manga the week of

SEAN: We’re having a heat wave! A manga heat wave!

ASH: I certainly much prefer one of those things over the other.

SEAN: Airship has two debuts. The first we’ve talked about before: I Swear I Won’t Bother You Again! is now out in print. I really enjoyed this look at a villainess who suffers depression.

ASH: Oh, that could be interesting. (I’m paying more attention know that it’s available in print.)

SEAN: The other debut is digital first: Reincarnated As a Dragon Hatchling (Tensei Shitara Dragon no Tamago Datta ~ Saikyou Igai Mezasenee ~). He’s a baby dragon, but he’ll grow up to be… (deep breath) the strongest ever!

Also out next week: Didn’t I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?! 13 (early digital), The Hidden Dungeon Only I Can Enter 4 (print) and Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation 11 (print).

Dark Horse has a 3rd Deluxe Edition of Hellsing.

Ghost Ship gives us World’s End Harem 11.

J-Novel Club has two digital debuts. Guide to the Perfect Otaku Girlfriend: Roomies and Romance (Dousei kara Hajimaru Otaku Kanojo no Tsukurikata) has a description that makes it sound like Grooming: The Light Novel, but I suspect is probably pretty tame.

The other debut is Reincarnated as the Piggy Duke: This Time I’m Gonna Tell Her How I Feel! (Buta Koushaku ni Tensei Shitakara, Kondo wa Kimi ni Suki to Iitai). We all know light novel authors love to make their petty noble villains short, ugly, etc. What if he was an anime character, and now our hero was trapped reincarnated as him? Well, maybe he can actually shape up and stop being a villain. Again, this comes highly recommended.

ASH: This one has slipped under my radar up until now.

SEAN: We also see Are You Okay With a Slightly Older Girlfriend? 3, Fushi no Kami: Rebuilding Civilization Starts With a Village 4, The Ideal Sponger Life 3, Mapping: The Trash-Tier Skill That Got Me Into a Top-Tier Party 5, and the 18th and final volume of Outbreak Company.

Kaiten Books has a 3rd print volume of Loner Life in Another World.

In print, Kodansha has Chobits 20th Anniversary Edition 4, Knight of the Ice 6, Perfect World 6, A School Frozen in Time 2, Star⇄Crossed!! 2, and Those Not-So-Sweet Boys 3.

MICHELLE: Lots of good stuff, there!

ANNA: I’m very excited for Knight of the Ice, I’m thoroughly enjoying that series.

ASH: This is a good week for Kodansha in print!

Digitally our debut is Undead Girl Murder Farce, involving a supernatural detective with a very creepy cage. It’s from Shonen Sirius.

Also: Blue Lock 4, A Girl and Her Guard Dog 5, The Honey-Blood Beauty & Her Vampire 3, Medalist 2, We’re New at This 7, and Will It Be the World or Her? 6.

One Piece has the manga edition of The Reprise of the Spear Hero – Vol. 4, to be precise.

Seven Seas has Even Though We’re Adults 2 and Made in Abyss Official Anthology – Layer 2: A Dangerous Hole.

ASH: Somehow, I actually haven’t read the first volume of Even Though We’re Adults yet, but that’s not going to stop me from picking up the second.

SEAN: I don’t even know where to begin with Viz. They’re finally doing a nice, non-Gutsoon version (if you don’t know what Gutsoon was, ask your father) of Fist of the North Star (Hokuto no Ken). If Shonen Jump in the early 1980s was defined by Dragon Ball, this was its other half – an ultra-serious, ultra-violent apocalypse adventure with more exploding limbs than anyone can really handle. It’s in 2-volume omnibuses. It’ll be a treat.

MICHELLE: I’m grateful I finally get the opportunity to check this out!

ANNA: I’m so old, I have a few of the early Viz translated American comic sized issues from way back in the day.

ASH: I cannot adequately express how incredibly excited I am that this series is finally getting a proper English-language print release.

SEAN: There’s also a ton of final volumes. We get 20th Century Boys Perfect Edition 1… erm, 12 (not sure what’s going on there), Blue Flag 8, and RWBY The Official Manga 3.

MICHELLE: I believe this is the final volume of Blue Flag, also.

SEAN: Yes, that’s why I said “ton of final volumes”. :)

MICHELLE: I am inobservant!

ANNA: I need to get caught up on Blue Flag, it is very good.

ASH: That it is.

SEAN: Also coming out: Golden Kamuy 22, Maison Ikkoku Collector’s Edition 4, and Ooku the Inner Chambers 18.

MICHELLE: Ooku!

ANNA: Ooku too!

ASH: Yes, Ooku!

SEAN: Lastly, a trio of titles from Yen Press: The Case Study of Vanitas 8, Dead Mount Death Play 5, and Triage X 21.

Feeling hot hot hot? What manga are you reading?

SEAN: 2nd June 2nd Furious.

MICHELLE: Snerk.

SEAN: Airship has an early digital debut. Reborn as a Space Mercenary: I Woke Up Piloting the Strongest Starship! (Mezametara Saikyou Soubi to Uchuusen Mochidattanode, Ikkodate Mezashite Youhei to Shite Jiyu ni Ikitai) and seems to be a standard isekai harem title, only in space rather than in fantasyland.

ASH: That’s a newer variation, I think!

SEAN: Also, in print, we get the 2nd volume of Failure Frame: I Became the Strongest and Annihilated Everything With Low-Level Spells and, in early digital, we get Berserk of Gluttony 3.

Dark Horse has the 2nd volume of Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!.

ASH: I still need to check out the first.

SEAN: J-Novel Club has two digital debuts, neither one in their main imprint. On the J-Novel Heart end, we get The Emperor’s Lady-in-Waiting Is Wanted as a Bride (Kouteitsuki Nyokan wa Hanayome Toshite Nozomare Naka), a story of a knight who lost her life protecting the crown prince. She then somehow finds herself in the future with all her memories… and now she’s ENGAGED to a prince? This seems fun.

ASH: It does!

SEAN: Also out next week is the first volume of Perry Rhodan NEO, from the J-Novel Pulp imprint. The adventures of Perry Rhodan have been around forever, and this is the 2011 reboot of the storyline. Space adventures, only probably without the isekai and harem like Reborn as a Space Mercenary.

They’ve also got Black Summoner 2 (manga version), Campfire Cooking in Another World 3 (manga version), the 6th and final volume of I Refuse to Be Your Enemy!, and Sorcerous Stabber Orphen 12.

In print, Kodansha Manga has Blood on the Tracks 6, Blue Period 4, Real Account 12-14 (I assume… I had it on my Manga the Week of July 1, 2020 list as well…), Shaman King’s 2nd omnibus (Vol. 4-6), and Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie 4.

MICHELLE: Blood on the Tracks is riveting, but I need to be in the right mindset for it.

ASH: It’s true. A fair number of Oshimi’s works tend that direction, actually.

SEAN: The digital debut is Police in a Pod (Hakozume: Koban Joshi no Gyakushuu), a seinen title from Weekly Morning. A disheartened officer who is about to turn in her resignation is stunned at the new woman director who arrives at the station. This has been made into a live-action drama.

And we have The Hero Life of a (Self-Proclaimed) “Mediocre” Demon! 6, Nina the Starry Bride 3, Peach Boy Riverside 8, The Springtime of My Life Began with You 2, and Those Snow White Notes 6.

MICHELLE: Six volumes behind on Those Snow White Notes now.

ANNA: Me too.

SEAN: Seven Seas debuts the manga version of I Swear I Won’t Bother You Again!, whose light novel I have discussed. I found the light novel fantastic, but I’ve heard the manga tells the story quite differently. It runs in Gentosha’s Denshi Birz.

We also get Arpeggio of Blue Steel 18, A Certain Scientific Accelerator 12, and A Certain Scientific Railgun 16.

Square Enix has a 4th volume of My Dress-Up Darling.

ASH: I’m a volume or so behind, but I really liked the first couple.

SEAN: SuBLime has a 6th Caste Heaven.

Viz has two debuts. The first is Kirby Manga Mania, a collection of manga starring the game character. The other is World Piece, a Viz Original graphic novel about a boy who accidentally shrinks Earth to the size of a basketball.

ASH: Oh! I had forgotten about the Viz Original line!

SEAN: Other titles include Call of the Night 2, How Do We Relationship? 3, Komi Can’t Communicate 13, One Piece Omnibus 31, Pokemon Adventures Collector’s Edition 8, and Spy x Family 5.

MICHELLE: I need to check back in with How Do We Relationship?. I enjoyed the first volume.

ANNA: I need to check back in on Spy x Family.

ASH: I’ve been enjoying what I’ve read of both of those series!

SEAN: Yen On has the 19th The Devil Is a Part-Timer!.

Yen Press debuts Uncle from Another World (Isekai Ojisan), the story of a man who’s been in a coma for 17 years… then wakes to tell his nephew he’s been in another world! Despite the isekai, I’ve heard this is better than it sounds.

Yen also has For the Kid I Saw in My Dreams 6, Hinowa Ga CRUSH! 5, Kakegurui – Compulsive Gambler 13, Phantom Tales of the Night 7, The Saga of Tanya the Evil 14, Sword Art Online: Girls’ Ops 7, Tales of Wedding Rings 9, and the 3rd and final volume of Yoshi no Zuikara.

MICHELLE: I really liked the first volume of Yoshi no Zuikara. I’m excited for the conclusion.

SEAN: What manga gets you racing?

SEAN: June’s busting manga out all over. Let’s see what’s fallen in front of us.

Airship has two print releases: Adachi and Shimamura 5 and ROLL OVER AND DIE: I Will Fight for an Ordinary Life with My Love and Cursed Sword! 3. They also have an early digital release of I’m in Love with the Villainess 3.

ASH: Oh, that means I still have some time to catch up before it’s released in print!

SEAN: Cross Infinite World has a new novel, Romance of the Imperial Capital Kotogami: A Tale of Living Alongside Spirits (Teito Kotogami Romantan Kinrо̄ Otome to Oshikake Jūsha), about a young woman living as a caretaker to a bunch of handsome yokai. This certainly sounds like a couple of recent Viz shoujo manga titles…

MICHELLE: Definitely conjures some Demon Prince of Momochi House vibes.

ASH: That it does, and thus intrigues me.

SEAN: J-Novel Club has several new digital releases, as we get The Apothecary Diaries 2, Discommunication’s 7th manga volume, Girls Kingdom 3, Marginal Operation’s 7th manga volume, My Instant Death Ability is So Overpowered, No One in This Other World Stands a Chance Against Me! 5, and The World’s Least Interesting Master Swordsman 6.

J-Novel Club also has print titles. We’ll see By the Grace of the Gods 4, How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom’s 2nd manga omnibus, In Another World with My Smartphone 16, and Marginal Operation 6.

Kodansha sees the print debut of The Summer of You (Kimi wa Natsu no Naka), a BL story about two teenagers loving to hang out and watch movies, and the love that develops between them. The author is also known for The Two Lions, just licensed by Seven Seas, and about 70 billion Gintama doujinshi.

MICHELLE: I’ve been looking forward to this one!

ASH: I wasn’t previously aware of this series, but now that I am, so am I!

SEAN: Also out in print: Chi’s Sweet Adventures 4, The Heroic Legend of Arslan 14, Hitorijime My Hero 10, Rent-a-Girlfriend 6, Sweat and Soap 6, Wave, Listen to Me! 6, Weathering with You 3 (the final volume), and With a Dog AND a Cat, Every Day is Fun 4.

MICHELLE: I need to catch up on Wave, Listen to Me! and With a Dog AND a Cat, Every Day Is Fun; I enjoyed both a lot for very different reasons.

ASH: I’m definitely here for Wave Listen to Me! . I’ve been meaning to give Sweat and Soap a try, too.

SEAN: Kodansha’s digital debut is Ya Boy Kongming (Papiri Koumei), a shonen title from Comic Days about a Three Kingdoms general reborn into modern Japan.

We also get Chihayafuru 26, Girlfriend Girlfriend 3, GTO Paradise Lost 14, My Dearest Self with Malice Aforethought 5, and With the Sheikh in His Harem 2.

MICHELLE: Insert traditional “yay!” for Chihayafuru.

ANNA: Yay! Also I’m so far behind!

SEAN: Seven Seas debuts The Tale of the Outcasts (Nokemono-tachi no Yoru), which ran in Weekly Shonen Sunday. This tale of a young orphan girl and a beast immortal should appeal to fans of Girl from the Other Side and similar titles.

ASH: Oooh, you have my attention.

SEAN: Seven Seas also has New Game! 11, Peter Grill and the Philosopher’s Time 5, Reincarnated As a Sword 6, and the 15th and final volume of Shomin Sample.

Viz debuts Yakuza Lover (Koi to Dangan – Dangerous Lover), a shoujo title from Cheese! spinoff Premium Cheese!. College girl meets yakuza boy, and despite trying to avoid “bad boys” she’s irresistibly drawn to him. Given it’s Cheese!, I suppose this is more in the “shousei” genre – expect a spicy story.

ANNA: I’m stoked for this and Cheese! spinoffs.

SEAN: There’s also a pile of other Viz. Chainsaw Man 5, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba 22, Dragon Ball Super 13, Jujutsu Kaisen 10, My Hero Academia 28, One-Punch Man 22, Seraph of the End 21, Takane & Hana 17, Twin Star Exorcists 22, Vampire Knight: Memories 6, We Never Learn 16, and Yona of the Dawn 30.

MICHELLE: So much good stuff.

ANNA: Indeed.

ASH: A very good Viz week.

SEAN: Yen On has some May remainder titles that got bumped to June: the 10th Haruhi Suzumiya novel in paperback (it’s actually Books 10 and 11 in one big book), High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even in Another World! 4, Overlord 13, and Strike the Blood 18.

Yen Press likewise has a LOT of “this used to be May” titles. We get As Miss Beelzebub Likes 12 (the final volume), Eniale & Dewiela 3 (also a final volume), Happy Sugar Life 9, If Witch, Then Which? 2, IM: Great Priest Imhotep 9, Love of Kill 2, Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun 12, Overlord 13, Shibuya Goldfish 9, Teasing Master Takagi-san 11, The White Cat’s Revenge as Plotted from the Dragon King’s Lap 3, and A Witch’s Love at the End of the World 3 (another final volume).

ASH: Wait, did you say Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun?! Hooray!

SEAN: There’s a lot of series in this list I love to bits. What are you getting?

SEAN: The end of May brings us a few more books to check out. And by a few I mean a lot.

ASH: So many books! I love it.

SEAN: Airship has an early digital debut (the print is out in July): Accomplishments of the Duke’s Daughter (Koushaku Reijou no Tashinami). We’ve already seen several volumes of the manga over here… in fact, it was one of the first “oh no, I’m reincarnated as a villainess in an otome game” titles seen here. Let’s hope folks won’t think it’s old hat by now.

ASH: While I liked the manga, I think I might enjoy the novels more.

SEAN: Also out early digitally: Classroom of the Elite 8 and Skeleton Knight in Another World 9.

In print, we see the 6th Reincarnated As a Sword.

Ghost Ship has two titles: World’s End Harem Fantasia 4 and Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs 14.

J-Novel Club has no debuts, but we do see By the Grace of the Gods 7, Dungeon Busters 2, Holmes of Kyoto 5, Lazy Dungeon Master 14, Monster Tamer 4, and Slayers 8. Note Slayers 8 is the final novel that Tokyopop released back in the day, so from Vol. 9 on it’s new to English.

ASH: Nice! I love seeing these license rescues making progress.

ANNA: Where’s Demon Sacred!!!!???

MICHELLE: And Silver Diamond! Now that we’ve successfully had Rose of Versailles, someone rescuing Silver Diamond is my dearest licensing wish.

SEAN: Well, Slayers is a light novel, which is more J-Novel Club’s ballpark.

Kodansha’s debut in print (and digital) is highly anticipated. Boys Run the Riot is a story about fashion and gender identity, and is a must-read for LGBTQ readers. It originally ran in Weekly Young Magazine, then moved online.

MICHELLE: I’m very excited for this one!

ASH: Absolutely! Me, too! I’ve heard very good things.

ANNA: Sounds good!

MJ: Yes, this!!

SEAN: Also in print: CITY 11, Fairy Tail’s 4th manga box, which has Vol. 34-43, and What Did You Eat Yesterday? 15.

MICHELLE: Also looking forward to this.

ASH: Any week that brings more Fumi Yoshinaga manga is a good week.

MJ: What Ash said.

SEAN: Debuting digitally is Back When You Called Us Devils (Kimi ga Bokura wo Akuma to Yonda Koro), a Magazine Pocket series about a young man who can’t remember six months of his life running into people who certainly do remember it… and say that he was a monster. More psychological thrillers, yay?

ASH: Hmmm, I am intrigued.

SEAN: Also out digitally: Am I Actually the Strongest? 4, And Yet You Are So Sweet 2, Harem Marriage 5, Saint Young Men 11, Those Snow White Notes 5 (yeah, I give up, sorry), What I Love About You 6, and When We’re in Love 8.

MICHELLE: I feel like this is my last chance to catch up on Those Snow White Notes before it completely gets away from me.

SEAN: One Peace has a 5th volume of The New Gate.

Seven Seas has one debut. Bite Maker: The King’s Omega (Bite Maker -Ousama no Omega-). Yes, A/B/O Dynamics is not just an AO3 tag anymore. Our hero is an Alpha, admired and adored by Betas, but seems unsatisfied… till he meets the Omega of his dreams. This is a Shogakukan shoujo title, running in Flowers’ online magazine &Flowers, and its author is known for pushing at boundaries.

MICHELLE: Yeah, no thanks.

ANNA: I will pass on this one.

MJ: “Pushing at boundaries.” Yeah, no.

SEAN: There’s also Berserk of Gluttony 2, GIGANT 5, Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid: Elma’s Office Lady Diary 4, Saint Seiya: Saintia Sho 13, and Species Domain 10.

Square Enix has Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?! 3 and Ragna Crimson 2.

ASH: I’ve been enjoying Cherry Magic!.

SEAN: Tokyopop debuts Like Two Peas in a Pod (Nitamonodoushi no), a BL one-shot from Mag Garden. Two boys in school are very alike – they’re even both named Tanaka! But when both take an interest in the same girl, are they jealous of each other, or of the girl?

And A Gentle Noble’s Vacation Recommendation 3.

Yen On has a debut that’s actually a sequel. Durarara!! SH takes place 18 months after the end of the main series, and features three new protagonists. (The SH stands for Snake Hands. Don’t ask.)

And there is Bungo Stray Dogs 6, Date a Live 2, The Demon Sword Master of Excalibur Academy 3, Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks? 9, a paperback reprint of Haruhi Suzumiya 9, My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong As I Expected 11, and Wandering Witch 5.

Yen Press has one debut and one finale. The debut is Hard-Boiled Stories from the Cat Bar (Sake to Namida to Otoko to Nyanko), a one-shot from Kadokawa’s Young Ace Up. If you love dark grimy noir stories, but also love cats, this is the title for you.

MICHELLE: Hm. Maybe!

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

ANNA: I’m curious about this.

MJ: Same here!

SEAN: Ending at 18 volumes (and honestly I forgot it was still coming out, it’s digital-only) is Crimson Prince. The author fell ill several years ago, and so 17 (which came out last month) and 18 had a long delay. It was a good shonen supernatural romance.

Any May flowers you’re picking?

SEAN: As the days get warmer, why not try some manga to cool you off?

Airship debuts a new release, out next week digitally and in print next month. I Swear I Won’t Bother You Again! (Kondo wa Zettai ni Jamashimasen!) features a somewhat familiar plot – a villainess who is in prison for the crimes she has committed ends up in her past self, and is determined to do things right this time. As with many of these stories, I suspect bothering will, in fact, occur.

ASH: Ha!

SEAN: There’s also an early digital for Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear 6.

In print, we debut I Have a Secret, from the author of I Want to Eat Your Pancreas. There’s also the 2nd volume of Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games Is Tough for Mobs.

MICHELLE: I still need to read my digital copy of I Have a Secret. Soon.

ASH: I’ll probably be picking it up in print, myself.

SEAN: Dark Horse has the 3rd and final volume of Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair.

J-Novel Club debuts its Pulp imprint, showing us that German novels can be just as bonkers as Japanese ones. The first of these is John Sinclair: Demon Hunter (Geisterjäger John Sinclair). Scotland Yard in the 1970s hunts demons. Imagine The Sweeney but less violent.

ASH: I’m curious to see how this imprint develops!

SEAN: There’s also The Magician Who Rose from Failure 2 and Welcome to Japan, Ms. Elf! 6.

No print debuts for Kodansha, but we do see Blue Period 3, Cells at Work: CODE BLACK 7, Drifting Dragons 8, Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest 7, Living-Room Matsunaga-san 6, A Sign of Affection 2, Something’s Wrong with Us 6, and Those Not-So-Sweet Boys 2.

MICHELLE: The shoujo titles beckon to me.

ASH: Indeed! I’ve also been enjoying Drifting Dragons.

SEAN: The digital debut is Medalist, a figure skating manga from Kodansha’s Afternoon that is much acclaimed.

MICHELLE: Sports + seinen = yes.

ANNA: Oooh, I’m intrigued.

MJ: I need it.

SEAN: Also digital: Blue Lock 3, A Girl and Her Guard Dog 4, The Honey-Blonde Beauty & Her Vampire 2, Hop Step Sing! 3 (the final volume), We’re New at This 6, and Will it Be the World or Her? 5.

Seven Seas’ debut is the comedy Dungeon Toilet (Isekai no Toire de Dai o Suru), an Akita Shoten title from Young Champion Retsu, and if, like me, you flee in terror when you see the words “Young Champion”, you may have already stopped reading. It’s about a reincarnated kid in search of the perfect toilet in a fantasy world. Laffs no doubt ensue.

ANNA: No thank you!

MJ: Oh no.

SEAN: Also from Seven Seas: Didn’t I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?! Everyday Misadventures! 2, How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord 11, The King of Fighters: A New Beginning 5, and Wonder Cat Kyuu-chan 2.

No debuts from Viz, but we do get BEASTARS 12, Hell’s Paradise Jigokuraku 8, Levius/est 8, No Guns Life 10, Urusei Yatsura 10, The Way of the Househusband 5, and Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead 2.

MICHELLE: I look forward to getting caught up on The Way of the Househusband!

ANNA: I’m actually not behind on that series!

ASH: It’s one of my favorites at the moment.

SEAN: Yen On has been doing so much shuffling of release dates lately that it’s hard to get a handle on what is due out next week, especially as the print and digital dates differ. We should definitely have the 3rd Banished from the Hero’s Party, I Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside and the 2nd Interspecies Reviewers.

Yen Press has similar release date blues, but definitely debuting next week is I’m the Hero, but the Demon Lord’s Also Me (Boku ga Yuusha de Maou mo Boku de), a title from Media Factory’s Comic Alive, my old nemesis. A young man is approached by a beautiful woman to be the Hero… and another beautiful woman to be the Demon Lord. Turns out it could go either way. Hard to get past that boob-laden cover, though.

Also debuting is Sex Ed 120% (Seikyouiku 120%), which runs on ASCII Mediaworks’ @Vitamin site. This seems to combine comedy and actual sex ed, as a teacher who thinks she can teach sex ed better than the modern sex ed texts tries to teach her class about various subjects. I’ve actually heard this is pretty good.

ASH: Same!

SEAN: Does this list cool you off or warm you up?

SEAN: Happy Mother’s Day! Let’s look for some manga that you can safely show to Mom.

Airship has two early digital releases, Adachi & Shimamura 5 and Failure Frame 2.

Debuting in print is Drugstore in Another World: The Slow Life of a Cheat Pharmacist. And we get the 2nd Muscles Are Better Than Magic as well.

ASH: I didn’t pick it up digitally, but am still vaguely intrigued by Drugstore in Another World.

MJ: I’m intrigued by the title alone.

SEAN: Dark Horse has a 6th omnibus volume for Gantz.

J-Novel Club has a few digital manga titles that I missed last time that are out this week. Apologies to An Archdemon’s Dilemma 5, Bibliophile Princess 2, and Record of Wortenia War 2. This is the danger of not adding “LLC” to your searches.

ASH: It can make a difference.

SEAN: As for this week, in terms of manga we have Ascendance of a Bookworm 7 and Mapping 2.

In terms of digital light novels, we get The Greatest Magicmaster’s Retirement Plan 9 and In Another World with My Smartphone 22.

Kodansha has a few print volumes next week. We get Don’t Toy with me, Miss Nagatoro 7, Sachi’s Monstrous Appetite 2, and Yuzu the Pet Vet 5.

MICHELLE: I still need to check out Yuzu.

ASH: I’ll have to admit the same.

MJ: And I.

SEAN: Digitally the debut is The Springtime of My Life Began with You (Kimi to Aoi Haru no Hajimari), a shoujo title from Dessert. The author’s had a lot of titles out over here, some from Kodansha (The Dorm of Love and Secrets, The Prince’s Romance Gambit) and some via Media Do’s many and varied company names (Heart Break Club). A popular guy is forced, as a punishment game, to ask out the quiet, shy girl in front of the whole class. The trouble is… he insists he really likes her!

ANNA: Those popular guys and their shenanigans!

MICHELLE: I know this concept is not the greatest, but I think the cover is pretty and enjoyed The Dorm of Love and Secrets, so I’ll be giving this a shot.

SEAN: We also get Ace of the Diamond 32, My Roomie Is a Dino 5, Nina the Starry Bride 2, Peach Boy Riverside 7, Saint Young Men 12, and Those Snow White Notes 4, voted “series most likely to get behind on” by Manga Bookshelf.

ANNA: I haven’t read the first volume so I’m sure I’m behind.

MICHELLE: Gah, so behind. It’s coming out especially quickly for some reason! I’m also in need of a mini-marathon on Ace of the Diamond.

SEAN: One Peace has the 2nd volume of isekai harem title Farming Life in Another World.

Seven Seas has FOUR debuts next week. We’ll start with My Alcoholic Escape from Reality (Genjitsu Touhi Shitetara Boroboro ni Natta Hanashi), the latest biographical manga from the creator of My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness, which promises to be as riveting as the previous book’s she’s given us. It ran in Matogrosso, put out by small publisher East Press.

ANNA: Oh wow.

ASH: They’re good but hard-hitting manga.

SEAN: Ride Your Wave (Kimi to, Nami ni Noretara) is a one-volume manga adaptation of the movie of the same name, and ran in Shogakukan’s Deluxe Betsucomi.

MICHELLE: Hm. It’s sports-adjacent, seems like.

SEAN: School Zone Girls is a title from Mag Garden’s MagComi about two troublemaking girls who’ve been together forever, but are they more than just friends? This seems to emphasize the comedy over the yuri.

Lastly, we get Thigh High: Reiwa Hanamaru Academy (Reiwa Hanamaru Gakuen), a Kodansha title from good! Afternoon, and is about an all-girls school… populated entirely by gorgeous crossdressing men. This one also seems to emphasize the comedy.

ASH: This could be hilariously good or hilariously bad – I’m not sure that I can resist finding out which.

MJ: I really don’t know what to expect from this.

SEAN: Also out: Dungeon Builder 4 and Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out! 5.

Square Enix debuts I Think Our Son Is Gay (Uchi no Musuko wa Tabun Gay), a Gangan Pixiv title about a mom who has realized that her son is keeping a secret. This is supposed to be very good.

ANNA: I’m curious.

MICHELLE: Same.

ASH: Really looking forward to this one.

MJ: I’m excited to read this one!

SEAN: They also have By the Grace of the Gods’ 2nd manga volume.

SuBLime wins the title of the week competition with the debut of Dick Fight Island (8nin no Senshi), a long-running title from Libre Shuppan’s Be x Boy Gold. The synopsis… is pretty much not work safe, but can probably be guessed from the title.

ANNA: I don’t think anyone could buy that manga and be confused about what they’re getting.

MICHELLE: Snerk.

ASH: I likewise suspect that it is unlikely.

MJ: I mean. Well.

SEAN: They also have Vol. 2 of Don’t Be Cruel: plus+.

Speaking of BL, Tokyopop has a one-shot title, The Treasure of the King and the Cat (Ou to Neko no Himitsu), about a king investigating a series of disappearances who gets caught up in magic.

They also have Ossan Idol 3.

No debuts for Viz, but we get Fly Me to the Moon 5, Fullmetal Alchemist: Fullmetal Edition 13, Pokemon Sun & Moon 10, Rin-Ne 39, Splatoon 12, A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow 7, and Yo-Kai Watch 17.

ASH: Some great ongoing series in that list!

SEAN: That’s it. See anything maternal? I Think Our Son Is Gay looks like the best choice. I’d avoid Dick Fight Island. Unless your mom loves BL.

SEAN: May Comes In Like a Tiger! What manga do we have next week?

Airship has an early digital release of Hello World, a one-shot SF novel about a boy whose future self returns to help him save his future girlfriend… or so he says. This sounds like it’s for fans of I Want to Eat Your Pancreas and others in that genre.

MICHELLE: Sounds interesting!

ASH: I’m intrigued!

MJ: Same here!

SEAN: They’ve also got Monster Girl Doctor Zero (a prequel), an early digital volume of Mushoku Tensei 11, and print volumes for The Saint’s Magic Power Is Omnipotent 3 and PENGUINDRUM 3 (the final volume).

ASH: One of these days I’ll actually read PENGUINDRUM.

SEAN: Cross Infinite World has a 2nd volume of Reincarnated As the Last of My Kind.

In print, J-Novel Club has Ascendance of a Bookworm 5 (manga), I Shall Survive Using Potions 5, Infinite Dendrogram 12, and My Next Life As a Villainess 7.

Digitally, they debut a new light novel in their Heart series, Culinary Chronicles of the Court Flower (Ikka Koukyuu Ryourichou). It sounds, honestly, a lot like The Apothecary Diaries only with food replacing medicine.

ASH: That sounds like a good combination to me!

SEAN: Also digitally is Altina the Sword Princess: Loose Threads (aka Vol. 7.5) and Altina the Sword Princess 8, Ascendance of a Bookworm 12, and Cooking with Wild Game 12.

Kaiten Books has a 4th volume of the Loner Life in Another World manga.

No print debuts for Kodansha Manga, but we do get Attack on Titan 33, Boarding School Juliet 14, Eden’s Zero 11, and Weathering With You 3, a final volume.

Digitally the debut is With the Sheikh in His Harem (Sheik-sama to Harem de), a Nakayoshi title. That cover, featuring the palest sheikh ever. That synopsis (girl is proposed to by rich man, who won’t take no for an answer). Remember when Nakayoshi was far younger in focus than it seems to be now? Recommended for Harlequin fans.

We also get the 2nd and final volume of Araki Won’t Be Tamed (whose cover I just have to link to, because YIKES), The 2nd Girlfriend, Girlfriend, My Dearest Self with Malice Aforethought 4, and My Unique Skill Makes Me OP even at Level 1 5.

ASH: That cover, my goodness!

SEAN: Seven Seas has The Dungeon of Black Company 6, Manly Appetites: Minegishi Loves Otsu 2, Skeleton Knight in Another World 6 (manga), and SUPER HxEROS 2.

ASH: I’m really looking forward to reading more of Manly Appetites; the first volume was delightful.

SEAN: Udon Entertainment has the 5th and final volume of The Rose of Versailles, including extra manga short stories Ikeda wrote in the 80s. Thank you so much for finally giving us this title in English.

ANNA: Yes. I’m still pinching myself about this.

MICHELLE: Me, too!

ASH: I continue to be absolutely thrilled we finally have this in translation.

MJ: Again, same here!

SEAN: Viz has a Shonen Jump debut, with Undead Unluck. A girl whose luck is so bad it kills people tries to kill herself, only to run into an undead man who can’t die. Together they discover they’re being hunted by a secret organization. Despite the worst possible 2-page opening spread I’ve seen in the history of Jump, I have heard this is quite good.

ASH: I have likewise heard good things.

MJ: I have heard nothing, because apparently I live under a rock, but this sounds kind of great.

SEAN: There are also three long-runners coming to a close next week. JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure has the 9th book of Arc 4, so we finish off Diamond Is Unbreakable. Worry not, Golden Wind is coming. Daytime Shooting Star and Shortcake Cake, meanwhile, both end with a 12th volume.

ANNA: I like Shortcake Cake and Daytime Shooting Star for entirely different reasons.

MICHELLE: Me too. I look forward to finishing both.

SEAN: We also get Black Cover 25, Boruto 11, Haikyu!! 44, Kaguya-sama: Love Is War 19, The King’s Beast 2, Love Me, Love Me Not 8, The Promised Neverland 19, Snow White with the Red Hair 13, and World Trigger 22.

ANNA: Looking forward to The King’s Beast and Snow White.

MICHELLE: I’m following (or attempting to follow) most of these! Penultimate volumes for Haikyu!! and The Promised Neverland, also.

ASH: Ditto all of the above!

SEAN: Yen On has a light novel debut with The King of the Dead at the Dark Palace (Kuraki Kyuuden no Shisha no Ou), a dark fantasy about a sickly boy who dies and reincarnates… as a sickly undead who must obey his master.

They’ve also got Reign of the Seven Spellblades 2, which has a lot to live up to to top its excellent first volume.

On the Yen Press tip, we get manga debuts for the two light novels that came out in April, as we see Bofuri: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, so I’ll Max Out My Defense 1, which runs in Comp Ace, and Hazure Skill: The Guild Member with a Worthless Skill Is Actually a Legendary Assassin 1, which runs in, believe it or not, Dengeki Playstation.

Lastly, Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? On the Side: Sword Oratoria’s 15th manga volume.

Mayday! Mayday! Throw me a manga!

SEAN: The end of April and there’s still so much going on.

Airship has two digital-early debuts. I Have a Secret (Kakushigoto) is the latest one-shot by the author of I Want to Eat Your Pancreas, and is not related to the manga and anime series Kakushigoto. It’s all about unspoken feelings in high school.

MICHELLE: Ooh. This sounds my speed.

ASH: I’ve enjoyed the manga adaptations of this author’s works; I really need to make a point to read some of the originals.

SEAN: The Strange Adventure of a Broke Mercenary (Kuitsume Youhei no Gensou Kitan) is a fantasy series about a man, the sole survivor of a battle that killed off all those important to him, who hires himself out as a merc. Sadly, most people just want to use him. Can he find an ally? This is a long-running LN series in Japan, with 15 volumes to date.

We also get the last of the deluge of Alice in the Country of digital editions, the light novel Alice in the Country of Diamonds: Bet On My Heart. Lastly, there’s a 3rd volume of Roll Over and Die out early digitally.

Denpa Books’ website says they have the debut of Shino Can’t Say Her Name (Shino-chan wa Jibun no Namae ga Ienai), a one-shot from the creator of Flowers of Evil, Happiness, etc. that promises to be a bit lighter in tone than those titles. It ran in Ohta Shuppan’s Pocopoco, and is about a girl with severe social anxiety. This seems to take a less comedic take than Komi Can’t Communicate.

MICHELLE: I will likely check this one out.

ASH: Same!

SEAN: Ghost Ship has Destiny Lovers 6, Parallel Paradise 5, World’s End Harem 10, and Yokai Girls 13.

J-Novel Club has a quartet of titles, as we get Invaders of the Rokujouma!? 36, Record of Wortenia War 10, Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles 14, and Sorcerous Stabber Orphen: The Reckless Journey 3 (manga).

Debuting in print for Kodansha is Chasing After Aoi Koshiba (Kyou, Koshiba Aoi ni Aetara), a yuri manga from Ichijinsha’s Comic REX. It’s got the writer of Masamune-kun’s Revenge (ehh…) and the artist of Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki (yay!). A girl hopes to meet up with her first love at a reunion. (Yes. Yes, I know. It got bumped at the last minute.)

ASH: I thought that sounded familiar!

SEAN: They’ve also got the 8th Bakemonogatari manga and the 8th Kino’s Journey manga, which is also the final volume in the adaptation.

The digital debut is And Yet, You Are So Sweet (Na no ni, Chigira-kun ga Amasugiru), a Dessert title about a girl who just got rejected and the popular guy who hears about this and offers to help with her problem. But will she fall for him?

MICHELLE: Sounds a bit like Say I Love You., but I’m totally down for it.

ANNA: Me too, if only it wasn’t a digital only title because I will likely forget that it exists.

SEAN: We also get The Dawn of the Witch 2, DAYS 23, Harem Marriage 4, Those Snow White Notes 3, What I Love About You 5, and When We’re in Love 7.

MICHELLE: Yay for more DAYS! Also, how am I this far behind on Those Snow White Notes already?!

ASH: It does seem to be on a quick release schedule!

SEAN: One Peace Books has The Rising of the Shield Hero 19.

Seven Seas’ debut is Dai Dark, the latest series from the creator of Dorohedoro. It runs in Shogakukan’s Monthly Shonen Sunday, and should appeal to all fans of her previous work, and likely will be just as violent as her previous work.

ASH: I am so looking forward to this one!

SEAN: Also out: Alice & Zoroku 8, The Ancient Magus’ Bride 14, The Demon Girl Next Door 2, The Legend of Dororo and Hyakkimaru 3, Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid: Kanna’s Daily Life 8, My Room Is a Dungeon Rest Stop 4, and Syrup: A Yuri Anthology 3.

MICHELLE: I look forward to getting caught up on The Ancient Magus’ Bride!

ASH: I’ve some catching up to do, too, but I really do enjoy the series.

SEAN: Square Enix has the 6th Hi Score Girl.

