SEAN: Oh by gosh by golly, it’s time for mistletoe and manga!… doesn’t rhyme.
First off, apologies to ABLAZE. I’ve mentioned before that I have trouble sometimes tracking down the smaller publisher books, especially when Amazon’s search is so wonky. They released One Hundred Tales, a collection of short stories from the Godfather of manga, Osamu Tezuka. It looks terrific.
ASH: Oh! I knew this was on the way but hadn’t realized it was out yet. There are so many wonderful small publishers to try to keep track of these days.
ANNA: Cool!
SEAN: Now back to the end of the alphabet. The most exciting title of the week for me is Neighborhood Story (Gokinjo Monogatari), the classic shoujo manga from Ribon which spawned, as a sequel which stands alone, Paradise Kiss. A story about fashion, art, and childhood friends suddenly getting popular, it’s a must read. It’s also 300 pages, so I’m guessing it will be 4-5 volumes rather than the original 7.
MICHELLE: So excite.
ASH: Yes, very!
ANNA: I am so happy to have a chance to read this.
SEAN: Also from Viz: Blade of the Moon Princess 2, Boruto: Naruto Next Generations 18, Chainsaw Man 13, Ima Koi: Now I’m in Love 8, Kaguya-sama: Love Is War 27, My Hero Academia 36, Rainbow Days 7, Sakamoto Days 10, and Yona of the Dawn 40.
ASH: I’m a bit behind in my reading of Yona of the Dawn, but am so glad we’re getting a shojo series of such length in English!
ANNA: New Yona is always welcome.
SEAN: Udon Entertainment has Persona 4 Arena Ultimax 3.
Square Enix gives us The Girl I Like Forgot Her Glasses 7 and My Clueless First Friend 4.
Two debuts from Seven Seas. My Dog is a Death God (Yasashii Shinigami no Kaikata) is a josei series from Comic Elmo. A death god has been sent to the human world to find patients at a hospital with regrets and save their souls before they pass on. This looks good, if tear-jerking.
MICHELLE: It absolutely does, on both counts.
ASH: Gotta love a new josei series!
ANNA: We’ve been getting so many intriguing new josei releases recently.
SEAN: We Started a Threesome!! (3 Partner Hajimemashita!!) runs in eBigcomic4, which seems to be an online spinoff of Big Comic. It’s from the creator of Futari Ecchi, aka Manga Sutra, which Tokyopop attempted to release before realizing it was 89 volumes long. This is not 89 volumes long. Two men and a woman have always been childhood friends, and now they’re a married couple… throuple.
ASH: Not a relationship type often featured in licensed manga.
SEAN: And they’re doing an omnibus of Tomo-chan Is a Girl! with the first 3 volumes.
Their danmei side has The Husky and His White Cat Shizun: Erha He Ta De Bai Mao Shizun 4.
ASH: I’m happy to see danmei doing so well.
SEAN: Also from Seven Seas: 7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy! 4, Backstabbed in a Backwater Dungeon: My Party Tried to Kill Me, But Thanks to an Infinite Gacha I Got LVL 9999 Friends and Am Out For Revenge 4, Dungeon Builder: The Demon King’s Labyrinth is a Modern City! 8, The Eccentric Doctor of the Moon Flower Kingdom 4, Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi The Comic 4, How Heavy are the Dumbbells You Lift? 13, Killing Stalking: Deluxe Edition 5, LES MISÉRABLES 7-8 (the final volumes), and Yakuza Reincarnation 8.
One Peace has the 4th manga volume of The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic.
KUMA seems to have put out The Ruthless Commander and his Reincarnated Warhorse (Shouwaru Boukun Kishu to Nagasare Senba), a oneshot from on Blue about a reincarnated horse and his commander… wait, it’s BL? I sense shenanigans.
ASH: Somehow missed hearing about this one entirely until now.
SEAN: Kodansha, in print, debuts an omnibus of the first three volumes of Fairy Tail. For those who hadn’t read it before.
They’ve also got BAKEMONOGATARI 20, Blood on the Tracks 15, The Hero Life of a (Self-Proclaimed) “Mediocre” Demon! 8, The Summer With You: The Sequel (the third in this series), To Your Eternity 19, Tying the Knot with an Amagami Sister 2, and WIND BREAKER 3.
ASH: I was just thinking about To Your Eternity the other day.
SEAN: Digitally the debut is Sayabito: Swords of Destiny, a series that runs in good! Afternoon from the creator of Is Love the Answer? about two people who travel around after a war trying to locate the human weapons used to fight it.
And there’s Chihayafuru 41, The God-Tier Guardian and the Love of Six Princesses 11, Life 10, Shangri-La Frontier 13, Tying the Knot with an Amagami Sister 11, and The World is Dancing 3.
Kaiten Books has a 5th volume of The Yakuza’s Guide to Babysitting in print.
J-Novel Club has FIVE debuts next week. The Brilliant Healer’s New Life in the Shadows (Isshun de Chiryou shiteita no ni Yakudatazu to Tsuihousareta Tensai Chiyushi, Yami Healer to shite Tanoshiku Ikiru) has both the light novel AND manga (from GA Comic) release next week. A young man who has (sigh) been kicked out of his adventuring party starts an underground healing clinic, and suddenly he’s the bee’s knees.
Butareba -The Story of a Man Turned into a Pig- (Buta no Liver wa Kanetsu Shiro) is about a man who dies after eating raw pig liver and is reincarnated into a fantasy world as a cute l’il pig. He’s saved by a girl who can read minds.
ASH: Huh.
ANNA: That’s a very specific concept right there.
SEAN: The Frontier Lord Begins with Zero Subjects (Ryoumin 0-nin Start no Henkyou Ryoushusama) is a slow life series. After a war, the hero is rewarded with his own lands… an empty plain of grass. Can he survive with the help of the cute girl that always shows up in these situations?
You Were Experienced, I Was Not: Our Dating Story (Keiken Zumi na Kimi to, Keiken Zero na Ore ga, Otsukiai Suru Hanashi) is about a nerdish guy who confesses to a beautiful girl… and she accepts? And then they go to his room? Wait, what? I’ve heard this tries to negotiate its skeezy premise pretty well and isn’t just him teaching her the joys of chastity.
Also next week: the 2nd I’ll Never Set Foot in That House Again! manga, the 11th Infinite Dendrogram manga, Making Magic: The Sweet Life of a Witch Who Knows an Infinite MP Loophole 5, and the 5th Oversummoned, Overpowered and Over It! manga.
Ghost Ship has the 8th volume of The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, REALLY Love You.
ASH: I’ve been lead to believe that I really, really, really need to try this series.
SEAN: Denpa has Under Ninja 3 coming out soon.
Dark Horse has another in its H.P. Lovecraft manga series, this time with The Shadow Over Innsmouth (Innsmouth no Kage), which ran in Comic Beam.
ASH: Looking forward to checking this out; the adaptations released so far have been great.
SEAN: In print, Airship gives us Classroom of the Elite: Year 2 7, Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear 16, The Most Heretical Last Boss Queen: From Villainess to Savior 5, and There’s No Freaking Way I’ll be Your Lover! Unless… 3.
And in early digital we get The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent 9.
Any holiday favorites?