Features

SEAN: Manga, manga, manga! Last chance sale! Everything must go!

Dark Horse gives us a 39th volume of Berserk, a series that without hiatuses might have 139 volumes.

ASH: Ha! That may be true. I still greatly anticipate this one, though!

SEAN: J-Novel Club has the 9th volume of guilty pleasure In Another World With My Smartphone.

Kodansha did it again, releasing their new digital manga press release just after I posted Manga the Week of. So, already released, we have I’m Standing on a Million Lives (100-man no Inochi no Ue ni Ore wa Tatte Iru), an isekai fantasy that runs in Bessatsu Shonen Magazine. The artist may be familiar for Psycho Busters.

Meanwhile, next week’s debut is Tokyo Alice, a long-runing josei series from Kiss magazine that recently got a live-action series. The heroine is looking for love and looking to shop, possibly not in that order.

MICHELLE: I’m not especially into shopping, but who can resist long-running josei?

ANNA: Did someone say long-running josei!?

SEAN: Also digitally we have Kamikamikaeshi 2 and Starving Anonymous 5.

Print-wise, we have another digital debut that’s now getting a print release. Grand Blue Dreaming is a romantic comedy from the creator of Bakas, Tests and Summoned Beasts. It runs in good! Afternoon.

ASH: I’m curious about this one! What could possibly go wrong when mixing drinking and diving? (Plus, I’m always happy when one of Kodansha’s digital titles makes its way into print.)

SEAN: Amazon also tells me that there is an Attack on Titan Character Encyclopedia coming out next week, though I don’t see that on Kodansha’s site. Learn more about your favorite characters who are now dead. NOT THAT I’M BITTER.

Kiss Him, Not Me! comes to an end with its 14th volume. The series had its ups and downs, but overall I enjoyed it.

And there is a 7th Waiting for Spring.

MICHELLE: I always enjoy this series.

SEAN: Seven Seas debuts Little Devils (Maou Kyoudai), the latest in a long line of slice-of-monster-girl life. Or monster kids, in this case, as a hero has to raise demon children to become model citizens. It runs in Tokuma Shoten’s Comic Ryu, and looks more cutesy than pervey.

ASH: It does look really cute. I plan on giving it a try.

MJ: This sounds pretty cute.

SEAN: There’s also a 7th print novel for Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash, a 2nd Sorry for My Familiar, and a 4th Spirit Circle. I’ll definitely be getting the last of those.

ASH: Same!

SEAN: Vertical gives us a 7th volume of the Mobile Suit Gundam Wing manga.

Lastly, there is Viz, which has a 67th Case Closed (still not over in Japan), and a 27th Rin-Ne (which has ended, but we have a long way to go to catch up.)

MICHELLE: I had no idea RIN-NE had ended! It makes me wonder if there was some actual plot there at the end.

MJ: *snort*

SEAN: Not too bad, right? Which of these MANGA BARGAINS are you getting?

SEAN: Next week is July. It’s hot. But there is manga! Let’s keep it short and sweet.

MICHELLE: Our heat index today is 102. :(

SEAN: Dark Horse has a spiffy Gallery Edition of Lone Wolf and Cub, which I sometimes feel is the only title they really still love.

ASH: It does seem that way sometimes; this edition should be gorgeous.

SEAN: Ghost Ship has a 2nd volume of World’s End Harem.

J-Novel Club has a 14th Invaders of the Rokujouma!?.

In print, Kodansha has a 25th Attack on Titan, and a 27th volume of The Seven Deadly Sins.

ASH: I somehow missed that The Seven Deadly Sins had surpassed Attack on Titan in length!

SEAN: Digitally, we see new volumes of Beware the Kamiki Brothers! (3), A Kiss, For Real (2) Those Summer Days (2), and You Got Me, Sempai (3).

MICHELLE: Eventually, I really will get around to checking out all of these.

ANNA: That’s too much. Too much digital!

SEAN: Seven Seas has three debut titles next week. Go For It, Nakamura! is a cute romantic comedy that’s being marketed more as that than as BL. It is done in one, and ran in Akaneshinsha’s BL-oriented magazine Opera.

MICHELLE: I love the retro-looking art on the cover!

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

SEAN: Harukana Receive is a beach volleyball series, and features lots of girls in minimal clothing. Despite both these things, it runs in Houbunsha’s Manga Time Kirara Forward, so I’m expecting strong female friendships.

Mushroom Girls in Love (Kinoko Ningen no Kekkon) is a one-shot from the creator of A Centaur’s Life, and is just as weird as that long-running series is. It ran in Ohta Shuppan’s Pocopoco, which is a seinen magazine.

ASH: Weird can be good; I’ll admit to being curious.

SEAN: Seven Seas also has a 2nd volume of the Arifureta manga, and a 2nd volume of Giant Spider & Me.

MICHELLE: Woot.

ASH: I greatly enjoyed the first volume of Gian Spider & Me, so I’ll definitely be picking up the second!

SEAN: Vertical has the 2nd and last Moteki omnibus. Will the protagonist get together with one of the girls? I wouldn’t count on it.

Viz time. One debut, one spinoff debut, and one artbook debut. The new series is Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, a Weekly Shonen Jump title. I’ve heart it’s heartwarming. I’ve also heard it’s dark and FILLED with violence.

ASH: I’ve heard similar things about the series.

SEAN: The spinoff is My Hero Academia: Vigilantes, and you can probably guess the plot given MHA is a series about licensed heroes. These are not those heroes. The artist is better known for Harukaze Bitter Bop over here, one of the many series that died when Tokyopop first did. The writer has also done the K manga.

MICHELLE: I’m a little hesitant about this one, since it’s not by the original creator, but I suppose it could be good.

SEAN: The artbook is Color Walk, the first One Piece artbook to actually come out over here. Experience the very beginning of the series, looking gorgeous and with commentary by Oda.

Ongoing shonen? We’ve got it. Bleach 73, Dragon Ball Super 3, Haikyu!! 25, Naruto’s 23rd 3-in-1, One-Punch Man 14, Rurouni Kenshin’s 7th 3-in-1, and a 9th Yo-kai Watch.

ASH: Look at that! Two volleyball titles in one week!

SEAN: Ongoing shoujo? Plenty of that too. Anonymous Noise 9, The Demon Prince of Momochi House 12, the 2nd and final Kenka Bancho Otome, and the 6th Water Dragon’s Bride.

MICHELLE: Definitely several in both categories that I’m following!

ANNA: YAY!!!!

SEAN: Ongoing seinen marketed as shonen? Kaguya-sama: Love Is War 3 is for you.

MICHELLE: Heh.

SEAN: Lastly, Yen On has a 3rd volume of The Empty Box and the Zeroth Maria.

Beating the heat? Celebrating the Fourth? What manga are you doing it with?

SEAN: 65 titles. Sixty. Five. Titles. Next. Week.

MICHELLE: Holy crap.

ANNA: Yikes.

ASH: That’s amazing.

SEAN: Ghost Ship has a 5th To-Love-Ru Darkness and a 2nd volume of Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs, thus continuing to be the “Shonen Jump Titles Too Hot For Viz” publisher.

J-Novel Club has the 6th volume of If It’s For My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord.

Kodansha’s got a lot. Print-wise we see some series we haven’t seen for a looooooong time. Air Gear (last seen one year ago) finally comes to an end with its 37th volume. L♥DK (last seen 10 months ago) has its 11th volume. And Missions of Love (last seen 13 months ago) has a 15th volume. This doesn’t seem to be “caught up with Japan”, so who knows why it’s been so long.

ASH: Oh, Missions of Love! I guess it has been a while, but I do find the series addictive.

