manga the week of

SEAN: Two manga enter! One manga leaves! Who will prevail?

J-Novel Club has two debuts, both manga. One is Mapping, the long title of which I will not quote here, and an adaptation of the light novel.

The other one is I Love Yuri and Got Bodyswapped with a Fujoshi (Ore ga Fujoshi de Aitsu ga Yuriota de), whose title is also its plot. It’s by the author of Failed Princesses, ran in Comic Flapper, and can be described as “yuri adjacent”.

Also out next week: Demon Lord Retry’s 4th manga volume; Infinite Dendrogram 13; Lazy Dungeon Master 13; Tearmoon Empire 3, and The Unwanted Undead Adventurer 7. Of those, Tearmoon is my clear pick.

ASH: I’ve heard really good things about Tearmoon Empire. (And not just from you!)

SEAN: Time for Kodansha, where I carefully double check the site before posting and STILL end up wrong as they shift release dates at the last second. Debuting this week in print is Life Lessons with Uramichi-Omiisan. It’s a black comedy that runs in Ichijinsha’ Comic Pool about a children’s TV show host who is… not a fun guy.

MICHELLE: I’m not sure I’ll like this, but the premise is interesting enough that I will at least check it out.

MJ: Hm, yeah, maybe.

SEAN: Also in print: Heaven’s Design Team 2, Perfect World 4, Rent-a-Girlfriend 4, Something’s Wrong with Us 4, To Your Eternity 13, and The Witch and the Beast 3.

ASH: I’m actually reading quite a few of these, but most of my attention is going to To Your Eternity.

SEAN: Two digital debuts. Shangri-La Frontier just debuted in Weekly Shonen Magazine, and is from the artist who does Attack on Titan: Lost Girls and Fairy Gone. That said, it’s an MMORPG manga based on a webnovel, so you know what you’re getting here.

The other is The Story of Our Unlikely Love (Kimi ga Kirai na Koi no Hanashi), a quick 2-volume shoujo series from Betsufure. He was a bad boy. She was a good girl. Can I make it anymore obvious?

ANNA: I seem to have a short attention span for digital shoujo, but 2 volumes might be just right.

MICHELLE: Yeah, I probably will end up reading this, too.

MJ: I haven’t really been reading anything digital at all lately, but this might be the right length for it.

SEAN: We also get All-Out!! 17 (the final volume), Peach Boy Riverside 2, Practice Makes Perfect 3, Seven Shakespeares 14, Shaman King: Flowers 5, Space Brothers 38, and We Must Never Fall in Love! 4.

MICHELLE: I had been waiting for that final volume of All-Out!! to hit so I could marathon the whole series in one chunk. That sounds like a nice project for my holiday break.

SEAN: One Peace has The New Gate 4.

Manly Appetites: Minegishi Loves Otsu (Minegishi-san wa Outsu-kun ni Tabesasetai) is one of Seven Seas’s debuts next week. It combines BL and food, and looks to be quite amusing.

MICHELLE: I’m very excited about this!

ASH: Same!

MJ: Always here for this combo.

SEAN: The other Seven Seas debut is the manga version of The Saint’s Magic Power Is Omnipotent.

Digitally we also get a light novel debut: Failure Frame: I Became the Strongest and Annihilated Everything With Low-Level Spells. Class transported. Our hero has no powers. Left for dead. Powers are actually really cool. We’ve read this before.

We also get: Cube Arts 2, The Hidden Dungeon Only I Can Enter novel 2 (print), The Ideal Sponger Life 7, Nurse Hitomi’s Monster Infirmary 11, PENGUINDRUM 2 (novel), Peter Grill and the Philosopher’s Time 3, Plus-Sized Elf 6, and Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out! 4.

ASH: Every time Penguindrum is mentioned I remember that I still need to catch up with Penguindrum in many of its forms.

SEAN: Square Enix debuts the manga version of the acclaimed novel series The Apothecary Diaries (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto). It runs in Big Gangan, and is about a servant in training who finds herself in the midst of palace politics. It’s apparently VERY good.

ANNA: Huh, sounds interesting. This wasn’t on my radar before.

MICHELLE: Same! I might check it out.

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

MJ: Well, wow. Sounds great!

SEAN: They also have the 2nd volume of the Wandering Witch manga.

SuBLime has Caste Heaven 4 and Punch-Up! 6.

Tokyopop has The God and the Flightless Messenger (Kamisama to Tobenai Tsukai), a one-and-done BL manga from Printemps Shuppan’s Canna. As you might guess by the title, it’s a fantasy.

Vertical gives us Bakemonogatari manga 6 (yes, I know I said this last week) and a digital release of Katanagatari 4 (yes, I know I said this two weeks ago).

Viz has no debuts, unless you count Super Mario Manga Mania, whose audience I suspect is adjacent to the normal Manga Bookshelf one.

