Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

Anna N

Manga the Week of 4/11/18

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SEAN: Yikes. Thanks to Yen shifting half their March releases into April, we have another punishing week.

But first, Kodansha once again did a last-minute release on me. Already out this week is You Got Me, Sempai (Mairimashita, Senpai), a shoujo title from Dessert which I will add to the stack.

MICHELLE: I’ll probably check this one out.

SEAN: As for next week, Dark Horse gives us a 2nd volume of Hatsune Miku: Future Delivery.

J-Novel Club debuts Arifureta Zero, a spinoff prequel to the series showing those who built the dungeons in the first place.

They also have a 4th Faraway Paladin (technically the 5th, as the 3rd was split into two parts).

Back to Kodansha Digital, who have two new releases this week. A.I.C.O. Incarnation is based on the anime from Studio Bones, and is a Shonen Sirius title.

And Boarding School Juliet (Kishuku Gakkou no Juliet) is a Weekly Shonen Magazine title about a modern day manga Romeo and Juliet. Of the digital debuts I’ve mentioned, this is the one that most intrigues me.

There’s also plenty of ongoing digital titles. Grand Blue Dreaming 8, GTO Paradise Lost 7, Lovesick Ellie 5, and Starving Anonymous 2. No sports, though, sorry, Michelle.

MICHELLE: I am placated by having had several sportsy releases last week.

SEAN: On the print front, we have Attack on Titan 24, Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card 3, The Heroic Legend of Arslan 8, In/Spectre 7, and Love & Lies 5. In/Spectre is supposed to be starting a new manga-only arc.

MJ: I haven’t even tried out the new CCS series. Bad CLAMP fan, bad. I should get on that.

ANNA: I haven’t either but I feel less enthusiastic about late CLAMP as opposed to early CLAMP.

ASH: I’m liking it so far, although it hasn’t really distinguished itself yet.

SEAN: Seven Seas has three titles out next week. There’s a 3rd Akashic Records of Bastard Magical Instructor, a 14th Magical Girl Apocalypse, and the 10th My Monster Secret, which will finally resolve its main plot hook. Not that this means it’s ending, of course. There’s still a lot of laughs to go.

SuBLime has a 6th Deluxe Edition of Finder.

Vertical debuts My Boy (Watashi no Shounen), or as I like to call it, “Hoo boy.” It’s an award-winning title from Futabasha’s Monthly Action, about the growing friendship between a 30-ish office lady and a 12-year-old boy, and how ambiguous their relationship is. It’s apparently very well-written and very tasteful, and I will be giving it a shot, despite my reaction being, as I said, “Hoo boy.”

MJ: Hm. Maybe?

MICHELLE: Same. I’ll wait to see Sean’s review.

ANNA: I will pass on this.

SEAN: Viz has new volumes of Case Closed (66) and Magi (29). Itsuwaribito finally comes to an end as well with its 23rd volume.

Their debut this week is not manga, but will no doubt heavily appeal to anime fans: Homestuck Book One collects the popular and meme-spawning webcomic-ish thing.

ASH: I’m curious to see how well this translates into print considering the multimedia nature of the original. (It’s also interesting to see Viz continuing to expand beyond strictly Japanese content.)

SEAN: And now for the rest of Yen’s March titles, coming to you in April. Yen On has the 13th Accel World.

There are also a few debuts. The Elder Sister-Like One (Ane Naru Mono) is a Dengeki G’s title from ASCII Mediaworks that asks the question we’ve all wanted to know: What if Cthulhu was your big sis? It is based on a pornographic work, but I believe isn’t actually one in this version. Expect fanservice, though.

Mermaid Boys is a shoujo title from the late lamented Aria magazine, and seems to be a gender-reversed Little Mermaid. Can this be the rare Yen Press title that Anna will be interested in?

MJ: Okay, this sounds possibly kind of awesome.

ANNA: Probably! Gender-reversed Little Mermaid sounds intriguing!

ASH: I’m looking forward to giving it a try!

SEAN: And where you have Mermaid Boys, you must also have Monster Tamer Girls (Kaijuu no Shiiku Iin), though the two series are not connected. This is a Houbunsha title from Manga Time Kirara Forward, and I don’t know much about it.

ASH: I don’t know much about it, either, except that it’s a short series about the care and feeding of kaiju.

SEAN: And there is Though You May Burn to Ash (Tatoe Hai ni Natte mo), a Young Gangan horror/thriller title that is a survival game manga and oh wait, I stopped caring.

MICHELLE: Heh.

