Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

Katherine Dacey

The Manga Review: Almost As Fun As Shark Week

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As part of its annual Manga Week, ICv2 sat down with VIZ Media’s Sarah Anderson for an in-depth discussion about the current US market. Anderson acknowledged that overall manga sales are down while highlighting several major bright spots, including box sets and Studio Ghibli film comics. She also noted that anime is still a key driver of manga sales, with ongoing series like Jujutsu Kaisen and Frieren—Beyond Journey’s End getting a boost from Crunchyroll and Netflix viewers. Her most surprising observation: readers are clamoring for “series with older protagonists.” As fans enter their twenties and thirties, Anderson explains, “there’s a bit more interest in characters where their experiences are mirroring what’s happening to the readers.”

On a related note, Brigid Alverson has the skinny on the booming market for deluxe editions and reprints of older titles such as Berserk and Pet Shop of Horrors… Richardson Handjaja reports that digital sales now account for almost 75% of the Japanese manga market…  and Brigid Alverson chats with Mark De Vera, Sales and Marketing Director for Yen Press.

NEWS AND VIEWS

Once more, with feeling: Kodansha announced it will be releasing a new edition of Clover, CLAMP’s unfinished steampunk saga. [The Fandom Post]

For readers with a strong constitution, Fantagraphics has licensed Shintaro Kago’s Brain Damage, a collection of four short, surreal horror stories that are guaranteed to mess with your head. Look for Brain Damage in stores this July. [ICv2]

And speaking of scary titles, Kara Dennison previews three new spooky manga from Tuttle. [Otaku USA]

Danica Davidson interviews editor Kristiina Korpus about Kana, Abrams’ new manga imprint. [Otaku USA]

Tony Yao files a report from last week’s BLEACH Animation 20th Anniversary Art Collection Exhibit. [Drop In to Manga]

Husband-and-wife duo Asher and Ashley discuss Sorata Akizuki’s Snow White with the Red Hair. [Shojo & Tell]

Should you read Wind Breaker? Xan shares his two cents about this action-packed shonen series. [Spiraken Manga Review]

ICYMI: Antoine Frazier pens an in-depth essay exploring gender, sexuality, and humor in Rumiko Takahashi’s Urusei Yatsura and Ranma 1/2. [SOLRAD]

REVIEWS

The crack team at Beneath the Tangles weigh in on Mr. Big Bad Wolf, Jujutsu Kaisen, and more… Sakura Eries reviews Hereditary Triangle… Joceylne Allen describes Omae, Tanuki ni Narane ka? as It’s a Wonderful Life with tanukis… and Erica Friedman recommends Akiyama Haru’s Watashi no Blue Garnet.

New and Noteworthy

Continuing and Complete Series

The Manga Review: Lions and Lambs

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Circana Bookscan just published sales data for February 2025, and once again VIZ, Yen, and Dark Horse dominate the Top 20 Adult Graphic Novels List. As Brigid Alverson observes, this is the “second month in a row” that the list “consists entirely of manga and manhwa.” Many of the titles on the list are perennial best-sellers—Berserk, Jujutsu Kaisen, My Hero Academia, Solo Leveling—but there are a handful of new series muscling their way into the Top 20 including Kagurabachi and The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn’t a Guy At All. “Neither of these manga has an anime attached to them (yet),” Alverson notes, “so these strong second-volume sales indicate that readers liked what they saw and came back for more.”

NEWS AND VIEWS

Wondering what you’ll find at the comics shop this month? Katy Castillo has you covered with a complete list of all the new March releases. [Yatta-Tachi]

Ho, ho, ho… Titan just licensed Sanda, a futuristic adventure story in which a middle school student discovers he’s a direct descendant of Old Saint Nick. Look for volume one in September 2025. [Behind the Manga]

The crack team at No Flying No Tights recommends short manga series for readers of all ages, from tween-friendly titles like Little Witch Academia to more adult series like Pluto and BL Metamorphosis. [No Flying No Tights]

David and Jordan discuss Cyber Blue, a new Shonen Jump title with “robots, F-bombs, and no plot.” [Shonen Flop]

