M.J. Beasi

SEAN: The end of the month, and it’s time for lots and lots of stuff. What have we got?

First of all, jumping to the front of the queue because of what it is, we have Udon’s debut of The Rose of Versailles. You should know this one. One of the most influential manga ever. It’s hardcover. It’s almost 500 pages. You will all read it. It’s definitely Pick of the Week, so you’ll have to pardon the double pictures.

MICHELLE: *Kermit flailing*

ANNA: Back before there was an actual industry for translated manga in the United States, I read the excerptr of The Rose of Versailles that was translated in Frederik R. Schodt’s Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics. I am so excited to read this.

ASH: I’ve read that excerpt, too! (It’s a great book.) I am absolutely thrilled The Rose of Versailles is finally becoming a reality in English.

MELINDA: I’m so excited, I can barely type. This release has taken a while, and I have no doubt it will be worth the wait!

SEAN: Cross Infinite World has another shoujo light novel, this one called The Misfortune Devouring Witch is Actually a Vampire?! (Ijippari na Majo Dono e). You can tell the title has been Westernized as it’s a ?!, not a !?.

ASH: Ha!

SEAN: Dark Horse has the 3rd Elfen Lied omnibus.

Ghost Ship has three titles, one a debut. Saki the Succubus Hungers Tonight (Saki-chan wa Konya mo Peko Peko) runs in Houbunsha’s Weekly Manga Times, and features a young and innocent succubus who is trying to get… male bodily fluids from a guy without doing anything really dirty. It’s sort of cute in a “not quite porn” way.

MELINDA: This is… not what I’m looking for in manga. Or really anything at all. I kind of regret reading this description.

SEAN: They’ve also got Yokai Girls 9 and Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs 8.

J-Novel Club has two new light novel series debuting. By the Grace of the Gods (Kami-tachi ni Hirowareta Otoko) is another reincarnation isekai series from Hobby Japan, but this one seems to involve very nice people. The hero is nice, the gods are nice, the slimes are nice… it seems nice. Expect “slice of life”.

The other title comes from the PASH! Books imprint, and is The World’s Least Interesting Master Swordsman (Jimi na Kensei wa Soredemo Saikyou desu). The plot really, really sounds like One-Punch Man to me… a reincarnated guy who swings his sword to get stronger… for 500 years… suddenly finds he’s super strong. But his swordsmanship is boring. I suspect this one will live and die by the supporting cast.

Also from J-Novel Club is How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord 12, Kokoro Connect 8, and Record of Wortenia War 4.

On the manga side, J-Novel Club has a 2nd Discommunication and the 3rd How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom.

Kodansha’s print debut has already come out digitally: Living-Room Matsunaga-san, a shoujo series from Dessert. A young woman moves into a boarding house filled with oddballs, and finds herself looked after by an older man.

MICHELLE: I’d been meaning to read this one!

ASH: I’m curious, too.

MELINDA: This sounds interesting! Or possibly creepy? It seems like it could go either way!

SEAN: Also out in print is The Quintessential Quintuplets 7.

No digital debuts for Kodansha, but we do get Altair: A Record of Battles 14, Boarding School Juliet 14, DAYS 16, Drowning Love 16, Guilty 4, and Watari-kun’s ****** Is about to Collapse 2.

MICHELLE: Huzzah for more DAYS!

SEAN: Seven Seas has two debut light novels, one print and one digital. The print we saw before digitally: SCP Foundation: Iris Through the Looking Glass. It tied into the SCP Foundation universe.

The digital-first debut is At Night, I Become a Monster (Yoru no Bakemono). It’s from the author of I Want to Eat Your Pancreas, so expect good writing and melancholy. A boy turns into a monster during the evenings, and runs into a classmate.

MICHELLE: Hm, interesting!

ASH: I’m waiting for the print, but I am intrigued.

MELINDA: Interested.

SEAN: Also out from Seven Seas: The Dungeon of Black Company 4, Magika Swordsman and Summoner 12, My Monster Secret 19, and Toradora! light novel 9.

