Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

Features

The Manga Review: Cliff Notes Edition

by Leave a Comment

It’s been a slow week news- and reviews-wise, so this installment of the Manga Review is short ‘n’ sweet.

Netflix announced earlier this week that it would be renewing One Piece for a second season. The live-action adaptation of Eiichiro Oda’s hit series is currently Netflix’s top-ranked show in 73 countries around the world… the Blue Giant film is coming to North American theaters in October… Ablaze just licensed Choi Gyu-Seok’s award-winning series The Awl… Brigid Alverson breaks down the August Circana Bookscan numbers… and the Mangasplainers unveiled their latest projects: Search and Destroy, a “fresh take” on Osamu Tezuka’s Dororo, and Wandering Cat’s Cage, a new series from the creator of Sensei’s Pious Lie.

AROUND THE WEB

Over at ANN, James Beckett reassures One Piece fans that Netflix’s adaptation is “really good.” “For all of the (rightly deserved) praise that has been heaped onto the series’ pitch-perfect set designs and costume work—which perfectly evoke Oda’s original vision while still feeling at least mostly plausible when applied to living human beings—One Piece is a story that lives and dies on the strengths of its characters, and if we didn’t immediately fall in love with this iteration of the Straw Hat Crew, things would have been very dire indeed,” he notes. “Somehow, though, the show managed to exceed expectations by finding performers that fit so well into their respective roles that it is virtually impossible not to fall in love with them” [ANN]

Kara Dennison explains why you should be reading MamaYuyu, which just debuted on the Shonen Jump app. [Otaku USA]

Vrai Kaiser interviews artist Aiba Kyoko about the evolution of the BL market over the last ten years. [Anime Feminist]

Letterer Aidan Clark joins the Manga Machinations gang for a celebration of Naoki Urasawa’s work. [Manga Machinations]

The latest installment of Manga in Your Ears focuses on The Gay Who Turned Kaiju and Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End. [Taiiku Podcast]

Let the Mangasplainers convince you to read Not All Girls Are Stupid, “a blistering look at the difficulties of being a woman in your late teens and early 20s.” [Mangasplaining]

Should you add the KMANGA app to your phone? Justin lists the pros and cons of Kodansha’s digital manga platform, praising it for the selection and good image quality, and panning it for its point system: “There’s no getting around the fact that the points structure is an obstacle to really enjoying the service, especially if you’re not a fan of playing games to get points.” [The OASG]

REVIEWS

To honor the start of the academic year, Megan D. has a review of Zero’s Familiar, a high school harem comedy. “Honestly, I debated whether to even bother with a plot summary for Zero’s Familiar because if you’ve read a single magic school harem series before, then you know pretty much all the story beats you’re going to see and all the character types you’re going to meet,” she notes. “You’ve got the everyman Potato-kun protagonist, whose only distinct quality he possesses is his annoyance with his status as a servant and the social class system in general.  You’ve got the primary love interest whose personality begins and ends with ‘tsundere,’ and because this work came out in the mid 2000s she’s also comically tiny… She in turn is surrounded by a horny girl with big boobs, a stoic girl, a comic relief playboy, a perfectly ordinary maid/secondary love interest who is possibly even more boring than Saito, a handful of teachers, and the occasional disposable villain.”

New and Noteworthy

Complete, OOP, and Ongoing

Manga the Week of 9/20/23

by , and Leave a Comment

SEAN: It’s Yen Week, but there’s more than that. Everyone’s got stuff.

ASH: Let’s go!

SEAN: We’ll start with Airship, which has a print edition of Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs 10.

There’s a debut in early digital: Modern Dungeon Capture Starting with Broken Skills (Koware Skill de Hajimeru Gendai Dungeon Kōryaku) is, as you can see by the title, one of THOSE series. Dungeon crawls. Guy with awesome skills. Pixie showing her butt to the reader on the cover.

Dark Horse has the first new manga for Emanon in nearly 4 years, with the fourth volume.

ASH: Oh, that’s great news! I’ve really been enjoying this series.

SEAN: From Ghost Ship we get Do You Like Big Girls? 8.

J-Novel Club has three debuts once more. Hell Mode is a title whose light novel J-Novel Club has been releasing for some time. Now we have the manga, which runs in Comic Earth Star Online. Hardcore gamer finds himself in a world where he’s the only one who has to grind ridiculously hard – and he can’t be happier.

I Want to Escape from Princess Lessons (Kisaki Kyōiku kara Nigetai Watashi) is a J-Novel Heart series about a fiancee who’s determined to break off her engagement, and a prince who’s determined to win her back. Very “shoujo manga” vibes from this one, it had some DISCOURSE on forums.

ASH: Heaven forbid! (Though, now I’m tempted to go see what the fuss was about…)

SEAN: My Magical Career at Court: Living the Dream After My Nightmare Boss Fired Me from the Mages’ Guild! (Black Madōgushi Guild o Tsuihō Sareta Watashi, Ōkyū Majutsushi to Shite Hirowareru: White na Kyūtei de, Shiawase na Shinseikatsu o Hajimemasu!) is also a J-Novel Heart title, featuring a guild worker who loves magic but hates her job. Then she’s fired, and blacklisted. What now? Cinderella story? Cinderella story.

MICHELLE: Heh.

SEAN: Also from J-Novel Club: Ascendance of a Bookworm 27, Black Summoner 14, Chillin’ in Another World with Level 2 Super Cheat Powers 11, The Conqueror from a Dying Kingdom 5, D-Genesis: Three Years after the Dungeons Appeared 4, the 6th Doll-Kara manga, Earl and Fairy 3, Fake Saint of the Year: You Wanted the Perfect Saint? Too Bad! 2, Invaders of the Rokujouma!? 42, Isekai Tensei: Recruited to Another World 5, the 7th The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar manga volume, A Pale Moon Reverie 2, Reincarnated Mage with Inferior Eyes: Breezing through the Future as an Oppressed Ex-Hero 4, and Survival Strategies of a Corrupt Aristocrat 2.

ASH: I’m glad that Ascendance of a Bookworm starts with an “A” and therefore is at the beginning of this list.

SEAN: No debuts from Kodansha in print (I triple checked), but we do see The Great Cleric 5, Sailor Moon 4 (Naoko Takeuchi Collection), The Seven Deadly Sins Manga Box Set 5, and Shaman King: Flowers 4.

No digital debuts either, but we do see Doing His Best to Confess 5 (the final volume), Gamaran 13, Issak 2, Medalist 8, Our Fake Marriage 12, Teppu 3, We’re New at This 14, and Ya Boy Kongming! 13.

MICHELLE: I really gotta read more Medalist.

SEAN: One Peace Books has the 21st manga volume of The Rising of the Shield Hero.

No debuts for Seven Seas, but we see CALL TO ADVENTURE! Defeating Dungeons with a Skill Board 6, the 3rd Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi manhua volume, Headhunted to Another World: From Salaryman to Big Four! 5, Hitomi-chan is Shy With Strangers 6, Kemono Jihen 7, Magika Swordsman and Summoner 16, The Most Notorious “Talker” Runs the World’s Greatest Clan 5, My Sister the Cat 3, and ROLL OVER AND DIE: I Will Fight for an Ordinary Life with My Love and Cursed Sword! 4.

ASH: I’ve been meaning to give the Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation adaptation a try.

SEAN: Square Enix debuts Final Fantasy XIV: Eorzea Academy (Final Fantasy XIV: Shiritsu Eorzea Gakuen), a comedy high school AU of the popular game. It ran in Manga Up!, and is complete in one volume.

They also have Beauty and the Feast 10.

The debut from Viz is #DRCL midnight children, a Grand Jump title (not often we see anything from that magazine) by the artist known for Innocent (which means I am paying attention). It’s a modern-day, but still very goth, take on Dracula.

ASH: This one has my attention, too, for similar reasons.

SEAN: They also have Alice in Borderland 7, Dark Gathering 3, Hayate the Combat Butler 42, Insomniacs After School 3, One-Punch Man 26, and the 2nd and final volume of Until I Love Myself.

ASH: I’ve heard good things about Until I Love Myself.

SEAN: And now it’s Yen Time. Debuting is I May Be a Guild Receptionist, but I’ll Solo Any Boss to Clock Out on Time (Guild no Uketsuke Jō Desu ga, Zangyō wa Iyananode Boss o Solo Tōbatsu Shiyou to Omoimas). A guild receptionist finds herself working overtime because the adventurers can’t get the jobs done. Clearly it’s easier to do them all herself.

ASH: Okay, I find that to be an amusing premise.

SEAN: And Studio Chizu’s BELLE is another title from the creator of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Summer Wars, about a girl in the boonies who is dealing with the death of her mother, but finds a new life in the virtual world.

ASH: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, you say?

SEAN: Yen On also has Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki’s Conjecture 2, Bofuri: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, so I’ll Max Out My Defense 10, Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody 19, The Demon Sword Master of Excalibur Academy 9, Hazure Skill: The Guild Member with a Worthless Skill Is Actually a Legendary Assassin 6, Hell Mode: The Hardcore Gamer Dominates in Another World with Garbage Balancing 2 (print for the JNC title), The Hero Laughs While Walking the Path of Vengeance a Second Time 6, King’s Proposal 3, Magical Girl Raising Project 16, My Instant Death Ability Is So Overpowered, No One in This Other World Stands a Chance Against Me! 2 (another print for the JNC title), Reign of the Seven Spellblades 9, The Saga of Tanya the Evil 12, Sugar Apple Fairy Tale 4, Suppose a Kid from the Last Dungeon Boonies Moved to a Starter Town 13, and The Vexations of a Shut-In Vampire Princess 5.

ASH: So many!

