Minami Nanami Wants to Shine, Vol. 1 | By Bana Yoshida and Yuki Yaku | Yen Press – For most of the volume, this feels like a typical side-story spin-off from Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki, focusing on perpetual second-best Minami, and her frustration with being the perpetual second-best. The plot involves her mother, who works at a modeling agency, suggesting that her daughter model for them. Minami is a bit taken aback by this, partly as I don’t think she really sees herself as pretty, but also because it’s not anything she had thought about before. The surprise comes when she chooses NOT to run against Aoi for student council—as in the books—and goes for the modeling instead. Will she succeed? Will she start to like herself? Can’t wait to find out. – Sean Gaffney
My Love Mix-Up! Vol. 3 | By Wataru Hinekure and Aruko | Viz Media – This series has settled into a groove of being a heartwarming romantic farce and I am here for it. Aoki and Hashimoto deal with a survival-style ski instructor on a school trip and manage to get a little closer to their respective crushes. Aoki in particular manages to experience the heights of romantic hope and crushing despair as he pursues the perpetually stoic yet still sympathetic Ida. The illustrations easily capture Aoki’s ugly crying, joy, and the time when he feels so depressed he metaphorically turns into a slime. Highly recommended for anyone enjoying romance hijinks. – Anna N
New Game!, Vol. 12 | By Shotaro Tokuno | Seven Seas – This is the penultimate volume, and you know what that means: it means we’re going out with some drama. The team finds out that their game has lost its funding and they need to either find a new company to bankroll them or give up entirely. The obvious answer is Catherine’s company, even if that means groveling a bit. But the carrot comes with a stick, and this means that, once AGAIN, Aoba will not be the lead character designer. As this is about the third time this has happened, I suspect the final volume is probably going to have her questioning her ongoing life choices—she’s a perpetual “not good enough” designer. With all this drama, will we ever find out if Kou and Rin are a canon couple? – Sean Gaffney
Skip Beat!, Vol. 46 | By Yoshiki Nakamura | Viz Media – Skip Beat! is still nowhere near finished, and so the fact that Ren has confessed to Kyoko does not mean that things are wrapping up in a neat bow. Kyoko is stressed about anyone loving her—still—and also has not told him that she is Bo—still. Fortunately, the author knows the other reason that we’re reading this, which is the acting, and the next volume promises to focus more on that. Unfortunately, there are still many parts of Ren’s past that have yet to come to light, and they also promise to show up in the next volume. With all this going on, can Kyoko still find time to go on a date to an amusement park with her real true love, Moko? This was shorter than most volumes, but still worth the wait. – Sean Gaffney
Snow White with the Red Hair, Vol. 18 | By Sorata Akiduki | Viz Media – It’s really a rare shoujo series that makes me wonder “OK, maybe they *are* going for a threesome ending?”, but Snow White with the Red Hair comes close. The romance between Zen and Shirayuki gets some more focus here, as they get to reunite in a big romantic scene. That said, Obi is not only intertwined damn near permanently with Shirayuki, but also with Zen, and it doesn’t help that the end of this volume has the author teasing about the two of them sleeping in the same bed. This series has a whole lot of Teasing Creator to it when it comes to the romance, and while I doubt Obi will be an official partner with Shirayuki—or indeed Zen—he’s still one of the best reasons to read this. – Sean Gaffney
Spy x Family, Vol. 7 | By Tatsuya Endo | Viz Media – I feel like a bit of a bad fan for saying this, but I will admit that I love Spy x Family better when it’s focusing on the antics of Loid and Yor than when it’s Anya’s Adventures at the Academy, and that’s what the majority of this volume is. That said, it does give some much-needed depth to Damian (and also a cover shot), as we see how much his insecurities stem from a desperate need to please and be noticed by his uncaring father. Elsewhere, Bond helps Loid to survive a mission, and we see that Yuri, while dedicated to stamping out subversives, is not without a heart. Most importantly, we kick off the next arc, at last focusing on Yor, who must protect rather than kill. Keep reading this great and extremely popular series. – Sean Gaffney
The Walking Cat: A Cat’s Eye View of the Apocalypse | By Tomo Kitaoka | Seven Seas – Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: a virus ravages humanity, turning millions of people into zombies and leaving small, scrappy bands of survivors to fend for themselves. That’s the basic premise of The Walking Cat: A Cat’s Eye View of the Apocalypse, a middling horror story by newcomer Tomo Hideoka. The idea of depicting a zombie plague from an animal’s perspective sounds promising, but in practice, Yuki feels more like a gimmick than a thoughtful vehicle for exploring how a human pandemic might effect other species. Yuki is barely a character; he functions mostly as a plot device, providing continuity between the series’ three main storylines and chasing the occasional butterfly. The humans aren’t very compelling either, as their stories are too rushed—and cliché—for the reader to feel much investment in their fate. Personally, I’m rooting for the zombies. – Katherine Dacey