manga the week of

SEAN: Even with Yen Press moving a lot of its release dates, this is still a pretty heavy week. Lotsa stuff.

Debuting from Dark Horse is Ms. Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles (Ramen Daisuki Koizumi-san), another in the series of foodie manga to be brought over here. High school girl is secretly a RAMEN MASTER. This runs in Takeshobo’s Manga Life Storia.

MICHELLE: Oh, this sounds neat!

ANNA: I do enjoy a food manga.

MJ: I’m interested…

ASH: So am I! Plus, I am particularly fond of ramen.

SEAN: Dark Horse also has Berserk 40 (I believe that’s Vol. 40, not the 40th anniversary of the last volume), and the 2nd Elfen Lied omnibus.

ASH: I am now actively reading Berserk in parallel with itself.

SEAN: Ghost Ship not only has the 6th World’s End Harem, but also debuts World’s End Harem: Fantasia. Also running online in Shonen Jump +, it’s basically the premise of the series set in a fantasy isekai-ish world.

J-Novel Club debuts Otherside Picnic (Urasekai Picnic), another in the “yuri sci-fi” genre that we’ve seen recently. I suspect, as with previous entries, this will be of more interest for the sci-fi than the yuri. It’s from the author of Side-By-Side Dreamers, but will be more than one volume.

ASH: I like sci-fi and yuri!

SEAN: J-Novel Club also gives us Record of Wortenia War 2, by the way, if you want something more traditionally “fantasy for guys”.

In print, Kodansha tries to catch up with quite a few titles. We get the debut of the Fairy Tail Manga Box Set, with the first eleven volumes. We also get Interviews with Monster Girls 7, Land of the Lustrous 9, Missions of Love 18, and The Quintessential Quintuplets 5.

ASH: Land of the Lustrous is still incredibly striking.

SEAN: Speaking of Fairy Tail, another spinoff debuts digitally with Fairy Tail: City Hero. This is basically an AU with Natsu and Lucy as cops. It runs in Magazine Pocket.

We also see new digital volumes for Atsumori-kun’s Bride-to-Be (2), Domestic Girlfriend (21), Elegant Yokai Apartment Life (17), I Want to Hold Aono-kun So Badly I Could Die (5), and Lovesick Ellie (9).

MICHELLE: I liked Atsumori-kun more than I expected, and have consistently enjoyed Lovesick Ellie.

SEAN: Seven Seas has no debuts but plenty of ongoing series. The Ancient Magus’ Bride 11, Haganai: I Don’t Have Many Friends 17, High-Rise Invasion 9-10, How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord’s 5th manga volume, How to Build a Dungeon 5, Nameless Asterism 4, Our Dreams at Dusk 3, and print volumes for light novels Reincarnated As a Sword (2) and Skeleton Knight in Another World (also 2).

MICHELLE: Somehow I had not noticed a new volume of The Ancient Magus’ Bride was coming out so soon! Huzzah!

ASH: Yes! I’m always happy for more of The Ancient Magus’ Bride! And Our Dreams at Dusk is SO GOOD.

SEAN: Sol Press snuck in a release this week that I’ll put in next week’s Manga the Week of, even if they should know better than to flout my whims. Why Shouldn’t a Detestable Demon Lord Fall in Love? is their new light novel, and its premise is its title.

ASH: Why shouldn’t, indeed.

SEAN: Vertical’s manga debut is The Golden Sheep (Kin no Hitsuji), from the author of The Gods Lie. It runs in Afternoon, and is about a group of friends growing apart. Expect melancholy galore.

ANNA: The Gods Lie was so good. Looking forward to this.

MJ: Always here for “melancholy.”

ASH: The creator, Kaori Ozaki, is a favorite of mine.

SEAN: Vertical also has the first newly translated volume of the Zaregoto novel series since 2010. SUSPENSION: Kubitsuri High School sees Ii-chan dragged by Jun to a girls’ high school that has a dark secret. Will we get another tight-knit mystery? Or will it all be nonsense?

Viz has no print titles, but is debuting Golgo 13 Vols. 1-13 digitally. This came out a while back in the Signature line, and is basically a “best of” collection for the assassin whose lovemaking gets its own endnotes. Fans of MANLY manga will want this.

ASH: Oh, that’s good! Some of the print volumes are very hard to find these days.

SEAN: Yen On has a couple of debuts. The Miracles of the Namiya General Store is another one-shot whimsical title with a movie tie-in. as well as Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World (Kimi to Boku no Saigo no Senjou, Aruiwa Sekai ga Hajimaru Seisen), which appears to be Romeo & Juliet among a war-torn fantasy world.

ASH: I was very surprised, but happy (as I am a fan), to see Yen pick up The Miracles of Namiya General Store. It’s by Keigo Higashino, most of whose novels have been published in English by Minotaur Books.

SEAN: There’s also light novels for Accel World 19 and Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody 9.

On the manga side, Yen debuts Combatants Will Be Dispatched!, a manga adaptation of the light novel we saw debut earlier this month. It runs in my nemesis, Comic Alive. Yen also has As Miss Beelzebub Likes 7, Bungo Stray Dogs 12, Goblin Slayer (manga version) 6, the 2nd manga volume of the KonoSuba Explosion spinoff, Love at Fourteen 9, the 11th volume of the Overlord manga adaptation, and Sword Art Online: Girls’ Ops 6.

Quite a lot of stuff. What’s got you most excited?

SEAN: It’s time to do the list in reverse! Why?

Because I wanted to start with Viz’s ridiculous amount of new titles out next week. We begin with the eagerly anticipated The Way of the Househusband (Gokushufudou), a series about a former yakuza who is trying to stay straight, nut… stuff keeps happening. It runs in Shinchosha’s Kurage Bunch.

ANNA: I am excited for this!

MICHELLE: I love the cover for the first volume.

ASH: Personally, this is one of my most anticipated debuts of the year!

SEAN: No Guns Life is a science fantasy series from Ultra Jump, and is apparently much like many other Ultra Jump titles in that vein.

Speaking of Ultra Jump, we also get Levius, a done-in-one series that actually ran in the late lamented Ikki, but has moved to Ultra Jump after this volume. It looks like Battle Angel Alita for MEN.

ASH: I generally enjoy Ikki titles, so I’ll be giving this one a look.

SEAN: And for those who wanted Taiyou Matsumoto, author of Tekkon Kinkreet and Sunny, to draw cats, here is Cats of the Louvre, a Big Comic Original series that’s also done in one.

MICHELLE: I am here for this.

ASH: Yes! More Taiyou Matsumoto is always a good thing. This is also part of the same series that brought us Hirohiko Araki’s Rohan at the Louvre and Jiro Taniguchi’s Guardians of the Louvre.

MJ: Okay, this is necessary in my life.

SEAN: As if that weren’t enough, Dorohedoro is ending with its 23rd and final volume. I’m amazed how obsessed I became with this violent series about a busty sorcerer and her lizard-headed pal, but I love it to bits.

ASH: As do I. I’m so glad this series survived the unfortunate fall of Ikki.

SEAN: And Viz also has Children of the Whales 12, Beastars 2, and 20th Century Boys Perfect Edition 5.

ASH: Wow! It really is a great week for Viz manga! I am really looking forward to seeing where Beastars goes next.

Vertical also ends a series with the final omnibus of May-December romance After the Rain, and they also have the 13th Ajin.

