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Pick of the Week: Manga Sweeter Than Wine

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SEAN: A lean week, and my choices are a bit lean as well. As such, I’m fine with picking The Drops of God, which I may have picked before back in the day but now it’s digital and we have the first 11 books (or a planned 44!). Read with a nice glass of wine.

MICHELLE: Same here. It did have its ridiculous moments, but it was also pretty fun (and educational) and I was sad to see its release truncated (after a random time-jump volume). Hooray for its return!

KATE: After all these years, I’m excited to see who wins the contest to identify the “Drops of God” and the “Twelve Apostles.” (None are named John or Peter, FWIW.)

ASH: Ha! The Drops of God is definitely something to be excited about, even if it’s only a digital release. Print-wise, my pick of the week is the most recent volume of the fancy new edition of Berserk, which probably doesn’t surprise many.

ANNA: I’m always glad when good series get rescued, Drops of God for the win!

MJ: I’m going to add to this broken record here, by also declaring my excitement over the continuation of Drops of God!

The Alchemist Who Survived Now Dreams of a Quiet City Life, Vol. 1

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By Usata Nonohara and ox. Released in Japan as “Ikinokori Renkinjutsushi wa Machi de Shizuka ni Kurashitai” by Kadokawa Shoten. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Erin Husson.

It’s possible that I simply have overinflated expectations for slow life titles with a female protagonist, but I must admit that I found this book a big old grab bag of good stuff and bad stuff, with in the end the bad outweighing the good a bit. I am reminded once again that there is a roadmap these fantasy light novels follow, and much as we as readers would like them to forge a new path they are absolutely going to stay on the well-traveled road. And that means we get slavery here, along with the heroine not really caring about it (she’s not reincarnated from Japan, though, so gets a bit more of a pass). It means we get more “her breasts are huge and I am sad that mine are not” descriptions, some of which verge on the ridiculous. And it means endless, truly endless descriptions of alchemical recipes, as if this were a foodie title. Sometimes worldbuilding can be boring.

Mariela is a young, relatively poor alchemist in a city with quite a few of them, living in a cabin in the woods while waiting for her Master to return. Then there’s a monster stampede killing everyone in its path. To survive, she puts herself in suspended animation… but forgets she’s in a hole in the ground, so her candle goes out and the spell lasts for two hundred years. Now awake again, she finds that alchemy has mostly died off, and that potions are highly prized. She decides to make a new life for herself in the city, hiding her real profession but opening an apothecary so she can be as close to it as possible. With the help of Siegmund, a slave she purchased on impulse who turns out to clean up very nicely, and a bunch of friendly soldiers and innkeepers, she resolves to live her slow life in a world that, to her, is the far future.

Great premise, and it has to be said Mariela is the best thing about the title. An odd combination of savvy and stunningly naive, you can see why she tends to worry people around her. She describes herself as just your average alchemist, but it’s pretty clear her Master was a genius, and Mariela was well on her way to surpassing that. Unfortunately, her treatment of Sieg, which is basically “I bought him as a slave and order him around for everyday household tasks but like to think we are the bestest of friends!” is cringeworthy. More to the point, this volume desperately needed an editor. Not on the Western side, Yen’s version is fine, but on the Japanese side. It’s a very long book, and future volumes in the series are just as long or longer. A good half of the book is Mariela describing in detail her alchemical processes and why you need this herb or that monster ingredient. I’ve mentioned that I dislike the “stat descriptions” in game based isekai. This is a normal fantasy, but may be just as bad. A lot of these Syosetsu webnovels need to have their wordcount culled before publication.

Again, problematic as she is, I liked Mariela, and will likely try a second volume. But honestly, I recommend this for those who REALLY love immersing themselves in worldbuilding and want to know exactly what steps to take to be an alchemist.

Umineko: When They Cry, Vol. 20

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Story by Ryukishi07; Art by Kei Natsumi. Released in Japan in three separate volumes as “Umineko no Naku Koro ni: Twilight of the Golden Witch” by Square Enix, serialized in the magazine Gangan Joker. Released in North America by Yen Press. Translated by Stephen Paul.

