Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

Features

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

by

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 HorrorFlesh-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 1Giant 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

by , , and 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

by

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 SunspotI 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 ForestLiselotte & 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 RotStages 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

by , , and 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

by

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 1Don’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+.

Venus Wars, Volume 1The 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 & YukiWolf 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

by , , and 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

by

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!

The Royal Tutor, Volume 1

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!

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: The Royal Tutor Giveaway Winner

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

by

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 1After 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 1Blindsprings, 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: PastTokyo 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

by , , and 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?

My Week in Manga: July 10-July 16, 2017

by

My News and Reviews

Things are more or less back on regular schedule here at Experiments in Manga which means last week I posted the Bookshelf Overload for June. It was a relatively small month, especially when compared to other recent months, but I was still very excited about the various manga, comics, and other books that I picked up. Since I’m back on schedule, later this week I’ll be posting my long-overdue review of Tomoyuki Hoshino’s novel ME. Like the rest of Hoshino’s work available in English (I’ve also reviewed We, the Children of Cats and Lonely Hearts Killer in the past), the novel is challenging but I think worth the effort it takes to read.

Speaking of things that I’ve reviewed in the past, Yeon-sik Hong’s Uncomfortably Happily was a manhwa that I greatly enjoyed. The translator, Hellen Jo, was recently interviewed about her work on the comic and how she personally related to Hong’s story. Manga podcasts seem to be making a comeback these days, and I don’t see that as a bad thing. Last week saw the release of the first episode of Manga in Your Ears, a podcast featuring a few of the manga bloggers that I particularly admire, so I’m very excited to give it listen. Another interesting development that I caught wind of last week was Digital Manga’s most recent crowdfunding campaign. Juné Manga is attempting to raise funds to reprint some titles (A Promise of Romance by Kyoko Akitsu, Endless Comfort by Sakuya Sakura, and Secrecy of the Shivering Night by Muku Ogura) directly through its website rather than through Kickstarter.

Lately, I’ve been somewhat remiss in mentioning the Kickstarter projects that have caught my eye, so here’s a quick list of some of the comics campaigns that are currently running: Lucy Bellwood’s 100 Demon Dialogues is a collection of wonderful short comics exploring themes of anxiety and self-doubt; Elizabeth Beier’s autobiographical comics about bisexuality are being collected together in The Big Book of Bisexual Trials and Errors; the comics anthology Immortal Souls, which focuses on queer witches and dark magicis the followup to the excellent Power & Magic; the third and final volume of Speculative Relationships brings together a variety of science fiction romance comics; Tim’rous Beastie has a great lineup of creators whose comics take inspiration from works like Redwall, The Rats of NIHM, and Watership Down; and finally there’s We’re Still Here, an anthology bringing together fifty-five trans comic creators in what should be phenomenal collection.

Quick Takes

Land of the Lustrous, Volume 1Land of the Lustrous, Volume 1 by Haruko Ichikawa. Despite the frequently heavy-handed and detailed exposition present in the first volume of Land of the Lustrous, I can’t say that I necessarily understand everything that’s going in the series yet, but I am most definitely intrigued. If nothing else, Ichikawa’s illustrations are incredibly striking and I would be happy to read more of the manga for no other reason than the artwork. Twenty-eight crystalline lifeforms known as the Lustrous, each with their own unique qualities and abilities, battle for survival against the enigmatic Lunarians. Phosphophyllite wants nothing more than to fight but, being such a fragile gem, is instead given the task of writing a natural history. Though it’s said to be a vitally important job, Phos isn’t particularly pleased but comes to realize that many of the other gems aren’t wholly satisfied with their lots either. The first volume’s theme is “searching for purpose” which at this point seems to apply both to the series itself as well as to its characters. At first the narrative feels somewhat directionless, generally serving as a vehicle for stunning visuals and not much else, but once the peculiar world and characters have been thoroughly established, a tantalizing potential for greater drive and meaning begins to coalesce.

Sacred HeartSacred Heart by Liz Suburbia. Sacred Heart is Suburbia’s debut graphic novel, a completely redrawn version of her webcomic by the same name. When Ben Schiller comes across the dead body of someone she knows very early on in the comic–a moment that is acknowledged but passes with surprisingly little excitement or comment–it’s one of the first clues that something is off about the town of Alexandria. Eventually it’s revealed that all of the adults have left, supposedly to return, but no one knows when that will be. In the meantime the teenagers have the run of the place, waiting for their parents and distracting themselves from their predicament by spending their time partying and hooking up. But that can only last for so long–tensions are high and more and more people are dying under peculiar circumstances. While there is an underlying and marvelously ominous unease pervading the story, Suburbia also shows a great sense of humor in the comic. The very end of Sacred Heart was a bit abrupt and not everything is completely explained (which admittedly isn’t necessary), but for the most part I really enjoyed the comic and would be interested in reading more of Suburbia’s work. Fortunately, it seems that Suburbia has plans for three more volumes to follow Sacred Heart as sequels.