MICHELLE: I’ve been meaning to read After the Rain. One of these days.

SEAN: Seven Seas’ debut looks trashy but I am well-informed is more slice-of-life than anything else: Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out (Uzaki-chan wa Asobitai!) runs in Kadokawa’s Dra-Dra-Dragon Age, a spinoff magazine to the already trashy Dragon Age, and is about an aggravated college student and his teasing busty underclassman.

They also have a 3rd volume (digital for now) of Restaurant to Another World’s light novel; Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka 7, Magical Girl Site 10, Made in Abyss 7, The Ideal Sponger Life 3, How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom’s 4th print light novel, and Dragon Quest Monster + 4. Of that pile, Ideal Sponger Life is most interesting.

One Peace has a 2nd volume of I Hear the Sunspot: Limit.

ANNA: I need to read the first volume!

ASH: It’s good! I’m happy to get to read more of the series.

MJ: There can never be too much of I Hear the Sunspot!

SEAN: Kodansha’s print debut is If I Could Reach You (Tatoe Todokanu Ito da to Shite mo), a more drama-laced series than usual from Ichijinsha’s Comic Yuri Hime, about a teenage girl in love with her brother’s wife.

In print, Kodansha also has The Seven Deadly Sins 34, Magus of the Library 2, and I’m Standing on a Million Lives 3.

ASH: Oops, I haven’t read the first Magus of the Library yet. Better get on that before I get too far behind.

SEAN: Digitally the debut is the first of FOUR digital-only spinoffs of exiting franchises. Fairy Tail: Happy’s Heroic Adventure is what it sounds like.

There’s also Tokyo Alice 15, The Quintessential Quintuplets 10, Living-Room Matsunaga-san 6, The Great Cleric 2, and Defying Kurosaki-kun 12.

J-Novel Club “debuts” The Combat Baker and Automaton Waitress, a series previously exclusively released through Bookwalker. It’s had another editing pass, and now is available on all platforms.

There’s also The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar 9 and Amagi Brilliant Park 7.

Lastly, Dark Horse has Dangan Ronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls, an adaptation of the side story game starring Naegi’s little sister. It ran in Famitsu Comic Clear.

I assume you’re getting something from Viz this week. What else?

SEAN: No time to talk! Manga is coming!

J-Novel Club have new volumes for Cooking with Wild Game (4) and How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord (10).

Kodansha debuts the “official” adaptation of Fate/Grand Order, called mortalis:stella. It’s one of many FGO manga out, but this is the “story” one, apparently. That said, it only ran two volumes, so I suspect the story is compressed, though there is a sequel of sorts. It ran in Ichijinsha’s Zero-Sum.

ASH: Oh, interesting! That makes it on the shoujo and josei end of things, doesn’t it?

SEAN: In print, Kodansha also has Eden’s Zero 4.

Digitally the debut is Queen Bee (Seishun Otome Banchou!), from an author familiar to readers with long memories, Shizuru Seino. She did Heaven!!, Power!!, and Love Attack!. Love Attack! never finished over here, which is a shame, as this is about the daughter of the leads from that series. She has a scary face… and disposition… but is still a girl in love. This ran in Betsufure.

MICHELLE: Oh, I actually read all of Power!! (released by TOKYOPOP as Girl Got Game) back in the day! I failed to make the connection.

ANNA: I read some of Love Attack! back in the day, and I think I have a couple volumes of Girl Got Game somewhere in my stacks of unread manga.

ASH: I rather enjoyed what I read of Love Attack!.

SEAN: We also get Giant Killing 16, The Knight Cartoonist and Her Orc Editor 2, Red Riding Hood’s Wolf Apprentice 3 (this is a final volume), The Slime Diaries 2, and Tokyo Revengers 11.

MICHELLE: Hooray for more Giant Killing! It’s been quite a while.

SEAN: Seven Seas has THREE debuts. The first is a spinoff, Arifureta Zero, adapting the spinoff light novel with the same title. It runs in Overlap’s Comic Gardo.

Become You (Kimi ni Nare) is the latest series from the author of orange. Like orange, it’s likely “shoujo in a man’s magazine”, as this runs in Futabasha’s Monthly Action. It’s got guys, and bands, and childhood dreams.

MICHELLE: I hope this is as good as orange.

ASH: Me, too! I’m also interested in it for the music aspects.

SEAN: The Brave-Tuber (Haishin Yuusha) is your standard fantasy world with adventurers, etc… except it has the Internet. Two guys try to find a way to build subscribers and defeat monsters. This runs in Mag Garden’s Comic Blade and is also a short, two-volume series.

Seven Seas also gives us Mushoku Tensei: Roxy Gets Serious 2 and There’s a Demon Lord on the Floor 7.

SuBLime has Candy Color Paradox and the 9th Deluxe Edition of Finder for its BL readers.

ASH: I finally picked up a copy of the first volume of Candy Color Paradox! (Now I just have to read it.)

SEAN: Vertical has the 5th volume of My Boy.

Viz gives us the 34th volume of Hayate the Combat Butler, still entertaining readers in the West thanks to the wonders of contractual obligation. They also have Radiant 7, Splatoon 7, and Yo-Kai Watch 12.

Lastly, Yen Press has a 5th volume of Chio’s School Road. It’s not like those OTHER roads.

ASH: Nope, not at all like those other roads.

SEAN: Thoughts? Concerns? Complaints?

SEAN: It’s always September somewhere in the manga lists.

J-Novel Club has infinite light novels, or at least Infinite Stratos 9 (digitally) and Infinite Dendrogram 1 & 2 (print). There’s also the print debut of Ascendance of a Bookworm, as well as the 3rd light novel digitally, which wraps up the first arc. And we get the 3rd Full Metal Panic! novel.

ASH: Oh, print debut! That means it’s time for me to check out Ascendance of a Bookworm!

SEAN: In print, Kodansha debuts a spinoff, Cells At Work: Code Black. Unlike the relatively healthy body the main series takes place in, Code Black takes place in an unhealthy middle-aged body. It also seems to have Rule 63 Red and White Blood Cell. It runs, believe it or not, in Morning Magazine.

MICHELLE: Probably I will read this.

ASH: I will absolutely read this! I greatly enjoy the original Cells at Work.

SEAN: Digitally we get another debut with Smile Down the Runway (Runway de Waratte), a manga about a girl who’s trying her best to be a runway model at her father’s agency. Unfortunately… she’s only 5’2″. Can a short woman still have what it takes to be a model? Despite a very josei-sounding premise, this actually runs in Weekly Shonen Magazine. That said, it doesn’t seem like it has the usual “danger signs” of Shonen Magazine series.

ANNA: Hmmmm.

MJ: I feel like there’s no way this can be anything but horrifying. But. As Anna said, “Hmmmm.”

SEAN: There’s also Blissful Land 4, Boarding School Juliet 12, Goodbye I’m Being Reincarnated! 2, My Pink Is Overflowing 3, My Sweet Girl 6, Our Precious Conversations 4, and The Tale of Genji: Dreams at Dawn 7.

ASH: I still have my fingers crossed for print release of The Tale of Genji.

SEAN: Seven Seas debuts the Arifureta Zero light novel spinoff in print. They’ve also got Akashic Records of Bastard Magical Instructor 7, A Centaur’s Life 17, Nirvana 4, and Non Non Biyori 12.

