Features

SEAN: There are 9 or 10 debuts this week and half of them are from Seven Seas. Hrm… how about a reverse order week?

Yen Press gives us an artbook, as we see The Art of Sword Oratoria, presumably lacking the title of its parent series to save space on the cover. Enjoy gorgeous art of Aiz, Loki, Lefiya and the rest from the LN illustrator, along with rough sketches and the like.

ASH: I’m not particularly familiar with the series, but Yen has done a really nice job with previous artbooks.

MJ: That is my take as well.

SEAN: Also from Yen we have Trinity Seven 18, My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong As I Expected (manga version) 12, and The Monster and the Beast 2.

MICHELLE: I’m looking forward to more of The Monster and the Beast.

ASH: Yup! Me, too!

SEAN: Yen On debuts Weathering With You, the latest Makoto Shinkai book based on an anime film. Lately he’s been less depressing. Can he keep it up?

ASH: We shall see!

MJ: Count me in!

Yen On also has KonoSuba 10, The Devil Is a Part-Timer! 15, A Certain Magical Index 21, and Accel World 20. All these series are so long lately!

Viz has No Longer Human. This classic of Japanese literature has seen releases here before… even other manga adaptations. This one, though, is by Junji Ito, and is a 600-page hardcover brick. Get it for Christmas and wallow in it.

ASH: This is one of my most anticipated releases of the year. No Longer Human is a touchstone work for me and I am a big fan of Ito’s manga, so I’m really looking forward to seeing his take.

MJ: I somehow missed that this was coming, and now I’m very excited!

For Manga Bookshelf folks, we also get the yearly Ooku: The Inner Chambers, Vol. 16. And there’s Tokyo Ghoul;re 14, Terra Formars 22, Golden Kamuy 13, and the 20th Century Boys Perfect Edition 6.

MICHELLE: I will never not love Ooku.

ASH: It’s true. Glad for more Golden Kamuy, too!

MJ: What Michelle said!

SEAN: Vertical has the 2nd Monogatari Series Box Set, containing the 6 books of the 2nd “season”, as well as the 3rd Go with the Clouds, North-by-Northwest.

OK, Seven Seas. Let’s go down the debuts one by one. First, the manga version of Reincarnated As a Sword debuts.

Our Dining Table (Bokura no Shokutaku) is a one-volume BL manga from Gentosha’s Rutile, about a salaryman who one day meets two brothers – one his age, one a little kid – and teaches them to make food. Love might follow! This looks sweet.

MICHELLE: Super sweet. I’m very much looking forward to this one!

ASH: Yes! This manga is catered to my tastes.

ANNA: This sounds cute.

MJ: Oh, how lovely.

SEAN: My Father Is a Unicorn (Unicorn Otousan) is not, as far as I know, related to My Bride Is a Mermaid. Its title is its premise (stepfather, of course), and it ran in Frontier Works’ Hug Pixiv.

ASH: This sounds delightfully ridiculous; I plan on picking it up.

SEAN: Gal Gohan I just reviewed here. It’s a cute but ecchi series about a gal who falls for her teacher and the cooking class they do together. It runs in Hakusensha’s Young Animal.

ASH: Hmmm. I do like food-related manga…

Dirty Pair Omnibus (Dirty Pair no Daibouken) is a manga adaptation of the classic novel, but with updated character designs that remind me a bit of Adam Warren. Very appropriate, that. It ran in Tokuma Shoten’s Comic Ryu.

ASH: I’m hoping the original might be licensed at some point, but this adaptation might not be a bad place to start.

SEAN: Bloom Into You is a very popular yuri series, to the point where we’re actually getting the light novels based off of it. They focus on Sayaka, and the first is out digitally next week and in print later in 2020.

Also, Seven Seas has the fourth and final volume of Our Dreams at Dusk, which should be on everyone’s manga of the year shortlist.

MICHELLE: Maybe I will really succeed in reading this series soon!

ASH: It is such a good series.

ANNA: We are getting it at my library!

MJ: I can’t believe I haven’t gotten around to reading this, but that’s where we are. I must fix that!

SEAN: And we get Monster Musume 15 and Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid: Kanna’s Daily Life 6.

One Peace has a 15th Rising of the Shield Hero light novel.

Kodansha has two print debuts next week. Saint Young Men is well-known, of course, and finally hitting our shores. Drifting Dragons is slightly less well-known, but, I mean, it’s filled with dragons. Both have already come out digitally.

MICHELLE: I’m happy to see Saint Young Men is getting a print release with, so far, no uproar.

ASH: I am so excited for a print edition of Saint Young Men! I’m very curious about Drifting Dragons, too.

ANNA: I preordered the print version of Saint Young Men right when it was announced.

MJ: I’m so ready for Saint Young Men!

SEAN: Also in print: Vinland Saga 11, To Your Eternity 11, O Maidens in Your Savage Season 5, and Again!! 12, which is the final volume.

MICHELLE: Again!! can be frustrating, in that it doesn’t always follow heartwarming sports manga beats, but when it pays off, it sure pays off. I’m looking forward to seeing how this manifests in the final volume.

ASH: Hooo! That’s a lot of really good stuff coming out from Kodansha! I’m reading all of these.

ANNA: I really need to catch up on Again!!. Also excited for more Vinland Saga.

SEAN: Debuting digitally next week is Watari-kun’s ****** Is about to Collapse (Watari-kun no xx ga Houkai Sunzen), a Young Magazine series which shows that digital-only can license seinen trash just as much as josei trash, I guess.

MICHELLE: *snerk*

SEAN: There’s also Shojo FIGHT! 8, Saint Young Men 4 digitally, Peach Girl NEXT 7, My Boss’s Kitten 3, and Are You Lost? 5.

MICHELLE: Shojo FIGHT! for the win!

SEAN: J-Novel Club has Banner of the Stars debut, the sequel to Crest of the Stars. We also get an 8th Lazy Dungeon Master.

Ghost Ship gives us World’s End Harem 7 and To-Love-Ru Darkness 13.

Dark Horse has a 6th volume of Drifters.

ASH: Oh! It’s been a while since I’ve read Drifters. Granted, there was a long break between the releases of some of the volumes. I’ll need to do a little catching up.

SEAN: Lastly, Cross Infinite World has the 2nd in the I Became the Secretary of a Hero! light novel series.

Lots of potential presents here. Anything catch your eye?

SEAN: Are you ready for another big list of things? Of course you are, that’s why we’re here. Will it be accurate or will books get delayed at the last minute? Again?

We’ll try this again: Dark Horse has the 3rd Emanon. They also have the 4th Gantz omnibus.

ASH: I still need to read the second volume of Emanon, but I really liked the first.

SEAN: Denpa Books debuts (no, really, it’s finally here, I saw it at Anime NYC) Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji (Tobaku Mokushiroku Kaiji). This classic title is being offered as a gorgeous omnibus which will literally cut your fingers on the chin of the main character. OK< not really. But it does look great. It ran in Young Magazine, and is filled with smart people making bad choices.

MICHELLE: The Amazon blurb promises “a world of debt, debauchery, and delusion,” which is somewhat intriguing, if not uplifting.

ANNA: It does sound intriguing.

ASH: I am very excited to get my hands on this! (I actually saw it last week at a bookstore in the wild; I should have just picked it up then.)

MJ: I mean “smart people making bad choices” is really all the hook I need.

SEAN: Ghost Ship gives us To-Love-Ru 17-18.

J-Novel Club has the 2nd manga volume of The Master of Ragnarok and Blesser of Einherjar.

But, more importantly, they have the 2nd volume of Sexiled: My Sexist Party Leader Kicked Me Out, So I Teamed Up With a Mythical Sorceress!. Come read more of the light novel that took the internet by storm.

ASH: I’m thrilled that it was recently announced that this series will eventually be released in print, too, which means I’ll actually read it!

