Features

SEAN: There’s record-breaking cold, snow squalls, high winds… it’s a nightmare out there in the United States. Stay in and read some manga!

First, apologies to Denpa for missing them last time. Inside Mari 2 is out this week.

ASH: Whoops, that was an oversight! Denpa is doing great work. I’m looking forward to reading more of Inside Mari.

SEAN: J-Novel Club has its first print releases! They put out a few via Seven Seas before, but these are straight from the publisher. You can get How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord and In Another World with My Smartphone Vols. 1-2 next week.

ASH: Oh, I had missed that J-Novel Club was starting to directly release books in print! That’s good news for me.

SEAN: They also have a new digital debut. Cooking with Wild Game is the combination isekai and cooking title that everyone has been waiting for. It’s also got a hefty number of volumes, so settle in.

J-Novel Club also has new volumes for My Next Life As a Villainess! (2) and Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles (3).

Not sure if Kodansha has any February debuts yet, but digitally we do see the 4th and final Can I Kiss You Every Day?, the 10th and final Liar x Liar, the 5th Magical Sempai, the 6th digital volume for The Quintessential Quintuplets, the 2nd Red Riding Hood’s Wolf Apprentice, the 5th You Got Me, Sempai, and the 22nd Yozakura Quartet.

Print-wise, Kodansha has a 4th Boarding School Juliet and a 2nd Eden’s Zero.

Seven Seas has a digital light novel debut – the print will follow this spring. Classroom of the Elite is hideously popular in Japan, but had not been licensed over here, possibly as it’s not an isekai, fantasy, or magical academy story. There is an academy, though, as you may have guessed.

They’ve also got a print omnibus of the 4th to 6th Boogiepop light novels, a print version of the 9th Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash novel, a 3rd manga volume of How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord, the 4th volume of the Kobayashi Maid spinoff Kanna’s Daily Life, a 3rd Soul Liquid Chambers, and the 4th Toradora! Light novel.

ASH: This Boogiepop omnibus includes material not previously released in print in English (books four and five). I’m very excited.

SEAN: Speaking of unlikely licenses, Vertical has the first Kino’s Journey manga. A very popular series, we will try to forget what happened with Tokyopop and the novels and read this manga.

MJ: Okay, this has my attention. Hm.

SEAN: GIANT PILE OF VIZ! No debuts, though, so let’s talk shoujo and then shonen. Shoujo-wise we have Ao Haru Ride 3, Oresama Teacher 25 (yay!), Shortcake Cake 3, Takane & Hana 7, and Yona of the Dawn 16. A lot of Manga Bookshelf favorites.

MJ: I’m definitely in for Ao Haru Ride and Shortcake Cake.

MICHELLE: I am literally going to read every one of these!

ASH: That’s mostly true for me, too. Oresama Teacher and Yona of the Dawn is where I’m starting, though.

ANNA: I’m excited for the shoujo!!!

SEAN: On the shonen end, we have Black Clover 14, Black Torch 3, Food Wars! 28, the 10th and final volume of the 3rd Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, Stardust Crusaders (don’t worry, Diamond Is Unbreakable follows and has much the same cast), the 3rd Juni Taisen: Zodiac War, the 17th My Hero Academia, the 89th One Piece, the 8th volume of The Promised Neverland, and a 2nd volume of We Never Learn.

MICHELLE: I have really been enjoying catching up with My Hero Academia . I love it so and volume 17 will be the one I finally get current with!

SEAN: Are you reading manga next week? Or are you frozen solid?

SEAN: It’s the last week of January, theoretically it should be light. What is with all this stuff?

Cross Infinite World has the 2nd volume of the Gleam manga.

Dark Horse releases Wish, the CLAMP manga from years ago, now in one big omnibus. Enjoy the gender pronoun wars all over again!

MICHELLE: Oh, jeez. I kind of forgot Wish even existed.

SEAN: Given that the solicit date from Diamond Comics is Summer 2017, I think everyone did.

ANNA: I read it the first time around, don’t need to read it twice. I’ll just lurk here in a corner, still feeling bitter over X/1999.

MJ: I sort of feel like as the resident CLAMP obsessive, I should take one for the team and do some kind of comparison read with the older version. Can I muster the will? Time will tell.

ASH: I’m picking the omnibus up specifically because of the new translation! I enjoyed Wish the first time around, but I’m looking forward to my side of the pronoun wars winning this time instead of having a specific gender foisted on some of the characters.

SEAN: J-Novel Club gives us a 2nd Arifureta Zero and a 7th Outbreak Company.

Kodansha, print-wise, has the 3rd Sailor Moon Eternal Edition and the 30th Seven Deadly Sins.

ASH: I’d lost track of how long Seven Deadly Sins has become!

SEAN: Digitally, we finish Ayanashi with its 4th volume. There’s also Altair: A Record of Battles 9, Elegant Yokai Apartment Life 10, Forest of Piano 10, Hotaru’s Way 7, My Boy in Blue 6, and Princess Resurrection Nightmare 2.

MICHELLE: I’m not actively reading any of these, but there are at least three that I intend to read at some point.

Seven Seas has a debut and a done-in-one with Now Loading…!, whose punctuation makes every sentence look strange. It’s from Ichijinsha’s Comic Yuri Hime, and given the magazine you know what to expect. This involves a game company, but promises a bit more actual yuri than New Game!.

Seven Seas also has the 5th Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka, the 2nd Ultra Kaiju Humanization Project, and the 3rd and final Voynich Hotel.

ASH: I finally got around to picking up Voynich Hotel; I plan on reading the whole thing in one go.

SEAN: Udon has a 4th volume of Infini-T Force.

Vertical has the 5th Arakawa Under the Bridge omnibus.

ASH: This series continues to delight me.

SEAN: The Inc. part of Vertical also has Koimonogatari, the latest in the Monogatari Series novels. Will we finally get Senjogahara’s POV? I have some bad news for you…

Yen has a couple new digital volumes with Saki 18 (we’re caught up with Japan, I believe) and Toilet-Bound Hanako-san 9.

Yen On has the 11th Log Horizon, which is also caught up with Japan.

Debuting from Yen is For the Kid I Saw in My Dreams (Yume de Mita Ano Ko no Tame ni), a new series from the creator of Erased. It runs in Young Ace. I’m guessing it’s dark.

MICHELLE: I’m very intrigued by this one! Also, I must read Erased.

ANNA: I know Erased is popular at my library.

MJ: I’ll be reviewing this for our next Off the Shelf column, and I’m pretty into it.

ASH: Oh, excellent!

SEAN: They also have Aoharu x Machinegun 14, High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even in Another World 2, and Kiniro Mosaic 8.

How are you celebrating the end of January?

ASH: With plenty more manga, obviously.

SEAN: (collapses under pile of manga) (muffled voice) Yen Press week, gang.

Dark Horse has a 2nd volume of its manga adaptation of the 2nd Dangan Ronpa game.

