Katherine Dacey

SEAN: Ah, the pick everyone dreads as we try to remember things we enthused about months ago. I think my pick this year, mostly as it was SO hyped up by the publisher and bookstores and, when it was released, showed it deserved it, is The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn’t a Guy At All. Nicknamed ‘green yuri”, and you’ll see why when you open it, it’s also a great story that makes good use of its “4 page chapter” format.

MICHELLE: Despite my good intentions, I wasn’t able to read nearly as much in 2024 as I wanted to. That said, my favorite of what I did read wasThe Troublesome Guest of Sotomura Detective Agency. I deeply wish there were more of it.

ANNA: I realize that the first volume of Neighborhood Story came out in late 2023, but between more volumes of Neighborhood Story and the Last Quarter it has been an excellent year for Ai Yazawa manga. So Ai Yazawa manga in general is my pick of the year.

KATE: One of my favorite titles of 2024 was Giga Town: The Guide to Manga Iconography, a charming collection of 4-koma strips by Fumiya Kouno (Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms.) Using characters from the famous Chojo-giga scroll, Kouno catalogs everything from sweat drops to steam clouds, demystifying the symbols, gestures, and facial expressions that manga artists use to bring their stories to life. Highly recommended for new (and curious) manga readers!

ASH: I picked Ashita no Joe just last week, so it seems too convenient to choose it again, but I am so incredibly pleased to have seen this classic manga make its debut in English. It was a great year for artbooks, too, with Shigeru Mizuki’s Yokai being one of my favorite releases of 2024 as a whole. But, I would be remiss if I didn’t take a moment to at least highlight the incredible work being done by Glacier Bay Books. It’s a niche publisher that isn’t widely distributed, so it can be a bit of a challenge to keep track of what is releasing when. But the effort needed to track down some of the best indie manga in translation is absolutely worth it. (Sorry… it’s really hard to pick just one thing!)

SEAN: Easiest pick I’ve made in ages. It’s Ashita no Joe: Fighting for Tomorrow. A truly iconic manga, essential for any shonen sports fan… or manga fan in general.

MICHELLE: And as a shonen sports fan, how on Earth could I resist? Ashita no Joe for me, as well.

KATE: I second Sean’s pick! When I first started reviewing manga in the aughts—the golden age of Naruto, InuYasha and Bleach—I never imagined that anyone would be interested in publishing older titles like Ashita no Joe. It’s great to see Kodansha rolling out the red carpet for this shonen classic.

ANNA: Ashita no Joe! I’m excited to finally be able to read this!

ASH: Who am I to break the streak? It’s Ashita no Joe for me, too! I was so surprised and incredibly happy when I learned this was being licensed.

SEAN: It’s really tempting to pick India Calling Me Now, but I’m sure someone else will. So my pick this week is the debut of Rainbows After Storms, one of those rare long-running yuri series. It’s great to see it over here.

MICHELLE: I’ll step up to the plate and pick India Calling Me Now, with bonus appreciation for another one-shot, The Metalhead Next Door.

ANNA: I’m with Michelle, both those series look great.

ASH: Agreed! Though The Metalhead Next Door wins out slightly over India Calling Me Now for me simply because it’s available in print. Otherwise, and if I didn’t already own all of the volumes, the Delicious in Dungeon box set would be my priority.

KATE: I teach Rock History, so I’m obligated to choose The Metalhead Next Door. (Also: it looks cute.)

MICHELLE: Even though I haven’t yet managed to read any of it, since it’s my last chance to pick Neighborhood Story, I’m going with that this week. If we can’t have more NANA, I’m super grateful we got new-to-us Ai Yazawa in some form!

SEAN: Final volumes! Neighborhood Story 4 and Innocent Omnibus 3 are my picks.

ASH: Great picks, for sure, but the release I’m probably most curious about this week it Shining Diamond’s Demonic Heartbreak. What is JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure like when interpreted by creators other than Hirohiko Araki?

KATE: Add my name to the Ai Yazawa fan club: Neighborhood Story is my pick, too.

ANNA: I’m going to join the chorus in celebrating Neighborhood Story!

ASH: The releases this week seem to have a bit more variety to them than some weeks bring, but maybe that’s just because I’m paying closer attention. And so the book I’m perhaps most curious about is the one we don’t have as much information on, Festival of Heresies. A one-shot horror novel with a striking cover seems like it should be up my alley.

SEAN: My pick this week is for A Smart and Courageous Child, if only as it’s a rare manga that has the assassination attempt of Malala Yousafzai kickstart the plot. Plus it’s gotten rave reviews.

MICHELLE: I’m not terribly enthusiastic about anything, but I’ll cast my vote for Agents of the Four Seasons: Dance of Spring, if for no other reason that it runs in LaLa.

ANNA: I’m with Michelle, manga published by LaLa is doing the heavy lifting for me this week.

KATE: If you missed Moto Hagio’s The Poe Clan the first time around, I have good news: Fantagraphics just released a boxed set. Buy it for a fellow manga fan, or buy yourself an early Christmas present; I promise you won’t be disappointed!

KATE: I’m going out on a limb by picking Cthulhu Cat (Neko no Cthulhu), which could be seriously cute or just plain weird, so my back-up plan is Thunder 3. Sean’s description of the series as “a Weekly Shonen Magazine title that looks like it’s from 1965 but is in reality from 2022” piqued my interest.

MICHELLE: I’m going with Colette Decides to Die this week, primarily because I am amused by the prissy, snooty boy on the cover.