SEAN: Ongoing Yen titles? We have plenty. Alice in Murderland 8, Angels of Death 2, The Betrayal Knows My Name 8 (MJalert here), Bungo Stray Dogs 6 (Ash alert here), the 4th Erased omnibus, a 7th Love at Fourteen (they’re 15 now, but hey), a 2nd One Week Friends, a 2nd manga volume for So I’m a Spider, So What?, a 5th Spirits & Cat Ears, a 2nd A Terrified Teacher at Ghoul School, the 2nd three-volume omnibus of Umineko: When they Cry: Requiem of the Golden Witch (Sean alert here), and your name 3.

MJ: Noting the alert here. I also like Erased, so there’s that.

ASH: Same! I’m still getting a kick out of all of the literary references in Bungo Stray Dogs, but the penultimate volume of Erased is what I’m really interested in this week.

SEAN: This is, frankly, far far too much. It’s getting ridiculous. Are you getting anything?

The Young Master’s Revenge, Vol. 1

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The Young Master’s Revenge, Vol. 1 by Meca Tanaka

Meca Tanaka’s manga is so charming! I thought that the first page of The Young Master’s Revenge was one of the most captivating first pages of manga that I’ve read recently. All in black, the thought “It is time for me to start my revenge” hovers while a boy accompanied by a lovely shoujo floral background illustration is leaving an airport with a bright smile and an adorable dog in a carrier. The contrast between the dark thoughts and the stereotypical innocent hero illustration immediately drew my attention.

The vengeful hero is Leo, a boy returning to Japan to attend high school after his father’s fashion company has become incredibly successful. Before he left Japan, he used to be friends with an heiress to a department store named Tenma. She was a tomboy who loved chasing animals, accidentally getting Leo into a situation where he was bitten on the butt by turtles, which has caused him years of psychological trauma. Leo has nursed his hatred for 10 years, turning himself into the perfect specimen of a high school boy just so he can make Tenman fall in love with him and then dump her. Unfortunately he finds out that things have changed in Japan and his path to revenge is not so smooth. Tenma’s family has fallen on hard times, and when he meets her again, she picks up her friendship with him exactly where they left off, but without any romantic notions at all.

Tanaka’s illustrations easily switch between capably showing the subtle emotions in the growing friendship between Tenma and Leo to straight out caricature. Tanaka’s characters have the most adorable surprised facial expressions. Leo grows more distressed as he realizes that other boys are aware of Tenma too, and potential rivals for her affection are introduced in such over the top ways, it is fun to see Tanaka poking fun at some typical shoujo conventions. Leo’s reasons for revenge are ridiculous, but this manga isn’t mean spirited at all. I preferred the revenge story in this manga as opposed to Komomo Confiserie which has an extremely similar plot because The Young Master’s Revenge never seems to cross the line into meanness at all. For me this manga fills that slot on my reading list for simple, cute, and adorable manga that has been left a little vacant by series like My Love Story!! and Honey So Sweet that have recently finished.

Pick of the Week: Manga Strikes!

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MICHELLE: I’m looking forward to so much this week! Ace of the Diamond, Chihayafuru, Promised Neverland, My Hero Academia, to name but a few. However, seinen romantic comedy from Mitsurou Kubo wins in my book. It’s gotta be Moteki. Plus, you get the first half of the series in one package. Nice!

SEAN: There is, frankly, an embarrassment of riches this week. including every single Shojo Beat title, as well as The Promised Neverland, which will be brilliant and make me suffer. But yes, I’m going with Moteki, a title we would never have seen here if not for Yuri on Ice taking off the way it did. I’m not complaining.

KATE: Moteki and The Promised Neverland are my must-read manga of the week. If I had to choose just one title, though, it would be the third volume of The Promised Neverland, since previous installment ended with a game-changing revelation.

ASH: I’m actively following so many of the series coming out this week! But when it comes to the pick of the week, debuts tend to get most of my attention, and so Moteki it is for me! (Although I’m also rather curious about Kenka Bancho Otome… )

ANNA: There’s a ton of great stuff coming out this week! It makes it so hard to pick! Like many others I have to give Moteki the edge though.

Manga the Week of 4/4/18

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SEAN: April showers bring manga. Lots and lots of manga.

But first, some light novels, as J-Novel Club has four new titles out next week. We see the 8th Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash, the 11th Invaders of the Rokujouma!?, and a 5th If It’s for My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord.