SEAN: Debuting from Yen Press we have The Deer King (Shika no Ou: Yuna to Yakusoku no Tabi), the manga adaptation of Yen’s novel release, which runs in Young Ace. A slave finds himself and a young girl the only survivors of a mining disaster, and he now has to figure out how to live… and why he has super strength.

The Do-Over Damsel Conquers the Dragon Emperor (Yarinaoshi Reijou wa Ryuutei Heika wo Kouryakuchuu) is a manga version of the Cross Infinite World light novel, and runs in Comp Ace. A girl goes back in time to try to avoid her horrible death and ends up proposing to exactly the wrong person!

The Ephemeral Scenes of Setsuna’s Journey (Setsuna no Fuukei) is a manga adaptation of a Yen On light novel, and also runs in Comp Ace. An isekai’d hero finds he can’t do anything because his poor health came with him, and is shut up in a tower till they can summon someone else. Then the ghosts of past heroes visit him.

Glitch is a Comic Beam title from the creator of Lost Lad London. Siblings move to a town and find it far weirder than they expected… time to investigate!

MICHELLE: Ooh. Having loved Lost Lad London, I’ll definitely be checking this out.

SEAN: Jungle Juice is a Korean webtoon title about a boy who grows insect wings, then has to hide himself from the world.

Maiden of the Needle (Hariko no Otome) is based on the light novel Yen is also putting out, and runs in Young Ace Up. A reincarnated in a fantasy world girl struggles with family abuse when she apparently fails to inherit magical gifts. Hrm, this story seems familiar…

ASH: It does, doesn’t it?

SEAN: Stray Cat & Wolf (Noraneko to Ookami) runs in The Hana to Yume, and is from the creator of Cheeky Brat. Girl who is running away from a small town ends up in Tokyo, and now is living in a hot guy’s house?

Also coming out from Yen Press: The Abandoned Empress 6, Apparently, Disillusioned Adventurers Will Save the World 3, Assorted Entanglements 3, A Bride’s Story 14, Chained Soldier 5, Chitose Is in the Ramune Bottle 4, Daughter of the Emperor 5, The Devil Is a Part-Timer! 20, The Essence of Being a Muse 2, The Executioner and Her Way of Life 3, The Girl I Saved on the Train Turned Out to Be My Childhood Friend 4, Handyman Saitou in Another World 2, The Holy Grail of Eris 5, The Horizon 2, I Want to Be a Receptionist in This Magical World 2, I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level 11, Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Familia Chronicle Episode Freya 2, Magical Girl Incident 2, Manner of Death 2, Mieruko-chan 8, Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun 14, My Dear, Curse-Casting Vampiress 2, No Matter How I Look at It, It’s You Guys’ Fault I’m Not Popular! 21, A Reincarnated Witch Spells Doom 2, The Remarried Empress 4, So What’s Wrong with Getting Reborn as a Goblin? 3, SOTUS 3, Spirits & Cat Ears 11, Sword Art Online Progressive: Scherzo of Deep Night 2, Tomb Raider King 4, and Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop 2.

MICHELLE: Oh, a new Nozaki-kun buried amongst all the rest!

ASH: Always happy to see a new Nozaki-kun volume released!

SEAN: So tired. Whadya got?

The Manga Review: Going Merry

by Leave a Comment

The reviews are in, and One Piece is certified fresh, with an 85% approval rating from critics and a 96% approval rating from audiences. Just about every major media outlet weighed in on the series, from the Hollywood Reporter to CNN, New York Magazine, Rolling Stone, and USA Today. Though many critics applauded the show’s fidelity to the manga, a few—most notably Mike Hale and Alison Herman—felt the show lacked a reason to exist. Writing for the New York Times, for example, Hale argued that One Piece was a bigger misfire than Netflix’s much-derided Cowboy Bebop, while Herman, writing for Variety, asked: “If the best result one can hope for is an approximation of the original, close or far, what does this version of ‘One Piece’ provide that the original can’t?” Other critics were more enthusiastic, praising the performances, costuming, and fight choreography. In a thoughtful, in-depth essay for Geek Girl Riot, Sherin Nicole reassured long-time fans that Netflix stuck the landing: “This series gets it. It’s about found family and freedom; it seeks to dismantle systems of subjugation and its surrogates; it’s goofy and heartfelt.”

AROUND THE WEB

If you ever wondered why your local library doesn’t own a complete run of One Piece, or doesn’t offer free electronic access to manga, I strongly encourage you to read Priya Sridhar’s excellent, in-depth article about the unique challenges libraries face when acquiring longer series. [Anime Herald]

Gab Hernandez explains why Stop!! Hibari-Kun! is “so progressive yet so paradoxically backward.” [Anime Feminist]

Alexis Sara explores the complexities of transgender representation in yuri manga. [Anime Feminist]

Wondering what to read after Fabricant 100? Kara Dennison offers three suggestions, all of which debut this month on the Shonen Jump app. [Otaku USA]

Bill Curtis compiles a complete list of September’s new manga and light novel releases. [Yatta-Tachi]

The Reverse Thieves name She Loves to Cook, and She Loves to Eat their manga of the month. [Reverse Thieves]

That Manga Hunter delves into the history of shojo manga imprints, from Shojo Beat to Steamship. [That Manga Hunter]

Join comic pros Ed Piskor and Jim Rugg for a lively tour through Katsuhiro Otomo’s earliest work. [Cartoonist Kayfabe!]

Over at The Comics Journal, Austin Price revisits a favorite series—Knights of the Zodiac (Saint Seiya)—and discovers that nostalgia ain’t what it used to be. “I realized what I would find there was only disappointment,” he observes. “Not the true extent of that disappointment, you understand; as I said before, no one can know how wide is the disparity between their idyllic memories and their mundane present until confronted with it.” [TCJ]

REVIEWS

This week’s must-read review comes from Erica Friedman, who praises The Moon on a Rainy Night for resisting the most common tropes around disability. “What we get in Moon on a Rainy Night is the coming together of two people who help one another to become their best selves,” she observes. “It is a fantastic tale of what ‘accommodation’ ought to look like in a perfect world.”

New and Noteworthy

Complete, OOP, and Ongoing

Manga the Week of 9/13/23

by , , and Leave a Comment

SEAN: Mid-September, and the titles keep rolling in.

There’s just one from Yen, though. Yen On has the 17th and final volume of The Asterisk War. (insert joke mocking Chivalry of a Failed Knight here)

Viz Media debuts Star Wars: The Mandalorian: The Manga. This adaptation of the TV series runs in Big Gangan, and is from the artist behind The Abandoned Reincarnation Sage.

ASH: I’ll have to admit, I’m even more woefully behind with my watching than I am with my reading, but a lot of my friends are really into The Mandalorian.

ANNA: I want to see manga Grogu.

SEAN: Viz also has Animal Crossing: New Horizons 5, Call of the Night 13, Fly Me to the Moon 19, Helck 5, Mao 13, Mashle: Magic and Muscles 13, Pokémon Adventures: X•Y 6, Wolf Girl and Black Prince 3, and Yakuza Lover 10.

SuBLime has a one-shot, Old-Fashioned Cupcake with Cappuccino. This is a sequel to Old-Fashioned Cupcake from a few months back. It runs in ihr HertZ.

ASH: This still looks delightful.

SEAN: And there’s also His Favorite 13. (Catching up with Japan sucks, doesn’t it?)

ASH: Oh, His Favorite! I remember that one.

SEAN: Steamship has a 4th volume of Ladies on Top.

Square Enix debuts a novel that puts other light novel titles to shame. NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139…: Project Gestalt Recollections–File 01 is presumably based on the game whose guidebook I put on here two weeks ago. I think I’ll wait for ver.2.0 myself.

ASH: Got to get all those bugs worked out.

ANNA: I will wait for the 360 version.

SEAN: From Square Enix we also get Daemons of the Shadow Realm 2, My Happy Marriage 4, and The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest 14.

Seven Seas has the debut of Life with an Ordinary Guy Who Reincarnated into a Total Fantasy Knockout (Fantasy Bishoujo Juniku Ojisan to). This series that runs in something called Cycomics has an anime as well. It’s on the comedic end of the spectrum as far as trans issues go, but it does at least vaguely touch on them. The title is the plot.

ASH: Huh.

SEAN: They also give us The Country Without Humans 4, The Duke of Death and His Maid 8, The Eccentric Doctor of the Moon Flower Kingdom 3, Kiruru Kill Me 5, Soloist in a Cage 2, Who Made Me a Princess 2, and Yakuza Reincarnation 7.

And for danmei fans, we also have Heaven Official’s Blessing: Tian Guan Ci Fu 7.

One Peace Books has a 2nd manga volume for The Death Mage.

Kodansha debuted The Darwin Incident (Darwin Jihen) last week, but didn’t update their site till this week, so here it is. It’s an award-winning manga from Afternoon about a half-human, half-chimp becoming involved in terrorism. I beg the Manga Bookshelf team not to pick it as Pick of Last Week and further compound my shame.

No print debuts for Kodansha THIS week, but we do see print volumes of Battle Angel Alita Mars Chronicle 9 (not the final volume, but the series is on hiatus in Japan), Gleipnir 13, Shonen Note: Boy Soprano 5, and Welcome Back, Alice 5.

MICHELLE: I want to read both Shonen Note and Welcome Back, Alice at some point.

ASH: Shonen Note is high on my list, too.

ANNA: Mine too!

SEAN: The digital debut is Cells at Work: Lady. When Cells at Work debuted in 2015, I had no idea it would be the Alice in the Country of Hearts of the 2020s. This runs in Morning Two, and has cells dealing with things like menstruation, pregnancy, and childbirth.

ASH: I’m not sure any of us were expecting that!

