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Manga the Week of 4/8/20

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SEAN: April is here, and the shipping list is still fine, mostly.

ASH: That’s good to know!

SEAN: The mostly is due to Dark Horse, who had two items on next week’s list, a 5th Gantz omnibus and the 2nd Star Blazers 2199 omnibus. Looking at their site now shows that the items came out on March 25th but are also on pre-order. Given DH tends to work with Diamond, who aren’t shipping books, this may be the best we can get.

ASH: I realize now that I haven’t actually read the first Star Blazers 2199 omnibus yet.

SEAN: Denpa has a 6th volume of Inside Mari.

Ghost Ship has To-Love-Ru Darkness 15, aka To-Love Ruuuu innn… SPAAAAAAACE!

J-Novel Club has a giant pile. In print we have Animeta! 3 (that’s a manga), Ascendance of a Bookworm 4, How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord 9, If It’s for My Daughter I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord 8, In Another World with My Smartphone 9, and The Magic in This Other World Is Too Far Behind! 8.

ASH: I’ve liked Animeta! so far. I’m pretty sure I’d like Ascendance of a Bookworm, too, but I haven’t had a chance to actually read it.

SEAN: Digitally the debut is The Tales of Marielle Clarac, an Ichijinsha Bunko Iris NEO series which, instead of volume titles, has a different title for every book, a la Haruhi Suzumiya. The Engagement of Marielle Clarac is the first. Marielle is a noble’s daughter who’s not particularly gorgeous or famous, but who gets a proposal one day from a knight who will be an Earl one day. She’s quite happy… he’s just her type, and now she can imagine all sorts of things about him. Yes, Marielle is secretly a fangirl. This looks fun.

Also debuting is a manga version of Sorcerous Stabber Orphen.

Furthermore, out digitally is Altina the Sword Princess 3, Demon Lord Retry! 3, Discommuncation 3 (that’s a manga), Her Majesty’s Swarm 2, The Holy Knight’s Dark Road 2, and Infinite Dendrogram 11.

Kodansha, in print, has Boarding School Juliet 11, Eden’s Zero 7, Granblue Fantasy 4, and The Heroic Legend of Arslan 12.

ASH: Oh! I need to catch up with Arslan!

SEAN: Digitally the debut has an author familiar to many: Shinobu Ohtaka, creator of Magi. Her new series is called Orient, runs in Weekly Shonen Magazine, and seems to be the Sengoku period version of Magi. I’m in.

MICHELLE: Something about the blurb for this turned me off. I think I’m sitting Orient out.

ASH: I’ll admit to being intrigued by Sengoku period…

ANNA: I am also intrigued.

SEAN: There’s also A Condition Called Love 2, Chihayafuru 19, Drifting Dragons 7, Goodbye! I’m Being Reincarnated 4, Smile Down the Runway 8, and To Be Next to You 4.

MICHELLE: Those new shoujo series are racking up volumes so quickly!

ANNA: Too much!

SEAN: Seven Seas’ debut is Primitive Boyfriend (Genshijin Kareshi), a shoujo title from LaLa. Our heroine wants a guy, but they’re all wusses. Then she magically ends up in the past. Is a caveman the sort of guy who’s her type? This is three volumes long, which seems about right.

MICHELLE: It does, but it could be fun!

ASH: The premise seems ridiculous, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

ANNA: OK, this sounds funny.

MJ: I… am not sure.

SEAN: Also out from Seven Seas: 12 Beast 7, Bloom Into You 7, and the 3rd My Next Life As a Villainess! manga.

Tokyopop releases an 8th volume of Konohana Kitan.

It’s the first week of the month, so you know Viz is up next with their Jump and Beat series. The debut is Prince Freya (Itsuwari no Freya), a LaLa DX series (man, you don’t see any LaLa titles for over a year, then two come in the same week) from the creator of The Bride & the Exorcist Knight and The Heiress & the Chauffeur. Prince Freya does not have an &… yet. Possibly as she’s a lookalike for the real prince, and thus is forced to step in and impersonate him in a crisis. I admit, I always love those sorts of plots.

MICHELLE: I will definitely be checking this out.