J-Novel Club has the 2nd and final volume of Apparently It’s My Fault That My Husband Has the Head of a Beast, and the 12th and nowhere near final volume of In Another World with My Smartphone.

Kodansha has a bunch of debuts, and they’re even print! We start with 10 Dance, which combines BL and ballroom dancing, so sounds AMAZING. It runs in Young Magazine the 3rd.

MICHELLE: I am so looking forward to this. The cover and concept makes me think of the works of est em.

ANNA: I am intrigued.

ASH: Yes! I am so excited for this one!

MJ: YES to this! I’m so excited!

SEAN: Hitorijime My Hero is a spinoff of a title that used to be released digitally here by JManga, but no doubt stands up fine on its own. I gotta be honest, this student/teacher BL story excites me far less than 10 Dance. It runs in Ichijinsha’s Gateau.

MICHELLE: I’ve seen a couple episodes of the anime and liked it, but I never got far enough for anything particularly problematic to happen. We’ll see how it goes, I guess.

SEAN: And on the yuri end (hey, when Kodansha decides to do new genres, they go all in), we have Yuri Is My Job! (Watashi no Yuri wa Oshigotodesu!), from Ichijinsha’s Comic Yuri Hime. A girl ends up working at a yuri café, but behind the scenes things aren’t quite as yuri… or are they?

ASH: I’m very happy to see Kodansha starting to release BL and yuri titles in print. I hope the venture does well for the company so we might see even more!

MJ: Agreed.

SEAN: Kodansha also has Golosseum 5 and Waiting for Spring 10 on the print end, as well as Ace of the Diamond 19, Ao-Chan Can’t Study! 4, the 8th and final Aoba-kun’s Confesssions, Blissful Land 2, Kakafukaka 4, and PTSD Radio 6. Looking forweard to Ao-chan and Kakafukaka.

MICHELLE: For a second, my brain interpreted the word “radio” to mean that we were getting more Wave, Listen to Me, but not yet, sadly.

ASH: That would be nice.

SEAN: Seven Seas has a mere two titles next week. We get the manga adaptation of I Want to Eat Your Pancreas, which should be as heartrending as the book was. It’s a complete omnibus edition, and ran in Futabasha’s Monthly Action. There’s also the 2nd print volume of light novel How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom.

ASH: I still need to pick up I Want to Eat Your Pancreas in one form or another; I’ve heard good things.

MJ: I should do the same.

SEAN: Vertical gives us a 3rd volume of The Delinquent Housewife!.

MICHELLE: Woot.

ANNA: Nice!

SEAN: And now Yen. There were a few titles delayed till the final week in January, but for the most part it’s all next week. On the light novel front, the most interesting title may be The Kids Are Alright: A Turks Side Story. This is a Final Fantasy VII novel.

Also out in novel form is Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody 7, Goblin Slayer 6, Overlord 9, A Sister’s All You Need 3, and Strike the Blood 11. An off month for me, as Strike the Blood is all I’m getting of those titles.

There are four debuts next week, some of which may even interest the rest of Manga Bookshelf. First we have DIVE!!, which is, oddly, a remake of a manga that ran in Shonen Sunday back in the 00s. This one is from Young Ace, and the premise is the same: let’s save the diving team from getting shot down. If you like sports manga, or the anime Free!, you’ll like this.

MICHELLE: What troubles me is the long list of credits on this one. I’ll give it a shot.

ANNA: Hmmmm.

ASH: I’m hoping the original light novels will be licensed and translated at some point, too.

SEAN: From the sublime to the ridiculous, we then get Monster Wrestling: Interspecies Combat Girls. It runs in Monthly Comic Ride. I guess if you like the other vaguely softcore Yen monster titles you’ll like this? Hard pass from me.

Nyankees is the delinquent manga you never knew you wanted, showing stray cats as if they were in teenage hoodlum gangs. I must admit I really want to read this. It runs in Shonen Ace.

MICHELLE: I really want to read this, too!

ANNA: Based on the description, I feel happy that something like this exists in the world.

ASH: I’m so looking forward to this series!

MJ: I’m so on board for this.

SEAN: Lastly we have The Witch’s House: The Diary of Ellen. This may sound like an OEL project like the James Patterson books, but no. It’s Majo no Ie: Ellen no Nikki, a harror manga that ran in Kadokawa’s Dragon Age.

There’s more Yen too, of course; Based on light novels, we see A Certain Magical Index 16, Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody (manga version) 6, DanMachi 10, DanMachi Sword Oratoria 6, and The Saga of Tanya the Evil 5.

There’s also Black Butler 27 (remember Black Butler? It’s back! In pog form…), BTOOOM! 23, The Case Study of Vanitas 5, Kakegurui – Compulsive Gambler 8, Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun 10 (yay!), Murcielago 9, Sacrificial Princess and the King of Beasts 4, the 7th Sekirei omnibus, Teasing Master Takagi-san 3 (yay!), and Today’s Cerberus 11.

MICHELLE: Yay for Nozaki-kun!

ANNA: Yay!

ASH: Huzzah, Nozaki-kun!!

SEAN: A lot of debuts next week. What interests you most?

SEAN: The third week of January has the most variety. What’s in it? Well…

Dark Horse gives us a 2nd volume of Wandering Island.

ASH: Oh, excellent! The first volume was lovely.

SEAN: Ghost Ship has more ecchi monsters with a 6th volume of Yokai Girls.

J-Novel Club revs it up after a brief winter break, with Amagi Brilliant Park 3, Demon King Daimaou 9, and Infinite Dendrogram 8.

Kodansha, in print news, has the 9th Clockwork Planet, the 5th Golosseum, the 11th Sweetness and Lightning, and a 2nd volume of Die Wergelder. There’s also Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches 17-18 – seems to be omnibuses now, after a long break.

MICHELLE: Hooray for more Sweetness & Lightning!

ASH: Yes, Sweetness & Lightning is a delight! I’ll also admit that I’m looking forward to the next volume of Die Wergelder in all its violent, pulpy glory.

MJ: I feel like I need to check out Sweetness & Lightning if both Ash and Michelle are such fans.

SEAN: Digitally we see Back Street Girls 7, Kira-kun Today 3, A Kiss For Real 6, Shojo FIGHT! 6, and Tokyo Revengers 3. I know which one of those Manga Bookshelf wants.

MICHELLE: Yep, though I also intend to read A Kiss for Real at some point.

ANNA: One of these days I will get caught up on Shojo FIGHT!.

SEAN: Seven Seas gives us, finally, the 2nd No Game No Life manga, which was delayed for years in Japan. There’s also a 5th Please Tell Me, Galko-chan!.

Udon has the 9th Persona 9… erm, Persona 4.

Vertical hits us with the 2nd APOSIMZ, and a 10th Mobile Suit Gundam Wing.

Lastly, Viz puts out its “cool person” titles, as we see Children of the Whales 8, Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction 4, Fire Punch 5, and Ultraman 11.

ANNA: Looking forward to Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction.

ASH: Same.

SEAN: I’m interested in quite a bit of that. How about you?

