Features

SEAN: OK, I double checked the Kodansha list this time, so we should be good to go.

We’ll start off with Dark Horse, who has the 10th I Am A Hero omnibus. I think the 11th is the last.

ASH: I’m a few volumes behind in my reading so I’m not sure how things have progressed, but the series started out very strongly.

SEAN: Apologies to J-Novel Club, who have a bunch of digital manga debuts, including ones I missed that came out this week. First what I missed: An Archdemon’s Dilemma: How to Love Your Elf Bride, How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom, The Magic in This Other World Is Too Far Behind! and Seirei Gensouki all have Vol. 1s drop this week. (They’re not on Kindle or Nook because of various reasons, but are on all other digital platforms.)

Next week the big digital debut is Animeta!, a Morning Two title (always a good thing) that isn’t based on a light novel (even better) about a girl trying to be an animator. I want to read this.

MICHELLE: That sounds potentially good! I await your review!

SEAN: They also do have more manga adaptations of light novels, as we also see Ascendance of a Bookworm, Infinite Dendrogram, and The Master of Ragnarok and Blesser of Einherjar get Vol. 1s digitally.

And lest you think they’ve abandoned light novels, we see I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse 14, Infinite Dendrogram 9, and Outbreak Company 9.

Kodansha has no debuts, but has a lot of stuff. That is coming out next week. I promise. Print? We’ve got Again!! 9, Happiness 9, and O Maidens in Your Savage Season 2.

ASH: Oh, hey! I’m reading all those series.

SEAN: Digitally there is Are You Lost? 4, DAYS 14, Defying Kurosaki-kun 10, Heaven’s Design Team 3, Mikami-sensei’s Way of Love 5, Saint Young Men 2, and Starving Anonymous 7.

MICHELLE: Again!! and DAYS for sure. I hang my head in shame that I haven’t yet managed to read the first volume of Saint Young Men. I really will, I swear!

ANNA: I am sad that I am behind on Again!! and Saint Young Men.

MJ: Saint Young Men!!

SEAN: Seven Seas has the print debut of Restaurant to Another World, which is very good but you’d better be a foodie.

ASH: I’ll be picking this up now that it’s coming out in print. It seems like it’ll be right up my alley.

SEAN: There’s also A Certain Scientific Accelerator 9, Nurse Hitomi’s Monster Infirmary 9, and (digitally) the 2nd Skeleton Knight in Another World.

Tokyopop has the 2nd Aria the Masterpiece omnibus and Yuri Bear Storm 3. You may have seen both these volumes in prior lists. Kodansha’s not the only one with surprise last-minute delays.

Vertical gives us a 3rd APOSIMZ. And the Inc. side has the 2nd omnibus (Vol. 4-6) of Katanagatari’s novels.

Viz has a 4th 20th Century Boys: Perfect Edition, the 5th Gangsta: Cursed (as well as a digital catch-up), Golden Kamuy 10, Tokyo Ghoul: re 11, and Ultraman 12.

ANNA: Need to get caught up on Gangsta too!

ASH: Since I read the first edition of 20th Century Boys, it’s Gangsta and Golden Kamuy that have most of my attention from this list.

SEAN: Yen Press moved all but one of its manga debuts to the last week of June, but we do have one light novel debut. The Hero Is Overpowered But Overly Cautious is one of those “the title is the plot” books, but at least has a novel twist by having the hero not be the narrator – from what I understand it’s the summoner.

Also coming out on the novel side: Accel World 18, The Asterisk War 10, A Certain Magical Index 19, The Empty Box and Zeroth Maria 6, Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?: Sword Oratoria 9, My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong As I Expected 7.5 (a short story collection), Re: ZERO 10, and Woof Woof Story 2.

On the manga side… let’s start with the news that not only do we get the 11th My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong As I Expected manga, but we also get Vols. 1-11 digitally. The Shogakukan dam is breaking!

There’s also a yuri one-shot: Whenever Our Eyes Meet: A Women’s Love Anthology. The gimmick here being that the romances are office and workplace rather than middle and high school.

MICHELLE: Hooray for grown-ups.

ASH: Indeed!

MJ: That does sound wonderful!

SEAN: And lastly (well, sort of… there’s a lot of lastly), we get As Miss Beelzebub Likes 6, Bungo Stray Dogs 11, Dead Mount Death Play 2, For the Kid I Saw in My Dreams 2, Goblin Slayer Side Story: Year One 2, Hakumei & Mikochi 6, Hatsu*Haru 7, Kakegurui: Compulsive Gambler 10, One Week Friends 7, Prison School omnibus 13, Silver Spoon 9, A Terrified Teacher at Ghoul School 7, and The Witch’s House: the Diary of Ellen 2.

MICHELLE: Insert obligatory Silver Spoon deliquency admission and apology here.

ASH: You’re going to have a great time ahead of you once you get a chance to catch up! Silver Spoon is terrific.

MJ: Oh, hi, Silver Spoon, you own my heart and soul.

SEAN: Years ago I used to break these down one line per book. I am so glad I don’t do that anymore. What’re you drowning yourself in?

SEAN: Usually the 2nd week of the month is the smallest one. NOT NEXT WEEK.

ASH: Yeah, let’s do this!

SEAN: Ghost Ship has a To-Love-Ru omnibus, Vols. 13-14, and the 5th World’s End Harem.

J-Novel Club debuts Crest of the Stars. Tokyopop released this way back in the day, but it’s been out of print forever, and I’m very happy to see it back with new translation and cover art. It’s also great science fiction.

MICHELLE: Oh, neat!

ASH: I have at least one of the Tokyopop editions floating around somewhere; nice to see this series being revived.

ANNA: I think I missed this the first time!

MJ: I missed it, too!

SEAN: It also has How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord 9, and Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles 5.

Kodansha, print-wise, has Boarding School Juliet 6, That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime 10, Tokyo Tarareba Girls 7, and, for those with long memories, Noragami: Stray God 20. This was the HOT NEW SERIES till it hit the “caught up with Japan” wall.

MICHELLE: I watched a bit of the anime recently and it was pretty intriguing.

ASH: I haven’t seen the anime, but I’ve largely enjoyed what I’ve read of Noragami manga. Tokyo Tarareba Girls is a must-read series for me, though it packs quite a punch.

SEAN: Digitally Kodansha has Drowning Love 12, Kira-kun Today 8, Love Massage: Melting Beauty Treatment 4, Ran the Peerless Beauty 4, and Tokyo Revengers 8. Ran needs a print release stat.

MICHELLE: Forsooth.

ASH: I’d likewise like to see it in print!

SEAN: One Peace has an 11th volume of The Rise of the Shield Hero.

Seven Seas debuts I Married My Best Friend to Shut My Parents Up (Oya ga Urusai Node Kouhai to Gisou Kekkon Shitemita), which if nothing else has a very eye-catching title. It’s a yuri one-shot, which I reviewed here. It ran in Ichijinsha’s Comic Yuri Hime.

ASH: I’ve been curious about this one, and appreciated Sean’s review, so I’ll likely be picking the manga up.

MJ: Same here!