Bust out the garlic and the wolfsbane: the Manga Machinations gang review the latest volume of #DRCL: Midnight Children. [Manga Machinations]

Gee and Rae tackle Everyone’s Getting Married, a dramedy about a career woman who wants to trade her high-powered job for domestic bliss. [Read Left to Right]

Kory, Apryll, and Helen convene a roundtable on two recent titles: Sketchy and Last Quarter. [Manga in Your Ears]

Looking for something to read? Kara Dennison recommends Parashoppers, a new addition to VIZ’s Shonen Jump line-up. [Otaku USA]

This week’s must-read essay was penned by A.J. Mack, and focuses on In the Name of the Mermaid Princess, a series that “presents disability as a beautiful and powerful thing in and of itself, that shows that it is society that causes these problems and not the disabled person in question.” [Anime Herald]

REVIEWS

Remember Air Gear? Megan D. does, and has some thoughts about this extreme sports fantasy from the early aughts. Elsewhere, Johanna Draper Carlson reviews Friday at the Atelier, “an odd but strangely charming manga by Sakura Hamada”… Danica Davidson checks out the new Scholastic edition of Hikaru in the Light… King Baby Duck weighs in on Hiro Mashima’s latest effort, Dead Rock… the MB Battle Robot assembles for a new Bookshelf Briefs column… and Jocelyne Allen takes Jitenshaya-san no Takahashi-kun for a spin. (You might know this series by its English name: Takahashi from the Bike Shop, a new edition to the Yen Press catalog.)

New and Noteworthy

Continuing, Complete, and OOP Titles

Bookshelf Briefs 3/5/25

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Diary of a Female Lead: Shujinkou Nikki, Vol. 2 | By Yuu Yoshinaga | Seven Seas – Teenagers are gonna be teenagers. Sometimes that means that you don’t really realize how hard the guy is crushing on you because you’re sure that a relationship can’t happen. And sometimes you decide to date a girl because she’s pretty nice, only to then have the girl you REALLY like accept your confession, meaning you have to show up to the date to dump her. This volume is less of a deconstruction of shoujo manga than the first one was, and more straight-up melodrama, complete with such cliches as “wow, she looks gorgeous without her glasses.” But the melodrama is well-written, and for those who love the shoujo genre, you’ll want to check this out, it’s good. Though… slow-paced. We’re not getting the main couple together soon. – Sean Gaffney

The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn’t a Guy at All, Vol. 2 | By Sumiko Arai | Yen Press – The characterization and yuri vibe in this is excellent, don’t get me wrong, and I love our two leads. But I have to admit, I’m almost 100% here for the art style, which is amazing—I want every panel in an artbook. Every pose looks calculated to make a reader go either “so cool!” or “so cute!” This series blew up before it even came out here at all, and since volume one it’s gotten bigger—the anime announcement being key, though expect a lot less Aerosmith, RHCP and Foo Fighters in the soundtrack, I imagine. Oh yes, and we also get the arrival of Joe’s ex, Kanna, who admirably fills the “strong adult woman role model” Mitsuki needs right now. A lot of this is getting Mitsuki out of her introvert closet… but will that work out for Aya? Fantastic. – Sean Gaffney

The Legend of Kamui, Vol. 1 | By Shirato Sanpei | Drawn & Quarterly – Ever since reading and enjoying Shirato’s spin-off manga Kamui Gaiden (previously released in English as The Legend of Kamui), I have wanted to read the original—an influential, monumental epic serialized in the alternative manga magazine Garo between 1964 and 1971. I was absolutely thrilled when Drawn & Quarterly announced that The Legend of Kamui would finally be released in English translation. The first massive tome of ten is now available, and it is phenomenal. A major theme is Shirato’s deft exploration of nature though the lives of wolves. But while woven together with the lives of the series’ human characters, Shirato cautions readers against drawing literary parallels between the two, however tempting. In large part, the series is also a social commentary, examining the highly feudalistic society of 17th century Japan as a way of critiquing human society in general. The critiques are potent and still pertinent, resonating strongly even today. – Ash Brown

