Features

Manga the Week of 9/6/17

August 31, 2017 by Sean Gaffney, Anna N, Ash Brown and Michelle Smith 2 Comments

SEAN: September begins, and it’s back to school with a giant crush of manga. As always.

Dark Horse has a 3rd volume of Psycho-Pass prequel Inspector Shinya Kogami.

J-Novel Club gives us a 5th digital Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash novel, which… may not be depressing? Possibly?

And there’s also a 6th Invaders of the Rokujouma!?, which gives focus to our favorite underground priestess.

Did you know that Pumpkin Scissors is still running to this day? Somehow? It’s true! Kodansha is still rescuing it digitally with Vol. 13.

MICHELLE: I did not!

SEAN: On to non-Del Rey stuff, we have a 5th volume of GTO Paradise Lost, the latest in the author’s “no matter what I try to write, only Onizuka seems to sell” sequel.

ASH: I’ll admit, although I greatly enjoyed GTO, I haven’t really been keeping up with the sequels.

SEAN: And a 3rd Kounodori: Dr. Stork, which I am now behind on. Yay!

We also have two debuts from Kodansha digitally, that actually came out this week but Kodansha dropped them secretly as always. Black Panther and Sweet 16 (Kurohyou to 16-sai) is a Nakayoshi title that nevertheless seems very racy. It also has a weak female lead and pushy male lead. Ergh.

MICHELLE: Pass.

ANNA: I feel like I have seen this too many times before…

SEAN: And Elegant Yokai Apartment Life (Youkai Apato no Yuuga na Nichijou) runs in Shonen Sirius, and is what it sounds like – protagonist moves into an apartment filled with yokai.

MICHELLE: Hm. Maybe.

ANNA: That sounds promising, but I have a high tolerance for yokai titles.

ASH: As do I, for that matter.

SEAN: You want print? How about the 8th Sweetness and Lightning?

MICHELLE: Yay!

ASH: The series is such a delight! (And yes, print, please!)

SEAN: And there is also the 2nd Waiting for Spring for shoujo fans. Its first volume was unoriginal but soothing.

MICHELLE: I think there’s room for a series like that in my heart. I plan to read volumes one and two together.

ANNA: I have the first volume and haven’t read it yet, but soothing shoujo sounds nice.

Seven Seas has an 11th Arpeggio of Blue Steel, which continues to be the Tom Clancy novel of anthropomorphic personifications.

The debut next week is Captain Harlock: Dimensional Voyage, the 2014 manga sequel that apparently updates Harlock for the 21st century. Despite the fact that it runs in Champion Red, I look forward to it.

ASH: I’m looking forward to giving this one a try, too.

SEAN: And there’s the 8th Golden Time. Still a soap opera, still enjoyable to me.

And Tales of Zestria has a 2nd volume.

ASH: Whoops, I’d already forgotten about this series (probably because it’s based on a video game I’m not particularly familiar with), but it seems like it could have potential.

SEAN: Vertical gives us the 2nd Mobile Suit Gundam Wing manga, which continues to adapt Endless Waltz.

And now for Viz. So much Viz. Starting with the 4th Anonymous Noise, which I hope features some nice screaming.

MICHELLE: Volume three was the first time I had a “this is actually kind of cool” moment, so I will keep going for a little while to see if that becomes a trend.

ANNA: I think it has gotten better as the series develops, and I enjoy the screaming scenes.

SEAN: Bloody Mary’s 8th volume is not about vampires!… wait, yes, sorry. It is.

MICHELLE: *snerk*

ANNA: SO behind on this series, but I enjoyed the vampire angst in the early volumes.

SEAN: Boruto has a 2nd manga volume, which I imagine means the anime has already long since passed it.

Death Note gets an all-in-one edition, and at 2400 pages it comes close to taking the crown for best blunt object.

ASH: I really want to see one of these in person, just to see how it’s put together. I’ve been assured that the spine will hold up, but what about the readers?!

SEAN: Everyone’s still not getting married in the 6th Everyone’s Getting Married.

ANNA: I so enjoy this series. Hooray for Shojo Beat’s stealth josei publication practices!

SEAN: Haikyu!! 15 is out. But you knew that, as it’s a monthly. It’d be weirder if it weren’t out next week.

MICHELLE: I actually have a nice little pile of Haikyu!! to read now. I expect a mini-marathon will be great fun.

ANNA: I have a difficult time reading this series because my kids steal each volume.

ASH: Like Michelle, I’ve (unintentionally) been preparing for a mini-marathon as well. But I do enjoy Haikyu!! so incredibly much.

SEAN: Kimi Ni Todoke crawls to its conclusion some more. I dearly love it every time I read it, but admit that I wish it would hurry up.

MICHELLE: Yeah, I still can’t tell whether it’ll end after high school or actually follow the characters into their college endeavors.

ANNA: I need to get caught up!

SEAN: It’s the end for My Love Story!!, which has a lucky 13th volume to end on. Will the rain in Spain defeat our separated couple? Will we get a sweet happy ending! (spoilers: we will.)

MICHELLE: I’m counting on it!

ANNA: Such a great series.

ASH: It really is wonderful!

SEAN: And Nisekoi is also almost-but-not-quite done with this 23rd volume.

Chibi Sasuke’s Sharingan Legend is a superdeformed parody that aims to show us the humorous side of Sasuke. It should be about 4 pages long, then.

One Piece’s 21st 3-in-1 takes us to Fish-Man Island, so it’s slowly catching up with the main volumes.

One-Punch Man’s 12th volume will have some quality punching.

ASH: Excellent.

SEAN: And speaking of Quality, QQ Sweeper finally gets its sequel/reboot with Queen’s Quality. I love this author, so definitely want to read this.

MICHELLE: I’m glad this is finally out!

ANNA: Yay!

ASH: I’ve somehow still not managed to finish QQ Sweeper, but I’m glad we’re getting Queen’s Quality, too!

SEAN: Skip Beat! has a 39th volume, which I hope wraps up the arc with Kyoko’s mother.

MICHELLE: I just read it and it’s great. Of course.

ANNA: Skip Beat is always great, but I am also not fond of Kyoko’s mother.

SEAN: Lastly, it’s not a long Viz list unless it ends with a Yu-Gi-Oh volume, and we get the 2nd of “Arc V” here.

Got your pencils and paper? Or tablets and digital pens, whatever the kids use these days. Also, manga?

Manga Giveaway: A Variety of Vertical Comics

August 30, 2017 by Ash Brown

It’s nearly the end of August which means it’s time for another giveaway at Experiments in Manga! Earlier this month I celebrated the blog’s seventh anniversary, and I’d like to continue that celebration by offering you all the chance to win not one, not two, not three, but four volumes of manga. In this particular case the first volumes of Ryo Hanada’s Devils’ Line, Chihiro Ishizuka’s Flying Witch, Riichi Ueshiba’s Mysterious Girlfriend X, and Keiichi Arawi’s Nichijou: My Ordinary Life, all of which have been published in English by Vertical Comics. As usual, the giveaway is open worldwide!

I’ve been a big fan of Vertical releases for years, not only of its manga, but its prose works, too, both fiction and nonfiction. (Two of my younger sisters also greatly enjoy Vertical’s puzzle books, although I think it’s been a few years since the last one was published). In 2014, Vertical launched Vertical Comics, an imprint specializing in the publisher’s manga and anime-related titles. Since then, Vertical Comics has continued to expand and offer more and more manga of a wide variety–there seems to be a little bit of something for just about everyone. And I’m always happy to give just about any manga a chance when it’s released by Vertical Comics.

So, you may be wondering, how can you win a variety of Vertical Comics?

1) In the comments below, tell me a little about your favorite manga that has been released by Vertical Comics. (If you don’t have a favorite, or haven’t read any, simply mention that instead.)
2) If you’re on Twitter, you can earn a bonus entry by tweeting, or retweeting, about the contest. Make sure to include a link to this post and @PhoenixTerran (that’s me).

And it’s as easy as that! Giveaway participants can earn up to two entries and have one week to submit comments. If needed or if preferred, comments can also be sent to me at phoenixterran(at)gmail(dot)com and I will then post them here in your name. The giveaway winner will be randomly selected and announced on September 6, 2017. Best of luck to you all!

VERY IMPORTANT: Include some way that I can contact you. This can be an e-mail address in the comment form, a link to your website, Twitter username, or whatever. If I can’t figure out how to get a hold of you and you win, I’ll just draw another name.