SEAN: There’s also the print debut of Skeleton Knight in Another World, a light novel I was unable to finish the first volume of when it came out digitally.

Seven Seas also has Dragon Quest Monster + 2, Magika Swordsman and Summoner 11, Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid: Kanna’s Daily Life 5, and the 2nd digital volume of Restaurant in Another World. I’ll take the Restaurant over the Skeleton Knight, easily.

SuBLime has Candy Color Paradox 2 and Escape Journey 3.

ASH: Which reminds me I still need to read the first volume of Candy Color Paradox!

MJ: Oh, oops, so do I!

SEAN: Vertical has a 7th Flying Witch.

Vertical also announced that the first seven Monogatari Series novels are now available digitally! Great news for those of us phone readers. These are already out, so go get them.

Viz’s manga debut is Komi Can’t Communicate (Komi-san wa Komyushou Desu), a Shonen Sunday title that I’ve really been looking forward to. Its premise may seem familiar: the cool and aloof beauty of the school is just really poor at socialization. It’s also a 4-koma, for those who seek out/avoid those.

MICHELLE: The covers for this series are really cute! It runs in Shounen Sunday, and I’ve liked slice-of-life shounen from that magazine before, so I’m hopeful about this one, 4-koma or not. (The best 4-koma is still Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun, though!)

ASH: Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun is the best of a lot of things.

ANNA: I’ll check it out.

MJ: I’m very hit-or-miss with 4-koma, but I’ll usually give it a chance.

SEAN: Viz also has a giant Evangelion artbook, with illustrations from 2007-2017.

And there’s Magi 36, Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle 7, and Splatoon 6.

MICHELLE: I am hoarding Magi until the final volume. Just two more months!

ANNA: One of these days I’m going to do a full Magi marathon.

SEAN: See? Not a small week at all. What’s here for you?

SEAN: June is bustin’ out all over, with lots and lots of manga.

Dark Horse has the third and final volume of their Dangan Ronpa 2 manga.

Ghost Ship, Seven Seas’ mature line, debuts Creature Girls: A Field Journal in Another World (Kagaku-teki ni Sonzai Shiuru Creature Musume no Kansatsu Nisshi), which certainly fits. It’s an isekai AND a monster girl series, devoted to deep analysis of their naked bodies, followed by… well, deeper analysis, ifyouknowwhatImean. It runs in Akita Shoten’s Champion Cross.

J-Novel Club has several new print volumes. How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord and In Another World with My Smartphone get 4s, and Daughter Demon Lord and Too Far Behind (look, the titles are too damn long) get 3s.

Digitally, they have a 9th Arifureta and a 14th Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash.

ASH: I do a double-take every time I read that last title.

SEAN: Kodansha has some print and digital as well next week. In print we have Eden’s Zero 3, Missions of Love 17, and Sweetness and Lightning 12, which is the final volume.

ASH: I’ve got a couple of volumes of Sweetness and Lightning stacked up to read; I’ve really been enjoying the series.

MICHELLE: Me, too. I’ll miss it when it’s over.

SEAN: Digitally we see Alicia’s Diet Quest 3, Chihayafuru 17, My Sweet Girl 3, The Quintessential Quintuplets 8, The Tale of Genji: Dreams at Dawn 4, and World’s End and Apricot Jam 5. Several titles that the MB folks enjoy there.

MICHELLE: Forsooth. I wish I liked The Tale of Genji more. I was all happy about retro manga and forgot how awful Genji is.

MJ: I echo Michelle’s regret.

SEAN: Seven Seas has another debut that folks have wanted for years… though technically we did see it digitally several years ago from JManga. Classmates: Dou Kyu Sei is a BL title that’s one volume long, but they also have the sequel, which is likely why this says Vol. 1. It ran in Akaneshinsha’s Opera.

ASH: Digital Manga also published it digitally. I’m thrilled Seven Seas rescued the title and am so happy that the manga is getting a print release!

MICHELLE: I’m looking forward to this one!

MJ: I reviewed Classmates: Dou Kyu Sei when JManga offered it (then just called “Doukyusei” and loved it, so I’m pretty thrilled to see that it’s been rescued, along with a sequel!

SEAN: Seven Seas also has the first Division Maneuver light novel in print, as well as Made in Abyss 6.

Vertical gives us After the Rain 4, reminding me that I need to read After the Rain 3.

MICHELLE: I need to read After the Rain 1-3!

And now it’s Viz time, because first week means SO MUCH SHUEISHA. No debuts this week, but we do get complete box sets for both Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z. Buy it again for the 7th time.

Want some shonen? There’s Boruto 6, Food Wars! 30, My Hero Academia 19 (which has the start of the Culture Festival arc, one of my favorites – especially get it if you like Kyouka Jirou), One Piece’s 28th 3-in-1, The Promised Neverland 10, Seraph of the End 17, and We Never Learn 4.

MICHELLE: The cover of My Hero Academia 19 is my very favorite. I would buy it in poster size, for sure.

SEAN: And on the shoujo end we see Ao Haru Ride 5, Queen’s Quality 7, Takane & Hana 9, and Yona of the Dawn 18.

ASH: Lots of good stuff from Viz this week!

MICHELLE: Indeed!

ANNA: This is my happy week!

SEAN: I once again have to choose between three of the most amazing manga currently running for Pick of the Week, and that’s not even counting Dou Kyu Sei. Which ones are you getting?

SEAN: 5th weeks are always awkward, aren’t they?

Bookwalker has the 9th volume of The Combat Baker and Automaton Waitress.

Cross Infinite World has another done-in-one light novel with Another World’s Zombie Apocalypse Is Not My Problem!. I haven’t read too many CIW titles, but I always enjoy them when I do.

Denpa has a 4th volume of Inside Mari.

ASH: Oshimi’s manga are always a fascinating mix of compelling and uncomfortable.

SEAN: From J-Novel Club, we have Demon King Daimaou 11, Der Werwolf 4, and Invaders of the Rokujouma!? 21.

Kodansha has a lot of titles. A whole lot. The print debut is I’m Standing on a Million Lives, which we’ve already seen digitally. It’s an isekai, which may explain why it got a print edition, and runs in Betsushonen.

They also have Gleipnir 2. Insert your own Electric Boogaloo joke here.

Digitally, there’s a lot more. All Out!! 10, All-Rounder Meguru 10, Asahi-senpai’s Favorite 3, Back Street Girls 11, Boarding School Juliet 10, Domestic Girlfriend 18, Elegant Yokai Apartment Life 13, Hotaru’s Way 9, My Boy in Blue 9, Tokyo Alice 11, and The Walls Between Us 6. So many series to say “whoah, I should read that someday but don’t have the time!” to.

MICHELLE: Yeah, at this point I just keep updating volume numbers on to the list of stuff I mean to read. I’ve seen parts of the animes for All Out!! and Elegant Yokai Apartment Life and enjoyed them, and then two of those titles—Hotaru’s Way and Tokyo Alice—are josei, which is obviously a big draw. It’s just a time problem! (I note that The Walls Between Us looks pretty cute, too.)

ANNA: I am SO far behind in the digital manga I want to read, it is sad. I’m also far behind in the physical manga I want to read as well.