ANNA: The world of manga publishing is surprising and amazing.

SEAN: We also get Ace of the Diamond 45, The Fable 18, Gang King 9, Girlfriend, Girlfriend 15, Love, That’s an Understatement 3, Quality Assurance in Another World 9, and The Untouchable Midori-kun 5.

MICHELLE: Ace of the Diamond is almost done! Just two volumes to go. I hope Kodansha releases the sequel.

SEAN: Print from J-Novel Club gives us Ascendance of a Bookworm 20, Marginal Operation 15, Tearmoon Empire 9, and the 9th The Unwanted Undead Adventurer manga volume.

ASH: Woohoo, Bookworm!

SEAN: There are three digital debuts. Back to the Battlefield: The Veteran Heroes Return to the Fray! (Arafō ni Natta Saikyō no Eiyū-tachi, Futatabi Senjō de Musō Suru!!) is a series about a group of heroes who saved the world 25 years ago. Now… they gotta do it again.

The Frontier Lord Begins with Zero Subjects: Tales of Blue Dias and the Onikin Alna (Ryoumin 0-nin Start no Henkyou Ryoushusama) is a manga based on an as-yet unlicensed novel. Our hero is rewarded by the kingdom with land!… which turns out to be empty fields with no one in them. Fortunately, he finds a demon girl. This runs in Comic Earth Star Online.

Lucia and the Loom: Weaving Her Way to Happiness (Fukushokushi Lucia wa Akiramenai: Kyō kara Hajimeru Kōfuku Keikaku) is a spinoff of the Dahlia in Bloom series, featuring Lucia, Dahlia’s friend in the garment factory.

ASH: It seems like there has been a few fabric arts related series of late.

ANNA: Were there knitting manga? Where’s the knitting manga at?

SEAN: There’s also the 7th Cooking with Wild Game manga, I Parry Everything: What Do You Mean I’m the Strongest? I’m Not Even an Adventurer Yet! 3, The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar 24 (the final volume), Private Tutor to the Duke’s Daughter 9, Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles 23, and Villainess Level 99: I May Be the Hidden Boss but I’m Not the Demon Lord 2.

Ghost Ship has the 6th manga volume of JK Haru is a Sex Worker in Another World.

This is already out, but Denpa has Under Ninja 2.

Airship, in print, has Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear 15.

And for early digital we see Classroom of the Elite: Year 2 7.

If it’s September, why is it still hot? Any manga heating you up?

The Manga Review: Deep in the Heart of Texas

by Leave a Comment

A television station in Houston reports that the Klein Independent School District (ISD) has been bypassing the usual administrative procedure for removing controversial books from its shelves, instead treating those titles as old or out-of-date materials that need to be purged. The majority of books on its list will be familiar to anyone who’s been following the conversation around race, gender, and “age appropriate” works for younger readers—The Bluest Eye, Fun Home—but the list also includes volumes of popular manga such as Assassination Classroom, Black Butler, and Soul Eater. The Texas chapter of the ACLU is currently investigating.

In other news, Brigid Alverson reports that a Texas judge has blocked the implementation of the READER Act, which “would require booksellers to assign ratings to all books they sell to schools and recall any ‘sexually explicit’ books that had already been sold”… Brigid Alverson also has the scoop on Burst Angel, which was rescued from licensing purgatory, as well as four new additions to the Yen Press catalog… Cutie Honey will celebrate her 50th birthday this November… The Witch and the Knight Will Survive will be complete in three volumes… Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction is coming to the big screen next year… the United Workers of Seven Seas just voted to ratify their first contract… and The Beat posted a generous preview of Issaka Galadima’s Clock Striker, “which follows a young Black girl in her quest to become an elite engineer warrior.”

AROUND THE WEB

Matt Alt explains how some of Japan’s most time-honored methods for cooling off in the summer are disappearing in the face of modernization and global warming. [The New Yorker]

Eiichiro Oda sat down with the New York Times to talk about Netflix’s upcoming adaptation of One Piece, and why he thinks his series will be a hit with international viewers. [New York Times]

Shelby Tozier examines the legacy of Arina Tanemura, author of such shojo classics as Phantom Thief Jeanne and Full Moon o Sagashite. [Anime Feminist]

Also at Anime Feminist: Sarah Guinevere Smit uses Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou to explain “what many transgender people went through during the pandemic.” She explains: “In the solitude and desolation of COVID-19, cut off from the pressures and expectations of society, there was a silent wave of transgender people coming to the realization that they no longer needed to pretend to be someone they were not, beginning their transitions in the midst of death, despair, and loneliness.” [Anime Feminist]

To mark the tenth anniversary of Radiant‘s debut, Dark Aether offers an in-depth look at the series. [AniTAY]

Wondering what to watch this fall? Kara Denison has prepared a helpful list of anime whose source material is already available in English. [Otaku USA]

Jocelyne Allen sings the praises of Hokago no Etude, a BL manga about a ballet troupe. “For a BL manga, it has a real shojo vibe to it at times,” she notes. “Dance scenes get room to breathe, while the sexy times have closely packed panels, loads of dialogue and sound effects, for an overall intensity that makes those scenes even more effective.”  [Brain vs. Book]

REVIEWS

Erica Friedman argues that Otherside Picnic is “one of the most extraordinary explorations of physical, emotional and psychic boundaries that I have ever read”… librarian Ashley Hawkins has a brief but excellent review of Susumu Higa’s Okinawa… Adam Symchuk explains how Yokohama Station SF finds its footing in volume two… Megan D. reads Corrector Yui so you don’t have to… Sarah gives two thumbs up to After We Gazed at the Starry Sky… and the gang at Beneath the Tangles post a fresh batch of short reviews.

New and Noteworthy

Complete, OOP, and Ongoing Series

Manga the Week of 9/6/23

by , , and Leave a Comment

SEAN: School days, school days, dear old golden rule days. Also, manga.

ASH: Manga is always a welcome distraction from the chaos of a new semester.

SEAN: We start with Airship, which has two print books. There’s No Freaking Way I’ll be Your Lover! Unless… 2 and The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick Up Trash 4.

And in early digital we see Free Life Fantasy Online: Immortal Princess 4 and Reborn as a Space Mercenary: I Woke Up Piloting the Strongest Starship! 7.

Dark Horse Comics has the 12th volume of Mob Psycho 100.

ASH: I should probably catch up with this series at some point.

SEAN: From Ghost Ship, we get a 7th volume of The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, REALLY Love You.

ASH: This one, too, from what I’ve heard.

SEAN: It’s a quiet week for J-Novel Club, though they are debuting three manga series digitally. An Archdemon’s (Friend’s) Dilemma: How to Babysit a Crybaby Knight (Akuyuu no Ore ga Ponkotsu Kishi wo Miterarenain da ga, Dou Sewa wo Yakya Ii? – Madome Gaiden) is a manga spinoff from the Archdemon’s Dilemma series, focusing on the pathetic not-quite-romance between Barbatos and Chastille. I think it’s in Comic Fire?

The Conqueror from a Dying Kingdom (Horobi no Kuni no Seifukusha – Maou wa Sekai wo Seifuku suru you desu) is based on the light novels also released by J-Novel Club. A Japanese NEET is reincarnated in a kingdom as a commoner boy, but quickly realizes this Kingdom doesn’t have much longer to go. This runs in Comic Gardo.

I’ll Never Set Foot in That House Again! (Nido to Ie ni wa Kaerimasen!) is based on the light novels also released by J-Novel Club. It also runs in Comic Gardo. It’s for people who think My Happy Marriage is too depressing.

ANNA: Who are those people?

SEAN: And they also have the 11th and final volume of Culinary Chronicles of the Court Flower.

Apologies to Kaiten Books, as I missed this last week: Welcome to the Outcast’s Restaurant!’s 3rd manga volume should have been on that list.

Kodansha’s print debut is The Moon on a Rainy Night (Amayo no Tsuki), a Comic Days series about a deaf high school musician and the girl who gets closer to her despite her best efforts. I have heard VERY good things about this series.

ANNA: OK, this does sound intriguing.

ASH: Oh, my interest is piqued!

SEAN: Kodansha Manga, in print, also has 10 Dance 7, Don’t Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro 15, Noragami Omnibus 7, and Noragami: Stray God 26.

MICHELLE: Yay for more 10 Dance!

ASH: Yes, indeed!

SEAN: And for digital titles they have Blue Lock 21, How to Grill Our Love 4, Life 7, My Wife is a Little Intimidating 3, Shangri-La Frontier 12, Those Snow White Notes 9, Tying the Knot with an Amagami Sister 10, and Wandance 6.

One Peace Books gives us the 8th volume of Multi-Mind Mayhem.

Seven Seas debuts Soara and the House of Monsters (Soara to Mamono no Ie), a Shonen Sunday S series. A girl who spent her childhood preparing to fight monsters is now at a loss since the kingdom and monsters came to an agreement. Can she find a new career building monster homes?

Seven Seas also has Dinosaur Sanctuary 3, Free Life Fantasy Online: Immortal Princess 5, Magical Angel Creamy Mami and the Spoiled Princess 5, Otaku Elf 6, Tokyo Revengers 13-14, Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs 8, and What He Who Doesn’t Believe in Fate Says 2.

Square Enix has My Clueless First Friend 3.

Tokyopop has a 4th volume of Our Not-So-Lonely Planet Travel Guide.

Udon has a third volume of Record of Lodoss War: The Crown of the Covenant.

The debut from Viz is Blade of the Moon Princess (Gekka Bijin), a Jump Square series from the author of Spy x Family. This was his debut. A bratty young moon princess is sent to Earth in order to avoid a coup on the moon, and must learn to grow up.