SEAN: Other print volumes include a 4th Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card, a 10th Fire Force, and theoretically the print debut of Tokyo Tarareba Girls, though this isn’t on Kodansha’s own site, so don’t be surprised if there’s a last minute date change.

ASH: I’m very excited for the print debut of Tokyo Tarareba Girls, so I hope there won’t be much of a delay if there is one. I’m still reading Clear Card, too, even though I think the original Cardcaptor Sakura is the stronger series at this point.

SEAN: On the digital front, there’s another debut with the wonderfully titled The Quintessential Quintuplets (Go-Toubun no Hanayome). It’s a Weekly Shonen Magazine series about a kid who has to tutor… well, you can probably guess. Expect comedy.

And there is Ace of the Diamond 12, Beauty Bunny 6, Liar x Liar 3, My Brother the Shut-In 6 (this is a final, I think), The Prince’s Black Poison 6, and Tsuredure Children 10.

MICHELLE: Someday I’ll read My Brother the Shut-In, but predictably, it’s Ace of the Diamond that I’m most excited about.

SEAN: Seven Seas rarely buries us in piles of titles in the same week. Next week is an exception. We’ve got the final Captive Hearts of Oz (Vol. 4), a 13th volume of A Certain Scientific Railgun, the 2nd novel of Clockwork Planet in print (digital from J-Novel Club), a 3rd Devilman Grimoire, Freezing 21-22, Magika Swordsman and Summoner 9, Mononoke Sharing 2, My Monster Secret 11, Not Lives 9, and NTR – Netsuzou Trap 5.

ASH: It’ll be interesting to compare Devilman Grimoire to the classic Devilman manga now that that’s starting to be released in English, too.

SEAN: Not only that, but also several debuts! The big one is Claudine, the classic Riyoko Ikeda 70s shoujo manga. Complete in one short volume, it’s a fantastic read.

MICHELLE: I believe I detect a pick of the week contender!

MJ: Ooooooooh, yes, this.

ANNA: YAY!!!!

ASH: It’s one of my most anticipated releases of the year!

SEAN: Getter Robo Devolution is another take on the classic Getter Robo series. It runs in Bessatsu Shonen Champion, and is by the team responsible for the Ultraman manga.

If you like the How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord novel but wished you could see more of the fanservice, good news for you! Here’s the first volume of the manga adaptation.

If you love Monster Musume so much it drives you to create, then even better news – Monster Girl Papercrafts is coming out next week, presumably featuring designs from the ever-popular series.

ASH: Huh. I didn’t know this existed!

SEAN: And if you’re an old-school fan, enjoy a license that frankly no one was expecting. True Tenchi Muyo! is a series of three light novels that expand on the extended universe of the Tenchi OAVs that were so popular with your parents’ generation. (I know, shut up, Sean.) This first book focuses on Ayeka and Sasami’s parents.

On to Vertical. Speaking of novels, they have Hanamonogatari: Flower Tale. This is the 2nd book in the series not to be narrated by Koyomi Araragi. This story is narrated by Suruga Kanbaru, and has her dealing with a devil.

We have a 3rd omnibus of The Flowers of Evil as well.

Viz has a 4th digital release of The Emperor and I.

And the rest is Yen, but don’t even think that we’re done. Digitally we have a 6th Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun, a 17th Corpse Princess, and a 7th IM: Great Priest Imhotep.

Yen On has two debuts this month, both spinoffs. If you like Sword Art Online but wish it didn’t star Kirito and were written by someone else, I have great news. Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online is a new spinoff series by the creator of Kino’s Journey, and focuses on original characters playing the game introduced in the 5th and 6th SAO books.

MJ: I wasn’t really interested until you said Kino’s Journey, and now I’m like… MUST HAVE.

ASH: That does add some promise!

SEAN: The other is Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon Familia Chronicle: Episode Lyu. This focuses on the elf with the tragic past we’ve seen in several books of the main series.

Speaking of DanMachi, we also have a 6th volume of the Sword Oratoria spinoff novel that looks at Loki’s group.

And there’s also a 14th Accel World, an 8th Irregular at Magic High School, a 4th volume of The Isolator, and a 7th Re: Zero, which should be a whale of a time. (I’m sorry.)

Yen Press also has several debuts this month. Caterpillar Girl and Bad Texter Boy (Imomushi Shoujo to Komyushou Danshi) is complete in one volume, and stars a boy who has trouble communicating and the girl he rejected, who is now a caterpillar. I must admit, I want to know more.

MICHELLE: That is quite the concept.

ANNA: Hmmmm.

ASH: My curiosity is piqued.

SEAN: Hatsu*Haru is a long-running shoujo title from Shogakukan’s BetsuComi, about a popular boy who finds himself falling for someone for the first time. Anna should be very interested, I expect.

MICHELLE: My ears always perk up when Yen Press releases some shoujo.

MJ: I’m interested too, I think.

ANNA: A shoujo manga about popular boy falling for someone for the first time????????!!!!!!!!!!!!

SEAN: Little Witch Academia is best known for its popular anime. Yen has licensed the manga, which runs in Shonen Ace. This is being marketed as part of the children’s line, but should also definitely appeal to manga fans.

Shibuya Goldfish is a pure horror title from Square Enix’s Gangan Joker. If you think the world being eaten by goldfish is a silly premise, this book will soon set you straight. It looks creepy as hell.

MJ: Wow.

ASH: That’s right up there with some of Junji Ito’s concepts; I guess we’ll see if it’s executed as well!

SEAN: The Strange Creature at Kuroyuri Apartments (Kuroyuri-sou no Henna Wikimono) is also supernatural, but this falls more into the pure comedy end. A demon needs life experience. A young landlord needs to not be bored. Can they get along?

Stupid Love Comedy (Rabukome no Baka) is an omnibus collecting all three volumes of this shoujo series from Kodansha’s Aria. It’s a reverse harem series, this time starring a manga writer.

MICHELLE: Hm.

ANNA: I sure do enjoy reverse harem.

SEAN: Think we’re done? There’s also ongoing Yen titles! On the ‘spinoff of light novel’ front, we see only two contenders next week: Goblin Slayer’s 3rd manga volume and Kagerou Daze’s 10th.

But there is also Aoharu x Machinegun 11, As Miss Beelzebub Likes 2, Big Order 5, BTOOOM! 21, Bungo Stray Dogs 7, The Elder Sister-Like One 2, Horimiya 11, Mermaid Boys 2, Monster Tamer Girls 2 (final volume there), One Week Friends 3, Prison School 10, Silver Spoon 3, Smokin’ Parade 4, A Terrified Teacher at Ghoul School 3, Though You May Burn to Ash 2, and Today’s Cerberus 9.

MICHELLE: Yay for Horimiya and Silver Spoon!

MJ: Silver Spoon! Silver Spoon!

ANNA: Wooo!!!!

ASH: I’m following quite a few of these series, but Silver Spoon is the one that I’m most looking forward to reading this time around!

SEAN: Assuming you haven’t aged to death after reading all that, are there any titles you’re getting? One? Two? Twenty-five?

ASH: I’m afraid to count.

SEAN: Glory be! A small week! Is that because the last week of June is hideously huge? (peers ahead) Yup. Oh well, let’s enjoy next week anyway.

MICHELLE: Now I’m gonna have “The Night Chicago Died” in my head. Not that I’m complaining.

ANNA: OK, it is good to have a bit of a break.

SEAN: Not manga, but it’s worth mentioning that Dark Horse has the Legend of Zelda Encyclopedia, a 320-page hardcover with oodles and oodles of Zelda. Click your Link and get it!

ASH: Ha! I believe I will, thank you very much!

SEAN: J-Novel Club has releases for Infinite Stratos (2) and Outbreak Company (4).