Tokyopop gives us a 3rd Aria the Masterpiece, and a 6th Futaribeya, but still can’t provide any cover artwork without a giant ‘coming soon’ banner on it. Not that I’m bitter.

Viz has no debuts this month, alas. But hey, this does not mean they don’t have a ton. On the shonen end, we get a giant Assassination Classroom box set with every single volume. There’s also Black Clover 17, Blue Exorcist 22, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba 8, Dr. STONE 7, Dragon Ball Super 6, Haikyu!! 34, Kaguya-sama: Love Is War 10, One Piece 3-in-1 29, Twin Star Exorcists 16, and Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc V 6.

MICHELLE: Of these, I’m only reading Haikyu!!, but my love for it is boundless.

ANNA: One of these days I need to catch up on Haikyu!!, but my kids love it and read every volume as it comes out. I am enjoying Dr. STONE too.

ASH: Ack! I am so far behind on my Shonen Jump reading!

SEAN: On the shoujo end, there is Anonymous Noise 16, Daytime Shooting Star 2, Kakuriyo: Bed & Breakfast for Spirits 5, Snow White with the Red Hair 3, and The Demon Prince of Momochi House 14.

MICHELLE: Quite a lot of goodness here! I’m perhaps most keen for the newer titles like Snow White with the Red Hair and Daytime Shooting Star.

ANNA: Me too!

ASH: Likewise, although The Demon Prince of Momochi House still has its hooks in me, too.

SEAN: Lastly, Yen Press may be into September but it still has its August titles, some of which are debuts. Combatants Will Be Dispatched! (Sentouin, Hakenshimasu!) is a new light novel series by the creator of KonoSuba, and is supposed to be quite funny. A mix of sci-fi and fantasy, it’s about an evil minion who finds he has to invade a fantasy-based world.

The other light novel debut has a more light novel-ish title, The Genius Prince’s Guide to Raising a Nation Out of Debt (Hey, How About Treason?) (Tensai Ouji no Akaji Kokka Saisei Jutsu ~Sou da, Baikoku Shiyou~). Again, the title is the plot. The prince wants an easy life without much to do, so decides to betray his country. Sadly, he’s too good at being a genius, and every scheme he comes up with makes the nation’s people love him more.

ASH: That sounds like it could be amusing.

SEAN: There’s also an 11th Baccano!, which takes us all the way back to 1705; The Devil Is a Part-Timer! 14; and I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level 5.

On the manga end, Yen debuts three titles, though one is a light novel adaptation. Do You Love Your Mom (and Her Two Hit, Multi-Target Attacks)? needs no introduction by now, so we’ll move on, except to say it runs in Young Ace Up.

Phantom Tales of the Night (Bakemono no Yawazukushi) is a shoujo-ish series from Comic Gene, and is about an inn which takes its payment in secrets. Sounds sort of anthology-esque to me.

ASH: Oh! I’m always interested in new shoujo horror manga!

SEAN: Reborn as a Polar Bear: The Legend of How I Became a Forest Guardian (Shirokuma Tensei: Mori no Shugoshin ni Natta zo Densetsu) runs online on the Comic Walker site, and its title is, again, its plot. But, werewolf sisters! Also, the polar bear seems unlikely to amass a harem.

And we get Final Fantasy: Lost Stranger 3, Happy Sugar Life 2, DanMachi: Episode Lyu’s 4th manga, Kakegurui Twin 3, Plunderer omnibus 2, a 9th Sekirei omnibus, Spirits & Cat Ears 8, Star Wars: Lost Wars 2, and Yowamushi Pedal omnibus 12.

MICHELLE: Yowamushi!!!

ASH: Yay!!!

SEAN: So what titles are you hiding behind your textbook at school to read?

SEAN: This week’s Manga the Week of comes to you live from Stanfield International Airport in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

We start off with J-Novel Club, who have new volumes of An Archdemon’s Dilemma (7) and Der Werwolf (5).

Kodansha’s print volumes include Attack on Titan: Before the Fall 17, Kiss Me at the Stroke of Midnight 9, L*DK 13, and Witch Hat Atelier 3.

ANNA: I love Witch Hat Atelier!

ASH: It really is such a lovely manga.

SEAN: The digital debut next week is Atsumori-kun’s Bride-to-Be (Atsumori-kun no Oyome-san (←Mitei)), a shoujo/josei series from Dessert. The author has also done House of the Sun. Country girl chases after a guy she likes by moving to Tokyo.

MICHELLE: I was looking at this earlier. It looks somewhat cuter than some of their shoujo fare, so I will probably check it out.

SEAN: And we get Domestic Girlfriend 20, Elegant Yokai Apartment Life 16, and My Boy in Blue 12.

No debuts from Seven Seas, but we do get Blank Canvas 2 *and* The Girl from the Other Side 7, as well as the 2nd and final Division Maneuver in print.

MICHELLE: Seven Seas really has some great titles these days.

ASH: It’s true. I adore The Girl from the Other Side and the first volume of Blank Canvas was terrific.

MJ: It’s really been a pleasure to watch Seven Seas become awesome.

SEAN: Vertical has the 2nd volume of the Koyomimonogatari short story collection, with one of the better cliffhanger’s Nisio has done. They also have To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts 9.

We get several more Yen titles, though again a lot of their August lineup shifted into September. Yen On has Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded, as well as the 9th KonoSuba novel.

Yen has two debuts. One is a done-in-one omnibus, Count Fujiwara’s Suffering (Fujiwara Hakushaku no Junan). Fujiwara is a cat. The cat is the straight man to two wacky siblings. This ran in Kodansha’s Shonen Sirius.

ANNA: Is there dog manga? I feel like we’ve gotten a bunch of cat manga and no dog manga.

SEAN: There’s Fullmetal Alchemist… (WHACK) Ow!

ANNA: Nooooooooooooooo!

MICHELLE: Now, that’s just wrong.

MJ: It huuuuurts.

SEAN: The other debut, Overlord A La Carte, is a comic anthology take on the Overlord light novels done by various artists. It runs in Kadokawa’s Comp Ace, also the home of the main Overlord manga.

Yen has A Bride’s Story 11 and Silver Spoon 10, which my sixth sense tells me I should separate from the others for the convenience of comments.

ASH: Both are phenomenal series! A Bride’s Story is gorgeous and Silver Spoon has so much heart.

MJ: You know Silver Spoon tends to blind me to any manga unfortunate enough to be sitting around it, but if anything’s got a shot, it’s A Bride’s Story!

SEAN: Yen also has Dimension W 15, Hatsu*Haru 8 (I actually really like this one), Re:Zero Arc 3 Volume 8, The Royal Tutor 12, Shibuya Goldfish 5, Smokin’ Parade 6, Tales of Wedding Rings 7, and Val x Love 6.

Not bad for the end of August. What are you getting?

SEAN: This week doesn’t have as much as it originally did because of delays in publishing schedules, but it still has a lot.

Dark Horse has a 2nd Emanon, continuing the story beyond its initial origins.

ASH: I actually still need to read the first volume, but I greatly enjoy Kenji Tsuruta’s artwork.

SEAN: Fantagraphics has what is easily the release of the week with the first volume of The Poe Clan, Moto Hagio’s vampire family shoujo manga that ran in Betsucomi from 1972-1976. This is the first of a deluxe hardcover release of the series in North America, and it is apparently fantastic.

MICHELLE: Somehow, I missed that this had been licensed!

