SEAN: Autumn, and an old man’s thoughts turn to manga.
No print releases for Airship, but we get early digital for My Girlfriend Cheated on Me, and Now My Flirty Underclassman Won’t Leave Me Alone 3 and The Most Heretical Last Boss Queen: From Villainess to Savior 11, and only digital for When a Clueless First-Person Shooter Player Falls into Another World 3 (the final volume).
Cross Infinite World debut From Bumbling Prodigy to Villainess: Will the Duke’s Love Go Unnoticed? (Munou Saijo wa Akujo ni Naritai ~Gimai no Migawari de Totsuida Reijou, Koushaku-sama no Dekiai ni Kizukanai~). A girl has an exceptional talent, but her family see her as useless. Now a Duke needs a fiancée he can dump in three years, and our heroine sees this as an opportunity for freedom.
ASH: That description seems oddly familiar.
SEAN: They also have How I Became King by Eating Monsters 6 and Fluffy Paradise 10.
Dark Horse Manga have the 8th volume of Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!.
DK has a big artbook, The Art of Junji Ito Collection. Scary but well-packaged art!
ASH: Oh! That’s a nice surprise.
ANNA: Good for the holiday and spooky seasons!
SEAN: Ghost Ship has a 27th volume of Parallel Paradise.
Glacier Bay Books has Five Worms on a Line, a shoujo-horror shot story collection.
As well as Give Her Back to Me, by the same author, about a family curse.
ASH: Expect excellence from both of these. I love shoujo horror.
ANNA: I’m less of an aficionado, but absolutely agree that these are intriguing releases this week.
SEAN: Hanashi Media gives us The Fruit of Evolution: Before I Knew It, My Life Had It Made! 14, GATE: Thus the JSDF Fought There 2-1, Reincarnated as a Poor Farmer in Another World: I’ll Use My Modern Knowledge to Build My Own Kingdom 2, and Tsukimichi: Moonlit Fantasy 20.
Two J-Novel Club digital debuts, both light novels. Sorry Darling, but You Won’t Kill Me Again! (Konse mo Todome o Sasareru no wa Gomen nanode, Saiai no Otto wa Mou Iranai) is a Heart title. A young queen is killed by her husband… then wakes up in the past! Now she can change her fate… assuming she’s the only one with memories of her old life.
A Wicked Lady’s Guide to Accidentally Saving the Kingdom (Gokuaku Reijou no Kanchigai Kyuukokuki) is a Club series, despite the “Wicked Lady” part, so expect less romance here. It stars another woman who thinks that “being a villainess” is more important than anything else, even if she keeps doing good deeds.
ASH: That’s a thing that happens sometimes.
SEAN: Other light novels: Looks like a Job for a Maid! The Tales of a Dismissed Supermaid 4, Pens Down, Swords Up: Throw Your Studies to the Wind 7, Rebuild World 8-2, and You Were Experienced, I Was Not 9.
For manga, we see A Livid Lady’s Guide to Getting Even: How I Crushed My Homeland with My Mighty Grimoires 9 and Rebuild World 15.
MICHELLE: First, wicked lady and now a livid one!
ANNA: Maybe the wicked and livid ladies need to team up!
SEAN: Kana debuts Jagaaan, a seinen manga from the author of Blue Lock. A cop has a good career, long-term girlfriend, things going well. Sure, he’s a bit UNSTABLE, but hey. Then he gets a supernatural monstrous power. What could go wrong? For fans of titles with lots of violence and death.
MICHELLE: The blurb says, “a superpower drama of carnal desires and primal violence.” So… a pass for me.
ASH: Hmmm.
SEAN: They also have Blades of the Guardians 3.
Kodama has a 4th volume of Sun-Ken Rock Perfect Edition.
No debuts for Kodansha Manga. In print we get Dragon Head Omnibus 3, I Have a Crush at Work 7, Omega Megaera 6, Omega of the Divine 2, That’s Not Love 3, Whoever You Are, I Love You 2, and You Can’t Bluff the Sharp-Eyed Sister 5 (the final volume).
ASH: I should really revisit Dragon Head; I’m still glad to see it back in print.
SEAN: And digitally we get Am I Actually the Strongest? 19 and I Left my A-Rank Party to Help My Former Students Reach the Dungeon Depths! 11.
Manga Mavericks debuts The Pipe Machine, the story of a boy who ends up in weird adventures due to a time-traveling pipe. (It got bumped.)
ASH: Even with some bumps, Manga Mavericks releases some great stuff.
SEAN: They also have Vegetable Sandwich, which seems to ask what if Yu Yu Hakusho and Ranma 1/2 had a baby? Fans of old-school shonen will eat this up.
MICHELLE: This looks goofy and yet somehow appealing.
ASH: Agreed!
ANNA: I enjoy some old school shonen sometimes!
SEAN: Seven Seas has two debuts. Can You Kiss Me First? (Omae no Hou kara Kiss shitekure yo) is a BL manga from Moment. Two co-workers are good friends. Then one says he’s gay… but it’s OK, the other guy isn’t his type. Wait, what? Why not?
MICHELLE: Hm.
SEAN: The Lord-Magear’s Apprentice (Lord Magear no Deshi) is a shonen series from Sunday Web Every. A boy is saved by a mage as a child. He grows up to be a powerful swordsman… whose ends up being the only survivor, and also rescued AGAIN by the SAME mage. Apprentice time?
Also from Seven Seas: the 5th and final volume of I Ship My Rival x Me.
Shueisha – and yes, it seems to be the Japanese publisher – releases Happiness Theories: A Manga Artist & An Art Historian Find Wisdom in 3,000 Years and in Life. A manga artist and art historian have a discussion about human history.
ASH: Oooooooh! I’m here for it.
ANNA: This does sound interesting!
SEAN: Square Enix Manga has a 3rd Otaku x Gal.
Titan Manga debut When I Was Reincarnated in Another World, I Was a Heroine and He Was a Hero (Tensei Shitara Ore ga Heroine de Aitsu ga Yuusha datta) is a… erm, genderbendy?… title from Comic Gardo. A guy dies and is reincarnated… as a heroine! And his friend from Japan is the hero! Can they defeat the demon lord? Will there be romance?
They also have Eko Eko Azarak Reborn 2 and Welcome to Ghost Mansion 3.
Tokyopop debuts The Devil’s in the Lunch Deals (Jashin no Bentouya-san), a slice-of-life fantasy from Comic Days. A goddess is banished to the human world, and decides to start a bento store. As one does.
But what of BL, you ask? No worries, that’s still Tokyopop’s bread and butter. Caught in Your Web (Kumo no Otoko) is a one-shot BL thriller that ran in… sigh… from RED. A man is happy being the boytoy of a mafia boss… till the boss dies. Now he’s left the mob, but meets a man who seems to be the old boss’s son!
My One-Sided Love (Shuraba no One Side Love) is also a manga in from RED. A manga artist and his editor are friends! Buds! Cuddly! Um, what’s going on here? There are content warnings on this one, so I suspect “sexual assault, but in a sexy way” is the answer.
MICHELLE: Great.
ANNA: No thank you!
SEAN: Retailers say Udon Entertainment has Blue Archive: Comic Anthology 3 out next week.
And we end with Yen Press, which has some straggler manga. The Succubus Meets Her Match (Moteharu nee, Ashiya-kun) is a seinen comedy manga from Dra Dra Sharp #. A succubus has taken over as queen of her high school… except for that one dude. Who’s not into her. What’s worse, the other demi-humans want him too. This shall not stand!
And they have How to Love a Loser 2 and Nomi x Shiba 4.
Pretty packed for a 5th week. What interests you?