SEAN: The end of April, and the daffodils are blooming. What manga do we have?
Airship gives us a print version of the 10th Mushoku Tensei novel and digital versions of The Hidden Dungeon Only I Can Enter 4 and PENGUINDRUM 3 (the final volume).
ASH: I still need to read PENGUINDRUM.
SEAN: J-Novel Club has new digital volumes, as we get Full Metal Panic! 11, The Great Cleric 2, The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar 15, and My Friend’s Little Sister Has It In for Me 2.
In print… theoretically… Kodansha Manga has the 7th volume of My Boy, a former Vertical title. It’s nowhere on their website, but all the major outlets list it.
The digital debut is The Honey-blood Beauty & Her Vampire (Mitsugetsuhime to Vampire), a shoujo title from Palcy about a vampire and his charge, a girl whose blood tastes amazing. This comes with the usual “lead guy is pervert and sadist” warning that a lot of these shoujo titles do. I’m sure he will get better, it’s only 4 volumes.
MICHELLE: I’ll be passing on this one.
ANNA: Me too.
MJ: Ugh.
SEAN: There’s also Blue Lock 2, Dr. Ramune -Mysterious Disease Specialist- 4, A Girl & Her Guard Dog 3, Orient 11, We’re New at This 5, and Will It Be the World or Her? 4.
The big debut for Seven Seas is SUPER SENTAI: Himitsu Sentai Gorenger. This manga ran in Weekly Shonen Sunday in the mid-1970s, and almost every sentai series since owes a debt to it. You may recognize the author from Cyborg 009 or Kamen Rider. It’s in one big deluxe hardcover, containing the whole manga.
ANNA: Sounds cool, I’m glad that we’re getting more retro manga!
ASH: I really enjoyed what we got of Cyborg 009, and I’m likewise excited to see older titles being licensed!
MJ: Same here!
SEAN: The other debut also involves heroics, but in a more yuri way. Superwomen in Love! Honey Trap and Rapid Rabbit (Hero-san to Moto Onna Kanbu-san) is a Yuri Hime title about a villainess who can’t defeat her arch-nemesis… as she finally sees her face and is in love! Cast out of her villain society, she ends up moving in with the hero. I’ve heard very good things about this.
ASH: I’m not particularly interested in superheroics, but my curiosity is piqued.
MJ: I’m intrigued!
SEAN: Digitally we get Alice in the Country of Joker: The Nightmare Trilogy, which as you might guess is three volumes.
There’s also the 4th Arifureta Zero manga, Blue Giant Omnibus 3-4, Magika Swordsman and Summoner 14, PENGUINDRUM 4 (the manga this time), and Tamamo-chan’s a Fox! 2.
ANNA: I still have the fist volume of Blue Giant sitting on my bookshelf unread but I’m looking forward to reading it!
ASH: I actually have read the first omnibus and am definitely looking forward to reading more of Blue Giant.
SEAN: Tokyopop has three debuts. I Was Reincarnated as the Villainess in an Otome Game but the Boys Love Me Anyway! (Akuyaku Reijou Desu ga, Kouyaku Taishou no Yousu ga Ijou Sugiru) is from TO Books’ Corona Comics, is based on a light novel, and the plot you can probably guess. That said, it’s surprisingly serious-minded.
Laughing Under the Clouds (Donten ni Warau) is a new shoujo series from Mag Garden’s Comic Avarus. This historical tragedy has spawned many sequels, and deals with three brothers hired to bring criminals to a prison.
The last debut is Our Not-So-Lonely Planet Travel Guide (Bokura no Chikyuu no Arukikata), another Mag Garden title about two men taking a vacation around the world before they marry each other. The vacation is the point of the manga.
MICHELLE: Huh. That might be interesting.
MJ: This does sound interesting.
SEAN: The debut for Viz is a new Junji Ito story collection, this one called Lovesickness. it’s a 400-page hardcover of more of the author’s scariest works.
ASH: I’m always here for Junji Ito manga.
MJ: Count me in!
SEAN: Also coming out: Asadora 2, the 3rd and final novel for Bleach: Can’t Fear Your Own World, Blue Flag 7, Golden Kamuy 21, and Ultraman 15.
ANNA: I need to get caught up on Blue Flag.
ASH: I just recently caught up on it myself; it’s good!
SEAN: Yen On has reprints of Haruhi Suzumiya 7 & 8, the third and final volume of A Mysterious Job Called Oda Nobunaga, and Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World 6.
Yen Press debuts Hana and the Shape of the World (Hana-chan to, Sekai no Katachi), a one-shot collection revolving around a young girl exploring her town. This ran in Comic Beam.
ASH: I’m expecting this one to be good – it was one of the jury selections from last year’s Japan Media Arts Festival.
MJ: This sounds lovely.
SEAN: There’s also a 2nd Cirque du Freak omnibus, The Dark History of the Reincarnated Villainess 2, Mint Chocolate 2, Plunderer 7, RaW Hero 4, Sasaki and Miyano 2, So I’m a Spider, So What? 9, and Yowamushi Pedal 17.
Vampires? Sentai? Villainesses? Vacationing gay men? What holds your interest the most?