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Private Tutor to the Duke’s Daughter: The Angel That Broke the Star Oath

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By Riku Nanano and cura. Released in Japan as “Koujo Denka no Kateikyoushi” by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by William Varteresian.

I’ve talked before about how this series really loves being a harem title, but it’s not just that the harem writing is done very well (though it is). It’s that the harem antics actually manage to take over every OTHER aspect of the series. The battle scenes are crisp and action-filled, and also filled with banter as the heroines literally encourage each other by saying that they’re going to be the one who marries Allen, forcing the other person to fight EVEN HARDER so that they can deny that possibility. We get the tragic backstory that has led to much of this series, and it turns out it’s because the heroine was unable to save her version of Allen and went mad with the revelation. Nobles are furious with Allen simply because of the sheer number of young superpowerful girls he has at his disposal. Hell, even the resurrected corpse of his dead best friend is cheering him on and urging him to keep saving the girl no matter what. It’s kind of hilarious.

Allen and Stella remains trapped deep underground, with Stella’s body having been taken over by a dangerous-looking angel. Ellie has escaped to tell everyone what’s going on, but the Sealed Archive is not letting anyone come in the way that they originally did. And of course there are those who simply want to leave Allen there, though one of the more annoying antagonistic nobles grudgingly admits Allen is what is needed here. But eventually we get a squad to go into the catacombs under the city and go *up* to rescue Allen, led by Lydia, Caren, Tina and Ellie. Unfortunately, the religious folks are behind all this, and have sent more than one apostles to stop everyone, including a very familiar face to Allen, Lydia, and Cheryl.

I’ve been whining for a long time that I wish the series would do a massive flashback to show Allen and Lydia’s school days, and this is the first volume where we get a flashback that lasts longer than a couple of pages. It shows that, unsurprisingly, school life mostly consisted of Lydia and Cheryl fighting each other every day to see who gets the right to say they’re Allen’s Number One Girl. Allen, naturally, does not get a say in the matter. (I did briefly wonder what would happen if anyone asked him his opinion on being in love with any of the girls, but his self-deprecation is too high for that to work.) But there’s also Allen’s best male friend Zelbert, who seems to be the classic snarky glasses-wearing best friend of the hero type, but who we already know died before the main story began, and here we see why that happened, as well as Zelbert’s own tragic past. If you’re going to fire off the flashback guns, this is an excellent way to do it.

Unfortunately, it turns out our heroes did not win as much as they may have thought, though at least Stella is not evil. The next volume promises – again – more Tina and less Lydia. We’ll see.

Pick of the Week: Dragon Girls and Skating Girls

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ASH: 2025 is now unquestionably here and, depending on which calendars you follow, the Year of the Dragon will soon be coming to a close, too. So, it’s a perfect time to sneak one more dragon manga in before Snake takes over. I hadn’t previously heard about RuriDragon, but Sean has me convinced it’s not a title to be missed.

SEAN: Every single chapter of RuriDragon puts a huge smile on my face. And now I can read them in volume form!

MICHELLE: I am definitely curious about RuriDragon! But also, there are two different volumes of Medalist coming out this week—one in print and one digitally—so I will commend it, too, while I’m at it.

ANNA: I’m going to go for Medalist, I want to get caught up!

Taking My Reincarnation One Step at a Time: No One Told Me There Would Be Monsters!, Vol. 7

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By KAYA and Naru. Released in Japan as “Tensei Shōjo wa Mazu Ippo kara Hajimetai: Mamono ga Iru toka Kiitenai!” by MF Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Amy Osteraas.

All right, I apologize, I was reading one of the main plotlines wrong. There’s no real defending it, I had forgotten how this series begins, with Sarasa shunted into this world with her massive piles of mana in order to save it. So when I kept seeing her having to fight off monsters that surprised everyone by showing up all of a sudden, I assumed it was due to her being a monster attractor. But no, I should have realized the more important fact, which is that, with the arrival of a new girl in this volume, there’s now FOUR isekai’d folks running around, more than they’ve ever seen before. it’s not that Sara attracts monsters, it’s that she and the others are here to prevent the apocalypse. As such, even in the parts of the world which traditionally have no monsters around, we end up getting a plague of locusts all of a sudden. The Invited go to where the crisis is going to be.

