Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

Anna N

Pick of the Week: Write To Me And Escape

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SEAN: So the Kodansha digital debuts I mentioned are actually moved to the 18th. This means my pick shall me an “older” digital-only title, The Full-Time Wife Escapist. The escapes are the best part.

MICHELLE: In the Kodansha digital realm, I’m definitely looking forward to the fourth volume of The Full-Time Wife Escapist. My real pick, though, is the second volume of Dreamin’ Sun, as I enjoyed volume one quite a bit.

KATE: Oof — this is some slim pickings. My suggestion: skip the manga aisle this week and watch GLOW instead. It’s a valentine to 80s pop culture that recognizes what a weird and sometimes awful decade it was. Great performances, snappy dialogue, and a big, appealing cast of characters made GLOW five of the best hours of TV I’ve seen this year.

ANNA: I find The Full-Time Wife Escapist such a fun series. I enjoy the unconventional not romance combined with slice of life activities and occasional discussions about the economy. That’s my pick!

ASH: While I’m curious to see where Dreamin’ Sun is heading, my pick this week is the final Legendary Edition of Akira Himekawa’s all-ages The Legend of Zelda manga. Up until this point I had resisted collecting the series, but the new edition’s larger trim sizes, additional content, and great design makes for an immensely appealing package.

Full-Time Wife Escapist Vols 1 and 2

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Full-Time Wife Escapist Volume 1 and 2 by Tsunami Umino

Kodansha seems to be putting out so many digital titles, I’m having a hard time keeping track of them all. I’m always curious to check out josei titles and Full-Time Wife Escapist is a unique title, as it isn’t as overtly focused on romance as some of the other josei titles that have been translated over here.

Mikuri is in a bind after attending graduate school in psychology. She’s having difficulty finding a full-time job, and makes ends meet as a temp. When her temp job ends, she’s caught in a difficult situation because her parents are moving to the country, where there will be even less work for her. She picks up some shifts here and there doing housework and meets a man named Tsuzaki, and she becomes his regular part-time housekeeper. They become closer when she takes care of him during an illness. Mikuri and Tsuzaki come up with the solution where Mikuri will move in as his platonic paid wife, taking over housekeeping duties, making him lunch and dinner, and generally making his bachelor apartment more comfortable.

Tsuzaki is a bit of a loner at work, and somewhat emotionally stunted and has a way of relating to other people that make them assume that he’s cranky, but it seems more like he just hasn’t developed his social skills very well. The transnational nature of the relationship is one of the aspects of this manga that makes it both interesting and refreshing. When Mikuri and Tsuzaki go to visit his parents, they set the terms of Mikuri’s overtime by negotiating back and forth. It is interesting to see tasks that would be unacknowledged emotional labor in a real relationship being assigned a dollar value in this one.

Mikuri’s background in psychology shows her observing other people as opposed to getting real insight on herself. She does have some amusing daydream sequences when her mind wanders and she projects herself into some dream tv interviews that offer some commentary on her life choices. Her aunt Yuri, an unmarried career woman, serves as a counterpoint to Mikuri’s more aimless lifestyle. I enjoy manga when it gets a little didatic, and there are some great asides in Full-Time Wife Escapist where the characters start discussing the economic conditions facing younger adults in Japan, providing some real world background and context to Mikuri’s unconventional lifestyle choice.

The first volume sets up the unique relationship situation in The Full-Time Wife Escapist fairly quickly, and the second volume shows some of the issues that happen when the couple continues to try to portray their relationship as real to friends and colleagues, who sense that something is a bit off in the way the couple relate to each other. At the same time, the close proximity of the fake couple is showing some awareness developing between them. This series has a nice slice-of life pace to the storytelling, as everyday activities like preparing dinner have a new slant due to the unique relationship. At the same time, there are some moments of pathos, as Tsuzaki reflects that if Mikuri ever decides to get married for real, he’s going to be alone for the rest of his life.

Tsuzaki’s friend Kazami starts appearing a bit more and more, and he and Mikuri have a few easy friendly conversations. Kazami starts envying the married lifestyle, but he’s not interested in settling down at all. Intriguing changes are signaled for the next few volumes. I enjoy a good josei romance series, but one of the things I appreciate about The Full-Time Wife Escapist is that it is focused more on transactions and slowly developing friendships than overt romance. It’ll also be interesting to see if Mikuri’s unconventional wife for hire lifestyle is sustainable over the long term.

Pick of the Week: KITTY!

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MICHELLE: I’m happy about Days and Haikyu!! and Honey So Sweet, but the debut of Plum Crazy! easily snags my pick for this week. It hadn’t even been on my radar before Sean’s column, but now I’m desperate to read it. And the best part is that the series is sixteen volumes long and still ongoing!

SEAN: I am definitely looking forward to cat manga, and there’s a pile of Viz I want to read as well. My pick this week, though, is Appleseed Alpha, a manga interpretation of the recent movie. Deunan and Briareos were some of the first manga characters I really grew attached to, and I want to read this new hardcover omnibus even if Shirow isn’t writing it.

