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The Manga Review: San Diego Comic-Con 2022 Edition

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This week’s edition of The Manga Review focuses primarily on San Diego Comic-Con. Before I get to the SDCC links, though, I wanted to talk about a New York Times article that appeared on July 23rd: “Comics That Read Top to Bottom Are Bringing in New Readers.” As you might guess from the headline, the article explores the growing popularity of Tapas and Webtoon, both of which are attracting substantial audiences, particularly among women under 25. The numbers are impressive; authors George Gene Gustines and Matt Stevens note that over 40 million women are active on the Webtoon platform, while a full two-thirds of Tapas’ users are women. I did a spit-take, however, when the authors boldly asserted that web comics were “tapping into an audience the industry had long overlooked: Gen Z and Millennial women.”

That statement ignores the fact many of these readers grew up with comics such as Sailor Moon and Fruits Basket as well as Dav Pilkey’s Captain Underpants and Dogman, Raina Telgemeier’s Smile, and Kazu Kibushi’s Amulet. Though DC Comics and Marvel are clearly important players in the comics market, Scholastic, VIZ, Kodansha, Yen Press, and Seven Seas serve a bigger readership than the Big Two, and have been doing so for over a decade. That point wasn’t lost on many of the people that Gustines and Stevens interviewed; creators and executives alike acknowledged the popularity of manga with American readers. The article’s authors, however, never acknowledge how much the old paradigm–of “Wednesday Warriors” buying floppies at the local comic ship–had changed before Tapas and Webtoon had a presence in North America. Anyone with vivid memories of visiting Borders or Barnes and Noble in the early 2000s could attest to the fact that girls were enthralled with manga, and viewed it as an appealing alternative to tights and capes.

OK… I’m hopping off my soapbox.

NEWS FROM SDCC 2022

Junji Ito’s Lovesickness beat out Chainsaw Man, Kaiju No. 8, Robo Sapiens: Tales of the Future, Spy x Family, and Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead for the title of Best U.S. Edition of International Material–Asia. I was surprised to see that this year’s field was so heavily focused on Shonen Jump titles; there’s nothing wrong with acknowledging popular series, but given how many other interesting projects were released in 2021, it seems odd that the nominating committee didn’t cast a wider net. [The Beat]

File this under About Damn Time: shojo manga pioneer Moto Hagio was finally inducted into the Eisner Hall of Fame, joining Osamu Tezuka (2002), Goseki Kojima (2004), Katsuhiro Otomo (2012), Hayao Miyazaki (2014), and Rumiko Takahashi (2018). [The Beat]

Also taking home an award from SDCC was illustrator Hidetaka Tenjin, who won the Inkpot Award for his work on such franchises as Macross, Gundham, and Space Battleship Yamato. [Anime News Network]

No SDCC would be complete without Deb Aoki’s Best and Worst Manga Panel. She was joined by Brigid Alverson (ICv2, School Library Journal, Smash Pages), Siddarth Gupta (Manga Mavericks), Laura Neuzeth (YouTube, TikTok), Ryley Moore (The Omnibus Collector), and Jillian Rudes (mangainlibraries.com). Looking over their master list, I was relieved to see I wasn’t the only person who thought Crazy Food Truck was kind of terrible. [Mangasplaining]

Square Enix recently announced two new manga acquisitions: My Clueless First Friend, a manga about a gloomy girl and the perky boy who befriends her, and Daemons of the Shadow Realm, Hiromu Arakawa’s latest fantasy series. Both series will debut in spring 2023. [Anime News Network]

Seven Seas just added twelve new manga and light novels to its 2023 schedule, among them Yumi Tamura’s Do Not Say Mystery and a new edition of Wataru Yoshizumi’s shojo classic Marmalade Boy. [Seven Seas]

REVIEWS

Are you reading Helen Chazan’s work? Her writing is terrific, and may be the best thing that’s happened to The Comics Journal in an age. Her latest review focuses on Yamada Murasaki’s Talk to My Back,  a story about a middle-aged woman struggling with her role as housewife and mother. Chazan observers that Murasaki “confronts the reader with a woman’s life, a common woman’s inner world. Each chapter is a meditation on the sheer will it takes her housewife to survive under normalized abuse and oppressive demands, and the brief moments of beauty and humor that make survival possible.”

