate manga scholar’s Hiroshi Miyamoto’s essay on Happy Mania. [The Comics Journal]

Job alert: VIZ Media is hiring two manga editors. N.B. to prospective job seekers: you must be willing to relocate to the Bay Area. [VIZ MEDIA]

Cat nip for translators—that’s how Jocelyne Allen describes Smoke Blue, a “a bewildering and yet entirely satisfying mix of translation tips and hot guys getting hot and heavy.” [Brain vs. Book]

Masha Zhdanova weighs in on three recent VIZ releases: My Special One, Akane-banashi, and Cat-Eyed Boy. [WWAC]

Kara Dennison offers a helpful list of swoon-worthy shojo manga you can read on the VIZ app. [Otaku USA]

Trevor Van As explains what why Junji Ito is a “master of the genre,” capable of producing “imaginative, visceral” stories filled with “shocking concepts” that stay with you long after you finish reading. [How to Love Comics]

That Manga Hunter sifts through the VIZ Signature catalog in search of good manga for older readers. “If you’re looking for alternative manga, mature non-smut manga, and manga intended for adults, then Viz Signature isn’t a bad place to start,” they opine. “The imprint contains series from a wide range of manga of various art styles and genres. If you’re coming from American comics and graphic novels, of superhero origin or otherwise, this is also the imprint for you.” [That Manga Hunter]

LISTENING IN

Join the Mangasplainers for an in-depth conversation about Pluto: Urasawa X Tezuka, Naoki Urasawa’s re-telling of the classic Astro Boy story “The Greatest Robot on Earth.” [Mangasplaining]

The Manga Machinations gang just finished a three-part series on Tatsuki Fujimoto’s breakthrough series Fire Punch. [Manga Machinations]

For spoiler-free commentary on Kyoko Okazaki’s River’s Edge, tune in to the Spiraken Review. [Spiraken Review Podcast]

Alain and Kate highlight Mermaid Scales and the Town of Sand in their first-ever Manga of the Month podcast. [Reverse Thieves]

Gee and Ray unpack Moto Hagio’s groundbreaking boys’ love saga The Heart of Thomas. [Read Right to Left]

Which manga did Andy and Elliot dub “Salaryman Cardcaptor Sakura“? Find out on the most recent episode of Screentone Club! [Screentone Club]

In the latest installment of Manga In Your Ears, Kory, Apryll, and Helen compare notes on Mizuno and Chayama and What Did You Eat Yesterday? [Taiiku Podcast]

REVIEWS

Paging Mushishi fans! This week’s must-read review comes from OASG contributor Helen, who shines a light on When a Cat Faces West, an overlooked gem from Yuki Urushibara. “When a Cat Faces West is a lovely, quiet series about supernatural happenings and the myriad ways that they can be both harmless and deeply unsettling,” Helen notes. “I never felt like the series crossed the line into soft horror but it’s definitely ‘softly unsettling’ at points… a difficult mood to pull off well but it does so splendidly.”

Shall we gather at the river? TCJ posts two reviews of Kyoko Okazaki’s River’s Edge: one by Helen Chazan, and one by Brian Nicholson, while WWAC contributor Kathryn Hemmann offers their own insight into the story’s “gritty millennial malaise”… Johanna Draper Carlson sings the praises of Why I Adopted My Husband… Megan D. revisits Kia Asamiya’sSilent Möbius… and Rebecca Silverman reviews Nazuna Saito’s Offshore Lightning, calling it “one of those books that you find yourself thinking about long after you’ve finished reading it.”