Given this came out about three months ago, faithful readers might have wondered what happened, given my When They Cry obsession. Well, frankly, reading about 200 pages or so of Ange revealing her suicidal mental state for all to see is relatively exhausting and hard to get through. It’s well-handled, it’s just really goddamn depressing. A lot of this arc of Umineko, and this volume in particular, is dedicated to hammering into the reader that this isn’t Higurashi and there is absolutely no “everybody lives” ending. The time for guessing the murderer is over, The time for figuring out Beatrice is over. And, just in case readers of the VN were still debating endlessly because Ryukishi07 wanted to not spoon feed people the answers, we now get those same answers spoon-fed. How much you enjoy that may depend on how much you wanted to “solve” the mystery of Umineko, and how much you just want to read a good story.

Once again, I think there was a more appropriate cover they could have chosen, but I’ve given up on that fight. And to be fair, Will and Dlanor do get a wonderful epic teamup here fighting the goats spinning their endless theories. They each balance each other’s weak point. The start of the omnibus intersperses an awful lot of battles into the mix, with logic flying back and forth and everyone screaming at each other. This contrasts with the end of the book, Confession of the Golden Witch. This is possibly the most controversial manga addition – it was not in the original visual novel, and some say that Ryukishi07 added it as he was tired of people saying there was not a “real” answer. There is one. This is it. We see the culprit narrating what led to this point, why they decided to do it, and how they did it, down to the tiniest detail. As a mystery element, it’s terrible. As a character moment for the villain, it’s amazing.

For all that I’ve been going on about an unhappy ending for all, and certainly Ange does seem to leap off a building while Bernkastel describes how ludicrous it would be for convenient netting to break her fall, there is also something suggesting that she and Eva may not have been the only survivors from the island. We get a bit of background for Ikuko, who is far more likeable in the real world than she is as Featherine. She almost runs over a body on the highway one day, and finds they’re not as dead as expected. Sadly, said body seems to have lost his memory, and is facially bandaged… and then hidden from the reader. That said, the secret identity of this person is not all that hard to figure out. What IS hard to figure out is where Ange goes from here. She’s read Eva’s diary, and did not like what it said. So she can’t get her revenge, and also she’s seemingly dead, though a lot of Beatrice’s impassioned speech at the end certainly implies she is not as dead as everyone else in the Golden Land. What can she do, other than scream and pound Beato’s chest?

Well, that’s what the final omnibus will tell us. It’s been delayed till 2020, so we may not find out for a bit. Till then, enjoy a fun but emotionally exhausting book. Unless you were trying to figure out the mystery, in which case you may hate this. The answers are highlighted in yellow.

The Asterisk War: The Way of the Sword

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By Yuu Miyazaki and okiura. Released in Japan by Media Factory. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Haydn Trowell.

There is not usually much continuity between reviews of different series on my site: these are meant to stand alone. That said, as I read The Asterisk War’s 11th volume, a series derided by many as being cookie-cutter and plot-by-numbers, filled with harem heroines getting jealous, cool girls with swords, and a lead who seems to be putting all issues of romance aside till he solves the big problems, it was hard not to compare this with the 13th Strike the Blood, which I’d read right before it. Heck, they even both have the exact same number of fanfics on AO3. Five. I was somewhat grumpy with the StB volume, which I felt fell back into its old patterns (admittedly on purpose). This volume of Asterisk War, which is a “between arcs” volume with no tournaments, should in theory be even more by the numbers – and it is. Despite that, I found myself enjoying it a lot more. I’m not entirely sure why this is, though.

Kirin was on the cover of the 10th volume, so she’s not on this one, which is a shame, as this is absolutely her book through and through. She invites the rest of the group to her family house for the break, but all of them have other plans, which devastates her, as she’s that sort of person. That said, Ayato is quick enough to realize this, and asks if she wouldn’t mind going to HIS house, mostly as he wants to avoid being alone with his father. Kirin learns about Ayato’s family and past, and yearns to help him get closer to his parents. Things are slightly happier at her house, and Ayato naturally comes with her in return, as she has a full family once more – her father is out of prison due to her wish. But will she have to drop out of school to take over the family? And will she manage to confess to Ayato?

