SEAN: The Dog Days of August begin with a manga pile worthy of an entire dog show.
Cross Infinite World has been releasing some shoujo light novels digitally, something I had shamefully forgotten till now. They have a release next week of AkaOni: Contract with a Vampire.
ASH: Oh, shoujo! I’d forgotten as well. It’s great to see these being released.
SEAN: Fantagraphics has the 2nd and final Otherworld Barbara omnibus, and I really really want to get it. Sadly, I actually ordered it from Amazon rather than Diamond, and for once Diamond is ahead of the game here.
MICHELLE: Woot. Looking forward to this one.
ANNA: Can’t believe I missed the first one, well now I can get both!!!!
ASH: Likewise, I’m going to have to wait for my copy, but I’m always excited to read Hagio’s work.
SEAN: J-Novel Club will be releasing the 3rd How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom. Take a shot for each mention of Machiavelli.
And we get our monthly Invaders of the Rokujouma?!, the 5th volume in that long series.
Kodansha Digital gives us a new Del Rey rescue with the 20th Alive.
Kodansha has a 22nd volume of Attack on Titan, which finally gives us a beach episode.
ASH: Hahaha! Does it really? I admit, I’ve fallen a bit behind in reading Attack on Titan.
SEAN: GTO: Paradise Lost has a 4th volume digitally.
As does suspense title Kasane.
There’s also 2nd volumes for new series Kounodori: Dr. Stork and Love’s Reach.
One Peace has two debuts hitting comic shops next week (and bookstores a bit later). I Hear the Sunspot (Hidamari ga Kikoeru) is from Printemps Shuppan, running in the mostly BL magazine Canna. This isn’t BL, and appears to be about a student with hearing loss. It seems interesting.
ASH: My copy of I Hear the Sunspot actually arrived early. I’m very curious about the manga and hope to read it soon.
ANNA: Huh, that does sound interesting.
SEAN: They also have a light novel debut, Mikagura School Suite. It seems to be a Battle School title, based on a series of Vocaloid songs.
Seven Seas has a 3rd Magical Girl Site, which despite its title is dark horror.
And there’s a 3rd There’s a Demon Lord on the Floor, which is comedy fanservice just as its title implies.
Udon has a 6th volume of Persona 3.
Vertical has a done-in-one manga debut. She and Her Cat is written by Makoto Shinkai, so expect a bittersweet ending, but it should be very good.
ASH: As many Shinkai manga are, I suppose.
MICHELLE: Of course I am entirely down for this.
ANNA: Done in one manga are certainly nice sometimes!
SEAN: And now it’s time for Viz. The 17th Assassination Classroom has the kids arguing about whether they should assassinate in the classroom, fittingly.
There’s a 4th Behind the Scenes!!, which I continue to be a bit lukewarm on.
And an 8th Black Clover, which will feel even more like Fairy Tail now that Fairy Tail has ended.
Bleach’s 3-in-1 release hits Book 20.
And Food Wars! has a 19th volume – will things continue to be ‘darkest just before the dawn’?
Haikyu!! continues its monthly release with its 14th volume. The Japanese release is around Vol. 27 or so, so we’ve a ways to go before we catch up.
MICHELLE: I’m eager for both Food Wars! and Haikyu!!.
ASH: I’m still loving this series, and loving that it’ll continue to be released monthly for a while yet.
ANNA: I clearly need to go on a big volleyball binge.
SEAN: JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure has another hardcover of its least impressive arc with a 4th Stardust Crusaders.
ANNA: I love these hardcovers and the insane action of JoJo’s.
SEAN: Rejoice! August means Kaze Hikaru, which may be only one volume a year but it tries harder!
MICHELLE: Yaaaaaaaaay!
ASH: I plan on picking it up!
ANNA: I LOVE IT SO MUCH!!!!!!!!
SEAN: Kuroko’s Basketball has its 13th/14th volumes out in this omnibus, which will involve the characters playing basketball.