SEAN: Kodansha has, last I checked, print volumes of Boarding School Juliet 9, Eden’s Zero 5, Granblue Fantasy 2, Kiss Me at the Stroke of Midnight 10, Missions of Love 19, and Yuri Is My Job! 5. Missions of Love is a final volume. I’ll miss its soap operaness.

ASH: I’ve fallen behind with Missions of Love, but it really is a marvelously melodramatic series.

SEAN: Digitally the debut is Ex-Enthusiasts: Motokare Mania, a josei title from Kiss about a girl obsessed with her ex-boyfriend. Seems on the comedy side.

MICHELLE: So much digital josei these days!

ANNA: Honestly, I can’t keep track.

SEAN: And also 1122: For a Happy Marriage 2, AICO Incarnation 3, All Out!! 11, and Farewell My Dear Cramer 5.

One Peace has a 12th manga volume of The Rising of the Shield Hero.

Seven Seas has a double dose of Arifureta. The 7th novel comes out in print, and we also get Arifureta: I Love Isekai!, the gag comic spinoff.

There’s also Dragon Quest Monsters + 5, the print version of How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom 5, The Ideal Sponger Life 4, and Plus-Sized Elf 4.

SuBLime has Seven Days: Monday-Sunday, an omnibus re-release of the title DMP put out ages ago. It ran in Craft magazine, which is not about knitwear.

MICHELLE: I remember MJreally loved this one but I didn’t get around to reading it. I will seize this chance!

ANNA: Aww, I was really hoping for knitwear manga.

ASH: I can think of at least one knitting manga off the top of my head that I would loved to see licensed someday. In the meantime, I’m very happy that Seven Days was rescued and is being brought back into print!

MJ: I was SO excited to note that this was coming out again! I loved it back in its DMP days and I’m not sure I ever got to read its second volume, so this omnibus release is very much welcome!

SEAN: They also have Candy Color Paradox 4.

Vertical gives us a 2nd volume of The Golden Sheep, which reminds me I have been avoiding the first volume and its no doubt incredibly melancholy realism.

MICHELLE: I liked it, for what it’s worth. There’s hope at the end of it.

ANNA: This reminds me that I bought and have not read the first volume.

SEAN: Viz gives us some comedy with Komi Can’t Communicate 4 and Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle 10.

Lastly, Yen On has a 5th WorldEnd light novel, which is the final volume, though there are short story collections and a sequel series. In addition, Yen Press has the 9th volume of the 3rd Re: Zero arc.

Assuming no release dates change at the last minute, what are you getting next week?

SEAN: Last month of the year. Gotta squeeze in all the manga and novels you can.

SEAN: J-Novel Club has a bunch of stuff, mostly print. We get print versions of An Archdemon’s Dilemma 2 (the novel) and a digital version of the same (only it’s the manga). Adventures of a Bookworm also gets a 2nd digital manga. Cooking with Wild Game has a 5th novel digitally. How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord has print (7) and digital (11) novels, which may catch us up with Japan. There’s print Vol. 6 of If It’s for My Daughter, etcetc., Etc. Smartphone, and the Magic etc. Is Too Far Behind 6. (Look, it’s hard to type those all out.) We get the print debut of the Marginal Operation manga, and the 10th Master of Ragnarok and Blesser of Einherjar novel digitally. I’m sure that paragraph makes total sense.

ASH: It makes me so happy that J-Novel Club releases print editions. (Still hoping for Faraway Paladin one of these days…)

SEAN: In print, Kodansha has Attack on Titan 29 and L*DK 14.

The digital debut is To Write Your Words (Kuchiutsusu), a josei manga from Kiss about an author who is great at platonic stories asked to being write something more sexual. She ends up getting help from… a dentist?

MICHELLE: As you do.

ANNA: That sounds hilarious, but I can’t keep track of all the digital manga!

MJ: I mean, that sounds great.

SEAN: There’s also Drifting Dragons 5, My Sweet Girl 9, Our Fake Marriage 2, Smile Down the Runway 4, and The Tale of Genji: Dreams at Down 9. There’s also digital debuts for the Satoshi Kon titles Dream Fossil and Tropic of the Sea, which came out a few years ago.

Seven Seas debuts PENGUINDRUM (Mawaru Penguindrum), a manga adaptation of the famous anime. It ran in Comic Birz.

ASH: Curious to see how the adaptation plays out since sometimes manga based on Ikuhara’s works can be dramatically different than their anime counterparts.

SEAN: They also have Harukana Receive 5, Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka 8, and a digital edition of the 4th Reincarnated As a Sword.

Tokyopop has a 4th Aria the Masterpiece omnibus and the 3rd Hanger.

Vertical has a gorgeous omnibus 20th Anniversary Edition of Paradise Kiss, which does admittedly remind me it’s also the 20th anniversary of fans begging for Neighborhood Story to be licensed.

MICHELLE: Yep.

ANNA: I would like to beg for Neighborhood Story! I have already bought Paradise Kiss two times, so I will probably not be getting this but it is great for those who haven’t already read the series.

ASH: Paradise Kiss is really, really good. Glad to see it’s being kept in print.

MJ: What everyone else has said so far! We need all the Ai Yazawa we can get, in whatever form it happens to appear.

SEAN: Viz has its usual pile. Debuting is Jujutsu Kaisen, a new Shonen Jump series that starts with a boy eating a finger and only gets weirder from there. For dark fantasy adventure fans.

MICHELLE: Urg. I was somewhat intrigued by this but finger-eating is pretty dang gross.

ANNA: Huh. I am curious although finger-eating does give me pause.

ASH: The cover of the first volume gives me Parasyte vibes, so I’m in, finger-eating and all.

MJ: Count me in.

SEAN: More Jump? Sure. Dragon Ball Super 7, Food Wars! 33, My Hero Academia 22, One Piece’s 30th 3-in-1 (which I think catches it up), One-Punch Man 18, Platinum End 10 (which still amazingly has not killed their careers), and We Never Learn 7.

MICHELLE: Several good things here!

MJ: I have not kept up with Platinum End, and I wonder if I’ve made a mistake.

SEAN: On the Shojo Beat end, we have Ao Haru Ride 8, Queen’s Quality 8, Takane & Hana 12, and Yona of the Dawn 21. Winners, all.

MICHELLE: Indeed, *all* good things, here!

ANNA: Yay!!!!!

ASH: A good week for good shoujo!

MJ: Even I’m reading most of these!

SEAN: Yen has a few titles that drifted into the first week of December. Debuting is You Call That Service?, a light novel series from Yen On from the creator of I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years. It stars a man who winds up in the mountains and meeting a vampire girl. Expect humor.

Also from Yen On is Re: ZERO 11, So I’m a Spider, So What? 7, and Wolf & Parchment 4.

Just two manga from Yen: Happy Sugar Life 3 and KonoSuba’s 9th manga volume.

Have you finished your shopping yet?

SEAN: Happy Thanksgiving! We give thanks for this bounty of manga and light novels.

ASH: We do, indeed.

SEAN: Ghost Ship has a 7th volume of the infamous Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs.

J-Novel Club has two debuts, both digital manga. The first is the manga adaptation of The Faraway Paladin, a favorite series of mine. It runs in Overlap’s Comic Gardo, a magazine that seems to exist so that its novels can get manga adaptations.

MJ: When Sean says “a favorite series of mine” I feel like I should take note!

Sweet Reincarnation (Okashina Tensei) is a seinen manga from TO Books’ Comic Corona, which is to TO Books what Comic Gardo is to Overlap. This is the story of a boy trying to become the strongest in the world… at being a pastry chef!

MICHELLE: Huh! Sounds potentially fun.

ANNA: I will usually enjoy food manga.

ASH: Same!

MJ: Signing up to be hungry as I read, I guess.

SEAN: On the novel front, J-Novel Club has the 8th, and so far final, Amagi Brilliant Park, and the 3rd Record of Wortenia War.

