Anna N

SEAN: Stuff. A lot. Just… a lot of stuff.

J-Novel Club has new volumes for Arifureta and Infinite Dendrogram, and they’re both Vol. 6s.

Kodansha print has Golosseum, a very manly manga from the magazine Nemesis, which will appeal to fans of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Crying Freeman, or just people who like really muscular guys killing people gorily.

ANNA: This may be relevant to my interests.

ASH: Also for people interested in spectacularly outrageous political satire.

MJ: I can sometimes get into spectacularly outrageous political satire. Hm.

SEAN: On the digital front, the debut is Can You Just Die, My Darling? (Konya wa Tsuki ga Kirei Desu ga, Toriaezu Shine), a horror romance from Shonen Magazine R that should also appeal to fans of gore.

There’s also new digital titles for Ace of the Diamond (11), Ayanashi (3), Domestic Girlfriend (17), Elegant Yokai Apartment Life (7), Kounodori: Dr. Stork (9), Liar x Liar (2), and My Brother the Shut-In (5).

MICHELLE: I can’t believe I’m so far behind on Elegant Yokai Apartment Life and My Brother the Shut-In already!

SEAN: Retrofit Comics is releasing The Troublemakers, a collection of stories by Baron Yoshimoto. It looks to be rated M for Manly.

Seven Seas has a ton of debuts next week, so let’s also mention they have a 6th Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid, a 2nd Saint Seiya: Saintia Sho, and a 3rd Yokai Rental Shop.

MICHELLE: I’ve been reading the first two volumes of Yokai Rental Shop. I’m not yet sure what I make of it, but it’s evidently only four volumes long, so I will probably be getting volume three, too.

ASH: The series hasn’t captivated me nearly as much as Nightmare Inspector, but there’s enough for me to keep reading, too.

SEAN: Devilman: The Classic Collection is a hardcover deluxe edition of the original 70s manga that ran in Weekly Shonen Magazine about 46 years ago. If you liked the modern anime, you’ll love the original. Just… don’t get too attached to anyone.

ANNA: Woah.

ASH: I’m excited for this! It’s a beast of a volume, too, from the pictures I’ve seen.

SEAN: The Dungeon of Black Company seems to be a take on the isekai genre, and… oh, everyone left. In any case, it runs in Mag Garden’s Comic Blade.

MJ: Heh.

SEAN: Himouto! Umaru-chan is a comedic series that runs in Weekly Young Jump, and there’s also an anime. The premise sounds like Kare Kano – the perfect student at school is a total slob at home.

How to Treat Magical Beasts: Mine and Master’s Medical Journal (Watashi to Sensei no Genjuu Shinryouroku) is a Comic Blade fantasy title, and looks to be more for Ancient Magus’ Bride fans.

ASH: In that case, I should make sure to give it a look.

SEAN: Vertical Comics has a 3rd omnibus for Arakawa Under the Bridge.

Viz has a digital only 8th volume of Boys Over Flowers Season 2.

ANNA: Need to get caught up on this series. I keep misplacing my iPad!

SEAN: And there is a pile of Yen. On the Yen On front we have a debut this time around. A Sister’s All You Need (Imouto sae Ireba ii) is from the creator of Haganai, and best known for having the most polarizing first episode of an anime ever. I may hate this, but what the hey.

Yen On also has a 15th A Certain Magical Index, a 5th Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, a 5th My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong As I Expected, a 7th Overlord, an a 9th Strike the Blood.

Yen Press has one debut next week, The Sacrificial Princess and the King of Beasts (Niehime to Kemono no Ou). It’s a Hana to Yume title, meaning Anna will be interested, as will I. It looks sort of fantasy, sort of romance, and has a sweetie-pie as the heroine.

ANNA: I am for sure interested!!!!! More Hana to Yume please!

MICHELLE: Hm. I might be interested, too.

ASH: Same!

MJ: I might too!

SEAN: Yen Press ongoing titles. Let’s run through the gauntlet. Baccano! has its 3rd manga volume (it’s the final one). Delicious in Dungeon with Vol. 5. The Devil Is a Part-Timer! has its 11th manga volume. Dimension W is up to Vol. 10, Forbidden Scrollery gets a 3rd volume, Is It Wrong to Try To Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? has its 9th manga volume, KonoSuba has its 6th manga volume…

(pauses, breathes a bit)

…The Royal Tutor is up to Vol. 7, The Saga of Tanya the Evil gives us a 2nd manga volume, Scum’s Wish has its 7th book (I will read it and feel terrible), Tales of Wedding Rings is at Book 2, Triage X has somehow hit Volume 15 (is it the breasts? It’s probably the breasts), and Trinity Seven is at lucky 13.

