Katherine Dacey

Bakemonogatari, Vol. 20 | By NISIOISIN and Oh!Great | Kodansha Manga – This continues to take all the remaining arcs that Oh!Great wasn’t going to have time to get to and throwing them ALL into Tsubasa Cat. So we get the bulk of Shinobu Mail here, And we also get a great deal of Tsubasa Tiger. The mangaka and writer are clearly working quite closely on this, and NISIOISIN is taking the opportunity to clean up and improve some stuff. The scene between Senjougahara and Hanekawa in Tsubasa Tiger the book is great, but here it’s great and makes much more sense. (And also gives us the shower scene as much as it can—NISIOISIN and Oh!Great both love their fanservice.) The manga version may be ending in two books’ time, but it’s going out with a bang. Highly recommended for fans of the franchise. – Sean Gaffney

Doomsday Cleaning | By zaki | Star Fruit Books – This charming short story may remind you a little—OK, a lot—of Wall-E, as its main protagonist is a robot tasked with cleaning up trash on a seemingly uninhabited planet. When the robot crosses paths with an animated pig, however, the robot gets swept up in an unexpected quest to retrieve a piece of junk that holds special meaning for its new porcine companion. Their journey to the bottom of an enormous trash pit is both suspenseful and surprisingly touching, while a third-act twist adds a dash of humor that pushes the story in a new, delightful direction that invites the reader to view the robot’s mission in a new light. Crisp artwork is the icing on the cupcake. – Katherine Dacey

I Married My Female Friend, Vol. 1 | By Shio Usui | Seven Seas – I was surprised how much I enjoyed this, given what I was expecting. The basic plot is that two best friends promise, if they’re still single in five years, they’ll marry each other. Well, it’s five years later, and gay marriage is now legal, so they’re now married, and one of them is writing about the experience for a column. Of course, the twist is that one of the two actually IS romantically attracted… or at least, I certainly seem to think so. What makes this so much fun is that the other half of the partnership is not framed as clueless or thick for missing this, it really is hard to pick up. Still, they grow closer anyway, and things come to a head with a hospital visit. This is from the Doughnuts Under a Crescent Moon artist, and is just as good. I really like Kurumi especially. – Sean Gaffney

Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, Vol. 27 | By Aka Akasaka | Viz Media – We start the epilogue to this series with this volume. The main crisis is “resolved,” but that doesn’t mean everything’s hunky-dory. For one thing, Shirogane is off to Stanford, and Kaguya oversleeps and misses telling him goodbye, which leads to one of the funniest gags in the entire series. Elsewhere, Shirogane is also told what kind of man he’ll have to become in order to protect someone like Kaguya—he’s got to get much better with money, for one—and Kaguya decides what she wants to do for her career, but runs into a slight problem in trying to put it into motion, a problem not helped by Ishigami’s presence. All this plus the final (?) chapter in the Chika Fujiwara, Ramen Master side story. This is still great fun. – Sean Gaffney

Pass the Monster Meat, Milady!, Vol. 1 | By Kanata Hoshi and Chika Mizube | Kodansha Manga – Based on an as-yet-unlicensed light novel, this is another villainess story—but instead of an “Akuyaku Reijou,” we get an “Akujiki Reijou,” because our heroine absolutely terrifies people. Melfiera has been told, after several years of failure, to get a husband or she’ll be sent to a convent. The trouble is… she loves to eat the meat from monsters, which, while normally poisonous, is tasty when properly prepared. Shunned by most, she then runs into her soulmate, Duke Galbraith, the “Mad Duke,” who glories in killing monsters. He falls for her immediately, she falls almost as hard. And they’re honestly made for each other. This is fun, with two eccentric people complementing each other’s foibles. – Sean Gaffney

A Cat from Our World and the Forgotten Witch, Vol. 1 | By Hiro Kashiwaba | Seven Seas – Jeanne, an elderly witch, summons Torata, an ordinary house cat, to protect her from the local villagers who view her very existence as a threat. Through a series of flashbacks, we learn more about both characters: Jeanne has been harassed, imprisoned, or shunned for her magical powers, while Torata recently lost his kindly human owner. Can these two wounded souls forge a meaningful connection? All signs point to yes, though the maudlin plotting and cartoon bad guys dampened my enthusiasm for their friendship; both characters’ backstories are so overwrought that the reader feels more cudgeled into submission than persuaded that Jeanne and Torata deserve our sympathy. At least the cat is cute. – Katherine Dacey

Gold Kingdom and Water Kingdom | By Nao Iwamoto | Seven Seas This was a very odd series, with an art style that I’ve seen before in Japanese magazines, especially josei and seinen, but rarely licensed over here. It’s unique. As for the plot, it was a good story, but I’m also pleased it was complete in this volume. Two kingdoms, each with their own issues, arrange a truce, and a wedding between their two countries. Unfortunately, both countries sabotage said wedding. It’s up to the groom from the Water Kingdom and the bride from the Gold Kingdom to try to pretend that this was exactly as planned so that they can find a way to avoid war. There’s some nice intrigue, and an action-filled ending of sorts. It’s a series I’m happy I read, though I’m unlikely to come back to it too much. – Sean Gaffney