Sara is headed off to see Nelly’s older sister and her husband, who live in an agricultural region that has no dungeons and few monsters but does have lots of medicinal plants. They’re technically there to take care of a larger than usual attack of green locusts, but in reality they’re there because Nelly hasn’t seen her sister in forever, and also because, to everyone’s surprise, there’s a new Invited, Anzu, who also ended up in this world after falling ill in Japan. Ann has been sickly and weak, which puzzles Sara, who knows that they’re brought to this world in order to get more healthy, but the cause of this is found very fast (she’s coddled too much) and we get to the real meat of this book: Nelly is still unmarried, LOTS of people want to change that, and Chris is going to be very unhappy unless he does something soon.

So yes, finally, Nelly and Chris are a couple, though what I liked most about this was that it was framed as the two of them officially gaining a “daughter” in Sara than any romantic leanings. (Despite his mooning over her for the entire series, neither one is the romantic type.) Speaking of unromantic types, Sara and Allen continue to be besties and that’s about it, though there are hints that they both are aware where they’re going to end up in a few years but are just too young now. As for Sara, she’s forced to admit here that her philosophy of “keep my head down and stay out of the way” just isn’t going to work anymore. She cares about everyone in this world too much, and she wants to be proactive. Which she certainly is here, saving the day with her barriers again. That said, unlike Allen or Nelly, she’s happiest being a giant apothecary nerd with her fellow nerds, and fending off proposals from all and sundry.

This was a fun volume, and I do wonder how Ann will blend in with the cast, assuming that she continues to pursue her new dream. One of my favorite isekai of the moment.

The Royal Hostage Has Vanished: The Black Wolf Knight Yearns for the Persecuted Princess, Vol. 2

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By Ajigozen and Yura Chujo. Released in Japan as “Hitojichi Hime ga, Shōsoku wo Tatta. Kuro Ōkami no Kishi wa Rinkoku no Shiitagerareta Hime wo Zenryoku de Aishimasu” by DRE Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Emily Hemphill.

It’s always awkward when a book doesn’t really do anything wrong but leaves me a bit cold. Most of this second and final volume is fine. There are a few action scenes, which are exciting. The lead guy is perfectly fine, vacillating between stolid handsome hunk and soppy “I’m so in love with my wife” annoyance. There’s a few plot twists near the end that work pretty well, and the evil nobles are cartoonishly evil without feeling like they also kill babies and kick puppies. And yet, I think I came away from this book shrugging. In the end, I think it comes down to having the wrong narrator. This is Sonia/Nia’s story, but except for one or two POV scenes, mostly in the first book, we rarely see inside her head, instead spending all our time with husband Ark. I appreciate that not all shoujo romances have to have a woman’s POV, but this story would have worked better with it.

After getting unofficially married at the end of the last book, Ark and Nia move to their new domain, which as it turns out is dealing with a nasty outbreak of bandits… which are fairly obviously being sent by the second prince of Sylvario, Nia’s brother. Fortunately, when she was Sonia, the princess formed a bond with the denizens of the towns, which helps them win everyone over fairly quickly. The medicine also helps. Ark is a distant third. Once it’s determined that the foreign prince is behind this, it’s decided to bait him into a trap and capture him, which works so well that everyone wonders if they’re in some sort of Reverse Uno situation, but no, the prince really is that stupid. That said, he’s not the only antagonist…

Towards the end of the book we get several genre shifts to go with the “disgraced noble” that we’ve been dealing with all along. There were hints of a “secret saint” plot, and they turn out to be correct, and we also get a villainess plotline that reminds me far too much of the recent arc of Bakarina – the third princess reads very much like the original evil Katarina Claes, and her fate is likely going to be much the same. (Isekai’d otome game villainesses seem to do very badly in this world, in fact, as she’s not even the first one.) I would argue that the identity of a secret royal who can end up being a potential love interest for Prince Alphonse is perhaps one twist too far, and mostly serves as a way to allow our main couple to actually get it on without getting a cold stare of shame. But for the most part they work well. They just didn’t excite me.