There’s also two anime coloring books out from Viz, one for Bleach and one for Naruto Shippuden.

ASH: Is there still the same demand for coloring books that there used to be?

SEAN: We also see Blue Box 6, Dragon Ball Super 19, The Elusive Samurai 8, Ima Koi: Now I’m in Love 7, Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible 9, Like a Butterfly 2, and My Hero Academia 35.

Yen On debuts Liar, Liar. A school where everything depends on your rank has a new top dog, entering the school with the highest academic rank! There’s just one problem… this is all a lie. For fans of light novel covers that look like this one.

ASH: Ha!

SEAN: Yen On also has Your Forma 4.

On the Yen Press side, we see two debuts. Game of Familia (Game of Familia: Kazoku Senki) is from Dragon Age, so you know it’s trash of the highest order. A high school student moves in with his new family, including three stepsisters. But then the entire family is isekai’d!

The Witches’ Marriage (Majo no Kekkon) is a yuri series from Comic Newtype. A witch gets married to another girl in order to gain more power… but finds that the other girl is adorable.

And there is also Tales of Wedding Rings 12 and Trinity Seven 28.

It’s always September somewhere on the mangasphere! What are you buying?

Manga the Week of 8/30/23

by , , and Leave a Comment

SEAN: As August sinks slowly in the West, what manga is left over?

Yen has a few more leftovers than usual. The debut from Yen On is Looks Are All You Need (Kao Sae Yokereba Ii Kyōshitsu), from the creator of My Friend’s Little Sister Has It In for Me!. A shut-in girl can’t deal with people, so how can she possibly attend the looks-oriented prestigious arts school she wants to get into? By utilizing her VTuber skills.

ASH: Seems like that could work.

SEAN: And there’s also I’m the Villainess, So I’m Taming the Final Boss 6, where Aileen is about to be executed. Again.

In manga, the first debut is Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki’s Conjecture (Junkyouju Takatsuki Akira no Suisatsu), based on the light novel that came out a month or two ago. It runs in Comic Gene.

ASH: I’m still interested in folklore studies and this title; I haven’t managed to find time to read the novel yet, but maybe I’ll have the chance to fit the manga in.

SEAN: I Don’t Need a Happy Ending: A collection of short stories (Mikanuji Tanpenshuu: Happy End wa Iranai) is a yuri collection from the creator of Assorted Entanglements. Expect spiciness.

The Illustrated Guide to Monster Girls (Kaibutsu Shoujo Zukan) is a shoujo manga from Asuka. Monsters are supposed to scare people. Sadly, this manga concerns itself with a group of poor monster students who get scared instead.

And Mieruko-chan Official Comic Anthology is what it sounds like.

Also from Yen: Doomsday with My Dog 3, I’m Quitting Heroing 3, and Pandora Seven 2.

Viz has the digital-only WITCH WATCH 7. I will die on this hill.

Square Enix Manga has Grimoire NieR: Revised Edition, which… is a game guide, so not sure why I have it here.

And they also have SINoALICE 4, which is merely a death game manga.

Seven Seas has a big danmei debut: Guardian: Zhen Hun. A supernatural detective comes across a mysterious professor in his investigations. Is he connected? Are they both really hot? Of all the danmei series I’ve heard about, this is the one I’ve heard about the most.

MICHELLE: *Kermit flail*

ASH: I have heard good things and an looking forward to this one, too.

SEAN: The manga debut is The Knight Captain is the New Princess-to-Be (Himegimi wa Kishi Danchou), a shoujo series from LaLa about the Knight Captain agreeing to pretend to be the Prince’s fiancee for political reasons, but finding being a royal more difficult than she expected.

Also from Seven Seas: Does it Count if You Lose Your Virginity to an Android? 2, Don’t Call it Mystery Omnibus 3-4, How Heavy are the Dumbbells You Lift? 12, This Is Screwed Up, but I Was Reincarnated as a GIRL in Another World! 8, and The Valiant Must Fall 2.

MICHELLE: *further flailing* (for Don’t Call It Mystery, specifically)

ANNA: *joins in on the flailing* for Don’t Call It Mystery

ASH: Didn’t the first volume just come out? I’m behind already!

SEAN: One Peace Books has the 3rd volume of The Death Mage.

From Kodansha Books, we get My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 3.

From Kodansha Manga, the big news is the 11th volume, and the return, of Nichijou! We haven’t had a volume since the series ended in 2017. Cannot wait.

ASH: Oh, wow!

SEAN: Also in print: Blue Lock 8, EDENS ZERO 24, Go! Go! Loser Ranger! 6, I Was Reincarnated as the 7th Prince so I Can Take My Time Perfecting My Magical Ability 7, Real Account 23-24 (the final volume, at last), the 2nd Saving 80,000 Gold in Another World for My Retirement manga volume, and Shangri-La Frontier 7.

ASH: Real Account lasted longer than I thought it would.

SEAN: The digital debut is Blade Girl (Blade Girl: Kataashi no Runner), a josei manga from Be Love with a familiar premise – it’s the exact same as Run On Your Two Legs. A girl who lost a leg a year ago is frustrated and angry… but what if she finds the answer with prosthetics meant for the paralympics?

ANNA: Yay for josei!

ASH: Oh! Maybe this one will eventually be released in print, too!

SEAN: Also digital: Guilty 12, Wandance 6, and With You and the Rain 5.

J-Novel Club has a new digital light novel debut. Moon Blossom Asura: The Ruthless Reincarnated Mercenary Forms the Ultimate Army (Tsuki Hana no Shōjo Asura: Gokuaku Hidō no Yōhei, Tensei Shite Saikyō no Yōheidan o Tsukuru ) is a dark fantasy about a soldier of fortune who finds herself reincarnated into a fantasy world… so now she’s killing people WITH MAGIC. For those who like evil protagonists.

They’ve also got Cooking with Wild Game 22, the 2nd Dragon Daddy Diaries: A Girl Grows to Greatness manga, Enough with This Slow Life! I Was Reincarnated as a High Elf and Now I’m Bored 3, the 5th Isekai Tensei: Recruited to Another World manga, Lady Rose Just Wants to Be a Commoner! 4, My Quiet Blacksmith Life in Another World 7, and Record of Wortenia War 20.

Ghost Ship has World’s End Harem 15 – After World.

Cross Infinite World has a debut. Rising from Ashes: My Dear Emperor, You’re Putty in My Hands! (Torotoro ni Shite Sashiagemasu, Kōtei Heika. Moto Konyakusha ni Ie o Yakareta Tsuihō Miko wa, Ringoku Kōtei ni Chōai Sarete Sainō o Hanahirakaseru), a novel which has otome game villainess, ex-fiancée finds love in the neighboring kingdom, AND Inner Palace politics all in one. This is the 3rd series by this author licensed by CIW.

They’ve also got The Dragon’s Soulmate is a Mushroom Princess! 3 and Revolutionary Reprise of the Blue Rose Princess 2.

Lastly, no print light novels from Airship, but they do have an early digital: Loner Life in Another World 7.

Sic Transit August. All manga must pass.

The Manga Review: The Dog Days of August

by Leave a Comment

Pour one out for Comic Book Resources: on Wednesday, a staff member hijacked CBR’s official Twitter feed to decry parent company Valnet for firing editorial staff and abandoning the site’s commitment to in-depth reporting and thoughtful criticism. Heidi MacDonald has the details. In other news, Kadakowa’s recent efforts to remove pirate manga apps from Apple and Google went unheeded, so the publisher is taking steps to find out who created those apps… the production of Susumu Higa’s Okinawa was delayed after the original printer demanded editorial changes to the book… the live-action version of Rohan at the Louvre arrives on Amazon Prime next month… Titan Manga has rescued Speed Grapher from publishing limbo… ABLAZE announced its fall 2023 publishing plans… Harta will publish the final chapter of Delicious in Dungeon next month… Yuki Kaku has collaborated with Givenchy on a one-shot story for UOMO magazine… and Nami Sano, the creator of Haven’t You Heard? I’m Sakamoto passed away at age 36.

AROUND THE WEB

Marion Pena sits down with former NBA player Johnny O’Bryant to discuss his latest venture: Noir Caesar. The company just released two news series, XOGENASYS and Primus7, and has several other projects in development, including an adaptation of Osamu Tezuka’s Alabaster and a live-action version of Me and the Devil Blues. [The Beat]

In the latest installment of My Fave Is Problematic, Rebecca Fleeman puts JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure under the microscope, noting the degree to which the series often conflates queerness with villainy. [Anime Feminist]

Anime Feminist polls its readers for the best beginner yuri manga. [Anime Feminist]

Jon Holt and Saki Hirozane translate manga scholar’s Hiroshi Miyamoto’s essay on Happy Mania. [The Comics Journal]

Job alert: VIZ Media is hiring two manga editors. N.B. to prospective job seekers: you must be willing to relocate to the Bay Area. [VIZ MEDIA]

Cat nip for translators—that’s how Jocelyne Allen describes Smoke Blue, a “a bewildering and yet entirely satisfying mix of translation tips and hot guys getting hot and heavy.” [Brain vs. Book]

Masha Zhdanova weighs in on three recent VIZ releases: My Special One, Akane-banashi, and Cat-Eyed Boy. [WWAC]

Kara Dennison offers a helpful list of swoon-worthy shojo manga you can read on the VIZ app. [Otaku USA]

Trevor Van As explains what why Junji Ito is a “master of the genre,” capable of producing “imaginative, visceral” stories filled with “shocking concepts” that stay with you long after you finish reading. [How to Love Comics]