Contest winner announced–Manga Giveaway: A Variety of Vertical Comics Winner

My Week in Manga: August 21-August 27, 2017

August 28, 2017 by Ash Brown

My News and Reviews

I was away last week traveling for work as well as for yet another family wedding (this year has been full of them), but I still managed to post a review before it was all said and done. It’s several month’s later than I really intended it to be since the manga was actually released back in May, but I’ve finally reviewed the first omnibus of My Brother’s Husband by Gengoroh Tagame. The manga was easily one of my most anticipated releases for 2017. I’ve actually been collecting the series in Japanese (even though my reading comprehension of the language isn’t quite where it needs to be yet), but I am incredibly happy that it’s being translated into English. I’m not sure when the second and final omnibus is scheduled to be released, but there’s not question that I’ll be picking it up once it’s available.

Quick Takes

Assassin’s Creed: Awakening, Volume 1 written by Takashi Yano and illustrated by Kenji Oiwa. There have been numerous Assassin’s Creed comic adaptations published by Titan Comics, so including Yano and Oiwa’s Awakening as part of its catalog seems an obvious choice to make even though the publisher doesn’t typically release many manga. Admittedly, I’ve not played very much of any of the Assassin’s Creed video games (although what I have played I’ve largely liked) and I’m not especially familiar with Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, the installment upon which Awakening is loosely based. What primarily drew me to the series was the involvement of Oiwa, one of the creators behind the manga adaptations of Otsuichi’s Goth and Welcome to the N.H.K., both of which I greatly enjoyed. Awakening alternates between two stories taking place in different time periods which turn out to be deeply connected to each other although the depth of that connection isn’t immediately clear. The first, and the one I prefer, is set in the early eighteenth century and follows Edward Kenway, a pirate captain who gets caught up in the conflict between the Templars and Assassins. Centuries later, that conflict is still ongoing, impacting the life of Masato Yagyu and his family in unexpected ways.

The Backstagers, Volume 1: Rebels without Applause written by James Tynion IV, illustrated by Rian Sygh, and colors by Walter Baiamonte. I believe The Backstagers first came to my attention when it was featured on a list of ongoing comics series which included trans characters. And indeed, one of the characters in The Backstagers–and an important main character at that–is a transguy, something that is almost unheard of in mainstream comics. (Also of note, the series’ co-creator and illustrator is also trans, which I hadn’t initially realized.) That was enough to make me interested in the series, and the first volume was more than enough to make me a fan. The Backstagers is set at an all-boys high school and largely follows the stage crew of the drama club. Jory, a recent transfer student, who at first he thought he wanted to be an actor ultimately finds himself swept up in the magic of what happens behind the scenes. Quite literally, actually. The Backstagers is a tremendous amount of high-energy fun with brightly colored artwork and sparkles, blushing, and flowers galore. The comic is also delightfully queer and diverse, breaking down gender stereotypes by presenting a wide variety of masculinities. I absolutely loved the first volume of The Backstagers and definitely look forward to more.

Nirvana, Volume 1 by Jin and Sayuki. Due to her selflessness and devotion to volunteer efforts, Yachiyo Hitotose has become known as the Modern-Day Florence Nightingale. While on a trip to help those in need overseas, Yachiyo’s flight crashes and she suddenly finds herself reincarnated in another world known as Gulgraf. Believed to be the new embodiment of the divine goddess Sakuya, the bringer of light, Yachiyo has naturally taken upon herself to rescue and protect the residents of Gulgaf from the powers of darkness. As well-meaning as she is, Yachiyo will still need plenty of help if she wants to make a difference, especially as there are those who already want her dead. And so she sets off on an adventure, traveling across the world in search of allies as she learns to control the new powers she has been granted. Nirvana does seem to at least in part be be inspired by Buddhist and Hindu mythologies and mysticism–which honestly is what compelled me to give the series a try–but at this point they seem to be used mostly as a veneer and to provide the series’ most basic narrative structure and worldbuilding. I wasn’t as captivated as I was hoping to be with Nirvana, but I was still entertained by the first volume which takes a much more comedic approach than I was expecting.

Manga the Week of 8/30/17

August 23, 2017 by Sean Gaffney, Ash Brown, Anna N and Michelle Smith 2 Comments

SEAN: STUFF!

ASH: Lots of stuff!!

SEAN: J-Novel Club starts us off, with a second volume of color-coded heroine series Demon King Daimaou.

And also a second volume of Infinite Dendrogram, which seems to be… just about a gamer in a VR world. What, he’s not trapped or anything? Pff.

Another Del Rey rescue bites the dust with the 21st and final volume of Alive.

ASH: It’s been a long time since I’ve read the beginning of Alive. Now that the series has been completed, maybe it’s time I revisit it.

SEAN: Aho Girl was amazingly stupid but amusing, so I look forward to Volume 2.

On the digital front, Altair: A Record of Battles has a 3rd volume.

And on the Michelle front, there’s a 4th DAYS.

MICHELLE: Heh, you know it! Also, I really do need to read Altair.

ASH: Same!

ANNA: I haven’t read the first volume of Altair yet, but I will!

SEAN: The title that nobody remembers (even Amazon, who hasn’t listed it), we get a 3rd DEATHTOPIA from the creator of Cage of Eden.

More Michelle volumes with a 5th Giant Killing.

MICHELLE: Seinen sports manga is such fun!

ASH: I want this series in print so, so much! The anime adaptation was great, too.

SEAN: House of the Sun got of to a fast start but slowed down after that. Here’s a 6th book.

MICHELLE: I’ve started this series but struggled to connect with the characters. I haven’t given up, though.

SEAN: Briefly back to print for a debut. Kigurumi Guardians is a shoujo title from Nakayoshi, but its creator, Lily Hoshino, is better known for her BL titles. No surprise then that this manga has a lot of pretty boys.

MICHELLE: I’m hoping this is fun.

ASH: Hoshino’s manga can be a little hit-or-miss for me, but I’m definitely curious.

ANNA: Hmm, I am curious too!

SEAN: Another forgotten by Amazon digital title, B&N lists a 29th Space Brothers volume. Apologies for forgetting to mention the first 28 or so. It’s a great series.

ASH: Yes!

SEAN: Seven Seas has a sea of titles next week, including three debuts. The first is Absolute Duo. It’s based on a light novel. It’s from Comic Alive. It takes place at an academy filled with fighting. My lineface can possibly be seen from space, but I’ll add it just in case. :|

MICHELLE: Heehee.

SEAN: Akashic Records of Bastard Magical Instructor is another debut this week. It’s based on a light novel. It’s from Shonen Ace. It takes place at an academy filled with fighting. :|

MICHELLE: *snerk*

SEAN: A Certain Scientific Accelerator has hit its 6th volume, and despite ALSO being a spinoff of a light novel title that runs in an otaku-oriented magazine and taking place at an academy filled with fighting, I quite enjoy it.

Theoretically, Don’t Meddle with My Daughter should get points for at least NOT being based off a light novel or taking place at an academy of fighting students. However, it runs in Young King and apparently has two doujinshi sequels by the author that are actual porn, so let’s just say my hopes are not high. It’s about a retired superhero mom who returns to action to protect her daughter, who is now taking over the family business, so to speak. Oh yes, it’s also by the creator of Dance in the Vampire Bund. It’s almost the perfect anti-Manga Bookshelf title.

MICHELLE: Sounds like it.

ANNA: It could be the Manga Bookshelf Kryptonite.

SEAN: And along the same lines, we have a 12th Monster Musume, which can be very ecchi. And not only that, but…

Yes, we’ve hit the trifecta of vaguely H titles, an 8th Pandora in the Crimson Shell! BINGO!

On the Vertical front, there is a 9th Cardfight!! Vanguard, which has fights… with cards! (Yeah, yeah, shut up.)

Vertical also has the 2nd Nisemonogatari novel, Tsukihi Phoenix, which features the youngest of the Araragi siblings, though honestly Karen’s toothbrushing scene will likely get all the attention. Also, are fans still going to be dagnabbit mad? Probably.

Yen has some digital titles, with new Corpse Princess (12), Gesellschaft Blume (2), IM: Great Priest Imhotep (2), and Saki (12). Something for everybody.

ASH: Saki!

SEAN: And of course there’s always a Yen straggler, and next week it’s Dimension W’s 7th volume. Why they always delay one or two books to the next week, I dunno. It’s one of those manga mysteries.

As you can see, there is much to choose from, though my colleagues may be staring at this and saying “Yeah, um…” So what are you getting?