SEAN: One Peace has an 11th volume of the Rising of the Shield Hero manga.

Seven Seas debuts Eve x Eve, a yuri anthology of short stories by the same author, which interconnect towards the end. It’s fairly explicit as these sorts of things go, and you’d better like magical yuri pregnancies, but it’s a good pickup for a fan of the genre.

ASH: I’m particularly interested in the speculative fiction aspect of the collection.

SEAN: There’s also the 2nd (and final) Division Maneuver light novel digitally, Holy Corpse Rising 7, How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom light novel 3 (print edition), Magical Girl Site 9, Masamune-kun’s Revenge 10, Monster Girl Doctor’s 4th light novel, My Monster Secret 16, the 2nd and final omnibus of Ojojojo (which is great), and Servamp 12.

Vertical has a 4th Chi’s Sweet Adventures.

And Yen has the rest of the May lineup that didn’t already come out, as we get Forbidden Scrollery 7, Kakegurui Twin 2, Kiniro Mosaic 9, Shiboya Goldfish 4, Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization 3, Tales of Wedding Rings 6, and Trinity Seven 16.

MJ: I really want to be interested in something here. I really want to be. Um.

SEAN: Nothing really groundbreaking (and I expect the Manga Bookshelf peeps to have trouble with Pick of the Week), but a wide variety. What seems good for you?

SEAN: Buckle up, kids, it’s another one of THOSE weeks next week.

Dark Horse debuts a new series in omnibus form, Elfen Lied. This one may actually be more familiar to older anime fans, as it had an infamous anime in 2004, and the manga is apparently just as noteworthy. It ran in Weekly Young Jump, and this has the first three volumes. It’s a brutal, violent, dark manga. But it has a lot of fans.

MICHELLE: I seem to recall hearing that a lot of amputations occur in this series, so that’ll be a pass for me.

ANNA: Yeah, amputations are not my thing.

MJ: I watched the anime way back and survived, so maybe?

SEAN: J-Novel Club debuts Ascendance of a Bookworm (Honzuki no Gekokujou), one of the more begged-for LN license requests of the last year or so. The subtitle has “I’ll Do Anything to Become a Librarian!”, so this one may also appeal to the Manga Bookshelf folks too. A book-loving girl gets her dream job as a librarian… only to be killed and reincarnated in a fantasy world with low literacy. So to fulfill her dream of being surrounded by books, well… that’s the plot. I really want to read this. The print version is coming in the fall, but digital is out next week.

ASH: Perhaps because I’m a librarian, I really want to read this, too! I’m always interested in fantasy interpretations of my chosen profession. (I’ll probably wait for the print edition, though.)

ANNA: I am also interested in this as a librarian, but I tend to only like certain kinds of light novels. I’m definitely curious though!

MJ: This does sound kind of interesting.

SEAN: Kodansha, making up for two light weeks, has quite a bit next week. In print we have 10 Dance 3, Grand Blue Dreaming 6, Love in Focus 2, The Quintessential Quintuplets 3, and Yuri Is My Job! 3.

MICHELLE: Hooray for more 10 Dance! I did enjoy the low-key shoujo title Love in Focus, too.

ASH: 10 Dance definitely has most of my attention out of that bunch. Though, like Michelle, I also enjoyed the first volume of Love in Focus.

SEAN: Digitally, there’s Ao-chan Can’t Study! 7, Defying Kurosaki-kun 9, Kakafukaka 7, and Tokyo Revengers 7.

Seven Seas debuts an autobiographical manga by Akiko Higashimura, creator of Princess Jellyfish. Called Blank Canvas: My So-Called Artistic Journey (Kakukaku Shikajika), I reviewed it earlier this week, and it’s a must-read for fans of her work.

MICHELLE: SO EXCITE.

ASH: I got my hands on the first volume and it is VERY GOOD. I really love Higashimura’s work.

ANNA: OOH, this wasn’t on my radar at all.

SEAN: Seven Seas also has the print debut of Mushoku Tensei, as well as the 2nd volume digitally. There’s also the 3rd Make My Abilities Average! manga, and Saint Seiya: Saintia Sho 6.

Udon has a 10th Persona 4. We are apparently getting close to the end.

Vertical has the 4th volume of My Boy.

Viz has Children of the Whales 10, Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt 11, Ooku 15, Ran and the Gray World 3, and Urusei Yatsura 2. I’m most interested in the last, but I know the MB team wants its yearly dose of Ooku.

MICHELLE: I do, but I’ll also be reading Uruseu Yatsura one of these days.

ASH: Yes, I need more Ooku! While I’m following a couple of the other series, too, Ooku is the priority for me.

ANNA: I’m excited about both Ooku and Uresei Yatsura.

SEAN: And now we have Yen. So much Yen. And not even all the Yen, as they delayed 7 titles to the week after next.

JY has the third and final volume of the Little Witch Academia manga.

Yen On debuts Torture Princess (Fremd Torturchen), which is (try to contain your surprise) where our hero ends up contracted to the title princess, who has to kill demons. The artist also does Black Bullet’s art. I hope this is slightly less bleak than Black Bullet.

In lighter fare, we also have Wolf Children: Ame & Yuki, whose manga already came out via Yen. It’s another in the ‘adaptations of movies’ line.

There’s also Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody 8, Goblin Slayer 7, Overlord 10, A Sister’s All You Need 4, Strike the Blood 12, and Sword Art Online 16.

As for manga, the debut is Happy Sugar Life, which… I hate to use the word “yandere” in describing a manga, as it’s very over-and-badly used, but this series about a high school girls who falls for a sweet and pure kid and makes sure nothing gets in the way of their happy life, even if it means murder, probably justifies the term. It runs in Gangan Joker.

MICHELLE: Ugh.

ANNA: No thank you!

SEAN: Ending with its 7th volume is Shoulder-a-Coffin Kuro, a series which debuted in 2006 but has only just now reached its 7th volume, which tells you a lot about its erratic publishing history. I love each volume, though I must admit “will Kuro survive?” is my primary question.

In other Yen manga news, we have Angels of Death Episode.0 2, Anne Happy! 9, Chio’s School Road 4, Dimension W 14, Graineliers 3, Hinowa Ga CRUSH! 2, DanMachi Familia Chronicle: Episode Lyu 3 (manga version), Kiss & White Lily for My Dearest Girl 9, Laid-Back Camp 6, Overlord 10 (manga version, out the same day as Overlord 10 the light novel, no doubt causing Amazon to have an aneurysm), Re: ZERO Arc 3 Volume 7, and Though You May Burn to Ash 5.

ASH: That is a fair bit!

SEAN: Aside from everything, what are you getting next week?

SEAN: This is… a relatively light week, at least compared to the rest of May.

Dark Horse has the 3rd Gantz Omnibus.

J-Novel Club has another debut, with The Greatest Magicmaster’s Retirement Plan. A teen prodigy retires from the military, but is still the greatest magician in the land, so winds up teaching his gorgeous young successors at a magic school. I’m getting Bastard Magical Instructor vibes here.