Pet Shop of Horrors: Collector’s Edition, Vol. 1 | By Matsuri Akino | Seven Seas – I learned an important lesson this week: sometimes it’s better not to revisit old favorites. Pet Shop of Horrors was one of the first manga I read, sweeping me up in its fervid embrace with achingly pretty characters and exhilaratingly weird plot twists. Rereading the new deluxe edition, however, brought the series’ paper-thin characterizations and jarring tonal shifts into sharper relief. The running comic bits—in which Count D toys with Detective Orcot—are strenuously unfunny, bookending stories that run the gamut from icky to illogical. As monkey paw theater, Pet Shop of Horrors is OK, serving up a few genuinely unnerving stories that will stay with you after reading them, though you may wonder if the character really deserved their fate. – Katherine Dacey

A Smart and Courageous Child | By Miki Yamamoto | Tokyopop – Sara and Kouta are preparing to become parents, excited to welcome their first child into the world while understandably being a bit nervous, too. But as Sara’s due date approaches, her hopefulness fades in the face of worry and concern, realizing that the world can be a cruel and dangerous place for children, even for those who are smart, brave, supported, and loved. The artwork of A Smart and Courageous Child, utilizes colored pencils, mostly subdued tones with the exception of the carefully considered use of brilliant red. The result is striking—Yamamoto’s delicate illustrations are eye-catching while still maintaining a sense of softness. Yamamoto’s artwork also helps to skillfully convey the character’s shifting moods and feelings with both sensitivity and honesty. Overall, A Smart and Courageous Child is an affecting work that acknowledges the complexities of being a parent in today’s society as well as the associated mental and emotional turmoil. – Ash Brown

Spy x Family, Vol. 13 | By Tatsuya Endo | Viz Media – There is a LOT going on in this volume. We get the end of the Wheeler arc, where Fiona pays for her Loid obsession with a very broken body, but does not die, thanks (ironically) to training to be as strong as Yor. Yuri almost catches Twilight but does not, then almost catches Loid but does not. At least he gets a sempai at work who probably makes a better potential love interest than Fiona. And then there’s the old couple moving in next door, who seem like nice grandpa and grandma types, there for comedy (the grandpa can’t remember anything), but we know nothing is as it seems. The ending of the book has a cute story with Anya putting her name on the door, but she misspells it… and seems puzzled by that. Is there significance to ANIA? We shall see. A very solid volume, with lots of anti-war sentiment. – Sean Gaffney

This Monster Wants to Eat Me, Vol. 3 | By Sai Naekawa | Yen Press – Theoretically this volume is about the conflict between mermaid Shiori and fox spirit Miko, and how they’re both in love with Hinako and want to save her while also really wanting to BE the one to save her. Both agree, Miko more than Shiori, that regardless of their own feelings Hinako’s safety comes first, which is good. And certainly Hinako definitely seems to be in more danger… especially, for some reason, more recently. Their biggest obstacle may be Hinako herself, who simply cannot shake the constant feeling that she’s about to die, will be very happy when that happens, and hopes for a good life for those she leaves behind. Getting Hinako to value herself is a huge hurdle, and I hope they take it on going forward. Great stuff. – Sean Gaffney

Witch Hat Atelier, Vol. 13 | By Kamome Shirahama | Kodansha Comics – Why are there laws, and when is it best to break them? That’s the theme of this book, as Coco tries desperately to resolve this without executions, and also tries to explain why “witches aren’t allowed to do that” is not meant to be a hardcore, for-the-rest-of-eternity rule. Elsewhere, Tetia is finding that it’s very hard to run away from royalty who are attached to you, Richeh is reunited with her introverted and somewhat self-hating older brother, and Agott… will no doubt have more to do in the next arc. The best part of this is the climax, which results in the creation of a magical emergency room for magical triage, which can manage to use magic to heal people without having it intrude on what doctors do. Unfortunately, the arc isn’t over yet. Ominous cliffhanger. – Sean Gaffney

Pick of the Week: Surprise Extra Volumes

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MICHELLE: Since I cannot decide between an epilogue volume of My Love Story!! and the debut of A Star Brighter Than The Sun, this week I will award my pick to Kazune Kawahara herself! I have loved everything I’ve read that she was involved in.

