Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

Anna N

Manga the week of 12/13/17

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SEAN: A relatively light week next week, possibly as all the titles were pulled into the black hole that is the week after next, which crushes all in its path.

J-Novel Club has a new debut, Walking My Second Path in Life. It sounds really great, being about a princess who’s tired of being used and then forgotten about so decides to masquerade as a male squire and try to become a knight. It’s also written by someone with the penname “Otaku de Neet”, so there’s that. I am thus cautiously optimistic?

Kodansha’s digital releases now outstrip their print by about 5 to 1. On the print side, there’s a 4th Aho-Girl, a 6th Clockwork Planet, a 3rd Kigurumi Guardians, and a 7th Princess Jellyfish, which I’m finally falling behind on (and feeling guilty).

MICHELLE: I always delight in a new Princess Jellyfish!

ASH: Indeed! I’m still incredibly happy that the series is being released in print. (And that we’ll be getting Tokyo Tarareba Girls, too!)

ANNA: Good stuff!

SEAN: In ongoing digital titles, we have, and try to say this all in one breath: Aoba-kun’s Confessions 5, Black Panther and Sweet 16 5, Chihayafuru 7, Domestic Girlfriend 12, Drowning Love 6, Grand Blue Dreaming 4 (that’s getting print later next year), House of the Sun 12, Kokkaku: Moment by Moment 3, and PTSD Radio 2. Eeesh. Chihayafuru is my pick from that pile.

MICHELLE: Mine, too, but I do still intend to check out Drowning Love and a couple others.

SEAN: Seven Seas has Vol. 13 of A Centaur’s Life, which continues to be the most deeply random ongoing series I’ve ever read.

ASH: I’ve definitely fallen behind, but the manga can be really interesting even if its tone and direction can be somewhat erratic.

SEAN: They also have a 7th Dance in the Vampire Bund omnibus, which I think takes in some of the sequels and side-stories.

And the print edition of the 4th Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash light novel.

SuBLime has two titles next week, with a 6th Don’t Be Cruel (still putting Elvis in my head every time I see it) and a 4th Deluxe Edition for Finder.

ASH: The deluxe edition is really nice, especially for fans who haven’t already invested in the series. (And it includes additional content to entice those who already have.)

SEAN: Vertical has a 6th massive volume for BLAME!, which I discovered at Anime NYC I’ve been mispronouncing all this time.

MICHELLE: It’s, like, bu-rah-mu or something, isn’t it?

SEAN: It’s apparently BLAM, as if written without the E.

We are almost finished with Itsuwaribito, though I could be lying. Sure seems that Vol. 22 is the second to last, though.

ASH: Ha!

SEAN: And Magi has a 27th volume, and may be killing off one of its main characters? Though somehow I doubt that.

MICHELLE: Volume 26 ended on quite the cliffhanger, so I’m definitely looking forward to this.

ANNA: Soooo far behind with this series. One day!

SEAN: Lastly, we see the debut of Splatoon. This series, based on the third person shooter game, is actually one of several manga that have come out. This one is Shogakukan’s title from CoroCoro Comic Special. Given it ran in CoroCoro, I expect it is geared for younger readers.

Are you getting anything next week, or saving up for the hell that is bearing down on us?

Pick of the Week: Neverland

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SEAN: There are a few intriguing volumes out this week, and I’d argue Wake Up, Sleeping Beauty is my clear runner-up, but there has been SO much good buzz about The Promised Neverland that I simply can’t resist making it my pick of the week. I want to see what the fuss is about.

KATE: This week, I’m all in for The Promised Neverland. After seeing so many people praising it, I decided to check it out for myself and boy howdy — it’s a nail-biter! If you need more persuading, I’ve offered a more thoughtful explanation of why you should be reading Neverland here.

MICHELLE: This wasn’t on my radar until Ash posted the link to Kate’s review, and now I’m going to be picking it like everyone else! Wake Up, Sleeping Beauty and Drifting Dragons are debuts I plan to check out, as well.

ASH: Perhaps unsurprisingly, I’m in agreement with everyone else here! While there are a few things that I’m interested in this week, my pick absolutely goes to The Promised Neverland.

ANNA: I’m not going to break this pattern! The Promised Neverland looks very interesting, that’s my pick too!

Idol Dreams, Vol. 4

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Idol Dreams Volume 4, by Arina Tanemura

I’m always up for any Arina Tanemura manga, but I do spend a great deal of time while I am reading Idol Dreams mentally preparing for disaster to strike, as the storyline of a hapless editor with no self confidence and few social skills reliving her teen years as an aspiring idol singer named Hikari with the help of magic pills just seems fraught with traumatic situations. This volume definitely went somewhat into the danger zone, as Chikage in her 15 year old persona decides to go out on at date with her fellow teen idol Ru. The volume opens with Chikage telling Tokita all about her teen romance plans, and he doesn’t point out the inherent problems of Chikage dating someone half her age very strongly, but he does ask the pointed question, “Are you going to tell him that you’re actually 31?” GOOD QUESTION TOKITA!