KATE: Call me a crazy cat lady if you must, but my vote also goes to Plum Crazy!. Cats doing cute things = manga gold.

ASH: There’s definitely a variety of things that I’m interested in and will be making a point to read this week, but since a new volume is released so rarely, my official pick will be going to Berserk. I don’t find the most recent story arc as viscerally compelling as some of the earlier ones but, if nothing else, Miura’s artwork can still astonish.

ANNA: Honey So Sweet has been so consistently adorable, that is my pick this week.

Manga the Week of 7/5/17

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SEAN: Too many titles, let’s jump right in! What’s the feel-good manga of the summer?

Dark Horse has Berserk 38! For those wondering, the previous volume came out in 2013. Also for those wondering, it just went back on hiatus in Japan once more. Again.

ASH: Yup. This is the one. The feel-good manga of the summer. Seriously though, I’m always glad to see a new volume of Berserk (finally) show up.

SEAN: J-Novel Club thankfully gives us just one Invaders of the Rokujouma, the 4th. I enjoyed it, but am grateful it’s not 3 every month.

Kodansha has just one Del Rey rescue this week, the 18th volume of Alive.

ASH: Oh! I’d almost forgotten about this one! I wonder if the success of Noragami created more interest in this series.

SEAN: After delays that seemed to number in the centuries, we’re finally seeing the release of Appleseed Alpha, the manga adaptation of the 2014 film by the creator of Sexy Voice and Robo. It ran in Morning Two, and should be complete in one hardcover omnibus. More Deunan is always welcome.

ASH: I actually hadn’t realized that Iou Kuroda was involved with the manga.

SEAN: Kodansha Digital has plenty of new titles on tap this week, starting with some sports for Michelle with the third DAYS.

MICHELLE: Woot!

SEAN: There’s also the 12th Fuuka (the previous 11 having come out before I started tagging all the digital titles). Fuuka is a Seo Kouji title, which is its own warning.

GTO Paradise Lost has a 3rd volume. I need to catch up or I’ll end up very behind.

There’s also a 2nd Kasane, for those who like scary things.

And a 4th Tokyo Tarareba Girls, with more women behaving badly.

MICHELLE: It’s simultaneously funny and depressing and now I find I kind of dread discovering the latest heartbreak!

ANNA: I need to read this, I’ve been distracted by some of Kodansha’s other digital offerings.

SEAN: Lastly, we’re back to print with the 14th volume of Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches.

ASH: I did largely enjoy the beginning of the series, but it’s starting to feel like the manga is being stretched too thin at this point.

SEAN: Seven Seas sneaks up on you, as they don’t mass ship on one week the way Viz and Yen do, but they’re putting out a PILE of titles every month now. First up, the debut of Alice & Zoroku, a seinen title from Comic Ryu about experimental kids from a research lab and a grumpy, mostly normal old man.

The Ancient Magus’ Bride has a 7th volume coming, and that should make all of you very happy. I certainly am.

ASH: It makes me happy! This series is still one of my favorites currently being released.

SEAN: As for the 12th volume of Magical Girl Apocalypse, I’m sure some folks are happy there as well.

Monster Girl fans will be pleased by a 6th Nurse Hitomi’s Monster Infirmary.

And if you like light novels from J-Novel Club but hate digital titles, there’s the first Occultic;Nine novel in print with Seven Seas distributing.

Plum Crazy! (Kijitora Neko no Koume-san) is a series from Shonen Gahosha’s magazine devoted to cat manga, Neko Panchi. I’ve heard very good things about this title, plus KITTIES!

MICHELLE: This was not on my radar at all!

ASH: Who doesn’t like a good cat manga?

SEAN: Lastly from Seven Seas, we have Wadanohara and the Great Big Sea (Oounabara to Oounabara), a Gene Pixiv title that seems to be a younger-skewing fantasy title. It’s an omnibus of Vol. 1-2.

The sad thing is it’s a first week and I haven’t gotten to Viz yet. Let’s start with the 5th 7th Garden manga.

Anonymous Noise has a 3rd volume of teenage angst and pop music.

ANNA: I feel weirdly conflicted about this title and yet I’m sure I’m going to read it.

SEAN: Bleach is still churning out manga volumes despite the series ending about this time last year, and we’re now up to Vol. 70.

And Blue Exorcist has a 17th volume, a series I still quite enjoy even if I lose track of the plot at times.

The Demon Prince of Momochi House has a 9th volume, standing above all as the ongoing Aya Shouoto series in North America.

MICHELLE: And the best thus far.

ANNA: SO good!

ASH: I’ve been enjoying it, too!

SEAN: It’s unlucky 13 for Haikyu!!, and hopefully the triskadecaphobia won’t strike the team itself.

ANNA: Woo hoo for volleyball!

ASH: Still loving this series.

SEAN: Honey So Sweet has a 7th volume for is. It’s certainly lived up to its name.

ANNA: SO sweet!

SEAN: Naruto has a 19th 3-in-1, and my guess is there’s a big fight going on somewhere in it.