Yen On’s debut next week is a two-fer light novel adaptation of a Makoto Shinkai work: 5 Centimeters per Second + Children Who Chase Lost Voices. Now you can be depressed but also moved in prose!

ASH: I somehow missed that there were two 5 Centimeters per Second novels – Vertical released another one a couple years ago, too.

SEAN: Also out: Accel World 24, The Alchemist Who Survived Now Dreams of a Quiet City Life 6, Baccano! 16, The Eminence in Shadow 3, The Genius Prince’s Guide to Raising a Nation Out of Debt (Hey, How About Treason?) 6, High School DxD 3, The Irregular at Magic High School 16, King of the Labyrinth 2, Torture Princess 7, Wolf and Parchment: New Theory Spice & Wolf 5, Woof Woof Story 6, The World’s Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat 2, and You Call That Service? 3. Some long awaited titles there: Irregular at Magic High School and You Call That Service haven’t had a volume out in over a year.

Four Yen Press debuts. After School Hanako-kun (Houkago Shounen Hanako-kun) is a comedy spinoff of Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun. It runs in PFantasy, which I can only assume is like a spinoff of Shonen Panpan? No, that just sounds like a dirty Japanese schoolboy. Anyway, it’s probably an online spinoff of the main magazine.

ASH: I like the main series, so will likely give this one a try, too.

SEAN: I Was a Bottom-Tier Bureaucrat for 1,500 Years, and the Demon King Made Me a Minister (Hira Yakunin Yatte 1500-nen, Maou no Chikara de Daijin ni Sare Chaimashita) is the manga adaptation of the light novel we saw last month. It ran in Gangan Online.

I’m the Catlords’ Manservant (Boku wa Oneko-sama no Geboku desu) is about, as many manga are, a child having to pay off their parents’ massive debt. This one does so by serving shapeshifting cats. This runs in GFantasy, which means it’ll interest MJ, probably.

ANNA: I am just amused by the description of this manga.

ASH: New cat manga!

MJ: I HAVE BEEN SUMMONED. Also, yes. Yes. BRING IT TO ME.

SEAN: Your Turn to Die: Majority Vote Death Game (Kimi ga Shine -Tasuuketsu Death Game-) reminds us that death game manga are still apparently a thing. It’s based on a game, runs in Shonen Ace, and… well, it’s a death game manga. Come on.

Also coming out next week: Golden Japanesque: A Splendid Yokohama Romance 2.

MICHELLE: Yay!

ANNA: I was slightly underwhelmed by the first volume but maybe the second volume will sell me on the series.

SEAN: That ended up being quite a bit. Anything you’re picking up?

SEAN: The end of April, and the daffodils are blooming. What manga do we have?

Airship gives us a print version of the 10th Mushoku Tensei novel and digital versions of The Hidden Dungeon Only I Can Enter 4 and PENGUINDRUM 3 (the final volume).

ASH: I still need to read PENGUINDRUM.

SEAN: J-Novel Club has new digital volumes, as we get Full Metal Panic! 11, The Great Cleric 2, The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar 15, and My Friend’s Little Sister Has It In for Me 2.

In print… theoretically… Kodansha Manga has the 7th volume of My Boy, a former Vertical title. It’s nowhere on their website, but all the major outlets list it.

The digital debut is The Honey-blood Beauty & Her Vampire (Mitsugetsuhime to Vampire), a shoujo title from Palcy about a vampire and his charge, a girl whose blood tastes amazing. This comes with the usual “lead guy is pervert and sadist” warning that a lot of these shoujo titles do. I’m sure he will get better, it’s only 4 volumes.

MICHELLE: I’ll be passing on this one.

ANNA: Me too.

MJ: Ugh.

SEAN: There’s also Blue Lock 2, Dr. Ramune -Mysterious Disease Specialist- 4, A Girl & Her Guard Dog 3, Orient 11, We’re New at This 5, and Will It Be the World or Her? 4.

The big debut for Seven Seas is SUPER SENTAI: Himitsu Sentai Gorenger. This manga ran in Weekly Shonen Sunday in the mid-1970s, and almost every sentai series since owes a debt to it. You may recognize the author from Cyborg 009 or Kamen Rider. It’s in one big deluxe hardcover, containing the whole manga.

ANNA: Sounds cool, I’m glad that we’re getting more retro manga!

ASH: I really enjoyed what we got of Cyborg 009, and I’m likewise excited to see older titles being licensed!

MJ: Same here!

SEAN: The other debut also involves heroics, but in a more yuri way. Superwomen in Love! Honey Trap and Rapid Rabbit (Hero-san to Moto Onna Kanbu-san) is a Yuri Hime title about a villainess who can’t defeat her arch-nemesis… as she finally sees her face and is in love! Cast out of her villain society, she ends up moving in with the hero. I’ve heard very good things about this.

ASH: I’m not particularly interested in superheroics, but my curiosity is piqued.

MJ: I’m intrigued!

SEAN: Digitally we get Alice in the Country of Joker: The Nightmare Trilogy, which as you might guess is three volumes.

There’s also the 4th Arifureta Zero manga, Blue Giant Omnibus 3-4, Magika Swordsman and Summoner 14, PENGUINDRUM 4 (the manga this time), and Tamamo-chan’s a Fox! 2.

ANNA: I still have the fist volume of Blue Giant sitting on my bookshelf unread but I’m looking forward to reading it!

ASH: I actually have read the first omnibus and am definitely looking forward to reading more of Blue Giant.

SEAN: Tokyopop has three debuts. I Was Reincarnated as the Villainess in an Otome Game but the Boys Love Me Anyway! (Akuyaku Reijou Desu ga, Kouyaku Taishou no Yousu ga Ijou Sugiru) is from TO Books’ Corona Comics, is based on a light novel, and the plot you can probably guess. That said, it’s surprisingly serious-minded.

Laughing Under the Clouds (Donten ni Warau) is a new shoujo series from Mag Garden’s Comic Avarus. This historical tragedy has spawned many sequels, and deals with three brothers hired to bring criminals to a prison.

The last debut is Our Not-So-Lonely Planet Travel Guide (Bokura no Chikyuu no Arukikata), another Mag Garden title about two men taking a vacation around the world before they marry each other. The vacation is the point of the manga.

MICHELLE: Huh. That might be interesting.

MJ: This does sound interesting.

SEAN: The debut for Viz is a new Junji Ito story collection, this one called Lovesickness. it’s a 400-page hardcover of more of the author’s scariest works.

ASH: I’m always here for Junji Ito manga.

MJ: Count me in!

SEAN: Also coming out: Asadora 2, the 3rd and final novel for Bleach: Can’t Fear Your Own World, Blue Flag 7, Golden Kamuy 21, and Ultraman 15.

ANNA: I need to get caught up on Blue Flag.

ASH: I just recently caught up on it myself; it’s good!

SEAN: Yen On has reprints of Haruhi Suzumiya 7 & 8, the third and final volume of A Mysterious Job Called Oda Nobunaga, and Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World 6.

Yen Press debuts Hana and the Shape of the World (Hana-chan to, Sekai no Katachi), a one-shot collection revolving around a young girl exploring her town. This ran in Comic Beam.

ASH: I’m expecting this one to be good – it was one of the jury selections from last year’s Japan Media Arts Festival.

MJ: This sounds lovely.

SEAN: There’s also a 2nd Cirque du Freak omnibus, The Dark History of the Reincarnated Villainess 2, Mint Chocolate 2, Plunderer 7, RaW Hero 4, Sasaki and Miyano 2, So I’m a Spider, So What? 9, and Yowamushi Pedal 17.

Vampires? Sentai? Villainesses? Vacationing gay men? What holds your interest the most?

SEAN: There certainly is a lot of manga coming out. Remember years ago when some weeks had three or four titles?

ASH: It’s almost unimaginable any more.

SEAN: Airship has the 11th Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest in print, and the 4th volume of The Invincible Shovel in early digital.

Cross Infinite World has another villainess reincarnation story with Since I Was Abandoned After Reincarnating, I Will Cook with My Fluffy Friends: the Figurehead Queen Is Strongest At Her Own Pace (Tenseisaki de Suterareta no de, Mofumofu-tachi to Oryouri Shimasu: Okazari Ouhi wa My Pace ni Saikyou desu). A woman newly shunned by her fiance, the prince, finds herself now married to a different prince – one who hates women! But… his kingdom is filled with adorable creatures, and she doesn’t have to do anything but her hobby – cooking! No death flags here, just fluff.

ASH: I mean, I do like cooking stories?

SEAN: Denpa’s website lists femme fatale: The Art of Shuzo Oshimi for next week. An artbook dedicated to the creator of Flowers of Evil, Blood on the Tracks and more.

J-Novel Club has a veritable plethora of digital releases. Are You Okay with a Slightly Older Girlfriend? 2, Banner of the Stars 6, Black Summoner 4, Der Werwolf 11, The Ideal Sponger Life 2, Slayers 7, Sorcerous Stabber Orphen: the Wayward Journey 11, The Tales of Marielle Clarac 6, and Tearmoon Empire 4.

Kodansha Manga has one print release, which is Witchcraft Works 15. Kodansha Books also has the 3rd volume in the Pretty Boy Detectives Club series. Thus all the Kodansha print releases next week are ex-Vertical.

MICHELLE: I didn’t love the first Pretty Boy Detective Club as a novel, but I’m still looking forward to the forthcoming anime!

SEAN: The digital debut next week is a full-blown josei title. It even runs in Be Love! Nina the Starry Bride (Hoshi Furu Oukoku no Nina) is an orphan girl who ends up being sold as a slave… to the royal family? Turns out she looks a lot like the recently deceased princess. Now she has to live her new princess life… no matter how much she does NOT want to. I’m interested in this, despite the well-worn premise.