Kodansha has a few print releases. There’s Love & Lies 6 and That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime 6. There’s also Maga-Tsuki 9-10, which is now getting omnibus releases, I guess? Never a good sign when a series shifts from singles to doubles late in the run.

ASH: I’ve been greatly enjoying That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime; much more than I though I would!

SEAN: On the digital side, we have the debut of Karate Heat (Tenohiro no Netsu o), a short Weekly Shonen Magazine title about middle-school karate students. It only ran three volumes, so won’t run up your budget.

MICHELLE: The fact that it’s so short is not exactly a good sign for a sports manga, but you know I can’t resist that genre, so I’ll definitely be checking it out.

ASH: Oooh! Karate! That is tempting.

ANNA: Hmmmm…..

SEAN: There’s also Cosplay Animal 6 (reminding me to finish 5), Drowning Love 9, Fuuka 18, Love’s Reach 9, Perfect World 3, and Pumpkin Scissors 21. (Need to catch up on Perfect World too.)

MICHELLE: Same re: Perfect World. I also intend to read Drowning Love one of these days.

SEAN: Seven Seas just has one next week, Masamune-kun’s Revenge 8.

A new publisher debuts, calling themselves Tokyopop. This is their first title, but they may go far! Depends on the leadership, I suspect. Konohana Kitan is a not-quite-yuri not-quite-furry manga about a group of fox girls working at a hot spring, and it runs… or ran… in Gentosha’s Comic Birz, which is ceasing its print publication. I suspect it will move to digital publication.

MICHELLE: *dubious face that’s way more about the publisher than the fox girls*

ANNA: Um.

SEAN: Meanwhile, Vertical gives us a 6th To The Abandoned Sacred Beasts.

Viz has a 5th volume of Golden Kamuy, a 5th Tokyo Ghoul: re, and also the 4th and final omnibus of Sweet Blue Flowers. I suspect this comes as a relief to the Manga Bookshelf folks who were wondering about Pick of the Week.

MICHELLE: Heh.

ASH: I’m definitely glad for more Golden Kamuy and am still thrilled that Sweet Blue Flowers was translated.

ANNA: I’m with Ash.

SEAN: That does it! It’s OK, next time we’ll be here for hours. But for now, what are you picking up?

SEAN: Did you know there is manga coming out next week? It’s true!

MICHELLE: Shokku!

ASH: You wa shock!

ANNA: Madness and insanity!

SEAN: Dark Horse has the first volume of Gantz G, the sequel series that serves all your lycra fetish needs. (I still want HEN, dammit.)

J-Novel Club has new digital novels for us. Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash 9, The Magic in This Other World Is Too Far Behind! 3, and My Little Sister Can Read Kanji 4.

Kodansha has new print titles! We have the 3rd Again!!, the 7th Aho-Girl, a 5th To Your Eternity, and the 2nd omnibus of Wotakoi: Love Is Hard for Otaku. Most looking forward to that last one.

MICHELLE: I am horrible and haven’t read the first Wotakoi yet. Perhaps I’ll remedy that this week.

ASH: You should! This is definitely another Kodansha week for me–I’m picking up most of these.

SEAN: Digitally we have another debut, this one is Kamikamikaeshi is a Nakayoshi shoujo series (we haven’t seen anything from them lately). It involves gods, hair, and reverse harems, and is by Ema Toyama of Missions of Love fame.

ANNA: Did someone say reverse harems??????

SEAN: There’s also a 3rd Boarding School Juliet, a 9th GTO Paradise Lost, a 3rd Living Room Matsunaga-san, and a 4th Starving Anonymous.

Seven Seas has another big blast from the past with the first Captain Harlock: The Classic Collection. First serialized in the 1970s in Akita Shoten’s Play Comic, this hardcover is filled with piracy and brooding.

ASH: Should be great.

ANNA: Wooo!!!!

SEAN: There’s a light novel debut in print, as we get the first volume of light-hearted overpowered heroine comedy Didn’t I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?!. In digital, meanwhile, we get the 2nd volume of the same series.

The other debut may actually be familiar to those who tried the MangaBox digital app back in the day. High-Rise Invasion (Tenkuu Shinpan) is a shonen series that started there, then moved to Weekly Shonen Magazine. Beware, beyond this point survival game manga lies.

SuBLime has a 7th Deluxe Edition of Finder.

Vertical has the 2nd volume of CITY, the spiritual successor to Nichijou.

Viz debuts a new series, Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle (Maou-jou de Oyasumi), which is, believe it or not, a new Shonen Sunday debut. Yes, the magazine still exists. The demon king has kidnapped our heroine… who just wants a nice rest. I look forward to this.

MICHELLE: I miss Shonen Sunday titles!

ASH: Indeed! And I’ve heard good things about this particular one, too.

ANNA: Looks cute!

SEAN: We also get a 2nd volume of After Hours, a 13th Loveless… oh, wait, here’s MJ.

MJ: THIS THIS THIS THIS THISY THIS THIS. Hi. There’s a new volume of Loveless. Obviously I will be devouring it.

MICHELLE: So excite.

ASH: I adored the first volume of After Hours and, yes, I’m still reading Loveless as well.

SEAN: …and there’s also a 30th Magi and a 3rd Splatoon. I’m impressed Magi has made it to 30+ volumes.

ANNA: So many volumes I am hopelessly behind on.

SEAN: Lastly, after a few delays, we finally get the 11th light novel for Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, seeing if Bell can bounce back after the disastrous events of the last book.

See? I told you there was manga. Anything for you?

ASH: Always, and then some!

SEAN: June arrives this Friday, and with it comes even more manga. Here’s what’s out next week.

Bookwalker has a 4th volume of The Combat Baker and Automaton Waitress light novel, reminding me that I’m behind on it.

J-Novel Club has a large number of releases out next week: Demon King Daimaou 5, Invaders of the Rokujouma!? 13, I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse 8, and Me, a Genius? I Was Reborn into Another World and I Think They’ve Got the Wrong Idea! 2. That’s a lot of light novel title damage.

Kodansha has a nice number of print titles coming out. The biggie for Manga Bookshelf peeps is the final omnibus of Princess Jellyfish, Vol. 9. There’s also a 3rd Battle Angel Alita: Mars Chronicle, a 7th Descending Stories, and a 10th Vinland Saga.

MICHELLE: I am really, really looking forward to Princess Jellyfish, though I can’t believe it’ll actually be over.

ASH: Yes! Princess Jellyfish has been wonderful; I’m so glad that it was released in print. I’m looking forward to continuing Descending Stories, too, and am thrilled for more Vinland Saga! (This is a good Kodansha week for me.)

ANNA: Also very happy about Princess Jellyfish and Vinland Saga!

MJ: I’m embarrassed to admit that I never even started Princess Jellyfish. Maybe the release of the final omnibus is what I need to spur me on.

SEAN: Digitally we have the debut of Those Summer Days (Ano Natsu), an Aria shoujo title about time travel and bittersweet romance.

MICHELLE: I’m in for bittersweet romance. The cover’s very pretty, too.

SEAN: We also have a 2nd You Got Me, Sempai!, and a 2nd Beware the Kamiki Brothers.

Seven Seas has two debuts. My Solo Exchange Diary is the sequel to My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness, and I am really looking forward to it.

ASH: My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness was tremendous, so the sequel is very high on my list.

MJ: This!

SEAN: Satan’s Secretary (Maou no Hisho) is a bit more typical manga title, about how well a demon invasion would actually go if the Demon King had a really capable secretary at his side. It’s from Earth Star Entertainment, and runs in their Comic Earth Star magazine.

Vertical gives us a 6th volume of Flying Witch.