They also have Amagi Brilliant Park 5 and In Another World with My Smartphone 14.

Kodansha has, believe it or not, no debuts. They have Sailor Moon Eternal Edition 4 (which has been on this list before, it keeps getting delayed) and The Seven Deadly Sins 32 in print.

And in digital, we have Kira-kun Today 7, Love Massage: Melting Beauty Treatment 3, Ran the Peerless Beauty 3, and Tokyo Revengers 7. Definitely getting more Ran.

MICHELLE: Me, too!

SEAN: Seven Seas debuts the Sorcerous Stabber Orphen manga, based on the recently licensed light novels. No, this isn’t the manga ADV put out eons ago. It’s a 2016 version that runs in Famitsu Comic Clear.

They’ve also got Classroom of the Elite’s 2nd novel digitally, How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord’s 4th manga volume, Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka 6, and the 5th Toradora! novel.

Sol Press has a 3rd volume of Battle Divas, reassuring readers it will not be a full year between each book.

SuBLime has a debut with Love in Limbo, about an ex-soldier who’s not a shikigami in limbo. It runs in Frontier Works’ Daria, which may be the most unintentionally hilarious title for a BL magazine I’ve ever seen.

And there’s also Vol. 7 of A Strange and Mystifying Story.

MICHELLE: It’s also the final volume.

ASH: I’m still happy that the license for this series was rescued, though I am a couple volumes behind in my reading.

SEAN: Vertical has a 2nd manga volume of Kino’s Journey.

MJ: Hello, THIS.

MICHELLE: I’m definitely reading this one.

SEAN: Viz has no debuts, but who cares, because Requiem of the Rose King 10, baby. There’s also the 5th Fullmetal Edition of Fullmetal Alchemist, Radiant 5, Record of Grancest War 3, and YO-KAI WATCH 11, whose title doesn’t know not to use all caps.

MJ: REQUIEM OF THE ROSE KING FOREVER because I apparently also have an all caps problem. Also, totally into any edition of Fullmetal Alchemist, anytime, so there’s that.

MICHELLE: I haven’t read volume nine yet so now I get to have a fun little mini-marathon.

ANNA: Me too, it is such a great series!

ASH: I’m always happy to see more Requiem of the Rose King!

SEAN: I believe MB will breath a sigh of relief, Pick of the Week-wise, to see Rose King. But what are you getting?

SEAN: Sometimes one book sort of takes all the attention, like a black hole. We’ll do our best to mention everything else as well, though.

Dark Horse debuts Emanon, by the artist of Spirit of Wonder (anyone remember that series?) and based on an award-winning novel. It looks quiet and mysterious. It runs in Comic Ryu, so that may not be the case, but…

MJ: Hm. Interested.

ASH: I’ve been enjoying Wandering Island, the creator’s other series in English, so I’ll likely be giving this one a look.

SEAN: They also have a World Guide for the NieR: Automata series.

J-Novel Club debuts Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill, another in a series of light novels whose plot is in its title.

They also give us I Shall Survive Using Potions! 2, Kokoro Connect 5, and Lazy Dungeon Master 5.

Kodansha does not have a debut, though the first week of the month is always dangerous to say that about – apologies if they announce something after I post this. In the meantime, in print we get Hitorijime My Hero 3.

And digitally there is Blissful Land 3, Can You Just Die, My Darling? 8, Momo’s Iron Will 2, and World’s End and Apricot Jam 4.

Seven Seas has, technically, other things out next week. Let’s actually mention those first. There’s the print debut of Classroom of the Elite, The Dungeon of Black Company 3, High-Rise Invasion 7-8, and Mononoke Sharing 4.

But no one cares at all, because they are debuting Our Dreams at Dusk: Shimanami Tasogare. One of the most highly anticipated manga debuts since I don’t know when (well, OK, since Saint Young Men two weeks ago), this manga deals seriously with LGBTA themes, contains superb writing and character work, and is highly recommended by everyone I know. I can’t wait to start it.

MJ: Okay, want, want, WANT. WANT. WANT.

MICHELLE: SAME.

ASH: YUP!

SEAN: Tokyopop has a third Yuri Bear Storm, which… is not quite the same sort of series.

Vertical has a 12th volume of Mobile Suit Gundam Wing.

I feel badly for Viz, as any other week I’d be falling over myself praising them for picking up Snow White with the Red Hair (Akagami no Shirayukihime), which has similar plot and characters as Yona of the Dawn but is its own delightful series. (And honestly, who wouldn’t want to be compared to Yona of the Dawn?). It runs in LaLa.

MJ: I’m in!

MICHELLE: Same again!

ANNA: Me too!!!

ASH: I’m also looking forward to this!

SEAN: Other shoujo? Anonymous Noise 14, Kakuriyo: Bed & Breakfast 3, and Shortcake Cake 4.

MICHELLE: I’ll read all of these eventually!

ANNA: Me too!

SEAN: On the shonen end we debut the new arc for JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable. Unlike other new arcs for JoJo’s, this has the same cast as the previous arc.

ASH: I am incredibly pleased that this is being released, especially since it’s a fancy hardcover edition.

SEAN: There’s Black Clover 15, Black Torch 4, Demon Slayer 6, Dr. STONE 5, Dragon Ball Super 5, Haikyu!! 32, Kaguya-sama: Love Is War 8 (I’m giving in and making it shonen, as that’s how it’s marketed here), One Piece 90 (Christ, ONE PIECE NINETY!!!), One-Punch Man 16, and Twin Star Exorcists 15.

Seriously, buy Shimanami Tasogare. I want to see it sell like hotcakes. What are you getting besides that?

SEAN: Please join us for next week’s crush of titles. Yes, another one.

Ghost Ship gives us To-Love-Ru Darkness 10 and Yokai Girls 7.

J-Novel Club has a lot of debuts coming up, but this one is a license rescue. Tokyopop released a few of the Full Metal Panic! novels back in 2007 or so, but only got five books in. Now J-Novel Club has the rights, and is releasing new translations. The first volume is out digitally next week, with print omnibuses coming early next year. Please enjoy the only angry tsundere male anime fans never tore apart, Kaname Chidori.

J-Novel Club also has How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord 8, Infinite Stratos 7, My Next Life as a Villainess 3, and The Unwanted Undead Adventurer 4. Everyone should be reading Bakarina.

Kodansha has quite a bit. There’s Battle Angel Alita: Mars Chronicle 6, Fire Force 15, and Toppu GP 4 on the print side.

ASH: As a whole, I think I’ve been enjoying Mars Chronicle more than I ended up enjoying Last Order. If nothing else, the action sequences are engaging.

SEAN: Digitally we see Kounodori: Dr. Stork 11, Lovesick Ellie 8, The Prince’s Black Poison 9, Princess Resurrection Nightmare 3, and The Quintessential Quintuplets 7.

Seven Seas has a light novel digital debut with Reincarnated as a Sword, which… aw, you can guess. He’s reincarnated. As a sword! There’s also a catgirl, apparently.

ASH: There have been so many of this particular type of ridiculous premise of late!

SEAN: There’s also a spinoff manga debut with the first volume of Mushoku Tensei: Roxy Gets Serious. With a soundtrack by Jon Astley.