Whispered Words, Omnibus 2Whispered Words, Omnibuses 2-3 (equivalent to Volumes 4-9) by Takashi Ikeda. While I enjoyed Whispered Words from its very start, I do feel that it’s a series that gets even better as it progresses. Though there is still a fair amount of humor, Ikeda largely moves away from the over-the-top ridiculousness found in the early series in favor of a more mature exploration of Sumika and Ushio’s changing relationship. It’s extremely unfortunate then that the quality of One Peace Books’ edition somehow manages to get even worse as it goes along. Probably most problematic is that partway through the third and final omnibus a page was skipped. The series is still readable, but the flow of the manga and the two-page spreads are completely ruined as a result. Ikeda has a tendency to develop the story by simultaneously exploring the character’s feelings and experiences from multiple points in time. It’s a technique that can be quite effective, but the printing error can make the transitions between the flashforwards and flashbacks jarring. I do believe the publisher corrected the issue of the missing page in later printings, so it’s something to be aware of and look out for. Quality control aside, Whispered Words is generally a pretty great yuri series. (It also gets bonus points from me for being about karate, too.)

Manga the Week of 7/19/17

by , , , and Leave a Comment

SEAN: Duck folks, here comes another week.

MICHELLE: Quack!

SEAN: We start off with Dark Horse, which has a 2nd volume of Hatsune Miku: Rin-chan Now!

They also have the first in a series of collections of H.P. Lovecraft manga, The Hound and Other Stories. These are by Tanabe Gou, who seems to specialize in Lovecraft horror manga adaptations, and ran in Enterbrain’s Comic Beam (something Dark Horse actually point out, showing how big a name Comic Beam now has among Western manga fans).

ASH: Wow, two Dark Horse titles in one week? I don’t really have a particular interest in Hatsune Miku, but The Hound and Other Stories looks to be very intriguing.

SEAN: J-Novel has 3 titles coming out next week, as they continue to increase their publications. We get the 2nd Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest, which is very, very “what teenage boys with a power fantasy want”.

ASH: For those who prefer physical media, it was recently announced that Seven Seas will be working with J-Novel to release Arifureta in print, too.

SEAN: And we have the 4th I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse, which I find slight but amusing.

And the 4th Mixed Bathing in Another Dimension, a title I enjoy far, far more than its fanservicey title deserves. Can’t wait.

Kodansha still has digital Del Rey rescues, with Alive 19 and School Rumble 21 (which may be its 2nd to last, depending on whether Kodansha cares about the one-volume School Rumble Z or not).

There’s a pile of print releases for once, starting with Aho Girl, a broad 4-koma series (which Kodansha itself noted they rarely do) about the titular girl, who is… well, as the title says. It runs in Weekly Shonen Magazine, and is best known as the 4-koma that isn’t Seitokai Yakuindomo.

In/Spectre seems like it may be coming to a climax, though I’m not sure how many volumes the manga will be. This is the 5th.

In digital news, there’s a 3rd Kasane coming out.

Princess Jellyfish has a 5th omnibus, as they try to save the farm by putting on a show in best Judy Garland/Mickey Rooney style.

MICHELLE: Hee. I’m looking forward to this. It’s less depressing than Tokyo Tarareba Girls!

ASH: I’m still thrilled this series was picked up for a print release. (Also, here’s hoping that Kodansha’s recent “digital-first” trend is truly digital-first and that we’ll eventually see titles like Tokyo Tarareba Girls in print, too.)

ANNA: Looking forward to this as well!

SEAN: Kodansha also has the 7th Sweetness and Lightning.

ASH: I’m really enjoying Sweetness and Lightning. It can be bittersweet and absolutely adorable in turns.

SEAN: The other print debut is Waiting for Spring, a “shosei” manga from Dessert about a shy girl who gets some life lessons from a group of handsome men. Despite that description making me wary, it’s apparently pretty cute and fluffy.

MICHELLE: I am cautiously optimistic.

ANNA: Might be worth a shot!