New and Noteworthy

  • Appare-Ranman! (Caitlin Moore, ANN)
  • Associate Professor Takatsuki’s Conjecture, Vol. 1 (Adam Symchuk, Asian Movie Pulse)
  • Boy’s Abyss, Vol. 1 (Mark Thomas, The Fandom Post)
  • Cat-Eyed Boy: The Perfect Edition, Vol. 1 (Rebecca Silverman, ANN)
  • Cat-Eyed Boy: The Perfect Edition, Vol. 1 (Adam Symchuk, Asian Movie Pulse)
  • Dark Gathering, Vol. 1 (Mark Thomas, The Fandom Post)
  • The Girl I Like Forgot Her Glasses, Vols. 1-4 (MrAJCosplay, ANN)
  • Haruki Murakami Manga Stories (Publisher’s Weekly)
  • Heart Gear, Vol. 1 (Rebecca Silverman, ANN)
  • I Don’t Know Which Is Love, Vol. 1 (Adam Symchuk, Asian Movie Pulse)
  • I Don’t Need a Happy Ending (Adam Symchuk, Asian Movie Pulse)
  • Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Memoria Freese, Vol. 1 (Rebecca Silverman, ANN)
  • Like a Butterfly, Vol. 1 (Danica Davidson, Otaku USA)
  • Manner of Death, Vol. 1 (Matt, No Flying No Tights)
  • Mieruko-chan Official Comic Anthology (Adam Symchuk, Asian Movie Pulse)
  • Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir, Vol. 1 (darkstorm, Anime UK News)
  • Mr. Villain’s Day Off, Vol. 1 (Krystallina, The OASG)
  • Mr. Villain’s Day Off, Vol. 1 (Rebecca Silverman, ANN)
  • Mr. Villain’s Day Off, Vol. 1 (Sarah, Anime UK News)
  • Mr. Villain’s Day Off, Vol. 1 (Danica Davidson, Otaku USA)
  • Not-Sew-Wicked Stepmom, Vol. 1 (Adam Symchuk, Asian Movie Pulse)
  • Offshore Lightning (Ian Keogh, Slings & Arrows)
  • Okinawa (Timothy O’Neil, AiPT!)
  • Okinawa (Elias Rosner, Multiversity Comics)
  • Okinawa (Karen Gellender, The Fandom Post)
  • Okinawa (Jeff Provine, *blogcritics)
  • Plaza (Woodrow Phoenix, Slings & Arrows)
  • Saint? No! I’m Just a Passing Beast Tamer!, Vol. 1 (Demelza, Anime UK News)
  • Sating the Wolf (Sarah, Anime UK News)
  • Soichi: Junji Ito Story Collection (Danica Davidson, Otaku USA)
  • Touge Oni: Primal Gods in Ancient Times, Vol. 1 (Adam Symchuk, Asian Movie Pulse)
  • Villainess Level 99, Vol. 1 (King Baby Duck, Boston Bastard Brigade)
  • Villainess Level 99, Vol. 1 (Rebecca Silverman, ANN)
  • Villainess Level 99, Vol. 1 (Kaley Connell, Yatta-Tachi)

Complete, OOP, and Ongoing Series

  • Adachi and Shimamura, Vol. 4 (Mark Thomas, The Fandom Post)
  • Blue Period, Vol. 13 (Sarah, Anime UK News)
  • Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, Vol. 17 (Josh Piedra, The Outerhaven)
  • Call of the Night, Vol. 12 (King Baby Duck, Boston Bastard Brigade)
  • Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?!, Vol. 8 (Sarah, Anime UK News)
  • Choujin X, Vols. 2-3 (MrAJCosplay, ANN)
  • Choujin X, Vol. 3 (Arpad Okay)
  • Dead Mount Death Play, Vol. 9 (Josh Piedra, The Outerhaven)
  • Delicious in Dungeon, Vol. 12 (Kate O’Neil, The Fandom Post)
  • Honey Lemon Soda, Vol. 3 (Josh Piedra, The Outerhaven)
  • How Do We Relationship?, Vol. 9 (Matt Marcus, Okazu)
  • In the Land of Leadale, Vol. 4 (Kate O’Neil, The Fandom Post)
  • Mashle: Magic and Muscles, Vol. 12 (King Baby Duck, Boston Bastard Brigade)
  • A Monologue Woven for You, Vol. 3 (Matt Marcus, Okazu)
  • My Happy Marriage, Vol. 3 (Sara Smith, The Graphic Library)
  • My Special One, Vol. 3 (Josh Piedra, The Outerhaven)
  • Ōoku: The Inner Chambers, Vols. 13-14 (SKJAM! Reviews)
  • Pandora Seven, Vol. 2 (Adam Symchuk, Asian Movie Pulse)
  • Rainbow Days, Vol. 5 (Josh Piedra, The Outerhaven)
  • Reign of the Seven Spellblades, Vol. 6 (Josh Piedra, The Outerhaven)
  • Snow White with the Red Hair, Vols. 22-23 (Demelza, Anime UK News)
  • Soul Eater: The Perfect Edition, Vol. 12 (Krystallina, The OASG)
  • The Splendid Work of a Monster Maid, Vol. 5 (Demelza, Anime UK News)
  • Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun, Vol. 9 (Sara Smith, The Graphic Library)
  • Why Raelina Ended Up at the Duke’s Mansion, Vol. 4 (Rebecca Silverman, ANN)

Filed Under: FEATURES

Manga the Week of 8/23/23

August 17, 2023 by Sean Gaffney, Michelle Smith, Ash Brown and Anna N 1 Comment

SEAN: August is a very long month.