Kodansha has some print releases. First among these is the Magic Knight Rayearth Box Set. This, the first of two planned sets, is a gorgeous hardcover bells and whistles edition of the manga, in larger trim size as well. It has the first three books (i.e. Season 1), which also are getting a digital release.

ANNA: Pondering this. I think I have the old Viz version in the larger size stashed somewhere in my house.

ASH: This is one of the few CLAMP works I actually haven’t read. The set looks really nice.

MJ: Here for this!

SEAN: We also get Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card 6, Fire Force 17, If I Could Reach You 2, and UQ Holder 18.

MICHELLE: I enjoyed the first volume of If I Could Reach You and look forward to reading the second.

SEAN: Digitally we’re getting Altair: A Record of Battles 12, Asahi-sempai’s Favorite 6, Boarding School Juliet 13, DAYS 15, Fairy Tail: Happy’s Heroic Adventure 3, Guilty 2, and A Kiss For Real 9 (the final volume).

Seven Seas has two debuts, which could not be farther apart from each other. One, The Cornered Mouse Dreams of Cheese (Kyuuso wa Cheese no Yume o Miru), is one of the biggest BL titles in recent years, and much awaited. It ran in Shogakukan’s josei magazine Mobafura.

MICHELLE: So excite!

ANNA: Yay!!!

ASH: I’ve been waiting for this series for so long! For a while there, it seemed like it was going to be unlicensable. Very glad Seven Seas was able to come to the rescue.

MJ: This!!!

SEAN: The other is How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift? (Danberu Nan Kiro Moteru?), a shonen title from Shogakukan’s Ura Sunday online magazine, just got an anime series. A girl who wants to lose weight goes to the gym, where she meets a lot of buff guys, but also the student council president, and a hot instructor. I’ve heard it takes its getting in shape quiet seriously.

ASH: I’m actually really curious about this one.

SEAN: Seven Seas also has Blank Canvas 3, the 5th Monster Girl Doctor light novel, and Servamp 13.

ASH: Blank Canvas is SO GOOD. (Granted, just about anything by Akiko Higashimura is… )

SEAN: Udon gives us a 5th Otherworldly Izakaya Nobu.

Vertical has the 3rd omnibus (containing Books 7-9) of Katanagatari: Sword Tale, from Nisioisin.

They also have the 13th Witchcraft Works.

Yen On also has a bunch of titles, though some of these are already out digitally. The debut is The Greatest Demon Lord Is Reborn As a Typical Nobody (Shijou Saikyou no Daimaou, Murabito A ni Tensei Suru). The demon lord reincarnates but lacks a sense of perspective, and does not realize how powerful he is, or how many girls are in love with him, etc.

There’s also Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki 2, The Dirty Way to Destroy the Goddess’ Heroes 2, Do You Love Your Mom (and her Two-Hit, Multi-Target Attacks?) 4, and Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online 5. Light novel titles are long, film at 11.

Yen Press’s manga debut is Seven Little Sons of the Dragon (Ryuu no Kawaii Nanatsu no Ko), a collection of short stories by the creator of Delicious in Dungeon. It ran in Fellows!, so is a must buy.

MICHELLE: Ooh! This hadn’t been on my radar.

ASH: I love Delicious in Dungeon, so I’m really looking forward to reading more by the creator.

SEAN: Ending next week is Kagerou Daze, whose 13th and final volume comes out. For those wondering what do do next, watch/listen to everything in order! The order is 1) songs, 2) manga, 3) light novels, 4) Mekakucity Actors anime.

Also out are Angels of Death Episode.0 3, Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody’s 8th manga volume, For the Kid I Saw in My Dreams 3, The Honor Student at Magic High School 10, Is It Wrong to try To Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon: Familia Chronicle: Lyu’s 5th manga volume, Kakegurui Twin 4, Monster Wrestling: Interspecies Combat Girls 2, and Phantom Tales of the Night 2.

ASH: Ah, that reminds me I haven’t read first volume Phantom Tales of the Night, yet!

SEAN: Assuming you’re not too full of turkey, what are you getting next week?

SEAN: There’s more November to come, and more manga as well.

Bookwalker gives us a 10th volume of The Ryuo’s Work Is Never Done!, which according to LN fans is still the best series that I’ve dropped after reading the first page.

Lots of folks seem to have this already, but Dark Horse gives us a 2nd volume of At the Mountains of Madness, the new H.P. Lovecraft manga adaptation. Expect loss of sanity.

ASH: I’ve not read the source material to know how it compares, but I found the first volume engaging and plan on reading up more.

SEAN: J-Novel Club debuts Altina the Sword Princess, which comes from the pen of How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord’s author, but I will try not to hold that against it. A gorgeous redhead with a big sword teams up with an apathetic soldier who reads a lot of books. Can they change the world?

We also get An Archdemon’s Dilemma 8, the 3rd Arifureta Zero spinoff, and Mixed Bathing in Another Dimension 6, the first new volume of this underrated series in two years.

Debuting from Kodansha is Tales of Berseria, another adaptation of a video game manga.

Also in print is Gleipnir 5, I’m Standing on a Million Lives 4, and The Seven Deadly Sins 35.

Digitally, there’s Cosplay Animal 9 (the first new volume of this series in over a year), Defying Kurosaki-kun 13, Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest 2, My Boss’s Kitten 2, and The Great Cleric 4.

There’s a cliche that the moment a light novel is licensed, some horny LN fan will ask if there’s sex in it. The answer, at least for licensed novels, is almost always no. But good news for horny fans! Sol Press has a new imprint called Panty Press, and they’re debuting the first 18-rated light novel in North America, Busy Wizard: This Warlock Just Wants to Provide for His Wives!. A warlock who’s grown strong in the mountains makes his way towards the imperial capital, but finds young women as he goes along.

ASH: Huh. I somehow missed the news about the new imprint.

MJ: I’m trying to figure out how to react to the name of that imprint. I don’t think it’s a great reaction.

SEAN: Seven Seas has a digital-first debut with Citrus+, the sequel to the popular yuri soap opera. Yuzu and Mei are now openly dating, what comes next?

The fourth Classroom of the Elite light novel also gets its digital-first release.

As for print, no debuts here, but we do get Classroom of the Elite 3 (in print), Generation Witch 5, How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord’s 6th manga volume, My Monster Secret 18, My Next Life As a Villainess! has a 2nd manga volume, Reincarnated As a Sword gets its third LN in print, Shomin Sample 11, and Wonderland 4.

Tokyopop debuts Still Sick, a Mag Garden series about a woman who secretly draws yuri doujinshi and her bright and sunny colleague who finds out.

Udon has the 2nd Stravaganza omnibus, which hopes to be as bananas as the first one was.

ASH: I’ve been meaning to give this series a try; maybe that time has come.

MJ: Same.

SEAN: Vertical debuts Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagotoro (Ijiranaide, Nagatoro-san), which is part of a hot new genre of girls teasing guys (see also Teasing Master Takagi-san and Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out!). Nagotoro seems to be more aggressive about it than those others.

Viz debuts Levius/est, a continuation of the original Levius that changed names when it changes publishers – this runs in Ultra Jump.

ASH: Another manga I’ve been meaning to try! (I’ve apparently got some catching up to do…)

SEAN: They also have BEASTARS 3, Children of the Whales 13, No Guns Life 2, Ran and the Gray World 5, and the 4th Urusei Yatsura omnibus, which is the most important of those. (Look, if you want unbiased release lists, go somewhere else.)

MICHELLE: I need to catch up on BEASTARS.

ASH: The first volume was great! I just got my hands on the second, so hopefully the trend continues.

ANNA: I need to get caught up too!

SEAN: Yen On has the 3rd volume of 86.

Yen Press gives us Bungo Stray Dogs: Another Story, a spinoff manga of the light novel which is a spinoff of the original series.