SEAN: It’s definitely a tie for me between My Love Story!! and Skip Beat!. Manga with exclamation points for the pick.

KATE: I’m with Michelle: My Love Story!! is one of my all-time favorite shojo manga, so put me down for another installment.

ASH: Likewise! I was not expecting a continuation of My Love Story!!, but I am absolutely here for it; I loved the original.

ANNA: My Love Story!! for me as well, what a nice surprise!

The Manga Review: Thawing Out

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Hi, everyone! I’m still trying to work out a posting schedule for The Manga Review. Historically, I’ve published the column on Fridays, but my teaching schedule this semester has made that more challenging. I’m also discovering that fewer sites are publishing regular manga reviews; a lot of that discussion has moved to YouTube, TikTok, and podcasts. As someone who prefers to read about manga, I remain committed to covering websites and blogs. I’m open to exploring other ways to distributing The Manga Review, however, and am considering alternatives (e.g. weekly newsletter). Suggestions welcome!

NEWS AND VIEWS

Good news for Mushishi fans: Kodansha will publish a special collector’s edition this fall. Also on deck is a new edition of Dragon Head, a dark disaster series that’s been out of print for more than a decade. [The Fandom Post]

Brigid Alverson runs down the Circana Bookscan data for January 2025. [ICv2]

Will Junji Ito be inducted into the Eisner Hall of Fame this year? [ICv2]

If you’re a fantasy fan, Kara Dennison has you covered with the low-down on The Brilliant Healer’s New Life in the Shadows, The Beginning After the End, and From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman. [Otaku USA]

Art lovers, take note: UNIQLO just teamed up with the Louvre to produce a line of Doraemon t-shirts. [Otaku USA]

Kathryn Hemmann reviews Keita Katsushika’s manga Higashi Tōkyō Machi Machi, which they describe as “a leisurely walking tour of East Tokyo.” [Contemporary Japanese Literature]

And last but not least, please congratulate blogger Tony Yao for fifteen years of insightful, interesting reviews! Here’s hoping for fifteen more. [Drop-In to Manga]

REVIEWS

Jackson P. Brown gives high marks to Legs That Won’t Walk, a “compelling, shocking” and “spicy” gangster drama… Erica Friedman reviews a recent issue of Galette… Megan D. checks out the first volume of Yakuza Fiance… and the latest installment of The Reader’s Corner offers succinct reviews of Ako and Bambi, Mujina into the Deep, and Hirayasumi.

New and Noteworthy

Continuing, Complete, and OOP Manga

Pick of the Week: Pretty and Haunting Faces

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SEAN: Obviously my pick this week would be Short Game: Mitsuru Adachi’s Baseball Short Story Collection, except we know that Amazon date is wrong. So instead I will pick It Takes More Than a Pretty Face to Fall in Love, because it makes me nostalgic for the days of 20 years ago when Hana to Yume titles fell from the skies like rain.

MICHELLE: I can get behind that! And it does have a little bit of a Lovesick Ellie vibe, which I appreciate.

ASH: I’m going to go a different direction this week and pick Hauntress. There were some things I really loved about the creator’s later series Dragon Head, and some things I really didn’t, so I’m curious to see how a shorter form story fares.

ANNA: I don’t know! I’m going to go for It Takes More Than a Pretty Face to Fall in Love as well, because the pull of Hana to Yume nostalgia is strong.

KATE: I’ll join Ash in picking Hauntress, as I also have vivid memories of reading Minetaro Mochizuki’s Dragon Head back in the day.

Pick of the Week: Still Interested

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SEAN: As I sit here having lost power yesterday due to an ice storm, I realize I need comfort manga. My pick is the 2nd volume of The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn’t a Guy At All.

ASH: We haven’t lost our power (yet), but I will keep you company by picking The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn’t a Guy At All. I’m really looking forward to finally reading the series now that I’ve gotten my hand on the first volume; hopefully this second one won’t prove to be as challenging to acquire!