And if that last title wasn’t long enough for you, we see the debut of Me, a Genius? I Was Reborn into Another World and I Think They’ve Got the Wrong Idea!. As you might guess, we’re dealing with someone reincarnated with his old memories. That said, for once this isn’t a fantasy RPG world.

Kodansha has a lot of stuff. Digitally we see new Ace of the Diamond (10), Chihayafuru (10), Pumpkin Scissors (20), and Yozakura Quartet (21). Those last two have finally caught up with Japan, so I will remove them from the “Del Rey rescue” category and make them full-fledged.

MICHELLE: Predictably, I am happy about those first two!

ANNA: Maybe I’ll start getting caught up on Chihayafuru over the weekend!

SEAN: In print, we see a 13th Attack on Titan: Before the Fall (man, the Fall sure does take forever, doesn’t it?), the 3rd Battle Angel Alita: Deluxe Edition, a 9th Fire Force, and an 8th Princess Jellyfish omnibus.

ASH: I only recently started reading the original Battle Angel Alita series (previously, I’d only read some of Last Order) and I finally understand what the big deal is. Also, hooray Princess Jellyfish!

MICHELLE: It’s hard to believe Princess Jellyfish will be wrapping up soon.

ANNA: Also need to get caught up on this, still delighted it is coming out.

SEAN: Seven Seas has a number of their ongoing titles out next week. A Centaur’s Life 14 will continue to be about politics, racism, and the nature of warfare when it’s not about monster girl toddlers getting into trouble. There’s also Absolute Duo 3, Dreamin’ Sun 6, Not Lives 8, and The Testament of Sister New Devil STORM! 3.

For yuri fans, you may recall when Seven Seas, in the pre-light novel boom, put out the Strawberry Panic novels, which promptly sank like a stone. Fortunately, we now get the chance to read them digitally, and the first is out next week. Check them out, they’re hilarious… I mean, totally serious about their yuri.

ASH: I rather enjoyed the Strawberry Panic light novels! They’re utterly ridiculous and marvelously melodramatic, but highly entertaining.

SEAN: Vertical debuts another title from the creator of Yuri on Ice. Moteki is a seinen series about a man who had no luck with romance, but then all of a sudden he has girls coming out of the woodwork. I actually have copies of this in Japanese, as it intrigued me when it came out back in 2008. It ran in Kodansha’s Evening magazine, is going to be in two large omnibuses, and is better than it sounds.

ASH: I’ll definitely be picking this one up.

MICHELLE: Woot!

ANNA: Me too!

SEAN: So much Viz. SO MUCH VIZ. Including the final volume of Assassination Classroom, the 21st. Remember when this series was never, ever going to be licensed over here due to the concept? I’m so happy it was.

Also in Shonen titles, we see 7th Garden 8, Food Wars! 23, Haikyu!! 22, Kuroko’s Basketball 2-in-1 11, My Hero Academia 12, Naruto’s 22nd 3-in-1, Platinum End 5, The Promised Neverland 3, a 6th Rurouni Kenshin 3-in-1, and Seraph of the End 14. That’s a lot of really good shonen titles.

ASH: It’s true!

MICHELLE: It very much is! I have been working on getting caught up on My Hero Academia, too, and now totally see what the fuss was all about.

MJ: I’m really behind on Platinum End and need to catch up to see if I still like it. Signed, nervous Obata fan.

SEAN: But we’re not forgetting shoujo. The debut is Kenka Bancho Otome: Love’s Battle Royale, a Hana to Yume series based on an idea, oddly enough, by the creator of Dangan Ronpa. Given its source magazine, I’m expecting a lot less killing. Also, I’m a sucker for anything with Bancho in the title.

ASH: I do love a good series about delinquents and girl gang leaders.

MICHELLE: This looks pretty fun!

ANNA: Yes!

MJ: I could get into this.

SEAN: Also in shoujo we get the 2nd Takane & Hana, a 5th Water Dragon’s Bride, and the 11th Yona of the Dawn. Any one of those could be a pick of the week.

ASH: This is also true!

MICHELLE: Verily! This is a seriously good week!

ANNA: So amazing!

SEAN: So what are you picking?

Skip Beat, Vol. 40 by Yoshiki Nakamura

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Skip Beat Volume 40 by Yoshiki Nakamura

The cover of this volume made me happy, because it has been a little while since Kyoko and Moko were hanging out together! As a consequence this volume is decidedly light on Ren, but as always there are trade-offs and compromises in both life and manga. Skip Beat is such a long-running series that is so well-done that even when plot elements are used over and over again I find myself looking forward to what new spin Nakamura will put on the situation. When I realized that there would be a big audition coming up, I was curious to see how Kyoko would handle it with all the progress she’s been making to become more sure of herself and her acting.

