SEAN: JManga is taking a New Year’s break next week from newsletters (but not releases), so gave us two weeks worth of announcements. What’s new and exciting?
Well, first off, Pico Pico Boy has been pushed back to 1/10, so see previous post for our (minimal) thoughts.
I keep confusing Tsumanuda Fight Town, a Shonen Gahosha title with a blue-haired heroine, with Iketeru Futari, an as-yet unreleased Shonen Gahosha title with a blue-haired heroine. Perhaps JManga can look into the latter (though it’s over 30 volumes long). As for the actual release in question (Vol. 2), it’s for those who wish shonen fight tournaments and maids could be combined. So, Negima fans.
MICHELLE: Heh. In general, I don’t mind shounen fight tournaments, though.
MJ: Ugh.
SEAN: Crime and Punishment: A Falsified Romance is really not my thing at all, but I can’t deny its brilliance. A fantastically dark seinen tragedy of morals updating the Russian novel to modern-day Japan, it’s one of Futabasha’s best titles from its initial deluge of Manga Action series to JManga. Vol. 3 is out next week.
MICHELLE: Yeah, I feel bad that I’m not really into this, but I’m not.
MJ: I actually *might* like this… maybe I should give it a shot.
SEAN: Yurumates is slice-of-life seinen 4-koma. I hadn’t even realized we’ve already gotten 3 volumes of this, but here is the 4th. It runs in Takeshobo’s Manga Club, home to Morita-san Wa Mukuchi.
MICHELLE: This is a very under-the-radar sort of title. It’s pretty tough for me to get excited about 4-koma manga.
SEAN: Moving on to titles out the 2nd week of January, there’s a new Lucifer and Biscuit Hammer (Vol. 3) and Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru (Vol. 10), both from Shonen Gahosha’s Young King Ours. I’ve mentioned before how I like Biscuit Hammer’s odd apocalyptic take on superheroes, and SoreMachi’s slice of life maids are growing on me as well.
MICHELLE: More stuff I haven’t read.
MJ: I really do need to try out Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru. It’s not my usual fare on the face of it, but I’ve heard such good things about it!
SEAN: Some new BL, which I think is from an author new to these shores. We Immediately Swing At Foul Balls certainly wins title of the week if nothing else, but loses points for the standard BL hug from behind while partner cowers cover. It’s done in one volume, so I can only assume the balls weren’t too foul. (whack) Ow.
MICHELLE: Oh dear.
MJ: Heh!
SEAN: The other title, by the same author, is Pochi to Tama, which looks far more adorable, and has pets. Both these titles are from BL flaghip Be x Boy magazine.
MICHELLE: The pets do tempt me a little…
MJ: Pets are sometimes a plus. Usually I’ll check out BL from JManga. Their track record is pretty good.
SEAN: Has anyone stopped to think of the ridiculous amount of titles JManga put out last year? The mind reels…
MICHELLE: It’s fantastic. Keep up the good work! (And pick up Cat Street!)
Krista Shipley says
December 28, 2012 at 11:59 pmI’ve been following most of those series (Tsumanuda, Crime & Punishment, Lucifer & Biscuit Hammer, and SoreMachi) on their free JManga7 site, and have found them worth the time (and cost ;-) ). Tsumanuda was better than I’d expected after reading the preview: rather well founded on basic martial arts principles & different martial art styles, and even makes it somewhat plausible that an illustrator could be a good fighter. You’d probably enjoy it if you liked The Karate Kid, especially the ‘sand the floor’ section, though of course you need to like (or at least be able to tolerate) maid characters. There sure seem to be a lot of series mixing cute-girl chocolate with random-topic peanut butter lately, eh?