Manga the Week of 12/16

SEAN: There are 39 titles due out next week. Thirty-nine. Let’s take a look. Try not to get lost in the deluge.

Attack on Titan’s 17th volume has a Special Edition with a DVD of Ilse’s Notebook, the side story from the 5th volume.

ASH: It’s really interesting to see special editions like this starting to come out!

SEAN: Fairy Tail has a 51st volume.

Kiss Him, Not Me! and L♥DK both have their second volumes which may interest shoujo fans.

MICHELLE: I suppose I will check out the second volume of L♥DK just to see whether it improves, but I don’t have high hopes.

SEAN: And Say “I Love You” has an 11th volume that is a must for shoujo fans.

MICHELLE: A definite must.

ANNA: I am way behind on this series! Maybe I will binge read during an upcoming vacation.

SEAN: Tsubasa has finally climbed out of its Reservoir and is ready to take on the world with the debut of Tsubasa World Chronicle 1. I am trying to contain my enthusiasm. See? :|

MICHELLE: I didn’t even know this existed!

ANNA: You know, I used to be a major CLAMP fan, and now I have CLAMP fatigue.

MICHELLE: Yeah, I think that has afflicted me, too. I never finished xxxHOLiC or the first Tsubasa series, despite owning them all, and now they both have sequels I haven’t touched. And then there’s that Gate 7 series, which utterly failed to make an impression with me.

ANNA: Most of my remaining feelings of affection for CLAMP are tied up in nostalgia for X/1999. So much angst and feathers!

MICHELLE: I have an enduring fondness for CLAMP Campus Detectives, but more so the anime than the manga. Oh, and Cardcaptor Sakura!

SEAN: It is rather sad that Man of Many Faces is still in my top 5 CLAMP works, given it was their first. (It’s out digitally next week as well, by the way! Rescued by Viz.)

ANNA: Cardcaptor Sakura is also great! Actually, I’m interested in reading Man of Many Faces, and I didn’t realize that it was out digitally.

MJ: I’m probably the only person here unlikely to succumb to CLAMP fatigue, I suppose, and while a Tsubasa sequel is not high on the list of what I’d really like to see most from them, I’ll surely check it out. Their artwork will always be a draw for me, and they have a knack for creating characters I can’t get enough of. Even when they write themselves into a hole (as they’ve occasionally done), I’ll stick around to the end.

SEAN: One Peace has a 5th (final?) volume of Aquarion Evol.

ANNA: I have some volumes of Aquarion I need to read.

SEAN: If you’ve somehow not read the brilliant and evocative A Distant Neighborhood books from Ponent Mon, they’ve got a Complete Edition out next week to correct that.

MICHELLE: I really liked A Distant Neighborhood.

ASH: Very glad to see this coming back into print!

ANNA: I haven’t read this, but I know it is wonderful, and I am also glad it is coming back into print.

MJ: It really *is* wonderful, and I’m so glad to see it coming back!

SEAN: And Seven Seas also has an omnibus of Mayo Chiki starting next week, whose audience is possibly a bit different from that of A Distant Neighborhood.

Vertical debuts a novel that will be of great interest to anime fans: Kizumonogatari: Wound Tale, the first (chronologically) of the popular Monogatari series from Nisioisin (author of Medaka Box and Zaregoto). I am VERY excited for its release, even though it has vampires – possibly that only adds to the excitement!

ANNA: Vampires are always exciting!

MEILNDA: I’m always willing to try something from Vertical, even if vampires are involved.

SEAN: Vertical also has the 12th and final volume of Mobile Suit Gundam the Origin. It’s a labor of love, and I’m sure that the Manga Bookshelf team, particularly Ash, are ready to congratulate them on its completion.

ASH: It’s true! This has been a fantastic release. Congrats, Vertical!

ANNA: Vertical deserves some sort of award for this lovely edition.

SEAN: And if Gundam is too realistic for you, try the second Ninja Slayer, also from Vertical.

Afterschool Charisma is a series I keep forgetting is still running, but here’s the 11th volume.

ANNA: I’m way behind on this, but I like it!

SEAN: And here is the 17th Dorohedoro, which I could never forget. Are these two the last remnants of SigIKKI?

MICHELLE: I believe so.

ASH: I love Dorohedoro so much.

SEAN: Master Keaton has a 5th volume already. I’ve fallen behind on this series.

MICHELLE: Me, too. I did start, but got bogged down somewhere in volume two.

ANNA: I am happy to report that this is one series I am not behind on! I enjoy Master Keaton.

SEAN: And a 4th volume of the insanely popular Tokyo Ghoul, which will war with Attack on Titan 17 for the top of the bestseller charts.

Yen On has five light novels out for the holidays. The 2nd Black Bullet will, I suspect, be as grim as the debut was.

The Devil Is A Part-Timer! has proven to be very likeable, and I hope the third volume continues the trend.

I remain surprised at how addictive Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In a Dungeon? has become, particularly with that title. The 4th volume is also highly anticipated.