My Hero Academia, Vol. 36 | By Kohei Horikoshi | Viz Media – This is one of those volumes that is almost entirely drowned out by its cliffhanger ending, which shows Bakugo with a fatal injury to his heart. Now, we all read shonen manga, so we know he’s not REALLY dead, but the question is how long that will be up in the air. That said, my favorite part of this otherwise all-action volume was seeing All for One have to briefly struggle… against Jiro, riding on top of a flying Tokoyami (and apparently having too sexy an ass for him to handle). Now that most fans read the series weekly, it’s easier to have instant reactions, and I loved the one brief, shining moment when it gave the impression that All for One would be taken down by the cool rocker girl. Still, yeah, Bakugo’s dead. Totally. What now? – Sean Gaffney

Neighborhood Story, Vol. 1 | By Ai Yazawa | Viz Media This was such a deeply nostalgic experience, even though I’d never read it before. Anyone who’s read Paradise Kiss will want to get this. Taking place a generation before that story, it’s still drenched in fashion and style, and the complicated, messy shoujo art is also very indicative of the early 1990s, when it first appeared. Our heroine, Mikako, clearly has a thing for her childhood friend Tsutomu, but his own popularity with girls and her desire to be her own woman cause them to constantly push each other away. Well, OK, more like she’s doing 90% of the pushing. Mikako is an amazing ball of fun, and I love the “Waaaaarrrp!” she shouts as she runs off very fast (I think this was in ParaKiss as well). It’s not all fun and games, but this was an absolute joy to read. – Sean Gaffney

365 Days to the Wedding, Vol. 1 | By Tamiki Wakaki | Seven Seas When reading this, I remarked on Twitter that it was an Izuku Midoriya/Yui Kodai AU fanfic from AO3, and that’s not too far off. Two workers at a travel agency are horrified to find it’s opening an office in Russia, and single people are more vulnerable to being sent abroad to start it. So Rika decides that she and Takuya will pretend they’re getting married in order to avoid the issue. There’s just one slight problem, which is that they’re both deeply introverted. Takuya’s deepest relationship is with his cat. Rika tends to enjoy looking at maps more than dealing with others. But the two of them have a nice chemistry, and are slowly starting to enjoy each other’s company. This has about ten or so volumes to it, so won’t resolve immediately, but this is a good start. – Sean Gaffney

Tsugumi Project, Vols. 1-2 | By ippatu | Kodansha Comics – In this post-apocalyptic thriller, a plane full of convicts parachute into Japan in search of a secret weapon; the first to successfully retrieve it earns his freedom. What they discover is a strange wilderness populated by apemen and monsters with nary a human in sight. The hero, Leon, is a stock action type—stoic, resourceful, and determined to succeed at all costs—as is his on-again, off-again companion Doudou, a motor-mouthed bumbler with a knack for getting into trouble. The real star of the show is the artwork, as ippatu has a flair for drawing stunningly beautiful creatures and wastelands; among his most striking creations is a humanoid with the face and torso of a young girl and the body of an ostrich, an elegant gloss on the ancient Roman harpy. If only the rest of the story didn’t feel so rote. – Katherine Dacey

The Two of Them Are Pretty Much Like This, Vol. 4 | By Takashi Ikeda| Seven Seas – This is the final volume of the series, and as you’d expect, there’s no big ending climax or great revelations. Wanko gets a good role this time that looks like it might actually work out, Ellie decides to collaborate with her friend on a new project. (Said friend was in love with her as well, which seems to be news to Ellie.) Even the “drama” in this series is not all that dramatic—they deal with a potential stalker, but it’s just someone who is dealing with gender identity issues and wanted to know how Ellie made such a good “man.” Aheh. And there are any number of chapters that just open with our two ladies in bed together, sleeping peacefully and happily. A definite feel-good series; I’m so glad we got to see it. – Sean Gaffney

We Started a Threesome!!, Vol. 1 | By Katsu Aki | Seven Seas As with other briefs this week, reading this was an exercise in nostalgia, as Katsu Aki’s art style has not changed one iota since he began his career, meaning this really reads like a late ’80s/early ’90s series, even though it’s only from a few years ago. As for the plot, childhood friends Lia, Suisei, and Emito are in a polyamorous marriage. Lia has past trauma, Suisei suspects he’s only in this because he’s good in bed, and Emito is a sheltered young man who worries the others are carrying him. Honestly, given the cover, and the sheer amount of sex in this volume, it’s a lot more serious than I expected. That said, the seriousness is all “soap opera” stuff, albeit with some attention paid to poly dynamics, as well as a possible repressed attraction between the two guys. Recommended for fans of the author. – Sean Gaffney