MICHELLE: No ice storms here, but absolutely The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn’t a Guy at All for me!

KATE: My pick of the week is Mujina into the Deep. How did a new Inio Asano title fly under my radar?! I guess that’s just a sign that we are living through an era of Peak Manga Abundance.

ANNA: I’m going to pick Honey Lemon Soda as a reminder to myself to get caught up on that series!

Trillion Game, Vol. 1

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By all rights, Trillion Game should be a blast. Creators Riichiro Inagaki and Ryoichi Ikegami have more than a dozen hit series to their names—including Eyeshield 21, Dr. Stone, Sanctuary, and Crying Freeman—and a flair for writing shamelessly entertaining stories that burst at the seams with crazed villains, over-the-top plot twists, and jaw-dropping action scenes. Trillion Game, however, is just plain bad, saddled with a premise so dumb I’m almost embarrassed to type it: a young man sets out to be the first Japanese entrepreneur to make a trillion dollars without an actual plan for achieving that goal.

A dumb premise isn’t automatically a deal-killer; executed with panache, a silly idea can still work if the reader feels invested in the main character’s success. Trillion Game, however, has both a dumb premise and an awful lead who is less a person than a teenage male fantasy, a ruthless entrepreneur who weaponizes his charm and good looks to get what he wants. Haru lies, bluffs, and cheats, manifesting new talents—say, bantering in Mandarin or scaling skyscrapers—whenever the plot demands, prompting other characters to gush about his charisma and business acumen. His only redeeming quality is his unwavering loyalty to friend and business partner Gaku, a helmet-haired nerd with computer skills. Even that relationship is fraught, however, as Haru repeatedly puts Gaku into situations that test the limits of his abilities.

The other issue plaguing Trillion Game is its sincerity: we’re supposed to admire Haru’s audacious, go-for-broke style, even when his behavior seems more sociopathic than strategic. No matter what he does, Haru always gets the best of his opponents, especially when they appear to be more logical, experienced, or perceptive than he is. That dynamic is most evident in his interactions with the beautiful, inscrutable Kirika Kokuryū, a.k.a. “Kirihime,” a twenty-six-year-old wunderkind who helps her father run the all-powerful Dragon Bank. Any time she gets the upper hand in her dealings with Haru and Gaku, the authors undercut Kirihime’s authority by dreaming up new ways to humiliate her while suggesting she’s turned on by Haru’s cutthroat tactics.

The only bright spot is Ikegami’s artwork. As he did in series like Samurai Crusader and The Wounded Man, Ikegami populates the story with attractive leads while rendering the supporting players as caricatures, making it easy to keep track of the sprawling cast. The layouts, too, are easy to scan: they’re dynamic and detailed, capturing the density and opulence of Tokyo’s financial district with the same degree of realism as the spartan office that Haru and Gaku rent.

No amount of stylish artwork, though, can disguise the fact that Trillion Game feels like an macho artifact of the 1980s, a Wall Street for the Young Jump reader. I have no doubt that there are folks who will love this series, but I found it impossible to get swept up in Haru’s embrace of greed and deceit, especially when he approvingly cites broligarchs like Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos as an inspiration. Not recommended.

TRILLION GAME, VOL. 1 • STORY BY RIICHIRO INAGAKI • ART BY RYOICHI IKEGAMI • TRANSLATED BY STEPHEN PAUL • TOUCH-UP & LETTERING BY JOANNA ESTEP • VIZ MEDIA • RATED M FOR MATURE (NUDITY, SEXUAL REFERENCES) • 208 pp.

The Manga Review: Baby, It’s Cold Outside

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What earthly power can defeat The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles at the bookstore? Manga! As Brigid Alverson reports, the January 2025 Circana Bookscan numbers show that readers are still interested in perennial favorites Chainsaw Man, Spy x Family, and Solo Leveling, as well as hardcover editions of older titles like Berserk and Vagabond. Equally significant: all twenty volumes on Circana’s list were published by Dark Horse, VIZ, and Yen Press.