ASH: That seems appropriately meta.

SEAN: They also have Kemono Friends a la Carte, a manga anthology with lots of cute stories written by various artists.

Lastly, we get Kaiju Girl Caramelise 2 and Teasing Master Takagi-san 6.

See? I told you we’d have more manga. What’s in your wishlist?

SEAN: The manga never stops.

Cross Infinite World has a new title out next week. Of Dragons and Fae: Is a Fairy Tale Ending Possible for the Princess’s Hairstylist? (Kamiyuishi wa Ryuu no Tsugai ni Narimashita (Yappari Machigai Datta Sou Desu)) is a fantasy romance, showing if nothing else that female-oriented titles can have names just as long as the male-oriented ones.

ASH: Ha!

SEAN: Dark Horse gives us the 10th Blade of the Immortal omnibus.

ASH: I’ve got my (out-of-print) single volumes, but the omnibus edition is a great way for people who don’t to collect the series.

SEAN: J-Novel Club has a manga debut next week: The Unwanted Undead Adventurer, based off the light novel series, also out by J-Novel Club.

There’s also a bunch of light novels. Arifureta Zero 3, Ascendance of a Bookworm 4, The Greatest Magicmaster’s Retirement Plan 3, Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash 14+ (note the odd numbering), and Infinite Stratos 10.

Kodansha… does not seem to have a digital debut? Is that possible? They do have 1122: For a Happy Marriage 2, Farewell My Dear Cramer 4, Giant Killing 17, My Boyfriend in Orange 8, Queen Bee 3, Ran the Peerless Beauty 6, Tokyo Revengers 13, and You Got Me Sempai! 7. Yay, Ran!

MICHELLE: I am very excited about more Ran and also more Giant Killing!

SEAN: Lest you forget they do print, there is also Sailor Moon Eternal Edition 6 and Witch Hat Atelier 4. Go get that second one, it’s a must-have.

ASH: It is truly lovely.

ANNA: I adore Witch Hat Atelier.

SEAN: One Peace debuts the manga version of The Reprise of the Spear Hero.

There’s some stuff from Seven Seas. Debuting we see Our Wonderful Days (Tsurezure Biyori), which seems to be Comic Yuri Hime’s “cute girls doing cute things” series, only because it’s Yuri Hime, they’re allowed to be more explicit about the yuri? In any case, looks very cute.

We also get Arpeggio of Blue Steel 15, Classmates 3, the 8th Make My Abilities Average! digitally, Freezing 25-26, Saint Seiya: Saintia Sho 8, and a double dose of Skeleton Knight in Another World: the 2nd manga and the 4th novel digitally.

Sol Press announced a surprise license: Chivalry of a Failed Knight, a very popular “magical academy” series that got an anime and also gets compared a lot to Asterisk War. Its first three volumes are out in a bunch next week, both in print and digitally.

SuBLime has the 8th Blue Morning, and also debuts Yarichin Bitch Club, about a very special photography club, which runs in Gentosha’s Rutile. Seems to be comedic.

MICHELLE: I have really enjoyed Blue Morning. This looks to be its final volume, too!

ASH: The eighth volume is also the final volume of Blue Morning. I’m a few volumes behind in my reading, but I’ve really been enjoying the series.

SEAN: Vertical has a 4th Kino’s Journey.

MJ: I’m behind on the manga adaptation of Kino’s Journey, but as a big fan of both the source material and the anime adaptations, I have to say, “Yay!”

SEAN: Viz has Dragon Ball: A Visual History, which seems to be an artbook as well as Transformers: A Visual History, which is probably the same.

They also debut A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow (Nettaigyo wa Yuki ni Kogareru), a Dengeki Maoh title that’s two high school girls who become friends… and maybe something more? Lotsa yuri this week.

MICHELLE: I’m super looking forward to this one! The covers are promising, at any rate.

ASH: I feel very much the same!

MJ: Sounds great!

SEAN: There’s also the 7th Fullmetal Alchemist: Fullmetal Edition, Radiant 8, Record of Grancest War 5, and Rin-Ne 31, but most importantly Requiem of the Rose King 11.

ASH: That is important!

MJ: Okay, I have to give at least a small shout-out to anyone who is getting to read Fullmetal Alchemist for the first time with these new editions. But also, REQUIEM OF THE ROSE KING ALWAYS AND FOREVER.

ANNA: Indeed.

SEAN: Yen Press has oodles of titles, some of which are ending and one of which is beginning. Overlord: The Undead King-Oh! is a comedic 4-koma series based on the Overlord LNs.

Ending this week are Anne Happy with its 10th book, Fruits Basket Another with its 3rd, Kiss and White Lily for My Dearest Girl (also 10), and Sekirei (also 10, albeit the 10th omnibus).

NOT ending or beginning but just ongoing are Angels of Death 8, Chio’s School Road 6, Delicious in Dungeon 7, DanMachi: Sword Oratoria’s 9th manga volume, Hatsu*Haru 9, Murcielago 12, Nyankees 4, Skull-Faced Bookseller Honda-san 2, and Star Wars: Lost Wars 3.

MICHELLE: I’m looking forward to more Honda-san!

ASH: Me, too! And I’ll definitely be picking up Delicious in Dungeon, as well.

MJ: Chiming in for Honda-san as well!

SEAN: Oof. Stuff. What are you getting?

SEAN: November brings an absolutely ludicrous amount of stuff, and December’s no better, so get used to it.

ASH: I’m ready for the cooler weather and avalanches of new manga and novels!

SEAN: J-Novel Club has a lot. Starting with Invaders of the Rokujouma!? 26, 27, and 28, which are actually out now.

The novel debut (digitally) is Demon Lord, Retry!, which had an anime recently. It seems to be Overlord with less skeleton.

The manga debut (digitally) is Discommunication, an ancient manga (it began in 1992!) that ran in Kodansha’s Afternoon, from the creator of Mysterious Girlfriend X. It’s gotten VERY good buzz, and I’ve been told does not have quite as much drool as MGX, so I’ll be taking a look.

MICHELLE: Hm. I’ll wait for the results of the drool analysis.

ANNA: I too, am concerned about drool.

ASH: Drool aside, I enjoyed what I read of Mysterious Girlfriend X.

MJ: I like early 90s manga, so I may risk the drool.

SEAN: J-Novel Club also debuts An Archdemon’s Dilemma: How to Love Your Elf Bride in print, along with print for Ascendance of a Bookworm (2) and Infinite Dendrogram (3). Also, digital volumes for Arifureta (10), The Combat Baker and Automaton Waitress (2), and Sorcerous Stabber Orphen (5), and the 2nd A Very Fairy Apartment manga digitally.

ASH: I just got my hands on the first volume of Ascendance of a Bookworm. Good to know I won’t need to wait long to get my hands on the second if desired!

SEAN: In print, Kodansha has Cells at Work: Code BLACK 2 and The Quintessential Quintuplets 6.

Digitally, our debut from Kodansha is Our Fake Marriage (Usokon), a shoujo/josei title that runs in Ane Friend. 29-year-old woman, no job, nowhere to live, runs into her old childhood friend, now a handsome successful architect, and he suggests… well, look at the title.

ANNA: I enjoy faked marriages in fiction!

ASH: There are some really good ones out there.

MJ: I would like to see one where the love interest is not a handsome, successful architect, but like… a nerdy school teacher or something.

SEAN: Also digitally? Cells NOT at Work 2, Fairy Tail: City Hero 2, My Sweet Girl 8, Our Precious Conversations 5, Seven Shakespeares 12 (where had this gone?) and Smile Down the Runway 3.

MICHELLE: I’ll be reading several of these!

SEAN: Denpa Books has a new BL line, called KUMA, and their debut is a done-in-one called Melting Lover. It runs in Futabasha’s Comic Marginal, and looks pretty interesting. BL fans, support this new imprint!