ASH: That being said, I do know at least a few people who will be interested in this release!

SEAN: They do have How Do We Relationship? 2, Komi Can’t Communicate 10, and Pokemon Adventures Collector’s Edition 5.

MICHELLE: I’ve fallen a bit behind with Komi, but I’m in the mood now to get caught up.

SEAN: Yen Press has one debut: Slasher Maidens (Kaijin Reijoh), a Gangan Joker series that manages to combine horror manga and horny teen boys. It’s from the creator of Akame Ga KILL!.

Also out: As Miss Beelzebub Likes 11, Durarara: Re; Dollars 6, Happy Sugar Life 7, the 13th and final Hatsu*Haru, Restaurant to Another World 3, and Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun 6.

ASH: I’m reading the more recent Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun in preparation for this one as we speak.

SEAN: So, which manga won?

SEAN: It’s the last month of the year… what are we seeing, manga and light novel-wise?

Bookwalker has the 13th volume of The Ryuo’s Work Is Never Done!.

Dark Horse debuts Mob Psycho 100: Reigen, a one-volume spinoff of the original that ran in Ura Sunday.

ASH: I’m curious about this one.

SEAN: In print, J-Novel Club has two debuts: an omnibus version of the Infinite Dendrogram manga, and an omnibus of the Otherside Picnic light novels! Both contain the first two volumes. There’s also I Shall Survive Using Potions! 3 and In Another World with My Smartphone 13.

Digitally, J-Novel Club gives us Banner of the Stars 4, How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord 13, and Invaders of the Rokujouma!? 34.

They’ve also got manga digitally, including the manga debut of Bibliophile Princess, featuring one of my favorite fluffball heroines. There’s also the debut of Record of Wortenia War’s manga, and A Very Fairy Apartment 5.

Kodansha’s print debut is Mashima HERO’S, a crossover between three of the author’s biggest series: Rave Master, Fairy Tail and Eden’s Zero.

ASH: Somehow missed hearing about this one until now.

SEAN: Also in print: the 41st and final volume of The Seven Deadly Sins.

ASH: That was quite a run.

SEAN: There are two digital debuts. One is a Shaman King spinoff, The Super Star. It takes place after Flowers, and is still ongoing in Shonen Magazine Edge.

The other debut is The Invincible Reincarnated Ponkotsu (Ponkotsu ga Tensei Shitara Zongai Saikyou), a reincarnation isekai whose summary is so stupid I may actually give it a try. It runs in Suiyoubi no Sirius, and is probably glorious trash.

ASH: I have been convinced to read things for similar reasons in the past.

SEAN: Also out digitally: Altair: A Record of Battles 23, Cells at Work: Bacteria! 6, Chihayafuru 23, Ex-Enthusiasts: MotoKare Mania 5, Otherworldly Munchkin: Let’s Speedrun the Dungeon with Only 1 HP! 2, and Smile Down the Runway 16.

ANNA: I’m so far behind with Chihayafuru but I continue to be glad it is being released.

MICHELLE: I share your gratitude. Also, Ex-Enthusiasts: MotoKare Mania is a fun josei series that I’ve enjoyed so far.

SEAN: Seven Seas has two debuts. The Kingdoms of Ruin (Hametsu no Oukoku) runs in Mag Garden’s Comic Blade, but honestly it sort of lost me when I saw the words “revenge fantasy”.

The other debut, and done in one, is How Many Light-Years to Babylon? (Babylon Made wa Nan-kounen?), a comedy sci-fi story from the creator of The Voynich Hotel. This one I’m far more optimistic about, especially as it won the Seiun Award, the Japanese equivalent of the Hugo.

ASH: Oh! This sounds like one I should definitely check out.

SEAN: There’s also a 10th Akashic Records of Bastard Magical Instructor, A Certain Scientific Accelerator 11, the 11th Didn’t I Say to Make My Abilities Average?! (digitally), and Skeleton Knight in Another World’s 5th volume (manga) and 7th volume (light novel).

Vertical has the 6th Bakemonogatari manga, with a lovely snek on the cover.

No debuts from Viz, but some quality titles. We see Chainsaw Man 2, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba 19, Dragon Ball Super 11, Jujutsu Kaisen 7, One Piece 95, Queen’s Quality 10, Skip Beat! 3-in-1 14, Spy x Family 3, Twin Star Exorcists 20, Vampire Knight: Memories 5, We Never Learn 13, and Yona of the Dawn 27.

ANNA: Always happy for more Yona of the Dawn, Spy x Family, and Queen’s Quality.

MICHELLE: Indeed, several favorites for me among that lot. I’m especially keen to read the next volume of Yona, as the last ended on quite a pivotal moment.

ASH: Those three series are at the top of my list, too. I also plan on reading more Chainsaw Man.

MJ: I’m behind, but I have been a fan of Queen’s Quality, so I really should pick that up!