ANNA: I am excited for this!

ASH: Yes! I truly love Hagio’s work.

MJ: I’ve been waiting for this for so long! I’m so excited!

SEAN: Haikasoru is releasing another SF novel with anime/manga interest, as Automatic Eve is out next week. Shogun drama with robots!

ASH: I usually end up reading most of Haikasoru’s releases ⁠— Automatic Eve probably won’t be an exception to that.

SEAN: J-Novel Club has the 15th I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse and the 10th Outbreak Company.

Kodansha debuts (print and digital) Fairy Tail: 100-Year Quest, a direct spinoff of the main manga with the main cast.

Also in print is Boarding School Juliet 7 and O Maidens in Your Savage Season 3.

ASH: I’ve been meaning to give O Maidens in Your Savage Season a read. I should probably do that before I get to far behind!

SEAN: Digitally the debut is Vampire Dormitory. How far Ema Toyama has fallen when she is reduced to digital-only debuts. This runs in Nakayoshi, and promises to be as Ema Toyama as all get out.

Also debuting digitally is Cardcaptor Sakura, in its Collector’s Edition (print is already out). And Defying Kurosaki-kun 11, Farewell My Dear Cramer 2, and Tokyo Alice 14.

MICHELLE: Farewell, My Dear Cramer is pretty fun.

SEAN: Seven Seas’ debut is a digital one, with print to follow: ANIMA, a light novel series based on Neon Genesis Evangelion. I’m not sure if it’s another alternate universe or not, but it does appear to have NERV and piloting giant mecha and not, y’know, running out of homes with toast in your mouth.

Also from Seven Seas is A Certain Scientific Railgun 14, Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid: Elma’s OL Diary 2, Mushoku Tensei 9 (manga version), Reincarnated as a Sword 3 (digital), Sorry for My Familiar 5, and Wonderland 3.

Udon debuts Stravaganza, which is an omnibus of the first two volumes. This Woman in the Iron Mask story ran in fellows!, and then moved to Harta, meaning it already has my attention. It’s also gotten some great buzz.

ASH: Count me intrigued as well.

SEAN: They also have a 4th Otherworldly Izakaya Nobu.

Vertical has a 2nd volume of Icelandic saga Go with the Clouds, North-by-Northwest.

MICHELLE: Someday I’ll read Otherworldly Izakaya Nobu and Go with the Clouds.

ANNA: I need to read the first volume of Go with the Clouds, but rest assured it is somewhere in my house.

SEAN: Viz has Golden Kamuy 11, Ran and the Gray World 4, Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt 12, Tokyo Ghoul;re 12, and Urusei Yatsura Omnibus 3.

ASH: Golden Kamuy is the release that I’ll be prioritizing out of this bunch, though I suspect that I’ll eventually get around to reading some of the others, too.

SEAN: Lastly, there is Yen, though not as much as you’d expect, as a lot of their titles moved. On the light novel end we get So I’m a Spider, So What? 6 and That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime 6.

Digitally there seems to be a release of the first Log Horizon manga volume, which originally came out in 2015, but I’ve only seen solicits for it, not actual confirmation. We shall see.

Barakamon comes to an end with its 18th and final volume, meaning we’ll need someone else to take up the “not quite Yotsuba&!” banner while we wait for more Yotsuba&!. I though Barakamon was a lot of fun.

MICHELLE: And someday I’ll read Barakamon, too!

ASH: I’ve enjoyed the volumes I’ve read.

SEAN: And we get the 14th The Devil Is a Part-Timer! manga, Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization 4, Triage X 18, and Trinity Seven 17.

First: buy The Poe Clan. You should get Stravaganza as well. And the Evangelion light novel. Aside from that, what are you getting?

SEAN: It’s the last few weeks before school starts! Take a manga vacation with these titles.

ASH: Wooooo!

SEAN: Dark Horse debuts the modern retelling of Space Battleship Yamato, or Star Blazers as it was known in the states. We keep that title here with Star Blazers 2199, and this book is an omnibus of the first two Japanese volumes. It’s a Kadokawa title, from Newtype Ace.

ANNA: I have a lot of Star Blazers nostalgia.

ASH: It’s been really interesting to see how many original series and their modern reimaginings have been released of late.

SEAN: Denpa has the 5th volume of Inside Mari.

ASH: Shuzo Oshimi’s work is pretty tremendous, too.

SEAN: J-Novel Club has one debut and one spinoff debuting next week. The new title is Middle-Aged Businessman, Arise in Another World!. It is what it sounds like, but the interesting thing here is that a) he stays middle-aged, and b) he’s already married a goddess and had kids BEFORE he’s sent to another world. It’s also only two volumes long.

The spinoff is JK Haru Is a Sex Worker in Another World: Summer, a set of short stories that are, I believe, licensed directly from the author. JK Haru was very open-ended, so this should be very interesting – and hopefully a bit less bleak.

J-Novel Club also gives us The Greatest Magicmaster’s Retirement Plan 2, In Another World with My Smartphone 16, and Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles 6.

Kodansha, on the print side, has the 28th volume of Attack on Titan.

ASH: It feels like it’s been a while!

SEAN: Digitally there’s a lot more. The debut is The Knight Cartoonist and Her Orc Editor (Orc Henshuusha to Onna Kishi Mangaka-san), a Shonen Magazine Edge title whose title is its plot. It’s 3 volumes long.

There’s also Ace of the Diamond 23, All-Rounder Meguru 11, the 11th and final volume of Black Panther and Sweet 16, the 2nd My Pink Is Overflowing, Peach Girl NEXT 5, The Prince’s Romance Gambit 5, Pumpkin Scissors 22, and a 10th Tokyo Revengers.

MICHELLE: I had been awaiting more Ace of the Diamond!

SEAN: One Peace has a 4th Hinamatsuri.

ASH: Still a ridiculous in a good way series.

SEAN: Seven Seas has no debuts, but we do get Accomplishments of the Duke’s Daughter 4, Captain Harlock: Dimensional Voyage 9, Classmates 2: Sotso Gyo Sei, the 2nd Classroom of the Elite novel (in print), MachiMaho 3, and Ultra Kaiju Humanization Project 3.

ASH: The first volume of Classmates was lovely, so I’m really looking forward to the second (and third).

SEAN: Fourth Generation Head: Tatsuyuki Oyamato is the new debut from SuBLime. It’s done in one, and is about a yakuza discovering new parts of his sexuality. (Yakuzuke?)

Vertical has a 3rd volume of the Kino’s Journey manga.

Magi comes to an end with its 37th and final volume. I will miss it. Viz also has the 6th Fullmetal Alchemist: Fullmetal Edition, Komi Can’t Communicate 2, Record of Grancest War 4, and Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle 8.

MICHELLE: I have a small stockpile of Magi volumes so I can have one last binge.

ANNA: I have a giant stockpile of Magi and look forward to reading it eventually…

SEAN: Lastly, Yen Press has the last of its delayed from June/July titles. Yen On has The Night Is Short, Walk On Girl, a stand-alone novel that was made into an animated film, a genre Yen has specialized in lately. I’ve heard very good things about it.

ASH: As have I! I’m looking forward to giving it a read.

SEAN: And Yuri Life is another of Yen’s new forays into niche genres, this being another short story anthology by various artists about adult women in relationships. Which, trust me, still hasn’t gotten old. More of this.

ASH: I likewise approve.