MICHELLE: Nice to see a new imprint!

ASH: Melting Lover is an interesting BL collection with some speculative fiction flair to the stories. Also, KUMA will yuri in its lineup, too!

MJ: Very interested in what Denpa has to offer for BL!

SEAN: Seven Seas debuts two titles, one print, one an early digital. The print is Nicola Traveling Around the Demon’s World (Nicola no Oyururi Makai Kikou), from Kadokawa’s Harta. Adorable human child, land full of demons, just wandering around… this has become a genre by now. Still, I’ll try anything from Harta.

ASH: I like this genre a lot.

MJ: I can also get behind this genre.

SEAN: The early digital light novel is Magic User: Reborn in Another World as a Max Level Wizard (Magic User: TRPG de Sodateta Mahoutsukai wa Isekai demo Saikyou Datta), whose sole point of interest seems to be that it’s from a rare LN publisher, Gentosha. Otherwise, well, look at the title.

Seven Seas also has Accomplishments of the Duke’s Daughter 5, and the 7th Make My Abilities Average! in print.

Tokyopop gives us a 6th Futaribeya.

Vertical has the 14th and final volume of Mobile Suit Gundam Wing.

Viz time! No debuts, still lots stuff. Shoujo: Anonymous Noise 17, Daytime Shooting Star 3, Shortcake Cake 6, Skip Beat! 43, Snow White with the Red Hair 4, and the 11th and final Water Dragon’s Bride.

MICHELLE: I will read every one of these! Of course, I’m particularly asquee for more Skip Beat!.

ANNA: So much great shoujo, I am excited.

ASH: We all should be!

MJ: I’m behind on many of these, but I should fix that!

SEAN: On the shonen end, we see Black Clover 18, Boruto 7, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba 9, Dr. STONE 8, Haikyu!! 35, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Arc 4 Vol. 3, Kaguya-sama: Love Is War 11, My Hero Academia SMASH! 2, and One Piece 92.

MICHELLE: I enjoyed My Hero Academia SMASH! more than anticipated, and so look forward to volume two!

ASH: I’m getting a kick out of the Diamond Is Unbreakable arc of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. I’ve fallen behind with the anime, so this is all new content for me!

SEAN: Finally we get Yen, who have quite a bit as well. Debuting from Yen On is Suppose a Kid from the Last Dungeon Boonies Moved to a Starter Town (Tatoeba Last Dungeon Mae no Mura no Shounen ga Joban no Machi de Kurasu Youna Monogatari), which is about– whoops, ran out of space.

Ending next week is The Empty Box and Zeroth Maria, with its 7th volume. There’s also new volumes of The Hero Is Overpowered But Overly Cautious (2), Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon: Sword Oratoria (10), My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong As I Expected (8), and Woof Woof Story: I Told You to Turn Me Into a Pampered Pooch, Not Fenrir! 3. As you can see, long titles are the new Alice in the Country of.

On the manga end, we debut the manga version of Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World. Also getting manga volumes are A Certain Magical Index 19, Durarara!! Re;Dollars 5, and High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even in Another World 5.

I was reincarnated into another world and ended up with manga release date analysis as my only power! What are you getting next week?

MICHELLE: *snerk*

SEAN: No more small weeks anymore. All the weeks coming up are huge, huge, huge. Starting with next week.

Denpa gives us the 3rd volume of Today’s Menu for the Emiya Family, with Best Girl on the cover.

Ghost Ship has the 2nd Creature Girls volume, as well as To-Love-Ru Darkness 12.

No debuts for J-Novel Club, but we do get the 16th and final volume of I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse.

There’s also Full Metal Panic! 4, In Another World with My Smartphone 17, and Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles 7 on the light novel side, and The Magic in This Other World Is Too Far Behind! 2 and Seirei Gensouki (again) 2 on the manga side.

In print, Kodansha has erm… nothing. On to digital! The debut is Guilty (Guilty – Nakanu Hotaru ga Mi o Kogasu), a josei series that runs in Be Love, and judging by the cover seems to be Very Serious Indeed.

MICHELLE: I am intrigued.

ANNA: I am too, but I somehow almost never get around to reading the digital manga I buy.

SEAN: Digitally we also see Domestic Girlfriend 22, Fairy Tail: Happy’s Heroic Adventure 2, and The Prince’s Black Poison 10 (a final volume, I think), as well as the 10th GTO: Paradise Lost, the first volume in almost a year and a half.

Seven Seas has one debut, which digital readers will have seen already: the first of the Neon Genesis Evangelion: ANIMA novels.

Seven Seas also has a lot more, though. Alice & Zoroku 6, the 10th and final Dreamin’ Sun (yes, I know, it was here before, sorry, it slipped), Getter Robo Devolution 4, the print edition of Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash 11, The High School Life of a Fudanshi 5, the 3rd Mushoku Tensei novel in print, New Game! 7, and everyone’s favorite punching bag, Pandora in the Crimson Shell: Ghost Urn 12.

MICHELLE: Probably I said something like I still intend to finish Dreamin’ Sun, even though I prefer orange, and that is still true.

ASH: Likewise.

SEAN: Vertical has Colorful Dreams, an artbook of VOFAN’s non-Monogatari works. It is apparently super gorgeous.

Despite a number of delays, Yen does have quite a bit out next week. Yen On has one debut, The World’s Strongest Rearguard: Labyrinth Country’s Novice Seeker (Sekai Saikyou no Kouei: Meikyuukoku no Shinjin Tansakusha). Reincarnated Japanese dude in fantasy world, dungeon game stats, picking a seemingly weak job and making it the strongest – this ticks those boxes.

Yen On also gives us Bungo Stray Dogs 2 (the novel version), Final Fantasy XIII-2 Fragments After, Kingdom Hearts 3D: Drop Dream Distance, Magical Girl Raising Project 7, No Game No Life 9, Overlord 11, and Sword Art Online 17. Feels like the last three of those are the most important.

ASH: I should give the Bungo Stray Dogs novels a try one of these days.

SEAN: No debuts on the manga side, though we do get the 14th and final Prison School omnibus.

And we get Akame Ga KILL! ZERO 10, Black Butler 28. Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? 11 (manga version), The Saga of Tanya the Evil 8 (manga version), School-Live! 11, and Silver Spoon 11.

MICHELLE: I am so far behind on Silver Spoon. Sigh.

ASH: Totally worth making a point to catch up when you have the time!

MJ: Such a huge week and I only care about Silver Spoon? How can this be? That said, I REALLY care about Silver Spoon!

SEAN: Do any of these float your boat? Or will you just ring and run?

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

ASH: That seems almost unheard of these days!

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

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

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

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

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

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

MJ: I’m cautiously intrigued.

ANNA: Hmmmmmm.

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

MICHELLE: Wow! Nice to see this get rescued.

ANNA: Nice!!!

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

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

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

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

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

Lastly, Vertical has a 6th volume of CITY.

So small! What are you getting?

SEAN: A fairly packed middle of the month, let’s get right to it.

The debut from J-Novel Club features another contender for the “most ridiculous title” award, with There Was No Secret Evil-Fighting Organization (srsly?!), So I Made One MYSELF! (Sekai no Yami to Tatakau Himitsu Kessha ga Nai kara Tsukutta (Hangire)). The story of a young man who gets telekinetic powers and then discovers he’s NOT approached by anyone else is clearly meant to fall on the “funny” end of the spectrum.

They’ve also got the 13th and final volume of Demon King Daimaou, How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom 10 (which I believe finally has the wedding), and Kokoro Connect 7.

No print debuts for Kodansha, but they do have Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card 6, Gleipnir 4, Hitorijime My Hero 5, O Maidens in Your Savage Season 4, Sailor Moon Eternal Edition 5 (maybe, its date has slid before), That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime 11, and Tokyo Tarareba Girls 9.