For Udon, see The Rose of Versailles above. Just thought I’d mention it again. The Rose of Versailles. Officially out in English. And looking amazing.

MICHELLE: I still can’t really believe it, honestly. I’ll believe it when I’m holding it in my hands.

ANNA: I’m trying to mentally prepare.

ASH: One of my most anticipated releases of the current and past several years.

MELINDA: What everyone else said. I mean. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.

SEAN: Vertical has a 4th APOSIMZ.

The rest of Yen Press, but we’re not close to done. Yen On’s debut is Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina (Majo no Tabitabi). A Softbank Creative series about, well, a wandering witch. The premise makes it sound like a happier, more positive version of Kino’s Journey.

Yen On also has A Sister’s All You Need 6, Goblin Slayer 9, and Torture Princess 3.

Also, in an effort to make all their books available digitally, Yen On now has digital debuts of two older series that were print-only. Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers Vols. 1-6, and the standalone The Hero and His Elf Bride Open a Pizza Parlor in Another World.

Three debuts… sort of… in the manga department. Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun is a digital-only series now making its print debut. It also has an anime running now. It runs in GFantasy, so expect it to be a shonen series for girls.

ASH: I’m here for it! Looking forward to giving the series a try.

MELINDA: Did you say GFantasy? You know I’m here for that.

SEAN: The other debuts are adaptations of light novels. I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years (and Maxed Out My Level) runs in Gangan Online, and The World’s Strongest Rearguard runs in Kadokawa’s Comic Walker. The former is cute fluff, the latter is bad but fun.

We also get Aoharu x Machinegun 16, Final Fantasy: Lost Stranger 4, High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even in Another World 6, Horimiya 13, Murcielago 13, No Matter How I Look at It It’s You Guys’ Fault I’m Not Popular! 15, and The Saga of Tanya the Evil 9.

Again, and I cannot emphasize it enough, Rose of Versailles. Anything apart from that?

SEAN: More January, More Manga.

ASH: Huzzah!

SEAN: J-Novel Club gives us another debut, Her Majesty’s Swarm (Joou Heika no Isekai Senryaku), again from Kodansha’s new Legend Novels imprint, and by the author “616th Special Information Battalion”. Yes, that’s the real pen name. A college woman who plays a game as an evil character is now trapped in a very similar world… as said evil character.

We also get Altina the Sword Princess 2 and Ascendance of A Bookworm 5.

ASH: I need to catch up on Bookworm.

Kodansha, in print, gives us Cells at Work! Code BLACK 3, I’m Standing on a Million Lives 5, Sailor Moon Eternal Edition 7, and The Seven Deadly Sins 36.

In digital releases, the debut is MabuSasa (Mabuichi-kun to Sasagawa-san), which runs in Kodansha’s shoujo title Palcy. a BL loving girl and a scary guy… can they bond?

MICHELLE: It could be cute!

ANNA: It does sound potentially cute!

MELINDA: I’d give this a look!

SEAN: There’s also Cosplay Animal 10, Defying Kurosaki-kun 14, My Boss’s Kitten 4, My Boy in Blue 14, and The Quintessential Quintuplets 11.

No debuts for Seven Seas, but they have the 5th Arifureta manga, Magical Girl Site 11, Nurse Hitomi’s Monster Infirmary 10, and Sorry for My Familiar 6.

Tokyopop has a 7th Konohana Kitan.

And Vertical has the 7th CITY.

Viz has Black Lagoon 11. Black Lagoon 9 came out in 2010. I think this series may have a bit of a problem.

MICHELLE: I really loved the first three volumes when I read them long ago, and this release makes me want to get caught up. But then I’ll be waiting years again for the next, most likely.

ASH: Black Lagoon can be really great, but the long wait between volumes can be really hard.

MELINDA: My memories of Black Lagoon are so fuzzy now…

SEAN: They also have Beastars 4, Children of the Whales 14, Levius/Est 2, No Guns Life 3, and The Way of the Househusband 2.