Seven Seas also has Generation Witch 4 and Plus-Sized Elf 2.

Vertical has Arakawa Under the Bridge 6, the title that ISN’T Saint Young Men.

ANNA: I’m STILL EXCITED for Saint Young Men!

ASH: Same! Though, I do enjoy Arakawa Under the Bridge, too.

SEAN: They also have Tsukimonogatari: Possession Tale, the latest in Nisioisin’s fan-friendly novel series, this time focusing on deadpan corpse Ononoki.

Viz has a picture book. Why mention it here? It’s a Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind picture book.

ANNA: I am confident it will be gorgeous.

SEAN: Yen time. JY has a 3rd volume of Zo-Zo-Zombie.

Yen On gives us another of the seemingly endless Final Fantasy novels, this one Final Fantasy XIII: Episode Zero: Promise.

The closest thing Yen has to a manga debut this month is the start of the 8th and final arc of Umineko When They Cry. Titled Twilight of the Golden Witch, this omnibus has the first three volumes, and features some of the best and worst of the series.

And then there is… to the tune of some Gilbert and Sullivan song…

Akame Ga KILL! ZERO 9
Angels of Death 6
Aoharu x Machinegun 15
A Certain Magical Index (manga) 17
Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody (manga) 7
DIVE!! 2
The Elder Sister-Like One 3

(takes breath)

Goblin Slayer (manga) 5.
Hakumei & Mikochi 5
Hatsu*Haru 6
High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even in Another World 3
Is It Wrong to Try To Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon: Sword Oratoria (manga) 7

(I hope you’re taking notes, there will be a quiz next period)

Kagerou Daze (manga) 12
Murcielago 10
Nyankees 2
The Royal Tutor 11
Sacrificial Princess and the King of Beasts 5
The Saga of Tanya the Evil 6 (manga)

(we’re in the home stretch, folks)

Sekirei Omnibus 8
Silver Spoon 8

(pause for MJto scream “SILVER SPOOOOOOOOOON!”)

MJ: SILVER SPOOOOOOOOOOON!

SEAN: Teasing Master Takagi-san 4
Today’s Cerberus 12
Yowamushi Pedal 11

MICHELLE: Yen’s releases are where my attention is this week. Most of that goes to Yowamushi Pedal, of course, but I continue to have the best intentions for reading Silver Spoon and a couple of their shoujo offerings, too. One of these days!

MJ: I’m a little stunned by how little there is for me here in a week with SO many releases. But Sean made it all better with his G&S joke. Honestly, that’s worth the weirdly uninteresting (to me) glut.

ASH: I was likewise greatly amused! Out of the bunch Silver Spoon and Yowamushi Pedal are what interest me the most. I’ve also been enjoying Sacrificial Princess and the King of Beasts. And while I wasn’t as taken with their debuts as I had hoped, I would love to see DIVE!! and Nyankees live up to their promise.

SEAN: And that’s it! See? You can probably buy all of it easily. What will you be getting?

SEAN: Sometimes publishers surprise you.

But before we get to the surprise, Cross Infinite World has the 2nd novel for Obsessions of an Otome Gamer. I found the first volume far better than expected… and far longer than expected. I look forward to this, but may have to set aside extra time for it.

J-Novel Club has a 5th volume of An Archdemon’s Dilemma: How to Love Your Elf Bride.

Kodansha, print-wise, has Attack on Titan: Before the Fall 16, The Heroic Legend of Arslan 10, and To Your Eternity 9.

ASH: To Your Eternity continues to be an excellent series.

SEAN: But let’s face it, it’s all about the digitals this week. Another “this will never get licensed” title has been licensed, digital-only. Saint Young Men is a typical slice-of-life comedy about two men sharing a small apartment in modern Japan. Oh, yes, and they’re Jesus Christ and Gautama Buddha. Which explains why this was not licensed for so long. It’s by the creator of Arakawa Under the Bridge, and is (believe it or not) far less weird than that title.

MICHELLE: Finally! I’m so excited for this.

MJ: I can’t remember the last time I was so surprised/thrilled about a release. I mean, I never thought this could happen in the US, even as a digital release.

ANNA: Me too! It is so nice to be surprised like this!

ASH: This really is fantastic news! Kodansha is technically calling this a digital-first release, so there may be a slim possibility that a print edition may eventually be released. It’s like a miracle that it was licensed at all, so I’m hoping for another one!

SEAN: In less controversial digital titles, we see Ace of the Diamond 22, Ao-chan Can’t Study! 6, Asahi-sempai’s Favorite 2, Blissful Land 3, Defying Kurosaki-kun 8, Elegant Yokai Apartment Life 12, Kakafukaka 6, Mikami-sensei’s Way of Love 4, My Boy in Blue 8, and Tokyo Alice 10. That’s a lot.

MICHELLE: Forsooth.

SEAN: Oh yes, and Kodansha license rescued Initial D and are releasing about 30 million volumes of it digitally. Which is, as Initial D fans known, only about 1/4 of the total volumes.

MICHELLE: I was literally thinking about Initial D earlier today!

SEAN: Seven Seas gives us Accomplishments of the Duke’s Daughter 3, Captain Harlock: Dimensional Voyage 8, How to Train Magical Beasts 3, Sorry for My Familiar 4, and Species Domain 6.

ASH: How to Train Magical Beasts has been a nice series so far.

SEAN: Tokyopop lists Aria the Masterpiece 2 and Konohana Kitan 4 as coming out next week, though Amazon seems to disagree.

Viz has, in a digital debut, the first seven volumes of Banana Fish, a somewhat obscure old shoujo series that I’m sure the rest of Manga Bookshelf has never heard of.

MICHELLE: *snerk*

MJ: What kind of title is that? “Banana Fish.” Huh. Though, okay, I wish we were getting a deluxe print reissue instead.

ANNA: Sweet, maybe I will finally read it!

ASH: I would absolutely buy the series again if it was getting a new print deluxe edition. But I’m really happy that it’s back in print at all, and now available digitally, too.

SEAN: It also has a 9th volume, digital-only, of élDLIVE, from the creator of Reborn! (remember Reborn!? Years ago? Cancelled by Viz?).

MICHELLE: I am really hoping VIZ does more digital-only titles.

SEAN: Yen has a digital debut of its own, as if to say that those other two aren’t good enough. ALL of Fruits Basket is out next week digitally. That’s twelve omnibuses. Now you can read it on your phone (and also probably start crying in public, so don’t do that).

MJ: This is pretty sweet.

SEAN: Yen’s print manga is the week after next, but we do get this month’s novels. The debut is Penguin Highway, another in Yen’s ongoing series of “license the novel with a recent popular movie”. The novel is apparently really good, though, and has won the Nihon SF Taisho Award. Expect coming-of-age adventure!

ASH: I’ll be picking this one up!

There’s also Baccano! 10 (we promise, Monica is in the one after this, Baccano! fans), The Devil Is a Part-Timer! 13, I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years 4, KonoSuba 8, Re: ZERO EX 3, and That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime 5.