SEAN: The last Kodansha title this week is the 6th Welcome to the Ballroom. Will we finally get a more permanent dance partner for our lead?

One Peace has a 5th Kuma Miko, which some comics shops may have gotten already. It’s highly beariable.

Seven Seas has a 2nd volume of cute yuri title Hana & Hina After School.

ASH: I tend to enjoy Morinaga’s manga, but I still liked Hana & Hina After School more than I was expecting.

SEAN: There’s also a 4th Lord Marksman and Vanadis.

And lastly, a 7th volume of Magika Swordsman and Summoner (has he hit 72 yet?).

Vertical’s big debut is the first volume of Mobile Suit Gundam WING. This is actually the Endless Waltz manga – OK, the longer and better variation of the Endless Waltz manga – and currently runs in Gundam A magazine. Will it have Relena Peacecraft, that’s my question…

Vertical also has the 9th and penultimate volume of Nichijou. You’ll never guess the plot twists!… wait, no, Nichijou. You’ll never guess the random gags!

Viz’s Terra Formars has reached 18 volumes. My word.

MICHELLE: Jeez.

SEAN: Yen On’s titles mostly ship the week after next, but next week does give us the 3rd and 4th Sword Art Online: Progressive volumes digitally.

Yen’s manga titles are (mostly) shipping next week, starting with the 11th Akame Ga KILL!.

A mere 4 years after the last volume, here is the 7th The Betrayal Knows My Name. That should excite folks.

MJ: Woo hoo!

SEAN: A Certain Magical Index’s manga reaches double digits, and I think is still adapting the 7th novel.

And Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody has a 4th book.

Yay, a book I’m buying! An 8th Horimiya, a series I always look forward to.

MICHELLE: Me, too.

ASH: It is a great series.

SEAN: More light novel adaptations with the 7th Danmachi manga.

A print debut for a digital-only title from a while back, now getting an anime, Kakeguri – Compulsive Gambler combines the thrills of survival game-style manga with the joys of gambling.

ASH: While it’s not Kaiji, I’m still rather curious about this series.

SEAN: MORE light novel adaptations with the 4th KonoSuba manga.

Liselotte & Witch’s Forest has its 5th volume, which may catch us up with Japan – the author has been busy with her incredibly mediocre sequel to Fruits Basket lately.

MICHELLE: Yeah. Sigh.

SEAN: And an 8th Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun, which I think has also caught up with Japan, though that’s for more normal reasons.

MICHELLE: I might have to hoard this one for a rainy day.

ASH: I can’t blame you for that; Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun is SO GOOD! It always makes me happy to read it.

SEAN: Watamote, whose title is too exhausting to type out, has its 10th book.

The Royal Tutor is moving fast now that it’s in print – here’s Book 2.

ASH: The first volume was a little goofy, but fun!

SEAN: And we get a 2nd Smokin’ Parade.

And a 13th Spice & Wolf – is the manga wrapping up soon?

There is also a 7th Taboo Tattoo.

Lastly, we have a 13th volume of Triage X, which is lucky for me as I’m not reading it.

SOOOOOOO much. What interests you?

My Week in Manga: July 3-July 9, 2017

by

My News and Reviews

Last week at Experiments in Manga I announced the winner of the Summer Spookiness manga giveaway. The post also includes some of the manga available in English that incorporate Japanese folklore, ghosts, or urban legends in some way. Otherwise, it was a rather quiet week except for the fact that on Friday evening I discovered that the room I was storing a bunch of my books in had flooded thanks to a broken radiator pipe. So, a fair amount of my Friday night and weekend was spent on recovery efforts and assessing the damage. All things considered, I came out of the whole thing pretty well. Although I did lose some material, and it was heartbreaking, I was able to save the majority of the books. (I’m really glad I took the preservation and conservation class during library school!) Fortunately, only two of the severely damaged books were truly irreplaceable. One is just about dry enough now that I can start to try pressing it back into shape and the other is currently in the freezer. They won’t necessarily be pretty, but they should still be readable when I’m through.

Anyways! On to the licensing news and announcements made during the final days of Anime Expo: Among other things, Kodansha Comics revealed the details behind the new Eternal Edition of Naoko Takeuchi’s Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, confirmed the print edition of CLAMP’s Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card, and announced Yukito Kishiro’s Battle Angel Alita: Mars Chronicle. (Kodansha is also continuing its trend of calling manga digital-first with no real indication that a print edition will ever emerge.) As for Kodansha’s sister company Vertical Comics, we have City by Keiichi Arawi, Moteki by Mitsuro Kubo, Strangulation by Nisioisin, and My Boy by Hitomi Takano to look forward to. Seven Seas announced a number of manga and light novels, too: Ryo Shirakome and Takayaki’s Arifureta; Yuu Kamiya, Tsubaki Himana, and Sino’s Clockwork Planet; Eiichi Shimizu and Tomohiro Shimoguchi’s Getter Robo Devolution; Akihito Tukushi’s Made in Abyss; Coolkyoushinja and Mitsuhiro Kimura’s Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid: Kanna’s Daily Life; Kina Kobayashi’s Nameless Asterism Shoutarou Tokunou’s New Game; the continuation of Ichigo Takano’s Orange; Yuyuko Takemiya and Yasu’s Toradora; and Nozomu Tamaki’s Soul Liquid Chambers. Also, Udon Entertainment plans on publishing the Daigo the Beast and Infini-T Force manga. (Still waiting for Udon’s Rose of Versaille and Sugar Sugar Rune to make an appearance, though.)

Quick Takes

Boy, I Love YouBoy, I Love You edited by Kou Chen, Emily Forster, and Eric Alexander Arroyo. I had the delightful opportunity to meet the editors and a few of the other contributors of Boy, I Love You while at TCAF, but as one of the anthology’s Kickstarter backers I was well-aware of the anthology before that and was greatly looking forward to its release. The volume brings together six comics and one illustrated prose story by seven different creators, all of which take inspiration from the more wholesome aspects of the boys’ love genre. It’s a delightful collection with an appealing range of stories, everything from slice-of-life to mecha space battles. If I had to choose a favorite (which is difficult to do because all seven contributions are honestly great) it would probably be Forster’s “Mix Plate” which incorporates themes of family and food along with the comic’s central romance. The focus of the stories in Boy, I Love You is primarily on relationships and how the characters’ navigate them and their feelings. While as a whole the anthology is fairly chaste–the physical closeness that’s shown between the men is largely limited to a few kisses and embraces–the intimacy expressed in the stories is undeniable. Boy, I Love You is a highly enjoyable and heartfelt anthology of queer stories.

Dreamin' Sun, Volume 1Dreamin’ Sun, Volume 1 by Ichigo Takano. Orange, the first of Takano’s manga to be released in English translation, left a huge and personally significant impression on me. As a result, when Dreamin’ Sun was licensed for an English-language edition, too, it immediately caught my attention. Shimana Kameko is terribly unsatisfied with her life and so, without putting much thought into it, she decides to run away from home. While playing hooky from school she meets Fujiwara Taiga in a nearby park, a man who has left home for an entirely different reason–he’s been kicked and locked out of his house for being drunk. He offers to rent Kameko a room but among other things she will have help retrieve the keys first. I unquestionably love the quirky and increasingly large cast of Dreamin’ Sun, but the story itself is somewhat lackluster at this point. I’m also finding it a little difficult to believe that Kameko’s father would so readily let his high school daughter move out of their home. However, the narrative does hint at a familial backstory that hasn’t yet been fully revealed which may go far to help explain his decision. While Dreamin’ Sun isn’t nearly as compelling as Orange, I certainly wouldn’t mind reading more of the series. The first volume was goofy and a little ridiculous, but not at all in a bad way.

Erased, Omnibus 2Erased, Omnibus 2 (equivalent to Volumes 3-4) by Kei Sanbe. While the beginning of Erased took a little while to fully click with me, by the end of the first omnibus I was thoroughly hooked on the series. After inexplicably traveling back in time to his childhood, Satoru Fujinuma is doing all that he can to try to stop a series of kidnappings and murders he knows is about to happen. Thanks to a strange ability that he calls “Revival,” he has been able to change things in his past before, but saving the lives of his classmates and friends is proving to be an extraordinary challenge. Sanbe’s artwork in Erased can be a little inconsistent and unrefined at times, but the story has become truly gripping. Not only is Satoru faced with trying to solve the deadly mysteries from earlier in his life, in the present day he’s also being skillfully framed for the murder of his mother and he must find a way to prove his innocence. The two situations are closely linked together and Satoru is understandably desperate to find answers. There are also some really touching moments in Erased as Satoru grows as a person–although he’s worried for their safety and doesn’t want to endanger anyone, he’s finally able to start accepting help from and form meaningful relationships with other people.

