SEAN: February. I can’t believe we’re still in February.
ASH: It really does seem to be taking its time this year.
SEAN: Fantagraphics gives us the 2nd volume of Kago’s (has he dropped his first name?) Dementia 21, which promises to be disturbing in many and varied ways.
ASH: The first volume was pretty great, in true Kago fashion, so reader be warned.
SEAN: J-Novel Club has dabbled in shoujo light novels (Bakarina), but at Anime NYC they announced a big push to start a shoujo LN line. The first of those is out next week, I Refuse to Be Your Enemy! (Watashi wa Teki ni Narimasen!). It’s from PASH! Books. The premise is quite similar to Bakarina: the heroine realizes that she’s the villain character in an RPG… but she’s not the villain till she gets married! When her future husband shows up, she decides to RUN AWAY!
MICHELLE: Sounds potentially fun.
ANNA: Running away from husbands is a good trope.
SEAN: J-Novel Club also have Banner of the Stars 2, Cooking with Wild Game 6, and The Greatest Magicmaster’s Retirement Plan 4.
In print next week, Kodansha gives us Drifting Dragons 3, Eden’s Zero 6, Fairy Tail 100 Year Quest 3, Gleipnir 6, and O Maidens in Your Savage Season 6. That’s more print than the last four weeks have had.
ASH: I’ve been meaning to give Drifting Dragons a try now that it’s available in print. I’m a volume or so behind, but O Maidens in Your Savage Season has been consistently excellent.
SEAN: The digital debut is I’ll Win You Over, Sempai! (Senpai! Ima Kara Kokurimasu!), a 5-volume shoujo series from Nakayoshi. A girl has lived a life when she’s always confessed successfully and never been dumped… till now. Still, she persists… because if she just keeps confessing over and over, eventually he’ll say yes! This seems like the sort of series that had better be very funny or it may be excruciating.
MICHELLE: Forsooth.
SEAN: Also out digitally is GE: Good Ending 2, Living Room Matsunaga-san 7, Lovesick Ellie 10, MabuSasa 2, and Shojo FIGHT! 9.
MICHELLE: Yay for more Lovesick Ellie and Shojo FIGHT!.
ANNA: I need to get caught up.
SEAN: Seven Seas has four titles, all 2nd volumes. We get Arifureta ZERO’s 2nd manga volume, How to Train Your Devil 2, the 2nd (early digital) volume of Neon Genesis Evangelion: ANIMA, and Nicola Traveling Around the Demons’ World 2.
ASH: The first volume of Nicola Traveling Around the Demons’ World was an absolute delight! The second is high on my list to pick up.
SEAN: Tokyopop gives us the done-in-one volume Dekoboku Sugar Days, another BL title from Gentosha, this one from LOVE xxx BOYS Pixiv. A boy who always had to be protected by our hero as a kid is now all grown up… and huge! Can there still be any protecting? What about a confession?
Vertical has the 7th Arakawa Under the Bridge and a 2nd Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro.
Viz gives us Downfall, an Inio Asano title for those who think Dead Dead Demon is too light and cheery. It’s depressing, realistic, and no doubt excellent. It ran in Big Comic Superior.
MICHELLE: I’m sure it’s excellent, but I just can’t handle depressing these days.
ANNA: Me too, I’ll stick with the cheerfulness of Dead Dead Demon.
ASH: I’ll definitely be reading this, but will need to wait for the timing to be just right.
MJ: Wow.
SEAN: Also from Viz: The Drifting Classroom Perfect Edition 2, Golden Kamuy 14, Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt 13, Ran and the Gray World 6, Tokyo Ghoul: re 15, and, most importantly, Urusei Yatsura’s 5th omnibus.
ASH: Ooooh, I’ll be reading quite a few of those, too!
MJ: I still mourn what Ran and the Gray World was in its first volume.
SEAN: Yen On has a 10th volume of No Game No Life, the first to come out without any delays in ages. They’ve also got Log Horizon 1-11 out digitally, meaning every Yen On series is now available in both print and digital. Hooray!
As for Yen Press and the manga end, no debuts, but we do get Interspecies Reviewers 3, Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Familia Chronicle Episode Lyu 6, Kakegurui Twin 5, Overlord a La Carte 3, Re: ZERO Arc 3 Volume 10, The Royal Tutor 13, Silver Spoon 13…
MJ: Silver Spoooooooooooooooon!
ASH: Silver Spoon is a terrific series.
SEAN: …Skull-Faced Bookseller Honda-san 3, and Tales of Wedding Rings 8.
ASH: Looking forward to spending some more time with my Skull-Faced friend.
MJ: I’m here for Skull-Face.
SEAN: That’s quite a bit. Anything tickle your fancy?