Jesus Christ, that’s some good manga. (Sorry.) (OK, not that sorry.)

SEAN: A Week of much excitement and prizes!

Dark Horse has a Berserk light novel (light? Berserk?) called The Flame Dragon Knight.

ASH: Ha! Surprising no one, I’ll be picking this up.

SEAN: J-Novel Club has a 13th Little Apocalypse and an 8th Outbreak Company.

Kodansha doesn’t seem to have any debuts, but we do get Aho-Girl 12 and Sailor Moon Eternal Edition 4.

Digitally there is All Out!! 9, Altair: A Record of Battles 10, Back Street Girls 10, DAYS 13, Kira-kun Today 6, Ran he Peerless Beauty 2, and Tokyo Revengers 6. I’m definitely reading another Ran.

MICHELLE: Me, too!

MJ: Okay, I still haven’t read the first Ran, but I need to!

MICHELLE: It has a certain Kimi ni Todoke quality about it.

One Peace has a 10th manga volume for polarizing title The Rising of the Shield Hero.

Seven Seas has a digital light novel debut with Restaurant to Another World (Isekai Shokudou). I’ve read the manga on Crunchyroll’s site, so am looking forward to a prose version. You can probably guess the premise.

ASH: You can probably guess that I’ll be giving the series a try later this year (when it debuts in print).

SEAN: They’ve also got the 4th Clockwork Planet novel (print edition), Getter Robo Devolution 3, Himouto Umaru-chan 5, and If It’s for My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord 3 (manga version).

This should have been on last week’s list, but Sol Press have 2nd volumes for their light novels Battle Divas and Strongest Gamer.

ASH: I’d forgotten about Sol Press!

SEAN: Vertical Comics debuts Go with the Clouds, North-by-Northwest (Hokuhokusei ni Kumo to Ike), the newest series from the creator of Ran and the Gray World, runs in Harta magazine, and is apparently as gorgeous as its older sister manga.

MICHELLE: Ooh, neat!

ANNA: I haven’t read the second volume of Ran and the Gray World yet, but I suspect that series is going to be too male gazey for me, I’ll be checking out reviews of North-by-Northwest.

MJ: Sign me up for this!

SEAN: Viz, as if to say to hold off on Pick of the Week till they show up, debuts a Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind artbook, as well as a new Junji Ito Story Collection, Smashed.

ASH: Smashing!

MJ: Oooooooh that artbook…

SEAN: And they have the 5th Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction, the 6th and mercifully final Fire Punch, a 9th Golden Kamuy (which can be as disturbing as Fire Punch was at times, but draws me in far more), and Tokyo Ghoul;re 10.

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

ANNA: I’m excited for more Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction!

SEAN: Are you excited. I’m excited. (And I just can’t hide… sorry.)

SEAN: Last week we gushed about Viz, I suspect this week will be Kodansha, with two killer debuts. (Debuts reflect release date on Kodansha’s website, not Amazon)

But first, Drawn & Quarterly has a new Kitaro volume, Kitaro’s Yokai Battles.

ASH: Yes! It seems like forever since the last Kitaro release.

SEAN: J-Novel Club snuck Invaders of the Rokujouma!? 20 out on me for this week, plus we also have Cooking with Wild Game 2 and Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles 4 next week.

Kodansha has a bevy of digital, including a debut. The title is My Pink Is Overflowing (Atashi no Pink ga Afurechau), which sounds filthy, and runs in Ane Friend. It’s about a girl who finds out her manager at work is a virgin, which excites her to no end. This sounds so trashy that I have to read it.

MICHELLE: After having given in to trashy temptations with Love Massage, I think I’ll sit this one out. :)

ANNA: Me too, there’s plenty of other things to catch up on instead.

MJ: Yeah, so not into this. Probably. Well, maybe.

SEAN: Also digitally? The third and final Crocodile Baron, I’m Standing on a Million Lives 6, Love Massage! Melting Beauty Treatment 2, My Sweet Girl 2, The Walls Between Us 5, and World’s End and Apricot Jam 3.

MICHELLE: I’m reading several of these (hint: not Love Massage). World’s End in particular is better than I thought it would be, given its premise.

SEAN: We also have some print releases from Kodansha. O Maidens in Your Savage Season (Araburu Kisetsu no Otomedomo yo) is written by Mari Okada, famed anime screenwriter whose autobiography was put out by J-Novel Club, and drawn by Nao Emoto, who did Forget Me Not. It’s a Bessatsu Shonen title with an anime coming out this summer, and is a coming of age drama starring five high school girls.

ASH: I’m particularly interested in this due to Okada’s involvement.

MJ: That sounds interesting!

SEAN: There’s also Witch Hat Atelier, which runs in Morning Two, looks AMAZING, is award-winning, and follows a girl who becomes a witch’s apprentice so she can learn magic to save her mother from… um… well, her own impetuousness.

MICHELLE: It’ll be interesting to compare this to Ran and the Gray World.

ASH: I’ve heard really good things about this title.

ANNA: I’m officially intrigued.

MJ: I mean, even just the title. Definitely interested in this.

SEAN: And we have Attack on Titan 27, Grand Blue Dreaming 5, Land of the Lustrous 8, and Tokyo Tarareba Girls 6.

ASH: I’ll definitely be picking up those last two!

Seven Seas gives us Space Battleship Yamato: The Complete Collection. It’s so old it ran in Akita Shoten’s Bouken Ou, which no longer exists, and is better known in North America for its adaptation as a cartoon, Star Blazers. As with all Matsumoto, it’s a must-buy hardcover.

ASH: Yup. Picking this one up, too.

ANNA: Yay!

SEAN: And they also have, digitally, the 6th Make My Abilities Average! novel. Print will come later.

Tokyopop has a 4th Konohana Kitan.

Vertical has the first Knights of Sidonia Master Edition, with larger size, 2.5 volumes per omnibus, and colored inserts. Come for the bear, stay for the strangest harem manga ever.

And Viz ends things next week, as we have a NeiR:Aotomata short story volume called Short Story Long.

As well as Case Closed 70, Magi 35, and Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle 6.

ASH: Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle is a consistently fun series.

ANNA: I need to get caught up!

SEAN: There’s some heavy hitters out next week. What’ve you got?

SEAN: Normally I have fairly strict rules about Manga the Week of. Alphabetical by publisher, then alphabetical by title (aside from Vol. 1s). But occasionally I decide to shake things up and go… in reverse! Let’s do that.

That does mean we start with Yen On, which (assuming no delays till 2025) has the 8th volume of No Game No Life.

And now Viz, aka the reason I reversed things, because OMG the Viz next week is AMAZING. There are technically no debuts, but we do get (drum roll please)…

—Yona of the Dawn 16, one of the best manga being published.
—We Never Learn 3, a promising romantic comedy.
—The Water Dragon’s Bride 9, headed towards its climax.
—Takane & Hana 8, still funny enough to make me ignore the age difference.
—The Promised Neverland 9, one of the best manga being published.
—Platinum End 8, which… eh. MJlikes it. I think.
—My Hero Academia, one of the best manga being published. Not only that…
—My Hero Academia Vigilantes 4, a series some like better than its parent. Not only THAT, but…
—My Hero Academia: School Briefs, a new light novel spinoff with illustrations by the creator, with this first volume focusing on Parent’s Day.
–the final 4th volume of Juni Taisen: Zodiac War, which isn’t great but it’s Nisioisin so I can’t really dis it.
—Food Wars! 29, which has basically become Bleach, so Bleach fans should love it!
—Ao Haru Ride 4, one of the best new 2018 debuts!