If this was ongoing, I likely wouldn’t get more of it. Fortunately, we’re done here. This was good, but in the end, I wish I’d read it from the other POV.

My Next Life As a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!, Vol. 13

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By Satoru Yamaguchi and Nami Hidaka. Released in Japan as “Otome Game no Hametsu Flag Shika Nai Akuyaku Reijou ni Tensei Shite Shimatta…” by Ichijinsha Bunko Iris. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Joshua Douglass-Molloy.

Let’s face it, Fortune Lover I was a bad game. Lots of fans have spent ages pointing out what a disaster it would be for the country if Maria’s routes played out the way we’re told they did, but more importantly, it’s shallow and badly written. Katarina absolutely did the best thing possible by “trying to prevent her doom” and accidentally saving everyone. Unfortunately for her, they brought in better writers for the second game. Not in terms of the routes themselves, those are still lame. But in terms of the politics behind it, and how it’s now affecting multiple kingdoms. And unfortunately for Katarina, that one’s much harder to derail. The kidnappings, murder attempts, and potential coups we’re seeing in Sorcier are not “a problem for the player to solve”, and as such even when Katarina does her best, success remains elusive. Especially since she still has that pesky dark magic, and it turns out she now knows how to make it strong, and it’s not a good thing.

Cezar, the prince of Ethenell, is being sent to Sorcier as part vacation and part to see how a country that’s not recovering from a civil war is doing things. Everyone tells Katarina that she should absolutely not get involved with him, because something else he’s doing is looking for a wife. Of course, Katarina absolutely gets involved with him. She accidentally breaks up his meeting with various other desperate noblewomen, she takes him on a tour of bookstores, cafes, and farms (of course the farms are the most interesting), and she sees him touring the ministry of magic while she’s busy trying to practice with her dark magic (she’s only good at absorption) and translating the dark magic book (she gets bored easily). Unfortunately, Cezar is also investigating the conspiracy that everyone else is, and this investigation results in Maria’s family being attacked…

Those who read my Bakarina reviews know that I don’t really care about the cishet pairings, even as I acknowledge the author does. Mary and Sophia barely appear. Fortunately, our one exception is present throughout. Yes, Maria ends up getting a bit damselled in the climax, when Sarah and a bunch of goons overpower her, but the best moment might be when she sees Cezar and Katarina at the orphanage, where Katarina has been showing off what a great place it is for kids, and Cezar starts putting the moves on her (something she has no idea about). I love seeing Maria being jealous, and her cold attitude towards Cezar, though it doesn’t last long (they bond over Katarina being awesome) is great to see. What’s more, Katarina has literally saved the life of her and her mother this time. Maria is going to be more in love than ever.

As for HOW Katarina saved Maria, well, that’s worrying. I get the feeling “have better control over your emotions” is easier said than done, but I don’t think this series will get TOO dark. This continues to meander towards its ending. Mary and Sophia fans (and Alan and Nicol fans, honestly) can drop it, but Jeord, Sora, Cezar, and Maria fans will be happy. (Keith? Who’s Keith?)