ASH: Both O Maidens in Your Savage Season and Tokyo Tarareba Girls are very, but painfully, good.

SEAN: Digitally we debut My Boss’s Kitten (Buchou no Nyanko), an Ane Friend series about an abandoned bride and her sadistic boss. Recommended for shoujo fans who like sadistic guys who no doubt turn out to be sweet deep down.

MICHELLE: No, thanks.

MJ: What Michelle said.

SEAN: There’s also The Great Cleric 3, Mikami-sensei’s Way of Love 7, Peach Girl NEXT 6, Saint Young Men 3, Shojo FIGHT! 7, and Yozakura Quartet 24.

MICHELLE: This time, I really will get caught up on Saint Young Men!

ASH: I’m holding out for the print which is actually happening for real!

MJ: Yes, so excited for print!

ANNA: Me too!

SEAN: One Peace has a 5th Hinamatsuri, as well as the 14th Rising of the Shield Hero, now popular enough to be brought into Isekai Quartet.

ASH: I’ve been enjoying Hinamatsuri‘s goofiness.

SEAN: Seven Seas has the final volume of Dreamin’ Sun, a series that made me want to re-read orange instead. They’ve also got Himouto Umaru-chan 7, the 2nd and final Mythical Beast Investigator, and a 3rd print volume for Skeleton Knight in Another World.

MICHELLE: I will finish out Dreamin’ Sun, but I agree that orange was the better series.

ASH: It’s a tough series to beat.

SEAN: Tokyopop gives us a 6th Konohana Kitan.

And Udon has the 11th Persona 3, also a final volume.

This is actually this week, but Vertical snuck out 9 digital releases of the Monogatari novels, which catches them up to the print releases.

Viz debuts The Drifting Classroom: Perfect Edition, a massive 750-page hardcover that takes in this seminal horror series.

ASH: I am very excited for this release! Drifting Classroom is a tremendous series, so I’m glad to see it being brought back in print.

SEAN: And they have Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction 7, Fire Punch 8 (this time yes, it really is the final volume), Golden Kamuy 12, and Tokyo Ghoul: re 13.

ASH: Here for Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction and Golden Kamuy!

ANNA: I need to get caught up on Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction.

And we’ve got the last of the September runoff from Yen Press. On the Yen On end, we debut The Alchemist Who Survived Now Dreams of a Quiet City Life (Ikinokori Renkinjutsushi wa Machi de Shizuka ni Kurashitai), the story of a lowly alchemist who goes into stasis to hide from the enemy and comes out to find she’s suddenly the LAST alchemist. Sounds like a slow life series to me.

MJ: I don’t generally read light novels, but there’s something about this one that appeals to me, so I guess we’ll see.

Also from Yen On is The Asterisk War 11, The Irregular at Magic High School 13, A Sister’s All You Need 5, and Strike the Blood 13.

And there’s two manga out as well, as we get the 7th Hakumei & Mikochi and the 14th No Matter How You Look At It, It’s You Guys’ Fault That I’m Not Popular!.

ASH: Oh! It’s been a while since the last one, hasn’t it?

SEAN: So yeah, that’s a lot. Anything catch your eye?

SEAN: A relatively light week? Could be.

Denpa gives us the 5th volume of Inside Mari.

ASH: Still a compelling read.

SEAN: J-Novel Club has no debuts, but we get the 2nd and final Middle-Aged Businessman, Arise in Another World!. There’s also Crest of the Stars 3, which wraps up that “arc”, though stay tuned for more “of the Stars”.

On the manga front, J-Novel Club has Infinite Dendrogram 2 and How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom 2.

Kodansha’s print lineup has the debut of Granblue Fantasy. Based on the game, this series runs in the obscure Cycomics, and should be fun for those who like fantasy manga.

ASH: Manga based on games can sometimes be hit-or-miss, but I’ve read some very good ones and I do like fantasy series…

SEAN: There’s also Boarding School Juliet 8 in print.

Digitally, it’s another Cells at Work! spinoff. Cells at Work and Friends, fittingly, runs in Betsufure (Bessatsu Friend), so is a shoujo take on the franchise. The plot involves a Killer T Cell who has an intimidating expression, and as a result… Doesn’t Have Many Friends. Where have I seen this plot before?

We also have new digital volumes of Farewell My Dear Cramer (3), The Knight Cartoonist and Her Orc Editor (3), My Pink Is Overflowing (4), Queen Bee (2), and Tokyo Revengers (12).

MICHELLE: I will at least be reading a couple of these.

SEAN: Seven Seas debuts How to Train Your Devil (Maou no Mama ni Narundayo!). which runs in Mag Garden’s Comic Blade. Our heroine is tasked with defeating the Demon King… but he’s a baby. She resolves to reform him… and promptly gets named his primary caregiver. Hijinks, as they say, ensue.

Not technically manga but of interest to fans is Roadqueen: Eternal Roadtrip to Love. This yuri comic was funded by donors, and is apparently really good. I can think of one Manga Bookshelf peep who will be all over this.

ASH: Is it me? Because I’m really looking forward to this one!

MJ: I am interested in this as well!

SEAN: We also get the 11th Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash in print, If It’s for My Daughter I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord’s 4th manga volume, the 4th Mushoku Tensei novel digitally, and Plus-sized Elf 3.

SuBLime has an 8th volume of Don’t Be Cruel.

And Vertical gives us a 3rd Master Edition of Knights of Sidonia.

Viz has a good lineup for Week 2, aka the Shonen Sunday week. Case Closed 72, Komi Can’t Communicate 3, Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle 9, and That Blue-Sky Feeling 3.

MICHELLE: It’s the final volume of That Blue Sky Feeling, as well, and I’ll definitely be picking that up.

ASH: That Blue Sky Feeling has been such a lovely series so far; I’m very glad it got an English-language release.

MJ: What they said.

ANNA: I need to catch up on this!

SEAN: Lastly, Yen On gives us a 2nd volume of better-than-it-sounds light novel Torture Princess. (The writing is better than it sounds. The plot is still as dark and torture-y as you’d expect.)

Anything leap out at you here?

SEAN: Welcome to October. Here’s your giant pile of manga.

ASH: Huzzah!

SEAN: Cross Infinite World gives us a light novel adapting a visual novel. Root Double -Before Crime * After Days- √After is the first of (I believe) five books that delve into this story, which is apparently a variation on “we are trapped and people are dying”. And yes, that apparently is its real title.

J-Novel Club has a ludicrous amount of new releases. On the manga side, we debut Animeta! 1 in print, and also have the 2nd volume digitally. Also debuting (print and digital, I think) is Marginal Operation, a military thriller that runs in Kodansha’s Afternoon.

MICHELLE: Hooray for Animeta!.

ASH: Oh, that does look good!

SEAN: On the novel end, the digital debut is the highly awaited Sexiled: My Sexist Party Leader Kicked Me Out, So I Teamed Up With a Mythical Sorceress!. Despite the “Sexiled” in the title, this is apparently more a feminist (and also yuri) take on light novel fantasies, written after the Japanese medial school scandals showing they were fudging results to admit fewer women. I’ve seen bits quoted and it sounds fantastic.

ASH: I’ll admit, the quoted bits that I’ve seen make me want to give the entire book a read.

MJ: I read very few light novels, but I might have to at least *think* about this one.

SEAN: There are also print volumes for How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord (6), If It’s for My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord (5), In Another World with My Smartphone (6), and The Magic in This Other World Is Too Far Behind! (5). Digitally, we also get a 7th Lazy Dungeon Master.

Kodansha’s one debut is digital this week, another sequel. Cells NOT at Work! runs in Shonen Sirius, and is about immature red blood cells who want to be NEETs.

MICHELLE: There’s at least one more of these spinoffs in the works, too.

SEAN: In print, we get Again!! 11 and The Heroic Legend of Arslan 11.