Kyoko and Moko are up for a part in a ninja-related series, so there’s an impressive training montage where they have to visit a master of stage fighting and learn all the technique they need to be believable on the screen. The drama about the audition is amped up even more when Kyoko learns that she’s competing for the part against one of Ren’s former co-stars. An additional element of mystery is layered on with the return of Koenji, who has a psychosomatic illness after being in a bad accident. Kyoko heads into auditions with Ren’s manager on her side as well. Nakamura does a great job setting up a variety of story elements with a new beginning, making Skip Beat! still feel fresh 40 volumes in.

Pick of the Week: Manga a Go Go!

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SEAN: I’m torn this week between Seven Seas’ release of Cutey Honey a Go Go!, an updated manga featuring the classic leads as adults instead of schoolgirls, and Vertical’s release of CITY, the new comedy manga from the creator of Nichijou. If pressed, I will pick Cutey Honey, but I’m going to be getting both.

MICHELLE: I’m not super excited about anything, but I do enjoy Waiting for Spring, so I’ll go with that.

KATE: If you drew a Venn diagram of my taste in manga and Sean’s, the overlapping region would include both of his picks for March 27th. The end is nigh?

ASH: Hahaha! It’s not nearly as uncommon for Sean and I to be interested in the same manga, so it’s perhaps not too surprising that Cutey Honey a Go Go! is the release that’s caught most of my attention this week.

ANNA: There aren’t many series coming out this week that really appeal to me, but I have to say I am most intrigued by Cutey Honey a Go Go!, so that’s my pick.

Sweet Blue Flowers, Vol 1

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Sweet Blue Flowers Volume 1 by Takako Shimura

The Viz signature line might not have quite as much hype as it did when it first launched, but it is nice to see it reserved for titles that deserve special treatment, like Sweet Blue Flowers. I had high expectations for this title based on Takako Shimura’s sensitivity and artistry in her other series Wandering Son, and I wasn’t disappointed.

Sweet Blue Flowers starts by showing old friends reconnecting. Akira Okudaira meets Fumi Manjome on her way to school, and the girls fend off train gropers together. They head off to different schools, where Fumi deals with her crippling shyness, and Akira has an easier time fitting in. Akira banters with her family about the possibility of bringing home a girlfriend from her all-girls high school. The girls’ mothers reconnect and they realize that they were kindergarten friend. Back then, Akira served as Fumi’s protector when dealing with all the trials and tribulations of childhood.

As the story unfolded in this manga, I was struck with the economy of Shimura’s storytelling, and how small moments or single panels are filled with significance. Fumi is upset about her cousin’s marriage to an extent that seems slightly beyond the norm, even for a girl who has retained some of her childhood tendency to burst into tears as an adolescent. Shimura captures the hazards of teen girls taking public transportation in a short panel sequence that focuses on a disembodied reaching hand and Akira’s shocked facial expression. Shimura is also wonderful at scattering plot points throughout the manga in a way that makes the narrative feel like it just evolves naturally from the daily lives of the characters. Fumi’s relationship with her cousin is mentioned more as the book unfolds, as Fumi becomes involved with the dashing Yasuko, who takes on the role of Heathcliff in a production of Wuthering Heights.

Akira is steadfastly supportive, and as the manga unfolds Sweet Blue Flowers’ slice of life approach to exploring friendship and romance draws the reader in. Shimura’s subtle storytelling and sensitivity towards character development makes reading this manga a pleasure. I’m disappointed with myself that I took so long to finally read this volume!

Manga the Week of 3/28/18

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SEAN: Stuff. Lots of stuff. Endless stuff. What stuff? Well…

Dark Horse gives us a 9th volume of Blood Blockade Battlefront.

ASH: Looks like the entire series might actually be released at this point!

SEAN: Ghost Ship has a 3rd omnibus of To-Love-Ru, featuring Vols. 5-6.

J-Novel Club has, after a brief hiatus, new volumes for Demon King Daimaou (4) and I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse (7).

Kodansha Digital has a new release, Liar x Liar. It’s a shoujo manga from Dessert, about a girl who pretends to be someone else to hide her identity from her stepbrother… then begins dating him? I think I will pass.

MICHELLE: Yeeeeeah.

ANNA: There’s a lot of other Kodansha Digital manga that I would get caught up on before trying this.