ASH: Same!

MJ: I’m here for it!

SEAN: Jump titles include Boruto 8, Food Wars! 35, Jujutsu Kaisen 3, One Piece 93, Platinum When Will This Ever End 11, We Never Learn 9, and World Trigger 20.

On the Shojo Beat end we have Ao Haru Ride 10, An Incurable Case of Love 3, Takane & Hana 14, and Yona of the Dawn 23.

MICHELLE: Woot for 75% of those! I greatly enjoyed getting caught back up on Ao Haru Ride and Takane & Hana recently.

ASH: Yona of the Dawn is my priority, but I’m reading a fair number of these, too.

ANNA: This is a week for me!

MJ: I have fallen behind on both the series Michelle caught up on, so I have work to do!

SEAN: Lastly, Yen On has another March novel slightly bumped into April: the 15th volume of The Irregular at Magic High School.

Don’t go out, read a manga! What are you reading?

Didn’t I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?!, Vol. 9

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By FUNA and Itsuki Akata. Released in Japan as “Watashi, Nouryoku wa Heikinchi de tte Itta yo ne!” by Earth Star Novels. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Diana Taylor. Adapted by Maggie Cooper.

I first noticed this with Invaders of the Rokujouma?!, but it can also be applied to many other long-running light novel series: the girl who is on the cover of the book is not necessarily the girl with the most to do within the book. Obviously, Mile always has the most to do, it’s her series, but I can’t help but not that poor Reina and Pauline get far less of the plot here. Indeed, even Mile towards the end fades into the background, as this is very much a book about Mavis and about her strengths and weaknesses, weaknesses that she is starting to have a complex about. Before that, we wrap up the dwarves/orc plot with a tense and pitched battle; Mile and company help out some elf researchers (no, different ones) and once again teach guys not to take advantage of them; and Mile returns to the kingdom that was siccing monsters on others and reminds them not to do it… by dressing in another silly costume.

As I said last time, the Crimson Vow are getting pretty famous, as are their abilities. In particular Mile’s ridiculous storage magic. As such, when they agree to work with another party to guard the elven researchers, the other team assumes Mile will be carrying everything, because she can. This is a bad assumption, especially as the researchers paying them DON’T know about Mile’s abilities (at first). That said, it does show off one of the better aspects of this series – it very much loves putting arrogant men in their place and humiliating them for daring to underestimate or be sexist asses around our heroines. However, if, like several other male teams we’ve seen so far, they learn their lesson and proceed to be good and helpful teammates, then the Crimson Vow lets up and stops the abuse – particularly after the team saves Mavis from certain death.

The back half of the book deals with Mavis’ feelings of inadequacy compared to the rest of the Crimson Vow. Mile is Mile, of course. Reina and Pauline have both gotten brilliant at magic. But there’s only so far you can go with a sword without the dreaded “years of experience” that Mavis doesn’t have. We’ve seen her in the past abusing Mile’s stimulants to give her extra power, and she does so again here, much to Mile’s fury. She also, as the cliffhanger shows us, has a little bit of the chuuni in her, despite being 18 years old – she wants to save the girl and protect her against impossible odds not because it’s the right thing to do, or because she thinks she can win, but because it’s really cool. As intended, I feel sympathy for Mavis while also laughing at her, and I hope she learns a bit of a lesson in the next book. (Also, stop taking magical steroids!)

A few minor hiccups here and there (there was a pedophilia joke about an orphanage that was simply bad, there’s a “despite being strongly attracted to another woman I’m not gay!” bit, and the section with Mile terrifying the bad kingdom was pretty weak) does not stop this from being another solid entry in this series. go get it.

Pick of the Week: Signs and Canvases

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SEAN: The last pick before I have to stop getting my manga from my local comic shop for the time being, I am feeling a tad melancholy. I expect I’ll be doing a lot more digital reading. As such, it’s the digital-only release of A Sign of Affection that holds my attention this week, even if it does have the standard “guy grabbing the girl from behind with his huge hand” cover.

MICHELLE: I did not notice that monstrous hand until you pointed it out. Holy crap. But yes, indeed, A Sign of Affection is also my pick this week. There have been so many new digital-only shoujo series from Kodansha of late that I’m already behind, but I continue to be happy about them nonetheless.