SEAN: Which of these would be best read while lying on a beach?

SEAN: The dog days of August are here, but no worries. There’’s stuff here for you. A lot of stuff.

Cross Infinite World has The Werewolf Count and the Trickster Tailor, another romance novel from Japan. These are usually fun.

Ghost Ship gives us To-Love-Ru 15-16 and Yokai Girls 8.

J-Novel Club has a pile of print releases next week. How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord 5, If It’s for My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord 4, In Another World with My Smartphone 5, and The Magic in This Other World Is Too Far Behind! 4.

They also have digital light novels, as we get Campfire Cooking in Another World 2, Crest of the Stars 2, Demon King Daimaou 12, and Invaders of the Rokujouma!? 22.

Kodansha has some print releases that Manga Bookshelf loves. We get 10 Dance 4, Again!! 10, and the 8th volume of Tokyo Tarareba Girls.

ANNA: So far behind on Again!!….

MICHELLE: All of which are worth reading!

ASH: They really are! I’m closely following all of these series.

SEAN: Kodansha Digital debuts Goodbye! I’m Being Reincarnated, a shonen series that started in Shonen Magazine R but has moved up to the weekly big leagues recently. A guy is visited by a princess who needs a hero from another world! The trouble is that he can’t be transported to the other world… he has to be reincarnated. Which means she has to kill him.

MICHELLE: Huh.

ASH: Well now, that could be an interesting twist.

SEAN: We also get My Sweet Girl 5, The Tale of Genji: Dreams at Dawn 6, and You Got Me Sempai! 6.

Seven Seas debuts the print version of Reincarnated As a Sword, which is apparently better than my attempt to read it made it seem. There’s also My Monster Secret 17, Saint Seiya: Saintia Sho 7, Shomin Sample 10, and the 3rd digital novel for Skeleton Knight in Another World.

Vertical has a 13th Devils’ Line.

It’s the start of the month, so there’s a pile of Viz. The debut is another My Hero Academia spinoff, My Hero Academia SMASH! As you might guess from the title, it’s a gag comic. Should be silly and fun.

MICHELLE: I hope there is, like, zero Mineta.

SEAN: We also get, in shonen titles, Black Torch 5, Food Wars! 31, Hunter x Hunter 36, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Arc 4 Book 2, My Hero Academia 20, One Piece 91, One-Punch Man 17, The Promised Neverland 11, and We Never Learn 5.

ASH: JooooooJoooooo!

SEAN: Shoujo is just as filled with must-haves. Ao Haru Ride 6, the 7th and final volume of Behind the Scenes!!, Idol Dreams 6, Shortcake Cake 5, Takane & Hana 10, and Yona of the Dawn 19.

ANNA: AIEEE, so many favorites coming out this week.

MICHELLE: Dang. So many awesome titles for both demographics!

ASH: It’s true!

SEAN: Lastly, Yen has some stuff left over from July that’s coming out in August. Cocoon Entwined (Mayu, Matou) debuts; it’s a yuri story set at an all-girls school, but it’s from Comic Beam, so I have hope.

ASH: At the very least, the cover art is lovely.

SEAN: Killing Me! is also out; it’s also yuri, though the fact that it’s from Media Factory’s Comic Cune makes me think it’s definitely “yuri for guys”. Vampire and vampire hunter in school.

And we have High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even in Another World 4, DanMachi: Sword Oratoria 8 (manga version), Murcielago 11, So I’m a Spider, So What? 6 (manga version), and Umineko When They Cry: Twilight of the Golden Witch omnibus 2.

While Kate ponders how to choose between Again!! and The Promised Neverland for Pick of the Week, what are you getting?

SEAN: Most of the rest of Yen is next week, though some got delayed to August. And lots of other publishers as well.

Dark Horse has the 3rd volume of Mob Psycho 100. Actually, that may have come out this week. Dark Horse release dates are ephemeral things.

MICHELLE: This is a pretty fun series.

ASH: I really like it so far!

SEAN: Ghost Ship gives us To-Love-Ru Darkness 11.

J-Novel Club only has one release next week, but its title is so long it counts as three. Seriously Seeking Sister! Ultimate Vampire Princess Just Wants Little Sister – Plenty of Service Will Be Provided! (Tonikaku Imouto ga Hoshii Saikyou no Kyuuketsuki wa Mujikaku Gohoushichuu) is a one-volume light novel about a vampire princess and her desire for a cute little sister. It sounds dire, but who knows?

MICHELLE: Dire, indeed.

ANNA: I feel confident about forgetting this exists.

SEAN: Kodansha, in print, has UQ Holder 17.

Kodansha, digitally, has much much more. First, we have a debut, The Slime Diaries. This is a comedy spinoff of the Reincarnated as a Slime series.

ASH: I did enjoy much of the original series more than expected.

SEAN: Also debuting in volume form (individual chapters have been released previously) is Farewell, My Dear Cramer. A sports manga that’s a sequel to Sayonara Football (which got no attention over here) and by the creator of Your Lie in April (which certainly did), I’ve heard good things about it. Girls’ soccer, in case you were wondering.

MICHELLE: I hadn’t realized the history of this series or its creator. I was just, all, “Ooh, sports manga.”

ANNA: Did someone say sports manga?

ASH: Indeed!

SEAN: And we have new volumes for Asahi-sempai’s Favorite (5), Back Street Girls (12 and final), Domestic Girlfriend (19), Drowning Love (13), Hotaru’s Way (10), Kakafukaka (8), and My Boy in Blue (11). Kakafukaka is hard to read but highly underrated.

MICHELLE: Hooray for more digital josei!

ANNA: One day I might catch up….one day…..

SEAN: Seven Seas makes up for barely having any releases at the start of the month. Debuting is the manga version of My Next Life as a Villainess! All Routes Lead to Doom!, based on the light novel. I love Katarina, and want to see her in any format. (Also, anime next year!)

We also see D-Frag! 13, Fairy Tale Battle Royale 3, Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash 10 (print version), Harukana Receive 4, Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid 8, Mushoku Tensei’s light novel 2 (print) and 3 (digital), and the 4th Precarious Woman Executive Miss Black General.

Sol Press announced something that’s out this week, but I wasn’t able to get it into last week’s MtWo so here it is. Two manga titles. How to Treat a Lady Knight Right (Ima made Ichido mo Onna Atsukaisareta Koto ga nai Jokishi wo Onna Atsukai Suru) runs in Kodansha’s Suiyoubi no Sirius, and is about a knight who’s always been seen as a muscley sort getting treated as an attractive women. She spends the next 3+ volumes of the manga looking shy and blushing heavily, from what I can tell. This screams “not for me”.

ASH: I mean, I’m definitely a fan of knights who are women, but…

SEAN: They also have The Ride-On King, from the creator of Golosseum, which is about a Putin with the serial numbers filed off and his adventures being awesome. It’s for those who want more titles like Golosseum or those who think Russia is awesome.

Vertical has the novel version of Voices of a Distant Star, subtitled Words of Love/Across the Stars. I seem to recall this wasn’t as depressing as the creator’s other movies. Slightly.

JY, Yen’s young adult line, has the Little Witch Academia light novel. Enjoy Akko being Akko in prose form as well!

ASH: I somehow missed or completely forgot that Yen has a young adult line???

SEAN: They also have the 4th Zo Zo Zombie.