Chikage is nervous about her upcoming date and gets some tips from one of her coworkers. Quite frankly, as a reader, I was nervous about this date too as it seems like a horrible idea, but my anxiety was blunted somewhat when Ru decided to cross dress so his fans wouldn’t recognize him. Chikage and Ru go out, looking like a couple of girlfriends. Really, the only possible happy ending for this manga is for Chikage to not emotionally damage any of the teenagers she’s hanging out with, and gain enough confidence to actually become a functional adult. There are some slight signs of progress with her adult life in this volume, as she shows how adept she is at dealing with an editorial emergency at work.

As Chikage learns more about Ru, she realizes that she can’t continue to go out with him, but she chooses to break up with him in a particularly cruel way. Chikage’s lack of emotional intelligence is leaving plenty of distress in her wake, but I’m not sure if she realizes what she’s doing. I do miss Tanemura’s more teenage-centric manga, but I’m certainly curious about what will happen next in Idol Dreams.

Anonymous Noise, Vol. 5

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Anonymous Noise Volume 5 by Ryoko Fukuyama

I think Fukuyama should give other mangaka lessons on designing compelling covers. The cover for this volume of Anonymous Noise features a great image of Miou rocking out with her guitar. Speaking of Miou, in my mind, I think the best possible ending for this series would be for Nino and Miou to forswear all men, and run off to form an all girl supergroup. This being shoujo manga, I think the series is going to continue along with some conventional love triangles until everything is resolved.

I tend to prefer Anonymous Noise when it focuses more on the music than the romantic drama aspects of the story, so I was looking forward to this volume, where Nino and Yuzu’s band In No Hurry goes up against Momo and Miou’s Silent Black Kitty in a battle of the bands. At 5 volumes in, I’m still not finding the romance storylines in this series very compelling, as Nino is revered as a muse and pulled back and forth by her two childhood friends as though they are squabbling over a shiny toy. I did enjoy seeing Nino’s determination as she approaches practicing for her big concert, and there was a great scene of sassy comebacks as the rival bands unexpectedly find themselves on a radio show together, where they argue about who is the most angsty. I wish the series had a few more self-aware humorous bits like this.

Momo has an emotional confrontation with Nino right before she’s about to perform, which is an action I think is so overwhelmingly selfish, it causes me to not be very invested in the whole Nino/Momo romance that this series has built up over several volumes. Nino’s reaction to her emotional trauma is to take her fugue-like state while singing to the next level, and she responds with an incredible performance, even if she is emotionally out of control. The art is consistently super stylish, and I enjoy the dynamic performance scenes of Nino scream-singing. While I might not be very invested in the romance side of Anonymous Noise, it reliably brings the drama with every volume, and I do enjoy the series when the focus is centered more on the music that the characters all love.

Manga the Week of 12/6/17

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SEAN: The first week of December seems like a cakewalk compared to the third, but that’s only a matter of degrees. Let’s see what we’ve got.

Dark Horse has an 8th volume of Blood Blockade Battlefront, whose 7th volume came out sometime in the 17th century, I believe.

ASH: That does sound about right.

SEAN: Ghost Ship is the new imprint for Seven Seas’ more racy titles, though honestly I’m not sure how they’re different from a lot of Seven Seas’ other racy titles. They begin with two Shonen Jump titles that Viz never bothered to pick up: To-Love-Ru, a sweet yet ecchi romantic comedy, and To-Love-Ru Darkness, its much racier sequel that verges on hentai at times. We get an omnibus of the first two volumes of the first series, and the first volume of its sequel.

ASH: I’m curious to see how this imprint develops. It’s also incredibly interesting to see Shonen Jump titles from a publisher other than Viz!

SEAN: J-Novel Club has another debut, this one called How NOT To Summon a Demon Lord. I believe the Japanese title mentioned slave magic, so I will withhold my thoughts till I see how it handles it.

ASH: I wonder if Seven Seas might eventually team up with J-Novel Club to print this series, too, since the manga adaptation has also been licensed.

SEAN: There’s also a 5th Mixed Bathing in Another Dimension, which has caught up with Japan so has longer wait times.

Kodansha has STUFF. The first digital debut is Drifting Dragons, which seems to combine dragons and cooking. It runs in good! Afternoon.

MICHELLE: Oooh! And next year we’re getting househunting dragons, too.

ANNA: That sounds fun!

ASH: I would totally read that.