MICHELLE: A more modest amount, methinks.

SEAN: It’s a quiet week unless you like Kodansha’s digital-only titles. What’s out next week?

J-Novel Club gives us a 5th volume of The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar.

Kodansha, print-wise, has a 15th Attack on Titan: Before the Fall. This is one long prequel.

ASH: The manga adaptation adds more to the story than is found in the original light novel. Actually for the better, I think.

Digitally, there’s quite a bit. Kasane finishes up with Vol. 14, and Fuuka comes to an end with the 20th volume. There’s also Alicia’s Diet Quest 2, Boarding School Juliet 7, Kamikamikaeshi 7, Lovesick Ellie 7, Starving Anonymous… 6, and Tokyo Alice 7. Boo, Starving Anonymous, you need to get with the 7s program!

MICHELLE: I’ll at least be reading Lovesick Ellie! I need to check out Tokyo Alice one of these days, too.

ANNA: I have come to peace with the fact that there are many series that I will never be familiar with, and this list represents many digital manga I am not reading.

SEAN: Seven Seas debuts Dragon Quest Monsters +, a sequel to the old Gameboy video game. It ran in Shonen Gangan back in 2000, so is something of a surprise license.

ANNA: Sounds fairly obscure!

SEAN: We also see Captain Harlock Dimensional Voyage 7, Himouto Umaru-chan 4, and the 6th and final Spirit Circle.

ASH: I’ve fallen behind with Dimensional Voyage but have recently caught up with Spirit Circle. I eagerly look forward to the next (although sadly last) volume. The series has been excellent.

SuBLime has an 11th volume of The World’s Greatest First Love.

And Viz gives us Case Closed 69, Hayate the Combat Butler 33, and Radiant 3. Always happy to see Hayate getting volumes published and not kicked to the curb like a dog.

ANNA: My kids like Radiant!

SEAN: And that’s it. See anything interesting there?

MJ: No, but maybe one of you will persuade me.

SEAN: It’s the new year! 2019 manga! Fortunately, January is always the lightest month of the year, so there’s not TOO much of it. Yet.

ASH: I’m ready! (If you ignore the giant “to be read” pile of 2018 manga and novels still waiting for me…)

ANNA: I’m not ready!

SEAN: Apologies to Bookwalker, as I always forget when they release a new volume of The Ryuo’s Work Is Never Done. The 6th novel is already out.

Dark Horse has a 2nd Gantz omnibus.

J-Novel Club has a 3rd Sorcerous Stabber Orphen.

Kodansha debuts in print a title that’s come out digitally already, and is also getting an anime soon. The Quintessential Quintuplets sounds like classic Shonen Magazine romantic comedy.

In print, Kodansha also has a 10th Aho-Girl, the 10th (and final) Descending Stories, and a 4th Tokyo Tarareba Girls.

ASH: I’ll admit, I’m not following many of Kodansha’s print series right now, but I’m definitely picking up Descending Stories and Tokyo Tarareba Girls.

MICHELLE: I read a little Descending Stories and really liked it. I need to go back and have a marathon now that the final volume is coming out!

SEAN: Digitally, there doesn’t SEEM to be a debut, but I already know they sometimes add those at the last minute. There are definitely new digital volumes for Can You Just Die My Darling? (7), Can I Kiss You Every Day? (3), Chihayafuru (14), and The Prince Romance Gambit 6.

MICHELLE: It seems like the Chihayafuru releases are coming a bit faster now, so huzzah.

ANNA: More for me to get caught up on with Chihayafuru. I’m hoping to make some headway over winter break.

SEAN: Seven Seas doesn’t realize it’s 2019 already, so is releasing these manga while it’s still 2018! Due to the nature of this list it still counts, though. There’s A Certain Scientific Accelerator 8, Devilman Grimoire 5 (a final volume), High-Rise Invasion 5-6, Hungry for You: Endo Yasuko Stalks the Night 2 (also a final volume), and Magika Swordsman and Summoner 10.

And there is Viz, rounding things out with a heaping helping of shonen and shoujo. The debut is Kakuriyo: Bed & Breakfast for Spirits (Kakuriyo no Yadomeshi: Ayakashi Oyado ni Yomeiri Shimasu), and is an Enterbrain title, from Comic B’s Log. It’s about a young girl who, not wanting to marry a demon to clear her debt, ends up employed at an inn… for the afterlife. Sounds like a good title for Kamisama Kiss fans.

ASH: I’m looking forward to giving this one a try!

MICHELLE: Hm. Could be good!

ANNA: Sounds promising!

SEAN: There’s also Anonymous Noise 12, Blue Exorcist 21, The Demon Prince of Momochi House 13, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba 4, Dr. STONE 3, Dragon Ball Super 4, Haikyu!! 30, Kaguya-sama: Love Is War 6, My Hero Academia: Vigilantes 3, One-Punch Man 15, the final Rurouni Kenshin 4-in-1, Skip Beat! 3-in-1 13, Twin Star Exorcists 14, and The Water Dragon’s Bride 8.

ASH: Quite a few in this list that I’m reading, too!

MICHELLE: Forsooth. I just wish that Skip Beat! volume was new material!

ANNA: Me too. Always glad for another volume of Water Dragon’s Bride.

SEAN: So, y’know, there’s a lot. Just not as much as the past few weeks. What interests you?

SEAN: Christmas is over! At least for Manga the Week of. We’re looking beyond that to Boxing Day. Is there manga? There is!

ASH: Hooray!

SEAN: And there are also light novels. J-Novel Club has a 5th volume of Infinite Stratos and the 3rd Kokoro Connect.

Kodansha has, for print, a 13th Fire Force and a 16th Missions of Love (still not over, but coming out so rarely that it seems like it is.)

ASH: It does seem like it has been a while.

SEAN: Digitally there’s a lot more, as we see Ace of the Diamond 18, Ao-chan Can’t Study! 3, Defying Kurosaki-kun 6, Forest of Piano 9, Liar x Liar 9, and Mikami-sensei’s Way of Love 2.

MICHELLE: Most of that is shoujo that doesn’t appeal to me, but at least there’s Ace of the Diamond and Forest of Piano!

SEAN: The rest of the list is Seven Seas. The new title is Ojojojo, the latest in the “Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid was such a huge hit that we’ll license everything else by the same author” series. It’s coming out in an omnibus of the first two books, and does look pretty cute. It’s about two different types of outcasts who bond at school.

There’s also the 2nd manga volume of Didn’t I Say to Make My Abilities Average?!, the 3rd and final Dragon Half omnibus, a 3rd Giant Spider & Me (also a final volume), the 6th (and, yes, final) volume of NTR – Netsuzou Trap, and the 2nd volume of Slumbering Beauty, which is – try to contain your surprise – the final volume.

MICHELLE: One of these days I really will read Giant Spider & Me.

ASH: I’ve been delighted by it! Dragon Half is fun, too, and I liked the first volume of Slumbering Beauty as well.