MICHELLE: So far behind on Delicious in Dungeon!

ASH: You’re in for a treat! I’m enjoying the series immensely.

SEAN: As I said, stuff. Are you buying manga? Or clearing tree debris from the latest nightmarish storm?

SEAN: If all goes well, I will be posting this Manga the Week of from a hotel room in Toronto! The wonders of modern all-leather technology! But let’s see what’s out next week.

Dark Horse gives us a 6th omnibus of I Am A Hero.

ASH: I thought I was over zombies, but I Am A Hero continues to be a great read.

SEAN: Fantagraphics has Okinawa, a title that explores the history of the island and its military occupation. It’s likely to be fairly grim, but absolutely worth your time. It’s also about 550 pages, so good value for money.

ASH: I’m always ready for more manga from Fantagraphics! I also find the history of Okinawa to be particularly interesting.

ANNA: Interesting, I might look into this for my library.

SEAN: Ghost Ship has a 4th 2-in-1 omnibus of To-Love-Ru.

J-Novel Club has put The Magic in This Other World is Too Far Behind! on the same once a month schedule as Rokujouma, meaning we get the 2nd volume next week.

Kodansha, print-wise, has a 2nd volume of the Attack on Titan Choose Your Own Adventure book, a 5th Kiss Me at the Stroke of Midnight, and a 4th Wake Up, Sleeping Beauty. More superdeformed shoujo that I seem to like more than other folks!

MICHELLE: I’ve read a couple volumes of Kiss Me at the Stroke of Midnight so far and I get why someone might find the superdeformity amusing, but to me it’s just so uncute! I’ve never been a big SD fan, though. I vividly remember watching Fushigi Yuugi for the first time and being, like, “What is this crap?!” :)

SEAN: Kodansha digital debuts The Wizard and His Fairy, an Aria series whose plot is basically its title, and is also pretty short, this being the first of two volumes.

MICHELLE: It looks pretty!

ANNA: Sounds cute!

SEAN: Kodansha digital also has new Altair: A Record of Battles (8), Chihayafuru (11), Kasane (12), Love’s Reach (8), and Perfect World (2). I’m definitely looking forward to more Perfect World, the first volume was very good.

MICHELLE: I need to catch up on Perfect World. Also happy about more Chihayafuru, of course!

ANNA: I so need to catch up on Chihayafuru!

SEAN: One Peace has an 8th manga volume of The Rise of the Shield Hero.

Seven Seas has two debuts next week. The first is Crisis Girls, a shonen title from Kodansha’s Shonen Magazine Edge. Like The Wizard and the Fairy, this one’s just two volumes, and this is the first. It seems to involve monsters and girls, though apparently not monster girls.

ASH: Okay, I’ll admit, a necromancer dressing in bright pink is kind of delightful.

SEAN: Hungry for You: Endo Yasuko Stalks the Night is the other debut, and it’s about (as you may have gathered) a vampire attending high school and her glasses-wearing emergency food (who is sadly not named Menchi). It’s very silly for the most part, and runs in Shonen Gahosha’s Young Comic, where it may be the one title in the magazine that’s not porn. It does have fanservice, though.

MICHELLE: Now I’m going to have Menchi’s mournful song in my head.

SEAN: Other Seven Seas releases include a print version of the 2nd Arifureta novel, a print version of the 6th Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash novel (both digital J-Novel titles), a 2nd Juana and the Dragonewt’s Seven Kingdoms, and the 6th (shudders in loathing) Magical Girl Site.

Vertical has a 6th volume of Mobile Suit Gundam Wing.

And Viz rounds out our list. They debut the RWBY Manga Anthology, a collection of shorts by various artists about the “western anime” show.

We also have a 4th Children of the Whales, a 22nd Dorohedoro, a 7th Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt, and a 10th Ultraman. I am still so happy that Dorohedoro has run as long as it has.

ASH: Yes! Dorohedoro is the best!

Are you getting these in print? Digitally? Or via the new manga headjack, now on sale at all good stores?

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.

SEAN: A lot. A whole lot.

Kodansha has some print manga delights. We get a 6th Aho-Girl, a 2nd Battle Angel Alita: Mars Chronicle, and a 4th To Your Eternity.

ASH: I’ll definitely be picking up To Your Eternity. The series is certainly heartwrenching at time, but it’s very well done.