My Week in Manga: August 14-August 20, 2017

August 21, 2017 by Ash Brown

My News and Reviews

It’s been a while since there have been two features posted at Experiments in Manga within the same week in addition to the usual My Week in Manga, but that’s exactly what happened last week. First there was July’s Bookshelf Overload which, minus the replacement copies for some of my recently water-damaged books, provides a list of the manga and other media that I picked up last month. (Normally I post the Bookshelf Overload feature in the second week of the month, but I switched things up a little in order to post my review of Kazuki Sakuraba’s A Small Charred Face sooner rather than later.) Last week was also Experiments in Manga’s seven-year anniversary! I wrote a little about the past year and, with some amount of sadness, also announced my upcoming (semi)-retirement from manga blogging. I’ll continue to post here at Experiments in Manga for the rest of 2017, but once 2018 arrives most of my short ramblings on manga will be found over at Manga Bookshelf (and probably at my Twitter account, too).

Quick Takes

H. P. Lovecraft’s The Hound and Other Stories by Gou Tanabe. While I am very aware of Lovecraft’s work and influence (the Cthulhu Mythos in particular was tremendously popular among a certain segment of my friends for quite some time), I’ve actually only ever read a single collection of his short horror stories. I largely enjoy their bizarre creepiness, and so I immediately took note when I learned that Dark Horse would be releasing a volume of some of Tanabe’s manga adaptations of Lovecraft stories. Plus, I was simply happy to see more mature horror manga being licensed. The Hound and Other Stories collects the adaptations of three of Lovecraft’s stories from the early 1920s: “The Temple,” “The Hound” (the only one of which I had read the original), and “The Nameless City.” Of the three, “The Temple” was the most successful for me, Tanbe’s deliberately disconcerting artwork perfectly conveying the narrative’s dark and increasingly claustrophobic sense of dread. The Hound and Other Stories is actually the first volume in a series. Nothing official has been announced regarding the translation of future volumes, but Dark Horse has indicated that the possibility is there. I know I’d certainly be interested in reading more of Tanabe’s work, Lovecraftian or otherwise.

Hana & Hina After School, Volume 2 by Milk Morinaga. I’m not as interested in schoolgirl yuri manga as I am in those that feature adult women–which seem to be very few and far between in translation–but I will still happily read them. Which is probably a good thing seeing as most of the yuri manga that has been published in English tend to be set in either middle or high school. (To be fair, that can be said of numerous other genres as well.) Hana & Hina After School definitely falls into that category, and I certainly have been enjoying the manga. While it’s clear that Hina and Hana care for each other a great deal, the romance in the series is actually a little slow to develop, though it does feel more natural that way. Hina recognizes that she has a crush on Hana, and has known for some time, but Hana tends to be a little more oblivious. Hana & Hina After School concludes with the next volume; I would be incredibly surprised if the ending isn’t a happy one, but both Hina and Hana will need to fully come to terms with their feelings before that happens. In general, Hana & Hina After School is a cute and sweet series, but I do appreciate that Morinaga also incorporates some of the real-world concerns faced by people in non-heterosexual relationships.

Samurai Crusader: The Kumomaru Chronicles, Volumes 1-3 written by Oji Hiroi and illustrated by Ryoichi Ikegami. At this point I’ve read most of the manga available in English with which Ikegami has been involved, Samurai Crusader being one of the few exceptions up until now. Hiroi is probably best known as the creator of Sakura Wars, which I’m not particularly familiar with. (I believe Samurai Crusader is the only other manga of Hiroi’s to have been released in English.) Samurai Crusader is currently out-of-print and can be a little tricky to find, but the series can usually be found for a fairly reasonable price. (Note that the individual volumes aren’t numbered and after the first are given unique subtitles instead; Samurai Crusader is followed by Way of the Dragon and Sunrise Over Shanghai.) Taking place in the 1930s with the Second World War looming on the horizon, Samurai Crusader is an tale of action and adventure spanning the globe and featuring Ernest Hemingway as the a sidekick to the series’ protagonist Kumomaru, a noble young man who finds himself fighting against those intent on world domination. Samurai Crusader is admittedly outrageous and over-the-top, but that’s also a large part of why the series is so highly entertaining.

Manga the Week of 8/23/17

August 19, 2017 by Sean Gaffney, Michelle Smith, Ash Brown and Anna N 1 Comment

SEAN: I can’t. I just can’t. How on earth is this much stuff coming out?

MICHELLE: And still none of it is 7SEEDS or Silver Diamond!

ANNA: Or Demon Sacred!

SEAN: Dark Horse gives us the 26th volume of the Vampire Hunter D novels.

ASH: I somehow managed to forget that the novel series was still ongoing.

SEAN: J-Novel Club has a 2nd volume of adorable family series If It’s For My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord. Oh please stay an adorable family series…

Yes, there’s still more Del Rey rescues, with Princess Resurrection 17.

Somehow there is a new Animal Land out, Vol. 12. Only 9 months after 11! Is the series back on track?

ASH: Maybe?! The ending seems so close and yet so far away.

SEAN: Kodansha gives us a 4th volume of Chihayafura digitally. Will our ragtag bunch of karuta misfits get it together?

MICHELLE: Yay!!!!

ANNA: So excited!

SEAN: And there’s a 4th manga volume of Clockwork Planet, whose novel I enjoyed more than I did the adaptation.

Domestic Girlfriend hits Vol. 5 digitally as well.

As does Fire Force, which is print, and still not as good as Soul Eater, IMO.

Inuyashiki 8 comes out in print as well. It’s ended in Japan recently.

And Land of the Lustrous hopes to make slightly more sense with Vol. 2, but it will look gorgeous no matter what.

ASH: I’m looking forward to the beautiful mess.

ANNA: Maybe I’ll check it out from the library just for the pretty….

SEAN: The first debut next week is Love & Lies, which North American readers may find slightly familiar if they read it on the Mangabox app. It’s also got an anime coming out. The premise involves a Japan where everyone automatically gets an arranged marriage at 16.

Kodansha has a 2nd volume of Real Girl, meaning I should read the first, but TOO MUCH MANGA.

MICHELLE: I missed the first one, as well.

SEAN: The second debut next week is another of THOSE isekai adaptations. That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime is based on a novel Yen will be starting this December, and Kodansha’s adaptation runs in Shonen Sirius. The premise is… what the plot says.

ANNA: We live in interesting times.

SEAN: Lastly (for Kodansha), we get a 2nd digital volume of Tzuredure Children.

On to Seven Seas, who blissfully only have two releases next week. A Centaur’s Life has its own anime adaptation going on, which seems to be adapting a lot more than I expected, including scenes I was sure it would cut. This is the 12th volume.

There’s also a 6th volume of yuri potboiler Citrus.

Vertical has reached a dozen volumes of What Did You Eat Yesterday?. Will there be egg dishes? (Do eggs come in dozens in Japan?)

MICHELLE: !!!!!! I love when there are surprise things that weren’t on my radar.

ASH: I’m always read for more What Did You Eat Yesterday!

ANNA: Woo hoo!

SEAN: The rest of the list is Yen. They have a bunch of light novels. The 4th Asterisk War may not be the best of them, but my guess is that it’s the shortest.

A Certain Magical Index’s 12th volume is a ‘downtime’ book, with much of it taken up by wacky shenanigans. I suspect the cliffhanger will be less wacky, though.

The Devil Is a Part-Timer! has an 8th volume, and may finally be returning to Enta Isla for a bit.

Goblin Slayer’s 3rd volume features goblins being slayed.

The Irregular at Magic High School has a 5th volume that I would also classify as ‘downtime’, but we do get a Beach Episode out of it.

KonoSuba’s 3rd volume will, one hopes, be completely ridiculous.

Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers has a 2nd volume, where we see how long they can extend the “one of us is a traitor” plotline.

And Sword Art Online’s 11th volume shows the ongoing adventures of Kirito and Eugeo training to become knights, this time complete with cute squire girls.

Yen manga also has one or two or twenty titles. Anne Happy has a 6th volume, and may be caught up with Japan by now.

Aoharu x Machinegun also gives us a 6th print volume.

ASH: The first volume was fun and I’ve been meaning to read more, I just haven’t gotten around to it yet.

SEAN: We have reached the final Blood Lad! You can tell it’s the final one as it’s not an omnibus, ending with a single-sized 9th volume. I will miss this underrated series.