Mysterious Girlfriend X, Omnibus 1Mysterious Girlfriend X, Omnibus 1 (equivalent to Volumes 1-2) by Riichi Ueshiba. I had already heard a fair amount about Mysterious Girlfriend X before reading the first omnibus, but I wasn’t at all anticipating how surprisingly charming the series would be. Ueshiba’s illustrations can actually be pretty cute, too. That being said, Mysterious Girlfriend X is an incredibly weird manga and many people won’t be able to get past the drool and literal swapping of spit around which much of the story revolves. Akira Tsubaki is a fairly normal high school student but his first girlfriend, the newly transferred Mikoto Urabe, most definitely is not. If she is destined to have a close bond with someone, she is able to convey her feelings to them through her drool and she can likewise understand their feelings from their drool. She’s also phenomenally talented when it comes to using scissors, either artistically or in self-defense, and she always keeps a pair tucked away in her panties. Much about Urabe unknown, but after tasting her drool, Tsubaki can’t seem to help but fall in love with her. In general, Mysterious Girlfriend X tends to be somewhat episodic in nature although Tsubaki and Urabe’s strangely heartwarming relationship can be seen to very slowly progress over the course of the first omnibus.

Manga the Week of 7/12/17

by Leave a Comment

SEAN: There’s a pile. Let’s get down to it, boppers.

MICHELLE: Heh.

SEAN: Dark Horse starts us off with the third Blade of the Immortal omnibus.

J-Novel Club has the 2nd Bluesteel Blasphemer on tap.

They also have a debut, Infinite Dendrogram. It’s got many elements common to recent light novel series – a new VRMMO that may blur the line between reality and game – but I am assured it is quite good, so we shall see.

Kodansha is still rescuing some Del Rey stuff, with the 15th Yozakura Quartet and the 20th School Rumble.

In new digital licenses, they have the 4th Domestic Girlfriend, and the 4th Full-Time Wife Escapist. Excited for the latter.

ANNA: I need to get caught up on Full-Time Wife Escapist! I enjoyed the first couple volumes.

MICHELLE: I’m excited for volume four, as well!

SEAN: They also snuck in some new licenses too late for me to mention them last week, so these are already out. I have failed you again. Sorry. Hotaru’s Way (Hotaru no Hikari) is the most famous of the three licenses, a josei series from Kiss that’s been made into some live-action series. It’s the ever-popular “falling in love with my boss” genre.

ANNA: Yay josei!

MICHELLE: That’s not my favorite josei genre, but I’ll give it a look.

SEAN: Sneaking in a print release here, as the 5th Interview with Monster Girls ships next week.

Back to this week’s digital debuts (damn my penchant for alphabetical order), Kounodori: Dr. Stork is a long-running seinen title from Evening Magazine, involving an obstetrician/pianist. It sounds very seinen.

ASH: Huh. I had missed the pianist angle.

SEAN: Love’s Reach (Kinkyori Renai) is an older shoujo series that ran in Betsufure, and has a teacher/student romance to go along with the earlier boss/employee romance.

ANNA: OK!

SEAN: And now we’re back to next week proper, as there’s a 21st Seven Deadly Sins.

Seven Seas has a 2nd volume of shoujo romance Dreamin’ Sun.

MICHELLE: I enjoyed volume one a lot!

ASH: I actually just got around to reading the first volume. I rather liked the quirky cast of characters.

SEAN: And a 2nd volume of supernatural thriller Ghost Diary.

ASH: It seemed very derivative, but enjoyed the first volume more than I expected. (Except for one character’s super-annoying verbal affectation…)

SEAN: And I suppose we must mention the 3rd volume of yuri sleaze NTR – Netsuzou Trap. Now with anime adaptation.

They also finish a series next week, as The Sacred Blacksmith ends with its 10th volume.

SuBLime has a 7th volume of The World’s Greatest First Love.

And Udon rolls out a 5th volume of Persona 3.

Vertical gives us a 5th volume of Immortal Hounds (lot of Vol. 5s next week).

Viz has Vol. 63 of Case Closed.

They also have a new Legendary Edition of The Legend of Zelda, this one covering the Four Swords story.

ASH: The Legendary Edition of the series is really nice!

SEAN: Lastly, Rumiko Takahashi keeps toddling along with a 24th Rin-Ne.

Beat the heat with manga! What are you reading next week?