NEWS AND VIEWS

The ALA just released its list of 2024’s Best Graphic Novels for Adults, which includes a good selection of manga. [American Library Association]

Shaenon Garrity and Meg Lemke offer a sneak peek at this year’s new and noteworthy manga, and highlight a few of 2024’s best titles. [Publisher’s Weekly]

Once more, with feeling: Dark Horse will be publishing a new omnibus edition of Gantz G this fall. [ICv2]

Dragon Ball Super fans rejoice: a new one-shot will run in next week’s issue of V-Jump. [Anime News Network]

As part of his ongoing series about the manga industry, Isaiah Colbert interviews Kumar Sivasubramanian about translating Dan Da Dan. [i09]

The Reverse Thieves podcast names Takahashi From the Bike Shop its Manga of the Month. [Reverse Thieves]

Kara Dennison explains why Star of Beethoven “has the earmarks of an interesting story” and “the earmarks of a series likely to be cut down before its time.” [Otaku USA]

REVIEWS

Erica Friedman reviews Hitorimi Desu 60-sai Lesbian Single Seikatsu…  Hagai Palevsky offers an in-depth analysis of Tokyo These Days… Andrew Osbourne takes Tokyo Alien Brothers for a spin… and Beneath the Tangles looks at recent volumes of Centuria, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, and Solo Leveling.

Pick of the Week: The End of Adulthood

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MICHELLE: This is one of those “Welp, I never managed to read any of these, but now that it’s ending I will tout its final volume” weeks, in which I throw my endorsement behind Even Though We’re Adults.

KATE: In an act of solidarity with my fellow Olds, I’m also picking Even Though We’re Adults. More manga for grown-ups, please!

SEAN: Tempting as it is to watch the cast of Even Though We’re Adults struggle to reach baseline adulthood again, I cannot resist the yearly release of A Certain Scientific Railgun, and will once again try to remember what was happening.

ANNA: I’m going to go for Fall In Love, You False Angels because the premise is appealing and the cover appeals to me. I’m shallow!

ASH: As far as debuts go, I’ll join Anna in picking Fall In Love, You False Angels as I can’t resist secret martial artists. But I’ll also join others in picking the final volume of Even Though We’re Adults as I’m always glad for Takako Shimura manga.

The Manga Review: Lost in Translation

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As part of an ongoing series about working in the manga industry, io9 recently interviewed the translators for One Piece, Undead Unluck, and Spy x Family to learn more about their working conditions and the challenges of adapting culturally specific material into English. The article is sobering: not only do translators cope with tight deadlines and low pay, but they face harassment from fans who disagree with the way they’ve translated a phrase, voiced a character, or substituted an American pop-cultural reference for a Japanese one. The problem is especially pervasive among Shonen Jump readers, who frequently “dogpile” on work that doesn’t match their favorite scanlations:

“Especially when it comes to Shonen Jump stuff, one misconception I see a lot is when [readers] see the scanlation first, they think if there’s something different that it was something we saw it and we changed when that’s not the case,” [Stephen] Paul said. “We work before anyone sees the material. There no prior conception of the material before we get our hands on it.”

The article also touches on the looming threat of AI-generated translations; though AI currently “produces subpar output that readers notice and abhor… it also results in the same amount of work for translators while they are paid less to copy-edit.” If you care about the quality and artistry of good translation, this is a must-read essay.

NEWS AND VIEWS

Everything old is new again: Dark Horse announced that it will publish new editions of Blood Blockade Battlefront and Planetes. Both are slated for a July release. [Dark Horse]

Speaking of licensing announcements, VIZ unveiled its summer 2025 line-up, which includes a new Star Wars manga, a Castle in the Sky cookbook, and a historical drama set in China’s Warring States era. [Behind the Manga]

Erica Friedman rounds up the latest yuri news, with updates on Galette and a new Vampire Princess Miyu-Yui manga. [Okazu]

David and Jordan kick the tires on Chameleon Jail, a new Shonen Jump series. [Shonen Flop]

ICYMI: Ray and Gee discuss their top five manga debuts of 2024. [Read Right to Left]

Adam Wescott jumps in the WABAC Machine for a look at Ranma 1/2 fanfic from the early 1990s, when English-speaking fans penned their own scripts and circulated them through Usenet. [Anime Herald]

REVIEWS

SKJAM! offers a full-series review of Undead Unluck… Kara Dennison argues that Komi Can’t Communicate “had a perfect final chapter”… Sarah gives I’m Here, Beside You mixed marks… and Tony Yao explains why Manga Goes to School is an essential resource for parents, teachers, and librarians.

