SEAN: The end of the month, and we celebrate by doing this list in reverse order, mostly because I want to lead with the Big One.
Yen Press is bringing out Silver Spoon, Hiromu Arakawa’s farming manga that is her big followup to Fullmetal Alchemist. The story of a young man’s coming of age at an agricultural university, it’s a personal favorite, and I have been begging for its license for years. Everyone NEEDS to read this.
MICHELLE: So excite.
ANNA: I am also excited!
MJ: This is so exciting to me. I, too, have been begging for this license forever, somehow missed it had even happened, and now I’m just awash in joy.
ASH: I also share in the excitement! I really enjoyed the anime adaptation, but I’m thrilled that the original manga will finally be translated, too!
SEAN: There are also a number of ongoing Yen Press series that are not Silver Spoon. Scum’s Wish 6; the 3rd and final volume of Rose Guns Days Season 3 (STEEEELLLLAAAAAA!); A Polar Bear in Love 2; an 8th volume of Log Horizon: The West Wind Brigade, whose end was recently announced in Japan; Girls’ Last Tour 4; Delicious in Dungeon 4; and Aoharu x Machinegun 9.
MICHELLE: I still have every intention of reading Delicious in Dungeon!
ANNA: Me too, but sometimes my intentions do not manifest in reality.
ASH: Delicious in Dungeon is one of my favorite series being published right now. I was also surprised by how much I enjoyed the first volume of A Polar Bear in Love, so I’m looking forward to reading more of that series, too.
SEAN: We also have new light novels! Psycome comes to an end with its 6th and final volume (there’s apparently a short story collection as well, but I wouldn’t hold your breath). Log Horizon’s 10th volume catches us up with Japan, so it may be a while before Book 11. And there’s also a 6th Re: Zero, a 5th volume of the DanMachi spinoff Sword Oratoria, a 2nd volume of The Empty Box and Zeroth Maria, and Vols. 4-5 of Kieli out digitally.
And speaking of digital, Yen has new digital volumes of Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun (4), Saki (14), IM: Great Priest Imhotep (5), Gesellschaft Blume (5), Corpse Princess (15) and Aphorism (14).
ASH: Saki!
SEAN: Viz also has a digital release, with a new volume of The Emperor and I.
Vertical Inc. gives us Nekomonogatari (White), which wraps up Tsubasa Hanekawa’s character arc by giving us a book narrated by her. Can the series hold up without Araragi’s eccentric and teenage-boy riddled monologues? Probably.
Vertical Comics gives us a 2nd omnibus of The Flowers of Evil.
Udon gives us the 2nd volume of Infini-T Force.
Seven Seas’ debut is another print release of a J-Novel Club digital novel series. Clockwork Planet will also be familiar to manga fans from Kodansha’s release, and anime fans from a relatively unpopular series. The novel is worth reading, though.
ASH: I’m really liking this partnership between J-Novel Club and Seven Seas.
SEAN: We also see Unmagical Girl 2, Freezing 19-20, a 2nd Devilman Grimoire, and most importantly for Manga Bookshelf folks, an 8th volume of The Ancient Magus’ Bride.
MICHELLE: I now have a stack of The Ancient Magus’ Bride on my desk, courtesy of my local library!
ASH: Always glad to see a new volume of The Ancient Magus’ Bride! I also rather liked the first volume of Devilman Grimoire, though that series is a different beast entirely.
SEAN: Kodansha has some great print releases next week, with a 13th Kiss Him, Not Me! (still making me wonder if the pairing will stick), a 7th Clockwork Planet (the manga), and a 2nd volume of the Clear Card sequel series to Cardcaptor Sakura.
MICHELLE: I hope a bit more happens in this volume of Clear Card.
SEAN: The big debut, though, is Again!!, a manga by one of the creators of Yuri on Ice. If you always wanted to see Peggy Sue Got Married but with Japanese Ouendan cheerleaders, this is the title for you. I’m looking forward to this quite a bit.
MICHELLE: I might possibly be even more excited about this than Silver Spoon!
ANNA: AHHHHHHHHHH!
MJ: This sounds awesome.
ASH: Doesn’t it though?! This should be great.
SEAN: Kodansha Digital surprised us by announcing they were putting out a digital release of Dragon Head next week – all 10 volumes of this seinen thriller classic.
ASH: I was pleasantly surprised by this announcement! Dragon Head goes a little off the rails here and there, but overall it’s a great post-apocalyptic survival series. I’m glad to see it legally available in English again.
SEAN: There’s also new volumes for PTSD Radio (4), Pitch-Black Ten (3), My Brother the Shut-In (2), and My Boyfriend in Orange (3).
J-Novel Club debuts a new series called [New Life +] Young Again in Another World, which features the usual suspects you expect with a series that has “In Another World” in its title, but the gimmick is that the protagonist lived to be 94 before he was reincarnated.
They’ve also got a 2nd volume of Walking My Second Path in Life, whose first volume I really enjoyed. Plus, female protagonist!
And Ghost Ship has a 3rd volume of the “racier than the very racy original” sequel To-Love-Ru Darkness.
Aside from the must buy that is Silver Spoon (and, if I’m honest, you should get Again!! as well), what are you picking up next week?
AshLynx says
February 22, 2018 at 6:13 pmHmm, Ancient Magus’ Bride is the clear must, but I also definitely want Again and am willing to try Silver Spoon (I actually do not like the FMA manga as much as most people, I actually prefer the 2003 series that deviates after only 4 volumes of the manga). I will also be picking up more Re:Zero and Aoharu x Machinegun as well.
More important than pure manga this week for me though was that yesterday (Japan time), the showed a clip and key visuals for the Banana Fish anime! I’m a little skeptical on two things: 1) 24 eps to adapt the entire manga and 2) it taking place in modern day (I kind of felt like the 80sness was pretty important, as was not having cell phones and therefore not having to worry about being “on the grid”, so to say. Ash better ditch those cell phones fast before he’s outed by simple GPS tracking, both any phone he might have and any phone anyone around him might have).