My Week in Manga: June 26-July 2, 2017

by

My News and Reviews

Last week at Experiments in Manga I posted the most recent monthly giveaway. This time around participants have the opportunity to win both the first volume of Seiju Natsumegu’s Ghost Diary and the first volume of Chasiba Katase’s In/Spectre, two of the more recent manga series debuting in English translation that deal with Japanese folklore and legends. The winner of the giveaway will be announced on Wednesday, so there’s still time to enter the contest. And as usual, the giveaway is open worldwide. Last month I switched around my posting schedule a little bit, but July will go back to the usual order. Unless something unexpected comes up, next week’s feature will be a Bookshelf Overload and the following week’s will be an in-depth review of Tomoyuki Hoshino’s award-winning novel ME. I’m currently reading and greatly enjoying an advance copy of Kazuki Sakuraba’s A Small Charred Face, scheduled to be released by Haikasoru later this year, so expect an in-depth review of that in the near future as well.

As for other interesting things that I’ve recently come across online to read and listen to: Ollie Barder interviewed the creative team Akira Himekawa for Forbes and Casey Lee Mitchem had the the chance to ask Hirohiko Araki a few questions for Anime News Network. As announced by Publishers Weekly, Chris Butcher, one of the main driving forces behind the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, is now also an editor-at-large for Viz Media. (This should turn out to be a very good thing.) I’d actually forgotten that Publishers Weekly has a podcast called More to Come, but one of the most recent episodes focused on Legend of the Galactic Heroes. Some other recent podcasts of note include one of Wave Motion Cannon’s weekly podcasts which featured Gengoroh Tagame’s My Brother’s Husband and Kabi Nagata’s My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness as well as an episode of Manga Machination’s which also featured My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness along with the manga’s translator Jocelyne Allen as a special guest. And of course, The OASG’s Translator Tea Time podcast is still going strong, too.

Anime Expo started last week and as usual there have been plenty of new licenses and announcements to come out of the event. First of all, Netcomics debuted its most recent print release, Dreams of the Days by Kyungha Yi the creator of Intense. Viz Media announced a handful of things, inculding the manga series Fire Punch by Tatsuki Fujimoto, a fancy new hardcover edition of Hiromu Arakawa’s manga Fullmetal Alchemist, the Kenka Bancho Otome: Girl Beats Boys manga series by Chie Shimada, two Neko Atsume: Kitty Collector books–Haiku and Where Am I Meow?–and Dempow Torishima’s award-winning collection of short stories Sisyphean (which is closely related to Torishima’s award-winning and incredibly strange illustrated novella Sisyphean which was previously translated in the speculative fiction anthology Phantasm Japan).

Yen Press also made a number of announcements including but not limited to the following manga titles in print: Baccano! by Shinta Fujimoto, The Demon Who Became My Sister by Pochi Iida, Hatsu*Haru by Shizuki Fujisawa, Kemono Friends: Welcome to Japari Park by Furai, Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?: Days of Goddess by Masaya Takamura, Mermaid Boys by Yomi Sarachi, Oh, My Sweet Alien by Kōji Miyata, Pandora Box–a deluxe, limited edition box set of Pandora Hearts by Jun Mochizuki–Sacrificial Princess and the King of Beasts by Yu Tomofuji, Silver Spoon by Hiromu Arakawa (I am extremely excited about this announcement!!!), Stupid Love Comedy by Shushushu Sakurai, Tales of Wedding Rings by Maybe, and Zo-Zo-Zombie-kun by Yasunari Nagatoshi.

Quick Takes

BoundlessBoundless by Jillian Tamaki. I’ve read several of Tamaki’s comics over the years, including her collaborations with her cousin Mariko Tamaki. SuperMutant Magic Academy, one of Tamaki’s solo works, is a personal favorite of mine and so I was especially looking forward to the release of Boundless, a collection of nine of Tamaki’s short comics (eleven if you count one of the end pages and the back cover). Most of the comics collected had previously been released elsewhere, either online or in print, however there is newly-published content included in the volume as well. I had already read some of the selections before (and actually even own one of them), but reading them together provides a more immediate and interesting contrast between the works. None of the comics are directly related to each other and even Tamaki’s color palettes, illustration styles, and methods of storytelling change throughout the volume, but they all have a well-defined, emotional core. While some of the comics in Boundless are fairly straightforward,  at times Tamaki’s approach is rather experimental. Overall, Boundless is a beautiful collection of comics exploring contemporary life, showing how talented and versatile a creator Tamaki can be.