MICHELLE: Sooner or later, I’ll be reading 75% of those!

ASH: That really is an impressive week for Viz! I’ve particularly got my eye on Shojo Beat’s fantasy series.

MJ: MJhas never gotten past volume two of Platinum End but really really wants to like it. Wow, what a week, though!

ANNA: Very excited for Yona and Water Dragon’s Bride and many other things!

SEAN: Isn’t that magical? But wait, there’s more! That’s right, folks, don’t touch that dial!

Vertical has the Movie Edition of BLAME!. It’s what it sounds like, the manga adaptation of the movie, and it ran in Shonen Sirius.

Udon has the 9th volume of Persona 3.

Seven Seas debuts a done-in-one title with Transparent Light Blue (Toumei na Usui Mizuiro ni), which runs in Ichijinsha’s Comic Yuri Hime, and so I guess is yuri.

ASH: I’ll probably make a point to check it out eventually, then.

MJ: Could be interesting.

SEAN: Seven Seas also digitally debuts Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation, a light novel that essentially kicked off “reincarnated in another world” books. Will it take off here? Or will this be a case of “what’s the fuss all about?”.

Also from Seven Seas is Non Non Biyori 11, Lord Marksman and Vanadis 10, the 5th Arifureta light novel (print version), and Akashic Records of Bastard Magical Instructor 6.

Kodansha Digital debuts Momo’s Iron Will (Inuwashi Momo wa Yuruganai), an Aria title from a creator who was seen in Neo Parasyte F, and is better known for her BL. It’s about a girl with a brother complex, but looks like it may rise above that suspicious premise.

MICHELLE: Yeah, I’m rather wary of that premise.

MJ: Same.

SEAN: We also got Yozakura Quartet 23, Is Kichijoji the Only Place to Live? 6, and Chihayafuru 16.

MICHELLE: Yay, Chihayafuru!

ANNA: Woo hoo!

SEAN: Lastly, J-Novel Club has the 4th Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles digitally…

And also has a slew is print books! Debuting is If It’s For My Daughter I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord 1-2, as well as The Magic in This Other World Is Too Far Behind! 1-2. And we get 3rd print volumes for How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord and In Another World with My Smartphone.

ASH: Oh! I might have to give If It’s For My Daughter I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord a try now that it’s in print.

SEAN: It’s a reverse list! getting you are What?

MICHELLE: ziV fo daolparc A!

MJ: elggig em edam ellehciM!

SEAN: Another huge week. Lots of Kodansha. Lots of Seven Seas. Lots of Yen. Lots of everything.

Denpa has a 3rd volume of Inside Mari.

Ghost Ship gives us a 5th Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs.

Kodansha’s digital debut is Asahi-sempai’s Favorite (Asahi-senpai no Okiniiri) is a Betsufure title that – try to contain your surprise – has a popular boy teasing an easily flustered girl. Sometimes a bit too much.

There’s also a PILE of ongoing digital. We have Ace of the Diamond 21, Ao-chan Can’t Study! 5, Black Panther and Sweet 16 10, Boarding School Juliet 9, Elegant Yokai Apartment Life 11, Hotaru’s Way 8, I Want to Hold Aono-kun So Badly I Could Die 4, Kakafukaka 5, My Boy in Blue 7, and Tokyo Alice 9. That’s a lot. I follow Ao-chan and Kakafukaka.

MICHELLE: I’m only following Ace of the Diamond currently, but there are several in this list I *want* to read if time ever permits.

ANNA: Honestly, there is too much manga, and I am so far behind, it is tricky to even contemplate reading everything I am mildly interested in.

SEAN: For print, we only have Yuri Is My Job! 2.

ASH: I somehow missed that this was an ongoing series!

SEAN: Seven Seas has a digital-first light novel debut this week. Skeleton Knight in Another World is another in an odd trend of “I’m in a fantasy world as a living skeleton” series, this one an isekai. If you thought “I wonder if it has a gorgeous elf woman”, five more points.

Seven Seas also has Arpeggio of Blue Steel 14, Bloom Into You 6, A Centaur’s Life 16, Dragon Goes House-Hunting 2, Dragon Quest Monsters + 2, Hour of the Zombie 8, My Monster Secret 15, New Game! 5, and Wonderland 2. Lots I like in that pile.

MICHELLE: I need to read Dragon Goes House-Hunting!

ASH: I was legitimately amused by the first volume.

SEAN: Vertical has a 5th volume of CITY.

Yen has a light novel debut with 86–eighty six–, a title so nice they said it twice. It’s a dark little story about an invisible district, suicide bombers, and constant warfare. I’ll give the first volume a try, but it sounds like not my thing at all.

Yen On also gives us Accel World 17, Durarara!! 12, and The Saga of Tanya the Evil 5, which may equal the page count of AW and DRRR!! combined.

Yen Press has a debut manga with Plunderer, a Shonen Ace title from the creator of popular but unlicensed series Heaven’s Lost Property. As such, I expect a lot of fighting and a male lead who’s a pervert. Let’s see if I’m right.

And the Yen Press Players! We get Alice in Murderland 10, As Miss Beelzebub Likes 5, BTOOOM! 24, The Devil Is a Part-Timer! 13 (manga version), Kakegurui – Compulsive Gambler 9, Kiss and White Lily for My Dearest Girl 8, Log Horizon: The West Wind Brigade 11 (a final volume), WataMote 13, One Week Friends 6, Re: Zero Arc 3 Volume 6 (manga version), Taboo Tattoo 13, A Terrified Teacher at Ghoul School 6, and Triage X 17.

A stack of stuff! Stoked? Or stunned?

MICHELLE: Yeah, stunned. Very stunned.

SEAN: Thanks to Yen spacing out its releases more evenly this month, we get TWO crushing weeks in a row instead of just one. So what’s in the first crushing week?

Bookwalker has a 7th volume of shogi and young girls light novel The Ryuo’s Work Is Never Done!.

Dark Horse has, theoretically, Eromanga-sensei 2. (OK, I’ll stop now.)

J-Novel Club gives us the 13th In Another World with My Smartphone, a 4th Sorcerous Stabber Orphen, and the 10th Demon King Daimaou.

Kodansha is making up for being virtually invisible the last two weeks. First, we have three debuts, two in print/digital and one digital only. We’ll start with Gleipnir, a seinen manga from Young Magazine the 3rd, which is about a young man who discovers that he can turn into… a heroic dog mascot thing? Not sure what’s going on here, but one thing I can guarantee, which is the girl who’s the other lead will be beloved by Japan and hated in North America.