KATE: At the risk of being the most predictable member of MB Battle Robot, my vote goes to Blank Canvas, a manga that manages to be funny, wise, and cringe-inducing in equal measure. I love it.

ASH: As curious as I am about Fire in His Fingertips, I’m unquestionably with Kate this week for my pick. Higashimura certainly doesn’t pull her punches, but Blank Canvas is just so darn good.

MJ: Giant hand notwithstanding, I’m with Sean and Michelle this week. A Sign of Affection is my pick!

A Certain Magical Index, Vol. 22

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By Kazumi Kamachi and Kiyotaka Haimura. Released in Japan as “To Aru Majutsu no Index” by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Prowse.

If this is to be the final novel of Index released in North America (something still up in the air at the moment), it’s a good way to go out, despite the fact that it also ends up killing off its main character. Still, I suspect precisely no fans believed he was dead at the time, and they certainly don’t now that we’ve had New Testament 1-23 and are starting a 3rd light novel sequence. As with the previous two books, this is a big ol’ action sequence, complete with a battle on a slowly crumbling cathedral made up of cathedrals. This time around, though, we do get more of the themes Kamachi wants in the main story, as Touma points out that writing the world off as being too evil and reformatting it is a foolishly naive thing to do, Hamazura discovers that – surprise! – Academy City’s ‘ranking’ system is fixed, and Accelerator sings out loud and sings out strong. There’s even time for some “new” characters.

Appearing on the cover are Accelerator and Misaka Worst, who ironically get the least to do in this book. New characters: Klans Tzarskij, the Russian Patriarch. “New” characters: Silvia and Ollerus, who show up at the end, both of whom the Japanese readers met in the unlicensed 2nd Short Story volume. In terms of Timeline, we end on Halloween night, which means that it’s been a little over four months since Index and Touma first met. Busy months, to be sure. There’s actually something of an attempt to show off everyone trying to save the world: Agnes’ nuns are around, Kaori swings her sword, etc. That said, in terms of action this is still very much a three-person book, with an assist from Mikoto, who gets to stop a nuke going off but for the most part is reduced to trying to save Touma and having him abandon her because he still has more saving to do.

Hamazura’s battle against Mugino ends a lot cleaner than I’d expected, mainly as Mugino is already sort of half-broken and exhausted. He appeals to the good old days when they were ITEM, and asks to reform the team (minus Frenda, who is dead, but at least he mentions apologizing at her grave for killing her). Also, it turns out his girlfriend may be the most important person in all of Academy City, as she has the potential power to move quirks… erm, sorry, skills… from one person to another. I admit I am not overly fond of Hamazura torturing (offscreen) an Academy City soldier for blackmail info he needs, but then I hate “torture works!” scenes. Accelerator manages to combine magic and science and save Last Order, though he almost breaks himself doing it, and he once again reaffirms the idea of family that’s hovered around him.

As for Touma, well, he’s there to yell at the bad guy and punch the bad guy, and he does both of those – even when the bad guy is an angel. It looks like he got through to Fiamma, though we’ll need to see more books to figure out if it stuck. Did he die? Well, no, look at the covers for New Testament 1-23. Is he dead for now? Yes. It makes for a slightly bittersweet ending to the whole arc, which otherwise is relatively happy. I’m going to assume that the first volume of New Testament will be another “Touma-light” volume, which is much easier now that there’s two other main heroes – or antiheroes. As for whether we’ll see it, that’s up to Yen Press and Dengeki Bunko. I hope we do someday.

Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks?, Vol. 5

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By Dachima Inaka and Iida Pochi. Released in Japan as “Tsujo Kogeki ga Zentai Kogeki de Ni-kai Kogeki no Okasan wa Suki desu ka?” by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham.