Viz, as you’d expect, has a large pile. No debuts this time, so let’s divide into Jump and Beat titles. For Jump, we see Astra: Lost in Space 3, Blue Exorcist 19, Food Wars! 24, Haikyu!! 24, the 12th Kuroko’s Basketball 2-in-1, My Hero Academia 13, One Piece’s 24th 3-in-1, and The Promised Neverland 4. MHA and TPN are my choice from there.

MICHELLE: Forsooth, though there are a few other faves in that mix for me, too.

SEAN: On the shoujo end, we have Queen’s Quality 4, Takane & Hana 3, Yona of the Dawn 12, and The Young Master’s Revenge 2. Yona always jumps to the top of my pile whenever it comes out.

MICHELLE: I’ll be getting all of these!

ASH: So much Viz! (And so many that I’m following!)

ANNA: Yay for Viz shoujo!!!!!!

SEAN: And Yen Press has some stragglers. On the novel side we have Napping Princess, an adaptation of the movie of the same name.

Éclair: A Girls’ Love Anthology That Resonates in Your Heart is what it sounds like, a collection of short stories that deal with romance between girls. I’d expect a lot of school settings. The authors of Kiss & White Lily, Gosick, and Bloom into You make contributions.

ASH: I’m really looking forward to this anthology.

MJ: This sounds great.

SEAN: After being delayed for over a year, we now finally have the continuation of the Durarara!! manga, with the start of the Re;Dollars arc, weird punctuation and all.

There’s also a 3rd ACCA: 13-Territory Inspection Department, a 7th Akame Ga Kill! ZERO, a 3rd Angels of Death, a 6th Kiss & White Lily for My Dearest Girl (so a double dose of Canno next week), and the 2nd Laid-Back Camp.

ASH: ACCA may not be for everyone, but it’s definitely for me.

ANNA: I still need to read the first volume, for some reason I have not been in an ACCA frame of mind. Glad it is being translated!

SEAN: Bare your soul! What manga are you buying?

SEAN: It’s the final week of May, and there’s a little something for everyone next week.

Bookwalker has a 3rd volume of shogi light novel The Ryuo’s Work Is Never Done.

Cross Infinite World gives us Little Princess in Fairy Forest, a fantasy novel based around a princess and her knight on the run from an evil lord.

Ghost Ship gives us a 3rd Yokai Girls.

J-Novel Club has a 2nd Master of Ragnarok and Blesser of Einherjar, as well as a 6th volume of bestseller How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom.

Kodansha has, in terms of print, a 6th volume of Waiting for Spring.

MICHELLE: Yay!

ASH: I’ve been enjoying this one, too.

ANNA: I have the first volume and haven’t read it yet!

SEAN: In terms of digital we have a lot more going on. The debut is A Kiss, For Real (Sekirara ni Kiss), a Dessert title about a “sweet but sadistic” relationship.

MICHELLE: The “sadistic” aspect worries me, but man, I do like the cover for that one.

ANNA: Bring on the Dessert!

SEAN: There’s also lots of ongoing titles. Boarding School Juliet 2, Kasane 12, Peach Mermaid 2, The Prnce’s Black Poison 5, Shojo Fight 3, Starving Anonymous 3, and Tsuredure Children 9. It’s nice to see Shojo Fight back again after a long wait.

MICHELLE: It is!

ANNA: Woo!!!

SEAN: Seven Seas has two debuts. The first is a Guide Book to The Ancient Magus’ Bride: Merkmal. Like most guidebooks, I expect this to be filled with info and secrets – though not too many secrets.

ASH: I plan on picking it up, certainly.

SEAN: The other is a manga adaptation of the light novel being released by J-Novel Club, If It’s for My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord.

We also get a 7th Merman in My Tub, and a 2nd New Game, which will do its best today. There’s also the 3rd and last Strawberry Panic novel out digitally, though Amazon actually jumped street date on this for some reason.

Vertical has two novels. The Dark Maidens has an anime-ish cover, but it’s mystery-horror subject matter makes it more applicable to Vertical’s other line of books.

There’s also a new Monogatari. Kabukimonogatari: Dandy Tale has Araragi and Shinobu investigating ghost girl Mayoi’s past… and seeing if there’s any way to change it. I warn you (and by “you” I mean Michelle), “Dandy” is not like the Kinks song in this case.

MICHELLE: Heh. Now I need to go listen to that one again! It’s been a while.

SEAN: Yen has a bunch of new digital releases, with Crimson Prince 16, Kuzumi-kun, Can’t You Read the Room? 6, Saki 15, and Sekirei 16.

Lastly, there’s a 6th Spirits & Cat Ears, which is mostly caught up to Japan.

Does anything leap out at you saying “READ ME!” next week?

SEAN: Stuff. A lot. Just… a lot of stuff.

J-Novel Club has new volumes for Arifureta and Infinite Dendrogram, and they’re both Vol. 6s.

Kodansha print has Golosseum, a very manly manga from the magazine Nemesis, which will appeal to fans of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Crying Freeman, or just people who like really muscular guys killing people gorily.

ANNA: This may be relevant to my interests.

ASH: Also for people interested in spectacularly outrageous political satire.

MJ: I can sometimes get into spectacularly outrageous political satire. Hm.

SEAN: On the digital front, the debut is Can You Just Die, My Darling? (Konya wa Tsuki ga Kirei Desu ga, Toriaezu Shine), a horror romance from Shonen Magazine R that should also appeal to fans of gore.

There’s also new digital titles for Ace of the Diamond (11), Ayanashi (3), Domestic Girlfriend (17), Elegant Yokai Apartment Life (7), Kounodori: Dr. Stork (9), Liar x Liar (2), and My Brother the Shut-In (5).

MICHELLE: I can’t believe I’m so far behind on Elegant Yokai Apartment Life and My Brother the Shut-In already!

SEAN: Retrofit Comics is releasing The Troublemakers, a collection of stories by Baron Yoshimoto. It looks to be rated M for Manly.

Seven Seas has a ton of debuts next week, so let’s also mention they have a 6th Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid, a 2nd Saint Seiya: Saintia Sho, and a 3rd Yokai Rental Shop.

MICHELLE: I’ve been reading the first two volumes of Yokai Rental Shop. I’m not yet sure what I make of it, but it’s evidently only four volumes long, so I will probably be getting volume three, too.

ASH: The series hasn’t captivated me nearly as much as Nightmare Inspector, but there’s enough for me to keep reading, too.

SEAN: Devilman: The Classic Collection is a hardcover deluxe edition of the original 70s manga that ran in Weekly Shonen Magazine about 46 years ago. If you liked the modern anime, you’ll love the original. Just… don’t get too attached to anyone.

ANNA: Woah.

ASH: I’m excited for this! It’s a beast of a volume, too, from the pictures I’ve seen.

SEAN: The Dungeon of Black Company seems to be a take on the isekai genre, and… oh, everyone left. In any case, it runs in Mag Garden’s Comic Blade.

MJ: Heh.

SEAN: Himouto! Umaru-chan is a comedic series that runs in Weekly Young Jump, and there’s also an anime. The premise sounds like Kare Kano – the perfect student at school is a total slob at home.

How to Treat Magical Beasts: Mine and Master’s Medical Journal (Watashi to Sensei no Genjuu Shinryouroku) is a Comic Blade fantasy title, and looks to be more for Ancient Magus’ Bride fans.

ASH: In that case, I should make sure to give it a look.

SEAN: Vertical Comics has a 3rd omnibus for Arakawa Under the Bridge.

Viz has a digital only 8th volume of Boys Over Flowers Season 2.

ANNA: Need to get caught up on this series. I keep misplacing my iPad!