ANNA: I am too, but I have a very poor track record with digital titles.

ASH: Likewise.

SEAN: Also out digitally: the final 16th volume of GE: Good Ending, Peach Boy Riverside 6, Shojo FIGHT! 16, Tokyo Revengers 20, and the 27th and final volume of Yozakura Quartet, whose first volume was put out by Del Rey in 2008.

ASH: Oh, wow, Yozakura Quartet is a series I haven’t thought about in a long while.

SEAN: One Peace has the third and final volume of I Hear the Sunspot: Limit.

MICHELLE: Oooh.

ASH: It’s a big one, too! (I got my hands on an early copy.)

SEAN: Seven Seas has some debuts, both based on light novels they’ve also released. Failure Frame: I Became the Strongest and Annihilated Everything With Low-Level Spells (Hazure Waku no [Joutai Ijou Skill] de Saikyou ni Natta Ore ga Subete wo Juurin Suru Made) runs in Overlap’s Comic Gardo, and Muscles Are Better Than Magic (Mahou? Sonna Koto Yori Kinniku da!) runs in Kadokawa’s Comic Walker.

ASH: For some reason I was expecting Failure Frame to be about windows and defenestration.

SEAN: We also get Gal Gohan 7, The Girl from the Other Side 10, Harukana Receive 7, How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift? 6, Love Me for Who I Am 3, My Next Life As a Villainess! 5 (manga version), and Reincarnated As a Sword 5 (also manga version).

ASH: Always glad to see a new volume of The Girl from the Other Side (although I will admit to being behind in my reading).

SEAN: And there’s three more Alice books – Nightmare, The Lizard Aide, and Toy Box – that get digital releases.

SuBLime has a 5th Candy Colored Paradox and The World’s Greatest First Love 14.

ASH: I’ve largely been enjoying Candy Colored Paradox.

SEAN: Viz debuts a new Shonen Sunday series, a phrase not heard often these days. Call of the Night (Yofukashi no Uta) seems to combine romcom and vampire stories together, and looks fun.

ANNA: Always up for more manga vampires.

SEAN: Viz also has more Shonen Sunday! Case Closed 78, Komi Can’t Communicate 12, Persona 5 6, Pokemon Adventures Collector’s Edition 7, Pokemon Adventures: Black 2 and White 2 3 (that title hurts me to type), Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle 14, and Splatoon: Squid Kids Comedy Show 3.

ASH: Yay, Sleepy Princess!

SEAN: Lastly, Yen Press debuts the manga version of the beloved light novel In Another World with My Smartphone. This early in the series there’s far less genocide to worry about, so I will cautiously recommend it. It runs in Kadokawa Shoten’s Comp Ace.

What manga will you read while waiting for your vaccination appointment?

SEAN: April! Maple! Let’s do the list backwards this time!

This means starting with Yen Press, who have precisely one manga out, but it is a debut. Please Put Them On, Takamine-san! (Haite Kudasai, Takamine-san) is a bizarre high school comedy with SF elements, about a girl who can redo her past actions to achieve the best result… but only by taking off her underwear. This runs in Gangan Joker, and is by the author of the delightfully titled Is a Zombie Bitch Considered a Bitch?, which thankfully is not licensed.

MICHELLE: Pass!

MJ: I. No. Yen Press, why is this your brand now? Seriously, why?

ANNA: No thank you!

SEAN: Yen On has two debuts. First off we have Hazure Skill: The Guild Member with a Worthless Skill Is Actually a Legendary Assassin (Hazure Skill “Kage ga Usui” o Motsu Guild Shokuin ga, Jitsuha Densetsu no Ansatsusha), which I’ve heard is better than it sounds, but I’m trying to avoid taking on any new “my skill everyone hates is actually the best” sort of books.

ASH: I feel that.

SEAN: The other debut… at long last… is Bofuri: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, So I’ll Max Out My Defense (Itai no wa Iya nano de Bougyoryoku ni Kyokufuri Shitai to Omoimasu), the light novel that inspired the popular anime. Kaede is ready to play the new game her friend recommends… but has no real gaming experience, and also it’s a VR game, meaning she could feel pain! As such, she sinks ALL her points into defense. Playing as “Maple” (a pun on her name), she rapidly gets ludicrously overpowered in the most adorable way possible. I suspect these books will be a bit more gamer-talk than I’d really like, but… Maple.

MJ: This actually sounds kind of fun.

ASH: It does!

SEAN: No debuts for Viz, just some heavy hitters. There’s Yona of the Dawn 29, We Never Learn 15, One Piece 96, Natsume’s Book of Friends 25, My Hero Academia 27, Moriarty the Patriot 4, Jujutsu Kaisen 9, the 7th and final volume of An Incurable Case of Love, Dr. STONE 16, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba 21, and Chainsaw Man 4.

ASH: I’m reading quite a few of these series, but I’m especially glad to see Natsume’s Book of Friends in the list.

ANNA: Some good stuff here for sure.

SEAN: Udon should – for real this time – have The Rose of Versailles 4.

MJ: 🎉

ASH: Hooray!

ANNA: Yay!!!!

SEAN: Three titles for Seven Seas: Nurse Hitomi’s Monster Infirmary 12, Magical Girl Site 14, and The Kingdoms of Ruin 2. They also have the last 3 volumes of Alice in the Country of Joker: Circus and Liar’s Game.

Kodansha Manga debuts A School Frozen in Time (Tsumetai Kousha no Toki wa Todomaru), which seems to combine an eerie high school tragedy with a death game atmosphere. It ran in Monthly Shonen Magazine.

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

MJ: I think I am, too!

ASH: I wasn’t previously aware of this one, but now I’m looking forward to it, too!

SEAN: Also in print: Orient 2 and Fire Force 22.

Debuting digitally is Girlfriend, Girlfriend (Kanojo mo Kanojo), a comedy from Weekly Shonen Magazine and the creator of Aho Girl. It’s about a boy who is confessed to by two girls, so asks if he can date both of them. Expect a lot of hyperactive silliness.

There’s also Vampire Dormitory 5, Those Snow-White Notes 2, Our Fake Marriage 6, My Unique Skill Makes Me OP even at Level 1 4, My Dearest Self with Malice Aforethought 3, the 5th and final volume of The Invincible Reincarnated Ponkotsu, and Chihayafuru 25.

MICHELLE: I better get on Those Snow-White Notes before I fall too far behind.

ASH: It’s likely a futile wish, but I’d love to see Those Snow-White Notes released in print.

SEAN: J-Novel Club has no debuts, but oodles of titles. In print, there’s the 2nd Infinite Dendrogram manga omnibus, In Another World with My Smartphone 15, I Shall Survive Using Potions! 3 (manga version), By the Grace of the Gods 3, Ascendance of a Bookworm 8, Ascendance of a Bookworm 4 (manga version), and Animeta! 5.

ASH: I need to catch up on Ascendance of a Bookworm, but I’ve really been enjoying the series.

SEAN: Digital titles are A Wild Last Boss Appeared! 4, Outbreak Company 17, Mapping: The Trash-Tier Skill That Got Me Into a Top-Tier Party 4, Infinite Dendrogram 7 (manga), I Love Yuri and Got Bodyswapped with a Fujoshi 2, and Fushi no Kami: Rebuilding Civilization Starts With a Village 3.

Dark Horse has a 3rd volume of Ms. Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles.

Lastly, Airship has 3 print titles: Berserk of Gluttony 2, Didn’t I Say to Make My Abilities Average 12, and How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom 11. They’ve also got a digital-first version of Reincarnated As a Sword 8.

Are you maxing out your defense with manga?

SEAN: March ain’t going out like a lamb when it comes to manga.

ASH: True, that!

SEAN: Airship has two print books; Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash 14.5 and Mushoku Tensei 9.

Denpa’s website lists femme fatale: The Art of Shuzo Oshimi for next week. An artbook dedicated to the creator of Flowers of Evil, Blood on the Tracks and more.

They’ve also got The Girl with the Sanpaku Eyes 2 listed.

Ghost Ship has Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs 13.

No debuts from J-Novel Club, but we do get the 10th and final volume of The Combat Baker and Automaton Waitress. We also see Demon Lord, Retry! 6, The Epic Tale of Reincarnated Prince Herscherik 4, Holmes of Kyoto 4, My Instant Death Ability is So Overpowered, No One in This Other World Stands a Chance Against Me! 4, and The White Cat’s Revenge as Plotted from the Dragon King’s Lap 4. Desu.

Kaiten Books has a 2nd volume of My Dad’s the Queen of All VTubers?!.

Debuting in print for Kodansha is Chasing After Aoi Koshiba (Kyou, Koshiba Aoi ni Aetara), a yuri manga from Ichijinsha’s Comic REX. It’s got the writer of Masamune-kun’s Revenge (ehh…) and the artist of Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki (yay!). A girl hopes to meet up with her first love at a reunion.

ASH: Seems like it has potential.

MJ: Agreed.

Also in print: Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro 6, Heaven’s Design Team 4, The Quintessential Quintuplets 13, and Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie 3.

Digitally we get two debuts. The first is She’s My Knight (Ikemen Kanojo to Heroine na Ore!?), which runs in Kodansha’s Palcy, and features a popular young man having to deal with falling in love with a girl more popular AND more manly than he is!

ANNA: This sounds amusing.