BTOOOM! has an 18th volume, and I haven’t missed it at all, but it’s not going anywhere yet.

Delicious in Dungeon’s first volume was enjoyable enough, though I worry it will leave me with very little to review. Definitely getting its 2nd volume, though.

MICHELLE: I kept meaning to read the first, but now I’ll just have to review the first two together.

ASH: I loved the first volume and am looking forward to the next a great deal.

SEAN: There is also a 3rd Demonizer Zilch, which I keep forgetting Yen puts out.

More series whose premise I just couldn’t get past, we have a 7th First Love Monster.

Girls’ Last Tour will have an adorable post-apocalypse in Volume 2.

ASH: I didn’t find the characters overly compelling, but I did really like world and environment of the series.

SEAN: High School DxD is not dead, it merely seems like it after this recent hiatus. It returns with Vol. 9.

Kiss and White Lily for My Dearest Girl has a 3rd volume of what will no doubt be adorable yuri stories.

Log Horizon: The West Wind Brigade does not have yuri, but it does have Soujiro, so there’s a tradeoff. This is Volume 6.

Murcielago’s 3rd volume will no doubt have yuri, but if you see “If you liked Murcielago, you may also like Kiss And White Lily for My Dearest Girl”, something is screwy with Amazon’s algorithms.

ASH: HA! Someone may be in for a surprise.

SEAN: Re: Zero’s 2nd arc has its 2nd manga volume, and no doubt features Subaru dying.

Rokka also has a manga adaptation, and it’s up to Vol. 3.

Vol. 3s are popular these days! We also have a 3rd Spirits & Cat Ears.

And double digits for Trinity Ten… um, I mean Seven.

Ubel Blatt also hits double digits with its 9th omnibus. If that makes no sense, you don’t know Ubel Blatt.

Lastly (thank GOD), a 6th omnibus for Yowamushi Pedal.

MICHELLE: Yay! This is a good week!

ASH: Yay, indeed! Yowamushi Pedal isn’t released nearly as often as I wish it was.

SEAN: You must be getting SOMETHING from this morass. What is it?

My Week in Manga: August 7-August 13, 2017

August 14, 2017 by Ash Brown

My News and Reviews

I shifted around my usual posting schedule at Experiments in Manga a little last week so, instead of posting July’s Bookshelf Overload, I ended up featuring my review of Kazuki Sakuraba’s most recent work to be released in English, A Small Charred Face. The book is scheduled to be released in September (I received an advanced copy from Haikasoru for review purposes), and is definitely worth checking out. I’m not especially interested in vampire fiction, but A Small Charred Face makes for a very interesting contribution to the genre and I loved the queerness present in the story. Sakuraba is probably best known as the creator of Gosick, which I’ve been meaning to read, but my introduction to her work was through Red Girls: The Legend of the Akakuchibas.

Elsewhere online last week: Justin of The OASG posted a transcript of Four Hundred Pages of Manga Every Single Week, a roundtable discussion held in July which was sponsored by Kodansha Comics and featured three of Weekly Shonen Magazine‘s editors, including the editor-in-chief; Anime News Network interviewed Akira Himekawa, the creative team behind most of The Legend of Zelda manga adaptations; Viz Media made a some licensing announcements while at Otakon including RWBY by Shirow Miwa, Takane & Hana by Yuki Shiwasu, and The Young Master’s Revenge by Meca Tanaka; Also at Otakon, Sekai Project, which is still relatively new to manga publishing, announced the acquisition of Keika Hanada and Kanemune’s manga adaptation of The House in Fata Morgana.

Quick Takes

Clockwork Apple by Osamu Tezuka. I’ll admit, I managed to burn myself out on Tezuka for a bit, so I’ve managed to amass quite a stockpile of his recently-translated manga which I haven’t actually gotten around to reading yet. Clockwork Apple is a collection of eight short manga originally published between 1968 to 1973. While they aren’t directly related to one another, they do share a similar tone, were generally intended for an adult audience (mostly seinen, I believe), and can all broadly be described as speculative fiction. The stories in Clockwork Apple tend to be fairly dark, dramatic, and serious. The visual humor, breaking of the forth wall, and self-awareness frequently present in Tezuka’s other non-comedic works are nearly nonexistent in the Clockwork Apple. (I don’t think the Tezuka’s Star System was applied, either.) Tezuka was personally having a difficult time in the late 1960s and early 1970s, so perhaps the tenor of these stories is partly a reflection of that. In general, I enjoyed the stories collected in Clockwork Apple even though the endings would sometimes be a little hit-or-miss or feel rushed. Each story would have at least one plot-altering twist, some had several, but occasionally those developments would come across as convenient rather than compelling.

Flesh-Colored Horror by Junji Ito. Most of Ito’s manga to have been translated into English are currently in print or have been recently reissued in a new edition and even more have been scheduled to be released in the near future. One of the few exceptions is Flesh-Colored Horror, the third and final volume in The Junji Ito Horror Comic Collection series released by ComicsOne. Currently, the volume can be a little difficult and expensive to find, but fortunately one of my local libraries had a copy. (I really hope to be able to find a reasonably-priced one of my own someday.) In addition to the titular story, Flesh-Colored Horror collects five of Ito’s other short horror manga. The six unrelated stories were originally published between 1988 and 1994 in Monthly Halloween, a shoujo manga magazine specializing in horror. Flesh-Colored Horror is a fantastic collection that is well-worth seeking out for either fans of Ito’s work or of weird horror in general. Ito has a way of starting with a simple and at times even mundane premise and twisting it into something truly strange and horrific. For whatever reason, while I greatly enjoy most of Ito’s work, I do find that I often prefer Ito’s older short manga over more recent collections; Flesh-Colored Horror continues that trend.

Giant Days, Volume 1 written by John Allison and illustrated by Lissa Treiman and Whitney Cogar. I’ve been hearing good things about Giant Days for a while–the series has been nominated for multiple Eisner and Harvey Awards in the past, and several of my friends keep up with the comic–but I’m only getting around to reading it now. One thing that I didn’t realize about Giant Days, which initially started as a self-published webcomic before being picked up by Boom! Studios, is that it’s actually a spinoff of Allison’s earlier series Scary Go Round. I haven’t actually read Scary Go Round, but fortunately familiarity with that comic isn’t at all necessary to understand Giant Days. The comic largely follows three university students–Esther, Daisy, and Susan–who become close friends after living together in the same residence hall. The first volume seems to favor exploring the characters, their personalities, and relationships over having a strong overarching plotline. At times the comic feels somewhat disjointed and the scene changes can be rather abrupt, but the series has a good sense of humor and I do honestly like the characters. I think I would need to read a little more of Giant Days to really feel invested in their stories, but I greatly appreciate the inclusion of queer characters in the increasingly large cast.

Manga the Week of 8/16/17

August 10, 2017 by Sean Gaffney, Michelle Smith, Anna N and Ash Brown 1 Comment

SEAN: Next week is the closest we get to a small week these days. Revel in it.

Dark Horse gives us the 4th I Am A Hero omnibus. Zombies! Not quite as sexy and dangerous as vampires, but they try harder.

ASH: I Am a Hero is definitely one of the more interesting takes on the zombie subgenre that I’ve come across. But yeah, not especially sexy.

SEAN: J-Novel Club has two more volumes out next week. The 5th My Big Sister Lives in a Fantasy World is out, and will continue to compare itself to the Haruhi Suzumiya series.

And Playing to Win in a VRMMO has a 6th volume.

Most of the list is Kodansha, both print and digital. On the digital side we start with a 5th All-Rounder Meguru.

MICHELLE: This is one digital sports manga that I’ve yet to sample.

SEAN: Two new digital debuts next week. Beauty Bunny is from the author of Peach Heaven and is about a girl whose life is transformed by makeup and hot guys, perhaps not in that order. It’s 8 volumes, and ran in Dessert.

Cosplay Animal also ran in Dessert, but is about 10 years older than Beauty Bunny. A cosplayer meets her ideal guy whole cosplaying as a high school student. The trouble is her ideal guy IS a high school student. From what I’ve read this sounds like AMAZING complete trash. I am interested.

MICHELLE: I don’t think either of these is for me.

ANNA: I have to say I will at least try the first volume of Cosplay Animal, that sounds amusing.

Fairy Tail gives us a 4th monstrous volume of its Master’s Edition super-omnibus.

ASH: If someone hasn’t read Fairy Tail before, this edition is definitely the way to go.