SEAN: The other debut digitally is Ayanashi, a fantasy drama from Shonen Magazine R. World overtaken by monsters, our hero bent on revenge, can he open up to others?

Also out digitally we have Pumpkin Scissors 16 (the Del Rey rescue) Yozakura Quartet 19 (ditto), Altair: A Record of Battles 6, The Full-Time Wife Escapist 7, Hozuki’s Coolheadedness 3, and Real Girl 8. I haven’t even reviewed Wife Escapist 6 yet…

MICHELLE: It’s good!

ANNA: So far behind with Wife Escapist, but I still like it!

SEAN: Kodansha’s print debut is Wake Up, Sleeping Beauty, which is another shoujo title from Dessert but whose premise intrigues me.

MICHELLE: I am always willing to at least try Dessert titles, having liked a lot of them.

ANNA: Me too!

ASH: I am also rather intrigued.

SEAN: If you wanted to pick up the Attack on Titan: No Regrets series but decided to wait till it came out in a Complete Color Edition, have I got good news for you!

ASH: I’m not such devotee that I’ll be double-dipping, but I did like this (shoujo!) spinoff. This will probably be the definitive edition, though.

SEAN: And there’s a 7th Fire Force, which continues to not be Soul Eater.

Seven Seas has 2nd volumes for Akashic Records of Bastard Magical Instructor and Captain Harlock: Dimensional Voyage, two series nothing like each other. We also get a 13th Dragonar Academy and an 8th Magika Swordsman and Summoner.

ANNA: CAPTAIN HARLOCK!

ASH: I liked the first volume! I will read more!

SEAN: Vertical has the 2nd and final Helvetica Standard volume, subtitled Italic.

And it’s the first week of the month, so there must be a ton of Viz. Two debuts. The first is Astra: Lost in Space, a Shonen Jump + series by the author of Sket Dance that looks to be a lot more serious than that title ever was.

The other debut is The Promised Neverland, a Weekly Shonen Jump series that I know little about except it’s become quite popular in Japan. Is it the new My Hero Academia?

ASH: I’m interested in both of these, but Kate recently posted a great review of The Promised Neverland, so I know which one I’ll be starting with.

SEAN: Shonen ongoing series! Assassination Classroom 19, Dragon Ball Super 2, Food Wars! 21, Haikyu!! 18, Kuroko’s Basketball 17-18, a 22nd One Piece 3-in-1, and the 4th Platinum End.

MICHELLE: Yay for food and sports!

ANNA: Indeed!

ASH: That is a pretty great combination, actually.

SEAN: Shoujo ongoing series! The 9th Bloody Mary, a 7th Everyone’s Getting Married (OK, that’s josei), and a 2nd Queen’s Quality.

ANNA: Excited for both Everyone’s Getting Married and Queen’s Quality!

ASH: Same! (Even though I’ve fallen behind…)

SEAN: It’s a mangatopia! What are you interested in?

Pick of the Week: Take A Chance On ACCA

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MICHELLE: I am very happy about new volumes of All Out!! and Giant Killing, and looking forward to Kodansha Digital’s new shoujo offerings, especially Lovesick Ellie, but I absolutely MUST have ACCA. I’ve missed Natsume Ono’s work and this one has an interesting premise regarding intrigue in some fictional country. Sign me up!

KATE: I second Michelle’s recommendation: it’s been waaaaaaaaaay too long since there was a new Natsume Ono title available in English.

SEAN: Yup, I have to agree, though I’m also drawn to SP Baby. But the Pick of the Week just has to be ACCA, the failed band that Agnetha and Anni-Frid put together with Christopher Cross… I mean, the newest offering from Natsume Ono.

ASH: No question about it, like everyone else, the debut of ACCA is absolutely my pick this week! House of Five Leaves was a particularly meaningful series for me, and I’ve greatly enjoyed many of the creator’s other manga, so I’m always interested in seeing what Ono is up to.

ANNA: I agree, a new Natsume Ono series is something that appears very rarely, and is definitely something to celebrate. ACCA is my pick as well!

Manga the Week of 11/29/17

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SEAN: Ugh. Let’s just lay it all out as quickly as possible. Cute comments to a minimum, there’s too much stuff!

Kodansha Digital… oof. New series include Lovesick Ellie, another cute Dessert shoujo, and My Brother the Shut-In, which I know nothing about except it runs in Morning Two. I always check out things from Morning Two.

MICHELLE: Yep, both of these are on my “check these out” pile.

ANNA: I’m intrigued but also overwhelmed at all the digital manga I haven’t read yet!

MJ: What Anna said.