Pick of the Week: Yona Meets the Horrors

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SEAN: The obvious choice, Pet Shop of Horrors, was not my bag back in the day. So I’ll go for Yona of the Dawn. It’s never a bad time to pick Yona.

MICHELLE: I am definitely excited about Pet Shop of Horrors, but I might actually be more excited about the conclusion to Usotoki Rhetoric. I liked this low-key historical mystery series, and look forward to seeing how it ends.

ASH: Debut-wise, I’m looking forward to giving Pet Shop of Horrors a try and so will make it my official pick. I missed the series the first time around but know many people who remember it fondly.

ANNA: I’m glad that Pet Shop of Horrors is back in print, but I’ll always pick Yona of the Dawn if given a chance!

KATE: I’m excited to see a new edition Pet Shop of Horrors; the young’uns need to know what their elders were reading back in the day!

Pick of the Week: Assassins and Bike Shops

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ASH: There are quite a few debuts that intrigue me this week but which also give me slight pause because something doesn’t seem to sit quite right with me about their premises. All but Takahashi from the Bike Shop, that is. I’ve actually been looking forward this one for some time. (And actually recently started biking again, myself.)

MICHELLE: I am in the same boat! I might check out Killing Line and Home Sweet Home, but Takahashi from the Bike Shop wins by virtue of not involving assassins or teenage co-ed cohabitation.

SEAN: I think I’m not that into much this week, but Killing Line definitely has my attention, so let’s go with that.

KATE: I’m with Sean: Killing Line looks like a potential bright spot in an otherwise dreary week of new releases.

ANNA: I agree, Killing Line has my attention this week.

Pick of the Week: This Pick Goes to 11

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MICHELLE: I am obviously looking forward to They Were 11, as I have never read the continuation that will be included in Denpa’s edition. But I’m also interested in I’m Here, Beside You. Something about that cover is kind of haunting.

KATE: Is this a trick question? The correct answer is ANYTHING BY MOTO HAGIO! I am delighted to see They Were 11 back in print, as it’s one of Hagio’s most tightly plotted and delightfully weird stories.

ASH: Only a trick question if it doesn’t actually come out this week! If it does, They Were 11! is absolutely my pick. And if it doesn’t, it looks like a decent week for other interesting manga to tide me over, like Dogs and Punching Bags or Tokyo Alien Bros.

ANNA: I WANT TO BELIEVE! They Were 11! is totally my pick, but as a backup I also want to celebrate the rerelease of Red River.

SEAN: And yes, of course my pick is They Were 11! as well, though I will admit I’m equally looking forward to The Trials and Tribulations of My Next Life As a Noblewoman.

MJ: I haven’t weighed in here in a while, since I haven’t been keeping up with new manga releases. But I’ve loved They Were 11 in every form it’s been released here so far, and I’m really excited about any additional material being included in Denpa’s edition. If it doesn’t show up on shelves this week, I’ll be waiting for the day it does!

Pick of the Week: Samurai, Swords, and Sharks

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SEAN: I can’t guarantee that I’ll be devouring it immediately, but given its legacy I think The Legend of Kamui has to be my pick of this week.

MICHELLE: I should probably pick that, too, but in all honesty, I’m interested in reading more Sheltering Eaves. I liked the first volume quite a lot!

KATE: It’s Kamui for me–what’s not to like about samurai, swords, and sharks?!

ASH: My pick this week is unquestionably The Legend of Kamui. It may be a little early to say for certain, but I suspect it will be my pick of the year, too. I am absolutely thrilled that this monumental work is being released in English.

ANNA: I already have my copy of The Legend of Kamui, looking forward to reading it.