SEAN: They’ve also got ongoing volumes. Beauty Bunny 4, Domestic Girlfriend 16, Drowning Love 8, Kounodori: Dr. Stork 8, My Boyfriend in Orange 4, My Brother the Shut-In 3, and Until Your Bones Rot 5.

And if you like print, there’s a 5th volume of Waiting for Spring.

MICHELLE: Yay! And no easily dupable stepbrothers in sight.

ASH: I do in fact like print! And I’ve been enjoying Waiting for Spring, too.

SEAN: Seven Seas has Cutie Honey a Go-Go!, a recent variation on the classic Go Nagai manga (which Seven Seas will also be releasing later in the year). I’ve actually heard good things about this variation, so am looking forward to it.

ASH: As have I, and as am I.

ANNA: Interesting….

SEAN: They’re also debuting New Game! This is about a young graduate who looks middle-school aged and her adventures at a game company. It’s a 4-koma, and runs in Houbunsha’s Manga Time Kirara Carat. It had an anime.

And we also get Soul Liquid Chambers. Zombies, nudity, blood and gore, fanservice, and it runs in Shonen Gahosha’s Young King Ours GH, home of many other titles with ‘ecchi’ in their descriptions. I… think I will pass. Again.

MICHELLE: Same.

SEAN: In terms of ongoing series, Seven Seas has Devils and Realist 14, Shomin Sample 8, and There’s a Demon Lord on the Floor 5. And Don’t Meddle with My Daughter comes to an end with its third volume.

Vertical debuts CITY, a new series from the creator of Nichijou. I look forward to seeing if it’s still very funny and strange, or slightly more normal.

Vertical also has a Seven Deadly Sins novel, Seven-Colored Recollections, which seems to be a short story collection.

Yen Press, of course, has stuff. There’s new digital volumes. Crimson Prince 15, Kuzumi-kun, Can’t You Read the Room? 5, and Sekirei 15.

Yen On also gives us the remainder of Kieli digitally, with Vols. 6-9. This completes that series.

Yen On has no debuts this month, but we do see Durarara!! 9, The Irregular at Magic High School 7, Magical Girl Raising Project 3, Re: Zero EX 2 (the last volume to date of this side-series), The Saga of Tanya the Evil 2 (which is EVEN LONGER than the first), So I’m a Spider, So What? 2, and the 19th Spice & Wolf. That’s a lot of light novel.

ASH: That it is! I’m not following as many series as I once was, but I’m very happy that so much is being translated.

SEAN: There are also a few manga out, though a lot of March’s releases were pushed back to mid-April. Forbidden Scrollery (aka the Touhou manga) has a 2nd volume, Graineliers has its 2nd book, Horimiya has its 10th volume, and there’s a 15th Spice & Wolf manga.

MICHELLE: Yay for Horimiya. Despite the endless stuff, looks like I only really like two titles this week.

ASH: I’m interested in seeing how Graineliers develops; the first volume was a little uneven, but had potential.

SEAN: And we have a debut: Laid-Back Camp (Yurukyan △). It’s also a Houbunsha title, from Manga Time Kirara Forward, about girls who camp. It also has an anime. I believe the symbol in the Japanese title is meant to be a tent. Which should tell you what level we’re going for here. The level of CUTE.

ASH: I suspect this won’t be The Summit of the Gods, but I do like camping enough to give the series a try!

SEAN: Does this whet your appetite? Are you starving for titles now?

Pick of the Week: An Assortment of Manga

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MICHELLE: There are quite a few good things coming out this week! I’ll definitely be reading the latest Giant Killing and Wake Up, Sleeping Beauty, and I’m happy to see more Sweet Blue Flowers. Too, there’s Perfect World, a josei series with a very interesting premise. But still, Twinkle Stars is coming to an end, and I find I’m really in the mood to see how this one wraps up, so that’s my pick for this week.

SEAN: Sadly, I suspect I will be the only one picking this, meaning I can’t call Pick of the Week “Take Back Your Mink”. But my Pick this week is definitely the first omnibus of Dragon Half, which I’m hoping will let me wallow in nostalgia.

KATE: I hate to be predictable, but my pick is volume four of Golden Kamuy. Is it a cooking manga with action sequences, or an action manga with lengthy discussions about squirrel meat preparation? Danged if I know, but I’m hooked.

ASH: So much is coming out this week that I’m looking forward to! Sweet Blue Flowers, Golden Kamuy, Twinkle Stars, Dragon Half and more. I’ll take this opportunity to pick one that hasn’t been mentioned by someone else yet, Natsume Ono’s ACCA 13-Territory Inspection Department. The first volume was a slow burn, but stylish and intriguing.