The 22nd volume of Nisekoi will wrap up Mariko’s subplot, and hopefully not kill her off with Love Story disease.

And there’s a 22nd Oresama Teacher as well, which delights me. Super Bun returns FOR GREAT JUSTICE!

ANNA: I’m behind on this title, but who doesn’t love Super Bun????

ASH: Considering my love for Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun, I should really make the point to give Oresama Teach a try one of these days.

SEAN: Rurouni Kenshin has a 3rd 3-in-1. Is it in the Kyoto Arc yet?

ASH: Yup!

SEAN: Twin Star Exorcists has reached Vol. 9.

And The Water Dragon’s Bride has a second volume, and I’m hoping continues to keep the oddly creepy mood of the first.

ANNA: This is a great series.

ASH: Another series I’ve been meaning to try! I greatly enjoyed the creator’s earlier series Dawn of the Arcana.

SEAN: Lastly, World Trigger hits its 16th volume, and I suspect we may be catching up with Japan before long, as the author is ill.

SO MUCH MANGA. Is it making you sweat, or is that just the heat?

Pick of the Week: Gems, Witches, Emperors and Vikings

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SEAN: I’ll be honest, most of my attention this week is focused on novels, what with Combat Baker and Nisemonogatari. But I picked a novel last week, so this week my pick is Land of the Lustrous, a new Kodansha series with gem wars but sadly not Steven.

MICHELLE: I’m looking forward to the second volumes of series whose debut volumes I liked a lot. Ordinarily, I’d pick Giant Killing, what with it being sports manga and all, but Flying Witch has an amusing kitty, and that gives it the edge this time.

KATE: I share Michelle’s enthusiasm for manga featuring cute animal sidekicks., but my vote goes to the digital-only release The Emperor and I, a comedy about a family living with an Emperor penguin. The story unfolds in short chapters of three to nine pages, so the formula isn’t as rigid as a 4-koma title; it feels a little bit like reading a collection of Sunday comic strips. Not sold? Here’s what I had to say about it back in May.

ASH: For me, my pick could be nothing other than Vinland Saga this week. The series has been consistently compelling from the very beginning. It’s also had great female characters from the start, but the most recent story arc allows the women in the series to shine like they haven’t before.

ANNA: I agree with Ash, I am very happy that new volumes of Vinland Saga are coming out after the series was paused for some time. It is rare for a series to combine great historical background with a truly compelling story and evocative art. Vinland Saga is my pick!

Manga the Week of 6/28/17

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SEAN: It’s the end of the fiscal year! The real 2016 ends on June 30th! What are publishers putting out before the end of the budget?

Bookwalker has been a site that distributes digital titles for many publishers, but they’ve decided to dip their own toe into the pond with a new light novel series, The Combat Baker and Automaton Waitress. It appears to feature delicious bread.

MJ: I do like delicious bread… Can a great title like this lure me into a light novel series? Stay tuned to find out!

SEAN: I’m always wary to list DMP titles these days given how iffy they’ve been with print the last two years, but The Tyrant Falls in Love 10 is still listed by Amazon as coming out next week.

ASH: Yeah… DMP’s distribution is almost nonexistent these days. The manga might eventually make it to other sellers, but The Tyrant Falls in Love, Volume 10 isn’t even available through June Manga’s website yet.

SEAN: J-Novel Club has another debut with Demon King Daimaou, a fairly old series that had an anime out back in 2010. It has a magical academy, a boy who will grow to be a demon king, a harem of girls who zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz….

Kodansha wraps up a license rescue next week, as Nodame Cantabile comes to an end with Vols. 24 and 25. There’s also a 14th Yozakura Quartet.

In print, there’s a 3rd volume of Clockwork Planet.

Back to digital for the 2nd volume of Giant Killing, which is not about killing giants in a fantasy way, just in a sports way.

MICHELLE: And it’s so good! I’m looking forward to this one.

SEAN: Kodansha’s print debut next week is Land of the Lustrous (Houseki no Kuni), a seinen series from afternoon about gemstones fighting in a war. From what I’ve seen, the gemstones are genderless, so be warned that there may be a translation fight here (remember Wish?).

ASH: I am rather curious about this series. (And speaking of Wish, I wonder if Dark Horse’s forthcoming omnibus edition will be using a new translation… )

MJ: So… like Steven Universe, but without Steven?

SEAN: And a new volume of Vinland Saga is always welcome, here’s the 9th.

ANNA: Yay! I have been buying these faithfully even though I have not read them yet. Waiting until I feel particularly vikingish to go on a reading binge.

ASH: It is SO GOOD. I’m thrilled that we’re getting more of the series! There were some really great female characters introduced recently, too.

SEAN: Seven Seas has not one, but two debuts next week. The first is Beasts of Abigaile (Bara Kangoku no Kemono-tachi), a shoujo manga from Princess (man, have we had any Princess titles since Tokyopop shut down its manga?) that’s a reverse harem with werewolves.

ANNA: OK, paranormal reverse harem does interest me.