Also worth a look: Manga Bookshelf’s own Anna N. weighs in on Nina the Starry Bride, while the Anime UK News crew compile a list of their favorite CLAMP manga and anime.

Ascendance of a Bookworm: I’ll Do Anything to Become a Librarian!: Royal Academy Stories – First Year

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By Miya Kazuki and You Shiina. Released in Japan as “Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by quof.

While we have gotten short stories at the end of each volume of Bookworm from the perspectives of the people in the cast who are not Myne/Rozemyne, it’s nice to have an entire volume that does not feature her at the center – in fact, a lot of these stories revolve around her absence. Instead we get a sense of what the Academy is supposed to be like for people who are not Rozemyne, and how she really is just tearing through everything like a bull in a china shop. There is political wrangling about tea parties, political wrangling about sports, and literal assault as a romantic overture. One thing I will note: everyone who said “I still hate Wilfried” as we went into the 4th arc should read this, as you really do feel bad for him. That said, anyone who hated Traugott will find only things that make you hate him more. I can’t believe he was once engaged to Best Girl.

Many of these stories are from Hannelore’s POV, and indeed the collection itself came about as the author wanted to find a place for the web-only Hannelore stories that didn’t fit into the main books. I can sum most of them up as “Being Hannelore Is Suffering” and leave it at that. There’s also a long story from the POV of Rauffen, the ditter-obsessed housemaster of Dunkenfelger, and how he proves to be much more on the ball than I had anticipated. And we get a wonderful story with Angelica, showing how even if she wants to serve Rozemyne for the rest of her life, she still has to realize what that actually means (though she also proves more emotionally adept than I had anticipated at handling the temple servants). And there’s Hartmut, as we see the short story that had been referenced before in the 7th book of Arc 4 (this volume came out in Japan before that one), and it’s a lot of fun.

I’d argue this is pretty essential reading even if it’s just short stories without Rozemyne in them. The discussion of ditter and what it was originally meant to do, as well as the changed made to it, forecast an ominous fate for the knights if there is, say, a civil war. The most ominous short story is the one with Ortwin and his sister Adolphine, who had been expecting a relatively easy and happy engagement, but thanks to Rozemyne’s intervention and the power of True Love, is going to get one that’s far less easy and far less happy. The words “I’m screwed” do not pass her lips, but they drench the text, and I think this is also going to play out in future volumes of the main series. And we also learn that even if she may only be 11 years old and look like she’s 7, Rozemyne is still a hot item, which helps explain why she got a rushed engagement. Powerful people want her in their duchy.

As with most short story collections of large series these days, this came out awkwardly after the books that refer to it. I assume that’s the usual rights issues and contract stuff. Still better than Re: Zero, which relies on “no, we’re not doing these volumes, just read the wiki to figure out who this is”. Thankfully, we have it now, and it’s a great read for Bookworm fans.

Manga the Week of 8/3/22

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SEAN: August is here. Still hot. But now hot in August rather than July!

ASH: I’m not sure it’s allowed to be August yet.

SEAN: Yen On has two debuts. Chronicles of the Hidden World: How I Became a Doctor for the Gods (Kakuriyo Shinjuuki: Isekai de Kami-sama no Oisha-san Hajimemasu) is a fantasy isekai where a girl is reincarnated in “ancient Japan but with magic”, and quickly finds an affinity with the world’s gods.

The other is a one-shot, Tower of the Sun, the latest from Tomihiko Morimi, author of Penguin Highway and The Night Is Short, Walk On Girl. It seems to share themes with the latter, not uncommon with this author. A guy who’s been dumped mopes through Kyoto. This was his debut novel!

ASH: I am so happy to see more of Morimi’s work being translated!

SEAN: There’s also the 17th and final volume of Konosuba: God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World! and Strike the Blood 21.