ASH: I’ve been enjoying Again!! immensely. I’ve sadly fallen behind with Arslan, but I’ve generally liked what I’ve read.

SEAN: And the usual pile digitally. Drifting Dragons 4, Goodbye I’m Being Reincarnated 3, My Sweet Girl 7, Smile Down the Runway 2, and The Tales of Genji: Dreams at Dusk 8.

Seven Seas has two debuts. Ghostly Things (Ayashi Kotogatari) is a Mag Garden title about a girl and a bunch of spirits. The Wize Wize Beasts of the Wizarding Wizdoms (Wizdoms no Kemonotachi) also deals with magical creatures, but runs in Akaneshinsha’s Opera, so my guess is it’s more on a BL tip.

MICHELLE: Wize Wize Beasts is by Nagabe, of The Girl from the Other Side fame! I’m really looking forward to it.

ASH: YES! YES IT IS! I’m very excited to get my hands on it.

MJ: I’m always into spirits, so I might check out Ghostly Things. But also, yes on Wize Wize Beasts.

SEAN: Vertical debuts the manga version of Bakemonogatari. It runs in Weekly Shonen Magazine, and is drawn by Oh Great!, the author of fanservice laden Tenjo Tenghe. Normally I might carp, but honestly he’s the perfect creator to give us Araragi’s teenage perversions as well as making monologues EXTRA dramatic.

Viz has one debut this week, and it’s a new josei title. An Incurable Case of Love (Koi wa Tsuzuku yo Doko Made mo) is another title from the pen of Maki Enjoji, author of Happy Marriage, and ran in Petit Comic. Expect her usual: male lead that’s standoffish at first, lots of bickering. This one’s a doctor-nurse variant.

ANNA: I am here for this.

ASH: Hooray for josei!

SEAN: Viz has a LOT of shonen out next week. Food Wars! 32, My Hero Academia 21, My Hero Academia Vigilantes 6, My Hero Academia: School Briefs 3, the One Piece Color Walk artbook that takes in Water Seven and surrounding arcs, The Promised Neverland 12, We Never Learn 6, and World Trigger 19.

MICHELLE: So much good stuff!

SEAN: On the shoujo side, we have Ao Haru Ride 7, Kaze Hikaru 27 (a couple months late, but still at its one volume a year pace!), Natsume’s Book of Friends 23, Takane & Hana 11, and Yona of the Dawn 20.

ANNA: Nice! I love Yona and I’m always happy for a new volume of Kaze Hikaru.

MICHELLE: I am literally reading every single one of those.

ASH: I’m reading most of them!

MJ: Even I am reading some of these!

SEAN: Lastly, Yen has a few September stragglers now coming out in early October. This includes the 13th and final volume of Durarara!!, the 20th A Certain Magical Index and the 8th Goblin Slayer on the light novel side, and Laid-Back Camp 7 and Sacrificial Princess and the King of Beasts 7 on the manga side.

ASH: I enjoyed the opening volumes of Sacrificial Princess and the King of Beasts; I should make a point to catch up.

SEAN: That’s a lot, and it’s a lot of debuts. What are you getting?

SEAN: Even with Yen Press moving a lot of its release dates, this is still a pretty heavy week. Lotsa stuff.

Debuting from Dark Horse is Ms. Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles (Ramen Daisuki Koizumi-san), another in the series of foodie manga to be brought over here. High school girl is secretly a RAMEN MASTER. This runs in Takeshobo’s Manga Life Storia.

MICHELLE: Oh, this sounds neat!

ANNA: I do enjoy a food manga.

MJ: I’m interested…

ASH: So am I! Plus, I am particularly fond of ramen.

SEAN: Dark Horse also has Berserk 40 (I believe that’s Vol. 40, not the 40th anniversary of the last volume), and the 2nd Elfen Lied omnibus.

ASH: I am now actively reading Berserk in parallel with itself.

SEAN: Ghost Ship not only has the 6th World’s End Harem, but also debuts World’s End Harem: Fantasia. Also running online in Shonen Jump +, it’s basically the premise of the series set in a fantasy isekai-ish world.

J-Novel Club debuts Otherside Picnic (Urasekai Picnic), another in the “yuri sci-fi” genre that we’ve seen recently. I suspect, as with previous entries, this will be of more interest for the sci-fi than the yuri. It’s from the author of Side-By-Side Dreamers, but will be more than one volume.

ASH: I like sci-fi and yuri!

SEAN: J-Novel Club also gives us Record of Wortenia War 2, by the way, if you want something more traditionally “fantasy for guys”.

In print, Kodansha tries to catch up with quite a few titles. We get the debut of the Fairy Tail Manga Box Set, with the first eleven volumes. We also get Interviews with Monster Girls 7, Land of the Lustrous 9, Missions of Love 18, and The Quintessential Quintuplets 5.

ASH: Land of the Lustrous is still incredibly striking.

SEAN: Speaking of Fairy Tail, another spinoff debuts digitally with Fairy Tail: City Hero. This is basically an AU with Natsu and Lucy as cops. It runs in Magazine Pocket.

We also see new digital volumes for Atsumori-kun’s Bride-to-Be (2), Domestic Girlfriend (21), Elegant Yokai Apartment Life (17), I Want to Hold Aono-kun So Badly I Could Die (5), and Lovesick Ellie (9).

MICHELLE: I liked Atsumori-kun more than I expected, and have consistently enjoyed Lovesick Ellie.

SEAN: Seven Seas has no debuts but plenty of ongoing series. The Ancient Magus’ Bride 11, Haganai: I Don’t Have Many Friends 17, High-Rise Invasion 9-10, How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord’s 5th manga volume, How to Build a Dungeon 5, Nameless Asterism 4, Our Dreams at Dusk 3, and print volumes for light novels Reincarnated As a Sword (2) and Skeleton Knight in Another World (also 2).

MICHELLE: Somehow I had not noticed a new volume of The Ancient Magus’ Bride was coming out so soon! Huzzah!

ASH: Yes! I’m always happy for more of The Ancient Magus’ Bride! And Our Dreams at Dusk is SO GOOD.

SEAN: Sol Press snuck in a release this week that I’ll put in next week’s Manga the Week of, even if they should know better than to flout my whims. Why Shouldn’t a Detestable Demon Lord Fall in Love? is their new light novel, and its premise is its title.

ASH: Why shouldn’t, indeed.

SEAN: Vertical’s manga debut is The Golden Sheep (Kin no Hitsuji), from the author of The Gods Lie. It runs in Afternoon, and is about a group of friends growing apart. Expect melancholy galore.

ANNA: The Gods Lie was so good. Looking forward to this.

MJ: Always here for “melancholy.”

ASH: The creator, Kaori Ozaki, is a favorite of mine.

SEAN: Vertical also has the first newly translated volume of the Zaregoto novel series since 2010. SUSPENSION: Kubitsuri High School sees Ii-chan dragged by Jun to a girls’ high school that has a dark secret. Will we get another tight-knit mystery? Or will it all be nonsense?

Viz has no print titles, but is debuting Golgo 13 Vols. 1-13 digitally. This came out a while back in the Signature line, and is basically a “best of” collection for the assassin whose lovemaking gets its own endnotes. Fans of MANLY manga will want this.

ASH: Oh, that’s good! Some of the print volumes are very hard to find these days.

SEAN: Yen On has a couple of debuts. The Miracles of the Namiya General Store is another one-shot whimsical title with a movie tie-in. as well as Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World (Kimi to Boku no Saigo no Senjou, Aruiwa Sekai ga Hajimaru Seisen), which appears to be Romeo & Juliet among a war-torn fantasy world.

ASH: I was very surprised, but happy (as I am a fan), to see Yen pick up The Miracles of Namiya General Store. It’s by Keigo Higashino, most of whose novels have been published in English by Minotaur Books.

SEAN: There’s also light novels for Accel World 19 and Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody 9.