ASH: That way even more releases can be fit in.

SEAN: We start with Airship’s print releases: Loner Life in Another World 6 and The Most Heretical Last Boss Queen: From Villainess to Savior 4.

And for early digital they have Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation 24.

Fantagraphics has Okinawa, a title that explores the history of the island and its military occupation. It’s likely to be fairly grim, but absolutely worth your time. It’s also about 550 pages, so good value for money.

ASH: I’ve been waiting for this release a very long time.

SEAN: From Ghost Ship we see 2.5 Dimensional Seduction 7 and Creature Girls: A Hands-On Field Journal in Another World 8.

Two digital debuts for J-Novel Club. The Greatest Magician’s Ultimate Quest: I Woke from a 300 Year Slumber to a World of Disappointment (Majutsu no Hate o Motomeru Dai Majutsushi: Madō o Kiwameta Ore ga Sanhyakunengo no Gijutsu Kakushin o Kitai Shite Tensei Shitara, Kanashiku Naruhodo Taika Shiteita……) is another wordy title. If you read Reborn to Master the Blade but wished it was grimdark and focused on a guy, this may be for you.

I’m Not the Hero! (Shujinkou ja Nai!) is another isekai, and is for people who read Banished from the Hero’s Party and thought “could I get that but with less sickening romance?”.

Also available next week: the 3rd Endo and Kobayashi Live! The Latest on Tsundere Villainess Lieselotte manga, Haibara’s Teenage New Game+ 4, I’ll Never Set Foot in That House Again! 6, Magic Stone Gourmet: Eating Magical Power Made Me The Strongest 2, Making Magic: The Sweet Life of a Witch Who Knows an Infinite MP Loophole 4, the 2nd Now I’m a Demon Lord! Happily Ever After with Monster Girls in My Dungeon manga, and Otherside Picnic 8. That last one excites me more than all the others put together.

ASH: I’m behind in reading it, but likewise!

SEAN: From Kodansha Manga. If you love Wotakoi and want more of it, good news! There’s an artbook! Wotakoi: Love Is Hard for Otaku Official Art Works is 120 pages of lovely art from this office otaku romcom.

ASH: Oh, nice!

SEAN: Also out in print: BAKEMONOGATARI 19, Blood on the Tracks 14, the 2nd Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro Manga Box Set, which has Vol. 7-12, Land of the Lustrous 12, Parasyte Full Color Collection 3, Rent-A-Girlfriend 20, and Something’s Wrong With Us 16.

ASH: Land of the Lustrous is always visually striking; it feels like it’s been a while since the previous volume was released.

SEAN: Digitally we see Boss Bride Days 8, Even Given the Worthless “Appraiser” Class, I’m Actually the Strongest 8, Gamaran: Shura 11, Hozuki’s Coolheadedness 15, Koigakubo-kun Stole My First Time 5, and My Home Hero 7.

One Peace Books has The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic 3.

Seven Seas’ danmei arm has Thousand Autumns: Qian Qiu 2.

And for Seven Seas proper we see Classroom of the Elite 7, Dance in the Vampire Bund: Age of Scarlet Order 9, The Ideal Sponger Life 14, Magic Artisan Dahlia Wilts No More 5, My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! 8, My Stepmother and Stepsisters Aren’t Wicked 2, and Sorry For My Familiar 11 (the final volume).

Square Enix Manga has Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?! 8, Otherside Picnic 6 (a double Otherside Picnic week!), and Ragna Crimson 10.

MICHELLE: Yay Cherry Magic!.

SEAN: Viz debuts Cat-Eyed Boy: The Perfect Edition, a bells-and-whistles re-release of the horror title that originally came out in English in 2008.

ASH: Glad to see this manga coming back into print.

SEAN: And there’s also The Art of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Anime, because too much Demon Slayer is never enough.

And we also have JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Part 5–Golden Wind 9.

ASH: I’ve managed to fall behind reading JoJo, but I’m still collecting it.

SEAN: Hooray, we’re done!… oh, wait Yen. We’re barely halfway.