ANNA: Bought but haven’t read the first volume of this so I am already hopelessly behind.

SEAN: There’s also a box set collecting manga Vols. 1-4 of Attack on Titan, or Season One as they’re calling it.

On the digital front, the debut this week is Defying Kurosaki-kun (Kurosaki-kun no Iinari ni Nante Naranai), a Betsufure shoujo title about (sigh) a plain girl at a high school who ends up in a love triangle between a princely guy and a super sadist type. I may try it, but it sounds not my bag.

MICHELLE: Yeah. Not really into super sadists, personally.

MJ: Ugh. Lots of ugh.

SEAN: There’s also a 5th Beauty Bunny, a 7th Kokkoku: Moment by Moment, a 4th My Brother the Shut-In, a 5th PTSD Radio, and a 6th Until Your Bones Rot.

MICHELLE: I think Beauty Bunny also involves a jerk who called the lead girl ugly before “transforming” her via makeup. No, thanks.

MJ: MORE UGH.

SEAN: Seven Seas debuts the 2nd Perfect Blue novel, Awaken from a Dream.

ASH: I’m glad to see this being released! It’s a collection of stories that take place in the same setting as the original Perfect Blue.

SEAN: They’ve also got a 4th volume of Captain Harlock: Dimensional Voyage, a 3rd Hatsune Miku’s Everyday Vocaloid Paradise, a 2nd Made in Abyss, a 7th Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation, and we have somehow reached double digits for Pandora in the Crimson Shell: Ghost Urn.

ASH: I’ve been enjoying Dimensional Voyage. I’m looking forward to the release of the original Captain Harlock, too.

SEAN: Vertical gives us the 2nd volume in Nisioisin’s Zaregoto novels, Strangulation: Kubishime Romanticist. This was released by Del Rey about 10 years ago, so is nice to have. Will they continue the series? I suspect sales will determine that.

Vertical also has an 11th Witchcraft Works.

Viz gives us a 5th volume (digital only) of élDLIVE, whose formatting always makes me cry.

And Yen. SO MUCH YEN. Let’s start with the ongoing light novels. There’s a 6th Asterisk War, which has finished its (first?) tournament arc. Baccano! has a 7th volume, the 2nd of a two-parter. The Devil Is a Part-Timer! is at Vol. 10, and there’s a 5th KonoSuba. Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers remains one of the few print-only Yen On titles with Vol. 4, Sword Art Online hits lucky 13, and That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime is at Vol. 2.

There are two debuts, and we’ll begin with the less silly one. I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level. Yes, I promise, that is the less silly one. Notable for a female protagonist, but it is an isekai with an overpowered hero(ine). That said, I hear the mood is meant to be “relaxed”.

And we also have the apex of silly light novels coming out, at least until the hot spring one gets licensed. Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander the Dungeon is exactly what it sounds, and I hope it will succeed on pure moxie, because come on. Really? REALLY?

MICHELLE: Hahaha. I would like to see the adventures of a wandering vending machine depicted in manga form.

ASH: Sometimes a premise is just so ridiculous I can’t help but take a look despite genre fatigue.

MJ: I feel like I have to check this out just to witness it for myself.

SEAN: Yen also has a giant pile of manga, which I will divide into three. First, ongoing manga titles not based on light novels. Akame Ga KILL! 14, Aoharu x Machinegun 10, Gabriel Dropout 3, Kiniro Mosaic 6, Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun 9, Murcielago 6, Of the Red, the Light and the Ayakashi 10 (this is its final volume), a 4th Sekirei omnibus, the second Silver Spoon (Manga Bookshelf folks breathe a sigh of relief that they at least get something to pick this week), Taboo Tattoo 10, Today’s Cerberus 8, Val x Love 2, and the 8th Yowamushi Pedal omnibus.

MICHELLE: Hooray for Nozaki-kun, Silver Spoon, and Yowamushi Pedal! I’ll also be picking up the final Of the Red… volume, but although I kept up with this series, I never really fell in love with it.

ASH: Ditto what Michelle said! And if I’m honest, I’ll probably be picking up Murcielago, too.

MJ: Silver Spoon! Silver Spoon! Silver Spoon!

SEAN: There are also new manga titles. We have As Miss Beelzebub Likes (Beelzebub-jou no Oki ni Mesu mama), a 4-koma where the demon lord is not quite as expected. It’s a Shonen Gangan title.