On the manga side, Yen debuts Combatants Will Be Dispatched!, a manga adaptation of the light novel we saw debut earlier this month. It runs in my nemesis, Comic Alive. Yen also has As Miss Beelzebub Likes 7, Bungo Stray Dogs 12, Goblin Slayer (manga version) 6, the 2nd manga volume of the KonoSuba Explosion spinoff, Love at Fourteen 9, the 11th volume of the Overlord manga adaptation, and Sword Art Online: Girls’ Ops 6.

Quite a lot of stuff. What’s got you most excited?

SEAN: It’s time to do the list in reverse! Why?

Because I wanted to start with Viz’s ridiculous amount of new titles out next week. We begin with the eagerly anticipated The Way of the Househusband (Gokushufudou), a series about a former yakuza who is trying to stay straight, nut… stuff keeps happening. It runs in Shinchosha’s Kurage Bunch.

ANNA: I am excited for this!

MICHELLE: I love the cover for the first volume.

ASH: Personally, this is one of my most anticipated debuts of the year!

SEAN: No Guns Life is a science fantasy series from Ultra Jump, and is apparently much like many other Ultra Jump titles in that vein.

Speaking of Ultra Jump, we also get Levius, a done-in-one series that actually ran in the late lamented Ikki, but has moved to Ultra Jump after this volume. It looks like Battle Angel Alita for MEN.

ASH: I generally enjoy Ikki titles, so I’ll be giving this one a look.

SEAN: And for those who wanted Taiyou Matsumoto, author of Tekkon Kinkreet and Sunny, to draw cats, here is Cats of the Louvre, a Big Comic Original series that’s also done in one.

MICHELLE: I am here for this.

ASH: Yes! More Taiyou Matsumoto is always a good thing. This is also part of the same series that brought us Hirohiko Araki’s Rohan at the Louvre and Jiro Taniguchi’s Guardians of the Louvre.

MJ: Okay, this is necessary in my life.

SEAN: As if that weren’t enough, Dorohedoro is ending with its 23rd and final volume. I’m amazed how obsessed I became with this violent series about a busty sorcerer and her lizard-headed pal, but I love it to bits.

ASH: As do I. I’m so glad this series survived the unfortunate fall of Ikki.

SEAN: And Viz also has Children of the Whales 12, Beastars 2, and 20th Century Boys Perfect Edition 5.

ASH: Wow! It really is a great week for Viz manga! I am really looking forward to seeing where Beastars goes next.

Vertical also ends a series with the final omnibus of May-December romance After the Rain, and they also have the 13th Ajin.

MICHELLE: I’ve been meaning to read After the Rain. One of these days.

SEAN: Seven Seas’ debut looks trashy but I am well-informed is more slice-of-life than anything else: Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out (Uzaki-chan wa Asobitai!) runs in Kadokawa’s Dra-Dra-Dragon Age, a spinoff magazine to the already trashy Dragon Age, and is about an aggravated college student and his teasing busty underclassman.

They also have a 3rd volume (digital for now) of Restaurant to Another World’s light novel; Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka 7, Magical Girl Site 10, Made in Abyss 7, The Ideal Sponger Life 3, How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom’s 4th print light novel, and Dragon Quest Monster + 4. Of that pile, Ideal Sponger Life is most interesting.

One Peace has a 2nd volume of I Hear the Sunspot: Limit.

ANNA: I need to read the first volume!

ASH: It’s good! I’m happy to get to read more of the series.

MJ: There can never be too much of I Hear the Sunspot!

SEAN: Kodansha’s print debut is If I Could Reach You (Tatoe Todokanu Ito da to Shite mo), a more drama-laced series than usual from Ichijinsha’s Comic Yuri Hime, about a teenage girl in love with her brother’s wife.

In print, Kodansha also has The Seven Deadly Sins 34, Magus of the Library 2, and I’m Standing on a Million Lives 3.

ASH: Oops, I haven’t read the first Magus of the Library yet. Better get on that before I get too far behind.

SEAN: Digitally the debut is the first of FOUR digital-only spinoffs of exiting franchises. Fairy Tail: Happy’s Heroic Adventure is what it sounds like.

There’s also Tokyo Alice 15, The Quintessential Quintuplets 10, Living-Room Matsunaga-san 6, The Great Cleric 2, and Defying Kurosaki-kun 12.

J-Novel Club “debuts” The Combat Baker and Automaton Waitress, a series previously exclusively released through Bookwalker. It’s had another editing pass, and now is available on all platforms.

There’s also The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar 9 and Amagi Brilliant Park 7.

Lastly, Dark Horse has Dangan Ronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls, an adaptation of the side story game starring Naegi’s little sister. It ran in Famitsu Comic Clear.

I assume you’re getting something from Viz this week. What else?

SEAN: No time to talk! Manga is coming!

J-Novel Club have new volumes for Cooking with Wild Game (4) and How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord (10).

Kodansha debuts the “official” adaptation of Fate/Grand Order, called mortalis:stella. It’s one of many FGO manga out, but this is the “story” one, apparently. That said, it only ran two volumes, so I suspect the story is compressed, though there is a sequel of sorts. It ran in Ichijinsha’s Zero-Sum.

ASH: Oh, interesting! That makes it on the shoujo and josei end of things, doesn’t it?

SEAN: In print, Kodansha also has Eden’s Zero 4.

Digitally the debut is Queen Bee (Seishun Otome Banchou!), from an author familiar to readers with long memories, Shizuru Seino. She did Heaven!!, Power!!, and Love Attack!. Love Attack! never finished over here, which is a shame, as this is about the daughter of the leads from that series. She has a scary face… and disposition… but is still a girl in love. This ran in Betsufure.

MICHELLE: Oh, I actually read all of Power!! (released by TOKYOPOP as Girl Got Game) back in the day! I failed to make the connection.

ANNA: I read some of Love Attack! back in the day, and I think I have a couple volumes of Girl Got Game somewhere in my stacks of unread manga.

ASH: I rather enjoyed what I read of Love Attack!.

SEAN: We also get Giant Killing 16, The Knight Cartoonist and Her Orc Editor 2, Red Riding Hood’s Wolf Apprentice 3 (this is a final volume), The Slime Diaries 2, and Tokyo Revengers 11.

MICHELLE: Hooray for more Giant Killing! It’s been quite a while.

SEAN: Seven Seas has THREE debuts. The first is a spinoff, Arifureta Zero, adapting the spinoff light novel with the same title. It runs in Overlap’s Comic Gardo.

Become You (Kimi ni Nare) is the latest series from the author of orange. Like orange, it’s likely “shoujo in a man’s magazine”, as this runs in Futabasha’s Monthly Action. It’s got guys, and bands, and childhood dreams.

MICHELLE: I hope this is as good as orange.

ASH: Me, too! I’m also interested in it for the music aspects.

SEAN: The Brave-Tuber (Haishin Yuusha) is your standard fantasy world with adventurers, etc… except it has the Internet. Two guys try to find a way to build subscribers and defeat monsters. This runs in Mag Garden’s Comic Blade and is also a short, two-volume series.

Seven Seas also gives us Mushoku Tensei: Roxy Gets Serious 2 and There’s a Demon Lord on the Floor 7.

SuBLime has Candy Color Paradox and the 9th Deluxe Edition of Finder for its BL readers.

ASH: I finally picked up a copy of the first volume of Candy Color Paradox! (Now I just have to read it.)

SEAN: Vertical has the 5th volume of My Boy.

Viz gives us the 34th volume of Hayate the Combat Butler, still entertaining readers in the West thanks to the wonders of contractual obligation. They also have Radiant 7, Splatoon 7, and Yo-Kai Watch 12.

Lastly, Yen Press has a 5th volume of Chio’s School Road. It’s not like those OTHER roads.

ASH: Nope, not at all like those other roads.

SEAN: Thoughts? Concerns? Complaints?