That Manga Hunter sifts through the VIZ Signature catalog in search of good manga for older readers. “If you’re looking for alternative manga, mature non-smut manga, and manga intended for adults, then Viz Signature isn’t a bad place to start,” they opine. “The imprint contains series from a wide range of manga of various art styles and genres. If you’re coming from American comics and graphic novels, of superhero origin or otherwise, this is also the imprint for you.” [That Manga Hunter]

LISTENING IN

Join the Mangasplainers for an in-depth conversation about Pluto: Urasawa X Tezuka, Naoki Urasawa’s re-telling of the classic Astro Boy story “The Greatest Robot on Earth.” [Mangasplaining]

The Manga Machinations gang just finished a three-part series on Tatsuki Fujimoto’s breakthrough series Fire Punch. [Manga Machinations]

For spoiler-free commentary on Kyoko Okazaki’s River’s Edge, tune in to the Spiraken Review. [Spiraken Review Podcast]

Alain and Kate highlight Mermaid Scales and the Town of Sand in their first-ever Manga of the Month podcast. [Reverse Thieves]

Gee and Ray unpack Moto Hagio’s groundbreaking boys’ love saga The Heart of Thomas. [Read Right to Left]

Which manga did Andy and Elliot dub “Salaryman Cardcaptor Sakura“? Find out on the most recent episode of Screentone Club! [Screentone Club]

In the latest installment of Manga In Your Ears, Kory, Apryll, and Helen compare notes on Mizuno and Chayama and What Did You Eat Yesterday? [Taiiku Podcast]

REVIEWS

Paging Mushishi fans! This week’s must-read review comes from OASG contributor Helen, who shines a light on When a Cat Faces West, an overlooked gem from Yuki Urushibara. “When a Cat Faces West is a lovely, quiet series about supernatural happenings and the myriad ways that they can be both harmless and deeply unsettling,” Helen notes. “I never felt like the series crossed the line into soft horror but it’s definitely ‘softly unsettling’ at points… a difficult mood to pull off well but it does so splendidly.”

Shall we gather at the river? TCJ posts two reviews of Kyoko Okazaki’s River’s Edge: one by Helen Chazan, and one by Brian Nicholson, while WWAC contributor Kathryn Hemmann offers their own insight into the story’s “gritty millennial malaise”… Johanna Draper Carlson sings the praises of Why I Adopted My Husband… Megan D. revisits Kia Asamiya’sSilent Möbius… and Rebecca Silverman reviews Nazuna Saito’s Offshore Lightning, calling it “one of those books that you find yourself thinking about long after you’ve finished reading it.”

New and Noteworthy

Complete, OOP, and Ongoing Series

Manga the Week of 8/23/23

by , , and 1 Comment

SEAN: August is a very long month.

ASH: That way even more releases can be fit in.

SEAN: We start with Airship’s print releases: Loner Life in Another World 6 and The Most Heretical Last Boss Queen: From Villainess to Savior 4.

And for early digital they have Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation 24.

Fantagraphics has Okinawa, a title that explores the history of the island and its military occupation. It’s likely to be fairly grim, but absolutely worth your time. It’s also about 550 pages, so good value for money.

ASH: I’ve been waiting for this release a very long time.

SEAN: From Ghost Ship we see 2.5 Dimensional Seduction 7 and Creature Girls: A Hands-On Field Journal in Another World 8.

Two digital debuts for J-Novel Club. The Greatest Magician’s Ultimate Quest: I Woke from a 300 Year Slumber to a World of Disappointment (Majutsu no Hate o Motomeru Dai Majutsushi: Madō o Kiwameta Ore ga Sanhyakunengo no Gijutsu Kakushin o Kitai Shite Tensei Shitara, Kanashiku Naruhodo Taika Shiteita……) is another wordy title. If you read Reborn to Master the Blade but wished it was grimdark and focused on a guy, this may be for you.

I’m Not the Hero! (Shujinkou ja Nai!) is another isekai, and is for people who read Banished from the Hero’s Party and thought “could I get that but with less sickening romance?”.

Also available next week: the 3rd Endo and Kobayashi Live! The Latest on Tsundere Villainess Lieselotte manga, Haibara’s Teenage New Game+ 4, I’ll Never Set Foot in That House Again! 6, Magic Stone Gourmet: Eating Magical Power Made Me The Strongest 2, Making Magic: The Sweet Life of a Witch Who Knows an Infinite MP Loophole 4, the 2nd Now I’m a Demon Lord! Happily Ever After with Monster Girls in My Dungeon manga, and Otherside Picnic 8. That last one excites me more than all the others put together.

ASH: I’m behind in reading it, but likewise!

SEAN: From Kodansha Manga. If you love Wotakoi and want more of it, good news! There’s an artbook! Wotakoi: Love Is Hard for Otaku Official Art Works is 120 pages of lovely art from this office otaku romcom.

ASH: Oh, nice!

SEAN: Also out in print: BAKEMONOGATARI 19, Blood on the Tracks 14, the 2nd Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro Manga Box Set, which has Vol. 7-12, Land of the Lustrous 12, Parasyte Full Color Collection 3, Rent-A-Girlfriend 20, and Something’s Wrong With Us 16.

ASH: Land of the Lustrous is always visually striking; it feels like it’s been a while since the previous volume was released.

SEAN: Digitally we see Boss Bride Days 8, Even Given the Worthless “Appraiser” Class, I’m Actually the Strongest 8, Gamaran: Shura 11, Hozuki’s Coolheadedness 15, Koigakubo-kun Stole My First Time 5, and My Home Hero 7.

One Peace Books has The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic 3.

Seven Seas’ danmei arm has Thousand Autumns: Qian Qiu 2.

And for Seven Seas proper we see Classroom of the Elite 7, Dance in the Vampire Bund: Age of Scarlet Order 9, The Ideal Sponger Life 14, Magic Artisan Dahlia Wilts No More 5, My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! 8, My Stepmother and Stepsisters Aren’t Wicked 2, and Sorry For My Familiar 11 (the final volume).

Square Enix Manga has Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?! 8, Otherside Picnic 6 (a double Otherside Picnic week!), and Ragna Crimson 10.

MICHELLE: Yay Cherry Magic!.

SEAN: Viz debuts Cat-Eyed Boy: The Perfect Edition, a bells-and-whistles re-release of the horror title that originally came out in English in 2008.

ASH: Glad to see this manga coming back into print.

SEAN: And there’s also The Art of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Anime, because too much Demon Slayer is never enough.

And we also have JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Part 5–Golden Wind 9.

ASH: I’ve managed to fall behind reading JoJo, but I’m still collecting it.

SEAN: Hooray, we’re done!… oh, wait Yen. We’re barely halfway.

ASH: This is why August must be so long.

SEAN: Yen On debuts Kunon the Sorcerer Can See (Majutsushi Kunon wa Miete Iru), the story of a blind magic-user who wants to use magic to create eyes for himself.

The other debut is Sentenced to Be a Hero: The Prison Records of Penal Hero Unit 9004 (Yuusha-kei ni Shosu – Choubatsu Yuusha 9004-tai Keimu Kiroku). The worst criminals become soldiers battling the demon army, forever getting killed and revived. Can our protagonist change that? The cover artist has been taking lessons from Accel World.

Also from Yen On: Accel World 26 (see?), Bride of the Barrier Master 2, Cross-Dressing Villainess Cecilia Sylvie 5, The Detective Is Already Dead 6, Hollow Regalia 2, I Got a Cheat Skill in Another World and Became Unrivaled in the Real World, Too 3, The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady 5, The Princess of Convenient Plot Devices 3, Sasaki and Miyano: Second-Years 2, Spice & Wolf 24, Spy Classroom 6, Sword Art Online 27, and That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime 16.

Manga debuts from Yen Press. After We Gazed at the Starry Sky (Hoshizora wo Mitsumeta Sono Ato de) is a BL title from Comic Fleur. The story of a famous photographer and his biggest fan, who meets him by chance at an event, is apparently very sweet, and also has one protagonist who uses a wheelchair, so FYI for those who watch for this.

MICHELLE: Oh this sounds potentially lovely!

ASH: It does!

ANNA: I’m interested.

SEAN: I Don’t Know Which Is Love (Dore ga Koi Ka ga Wakaranai) is a comedic yuri title from Comic Cune. Mei, rejected by the girl she loves in high school, is determined to get a girlfriend in college. Good news: she does! Bad news: there may be too many suitors, in fact…

ASH: Comedic yuri can sometimes be fun.

SEAN: I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level Spin-off: The Red Dragon Academy for Girls (Slime Taoshite 300-nen, Shiranai Uchi ni Level Max ni Nattemashita – Spin-off: Red Dragon Jogakuin) is the manga adaptation of the stories that run in the back of the most recent Killing Slimes light novels, showing Laika’s school years before she meets Azusa. It runs in Manga Up!.

Not-Sew-Wicked Stepmom is a webtoon based on a Korean villainess book. Our heroine dies and is reincarnated as the Evil Queen. Will she be able to dote on her adorable daughter, despite everyone thinking she’s evil (because she was until her memories came back)?

ASH: That title has to be a pun, right?

SEAN: Touge Oni: Primal Gods in Ancient Times comes from Enterbrain’s Harta, and fans of manga know this is a good thing. An orphan destined to be sacrificed meets a monk, and her fate is changed.

ASH: Count me curious, for sure!

