SEAN: Has anyone else run out of time to read things? You’d think I’d be reading MORE in a pandemic, but…
MICHELLE: I have run out of brain to read things.
ANNA: My non-work reading and writing have suffered.
ASH: It’s strange but true.
MJ: What is time?
SEAN: Airship has the print debut of Failure Frame: I Became the Strongest and Annihilated Everything With Low-Level Spells. Also in print is the second ROLL OVER AND DIE: I Will Fight for an Ordinary Life with My Love and Cursed Sword!, and digital-first gives us the 2nd Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs.
Dark Horse has a 7th Deluxe Hardcover edition of Berserk.
ASH: It’s probably no surprise that I’ll be picking that up.
SEAN: Drawn & Quarterly has a biggie: the late Shigeru Mizuki’s adaptation of Tono Monogatari, a famous collection of folklore. It ran in Shogakukan’s Big Comic.
ASH: My recent brief doesn’t truly do it justice, but I love this book.
MJ: Ash is persuasive!
SEAN: No debuts for J-Novel Club, but a lot of new volumes of beloved series. We see Ascendance of a Bookworm 11, Bibliophile Princess 5, the 2nd manga volume of The Engagement of Marielle Clarac, Girls Kingdom 2, Infinite Dendrogram 14, the 5th manga volume of The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar, and Slayers 6.
ASH: Yay, Bookworm!
SEAN: Kaiten Books has a debut with Welcome to the Outcast’s Restaurant, a manga version of the light novel we’ve seen released here by Tentai Books. A strong adventurer, banished by his party, starts a restaurant, and has to deal with his customers’ varied issues.
ASH: There seems to be a surprising number of these types of restaurants.
SEAN: Kodansha has some print. There’s Grand Blue Dreaming 12, Rent-a-Girlfriend 5, Saint Young Men 5 (in hardcover omnibus), and the 14th and final Waiting for Spring.
MICHELLE: I’ve been waiting for Waiting for Spring‘s finale for ages!
ANNA: I have the first volume and I still haven’t read it!
ASH: I’ve liked what I’ve read of Waiting for Spring so far, but Saint Young Men has most of my attention from this batch.
MJ: Same here!
SEAN: For digital, the debut is Shaman King: Marcos, which runs in Shonen Magazine Edge, and is MORE SHAMAN KING.
Also digital: A Couple of Cuckoos 3, Ace of the Diamond 31, Peach Boy Riverside 5, Saint Young Men 10, Seven Shakespeares 15, and We Must Never Fall in Love 7.
MICHELLE: A baseball binge is in store for me!
SEAN: Seven Seas has two debuts. The first had an anime recently, and it’s called Super HxEros (Dokyuu Hentai HxEros). Despite the Japanese title, this isn’t quite porn, but it does run on fanservice. Aliens are sapping the world’s lust, and only superheroes who can use their own lust to power up can stop them. This runs in Jump Square, home of Blue Exorcist, believe it or not, and is 11+ volumes in Japan.
The other debut is Wonder Cat Kyuu-chan (Fushigi Neko no Kyuu-chan), a 4-koma about an office worker who finds an abandoned cat that proves to be… a wonder cat! This looks very cute.
ANNA: That does sound cute.
ASH: It does.
SEAN: Also from Seven Seas: Akashic Records of Bastard Magical Instructor 11, Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest 6 (manga), Arpeggio of Blue Steel 17, Peter Grill and the Philosopher’s Time 4, The Ideal Sponger Life 8 (manga), The Saint’s Magic Power Is Omnipotent 2 (manga), and We Swore to Meet in the Next Life and That’s When Things Got Weird! 2.
SuBLime gives us Caste Heaven 5 and the 2nd and final volume of Toritan – Birds of a Feather.
MICHELLE: I need to check out Toritan. Caste Heaven was not for me.
ASH: I haven’t tried Caste Heaven yet, but I really liked the first volume of Toritan. I didn’t realize it was only two volumes long.
SEAN: Tokyopop has Katakoi Lamp, a BL title from Rutile. A young man working at a coffee shop falls for a customer, but can he work up the courage to confess?
They also have the 2nd volume of Ossan Idol!.
Vertical has a 9th volume of Flying Witch and a 3rd With a Dog AND a Cat, Every Day is Fun.
Viz has Tokyo Fashion: A Comic Book, an illustrated guide to building your wardrobe and looking good.
ASH: Oh, that could be interesting!
SEAN: We also have Fly Me to the Moon 4, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess 8, RIN-NE 38, and Splatoon: Squid Kids Comedy Show 3.
Yen On has a debut, with The Executioner and Her Way of Life (Shokei Shoujo no Ikirumichi), about a woman whose job it is to STOP isekai protagonists – they keep bringing chaos whenever they arrive! Unfortunately, the girl she meets may be more than she can handle. Nice seeing more yuri light novels.
ASH: That is kind of a delightful and cathartic twist to the isekai deluge. And it’s yuri, too? I may have to check it out!
SEAN: Yen On also has Combatants Will Be Dispatched! 5.
Three debuts from Yen Press. I Cannot Reach You (Kimi ni wa Todokanai) is a BL series from Media Factory’s Gene Pixiv, and is a childhood friend romance sort of story. It looks sweet.
MICHELLE: I’m really looking forward to this one!
ASH: Me, too!
MJ: Okay, yes, THIS.
SEAN: SEAN: Play It Cool, Guys (Cool Doji Danshi) runs in Square Enix’s Gangan Pixiv, and features a bunch of cool guys who are secretly… awkward dorks! This seems more on the funny side.
ASH: Could be fun!
SEAN: Penguin Gentlemen (Penguin Shinshi) is a done-in-one hardcover about a group of penguins who run a bar. Sometimes they’re drawn as penguins… and sometimes they’re drawn as buff hot guys. This ran in Kadokawa’s Pixiv Essay.
ANNA: This sounds hilarious.
ASH: It really does, in the best sort of way.
MJ: This sounds amazing.
SEAN: Lastly, Yen has Happy Sugar Life 8, I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years 5 (manga), Kakegurui Twin 9, and Restaurant to Another World 4.
What series are you falling more and more behind on?
MICHELLE: ALL OF THEM.
ANNA: SO MANY SERIES!
MJ: I REPEAT, WHAT IS TIME?