MJ: Maybe, maybe…

SEAN: Concrete Revolutio: The Complete Saga, as the name might suggest, is a done-in-one omnibus from Young Ace. The subtitle in Japan is “Superhero Fantasy”, and that seems entirely correct.

MICHELLE: Both appear to feature protagonists with pink hair!

SEAN: Seven Seas also has a new omnibus of Freezing, Vols. 15-16.

And there’s also a 5th Hour of the Zombie, which has caught up to Japan, I believe.

Udon, like DMP, has constantly slipping and sliding dates on Amazon, but it does say the 4th Persona 3 is out next week.

ASH: I’m not enjoying the Persona 3 adaptation nearly as much as the Persona 4 adaptation.

SEAN: Vertical gives us the 4th massive tome in their BLAME! Master’s Edition.

And a 2nd volume of slice-of-magical-life series Flying Witch.

MICHELLE: I enjoyed volume one quite a bit, so I’m looking forward to this!

SEAN: Vertical Inc. has the next novel in the Monogatari series. Nisemonogatari is split into two volumes that deal with Araragi’s younger sisters – this is the first, Karen Bee.

Viz has a new digital release, at least “new” in terms of a collected volume. The Emperor and I runs in Shonen Jump+, and is, well, about an emperor. An emperor penguin, that is.

Yen Press has some digital titles as well, with the 11th Corpse Princess and the 10th Saki.

They also have two digital debuts. Gesellschaft Blue is a Young Gangan series filled with blood, gore and action. It’s a very dark fantasy.

IM: The Great Priest Imhotep seems more like a standard shonen fantasy, and appropriately it runs in Shonen Gangan.

There’s always one lone Yen title that’s pushed back a week from the others, and this month it’s Leg Horizon’s 8th novel, which focuses on the younger members of the guild and their adventures.

Lastly, Sword Art Online gets 3 more light novel digital releases with Vols. 5-7.

Did you budget properly? Do you have money left over to buy manga next week?

Requiem of the Rose King, Vol 6

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Requiem of the Rose King Volume 6 by Aya Kanno

My only minor quibble with this series is that as it progresses, I sometimes have difficulty telling all the blonde Englishmen apart. However, once I’m further into each volume I start remembering the more subtle aspects of Kanno’s character designs and then I can tell who is who.

One of the themes of this series is the brutality of war and the psychological cost associated with making kings, both with those who seek power through manipulation and the kings themselves who end up as pawns in a bigger game of statesmanship. Richard and Henry have found a peace with each other that is utterly separate from their hidden identities as opposing Tudor and Yorks. While Richard as the central character of this manga is undoubtedly fascinating, I enjoyed the way this volume focused on the kingmakers Buckingham and Warwick, their varying relationships with Richard and the hazards of trying to seize power through putting someone forward for the throne.

Kanno’s artistic and surreal portrayal of Richard’s psychological torment and the horrors of war is a highlight in this series. The battle that Richard fights is made even more confusing by a fog that envelops the troops, causing the soldiers to be uncertain if they are fighting their own side or the enemy. As Richard heads towards the vengeance he desires for the death of his beloved father, he’s going to be even more overset when he finds out just who his Henry really is. It always feels like there’s quite a long wait between volumes, but this is one series that I’m going to be rereading from start to finish as soon as the final volume comes out, just to be able to get swept up in this fascinating story again.

Manga the Week of 6/21/17

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SEAN: It’s that time again. Time for this list of titles to take forever, time for your wallet to scream in pain, time for Anna to wonder why Yen doesn’t license more shoujo. Yes, it’s that week of the month.

Dark Horse has another Hatsune Miku manga, this one called Acute.

Drawn and Quarterly gives us another Kitaro volume, The Great Tanuki War. I’ve reviewed it here.

ASH: I’m always ready for more Kitaro!

SEAN: Haikasoru has the 4th Legend of the Galactic Heroes novel, which seems more timely than ever these days.

ASH: That it does.

MICHELLE: Someday, I really will read these.

ANNA: I just got the first one!

SEAN: J-Novel Club has the 4th Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash out digitally.

Their debut this week is If It’s For My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat A Demon Lord, which is a very light novel title if nothing else. J-Novel’s founder described it as being “like Bunny Drop”, then had to hurriedly walk that back after fans recoiled in horror. The good parts of Bunny Drop, apparently.

Kodansha continues to rush Nodame Cantabile to its finish digitally, here’s Vol. 23.

MICHELLE: Woot!

SEAN: Kodansha in print has a 7th volume of Inuyashiki, which recently ended in Japan.

And an 11th volume of Kiss Him, Not Me!, which despite its cover is unlikely to end with anyone married.

There is also a 7th Real Account.

Seven Seas gives us a 3rd volume of “would you read this in public?” series Holy Corpse Rising. (Answer: no.)

The new title is Otome Mania!, a reverse harem series that runs in Sylph, and whose author has done a lot of Shonen Jump BL doujinshi. So, pretty much the opposite market to Holy Corpse Riding.

Viz gives us the 21st volume of Dorohedoro, which crawls closer to its conclusion, but I don’t mind it taking so long.