Two debuts from Yen Press as well. The Beginning After the End is a webcomic that’s been collected by Yen, based on a long-running novel series. A king dies and is reincarnated in a world of magic and monsters.

The Other World’s Books Depend on the Bean Counter (Isekai no Sata wa Shachiku Shidai) is a BL isekai manga from B’s Log Comic. A workaholic salaryman is summoned to another world… and continues to be a workaholic salaryman. But he catches the heart of a knight!

MICHELLE: Hm. Potentially cute!

ASH: I’ll admit that BL isekai interests me more than most other isekai.

ANNA: Sounds cute.

MJ: Oh, interesting indeed!

SEAN: Also from Yen: Bungo Stray Dogs: Beast 3, I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level 9, Love and Heart 5, My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, As I Expected 18, Overlord: The Undead King Oh! 8, The Splendid Work of a Monster Maid 3, and Toilet-bound Hanako-kun 14.

ASH: I really need to catch up on Toilet-bound Hanako-kun.

SEAN: It’s almost time for the anime to return, and the shippers are getting ready to doxx and destroy everyone’s lives all over again. It can only be Bleach. To celebrate, Viz is releasing Bleach 20th Anniversary Edition 1, which features cover art showing the original Shonen Jump cover. Despite the Vol. 1, this seems to be a one-off.

ASH: Huh.

SEAN: Viz also has One Piece Volume 100! Only 101 more volumes to go before it catches up to KochiKame.

And also Dragon Ball Super 16, Kaguya-sama: Love Is War 23, The King’s Beast 7, Moriarty the Patriot 8, and Snow White with the Red Hair 20.

ASH: I spy Shojo Beat titles!

ANNA: Yay, I need to get caught up on so much.

SEAN: Udon Entertainment has the 4th, 5th, and 6th volumes of Summertime Rendering, which wraps up the series, as these are omnibuses. they’re out in paperback and hardcover.

ASH: I’ve heard good things about the series, but have so far failed to start actually reading it. Need to get on that!

SEAN: Tokyopop has stopped updating its website for some reason, but should have Assassin’s Creed Dynasty 4.

Titan Books have Junji Ito Collection: A Horror Coloring Book, which speaks for itself, really.

ASH: Very interesting.

MJ: Oh, huh.

SEAN: Seven Seas debuts The Girl From the Other Side: Siúil, a Rún Deluxe Edition, a 3-volume omnibus in hardcover for the gorgeous and bittersweet (more bitter than sweet, really) fantasy series.

ASH: I’m happily double-dipping for this.

We also get Bite Maker: The King’s Omega 5, Dai Dark 4, and My Wife Has No Emotion 3.

Also, last week, KUMA released the first volume of Canis: Dear Hatter, which I missed because I suck. I assume it is related to Canis: Dear Mr. Rain, which came out a couple of years ago.

Kodansha, in print, has the 2nd and final omnibus of Devil Ecstasy and Sailor Moon Naoko Takeuchi Collection 3.

Digitally the debut is Our Love Doesn’t Need a Happy Ending (Boku-tachi no Koi ni Happy End nante Iranai), the story of a college guy who’s in love with his classmate… but has to decide whether to confess of not when she reveals that she’s dying. This josei title ran in Kiss.

MICHELLE: Obligatory josei squee.

ANNA: Squeeeeeeeeee!

SEAN: Also digital: The Abandoned Reincarnation Sage 4, Changes of Heart 4, Chihayafuru 33, Desert Eagle 2, I Was Reincarnated as the 7th Prince so I Can Take My Time Perfecting My Magical Ability 6, Kounodori: Dr. Stork 26, and My Wonderful World 2.

MICHELLE: And obligatory Chihayafuru squee, as well.

SEAN: J-Novel Club has one print volume: Infinite Dendrogram 16.

Digital items from J-Novel Club include An Archdemon’s Dilemma: How to Love Your Elf Bride 14, the 6th and final volume of Arifureta Zero, By the Grace of the Gods 11, Chillin’ in Another World with Level 2 Super Cheat Powers 6, The Great Cleric 9, the 5th manga volume of My Instant Death Ability is So Overpowered, No One in This Other World Stands a Chance Against Me! —AΩ—, and the 3rd manga volume of Reborn to Master the Blade: From Hero-King to Extraordinary Squire ♀.