Yen On gives us three new debuts. Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki is for all those who want gaming but without the fantasy isekai aspect. Tomozaki is an awesome gamer, but fails at real life, which he describes as a horrible game. Then he meets a girl who’s not only as good a gamer as he is, but explains how to win at life too. Fans of My Youth Romantic Comedy Etc. should like this.

The Dirty Way to Destroy the Goddess’s Heroes is not as naughty as the title makes it sound. A demon King, who wants to live in peace but heroes keep attacking him, hires a Japanese boy to take care of them. This proves to be a mistake, as the boy goes a bit overboard.

ASH: That could be entertaining.

SEAN: Last Round Arthurs: Scum Arthur and Heretic Merlin has a very Magical Index feel, possibly as they share the same artist. Our hero is tired of his boring life, so teams up with a girl to become the next successor to King Arthur.

There’s also another Final Fantasy tie-in novel, Final Fantasy XIII-2: Fragments Before, as well as The Saga of Tanya the Evil 6 and Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online 4, which starts a new arc.

Print manga debuts. There’s The Alchemist Who Survived Now Dreams of a Quiet City Life (Ikinokori Renkinjutsushi wa Machi de Shizuka ni Kurashitai), whose light novel is out in September. It’s about a run-of-the-mill alchemist who ends up in stasis to save herself, and after coming out of it finds there aren’t any more alchemists in the world! How will she live her quiet, boring life? Sounds like it’s for fans of Killing Slimes for 300 Years. It runs in B’S LOG Gomic.

ASH: This could be interesting, too.

SEAN: Secretly I’ve Been Suffering About Being Sexless (Jitsu wa Watashi Sexless de Nayandemashita) is done in one, and ran in Comic Flapper. It’s about a married woman trying to figure out what to do when her libido is much larger than her husband’s.

ASH: I’ll admit, I’m curious to see how this premise is handled.

Manga Bookshelf’s Pick of the Week (OK, I’m just guessing, but pretty sure I’m right) is debuting next week as well. Skull-Faced Bookseller Honda-san (Gaikotsu Shotenin Honda-san) already has a cult classic anime, and this is the manga, which ran in Gene Pixiv. It’s about… well, the title says it all. This looks fantastic.

MICHELLE: Well, your guess is right on my end, at least. I’ve only seen a little of the anime, but it is charming and I’m really looking forward to reading this.

ANNA: Me too!

ASH: I am so, so looking forward to this series!!

SEAN: We also get first volumes of light novel adaptations with Torture Princess (an omnibus, done in one) and Woof Woof Story.

A lot of ongoing titles moved to August, but we do see Interspecies Reviewers 2 (bleah) and Sacrificial Princess and the King of Beasts 6 (yay!).

ASH: Shoujo fantasy for the win!

SEAN: Lots of new series next week. Perhaps you could ask a skull-faced bookseller what works for you?

SEAN: It’s too hot to be outside. Stay indoors and read manga.

ASH: That is a really good idea.

SEAN: Dark Horse gives us the third volume of Eromanga-sensei.

J-Novel Club has a quartet of releases, including the final volume of If It’s For My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord, which will tell us once and for all if it’s Bunny Dropping us or not. (The cover says yes, the blurb implies no.) We also get Amagi Brilliant Park 6, I Shall Survive Using Potions! 3, and Lazy Dungeon Master 6.

ASH: “Bunny Dropping” is such an evocative turn of phrase.

ANNA: I know that Bunny Dropping is something I wish to avoid.

SEAN: Kodansha, in print, has Gleipnir 3, I’m Standing on a Million Lives 2, Love in Focus 3, The Seven Deadly Sins 33, To Your Eternity 10, Waiting for Spring 11, and Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches 19-20, which is at the “we don’t publish sales numbers but it’s down to twice a year and omnibuses? Yikes” stage.

MICHELLE: Love in Focus has been pretty cute and I look forward to its third and final volume. It’s been a while since I’ve read any Waiting for Spring, too.

ASH: I agree, Love in Focus has been been pretty cute and enjoyable so far. And yikes indeed in regards to Yamada-kun, et al. I really got a kick out of it initially, but the series unfortunately couldn’t seem to sustain itself after so many restarts. To Your Eternity, however, remains astonishingly good (and frequently devastating).

SEAN: Kodansha, digitally, debuts The Great Cleric (Seija Musou), which is based on a light novel and is about a salaryman who suddenly finds himself in another world. The sheer originality of the plot has won me over.

MICHELLE: *snerk*

SEAN: It also has has the 10th and final volume of Can You Just Die, My Darling?. There’s also Boarding School Juliet 11, Elegant Yokai Apartment Life 15, I’m Standing on a Million Lives 7, My Boyfriend in Orange 7, and Tokyo Alice 13.

Seven Seas wraps up The Bride and the Exorcist Knight with the fourth volume, and Citrus with the 10th. There’s also a pile of other titles. Our Dreams at Dusk: Shimanami Tasogare 2, Dreamin’ Sun 9, Toradora! light novel 6, A Certain Scientific Railgun: Astral Buddy 2, New Game! 6, and Sorcerous Stabber Orphen manga volume 2.

MICHELLE: I shamefully admit I still haven’t read the first volume of Our Dreams at Dusk.

ASH: The first volume was phenomenal; I’m really looking forward to the second and subsequent volumes.

ANNA: Just tried to order it for my library!

SEAN: Udon has the 10th Persona 3 manga.

ASH: I’ll admit, I enjoyed what I’ve played of the game more than I enjoyed what I’ve read of its manga adaptation.

SEAN: And Vertical gives us a 12th Witchcraft Works.

Viz has Children of the Whales 1-11 out digitally, as well as élDLIVE 10.

Yen has pretty much divided most of their releases into two weeks, this being the first. Almost all the debuts got shifted late, so we mostly get ongoing series next week.

Yen On has 86 ~ Eighty-Six~ Vol. 2, Defeating the Demon Lord’s a Cinch (If You’ve Got a Ringer) 4, Do You Love Your Mom (and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks)? 3, Goblin Slayer Side Story: Year One 2, and WorldEnd: What Do You Do at the End of the World? Are You Busy? Will You Save Us? 4. They’re also releasing A Sister’s All You Need 1-4, previously a print-only title, digitally.

On the manga end, there are two debuts that did not get shifted. One is a spinoff, Goblin Slayer: Brand New Day. The other has perhaps the most awkward manga title I’ve ever seen, as it’s called Divine Raiment Magical Girl Howling Moon. This runs in Bessatsu Dragon Age, and is by the writer of Trinity Seven and the artist of Highschool of the Dead and Triage X. Eeeeeeeee. Despite this, I will attempt to give it a try. It’s apparently about a morally ambiguous magical girl. NOT HELPING MY ANTICIPATION.

ASH: That is quite the title and premise.

ANNA: Huh.

SEAN: In addition to those, there’s Angels of Death 7, BTOOOM! 25 (second to last, please end please end please end), A Certain Magical Index’s 18th manga volume, DIVE!! 3, Nyankees 3, The Saga of Tanya the Evil’s 7th manga volume, and Teasing Master Takagi-san 5 (as well as 1-4 digitally, as this was also print-only till now).

ASH: Interesting to see something released in print before being release digitally these days!

SEAN: What manga cools you off?

SEAN: This may be the smallest week I’ve seen in years. Under 20 titles!

ASH: I’m astonished!

