SEAN: Please close the door behind February as you exit.
ASH: How is the shortest month not already over?
SEAN: Airship starts us off with a print version of Modern Villainess: It’s Not Easy Building a Corporate Empire Before the Crash 4.
The early digital debut is Reincarnated Into a Game as the Hero’s Friend: Running the Kingdom Behind the Scenes (Maou to Yuusha no Tatakai no Ura de), which had its manga come out literally last week, and now here’s the novel that was based on.
And we also get the 8th volume of Reborn as a Space Mercenary: I Woke Up Piloting the Strongest Starship!.
No debuts for Cross Infinite World (actually, they seem to be concentrating on ongoing series for the next few months, possibly as they got so many in 2023), but we do see Even Dogs Go to Other Worlds: Life in Another World with My Beloved Hound 4, Expedition Cooking with the Enoch Royal Knights 4, and Onmyoji and Tengu Eyes 3.
ASH: I really should give Onmyoji and Tengu Eyes a look at some point.
SEAN: Dark Horse has a 4th volume of Cat + Gamer.
Amazon lists Denpa as having the 4th omnibus of Nana & Kaoru out next week.
ASH: We shall see!
SEAN: Ghost Ship has The Witches of Adamas 7, and the non-Ghost Ship but Mature-rated The Dangerous Convenience Store 2.
J-Novel Club has the debut of a coveted license rescue, Chivalry of a Failed Knight (Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry). It’s very popular, features a “guy who everyone hates with bad abilities who secretly has the best abilities”, and takes place at a magical academy. Oh, and since I’m required to make an Asterisk War joke here… nah, I won’t bother.
ASH: Not a series (or genre, really) that I’m reading, but I’m generally always happy for a license rescue.
SEAN: Also out from J-Novel Club: the 7th Bibliophile Princess manga, The Brilliant Healer’s New Life in the Shadows 2, the 8th Cooking with Wild Game manga, From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman: My Hotshot Disciples Are All Grown Up Now, and They Won’t Leave Me Alone 2, the 3rd I’ll Never Set Foot in That House Again! manga, A Late-Start Tamer’s Laid-Back Life 9, Reincarnated Mage with Inferior Eyes: Breezing through the Future as an Oppressed Ex-Hero 6, and Taking My Reincarnation One Step at a Time: No One Told Me There Would Be Monsters! 4.
From Kodansha Books we get As a Reincarnated Aristocrat, I’ll Use My Appraisal Skill to Rise in the World 4.
Some debuts from Kodansha Manga. The Blue Wolves of Mibu (Ao no Miburo) is a historical drama from Weekly Shonen Magazine about the founding of the Shinsengumi.
MICHELLE: Oooh.
ANNA: OK, I’m officially curious about this!
ASH: Yup! Count me in, too.
SEAN: A Kingdom of Quartz (Quartz no Oukoku) is an Afternoon series about a girl who longs to fight alongside the angels, but that may be hard given her powers tend more towards the demonic.
Nude Model and Other Stories (Yamaguchi Tsubasa Tanpenshuu: Nude Model) is a short story collection from the creator of Blue Period.
ASH: I suspect this has the potential to be pretty good.
SEAN: Also in print: Blue Lock 11, Shangri-La Frontier 10, and Something’s Wrong With Us 19 (the final volume).
ANNA: Need to pick up Blue Lock for one of my kids!
SEAN: Digitally we see Am I Actually the Strongest? 10, Boss Bride Days 14, Elegant Yokai Apartment Life 27, Gamaran: Shura 17, How to Treat a Lady Knight Right 3, I Left my A-Rank Party to Help My Former Students Reach the Dungeon Depths! 2, Koigakubo-kun Stole My First Time 6, My Home Hero 13, and That’s My Atypical Girl 11.
Last Gasp have a paperback edition of Junko Mizuno’s Pure Trance, which had its hardcover out a few years back. I’d describe the plot, but I suspect Junko Mizuno readers simply buy based on the creator name, and quite right too.
ASH: Ha! Glad to see this staying in print.
SEAN: One Peace Books has the 22nd manga volume of The Rising of the Shield Hero.
No debuts for Seven Seas, but we get Bite Maker: The King’s Omega 10, D-Frag! 17, DUNGEON DIVE: Aim for the Deepest Level 5, The Haunted Bookstore – Gateway to a Parallel Universe 4 (the final volume), The Invisible Man and His Soon-to-Be Wife 3, Last Game 4, Lazy Dungeon Master 7, Monster Guild: The Dark Lord’s (No-Good) Comeback! 6, Reincarnated as a Dragon Hatchling 5, The World’s Fastest Level Up 2, and Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou: Deluxe Edition 4.
ASH: I need to spend more time reading Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou.
SEAN: Square Enix Books has a 10th volume of Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?!.
MICHELLE: Insert boilerplate about needing to get caught up on Cherry Magic! here.
SEAN: Tokyopop has a 10th and final volume of Futaribeya: A Room for Two.
Viz Media debuts My Name Is Shingo: The Perfect Edition (Watashi wa Shingo), a horror manga from Kazuo Umezz himself, which ran in Big Comic Spirits. The story of two young boys who befriend a robot, it has a fantastic cover, and comes highly recommended.
ASH: I plan on picking it up!
SEAN: Yen On has a debut. The Other World’s Books Depend on the Bean Counter (Isekai no Sata wa Shachiku Shidai) has already had its manga come out from Yen Press, and this is the light novel version. Recommended for isekai fans who also like BL.
ASH: BL is a way to get me to try things I might not otherwise.
SEAN: Yen Press debuts God Bless the Mistaken (Kamisama ga Machigaeru), a sci-fi series from the creator of Bloom Into You which ran in Dengeki Daioh. A middle schooler helps his landlady investigate bugs in the world – not the insects, bugs as in glitches.
And they also have Elden Ring: The Road to the Erdtree 2, Murciélago 23, and No Matter How I Look at It, It’s You Guys’ Fault I’m Not Popular! 22.
For a leap year that’s a lot. What tickles your fancy?