Golden Kamuy, Volume 1Golden Kamuy, Volume 1 by Satoru Noda. The manga wasn’t on my radar until Viz Media announced that it had licensed the series, but as soon as I learned about Golden Kamuy I knew that I needed to check it out. The majority of series takes place in the early twentieth century soon after the end of the Russo-Japanese War. Saichi Sugimoto is a veteran of the war carrying the nickname of “Immortal” since he somehow managed to famously survive numerous battles and injuries that otherwise really should have left him dead. Instead of returning home a hero, Sugimoto is now living in the wilds of Hokkaido searching rather unsuccessfully for gold. But then he happens across a bizarre story that seems to be more than just a rumor–a massive amount of wealth was stolen from the indigenous Ainu people and hidden, its location secretly recorded in a code tattooed onto the bodies of convicted criminals. In addition to Sugimoto, the other lead character of Golden Kamuy is Asirpa, an Ainu girl who surprisingly agrees to aid him in his search. Despite being Sugimoto being “immortal” she proves to be critical to his survival, teaching him how to face off against bears and hunt for food among other things. It can be gruesome and violent, but I enjoyed the beginning of Golden Kamuy a great deal.

The High School Life of a Fudanshi, Volume 1The High School Life of a Fudanshi, Volume 1 by Atami Michinoku. I actually didn’t realize that most of The High School Life of a Fudanshi was a four-panel manga before reading it; I think that I would have enjoyed it more if that was not the case. The majority of Michinoku’s work generally falls into the category of boys’ love. While The High School Life of a Fudanshi itself isn’t boys’ love, in a roundabout sort of way Michinoku’s first series is still about boys’ love. The titular fudanshi–basically a male fujoshi–is Sakaguchi. He’s a guy, and most likely straight, but he has a keen fixation on boys’ love media. (Despite that, he can still occasionally come across as a bit homophobic; it’s an unfortunate but realistic portrayal of a particular segment of the boys’ love fandom which is comfortable with gay men as long as they are fictional.) The High School Life of a Fudanshi largely follows Sakaguchi and his small group of friends. None of them seem to really mind that he has an interest in boys’ love, and some of them even encourage it. Eventually he even becomes close with some fellow fujoshi and fudanshi, but they all have the bad habit of shipping any men they see together, including their classmates. The High School Life of a Fudanshi ends up with a lot of innuendo and tease as a result. In general it’s pretty harmless, but it can be frustrating, too.

The Royal Tutor, Volume 1The Royal Tutor, Volume 1 by Higasa Akai. When Yen Press first released The Royal Tutor, the manga was a digital-only title. The series interested me, but I don’t usually read or buy ebooks, so I was very happy when it did well enough to warrant a physical release. (The recent anime adaptation probably helped matters some, too.) The kingdom of Granzreich has five princes, the first of whom is destined to inherit the throne. However, the other four must be ready to take his place should they need to, which is where the new royal tutor Heine comes in. The first volume of The Royal Tutor is often very silly, especially when it comes to the running gags about Heine’s small, childlike stature, but at its core is an story about an ideal teacher–someone who is willing to engage, work with, and inspire students wherever they’re at and on their own terms. By the end of the first volume Heine has already made a tremendous amount of progress in winning the princes over which leads me to wonder how much room is left for the manga to continue to develop. Currently though, the series is eight volumes long and still ongoing, so Akai must have found a way to keep the story and characters fresh and interesting. If nothing else, the hints that Heine and his background aren’t everything that they appear to be is something left to be explored.

Manga the Week of 7/5/17

by , , and Leave a Comment

SEAN: Too many titles, let’s jump right in! What’s the feel-good manga of the summer?

Dark Horse has Berserk 38! For those wondering, the previous volume came out in 2013. Also for those wondering, it just went back on hiatus in Japan once more. Again.

ASH: Yup. This is the one. The feel-good manga of the summer. Seriously though, I’m always glad to see a new volume of Berserk (finally) show up.

SEAN: J-Novel Club thankfully gives us just one Invaders of the Rokujouma, the 4th. I enjoyed it, but am grateful it’s not 3 every month.

Kodansha has just one Del Rey rescue this week, the 18th volume of Alive.

ASH: Oh! I’d almost forgotten about this one! I wonder if the success of Noragami created more interest in this series.

SEAN: After delays that seemed to number in the centuries, we’re finally seeing the release of Appleseed Alpha, the manga adaptation of the 2014 film by the creator of Sexy Voice and Robo. It ran in Morning Two, and should be complete in one hardcover omnibus. More Deunan is always welcome.

ASH: I actually hadn’t realized that Iou Kuroda was involved with the manga.