ASH: This is why August must be so long.

SEAN: Yen On debuts Kunon the Sorcerer Can See (Majutsushi Kunon wa Miete Iru), the story of a blind magic-user who wants to use magic to create eyes for himself.

The other debut is Sentenced to Be a Hero: The Prison Records of Penal Hero Unit 9004 (Yuusha-kei ni Shosu – Choubatsu Yuusha 9004-tai Keimu Kiroku). The worst criminals become soldiers battling the demon army, forever getting killed and revived. Can our protagonist change that? The cover artist has been taking lessons from Accel World.

Also from Yen On: Accel World 26 (see?), Bride of the Barrier Master 2, Cross-Dressing Villainess Cecilia Sylvie 5, The Detective Is Already Dead 6, Hollow Regalia 2, I Got a Cheat Skill in Another World and Became Unrivaled in the Real World, Too 3, The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady 5, The Princess of Convenient Plot Devices 3, Sasaki and Miyano: Second-Years 2, Spice & Wolf 24, Spy Classroom 6, Sword Art Online 27, and That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime 16.

Manga debuts from Yen Press. After We Gazed at the Starry Sky (Hoshizora wo Mitsumeta Sono Ato de) is a BL title from Comic Fleur. The story of a famous photographer and his biggest fan, who meets him by chance at an event, is apparently very sweet, and also has one protagonist who uses a wheelchair, so FYI for those who watch for this.

MICHELLE: Oh this sounds potentially lovely!

ASH: It does!

ANNA: I’m interested.

SEAN: I Don’t Know Which Is Love (Dore ga Koi Ka ga Wakaranai) is a comedic yuri title from Comic Cune. Mei, rejected by the girl she loves in high school, is determined to get a girlfriend in college. Good news: she does! Bad news: there may be too many suitors, in fact…

ASH: Comedic yuri can sometimes be fun.

SEAN: I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level Spin-off: The Red Dragon Academy for Girls (Slime Taoshite 300-nen, Shiranai Uchi ni Level Max ni Nattemashita – Spin-off: Red Dragon Jogakuin) is the manga adaptation of the stories that run in the back of the most recent Killing Slimes light novels, showing Laika’s school years before she meets Azusa. It runs in Manga Up!.

Not-Sew-Wicked Stepmom is a webtoon based on a Korean villainess book. Our heroine dies and is reincarnated as the Evil Queen. Will she be able to dote on her adorable daughter, despite everyone thinking she’s evil (because she was until her memories came back)?

ASH: That title has to be a pun, right?

SEAN: Touge Oni: Primal Gods in Ancient Times comes from Enterbrain’s Harta, and fans of manga know this is a good thing. An orphan destined to be sacrificed meets a monk, and her fate is changed.

ASH: Count me curious, for sure!

SEAN: Also from Yen: A Business Proposal 2, A Certain Magical Index 27, The Demon Sword Master of Excalibur Academy 3, Durarara!! RE;DOLLARS Arc 8, Honey Lemon Soda 3, I’m a Behemoth, an S-Ranked Monster, but Mistaken for a Cat, I Live as an Elf Girl’s Pet 7, In the Land of Leadale 4, Interspecies Reviewers 8, Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? On the Side: Sword Oratoria 20, Let This Grieving Soul Retire 6, The Maid I Hired Recently Is Mysterious 6, MonsTABOO 4 (the final volume), [Oshi No Ko] 3, Puella Magi Madoka Magica: The Movie -Rebellion-: The Complete Omnibus Edition, Reign of the Seven Spellblades 6, The Saga of Tanya the Evil 20, Slasher Maidens 8, Solo Leveling 7, Studio Apartment, Good Lighting, Angel Included 3, Sunbeams in the Sky 2, Tsubaki-chou Lonely Planet 4, Villains Are Destined to Die 4, What This World Is Made Of 2, Yokohama Station SF 2, and Yowamushi Pedal 23.

MICHELLE: I need to catch up on Tsubaki-chou and Yowamushi Pedal!

ANNA: Me too!

SEAN: Yup, that was a lot. What are you picking up?