Bookshelf Briefs 1/4/25

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Bocchi the Rock!, Vol. 5 | By Aki Hamazi | Yen Press – A book of two halves, the first half is the usual 4-koma stuff, as the live house gains two new employees and presumably new supporting cast. One is an energetic short girl who reminds me of Kita, probably deliberately. The other is a yuri fanfic writer who writes self-inserts with herself and Ryou, to the horror and confusion of both Ryou and Bocchi. The second half of the volume is an extended flashback showing the relationship between Nijika and her older sister, and how the 12-year-difference between them led to Seika resenting her little sister for getting in the way of her band career. Unfortunately, their mother braids her hair in a side ponytail, and you know what that means. Tragedy is a-comin’. This was a nice change of pace for the comedic manga, and very touching. – Sean Gaffney

Colette Decides to Die, Vol. 1 | By Alto Yukimura| Viz Media – This is an excellent series, which I hope does well. It’s about a decade old, and also from formerly beloved but now shunned Hana to Yume, so I was very surprised it was licensed. (You can tell it’s a Hakusensha title because of the choppy continuity in this first omnibus, as the publisher gauges if it’s a hit or not.) The title is what I call an “artifact title,” in that it applies to the first three pages or so of the manga but not beyond that. The story is about a plucky but overworked apothecary, who one day is so tired she falls into a well she’s leaning into, and ends up attending Lord Hades in the underworld! Colette is a terrific heroine, and Hades is already warming up from his cool exterior. Any shoujo fan will love this, and it’s in omnibuses, so should only be ten volumes rather than twenty. – Sean Gaffney

Home Office Romance | By Kintetsu Yamada| Kodansha Manga – This one-shot is from the creator of Sweat & Soap, which is why I picked it up. It’s also quite cute. During COVID, our overworked, emotionally stunted hero finds working at home to his liking, and he finds he has a little more time in his day to do things, like grow his balcony garden. That attracts the attention of his next door neighbor, a freckle-faced archaeology student. The two bond quickly, though I kind of wish the narration had not spoiled the ending by reassuring readers they eventually get married. The main reason to read this is Nokoru, who a lot of folks will find very relatable in his attempts to interact with his neighbor and deal with the fact that she finds him attractive. As with the author’s previous series, sweet and sexy. – Sean Gaffney

Lycoris Recoil, Vol. 1 | By Spider Lily and Yasunori Bizen | Yen Press – Generally speaking, when the anime comes first, as it did with LycoReco, adaptations tend to either be a) wacky anthology hijinks (I think LR does have these, but this isn’t it), or b) slice-of-life light novel side stories (see next month). But this is just a straight-up adaptation of the first couple episodes of the series. It’s fun, and you can certainly see why the series got to be so popular. Chisato, in particular, drives these early stories. I also liked seeing the foreshadowing of the plot with Mika and Yoshimatsu. That said, if you watched the anime and are looking for additions or differences, there’s none of that here. This is a straight-up adaptation. As such, it’s recommended for those who haven’t seen the anime and prefer manga stories. – Sean Gaffney

Natsume’s Book of Friends, Vol. 30 | By Yuki Midorikawa | Viz Media – Honestly, I could just say “Matoba cross-dresses” and that would be enough. No one is picking up volume 30 of this series on a whim, and those who have read it to volume 30 know what they’re about, and they’re about this. I mentioned on Discord that this series manages to somehow be BL, yuri, poly, and aro/ace at the same time, and I think that still holds up. The first story is good, but it’s all about the back half of the book, where Natsume and Tanuma attend a special auction that turns out to be a lot more mysterious than we’d guessed… well, no, this is Natsume’s Book of Friends, so we likely guessed that immediately. I am, however, totally here for more of Matoba’s screwed-up family, which we’ll likely get next time. – Sean Gaffney

Sheltering Eaves, Vol. 1 | By Rie Aruga | Kodansha Comics – When Yoru Tono was ten, she was removed from the custody of her verbally abusive mother and placed in a children’s home, where she met a kind and brave boy named Tenjaku Narita. We see how the bond between them formed, and then fast forward to 2018, when they are both sixteen, and trying to come to terms with the fact that they’ll be forced to leave the home when they turn eighteen. Tenjaku is pragmatic, trying to earn money and dreaming of travel, whereas all that Yoru seems to want to do is to be near him. Tenjaku’s troubled by this, and it’s unclear currently whether he has romantic feelings for her at all, which is quite refreshing. He doesn’t want to push her away—especially given their shared history of abandonment—but also encourages her to do her own thing. This could get quite interesting, and I look forward to the second volume, due out soon! – Michelle Smith