ANNA: There’s a lot of great titles coming out this week! I have to go with my general inclination to celebrate josei whenever a new series comes out, so my pick is Perfect World.

MJ: since I’m going last here, I’ll round things out by picking the third omnibus of Sweet Blue Flowers. I’m a fan of this series, and I’m a fan of angst, so this works well for me.

Manga the Week of 3/21/18

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SEAN: More manga, more problems. Shall we add to the stack?

Dark Horse has a 4th volume of the Vocaloid spinoff Hatsune Miku: Rin-chan Now!!.

J-Novel Club has a 2nd Ao Oni volume, this one subtitled Vengeance.

Kodansha Digital has a new release, and I’m definitely looking forward to it. Perfect World is about a young woman who reunites with her first love as an adult, only to find he’s now in a wheelchair. It’s a josei title, running in Kiss.

MICHELLE: I’m looking forward to this very much!

ANNA: I’m always up for more josei.

ASH: Josei!

SEAN: There are also ongoing volumes. Fuuka 17, Giant Killing 11, Kasane 11, and Love’s Reach 7. Also, I’m in Love and It’s the End of the World has its 5th and final volume.

MICHELLE: It’s over already?! I didn’t even have the chance to get started.

SEAN: Print-wise, we get a 4th Kiss Me at the Stroke of Midnight and a 3rd Wake Up, Sleeping Beauty.

MICHELLE: I’m looking forward to more Wake Up, Sleeping Beauty.

ASH: I found the beginning of the series to be rather intriguing, so I’m looking forward to more, too.

SEAN: One Peace has a 10th Rise of the Shield Hero light novel.

Seven Seas has three debuts next week. DNA Doesn’t Tell Us runs in Shonen Sirius, and seems to be a cutesy animal girls series.

Dragon Half is a legendarily silly anime from the dawn of time (aka the 1990s), and its manga ran in Dragon Magazine. Seven Seas is putting it out in omnibus format. I absolutely can’t wait. Expect laughs and old-style art.

ASH: I know so many people who were absolutely thrilled when this was licensed. I’m personally not familiar with the Dragon Half anime, but I definitely plan on checking out the manga!

SEAN: And Mononoke Sharing is a perverse comedy that runs in Young Magazine the 3rd and is by the author of Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid. I can wait on this one.

Also from Seven Seas is a 2nd Nirvana and an 8th Testament of Sister New Devil.

Vertical gives us a 5th Flying Witch.

Viz has Children of the Whales 3 (grim), Golden Kamuy 4 (grim but also amusing and filled with delicious food) and Sweet Blue Flowers Omnibus 3 (grim in a yuri angst sort of way).

MICHELLE: Woot for Sweet Blue Flowers, despite the grim.

ANNA: I finally read the first volume, it is so well done.

ASH: Sweet Blue Flowers is wonderful. I’m really enjoying Golden Kamuy, too.

SEAN: And Yen has a few titles as well. ACCA 13-Territory Inspection Department has a 2nd volume. Kiss and White Lily for My Dearest Girl has a 5th.

ASH: I’m always happy to have more of Natsume Ono’s work translated! ACCA has a terrific atmosphere to the storytelling.

SEAN: Twinkle Stars comes to an end with its 5th and final omnibus. Being it was 11 volumes total, this omnibus is larger than the others. I enjoyed it more than I expected.

MICHELLE: I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me that the fifth omnibus would be the final one!

ANNA: Another series I need to get caught up on!

ASH: I need to catch up, too, but I really liked the first few omnibuses.

SEAN: And Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? finally gets in on the 4-koma parody comics schtick, as Days of Goddess is just that. Danmachi fans should love it.

Dare you add to your unread piles? What are you getting?

Pick of the Week: Different Sides

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SEAN: My pick this week, despite my whining and groaning, goes to the 12th and final volume of Genshiken: Second Season. I’m afraid to say that my reason for this is entirely selfish. It’s because MY SHIP WINS! HAH! (cough) Or, in other words, the harem plot is finally satisfactorily resolved. I will miss complaining about it.

KATE: Predictably, my pick for the week is the fourth installment of The Girl from the Other Side, but I’ll need a chaser for that one — words like “moody” and “harrowing” come to mind when describing it — so I’ll throw a copy of Sorry for My Familiar in the basket, too.

ANNA: There’s not a lot coming out this week that appeals to me, but The Girl From the Other Side is so unique and surreal, it would likely be my pick during a week with many of my favorite series being released.

