SEAN: We here at Manga Bookshelf would like to remind you that it’s time to take the manga out of your freezer.
ASH: I actually have put manga in a freezer before.
SEAN: Viz Media has a new Inio Asano one-shot. Heroes (Yuusha-tachi) ran in Ura Sunday, and stars a group of heroes out to defeat evil… but the evil in all creature’s hearts is always lurking. I’ve heard this called a satire?
ANNA: Does it also make you feel sort of depressed???
ASH: Asano’s work does occasionally have that tendency.
SEAN: We also see After God 10, Assassin’s Creed Shadows: Tales of Iga 2, Bug Ego 3, Centuria 4, Hunter x Hunter 3-in-1 8, Kingdom 13, Maid to Skate 2, Taika’s Reason 3, Vagabond Definitive Edition 7, and The Way of the Househusband 16.
ANNA: Yay for Househusband!
ASH: I really need to get caught up with that series.
SEAN: Tokyopop has some novels, both light and not. The not is Six: Paths of Horror, a horror short story collection. The light is the 4th volume of Her Royal Highness Seems to Be Angry.
ASH: I’ve read some excellent horror short story collections from Tokyopop in the past.
SEAN: Manga from Tokyopop? We’ve got Ghoul Work, Kurose (Otsukaresama, Kurose-kun), a BL horror manga that ran in from RED. It’s about a boy who can see ghosts getting involved with a boy haunted by a ghost.
MICHELLE: This one looks kind of cute.
SEAN: Also coming from from Red (God, I hate that every time I type it) is How to Befriend a Demon (Kimi wa Akuma de Tomodachi desu!), a one-shot BL title. A boy who can’t make friends summons a demon… who doesn’t know how to make friends, but knows how to be friends with benefits?
ANNA: Funny how that works!
ASH: Oh, my!
SEAN: Steamship has Fire in His Fingertips: A Flirty Fireman Ravishes Me with His Smoldering Gaze 12 (the final volume), The Villainess and the Demon Knight 5, and Winter Wolf 4.
ASH: Fire in His Fingertips helped reignite licensing for an entire manga genre.
SEAN: Square Enix gives us Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?! 16 and Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You 8.
MICHELLE: Yay Cherry Magic!.
SEAN: Seven Seas has a lot, including debuts. Follow That Kiss (Ano Kiss wo Tadotte) is a BL manga from Canna. A young man working at an inn runs into his old junior high classmate. They were forced to kiss back then. What’s worse, his classmate wants to kiss him again! This is a one-shot.
Love is Money (Ai wa Kane Nari) is a BL manga about a runaway demon who winds up in Japan in the red light district, and ends up hired to be an escort!
ASH: But what were they running away from?
SEAN: NEMURUBAKA: Half-Awake Fools is a one-shot manga from the creator of Heavenly Delusion. It ran in Comic Ryu, and recently had a live-action movie. A girl who goes to college and works at a bookstore is just drifting. Her dormmate and senpai is chasing her dreams. What will happen to them?
MICHELLE: Potentially interesting!
ANNA: I’m intrigued!
ASH: I’d read that.
SEAN: The Prince’s Body Pillow (Ouji-sama no Dakimakura) is a BL manga from Be x Boy Magazine. Sleepy Boy. Uptight Boy. Can I make it any more obvious?
MICHELLE: “A BL romantic comedy of attachment and infatuation between a laid-back troublemaker and his easily flustered, by-the-book caretaker.” Hm.
SEAN: Also from Seven Seas: 7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy! 8, Does it Count if You Lose Your Virginity to an Android? 7 (the final volume), The Feisty Omega and His Twin Mates 5, Girl Meets Rock! 2, How to Survive as a Maid in a Horror Game 2, I’m the Heroic Knight of an Intergalactic Empire! 4, Ichi the Killer Omnibus 5 (the final volume), KILLING ME / KILLING YOU 3, My Dear Detective: Mitsuko’s Case Files 7, and Remnant: The Beastmen Omegaverse Saga 2.
MICHELLE: I’ve been enjoying getting caught up on My Dear Detective: Mitsuko’s Case Files.
ASH: I’ve enjoyed what I’ve read!