MICHELLE: Hooray for The Way of the Househusband! I need to check out Beastars, too.

ANNA: I need to catch up on Beastars, and I’m happy about Way of the Househusband 2, the first volume was hilarious.

ASH: Beastars and The Way of the Househusband are what I’m particularly excited about this week.

MELINDA: I need to catch up with both!

SEAN: And there’s a bunch of Yen. Yen On gives us The Asterisk War 12, Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody 10, and Strike the Blood 14.

Yen also has, on the manga side, Angels of Death 9, A Certain Magical Index 20 (manga), Hatsu*Haru 10, DanMachi: Sword Oratoria 10, Karneval 9, Nyankees 5, Overlord: The Undead King Oh! 2, Reborn As a Polar Bear 2, and Teasing Master Takagi-san 7.

Manga? Manga!

SEAN: OK, now it’s actually January. You can tell as the Viz books are all pouring in. But first…

J-Novel Club has a giant pile of things due out. For print books, we have Animeta! 2, An Archdemon’s Dilemma 3, Ascendance of a Bookworm 3, and Infinite Dendrogram 4.

ASH: I’ve been meaning to give Animeta! a try now that it’s available in print.

MICHELLE: I thought the first volume was pretty fun.

SEAN: On the digital side, there’s Animata! 3, Demon Lord Retry! 2, Der Werwolf 6, In Another World with My Smartphone 18, the 2nd Marginal Operation manga, Otherside Picnic 2, and There Was No Secret Evil-Fighting Organization (srsly?!), So I Made One MYSELF! 2.

From Kodansha Comcis, we get, in print, Grand Blue Dreaming 9 and Tales of Berseria 2.

There’s a lot more digitally. The debut is That Blue Summer (Ao Natsu), a Betsufure series from the creator of To Be Next To You, which we saw debut digitally this week. That’s a big grin that girl has on the cover.

And we get All-Rounder Meguru 12, Chihayafuru 18, Magical Sempai 6, My Sweet Girl 10, Smile Down the Runway 5, and To Write Your Words 2.

ASH: Both J-Novel Club and Kodansha Comics have some great digital offerings this week.

ANNA: Nice, maybe I’ll use my remaining week of vacation to get more caught up on Chihayafuru.

MICHELLE: Yay for more shoujo and super yay for more Chihayafuru!

SEAN: Seven Seas has quite a bit, including a couple of debuts. Dungeon Builder: The Demon King’s Labyrinth is a Modern City! (Maou-sama no Machizukuri! ~Saikyou no Danjon wa Kindai Toshi~) is a manga adaptation of a light novel (which I don’t believe is licensed) that runs in Overlap’s Comic Gardo. Demon Lords create labyrinths to trap people and consume their despair… but this one just wants to be super nice.

ASH: That actually sounds kind of amusing.

SEAN: My Room Is a Dungeon Rest Stop (Boku no Heya ga Dungeon no Kyuukeijo ni Natteshimatta Ken) is also based on a light novel… which again I don’t think we have here… that runs in Takeshobo’s Web Comic Gamma. A guy buys a dirt-cheap apartment, then finds that it also leads to a fantasy dungeon. Can he help adventurers in trouble and show them the wonders of modern plumbing?

Also out from Seven Seas: Akashic Records of Bastard Magical Instructor 8, the print edition of the 2nd Arifureta ZERO novel, the print edition of Vol. 1 of Magic User: Reborn in Another World as a Max Level Wizard, the print version of the 4th Mushoku Tensei novel, and Tomo-chan Is a Girl! 6.

Vertical has a 2nd volume of the Bakemonogatari story, which finishes up Senjogahara’s story and starts Hachikuji’s.

Viz has no debuts next week, but it does have the 18th and final volume of Anonymous Noise. Will the romantic triangle resolve?

MICHELLE: I mean, it’s gotta, right?

SEAN: We also get, on the shonen/seinen side, Black Clover 19, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba 10, Dr. STONE 9, Haikyu!! 36, Kaguya-sama: Love Is War 12, and The Promised Neverland 13.