SEAN: Also from Kodansha digital: All Out!! 3, Beauty Bunny 3, Cosplay Animal 3, DEATHTOPIA 6, Domestic Girlfriend 11, Drowning Love 5, Giant Killing 8, House of the Sun 11, Kounodori: Dr. Stork 6, and Peach Heaven 10. Phew. Cosplay Animal is what I’m interested in most from that pile.

MICHELLE: I’m already getting so far behind on All-Out!! and it’s just getting started!

ASH: It’s amazing how many titles are being released digitally these days, and how quickly, too!

SEAN: Kodansha still releases print as well, believe it or not. There’s Sweetness and Lightning 9, Waiting for Spring 3, and Welcome to the Ballroom 8.

MICHELLE: Aaaaand I’ll need all three of these, as well.

ASH: Sweetness and Lightning is definitely one of my priorities!

SEAN: There must have been a pileup at Seven Seas Interstate Thruway, as there are far more new titles this week than usual, starting with a debut that’s a mouthful: Anti-Magic Academy: The 35th Test Platoon. This seems to be a done in one omnibus.

Also debuting is Magical Girl Special Ops Asuka, which I think is another in the endless magical girl series for guys with fetishes. Whee.

There’s also continuing series: Devils and Realist 13, Don’t Meddle with My Daughter 2, Hana & Hina After School 3, Plum Crazy! 3, Re: Monster 3, The Seven Princes of the Thousand Year Labyrinth 4 (that’s a final volume), Shomin Sample 7, Tales of Zestria 3, and There’s a Demon Lord on the Floor 4.

ASH: That’s the last volume of Hana & Hina After School, too, I think. I’ll need to pick that up.

SEAN: Vertical Comics has a 5th To The Abandoned Sacred Beasts.

Viz has three titles delayed from the beginning of the month, as we get Anonymous Noise 5 and Idol Dreams 4.

Their debut is SP Baby, a new josei series from the author of Happy Marriage.

ASH: Glad for more josei being released.

ANNA: Unsurprisingly I enjoyed this!!!!

SEAN: And Yen Press still has some more titles. Digitally we see Aphorism 13, Crimson Prince 13, and Sekirei 13 on the manga side, and Accel World 5-8, Irregular at Magic High School 3-4, and The Isolator 1-3 on the light novel side.

The debut light novel is Wolf & Parchment, the sequel to Spice & Wolf.

Debuting on the manga end is ACCA, the newest manga from Ono Natsume, whose middle-aged men have been dearly missed the last couple of years. It runs in Big Gangan.

MICHELLE: Yaaay! I have indeed missed her work.

ASH: I am so excited for this!!

ANNA: I somehow forgot this was happening! But I am also excited!!!!!

MJ: YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.

SEAN: There’s also a Sword Art Online artbook. I got the Japanese version, and it looks pretty great, let me tell you.

MJ: I’m so ready!

SEAN: Ongoing titles include BTOOOM! 19, Danmachi 8 (the manga version), The Isolator 2 (likewise), Karneval omnibus 8, Kiss & White Lily for My Dearest Girl 4, and Spirits & Cat Ears 4.

I think I compressed that as much as humanly possible. Be thankful. What are you getting?

Pick of the Week: Hard To Decide

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SEAN: There’s a good number of titles I’m getting, but my mind is torn between the ridiculous manga Arakawa Under the Bridge and the ridiculous light novel So I’m a Spider, So What?, Given this is technically Manga Bookshelf and not Light Novel Bookshelf, I’ll lean on the side of the manga, so Arakawa is my pick.

KATE: So many choices… I’m partial to VIZ’s Children of the Whales, as I’m always interested in good fantasy/sci-fi, but I can’t deny the appeal of A Polar Bear in Love, which just looks cute. Cute is good.

ASH: There are so many terrific titles being released this week! Sean and Kate have already mentioned Arakawa Under the Bridge and Children of the Whales, both of which I’m looking forward to reading, so I’ll use my pick on the Neo Parasyte M shounen anthology–I’m a fan of Hitoshi Iwaaki’s original Parasyte manga and greatly enjoyed the shoujo collection Neo Parasyte F and I certainly can’t pass up the opportunity read more of Moto Hagio’s work!

MICHELLE: Since the intriguing debuts have been covered, I’ll vote for a continued favorite: Ooku. It has gone a bit beyond the point where I thought it would end, and I’m intrigued to see what other stories Yoshinaga has to tell.

ANNA: This week has a bunch of interesting manga. I have to say out of all of them I’m most interested in Children of the Whales. I’m in the mood for some good sci-fi!

MJ: This is a tough week for me. One thing you can generally count on with me is that Fumi Yoshinaga always wins. And yet… this week, I find my curiosity leaning soooo heavily towards getting a real taste of Hikaru Nakamura’s work in English that I think I’m unable to resist. It’s Arakawa Under the Bridge for me. I’m so sorry, Ooku. You know I still love you. Right??