SEAN: Kodansha Digital has plenty of new titles on tap this week, starting with some sports for Michelle with the third DAYS.

MICHELLE: Woot!

SEAN: There’s also the 12th Fuuka (the previous 11 having come out before I started tagging all the digital titles). Fuuka is a Seo Kouji title, which is its own warning.

GTO Paradise Lost has a 3rd volume. I need to catch up or I’ll end up very behind.

There’s also a 2nd Kasane, for those who like scary things.

And a 4th Tokyo Tarareba Girls, with more women behaving badly.

MICHELLE: It’s simultaneously funny and depressing and now I find I kind of dread discovering the latest heartbreak!

ANNA: I need to read this, I’ve been distracted by some of Kodansha’s other digital offerings.

SEAN: Lastly, we’re back to print with the 14th volume of Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches.

ASH: I did largely enjoy the beginning of the series, but it’s starting to feel like the manga is being stretched too thin at this point.

SEAN: Seven Seas sneaks up on you, as they don’t mass ship on one week the way Viz and Yen do, but they’re putting out a PILE of titles every month now. First up, the debut of Alice & Zoroku, a seinen title from Comic Ryu about experimental kids from a research lab and a grumpy, mostly normal old man.

The Ancient Magus’ Bride has a 7th volume coming, and that should make all of you very happy. I certainly am.

ASH: It makes me happy! This series is still one of my favorites currently being released.

SEAN: As for the 12th volume of Magical Girl Apocalypse, I’m sure some folks are happy there as well.

Monster Girl fans will be pleased by a 6th Nurse Hitomi’s Monster Infirmary.

And if you like light novels from J-Novel Club but hate digital titles, there’s the first Occultic;Nine novel in print with Seven Seas distributing.

Plum Crazy! (Kijitora Neko no Koume-san) is a series from Shonen Gahosha’s magazine devoted to cat manga, Neko Panchi. I’ve heard very good things about this title, plus KITTIES!

MICHELLE: This was not on my radar at all!

ASH: Who doesn’t like a good cat manga?

SEAN: Lastly from Seven Seas, we have Wadanohara and the Great Big Sea (Oounabara to Oounabara), a Gene Pixiv title that seems to be a younger-skewing fantasy title. It’s an omnibus of Vol. 1-2.

The sad thing is it’s a first week and I haven’t gotten to Viz yet. Let’s start with the 5th 7th Garden manga.

Anonymous Noise has a 3rd volume of teenage angst and pop music.

ANNA: I feel weirdly conflicted about this title and yet I’m sure I’m going to read it.

SEAN: Bleach is still churning out manga volumes despite the series ending about this time last year, and we’re now up to Vol. 70.

And Blue Exorcist has a 17th volume, a series I still quite enjoy even if I lose track of the plot at times.

The Demon Prince of Momochi House has a 9th volume, standing above all as the ongoing Aya Shouoto series in North America.

MICHELLE: And the best thus far.

ANNA: SO good!

ASH: I’ve been enjoying it, too!

SEAN: It’s unlucky 13 for Haikyu!!, and hopefully the triskadecaphobia won’t strike the team itself.

ANNA: Woo hoo for volleyball!

ASH: Still loving this series.

SEAN: Honey So Sweet has a 7th volume for is. It’s certainly lived up to its name.

ANNA: SO sweet!

SEAN: Naruto has a 19th 3-in-1, and my guess is there’s a big fight going on somewhere in it.

The 22nd volume of Nisekoi will wrap up Mariko’s subplot, and hopefully not kill her off with Love Story disease.

And there’s a 22nd Oresama Teacher as well, which delights me. Super Bun returns FOR GREAT JUSTICE!

ANNA: I’m behind on this title, but who doesn’t love Super Bun????

ASH: Considering my love for Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun, I should really make the point to give Oresama Teach a try one of these days.

SEAN: Rurouni Kenshin has a 3rd 3-in-1. Is it in the Kyoto Arc yet?

ASH: Yup!

SEAN: Twin Star Exorcists has reached Vol. 9.

And The Water Dragon’s Bride has a second volume, and I’m hoping continues to keep the oddly creepy mood of the first.

ANNA: This is a great series.

ASH: Another series I’ve been meaning to try! I greatly enjoyed the creator’s earlier series Dawn of the Arcana.

SEAN: Lastly, World Trigger hits its 16th volume, and I suspect we may be catching up with Japan before long, as the author is ill.

SO MUCH MANGA. Is it making you sweat, or is that just the heat?