SEAN: Kodansha Digital also has a 13th Fuuka, which continues to be written by Seo Kouji.

Hotaru’s Way also gets a 2nd volume digitally.

Back to print for the 8th Maga-Tsuki.

Peach Heaven has a 5th volume digitally, and I’m sorry this is so dull, but I haven’t read many of these.

MICHELLE: Although I love most of Kodansha’s digital offerings, Peach Heaven didn’t really appeal to me, I admit.

ANNA: I did not care for it.

SEAN: I have read the 22nd and final volume of School Rumble, though. It’s famous! Well, OK, infamous. The ending has to be seen to be disbelieved. There was a 1-volume continuation, School Rumble Z, that tried to fix things, but I don’t believe Kodansha has picked that up. In any case, bye, School Rumble! Flag or Riceball, you were great either way. Mostly.

Lastly for Kodansha, a 4th xxxHOLIC Rei has managed to edge its way out onto shelves, despite CLAMP’s busy schedule of delaying and cancelling other series.

ANNA: I’m still sad and angry about X/1999!!!

ASH: Yeah…

SEAN: Seven Seas gives us the 5th and final volume of Akuma no Riddle, which has combined yuri and assassins into quite an attractive package.

And a 6th Shomin Sample, whose package is less attractive.

Titan Books rarely makes appearances on here, but they do have the 1st volume of the Assassin’s Creed manga, which actually is adapting the Assassin’s Creed IV game. It ran in Jump Kai, and the author has also written some Naruto spinoff novels.

ASH: I’m picking this up mainly because of the involvement of Kendi/Kenji Oiwa, who also worked on the manga adaptations of Welcome to the NHK and Goth.

SEAN: Vertical has the 8th Devil’s Line.

Viz gives us two titles, the first being the 4th Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt series. We now have two Gundam series coming out at the same time. How times have changed.

ANNA: This is amazing, and reminds me I need to actually read my stockpiled volumes of Gundam: The Origin.

ASH: I shamefully have a few volumes of that I still need to read, too…

SEAN: And lastly, there’s the 14th Tokyo Ghoul, which will interest casual readers more than any other title I mentioned on this list.

See? Next week is totally small and has nothing coming out! Aheh. What are you getting?

My Week in Manga: July 31-August 6, 2017

August 7, 2017 by Ash Brown

My News and Reviews

The winner of The Royal Tutor manga giveaway was announced last week at Experiments in Manga. As usual, I also used the giveaway as an excuse to compile a thematic list of manga–in this particular case, a list of some of the manga available in English which feature royalty. This week I’m (once again) probably going to be switching around my regular posting schedule a little bit. Normally, this week would feature the Bookshelf Overload for July, but I’ve been working on an in-depth review of Kazuki Sakuraba’s A Small Charred Face which I would like to post sooner rather than later.

There are a few interesting things that I’ve recently encountered online that I’d like to share. First of all, MariNaomi has created the Queer Cartoonists Database (which does include mangaka), a followup of sorts to the Cartoonists of Color Database, both of which are fantastic resources. Khursten Santos and Thomas Baudinette, both scholars of queer themes in Japanese media, discuss gay manga, boys’ love, and such on the latest episode of the Fujojocast. Also, hat tip to Khursten for pointing out the recent audio recording and transcript of Masafumi Monden’s fascinating talk A Portrait of Shōjo: The Poetic Ambience of Japanese Girlhood.

As for some of the Kickstarter projects that have caught my attention lately: Sweethearts of 1989 is a queer romance comic by Kale Jeffery which is also in part an homage to anime and manga from the 1980s and 1990s. Zainab Akhtar is campaigning for a second volume of Critical Chips, an anthology of comics and comics criticism. (At least one essay will be about manga, specifically Taiyo Matsumoto’s No. 5.) Allison Shaw’s ongoing comic adaptation of the Greek myth of Persephone looks lovely. And of course, the Sparkler Monthly Year 5 campaign is still underway and could use a boost to help fund another twelve months of fantastic new content.

Quick Takes

I Hear the Sunspot by Yuki Fumino. Although in Japan it was serialized in a magazine that focuses on boys’ love manga, Fumino didn’t originally envision the story of I Hear the Sunspot with that in mind. However, even if the potential for the manga’s to lead characters to become romantically involved was added at a later point, their relationship grows and develops beautifully. After an illness in middle school resulted in permanent hearing loss, Kohei has struggled not only with his sudden disability but also with finding acceptance and understanding from others. Now in law school, Kohei has become withdrawn and has closed himself off from his peers, though that doesn’t stop his more outgoing and personable classmate Taichi from trying to become his friend. As the importance of their unexpected friendship naturally takes hold both Kohei and Taichi have their own issues to deal with, but it is obvious that they care tremendously for each other. As a whole, I Hear the Sunspot is a lovely story, but the nuanced characterization and character growth in the manga is particularly excellent. The depiction of Kohei’s hearing loss and how it has impacted his life and who he is also handled very well. I wholeheartedly loved I Hear the Sunspot.

Liselotte & Witch’s Forest, Volumes 1-3 by Natsuki Takaya. While waiting for the next volume of Twinkle Stars to be released, I figured I might as well give another of Takaya’s recently-translated manga series a try. (Liselotte & Witch’s Forest is actually one of Takaya’s most recent manga period, although I believe in Japan it’s on hiatus at the moment.) So far, while I am still enjoying the series, Liselotte & Witch’s Forest doesn’t work as well for me as either Twinkle Stars or Fruits Basket. I think the biggest impediment is that there seems to be a significant imbalance in the tone of the manga. The underlying story is dark and tragic–Liselotte & Witch’s Forest largely following in the tradition of Western fairy tales–but the narrative often relies heavily on lighthearted humor to carry it out. As a result, it feels as though Takaya can’t quite decide whether the series should be a drama or a comedy; every time something serious happens it’s countered by something ridiculous and it doesn’t always mesh well. It also takes a little while for the story to take off, although it’s interesting once it does. A young woman of noble birth, the titular Liselotte is now living in exile along with two servants, her stubborn cheerfulness obscuring the anguish she feels.

Stages of Rot by Linnea Sterte. The comic Stages of Rot is the first published work by Sterte, an illustrator and animator currently based in Sweden. I wasn’t previously aware of Sterte’s creative output before reading Stages of Rot, but if the comic is at all representative, it will be well worth seeking out more. Although Stages of Rot does include some dialogue and narration, the comic is largely wordless, the strength of Sterte’s gorgeous illustrations easily carrying the flow of the narrative. The story unfolds in five chapters, each of which uses a different palette of muted colors to depict the passage of time and the evolution of nature and civilization within the fantastical world that Sterte has created. The title is derived from the comic’s narrative impetus–the body of a giant sky whale has crashed to the earth, the creature’s death allowing both life and conflict to flourish in ways that would have otherwise been impossible, the accomplishments of one era in some ways dependent on the decay of another. If nothing else, the comic is visually stunning, but the themes exploring the cyclical nature of life and death are also marvelously executed. Stages of Rot is a curious, beautiful, and ultimately hopeful work; I am very glad to have encountered it.

Manga the Week of 8/9/17

August 2, 2017 by Sean Gaffney, Michelle Smith, Ash Brown and Anna N 1 Comment

SEAN: Stuff, stuff, stuff! So much stuff!

Dark Horse gives us a new volume of Drifters, the 4th. It comes out sporadically, so I will no doubt have to refresh my memory about what’s happening besides cool old famous people reincarnated and fighting each other. Actually, no, that should do it.

ASH: Let’s see, the last volume was released in English in… 2014. I didn’t expect that we’d ever see more of the series! I suspect that last year’s anime adaptation may have something to do with that.

SEAN: And there is a 4th omnibus of “Like Evangelion, only stupider” spinoff manga Shinji Ikari Raising Project.

J-Novel Club has a new debut, but it may seem familiar: Clockwork Planet, whose manga adaptation Kodansha has been releasing. This is their first Kodansha license, and will hopefully open the way for more in the future.

And we have the 4th In Another World With My Smartphone, which I hear is where the plot really kicks off.

Kodansha has titles both digital and print. Digitally we have the 2nd Altair: A Record of Battles, which is clearly not on the fastrack like some other digital titles.

ANNA: Good reminder for me to read the first one!

MICHELLE: Same!

SEAN: And the 2nd Aoba-kun’s Confessions as well.

I was unprepared for the Attack On Titan: Before the Fall adaptation to be this long, but here we are, Volume 11. Huh.

