SEAN: There’s a lot of manga out in May, but mercifully slightly less than March or April. What do we have next week?
Cross Infinite World has another Japanese webnovel for us. Mia and the Forbidden Medicine Report stars a girl determined to help the sick, and her adventures in a fantasy-tinged land.
Ghost Ship has a 4th To-Love-Ru Darkness.
J-Novel Club has a couple of debuts, one of which is very interesting indeed. Mari Okada is a prolific anime screenwriter who has won awards, and From Truant to Anime Screenwriter: My Path to “Anohana” and “The Anthem of the Heart” is her autobiography. A truly unique license that sounds fantastic.
ASH: That does sound interesting! Okada worked on the anime adaptation of Wandering Son and The Woman Called Fujiko Mine among many other great series.
ANNA: Huh, that does sound interesting!
SEAN: The other debut is more typical. The Unwanted Undead Adventurer starts off in a fantasy world, so not an isekai. Unfortunately, our plucky young adventurer was eaten, and now exists as a skeleton. Can he conquer dungeons anyway? What do you think?
There’s also a 2nd New Life + and a 12th Invaders of the Rokujouma!?.
Kodansha is mostly taking a break from digital next week, but they are debuting even more new series, so we get the debut of Beware the Kamiki Brothers! (Kamiki Kyoudai Okotowari), a 6-volume Betsufure series. I tend to be very wary of shoujo covers with a pensive female lead and smug male lead. We shall see.
Seven Seas has the 7th Lord Marskman and Vanadis, and a 2nd Nameless Asterism. They’re also putting out a 2nd digital volume of the Strawberry Panic light novel.
ASH: I liked the first volume of Nameless Asterism well enough to see how the Gordian Knot of unrequited love continues to develop in the second.
SEAN: We have a new publisher, though they’ve done work on visual novels in the past. Sol Press debuts two new light novels titles digitally, with print apparently coming out later on. We have Battle Divas: The Incorruptible Battle Blossom Princess, as well as Strongest Gamer: Let’s Play in Another World. Go check them out!
ASH: Oh, a new challenger has entered the arena! I was previously unaware.
MJ: Oh, interesting! I’m not sure I mean these particular books, but always happy to see a new publisher in the game.
SEAN: Vertical has the debut of Chi’s Sweet Adventures, the spinoff of beloved cat manga Chi’s Sweet Home.
And the rest is Viz. There are no debuts this time around. The Jump imprint has new volumes of Black Clover (11), Bleach’s 23rd 3-in-1, Haikyu!! (23), the 7th hardcover re-release of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders, Kaguya-sama: Love Is War 2 (technically Seinen Jump), Naruto: Chibi Sasuke’s Sharingan Legend (3), One Piece (86), the penultimate Toriko (42), and Twin Star Exorcists (12).
ASH: Haikyu!! and JoJo for me, please!
ANNA: So behind with JoJo but I love it.
On the Shojo Beat end, we see Anonymous Noise 8, Everyone’s Getting Married 8, Kimi ni Todoke 29 (also a penultimate volume), and Oresama Teacher 24.
ASH: I’ll take some more Oresama Teacher, too.
SEAN: That’s actually quite a bit. Do you see favorites in this list?
MICHELLE: My favorites are all in the VIZ camp today, specifically One Piece, Haikyu!!, and Kimi ni Todoke. Hard to believe the last is finally drawing to a close.