SEAN: So. Manga.
The debut from Viz Media is Wanted! Eiichiro Oda Before One Piece. It is what it sounds like, a collection of stories Oda wrote before One Piece, including the series’ ‘pilot’.
ASH: Interesting!
They’ve also got a re-release of X-Men: The Manga, the classic late 90s Marvel manga adaptation that is now available in a big 500-page volume to start with.
ANNA: Alright!
SEAN: Also from Viz: Fly Me to the Moon 26, Hayate the Combat Butler 44, Helck 12 (the final volume), I Want to End This Love Game 4, I’m the Grim Reaper 2, One Piece 107, Radiant 18, Sakura, Saku 5, and Seraph of the End 31.
Two debuts for Tokyopop. I Was Reincarnated as the Heroine on the Verge of a Bad Ending, and I’m Determined to Fall in Love! (Bad End Mokuzen no Heroine ni Tensei shita Watashi, Konse de wa Renai suru Tsumori ga Cheat na Ani ga Hanashite kuremasen!? @COMIC) is based on an as-yet unlicensed light novel. The Japanese title seems to mention incest subtext the English one is not. Hopefully it’s just the usual overprotective brother thing. It runs in Comic Corona.
The other debut is Sanctify, a BL title from Placebo. An exorcist whose past lives have been tragic has to investigate a cult with the help of a mysterious cop. A mysterious hot cop.
MICHELLE: Hm. I do like BL with supernatural elements…
ANNA: Mysterious hotness sounds promising.
SEAN: SuBLime debuts Someday I’ll Fall for You (Itsuka Koi ni Naru Made), a BL title from moment. Two childhood friends discover the wonders of “helping each other out” at night, but then one of them gets a girlfriend. Given this is a BL title, I don’t see this ending well for her.
ANNA: Maybe she’s just not that helpful.
ASH: *snerk*
SEAN: They also have the 9th volume of Black or White.
Steamship has an early digital debut. The Obsessed Mage and His Beloved Statue Bride: She Cannot Resist His Seductive Voice (Yandere Mahoutsukai wa Sekizou no Otome shika Aisenai: Majo wa Manadeshi no Atsui Kuchizuke de Tokeru) is along the lines of the last LN Steamship released, at least in terms of the male love interest. Our heroine, to save the country, turns herself to stone for twenty years. Now her cute teenage assistant is an older, sexier man, and still totally in love with her.
ASH: Oh, my.
SEAN: It also gives us the 5th volume of Fire in His Fingertips: A Flirty Fireman Ravishes Me with His Smoldering Gaze.
Square Enix gives us By the Grace of the Gods 11 and The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest 21.
Seven Seas has some new stuff. My Kitten is a Picky Eater (Neko ni wa Neko no Neko Gohan) is a josei title from Manga Mee. A man picks up a dying cat and tries to nurse it back to health… but the cat hates store-bought food!
MICHELLE: Just this synopsis stresses me out!
ANNA: Some josei, do you say?
ASH: Josei cat manga, even! (But, yeah, that’s a potentially stressful scenario.)
SEAN: Yonoi Tsukihiko’s Happy Hell (Yonoi Tsukihiko no Shiawase na Jigoku) is a josei title from Petit Comic (!). A woman is forced into an arranged marriage to save the family farm. Unfortunately, she’s already in love. Also unfortunately, her new fiance doesn’t believe in love at all. Opposites attract!
ANNA: Always glad for even more josei!
ASH: More! And in the same week, too!
SEAN: Also from Seven Seas: 365 Days to the Wedding 5, Classroom of the Elite 12 (the final volume), Crossplay Love: Otaku x Punk 10, Dance in the Vampire Bund: Age of Scarlet Order 12, Delinquent Daddy and Tender Teacher 5, DUNGEON DIVE: Aim for the Deepest Level 6, No Longer Allowed In Another World 7, Sheep Princess in Wolf’s Clothing 4, Tokyo Revengers 25-26, Tokyo Revengers: A Letter from Keisuke Baji 2, and The Tree of Death: Yomotsuhegui 3 (the final volume).
One Peace Books has a 2nd volume of Kurokiya-san Wants to Lead Him Around by the Nose.
Debuting in print from Kodansha is Home Office Romance (Telework Yotabanashi). This Weekly Morning title from the creator of Sweat & Soap has an office worker at a brutal job welcome the pandemic as it means he can work from home… and also get to know the pretty grad student next door! It’s complete in one volume.