Again, every single plot beat you see here can be read a mile away, both on Kirin’s end, and also with Ayato, who also has to deal with the larger plot (his sister being revived, and also his late mother, whose secret identity the reader learns about here). And it probably helps that I haven’t read or seen Chivalry of a Failed Knight, the series everyone negatively compares Asterisk War to, unlike Strike the Blood, where I am familiar with Index. I think the main reason I enjoy this series more is that, despite both having complicated plots, the Asterisk War characters grow and develop emotionally in satisfying ways that have little to nothing to do with the fact that they love Ayato. Yes, Kirin wants to get strong so that she can stand by Ayato’s side, but her arc is also satisfying for her standing up to her family and inspiring Ayato to do the same, even if he can’t quite make up with his stern but awkward father. Julis and Claudia also get mini-arcs in this book that help develop their own plotlines and character, neither of which have anything to do with Ayato.

Asterisk War may be cookie-cutter and written to order, but its characters have a depth I just don’t really see from Kojou and Yukina. If you want to read a predictable light novel series that Western fans tend to dislike, this is definitely the one to pick.

Bookshelf Briefs 10/18/19

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Bakemonogatari, Vol. 1 | By NISIOISIN and Oh!great | Vertical Comics – For years there wasn’t a Bakemonogatari manga. It’s not clear why; perhaps Nisioisin didn’t like the format, perhaps the iconic SHAFT anime made it a hard act to follow. In any case, getting Oh!great to draw the story was an inspired choice—the ridiculous over-the-topness that grew tiresome in Air Gear and Tenjho Tenge fits in perfectly with Araragi’s fevered fantasies and Senjogahara’s verbal lacerations. This first volume takes us almost to the end of Hitagi Crab—indeed, it cuts off right near the end, awkwardly so. Still, for anyone who gets overwhelmed by the novel’s verbiage, this is a great purchase. There’s even a bit of added content, though only a bit. – Sean Gaffney

If I Could Reach You, Vol. 1 | By tMnR | Kodansha Comics – Teenage love can be dumb, but not always. Sometimes people are well aware that the feelings they have are never going to be requited, but that does not actually stop the feelings from being there anyway. It’s especially troubling for Uta, the girl that she’s fallen for and her childhood friend. Unfortunately, her brother was also Kaoru’s childhood friend, and they’re now married. Uta is living there due to circumstances, and must continue going to school and living her life while falling deeper and deeper into her passions. I must admit I found her school life a bit more interesting than the home life. Still, this manages to be a potboiler but not in a Citrus way, which is good. – Sean Gaffney

Komi Can’t Communicate, Vol. 3 | By Tomohito Oda | VIZ Media – After a second volume where I had to make it a full review so I could rant, this one settles down quite a bit. Yamai is still around but far less, and the emphasis is firmly on Komi trying to make progress. She does—in fact, her goal of “100 friends” is up to eleven by the end. We also get a better idea of her home life, and it turns out that both Komi and her brother take after their father, while the mother is a total chatterbox. As with the first two books, the best moments in the volume are more heartwarming than funny. Komi at the pool, where her accidental trip and fall means she has to sit by the side, leading to her castigating herself till Tadano steps in. There’s also a lovely festival at the end. Cute as heck. – Sean Gaffney

Ms. Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles, Vol. 1 | By Naru Narumi | Dark Horse – The back cover promises “a fun food manga that will show you around the authentic ramen culture of everyday Japan,” and on that, Ms. Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles delivers. I doubt I’ll be able to retain any of the information imparted, but it was interesting, all the same. Ramen-obsessed Koizumi is fine, but I’m less fond of Yu Osawa, the girl who’s desperate to become friends with Koizumi. Watching her friends become friendly with Koizumi—by demonstrating an affinity for ramen rather than interest in her—eventually drives Yu to the point of flailing on the ground and crying, “Why won’t you be friendly with meeeee?” It’s very unappealing. She does start to win Koizumi over by the end of the volume, though, which I guess is good for her. I’m not sure I’ll be back for volume two. Maybe. – Michelle Smith