ASH: I’ve fallen behind, but I do largely like how the manga further develops and expands the story and characters from the original light novels.

SEAN: Back to digital with the 5th Full-Time Wife Escapist. Will these two poor communicators finally get together?

ANNA: I enjoy this series!

MICHELLE: Me, too. I’m always happy when I see a new installment on the schedule.

SEAN: And L♥DK has hit double digits, and presumably has not run out of ways to frustrate its heroine.

Seven Seas has the most titles out next week. There’s a lucky 13th volume of Devils and Realist.

And the 2nd print volume of the light (hah!) novel Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash.

Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid will try to ride out the post-anime depression with its 4th volume.

The debut next week is Nirvana, an action fantasy with a “trapped in another world” veneer, the gimmick being the protagonist is female for once. It’s written by Jin, the creator of Kagerou Daze, and runs in Comic Gene.

Not Lives gives us a 6th volume. Has the cast diminished yet?

Also at double digits next week is Servamp. (poses) Vampires! (peers around, crickets chirp) Could it be the running gag has gone on too long?

ANNA: Maybe we need more mermaids or pirates.

SEAN: SuBLime has a digital-only release next week with Am I In Love Or Just Hungry, from popular author Akane Abe.

In print, they have the 2nd Deluxe Edition of Finder.

And the 5th volume of Ten Count, which has managed to irritate most of Manga Bookshelf by now.

ANNA: Yeargh.

ASH: I’m still reading it, though I completely understand why people dropped the series. The character’s relationship is far from healthy–right now to me it actually reads more like a horror manga and less like a romance.

SEAN: Viz has a 5th digital release of The Children Nowadays, whose existence I keep forgetting.

In print, they have the 21st volume of Itsuwaribito, which must be reaching a climax of some sort, I say as if I read past Vol. 1.

And a 2nd Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.

ASH: I’m enjoying this adaptation so far; I’m also glad that it doesn’t end with the second volume.

SEAN: Magi has reached 25 volumes! In Japan it’s wrapping up, here we still have a ways to go.

MICHELLE: I’m always kind of relieved to hear a series is ending. It’s probably the reassurance that I’ll actually get the complete story.

SEAN: Lastly, we have a 9th volume of Monster Hunter: Flash Hunter, which wars with Yu-Gi-Oh in how often it ends a Manga the Week of column and leaves me with nothing to say.

What do you say? Anything for you next week?

My Week in Manga: July 24-July 30, 2017

July 31, 2017 by Ash Brown

My News and Reviews

Last week saw the beginning of the most recent manga giveaway here at Experiments in Manga. This time around I’m giving away a copy of Higasa Akai’s The Royal Tutor, Volume 1 which was recently released by Yen Press in print after having previously only been available digitally. The winner will be announced this coming Wednesday, so there’s still a little time left to enter for a chance to win; simply tell me a little about one of your favorite members of royalty from a manga. Otherwise, it was fairly quiet around here last week, although one of my many cousins got married so I did spend a long weekend in Pittsburgh with my parents and siblings. Pittsburgh’s a really interesting place and we had good time. I’m really glad I wasn’t the one driving, though; Pittsburgh’s roadways are intense!

Anyway. Elsewhere online, Japanese author Hiromi Kawakami was recently interviewed for the Huffington Post–”The Stories Behind Ordinary Lives and Things.” I definitely need to read more of Kawakami’s work, but I have reviewed her novel Manazuru in the past. She’s also a frequent contributor to the literary magazine Monkey Business which I enjoy a great deal. Udon Entertainment hasn’t made many public comments regarding the status of The Rose of Versailles, but Nick Rowe recently talked to the publisher and it sounds like the manga might finally be released sometime next year. If you didn’t make it to the San Diego Comic Con, Jamie Coville has posted audio recordings of many of the panels including Manga Superheroes: Super Differences Between Japan and US. Heidi MacDonald, Deb Aoki, and Brigid Alverson recorded a few more episodes of Three Women in a Hotel Room at SDCC, too, talking about all sorts of things related to comics, manga, and pop culture in North America.

Quick Takes

Don’t Be Cruel: Plus+, Volume 1 by Yonezou Nekota. I’ve been meaning to read Nekota’s boys’ love manga series Don’t Be Cruel, but I haven’t actually had the opportunity to yet. However, I did recently find myself in the possession of the first volume of Don’t Be Cruel: Plus+, a manga which more or less collects the main series’ side stories along with some additional content. I’m sure that Plus+ would be more meaningful to someone has read Don’t Be Cruel proper, but I was pleasantly surprised by how accessible it was even though I haven’t. (It probably does help that I have read a fair amount of boys’ love in general, though.) I don’t know how much humor is in the main series, but Plus+ is definitely not attempting to be serious. The manga basically brings Nekota’s Don’t Be Cruel doujinshi together, and some of them are intentionally unrealistic and over-the-top ridiculous, including one in which the characters switch bodies. There’s also a fair amount of sex, too. The stories focus on the physical and emotional relationships that have developed between Maya and Nemugasa, two young men with vastly different personalities. Even though I haven’t read Don’t Be Cruel, I found myself consistently amused by the surprisingly sweet mix of silliness and smuttiness in Plus+.

The Venus Wars, Volume 1 by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko. Not very many of Yasuhiko’s manga have been released in English and of those only one Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin is currently available in print. In Japan, The Venus Wars was four volumes long. One volume was released in English, but as far as I can tell, Dark Horse actually published about half of the series as individual floppy comic issues. The Venus Wars is similar in genre, tone, and illustration to Yasuhiko’s work on Gundam, but I didn’t find myself quite as engaged by it. (I may have felt differently if more had been translated.) However, I did really like the series’ setting and basic premise. After Venus is struck by an asteroid in 2003, the planet is so greatly changed that it becomes possible for humans to terraform and colonize it. By 2089, the two major powers on Venus–Ishtar and Aphrodia–are drawing closer to all-out war and Earth is far enough away that its government and military can do very little to effectively intervene. Ken Seno is a young man who has been scouted by an elite unit of the Aphrodia military. He eventually joins, although initially it seems that his decision is based less on of any sort of patriotic duty than it is on his interest in the powerful, high-tech battlebikes that will come along with his assignment.

Wolf Children: Ame & Yuki by Yu. I haven’t actually seen Mamoru Hosoda’s film Wolf Children, so I have no idea how Yu’s adaptation compares with the original anime, but I can definitely say that I enjoyed the manga. Originally a three-volume series, Wolf Children has been collected into a single, hardcover omnibus for it’s English-language release. At its heart, Wolf Children is a lovely, bittersweet tale about love, family, and growing up. Hana is a young woman in college who becomes romantically involved with a man who is half-wolf. They eventually marry and have two children together who, like their father, can also transform into wolves. After he dies unexpectedly, Hana finds it more and more difficult to provide for and protect her daughter and son. In order to keep them and their secret safe, Hana ultimately moves the family to the secluded countryside where, for the first time, they truly become part of a community. Wolf Children is largely told by Yuki, the oldest of the two siblings, tracing both her family history and her and her brother Ame’s childhood. Over time, Yuki and Ame grow and change, their lives taking drastically different paths as they struggle with being part-wolf and part-human. But through everything, their mother Hana and her immense love for them is always there.

Manga the Week of 8/2/17

July 27, 2017 by Sean Gaffney, Ash Brown, Anna N and Michelle Smith 2 Comments

SEAN: The Dog Days of August begin with a manga pile worthy of an entire dog show.

Cross Infinite World has been releasing some shoujo light novels digitally, something I had shamefully forgotten till now. They have a release next week of AkaOni: Contract with a Vampire.

ASH: Oh, shoujo! I’d forgotten as well. It’s great to see these being released.

SEAN: Fantagraphics has the 2nd and final Otherworld Barbara omnibus, and I really really want to get it. Sadly, I actually ordered it from Amazon rather than Diamond, and for once Diamond is ahead of the game here.

MICHELLE: Woot. Looking forward to this one.

ANNA: Can’t believe I missed the first one, well now I can get both!!!!

ASH: Likewise, I’m going to have to wait for my copy, but I’m always excited to read Hagio’s work.

SEAN: J-Novel Club will be releasing the 3rd How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom. Take a shot for each mention of Machiavelli.

And we get our monthly Invaders of the Rokujouma?!, the 5th volume in that long series.

Kodansha Digital gives us a new Del Rey rescue with the 20th Alive.

Kodansha has a 22nd volume of Attack on Titan, which finally gives us a beach episode.