This is a slightly stronger volume than the previous one, if only as the author has hit upon a very solid plotline for this book: a tournament arc. Do You Love Your Mom? is not exactly a Shonen Jump series, but certainly mom is overpowered enough to be a last boss in the sort of tournaments you see there. Here she fights against 15 other mothers who are all basically variants on the position. There’s elf mom, giant mom, robot mom, devil mom, angel mom, ninja mom… etcetcetc. There’s also our two minor comedy villains, who disguise themselves as “one girl on another’s shoulders wearing a coat” but get away with it because LOL. The most interesting competitor, though, is “Hahako”, who at first appears to be Mamako’s dark mirror or evil doppelganger. That’s not QUITE true, but it’s certainly playing on those ideas until we get to the reveal. As for Mamako, well, she even has a few points here where she struggles. Briefly.

The rest of the cast exist basically to a) get humiliated, and b) show that they have grown as well, if only slightly. Given the nature of the series, Masato gets humiliated a bit more and also has to wait longer to prove he’s not pathetic. He has at least gotten better at identifying the “powers” that his mom has and differentiating hers from, say, the other fifteen moms who all seem to love him and want him to be their son as well. (For one thing, he’s not attracted to his real mom. I appreciate that a series which at times seems entirely to have been released because of the incestual premise refuses to go down that road.) He also trusts her to do the right thing even when it might require a leap of faith, which helps to defeat Hahako, who “feels” almost exactly like Mamako. But isn’t.

I won’t go into Hahako’s actual identity, but I will say that I liked the attention devoted to “what is it that makes a mother?”. Mamako’s speech was actually good, and reminded us that the relationship need not be biological either. The rest of the book, well, is a lot of gags, some funny, some not very funny. The sports commentary stuff was great. I could have done without Mamako being changed into various different fetishes… erm, sorry, types of character. Even if the last one dies actually make her struggle for perhaps the only time in this series to date. There are also a few hints for future books… it’s now really obvious that Porta’s mom is one of the main villain group, and Shiraaase is also not infooorming nearly as much as she could be. There’s a lot of secrets going on here.

The next book, which features Mamako in a wedding kimono on the cover, fills me with dread, but oh well, it likely won’t go there. This remains rather silly, but not as bad as you’d expect.

Bookshelf Briefs 3/28/20

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The Ancient Magus’ Bride, Vol. 12 | By Kore Yamazaki | Seven Seas – I’m still really enjoying reading The Ancient Magus’ Bride, but there’s no denying that it’s become almost a totally different manga from where it started, even if it does bring back a few guilt-ridden special guests. Chise is all grown up and now has grown-up problems, albeit grown-up student problems. We continue to worry away at labels—what is a bride, what is a daughter, etc.—which makes sense given that this is a world of magic, where names and relationships carry far more importance than they otherwise might. And we even get to have an old-fashioned camping trip, though unfortunately that ends up going very badly for Lucy, who suffers the cliffhanger ending. Still top tier, but very different. – Sean Gaffney

Black Clover, Vol. 20 | By Yuki Tabata | Viz Media – This long arc STILL isn’t over, but we do get a few good highlights, as with any good Jump title. The start has “my dreams become reality” magic, which ends up leading to a fun confrontation between the real, possessed person and their fake, good other self. Gauche and Marie are still possessed by elves, and their relationship remains fascinating both despite and because of that. And, in the final chapter, we get a revelation about Charmy that makes sense and is also completely hilarious—let’s face it, we just assumed she was superdeformed because it was funny. But it looks like it’s her appetite more than her size that’s needed here. This is meat-and-potatoes Jump, never great but usually decent. – Sean Gaffney

Blood on the Tracks, Vol. 1 | By Shuzo Oshimi | Vertical Comics – I wasn’t a fan of Oshimi-sensei’s Flowers of Evil, but the psychological suspense aspect of Blood on the Tracks appealed to me so much that I gave his work another try, and I’m glad I did! Seiichi Osabe is a meek thirteen-year-old who learns from his cousin Shigeru that other family members think his mother is overprotective. Throughout this first volume, Shigeru repeatedly draws Seiichi away from his mother’s side, culminating in a potentially deadly incident during a family hiking trip. The best part, though, is how expertly Oshimi cultivates an ominous atmosphere. From the first panel, Seiko’s control over her son is emphasized and a sense of foreboding pervades every scene, from her creepy facial caresses to a wordless pair of pages in which Seiichi blankly watches his mother vacuum. By the end, it’s finally obvious to Seiichi that something is very wrong. I’m looking forward to volume two! – Michelle Smith

Can an Otaku Like Me Really Be an Idol!? | By Wacoco Waco | KUMA – Takumi Suzuki is an otaku in his second year of high school who’s been crushing on his classmate, Misaki Hayakawa, ever since the entrance ceremony. After Suzuki discovers that Hayakawa is a fan of the same idol group he is, Hayakawa attempts to secure his silence by taking compromising photos of him cross-dressing as an idol. Turned on, Suzuki forces himself on Hayakawa and later agrees to try to become a real idol as a way of making up for his criminal deed. Obviously, the consent issue here is concerning, but I was gratified that Suzuki takes it seriously, and Hayakawa later says he would’ve been the aggressor if given the chance. Mostly, this is the story of two guys getting to pursue the thing they love with the person they love. Some parts are kinda wholesome. Some parts SUPER AREN’T. – Michelle Smith

The Conditions of Paradise | By Akiko Morishima | Seven Seas – This author has been long awaited in coming over here, and this is a collection of some of her stories from Comic Yuri Hime. The main story, which gets the cover, has a woman who has a structured life and her best friend and not-quite girlfriend, who is a freelancer in all senses of the word. They’ve known each other since school, and getting together feels both natural and right. The other stories also deal with relationships between adult women—the only high school seen is in a flashback—and that’s the selling point here. We’ve seen more of these manga lately with actual adults in yuri relationships. It hasn’t gotten old yet. This doesn’t feel as groundbreaking as it might have in Japan, but it’s still very good. – Sean Gaffney

Love Me, Love Me Not, Vol. 1 | By Io Sakisaka | VIZ Media – Love Me, Love Me Not is Io Sakisaka’s most recent series and features two co-heroines, something I don’t think I’ve seen since NANA. Yuna Ichihara is a shy, innocent girl who dreams of a destined, fairy tale love. Her new friend Akari Yamamoto thinks it’s possible to will yourself to fall in love with a boy who is available. They’ve just started high school and already they have romantic upheaval. Yuna has fallen in love with Akari’s princely brother Rio (which worries Akari since Rio is notoriously only interested in girls’ looks) and Akari’s been dumped by the boyfriend she thought loved her. She ends up confiding in Kazuomi Inui, Yuna’s childhood friend whom Akari hoped to set up with Yuna but who seems to have other ideas. Despite this synopsis, it’s not too melodramatic… until a reveal in the final pages. I’m already hooked. – Michelle Smith

The Quintessential Quintuplets, Vol. 8 | By Negi Haruba | Kodansha Comics – The start of this series had a lot of quintuplet-swapping antics, but it died down as Futaro got to know the others better. That changes here, as the majority of the book takes place on a trip to a hot spring he wins for his family… a hot spring that it turns out is run by the quintuplets’ grandfather, and they’re all there as well. What’s more, because of plot, they’re ALL dressed as Itsuki. What follows is mistaken identity shenanigans galore, showing off that Futaro still can’t guess which is the correct girl (which means he’s not ready to romance one) but also showing one of the quintuplets giving him a kiss… and we see in a flashforward it’s the bride. Who is the bride? Well, we have six volumes to go there. – Sean Gaffney

Snow White with the Red Hair, Vol. 6 | By Sorata Akiduki | Viz Media – Shirayuki and Yona may both have red hair, but it has to be said that Shirayuki is a more traditional heroine. Not that Yona doesn’t get captured as well from time to time, but the kidnapping here feels a lot more traditional. It also feels the prince riding to rescue her, which surprised me, as I thought we would continue the tradition of “he has to stay behind and be a prince.” We do get to see Kiki kicking ass, though I wish she’d finally get a storyline of her own. This series does a good job balancing its politics, romance and action sequences, and it actually does the commendable job of making me remember who the minor cast members are, always a danger. I’m still very happy this finally got picked up. – Sean Gaffney

The Isolator, Vol. 5

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By Reki Kawahara and Shimeji. Released in Japan by ASCII Mediaworks. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jenny McKeon.