My Hero Academia: School Briefs, Vol. 3 | By Kohei Horikoshi and Anri Yoshi | VIZ Media – Set just before and after the U.A. students have moved into the dorms, the third volume of My Hero Academia: School Briefs has a recurring motif wherein Hatsume Mei’s inventions cause trouble, including a fun chapter where the kids, on edge from telling ghost stories in Tokoyami’s room, hear a strange buzzing sound that Aizawa begrudgingly comes to investigate. My favorite stories, though, are the a-day-in-the-life entries told from the points of view of Ida (who worries he has ostracized his classmates by being too strict) and Kuwai (Koji’s pet bunny, whose inner narrative turns out to be surprisingly and delightfully erudite). I especially liked that both stories showed Bakugo in a good light, including a moment in Ida’s story where Bakugo prevents a surprise from being spoiled and one in Kuwai’s where he checks on the bunny to make sure it’s okay after it briefly escaped Koji’s room. I’m really glad we’re getting these stories! – Michelle Smith

My Hero Academia: Vigilantes, Vol. 6 | By Hideyuki Furuhashi and Betten Court | VIZ Media – This takes place a number of yeas before the main series, so we can’t really get cameos from 1-A. But we can see the teachers, some of whom aren’t teaching yet. This volume gives us a lot of Eraser, who ends up dealing with Koichi against his better judgment. Meanwhile, Koichi is doing the sort of quirk experimentation that 1-A requires in its students, and finds new uses for his quirk. This really does have in its background plot the idea that someone who fails (or in this case misses) an exam is not a terrible person, but society may treat them that way. And, yes, there’s still quirk drugs going around, this time lading to infiltrating a mixer, with the help of Midnight. Good times. – Sean Gaffney

Natsume’s Book of Friends, Vol. 23 | By Yuki Midorikawa | VIZ Media – It looks as if this is now a yearly series, but that makes each new volume a rewarding experience. This one has two main storylines. In the first, the boys of Natsume’s class get involved in a school’s urban legend about a painting, which may or nay not be supernatural in origin. Then, Natsume and Natori end up visiting a seemingly abandoned house that in reality is being maintained by Matoba and his people, and requires a certain ritual to go well. That said, nothing goes perfectly with Natsume around. Again, the big reason to read this is the natural empathy Natsume has to nearly everyone around him. He is absolutely a good boy—a cinnamon roll, in fact. – Sean Gaffney

Otherworldly Izakaya Nobu, Vol. 4 | By Natsuya Semikawa and Virginia Nitouhei | Udon Entertainment – I like the way that the semi-regular cast show up over and over, sometimes because they’re plot-relevant, and sometimes just to eat more of their favorite food. One of our lothario knights ends up having a food discussion with a woman who is clearly a noble, only he doesn’t really get this. A lady knight shows up looking for the enemy that she fell in love with years ago… only to find the waitress of the izakaya (the blonde, not Shinobu or the little girl) is his wife. Meanwhile, Nobuyuki may be getting closer to Shinobu, but it’s pretty clear food is more important to both of them. Still makes me hungry, but good stuff. – Sean Gaffney

The Poe Clan, Vol. 1 | By Moto Hagio | Fantagraphics – It’s always cause for celebration when more of Hagio’s work is released in translation, doubly so when that work is the highly influential shoujo classic The Poe Clan. Originally published in the 1970s, the series’ focus is on a family of vampirnellas and their interactions with humans, particularly how they prey upon them to sustain their own lives or to initiate them as members into their immortal clan. The first English-language volume from Fantagraphics, released as a beautiful hardcover omnibus, collects six chapters of Hagio’s epic. Though the chapters are all related to one another, the story isn’t presented chronologically and instead shifts between time periods as well as characters. But tying everything together is the presence and spectre of Edgar—a young man whose mortal and immortal life are both tragic. Delectably dark and dramatic, I’m looking forward to the final volume of The Poe Clan a great deal. – Ash Brown