ASH: Hahaha! Does it really? I admit, I’ve fallen a bit behind in reading Attack on Titan.

SEAN: GTO: Paradise Lost has a 4th volume digitally.

As does suspense title Kasane.

There’s also 2nd volumes for new series Kounodori: Dr. Stork and Love’s Reach.

One Peace has two debuts hitting comic shops next week (and bookstores a bit later). I Hear the Sunspot (Hidamari ga Kikoeru) is from Printemps Shuppan, running in the mostly BL magazine Canna. This isn’t BL, and appears to be about a student with hearing loss. It seems interesting.

ASH: My copy of I Hear the Sunspot actually arrived early. I’m very curious about the manga and hope to read it soon.

ANNA: Huh, that does sound interesting.

SEAN: They also have a light novel debut, Mikagura School Suite. It seems to be a Battle School title, based on a series of Vocaloid songs.

Seven Seas has a 3rd Magical Girl Site, which despite its title is dark horror.

And there’s a 3rd There’s a Demon Lord on the Floor, which is comedy fanservice just as its title implies.

Udon has a 6th volume of Persona 3.

Vertical has a done-in-one manga debut. She and Her Cat is written by Makoto Shinkai, so expect a bittersweet ending, but it should be very good.

ASH: As many Shinkai manga are, I suppose.

MICHELLE: Of course I am entirely down for this.

ANNA: Done in one manga are certainly nice sometimes!

SEAN: And now it’s time for Viz. The 17th Assassination Classroom has the kids arguing about whether they should assassinate in the classroom, fittingly.

There’s a 4th Behind the Scenes!!, which I continue to be a bit lukewarm on.

And an 8th Black Clover, which will feel even more like Fairy Tail now that Fairy Tail has ended.

Bleach’s 3-in-1 release hits Book 20.

And Food Wars! has a 19th volume – will things continue to be ‘darkest just before the dawn’?

Haikyu!! continues its monthly release with its 14th volume. The Japanese release is around Vol. 27 or so, so we’ve a ways to go before we catch up.

MICHELLE: I’m eager for both Food Wars! and Haikyu!!.

ASH: I’m still loving this series, and loving that it’ll continue to be released monthly for a while yet.

ANNA: I clearly need to go on a big volleyball binge.

SEAN: JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure has another hardcover of its least impressive arc with a 4th Stardust Crusaders.

ANNA: I love these hardcovers and the insane action of JoJo’s.

SEAN: Rejoice! August means Kaze Hikaru, which may be only one volume a year but it tries harder!

MICHELLE: Yaaaaaaaaay!

ASH: I plan on picking it up!

ANNA: I LOVE IT SO MUCH!!!!!!!!

SEAN: Kuroko’s Basketball has its 13th/14th volumes out in this omnibus, which will involve the characters playing basketball.

MICHELLE: *snerk*

ANNA: I thought they were all pastry chefs!

SEAN: Maid-sama! has come to an end with this 9th omnibus. Will Misaka be able to kick ass and take names? And how much blushing will we have? (Answer: so much.)

MICHELLE: I’m looking forward to the finale.

SEAN: My Hero Academia is one of Jump’s biggest hits, containing a cast filled with characters everyone loves, and Mineta. The 9th volume ships next week. (Seriously, everyone hates Mineta.)

One Piece’s 83rd volume will continue to develop Sanji’s predicament and upcoming marriage.

Platinum End’s 3rd volume will be there for hardcore fans of this manga team.

So Cute It Hurts!! is almost over, as the 14th volume is the penultimate one.

Toriko is also almost over, though the 39th volume shows we have a few more to go.

Vampire Knight: Memories is the debut from Shojo Beat. It’s nice to see the author return to her most popular world, I guess, though I worry it’s because she wasn’t able to duplicate that success.

Yona of the Dawn’s 7th volume continues our PIRATES! theme, though I do not believe ninjas, zombies or robots feature.

ASH: I think I’m okay with that.

ANNA: I so enjoy Shojo Beat’s fantasy manga.

Yu-Gi-Oh! never quite ends, as this is the 11th 3-in-1 and we’re still not near the end.

Lastly, Yen Press has one straggler, as the third Twinkle Stars omnibus finally shuffles onto the scene, looking furtively at its shoes as it apologizes for being so late.

MICHELLE: <3

ASH: I quite taken with the first two omnibuses, so I’m glad the third is finally here!

ANNA: Maybe I will finally read the first two volumes that are stacked up on my to-read pile!

SEAN: Which of these titles dog your footsteps?

Manga Giveaway: The Royal Tutor Giveaway

July 26, 2017 by Ash Brown

It’s once again the final Wednesday of the month which means it’s once again time for the monthly manga giveaway here at Experiments in Manga! For this month’s giveaway, everyone participating will have a chance to win The Royal Tutor, Volume 1 by Higasa Akai as published in English by Yen Press. (The series started out as a digital-only release, so I was very happy when a print edition was announced, too.) As usual, the giveaway is open worldwide!

While I have almost no interest whatsoever in the lives of contemporary royal or imperial families, I find that I actually do have a significant fondness for fictional stories, historical or otherwise, that deal with royal dynasties and their courts. Generally, what particularly captures my attention is the seemingly inevitable court intrigue–the intense relationships that develop between people and the resulting complicated, shifting web of power. Potentially, all of this drama can lead to a very serious story, but some manga like The Royal Tutor are also able to incorporate a fair amount of humor and levity into the narrative.

So, you may be wondering, how can you a copy The Royal Tutor, Volume 1?

1) In the comments below, tell me a little about one of your favorite members of royalty from a manga. (Don’t have a favorite? Simply mention that instead.)
2) If you’re on Twitter, you can earn a bonus entry by tweeting, or retweeting, about the contest. Make sure to include a link to this post and @PhoenixTerran (that’s me).

That’s really all there is to it. Participants in the giveaway have one week to submit comments and can earn up to two entries. Comments can also be sent to me directly via email using the address phoenixterran(at)gmail(dot)com if needed or desired. I will then post those entries here in your name. The giveaway winner will be randomly selected and announced on August 2, 2017. Good luck, everyone!

Contest winner announced–Manga Giveaway: The Royal Tutor Giveaway Winner

My Week in Manga: July 17-July 23, 2017

July 24, 2017 by Ash Brown

My News and Reviews

Although I’ve started to include Quick Takes of novels as part of the weekly My Week in Manga feature, it’s been a little while since I’ve actually written and in-depth review of a novel here at Experiments in Manga. However, last week featured my review of Tomoyuki Hoshino’s ME, one of my most anticipated literary releases of 2017. Much like the rest of Hoshino’s work available in translation, ME is challenging and can demand quite a bit from the reader, but I found it to be worth the effort. The novel is an incredibly surreal but thought-provoking exploration of identity, self, and society. Hoshino’s fiction definitely isn’t for everyone, but I hope to see even more of it translated in the future.

Last week there were also some manga-related licensing announcements made at the San Diego Comic Con. Among other things, Udon Entertainment has picked up Virginia Nitōhei’s manga adaptation of Otherwordly Izakaya “Nobu,” will be adding Romeo & Juliet, Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and Adventures of Huckleberry Fin to its Manga Classics line, and will be releasing Mega Man MasterMix, a full-color edition of Hitoshi Ariga’s Mega Man Megamix. Vertical Comics will be publishing Kinoko Natsume’s Chi’s Sweet Adventure, a spin-off of Konami Kanata’s Chi’s Sweet Home. And finally, Viz Media announced that it would be releasing Tsuyoshi Takaki’s Black Torch, Inio Asano’s Dead Dead Demon’s Dededededestruction (I’m definitely interested in this), Aka Akasaka’s Kaguya-sama: Love is War, and Koyoharu Gotouge’s Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba.

Elsewhere online, a recent episode of the Manga Mavericks podcast provides an overview of the licensing news from Anime Expo in addition to digging into Kabi Nagata’s My Lesbian Experience in Loneliness and Gengoroh Tagame’s My Brother’s Husband. Over at The OASG, Krystallina expresses some valid concerns and criticisms of Digital Manga’s most recent crowdfunding efforts. And speaking of crowdfunding campaigns, there have been several less dubious projects that have caught my eye recently: Deer Woman is an anthology featuring comics created by Native and Indigenous woman which are inspired by traditional Deer Woman stories; Gothic Tales of Haunted Love is a collection of full-color gothic romance comics; and then of course there’s Sparkler Monthly Magazine: Year 5 which is particularly important to me. With every year that passes Sparkler Monthly just keeps getting better and better. I’ve featured a small selection of some of the magazine’s content before, but there’s so much more that I’ve never even mentioned here and it’s all great stuff. Please consider contributing to the campaign if you’re able!

