SEAN: April is here, and the shipping list is still fine, mostly.
ASH: That’s good to know!
SEAN: The mostly is due to Dark Horse, who had two items on next week’s list, a 5th Gantz omnibus and the 2nd Star Blazers 2199 omnibus. Looking at their site now shows that the items came out on March 25th but are also on pre-order. Given DH tends to work with Diamond, who aren’t shipping books, this may be the best we can get.
ASH: I realize now that I haven’t actually read the first Star Blazers 2199 omnibus yet.
SEAN: Denpa has a 6th volume of Inside Mari.
Ghost Ship has To-Love-Ru Darkness 15, aka To-Love Ruuuu innn… SPAAAAAAACE!
J-Novel Club has a giant pile. In print we have Animeta! 3 (that’s a manga), Ascendance of a Bookworm 4, How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord 9, If It’s for My Daughter I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord 8, In Another World with My Smartphone 9, and The Magic in This Other World Is Too Far Behind! 8.
ASH: I’ve liked Animeta! so far. I’m pretty sure I’d like Ascendance of a Bookworm, too, but I haven’t had a chance to actually read it.
SEAN: Digitally the debut is The Tales of Marielle Clarac, an Ichijinsha Bunko Iris NEO series which, instead of volume titles, has a different title for every book, a la Haruhi Suzumiya. The Engagement of Marielle Clarac is the first. Marielle is a noble’s daughter who’s not particularly gorgeous or famous, but who gets a proposal one day from a knight who will be an Earl one day. She’s quite happy… he’s just her type, and now she can imagine all sorts of things about him. Yes, Marielle is secretly a fangirl. This looks fun.
Also debuting is a manga version of Sorcerous Stabber Orphen.
Furthermore, out digitally is Altina the Sword Princess 3, Demon Lord Retry! 3, Discommuncation 3 (that’s a manga), Her Majesty’s Swarm 2, The Holy Knight’s Dark Road 2, and Infinite Dendrogram 11.
Kodansha, in print, has Boarding School Juliet 11, Eden’s Zero 7, Granblue Fantasy 4, and The Heroic Legend of Arslan 12.
ASH: Oh! I need to catch up with Arslan!
SEAN: Digitally the debut has an author familiar to many: Shinobu Ohtaka, creator of Magi. Her new series is called Orient, runs in Weekly Shonen Magazine, and seems to be the Sengoku period version of Magi. I’m in.
MICHELLE: Something about the blurb for this turned me off. I think I’m sitting Orient out.
ASH: I’ll admit to being intrigued by Sengoku period…
ANNA: I am also intrigued.
SEAN: There’s also A Condition Called Love 2, Chihayafuru 19, Drifting Dragons 7, Goodbye! I’m Being Reincarnated 4, Smile Down the Runway 8, and To Be Next to You 4.
MICHELLE: Those new shoujo series are racking up volumes so quickly!
ANNA: Too much!
SEAN: Seven Seas’ debut is Primitive Boyfriend (Genshijin Kareshi), a shoujo title from LaLa. Our heroine wants a guy, but they’re all wusses. Then she magically ends up in the past. Is a caveman the sort of guy who’s her type? This is three volumes long, which seems about right.
MICHELLE: It does, but it could be fun!
ASH: The premise seems ridiculous, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
ANNA: OK, this sounds funny.
MJ: I… am not sure.
SEAN: Also out from Seven Seas: 12 Beast 7, Bloom Into You 7, and the 3rd My Next Life As a Villainess! manga.
Tokyopop releases an 8th volume of Konohana Kitan.
It’s the first week of the month, so you know Viz is up next with their Jump and Beat series. The debut is Prince Freya (Itsuwari no Freya), a LaLa DX series (man, you don’t see any LaLa titles for over a year, then two come in the same week) from the creator of The Bride & the Exorcist Knight and The Heiress & the Chauffeur. Prince Freya does not have an &… yet. Possibly as she’s a lookalike for the real prince, and thus is forced to step in and impersonate him in a crisis. I admit, I always love those sorts of plots.
MICHELLE: I will definitely be checking this out.
ASH: Same!
MJ: I’m here for it!
SEAN: Jump titles include Boruto 8, Food Wars! 35, Jujutsu Kaisen 3, One Piece 93, Platinum When Will This Ever End 11, We Never Learn 9, and World Trigger 20.
On the Shojo Beat end we have Ao Haru Ride 10, An Incurable Case of Love 3, Takane & Hana 14, and Yona of the Dawn 23.
MICHELLE: Woot for 75% of those! I greatly enjoyed getting caught back up on Ao Haru Ride and Takane & Hana recently.
ASH: Yona of the Dawn is my priority, but I’m reading a fair number of these, too.
ANNA: This is a week for me!
MJ: I have fallen behind on both the series Michelle caught up on, so I have work to do!
SEAN: Lastly, Yen On has another March novel slightly bumped into April: the 15th volume of The Irregular at Magic High School.
Don’t go out, read a manga! What are you reading?