Sacrifical Princess and the King of Beasts, Vol. 7 | By Yu Tomofuji | Yen Press – Sariphi is making friends and influencing people, but her royal fiancé is never far away. She needs to show that she can handle things on her own, so is sent to a nation to essentially bring greetings from the King. Things get complicated, though, because her bodyguard accompanying her is a hyena, and they’re treated as untrustworthy and evil. It doesn’t help that, in order to make himself look good, he deliberately puts her in danger so that he can save the day. But of course Sariphi can see the good within him. She may need to double down on that, though, as the cliffhanger implies he’s about to be framed. An underrated shoujo series. – Sean Gaffney

Strike the Blood, Vol. 13

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By Gakuto Mikumo and Manyako. Released in Japan by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jeremiah Bourque.

The author mentioned in his afterword that this volume was meant to be something of a return to “traditional” Strike the Blood volumes, and it certainly succeeds at that. We’re back on the island, which is under attack by a terrorist organization that seemingly has all the cards. Half of Kojou’s allies are taken out, and he’s weakened by a Beast that can do something no one else had thought possible. Fortunately, by biting Yukina, as well as another girl, he’s able to save the day. And Yukina gets to say “No, senpai, this is our fight!” It’s all here, all present and correct. Unfortunately, that also includes the less-than-stellar parts of the series – for the first time in a while, I was thinking of this as book-by-numbers. This series has a tendency to feel like it’s a novelization of an anime rather than the other way around, and plot, characterization and action scenes are so smoothly written and precise that they come across as dull some of the time. Nothing is particularly surprising in this book.

The head of the terrorist organization has a past connection with Natsuki, something that cries out for a flashback or more detail but sadly no. He’s also a rather crap terrorist, trying to get Kojou to join him by mentioning that some of the Island’s leaders are evil while also causing events that will kill massive numbers of innocents and yeah, sorry, your #2 love interest also has to die too, but join us anyway. Needless to say, this doesn’t go well, and he ends up being killed off by one of the evil leaders of the island, whose identity is meant to be a shocking surprise but is not. The other members of the terrorist organization are essentially plucky orphans who no one ever loved, and I’d feel sympathy if we got more time with each of them, which we don’t. The other leader is December, who does manage to be interesting, but she’s also a spoiler, so I’ll just end it there.

I was going to complain about Nagisa briefly being in peril for no reason at all (actually, there is a reason, and it’s relatively benign, but we don’t figure it out till the end of the book), but then I realized that this is essentially “Peril: the Series”. Nagisa is obviously #1, but Natsuki also gets to be removed from the field for a while, and the author even jokes about “Asagi having another bad day”. The only ones NOT in peril are Sayaka, Shio and Yuiri, who actually manage to save the day to an extent. Speaking of Yuiri, I’d like to remind the author that he is absolutely shit at writing humor, so stop it. I’d rather read A Certain Magical Index’s humor than yours. That’s how bad the “he sucked my blood/took my virginity” scenes were. Stay in your “action adventure” lane, please.

There were a few elements here I liked, including seeing Astarte do something again for the first time in like ten books. But sadly this attempt to go back to the basics of Strike the Blood reminded me that the series’ basics aren’t all that interesting. Go outside the box again, please!

Manga the Week of 10/23/19

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SEAN: Mostly due to books being pushed back, this is the smallest week I’ve seen in some time. There’s barely anything! Under 20 books!

ASH: That seems almost unheard of these days!

SEAN: Dark Horse has the third hardcover deluxe edition of Berserk, which contains books 7-9. They also have the 11th and final omnibus of I Am a Hero.

ASH: Dark Horse living up to the dark in its name, I see! Both of these series are great, though.