ASH: I can’t quite tell if that’s a lot of titles, or just a bunch of long titles.

ANNA: What if it was all one single title?

SEAN: Denpa has the 4th volume of Today’s Menu for the Emiya Family. Actually, this came out last month, but I have to use Amazon’s release dates as Denpa hasn’t updated its own site, and Amazon hasn’t shipped it yet. But it’s out everywhere BUT Amazon.

Airship, in print, has Failure Frame: I Became the Strongest and Annihilated Everything With Low-Level Spells 4.

In early digital the debut is Though I Am an Inept Villainess: Tale of the Butterfly-Rat Body Swap in the Maiden Court (Futsutsuka na Akujo de wa Gozaimasu ga – Suuguu Chouso Torikae Den), the story of a consort who ends up body swapped with her rival, then thrown in prison. But she couldn’t be happier – after years of illness, she has a healthy body at last! This has recommendations from both the Bookworm *and* Apothecary authors, so is highly anticipated.

ASH: Oh, ho!

SEAN: And they’ve also got Berserk of Gluttony 7.

Are you a noble? A villainess? A villainess who’s also a noble? Also, what manga do villainesses read?

Housekeeping Mage from Another World: Making Your Adventures Feel Like Home!, Vol. 2

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By You Fuguruma and Nama. Released in Japan as “Kasei Madoushi no Isekai Seikatsu: Boukenchuu no Kasei Fugyou Uketamawarimasu!” by Ichijinsha Bunko Iris NEO. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Hengtee Lim.

I remember thinking after finishing the first volume of Housekeeping Mage that it was a lot darker than I had really expected. But I noted in my review that the story did its level best to try to have the trauma and abuse of our heroine be in the past so that it could be a cute romantic novel. That said… there is still the past trauma and abuse, and that comes to the fore here in the second volume, where we go into more detail about Shiori’s struggles after being isekai’d to this world (we still don’t know the reason) and we go into much greater detail about her time with her previous party, who were all such good kids… AT FIRST. And, well, bad things happen to her here as well. It’s just volume 2, so I’m OK with this, and it’s quite well written. I do hope we’ve sort of turned a corner, though. It can be cathartic but also exhausting to read.

As Alec and Shiori return from visiting Rurii’s family, they are beset upon by a snow wolf. And then, later on, three snow wolves. This is very unusual, they tend not to attack humans without a reason. They then arrive at a nearby village and find the reason, which leads to a huge battle between 60-70 wolves and only a few knights and adventurers. Unfortunately, during this, Shiori is badly injured, and this triggers memories of her past adventure party, to the point where she’s almost delirious with fear that Alec will abandon her. From this we also learn about how her party self-destructed so badly, and who was the mastermind behind it. Oh yes, there’s also a torture brothel involved. That said, this *is* still a romance, and by the end of the book Alec and Shiori are essentially a couple, and resolving to reveal to each other their secret backstories.

I am slightly optimistic that the worst of this is behind us, mostly because the narrative makes it textually clear. By the end of the main story, Shiori’s old diary detailing her travails since arriving in this world up to her abandonment has been burned, and the records showing exactly who was behind everything and why have also been burned, thus literally allowing her to start over fresh. Not admittedly there’s still Alec’s past, which is also touched upon here, and we also don’t know the reason she’s even here at all. But the summary of the next volume, while it implies bad things will be happening, at least says they’ll be fresh new bad things. And the romance between Alec and Shiori really is sweet. I could have done without the brothel subplot entirely, though, to be fair, which mostly seems to be there to show off what a bad guy the bad guy was.

So yes, I’m going to be reading more. I like the leads, I like Shiori’s slime, I like the supporting cast who aren’t evil, and honestly the ones who were evil are all dead now. Let’s hopefully move on.