Filed Under: FEATURES, manga the week of

The Manga Review: I Had a VIZion of Love

August 11, 2023 by Katherine Dacey Leave a Comment

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

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

REVIEWS

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

New and Noteworthy

  • Akane-banashi, Vol. 1 (Adam Symchuk, Asian Movie Pulse)
  • Akane-banashi, Vol. 1 (Sakura Eries, The Fandom Post)
  • Cross-Dressing Villainess Cecilia Sylvie, Vols. 1-2 (The OASG)
  • Death Note 20th Anniversary Edition, Vol. 1 (Sakura Eries, The Fandom Post)
  • Higurashi: When They Cry-GOU, Vol. 1 (Rebecca Silverman, ANN)
  • Homunculus, Vol. 1 (Danica Davidson, Otaku USA)
  • Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Memoria Freese, Vol. 1 (Demelza, Anime UK News)
  • My Mate Is a Feline Gentleman (Sarah, Anime UK News)
  • The Princess of Convenient Plot Devices, Vol. 1 (Krystallina, The OASG)
  • River’s Edge (Arpad Okay, The Beat)
  • Saint? No, I’m Just a Passing Beast Tamer, Vol. 1 (Adam Symchuk, Asian Movie Pulse)
  • Saint? No, I’m Just a Passing Beast Tamer, Vol. 1 (Christopher Farris, ANN)
  • Secrets of the Silent Witch, Vol. 1 (Adam Symchuk, Asian Movie Pulse)
  • Secrets of the Silent Witch, Vol. 1 (darkstorm, Anime UK News)
  • The Shonen Jump Guide to Making Manga (Mark Thomas, The Fandom Post)
  • The Summer Hikaru Died, Vol. 1 (Caitlin Moore, ANN)
  • Villainess Level 99: I May Be the Hidden Boss, But I’m Not the Demon Lord, Vol. 1 (Josh Piedra, The Outerhaven)
  • Wolverine: SNIKT! (Sara Smith, The Graphic Library)
  • Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop, Vol. 1 (Karen Gellender, The Fandom Post)

Complete, OOP, and Ongoing Series

  • Ayashimon, Vol. 2 (King Baby Duck, Boston Bastard Brigade)
  • The Beginning After the End, Vols. 2-3 (Noemi10, Anime UK News)
  • Choujin X, Vol. 2 (King Baby Duck, Boston Bastard Brigade)
  • The Dark History of the Reincarnated Villainess, Vol. 7 (Demelza, Anime UK News)
  • Fist of the North Star, Vols. 8-9 (Grant Jones, ANN)
  • A Galaxy Next Door, Vol. 5 (Josh Piedra, The Outerhaven)
  • The Girl I Like Forget Her Glasses, Vol. 4 (Josh Piedra, The Outerhaven)
  • GunburerXSisters, Vols. 3-4 (Eric P., Okazu)
  • Hirano and Kagiura, Vol. 3 (Sarah, Anime UK News)
  • How Do We Relationship?, Vol. 9 (Josh Piedra, The Outerhaven)
  • Kowloon Generic Romance, Vol. 4 (Sarah, Anime UK News)
  • Lost Lad London, Vol. 3 (Sara Smith, The Graphic Library)
  • Love and Heart, Vol. 8 (Josh Piedra, The Outerhaven)
  • Love’s in Sight, Vol. 2 (King Baby Duck, Boston Bastard Brigade)
  • Mint Chocolate, Vol. 8 (Josh Piedra, The Outerhaven)
  • Mission: Yozakura Family, Vol. 5 (King Baby Duck, Boston Bastard Brigade)
  • Oshi no Ko, Vol. 2 (Sara Smith, The Graphic Library)
  • The Remarried Empress, Vol. 2 (Sara Smith, The Graphic Library)
  • Shadows House, Vol. 4 (Sarah, Anime UK News)
  • Villains Are Destined to Die, Vol. 2 (Sara Smith, The Graphic Library)
  • The World After the Fall, Vols. 2-3 (Adam Symchuk, Asian Movie Pulse)

Filed Under: FEATURES

Manga the Week of 8/16/23

August 10, 2023 by Sean Gaffney, Michelle Smith, Ash Brown and Anna N Leave a Comment

SEAN: Are these dog days? I think they’re dog days.

ASH: Seems like!

SEAN: Viz debuts Heart Gear, a new Signature title that runs in Shonen Jump +. Girl and robot try to survive in a future dystopia, but are beset by evil robot.

ASH: Signature, dystopia, and robots? Sounds like something I would read.

ANNA: I’m curious!

SEAN: Also from Viz: Children of the Whales 22, Choujin X 3, Jujutsu Kaisen 20, Love’s in Sight! 3, Mission: Yozakura Family 6, Rooster Fighter 4, The Way of the Househusband 10, and Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead 11.