MICHELLE: *snerk*
ANNA: I thought they were all pastry chefs!
SEAN: Maid-sama! has come to an end with this 9th omnibus. Will Misaka be able to kick ass and take names? And how much blushing will we have? (Answer: so much.)
MICHELLE: I’m looking forward to the finale.
SEAN: My Hero Academia is one of Jump’s biggest hits, containing a cast filled with characters everyone loves, and Mineta. The 9th volume ships next week. (Seriously, everyone hates Mineta.)
One Piece’s 83rd volume will continue to develop Sanji’s predicament and upcoming marriage.
Platinum End’s 3rd volume will be there for hardcore fans of this manga team.
So Cute It Hurts!! is almost over, as the 14th volume is the penultimate one.
Toriko is also almost over, though the 39th volume shows we have a few more to go.
Vampire Knight: Memories is the debut from Shojo Beat. It’s nice to see the author return to her most popular world, I guess, though I worry it’s because she wasn’t able to duplicate that success.
Yona of the Dawn’s 7th volume continues our PIRATES! theme, though I do not believe ninjas, zombies or robots feature.
ASH: I think I’m okay with that.
ANNA: I so enjoy Shojo Beat’s fantasy manga.
Yu-Gi-Oh! never quite ends, as this is the 11th 3-in-1 and we’re still not near the end.
Lastly, Yen Press has one straggler, as the third Twinkle Stars omnibus finally shuffles onto the scene, looking furtively at its shoes as it apologizes for being so late.
MICHELLE: <3
ASH: I quite taken with the first two omnibuses, so I’m glad the third is finally here!
ANNA: Maybe I will finally read the first two volumes that are stacked up on my to-read pile!
SEAN: Which of these titles dog your footsteps?
AshLynx says
July 27, 2017 at 10:48 pmHonestly, I have no idea what happened in the first volume of Otherworld Barbara, but it’s Moto Hagio, I’ll be picking up vol 2. Maybe it’ll make more sense with the whole thing is what I’m hoping perhaps? I’m also very interested in I Hear the Sunspot. But both of these are ones I typically have to find online (or maybe at Otakon, that’s in just a couple of weeks!)
And I’ve already picked up a number of the other titles! I’ve picked up Kaze Hikaru, Twinkle Stars, Yona of the Dawn, So Cute it Hurts, and My Hero Academia. Still need to pick up Assassination Classroom and Kuroko’s Basketball. And even though I got the other 5 volumes early, I’ve only actually read So Cute, It Hurts (which, thankfully, this volume does not end on a cliffhanger after the huge one from vol 13. I have a feeling the last volume might be more into the side stories territory). I’ve actually lent a few of those volumes to my friend (currently still obsessed with the Persona 5 game I loaned her, she’s barely read anything I’ve lent her since I loaned her the game in May), so it’ll be a while before I read them.
I really wish Kodansha would release some of their digital titles in print, especially Alive, which already had 8 volumes physically printed before Kodansha took over DelRey. I would think that the “Adachitoka” name would sell physical copies pretty easily (Noragami is doing quite well for them from what I’ve seen, and it’s an awesome series).
And I’d also really like Viz to do something more decisive than their “one volume a year for the past 5 years” thing with Kaze Hikaru. I’m sure it’s not selling too well for them, I wonder why they’re still holding on it (probably some licensor agreement perhaps?), but if they could maybe do even a 2-in-1 from now on, that would be nice of them too.
Sarah Ash says
July 28, 2017 at 4:33 amIn France, Hidamari ga Kikoeru (A la poursuite du bonheur) is published by Boys Love IDP in their wide-ranging and excellent Hana Collection. We’ve recently had Volume 2 (Entends-tu le chant du soleil?) and it definitely is BL, although very much in the Slice-of-Life, character-driven category; I highly recommend it (there’s also a live action film, unseen as yet) and thank you so much for letting us know it’s going to be available in English; kudos to One Peace Books!