ASH: Sweat & Soap was great; I’ll need to check this one out.
SEAN: There’s also Sailor Moon (Naoko Takeuchi Collection) Manga Box Set 1, which has 6 volumes, posters, a holographic box… it’s fancy schmancy.
Sheltering Eaves (Koboreru Yoru ni) is a Josei title from Kiss. (Kiss *and* Petit Comic in the same week?) It’s from the creator of Perfect World, and features a girl sent to an orphanage due to her mother’s abuse. Now, four years later, she’s going to have to move out… but she has feelings for her fellow orphan who… well, sheltered her. See the title.
MICHELLE: Interesting! Josei is, to my delight, fairly common nowadays!
ANNA: Amazing, what a week!
ASH: I was not expecting that! (Also, what I read of Perfect World was rather good.)
SEAN: Also in print: A-DO 5, Hitorijime My Hero Manga Box Set 2, I See Your Face, Turned Away 3, Medaka Kuroiwa is Impervious to My Charms 9, ORIGIN 7, Sue & Tai-chan 5, and Wandance 11.
There’s also a digital debut. Did you enjoy As the Gods Will: The Second Series when it came out about 8 years ago? Well, now it’s time to read the original. (I do hear the 2nd series is more of a reboot.) In any case, this Bessatsu Shonen Magazine title is a death game series.
Also digital: Because I, the True Saint, was Banished, that Country is Done For! 6, Drops of God: Mariage 9, Gang King 23, Her Majesty’s Swarm 3 (the final volume), Manchuria Opium Squad 3, Otherworldly Munchkin: Let’s Speedrun the Dungeon with Only 1 HP! 10, and Tokyo Tarareba Girls Returns 2 4.
In print from J-Novel Club: Ascendance of a Bookworm 27 and the 8th Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles manga volume.
ASH: Bookworm!
SEAN: Digitally the debut is From Villainess to Healer: I Know the Cheat to Change My Fate (Kaifukushoku no Akuyaku Reijou) is a manga adaptation of an as yet unlicensed light novel. The manga runs in Flos Comic. Otome game, broken engagement, doomed, flee and become something else, etc.
Also from J-Novel Club: Ascendance of a Bookworm: Fanbook 5, The Hero and the Sage, Reincarnated and Engaged 2, the 3rd A Late-Start Tamer’s Laid-Back Life manga volume, The Reincarnation of the Strongest Exorcist in Another World 2, and A Surprisingly Happy Engagement for the Slime Duke and the Fallen Noble Lady 3 (the final volume).
One release from Ghost Ship, Becoming a Princess Knight and Working at a Yuri Brothel 3.
Lots of Mature Seven Seas stuff, though. Mostly BL, mostly webtoon. I never know how to talk about webtoon stuff. It makes me feel old, these vertically scrolling newfangled things. In any case, The Big Apple is a BL webtoon about a CIA assassin and his trying to quit… even though you can never quite being an assassin.
ASH: That often seems to be the case.
SEAN: That Time I Got Stuck to the Guy I Hate (Kirai na Yatsu to Kuttsuku Mahou ni Kakaru Hanashi) is a oneshot BL manga from Magazine Be x Boy (now that’s more like what I’m used to). Two roommates who don’t get along one day find they literally can’t pull themselves apart from each other.
MICHELLE: That… is kind of a flimsy premise.
ANNA: Usually these premises are filled with nuance and depth.
ASH: I will admit to being amused.
SEAN: And there’s a 4th volume of ENNEAD.
Dark Horse Comics have the 2nd Trigun Maximum Deluxe Omnibus, featuring Vol. 4-6.
Airship has the print debut of The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You: Secret Love Story, which is a short story collection that is as bonkers as the main manga series.
ASH: I should really get around to reading the manga (and short stories) at some point.
SEAN: Also in print: Reincarnated as a Dragon Hatchling 8 and Reincarnated as a Sword 15.
For early digital, there is a debut. Heroine? Saint? No, I’m an All-Works Maid (And Proud of It)! (Heroine? Seijo? Iie, All Works Maid desu (Hokori)!). A former Japanese farm girl is reincarnated and becomes a maid to a poor noble family. Except… she seems to have holy magic? And men are flocking to her? Is she a heroine? Meh. Who cares? She’s a maid!
Pretty big list. We’re heading towards Christmas, that won’t change. Anything for you?