Quick Takes

After Hours, Volume 1 by Yuhta Nishio. Recently there has been a notable surge of yuri and other lesbian-themed manga being released in English, mostly by Seven Seas, although other publishers have been licensing some as well. After Hours, for example, is the first yuri title from Viz Media if not ever at least in a very long time. That certainly caught my attention, but even more so was the fact that After Hours is not a schoolgirl manga and is instead about adult women (although the cover art does make Emi in particular look fairly young). Emi is invited out to a club by her friend but is generally left to fend for herself once she’s there. That’s when Kei more or less comes to her rescue. The two women hit it off and Emi ends up going home with Kei that night, one thing leading to another. It’s incredibly refreshing that Emi and Kei’s mutual attraction isn’t treated like an aberration or made out to be like it’s a big deal simply because they’re both women. After that first night their relationship continues to naturally develop, largely without angst, as they get to know each other better, Kei introducing Emi to her friends, the local music scene, and her passion as a DJ. The release of second volume of After Hours hasn’t been publicly announced yet, but there is no question that I’ll be picking it up; I absolutely loved the first volume and look forward to reading more.

Blindsprings, Volume 1 by Kadi Fedoruk. Sadly, I was unable to contribute to the Blindsprings Kickstarter campagin which raised funds to release the first print volume of the webcomic, so I was thrilled when I had the chance to pick up an early copy and chat a little with Fedoruk at this year’s Toronto Comic Arts Festival. In addition to first five chapters of the comic, the first volume also includes twenty-six pages of bonus content, artwork, and character profiles. Blindsprings is a beautifully illustrated, full-color comic with an engaging story, a diverse cast of characters, and an intriguing, complex, and well-developed world. (I especially appreciate how a variety of genders and sexualities are naturally and unobtrusively incorporated into the story.) Princess Tamaura is about to complete her 300-year agreement to serve the as an Orphic priestess for the sake of her sister, but her contract with the Spirits is broken when she is “rescued” against her will by a young man determined to prove a point. Tammy is torn from her sanctuary and thrust into a modern world in which Orphic traditions and their practitioners are harshly oppressed, the Academists and their magic now largely in control of what was her homeland. But there are still those who resist, and Tammy soon finds herself caught up in the conflict.

Tokyo Ghoul: Past written by Shin Towada Sui Ishida and illustrated by Sui Ishida. Viz Media doesn’t publish many novels outside of its Haikasoru imprint, but considering the popularity of Ishida’s Tokyo Ghoul manga series, it’s not too surprising that Towada’s trilogy of light novels were released as well. Although Past is Towada’s third Tokyo Ghoul novel (well, technically it’s more of a collection of vaguely-related short stories), the volume serves as a prequel to Tokyo Ghoul as a whole, the six chapters delving into the backstories of many of the Tokyo Ghoul‘s prominent characters. Despite taking place before the main series, Past is definitely not an introduction. It is intended for readers who are already invested in the franchise–a few of the stories don’t absolutely require prior knowledge in order to follow them, but others are nearly incomprehensible without at least some basic familiarity with Tokyo Ghoul. The general premise of Past is great, the volume allowing fans of Tokyo Ghoul the chance to spend more time with and gain a better understanding of some of the characters, especially as Past is able to tell stories that wouldn’t have immediately fit in the primary series. It’s unfortunate then that the actual writing is frustratingly awful much of the time with drama and angst frequently favored over plot developments that make logical sense.

Manga the Week of 7/26/17

July 20, 2017 by Sean Gaffney, Michelle Smith, Ash Brown and Anna N 1 Comment

SEAN: Viz is done. Yen is mostly done. Quiet final week of the month, right? HA.

J-Novel Club has the 3rd volume of excellent fantasy The Faraway Paladin, which barely feels like a “light” novel at all.

Lots of Kodansha, starting with a Del Rey resurrection, next week it’s Princess Resurrection 16.

The 4th volume of All-Rounder Meguru hits digitally.

Descending Stories is a highly unusual license for North America, particularly in print, but I thought the first volume was pretty good, so am looking forward to next week’s Vol. 2.

MICHELLE: I plan to read both of these soon!

ASH: I’m still waiting, perhaps/probably in vain, for All-Rounder Meguru to be released in print, but I greatly enjoyed the first volume of Descending Stories!

SEAN: We near the end of Fairy Tail with its 61st volume.

More sports manga with the 3rd Giant Killing out digitally.

MICHELLE: It’s so good!

ASH: I’d really like to see this series in print, too!

SEAN: And we also have the 2nd and final Queen Emeraldas hardcover from Kodansha, whose first volume felt like a Wagnerian tragedy, which is… appropriate given it’s Leiji Matsumoto. Expect more lyrical deaths in Book 2.

MICHELLE: I’ve been holding on to volume one ’til now, so I’m looking forward to reading this!

ASH: The first volume was terrific; I’m definitely on board for the finale.

SEAN: Springtime with Ninjas comes to an end with its 4th digital volume.

And there’s a 5th Tokyo Tarareba Girls digitally as well.

ANNA: I still need to read the first volume!

ASH: Print, please! (Sorry/not sorry to be a broken record. I’m thrilled these are all being translated, but I yearn for physical media.)

SEAN: Lastly for Kodansha, we have the 11th UQ Holder, aka Negima 2: The Search For Negi.

One Peace’s Maria Holic release has hit double digits with Vol. 10.

Seven Seas has a very large number of titles out next week, starting with the 4th Battle Rabbits.

A Certain Scientific Railgun 12, as you can tell by its cover, pairs up everyone’s favorite normal girl with one of the series’ more amusing villains. Will they bond? And can I avoid spoiling Index 15 in my review?

Generation Witch is the debut this week, a slice-of-life manga about witches that also seems to be a bit darker than the equivalent comparison, Flying Witch. It ran in Ichijinsha’s Comic Rex.

Hatsune Miku’s troubles continue with Vol. 2 of Bad End Night.

My Monster Secret is one of the more consistently funny manga coming out right now, so I’m definitely getting Vol. 7.

And a 3rd volume of The Seven Princes of the Thousand-Year Labyrinth, which takes less time to read than to type the title.

ASH: Heh.

SEAN: Speaking of awkward titles, enjoy Vol. 6 of The Testament of Sister New Devil.

Vertical gives us an 8th volume of cheery, kid-friendly, fluffy bunny manga Wolfsmund, and I am totally not lying like a rug at all.

ASH: It is such a heart-warming title! I mean, sometimes fire is involved…

SEAN: They also have a light novel based on the tragic romance manga Your Lie in April.

Viz does have a digital release for us, with the 2nd ēlDLIVE from the Reborn! author. (Hey, how about a digital release of Reborn! that finishes the series?)

Yen Digital has its own offerings next week, with Vol. 11s for Aphorism, Crimson Prince, and Sekirei.

Yen Digital also has new offerings. First we have Kuzumi-kun, Can’t You Read the Room?, a 4-koma title from Gangan Joker and is about a popular girl and a guy who simply cannot, well, read the room.

There’s also the debut of Now Playing, a title from Gangan Online that I don’t know much about except it has a Drama Club.

Yen On also has its light novel releases, starting with the 7th Durarara!!. Was Izaya killed at the end of Book 6? Sadly no, but he is in hospital. What will happen with our huge cast now?

And the 7th Kagerou Daze is subtitled From the Darkness, meaning I suspect we’re still not quite at a conclusion, though we are caught up with Japan, so it may be a while till the next one.

No Game No Life is down to twice a year, and this 6th book doesn’t even feature the main cast, as it takes place long in the past.

And with Vols. 8-10 of Sword Art Online out digitally, we are caught up, and therefore ready for Vol. 11 to come out print AND digitally next month.

Yen also has a couple of manga titles that weren’t in this week’s pile. First of all, Sekirei is getting a print release, and the first volume is out next week. If you like harem titles, this may be for you.

Lastly, enjoy wallowing in the teenage muck that is the 4th volume of Scum’s Wish. It is highly addicting muck, mind you.

MICHELLE: And far better than I’d initially expected it would be!

ASH: I was surprised, too!

SEAN: Is it too hot to read manga? Or are you getting one of these next week?