We’ve nearly come to the end of the long running Spice & Wolf novel series, with Vol. 16 being the 2nd to last.

And Sword Art Online’s 6th novel wraps up another arc, as Kirito and Sinon try to figure out the secret behind the Gun Gale Online game and those using it to kill players in real life.

MJ: I think I’m one of the few folks here who is pretty into SAO… how did that happen? In any case, I’m always ready for more!

SEAN: Yen Press has a number of debuts next week, beginning with Aldnoah Zero, which (like Rose Guns Days) gets a Season One appended to it. It runs in Manga Time Kirara Forward, but don’t expect it to be a 4-koma: this is a serious sci-fi title based on an anime created at the same time.

ASH: I haven’t seen the anime yet, but I am rather curious about the Aldnoah Zero manga.

MJ: I’m interested as well.

SEAN: There’s an 8th Barakamon, which I do recommend if you’re missing Yotsuba&!, even though the two titles have a somewhat different feel.

MICHELLE: I have a big stack of Barakamon that I really need to get around to reading.

MJ: I haven’t given this title its due, but I really should pay more attention to it!

SEAN: For those who don’t like prose, there’s the 2nd volume of the Black Bullet manga.

A ninth volume of Bloody Cross no doubt sees the series headed towards its endgame.

And there’s a third volume of eccentric fantasy Chaika the Coffin Princess.

Demon from Afar is up to Vol. 5, and no doubt continues to look very pretty and destroy all our hopes and dreams.

The third Emma omnibus also will look very pretty, but likely has 100% fewer corpses.

MICHELLE: *snerk*

MJ: I’m still excited every time one of these shows up, since I missed this series the first time around!

SEAN: And we get a 5th volume of He’s My Only Vampire. One of a large number of vampire manga out there, it’s trying to be our steady and doing a pretty good job.

MICHELLE: Definitely my favorite of the vampire gang.

ANNA: Is it odd that I haven’t read this yet? Probably.

MJ: I think that’s very odd indeed!

SEAN: Maximum Ride is not technically a manga, but it certainly sells well enough, so let’s mention the 9th volume here.

The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi-chan is now at double digits, and I suspect will run till the author (Puyo, not the author of the original source) decides it is over.

Of the Red, the Light and the Ayakashi is based on a visual novel, and runs in Media Factory’s sorta-kinda-shoujo magazine Comic Gene. Expect prettiness.

MICHELLE: I’ve started reading this and it’s giving me some Natsume’s Book of Friends vibes, which is definitely a compliment.

ASH: Oooh, that’s good to hear! And the cover art is pretty, too!

ANNA: I’m always up for pretty sorta-kinda-shoujo.

MJ: I’m up for this, definitely, especially after reading Michelle’s comment above.

SEAN: Pandora Hearts has a 23rd volume, and it’s the first to come out in over a year, so I’ll let Michelle and MJtake over from here.

MICHELLE: I’ve fallen somewhat behind, so I am going to have a nice big marathon and it’ll be awesome. And then I’ll wait in desperation for the 24th and final volume to come out.

MJ: I have *not* fallen behind, as you might imagine, and have been anticipating this rather anxiously! My love for this series has not waned!

SEAN: Puella Magi Madoka Magica: The Movie has a first volume, and is sure to appeal to fans of Homura who couldn’t get enough of the movie—ow, I think I cut myself on my sarcasm there.

MJ: I haven’t been able to maintain any interest in this series beyond the original anime. So many books. So little interest.

SEAN: There’s also a 2nd volume of Puella Magi Suzune Magica.

Rose Guns Days Season One gets a 2nd volume, as we learn more about this strange occupied Japan and the eccentrics populating it.

The Secret Sakura Shares is a done-in-1 omnibus that ran in Hakusensha’s LaLa and LaLa DX magazines, and I love that we’re seeing Hakusensha titles get additional publisher availability. That said, I suspect many readers will have trouble getting past the premise.

MICHELLE: Yeah, I don’t know about this one, but I’m gonna read it anyway.

ANNA: Hmmmmmm.

MJ: I just read the premise, and I agree I may have trouble getting past it. I guess we’ll see.

SEAN: Sunshine Sketch 8 finally bids farewell to its two gayest… sorry, oldest characters, as Sae and Hiro are graduating. But the series continues, and we gain some new students in the process.

Lastly, we have the first Yowamushi Pedal omnibus, as an incredibly popular shonen cycling series finally gets a chance in the West, despite a huge number of volumes extant. There are, I hear, one or two male fans. Somewhere. But for the most part, YowaPeda is known for its BL fandom, though the manga itself is not BL.

MICHELLE: I’m looking forward to this one a lot. Not for the BL but for its presumed sports manga-y aspects.

ASH: I’m certainly excited to see publishers giving sports manga another chance!

ANNA: I am always wishing for more sports manga, so I’m glad this is coming out.

MJ: Yay sports manga! Yay BL fandom! I’m ready for it all!

SEAN: That’s it. Finally. What are you getting?