SEAN: Has all the manga ended? Or was this merely Seven Seas’ CLEVER PLAN? Also, what are you buying?

ASH: Looks like it will be a Seven Seas sort of week for me!

MJ: Okay, so I’m probably not into any of this, but I just wanted to keep you all company. Hi.

SEAN: It’s the last big push before Christmas. What’s out next week for last-minute gifts?

Denpa has two new titles. Futurelog is a Renge Murata artbook, and looks AMAZING. (I saw it at AnimeNYC). It’s the character designer behind Last Exile and Blue Submarine No. 6, among other things.

And for those who like more ‘artsy’ manga, there is Invitation from a Crab, a one-volume collection of stories that ran in Hakusensha’s Rakuen Le Paradis.

ASH: I’m really looking forward to this one!

SEAN: Ghost Ship gives us an 8th To-Love-Ru Darkness.

MICHELLE: For the antithesis of ‘artsy.’

SEAN: Haikasoru has the 8th volume of Legend of the Galactic Heroes, which I believe will be the opposite of a laugh riot.

J-Novel Club has the 3rd Archdemon’s Dilemma: How to Love Your Elf Bride, the 12th Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash, and the 8th The Magic in This Other World Is Too Far Behind!, the last of which is now caught up to Japan, I believe.

ASH: So not too far behind, then.

SEAN: Kodansha has, I believe, the Battle Angel Alita box set and Mars Chronicle 5, unless they’ve been pushed back again.

Digitally there’s no debuts, but there is a plethora of ongoing series. Back Street Girls 6, Black Panther and Sweet 16 9, Chihayafuru 13 (watches Manga Bookshelf briefly perk up), DAYS 11, Elegant Yokai Apartment Life 9, Giant Killing 15 (OK, now it’s just Michelle paying attention), Space Brothers 33 and Tokyo Revengers 2.

MICHELLE: *snerk* Yep, there are three titles there that I’m following avidly, plus Elegant Yokai Apartment Life, which I intend to read sometime soon. I started the anime and it’s quite charming.

ANNA: Yay for Chihayafuru!

SEAN: One Peace gives us a lucky 13th volume of The Rising of the Shield Hero.

Seven Seas has a 4th volume of Arifureta’s novel in print. There’s also the 16th Haganai: I Don’t Have Many Friends, a 14th Monster Musume, an 8th Mushoku Tensei manga, and the 14th My Monster Secret 14.

Vertical has its 2nd After the Rain volume.

MICHELLE: Woot. This is also on my short list.

SEAN: Viz debuts Abara in one complete deluxe edition. This is by the creator of BLAME! and Knights of Sidonia, and ran in Viz’s Ultra Jump. Expect sci-fi weirdness.

MICHELLE: Ooh! This wasn’t on my radar at all.

ASH: The previews I’ve seen look very nice.

ANNA: Woah, what??????

SEAN: Viz also gives us the 2nd volume of the 20th Century Boys Perfect Edition and the 8th Tokyo Ghoul: re.

Lastly, Yen On has a bunch of light novels that didn’t come out this week for some reason. Coming to a close, we have the 8th and final volume of Kagerou Daze (though the story continues in the manga… and then the anime… trust me, it makes sense in context) and the 3rd and possibly final volume of Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander the Dungeon. There’s also Accel World 16, Baccano! 9, The Irregular at Magic High School 10, and Sword Art Online 15.

Is Osamu Tezuka in your chimney? I hope not. That would be weird. What are you getting?

ASH: … that would be weird.

SEAN: Merry Christmas! Why this early? Well, Yen Press is releasing most of its December lineup in one go next week. But first…

Dark Horse debuts Dangan Ronpa 2, the adaptation of the 2nd visual novel murder game. The 2nd is apparently more popular than the first, so I’m interested to see what it’s like.

J-Novel Club has three ongoing series: How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord 6, I Saved Too Many Girls And Caused the Apocalypse 11, and Lazy Dungeon Master 3. To show I don’t read EVERY light novel, I’m only following one of those three.

Kodansha’s print this month is pretty light, but there are a few volumes. Again!! 6, Noragami: Stray God 19 (wow, remember Noragami? This is what happens when you catch up…), and To Your Eternity 8.

ASH: Oh! Some good choices there!

SEAN: Digitally we debut, gloriously, CROCODILE BARON! It has a crocodile in a top hat on its cover, and therefore is required reading. It’s from Weekly Morning, and despite its top-hatted crocs, seems to be a foodie manga.

Seven Seas has only two, and they’re both light novels. The Ancient Magus’ Bride: The Golden Yarn is a light novel based on the popular manga series. And there’s also the 5th volume (digitally, print will come later) of Didn’t I Say to Make My Abilities Average in My Next Life?!.

MICHELLE: Huh. I may have to read a light novel!

ASH: I’m looking forward to giving the light novels a try, too.

SEAN: SuBLime has two titles as well, with the 2nd Escape Journey and the 6th volume of Manga Bookshelf anti-favorite Ten Count.

MICHELLE: Unfortunately, Escape Journey is problematic, too.

MJ: I feel like we could build a fort out of problematic BL manga, and it would stand up unfortunately well against the elements. That thing would be solid.

SEAN: Udon has an 8th volume of Persona 3. (How long are these spinoff manga anyway?)

ASH: I’ll admit I tired of the Persona 3 adaptation pretty quickly, but I have been largely enjoying the Persona 4 manga.

Vertical has the 4th volume of not-Nichijou-but-close manga CITY.

Viz debuts Dragon Quest Illustrations, a sweet-looking artbook with illustrations from… well, I’ll let that be a surprise for the reader.

We also get the third and final volume of After Hours, Magi 33, Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle 4, and Splatoon 5.

ASH: I’d forgotten that After Hours was so short.

SEAN: That just leaves Yen, but we’re not done here. Digitally we see the 20th Corpse Princess and the 10th IM: Great Priest Imhotep.

Yen has delayed about half its light novels to the week after next, but that still leaves several for this list. The Asterisk War 8, The Devil Is a Part-Timer! 12, I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years 3, KonoSuba 7, Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers 6, and That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime 4 all are novels out next week.

On the manga side, there are four debuts, two of which are side-story tie-ins and two of which we’ve seen already in single-chapter digital releases. Dead Mount Death Play is a manga series we’ve seen released in chapter format but now we get a volume. It’s from Ryohgo Narita, the creator of Baccano! and DRRR!!, but seems darker than both those series. And NE NE NE (complete in one volume) is a sweet romantic comedy that ran in Shonen Gangan.

MICHELLE: NE NE NE looks cute!

ANNA: That does sound cute.

ASH: I’m glad it’s getting a print release! I’ve been wanting to read it.

SEAN: Goblin Slayer Side Story: Year One is a manga adaptation of the Goblin Story: Year One side story light novels, and your name Another Side: Earthbound is also a manga adaptation of a light novel side story. It’s almost Inception-esque.