Last time I said it might be 2020 before we see the next book in this series, and here we are. More amusingly, last time I talked about this series have a better class of villains than SAO or Accel World, and in the afterword here’s Kawahara talking about how he hates it when villains turn good and always has his villains be “extra evil” because of it. Kawahara-san, you are wrong and should feel bad, at least about the second part of that. This particular book is sort of a breather volume in the series, with minimal battles but a whole lot of set up for what’s to come. Liquidizer, who gets the subtitle this time around as well as a second cover picture in a row, isn’t joining the good guys per se. But she wants Trancer back, and for that she’s willing to join forces with Minoru if she must. Meanwhile, Minoru is slowly (though he doesn’t realize this, which is honestly a good thing) letting others into his life.

We get a large chunk of the book that takes place at Minoru’s school, including a handsome guy who is highly interested in Minoru, mostly as he improves vastly on his midterm grades. Of course, the question is was this him being smart or others falling – there’s a rash of illness going around the school, leading the previous top scorers to all be too tired and drawn to do their best. This applies to athletics as well, including Minoru’s not-girlfriend Tomomi, who is feeling more and more as if she doesn’t want to run – to the point where she eventually collapses and goes to hospital. We do eventually figure out who’s behind this, but not till the cliffhanger ending. Still, it’s far more school than we’ve had in the previous book.

The rest of the volume is devoted to Liquidizer and her request for help in recovering Trancer from the hands of the… good guys? Well, that’s a good question. Given this is a book where the author has decided not to make all his villains evil beyond all measure, it makes sense that the people in charge of the good guys likely also have murky motives of their own. Of course, she’s not asking the others to work for free – she’ll give them the location of Oliver’s younger sister Claire, who is revealed to have been captured before Minoru joined them and also had Jet Eye powers. I… kind of wish this had been seeded into earlier books, as it really reads like a far-too-handy reveal here. The few action sequences that we do get are well-handled as always, and show off Minoru’s growing strategic thinking. Oddly, the one think missing here is romance – Yumiko is briefly seen to be annoyed that Minoru has had Suu to his house before, but Liquidizer’s relationship with Minoru rarely goes beyond allies, possibly as she spends a lot of it with a bullet wound.

I enjoyed this book despite it mostly feeling like putting pieces in place for next time. As for when next time is, shall we bet on 2022?

Yuzu the Pet Vet, Vol. 1

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By Mingo Ito. Released in Japan as “Yuzu no Dobutsu Karte” by Kodansha, serialized in the magazine Nakayoshi. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics. Translated by Julie Goniwich.

The afterword of this manga volume revealed that it was actually a collaborative spinoff of a game (Bow Meow Animal Hospital: Let’s Become a Great Vet) that came out for the 3DS. This surprised me, because as I read it in fact I was feeling a different kin of nostalgia: I was reminded of the older shoujo manga of the 1990s. Shoujo has mostly skewed older as the years have gone by, and these days when you think of it you think of high school girls having to choose between the sullen black-haired guy and the sunny blond-haired guy. (She chooses the former.) But older shoujo actually did feel much of the time like it was writing for a target audience of 10-12 year old girls. Nakayoshi in particular felt that way. And so this retro manga about an 11-year-old girl dealing with her nervousness around animals while working at her uncle’s vet hospital is really wholesome and refreshing.

Yuzu has had a tough life as we begin this volume. Her dad passed away when she was five. Her mother is sick enough that she has to be hospitalized. And so Yuzu goes to stay with her uncle Akihito, who’s a veterinarian. The trouble is twofold: first, she’s scared of animals (and the hospital’s mascot, a chihuahua, doesn’t like her much). Second, he’s putting her to work as his assistant, which… is child labor, but that’s really not what the manga is about, so I’ll ignore it for now. There’s an underlying plot of Yuzu learning to get along better with animals, as well as with her peers, make new friends, and try to stay strong as her mom recovers. That said, the main draw is that each chapter has a dog or cat with a problem, and Yuzu is instrumental in finding the solution, as she’s very empathic.