SEAN: And there is a pile of Yen. On the Yen On front we have a debut this time around. A Sister’s All You Need (Imouto sae Ireba ii) is from the creator of Haganai, and best known for having the most polarizing first episode of an anime ever. I may hate this, but what the hey.

Yen On also has a 15th A Certain Magical Index, a 5th Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, a 5th My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong As I Expected, a 7th Overlord, an a 9th Strike the Blood.

Yen Press has one debut next week, The Sacrificial Princess and the King of Beasts (Niehime to Kemono no Ou). It’s a Hana to Yume title, meaning Anna will be interested, as will I. It looks sort of fantasy, sort of romance, and has a sweetie-pie as the heroine.

ANNA: I am for sure interested!!!!! More Hana to Yume please!

MICHELLE: Hm. I might be interested, too.

ASH: Same!

MJ: I might too!

SEAN: Yen Press ongoing titles. Let’s run through the gauntlet. Baccano! has its 3rd manga volume (it’s the final one). Delicious in Dungeon with Vol. 5. The Devil Is a Part-Timer! has its 11th manga volume. Dimension W is up to Vol. 10, Forbidden Scrollery gets a 3rd volume, Is It Wrong to Try To Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? has its 9th manga volume, KonoSuba has its 6th manga volume…

(pauses, breathes a bit)

…The Royal Tutor is up to Vol. 7, The Saga of Tanya the Evil gives us a 2nd manga volume, Scum’s Wish has its 7th book (I will read it and feel terrible), Tales of Wedding Rings is at Book 2, Triage X has somehow hit Volume 15 (is it the breasts? It’s probably the breasts), and Trinity Seven is at lucky 13.

MICHELLE: So far behind on Delicious in Dungeon!

ASH: You’re in for a treat! I’m enjoying the series immensely.

SEAN: As I said, stuff. Are you buying manga? Or clearing tree debris from the latest nightmarish storm?

SEAN: If all goes well, I will be posting this Manga the Week of from a hotel room in Toronto! The wonders of modern all-leather technology! But let’s see what’s out next week.

Dark Horse gives us a 6th omnibus of I Am A Hero.

ASH: I thought I was over zombies, but I Am A Hero continues to be a great read.

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

ASH: I’m always ready for more manga from Fantagraphics! I also find the history of Okinawa to be particularly interesting.

ANNA: Interesting, I might look into this for my library.

SEAN: Ghost Ship has a 4th 2-in-1 omnibus of To-Love-Ru.

J-Novel Club has put The Magic in This Other World is Too Far Behind! on the same once a month schedule as Rokujouma, meaning we get the 2nd volume next week.

Kodansha, print-wise, has a 2nd volume of the Attack on Titan Choose Your Own Adventure book, a 5th Kiss Me at the Stroke of Midnight, and a 4th Wake Up, Sleeping Beauty. More superdeformed shoujo that I seem to like more than other folks!

MICHELLE: I’ve read a couple volumes of Kiss Me at the Stroke of Midnight so far and I get why someone might find the superdeformity amusing, but to me it’s just so uncute! I’ve never been a big SD fan, though. I vividly remember watching Fushigi Yuugi for the first time and being, like, “What is this crap?!” :)

SEAN: Kodansha digital debuts The Wizard and His Fairy, an Aria series whose plot is basically its title, and is also pretty short, this being the first of two volumes.

MICHELLE: It looks pretty!

ANNA: Sounds cute!

SEAN: Kodansha digital also has new Altair: A Record of Battles (8), Chihayafuru (11), Kasane (12), Love’s Reach (8), and Perfect World (2). I’m definitely looking forward to more Perfect World, the first volume was very good.

MICHELLE: I need to catch up on Perfect World. Also happy about more Chihayafuru, of course!

ANNA: I so need to catch up on Chihayafuru!

SEAN: One Peace has an 8th manga volume of The Rise of the Shield Hero.

Seven Seas has two debuts next week. The first is Crisis Girls, a shonen title from Kodansha’s Shonen Magazine Edge. Like The Wizard and the Fairy, this one’s just two volumes, and this is the first. It seems to involve monsters and girls, though apparently not monster girls.

ASH: Okay, I’ll admit, a necromancer dressing in bright pink is kind of delightful.

SEAN: Hungry for You: Endo Yasuko Stalks the Night is the other debut, and it’s about (as you may have gathered) a vampire attending high school and her glasses-wearing emergency food (who is sadly not named Menchi). It’s very silly for the most part, and runs in Shonen Gahosha’s Young Comic, where it may be the one title in the magazine that’s not porn. It does have fanservice, though.

MICHELLE: Now I’m going to have Menchi’s mournful song in my head.

SEAN: Other Seven Seas releases include a print version of the 2nd Arifureta novel, a print version of the 6th Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash novel (both digital J-Novel titles), a 2nd Juana and the Dragonewt’s Seven Kingdoms, and the 6th (shudders in loathing) Magical Girl Site.

Vertical has a 6th volume of Mobile Suit Gundam Wing.

And Viz rounds out our list. They debut the RWBY Manga Anthology, a collection of shorts by various artists about the “western anime” show.

We also have a 4th Children of the Whales, a 22nd Dorohedoro, a 7th Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt, and a 10th Ultraman. I am still so happy that Dorohedoro has run as long as it has.

ASH: Yes! Dorohedoro is the best!

Are you getting these in print? Digitally? Or via the new manga headjack, now on sale at all good stores?

SEAN: Are you going to Toronto Comic Arts Festival? You should! And here are some manga coming out next week you can read on your way there.

ASH: I am! It’s a great time.

SEAN: Ghost Ship debuts a new series called Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Spring (Yuragi-sou no Yuuna-san). It’s a Weekly Shonen Jump series, but apparently too hot for Viz, so Ghost Ship has it. Expect a lot of ghosts and a lot of nudity.

J-Novel Club has the 3rd How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord (anime coming soon) and the 8th In Another World with My Smartphone (anime now over).

Kodansha, print-wise, has the 7th Happiness (which I have to assume has caught up with Japan) and the 10th Sweetness and Lightning.

MICHELLE: I am definitely in the mood for some warm-hearted food manga!

ASH: Same! I’ve been really enjoying this series.

SEAN: Kodansha Digital gives us new volumes of Grand Blue Dreaming (9) and GTO Paradise Lost (8).

Their debut is Heaven’s Design Team (Tenchi Souzou Design-bu), which runs in Morning Two, and is apparently about a team creating new kinds of animals. It looks pretty weird.

MICHELLE: It does. I hope it’s a good weird.

SEAN: Seven Seas itself debuts two big titles. For manga we have The Bride Was a Boy (Hanayome wa Motodanshi), a story of a husband and wife from the wife’s POV, in which she talks about being assigned male at birth, transitioning, and falling in love. It’s complete in one volume, and looks great.

MICHELLE: I’m definitely looking forward to this one!

ASH: Yes! This is one of my most anticipated titles for the year.

ANNA: Interesting!

SEAN: There’s also the light novel debut of Toradora!. I love the manga series, but sadly the manga only comes out once every 235 years now, so I am pleased we get to read the novels that it’s based on. Out digitally too! (Insert Toradorable joke here.)

SuBLime has a 3rd volume of A Strange and Mystifying Story. I hope it lives up to that name.

MICHELLE: If I recall rightly, around here is where the story began to improve for me.

ASH: This is the last volume that was previously translated; I’m looking forward to reading more of the series.

SEAN: Titan has another volume release of the Sherlock manga that’s been running in Kadokawa’s Young Ace. This one is The Great Game.

Vertical has an 11th Ajin.

Viz has possibly the most Manga Bookshelf week it’s ever had, with just two releases. We get the debut of the re-release of Fullmetal Alchemist in hardcover with extra sketches by the author, though I will let people know that yes, Shou Tucker is still in it.