SEAN: J-Novel Club gives us Infinite Dendrogram 10 and Outbreak Company 11.

Kodansha, in print, has In/Spectre 10 and Love and Lies 8.

The digital debut is 1122: For a Happy Marriage. This is a seinen title from Morning Two, a story of a couple who’ve been married for some time but have no kids… and no sex life. They agree to see other people, but how will that really work out? This seems like a romantic drama, but anything in Morning Two interests me.

MICHELLE: It’s certainly a concept I haven’t seen before in manga, so I will give it a shot.

MJ: I’m cautiously intrigued.

ANNA: Hmmmmmm.

SEAN: The big digital debut, though, was a surprise announcement and is already out: The Drops of God will be getting a complete digital release, all 44 volumes. The first 11 are out now. If you like wine, or people talking about wine, this one is for you.

MICHELLE: Wow! Nice to see this get rescued.

ANNA: Nice!!!

SEAN: Other digital-only titles include AICO Incarnation 2, Atsumari-kun’s Bride-to-Be 3, Drowning Love 14, Elegant Yokai Apartment Life 18, and Vampire Dormitory 2.

MICHELLE: It’s true that Atsumori-kun’s Bride-to-Be is not really breaking new shoujo ground, but I still enjoyed the first volume quite a lot. I need to catch back up.

SEAN: Seven Seas has another digital novel debut. SCP Foundation: Iris Through the Looking Glass is a done-in-one novel about a boy who sees a girl in any book that he opens. It’s by the author of ECHO, though I’m not sure if it’s also based off of a Vocaloid song.

Seven Seas also has the 7th Toradora! (print and digital) for light novels, and the 5th Tomo-chan Is a Girl! for manga.

I’ve mentioned the 4th Otherworldly Izakaya Nobu in this list before – evidently it got bumped. Amazon has it out next week from Udon.

Lastly, Vertical has a 6th volume of CITY.

So small! What are you getting?

There Was No Secret Evil-Fighting Organization (srsly?!), So I Made One MYSELF!, Vol. 1

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By Hagane Kurodome and Katto. Released in Japan by Overlap Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Taishi.

If I’m honest, this book was never going to live up to its title. That’s a big title. It promises a lot. It’s long, in the tradition of light novels these days. But the (srsly?) and the MYSELF!, between the two of them, promise more than I feel the series is prepared to deliver. The premise is solid. Indeed, if I read the second book in the series, it’s likely because I’m interested to see what happens next as I am curious. Unfortunately, the characterization and the writing can’t quite live up to it. Possibly the main sin the series commits is that I don’t think it’s funny enough. There’s an occasional smile as I read, but a title like “There Was No Secret Evil-Fighting Organization (srsly?!), So I Made One MYSELF!” demands laughs. A lot of laughs. It does not, I should note, demand endless textbook analysis of what being a telekinetic would be like in real life. Sadly, that’s what we get, as Sago is determined to relate to us in great detail his scientific method.

Sago is our hero, a teen who finds one day that he has telekinesis when he moves snack crumbs using only the power of his mind. It’s never clear how he woke to these powers, nor does anyone arrive to tell him about them, or say that he now has to fight bad guys. After years and years of training, to the point where he is laughably overpowered, he’s bored just being a salaryman, so he decides to create his own organization that would do to others what he wanted done to him. He finds a rich young woman who has just as many delusions of grandeur as he does, and two teenage kids who have issues of their own. He also creates bad guys for the kids to fight. Now he finally has everything that he originally wanted, though admittedly all he ends up doing himself is watching this play out from the sidelines, because he’s given himself the “mysterious unseen boss” character.

As I said, the premise is intriguing, especially with the revelation at the end of the book that they’ve been discovered by the press (which was intentional on their part). There is also a terrific bit of misdirection where they recruit the 5th member to their party that impressed me. But for the most part this was an exercise in frustration. The book is quite lengthy, and a large amount of that length, as I said earlier, is given over to Sago slowly and deliberately testing his powers, researching things, etc. The first fifth of the book, till he meets Kaburagi, is some of the most boring prose I’ve read in some time. Speaking of Kaburagi, I wish we’d done more with her, as she’s a character type I find fun, but she’s mostly wasted in this volume. The two teenage kids who are the “main characters” in Sago’s ploy are interesting, but Shouta’s initial jerkass character is also extremely frustrating. And the side story about the drunken CIA agent was painfully tortuous to read.