MICHELLE: I’m with Kate and Anna on this one! For my chaser, I’ll go with Blue Morning, as I love BL with a complex storyline.

ASH: Oh, that sounds like a great plan, Michelle! The Girl from the Other Side is absolutely marvelous and is without a question my pick. I definitely look forward to getting my hands on Blue Morning, too, though. I don’t read quite as much BL as I once did, but the series is very high on my list, BL or not.

Manga the Week of 3/14/18

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SEAN: Remember when the 2nd and 3rd weeks of the month were smaller? (lol)

ASH: Ha!

SEAN: Bookwalker has a 3rd volume of post-war baking adventures with The Combat Baker and Automaton Waitress.

Cross Infinite World’s webnovel licenses are not normally on my radar, but I will admit to curiosity about their latest shoujo novel, Obsessions of an Otome Gamer.

Dark Horse gives us a 5th omnibus of Blade of the Immortal.

ASH: Some of the individual volumes have gone out of print and can be difficult to find, so the omnibus edition is a great way to collect the series now.

SEAN: J-Novel Club has a debut next week. The Master of Ragnarok and Blesser of Einherjar. When the cover shows a smug Japanese teen sitting on a throne surrounded by women at his feet, you know what you’re in for.

MICHELLE: Pass.

SEAN: Kodansha Digital also has a debut next week. Starving Anonymous (Shokuryou Jinrui) is a post-apocalypse survival sort of series that runs in various Young Magazine spinoffs. It’s by the author of My Wife is Wakamatsu-san and Fort of Apocalypse. Expect it to be more like the latter.

There’s also new digital volumes for Aoba-kun’s Confessions (5), Grand Blue Dreaming (7), GTO Paradise Lost (6) (where has this been?), Kokkoku: Moment by Moment (6), Lovesick Ellie (4) and Tsuredure Children (8).

MICHELLE: I finally started Lovesick Ellie. It’s kind of refreshing to have a heroine so openly lustful.

SEAN: Print-wise, Genshiken 2nd Season finally comes to a close with its 12th volume. As a sequel it wasn’t as good as the original, but I’ll still stick around to the end.

ASH: I need to catch up with it, but there are elements in the series that I really appreciate.

SEAN: There’s also, in print, Land of the Lustrous 5, The Seven Deadly Sins 25, To Your Eternity 3, and UQ Holder 13.

ASH: Both Land of the Lustrous and To Your Eternity are beautiful and devastating works, though each in their own way.

SEAN: One Peace has a 7th volume of Kuma Miko.

Seven Seas debuts the Arifureta manga, which from what I understand is not quiet as well received as the novel, but should please those of you who prefer that format.

They also have Devilman vs. Hades 1, which seems like it might be workplace violence judging from the title.

ASH: I’m certainly curious about this Devilman and Mazinger Z spinoff!

SEAN: Lastly, there’s Sorry for My Familiar (Uchi no Tsukaima ga Sumimasen), a good! Afternoon series (so yes, Seven Seas can license Kodansha too) about a demon girl and her middle-aged man. The man is the familiar.

Seven Seas also has a 4th Girl from the Other Side (yay!) and a 13th Monster Musume (whee).

MICHELLE: Yay for Girl from the Other Side.

ASH: Girl from the Other Side remains one of my favorite series currently being released; it’s tremendous.

ANNA: I haven’t read the 3rd volume of this yet, but I am excited for another!

SEAN: SuBLime has a 7th volume of Blue Morning.

MICHELLE: Ooh, I didn’t know this was coming out. I enjoy Blue Morning.

ASH: The series is so good!

SEAN: Vertical gives us more Gundam Wing with a 5th volume.

Viz has a 3rd volume of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, a 26th Rin-Ne, and a 2nd Splatoon.

And Yen Press gives us a 15th Barakamon and a 9th Prison School omnibus. Don’t get them mixed up.

MICHELLE: I probably say every time that I will eventually read Barakamon, but it’s still true. I even moved volume one to a different stack recently!

SEAN: So what will you be picking up?

Pick of the Week: We Got the Beat

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MICHELLE: There’s a lot that I’m getting this week. Ace of the Diamond, Haikyu!!, One-Punch Man… But, honestly, this week’s pick was preordained because one of my favorite series only comes out twice a year: Skip Beat!, I choose you!

KATE: I’m suffering from a manga hangover at the moment, since last week was EPIC. Is it OK to plug Again!! and Silver Spoon a second time? ‘Cuz there’s nothing coming out this week that makes me as happy of either of those debuts.