ASH: I am incredibly tempted by that new edition of Fullmetal Alchemist.

SEAN: And we also have an 8th volume of Requiem of the Rose King, which STILL has not killed off Henry. The last volume was the best yet, so I am hankering to read this. (Yes, hankering. it’s a thing.)

MICHELLE: As a Southerner, I use “hankering” fairly often. I also sometimes “reckon” and “mosey.” :)

ASH: Requiem of the Rose King is well-worth hankering after.

ANNA: Such a great series!

SEAN: There’s also some Yen titles delayed from April. Wolf & Parchment is the Spice & Wolf light novel spinoff, and it has a 2nd volume. There’s also a 3rd DanMachi: Sword Oratoria manga, and a 5th Kagurui – Compulsive Gambler.

And to round things off, we see the debut of Star Wars: Lost Stars, a manga adaptation of the YA novel by Claudia Gray that runs as a manga from LINE Communication, which makes me suspect it’s phone-based. I am always open to more Star Wars.

See something here that floats your boat?

SEAN: There’s a lot of manga out in May, but mercifully slightly less than March or April. What do we have next week?

Cross Infinite World has another Japanese webnovel for us. Mia and the Forbidden Medicine Report stars a girl determined to help the sick, and her adventures in a fantasy-tinged land.

Ghost Ship has a 4th To-Love-Ru Darkness.

J-Novel Club has a couple of debuts, one of which is very interesting indeed. Mari Okada is a prolific anime screenwriter who has won awards, and From Truant to Anime Screenwriter: My Path to “Anohana” and “The Anthem of the Heart” is her autobiography. A truly unique license that sounds fantastic.

ASH: That does sound interesting! Okada worked on the anime adaptation of Wandering Son and The Woman Called Fujiko Mine among many other great series.

ANNA: Huh, that does sound interesting!

SEAN: The other debut is more typical. The Unwanted Undead Adventurer starts off in a fantasy world, so not an isekai. Unfortunately, our plucky young adventurer was eaten, and now exists as a skeleton. Can he conquer dungeons anyway? What do you think?

There’s also a 2nd New Life + and a 12th Invaders of the Rokujouma!?.

Kodansha is mostly taking a break from digital next week, but they are debuting even more new series, so we get the debut of Beware the Kamiki Brothers! (Kamiki Kyoudai Okotowari), a 6-volume Betsufure series. I tend to be very wary of shoujo covers with a pensive female lead and smug male lead. We shall see.

Seven Seas has the 7th Lord Marskman and Vanadis, and a 2nd Nameless Asterism. They’re also putting out a 2nd digital volume of the Strawberry Panic light novel.

ASH: I liked the first volume of Nameless Asterism well enough to see how the Gordian Knot of unrequited love continues to develop in the second.

SEAN: We have a new publisher, though they’ve done work on visual novels in the past. Sol Press debuts two new light novels titles digitally, with print apparently coming out later on. We have Battle Divas: The Incorruptible Battle Blossom Princess, as well as Strongest Gamer: Let’s Play in Another World. Go check them out!

ASH: Oh, a new challenger has entered the arena! I was previously unaware.

MJ: Oh, interesting! I’m not sure I mean these particular books, but always happy to see a new publisher in the game.

SEAN: Vertical has the debut of Chi’s Sweet Adventures, the spinoff of beloved cat manga Chi’s Sweet Home.

And the rest is Viz. There are no debuts this time around. The Jump imprint has new volumes of Black Clover (11), Bleach’s 23rd 3-in-1, Haikyu!! (23), the 7th hardcover re-release of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders, Kaguya-sama: Love Is War 2 (technically Seinen Jump), Naruto: Chibi Sasuke’s Sharingan Legend (3), One Piece (86), the penultimate Toriko (42), and Twin Star Exorcists (12).

ASH: Haikyu!! and JoJo for me, please!

ANNA: So behind with JoJo but I love it.

On the Shojo Beat end, we see Anonymous Noise 8, Everyone’s Getting Married 8, Kimi ni Todoke 29 (also a penultimate volume), and Oresama Teacher 24.

ASH: I’ll take some more Oresama Teacher, too.

SEAN: That’s actually quite a bit. Do you see favorites in this list?

MICHELLE: My favorites are all in the VIZ camp today, specifically One Piece, Haikyu!!, and Kimi ni Todoke. Hard to believe the last is finally drawing to a close.

SEAN: A lot. A whole lot.

Kodansha has some print manga delights. We get a 6th Aho-Girl, a 2nd Battle Angel Alita: Mars Chronicle, and a 4th To Your Eternity.

ASH: I’ll definitely be picking up To Your Eternity. The series is certainly heartwrenching at time, but it’s very well done.

ANNA: Bought but haven’t read the first volume of this so I am already hopelessly behind.

SEAN: There’s also a box set collecting manga Vols. 1-4 of Attack on Titan, or Season One as they’re calling it.

On the digital front, the debut this week is Defying Kurosaki-kun (Kurosaki-kun no Iinari ni Nante Naranai), a Betsufure shoujo title about (sigh) a plain girl at a high school who ends up in a love triangle between a princely guy and a super sadist type. I may try it, but it sounds not my bag.

MICHELLE: Yeah. Not really into super sadists, personally.

MJ: Ugh. Lots of ugh.

SEAN: There’s also a 5th Beauty Bunny, a 7th Kokkoku: Moment by Moment, a 4th My Brother the Shut-In, a 5th PTSD Radio, and a 6th Until Your Bones Rot.

MICHELLE: I think Beauty Bunny also involves a jerk who called the lead girl ugly before “transforming” her via makeup. No, thanks.

MJ: MORE UGH.

SEAN: Seven Seas debuts the 2nd Perfect Blue novel, Awaken from a Dream.

ASH: I’m glad to see this being released! It’s a collection of stories that take place in the same setting as the original Perfect Blue.

SEAN: They’ve also got a 4th volume of Captain Harlock: Dimensional Voyage, a 3rd Hatsune Miku’s Everyday Vocaloid Paradise, a 2nd Made in Abyss, a 7th Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation, and we have somehow reached double digits for Pandora in the Crimson Shell: Ghost Urn.

ASH: I’ve been enjoying Dimensional Voyage. I’m looking forward to the release of the original Captain Harlock, too.

SEAN: Vertical gives us the 2nd volume in Nisioisin’s Zaregoto novels, Strangulation: Kubishime Romanticist. This was released by Del Rey about 10 years ago, so is nice to have. Will they continue the series? I suspect sales will determine that.

Vertical also has an 11th Witchcraft Works.

Viz gives us a 5th volume (digital only) of élDLIVE, whose formatting always makes me cry.

And Yen. SO MUCH YEN. Let’s start with the ongoing light novels. There’s a 6th Asterisk War, which has finished its (first?) tournament arc. Baccano! has a 7th volume, the 2nd of a two-parter. The Devil Is a Part-Timer! is at Vol. 10, and there’s a 5th KonoSuba. Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers remains one of the few print-only Yen On titles with Vol. 4, Sword Art Online hits lucky 13, and That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime is at Vol. 2.

There are two debuts, and we’ll begin with the less silly one. I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level. Yes, I promise, that is the less silly one. Notable for a female protagonist, but it is an isekai with an overpowered hero(ine). That said, I hear the mood is meant to be “relaxed”.

And we also have the apex of silly light novels coming out, at least until the hot spring one gets licensed. Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander the Dungeon is exactly what it sounds, and I hope it will succeed on pure moxie, because come on. Really? REALLY?

MICHELLE: Hahaha. I would like to see the adventures of a wandering vending machine depicted in manga form.

ASH: Sometimes a premise is just so ridiculous I can’t help but take a look despite genre fatigue.

