SEAN: A moon, a spoon, in June, Mang…oon. Nope, sorry, try again.
MICHELLE: Black Lagoon?
SEAN: We start with Airship. In print, they have Failure Frame: I Became the Strongest and Annihilated Everything With Low-Level Spells 7 and Vivy Prototype 4 (the final volume).
And in early digital we see Classroom of the Elite: Year 2 6 and The Haunted Bookstore – Gateway to a Parallel Universe 6.
Dark Horse has the 9th Blade of the Immortal Deluxe Edition.
ASH: At this point, I’m sure nobody is surprised that I’ll be picking it up.
SEAN: There’s Ghost Ship as well, with Welcome to Succubus High! 4 and Who Wants to Marry a Billionaire? 5.
It’s print week for J-Novel Club! We see Ascendance of a Bookworm: Royal Academy Stories – First Year, In Another World With My Smartphone 26, and Marginal Operation 14.
ASH: Yay, print!
SEAN: The digital debut for J-Novel Club is Fake Saint of the Year: You Wanted the Perfect Saint? Too Bad! (Risō no Seijo? Zannen, Nise Seijo Deshita! Kuso of the Year to Yobareta Akuyaku ni Tensei Shitanda ga). A lazy NEET wakes up one day to find he’s in the otome game he loves so much… but yeah, he’s not reincarnated as his “waifu”, but as the terrible “Fake Saint”. Now he has to try to fix things to get a happy ending for all. I’m not sure how much this leans into “guy in a girl’s body”, but it definitely seems to lean comedy.
Other digital titles: The 12th Black Summoner manga volume, the 2nd Endo and Kobayashi Live! The Latest on Tsundere Villainess Lieselotte manga volume, the 2nd I Parry Everything: What Do You Mean I’m the Strongest? I’m Not Even an Adventurer Yet! manga volume, Lady Rose Just Wants to Be a Commoner! 3, Rebuild World 2 Part 2, and Reincarnated Mage with Inferior Eyes: Breezing through the Future as an Oppressed Ex-Hero 2.
The first print debut for Kodansha is Prophecy Complete Omnibus Edition, which is what it says, an omnibus of the manga released by Vertical a while back. It’s a psychological thriller.
MICHELLE: Ooh. Somehow this was not on my radar when it was initially released.
ASH: It’s definitely worth checking out! (If I recall correctly… it’s been a while since I first read it.)
SEAN: Also debuting is the manga version of Saving 80,000 Gold in Another World for My Retirement (Rougo ni Sonaete Isekai de 8-manmai no Kinka o Tamemasu), which runs in Suiyoubi no Sirius. For FUNA fans only.
Also in print: Last Gender 3 (the final volume), Rent-A-Girlfriend 19, The Seven Deadly Sins Omnibus 10, and Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun 2.
MICHELLE: Yay!
SEAN: And digitally we have The Fable 15, Gang King 6, Giant Killing 37, Life 2: Giver/Taker 4, Police in a Pod 23 (the final volume, though the blurb says “end of the first part”), Tokyo Revengers 31 (the final volume, though a side story is ongoing on Kodansha’s online manga app), and WIND BREAKER 10.
MICHELLE: At first I wondered, “Are we getting close to the end of Giant Killing?” So I checked and no. No we are not. Not that I’m complaining!
SEAN: One Peace Books has the 7th and final volume of I Belong to the Baddest Girl at School and Usotoki Rhetoric 3.
Seven Seas debuts Qualia the Purple: The Complete Manga Collection (Murasakiiro no Qualia). Based on the light novel, it ran in Dengeki Daioh.
Seven Seas also has Correspondence from the End of the Universe 3, The Eccentric Doctor of the Moon Flower Kingdom 2, Even Though We’re Adults 6, His Majesty the Demon King’s Housekeeper 4, Kageki Shojo!! 9, The Masterful Cat Is Depressed Again Today 6, The Summer You Were There 3, The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbyes: Ultramarine 4 (the final volume), and X-Gender 2.
ASH: There are some really good series in that list.
SEAN: From Square Enix we see Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?! 7 and Wandering Witch 4.
MICHELLE: I need to catch up on Cherry Magic!.
ASH: Same! I really enjoyed the earlier volumes in the series.
SEAN: SuBLime debuts Old-Fashioned Cupcake, a BL title from ihr HertZ. A middle-aged salaryman finds romance… and pancakes… with a much younger co-worker.
ASH: I do love when BL manga crosses with food manga.
SEAN: There is also a 2nd volume of The Dragon’s Betrothed.
Three debuts from Tokyopop. At 30, I Realized I Had No Gender: Life Lessons From a 50-Year-Old After Two Decades of Self-Discovery (30-sai de “Seibetsu ga, Nai!” to Hanmei shita Ore ga Around Fifty ni Natte Wakatta Koto) is a one-shot biographical manga published by Bunkasha. It explores the difficulties in being agender in Japanese society.
If My Favorite Pop Idol Made it to the Budokan, I Would Die (Oshi ga Budoukan Itte Kuretara Shinu) is a long-running yuri-ish series from Comic Ryu, it also had an anime. It’s the story of a minor member of an idol group and her #1 fan.
Why I Adopted My Husband: The True Story of a Gay Couple Seeking Legal Recognition in Japan (Douseikon de Oyako ni Narimashita) is another biographical manga from Bunkasha, and examines the same sorts of issues, only for a gay couple rather than an agender person.
ASH: If only I wasn’t avoiding Tokyopop! So many of its recent releases are absolutely up my alley.
SEAN: Viz Media debuts Spider-Man: Fake Red (Spider-Man: Itsuwari no Aka), a complete in one volume about a young man in Japan who comes across a Spider-Man costume. It ran in Magazine Pocket, and is a Marvel tie-in as well, of course.
ASH: I might have to check this out; Spider-Man is very popular in my household.
SEAN: Viz also has Call of the Night 12, Komi Can’t Communicate 25, Yakuza Lover 9, and Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon 3.
Lastly, Yen Press has the 2nd and final volume of Rose Guns Days Sorrowful Cross Knife out digitally.
ASH: Wait, there are weeks in which Yen only releases a single volume?
SEAN: Any manga have you feeling poetic?