SEAN: Haikasoru has the 9th Legend of the Galactic Heroes.

ASH: The penultimate volume!

SEAN: J-Novel Club has a trio of popular series, with How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom 9, The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar 8, and My Next Life As a Villainess! 4.

In print, Kodansha has the 4th Quintessential Quintuplets (which is getting a 2nd season of anime soon) and a 4th Yuri Is My Job!.

ASH: I’ve been meaning to get around to Yuri Is My Job! at some point. Maybe the time has come.

SEAN: Digitally there is Altair: A Record of Battles 11, Mikami-sensei’s Way of Love 6, The Quintessential Quintuplets (yes, again) 9, and Tokyo Revengers 9.

Classroom of the Elite 3 is out digitally from Seven Seas. Yup, that’s it. They backloaded all their releases to the end of the month, Yen style.

Tokyopop has a 5th Futaribeya and a 5th Konohana Kitan.

The big debut this week is from Viz: Beastars. This award-winning manga runs in Akita Shoten’s Weekly Shonen Champion, and takes the idea of anthropomorphic herbivores and carnivores battling it out and transplants it to high school. It’s apparently the Next Big Thing, so get right on this one.

ANNA: OK, I’m not going to argue with this.

MICHELLE: I’m not entirely sure it’s for me, but I intend to at least give it a try!

ASH: I’m very curious about this series as I have heard very good things about it.

SEAN: Viz also has Children of the Whales 11, Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction 6, Fire Punch 7 (I thought it had ended. I was sadly wrong), and Terra Formars 21.

ANNA: More Dededede is always good!

ASH: Truth! Asano’s work really does leave an impression.

SEAN: Lastly, Yen had a bunch of stuff here when originally solicited, but it all drifted to later in July, leaving Gabriel Dropout 7 as the only non-rescheduled title. Which makes it the winner!

Still catching up on stuff? Or does something catch your attention?

MJ: I’m directing an opera, so I won’t be reading anything that isn’t an adaptation of Giacomo Rossi adapting Aaron Hill adapting Torquato Tasso. But it looks like I’m not missing that much.

SEAN: This is the first of two relatively quieter weeks, manga-wise. Relatively.

Blade of the Immortal has its 9th Omnibus edition from Dark Horse.

ASH: Still a great way to get into the series; some of the individual volumes are getting really hard to find!

SEAN: J-Novel Club has some more print debuts. Last and First Idol and JK Haru Is a Sex Worker in Another World, both very much off the beaten path from the usual harem isekai, are out in print. I recommend Last and First Idol to hard SF fans, and JK Haru to isekai fans who are prepared something a bit darker and more mature.

ASH: I don’t have a particular interest in idols, but I do have an particular interest in winners of the Seiun Award, so I might have to get around to reading Last and First Idol now that it will be available in print.

SEAN: Debuting digitally is Record of Wortenia War, which from what I understand is very much ON the beaten path – but hey, fans love to read that sort of thing these days.

They’ve also got Ascendance of a Bookworm 2, Full Metal Panic! 2, and Welcome to Japan, Ms. Elf! 2. It’s a Volume 2 bonanza!

Kodansha debuts Magus of the Library (Toshokan no Daimajutsushi), which is from good! Afternoon. The author also does 7th Garden. Elf kids meet librarians in a manga that reminds me a bit of Magi in its feel.

ASH: I’m always ready to read about fantasy librarians!

ANNA: Is the art the same as 7th Garden? Because I dig manga librarians, but not so much male gaze…

SEAN: Writer is artist here, yes, same as 7th Garden.

In print, there’s a 4th Hitorijime My Hero.

MICHELLE: I’m happy that this series has improved a lot since its first volume.

SEAN: On the digital-only front, we have Kira-kun Today 9 (which I think is the last?), Ran the Peerless Beauty 5 (which is not the last but is caught up to Japan), and World’s End and Apricot Jam 6 (which is definitely the last).

MICHELLE: Ran is so very charming. I’m looking forward to the conclusion of World’s End, too, which I liked more than anticipated.

SEAN: Seven Seas debuts Mythical Beast Investigator (Genjuu Chousain), the latest in a string of “mild supernatural world” titles along the lines of How to Treat Magical Beasts and the like… except it’s apparently by the author of Torture Princess. It ran in Kadokawa’s Famitsu Comic Clear.

ASH: Huh, I hadn’t made the author connection yet, but I am curious about the series.

SEAN: Also debuting is the manga adaptation of Skeleton Knight in Another World.

And we get the 6th Arifureta novel in print, Himouto! Umaru-chan 6, the 7th Make My Abilities Average! Novel digitally, and Tomo-chan Is a Girl! 4, one of my favorite new series.

SuBLime has the 2nd volume of Coyote and the 6th volume of Roadrunner… erm, I mean Crimson Spell.

ASH: I actually really like Crimson Spell in all its drama-filled, smutty ridiculousness.

ANNA: That has been low key on my radar but I haven’t checked it out yet.

SEAN: Vertical gives us the 2nd volume of the Knights of Sidonia Master Edition.

From Viz, we have Case Closed 71, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess 5, Radiant 6 and Rin-Ne 30.

ASH: I need to catch up with Twilight Princess. (I’d also really like to see some of Akira Himekawa’s original works licensed at some point.)

SEAN: And we get the last of Yen’s delays from June, as The Irregular at Magic High School 12 and Sword Art Online Progressive 6 are both out from Yen On.

Turns out relatively quiet still has an awful lot. What are you getting?

SEAN: July begins with, as you may be used to by now, a pile of manga. Let’s take a look.

Cross Infinite World has another novel debut with Labyrinth Angel, a supernatural thriller with a psychic woman and her butler assassin.

ASH: I do have a soft spot for butler assassins…

SEAN: There’s no Seven Seas next week, oddly enough, but we have two Ghost Ship titles. To-Love-Ru Darkness 11 and Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs 6 are both out.

J-Novel Club debuts a one-shot yuri novel, Side-by-Side Dreamers. Like JK Haru, this is from Hayakawa, a publisher known more for their science fiction than their light novels. An insomniac and a girl who can influence dreams battle against outside forces trying to destroy everyone’s sleep.

ASH: That’s a great premise. I hope this one is eventually released in print!

SEAN: They’ve also got Cooking with Wild Game 3, Infinite Stratos 8, and Kokoro Connect 6.

Kodansha has only one print title out next week, the 7th Grand Blue Dreaming.

Digitally, they have My Sweet Girl 4, Our Precious Conversations 3, Perfect World 9, and The Tale of Genji: Dreams at Dawn 5.

MICHELLE: I keep meaning to check out Our Precious Conversations, as it’s by Robico, whose My Little Monster I enjoyed.

SEAN: Now we drop all the way from K to V, with Vertical’s 13th Mobile Suit Gundam Wing.

There’s plenty of Viz, though – in fact it’s the bulk of the list. Debuting is Daytime Shooting Star (Hirunaka no Ryuusei), a Margaret title! Yes, regular Margaret, not Betsuma – a rarity for Western licenses. Country girl moves to the city, and finds the hot guy who she met the other day is her homeroom teacher. Student/teacher romance is not normally my thing, but I’m still gonna check it out.

MICHELLE: I unfailingly love Margaret titles, so despite the student/teacher aspect, I will also be reading this one.

ANNA: Me too, psyched for anything Margaret.

ASH: Count me as curious.