ANNA: Good stuff!

On the shoujo/josei side, we get Daytime Shooting Star 4, An Incurable Case of Love 2, and Snow White with the Red Hair 5.

ASH: I’ll read all of those, honestly.

ANNA: Nice! It is a week for Anna!

MICHELLE: I enjoy quite a few of these but am most excited about Snow White with the Red Hair and Haikyu!!.

MELINDA: I can’t believe this is the first time I’m speaking up here with all this manga, but I’m here for Snow White with the Red Hair!

SEAN: Lastly, Yen has two stragglers that got delayed from December. Yen On gives us the 18th and NOT final volume of Sword Art Online, though this does wrap up the giant massive-10-volume Alicization arc.

For manga, we get Chio’s School Road 7.

Some interesting stuff there. What are you picking up?

SEAN: Happy New Year! And yes, I know most of the titles I’m mentioning here go with the OLD year, coming out on 12/31. What do we have?

J-Novel Club has a new debut, The Holy Knight’s Dark Road (Seinaru Kishi no Ankokudou). Our hero is a holy knight beloved by his people and his goddess… but he feels he’s starring in the wrong light novel archetype, and so goes to join a magical academy! Hijinks no doubt ensue.

J-Novel Club also has Full Metal Panic! 5 and Outbreak Academy 12.

In print, Kodansha gives us 10 Dance 5 and Waiting for Spring 12.

ASH: I’ve been enjoying 10 Dance a great deal. I’ve liked what I’ve read of Waiting for Spring, too, though I’ve fallen behind.

MICHELLE: I’m looking forward to both of these!

MELINDA: I’m incredibly behind on 10 Dance but I really need to catch up!

SEAN: Digitally, we get another debut with To Be Next To You (Tonari no Atashi), a Betsufure shoujo title about a girl in love with her neighbor who is horrified one day to find him kissing another woman! Maybe she should finally confess?

MICHELLE: There are a whole bunch of shoujo debuts happening digitally for Kodansha over the next couple of months. I approve.

MELINDA: Same.

ANNA: I also approve, although I have given up on keeping up on them.

SEAN: There is also GTO Paradise Lost 11, Hotaru’s Way 11, Kakafukaka 9, and Kounodori: Dr. Stork 12. (Lotta Vol. 12s this week.)

MICHELLE: One day I’ll read Hotaru’s Way.

SEAN: Seven Seas has but a single title with Machimaho: I Messed Up and Made the Wrong Person Into a Magical Girl! 4.

Tokyopop (at least according to Amazon – don’t be surprised if this is bumped) has a new BL title, Don’t Call Me Dirty (Dirty Darling), from Mag Garden’s UVU. A man trying to get over his crush (who turns out not to be gay) takes in a vagrant, and things go from there. This actually sounds kind of sweet. It’s complete in one volume.

MELINDA: That… title.

SEAN: Vertical has quite a bit. Owarimonogatari: End Tale is the latest (and last?) in the Monogatari Series, and is divided into three parts. This first book in the series delves into just WHY Araragi got to be the misanthrope we saw at the start of the series.

Seraph of the End: Guren Ichinose, Resurrection at Nineteen sure is the latest light novel spinoff series from Seraph of the End – in fact, it’s a sequel to the first light novel spinoff.

And Manga Bookshelf will be delighted to hear we get What Did You Eat Yesterday? 14, the first volume in almost a year and a half.

ASH: Excellent! I most certainly am delighted!

MICHELLE: Me, too!

MELINDA: I, too, am delighted! So exciting!

ANNA: Yay!

SEAN: And we end of Yen. On the Yen On side, no debuts, but we get The Alchemist Who Survived Now Dreams of a Quiet City Life 2, The Irregular at Magic High School 14, Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? 14 (yes, at last, after three long delays), Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World 2, and Spice & Wolf 21.

On the manga end, the debut is Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story, another in the endless series of Madoka Magica spinoffs. This one adapts a mobile game, and runs in Manga Time Kirara Forward.

