SEAN: The final week of 2020, a year I will be all too happy to put behind me. What’s coming out?
J-Novel Club has Otherside Picnic 4, Welcome to Japan, Ms. Elf! 5, and the 2nd and final volume of WATARU!!! The Hot-Blooded Fighting Teen & His Epic Adventures After Stopping a Truck with His Bare Hands!!.
Kodansha has just two titles in print next week. That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime: Trinity in Tempest 2 (which I do not care about) and Witch Hat Atelier 7 (which I do).
MICHELLE: I pledge that someday I will actually read Witch Hat Atelier.
ASH: You have a treat waiting for you, Michelle! Witch Hat Atelier is truly wonderful.
ANNA: I agree, it is a wonderful series.
SEAN: Digitally it has a lot more. The debut is We’re New At This (Mijuku na Futari de Gozaimasu ga), a series from the creator of Ao-chan Can’t Study!. Two childhood friends have gotten married and love each other… but they’re both total innocents! Can they figure out how to do what couples do? This runs in Comic Days.
Also out digitally: Fairy Tail: Happy’s Heroic Adventure 7, Guilty 7, My Boyfriend in Orange 10, Shaman King: The Super Star 4 (which catches us up with Japan, I think), A Sign of Affection 3, and The Prince’s Romance Gambit 8. A Sign of Affection is already on my must-buy list.
MICHELLE: That’s another one I need to actually start. I also enjoy Guilty, which is a fun josei drama about people who definitely don’t need lessons on what couples do.
SEAN: Seven Seas has a trio of titles, the most important being the 4th and final volume of Satoko & Nada. They also have the print version of Restaurant to Another World 4 and the print version of Arifureta Zero 4.
MICHELLE: Yay Satoko & Nada.
ASH: This series is a delight! I’m so happy that it was released in translation.
SEAN: Sol Press has 4 digital titles, all light novels. The only one that isn’t a debut is Chivalry of a Failed Knight 4.
The Game Master Has Logged into Another World (GM ga Isekai ni Login Shimashita). Gamer and GM collapses one day and finds himself in a game, now he has to call on his special cheat GM powers. I hate everything I typed just now.
I Surrendered My Sword for a New Life As a Mage (Moto Saikyou no Kenshi wa, Isekai Mahou ni Akogareru). A boy really wants to learn magic… but has no talents there. He does have amazing talents as the reincarnation of a master swordsman, but still… he wants to learn magic! This sounds slightly better, but only slightly.
Let This Grieving Soul Retire! Woe is the Weakling Who Leads the Strongest Party (Nageki no Bourei wa Intai Shitai: Saijiyaku Hanta ni Yoru Saikiyou Patei Ikusei Jutsu). This actually made it onto the end-of-year Light Novel Popularity polls, which is why I might actually look at it, despite being a “weak to strong” book, a genre I’m not fond of. Our hero’s friends have cool powers. He does not. But for some reason they keep expecting things of him.
Square Enix has a third volume of My Dress-Up Darling.
ASH: This series really surprised me. It’s definitely risqué, but it has some depth to the story and characters, too.
SEAN: Tokyopop has the 7th and final omnibus of Aria The Masterpiece, meaning after 16 years, and being cancelled twice by two different companies, we can finally read the end of Aria.
ASH: Wow!
MJ: I don’t even know what to say about this.
ANNA: I suppose it is certainly some sort of publishing achievement.
SEAN: Vertical has a 2nd in NISIOISIN’s Pretty Boy Detective Club series, The Swindler, the Vanishing Man, and the Pretty Boys.
Yen On has a few December stragglers. This includes a debut. The World’s Finest Assassin, Reincarnated in a Different World as an Aristocrat (Sekai Saikou no Ansatsusha, Isekai Kizoku ni Tensei Suru) sounds a whole lot like a number of other series we’ve seen recently, to be honest.
ASH: There does seem to have been one or two of those…
SEAN: There’s also Bungo Stray Dogs 5, Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World 5, and Woof Woof Story 5. Lotta 5s.
Lastly, Yen Press has High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even in Another World 9 (manga version) and A Terrified Teacher at Ghoul School 9.
What manga will you be reading to help you forget 2020?