Spring Storm and Monster, Vol. 1 | By Mitsubachi Miyuki | Yen Press – Ranko Haruno, a high school first year without any friends, runs into a delinquent beating someone up in an alley, who then turns out to be her new stepbrother, Amamine Kaya. Shoujo bingo ensues. There’s promptly a naked kabe-don. There are street thugs. Ranko gets lost on a family camping trip and is menaced by a bear (and is rescued by Kaya). Then, on the way home, the car goes over a pothole or something and the teens accidentally kiss. I rolled my eyes several times. And yet. I liked that Kaya sees in Ranko someone genuinely good, after a lifetime of being mistreated by people—it is implied this includes statutory rape—and I liked her awkward attempts to help him, and that the plot does not rely on preventable misunderstandings. It may not be groundbreaking, but I am interested to see how it develops from here. – Michelle Smith

365 Days to the Wedding, Vols. 4-5 | By Tamiki Wakaki | Seven Seas I somehow forgot to buy four when it came out, which is why this is a double-volume review. This takes us to the end of the anime season that just aired, but the manga itself is only halfway done. Most of these two volumes are the main couple accepting that they really are falling in love with each other This is much easier for Takuya than it is for Rika, who decides the best thing to do is to demonstrate to Takuya how boring she is by drowning him in her hobby… which he loves, so task failed successfully. And then there’s the assignment to Siberia, as they both come to the horrific realization that if they are pretending to be married to avoid it, some other sucker will be assigned. Christ, these two are awkward. But now together for real? Maybe? – Sean Gaffney

Drunks

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In the shadow of the mainstream North American manga industry, there are a handful of indies who are keeping manga weird. They’re publishing the kind of offbeat stories that you won’t read in Shonen Jump or stream on Crunchyroll, stories that are elliptical, profound, strange, funny, or unsettling in ways that My Hero Academia or Blue Lock aren’t. 

On a recent visit to Star Fruit Books, for example, I discovered Okaya Izumi’s Drunks, a pair of stories that put a novel spin on the meet-cute. In the first, a shy salary man staggers home from a night of drinking only to fall prey to a chatty vampire who casually asks, “Do you have blackout drapes at your house?” You can guess where this is going, but the light tone and odd notes of humor push “Drunks” in an unexpected direction as these two wildly different people find solace in each other’s company. The second story—“Tick Tock”—also crosses genre boundaries, using elements of science fiction to set the plot in motion. Tomoko, the heroine, spends a century in a cryogenic chamber before a young man accidentally frees her. Though the pair stumble into a physical relationship quickly, Okaya focuses as much on Tomoko’s complex reaction to rejoining the world as on her sexual reawakening, helping us understand why Tomoko is secretly relieved to discover that the future is not much different than the past.

Art-wise, Okaya’s style recalls Nishi Keiko (Love Story) and Yamada Murasaki (Talk to My Back, Second Hand Love), as Izumi’s characters are rendered in thin, almost scribbly, lines that make them look a little fragile. In her stories’ most emotionally charged scenes, there is almost no background detail; the reader’s eye is drawn to the characters’ faces and body language, allowing us to more fully appreciate their sense of joy, astonishment, and confusion over finding companionship in unexpected places. The quiet authenticity of these moments help both stories transcend their cliché elements to make a deeper point about the characters’ need for connection. Recommended.

DRUNKS • BY OKAYA IZUMI • TRANSLATED BY DAN LUFFEY • LETTERING/RETOUCHING BY KELLY NGO • STAR FRUIT BOOKS • 60 pp.