There’s also Kakegurui -Compulsive Gambler- 11 and Sacrificial Princess and the King of Beasts 8.

And that’s it! What manga come to mind in these days of Auld Lang Syne?

SEAN: Yes, yes, I know almost none of these are actually coming out 12/25. But I’ve always used Wednesday’s date before, and have no desire to stop now! In any case, ‘Tis Christmas, and still no offers of pantomime. What have we got?

We start with J-Novel Club’s debut of Beatless. This sci-fi series is only two volumes long, but I hear each volume is really, REALLY long. Artificial humans, AIs that have passed humanity… but can it be bleaker than Alita? We shall see. It’s a co-production with Tokyo Otaku Mode.

ASH: Hmm… I do like a good artificial humans story…

SEAN: They also give us Campfire Cooking in Another World 4 and The Combat Baker and Automaton Waitress 3.

Kodansha’s sole print volume is the 10th and final volume of Happiness.

ASH: Oshimi’s work remains consistently engaging and disconcerting.

SEAN: No digital debut, as the title that was coming out got bumped. But we do see Altair: A Record of Battles 13, Drowning Love 15, Guilty 3, Heaven’s Design Team 4, and Princess Resurrection Nightmare 5.

MICHELLE: I thought volume one of Guilty was pretty good, even if none of the characters was sympathetic. I plan to read more.

SEAN: No debuts for Seven Seas either, but there’s a 10th Captain Harlock: Dimensional Voyage, a 4th How to Treat Magical Beasts, a 3rd Little Devils, Species Domain 7, and Toradora! 8 (the light novel).

The rest is all Yen Press. On the light novel side, we get two debuts, both spinoffs. Kingdom Hearts X: Your Keyblade, Your Story is another in the infinite Kingdom Hearts novels out lately.

The other arrival, after a few delays, is KonoSuba: An Explosion on This Wonderful World! This light novel spinoff is a prequel, showing us Megumin’s life pre-Kazuma.

Also from Yen On we get Baccano! 12, The Genius Prince’s Guide to Raising a Nation Out of Debt (Hey, How About Treason?) 2, I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years 6, and That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime 7. Baccano! feels very very tiny compared to those other LN titles.

ASH: Ha!

SEAN: There’s also two debuts on the Yen Press end. The one most interesting to me is A Witch’s Printing Office (Mahoutsukai no Insatsujo), an isekai about a women transported to another world who has to try to find the means to get home. It runs in ASCII Mediaworks’ Dengeki G’s.

ASH: I’m curious about this one.

MELINDA: Intrigued.

SEAN: And there’s Shadow Student Council Vice President Gives Her All (Fukukaichou Ganbaru), complete in one volume. Given that cover art, thank God. A sequel to Prison School, it ran in Young Magazine the 3rd.

And there’s a plethora of Yen Press Christmas Eve titles. As Miss Beelzebub Likes 8, Bungo Stray Dogs 13, The Case Study of Vanitas 6, Dead Mount Death Play 3, Goblin Slayer Side Story: Year One 3 (manga version), KonoSuba Explosion 3 (manga version), Plunderer 3, Shibuya Goldfish 6, Silver Spoon 12 (and Vols. 1-11 are out now digitally!), Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization 5, A Terrified Teacher at Ghoul School 8, Ubel Blatt 11 (the 12th and final volume, and the last chance for me to point out the irritating number scheme), Val x Love 7, and your name: Another Side Earthbound 2 (manga version).

MICHELLE: I have recently started and am enjoying the anime of Bungo Stray Dogs, which makes me wonder what I’ve been missing in the manga all this time.

ASH: Wow, that’s a lot of Yen! (Also, hooray, as always, for Silver Spoon!!)

MELINDA: (echos: Silver Spoooooooooon!)

SEAN: Happy holidays to all from Manga Bookshelf! What are you getting next week?

SEAN: Last month of the year. Gotta squeeze in all the manga and novels you can.

SEAN: Happy Thanksgiving! We give thanks for this bounty of manga and light novels.