SP Baby, Vol. 1

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SP Baby Volume 1 by Maki Enjoji

I’m a pretty big fan of Enjoji’s series Happy Marriage so I was excited when it was announced that Shojo Beat would be bringing out another series of hers. While Happy Marriage has an undercurrent of tension (spoiler alert! no one is getting married yet), the first volume of SP Baby is more of a comedic workplace romance.

Tamaki Hasegawa is struggling to find a full-time job. She needs to better support both herself and her little brother who is about to enter college. She has an ordinary life where one of the highlights is her helpless pining for her long-time friend Natsu who works in a flower shop. One day she sees one man chasing another on the street and jumps in to help by attempting a kick to the head of the threatening man. He promptly catches her ankle, leaving her at a loss on what to do next. After it becomes clear that the two men in question know each other, Tamaki apologizes for interrupting a lover’s quarrel and runs away. Her adventures are not over because the next day she’s shoved into a car carrying Kagetora Sugou, the man who she attempted to defend. He gives her a suit with a short skirt and announces that he’s going to interview her for the full-time job of being his bodyguard.

Kagetora is a nice contrast from Ryu in Everyone’s Getting Married. Kagetora is of course rich, but there’s an odd open-hearted innocence in his mannerisms and actions, like when he gives the people he works with nicknames that are usually reserved for cats. He alludes to having met Tamaki in the past, which is something that she has no memory of. Tamaki embarks on her new job, which necessitates dealing with some intense training in martial arts as well as finally getting her driver’s license. While it is obvious that her new boss is romantically interested in her, Tamaki keeps reminding herself of her so far one-sided affection for Natsu.

Enjoji’s art is always solid, and she easily captures the extreme emotions that Tamaki deals with as she ends up on an impromptu date with Kagetora or gives in to her lighting-fast violent reflexes. By the end of SP Baby, I was rooting for this very odd couple and wanting to see more of this story unfold. February is a long time to wait for the next volume! I recommend this title if you enjoy josei comedies with heroines who have a tendency to kick people in the head.

Manga the Week of 11/22/17

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SEAN: The November Crush continues, and there’s no respite. Let’s dive right in.

We start with novels, as Haikasoru has the 5th volume of Legend of the Galactic Heroes.

MICHELLE: Every time I say I really will read this series and every time I mean it, but every time I fail to accomplish it.

ASH: I’m a little behind myself, but I am enjoying the series.

ANNA: I have the first book but I haven’t read it yet.

SEAN: J-Novel Club has the slightly less dignified 6th volume of I Saved Too Many Girls And Caused the Apocalypse.

Kodansha is digitally still giving us Del Rey rescues – here’s Princess Resurrection 20.

There’s also a new pile of their current digital-only series. We have Elegant Yokai Apartment Life 3, I’m in Love and It’s the End of the World 2, Kasane 7, Real Girl 7, Space Brothers 30, and Until Your Bones Rot 2.

Print has some heavy hitters as well, starting with the Deluxe Edition of Battle Angel Alita. This is the first series, which old-timers will recall came out from Viz back in the pamphlet comic days, though I believe this is a new translation/orientation. This is also a hardcover omnibus.

Cells at Work! has a 5th volume out next week.

MICHELLE: I have missed learning about neutrophils and the like.

ASH: I get such a huge kick out of this series.

ANNA: We have a couple volumes at my library!

SEAN: And we get a 2nd Kiss Me at the Stroke of Midnight, whose first volume I found… needed to be more quirky.

MICHELLE: Heh. I will at least be checking this out.

SEAN: And if you enjoyed the anthology Neo Parasyte f, you’ll love the 2nd volume, Neo Parasyte m.

ASH: I’m looking forward to this! Moto Hagio is one of the contributors, among other things.

SEAN: One Peace has a 12th volume of Maria Holic, which somehow remains popular, I suppose.

Speaking of series I can’t kill with fire from my mind, Seven Seas has a 3rd How to Build a Dungeon.

And also a 2nd Red Riding Hood and the Big Sad Wolf.

Their debut is Slumbering Beauty, which comes from Yumi Unita, the creator of Bunny Drop. It runs in Rakuen Le Paradis, which will always get my attention, and is apparently a “modern day fairy tale”. (No wife husbandry this time around, please.)

MICHELLE: I’m very interested in this one!

ASH: As am I! (Also, I didn’t realize it was a series until just now.)

ANNA: Huh, I liked Bunny Drop until I know how the story was going to end, so I’m curious about this.

SEAN: Vertical also has a big debut. We can’t get Saint Young Men just yet, but we can get the author’s other hit, Arakawa Under the Bridge. It’s very strange, and ran in Square Enix’s Young Gangan. I believe Crunchyroll also has it digitally.

