SEAN: Let’s briefly talk turkey here. I try to do these lists about a week before the books come out. And given what’s going on over the world, some of these release dates are going to shift. A lot. I know one publisher has already pushed all their May and June titles to later in the summer. And Diamond Comics is not distributing to comic shops till this has passed, meaning more outlets are gone. I will continue to do my best to keep up with this, but… well, I’d expect a lot of delays. For obvious reasons.
ASH: Thanks for keeping track as best as you can! There’s a lot in flux right now.
SEAN: We start with Ghost Ship, which has two new debuts, both smutty, but with one for the ladies and one for the gentlemen. Fire in His Fingertips: A Flirty Fireman Ravishes Me with His Smoldering Gaze (Yubisaki Kara Honki no Netsujou ~ Charaotoko Shoubou-shi wa Massuguna me de Watashi o Daita ~) is a josei title from Shueisha, about our heroine (an OL) and her childhood friend (a fireman) who turns out to like her a lot more than she expected.
ASH: As Ghost Ship’s first josei title (if I recall correctly), I’m curious.
SEAN: Parallel Paradise, meanwhile, is very much for the young man. Running in Kodansha’s Young Magazine, it’s your standard “young man summoned to another world” story… except he’s the only man in a fantasy world filled with hot women.
Ghost Ship also has a 3rd volume of Creature Girls and World’s End Harem 8.
No debuts for J-Novel Club, but a lengthy list of titles. We get The Economics of Prophecy 2, Full Metal Panic! 6, I Shall Survive Using Potions! 4, Infinite Stratos 12, The Magic in This Other World Is Too Far Behind! has a 4th manga volume, Record of Wortenia War 5, The Unwanted Undead Adventurer 5, and The World’s Least Interesting Master Swordsman 2.
Kaiten Books are a new entry into the publishing world, and they debut this week with Loner Life in Another World, from Overlap’s Comic Gardo. They certainly know what the hot new trend is.
Kodansha has but one print release: the 19th UQ Holder!.
Digitally there’s a lot more. A Sign of Affection (Yubisaki to Renren) is a new series from the creator of Shortcake Cake, which runs in… you got it… Dessert. Our heroine is a college student, who runs into a nice young guy, who speaks three languages! Sadly, she’s deaf, so that won’t help. This actually looks really good and has gotten great buzz.
MICHELLE: I really like Shortcake Cake and tend to enjoy titles from Dessert, so I’m definitely looking forward to this!
MJ: This sounds great!
ANNA: I agree!
SEAN: And there’s also 1122: For a Happy Marriage 6, Ace of the Diamond 25, Atsomori-kun’s Bride-to-Be 4, Let’s Kiss in Secret Tomorrow 2, Space Brothers 35, and That Blue Summer 3.
MICHELLE: Atsumori-kun’s Bride-to-Be is very cute, in an Itazura na Kiss kind of way. And, of course, I’m always keen for more Ace of the Diamond!
SEAN: Seven Seas has another spinoff, Dance in the Vampire Bund: Age of Scarlet Order. It runs in Media Factory’s Comic Corona, and is, well, for fans of Dance in the Vampire Bund and its spinoffs.
There’s also Blank Canvas: My So-Called Artist’s Journey 4, Made in Abyss 8, the 6th novel for Mushoku Tensei (digital), and the 2nd Reincarnated As a Sword manga.
MICHELLE: I really am going to catch up on Blank Canvas.
ASH: It is really good, so I support you in your effort!
SEAN: Vertical has two novels. Owarimmonogatari: End Tale 2 finally tells us what was going on with Araragi and Kanbaru during that very busy week in August; and Seraph of the End: Guren Ichinose, Resurrection at Nineteen 2 finally tells us… um… dunno. It’s a prequel?
On the Yen On end, there’s The Dirty Way to Destroy the Goddess’ Heroes 3, 86 ~Eighty-Six~ 4, and So I’m a Spider, So What? 8.
And Yen Press has Dimension W 16, For the Kid I Saw in My Dreams 4, Goblin Slayer (manga) 7, IM: Great Priest Imhotep 2, and Konosuba Explosion 4 (manga).
ASH: I’ve been reading but need to catch up with For the Kid I Saw In My Dreams.
SEAN: What manga is raising your spirits?
Jocilyn Wagner says
March 26, 2020 at 9:28 pmI really didn’t care for Shortcake Cake, but the plot of A Sign of Affection sounds irresistible so i may give it a shot. I feel like the cover art is trying to invoke Beauty and the Beast with the freakishly out of proportioning, so there’s that.
Because I live to ruin things, I want to commend Ghost Ship in their attempt to find English equivalent puns in their title translation for the the difficult-to-convey bad visual gags in the name of Kawano’s novel. The pun in “Yubisaki kara honki no netsujou (指先から本気の熱情)” is the visual wordplay of the kanji netsu (熱) meaning heat or fever being also used in the word netsujou, meaning passion or ardour. A linear translation of “Charaotoko shouboushi wa massuguna me de watashi wo idaiita (～チャラ男消防士はまっすぐな目で私を抱いた～)” would be something like “a flirty firefighter holds me in place with his steely gaze”. However, because “抱く” can also be read, albeit less commonly, as “daku” meaning to make love to, thereby inferring something along the lines of “undresses me with his eyes”, “ravishes” and “smolder” do seem to work? Additionally, we should all be thankful that they didn’t attempt to render the tildes into English as they were probably meant to look like little bursts of flame… ^^;;