Not based on light novels: As Miss Beelzebub Likes 4, Bungo Stray Dogs 9, Girls’ Last Tour 5, Hakumei & Mikochi 3, Hatsu*Haru 4, Horimiya 12, One Week Friends 5, A Polar Bear in Love 4, School of Horns 2, Silver Spoon 6, The Strange Creature at Kuroyuri Apartments 2, A Terrified Teacher at Ghoul School 5, and Yowamushi Pedal 10. In case Manga Bookshelf folks are skimming that long list, ‘Silver Spoon’ and ‘Yowapeda’ are what you want to stop on.

MICHELLE: Aww, yiss. I could use some Yowamushi Pedal about now.

ANNA: Nice!

ASH: Yup, Silver Spoon and Yowamushi Pedal definitely have most of my attention out of that bunch, though there are a few other series I’m reading, too.

MJ: Did someone say Silver Spoon?

SEAN: On the ‘based on light novels’ side, we see Accel World 8, The Boy and the Beast 4 (which is the final volume), The Honor Student at Magic High School 9. The Isolator 4, Kagerou Daze 11, My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong As I Expected 9, and Sword Art Online: Progressive 7 (which marks the final volume by the current artist, but I think it’s being rebooted with a new one).

It’s another giant pile. What are you getting? Could it be crocodiles in top hats? Or something else?

SEAN: As we get ready for the holidays, why not give the gift of new manga? Here’s what’s next week.

Bookwalker has a 7th volume of The Combat Baker and Automaton Waitress, which I need to catch up on still.

Cross Infinite World debuts The Cursed Princess and the Lucky Knight, another in its line of romantic light novels for young women.

J-Novel Club has the 18th Invaders of the Rokujouma!?. Just making that a sentence makes the punctuation marks cry.

In print, Kodansha has Attack on Titan 26, Boarding School Juliet 2, Kiss Me at the Stroke of Midnight 8, and The Seven Deadly Sins: Seven Days 2, which wraps up this spinoff.

ASH: It’s been a while since I’ve caught up on Attack on Titan, I should probably get around to doing that.

SEAN: Digitally we debut Red Riding Hood’s Wolf Apprentice, a Betsushonen title that’s also a bit of a gender reversal: Red Riding Hood is a demon hunter, and the wolf is a cute young girl. Those with long memories may recall Pupa, a JManga title by the same author.

There’s also Are You Lost? 3, Can I Kiss You Every Day? 2 and My Boy in Blue 5.

Seven Seas has no debuts, but we do see Accomplishments of the Duke’s Daughter 2, Lord Marksman and Vanadis 9, New Game! 4, and Tomo-chan Is a Girl! 2.

Speaking of gift material, Titan is releasing a Sherlock Season 1 manga box set.

ASH: That will make a nice gift for fans of the franchise; the manga adaptations have been pretty faithful to the BBC television series.

SEAN: Vertical has Pop Team Epic: Second Season, with even more of those memes (and gags, but let’s face it, mostly memes) that you need.

The rest is Viz, and we have a ridiculous amount of final volumes out next week. But first, the debut. We Never Learn is a new romantic comedy from Viz’s Jump imprint, following the adventures of a tutor trying to work with three geniuses who are brilliant at one subject and bad at others. Nisekoi fans should like this.

Ending this week are Astra: Lost in Space (5), Kimi ni Todoke (30), Kuroko’s Basketball (29-30), and The Young Master’s Revenge (4). Man, I’m going to miss Sawako and Kuroko.

MICHELLE: Me, too!

ANNA: I haven’t been reading Kimi ni Todoke recently because of being timid of emotional devastation but one day I will get all caught up!

SEAN: In series that aren’t beginning or ending, we see Ao Haru Ride 2, Food Wars! 27, Juni Taisen: Zodiac War 2, My Hero Academia 16, One Piece’s 26th 3-in-1, Platinum End 7, The Promised Neverland 7, Queen’s Quality 6, Takane & Hana 6, and Yona of the Dawn 15. I am getting… most of those, to be honest.

MICHELLE: Same here. I’m particularly craving another dose of Takane & Hana.

ANNA: Any week Yona of the Dawn is coming out is a good week!!!! Also super excited for Ao Haru Ride.

ASH: Yes, Yona of the Dawn is great! I need to catch up on Queen’s Quality and Food Wars!, too.

MJ: Definitely Ao Haru Ride and Queen’s Quality! Also, I’m very behind in Platinum End, and obviously in danger of losing my Takeshi Obata fangirl card, so something must be done.

SEAN: Are you getting a pile of manga to give as presents? Or just reading it yourself?

SEAN: Time for some Black Friday manga titles. Maybe some of these will have low, low prices.

Cross Infinite World has another one-shot fantasy novel with Tia La Cherla. Normal guy meets mysterious girl with amnesia but tremendous powers.

Dark Horse gives us Yoshitaka Amano: The Illustrated Biography, which is what it says but also looks really lavish and able to justify its expensive price.

ASH: Oooh, that should be nice.

SEAN: Ghost Ship gives us a 4th volume of Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs, for all your ecchi needs.

J-Novel Club has a 2nd volume of Der Werwolf: The Annals of Veight and a 6th Outbreak Company.

Kodansha has a few print titles. We get a 3rd Grand Blue Dreaming, the Real Account 9-11 omnibus (I think – it’s been on this list before and then delayed), and The Seven Deadly Sins 29.

ASH: I will admit that Grand Blue Dreaming has made me laugh more than once.

SEAN: Digitally the debut is Blissful Land (Tenju no Kuni), which seems to be Kodansha’s answer to A Bride’s Story. It runs in Betsushonen, and is about a 13-year-old boy in Tibet and a mysterious bride who arrives one day. >_> OK, a *lot* like A Bride’s Story.

ANNA: Huh, do we need two of these series? I’m really behind on A Bride’s Story so I can’t imagine going out of my way to read a similar series when I need to get caught up on the original.

SEAN: There’s also a pike of ongoing digital for all. Ace of the Diamond 17, Ao-chan Can’t Study 2, Forest of Piano 8, Is Kichijoji the Only Place to Live? 5, Kakafukaka 3, Kira-kun Today 2, Liar x Liar 8, Peach Mermaid 3, and Those Summer Days 5. I have actually started one or two of these!

MICHELLE: I have only started one, so far, though there are several I will get around to sometime soonish. I hope.

SEAN: Seven Seas has no debuts, but a pile of ongoing series. Absolute Duo 4, Arifureta’s 3rd manga volume, the print edition of the 3rd Clockwork Planet novel, Devilman vs. Hades 3, The High School Life of a Fudanshi 4, Nirvana 3, and Saint Seiya: Saintia Sho 4.

Vertical debuts Katanagatari: Sword Tale. Despite the similar names, this is unrelated to the Bakemonogatari books except that it’s also by Nisioisin. It’s actually 3 novels in one – they were quite short, and he wrote one per month for a year. It’s set in the Edo era and has swords. What more could one need?

And Yen has a number of titles that got pushed back a week or two. We’ll start with an old title available in digital for the first time: Emma 1-10 (i.e not in omnibuses) is available digitally! As is Sekirei 19, whose core audience is… not the same as Emma’s.