SEAN: Also from Yen: A Business Proposal 2, A Certain Magical Index 27, The Demon Sword Master of Excalibur Academy 3, Durarara!! RE;DOLLARS Arc 8, Honey Lemon Soda 3, I’m a Behemoth, an S-Ranked Monster, but Mistaken for a Cat, I Live as an Elf Girl’s Pet 7, In the Land of Leadale 4, Interspecies Reviewers 8, Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? On the Side: Sword Oratoria 20, Let This Grieving Soul Retire 6, The Maid I Hired Recently Is Mysterious 6, MonsTABOO 4 (the final volume), [Oshi No Ko] 3, Puella Magi Madoka Magica: The Movie -Rebellion-: The Complete Omnibus Edition, Reign of the Seven Spellblades 6, The Saga of Tanya the Evil 20, Slasher Maidens 8, Solo Leveling 7, Studio Apartment, Good Lighting, Angel Included 3, Sunbeams in the Sky 2, Tsubaki-chou Lonely Planet 4, Villains Are Destined to Die 4, What This World Is Made Of 2, Yokohama Station SF 2, and Yowamushi Pedal 23.

MICHELLE: I need to catch up on Tsubaki-chou and Yowamushi Pedal!

ANNA: Me too!

SEAN: Yup, that was a lot. What are you picking up?

The Manga Review: I Had a VIZion of Love

by Leave a Comment

The July sales numbers are in, and VIZ rules the roost once again, occupying sixteen of the top twenty slots on the Circana Bookscan Top Manga Graphic Novel List. While the list is mainly comprised of long-standing favorites–Jujitsu Kaisen, Spy X Family, One Piece–there are new entries, including Tatsuki Fujimoto’s Goodbye, Eri and Yana Taboso’s Disney Twisted-Wonderland. Manga sales on the whole, however, have been down this year, a point acknowledged by VIZ’s Kevin Hamric in a recent interview with ICv2. “The entire book industry in the US is down 3.2 percent right now,” he noted. Manga, in particular, “is down 23 percent. That’s BookScan numbers; that’s right for what they track.” Nonetheless, he remained optimistic: “If things continue like this,” Hamric explained, “it’ll still end up being the third‑best year on record.”

In other news, Cat + Gamer and Shuna’s Journey are among the titles vying for this year’s Harvey Awards in the Best Manga category… Azuki has teamed up with One Peace Books to release 23 series online… The Promised Neverland may be over, but it’s still selling briskly, with more than 40 million volumes in circulation… Otaku USA has a preview of Ryo Sumiyoshi’s Centaurs… Japanese fans reacted more positively to Netflix’s One Piece trailer than their American counterparts…and speaking of One Piece, Eiichiro Oda reportedly insisted that Netflix showrunners not alter any of the principal cast’s backstories. One Piece begins streaming on August 31st.

REVIEWS

The folks at Otaku USA have been busy: Kara Dennison explains what makes Shojo Null so compelling, while her colleague Danica Davidson reviews Offshore Lightning, Horror at Doll’s Village, and Villainess Level 99. Elsewhere on the web, Grant Jones gives Wolverine: SNIKT! a C+… Renee Scott “can’t recommend Akane-banashi enough” to readers of all ages… and That Manga Hunter offers an in-depth review of Prince Freya.

New and Noteworthy

Complete, OOP, and Ongoing Series

Manga the Week of 8/16/23

by , , and Leave a Comment

SEAN: Are these dog days? I think they’re dog days.

ASH: Seems like!

SEAN: Viz debuts Heart Gear, a new Signature title that runs in Shonen Jump +. Girl and robot try to survive in a future dystopia, but are beset by evil robot.

ASH: Signature, dystopia, and robots? Sounds like something I would read.

ANNA: I’m curious!

SEAN: Also from Viz: Children of the Whales 22, Choujin X 3, Jujutsu Kaisen 20, Love’s in Sight! 3, Mission: Yozakura Family 6, Rooster Fighter 4, The Way of the Househusband 10, and Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead 11.

ASH: I really need to catch up with The Way of the Househusband.

SEAN: Debuting from Tokyopop is Dead Company. Do you ever wish we brought back those manga where teenagers killed each other while wearing creepy rabbit masks? Good news! This ran in Comic Boost, which may be why it’s Tokyopop and not Yen Press.

MICHELLE: Snerk.

SEAN: Also from Tokyopop: I Was Reincarnated as the Villainess in an Otome Game but the Boys Love Me Anyway! 4, If My Favorite Pop Idol Made It to the Budokan, I Would Die 2, and Ogi’s Summer Break 2.

Square Enix debuts Mr. Villain’s Day Off (Kyuujitsu no Warumono-san), a Gangan Pixiv series. A supervillain turns out to be a totally different person on his day off, going to the zoo or eating ice cream.

Also from Square Enix: The Girl I Like Forgot Her Glasses 5 and The Great Jahy Will Not Be Defeated 6.

No debuts from Seven Seas, but there are new volumes. CANDY AND CIGARETTES 5, How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord 16, I Swear I Won’t Bother You Again! 4, Marmalade Boy: Collector’s Edition 3, and My Wife Has No Emotion 5.

One Peace Books debut Villainess Level 99: I May Be the Hidden Boss But I’m Not the Demon Lord (Akuyaku Reijou Level 99: Watashi wa UraBoss desu ga Maou de wa arimasen), based on the light novel J-Novel Club is releasing already. It runs in B’s Log Comic.

Kodansha Books has a new deluxe Maiden’s Bookshelf release, this time of the classic The Girl Who Became a Fish.

ASH: That one’s for me! I’ve really been liking this series.

SEAN: In print, Kodansha Manga has Medaka Kuroiwa is Impervious to My Charms 2, Orient 16, The Seven Deadly Sins Omnibus 11, The Seven Deadly Sins: Four Knights of the Apocalypse 9, Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun 3, and The Yakuza’s Bias 2.

MICHELLE: Yay, Iruma. And the first volume of The Yakuza’s Bias was pretty fun.

ANNA: I meant to read The Yakuza’s Bias, maybe I will wait for Michelle’s assessment of Volume 2.

SEAN: The digital debut is Issak, written by the creator of Yugo the Negotiator and running in Afternoon. Take a Japanese man, give him a gun, and throw him into the Thirty Years War.

Also digital: The Café Terrace and its Goddesses 9, Gamaran 12, I Guess I Became the Mother of the Great Demon King’s 10 Children in Another World 8, Messiah -CODE EDGE- 3, Nina the Starry Bride 10, and Teppu 2.

ANNA: I was thinking that there wouldn’t be much for me to pick from this week until I saw that Nina the Starry Bride was coming out. Yay!!!!!

SEAN: The digital debut from J-Novel Club is another wordy one: I’m Giving the Disgraced Noble Lady I Rescued a Crash Course in Naughtiness: I’ll Spoil Her with Delicacies and Style to Make Her the Happiest Woman in the World! (Konyaku Haki Sareta Reijō o Hirotta Ore ga, Ikenai Koto o Oshiekomu -Oishi Mono o Tabesasete Oshare o Sasete, Sekai Ichi Shiawase na Shōjo ni Produce!-). This has an anime coming out this fall. Despite the “naughtiness” in the title, it’s rather tame – the “I” in the title merely wishes to feed her delicious food.

ASH: So many words, but yay food?

SEAN: They also have DUNGEON DIVE: Aim for the Deepest Level 4, the 10th manga volume of The Faraway Paladin, Housekeeping Mage from Another World: Making Your Adventures Feel Like Home! 6, The Ideal Sponger Life 13, Make It Stop! I’m Not Strong… It’s Just My Sword! 2, and Safe & Sound in the Arms of an Elite Knight 2.

Ghost Ship has PULSE 4 (mature yuri, so I’ll put it here) and Sundome!! Milky Way 7.

Denpa says that Vampeerz 3 should be out around this time, and lacking any other evidence I’ll slot it here.

And Airship, in print, has I’m the Evil Lord of an Intergalactic Empire! 5 and Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation 23.

And in early digital titles we have Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear 15 and Sword of the Demon Hunter: Kijin Gentōshō 3.

No dogs, but no cats, either. What are you reading?

Manga the Week of 8/9/23

by , , and Leave a Comment

SEAN: Getting geared up for back to school, which manga will you sneakily read behind a textbook… ah hell, it’s all gonna be on tablets now, isn’t it?

ASH: Depending on the students’ acumen, that may actually make things easier!

SEAN: Airship debuts a novel based on a short film, Summer Ghost. It’s a supernatural coming of age story, and you know what that means. Get ready for some dead teenagers.

ASH: That doesn’t seem to be a particularly uncommon theme in manga these days.

Airship also has Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear 14 in print.

There’s also an early digital release of Failure Frame: I Became the Strongest and Annihilated Everything With Low-Level Spells 8.

Fantagraphics has a box set collecting both volumes of Shintaro Kago’s Dementia 21. Recommended for lovers of the weird and disturbing.

ASH: Truly!

ANNA: Alright!

SEAN: And Ghost Ship gives us Rise of the Outlaw Tamer and His S-Rank Cat Girl 2.

It’s print week for J-Novel Club. We see Ascendance of a Bookworm Part 2 Volume 7 (the manga), Infinite Dendrogram 18, and My Friend’s Little Sister Has It In For Me! 8.

The digital debut is the manga version of The Magician Who Rose From Failure (Shikkaku kara Hajimeru Nariagari Madou Shidou!), whose light novel J-Novel Club also releases. It runs in Comic Ride.

J-Novel Club also has Death’s Daughter and the Ebony Blade 5, Full Metal Panic! Short Stories 7, Gushing Over Magical Girls 7, My Daughter Left the Nest and Returned an S-Rank Adventurer 9, Peddler in Another World: I Can Go Back to My World Whenever I Want! 4, and the 2nd manga volume of Peddler in Another World: I Can Go Back to My World Whenever I Want!.

Kaiten Books has a digital release of the 9th manga volume of Loner Life in Another World.

No debuts for Kodansha, but we get some print. Attack on Titan Omnibus 12 (the final volume, until the next repackaging), I’m Standing on a Million Lives 15, Lovesick Ellie 11, Peach Boy Riverside 12, and Quality Assurance in Another World 3.