SEAN: Other shoujo titles include Anonymous Noise 15, Kakuriyo: Bed & Breakfast for Spirits 4, Oresama Teacher 26 (the ending was just announced in Japan! Noooooo!), Snow White with the Red Hair 2, Vampire Knight: Memories 3, and The Water Dragon’s Bride 10.

MICHELLE: Lots of good stuff in this list! I especially vote for Snow White with the Red Hair, the first volume of which was a lot of fun and had seriously likeable leads.

ANNA: This is a good week for me. Also excited for Snow White with the Red Hair and Water Dragon’s Bride.

ASH: Yup! Hooray for shoujo fantasy!

SEAN: On the Jump end, there is Black Clover 16, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba 7, Dr. STONE 6, Haikyu!! 33, Kaguya-sama: Love Is War 9, the 2nd My Hero Academia School Briefs light novel, as well as the 5th Vigilantes spinoff volume, and Platinum End 9.

ASH: Hooray for Haikyu!!, too!

SEAN: Lastly, a couple of Yen titles got pushed back a bit. Bungo Stray Dogs gets its first novel, a prequel taking place two years before the manga. And we also get the 11th and final Alice in Murderland, which means that we are once again in an odd, Kaori Yuki-less time period in our lives.

There’s plenty in this list to interest everyone. What about you?

SEAN: The last week in June is just as packed as the one before, believe it or not.

Bookwalker starts us off with the 8th volume of The Ryuo’s Work Is Never Done.

Dark Horse has the 2nd Berserk Deluxe Edition and a new HP Lovecraft Collection, At the Mountains of Madness.

ASH: Both the first Lovecraft collection and the first deluxe edition of Berserk were great!

SEAN: Denpa’s debut is actually a reissue of sort. Super Dimensional Love Gun, by cult favorite Shintaro Kago, was put out a couple of years ago by hentai publisher Fakku. Now Denpa is re-releasing it, and we get a digital version to boot. It’s a collection of Kago’s work, meaning it’s trippy as hell.

ASH: It really is.

MJ: I tend not to go for hentai, but the title of this collection is hard to resist, as is its description as “trippy as hell.”

SEAN: I’m not sure Super Dimensional Love Gun is hentai, despite its old publisher. Kago is not really something that arouses so much as morbidly fascinates.

Denpa also has the 2nd Today’s Menu for the Emiya Family, for those who want more of the Fate/Stay Night Golden Ending.

J-Novel Club, novel-wise, has An Archdemon’s Dilemma 6 and In Another World with My Smartphone 15.

On the manga end, they debut A Very Fairy Apartment, an Overlap title that has the protagonist discover, well, the apartment is full of fairies. It’s a 4-koma, and going for cute, I suspect.

There’s also the debut of the manga adaptation of I Shall Survive Using Potions!.

Kodansha has a print debut, sort of, with Card Captor Sakura: Collector’s Edition 1. New translation, new scans, new bells and whistles, etc.

MICHELLE: Different still from the Dark Horse translation? Sheesh.

ASH: From what I’ve seen, it does look like a really nice release. I haven’t decided if I’m going to double-dip or not yet, though.

ANNA: Yeah, I’m glad when series can stay in print but sometimes I wonder what the point is.

MJ: I really loved the Dark Horse edition, and it’s hard to justify buying it again as much as I adore the series. It’s SO TEMPTING, though.

SEAN: Also in print is Fire Force 16, a complete box set of Princess Jellyfish, the 5th Sailor Moon Eternal Edition, and (for real, I think) Tokyo Tarareba Girls 7.

ASH: Akiko Higashimura’s work is so good! I’m glad that Princess Jellyfish is getting even more love.

And also Witch Hat Atelier 2, which deserves its own line as it’s so awesome.

MICHELLE: It’s definitely on my list!

ASH: The first volume was gorgeous. I’m looking forward to the next volume.

ANNA: I still need to unearth and read the first volume, the stacks of manga in my house are out of control.

SEAN: Digitally we see Ao-chan Can’t Study 8, Asahi-sempai’s Favorite 4, Can You Just Die My Darling? 9, Elegant Yokai Apartment Life 14, My Boy in Blue 10, Tokyo Alice 12, and the 7th and final The Walls Between Us.

One Peace has a 3rd Hinamatsuri.

ASH: The first two volumes were ridiculous in a good way.

SEAN: Seven Seas has no debuts, but quite a bit of ongoing. We see the 2nd Ancient Magus’ Bride Supplement, the 4th Arifureta manga, Dragon Goes House-Hunting 3, Hour of the Zombie 9, the print edition of the 6th Make My Abilities Average! novel, The Ideal Sponger Life 2, the 2nd Reincarnated as a Sword novel digitally, and Satoko and Nada 2. Been waiting for more of Satoko and Nada.

MICHELLE: I’ll definitely be picking up Satoko and Nada and I remain curious about Dragon Goes House-Hunting, as well.

ASH: Satoko and Nada is so good! I’ll be picking up the Ancient Magus’ Bride supplement, too.

ANNA: Haven’t read Satoko and Nada, but I did get it for my library!

SEAN: Vertical has a new Monogatari Series, this one a short story collection so big it got split in two. Koyomimonogatari: Calendar Tale 1 has the first six short stories.

The Comics end of Vertical has To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts 8.

Viz has a digital-only debut with The Right Way to Make Jump!, a series that is about… well… creating manga in a Jump! style.

Yen digital has a 23rd Corpse Princess. They’ve also got Vols. 1-7.5 of My Youth Romantic Comedy is Wrong As I Expected’s novel out digitally as a catchup.

Yen has FOUR new debuts. The first is Little Miss P (Seiri-chan), a josei title from Enterbrain about the adventures of an anthropomorphic period. As in menstruation. It is apparently quite fun.

MICHELLE: …

ASH: I’ll admit, I’m curious. I do tend to like Enterbrain titles, and I’m always looking for more josei.

ANNA: Huh. I wonder, it could be good or terrible with that premise.

MJ: I don’t know how to feel about this. I mean, it probably is fun, but I dislike periods quite a lot, so it’s hard to feel jovial about them.

SEAN: Kaiju Girl Caramelise is a new title from the creator of Beasts of Abigaile, though this one runs in seinen magazine Comic Alive. It’s about a girl with an illness that makes her body do weird things, and they guy she falls for hard.

ANNA: Beasts of Abigaile was pretty fun so I am curious about this.

SEAN: KonoSuba is quite popular, and the most popular character is arguably Megumin, so why not have a spinoff? Konosuba: An Explosion on This Wonderful World! is based on the light novel (due out from Yen later in the year), and features Megumin and all the rest of your favorites from the Crimson Magic Clan! And Yunyun.

And The Monster and the Beast (Bakemono to Kedamono) is not by Natsume Ono, though the art style may fool you. It’s a BL title from Kadokawa’s Asuka Ciel, and seems to be the male equivalent of Beauty and the Beast Girl.

MICHELLE: This one looks really nifty.

ASH: I plan on checking it out!

MJ: It sounds like my thing just from the art style alone.

SEAN: And lastly, there’s a 3rd manga volume for Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online.

What manga are you sitting and reading immediately?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MJ: Saint Young Men!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

ANNA: Need to get caught up on Gangsta too!

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

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

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

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

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

MICHELLE: Hooray for grown-ups.

ASH: Indeed!

MJ: That does sound wonderful!

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

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

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

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

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