ASH: I continue to adore Dorohedoro. It will be sad when it ends, but it has been an astonishing ride so far.

SEAN: Viz’s big debut is Golden Kamuy, a Young Jump title which sounds absolutely amazing, and co-stars an Ainu woman? Sign me up.

ASH: I’m really looking forward to this series!

ANNA: This looks cool.

SEAN: The 6th Goodnight Punpun omnibus is also out next week.

ASH: We’re drawing near the end of this depressing yet compelling work.

SEAN: And an 11th Master Keaton.

Lastly (from Viz, don’t get excited), there’s a lucky 13th volume of Tokyo Ghoul.

That leaves Yen, but we’re not even halfway through the list. A huge number of light novels next week, starting with the 10th Accel World, which I hope is more lighthearted after the last few books.

Is It Wrong To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon’s side story, Sword Oratoria, is not making viewers of the anime adaptation happy, but will they enjoy this 3rd light novel more?

The first of two debuts this month, Magical Girl Raising Project is one of THOSE series, featuring a lot of cute and determined magical girls who will be brutally slaughtered.

The 4th volume of Psycome goes off campus, as our heroes deal with Eri’s family and past.

Re: Zero’s 4th volume starts a new arc which no doubt means more deaths and save points for our hero.

The most exciting debut of the week for me is Sound Euphonium, a book about a high school band that was adapted into a beloved anime series. I believe this is the only volume licensed, though a sequel is out in Japan. Buy it, I hear it’s great.

MICHELLE: I don’t often go in for light novels, but for this I think I’ll make an exception.

ASH: I’ll absolutely be reading this. Band was the highlight of my high school years.

SEAN: Spice & Wolf turns out to be not quite over, as we get this 18th volume of the series.

And the first two Sword Art Online: Progressive novels are out digitally next week.

On to Yen’s manga. There’s a 5th Aoharu x Machinegun.

The Asterisk War has a 4th volume of its manga adaptation.

And Bungo Stray Dogs gets a 3rd volume.

The Devil Is A Part-Timer’s 9th manga volume is out as well.

And a 7th Dragons Rioting. Sorry, no witty remarks, no snark, just a long list of things I don’t read.

I do read Erased, though, and look forward to the 2nd omnibus.

ASH: It should be good! The first omnibus was a little slow for me at first, but by the end I was hooked.

SEAN: If you want to read Grimgar but hate books, here is the first volume of the Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash manga.

And there’s a 6th volume of Handa-kun.

The Honor Student at Magic High School is once again behind the light novels, to my relief. Here’s the 7th manga volume.

How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend has reached Vol. 6.

Kiniro Mosaic has a 3rd volume of basically not a lot happening to cute, yuri-ish girls.

My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Long As I Expected still has a long title, even 5 volumes in. (A reminder this sis the manga adaptation, though Amazon has gotten better at differentiating the two now.)

A spin-off of No Game No Life (whose own manga adaptation seems to be on hiatus in Japan), No Game No Life, Please! focuses on Izuna, as the title’s verbal tic likely gave away.

Of the Red, the Light and the Ayakashi may not make much sense to me, even after 7 volumes, but it’s got style.

MICHELLE: I’m enjoying it!

ASH: I’ve been enjoying it, myself.

SEAN: And we have a 7th Prison School omnibus.

ASH: I’m still reading this series, too. It’s definitely not for everyone, though.

School-Live! still has not run out of zombies, as we have Vol. 7 here.

And a 7th Strike the Blood manga will not surprise, but may satisfy anyway.

Today’s Cerberus gives us a 4th print volume of the already out on digital series.

Lastly, the your name novel gets a manga adaptation, and this is Vol. 1.

Phew. What’s for you next week? Or does the list just make you dizzy?

Pick of the Week: Manwha-Karuta

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SEAN: There have been a lot of yuri picks of the week this year, mostly as there have been a lot of yuri debuts this year. The latest is After Hours, a Viz title about a young woman who gets dragged to a club and finds her life turned upside-down! It’s my pick this week, despite putting the voice of Mo Tucker in my head.

MICHELLE: o/~ And someday I know someone will look into my eyes and say hellooooo… you’re my very special one…. o/~ I used to always close mix tapes with that one back in the day. Anyway, I am very excited about After Hours, but as usual my heart pines most strongly for sports manga and in this case it’s the third volume of Chihayafuru, due out digitally from Kodansha. I’m happy to see it coming out so soon after volume two and hope that becomes a trend.

KATE: My pick of the week isn’t a manga but a manhwa: Uncomfortably Happily, due out from Drawn & Quarterly on June 13th. It’s a semi-autobiographical story by Yeon-Sik Hong about a pair of artists who trade life in the big city for a rural retreat, only to discover that life in the countryside isn’t as simple as they imagined it would be. After reading Rebecca Silverman’s glowing review, I ordered myself a copy.

ASH: I’m definitely interested in After Hours, but I’m with Kate this week in picking Uncomfortably Happily. I actually ended up with an advanced copy of the work, so I already know it’s great! My own review of the manhwa should be posted in just a few days.