MICHELLE: Yay Lovesick Ellie!

ASH: I really need to get caught up with that series.

ANNA: Ohh, me too! This is something to look forward to for me.

SEAN: While digitally we see The Fable 17, Gang King 8, Giant Killing 38, Life 2: Giver/Taker 6 (the final volume), Orient 16, The Seven Deadly Sins: Four Knights of the Apocalypse 9, and WIND BREAKER 11.

MICHELLE: Yay Giant Killing!

SEAN: One Peace Books has the 8th volume of the Higehiro manga.

Two debuts from Seven Seas. Delinquent Daddy and Tender Teacher (Motoyan Papa to Hitsuji-sensei) is a BL title from Comic Fleur. A teacher who never manages to confess to the boy he liked in high school now finds that boy is a single father of one of his students.

ASH: Drama!

ANNA: LOL

SEAN: And Summer Ghost: The Complete Manga Collection is the manga version of the short film/novel, I mentioned above. It ran in Tonari no Young Jump.

Also from Seven Seas: Chronicles of an Aristocrat Reborn in Another World 7, The Hidden Dungeon Only I Can Enter 8, The Invisible Man and His Soon-to-Be Wife 2, Last Game 2, Lazy Dungeon Master 5, Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation 17, Yokai Cats 5, and Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou: Deluxe Edition 3.

ASH: Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou is definitely something I’m looking forward to reading.

SEAN: Square Enix has the 9th manga volume of The Apothecary Diaries, the 9th manga volume of By the Grace of the Gods, My Isekai Life 8, and Tokyo Aliens 4.

Steamship has a second volume of The Villainess and the Demon Knight.

From SuBLime we see Megumi & Tsugumi 3 and Yarichin Bitch Club 5.

Viz has the debut of the week with Akane-banashi, a Shonen Jump series about a girl who wants to become a rakugo star, and it’s one of the breakout hits of the last year.

MICHELLE: Interesting!

ASH: This looks really good and I’ve heard great things.

ANNA: Huh, this wasn’t on my radar before, but it sounds interesting.

SEAN: And they also have Komi Can’t Communicate 26, Pokémon: Sword & Shield 7, Show-ha Shoten! 3, and Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle 21.

ANNA: Reminder to myself to read more Sleepy Princess.

ASH: Same! It’s such a fun series.

SEAN: Apologies to Yen Press, because I missed two of their titles last week. The Reformation of the World as Overseen by a Realist Demon King (Realist Maou Niyoru Seiiki Naki Isekai Kaikaku) is a manga based on an unlicensed light novel about a new demon king who decides to win the day by using every dirty trick in the book. It runs in Dengeki Maoh.

And The Misfit of Demon King Academy is one of their “print version of a J-Novel Club light novel” titles.

In titles actually out next week, we see A Certain Magical Index: The Old Testament Omnibus Edition, collecting all 22 of the original Index novels into one 1,664-page book. The “Old Testament” part excited fans, who anticipated a license of the sequel. I would make a joke here, but Yen actually did just license the sequel, so well done!

ASH: That will be quite the tome!

SEAN: And there’s the light novel debut of You Can Have My Back, a BL take on the reincarnation fantasy. A young man recalls his past life (not in Japan, for once) where he was killed by a traitor. Worse, that traitor is still around.

Amazon’s Advanced Search is still broken, so apologies to everything on this I get wrong. What are you getting?

ASH: I remember the days when the advanced search largely worked; I miss them.

ANNA: Alas, boolean logic and advanced filtering options.

The Manga Review: SDCC 2023 Round-Up

by Leave a Comment

Over the last 20 years, SDCC has morphed from a comics-focused show to a pop-cultural behemoth dominated by movie studios and television stars. The ongoing SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes, however, shifted the show’s emphasis back to comics, as many of the big, media-friendly events were scrapped in the weeks leading up to SDCC 2023. Writing for ICv2, Rob Salkowitz described this development as bittersweet. “This year’s San Diego Comic-Con proved that sometimes dreams can come true, even if one person’s dream is another’s nightmare,” he observed. “Despite fears to the contrary that the strikes and Hollywood’s general financial malaise would lead to implosion, SDCC 2023 proved that the industry’s premier event has a path forward even if the world takes a collective step back from the Peak Geek era.” Attendance was robust, dealers reported strong sales, and smaller panels drew bigger crowds, all of which suggest that SDCC, NYCC, and other conventions don’t need A-list actors and blockbuster films to attract fans.

On the manga front, Hayao Miyazaki’s Shuna’s Journey won the Eisner Award for Best US Edition of International Material—Asia, and Junji Ito took home an Inkpot Award for his “contributions to the worlds of comics, science fiction/fantasy, film, television, animation, and fandom services.” Previous Inkpot winners include Rumiko Takahashi and Tite Kubo… the Mangasplainers announced plan to co-publish four new titles with Fantagraphics and UDON Manga… Kodansha unveiled new titles for Spring 2024… ABLAZE licensed Masaaki Nonomiya’s GANNIBAL… Deb Aoki convened her annual Best and Worst Manga panel with Brigid Alverson, Varun Gupta, Siddarth Gupta, Jillian Rudes, and Laura Neuzeth… and speaking of Deb, she gets the last word in our SDCC round-up with Manga Was Marquee at San Diego.

NEWS ROUND-UP

The CBDLF has joined forces with the American Booksellers Association, the Association of American Publishers, and the Author’s Guild to oppose a new law that would require Texas booksellers to use a content ratings system when selling materials to libraries… a Florida woman is suing to have Assassination Classroom removed from high school libraries in Polk County… Hayao Miyazaki’s film The Boy and the Heron will open this year’s Toronto Film Festival… ICv2 names the top ten manga franchises for spring 2023… Brigid Alverson parses the June 2023 Circana Bookscan numbers… Insomniacs After School is entering the final stretch, with just two more chapters to go… George Morikawa’s long-running boxing drama Hajime no Ippo just achieved a new sales milestone… and Otaku USA has previews of two upcoming series: The Poetry of Ran and Tengen Hero Wars.

AROUND THE WEB

If you read nothing else this week, check out Tony Yao’s excellent essay about Kowloon Generic Romance, a series that “starts off as an interesting romance drama” and “becomes an ongoing mystery regarding identity and what it means to live as someone who feels strangely out of place.” Yao’s essay explores the cultural roots of this story, offering a thoughtful reflection on the “persistence of nostalgia” in Hong Kong culture. [Drop-In to Manga]

That Manga Hunter takes a deep dive into the Shojo Beat catalog in search of great josei titles. [That Manga Hunter]

Kara Dennison explains why fantasy fans should read Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End. [Otaku USA]

Researcher Paul DeMerrit-Verrone joins Erica Friedman for an in-depth look at how Japan’s Student Movement (1968-89) influenced the development of shojo and yuri manga. [Yuri Studio]

If you’re a horror buff, be sure to check out Lynzee Loveridge’s interview with Masaaki Nakayama, whose PTSD Radio was nominated for an Eisner Award earlier this year. [ANN]

Slam Dunk fans take note: Aoba no Basuke might just be your new favorite basketball series. [Sports Baka]

School’s in session! Solène Mallet Gauthier and Stephanie Halmhofer dedicate the latest Comics Academe column to SPRIGGAN, “a fun, action-packed mix of archaeology, aliens, and international politics.” [WWAC]

ICYMI: The New York Times recently published a fascinating article on translating manga for English-language audiences, tracing out that history from Epic Comics’ flipped, colorized version of AKIRA through Drawn & Quarterly’s forthcoming edition of Nejishiki. [New York Times]

REVIEWS

Scott Cederlund posts an in-depth reflection on Tatsuki Fujimoto’s Good-Bye, Eri... Sarah reviews The Summer Hikaru Died, one of the year’s most anticipated horror manga… ANN’s Christopher Farris takes Spider-Man: Fake Red for a spin… Otaku USA’s Danica Davidson weighs in on Tokorozawa is 177 cm Tall, a collection of “shojo-ai” stories published by DMP… and Megan D. pronounces The Honor Student at Magic High School a dud.

New and Noteworthy

Complete, OOP, and Ongoing Series

Manga the Week of 8/2/23

by , , and Leave a Comment

SEAN: When the 1st of the month falls on a Tuesday.. STRANGE things happen.

We’ll start with Viz Media. No new titles, but it is August, and that means it’s time for the annual volume! Kaze Hikaru 31 is out. Hang in there kids, just 14 more years to go.

MICHELLE: I can’t believe I actually forgot about this!

ANNA: Yay! Always happy for August when new Kaze Hikaru comes out.

ASH: Same!

SEAN: Viz also has Ayashimon 3, Boruto: Naruto Next Generations 17, Kaguya-sama: Love Is War 26, My Special One 3, Prince Freya 9, Rainbow Days 5, Sakamoto Days 9, World Trigger 25, and Yona of the Dawn 39.

MICHELLE: I desperately need to catch up on Yona.

ANNA: I’m not too far behind on Yona, but need to catch up on Freya.

ASH: I’ve been enjoying both series, but have some catching up to do, too.

SEAN: From Udon we get Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, which is, I’m guessing, a sequel to Persona 4 Arena. It ran in Dengeki Maoh.

Steamship gives us GAME: Between the Suits 4.

Seven Seas has an OEL debut, Amongst Us. No, not that. This LGBT title is a spinoff from a webcomic called Carciphona, and is apparently a modern day AU.

ASH: Oh, I actually have another edition of this one! (Though I haven’t actually read it yet.) Carciphona was a splurge purchase for me at TCAF one year and I enjoyed it, so I’ve been keeping an eye out for the creator’s work.