The manga is not afraid to shy away from topics that are common around vets: the first chapter begins with a dog dying of old age (there’s even an (owner hugs the dying dog as they talk about them going to heaven) shot – this manga is not afraid to slam on the cliches when it wants to pull at the heartstrings). Most of it is telling pet owners to be more observant in how their pets are acting, to pick up on little signs that they may be in distress. This goes both ways – the reason that Yuzu is so quick to solve these “cases” (it reads a bit like a mystery at times) is that she can spot the owner’s emotional deficiencies – the owners also being kids her age. There’s chapters on not overworking your pets, on being able to move on from one pet to another after the first passes away, and (the strongest of the four chapters) on dealing with dogs who have dementia.

There’s not much story here – I expect Yuzu to bond more with the chihuahua, get less nervous overall, and be a ball of sunshine. It’s about the cute animals. Some of them may err on the side of ‘cute’ rather than ‘accurate’ (that Golden Retriever at the end made me laugh at how bad it is), but that’s fine. This feels like a manga for young girls about cute animals and overcoming fears. Recommended for all ages.

Manga the Week of 4/1/20

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SEAN: Let’s briefly talk turkey here. I try to do these lists about a week before the books come out. And given what’s going on over the world, some of these release dates are going to shift. A lot. I know one publisher has already pushed all their May and June titles to later in the summer. And Diamond Comics is not distributing to comic shops till this has passed, meaning more outlets are gone. I will continue to do my best to keep up with this, but… well, I’d expect a lot of delays. For obvious reasons.

ASH: Thanks for keeping track as best as you can! There’s a lot in flux right now.

SEAN: We start with Ghost Ship, which has two new debuts, both smutty, but with one for the ladies and one for the gentlemen. Fire in His Fingertips: A Flirty Fireman Ravishes Me with His Smoldering Gaze (Yubisaki Kara Honki no Netsujou ~ Charaotoko Shoubou-shi wa Massuguna me de Watashi o Daita ~) is a josei title from Shueisha, about our heroine (an OL) and her childhood friend (a fireman) who turns out to like her a lot more than she expected.

ASH: As Ghost Ship’s first josei title (if I recall correctly), I’m curious.

SEAN: Parallel Paradise, meanwhile, is very much for the young man. Running in Kodansha’s Young Magazine, it’s your standard “young man summoned to another world” story… except he’s the only man in a fantasy world filled with hot women.

Ghost Ship also has a 3rd volume of Creature Girls and World’s End Harem 8.

No debuts for J-Novel Club, but a lengthy list of titles. We get The Economics of Prophecy 2, Full Metal Panic! 6, I Shall Survive Using Potions! 4, Infinite Stratos 12, The Magic in This Other World Is Too Far Behind! has a 4th manga volume, Record of Wortenia War 5, The Unwanted Undead Adventurer 5, and The World’s Least Interesting Master Swordsman 2.

Kaiten Books are a new entry into the publishing world, and they debut this week with Loner Life in Another World, from Overlap’s Comic Gardo. They certainly know what the hot new trend is.

Kodansha has but one print release: the 19th UQ Holder!.

Digitally there’s a lot more. A Sign of Affection (Yubisaki to Renren) is a new series from the creator of Shortcake Cake, which runs in… you got it… Dessert. Our heroine is a college student, who runs into a nice young guy, who speaks three languages! Sadly, she’s deaf, so that won’t help. This actually looks really good and has gotten great buzz.

MICHELLE: I really like Shortcake Cake and tend to enjoy titles from Dessert, so I’m definitely looking forward to this!

MJ: This sounds great!

ANNA: I agree!

SEAN: And there’s also 1122: For a Happy Marriage 6, Ace of the Diamond 25, Atsomori-kun’s Bride-to-Be 4, Let’s Kiss in Secret Tomorrow 2, Space Brothers 35, and That Blue Summer 3.

MICHELLE: Atsumori-kun’s Bride-to-Be is very cute, in an Itazura na Kiss kind of way. And, of course, I’m always keen for more Ace of the Diamond!

SEAN: Seven Seas has another spinoff, Dance in the Vampire Bund: Age of Scarlet Order. It runs in Media Factory’s Comic Corona, and is, well, for fans of Dance in the Vampire Bund and its spinoffs.