SEAN: My pick this week goes to a title I know nothing about except really good word of mouth. There was much happiness when Kaguya-sama: Love Is War was licensed, and I am excited to see why.

ASH: Like Kate, I’m still thrilled about last week’s debuts. I’m looking forward to catching up on some ongoing series this week, though, such as Frau Faust and Haikyu!!.

ANNA: Last week was great and this week is pretty good too! Like Michelle, I’m always thrilled when there is a new Skip Beat volume, so that is my pick!

Anonymous Noise, Vol 6

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Anonymous Noise, Volume 6 by Ryoko Fukuyama

Anonymous Noise, sometimes I find this series a little infuriating because I’m not fond of the dynamics in the Nino-Yuzu-Momo love triangle, where Nino as muse gets bounced back and forth between two songwriters while everyone keeps hiding their feelings for various reasons. On the other hand this series does bring a regular dose of rock band drama, which I do appreciate. I found this volume more entertaining, probably because there was a bit more focus on the supporting cast. This volume starts out with the aftermath of the In No Hurry vs Silent Black Kitty battle of the bands, where Nino runs after Momo, gets rejected, Yuzu shows up to pick up the pieces, and then decides to lie about his feelings again.

Momo vanishes and Nino’s psychosomatic reaction is to have difficulty singing again, but she does hang out Miou a little bit, which I am taking as an indication that my dream ending for the series, where Momo and Miou forswear all men to launch an all girl band is totally going to happen. One thing that I was quite thrilled with is that Miou finally decides to take a chance on Haruyoshi, who has been pursuing her forever. Nino is determined to get back her voice, and Yuzu and Momo are dealing with their obsessions in their own way, as Yuzu buries himself in songwriting, and Momo attempts to get Yuzu to slip one of his songs to Nino. The circular nature of the love triangle leads back to Nino yet again having to choose between the two songwriters.

I don’t know, as I put down this volume I found myself much more invested in the Miou/Haruyoshi romance, because it at least seems to be progressing somewhere! I still read this for the reliable angst and rock band poses, but I would really really like to see a little more progression for the main characters. Also, I miss cranky Nino, and hope she will manifest the snarkiness she exhibited during her band’s radio interview. Will that happen in volume 7????


http://amzn.to/2FRFQmm

Yona of the Dawn Vol. 10

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Yona of the Dawn Volume 10 by Mizuho Kusanagi

It is a sign of a good long-running fantasy series, when at 10 volumes in I feel like the story is barely getting started and I just want it to go on forever! Part of the reason why I’m finding this manga so compelling to read is the inherent niceness of the characters. It might be cheesy, but this manga helps me maintain some hope for humanity. Yona’s ability to spread compassion throughout her immediate surroundings by demonstrating her own compassion gets featured often in Yona of the Dawn, but each time it is with a special twist that has me immediately captivated.

In this case, the target of Yona’s transformation through compassion is Kang Tae-Jun, second son of the fire chief and all around unpleasant person, as shown in his actions in earlier volumes when he thought he killed Yona by throwing her off a cliff. His obsession has continued, and he’s consumed with guilt when he realizes that Yona might be in the company of the fearsome bandits that are occupying a village. Tae-Jun’s trauma is played for laughs at first, as he lingers in bed and plots to return to Katan village where he thought he heard Yona’s voice. He declares that he finally has a reason for living and his men are bewildered, but supportive. Tae-Jun’s undercover attempts involve an inept disguise as a commoner. When he encounters members of Yona’s band, he assumes that they are evil, but they scoop him up and take him for medical treatment.

Tae-Jun learns that conditions in the town for the citizens are terrible, and the things he’s been told about the lands of the Fire Tribe were lies. Tae-Jun’s encounter with an enigmatic Hak is hilarious, as Hak maintains an enigmatic expression while Tae-Jun is inwardly dying as he realizes that he’s sharing a fire with the dreaded “Thunder Beast”. Kusanagi could teach a master class in drawing overwrought facial expressions as Tae-Jun goes through such an extreme of emotions in this volume. When Tae-Jun finally encounters Yona, she forgives him, and he then decides on a covert campaign to improve the lives of the Katan villagers, while leveraging the resources of the military under his command. Tae Jun keeps helping more and more, until he’s been transformed in his outlook and abilities by the end of the volume. This was a satisfying, more self-contained volume of Yona of the Dawn, but it seems clear that another adventure is about to begin. I’m excited to see what happens next for Yona and her band of mystical warriors.