MJ: I feel like I have to check this out just to witness it for myself.

SEAN: Yen also has a giant pile of manga, which I will divide into three. First, ongoing manga titles not based on light novels. Akame Ga KILL! 14, Aoharu x Machinegun 10, Gabriel Dropout 3, Kiniro Mosaic 6, Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun 9, Murcielago 6, Of the Red, the Light and the Ayakashi 10 (this is its final volume), a 4th Sekirei omnibus, the second Silver Spoon (Manga Bookshelf folks breathe a sigh of relief that they at least get something to pick this week), Taboo Tattoo 10, Today’s Cerberus 8, Val x Love 2, and the 8th Yowamushi Pedal omnibus.

MICHELLE: Hooray for Nozaki-kun, Silver Spoon, and Yowamushi Pedal! I’ll also be picking up the final Of the Red… volume, but although I kept up with this series, I never really fell in love with it.

ASH: Ditto what Michelle said! And if I’m honest, I’ll probably be picking up Murcielago, too.

MJ: Silver Spoon! Silver Spoon! Silver Spoon!

SEAN: There are also new manga titles. We have As Miss Beelzebub Likes (Beelzebub-jou no Oki ni Mesu mama), a 4-koma where the demon lord is not quite as expected. It’s a Shonen Gangan title.

We also see the debut of Napping Princess, a manga adaptation (it ran in Newtype) of the novel that’s based on the anime. It’s this year’s The Boy and the Beast, I think? And I would wager is about a princess. Napping may also be involved.

There are also a lot of manga based on light novels. We see A Certain Magical Index 13, The Honor Student at Magic High School 8, Hybrid x Heart Magias Academy Ataraxia 3, Magical Girl Raising Project 2, My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong As I Expected 8, Overlord 6, and the 3rd volume of Re: Zero’s 3rd arc.

Not as much banter this time as there were simply too many titles to discuss. Are you getting any of them?

SEAN: April continues, as does the inundation of manga. Let’s get down to business.

Ghost Ship debuts World’s End Harem. It’s about a post-apocalyptic future that’s killed nearly all the men in the world, and about a man who thus needs to impregnate as many women as he can. Needless to say, this being a mature manga and not a hentai manga, he stays true to his (missing) love and tries to find a cure rather than, say, having tons of sex. I suspect the main audience of this title will be annoyed by this, but hey.

Haikasoru has a 6th Legend of the Galactic Heroes novel.

MICHELLE: Woot. I noticed that the release schedule for these seems to have sped up a bit (unless I am imagining things). We’ll also be getting volumes seven and eight this year.

ASH: That does seem to be the plan!

SEAN: J-Novel Club gives us a 3rd volume of Outbreak Company.

They also have two debuts. Infinite Stratos is a series that most folks assumed would have been licensed years ago – in fact, most of its innovations have been done to death by other series. We’ll see if it can succeed after all this time.

There’s also The Magic in This Other World Is Too Far Behind!, an isekai where an already practicing magician gets summoned to a world… and decides not to bother saving it just yet.

Kodansha gives us a slate of digital-only titles. Cosplay Animal 5, DAYS 8, Elegant Yokai Apartment Life 6, Giant Killing 12, and The Prince’s Black Poison 4.

MICHELLE: My sports-manga-loving heart is appeased.

SEAN: They also debut Peach Mermaid (Momoiro Ningyo), a Dessert title that makes me wonder if mermaids are the next hot new trend.

MICHELLE: Could be!

ANNA: OK!

ASH: Merfolk do seem to have become increasingly popular/common over the last few years.

SEAN: On the print side, we’ve got a 2nd Again!!, a 6th Descending Stories, the 2nd and final Fairy Tail S, and the 5th That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime manga adaptation.

MICHELLE: I’m definitely looking forward to the first two.

ASH: Yes, definitely!! I was also amused by the beginning of That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime, though I’ve certainly fallen behind with that series.

SEAN: The print debut (it’s also digital) is Wotakoi: Love Is Hard for Otaku (Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii), notable (at least to me) for being the first non-Kodansha title released by Kodansha Comics. It’s an Ichijinsha series that runs in the little known Comic Pool, and has an otaku and a fujoshi meet up again years after they knew each other in school. Looking forward to this shoujo/josei-ish title.

MICHELLE: Me, too!

ANNA: Interesting…

ASH: I am also intrigued!

SEAN: One Peace has everyone’s favorite bear manga, Kuma Miko 8.

Seven Seas has a 2nd volume of the Magical Girl Doctor light novel, and a 3rd Spirit Circle.

ASH: Spirit Circle has been great, so far; looking forward to more.

SEAN: Vertical has the 3rd and final volume of Nisioisin’s weird psychological drama Imperfect Girl.

Viz has a 2nd Fire Punch, which will have to try hard to top the jaw-dropping atrocities of the first volume. They also give us a 4th Tokyo Ghoul: re.

Viz also debuts another Inio Asano title, one of the weirder ones even for an artist known for his eccentric titles. Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction asks what happens when you combine aliens, political warfare, slice-of-life schoolgirls, and Asano. The answer is fascinating.

ANNA: Hmmm. Well I’m guessing weird Asano is always worth checking out.

ASH: Definitely! (And for those who may not already be aware, Asano will be visiting North America next month for the Toronto Comic Arts Festival.)

MJ: Hm, might check this out.

SEAN: And Yen Press has some more titles creeping into stores. We get the 2nd Baccano! manga adaptation, the 3rd volume of The Isolator manga adaptation, a 9th Kagerou Daze (yup, adaptation of novel), the second Goblin Slayer manga adaptation, and the 10th Strike the Blood manga adaptation. Somehow, in among all these light novel spinoffs, we also get a 6th volume of The Royal Tutor, which is NOT based on a light novel.

So? What are you getting? Huh? Huh?

SEAN: Yikes. Thanks to Yen shifting half their March releases into April, we have another punishing week.

But first, Kodansha once again did a last-minute release on me. Already out this week is You Got Me, Sempai (Mairimashita, Senpai), a shoujo title from Dessert which I will add to the stack.

MICHELLE: I’ll probably check this one out.

SEAN: As for next week, Dark Horse gives us a 2nd volume of Hatsune Miku: Future Delivery.

J-Novel Club debuts Arifureta Zero, a spinoff prequel to the series showing those who built the dungeons in the first place.

They also have a 4th Faraway Paladin (technically the 5th, as the 3rd was split into two parts).

Back to Kodansha Digital, who have two new releases this week. A.I.C.O. Incarnation is based on the anime from Studio Bones, and is a Shonen Sirius title.

And Boarding School Juliet (Kishuku Gakkou no Juliet) is a Weekly Shonen Magazine title about a modern day manga Romeo and Juliet. Of the digital debuts I’ve mentioned, this is the one that most intrigues me.

There’s also plenty of ongoing digital titles. Grand Blue Dreaming 8, GTO Paradise Lost 7, Lovesick Ellie 5, and Starving Anonymous 2. No sports, though, sorry, Michelle.

MICHELLE: I am placated by having had several sportsy releases last week.

SEAN: On the print front, we have Attack on Titan 24, Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card 3, The Heroic Legend of Arslan 8, In/Spectre 7, and Love & Lies 5. In/Spectre is supposed to be starting a new manga-only arc.

MJ: I haven’t even tried out the new CCS series. Bad CLAMP fan, bad. I should get on that.

ANNA: I haven’t either but I feel less enthusiastic about late CLAMP as opposed to early CLAMP.

ASH: I’m liking it so far, although it hasn’t really distinguished itself yet.