ANNA: How am I behind in my Chihayafuru reading!? Having two volumes to read to get caught up is exciting though. Volume three of Chihayafuru is my pick for the week.

MJ: Did someone say “manhwa from Drawn & Quarterly”? I’m pretty sure that’s my pick, even if I read nothing more about it. Combine that with the recommendations so far, and it sounds like it’ll completely make my week. Uncomfortably Happily is the comic for me this week!

Yona of the Dawn, Vol. 6

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Yona of the Dawn Volume 6 by Mizuho Kusanagi

I’m always happy when a new volume of Yona of the Dawn comes out. The cover of this volume, featuring Yona and Sinha sheltering from the rain under a giant leaf, is particularly adorable. Yona is tested in many ways as she learns more about the Green Dragon and his pirate companions.

Although Yona doesn’t have any superpowers, the force of her forthright personality proves to be an incredible advantage for her. When the Green Dragon Jaeha announces that he won’t join up with her, she reacts calmly, saying that she’ll ask him to join her but would never order or try to compel him to change his mind. Yona is tested even further when Jaeha takes her to meet the pirate queen, Captain Gi-Gan. She tests the companions and refuses to accept Yona, since Yona doesn’t have any special or useful abilities. Gi-Gan tells Yona to gather a rare medicinal herb, which requires some treacherous hiking at the edge of a cliff. Yona is determined to prove herself worthy of taking part in the upcoming battle, and she heads off to face her test, accompanied by Jaeha. Jaeha’s Green Dragon protective instincts kick in even as he tries to fight the bond he has with Yona.

There were a bunch of very cute Yona and Hak moments in this volume. Hak points out that her attitude towards the Green Dragon’s recruitment is totally at odds to her ordering him to accompany her on her journey and she gets incredibly flusters and tells him to shut up because “You’re different.” Hak secretly finds this adorable. Hak’s jealousy kicks into high gear when Jaeha talks about how unique and cute Yona is. His emotions are tested even more when Yona decides to go undercover to subvert the local warlord’s terrible plans for human trafficking with the village girls. Sometimes I’m not a fan of such slowly developing romances, but while Hak has clearly acknowledged his feelings internally, it still seems like Yona hasn’t examined her feelings for him quite as closely. Hopefully there will be more developments here in the next volume or so!

As I was reading this volume of Yona of the Dawn, I realized that it reminded me quite a bit of Basara. There’s the superficial similarity of awesome pirate queen characters popping up in both manga, but the slower pace of the storytelling allowing the author to introduce an expansive cast with plenty of character development along the way is the main reason why I like both series.

Pick of the Week: Are You Lesbian Experienced?

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MICHELLE: I suspect that most of my compatriots are going to pick something else, but I can’t deny that what I am most looking forward to this week is the sixth Kuroko’s Basketball omnibus. I fell a little behind on the series, and so the prospect of reading two of these 2-in-1s back-to-back sounds like sports manga paradise.

SEAN: No question, absolutely, my pick this week is My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness, which was simply one of the best autobiographical manga I’ve read.

KATE: Sean and Erica Friedman’s reviews of My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness have put it on the top of my list for this week, too. I’m also looking forward to the sixth installment of Sweetness & Lighting, a manga which always makes me feel happy and hungry in equal measure.

ASH: The obvious choice for my pick of the week is My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness but I’m definitely looking forward to giving Manga in Theory and Practice a read as well. Of course there’s the newest volumes of Haikyu!! and Yona of the Dawn, too… so many great manga this week!

ANNA: If Yona of the Dawn is coming out, there can be no other pick for me, as I’m captivated as always by this great shoujo fantasy series.

MJ: I’m definitely in the My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness crowd this week. This is, by far, the book that most interests me on the list. Also, I must now immediately go and read Sean and Erica’s reviews.

Manga the Week of 6/7/17

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SEAN: June is bustin’ out all over! And while we don’t have that Rogers and Hammerstein manga just yet, we certainly have plenty of titles coming out next week.

ASH: (I would totally read that manga, btw.)

MJ: (Same.)

SEAN: J-Novel Club has the 4th volume of My Big Sister Lives in a Fantasy World, which promises to be more Haruhi-ish than ever before.

Kodansha digital has more Del Rey rescue volumes, as we get Nodame Cantabile 21 and Princess Resurrection 15.

They also have the 2nd digital volume of Drowning Love.

MICHELLE: Yay for Nodame and Drowning Love.

SEAN: I admit that I have for the most part dropped Fairy Tail. I am a shipper, though, and I do love me some Galevy. I will be picking up Fairy Tail: Rhodonite, then, a spinoff focused on Gajeel.

Noragami has a new volume, with Vol. 18! Man, remember when these were monthly?

ASH: I do! It’s great to catch up so quickly, but it does make the waits between volumes feel especially long.

SEAN: And there is a 6th Sweetness and Lightning.

MICHELLE: I could use a dose of wholesome food manga.

ASH: I’m really loving this series.