SEAN: We also get Those Snow-White Notes (Mashiro no Oto). This is a biggie, as it’s already 27 volumes in Japan. It’s multi-award winning, runs in Weekly Shonen Magazine, is by the author of Baby & Me and A Vampire and His Pleasant Companions, and is for the Shamisen what Chihayafuru is for Hyakunin Isshu. It also has an anime this spring!

MICHELLE: I’m super excited about this one!

ASH: I love shamisen so much.

MJ: Okay, I’m ready!

SEAN: And we get A Condition Called Love 7, Elegant Yokai Apartment Life 21, How Do You Do, Koharu? 2, I Want To Hold Aono-kun So Badly I Could Die 7, My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 3, and Saint Young Men 11.

MICHELLE: I need to get caught up on several of these.

MJ: Same here.

SEAN: Seven Seas debuts two manga based on light novels they also have. Drugstore in Another World: The Slow Life of a Cheat Pharmacist (Cheat Kusushi no Slow Life: Isekai ni Tsukurou Drugstore) runs in Takeshobo’s Web Comic Gamma Plus, and is about… well, the title.

ASH: So many titles these days are helpful like that, perhaps overly so.

SEAN: And there is also ROLL OVER AND DIE: I Will Fight for an Ordinary Life with My Love and Cursed Sword! (“Omae Gotoki ga Maou ni Kateru to Omou na” to Yuusha Party o Tsuihou Sareta node, Outo de Kimama ni Kurashitai), which runs in Micro Magazine’s Comic Ride, and combines yuri and gore-filled grimdark quite nicely.

Seven Seas also has the digital debut of four more Alice books, which focus on Elliot March and Tweedle Dee/Dum. If I recall correctly, the Twins books were the smuttiest in the series.

ANNA: No thank you!

SEAN: They’ve also got BL Metamorphosis 4, the third and final volume of Ghostly Things, High-Rise Invasion 17-18, Himouto! Umaru-chan Vol. G1 (also a final volume, sort of – it’s a one-shot continuation), the fifth and final volume of How to Treat Magical Beasts: Mine and Master’s Medical Journal, Made in Abyss 9, Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid 10, and Precarious Woman Executive Miss Black General 6.

MICHELLE: Someday I really will read BL Metamorphosis.

ASH: You really should! It is wonderful.

MJ: I also need to read it!

SEAN: Two debuts for Yen On. The first is a spinoff. I Was a Bottom-Tier Bureaucrat for 1,500 Years, and the Demon King Made Me a Minister (Hira Yakunin Yatte 1500-nen, Maou no Chikara de Daijin ni Sare Chaimashita) features Beelzebub and her demonic crew from I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years having adventures of their own.

The other is Yokohama Station SF, the story of a boy who is allowed to search the giant subway terminal that the world of Japan has become. This looks pretty cool, actually.

MICHELLE: It looks super cool! I always love stories about exploring sprawling structures (like BLAME, for example).

ASH: I’m definitely picking this one up! It looks like it should help fill the SF hole left by Viz’s Haikasoru imprint being on hiatus.

MJ: This one sounds so interesting!

Also out next week: 86 ~Eighty-Six~ 7, new reprints of the 5th and 6th Haruhi Suzumiya novels, The Hero Is Overpowered But Overly Cautious 6, and Rascal Does Not Dream of Siscon Idol (the 4th in the series).

Yen Press has many manga debuts next week. We start with Can’t Stop Cursing You (Dareka o Norawazu ni Irarenai Kono Sekai de), a dark little horror title from Gangan Online. A curse detective uses their powers to track down killers.

ASH: I’m curious about this one.

MJ: This actually does sound like my kind of thing.

Goblin Slayer Side Story II: Dai Katana gets a manga version of its light novel. It runs in Square Enix’s Manga Up!.

Love and Heart (Koi to Shinzou) is a shoujo horror title from Hakusensha’s Manga Park. A college woman recovering from a breakup now finds she has a new roommate, who says he’s her old childhood friend. But… is he?

ANNA: I’m intrigued by the idea of shoujo horror.

MICHELLE: Yeah, this could be interesting.

ASH: Shoujo horror is one of my faves.

MJ: Ooooooooo.

SEAN: Love of Kill (Koroshi Ai) runs in Media Factory’s Comic Gene, and is about a pair of assassins engaging in… sigh… a deadly game of cat and mouse. (No, they’re not cats and mice, I just sighed at the cliche.) I’ve actually heard this is pretty cool.

ANNA: Sometimes I enjoy assassins!

ASH: Likewise!

MJ: Me too!

SEAN: Lastly, we see When a Magician’s Pupil Smiles (Mahou Tsukai no Deshi ga Warau Toki), a 3-in-1 omnibus collecting the entire manga. It ran in Shonen Gangan, and also seems to fall into the horror suspense theme Yen’s March debuts are falling into.

ASH: I tend to enjoy a fair amount of the subgenre, so I’m okay with the trend.

SEAN: In non-debuts, we get 86 ~Eighty-Six~’s second manga volume, Bungo Stray Dogs 18, Carole & Tuesday 2, Do You Love Your Mom? 4 (manga version), Fiancee of the Wizard 3, Im – Great Priest Imhotep 8, Kaiju Girl Caramelize 4, Karneval 11, Last Round Arthurs 2 (manga version), Lust Geass 3, Reborn As a Polar Bear 5, Strawberry Fields Once Again 2, That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime: The Ways of the Monster Nation 4, and The Vampire and His Pleasant Companions 2.

ASH: I am so far behind on my Yen reading!

SEAN: Oof. There is a lot there. Do you see favorites?

SEAN: Oh no, the March winds are blowing over all the stacks of manga you have around you! Shore them up with MORE manga!

ASH: This is a solid plan.

SEAN: Airship has two print releases, The Hidden Dungeon Only I Can Enter 3 and Classroom of the Elite 7.5. They’ve also got an early digital release for Mushoku Tensei 10.

J-Novel Club has the third and final volume of The Sorcerer’s Receptionist, as well as I Refuse to Be Your Enemy! 5 and Our Crappy Social Game Club Is Gonna Make the Most Epic Game 2.

In print, Kodansha has In/Spectre 13.

ASH: I really ought to catch up on this series.

SEAN: Digitally, our debut is The Dawn of the Witch (Mahoutsukai no Reimeiki), a Shonen Sirius title about a young man with amnesia at a magic school.

There’s also Farewell My Dear Cramer 13 (the digital version is keeping that title), Harem Marriage 3, My Best (♀) Butler 7, Watari-kun’s ****** Is about to Collapse 9, What I Love About You 4, and When We’re in Love 6.

Two debuts from Seven Seas. Magical Angel Creamy Mami and the Spoiled Princess (Mahou no Tenshi Creamy Mami: Fukigen na o Hime-sama) is an update of the classic magical girl series, a Comic Zenon title that does not star Mami but rather the spoiled princess, who is unhappy that Mami is now getting all the attention.

ANNA: I enjoy magical girls, think I would be more amused if this did focus on Mami though.

SEAN: The other is Otaku Elf (Edomae Elf), a comedy about a spoiled shrine deity who would rather stay inside, thank you. This runs in Shonen Magazine Edge.

Also from Seven Seas next week: Kingdom of Z 3, Mushoku Tensei: Roxy Gets Serious 5, Our Teachers Are Dating! 3, Rainbow and Black 2, and Species Domain 9.

ASH: I’ve been meaning to give Rainbow and Black a try – better get on that before I get too far behind!

SEAN: Two titles from Square Enix. Balan Wonderworld: Maestro of Mystery, Theatre of Wonders is a novel based on an upcoming platform game, coming out in digital format.

The other is Beauty and the Feast (Yakumo-san wa Edzuke ga Shitai), the story of a widow who can’t stop making food even after her husband has died, so she ends up feeding the teenage boy next door. This runs in Young Gangan, and is apparently one of those relaxed, mellow sort of series.

MICHELLE: I’ve kind of missed having a mellow cooking series to read, now that Sweetness & Lightning has ended.

ANNA: Might be amusing!

ASH: I’ve been looking forward to this one.

SEAN: Lots of Tokyopop next week. BL Fans LOVE My Brother?! (Kusatte mo Ani) is about a girl whose big brother locks himself in his room and draws BL doujinshi. Can she get him outside again? This one-shot ran in Mag Garden’s MAGCOMI.

This Wonderful Season with You (Subarashii Kiseki ni Yasashii Kimi to) is another BL title, from Gentosha’s Love xxx BOYS Pixiv. Nerd. Jock. Romance. Also a one-shot.

MICHELLE: The cover for this is very cute!

SEAN: And there’s a third volume of The Fox and Little Tanuki.

Yen Press moved the majority of its March titles to the last week of the month, but there’s some light novels still due out 3/23 from Yen On. The debut is Date a Live, a relatively obscure light novel series that may have gotten an anime as well, I’ll have to check. A boy is required to save the world from destructive spirits… by making them fall in love with him? It’s 22+ volumes in Japan but only just got licensed, probably because no one was really asking for it. Ow. Sorry, my mouth got cut from all the sarcasm I was using.

ASH: Oh, I hadn’t noticed!

SEAN: Also getting new volumes: Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki 6, The Dirty Way to Destroy the Goddess’ Heroes 6 (the final volume), Goblin Slayer 11, Last Round Arthurs 4, Magical Girl Raising Project 11, So I’m a Spider, So What? 11, Suppose a Kid From the Last Dungeon Boonies Moved to a Starter Town 5, Unnamed Memory 2, and The World’s Strongest Rearguard: Labyrinth Country’s Novice Seeker 5.

Lastly, the one manga title from Yen next week is Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun 8.

ASH: I’ll be picking that one up!

SEAN: Even with Yen shifting everything one week, it’s still a fair bit. What are you getting?

SEAN: Middle of March, and still manga out there in the wild.

ASH: And plenty of it, too!

SEAN: Airship has two print releases, as we see Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear 5 and The Sorcerer King of Destruction and the Golem of the Barbarian Queen 2.

Cross Infinite World has a new one-shot light novel, Hey! You’ve Kidnapped the Wrong Royal!. The Demon Lord has arrived, and he’s kidnapped… our heroine’s brother? That can’t be right! Wait, he thinks her brother is CUTER? OK, this means war! This sounds deeply silly.

ASH: Possibly delightfully silly?

SEAN: Dark Horse has the third and final volume of Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls.

Only one J-Novel Club title next week, Monster Tamer 3.

Three print books from Kodansha Manga next week: I’m Standing on a Million Lives 9, Perfect World 5, and That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime: Trinity in Tempest 3. Oh, and Blood on the Tracks 5, I guess that’s Kodansha Manga now? Rebrands confuse me.

MICHELLE: Man, I just cannot get caught up on Blood on the Tracks!

ASH: I need to catch up on Perfect World, myself!

SEAN: Digital debuts? There’s two! One is Attack on Titan: No Regrets, the Complete Color Edition! Endure Levi’s tragic past all over again… IN COLOR. There’s new bonus content too, so be sure to double dip.

ASH: I’m so used to digital coming out before print these days, I hadn’t realized this wasn’t already available!

Also debuting is Blue Lock, a soccer manga from Weekly Shonen Magazine. The covers make the leads look slightly unbalanced, though I suspect it won’t play out as a soccer-horror title.

MICHELLE: You know I will be all over a new shounen sports series.

ANNA: Also looking forward to more sports manga!

SEAN: We also get A Girl and Her Guard Dog 2, GE: Good Ending 15, We’re New at This 4, and Will It Be the World or Her? 3.

One Peace has a light novel – The Reprise of the Spear Hero 3 – and a manga – The Rising of the Shield Hero 15.

Seven Seas has Shomin Sample 14 in print.

And there’s more digital Alice in the Country of Hearts. This time we get Ace of Hearts and Knight’s Knowledge 1-3, so for those who love Ace, this is your week.

ASH: I’m still glad to see the Alice books being made available again.

SEAN: Udon Entertainment should – hopefully – have the 4th volume of The Rose of Versailles.

MICHELLE: That would be nice!

ANNA: Looking forward to it!

ASH: Ditto!

SEAN: Vertical… erm, Kodansha Books… has an ebook version of Zoku-Owarimonogatari, the “final” volume of the Monogatari series.

Viz has one debut, a spinoff from BEASTARS called Beast Complex. It seems by the description to be a short story collection set in the world. It runs in Bessatsu Shonen Champion.

ASH: I’m a few volumes behind reading BEASTARS, but that probably won’t stop me from picking this one up.

20th Century Boys: Perfect Edition comes to an end with Vol. 11. There’s also BEASTARS 11, Hell’s Paradise Jigokuraku 7, Maison Ikkoku Collector’s Edition 3, No Guns Life 9, and RWBY: The Official Manga 2.

MICHELLE: Gah, I am so behind on so much.

SEAN: Lastly, though still Viz, Hayao Miyazaki’s two autobiographies, which came out in print some time ago, will be digital! Starting Point: 1979-1996 and Turning Point: 1997-2008. Both must-reads.

Is this not enough? Good thing there’s more March to go.

SEAN: Has anyone else run out of time to read things? You’d think I’d be reading MORE in a pandemic, but…

MICHELLE: I have run out of brain to read things.

ANNA: My non-work reading and writing have suffered.

ASH: It’s strange but true.

MJ: What is time?

SEAN: Airship has the print debut of Failure Frame: I Became the Strongest and Annihilated Everything With Low-Level Spells. Also in print is the second ROLL OVER AND DIE: I Will Fight for an Ordinary Life with My Love and Cursed Sword!, and digital-first gives us the 2nd Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs.

Dark Horse has a 7th Deluxe Hardcover edition of Berserk.

ASH: It’s probably no surprise that I’ll be picking that up.

SEAN: Drawn & Quarterly has a biggie: the late Shigeru Mizuki’s adaptation of Tono Monogatari, a famous collection of folklore. It ran in Shogakukan’s Big Comic.

ASH: My recent brief doesn’t truly do it justice, but I love this book.

MJ: Ash is persuasive!

SEAN: No debuts for J-Novel Club, but a lot of new volumes of beloved series. We see Ascendance of a Bookworm 11, Bibliophile Princess 5, the 2nd manga volume of The Engagement of Marielle Clarac, Girls Kingdom 2, Infinite Dendrogram 14, the 5th manga volume of The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar, and Slayers 6.

ASH: Yay, Bookworm!

SEAN: Kaiten Books has a debut with Welcome to the Outcast’s Restaurant, a manga version of the light novel we’ve seen released here by Tentai Books. A strong adventurer, banished by his party, starts a restaurant, and has to deal with his customers’ varied issues.

ASH: There seems to be a surprising number of these types of restaurants.

SEAN: Kodansha has some print. There’s Grand Blue Dreaming 12, Rent-a-Girlfriend 5, Saint Young Men 5 (in hardcover omnibus), and the 14th and final Waiting for Spring.

MICHELLE: I’ve been waiting for Waiting for Spring‘s finale for ages!

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

ASH: I’ve liked what I’ve read of Waiting for Spring so far, but Saint Young Men has most of my attention from this batch.

MJ: Same here!

SEAN: For digital, the debut is Shaman King: Marcos, which runs in Shonen Magazine Edge, and is MORE SHAMAN KING.

Also digital: A Couple of Cuckoos 3, Ace of the Diamond 31, Peach Boy Riverside 5, Saint Young Men 10, Seven Shakespeares 15, and We Must Never Fall in Love 7.

MICHELLE: A baseball binge is in store for me!

SEAN: Seven Seas has two debuts. The first had an anime recently, and it’s called Super HxEros (Dokyuu Hentai HxEros). Despite the Japanese title, this isn’t quite porn, but it does run on fanservice. Aliens are sapping the world’s lust, and only superheroes who can use their own lust to power up can stop them. This runs in Jump Square, home of Blue Exorcist, believe it or not, and is 11+ volumes in Japan.

The other debut is Wonder Cat Kyuu-chan (Fushigi Neko no Kyuu-chan), a 4-koma about an office worker who finds an abandoned cat that proves to be… a wonder cat! This looks very cute.

ANNA: That does sound cute.

ASH: It does.

SEAN: Also from Seven Seas: Akashic Records of Bastard Magical Instructor 11, Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest 6 (manga), Arpeggio of Blue Steel 17, Peter Grill and the Philosopher’s Time 4, The Ideal Sponger Life 8 (manga), The Saint’s Magic Power Is Omnipotent 2 (manga), and We Swore to Meet in the Next Life and That’s When Things Got Weird! 2.

SuBLime gives us Caste Heaven 5 and the 2nd and final volume of Toritan – Birds of a Feather.

MICHELLE: I need to check out Toritan. Caste Heaven was not for me.

ASH: I haven’t tried Caste Heaven yet, but I really liked the first volume of Toritan. I didn’t realize it was only two volumes long.

SEAN: Tokyopop has Katakoi Lamp, a BL title from Rutile. A young man working at a coffee shop falls for a customer, but can he work up the courage to confess?

They also have the 2nd volume of Ossan Idol!.

Vertical has a 9th volume of Flying Witch and a 3rd With a Dog AND a Cat, Every Day is Fun.

Viz has Tokyo Fashion: A Comic Book, an illustrated guide to building your wardrobe and looking good.

ASH: Oh, that could be interesting!

SEAN: We also have Fly Me to the Moon 4, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess 8, RIN-NE 38, and Splatoon: Squid Kids Comedy Show 3.

Yen On has a debut, with The Executioner and Her Way of Life (Shokei Shoujo no Ikirumichi), about a woman whose job it is to STOP isekai protagonists – they keep bringing chaos whenever they arrive! Unfortunately, the girl she meets may be more than she can handle. Nice seeing more yuri light novels.

ASH: That is kind of a delightful and cathartic twist to the isekai deluge. And it’s yuri, too? I may have to check it out!

SEAN: Yen On also has Combatants Will Be Dispatched! 5.

Three debuts from Yen Press. I Cannot Reach You (Kimi ni wa Todokanai) is a BL series from Media Factory’s Gene Pixiv, and is a childhood friend romance sort of story. It looks sweet.

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

ASH: Me, too!

MJ: Okay, yes, THIS.

SEAN: SEAN: Play It Cool, Guys (Cool Doji Danshi) runs in Square Enix’s Gangan Pixiv, and features a bunch of cool guys who are secretly… awkward dorks! This seems more on the funny side.

ASH: Could be fun!

SEAN: Penguin Gentlemen (Penguin Shinshi) is a done-in-one hardcover about a group of penguins who run a bar. Sometimes they’re drawn as penguins… and sometimes they’re drawn as buff hot guys. This ran in Kadokawa’s Pixiv Essay.

ANNA: This sounds hilarious.

ASH: It really does, in the best sort of way.

MJ: This sounds amazing.

SEAN: Lastly, Yen has Happy Sugar Life 8, I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years 5 (manga), Kakegurui Twin 9, and Restaurant to Another World 4.

What series are you falling more and more behind on?

MICHELLE: ALL OF THEM.

ANNA: SO MANY SERIES!

MJ: I REPEAT, WHAT IS TIME?