MJ: I’m so on board for this.

ASH: I greatly enjoyed the anime adaptation, so I’m very excited to read the original manga. Hopefully this may help pave the way for more of Nakamura’s work in translation.

ANNA: Strange manga from Vertical is my (occasional) jam!

SEAN: And not to be outdone, Viz gives us the debut of Children of the Whales (Kujira no Kora wa Sajou ni Utau). a dark mystery that appropriately runs in Akita Shoten’s Mystery Bonita. It looks very swank.

MICHELLE: “Dark mystery” is right up my alley.

ASH: If nothing else, the first volume’s cover art is gorgeous, but the story sounds intriguing as well.

ANNA: Will be checking this out for sure.

SEAN: Viz also has a 5th Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt (Gundam manga two weeks in a row? Go back in time and tell the fans in 1999 that this is a thing.)

And rejoice, there is a 13th volume of Ooku! It’s down to once a year, but the anticipation makes it better.

MICHELLE: Verily, I rejoice.

MJ: As doth I!

ASH: Forsooth!

ANNA: Indeed.

SEAN: Lastly (for Viz), if you like Tokyo Ghoul, there’s an artbook out called Illustrations: zakki.

And now for Yen, starting with the light novels. If you like Re: Zero but hate Subaru, you’ll love this spinoff series, Re: Zero EX. This first volume focuses on the past of Crusch and Felis.

We are getting many light novels in the coming months with very, very silly premises, and this may be one of the most interesting. So I’m a Spider, So What? is a standard “class of students are transported to fantasy world and given cool powers” work. However, our heroine is a spider. Which is considered a monster, so she has to fear for her life. Just the word ‘heroine’ makes me happy here.

MJ: I feel like if there’s a chance for me to get into light novels, this would be it. Can it do the job?

ASH: It is nice to have a heroine for a change of pace!

SEAN: And if you wanted to see more of the cast of your name, there’s a book of stories out next week called Another Side: Earthbound.

Yen Press has the complete in one omnibus Corpse Party: Book of Shadows, a sequel to the kill em off mystery series.

Forbidden Scrollery debuts. Technically a fantasy with lots of yokai and pretty art, it’s also a spinoff of the popular bullet hell game Touhou. I am hoping you don’t need any backstory to enjoy it.

ASH: I didn’t realize it was a spinoff, but the yokai definitely have my attention. Also, the book-related magic.

MJ: I like yokai and pretty art.

SEAN: Kakegurui: Compulsive Gambler has a 3rd print edition.

Log Horizon: The West Wind Brigade has been losing my attention lately, so I hope its 7th volume steps up its game.

If you want to read all of Pandora Hearts, and you love packaging, get the PandoraBox, which features all the volumes enclosed in a gorgeous trunk.

MJ: I can’t possibly justify this purchase, but I can recommend!

SEAN: Comic Gene is known for weird series, and the last debut next week certainly falls in that category. A Polar Bear in Love is the adorable tale of the titular polar bear and his love for a seal. Fun ensues.

Lastly, we get the 2nd your name manga.

Think we’re done? We’re not remotely done! Tune in the week after next for even worse November madness!

I Hear the Sunspot

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I Hear the Sunspot by Yuki Fumino

I Hear the Sunspot was a delightful surprise, and not a title that I expected to see One Peace Books license. For those of you who have been wishing for some slice of life character-driven shounen-ai manga, this title will easily fulfill your manga cravings.

I Hear the Sunspot traces the developing friendship between a couple of college students. Kohei, a student with hearing difficulties who keeps himself isolated from his classmates. Taichi is an outspoken semi-slacker who finds it difficult to keep a full-time job. Taichi is also perpetually hungry. After accidentally stumbling on one of Kohei’s hiding spots, Taichi finds himself gifted with Kohei’s lunch after staring at it with hungry eyes. The entire exchange is wordless on Kohei’s part and Taichi checks up on him with other students afterwards, finding out that Kohei needs volunteer note takers in order to support his studies.

One of the things I liked so much about this series was Fumino’s art. She has a great facility with facial expressions, where Taichi’s open, smiling mannerisms contrast with Kohei’s carefully cultivated almost expressionless looks as he is repeatedly confronted by someone who isn’t going to take “No” for an answer in his attempts at friendship. Taichi turns out to be a less than stellar note taker due to his habits of falling asleep or zoning out in class, but Kohei pays him for his efforts by bringing him extraordinarily delicious lunches. Kohei gradually begins to open up more thanks to Taichi’s efforts to include him in regular school activities, and the slice of life school stories mixed with small scenes showing the depth of this new friendship made I Hear the Sunspot a pleasure to read.