ASH: I am still so incredibly happy that Yen Press rescued Emma.

ANNA: For sure a series that deserves to be in print!

SEAN: The light novel debut is one of the more anticipated titles of the year… for one reason or another. Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks? is the mom isekai the fandom never knew it wanted. Supposedly a “parody” of Japan’s current obsession with incest stories, I suspect as with most Japanese parodies it will have its cake and eat it too. The premise is simple: a young man is called to be a hero in a fantasy world. But his mom is there too. And is more powerful. And dotes on him to a disturbing degree. We shall see.

MICHELLE: I wish this were totally free of any possibly creepy vibes because the idea of going to another world with your mom is kind of amusing.

SEAN: In non-mom isekai light novels, we have Defeating the Demon Lord’s a Cinch (If You’ve Got a Ringer) 2, Durarara!! 11, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days: The Novel, The Saga of Tanya the Evil 4, and So I’m a Spider, So What? 4. Congrats to Tanya and Durarara!! for not being fantasy-based (Tanya’s still an isekai, though).

Lastly, two manga stragglers: Alice in Murderland 9 and A Bride’s Story 10.

ASH: I love A Bride’s Story so much.

SEAN: Will you be getting A Bride’s Story AND Blissful Land? What else?

SEAN: We give thanks for this manga, and it seems appropriate we start by giving thanks for a new manga company.

Denpa is releasing its first two titles next week. The first may be familiar to Crunchyroll manga readers. Inside Mari (Boku wa Mari no Naka) is a seinen series from Futabasha’s Manga Action, where our lead ends up inside the body of the girl he likes, and has to figure out what’s going on and how to act like her.

The other debut is PEZ, by Hiroyuki Asada, best known for Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee. It’s small (just 72 pages), but gorgeous, and published originally in the ROBOT anthology.

MICHELLE: Welcome, Denpa!

ASH: I am definitely interested in both of these (and everything else to come)!

MJ: Exciting!

SEAN: J-Novel Club also has two debuts next week. We start with Apparently It’s My Fault That My Husband Has the Head of a Beast. This one appears to definitely be geared towards female readers, and stars a Princess who shuts herself in because she sees people’s faces as beast heads. Then she meets a prince, who seems unaffected… at first.

The other debut is a one-shot, ECHO, based on a Vocaloid song, a la Kagerou Daze. I know nothing about it except it has excellent buzz.

And for more typical fare, we also have the 11th In Another World with My Smartphone.

This may have been on the list before, but dates slip, you know the drill. Kodansha has Battle Angel Alita: Holy Night and Other Stories, a collection set in the Alitaverse.

ASH: I suspect it’s something that I’ll get around to reading at some point.

SEAN: Print-wise, there’s also Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card 5, UQ Holder 15, and Wotakoi: Love Is Hard for Otaku omnibus 3. Honestly, I’m giving up on Amazon’s dates, as they seem to hate Kodansha right now, and going with the company site.

MICHELLE: Yay for more Wotakoi!

ASH: Yes, indeed! I really do love the series.

SEAN: Digitally, Kodansha debuts Good Dog, Cerberus! (Meiken Keru-chan), a one-volume manga about a cute but clumsy demon dog from Hell. It runs in Kodansha’s Aria, but is being marketed as all ages.

MICHELLE: The cover is crazy cute.

MJ: I’m a sucker for demon dogs from Hell.

SEAN: Also digitally, there is All Out! 7, Are You Lost? 2, Back Street Girls 5, Elegant Yokai Apartment Life 8, A Kiss, for Real 5, and Shojo Fight! 5.

MICHELLE: Shojo Fight! continues to be great.

ANNA: I need to catch up!

SEAN: One Peace has the sequel to the original I Hear The Sunspot, subtitled Limit.

ANNA: Loved the first volume.

ASH: I was really impressed by I Hear the Sunspot, so I’m looking forward to reading more.

MJ: I need this.

SEAN: Seven Seas has a bunch of stuff. Wonderland is the manga debut, and yes, it’s another horror take on the Alice story. This ran in Shogakukan’s Big Comic Superior, which almost never gets English licenses. Premise: everyone wakes up tiny! How can they survive?

Also debuting is a one-shot novel with the misleading title I Want to Eat Your Pancreas. No, it’s not a horror novel, and is well worth your time AND your pancreas.

ASH: I’ve heard good things.

SEAN: There’s also the 5th Akashic Records of Bastard Magical Instructor, a 4th Beasts of Abigaile, the 6th Captain Harlock: Dimensional Voyage, the print version of the 4th Make My Abilities Average light novel, The 3rd and final Juana and the Dragonewts’ Seven Kingdoms, a 9th Shomin Sample, and the 3rd Toradora! novel.

MICHELLE: I look forward to reading more Beasts of Abigaile.

ANNA: Me too! It covers my need for goofy paranormal shoujo manga.

SEAN: Udon gives us more foodie isekai manga with a 2nd Otherworldly Izakaya Nobu.

ASH: While in some ways not as immediately compelling as some of the other fantasy foodie manga being released right now, I did rather enjoy the first volume.

SEAN: Vertical has the 2nd Delinquent Housewife!, and also packs the first 7 Monogatari novels into a nice box, which is sadly only available if you buy the books all over again. (You have been buying the books, right?)

We end with Viz, who also have a debut. Ran and the Gray World (Ran to Haiiro no Sekai) is an Enterbrain title from Harta, something which always makes me happy. It’s about a powerful but immature sorcerer and the big brother who has to be her minder.

MICHELLE: Otherworldly Izakaya, Delinquent Housewife, and Ran and the Gray World are all on my list!

ANNA: Ran and the Gray World looks nifty!

ASH: It really does!

They also have Children of the Whales 7, Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt 9, the 3rd RWBY Anthology, and… drumroll please… Ooku: The Inner Chambers 14! Rejoice Manga Bookshelf writers!

MICHELLE: Verily, I am rejoicing!

ANNA: Indeed, I am rejoicing as well!

ASH: Rejoice! Rejoice!

MJ: What they said!

SEAN: So is your manga a turkey? (In a good way, of course.)

SEAN: Here we go again, folks. 62 titles next week. Please cry with me.

ASH: Those are tears of joy, right?

SEAN: Dark Horse has a 7th Blade of the Immortal omnibus to start us off.

ASH: A great way to collect the series since many of the single volumes are out-of-print.

SEAN: J-Novel Club debuts My Next Life As a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!. They’re marketing this to men as well, and it does have a sizeable male fandom here, but Bakarina (as it’s known) is actually from a female-oriented publisher. The premise might seem familiar – a woman wakes up in the body of the villain of the otome game she’s been playing, and has to figure out how not to die or be exiled – but I’ve heard very good things about it.

ANNA: Hmmmm.

SEAN: They also have the latest in the Ao Oni series, subtitled Grudge, a 2nd Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles, and a 2nd volume of Amagi Brilliant Park.