Love in Focus (Renzu-Sou no Sankaku) is a shoujo-ish manga from Aria (the magazine of shoujo-ish titles). A girl chooses a high school for its photography program, but also gets involved in teen romance. It’s only 3 volumes.

MICHELLE: Love in Focus is by Yoko Nogiri, whose That Wolf-boy Is Mine! I really liked. I’m looking forward to this one.

ASH: I plan on checking it out, too; I liked what I read of That Wolf-boy Is Mine!.

MJ: I’m up for this!

SEAN: Lastly, the digital debut is Ran the Peerless Beauty (Takane no Ran-san), a shoujo title from Betsufure about a girl who’s so beautiful and stylish that no one approaches her at all… except one guy, of course. This actually looks pretty cute.

MICHELLE: It does!

ANNA: I am for sure curious about it!

MJ: Well, okay!

SEAN: Print Kodansha also has Again!! 7, Aho-Girl 11, Hitorijime My Hero 2, the 3rd Sailor Moon Eternal Edition, and a 16th UQ Holder.

ASH: I’m a bit behind, but I’m looking forward to more Again!!.

SEAN: Digitally there is also All Out!! 8, Back Street Girls 8, Kira-kun Today 5, A Kiss, for Real 8, and Tokyo Revengers 5.

Seven Seas also has a debut next week, and a single-volume debut to boot. Total Eclipse of the Eternal Heart (Gesshoku Kitan) is from Akaneshinsha’s Opera magazine, and thus a must buy. It’s BL but also horror, and is from the author of Go For It, Nakamura!.

MICHELLE: I am so looking forward to more from this author!

ASH: Go For It, Nakamura! was one of my favorite releases from last year. Total Eclipse of the Eternal Heart is supposed to be completely different in tone, but I love a good horror manga, too, so I’m excited.

MJ: Okay, yes, definitely!

SEAN: Seven Seas also has another light novel for The Ancient Magus’ Bride: The Silver Yarn; the 9th volume of Citrus; a print edition for the 5th Make My Abilities Average light novel; The 3rd and final volume of the True Tenchi Muyo! light novels; and a 2nd Versailles of the Dead.

ASH: I’ll be picking up The Silver Yarn. The first volume of Versailles of the Dead intrigued me enough that I’ll be picking that up, too.

SEAN: Vertical gives us the 4th and final volume of The Delinquent Housewife!.

MICHELLE: I’ve been collecting these volumes as they’ve been coming out. Maybe now that it’s complete I’ll actually read them!

SEAN: Viz has a surprise for you! Not only do we get Gangsta 8, the first new volume in two and a half years, but we also get 1-8 digitally now as well! They also have 20th Century Boys: The Perfect Edition 3 and Children of the Whales 9.

ASH: I’m very happy to have a new volume of Gangsta being released!

ANNA: Also super excited about =Gangsta!

SEAN: And so we have Yen Press. We’ll start with Yen On, who moved a few titles (including the month’s debut) to the week after, but that still leaves a lot. The Asterisk War 9, Defeating the Demon Lord’s a Cinch 3, Do You Love Your Mom? 2, The Irregular at Magic High School 11, Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? 13, Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep (which sounds like a horror title), Magical Girl Raising Project 6, So I’m a Spider, So What? 5, and WorldEnd 3. That’s a lot of light novel.

There’s a bit of manga as well, of course. The debut is a side story, as we get the first volume of Angels of Death Episode 0. A prequel, I assume. And we see Bungo Stray Dogs 10, Chio’s School Road 3, Kakegurui – Compulsive Gambler 9, the 10th manga version of My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong As I Expected, a 5th Smokin’ Parade, the 5th volume of the manga version of So I’m a Spider, So What?, and the 5th volume of Sword Art Online spinoff Girls’ Ops.

That is a lot, I just compressed it well. What are you getting?

SEAN: It’s the lightest week in March, but there’s still quite a bit. Kodansha keeps holding back, that’s the problem…

Dark Horse – again, theoretically, bar last minute delays – has Mob Psycho 100 volume 2. Which we already talked about last week, so I’ll just copy/paste Michelle and Ash here…

MICHELLE: The first volume of Mob Psycho 100 intrigued me enough to try a second volume, so I’ll be snagging that one.

ASH: Likewise! I’m looking forward to reading more of the series.

SEAN: J-Novel Club gives us a 4th Amagi Brilliant Park and a 6th Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar.

Kodansha, print-wise, has That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime 9 and… yeah, that’s it.

Kodansha has a digital debut as well. Love Massage: Melting Beauty Treatment is one of those shoujo/josei hybrids that runs in Ane Friend. It seems to be about massage, though judging by the title and the cover, this is a bit more saucy than that other shoujo massage manga, The Magic Touch.

MICHELLE: Huh. Provided it’s not too smutty, I might check this out.

ANNA: Maybe…I’m usually intrigued by anything with a percentage of josei.

SEAN: Also there is the 12th and final volume of Tsuredure Children, the 4th Peach Girl NEXT, and a 2nd World’s End and Apricot Jam.

Seven Seas has a pile of stuff. Their debut is The Ideal Sponger Life, a manga based on an unlicensed light novel series about a man summoned to another world… to marry the princess and get her to bear a child! This apparently starts very “same as every other isekai” but quickly gets political, so may be a slow burner. It runs in Young Ace.

MICHELLE: I thought that sounded kind of neat until I saw the gigantic bazooms on the cover.

MJ: *sigh*

SEAN: In other Seven Seas news, Devils and Realist comes to an end with Vol. 15. There’s also The Bride and the Exorcist Knight 3, The Girl from the Other Side 6, Harukana Receive 3, Machimaho 2, Precarious Woman Executive Miss Black General 3, and Tomo-chan Is a Girl! 3.

MICHELLE: I will always rejoice for more The Girl from the Other Side.

ASH: Same. The series is a treasure.

ANNA: Indeed.

SEAN: SuBLime has a debut as well, with Candy Color Paradox. This BL series by long-running author Isaku Natsume runs in Shinshikan’s Dear+. Rival reporters in hot pursuit of a scoop. Will they find love?

MICHELLE: It looks kinda cute!

ASH: The creator’s previous series released in English, False Memories was rather charming, so I’ve hopes for this one, too.

ANNA: That does sound cute.

MJ: Count me in as cautiously optimistic.

SEAN: Vertical has a 3rd omnibus of May-December romance After the Rain.

MICHELLE: I really need to read this.

SEAN: Viz’s debut is Fullmetal Alchemist: The Complete 4-panel Comics. This collects all the comedic 4-komas that were extras in the main manga, and has a few extras as well, I believe. For the FMA fan who loves to laugh.

MJ: I am not always a fan of these 4-koma extras, but nobody does this better than Hiromu Arakawa, so I am 100% on board for this. Gimme, gimme.

SEAN: They also have Radiant 4, Rin-Ne 29, and That Blue-Sky Feeling 2, which is the one that interests me the most.

MICHELLE: I need to read That Blue-Sky Feeling, too.

ASH: I really like the first volume! Definitely looking forward to reading more.

ANNA: I need to check it out too!

SEAN: See? Not that bad. You’ve got to pick a title or two. (And have Oliver! in your head.)