One of my favorite moments in the book was when Taichi finds himself in conversation with a girl who asks about Kohei in a really intrusive way, clearly indicating that she is invested in the idea of herself acting benevolent to a person with a disability. Taichi gets angry, and his reaction is just on the edge of being a little too upset, to the point where I started to wonder if he was romantically jealous in addition to wanting to protect his new friend. Character driven moments like this are why I Hear the Sunspot is now one of my favorite manga of the past year. I’m happy to hear that One Peace Books is also picking up at least one of the sequel volumes, and I’m so curious to find out what happens next in this slowly developing romance.

Pick of the Week: King Me

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MICHELLE: I would pretend to moan and groan here about having to decide between Requiem of the Rose King and Chihayafuru, but although I really and sincerely do love Requiem of the Rose King, for me and my sports manga fixation, there’s really no contest. Chihayafuru forever!!!

SEAN: I like Chihayafuru as well, though I’m falling behind. My pick is Requiem of the Rose King, though, as it remains one of the most compulsively readable shoujo out there, even if Shakespeare might be spinning in his grave a bit.

KATE: This week, I only have eyes for one title: volume three of Delicious in Dungeon, one of 2017’s best new manga. It’s funny, breezy, and surprisingly well plotted, despite its monster-of-the-week formula. As I noted in my review of volume one, Dungeon reads like a mash-up of a workplace sitcom and a cooking show (albeit one with seriously unappetizing recipes).

ASH: There are so many things that I’m interested in this week, it’s difficult for me to choose just one! There’s Frau Faust and Requiem of the Rose King for classically-inspired tales with interesting twists and Delicious in Dungeon with its brilliant mix of food and fantasy. For official picks I often lean towards debuts, though, and I’m very glad that A Strange and Mystifying Story was rescued–I’m curious to see if I like the series as well as I did the first time it was translated.

ANNA: There’s so much great manga coming out this week! For me though, any time Requiem of the Rose King comes out, that’s an automatic pick for me. This unique adaptation of Richard the III is always mesmerizing.

MJ: I’ve been pretty swamped this week, and haven’t had a chance to really look things over, but did somebody say Requiem of the Rose King? You can always count me in for that.

Manga the Week of 11/15/17

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SEAN: The November from hell continues – a second week of the month is supposed to be quiet!

J-Novel has a couple of titles to start us off. The 6th Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash is one of them.

The other is a debut, and may be familiar to anime fans. Outbreak Company is another of those pesky isekai novels, about an anime and manga otaku who ends up trapped in another world.

Kodansha has a ton. The debut digital title (actually already out this week, because Kodansha) is I’m in Love and It’s the End of the World, a shoujo title from the creator of House of the Sun that’s been running in Dessert, about a quiet, negative girl who somehow attracts the attention of the school prince. Wow, we’ve never seen that before.

MICHELLE: And certainly not from Dessert specifically!

ANNA: That sounds so new!!!!!

SEAN: And for digital fans, we also have Chihayafuru 6, Drowning Love 4, House of the Sun 10, Kokkaku: Moment by Moment 2, Magical Sempai 3, and Peach Heaven 9. Phew.

MICHELLE: I’ll be picking of several of those!

ANNA: Cannot believe I need to get caught up on Chihayafuru!

SEAN: Kodansha still has print, believe it or not. We have the penultimate volume of Fairy Tail, the 62nd.

There’s also a 2nd Frau Faust, whose title I recommend singing to the Gershwin song “By Strauss”.

ASH: Frau Faust is the thing! (I greatly enjoyed the first volume and am looking forward to reading more.)

SEAN: The Seven Deadly Sins is glaring at Fairy Tail with jealousy as it releases its 23rd volume.

And UQ Holder’s 12th volume just gives in and straight up has the Negima cast on its cover.

One Peace has a 7th manga volume for The Rise of the Shield Hero.

Seven Seas has four new titles, with Generation Witch 2, Holy Corpse Rising 4, My Monster Secret 8, and Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid 5.

SuBLime has the debut of A Strange and Mystifying Story, which seems to have a guy with elf ears, but otherwise sees the typical vaguely predatory BL cover art.

MICHELLE: Oh, I had no idea this series (formerly published by DMP) had been rescued! The first two volumes were pretty good (despite some problematic consent issues), but it seems to have taken a turn for the better in volume three. I’m glad to have the chance to finish the series!

ASH: Sean, those are obviously wolf ears. Like Michelle, I’m glad to see this series being rescued!

SEAN: Vertical Comics has a 3rd volume of the Mobile Suit Gundam Wing manga.

Every time we see a new volume of Requiem of the Rose King, it has a tendency to be Pick of the Week here at Manga Bookshelf. I don’t expect that to change with Vol. 7.

MICHELLE: Heh.