SEAN: Also from Seven Seas: Backstabbed in a Backwater Dungeon: My Party Tried to Kill Me, But Thanks to an Infinite Gacha I Got LVL 9999 Friends and Am Out For Revenge 2, Crossplay Love: Otaku x Punk 4, The Idaten Deities Know Only Peace 5, The Knight Blooms Behind Castle Walls 3 (the final volume), Lupin III: Thick as Thieves – The Classic Manga Collection (a second “greatest hits” release), Wonder Cat Kyuu-chan 8, and Yakuza Fiancé: Raise wa Tanin ga Ii 4.

ASH: Still glad to see the new edition of Lupin III being released.

SEAN: Two print debuts for Kodansha Manga. Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir is a Shonen Sirius adaptation of the French/Japanese cartoon.

And WIND BREAKER is a print release of the series that’s already coming out digitally.

ASH: Delinquent manga in print!

SEAN: Also in print: As a Reincarnated Aristocrat, I’ll Use My Appraisal Skill to Rise in the World 6, The Heroic Legend of Arslan 18, The Iceblade Sorcerer Shall Rule the World 6, and Tsugumi Project 2. (I swear they’re pushing the print release back a week right after I make these lists, just to make me seem dumb.)

The digital debut is The World is Dancing, a seinen manga from Morning magazine. It’s a semi-fictionalized account of the founder of Noh theater. It looks fantastic, to be honest.

ASH: It may be digital (which I don’t read much of), but this certainly interests me.

SEAN: And we also see Abe-kun’s Got Me Now! 11, Chihayafuru 39, The God-Tier Guardian and the Love of Six Princesses 10, I’m Standing on a Million Lives 15, Life 6, MF Ghost 16, and My Wife is a Little Intimidating 2.

Debuting digitally from J-Novel Club are several titles. La Ragazza: Living with Francesca (Italia-jin no Onnanoko ga Isourou Suru Koto ni Natta) is a manga series from Comic Walker. An illustrator suddenly finds an Italian girl staying… and mooching… at his house.

Only I Know That This World Is a Game (Kono Sekai ga Game dato Ore dake ga Shitte Iru) is a manga based on a (not yet licensed) light novel, and it’s also from Comic Walker. If you like Sword Art Online but thought “I need more of the exact same plot”, good news.

Taking My Reincarnation One Step at a Time: No One Told Me There Would Be Monsters! (Tensei Shōjo wa Mazu Ippo kara Hajimetai: Mamono ga Iru toka Kiitenai!) is a light novel series. A woman who has spent her entire life with an unexplained fatigue is transported to another world by a goddess, in the body of a 10-year-old. Now that she actually has energy and drive, what will she do?

ASH: Huh! I’ve asked myself similar questions…

SEAN: The Troubles of Miss Nicola the Exorcist (Haraiya Reijō Nicola no Komarigoto) is a light novel about a reincarnated young sorcerer girl and her attempts to not get dragged into the life of her annoying childhood friend.

There’s also Backstabbed in a Backwater Dungeon: My Trusted Companions Tried to Kill Me, But Thanks to the Gift of an Unlimited Gacha I Got LVL 9999 Friends and Am Out For Revenge on My Former Party Members and the World 4, Hell Mode 6, Monster Tamer 14, My Friend’s Little Sister Has It In for Me! 10, Perry Rhodan NEO 14, and When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace 7.

Cross Infinite World debuts I’ll Use This Do-over to Become the Ideal Lady’s Maid! (Yarinaoseru Mitai nano de, Kondo Koso Akogare no Jijo wo Mezashimasu!), which is from the writer of Formerly, the Fallen Daughter of the Duke. Yes, we’ve got another girl who’s sent back in time because of her tragic death, and she’s determined to live a different life… as a maid?

ASH: Personally, that wouldn’t be my first choice of careers.

SEAN: Also out from CIW: Expedition Cooking with the Enoch Royal Knights 3, Lovestruck Prince! I’ll Fight the Heroine for My Villainess Fiancée! 2, and The Reincarnated Villainess Won’t Seek Revenge 2.

Airship gives us print editions for 7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy! 4 and The Case Files of Jeweler Richard 5.

And we get early digital of Irina: The Vampire Cosmonaut 6 and Raven of the Inner Palace 3.

July? Or August? You decide!

ASH: I can’t tell what day it is these days, let alone month…

Manga the Week of 7/26/23

by , and Leave a Comment

SEAN: As July sinks slowly in the West, we are faced with its hotter cousin: August.

ASH: How has it already come to this?

SEAN: Airship has a bunch of print light novels. We get Didn’t I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?! 16, Modern Villainess: It’s Not Easy Building a Corporate Empire Before the Crash 3, She Professed Herself Pupil of the Wise Man 8, and Sword of the Demon Hunter: Kijin Gentōshō 2.

ASH: A good reminder that I’ve been meaning to give the first volume of Sword of the Demon Hunter a try.

SEAN: And there’s early digital for There’s No Freaking Way I’ll be Your Lover! Unless… 2 and The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick Up Trash 4.

Denpa Books has the 2nd volume of Baby Bear’s Bakery.

Not Ghost Ship, but probably should be, we get Asumi-chan is Interested in Lesbian Brothels! 3. Ayakashi Triangle 4 and SUPER HXEROS 11 definitely ARE Ghost Ship.

ASH: I would not have been surprised to find Asumi-chan is Interested in Lesbian Brothels! in the Ghost Ship catalog.

SEAN: One digital light novel debut from J-Novel Club: You Like Me, Not My Daughter?! (Musume Janakute, Watashi ga Suki Nano!?) is from the creator of When Supernatural Battles Become Commonplace. A young single mother raising the child of her late sister finds that, now that he’s in college, her daughter’s childhood friend has feelings. Wait, for HER?! For lovers of age-gap romance in a comedic vein.

And there’s Ascendance of a Bookworm 26, I Surrendered My Sword for a New Life as a Mage 3, The Invincible Little Lady 3, The Mythical Hero’s Otherworld Chronicles 4, Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up 2, Reincarnated Mage with Inferior Eyes: Breezing through the Future as an Oppressed Ex-Hero 3, and the 9th manga volume of Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles.

ASH: Obligatory cry of “Bookworm!”

SEAN: Kodansha Books has the 3rd volume of Am I Actually the Strongest?, whose anime is currently delighting hard-core isekai fans.

Kodansha Manga debuts Seraph of the End: Guren Ichinose: Catastrophe at Sixteen (Owari no Seraph: Ichinose Guren, 16-sai no Catastrophe), an adaptation from Weekly Shonen Magazine of the light novel that was put out by Vertical, which is a prequel to the original manga, which runs in Jump Square. This manga’s past is kudzu. It’s also an omnibus of the first two volumes.

Also in print: Am I Actually the Strongest? 4, Fire Force Omnibus 5, In the Clear Moonlit Dusk 5, That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime 22, and What Did You Eat Yesterday? 20.

MICHELLE: I’m always here for more What Did You Eat Yesterday?.

ASH: Same!

SEAN: For digital releases, we get Am I Actually the Strongest? 8, And Yet, You Are So Sweet 8, As a Reincarnated Aristocrat, I’ll Use My Appraisal Skill to Rise in the World 6, Boss Bride Days 7, A Couple of Cuckoos 12, DAYS 36, Elegant Yokai Apartment Life 26, Gamaran: Shura 10, The Heroic Legend of Arslan 18, The Iceblade Sorcerer Shall Rule the World 6, My Home Hero 6, ONIMAI: I’m Now Your Sister! 7, and Saint Cecilia and Pastor Lawrence 11.

ASH: I had momentarily forgotten about The Heroic Legend of Arslan despite enjoying earlier volumes.

SEAN: One Peace Books has the third volume of Captain Corinth.

Seven Seas debuts a new danmei novel, Stars of Chaos: Sha Po Lang. Steampunk BL! A young man living in an impoverished village finds his whole life has been a lie! This is from the creator of Guardian, also due out soon.

MICHELLE: Definitely into this but Guardian more so, admittedly.

ASH: Adding them both to my TBR list!

SEAN: Also from Seven Seas: Drugstore in Another World: The Slow Life of a Cheat Pharmacist 7, The Duke of Death and His Maid 7, I’m a Wolf, but My Boss is a Sheep! 3, LES MISÉRABLES Omnibus 3, and Precarious Woman Executive Miss Black General 9.

From Square Enix we see Beauty and the Feast 9, Soul Eater: The Perfect Edition 11, and Suppose a Kid from the Last Dungeon Boonies Moved to a Starter Town 9.

Tokyopop has Formerly, the Fallen Daughter of the Duke 4, The Fox & Little Tanuki 6 and the 2nd and final volume of My Dear Agent.

From Viz: Chainsaw Man: Buddy Stories is a prose short story collection based on the popular manga.

Soichi: Junji Ito Story Collection (Souichi no Katte na Noroi) is another series of horror stories that ran in Nemuki about 20 years ago.

ASH: I recently mentioned that I was glad we were getting more horror manga beyond Ito’s oeuvre, but I’m not going to say no to more Ito, either.

SEAN: The Way of the Househusband: The Gangster’s Guide to Housekeeping is a guidebook that gives you recipes, helpful hints, etc. Seems to be by Western writers with the blessing of the manga artist.

ASH: Oh, that’s interesting.

SEAN: And Viz also has How Do We Relationship? 9.

ASH: I really need to get caught up with this series.

SEAN: And some stragglers from Yen to close us out. Yen On has Banished from the Hero’s Party, I Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside 9 and Secrets of the Silent Witch 4.

And from Yen Press, the 13th and final volume of High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even in Another World!.

Definitely less manga than the week before last! What are you getting?