SEAN: Anytime Viz decides to license a 10-year-old shoujo series with 20 volumes out of the blue, I sit up and take notice. (Yes, I know it’s probably getting an anime soon.) So Colette Decides to Die is my pick as well.

ANNA: For sure curious about Colette Decides to Die!

ASH: Colette Decides to Die is my pick this week, too, but I’ll admit to being curious about Cthulhu Cat and Thunder 3 as well.

SEAN: This is another “sometimes you just want McDonald’s” week for me, as my pick is the debut of the Lycoris Recoil manga. Guaranteed to be less yuri than the fandom wants!

MICHELLE: I wish that the cover of Tiger & Dragon were more encouraging, but alas. I think I’m gonna go with Even Though We’re Adults this time.

ANNA: I’m going to go with the latest volume of Nina the Starry Brida as a reminder to myself to get caught up on the manga and actually check out the anime.

KATE: My vote goes to Even Though We’re Adults (or “Good Luck Babe: The Manga”).

ASH: Even Though We’re Adults is a solid pick, for sure. Debut-wise, I’ll have to admit to being curious about The Lady Knight and the Beast-Eared Child and JoJo A-Go!Go! is definitely worth mentioning, too.

MICHELLE: I’m quite interested in two debuts this week. Diary of a Female Lead and The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn’t a Guy at All both appeal to me, but I will give the edge to the latter for that absolutely striking front cover!

SEAN: Absolutely no question, it’s The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn’t a Guy at All. Get hype, this is gonna be great.

KATE: I second those picks–both covers look promising!

ANNA: I’m not going to go against the consensus this week!

ASH: The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn’t a Guy at All is defiantly the debut I’m most interested in this week, but did you know that Yokai, a full-color artbook of Shigeru Mizuki’s illustrations, was just released last week? It is SO GOOD.

SEAN: Just as kids these days have no idea what I’m talking about when I mention watching a cartoon “in syndication”, I imagine there are manga readers who don’t know what old-school shoujo releases were like back in 2004 (when Shojo Beat was a magazine!). But now they can! My pick goes to the omnibus edition of Red River, aka Anatolia Story. It’s a classic about a Japanese girl who is called to… ancient Egypt? To be used as a sacrifice. Because her blood is special. Wow, did isekais all get their ideas from Red River?

KATE: I second Sean’s pick! Red River is old school shoujo at its best: it’s got a handsome male lead, a power-hungry queen, magic spells a-plenty, and enough plot twists to satisfactorily fill out its 28 volume run. It’s the perfect way to waste an entire weekend when you should be doing something else–like raking the leaves or putting away your patio furniture.

MICHELLE: It’s gotta be Red River!

ANNA: I agree, it is wonderful that Red River is coming back into print. It is epic in scale that only a very few manga manage to pull off.

ASH: I haven’t read Red River yet, but I’ve been wanting to. And you all make it sound amazing, so old school epic shoujo is my pick this week, too!

KATE: For anyone who missed My Dear Detective: Mitsuko’s Case Files when it was on the Azuki platform, Seven Seas is putting out a print edition this week. The series will appeal to readers who like kinder, gentler mysteries in the vein of Miss Marple or Columbo, as it’s blissfully free of gruesome serial killers or brilliant investigators with messy personal lives.

MICHELLE: Actually, Kate, that sounds marvelous. I will join you in picking My Dear Detective!

SEAN: An excellent, sensible pick, and one I will try to balance out by picking utter trash. When the Villainess Seduces the Main Heroine is, let’s face it, what we all wanted from Bakarina but never got. It’s not good, but it’s funny.

ANNA: I’m going to pick Destroy All Humans. They Can’t Be Regenerated. A Magic: The Gathering Manga not because I think I’m going to read it but because I think it is amazing that there’s a manga based on a MTG card.

ASH: While I am likewise amazed at the existence of a MTG manga of this type, My Dear Detective is the (print) debut that has captured most of my attention this week and am most looking forward to reading.

SEAN: I’ve loved Julietta Suzuki ever since the Karakuri Odette days, so my pick this week is definitely the debut of Otaku Vampire’s Love Bite.

MICHELLE: “Big same!” to everything Sean said.

ANNA: I agree, a new Julietta Suzuki series is something to celebrate!

KATE: This week, I’m taking a chance on Manga Biographies: Charles M. Schulz, The Creator of Snoopy and Peanuts ; if nothing else, it will put me in the right frame of mind for my annual viewing of It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!.

ASH: I’ll have to admit, the release that I’m most interested in this week is probably KinnPorsche. Less because it’s a BL novel (granted, I really enjoy those!), but more because it’s being translated from Thai; very few Thai works of any genre have made it into English translation.

SEAN: There are a pile of titles that I’m interested in this week, including some shoujo stuff that sounds old school (as I joked in manga the Week of), but yeah, just as Michelle goes “OMG, a Margaret title!”, I can’t help but go “OMG, a Big Comic Superior title!”. The creators are just gravy. My pick is Trillion Game.

KATE: I would read a phone book illustrated by Ryoichi Ikegami–no, really, I would!–so I’m also picking Trillion Game.

MICHELLE: Same! I will probably also check out the feels-old-but-isn’t shoujo debuts, but the concept of this one’s just too unique to ignore.

ANNA: I’m very tempted by any new Margaret title, but the siren song of Ikegami illustrations is too much for me to resist, so I’m going to go with Trillion Game as well.

ASH: Likewise! While there are several debuts that have at least nominally caught my attention, Trillion Game is without question my pick this week.