Her Royal Highness Seems to be Angry, Vol. 1

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By Kou Yatsuhashi and Mito Nagashiro. Released in Japan as “Ojou Denka wa Ookari no You desu” by Overlap Bunko. Released in North America by Tokyopop. Translated by Katie Kimura.

(This was based on a review copy provided by the publisher.)

We’ve seen quite a few of these “young noble lady suddenly has memories of her past life” series before, but if you’re looking for something unique to separate this one from the others, there are one or two things. First of all, she’s not reincarnated from Japan, but from centuries in the past, when the world was at war. (Not to worry, isekai fans, there are indirect hints that her husband from the past was in a good old fashioned normal isekai plot, albeit a tragic one.) More importantly, rather than struggle with the embarrassment of what she was like before, or have to somehow amalgamate her old self with this new one, Leticiel literally overwrites her present body. The book has her think of herself as Leticiel, her old name, throughout, and she wakes with no memory of any time before that point. It’s as if she simply murdered her past self and took them over. Which, well, her fiance also suspects might be the case…

We open with a prologue, showing Leticiel’s country on the verge of being wiped out. Her family and husband are dead, and she elects to mind-control a soldier into killing her rather than be taken alive. A ,long, long time later, she suddenly finds herself in the body of Drossell, a duke’s daughter who is engaged to the first prince. Unfortunately, she doesn’t remember ANYTHING. So, as she tries to figure out where she is and what the state of the world is, she fends off her family by simply being incredibly standoffish and curt. No one really bats an eye at this, which should tell her something, but she doesn’t really care enough to find out. Worst of all, when she goes to her magic academy (you knew it was coming), she finds this kingdom is all about magic! What? Why, when it’s so much less powerful than sorcery?

The weakest part of the book may be its title, as Leticiel spends most of the book being rather nonchalant, only getting seriously pissed off once. I assume it refers to her being upset that sorcery has fallen so far as to be unrecognized. There are more things that I enjoyed, though. The main “love interest” seems to be, not a grumpy noble as is usually the case with these series, but a nerd who spends most of his days working with machines. And then there’s the late Drossell herself (It’s possible the memories will return someday, but for now I have to assume that the girl who used to be in that body is dead.) The book sets us up to see her as an annoying spoiled brat, the typical “villainess” that you see in this genre… and then the backstory explains exactly why she’s acting that way, and it’s a lot closer to I Swear I Won’t Bother You Again! than I’d like. Moreover, most of what’s happened to both Drossell *and* Leticiel seems to be foretold, and I’m not entirely sure I trust the king and his ageless advisor to act in their best interests. The end of this book makes me want to read the next one.

So yes, at the risk of being like the “And you’ll hear it again!” Brooklyn Nine Nine meme, I enjoyed another villainess-style book.

I Swear I Won’t Bother You Again!, Vol. 5

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By Reina Soratani and Haru Harukawa. Released in Japan as “Kondo wa Zettai ni Jama Shimasen!” by Gentosha Comics. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Sarah Moon. Adapted by Hayame.

This final volume suckerpunched me a bit. When I was reading the first, oh, 60 pages or so, I wondered if this was actually going to be, against all odds, a “victory lap” final volume, one where all has been taken care of and our happy couple are finally free to be with each other forever. And, y’know, that does happen. Make no mistake about it, Yulan and Violette don’t technically have much bad happen to them here compared to the previous four books in the series. And the book ends with them as a couple. And they are happy with each other, and in love with each other. They even have a child. That said, Their upbringing and the abuse we’ve seen since the start of the series still influences everything they do and think, and as the book goes on you realize that its characters are still, to a large extent, in a dark place that they may never really get out of. But honestly, that’s very realistic, and at this point in the series I guess a happy, fluffy ending would have felt hideously out of place.