In terms of print, there’s no debuts from Kodansha, but they do have Frau Faust 5 (which Amazon seems to be shipping a bit late on Amazon), Golosseum 4, L*DK 12, Land of the Lustrous 7, Nekogahara: Stray Cat Samurai 5, the 2nd Sailor Moon Eternal Edition, and the 9th Waiting for Spring.

MICHELLE: I’ve been eagerly anticipating the final volume of Frau Faust!

ASH: Oh, I didn’t realize it was the final volume! I’m definitely picking it up, though.

SEAN: Digitally the debut is Alice’s Diet Quest, a Bessatsu Shonen Magazine title about a priestess in a fantasy world who wants to lose weight using any method she can. This… sounds a bit too similar to Plus-Sized Elf for my tastes.

ANNA: No thank you!

SEAN: And we have Boarding School Juliet 6, Kamikamikaeshi 5, The Prince’s Black Poison 8, Tokyo Alice 5, and The Walls Between Us 2.

MICHELLE: I’m already behind on the latter two. Sigh.

SEAN: One Peace has the third volume of the Mikagura School Suite manga.

Seven Seas has only one title, believe it or not: the 2nd Devilman Classic Collection.

ASH: I really liked the first collection, so I’m looking forward to the second.

SEAN: And Vertical Comics has the 9th Mobile Suit Gundam Wing.

Viz debuts Record of Grancest War, which is a fantasy manga based on a light novel with lots of warring states and the mage and knight who try to stop it. It runs in Hakusensha’s Young Animal, so I suspect will also have fanservice or gore.

There is also The Complete Art of Fullmetal Alchemist, which is… what it says.

ASH: Should be great, is what!

ANNA: Yay!

SEAN: Speaking of Fullmetal Alchemist, we have the 3rd Fullmetal Edition omnibus, a 2nd Radiant, a 9th Requiem of the Rose King, and a 28th Rin-Ne.

MICHELLE: Hooray for Requiem of the Rose King!

ASH: I really love this series.

ANNA: Me too!

SEAN: That just leaves Yen, who are shipping most of their titles a bit early this month. JY has the 2nd volume of Little Witch Academia.

Yen On has, believe it or not, only the 2nd silliest light novel debut this month, with The Hero and His Elf Bride Open a Pizza Parlor in Another World. I believe this is just one volume, and corners the market on pizza isekai stories.

Yen On also has A Certain Magical Index 17, Magical Girl Raising Project 5, My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong As I Expected 6, Sword Art Online Progressive 5, and WorldEnd: What Do You Do at the End of the World? Are You Busy? Will You Save Us? 2. So Elf Pizza is not the longest title this week.

On the manga side, we debut Interspecies Reviewers, a monster girl title that runs in Kadokawa’s Dragon Age and looks… um… designed for teenage boys needing to relieve some stress. If you know what I mean.

There’s also two spinoff debuts, as we get the first volume of the manga adaptation of DanMachi’s Lyu sidestory, and also Sowrd Art Online: Hollow Realization, a manga adaptation of the video game that runs in Dengeki Maoh.

Speaking of light novel adaptations, next week we also have the 4th Goblin Slayer manga, an 11th High School DxD, the 4th Hybrid x Heart Magic Academy Ataraxia, a 7th KonoSuba, the 10th Log Horizon: The West Wind Brigade, the 8th Overlord manga, and the 5th volume of Re: Zero’s 3rd arc.

And in titles not based on a novel, we have ACCA 5, Akame Ga Kill! ZERO 8, Angels of Death 5, Chio’s School Road 2, Delicious in Dungeon 6, Dimension W 12, Forbidden Scrollery 5, Fruits Basket Another 2, Laid-Back Camp 4, Love at Fourteen 8 (honestly, they’re almost 16 by now), Mermaid Boys 3, No Matter How You Look At It, It’s You Guys, Fault I’m Not Popular! 12, The Royal Tutor 10, Tales of Wedding Rings 4, Trinity Seven 15, and last but not least, a 14th volume of Yotsuba&!.

MICHELLE: There are several things in that list that I’ll be checking out, but Yotsuba&! for the win!

ASH: Indeed! Delicious in Dungeon and ACCA are very high on my list, too.

ANNA: Been a long time since there was a new volume of Yotsuba&!.

SEAN: This is a lot. (Yen pushed back eight titles two weeks, or it would be even more.) Are you getting anything, or just staring in horror and disbelief?

SEAN: It is election week, and I urge everyone in the United States to please go vote. Meanwhile, on the manga front…

Cross Infinite World has another series, this one apparently from some creators who’ve also done Final Fantasy. emeth: Island of Golems is the title, and the e is small, e.e. cummings style.

Ghost Ship has a 5th Yokai Girls.

J-Novel Club continues to dole out light novels for the hungry fan, as we see Demon King Daimaou 8, Invaders of the Rokujouma!? 17, and The Master of Ragnarok and Blesser of Einherjar 4.

Kodansha is in something of a state of flux – its site’s release dates are not matching Amazon’s, and there have been some schedule slips. But we definitely get the debut of Hiro Mashima’s new manga next week, Eden’s Zero. It’s hard not to make the “Fairy Taiiiil… iiinnnnn SPAAAAAAACCCCEEE!!!!” joke here.

ASH: Ha!

SEAN: Other print titles are Boarding School Juliet 2 and Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth Side: P4 Volume 4 (it hurts me typing that title).

ASH: It does hurt, but it’s a fun series for Persona fans.

SEAN: Digitally we debut Can I Kiss You Every Day?, a Betsufure title whose synopsis, alas, sounds incredibly similar to a lot of other shoujo digital-only titles we’ve seen recently.

MICHELLE: That synopsis earns a hard pass from me.

SEAN: And there’s also Can You Just Die, My Darling? 6, Chihayafuru 12 (yay!), My Boy in Blue 4, and Peach Girl Next 3.

MICHELLE: Yay, indeed!

ANNA: Yes!!!

SEAN: Seven Seas has no debuts, but they do have several of their ongoing series. There’s The Bride and the Exorcist Knight 2, The Dungeon of Black Company 2, Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid 7, Sorry for My Familiar 3, and The Testament of Sister New Devil STORM!! 5.

Though release dates on Amazon for Tokyopop are even more fluid than they are for Kodansha, there is apparently a 2nd Futaribeya out next week.

For those who missed the two-volume Summer Wars manga, Vertical Comics is releasing it as an omnibus.

Viz’s debut combines two incredibly popular trends: Dragon Ball and reincarnated into another world stories. That Time I Got Reincarnated as Yamcha is exactly what it sounds like, which is to say silly.

ASH: This is supposed to be fantastic.

ANNA: Sometimes very silly is a good thing.

MJ: I’m down for this.

SEAN: Some excellent ongoing series. On the shonen side, we have Black Clover 13, Black Torch 2, the 3rd Bleach Box Set (not sure if it’s black or not), the 3rd Demon Slayer, a 2nd Dr. STONE, a 29th Haikyu!!, the 9th JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders hardcover, an 88th One Piece, and the 4th volume in Yu-Gi-Oh: Arc V.