We also see the debut of Napping Princess, a manga adaptation (it ran in Newtype) of the novel that’s based on the anime. It’s this year’s The Boy and the Beast, I think? And I would wager is about a princess. Napping may also be involved.

There are also a lot of manga based on light novels. We see A Certain Magical Index 13, The Honor Student at Magic High School 8, Hybrid x Heart Magias Academy Ataraxia 3, Magical Girl Raising Project 2, My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong As I Expected 8, Overlord 6, and the 3rd volume of Re: Zero’s 3rd arc.

Not as much banter this time as there were simply too many titles to discuss. Are you getting any of them?

SEAN: April continues, as does the inundation of manga. Let’s get down to business.

Ghost Ship debuts World’s End Harem. It’s about a post-apocalyptic future that’s killed nearly all the men in the world, and about a man who thus needs to impregnate as many women as he can. Needless to say, this being a mature manga and not a hentai manga, he stays true to his (missing) love and tries to find a cure rather than, say, having tons of sex. I suspect the main audience of this title will be annoyed by this, but hey.

Haikasoru has a 6th Legend of the Galactic Heroes novel.

MICHELLE: Woot. I noticed that the release schedule for these seems to have sped up a bit (unless I am imagining things). We’ll also be getting volumes seven and eight this year.

ASH: That does seem to be the plan!

SEAN: J-Novel Club gives us a 3rd volume of Outbreak Company.

They also have two debuts. Infinite Stratos is a series that most folks assumed would have been licensed years ago – in fact, most of its innovations have been done to death by other series. We’ll see if it can succeed after all this time.

There’s also The Magic in This Other World Is Too Far Behind!, an isekai where an already practicing magician gets summoned to a world… and decides not to bother saving it just yet.

Kodansha gives us a slate of digital-only titles. Cosplay Animal 5, DAYS 8, Elegant Yokai Apartment Life 6, Giant Killing 12, and The Prince’s Black Poison 4.

MICHELLE: My sports-manga-loving heart is appeased.

SEAN: They also debut Peach Mermaid (Momoiro Ningyo), a Dessert title that makes me wonder if mermaids are the next hot new trend.

MICHELLE: Could be!

ANNA: OK!

ASH: Merfolk do seem to have become increasingly popular/common over the last few years.

SEAN: On the print side, we’ve got a 2nd Again!!, a 6th Descending Stories, the 2nd and final Fairy Tail S, and the 5th That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime manga adaptation.

MICHELLE: I’m definitely looking forward to the first two.

ASH: Yes, definitely!! I was also amused by the beginning of That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime, though I’ve certainly fallen behind with that series.

SEAN: The print debut (it’s also digital) is Wotakoi: Love Is Hard for Otaku (Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii), notable (at least to me) for being the first non-Kodansha title released by Kodansha Comics. It’s an Ichijinsha series that runs in the little known Comic Pool, and has an otaku and a fujoshi meet up again years after they knew each other in school. Looking forward to this shoujo/josei-ish title.

MICHELLE: Me, too!

ANNA: Interesting…

ASH: I am also intrigued!

SEAN: One Peace has everyone’s favorite bear manga, Kuma Miko 8.

Seven Seas has a 2nd volume of the Magical Girl Doctor light novel, and a 3rd Spirit Circle.

ASH: Spirit Circle has been great, so far; looking forward to more.

SEAN: Vertical has the 3rd and final volume of Nisioisin’s weird psychological drama Imperfect Girl.

Viz has a 2nd Fire Punch, which will have to try hard to top the jaw-dropping atrocities of the first volume. They also give us a 4th Tokyo Ghoul: re.

Viz also debuts another Inio Asano title, one of the weirder ones even for an artist known for his eccentric titles. Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction asks what happens when you combine aliens, political warfare, slice-of-life schoolgirls, and Asano. The answer is fascinating.

ANNA: Hmmm. Well I’m guessing weird Asano is always worth checking out.

ASH: Definitely! (And for those who may not already be aware, Asano will be visiting North America next month for the Toronto Comic Arts Festival.)

MJ: Hm, might check this out.

SEAN: And Yen Press has some more titles creeping into stores. We get the 2nd Baccano! manga adaptation, the 3rd volume of The Isolator manga adaptation, a 9th Kagerou Daze (yup, adaptation of novel), the second Goblin Slayer manga adaptation, and the 10th Strike the Blood manga adaptation. Somehow, in among all these light novel spinoffs, we also get a 6th volume of The Royal Tutor, which is NOT based on a light novel.

So? What are you getting? Huh? Huh?