The book is trying to show how having a secret evil-fighting organization of superpowered people would be difficult to do in a “realistic” way, and it succeeds in showing us that. But man, it really does not live up to its title.

The Promised Neverland, Vol. 12

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By Kaiu Shirai and Posuka Demizu. Released in Japan as “Yakusoku no Neverland” by Shueisha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Weekly Shonen Jump. Released in North America by Viz Media. Translated by Satsuki Yamashita.

A brief moment of appreciation for the cover art for this series, which continues to amaze. Last volume we had Emma looking like a witch, this time around her feathery hair is shown to be reminiscent of a bird. She’s also paired on the cover with Phil, who gets a chapter reminding us that the youngest children had to be left behind… and that everything’s changed at Grace Field House. The kids are now all split up, the Mom we know and have mixed feelings about is gone, and Phil has to just sit there and pretend to be happy knowing his friends are going off to be harvested. (Speaking of which, lots of shots in this volume of huge jars filled with child heads and body parts – it constantly reminds you the kids are food. More on that later.) Even worse, at the end of the chapter Phil is cornered by the bad guy… and that’s not really resolved.

As for the escaped kids, they’ve combined to form a huge group themselves – over 60 people. The most fascinating part of this volume to me was seeing how it deals with the “time skip” so beloved of shonen manga. Usually it’s fairly straightforward – there’s a chapter that feels like an ending place, and then we get a “two years later” or somesuch. Here we see the timeskip happening over the course of several chapters, as Emma, Ray and their small party go looking for clues as to what to do next as the others stay behind and live life as best they can. Before we know it, we get “three months later”, “six months later”, till by the end of the book it’s two yeas since events at the start. If nothing else, this shows off how impressive everyone is from staying hidden from the bad guys for so long… but alas, by the end of the book everyone’s in dire straits.

I noticed something interesting when Andrew, the lead bad guy for this book, is chasing down our heroes. When he confronts them personally, he refers to them as “food”, the same way that the demons think of them (there’s a very chilling moment in this volume when the demons bemoan all those ordinary kids they’ve been eating and wonder how delicious the ones from the top farms really do taste), but when on his own he thinks of them as “kids”. A nice reminder that some of the bad guys in this series are actually human, but also that they may not entirely buy into the “raised as food” line that is being toed. In the meantime, despite Emma once again thinking that she wants to escape without anyone dying, it’s hinted very hard that the adults in this group, Lucas and Yugo, are not long for this world. I suspect they will go out with a bang, though.

Continuing to combine the best parts of horror and thrilling adventure, The Promised Neverland is still top-tier Jump.

Pick of the Week: Drifting Demons

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ASH: Portions of The Drifting Classroom have been out of print for some time, so I am thrilled that a new hardcover edition is being released. For those who appreciate horror manga, this series is a must. It’s an extremely intense work with dark psychological elements. Other great manga are being released this week, too, but this one is my pick.

SEAN: I acknowledge the brilliance of The Drifting Classroom while also wanting to stay the hell away from it. As a result, I’ll pick the new Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction, which continues to be fun to read even as I fear that it will end with the entire world dead.

MICHELLE: Dreamin’ Sun has reached its conclusion, and thus I feel a bit of a pang for not choosing it, but a new volume of Shojo FIGHT! comes out this week, and that’s simply more enjoyable to me.

KATE: No surprise here–my pick is Kazuo Umezu’s batshit classic The Drifting Classroom. The new VIZ edition is an essential addition to any horror manga fan’s library. On the fence? Here’s what I had to say about volume one.

ANNA: There’s a lot of great manga coming out this week, but I have to say my loyalty lies with Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction.