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The Manga Review, 9/23/22

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This has been a relatively quiet week on the manga beat, so I’m going to lead off with a question: what are you reading? Is there a series that you wouldn’t hesitate recommend? A manga that looked promising but disappointed or, conversely, a manga that looked awful but turned out to be fun, interesting, or engrossing? Inquiring minds want to know!

NEWS AND VIEWS

As the eighth volume of The Yakuza’s Guide to Babysitting arrived in Japanese bookstores, publisher Micro Magazine announced that the series just reached an important milestone: one million volumes in circulation. [Otaku USA]

Another Wednesday, another passel of licensing announcements from Seven Seas: look for I Didn’t Mean to Fall in Love, My Girlfriend’s Child, and Please Go Home, Miss Akutsu! in 2023. [Seven Seas]

David Brothers leads a lively roundtable discussion of MOB PSYCHO 100, with an emphasis on its polarizing artwork. [Mangasplaining]

The reviewers at Honey’s Anime have compiled a list of their ten favorite historical manga, from Seven Shakespeares to Golden Kamuy. [Honey’s Anime]

Over at TCJ, Jon Holt and Teppei Fukuda have translated another essay by manga critic Natsume Fusanosuke, this one focused on Naoki Urasawa. Fusanosuke traces Urasawa’s evolution as an artist from the 1980s through the 2000s, noting the degree to which Urasawa’s early works were influenced by Katsuhiro Otomo. [The Comics Journal]

REVIEWS

Justin and Krystallina agree: you should be reading My Happy Marriage. Over at Women Write About Comics, Masha Zhdanova praises Nagabe’s Blue Monotone for its low-key approach to depicting teenage romance. “Nagabe uses anthropomorphic animals to tell a story about a familiar theme: being ‘weird’ isn’t inherently bad, and differences between people should be celebrated instead of shamed,” she observes. “The fact that this love blossoms between two animal boys, both outcasts in different ways, helps make this theme clear.” Also worth a look is Paulina Pryzstupa’s thoughtful review of Look Back, a novella-length story from the creator of Chainsaw Man.

New and Noteworthy

Complete and Ongoing Series

Manga the Week of 9/28/22

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SEAN: Oh no, I’m awake, September must be ending!

Yen On is taking the week off, but we have some Yen Press manga. Dead Mount Death Play 8, Laid-Back Camp 12, Play It Cool, Guys 4, and Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World-, The Frozen Bond 2.

From Viz Media we debut a JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure spinoff, Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe (Kishibe Rohan wa Ugokanai). This features a series of short stories starring the eccentric guy from Diamond Is Unbreakable, and is coming out in deluxe hardcover, same as the JJBA volumes.

ASH: I’m looking forward to this one; Rohan is an interesting and popular character. (And he was also my introduction to JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure as a whole.)

ANNA: Yep!

SEAN: We also see Fist of the North Star 6 and Fullmetal Alchemist: The Ties That Bind (another reissue of an FMA light novel).

ASH: Still very happy to see Fist of the North Star coming out!

SEAN: Tokyopop debuts On or Off, a BL manwha webtoon about the dangers of falling for your boss.

They also have the 2nd volume of supernatural BL series Fangs.

After a number of minimal weeks from Seven Seas, they got everything back from the printers this time around. We start with 7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy! (Loop 7-kaime no Akuyaku Reijou wa, Moto Tekikoku de Juukimama na Hanayome Seikatsu o Mankitsu Suru), a manga adaptation of the light novel series Seven Seas also released. It comes from Comic Gardo.

Cats and Sugar Bowls (Neko to Sugar Pot) is a collection of yuri-themed short stories by the same author, and is a single volume.

ASH: That sounds like it could be promising.

SEAN: A Chinese Fantasy: The Dragon King’s Daughter (Chuugoku Gensousen) runs in Futabasha’s Web Action, and is a series of classic Chinese folktales adopted into manga form.

ASH: Count me curious, for sure!

SEAN: Crossplay Love: Otaku x Punk (Josou Shite Mendokusai Koto ni Natteru Nekura to Yankee no Ryou Kataomoi), an LGBT comedy about two guys who want to visit a maid cafe, but only feel comfortable doing so dressed as girls. It’s from Mag Garden’s MAGXIV.

ASH: I am intrigued.

SEAN: Dinosaur Sanctuary (Dinosan) is from Shinchosha’s Comic Bunch, and asks what happens, after the events of “A Certain Movie”, to the other Dinosaur-themed zoos around the world?

ASH: That’s a fun premise.

SEAN: Lazy Dungeon Master (Zettai ni Hatarakitakunai Dungeon Master ga Damin wo Musaboru made) has had the novel coming out from J-Novel Club for a while now. Here’s the manga version, which runs in Comic Gardo.

Love is an Illusion! is a manwha webtoon that delves into the story of a guy who spends his whole life thinking he’s an alpha… till he runs into a real alpha who sees he’s just an omega deep down. BL, as you likely guessed.

Seven Seas also has The Case Files of Jeweler Richard 3, GIGANT 9, Hitomi-chan is Shy With Strangers 5, I’m in Love with the Villainess 3, Kiruru Kill Me 3, The Legend of Dororo and Hyakkimaru 5, Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation 15, No Matter What You Say, Furi-san is Scary! 4, and Skeleton Knight in Another World 9.

One Peace Books debuts The Death Mage (Yondome wa Iyana Shi Zokusei Majutsushi), a light novel about a young man who is tired of getting reincarnated and then dying all over again, and resolves to use his powers from previous lives to put a stop to that.

ASH: I can understand that feeling.

SEAN: From Kodansha Manga we get the debut of Miss Miyazen Would Love to Get Closer to You (Ochikadzuki ni Naritai Miyazen-san). This Gangan Joker series has a girl trying to get to know the school’s delinquent, despite him being terrible at, well, communication. We know this genre by now.

ANNA: OK, I know the genre but I also enjoy people falling in love with delinquents.

SEAN: Also in print: EDENS ZERO 18.

Digitally we see Altair: A Record of Battles 25, Burn the House Down 4, A Couple of Cuckoos 9, DAYS 31, My Tentative Name 3, My Wonderful World 3, Oh, Those Hanazono Twins 5, The Prince’s Romance Gambit 11, SHAMAN KING & a garden 3, Tesla Note 6, and That’s My Atypical Girl 6, which definitely won’t be getting the Feature Image this week.

MICHELLE: Okay, finally some stuff for me. I am really curious about Burn the House Down and desperately need to get caught up on DAYS.

SEAN: Two debuts from J-Novel Club. Re:RE — Reincarnator Executioner (Re:RE -Ri: Āruī- Tenseisha o Korosu Mono) is a dark fantasy about a father trying to get back his daughter, whose body has been possessed by the evil Reincarnators.

Our other debut is a one-shot from the author of How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom. Yashiro-kun’s Guide to Going Solo (Yashiro-kun no Ohitorisama Kōza) is a reversal of books like Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki – a trendy girl is asking the lone wolf how she can be more like him!

J-Novel Club also has Did I Seriously Just Get Reincarnated as My Gag Character?!’s 2nd manga volume, The Ideal Sponger Life 8, Record of Wortenia War’s 8th manga volume, and Welcome to Japan, Ms. Elf!’s 6th manga volume.

Ghost Ship gives us Booty Royale: Never Go Down Without a Fight! 7-8 and Desire Pandora 3.

Dark Horse Comics has the 10th omnibus of GANTZ.

ASH: That’s a series I’ve not thought about in a long while.

SEAN: Cross Infinite World has Surviving in Another World as a Villainess Fox Girl! (Scenario Nante Iranai! Rival Chara no Kitsunekko). This book has not one but TWO “reincarnated into an otome game” characters, each with different motivations to save their favorite character. Unfortunately, their plans don’t match up.

Airship debuts a new “beautifully depressing” novel from the creator of I Want to Eat Your Pancreas. I Will Forget This Feeling Someday (Kono Kimochi mo Itsuka Wasureru) is about a couple trying their hardest to BE a couple despite being from different dimensions.

ASH: I often enjoy novels of that type, though I’m not sure I’m feeling up to it at the moment.

SEAN: We also get early digital volumes of Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation 19 and Though I Am an Inept Villainess: Tale of the Butterfly-Rat Body Swap in the Maiden Court 2.

There’s a ton of stuff here, after the September of Barely Any Manga. What are you getting?

The Manga Review, 9/16/22

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In an essay for The Nation, author Viken Berberian explains how manga became one of the world’s favorite forms of entertainment. He notes that in 2021, “manga made up 76.1 percent of overall graphic novel sales in the adult fiction category in the United States,” and almost a quarter of the overall French book market. And while I might quibble with some of his historical points–Moto Hagio is clearly a pioneer, but not “the mother of shojo manga”–my bigger concern about the article is tone. There’s a strong undercurrent of condescension in his prose, as he bemoans the fact his tweenage sons would rather read Jujutsu Kaisen than The Metamorphosis, and reassures the reader that “the hegemony of manga” has not “come at the expense of highbrow comics that wrestle with thorny autobiographical and political issues.” Though he ultimately acknowledges the power of manga to tell compelling stories, his praise for Shigeru Mizuki’s Onwards Toward Our Noble Deaths feels tepid at best. Caveat lector!

NEWS

Conceptual artist Ilan Manouach just unveiled his latest project: a limited edition “book” that collects all 21,450 pages of One Piece. The press release for ONEPIECE suggests the work will encourage “artists to think [about] comics in different scales and temporalities,” though they’ll need a cool $2,000 to acquire their own copy. [The Beat]

In licensing news, Yen Press will be releasing Mokumokuren’s horror series The Summer Hikaru Died. No release date has been announced. [Anime News Network]

Also making licensing news is Seven Seas, which added My New Life as a Cat, Cinderella Closet, and Soloist in a Cage to its spring 2023 line-up. [Seven Seas]

If you’re planning to attend NYCC this year, bring a mask. [ICv2]

Brigid Alverson sifts through the August 2022 NPD Bookscan numbers, and observes that “the manga chart is very driven by new releases, much more so than the others, and you can see it here with the newest volume of Jujutsu Kaisen at the top. Altogether there are eight August 2022 releases on the chart, all new volumes in ongoing series, plus a handful of first and second volumes.” [ICv2]

FEATURES, PODCASTS, AND INTERVIEWS

Scholar Eike Exner, author of Comics and the Origins of Manga: A Revisionist History, offers a thoughtful re-appraisal of the Euro-American influence on manga. “Comics historiography is plagued by two fundamental misunderstandings regarding the history and nature of the medium,” he argues. “The first is the notion that comics in different countries are best understood through the lens of the nation, as the offspring of individual national traditions. The second is the idea that comics are the result of a gradual ‘integration of text and image’ culminating in the combination of both in a single image space (the panel).” [The Comics Journal]

Cami traces the development of Italy’s small but dedicated BL fandom. [Anime Herald]

Here’s something with licensing potential: EVOL, “an anti-superhero book that is definitely reminiscent of The Boys,” with “fast and bold” pacing “like an action-packed capes comic, but coming from the other side of the equation.” [Brain vs. Book]

In the latest episode of Shojo & Tell, Ashley and Asher tackle one of CLAMP’s most controversial series: Chobits. [Shojo & Tell]

One of the most talked-about pieces of the week was Colleen’s “Misogyny in the Manga Community,” which delves into the long history of sexism in manga fandom:

Yui Kashima interviews Fumi Yoshinaga about how she got started in comics. “I think it was when I was in my third year of college,” Yoshinaga recalls. “A friend recommended me to read SLAM DUNK, and when I saw Kogure and Mitsui, I just came up with the idea of making their story (laugh). I couldn’t stay away from that idea and decided to publish a doujinshi.” And the rest, as they say, is history. [Tokion]

REVIEWS

In this week’s must-read reviews, Erica Friedman and Johanna Draper Carlson explain why you should be reading Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou. “The dialogue is simple, the scenarios are wholly about experiencing and feeling,” Friedman notes. “There is no plot here. Just have a seat and a cup of coffee and watch the grass. At the end of the world, that’s all that’s left, anyway.” Draper Carlson expresses similar sentiments: “The appeal of this series is twofold: lovely art and an acceptance of the joy of existence… It’s very Japanese in tone, but it also evokes Walden: the idea that a return to nature is soul-cleansing, and that small, everyday events are worth capturing.”

You’ll also find brief reviews at Women Write About Comics, where Masha Zhdanova critiques three new releases from VIZ, and at Beneath the Tangles, where the gang reviews a mixture of new and ongoing titles.

New and Noteworthy

Ongoing and Complete Series

Manga the Week of 9/21/22

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SEAN: OK, now it’s the first week of Autumn, and there’s even rain! A good week to read some manga!

ASH: Truly!

SEAN: Airship starts us off with print titles. The 2nd volume of Classroom of the Elite: Year 2, Monster Girl Doctor 9, and The Strange Adventure of a Broke Mercenary 5.

And their early digital titles are Reborn as a Space Mercenary: I Woke Up Piloting the Strongest Starship! 5 and The Strange Adventure of a Broke Mercenary 6.

ASH: A mercenary sort of week, it seems.

SEAN: After a 3-year wait, Fantagraphics finally gives us the 2nd and final omnibus of The Poe Clan.

MICHELLE: Just in time for spooky season.

ANNA: I still need to read the first volume of The Poe Clan, but I own it. Maybe I’ll do a Poe Clan binge for spooky season.

ASH: So glad to see this coming out!

MELINDA: Yes!

SEAN: Ghost Ship gives us DARLING in the FRANXX 5-6.

There’s two new J-Novel Club light novel series. The Conqueror from a Dying Kingdom (Horobi no Kuni no Seifukusha – Maou wa Sekai wo Seifuku suru you desu). A man dies and is reincarnated in another world. He has a loving family, a promising future, etc. But… he knows that eventually bad things are going to happen. Now he has to figure out how to fix it.

DUNGEON DIVE: Aim for the Deepest Level (Isekai Meikyuu no Saishinbu o Mezasou) is our other debut. For once our kid who wakes up in a fantasy dungeon is desperate to get back home… because he has an ailing sister in Japan to care for. His only chance is to reach the very bottom, where the rumor is any wish can be granted.

ASH: Both of those may have potentially interesting twists on the genre.

SEAN: Also coming out: Black Summoner 10, The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar 21, The Misfit of Demon King Academy 2, Record of Wortenia War 16, and Reincarnated as the Piggy Duke: This Time I’m Gonna Tell Her How I Feel! 7.

Kodansha Comics has precisely one print volume, and it is Blue Period 9.

The digital debut is Gamaran, a Weekly Shonen Magazine title from about 12 years ago that ran for 22 volumes, followed by an ongoing sequel. It’s a martial arts series, so any plot description will be secondary to TOURNAMENT ARCS!.

MICHELLE: Man, I am weak against tournament arcs!

MELINDA: Honestly, so am I…

SEAN: Also out next week: The Abandoned Reincarnation Sage 5, Anyway, I’m Falling in Love With You 4, Blue Lock 15, Chihiro-kun Only Has Eyes for Me 7, The Dawn of the Witch 5, Golden Gold 4, Hella Chill Monsters 3 (the final volume), Hozuki’s Coolheadedness 10, Mr. Bride 6, A Serenade for Pretend Lovers 4, Shaman King Marcos 4, She, Her Camera, and Her Seasons 2, The Untouchable Midori-kun 2, and We’re New at This 11.

MICHELLE: I am a recent and enthusiastic convert to Blue Lock, so I’m happy I now have thirteen volumes to marathon digitally.

ANNA: Woo!

SEAN: Seven Seas debuts Anti-Romance, a BL title from Gentosha’s Rutile about two young men who’ve lived together for six years but are not quite more than friends. This is from the creator of Blue Morning. Seven Seas’s edition has extra material.

MICHELLE: Blue Morning was great, so I’m looking forward to this.

ASH: Same! I’ve enjoyed every Shoko Hidaka manga that I’ve read so far.

MELINDA: So here for this.

SEAN: His Majesty the Demon King’s Housekeeper (Maou Heika no Osoji Gakari) is from Akita Shoten’s Princess, a magazine I am very happy to see licenses from again. A girl with cleaning magic is transported to another world under an anti-cleaning curse! This sure sounds like shoujo, all right. Hopefully we’ll see more than just housekeeping.

ANNA: I enjoy shoujo and demons!

ASH: It’s frequently a good combination.

SEAN: And then there’s more BL, as we also get Monotone Blue, a one-shot from Be x Boy GOLD. This is from the creator of The Girl from the Other Side, and is a high school romance between a cat and a lizard. Well, OK, a catboy and a lizardboy.

MICHELLE: Huh.

ANNA: OK, tentatively here for this.

ASH: I do tend to like Nagabe’s manga, so I plan on picking it up.

MELINDA: Um. Yes.

SEAN: In continuing volumes, we get She Professed Herself Pupil of the Wise Man 6.

Tokyopop finally updated its website, so I can tell you that we see the third volume of Mame Coordinate.

Viz debuts the print edition of Look Back, from the creator of Chainsaw Man. When this came out digitally, everyone I know read it and loved it. It’s about drawing manga, but be warned: the word “poignant” applies here.

ANNA: Poignant and from the creator of Chainsaw Man sounds like quite the combination.

SEAN: Also from Viz: Alice in Borderland 3, BEASTARS 20, Crazy Food Truck 2, Golden Kamuy 27, Hayate the Combat Butler 40, Maison Ikkoku: Collector’s Edition 9, Seraph of the End 25, and Spy x Family 8.

MICHELLE: Gotta get caught up with Spy x Family.

ANNA: Me too. My household loves the anime.

ASH: So far, I’ve really been enjoying that series.

MELINDA: Same here!

SEAN: Three titles from Yen On: Hazure Skill: The Guild Member with a Worthless Skill Is Actually a Legendary Assassin 4, The Vexations of a Shut-In Vampire Princess 2, and Sword Art Online 25.

Lastly, there’s Yen Press. The debut is Josee, the Tiger and the Fish, the manga adaptation of the novel (and movie). This is complete in one omnibus.

Also coming out: the 11th and final volume of Shibuya Goldfish, Solo Leveling 5, Tales of Wedding Rings 11, and The Wolf Never Sleeps 2.

This seems more like a normal week of manga. What are you getting?

The Manga Review, 9/9/2022

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It’s been a relatively slow news week–manga-wise, at least–so I’m going to dispense with the snappy intro and get to the links. As always, if there’s a website, podcast, or YouTube channel you’d like to see featured in this column, let me know. Feel free to share a link in the comments or send me a message on Twitter; my handle is @manga_critic. On to the links!

NEWS

Seven Seas just unveiled three new manga licenses: Does It Count If You Lose Your Virginity to an Android?, Even Dogs Go to Other Worlds: Life in Another World with My Beloved Hound, and orange–to you, dear one. Look for all three series in spring 2023. [Seven Seas]

On September 15th, anime scholar Helen McCarthy will be giving a free internet talk about the history of anime and manga zines. The session is open to all; click on the link to register. [Sainsbury Institute]

To mark the fiftieth anniversary of The Rose of Versailles‘ publication, Riyoko Ikeda revealed that a new animated film is in the works. No release date has been announced, but there’s a teaser trailer for the curious. [Otaku USA]

FEATURES, PODCASTS, AND INTERVIEWS

Wondering what’s arriving in bookstores this month? Bill Curtis has you covered with a complete list of September’s manga and light novel releases. [Yatta-Tachi]

For folks who like their manga discussions with sound and pictures, head over to YouTube for Ed Piskor and Jim Rugg’s thorough, thoughtful analysis of Akira Toriyama’s Manga Theater, a collection of short stories published in 2021. [Cartoonist Kayfabe]

The Manga Machinations crew continue their retrospective on Q Hayashida’s Dorohedoro. [Manga Machinations]

Ashley and Loyola Rankin discuss volumes 9-17 of Love*Com, a delightful comedy about the complicated relationship between a tall girl and a short boy. [Shojo & Tell]

The latest Manga In Your Ears podcast focuses on two recent titles: Go For It Again, Nakamura and One-Punch Man. [The Taiiku Podcast]

Over at Screentone Club, Elliot and Andy dedicate their latest episode to Nights with a Cat and The Great Jahy Will Not Be Defeated! [Screentone Club]

Dee argues that The Story of Saiunkoku offers a unique lens through which to view the the myth that Chinese civil service exams were the foundation of a meritocratic society. “Through its young, marginalized civil servants, Saiunkoku provides an intersectional critique of the ‘bootstrap’ mentality, highlighting how oppression creates hurdles that often require more than just ‘hard work’ to clear,” she observes. [Anime Feminist]

ICYMI: Kelly Ewing explains the appeal of Taiyo Matsumoto’s deliriously weird No. 5. “The non-linear way in which Matsumoto tells the story… contributes to the dream like quality of the book,” she observes. “Reading No.5 is very much like riding a wave. It dips, it crests and then it kind of crashes down on you. It’s a visual stream of consciousness.” [Panel Patter]

Emmanuel Bochew interviews pioneering artist Macoto Takahashi, whose 1958 series Arashi o koete (Beyond the Storm) helped introduce one of shojo manga’s most famous visual tropes: the galaxy-eyed heroine. [Anime News Network]

Danica Davidson chats with author Matthew Klickstein about his latest book, See You at San Diego: An Oral History of Comic-Con, Fandom, and the Triumph of Geek Culture, which “tracks the history of geek culture and fandom over the past century” by “focus[ing] on the prehistory, history and expansion of the community that really helped forge it, Comic-Con.” [Otaku USA]

REVIEWS

This week’s must-read review comes to us from Anime UK News, where Sarah praises Tales of the Kingdom for artist Asumiko Nakaura’s “ability to tell a story economically yet utterly convincingly in images. She knows how to ‘work’ the page and how to position the images in just the right place to evoke the desired response in the reader. The Middle Eastern/Arabian Nights-style fantasy setting brings out a certain flavour of Aubrey Beardsley’s art (or perhaps it’s a homage) in one or two images – and yet the beautiful art is unmistakably her own, distinctive work.”

You’ll also find bite-sized manga reviews at Beneath the Tangles and Manga Bookshelf.

New and Noteworthy

Ongoing and Complete Series

Manga the Week of 9/15/22

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SEAN: Has fall arrived yet? Certainly not QUITE here as of yet.

ASH: So close! I can’t wait.

SEAN: Yen Press is taking the week off, for the most part. No light novels, and only two manga. One of those is a debut, however. No Longer Heroine (Heroine Shikkaku) is a shoujo series from Betsuma. It’s also 12 years old, showing that yes, older titles can still be picked up. Our heroine is a childhood friend! She’s going to get married to her guy! Because childhood friends always win in Japanese series… right? Right? (cricket noises)

ANNA: OK, I have to admit my curiosity about slightly vintage shoujo.

MICHELLE: I typically like series from Margaret and its offshoots, so I’m cautiously optimistic about this one!

ASH: Count me interested, too!

SEAN: And we also get the 23rd volume of Triage X.

No debuts for Viz, but we get new volumes of Animal Crossing: New Horizons 3, Call of the Night 9, Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai 4, Fly Me to the Moon 13, Mao 7, Mashle: Magic and Muscles 8, Pokémon Adventures: X•Y 3, Rosen Blood 4, and Yakuza Lover 6.

ANNA: Some things here I need to get caught up on!

SEAN: SuBLime debuts Love Nest, a Dear+ series that’s actually another spinoff from Sayonara Game.

ASH: I still need to read that one.

SEAN: And they’ve also got the 5th and final volume of Jealousy.

There’s a new Steamship debut, Ladies on Top (Onnanoko ga Daicha Dame desu ka?). This Ura Sunday Jyoshibu series is about a 24-year-old OL who’s had a series of bad relationships because the guys take the lead. Then she starts dating a 28-year-old co-worker who likes aggressive women and awakens her hidden dom…

ASH: I haven’t read a Steamship title yet, but this one caught my attention, so it may be the first.

SEAN: Square Enix debuts the manga version of My Happy Marriage (Watashi no Shiawase na Kekkon), whose light novel Yen is putting out. It runs in Gangan Online. The light novel is excellent… but expect the title to be ironic, at least for the start.

ASH: It’s interesting to me how these cross-publisher titles seem to be happening more frequently these days.

SEAN: They’ve also got the 6th manga volume for The Apothecary Diaries.

ASH: Yay!

SEAN: Seven Seas has Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid in COLOR! – Chromatic Edition. This one-shot collects the best/funniest/most heartwarming scenes in the manga and does them in full color.

One Peace Books has the 19th volume of The Rising of the Shield Hero’s manga.

In print, Kodansha Manga has the debut of a series already out digitally, I Was Reincarnated as the 7th Prince so I Can Take My Time Perfecting My Magical Ability (Tensei Shitara dai Nana Ouji dattanode, Kimamani Majutsu o Kiwamemasu). It is what it sounds like.

There’s also the 2nd and final volume of A Silent Voice Complete Collector’s Edition.

ASH: I’m double-dipping for the additional content.

SEAN: Digitally, we see new volumes of Ace of the Diamond 39, The Fable 6, Falling Drowning 3 (the final volume), A Kiss with a Cat 4, My Maid, Miss Kishi 3, Police in a Pod 16, The Shadows of Who We Once Were 4, Shangri-La Frontier 7, and WIND BREAKER 6.

MICHELLE: I thought Falling Drowning was pretty interesting and look forward to completing it. And, of course, here’s my obligatory pledge to catch up on Ace of the Diamond.

SEAN: Kaiten Books has a digital release for the 7th manga volume of Loner Life in Another World.

Two light novel debuts for J-Novel Club. Death’s Daughter and the Ebony Blade (Shinigami ni Sodaterareta Shoujo wa Shikkoku no Tsurugi wo Mune ni Idaku) has a baby discovered by a mysterious person in the middle of nowhere. She is taught combat and magic… then her mystery benefactor disappears! Now she has to leave the middle of nowhere to find them. (The title perhaps gives away who the mystery person is.)

ASH: Spoilers!

SEAN: There’s also Formerly, the Fallen Daughter of the Duke (Moto, Ochikobore Koushaku Reijou desu). Our heroine is raised to be a mage and the fiancee to a prince… then all the magic talent goes to her sister, so she’s tossed aside. Now she tries to make her way as an adventurer… but wait. Why is she suddenly finding herself in modern-day Japan? Her life is a game? And she’s a side character? Like heck. She’s going to catch her own good end.

We also get a manga debut, Isekai Tensei: Recruited to Another World. This is the manga version of the light novel we’ve already talked about. It runs in MAGICOMI.

J-Novel Club also has Demon Lord, Retry! 8, Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash 18, Perry Rhodan NEO 9, Reborn to Master the Blade: From Hero-King to Extraordinary Squire ♀ 6, and the 2nd The Saga of Lioncourt manga.

Ghost Ship has a 4th volume for Into the Deepest, Most Unknowable Dungeon.

Cross Infinite World has a new title, The Saint’s Belated Happiness: Newly Single, Now Living with the Demon Prince (Iki Okure Seijo no Shiawase – Konyaku Hakisareta to Omottara Mazoku no Ouji-sama ni Dekiaisaretemasu!). The saint has spent years saving the world… so many years that she’s now 27, so her fiance the prince dumps her for being too old. Going home, she finds a young boy… with horns. Who rapidly grows up to be The Demon Prince. He probably cares less that she’s a Christmas Cake.

Airship, in print, has Accomplishments of the Duke’s Daughter 6.

Digitally, the early debut is The World’s Fastest Level Up (Sekai Saisoku no Level Up!). You’ll never believe this. This boy has a skill. But everyone thinks it’s useless and hates him. Then, he finds out it’s the most powerful skill ever! Now he’ll be the strongest with the help of hot pink-haired heroine and hot blue-haired heroine! … sigh.

There’s also the 3rd volume of Loner Life in Another World, which at least I know is not taking itself seriously. Mostly.

Is it me, or is print manga just in a massive lull? What are you getting next week?

The Manga Review, 9/2/2022

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Earlier this week, Shueisha and MediBang launched MANGA Plus Creators, a platform for English and Spanish-speaking artists to publish their own original manga. Anyone who uploads their work to the platform is automatically entered in a contest that comes with a cash prize and distribution through the MANGA Plus and Shonen Jump+ apps. (The site will use likes, favorites, and total views to determine the winners of each month’s contest, as well as input from Shueisha’s editorial staff.) While that sounds like a good deal, artists should read the fine print before submitting their work; the artist retains basic intellectual property rights to their creation, but must allow MediBang and Shueisha “to use the contents the User submitted and published on the Service, MANGA Plus Creators by SHUEISHA for free with the purpose of advertising and promoting the Service, the Related website, and the Related service.” Caveat emptor!

FEATURES AND PODCASTS

Comics scholar Paul Gravett just posted a thoughtful list of twenty-six art books and graphic novels slated for a November 2022 release, among them They Were Eleven, Synasthesia: The Art of Aya Takano, and The Boxer. [Paul Gravett: The Blog at the Crossroads]

Alicia Haddick files a report from the Sailor Moon 30th Anniversary exhibition, now on display at the Sony Music Roppongi Museum in Tokyo. The show runs through the end of 2022. [Crunchyroll]

Speaking of exhibitions, Tokyo’s Seibu department store announced that it will be sponsoring a 40th anniversary celebration of Shuichi Shigeno’s professional debut. The show will feature artwork from Bari Bari Densetsu, MF Ghost, and, of course, Initial D. [Otaku USA]

Megan D. highlights some problematic imagery on the cover of Tokyopop’s Peremoha: Victory for Ukraine anthology. [Twitter]

And speaking of Tokyopop, the publisher is actively participating in the Soar with Reading Initiative, an organization that “provides free books to children to address the issue of ‘book deserts,’ areas with limited access to age-appropriate books.” [ICv2]

If you’re in the mood for love, Honey’s Anime has a helpful list of ten great romance manga. [Honey’s Anime]

Kawaii alert: the Mangasplainers dedicate their latest episode to Konami Kanata’s Chi’s Sweet Home. [Mangasplaining]

Helen Chazan posts a thoughtful meditation on Kazuo Umezz‘s preoccupation with childhood trauma and abuse, as evident in The Drifting Classroom, The Cat-Eyed Boy, and Orochi. “This is Umezz’s interest: teasing out, for entertainment purposes, the dissonance between the idealized family and the actual resentments a child feels within their family,” she explains. “Mother is an ideal of nationhood, the soil from which you grew. Mother is also the woman who scolded you, humiliated you, controlled your existence from home while your father worked long hours. How can both stories be true?” [The Comics Journal]

Also worth a look: Caitlin Moore’s essay about My Brain is Different: Stories of ADHD and Other Developmental Disorders. Moore notes that author Monzusu “sought out the stories of ordinary people with experiences similar to her own, eventually turning some of them into a memoir manga. In doing so, she offered neurodivergent people like her a rare chance to tell their own stories in their own words, when most of the world would rather talk over us, and created a tool to help people understand people like us.” [Anime Feminist]

REVIEWS

Sean Gaffney and Michelle Smith weigh in on the latest installments of Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, In/Spectre,and Knight of the Ice, while the crew at Beneath the Tangles offer a medley of short manga reviews.

New and Noteworthy

Complete and Ongoing Series

 

Manga the Week of 9/7/22

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SEAN: It’s September, and Manga Bookshelf doesn’t even have an AOL account. What are we going to do?

ASH: LOL

SEAN: Airship has early digital releases for the third volume of Classroom of the Elite: Year 2 and The Most Notorious “Talker” Runs the World’s Greatest Clan 3.

From J-Novel Club we get some print titles. Ascendance of a Bookworm 14, Marginal Operation 11, My Next Life As a Villainess 11, and The Unwanted Undead Adventurer 7 (manga version).

ASH: Obligatory, “Yay, Bookworm!”

SEAN: Digitally there’s Cooking with Wild Game 18, Culinary Chronicles of the Court Flower 7, a third volume of Demon Lord, Retry! R, and Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles 20.

Kodansha Manga has new titles. In print, there’s a debut of Shangri-La Frontier, which we saw the e-book of already. VR game stuff.

We also see The Hero Life of a (Self-Proclaimed) “Mediocre” Demon! 6, The Heroic Legend of Arslan 16, When Will Ayumu Make His Move? 7, and The Witch and the Beast 9.

Kodansha’s new digital title is The God-Tier Guardian and the Love of Six Princesses (Rokuhime wa Kami Goei ni Koi wo Suru), a shonen title from Suiyōbi no Sirius. A knight reincarnated to support his liege in her future life. Sadly… her soul is in six different people!

There’s also Abe-kun’s Got Me Now! 9, Changes of Heart 5, Desert Eagle 3, Drifting Dragons 12, Kounodori: Dr. Stork 27, My Idol Sits the Next Desk Over! 5, Our Love Doesn’t Need a Happy Ending 2, and Vampire Dormitory 9.

KUMA has The Song of Yoru & Asa Encore, a sequel to, well, The Song of Yoru & Asa. It’s complete in one volume, and ran in Takeshobo’s Qpa.

ASH: I still need to read the original volume, but I plan on picking this one up.

SEAN: Seven Seas had some date reshuffles recently, so we get one book. But it’s a debut! Correspondence from the End of the Universe (Hate no Shoutsuushin) is about a young Russian man who’s abducted from his life and his fiancee by aliens, who give him a 10-year mission! Nothing he can do but get down to it. This josei title ran in Comic PASH!.

MICHELLE: Huh. Well, it’s certainly a unique concept.

ASH: That, and josei!

ANNA: Sounds a little wacky, that might be a good thing.

SEAN: Square Enix manga has the 5th volume of By the Grace of the Gods.

Viz has several new volumes. We see Black Clover 30, The Elusive Samurai 2, Ghost Reaper Girl 2, Ima Koi: Now I’m in Love 3, Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible 3, My Hero Academia: Vigilantes 13, Prince Freya 7, and Queen’s Quality 15.

MICHELLE: Several shoujo series here I still need to check out.

ASH: I’m a bit behind, but I’ve been enjoying Queen’s Quality.

ANNA: Me too, I need to get caught up.

SEAN: And we end with Yen. Yen On has Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? 17, Ishura 2, and Reign of the Seven Spellblades 6.

And Yen Press gives the people what they want: another PMMM spinoff. Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Another Story focuses on Mami Tomoe and gives her stuff to do which the main series could not do because she became a meme instead. This runs in Comic Fuz.

There’s also The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady 2, Overlord 15, and Sword Art Online: Girls’ Ops 8 (the final volume).

Huh. That’s almost as tiny a week as this week. Did everyone spend money on textbooks rather than manga?

ASH: Could be!

The Manga Review, 8/26/22

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On Wednesday, Tokyopop released Peremoha: Victory for Ukraine, an anthology of nine stories written shortly after the first Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine on February 24, 2022. In the forward to Peremoha, Tokyopop publisher Stu Levy explains that these comics “were created entirely by Ukranians to express their fears, tears, and anger towards ‘the Enemy,'” and to express “their resolve and will to fight.” Tokyopop will donate a portion of every book sale to RAZOM, a non-profit organization that is providing humanitarian relief inside Ukraine, evacuating vulnerable populations from war zones, and promoting “policies that strengthen and support Ukraine and its relationship with the US.”

MANGA NEWS

Shueisha is in the process of initiating lawsuits against several pirate websites. [Torrent Freak]

Coming soon to a laptop or television near you: Keseiju: The Grey, a live-action television series based on Hitoshi Hiwaaki’s Parasyte. The series will be directed by Yeon Sang-ho (Train to Busan), with an original script by Yeon and Ryu Yong-jae (Peninsula). No release date has been announced, but the show will stream on Netflix. [Otaku USA]

During her recent trip to Japan, Megan Thee Stallion visited the JoJo: Ripples of Adventure exhibit at the National Art Center in Tokyo. [Yahoo! News]

FEATURES AND PODCASTS

Erica Friedman files a report from Flamecon 2022. [Okazu]

Looking ahead to the holiday season, Brigid Alverson highlights three upcoming manga. [ICv2]

The gang at Honey’s Anime recommend five great manga for bibliophiles. [Honey’s Anime]

This week’s Mangasplaining episode is a veritable feast, as Deb, David, Chip, and Chris compare notes on four different series: Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma, Sweetness and Lightning, Kokkoku: Moment by Moment, and How Are You? [Mangasplaining]

The Manga Machinations crew take at look at two new releases–Kowloon Generic Romance and Lost Lad London–as well as the under-appreciated Hetereogenia Linguistico. [Manga Machinations]

On the latest Multiversity Manga Club podcast, Walt Richardson, Emily Myers, and Zach Wilkerson recap chapters 901-924 of One Piece. [Multiversity Comics]

Justin and Marcella critique the fifth and final arc of the Sailor Moon manga. [Sailor Manga]

Jocelyne Allen has the skinny on est em’s latest series, Osama no Mimi, in which a mysterious bartender buys secrets from his customers and “distills them into a liquid which he then makes fancy cocktails with.” Yeah, I’d read that… [Brain vs. Book]

REVIEWS

Over at Comics Worth Reading, Johanna Draper Carlson sings the praises of Cat + Gamer. “Between the portrait of a happy, well-adjusted gamer and the charming cat, there’s a lot to enjoy,” she notes. “This is a wonderful read for anyone, particularly for anyone who wants a pet cat but can’t have one. After all, fictional cats are much better behaved.” Megan D. takes Osamu Tezuka’s Bomba! for a test drive, characterizing it as “yet another selection from what I refer to as Tezuka’s edgelord phase, that decade or so where he was determined to outdo the big-name gekiga mangaka of the day by producing an endless stream of grim, complex, edgy, and frequently unsuccessful tales of troubled young men.”

This week, you’ll find short-n-sweet reviews at Beneath the Tangles, Manga Bookshelf, Women Write About Comics, and SOLRAD, where Helen Chazan weighs in on The Men Who Created Gundam, “a comic begging to be harvested for ‘out of context’ posts on social media.”

New and Noteworthy

Ongoing and Complete Series

Manga the Week of 8/31/22

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SEAN: It’s a rare 5th week of the month! Like most 5th weeks, it’s light.

ASH: Even light weeks have plenty being released these days!

SEAN: Yen On has a bizarre release. We’re getting both the 2nd AND the 3rd volumes of The Hero Laughs While Walking the Path of Vengeance a Second Time.

ASH: Huh. Release schedule are still all over the place, aren’t they?

SEAN: And Yen Press gives us Lost Lad London 2, Love of Kill 9, The Other World’s Books Depend on the Bean Counter 2, Reign of the Seven Spellblades 4, That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime: The Ways of the Monster Nation 8 and Trinity Seven 26.

MICHELLE: I really, really liked the first volume of Lost Lad London and am excited for the arrival of the second! And wow, already up to volume two on the Bean Counter, huh?

ASH: It does seem like the first volume just came out.

SEAN: Seven Seas debuts SPRIGGAN: Deluxe Edition. Viz put out 3 volumes of this in the 1990s then cancelled it, now Seven Seas is trying again with 650-age omnibuses. The writer gave us Until Death Do Us Part, the artist Project Arms. It’s from Weekly Shonen Sunday, and is loaded with ancient artifacts and secret agents.

ANNA: I do find it interesting when we get license rescues like this, even though I’m sure the series I’m most interested in will never be printed again.

ASH: Same.

SEAN: Also from Seven Seas is PULSE, a yuri manwha webtoon that’s getting a print release here. A doctor who keeps her sexual relationships strictly for pleasure tuns into trouble when she meets a transplant patient who refuses to get the operation.

ASH: I’m not sure I’ve actually read a yuri manwha before! It’s exciting to have the opportunity.

SEAN: Also coming out: Chillin’ in Another World with Level 2 Super Cheat Powers 4, D-Frag! 16, The Girl in the Arcade 2, Necromance 4, Seaside Stranger 4, and Tokyo Revengers Omnibus 2.

Kodansha, in print, gives us Blackguard 4, Blue Lock 2, Cells at Work! CODE BLACK 8, Lovesick Ellie 5, and Something’s Wrong With Us 10.

MICHELLE: In addition to obligatory praise for Lovesick Ellie, I’m also hyped for more of Blue Lock, which turned out to be not at all what I had expected.

ASH: Guess I’ll need to check out both of those series!

SEAN: Digitally, we have Even Given the Worthless “Appraiser” Class, I’m Actually the Strongest 5, Guilty 10, Having an Idol-Loving Boyfriend is the Best! 2, I Was Reincarnated with OP Invincibility, so I’ll Beat ’em Up My Way as an Action-Adventurer 3 (the final volume), My Roomie Is a Dino 7 (also a final volume), My Tentative Name 2, My Unique Skill Makes Me OP even at Level 1 8, Oh, Those Hanazono Twins 4, and Peach Boy Riverside 11.

J-Novel Club debuts a digital light novel whose manga came out a couple of weeks ago: Oversummoned, Overpowered, and Over It! (Meccha Shoukan Sareta Ken), about a hero who can’t seem to stop getting summoned to save the day.

There’s also Black Summoner’s 7th manga volume, Infinite Dendrogram 18, Magic Knight of the Old Ways 3, Marginal Operation 14 (digital version), Sometimes Even Reality Is a Lie! 2, and the 5th and final manga volume of Villainess: Reloaded! Blowing Away Bad Ends with Modern Weapons.

Cross Infinite World has a 2nd volume of Even Dogs Go to Other Worlds: Life in Another World with My Beloved Hound.

Lastly, Airship has early digital releases for Irina: The Vampire Cosmonaut 2 and Modern Villainess: It’s Not Easy Building a Corporate Empire Before the Crash 2.

That’s it. Man, this feels more like a list from 2013 or something. Are you buying anything?

ANNA: Maybe not!

The Manga Review, 8/19/22

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Attention manga shoppers! Kodansha is currently holding a blow-out sale on digital manga. And when I say “blow out,” I mean it: they’re offering deep discounts on over 3,000 titles, with first volumes priced as low as 99 cents, and later volumes discounted 50%. It’s a great opportunity to try a buzz-worthy series such as Blue Period, Boys Run the Riot, Knight of the Ice, PTSD Radio, or Witch Hat Atelier; to catch up on long-running favorites; or to check out classic titles such as Black Jack and Princess Knight. Don’t wait, though; the sale ends on Monday, August 22nd.

MANGA NEWS

The July NPD Bookscan Numbers are in, with My Hero Academia, Spy x Family, and Kaiju No. 8 topping the list. Also making a strong showing on this month’s bestseller list are Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba and Chainsaw Man. [ICv2]

Have you completed this month’s Seven Seas Reader Survey? If not, don’t miss your opportunity to make licensing requests and give feedback on new and upcoming releases. [Seven Seas]

Coming soon to the Azuki platform: Red Riding Hood’s Apprentice: Final Testament to the Moon (Glacier Bay Books) and Doomsday Cleaning (Star Fruit Books). [Azuki]

Job alert: VIZ Media is currently looking for a Copy Editor. [VIZ Media]

Help Erica Friedman celebrate the 20th anniversary of Okazu by participating in a treasure hunt! The winner will receive a t-shirt of their choice from the Yuricon store. [Okazu]

And speaking of Erica Friedman, she and Rica Takashima (Rica ‘tte Kanji?!) will both be guests at Flame Con this weekend. [Anime News Network]

Blood on the Tracks, Blue Period, and Cat + Gamer are among the titles competing for Best Manga at this year’s Harvey Awards. Also making the cut are Chainsaw Man, Red Flowers, and Spy x Family. [ICv2]

Cartoon Crossroad Columbus (CXC) announced that manga scholar Frederik L. Schodt will be the recipient of the second annual Tom Spurgeon Award, which “honors those who have made substantial contributions to the field of comics, but are not primarily cartoonists.” Schodt is author of three books: Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics (1983), Dreamland Japan: Writings on Modern Manga (1996), and The Astro Boy Essays: Osamu Tezuka, Mighty Atom, and the Manga/Anime Revolution (2007). In addition, he has translated a number of manga into English, including Osamu Tezuka’s Astro Boy and Henry Yoshitaka Kiyama’s The Four Immigrants Manga. [CXC 2022]

FEATURES, PODCASTS AND INTERVIEWS

If you’re a parent, teacher, or librarian in search of STEM-friendly comics, look no further than this helpful list compiled by the experts at No Flying No Tights. [No Flying No Tights]

Brigid Alverson posts a brief but thoughtful tribute to illustrator Sho Murase, who passed away earlier this month. [ICv2]

It’s Witch Week at Mangasplaining! Join the crew for lively discussions of Witch Hat Atelier, Witchcraft Works, and Witches, then stay for the bonus discussions of Fuyumi Soryo’s MARS and Yayoi Ogawa’s You’re My Pet (originally published in English as Tramps Like Us). [Mangasplaining]

The latest Manga Machinations podcast focuses on Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou as well as two manga/Marvel crossovers: Wolverine: SNIKT! and Secret Reverse. [Manga Machinations]

What did David and Jordan think of Monster Hunter Orage? Tune in to the latest Shonen Flop episode for their thoughts on Hiro Mashima’s other battle manga. [Shonen Flop]

ICYMI: Ashley and Loyola Rankin dissect the first eight volumes of Love*Com (Lovely Complex). [Shojo & Tell]

In honor of Sailor Moon‘s thirtieth anniversary, Christopher Chiu-Tabet revisits the first eight issues of Codename: Sailor V. [Multiversity Comics]

Jocelyne Allen flips through the pages of Keiko Takemiya’s Kokuhaku. “The takeaway for this volume… is pure vibes,” she notes. “The seven stories in the  collection technically have plots, but these tales are mostly about the feels. Because the stories themselves inspire questions like ‘how?’ and ‘why is this happening?’, and the smaller details of what is going on aren’t really relevant. Takemiya is using science fiction to dig deep into psyches and emotions and relationships because this is shojo before it’s SF, and shojo demands feels.” Someone license this, please! [Brain vs. Book]

Elias Rosner interviews Ryan Holmberg about translating Yamada Murasaki’s Talk to My Back. [Multiversity Comics]

Over at TCJ, John Holt and Chikuma Teppei  translate Natsume Fusanosuke’s essay “The Transgenerational Manga Sazae-san and Its Meaning.” In their preface, Holt and Teppei attribute the enduring cultural appeal of Hasegawa Machiko’s series to its long-running anime adaptation. “Like The Simpsons, the animated Sazae-san has been a fixture of Japanese television for decades,” they observe, “but unlike Matt Groening’s creation, Sazae-san has been a wholesome staple of family life, still operating by the terms of 1950s and 1960s culture in new episodes today. Therefore, although it lacks a Simpsons-level criticality, Sazae-san is still a mirror of society. As Natsume argues, the manga and anime create a kind of touchstone to what was good about Japan in the late 20th century. In this way, Sazae-san not only entertains, but also it curates a way of life that may be now remote or even alien to the lived experience of contemporary viewers in Japan.” [The Comics Journal]

REVIEWS

Scott Cederlund reflects on the radical empathy of Gengoroh Tagame’s Our Colors, while Eric Alex Cline explains why he won’t be picking up volume two of Rooster Fighter. “Whether one finds the series worth following will largely depend on if they share its ridiculous sense of humor, and if they’re willing to overlook incredibly blatant bigotry in character design,” Cline observes. “The major con is that some of the monster designs are lackluster, and the last one in particular tanks the fun vibes with a sudden veer into blatant transphobia.” You’ll also find new capsule reviews at Women Write About Comics, where Masha Zhdanova looks at three new VIZ titles, and right here at Manga Bookshelf, where Sean Gaffney, Michelle Smith, and I tackle Rooster Fighter, Shadow House, and Wandance.

New and Noteworthy

Ongoing and Complete Series

Manga the Week of 8/24/22

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SEAN: As August nears its end, we continue to see manga making its way towards us, zombie-like.

No print for Airship this week, but we do get new early digital releases for Failure Frame: I Became the Strongest and Annihilated Everything With Low-Level Spells 5 and Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear 11.5.

J-Novel Club has several digital debuts. Full Metal Panic! Short Stories is exactly what it sounds like, and is much more lighthearted than the main series.

Now I’m a Demon Lord! Happily Ever After with Monster Girls in My Dungeon (Maou ni Natta node, Dungeon Tsukutte Jingai Musume to Honobono Suru) has a dude wake up as a demon lord in a dungeon. He thinks he’s going to have to strengthen his environment and protect everyone. But… no? He just lives a slow life with his cute monster girls. You know the audience for this one.

Rebuild World is a post-apocalyptic fantasy about a cruel, merciless world and the poor orphan boy trying to survive in it. This has a bit of buzz, but looks dark. Doesn’t help that the first book is split into two parts – This is Volume 1-1.

ASH: I mean, I tend to be interested in post-apocalyptic fantasy, don’t mind dark, and there is the buzz… but I’m not sure I need cruel and merciless at this very moment.

ANNA: I have a similar reaction.

SEAN: And we get the manga version of Tearmoon Empire (Tearmoon Teikoku Monogatari: Dantōdai kara Hajimaru, Hime no Tensei Gyakuten Story). You don’t need me to tell you how good the books are, now read the manga. This runs in Comic Corona.

ASH: Oh! I didn’t realize (or had forgotten) there was a manga version.

SEAN: Also coming out: Jessica Bannister and the Evil Within and Monster Tamer 10.

Kaiten Books has a digital release for The Yakuza’s Guide to Babysitting 5.

In print, Kodansha gives us Blue Period 8, Island in a Puddle 3, Phantom of the Idol 2, and Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie 10.

MICHELLE: The first volume of Phantom of the Idol was fun, so I look forward to volume two.

ASH: I should give the series a closer look!

SEAN: And we get new digital volumes for ongoing series. Burn the House Down 3, Getting Closer to You 3, I’m Standing on a Million Lives 13, I Want To Hold Aono-kun So Badly I Could Die 9, Tying the Knot with an Amagami Sister 4, The Witch and the Beast 9, and Ya Boy Kongming! 8.

MICHELLE: Something about those Burn the House Down covers is really compelling.

SEAN: One Peace Books has a light novel debut: The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic (Chiyu Mahou no Machigatta Tsukaikata – Senjou o Kakeru Kaifuku Youin). An average ordinary high school student (sigh) is pulled into a fantasy world along with two other, much cooler students. Unfortunately for our blank hero, he has a rare ability, healing magic! Now he has to undergo hellish training to learn how to use it.

ASH: I do like the healing magic aspect of the premise.

SEAN: Three debuts for Seven Seas. MoMo -the blood taker- features a detective trying to track down a serial killer, but my guess is by the cover art and title that vampires are the main draw here. This ran in Weekly Young Jump.

ASH: This seems like it could have potential.

SEAN: My [Repair] Skill Became a Versatile Cheat, So I Think I’ll Open a Weapon Shop ([Shuufuku] Sukiru ga Bannou Chiito-ka Shitanode, Buki-ya demo Hirakou ka to Omoimasu) is basically “what if the Arifureta guy decided to sell weapons rather than be the Arifureta guy?”. It runs in Manga Park.

Ramen Wolf and Curry Tiger (Ramen Ookami to Curry Tora) is a foodie manga from Comic Be, about, well, a Wolf and a Tiger. But they’re food critics!

MICHELLE: Huh.

ASH: It’s food related, so I’m obligated to give this one a try.

ANNA: I’m curious!

SEAN: Seven Seas also has Failure Frame: I Became the Strongest and Annihilated Everything With Low-Level Spells 4 and The Dragon Knight’s Beloved 3.

Square Enix Manga gives us Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?! 5, Otherside Picnic 2, and Ragna Crimson 6.

MICHELLE: I need to get caught up on Cherry Magic. I enjoyed the first volume.

ASH: I did, too!

SEAN: Viz Media has the 18th and final volume of Fullmetal Alchemist: Fullmetal Edition. We also get JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Part 5–Golden Wind 5 and Urusei Yatsura 15. And, though I usually don’t touch on the digital-only volumes, there’s WITCH WATCH 3 as well.

ASH: It’s a good Viz week.

SEAN: Yen On debuts Secrets of the Silent Witch (Silent Witch), a story of a powerful mage who learned voiceless magic… because she’s painfully shy and wants to avoid speaking! I’ve heard good things about this series.

ASH: You’ve caught my interest.

Also from Yen On: Durarara!! SH 4, Goblin Slayer 14, High School DxD 8, and Rascal Does Not Dream 8.

Yen Press has several debuts. Bungo Stray Dogs: Dead Apple is a spinoff that runs in Young Ace Up.

Delicious in Dungeon World Guide: The Adventurer’s Bible is what it sounds like, a guide to the world of Delicious in Dungeon!

ASH: I’d somehow missed this was coming out.

SEAN: The Geek Ex-Hitman (Sono Otaku, Moto Koroshi-ya) runs in Shonen Ace Plus. A hitman ends up going down the terrible path of anime figurines.

ASH: Ha! Oh dear.

SEAN: See You Tomorrow at the Food Court (Food Court de, Mata Ashita) is a complete in one volume title from Comic Newtype. An honor student and a tanned “gal” type seemingly have nothing in common… but they’re always eating together! This is not yuri but is yuri-adjacent.

ASH: Yuri-ish and food-ish? I’m curious.

SEAN: Also from Yen Press: Cheeky Brat 4, Cross-Dressing Villainess Cecilia Sylvie 2, Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody 12, Delicious in Dungeon 11, The Holy Grail of Eris 2, Please Put Them On, Takamine-san 4, The Saga of Tanya the Evil 17, Sasaki and Miyano 6, and So I’m a Spider, So What? 11.

ASH: Huzzah! Double Delicious this week!

SEAN: Must… read… new manga… rrrr.

Manga the Week of 8/17/22

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SEAN: We’re having a heat wave, a tropical heat wave… the temperature’s rising, it isn’t surprising, she certainly can Can-Can.

Yen On has three debuts, though one has already come out here from another publisher… sort of. The Bride of Demise (Shuuen no Hanayome) is a new series from the creator of Torture Princess, and seems to have much the same vibe. A soldier is about to die when a girl in white appears, swearing to protect him.

Higehiro: After Being Rejected, I Shaved and Took in a High School Runaway (Hige o Soru. Soshite Joshikousei o Hirou) is a series where we’ve already seen the manga… and an anime… and the light novel. The light novel was released by Kadokawa but only in parts, and the quality was meh. Yen promises their version has new, exciting things such as editing. As for the plot, read the title.

ASH: It’s interesting to see the variety of ways titles are licensed, different editions from different publishers being released in close succession would have been unheard of not too long ago.

SEAN: Sasaki and Peeps (Sasaki to Pii-chan) is a series about a man who adopts a pet sparrow, only to find it’s a sparrow from another world… and it grants him magic! Comedic fantasy is the watchword here.

ASH: Sparrows were certainly not the next genre variation I was expecting to see.

SEAN: Also from Yen On: Bofuri: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, so I’ll Max Out My Defense 6, Chitose Is in the Ramune Bottle 2, The Greatest Demon Lord Is Reborn as a Typical Nobody 8, The Holy Grail of Eris 2, I Kept Pressing the 100-Million-Year Button and Came Out on Top 3, The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady 2, and The World’s Strongest Rearguard: Labyrinth Country’s Novice Seeker 7.

Yen Press debuts Chained Soldier (Mato Seihei no Slave), a manga from Shonen Jump + from the author of Akame Ga Kill!. As you can see, the title – and the cover art, which had SLAVE in big English lettering on the Japanese cover – has been changed, and thank God for that. Years ago, girls gained magical powers from eating demonic peaches from another dimension. Now a “typical Japanese high school boy” is caught in a gate and finds himself saved by one of those girls.

MICHELLE: I truly wish there was a band called Demonic Peaches from Another Dimension.

ASH: That would be such a great band name.

SEAN: We also get New York, New York Omnibus 2 (the final volume), Teasing Master Takagi-san 15, To Save the World, Can You Wake Up the Morning After with a Demi-Human? 5, and Toilet-bound Hanako-kun 15.

MICHELLE: Looking forward to New York, New York!

ANNA: I still need to read it!

ASH: Same! But I’m still looking forward to the second volume.

SEAN: Viz Media debuts Rooster Fighter (Niwatori Fighter), a seinen title from Shogakukan’s Comiplex about a rooster who manages to defend humanity against giant kaiju. It’s a comedy.

ASH: It’s such a ridiculous premise, I’ll admit to being curious.

SEAN: There’s also Black Lagoon 12, Case Closed 83, Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction 11, Jujutsu Kaisen 17, Levius/est 10 (the final volume), Ultraman 17, The Way of the Househusband 8, and Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead 7.

MICHELLE: I need to get caught up on The Way of the Househusband.

ANNA: This is a favorite of multiple people in my house.

ASH: I’ve really been enjoying it.

SEAN: Tokyopop gives us The Fox & Little Tanuki 5.

Square Enix has a 6th My Dress-Up Darling.

A quiet week for Seven Seas. They have A Centaur’s Life 21, Classroom of the Elite 3, Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi 3, and Happy Kanako’s Killer Life 5.

MICHELLE: Obligatory hooray for danmei.

ANNA: Woo!

ASH: Hooray, indeed! Grandmaster has been my favorite so far, too.

SEAN: Ponent Mon are doing a new edition of the Jiro Tanaguchi classic A Distant Neighborhood.

ASH: A Distant Neighborhood is one of my favorite Tanaguchi manga; glad to see it staying in print.

SEAN: One Peace Books has Hinamatsuri 16.

Kodansha has some print books. BAKEMONOGATARI 15, Blood on the Tracks 10, Don’t Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro 11, Fire Force 28, Saint Young Men Omnibus 10, and Welcome Back, Alice 3.

MICHELLE: Welcome Back, Alice looks intriguing. How is it on three volumes already?!

ASH: I’m still here for Saint Young Men.

SEAN: They also have a new 700-page omnibus of Princess Knight. Which is nowhere on their website, annoyingly.

ASH: That’s a big omnibus and a touchstone series. Glad to see it coming back in print, too!

SEAN: The digital debut is She, Her Camera, and Her Seasons (Kanojo to Camera to Kanojo no Kisetsu), an LGBT title that ran in Morning Two. It’s girl loves girl, girl loves boy, boy loves girl triangle romance. This has the Erica Friedman seal of approval.

MICHELLE: Ooh.

ANNA: Good to know!

SEAN: And we also get A Condition Called Love 10, Drifting Dragons 11, Golden Gold 3, GTO Paradise Lost 18, Hella Chill Monsters 2, Nina the Starry Bride 7, Piano Duo for the Left Hand 5, Rent-A-Girlfriend 14, A Serenade for Pretend Lovers 3, This Vampire Won’t Give Up! 3, and With a Dog AND a Cat, Every Day is Fun 7.

ANNA: I recently started reading Nina the Starry Bride and enjoy it.

SEAN: Kaiten Books has a print version of The Yakuza’s Guide to Babysitting 3.

It’s J-Novel Club print week. We see Ascendance of a Bookworm: Fanbook 2, The Faraway Paladin 5, Her Majesty’s Swarm 4, In Another World With My Smartphone 23, My Friend’s Little Sister Has It In For Me! 5, and The Unwanted Undead Adventurer 7.

ASH: I’m already behind, but I’m still glad that The Faraway Paladin is being released in print so that I might actually read it.

SEAN: Two digital debuts for J-Novel Club. Did I Seriously Just Get Reincarnated as My Gag Character?! (Neta Chara Tensei Toka Anmarida!) has a guy hit by a bus and reincarnated in the game he loves. But not as his regular player character… as the dragon princess he made as a joke.

Isekai Tensei: Recruited to Another World (Isekai Tensei no Boukensha) is a reincarnation isekai that honestly has absolutely nothing I can see that makes it unique.

We also get The Greatest Magicmaster’s Retirement Plan 14, Sorcerous Stabber Orphen: The Wayward Journey 18, and the third and final volume of Walking My Second Path in Life, only four and a half years after Volume 2!

Dark Horse has… dare we get our hopes up… the 5th omnibus of The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, which has the previously unpublished Book 15! And there’s also Mob Psycho 100 9.

ASH: Oh! The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service is a great series! That’s been a long time coming.

SEAN: And Airship has early digital for She Professed Herself Pupil of the Wise Man 5 and Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs 7.

What popular songs are you quoting while it’s Too Darn Hot?

Manga the Week of 8/10/22

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SEAN: There’s stuff! Coming out next week! Surprise! (You are not surprised.)

Airship has the print debut of Irina: The Vampire Cosmonaut.

ASH: Okay, I will admit to being curious about this one, more because of the cosmonauts than the vampires, but that’s an unexpected and potentially intriguing combination.

MELINDA: Cosmonauts… yes.

SEAN: In early digital we see The Case Files of Jeweler Richard 2 and The Most Heretical Last Boss Queen: From Villainess to Savior 3.

Cross Infinite World has a debut: The Princess’ Smile: The Body-Double Bride Searches for Happiness with the Reclusive Prince (Hidenka no Bishou – Migawari Hanayome wa, Hikikomori Denka to Shiawase ni Kurashitai). A maid is asked to marry a prince… as a body double for her friend the princess. But then her boyfriend cheats on her WITH the princess! Now she’s determined to make the best of her new life. I believe this is a one-shot.

ASH: I find this to be potentially intriguing, as well.

SEAN: Dark Horse has Berserk Deluxe Edition 11 (it got bumped – again) and Cat + Gamer 2. Dark Horse’s release dates are a constant struggle.

ASH: I’ll be here for them whenever they finally come out.

SEAN: Ghost Ship has Survival in Another World with My Mistress! 2, Who Wants to Marry a Billionaire? 3, and World’s End Harem: Fantasia 7.

J-Novel Club has a debut. They licensed the light novel and the manga, but the manga is out first next week. Oversummoned, Overpowered, and Over It! (Meccha Shoukan Sareta Ken) is about a hero who can’t stop getting summoned to different worlds to save them! He’s tired of it! This runs in Mag Garden’s MAGCOMI.

ASH: I like that title.

SEAN: Also out digitally: Ascendance of a Bookworm 20, Dahlia in Bloom: Crafting a Fresh Start with Magical Tools 4, Full Clearing Another World under a Goddess with Zero Believers 4, Private Tutor to the Duke’s Daughter 4, the 8th Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles manga, and Slayers 15, which wraps up the 2nd arc.

ASH: I will continue to say, “Yay, Bookworm!”

SEAN: Kodansha Manga has, in print, Blackguard 3, the 11th and final volume of Knight of the Ice, Sensei’s Pious Lie Omnibus 3, Shaman King Omnibus 10, and Toppu GP 9.

MICHELLE: I need to have a Knight of the Ice marathon!

ANNA: It is so good!

ASH: I’m a few volumes behind, but have been enjoying the series.

SEAN: There are… no digital debuts next week! (Glory hallelujah, they’re slowing down). We do get The Fable 5, Giant Killing 32, My Maid, Miss Kishi 2, Police in a Pod 15, The Shadows of Who We Once Were 3, Such a Treacherous Piano Sonata 3 (the final volume), and WIND BREAKER 5.

Seven Seas has a lot of debuts. The biggest one is Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou (which is using the Japanese title, but “Yokohama Shopping Log” would be a translation). A legendary title from Kodansha’s Afternoon in the 1990s, it’s finally been licensed by Seven Seas, and is coming out in 5 oversized omnibus editions! I’ve usually described the series as “the most relaxed apocalypse you’ll ever read.”

ASH: I’m caught up in the excitement surrounding this release; really looking forward to reading it.

SEAN: Kemono Jihen is a Jump Square title about a human detective and a yokai boy who investigate odd mysteries. The author was an assistant on Reborn! and Bleach, and she comes highly rated. This also got an anime.

MICHELLE: Oh, I think my friend was a fan of that anime. Hm.

ASH: Yokai, you say? (That’s my cue.)

SEAN: Sakurai-san Wants to Be Noticed (Sakurai-san wa Kidzuite Hoshii) is another in the “girl teases the guy she likes” genre, from Dengeki Daioh. This one is only 4 volumes total.

ASH: There seem to be quite a few of those, these days.

SEAN: The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbyes: Ultramarine (Natsu e no Tonneru, Sayonara no Deguchi Gunjou) is the manga version of the light novel also released by Seven Seas. A tunnel grants wishes… in exchange for a shorter life span. This ran in Dengeki Daioh, and should also be 4 volumes.

World End Solte is from the creator of Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer and Spirit Circle, so attention must be paid. An orphan goes on a journey to wipe out the pollution that plagues their world. This runs in MAGCOMI.

ASH: Attention must indeed be paid!

Also from Seven Seas: The Duke of Death and His Maid 2, The Haunted Bookstore – Gateway to a Parallel Universe 2, Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid 12, My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! 7, and The Weakest Contestant of All Space and Time 2.

Steamship debuts GAME: Between the Suits (Game – Suit no Sukima), a josei title from Hakusensha’s Love Jossie. The artist might be remembered for CMX’s Venus Capriccio. A career woman has a healthy sex life, but is married to her job, so can’t keep a boyfriend. Then the new guy shows up at work…

ANNA: I do remember Venus Capriccio…

ASH: Same; that’s been awhile!

SEAN: SuBLime has the 2nd volume of Therapy Game Restart.

MICHELLE: <3

SEAN: TOKYOPOP gives us Double 4 and Ossan Idol! 6.

Viz Media has new volumes. We get Fly Me to the Moon 12, Kaze Hikaru 30 (only 15 more years till the final volume!), Kirby Manga Mania 5, Komi Can’t Communicate 20, One Piece Omnibus 32, Pokémon: Sword & Shield 4, Radiant 15, Sakamoto Days 3, Splatoon: Squid Kids Comedy Show 6, and YO-KAI WATCH 19. Lots of stuff for the kids next week.

ANNA: Yay for the annual release of a Kaze Hikaru volume!

ASH: For sure!

SEAN: Yen On has the 5th Solo Leveling novel.

Three debuts from Yen Press. Kowloon Generic Romance comes from the author of After the Rain, the story of a dystopian walled city and the people who live there. It runs in Weekly Young Jump.

ASH: That sounds to be up my alley.

SEAN: A Returner’s Magic Should be Special is a webtoon manwha based on a Korean webnovel. Our hero, a trained fighter, tries to help his colleagues save the world, but to no avail. Then… he wakes up as a 13-year-old? Somehow I think “for fans of Tearmoon Empire” is not accurate in this case.

MELINDA: This might be interesting.

Tales of the Kingdom (Oukoku Monogatari) is an Ultra Jump series from the creator of Classmates and A White Rose in Bloom. This is a historical fantasy about twins who can’t live without each other. This is getting a hardcover release.

ASH: Asumiko Nakamura manga are always a must read for me.

SEAN: Also from Yen Press: High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even in Another World! 12, In Another World with My Smartphone 6, Phantom Tales of the Night 9, The Royal Tutor 17 (the final volume), and Uncle from Another World 5.

Do any of these make you want to jump for joy? Or at least have a nice cup of tea?

The Manga Review: San Diego Comic-Con 2022 Edition

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

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

OK… I’m hopping off my soapbox.

NEWS FROM SDCC 2022

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

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

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

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

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

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

REVIEWS

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

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