The book picks up immediately after the end of the last one. Violette and Marin have escaped from her house and are living in a hotel, and shortly after Yulan moves them to the estate in the country his family owns that he now controls, to his surprise. (Marin is there because Yulan knows that Violette can’t function without her, and Yulan is allowed to be with Violette as Marin knows she would fall to bits without him. The two of them have a somewhat malevolent understanding.) Meanwhile, Rosette has married Claudia, and there’s going to be an heir. Unfortunately, Yulan’s golden eyes are still an issue, and everyone’s doing their best to plot a coup with him as the centerpiece. So for now he waits, and does the overwork they’re giving him, and patiently twiddles his thumbs till the kingdom gets to the point where he’s able to ignore that and do what he’s wanted to do all along – care about his wife and only his wife, and no one else. OK, maybe their child. Possibly.

There are a few side stories at the end of the book, as we get the POV of Violette’s mother, father, stepmother, and Maryjune. Maryjune, at least, has come to terms with her upbringing and her part in it, and has resigned herself to marrying a man twice her age in a political marriage, which is framed as good. These stories should be horrifying, and they are, but to me they pale in comparison to Violette and Yulan every time we see the inside of their heads. Unsurprisingly, Violette is terrified that she’ll end up turning into her mother if she ever gives birth. Yulan wonders if he’d even be able to care about the child. The final scene with the child seems to relieve these fears, somewhat, but it sums up the series perfectly that the end of their story is not “look at our cute child playing with laundry soap bubbles” but “we both despise our mothers for what they did, and it fills us with rage, and that’s perfectly OK.” Everyone in this is still damaged to the end, they’re just damaged with each other. Sometimes that’s all you can ask.

The author suggests that readers try the manga as a “different experience”. Certainly when I tried to read it it seemed to be far more generic and less traumatizing. Stick with the light novel, which will kick you in the stomach and push your face into mud, but it’s still spellbinding and you can’t look away.

Manga the Week of 1/8/25

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SEAN: The first real week of 2025, so there’s a bit more to chew on.

ASH: And only more to come.

SEAN: Yen On has one straggler from December, Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- Short Story Collection 2.

Viz Media debuts RuriDragon, a Shonen Jump series so good that when the creator was unable to keep up with the weekly pace, Shueisha let them take two years off and moved it to a milder schedule. It’s that good. The story of a high school girl who suddenly finds she’s the daughter of a dragon… and has dragon powers. This is so sweet and funny and heartwarming and awesome. I love it.

MICHELLE: I hadn’t heard of this before, but with a recommendation so heartfelt, I’ll have to check it out.

ANNA: Me too, it sounds great.

ASH: Count me in as well!

SEAN: Also from Viz: Black Clover 36, Chainsaw Man 17, Dark Gathering 11, Last Quarter 2 (the final volume), Like a Butterfly 10, Marriage Toxin 5, Moriarty the Patriot 18, Otaku Vampire’s Love Bite 2, Sakamoto Days 15, Tamon’s B-Side 6, and Wolf Girl and Black Prince 11.

MICHELLE: Man, I could do with a Tamon binge about now!

ANNA: Will be checking out Last Quarter for sure.

SEAN: Steamship has Fire in His Fingertips: A Flirty Fireman Ravishes Me with His Smoldering Gaze 6 and Loved by Two Fiancés 2.

ASH: I didn’t realize that Fire in His Fingertips was still ongoing!

SEAN: Square Enix has Mobsters in Love 3 (the final volume), My Clueless First Friend 8, and The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest 22.

Seven Seas debuts Blood Night Market, a supernatural seinen series from Young Ace. In a city where vampires want blood and humans are willing to sell, an employee of an organization that tries to stop illegal vampiring (is that a word) runs into a self-proclaimed vampire gourmand. This isn’t listed as BL, and it runs in Young Ace, but… I dunno, it seems BL. The creator is a BL author who also wrote vs. LOVE.

MICHELLE: The blurb on Amazon includes the word “desires,” so your instincts are spot-on.

ANNA: Only legal vampiring should be allowed!

ASH: Forsooth! (Fortooth?)