My Quiet Blacksmith Life in Another World, Vol. 3

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By Tamamaru and Kinta. Released in Japan as “Kajiya de Hajimeru Isekai Slow Life” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Linda Liu.

Still enjoying this series, don’t get me wrong, but it’s time I face up to the face that I am skimming a large chunk of it every time simply because I really don’t care one jot about the Blacksmith Life part of this book. There is just so much detail about how to make swords correctly, knives correctly, and katanas correctly, including hilts and scabbards and the like. And of course we also get to hear Eizo talk a lot about how he’s using his cheats too, so these are essentially IKEA blueprints that contain the S. Harris punchline “then a miracle occurs” halfway through the process. It is a BIG chunk of every book, and I think the series would benefit from less of it, even if it means sacrificing a bit of the slow life pacing. Which gets a bit of a kick in the pants in this volume anyway, as halfway through Eizo is called out to help with a monster subjugation that turns nasty.

In the first half of this volume, we essentially get the same thing as the second half of Book 2, only with the elf replaced with a demon. Nilda recently suffered a crushing defeat battling against a mere human, and the mere human had a very familiar sword. Now Nilda wants a sword of her own to challenge her, so basically stakes out Eizo’s hometown till she runs into him. What follows is a lot of slow life sword building and all the girls admiring Eizo’s muscular blacksmith body. After this, Marius asks that Eizo go monster exterminating with them, so that he can repair the swords and armor when they’re broken in battle. This battle ends up being more personal than he expected, as he runs into the elf Lidy, who just left his shop with her own magic sword. She’s here to help them take out the main monster boss… and avenge her brother.

I gloss over it a bit in these reviews, but this is still very much that genre of “a harem series without any actual sex or even kissing” that is so popular in Japan. Nilda clearly likes Eizo. By the end of the book, Livy has gone back to his shop and moved in with everyone. We meet a young woman, Frederica, who is in charge of logistics and can best be summed up as “small insecure accountant” but also clearly is in love with Eizo by the end of the book. Hell, it’s implied that the Queen of the Demons has taken a liking to him as well, and the flashforwards we occasionally see very pointedly say he has a wife but never say who it is. This book is written for folks who love seeing a man surrounded by a dozen women but who will be making precisely zero moves. I know this upsets some light novel fans.

Still, it is what it is. It’s slow life, adding girls one by one, and smithing. So much smithing.

Nina the Starry Bride, Vols 1 and 2 by Rikachi

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Nina the Starry Bride Volumes 1 and 2 by Rikachi

I’m really bad at buying digital volumes of manga and then totally forgetting to read them, but I got a new tablet recently so I’m hoping to start getting caught up on some digital series that have been out for awhile. Nina the Starry Bride is likely one of those series that I would have glommed onto immediately if it had a print release, but I’m coming to it a bit late.

Nina the Starry Bride Vol 1

Royal duplicate plots are fairly common in fantasy manga, but Nina the Starry Bride is a solid example of the genre, helped a great deal by charming and detailed art. Nina is an orphan with unusual blue eyes who has found a family of sorts with a couple brothers. They spend their days hiding out and stealing occasionally to support themselves. When they fall on hard times, Nina is betrayed and handed over to slavers and her unusual eye color leads to her being recruited to be a stand-in for a recently deceased princess by the amber-eyed Prince Azure.

After some initial resistance, Nina works hard to develop her knowledge of etiquette and ability to behave like a princess. As only Azure and a few trusted servants know her secret, Nina grows closer to the second prince as she learns more about the royal family. Azure has a younger brother who is the acknowledged heir, a snarky stepmother, and his mysterious father is king. Nina and Azure share a certain loneliness, and it is nice to see how they begin to open up to each other. This series is fairly fast-paced as by the second volume Nina has a strong grasp of geopolitics and decides to save Azure, even though he’s attempting to prevent Nina from being sent off to a neighboring kingdom as part of a political alliance.

Rikachi has attractive character designs, with Azure looking particularly cool with his standoffish manners and asymmetrical earrings. Nina shifts from orphan to princess, and the lush detail of her life in the palace contrasts with the sparseness of her previous life. While Nina might not have the royal background of the people surrounding her, she’s true to herself in a way that makes it easy for her to deal with the political and family issues that she she encounters. While the elements of Nina the Starry Bride aren’t used in a particularly novel way, it is overall a strong fantasy manga that should appeal to fans of Dawn of the Arcana

Pick of the Week: One Last Love Song

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KATE: Any week that brings a new volume of Skip and Loafer is a good one in my book, so I’ll make that my pick. I’ll probably also buy Bomba, though I have a sinking feeling I might ultimately regret that decision, given that the most recent wave of Tezuka licenses have been fair-to-middling.

SEAN: There are so many of my favorite light novel series out next week it boggles the mind. I mean, Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World-, Ascendance of a Bookworm: Royal Academy Stories – First Year, *and* the final I’m in Love with the Villainess? Bet they’re all really long volumes too. I’ll pick the final I’m in Love with the Villainess, which has gone far beyond its initial gimmick.

MICHELLE: I’ve got to admit I’m pretty wary of Bomba, and much else on the list are new volumes of series I haven’t started yet. So, even though I’m far behind, I’ll also pick the final I’m in Love with the Villainess this week.

ASH: I’m curious about Bomba, for sure. And one of these days I really will get around to reading Skip and Loafer. But in the meantime, I’ll rely on my good ol’ standby Junji Ito and make The Liminal Zone my official pick.

ANNA: I feel guilty about not getting around to I’m in Love with the Villainess yet, so that’s my pick this week.

MJ: I’m not incredibly attached to anything this week, so I will give a little shout-out to volume 17 of To Your Eternity. I haven’t read any of the manga so far, but I’ve enjoyed the anime, so I’m going to guess I might also like to read it—maybe even more so.

When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace, Vol. 3

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By Kota Nozomi and 029. Released in Japan as “Inou Battle wa Nichijoukei no Nakade” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Tristan K. Hill.

Imagine that you are an Olympic sprinter. It’s the final race. All eyes of the world are on you. You’re feeling great. Your fiancee is cheering from the stands. The starter pistol goes off, and you take off, quickly putting all the other runners in the shade. It’s smooth sailing till the end of the race. You smile, confident and proud. Then you trip on absolutely nothing and fall flat on your face. All the other runners trample over you as they fly towards victory. You have humiliated yourself and your country. The medics don’t even want to treat you. Your fiancee leaves you, sobbing. The team bus leaves without you, as does the team plane. And so there you are, broke and starving, wondering where it all went wrong. If it wasn’t for that one horrid misstep right at the finish! If you can imagine that, then you can pretty much imagine how I felt on getting to the climax of the third volume of When Supernatural Battles Become Commonplace.

As has become the norm with this series, the first half is basically a bunch of fooling around, goofy gags, and Andou being incredibly irritating. The club plays tennis, and has a cosplay roulette tournament, which gets everyone into embarrassing outfits. That said, as you may have guessed by the cover art, Chifuyu is the featured girl of this volume. She seems to be having difficulty at school, which Andou drops her off at one morning, and trouble dealing with her best friend Madoka Kuki, aka “Cookie”. Well, best friend is probably the wrong word. Partly because Chifuyu is so helpless at doing anything that Kuki ends up acting more like a mom than anything else. And partly as, well, Chifuyu has the club, and talks about the club all the time. Which, naturally, makes Kuki mad.

For the most part, this was a lot of fun. Andou has become tolerable for the most part, especially when we contrast him with his loathsome “friend” Sagami. He and Tomoyo go on what is, to all intents and purposes, a date midway through this book, and it’s cute as hell. There’s some ominous foreshadowing of a character from Andou’s past (who might be trans?), but that’s for a future book. And Chifuyu’s problem thankfully has nothing whatsoever to do with the superpowers or the other evil organization – it’s just typical elementary school stuff, and reminds you that she really is ten years old. Which makes Andou’s “solution” to the problem really head-slappingly terrible. Even Hachiman would not quite be this self-sacrificing. It’s creepy. And it also reminds you that Chifuyu probably *is* a love interest for Andou despite being ten, because the whole club is – that’s the point of the book, ti’s a harem series. Which, whatever. But there’s no need to underline it with all this lolicon stuff.

So, 85% of a good book. Just stop before the final chapter and assume there was a sensible solution. …right, this is When Supernatural Battles Become Commonplace, there is nothing sensible here. Never mind. Carry on.

The Manga Review, 7/22/22

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Great news for fans of Fumiyo Kouno: the crew at Mangasplaining has teamed up with UDON to publish Kouno’s Giga Town: Manpu Zufu (A Catalog of Manga Symbols), which uses characters from the Choju-jinbutsu-giga to explain “the visual iconography of manga.” Though Kouno’s work won’t be serialized on the Mangasplaining website, Deb Aoki, Christopher Woodrow-Butcher and Andrew Woodrow-Butcher will be intimately involved in bringing Giga Town to North American readers, offering subscribers a “behind the scenes on how a manga is made from licensing through translation, lettering, and more.” Giga Town is slated for a spring 2023 release; Ko Ransom (Invitation From a Crab) will translate.

NEWS, INTERVIEWS, AND ESSAYS

ICYMI: Anime News Network reports that Tokyopop is bringing back its Rising Stars of Manga contest this year. Earlier this month, Tokopop announced that “previous winners and industry professionals will judge the competition,” and “artists will retain the copyright on their works.” No information about the contest has been posted on the Tokyopop website as yet, though Tokyopop indicated that the contest would run from July 25th – October 25th. Stay tuned for more information. [Anime News Network]

Brigid Alverson offers an in-depth look at the June 2022 NPD Bookscan charts, observing that “[wh]ether the comic is based on the show or the show is based on the comic, media tie-ins were prominent on this month’s charts of the top 20 Author, Manga, and Superhero graphic novels in the book channel.” [ICv2]

Jocelyne Allen takes a break from translating to sing the praises of Takeuchi Sachiko’s Numa no Naka de Fuwaka wo Mukaemasu. “She takes all these emotions and illustrates them to the extreme,” Allen notes. “It’s like physical comedy in manga form, and she only gets better at it with every book she puts out.” [Brain vs Book]

With the help of translator Katsu Tanaka, Danica Davidson interviews Monkey King creator Katsuyu Terada about the art that inspired him to become an manga-ka. “I grew up inspired by amazing Japanese manga illustrators, as well as traditional Japanese artists like Hokusai, and also various other foreign artists like Mœbius,” Terada explains. “With so much inspiration from so many different times and places, I’ve come to see human expression as a wave, layering ripples from far away shores to the other side of the ocean and connecting the world. I would be honored for my work to be seen more internationally, to inspire the same wonder I felt when I was young, and open new paths to a more creative world by expanding my audience’s creative mind.’ [Otaku USA]

REVIEWS

At The OASG, Krystallina and Justin compare notes on the first volume of Burn the House Down, “a whodunnit with a twist — mainly, someone has already said “Idunnit”. Meanwhile, the folks at Beneath the Tangles tackle a slew of new releases–among them Why Raelina Ended Up at the Duke’s Mansion and Shortcake Cake–as Sean Gaffney and I post a new crop of Bookshelf Briefs here at Manga Bookshelf. Writing about the first volume of A Nico-Colored Canvas, Sean reports that “Nico is a lot of fun to read about, but I think in real life I’d find her exhausting and difficult to deal with.”

Bookshelf Briefs 7/22/22

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Box of Light, Vol. 1 | By Seiko Erisawa | Seven Seas – The blurb for Box of Light promises a “delightfully creepy supernatural tale” that takes place at a “convenience store at the crossroads between life and death.” That sounds like a great premise, but Box of Light is sorely lacking in likable characters, memorable plot lines, or even a good old-fashioned jump scare. The bland, utilitarian artwork is equally disappointing; if I flipped through volume one in a bookstore, I’d assume that Box of Light was a workplace comedy, as the artwork seems more appropriate for a slice-of-life series than a horror story about people caught in purgatory. Only one vignette—”Indecisive Yuuto”—yields an image that’s unnerving enough to make lasting impression. In it, a young girl crouches outside the store as darkness envelops her with the stealth and speed of an incoming tide. Too bad nothing else in volume one is nearly as spooky. – Katherine Dacey

The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, REALLY Love You, Vol. 3 | By Rikito Nakamura and Yukiko Nozawa | Ghost Ship – This series really loves to take things as far as it possibly can while also making sure that everything stays sweet, heartwarming and romantic, and in this volume it’s got its most difficult challenge yet. Hakari’s mother Hahari has insisted she’s never to see Rentarou again, and has a huge, impossible-to-get-into mansion to back it up. She’s also super young, having had Hakari at the age of thirteen (Hakari’s father was dying). If you think to yourself “wait, is this series really going to have a guy dating a mother-daughter pair?”, then well done, you can be a writer for this series. It’s hilarious, it’s sweet, and it’s jaw-droppingly blatant. – Sean Gaffney

Komi Can’t Communicate, Vol. 19 | By Tomohito Oda | Viz Media – Last time I noted how large the cast of this manga had gotten, so I’m not sure it was the best idea to spend most of this nineteenth volume introducing a new bunch of classmates with various personality tics. They run from mildly amusing (she speaks too softly) to deliberately aggravating (she constantly trash talks people and points out their faults, even when she knows she should really shut up). It’s meant to show off how far Komi has come (she actually speaks aloud at one point) as well as how dedicated she is to seeing the good in people, but I’m losing track of folks. On the bright side, Tadano’s sheer niceness and seeing the best in everyone makes him a revered saint. – Sean Gaffney

A Nico-Colored Canvas, Vol. 1 | By Nao Shikita| Kodansha Manga (digital only) – How much you enjoy this series may depend on how much you love the “manic pixie dream girl” trope, though in Nico’s case she’s the star rather than the impetus driving the male lead. She’s arrived at art school from the sticks, and is doing her own thing, which gets her into trouble (and thrown out of a prestigious class), but also attracts the attention of the other non-conformists in the school, including a very sketchy guy who at least is treated as very sketchy by the narrative. Nico is a lot of fun to read about, but I think in real life I’d find her exhausting and difficult to deal with. Fortunately, this is a manga rather than real life, so I’ll continue to see how she does. – Sean Gaffney

Outbride: Beauty and the Beasts, Vol. 1 | By Tohko Tsukinaga| Steamship – This was the debut of Seven Seas’ new “Ghost Ship for ladies” imprint Steamship, so I thought I would grab the first volume and give it a try. I regret everything. Starting as a standard “hit by a truck” isekai, our heroine finds it’s now 2,000 years in the future, all of humanity is dead except her, and she has to mate with four different types of “celestial beings” and bear their children now. There’s elements of Omegaverse here, as her being a human gives off a scent that drives the men crazy, but mostly this is nearly two hundred pages of her screaming “no” a lot and being ignored by everyone except the one half-decent guy. Absolutely not my thing, but Omegaverse fans may like it. – Sean Gaffney

Ya Boy Kongming!, Vol. 1 | By Yuto Yotsuba and Ryo Ogawa | Kodansha Comics (digital only) – In this fish-out-of-water comedy, Shu Imperial Chancellor Zhuge Liang, a.k.a. Kongming, makes a deathbed wish to be reborn “into a world of peace.” His wish comes true, but in an unexpected fashion: he wakes up 2000 years later in present-day Japan. After a night of stumbling around Shibuya, Kongming is rescued from the streets by Eiko, an aspiring singer-songwriter who brings Kongming up to speed on the twenty-first century. As you might expect, Kongming is dazzled by modern conveniences—the humble wall clock throws him for a loop—but Yuto Yotsuba’s clever use of historical facts about the real Kongming pushes the story in a delightful, unexpected direction by giving Kongming an opportunity to put his military strategizing to use… as Eiko’s manager. Recommended, especially for anyone with a working knowledge of The Three Kingdoms. – Katherine Dacey