ASH: I do love this series so.

ANNA: It is the best.

SEAN: And we’re at 25 volumes of Rin-Ne with still no plot progression.

MICHELLE: Yep.

SEAN: Yen Press has the rest of the week, starting with the novel line. A Certain Magical Index left off last time with the heroines swapped to the wrong guy. Can they solve this problem and deal with another invasion from the Catholic… sorry, Roman Orthodox church? Find out in lucky book 13.

Durarara!! has an 8th volume, and will likely feature Izaya being smug and punchable, be warned.

And more dead girls arrive in the 2nd Magical Girl Raising Project.

Yen has one debut next week, a new spinoff from Sword Art Online. Called Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online, it’s based on a light novel (as yet unlicensed) by the Kino’s Journey creator, and features a whole new cast, I believe.

There are only two manga based on light novels out next week, not counting SAOA. KonoSuba reaches its fifth volume, and Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers has Vol. 4.

And there’s a large number of continuing titles, which I will list as follows: Anne Happy 7, The Case Study of Vanitas 3, Delicious in Dungeon 3, Demonizer Zilch 4, Dimension W 8, First Love Monster 8, Girls Last Tour 3, Puella Magi Tart Magica 5, The Royal Tutor 4, Today’s Cerberus 6, and Trinity Seven 11. Of that pile, Delicious in Dungeon seems the most promising to me.

MICHELLE: Same.

ASH: Delicious in Dungeon is definitely the one I’m most looking forward to, although there are a few others in there that I’ve been meaning to get around to reading.

SEAN: Are you keeping up? Or hopelessly behind? What are you getting?

MICHELLE: So totally hopelessly behind.

ANNA: Indeed.

Pick of the Week: A Lot To Choose From

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SEAN: As always for the first week of the month, there’s a lot I’m interested in, mostly from Viz. My pick is the new volume of My Hero Academia, which has risen up this year to become one of Jump’s hottest new titles, not quite on a Naruto level but at least near Bleach. And it’s also really fun.

MICHELLE: There’s a ton of stuff I’m interested in, too, with shoutouts to Ace of the Diamond, The Full-Time Wife Escapist, and Dreamin’ Sun in particular. Still, I am feeling in a distinctly Natsuki Takaya mood at present, so the fourth 2-in-1 omnibus of Twinkle Stars seems like just the thing.

KATE: This week, I’m all about Descending Stories. The last two volumes have done a better job of showing the reader why rakugo remains popular with Japanese audiences today, and has brought the drama. Count me in for the next installment!

ANNA: I’m going to go with The Full-Time Wife Escapist, I find the protagonist of the series different than what I expect from most josei series, and the dynamics between the characters are so interesting given the odd situations they find themselves in.

ASH: There are quite a few things that I’m interested in this week, too. However, the release I’m probably most curious about is the third omnibus of Erased. (Since the series is in part a mystery, this would seem to be an appropriate response.)

Beasts of Abigaile Vol. 2

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Beasts of Abigaile Volume 2 by Spica Aoki

I enjoyed the first volume of this series more than I was expecting to, so I was hoping that the second volume would deliver more paranormal romance trashy fun, and I was not disappointed. Nina continues to attempt to survive her undercover existence at werewolf school, ending up with more power and influence than anyone would have predicted.

Towards the end of the first volume, Nina takes an interest in Poe, a somewhat non-verbal artist who as an Omega, gets picked on by the rest of the students and the instructors. Nina is unhappy about the unsanctioned fight clubs that put students up against real live wolfs. Meanwhile, Roy and mean girl Eva seem to be having some significant fractures in their relationship, as Roy continues to find Nina fascinating, and Eva lurks in the bushes like a lupine Maleficent, spying on her possible female rival. Nina wants to let Poe into her pack, the White Rose Maiden Association, but the art kids that she hangs out with don’t want their status to drop by taking him in. They’d also be put in a position of danger in needing to defend him against other students as well. Eventually the situation boils over and Nina impetuously volunteers to take Poe’s place in the fight club. She declares herself Poe’s Alpha and says that she’ll fight all his battles for him. While Nina’s karate skills come in handy, she’s eventually rescued by Giles, who always seems to be around when she needs him.

This volume filled in a little bit of the backstory, both with Nina’s past history with bullying that makes her a relentless advocate for the downtrodden, and also some of the history of the school and why Poe has been placed in such a lowly position. Roy continues to be a total jerk, and I’m hoping that Nina doesn’t end up with him in the end, but with the way shoujo manga tends to go I’m guessing Nina’s influence will change him from being a terrible person. The art in this series continues to be well-executed, even if it doesn’t have a very distinct style. I’m still enjoying this series, but I tend to be a bit of an easy mark for supernatural shoujo.