SEAN: On the Seven Seas front, we have the 2nd volume of Captive Hearts of Oz, which I found interesting enough to continue, and Alice in the Country of fans should love it.

ASH: The first volume intrigued me as well. It had it’s rough spots, but overall I was entertained.

SEAN: They’re also releasing a print version of the first Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash light novel, which J-Novel Club released back in December.

The big release next week is My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness, which everyone needs to pick up immediately. I reviewed it here.

MICHELLE: Hm, sounds interesting!

ASH: One of my most anticipated releases of the year! I’m glad to finally get a chance to read it.

MJ: This was somehow not on my radar at all, so thanks for fixing that!

SEAN: And there is a 3rd Please Tell Me, Galko-chan!, which I find far more amusing and fun than I’d expected to.

ASH: Same.

SEAN: Vertical Comics has a 7th Volume of Devil’s Line.

And now it’s time for Viz. Assassination Classroom 16 promises a heaping help of backstory.

Black Clover 7 promises more of what it is that Black Clover does best: reminding you of other shonen titles.

Even after 7 volumes, Bloody Mary still has vampires.

The 5th Everyone’s Getting Married is also out. Can they keep things from getting too angsty?

And things continue to go from bad to worse for the students in the 18th volume of Food Wars!.

MICHELLE: Ordinarily, I look forward to Food Wars! passionately, but this current arc is rather distressing.

ASH: I actually need to catch up to the current arc; I’ve fallen behind!

SEAN: Haikyu!! 12 is probably happy it doesn’t have to worry about cooking and can just focus on volleyball.

MICHELLE: Huzzah!

ASH: Yay!

SEAN: And the second to last volume of Kamisama Kiss! I will miss it!

ANNA: I’ve been stockpiling volumes because I don’t want it to be over.

SEAN: Kuroko’s Basketball has a 6th 2-in-1 omnibus, and continues to star Kuroko, against all odds.

MICHELLE: Further huzzah!

SEAN: Viz’s big release is Manga in Theory and Practice. A few years ago Tokyopop released a volume by Hakusensha’s editors on how to do shoujo manga. This might be the shonen equivalent, but its creator is none other than Hirohiko Araki, the creator of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure! I cannot wait to read this.

ANNA: That sounds like a hoot.

ASH: I’m really looking forward to reading this.

MJ: Oh, interesting. Count me in.

SEAN: One Piece 3-in-1 20 should not be read without tissues handy, as it has the death that no one was expecting.

Seraph of the End has reached a dozen volumes, meaning it can now be profitable in syndication.

And So Cute It Hurts!! has unlucky Volume 13.

Lastly, but not leastly (oh, the grammar pain), there is a 6th Yona of the Dawn. Why can’t this be monthly?

ANNA: YES, WHY?????

MICHELLE: Aside from Fruits Basket, has a shoujo series ever had a monthly print release?

ASH: It seems like there must have been, but none immediately come to mind.

SEAN: A highly interesting week. What are you getting?

Water Dragon’s Bride, Vol. 2

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The Water Dragon’s Bride, Volume 2 by Rei Toma

The first volume of Water Dragon’s Bride was surprisingly dark, which made it feel quite a bit refreshing as it was quite a tonal shift from the usual shoujo fantasy fare. The second volume wasn’t quite as dark in theme, but it was still quite absorbing, ensuring that this series is rapidly becoming a current favorite of mine.

Modern girl Asahi finds herself transported to another world where she ends up being brutalized by humans, offered up as a sacrifice to the Water Dragon God, and almost starves to death due to the Water Dragon’s utter incomprehension of human frailty. Her one ally is Subaru, a village boy with a scheming and overbearing mother. The Water Dragon appears and heals Asahi from her injuries as she is recuperating in the village. Asahi has a few normal hours where she attempts to communicate while being robbed of speech and she is able to enjoy the outdoors a little bit.

The Water Dragon begins to exhibit some gradual signs of change with the mild protectiveness he exhibits towards Asahi. He becomes angry at the human villagers and finds the rituals and stories they’ve made up about him ridiculous, but he still has no idea how easily breakable humans are, causing yet another accident to Asahi and Subaru as he gets caught up in rage. Asahi is left to care for Subru on his own when he’s injured and she ends up being incredibly resourceful even when she is helped along a little bit by the gods who seem to regard her as a pet project.

Asahi’s situation stabalizes somewhat, as she’s given the role of a priestess and a caretaker. The Water Dragon decided to wait to claim his bride until she’s older and the last few pages give a glimpse of Asahi and Subaru much older, giving a hint to the next story arc. The art on The Water Dragon’s Bride continues to be delightful, and I’m still in awe of Toma’s deceptively simple illustration style. The art isn’t overdecorated, but she manages to portray everything she needs with great economy. It is always clear what Asahi is thinking, even when she’s robbed of the power of speech. The character designs for the pantheon of gods that keep popping in and out to offer sly commentary on the Water Dragon’s inexplicable choices are also charming. My only complaint is that there’s too much of a wait between volumes for this series!

Pick of the Week: Is This The Real Life? Is This Just Fudanshi?