There’s also Blank Canvas: My So-Called Artist’s Journey 4, Made in Abyss 8, the 6th novel for Mushoku Tensei (digital), and the 2nd Reincarnated As a Sword manga.

MICHELLE: I really am going to catch up on Blank Canvas.

ASH: It is really good, so I support you in your effort!

SEAN: Vertical has two novels. Owarimmonogatari: End Tale 2 finally tells us what was going on with Araragi and Kanbaru during that very busy week in August; and Seraph of the End: Guren Ichinose, Resurrection at Nineteen 2 finally tells us… um… dunno. It’s a prequel?

On the Yen On end, there’s The Dirty Way to Destroy the Goddess’ Heroes 3, 86 ~Eighty-Six~ 4, and So I’m a Spider, So What? 8.

And Yen Press has Dimension W 16, For the Kid I Saw in My Dreams 4, Goblin Slayer (manga) 7, IM: Great Priest Imhotep 2, and Konosuba Explosion 4 (manga).

ASH: I’ve been reading but need to catch up with For the Kid I Saw In My Dreams.

SEAN: What manga is raising your spirits?

The White Cat’s Revenge As Plotted from the Dragon King’s Lap, Vol. 1

by

By Kureha and Yamigo. Released in Japan as “Fukushuu wo Chikatta Shironeko wa Ryuuou no Hiza no Ue de Damin wo Musaboru” by ArianRose. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by David Evelyn.

I was excited to read this one, but unfortunately I think it ended up a bit of a mess, for several reasons. It certainly improves after the first section, which is good, as I was tempted to drop it ten pages in. Our heroine is Ruri, who is pretty, smart, has a mother who’s a model, etc. The trouble is she has a “best friend” named Asahi, who clings to her like a limpet… and whenever Asahi’s around other people, they start to love Asahi and hate Ruri. As a result, her life has been miserable, with various attempts to get away from Asahi always meeting with failure. This even includes accidentally getting transported to another world. Ruri ends up there, but so do Asahi and four of her classmates… and now the kingdom they’re in is hating on Ruri too. Will being exiled to certain death in the forest actually improve Ruri’s life? And where are the Dragon King and the White Cat in all of this?

I had several issues with this book, but let’s start with the biggest, which is Asahi. She’s meant to be annoying, and I am grateful she only shows up at the start and the finish (I started calling her “C-Ko” after a while.) But her passive powers mean that, as Ruri herself says, she’s ruined Ruri’s life but can’t be actively blamed for it. She has some sort of passive brainwashing power and isn’t aware of it. This is annoying, as she’s not really evil, just aggravating and oblivious. To a reader, that’s worse. Things are not helped by the Kingdom they find themselves in, populated by humans in a world of demi-humans and beastmen. The King and his Head Priest are so cartoonishly evil that Yosemite Sam would be telling the writer to make them more nuanced. Now, it’s possible that Asahi is getting an important character arc ahead, which this sets up for. But somehow I doubt it.

The rest of the book is better, though still variable. The second large chunk, showing Ruri living in the woods with an elder Dragon woman and learning that she’s got piles of mana and is beloved by spirits, is important because it shows us she’s not really cranky all the time except around Asahi… but it also takes a long time. It’s not until over halfway through the book that we get to the Dragon King’s land, and Ruri ends up as a White Cat. Though she can turn back when she wants, so even this was slightly less than I expected. The not-romance between the Dragon King (who’s drawn to her but thinks she’s a cat) and Ruri (who, having heard humans are hated here, is not willing to change back) is sort of sweet but also potentially troubling.

Things are set up for a climax where Ruri’s true form is revealed, she stops the war, and she confronts Asahi and makes her see the truth. Only one of these things happens, and the confrontation is a damp squib. I think I’m so used to light novels that are written as one-shots, which then develop extra books when they get popular, that I was not ready for a book intended to be multi-volume from the start. This means no plots are resolved at the end. There’s potential in the future, which is why I’ll read the next volume, but mostly this book existed to frustrate my expectations.

Also, the revenge is really half-assed. And why is this another isekai with slavery? And… OK, I’ll shut up now.