SEAN: Seven Seas has three titles out next week. There’s a 3rd Akashic Records of Bastard Magical Instructor, a 14th Magical Girl Apocalypse, and the 10th My Monster Secret, which will finally resolve its main plot hook. Not that this means it’s ending, of course. There’s still a lot of laughs to go.

SuBLime has a 6th Deluxe Edition of Finder.

Vertical debuts My Boy (Watashi no Shounen), or as I like to call it, “Hoo boy.” It’s an award-winning title from Futabasha’s Monthly Action, about the growing friendship between a 30-ish office lady and a 12-year-old boy, and how ambiguous their relationship is. It’s apparently very well-written and very tasteful, and I will be giving it a shot, despite my reaction being, as I said, “Hoo boy.”

MJ: Hm. Maybe?

MICHELLE: Same. I’ll wait to see Sean’s review.

ANNA: I will pass on this.

SEAN: Viz has new volumes of Case Closed (66) and Magi (29). Itsuwaribito finally comes to an end as well with its 23rd volume.

Their debut this week is not manga, but will no doubt heavily appeal to anime fans: Homestuck Book One collects the popular and meme-spawning webcomic-ish thing.

ASH: I’m curious to see how well this translates into print considering the multimedia nature of the original. (It’s also interesting to see Viz continuing to expand beyond strictly Japanese content.)

SEAN: And now for the rest of Yen’s March titles, coming to you in April. Yen On has the 13th Accel World.

There are also a few debuts. The Elder Sister-Like One (Ane Naru Mono) is a Dengeki G’s title from ASCII Mediaworks that asks the question we’ve all wanted to know: What if Cthulhu was your big sis? It is based on a pornographic work, but I believe isn’t actually one in this version. Expect fanservice, though.

Mermaid Boys is a shoujo title from the late lamented Aria magazine, and seems to be a gender-reversed Little Mermaid. Can this be the rare Yen Press title that Anna will be interested in?

MJ: Okay, this sounds possibly kind of awesome.

ANNA: Probably! Gender-reversed Little Mermaid sounds intriguing!

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

SEAN: And where you have Mermaid Boys, you must also have Monster Tamer Girls (Kaijuu no Shiiku Iin), though the two series are not connected. This is a Houbunsha title from Manga Time Kirara Forward, and I don’t know much about it.

ASH: I don’t know much about it, either, except that it’s a short series about the care and feeding of kaiju.

SEAN: And there is Though You May Burn to Ash (Tatoe Hai ni Natte mo), a Young Gangan horror/thriller title that is a survival game manga and oh wait, I stopped caring.

MICHELLE: Heh.

SEAN: Ongoing Yen titles? We have plenty. Alice in Murderland 8, Angels of Death 2, The Betrayal Knows My Name 8 (MJalert here), Bungo Stray Dogs 6 (Ash alert here), the 4th Erased omnibus, a 7th Love at Fourteen (they’re 15 now, but hey), a 2nd One Week Friends, a 2nd manga volume for So I’m a Spider, So What?, a 5th Spirits & Cat Ears, a 2nd A Terrified Teacher at Ghoul School, the 2nd three-volume omnibus of Umineko: When they Cry: Requiem of the Golden Witch (Sean alert here), and your name 3.

MJ: Noting the alert here. I also like Erased, so there’s that.

ASH: Same! I’m still getting a kick out of all of the literary references in Bungo Stray Dogs, but the penultimate volume of Erased is what I’m really interested in this week.

SEAN: This is, frankly, far far too much. It’s getting ridiculous. Are you getting anything?

SEAN: April showers bring manga. Lots and lots of manga.

But first, some light novels, as J-Novel Club has four new titles out next week. We see the 8th Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash, the 11th Invaders of the Rokujouma!?, and a 5th If It’s for My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord.

And if that last title wasn’t long enough for you, we see the debut of Me, a Genius? I Was Reborn into Another World and I Think They’ve Got the Wrong Idea!. As you might guess, we’re dealing with someone reincarnated with his old memories. That said, for once this isn’t a fantasy RPG world.

Kodansha has a lot of stuff. Digitally we see new Ace of the Diamond (10), Chihayafuru (10), Pumpkin Scissors (20), and Yozakura Quartet (21). Those last two have finally caught up with Japan, so I will remove them from the “Del Rey rescue” category and make them full-fledged.

MICHELLE: Predictably, I am happy about those first two!

ANNA: Maybe I’ll start getting caught up on Chihayafuru over the weekend!

SEAN: In print, we see a 13th Attack on Titan: Before the Fall (man, the Fall sure does take forever, doesn’t it?), the 3rd Battle Angel Alita: Deluxe Edition, a 9th Fire Force, and an 8th Princess Jellyfish omnibus.

ASH: I only recently started reading the original Battle Angel Alita series (previously, I’d only read some of Last Order) and I finally understand what the big deal is. Also, hooray Princess Jellyfish!

MICHELLE: It’s hard to believe Princess Jellyfish will be wrapping up soon.

ANNA: Also need to get caught up on this, still delighted it is coming out.

SEAN: Seven Seas has a number of their ongoing titles out next week. A Centaur’s Life 14 will continue to be about politics, racism, and the nature of warfare when it’s not about monster girl toddlers getting into trouble. There’s also Absolute Duo 3, Dreamin’ Sun 6, Not Lives 8, and The Testament of Sister New Devil STORM! 3.

For yuri fans, you may recall when Seven Seas, in the pre-light novel boom, put out the Strawberry Panic novels, which promptly sank like a stone. Fortunately, we now get the chance to read them digitally, and the first is out next week. Check them out, they’re hilarious… I mean, totally serious about their yuri.

ASH: I rather enjoyed the Strawberry Panic light novels! They’re utterly ridiculous and marvelously melodramatic, but highly entertaining.

SEAN: Vertical debuts another title from the creator of Yuri on Ice. Moteki is a seinen series about a man who had no luck with romance, but then all of a sudden he has girls coming out of the woodwork. I actually have copies of this in Japanese, as it intrigued me when it came out back in 2008. It ran in Kodansha’s Evening magazine, is going to be in two large omnibuses, and is better than it sounds.

ASH: I’ll definitely be picking this one up.

MICHELLE: Woot!

ANNA: Me too!

SEAN: So much Viz. SO MUCH VIZ. Including the final volume of Assassination Classroom, the 21st. Remember when this series was never, ever going to be licensed over here due to the concept? I’m so happy it was.

Also in Shonen titles, we see 7th Garden 8, Food Wars! 23, Haikyu!! 22, Kuroko’s Basketball 2-in-1 11, My Hero Academia 12, Naruto’s 22nd 3-in-1, Platinum End 5, The Promised Neverland 3, a 6th Rurouni Kenshin 3-in-1, and Seraph of the End 14. That’s a lot of really good shonen titles.

ASH: It’s true!

MICHELLE: It very much is! I have been working on getting caught up on My Hero Academia, too, and now totally see what the fuss was all about.

MJ: I’m really behind on Platinum End and need to catch up to see if I still like it. Signed, nervous Obata fan.

SEAN: But we’re not forgetting shoujo. The debut is Kenka Bancho Otome: Love’s Battle Royale, a Hana to Yume series based on an idea, oddly enough, by the creator of Dangan Ronpa. Given its source magazine, I’m expecting a lot less killing. Also, I’m a sucker for anything with Bancho in the title.

ASH: I do love a good series about delinquents and girl gang leaders.

MICHELLE: This looks pretty fun!

ANNA: Yes!

MJ: I could get into this.

SEAN: Also in shoujo we get the 2nd Takane & Hana, a 5th Water Dragon’s Bride, and the 11th Yona of the Dawn. Any one of those could be a pick of the week.

ASH: This is also true!

MICHELLE: Verily! This is a seriously good week!

ANNA: So amazing!

SEAN: So what are you picking?