SEAN: Also from Seven Seas: Cinderella Closet 8 (the final volume), The Hidden Dungeon Only I Can Enter 12 (the final volume), Kageki Shojo!! 12, Malevolent Spirits: Mononogatari 9, My Girlfriend’s Not Here Today 3, My Sister Took My Fiancé and Now I’m Being Courted by a Beastly Prince 3, and You Like Me, Not My Daughter?! 5.

ASH: I really need to catch up with Kageki Shojo!! one of these days.

SEAN: And in danmei releases we see Ballad of Sword and Wine: Qiang Jin Jiu 3.

One Peace Books has the 23rd volume of the The Rising of the Shield Hero manga.

Kodansha’s print debut is Love on the Horizon (Ashita Ai kamo Shirenai), a BL series from Gateau. A country boy at college, in love with his senpai, is tasked with getting him home after a party one night and ends up in bed with him! But it was just a one-time thing, right?

MICHELLE: I’m guessing not.

ANNA: These things happen.

ASH: It would be more surprising if it didn’t.

SEAN: Also in print: A-DO 6, Anyway, I’m Falling in Love with You 5, Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro 18, Medalist 6, Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie 19, Spoil Me Plzzz, Hinamori-san! 2, Thunder 3 2, Your Lie in April Omnibus 2, and Yuri is My Job! 13.

And for digital we have Even Given the Worthless “Appraiser” Class, I’m Actually the Strongest 12, How to Grill Our Love 12, Medalist 11, Those Snow White Notes 24, and Tying the Knot with an Amagami Sister 16.

MICHELLE: This will be the year I read Medalist.

ANNA: Oh, I have some digital volumes stockpiled, I should get back into it. It really is so good.

ASH: I keep meaning to start it, too.

SEAN: One debut for J-Novel Club: Isekai Walking is about… ugh… a guy with a seemingly useless power who’s summoned to be a hero but thrown out for being useless only it turns out his power is secretly awesome. Whee.

ASH: That can’t be a real isekai title – it’s only two words long!

SEAN: Also from J-Novel Club: The Apothecary Diaries 13, The 10th Cooking with Wild Game manga, The Dorky NPC Mercenary Knows His Place 2, Earl and Fairy 9, Housekeeping Mage from Another World: Making Your Adventures Feel Like Home! 8, the 3rd I Parry Everything: What Do You Mean I’m the Strongest? I’m Not Even an Adventurer Yet! manga, Knight’s & Magic 5, the 7th My Daughter Left the Nest and Returned an S-Rank Adventurer manga, the 2nd Private Tutor to the Duke’s Daughter manga, and To Another World… with Land Mines! 10.

There’s a Ghost Ship debut. ISEKAI AFFAIR: 10 Years After Defeating the Demon King, the Hero Cheats on His Wife With a Warrior Woman Who Lost Her Husband (Isekai Furin – Maou Toubatsu kara Juunen, Tsuma to wa Resu no Moto Yuusha to, Otto o Nakushita Onna Senshi), which ran in Sunday Web Every. The title is the plot.

Denpa Books is listed as having the 5th volume of Under Ninja.

Airship, in print, has I’m the Heroic Knight of an Intergalactic Empire! 2, Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear 20, and Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs 13 (the final volume).

Digitally there’s a debut: The Too-Perfect Saint: Tossed Aside By My Fiancé and Sold to Another Kingdom (Kanpeki Sugite Kawaige ga Nai to Konyaku Haki Sareta Seijo wa Ringoku ni Urareru) is in that “disgraced noble lady” genre, and the title is the plot again, but it’s getting an anime this year, and is from the creator of I Abandoned My Engagement Because My Sister is a Tragic Heroine, but Somehow I Became Entangled with a Righteous Prince.

Also digital: Reincarnated as a Dragon Hatchling 9.

It’s hard to do January book puns. Do any of these titles give you an epiphany? No? I’ll workshop it.

ASH: It’s a start!