ASH: I really need to catch up with The Way of the Househusband.

SEAN: Debuting from Tokyopop is Dead Company. Do you ever wish we brought back those manga where teenagers killed each other while wearing creepy rabbit masks? Good news! This ran in Comic Boost, which may be why it’s Tokyopop and not Yen Press.

MICHELLE: Snerk.

SEAN: Also from Tokyopop: I Was Reincarnated as the Villainess in an Otome Game but the Boys Love Me Anyway! 4, If My Favorite Pop Idol Made It to the Budokan, I Would Die 2, and Ogi’s Summer Break 2.

Square Enix debuts Mr. Villain’s Day Off (Kyuujitsu no Warumono-san), a Gangan Pixiv series. A supervillain turns out to be a totally different person on his day off, going to the zoo or eating ice cream.

Also from Square Enix: The Girl I Like Forgot Her Glasses 5 and The Great Jahy Will Not Be Defeated 6.

No debuts from Seven Seas, but there are new volumes. CANDY AND CIGARETTES 5, How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord 16, I Swear I Won’t Bother You Again! 4, Marmalade Boy: Collector’s Edition 3, and My Wife Has No Emotion 5.

One Peace Books debut Villainess Level 99: I May Be the Hidden Boss But I’m Not the Demon Lord (Akuyaku Reijou Level 99: Watashi wa UraBoss desu ga Maou de wa arimasen), based on the light novel J-Novel Club is releasing already. It runs in B’s Log Comic.

Kodansha Books has a new deluxe Maiden’s Bookshelf release, this time of the classic The Girl Who Became a Fish.

ASH: That one’s for me! I’ve really been liking this series.

SEAN: In print, Kodansha Manga has Medaka Kuroiwa is Impervious to My Charms 2, Orient 16, The Seven Deadly Sins Omnibus 11, The Seven Deadly Sins: Four Knights of the Apocalypse 9, Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun 3, and The Yakuza’s Bias 2.

MICHELLE: Yay, Iruma. And the first volume of The Yakuza’s Bias was pretty fun.

ANNA: I meant to read The Yakuza’s Bias, maybe I will wait for Michelle’s assessment of Volume 2.

SEAN: The digital debut is Issak, written by the creator of Yugo the Negotiator and running in Afternoon. Take a Japanese man, give him a gun, and throw him into the Thirty Years War.

Also digital: The Café Terrace and its Goddesses 9, Gamaran 12, I Guess I Became the Mother of the Great Demon King’s 10 Children in Another World 8, Messiah -CODE EDGE- 3, Nina the Starry Bride 10, and Teppu 2.

ANNA: I was thinking that there wouldn’t be much for me to pick from this week until I saw that Nina the Starry Bride was coming out. Yay!!!!!

SEAN: The digital debut from J-Novel Club is another wordy one: I’m Giving the Disgraced Noble Lady I Rescued a Crash Course in Naughtiness: I’ll Spoil Her with Delicacies and Style to Make Her the Happiest Woman in the World! (Konyaku Haki Sareta Reijō o Hirotta Ore ga, Ikenai Koto o Oshiekomu -Oishi Mono o Tabesasete Oshare o Sasete, Sekai Ichi Shiawase na Shōjo ni Produce!-). This has an anime coming out this fall. Despite the “naughtiness” in the title, it’s rather tame – the “I” in the title merely wishes to feed her delicious food.

ASH: So many words, but yay food?

SEAN: They also have DUNGEON DIVE: Aim for the Deepest Level 4, the 10th manga volume of The Faraway Paladin, Housekeeping Mage from Another World: Making Your Adventures Feel Like Home! 6, The Ideal Sponger Life 13, Make It Stop! I’m Not Strong… It’s Just My Sword! 2, and Safe & Sound in the Arms of an Elite Knight 2.

Ghost Ship has PULSE 4 (mature yuri, so I’ll put it here) and Sundome!! Milky Way 7.

Denpa says that Vampeerz 3 should be out around this time, and lacking any other evidence I’ll slot it here.

And Airship, in print, has I’m the Evil Lord of an Intergalactic Empire! 5 and Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation 23.

And in early digital titles we have Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear 15 and Sword of the Demon Hunter: Kijin Gentōshō 3.

No dogs, but no cats, either. What are you reading?

Filed Under: FEATURES, manga the week of

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