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SEAN: It’s an odd week with the majority of titles being digital ones. I’m not blown away by anything, but I guess I’ll go with the debut of Real Girl, a Dessert series that almost seems to be a genderbent version of a very common shoujo trope.

KATE: That’s some slim pickings… oof. If I had to choose a title — and death was not an option — I’d cast my vote for The High School Life of a Fudanashi. After reading several relentlessly grim books, I could use a silly palette cleanser. Fudanashi looks like it fits the bill: it’s a 4-koma title about a straight boy who likes BL but feels weird about telling his friends. It will either be a hoot or a dreary compendium of “But I’m not gay!” jokes. Let’s hope it’s the former.

MICHELLE: I intend to check out Kasane and Real Girl, but of all the options, I’m most happy that the digital release of Nodame Cantabile continues briskly, so I’ll pick volume twenty of that series this time.

ASH: Like Kate, my pick this week goes to The High School Life of a Fudanshi. The premise has promise, but it also has the potential to go completely off the rails (and not in a good way). I’m curious to see which direction the series takes!

MJ: There’s not a lot for me this week, but I’m cautiously edging towards The High School Life of a Fudanshi, with the understanding that it could turn out to be either awesome or horrifyingly offensive. I’m open to finding out which.

ANNA: There really isn’t much that’s an automatic pick for me, so like Sean, I’ll go with Real Girl as I enjoy genderbent shoujo from time to time.

Manga the Week of 5/31

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SEAN: Believe it or not, under 20 releases is now a quiet week. Welcome to the Manga Boom, here’s your accordion. So what’s out next week?

J-Novel Club has an odd license. Despite being available to them, no one thought the company would license Invaders of the Rokujouma!? for two reasons: 1) It’s 23 volumes and counting in Japan, and 2) it already had a well-regarded fan translation of the first 22 volumes. But J-Novel has licensed that fan translation, is giving it an edit, and doing a fast release of the first three volumes of the series, with more to come monthly, apparently. As for the title itself, it’s a harem comedy, so moving on…

ASH: It’s probably not a series that I’ll ever pick up, but that’s an interesting publication history!

SEAN: Kodansha has more digital Del Rey rescues. Alive 16, Nodame Cantabile 20, and Yozakura Quartet 12.

…and I guess that Kodansha has Battle Angel Alita 1-3 out digitally too. I knew it was coming, but not so soon. This is the original BAA (as opposed to the Last Order reboot), with a new translation.

Their lone print release this week is the 60th volume of Fairy Tail, which should be wrapping up in Japan soon.

Kodansha also has new digital releases. Kasane is an award-winning work, and runs in the magazine Evening. It appears to be a dark thriller with lots of bullying and abuse overtones. But, magic lipstick!

Real Girl (3D Kanojo) is a shoujo/josei title from Dessert, involving a nerdy outcast type who ends up working with a cool beauty, the sort he hates, but gradually comes to realize that cool beauties are people too.

ANNA: I have mixed feelings about these digital releases, I’m so happy that more shoujo/josei is coming out, but having been burned before by the crash and burn of digital manga programs in the past, I’m concerned about some of these titles actually being finished. Also, it would be great to have some more josei print manga! Even with these handy reminders for the Manga Bookshelf team, I’m having a hard time keeping track of all the digital releases that I’m interested in.

MICHELLE: There certainly are a lot of them! That said, I will give these two new ones a try. And yay for more Nodame, as well!

ASH: I’m glad that these titles are being licensed at all, but I’d definitely like to see more of the released in print, too.

MJ: I share Anna’s concerns. I’m glad these are being released, but I’m still reeling from the loss of some JManga series I was really invested in (that have not, to my knowledge, been picked up by anyone else), and I admit I still mistrust digital.

SEAN: If it helps, the JManga title To All Corners of the World was rescued by Seven Seas and will be out in November in one (print) omnibus.

Seven Seas has a few new titles next week, starting with a (gasp!) novel, The Disappearance of Hatsune Miku, based on the seemingly unstoppable Vocaloid idol.

The manga debut is The High School Life of a Fudanshi (Fudanshi Koukou Seikatsu), a comedy title from Zero-Sum Online about a straight guy obsessed with BL, and his drive to find someone else to share his obsession with.

ASH: Knowing a few straight fudanshi myself, I’m rather curious to see how the series handles the topic.

MJ: Cautiously interested.

SEAN: And there’s a 5th volume of Shomin Sample, which must have run out of girls showing us their panties on the cover by now. (checks) Sadly, apparently not.

Vertical has the 8th Ninja Slayer, for all your Ninja needs.

They also have a light novel based on the Seven Deadly Sins manga, subtitled Seven Scars They Left Behind. Judging by that title, I wouldn’t expect a lot of laughs.

Yen Digital has some new volumes for us, as we get the 10th Aphorism, the 10th Crimson Prince, and the 10th Sekirei.

And while it’s not Vol. 10, Yen On does have the first four Sword Art Online novels now available digitally, for those obsessed with reading light novels on their phones (like me).

Are you taking a week off? Or getting something here?