MICHELLE: I need to check out Dr. STONE.

ASH: Oh yes, there’re some great series in there!

ANNA: I enjoyed the first volume of Dr. STONE.

SEAN: On the shoujo side, we see Anonymous Noise 11, Idol Dreams 5, and Shortcake Cake 2.

MICHELLE: I also need to check out Shortcake Cake.

ASH: The first volume was quite enjoyable!

ANNA: Shortcake Cake is super cute, and I enjoy Idol Dreams.

SEAN: And on the ‘seinen marketed as shonen’ side, we have Kaguya-sama: Love Is War 5.

Did you vote? And what did you buy?

MICHELLE: Last Friday! And I got a sticker!

It’s Halloween, and the trick is being able to stand under the weight of all this manga.

Ghost Ship has a 7th volume of “porn or not?” series To-Love-Ru Darkness.

J-Novel Club has a trio of ongoing titles, as we get the 8th Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest, the 7th The Magic in This Other World Is Too Far Behind!, and the 2nd Sorcerous Stabber Orphen.

Kodansha’s print debut is Hiro Mashima’s Playground, which as you might guess is a collection of short stories from the creator of Fairy Tail.

Speaking of short story collections, we also get Battle Angel Alita: Holy Night, which collects previously unseen one shots from the Gunnm universe. (What’s Gunnm?, I hear you cry. Well…)

ASH: Oh, I had missed this one being picked up, though I’m not surprised that it was.

SEAN: There’s also the 14th and final volume of Animal Land, a series whose first volume came out in North America sometime in 1643.

MICHELLE: I legitimately forgot this series existed.

MJ: Same.

ASH: It really is a shame that this series hasn’t gotten more attention. It’s a little strange, but quite good.

SEAN: The digital debut is a sequel, as we get the first volume of Princess Resurrection: Nightmare, the sequel to… well, Princess Resurrection. It still runs in Shonen Sirius, and seems to be more of a Tokyo Ghoul-style reboot.

Also out digitally: Beware the Kamiki Brothers! 6 and Heaven’s Design Team 2.

MICHELLE: I read the first volume of the latter and it was.. odd. We’ll see if the author varies the already established formula at all with volume two.

SEAN: Seven Seas is hitting us with lots of stuff. The debut is Versailles of the Dead, which does not feature Oscar but does feature Marie Antoinette and zombies. I think it’s currently running in Hibana, though it’s changed magazines a few times.

ANNA: I have to admit I am intrigued by the title, along with historical zombies.

ASH: As am I! It’s by the creator of Afterschool Charisma, too.

SEAN: There’s also The Ancient Magus’ Bride Supplement, yet another in-depth guidebook to the series.

ASH: I’ll be picking this one up!

SEAN: And we have an 8th Dreamin’ Sun, the 8th Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash novel in print, the 2nd manga adaptation of If It’s For My Daughter Etc., the 3rd Mononoke Sharing, the 13th My Monster Secret, the 8th Nurse Hitomi’s Monster Infirmary, and 2nd True Tenchi Muyo! novel, and the 4th and final Yokai Rental Shop.

ASH: I wasn’t as enamored with the beginning of Yokai Rental Shop as I was hoping I would be, but I have been meaning to read more of the series.

SEAN: Udon has a 3rd volume of Infini-T Force.

Vertical has Onimonogatari, which theoretically is about Shinobu but Mayoi is going to steal the show.

That leaves Yen Press, but that’s still a lot.

ASH: It really is.

SEAN: Starting with Yen’s digital-only manga, we see Corpse Princess 19, Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun 8, and IM: Great Priest Imhotep 9.

JY is Yen’s imprint for younger readers, and we have two titles to point to. The first is Crush, the 3rd in Svetlana Chmakova’s series that began with Awkward and Brave. It is sure to be as awesome as both of those were.

JY also has a Japanese title debuting. Zo-Zo-Zombie is from the kids’ magazine Corocoro, and is the most adorable zombie manga you’ll ever read.

ASH: D’awww.

SEAN: Yen On debuts Mirai, the latest ‘novelization of a popular movie’ title. There’s also Final Fantasy VII: On the Way to a Smile, in which Aerith is, like Francisco Franco, still dead. Though given these are short stories, possibly not in this volume.

Goblin Slayer, now a hit anime, also gets a side story novel, called Year One. I expect goblins.

Yen On also has new volumes of The Empty Box and Zeroth Maria (4), Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? (12), Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Sword Oratoria (7), Re: ZERO (8), Spice and Wolf (20), and its sequel Wolf and Parchment (3).

Theoretically there is also the long, long, long delayed 7th volume of No Game No Life, but I won’t believe this without actual evidence.

And then the manga. So much. Only one debut, which is High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even in Another World!. Based on an unlicensed light novel, it’s another isekai, as you can see, only the kids finding themselves in another world are all insufferable geniuses. How will they cope? Easily, apparently.

That leaves the ongoing series. Let’s divide it, as I tend to do, in half. First, NOT based on light novels. There’s Anne Happy 8, Aoharu x Machinegun 13, Demonizer Zilch 5, Gabriel Dropout 5, Hakumei & Mikochi 2, Hatsu*Haru 3, Kakegurui: Compulsive Gambler 7, Kiss and White Lily for My Dearest Girl 7, Murcielago 8, Prison School 11, Sacrificial Princes and the King of Beasts 3, the 5th Sekirei omnibus, Shibuya Goldfish 2, Silver Spoon 5, Spirits & Cat Ears 7, Taboo Tattoo 12, Teasing Master Takagi-san 2, Triage X 16, and Val x Love 4. … I’m actually getting a lot of that. Yikes, that’s a lot.

MICHELLE: Hatsu*Haru, Sacrificial Princess, and Silver Spoon for me.

ANNA: You know, if I don’t read any of this, I’m not behind. That’s what I will tell myself. Although somewhere I have first volumes of Sacrificial Princess and Silver Spoon squirreled away.

MJ: Obviously Silver Spoon. Always Silver Spoon.

ASH: Silver Spoon is likewise at the top of my list, but I’m reading (and falling behind with) a few others, too.

SEAN: On the light novel adaptation side, we have A Certain Magical Index 15, Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody 5, The Devil Is a Part-Timer! 12, Durarara!! re;Dollars 3, the 5th DanMachi: Sword Oratoria manga, Napping Princess 2, The Saga of Tanya the Evil 4, and the 4th So I’m a Spider, So What?.

ANNA: Why are there so many light novels, and no one has released any Library Wars titles, or finished 12 Kingdoms????

MICHELLE: Or Saiunkoku Monogatari???

ANNA: YES! Someone bring out Saiunkoku Monogatari!!!!

ASH: I would love to see those series translated, too! I’d add No. 6 and the rest of Moribito as well, though those might not technically be light novels.

SEAN: Are you gorged on all these treats? What’s in your bag?

ASH: SO MUCH.