SEAN: One Peace Books has I Hear the Sunspot: Four Seasons 4.
MICHELLE: Ooh.
ASH: Another series I’ve been enjoying!
SEAN: Kodansha has a big and nostalgic omnibus release. Beck was a classic shonen manga from Monthly Shonen Magazine that Tokyopop put out ages ago. Now it’s getting a great new edition. An introvert who’s not doing anything with his life ends up with a guitar, and he can also sing, and suddenly he’s in a band and going places!
ASH: It’s great to see this series back in print!
SEAN: A more recent debut is NakiNagi, a Magazine Pocket title. A witch wanting to learn about emotions makes friends with a hopeless romantic.
Also in print: Anyway, I’m Falling in Love with You 12, Blue Lock 36, How to Grill Our Love 3, Kaijin Fugeki: Kindled Spirits 6, MF Ghost 11, Pupposites Attract 5, and Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun: IruMafia Edition 6.
And digitally we get A Couple of Cuckoos 32.
Kana has a 2nd volume of Chiisakobee.
ASH: Which reminds me that I still need to read the first volume.
J-Novel Club has two light novel debuts. Being Famous Is NEET! Going Sister-Rank on Livestream (Imouto no Meikyuu Haishin o Tetsudatteita Ore ga, Ukkari S Rank Monster Aite ni Musou Shita Kekka ga Kochira desu) stars a girl who’s a streamer… well, no, it stars her siscon older brother, who’ll do anything for her. Including dungeon crawling. But when she’s attacked by an S-rank monster and he tries to save her, he finds he’s suddenly famous.
Grinding My Way to a Happy Ending: If Only My OP Big Bro Didn’t Make Things So (Sister) Complex! (Bad End Mokuzen no Heroine ni Tensei Shita Watashi, Konse de wa Ren’ai Suru Tsumori ga Cheat na Ani ga Hanashite Kuremasen!?) has another dead office worker end up in a game, and she’s struggling not to get a bad end. She’s not helped by her obsessive older brother, either.
In non-siscon series, we see I Parry Everything 11, Tearmoon Empire 18, and Worthless at Home, Whiz to the World 7.
And their sole manga volume is An Archdemon’s Dilemma: How to Love Your Elf Bride 15.
Most of Ize Press’ stuff is next week, but they do have Lady Devil 7 and Revenge of the Baskerville Bloodhound 4.
Hanashi Media has The Vampire and the Chocolatier 2.
Ghost Ship has two debuts. Record of Lusty Warriors: The Rod Master’s Unstoppable Conquest in Another World (Isekai Koushoku Musou Roku: Isekai Tensei no Chie to Chikara wo, Tada Hitasura XXXX suru Tame ni Tsukau). After dying from masturbating too hard (sigh…), he’s rewarded by a goddess. He gets another life in a new world, he has his old memories, and he’s a Rod Master, which is both helpful in adventuring and also helpful where you’d expect in a Ghost Ship title.
ASH: It is important to keep an eye on the imprint. Otherwise that could have been a manga about competitive sport fishing.
SEAN: Secret Rites with the Holy Maidens (Seinaru Otome to Himegoto wo) is also from Young Magazine web, and also has a young man, after watching an erotic game, end up in another world. To get back home, he has to teach the goddess’ followers, all hot nuns, about sex.
ASH: Goodness!
SEAN: Also from Ghost Ship: How to Build a Dungeon: Book of the Demon King 11 and Inside the Tentacle Cave 8.
No print volumes for Airship, but they have a digital-only debut: The Faceless Mercenary Wants to Settle Down: Homestead at the Edge of the Galaxy (Faceless Dropout: Mubou no Intai Youhei wa Oyomesan ga Hoshii). This is from the author of Reborn as a Space Mercenary and Survival in Another World with My Mistress. A soldier tries to retire to a farm, but so many agricultural issues need solving by soldiering.
ASH: Alas!
SEAN: Also digital-only: Reluctant Space Commander: From Death Wish to Galactic Hero! 2.
And in early digital there’s There’s No Freaking Way I’ll Be Your Lover! Unless… More Stories to Love!, a short story collection.
Delicious manga! What are you reading?