SEAN: Yen On debuts Reign of the Seven Spellblades (Nanatsu no Maken ga Shihai Suru), which is yet another magical academy series but also comes highly recommended.

Also from Yen On: Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki 5, Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? 15, and My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong As I Expected 10. The last of which has been delayed several times. As I expected.

Two debuts for Yen, though one is not really: Kingdom Hearts III, the manga has its first volume.

The other is Eniale & Dewiela. If you ever wondered what the creator of Witch Hat Atelier would do if she was told to make something akin to Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt, then this is the title for you. It’s 3 volumes total, and ran in Enterbrain’s Fellows! and Harta, two magazines which always earn an automatic purchase from me.

ASH: I’ll definitely be on the lookout for a copy of this!

MJ: Interesting!

SEAN: And there is IM: Great Priest Imhotep 6, Kakegurui Twin 8, Murcielago 16, Phantom Tales of the Night 6, and Puella Magi Madoka Magica: The Different Story: The Complete Omnibus Edition.

ASH: I’m a couple volumes behind on Phantom Tales of the Night, but I have been enjoying it.

SEAN: Anything here catch your eye?

SEAN: Happy Thanksgiving! Please be safe when you celebrate it!

Cross Infinite World gives us the 2nd volume of Another World’s Zombie Apocalypse Is Not My Problem!, which surprises me, as I thought it was a standalone. Though perhaps it surprises me less because it was on last month’s list – it got bumped.

Dark Horse Comics has two deluxe volumes – Vol. 6 of Berserk and Vol. 2 of Hellsing.

ASH: I plan on getting my hands on that deluxe Berserk volume.

SEAN: Ghost Ship has a trio of titles, as we see Fire in His Fingertips 2, World’s End Harem 9, and Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs 11.

ASH: Fire in His Fingertips is definitely one of the spiciest josei manga being released in print right now.

SEAN: J-Novel Club debuts The Bloodline, their first attempt at pulling a Cross Infinite World and licensing direct from the author – this isn’t out from a Japanese publisher yet. The plot sounds a lot like Our Last Crusade, but with vampires.

There’s also a pile of other titles. By the Grace of the Gods 5, Cooking with Wild Game 10, Demon Lord, Retry! 5, Full Metal Panic! 9, The Greatest Magicmaster’s Retirement Plan 7, the 11th and final volume of Kokoro Connect, My Instant Death Ability is So Overpowered, No One in This Other World Stands a Chance Against Me! 2, and My Next Life As a Villainess 8.

No print debuts for Kodansha, but some new volumes. We see I’m Standing on a Million Lives 8, Noragami: Stray God 22, Sayonara Football 2 (the final volume, though also see Farewell My Dear Cramer), The Quintessential Quintuplets 11, The Witch and the Beast 2, and Yuzu the Pet Vet 4.

MICHELLE: Man, I’m already so far behind on Yuzu the Pet Vet.

ASH: Likewise!

SEAN: SEAN: Digitally there is a debut. Am I Actually the Strongest? (Jitsu wa Ore, Saikyou Deshita?) is a reincarnation isekai that runs in Suiyoubi no Sirius. A reincarnated kid is abandoned for being weak. But is he? Is he really? No word on whether the author’s high school bullies play the villains here, but it’s possible! That is typical of the genre.

There’s also Cells at Work: Baby 2, Farewell My Dear Cramer 12, Maid in Honey 3, My Best (♀) Butler 3, Orient 8, Shaman King: Red Crimson 4 (the final volume), The Slime Diaries 4, and When We’re in Love 2.

Seven Seas has a massive amount of stuff. Let’s start with the debuts. Days of Love at Seagull Villa (Umineko Sou Days) is a Comic Yuri Hime title about a spurned fiancee who runs away, and the single mom who runs the housing complex she runs to. No relation to Umineko: When They Cry. Probably. It’s from the creator of I Married My Best Friend to Shut My Parents Up.

MICHELLE: This looks really good!

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

MJ: Could be interesting.

SEAN: Kageki Shojo!! The Curtain Rises is a one-omnibus shoujo manga that originally ran in a not-shoujo venue, Shueisha’s Jump Kai!. It’s about the lives of two Takarazuka girls. There is a sequel, as yet unlicensed, still running in Japan, this time in Hakusensha’s Melody.

MICHELLE: This looks really good, too!

ASH: Yes, it really does! In fact, it’s probably one of the releases that I’ve been most looking forward to this year.

ANNA: I’m intrigued by this for sure.

MJ: Same here!

SEAN: Two light novels we’ve seen digitally already also make print debuts: The Saint’s Magic Power Is Omnipotent and The Sorcerer King of Destruction and the Golem of the Barbarian Queen. We also get the 2nd volume of each of those series digitally.

Also due out next week: Adachi and Shimamura 3 (print) and 4 (digital), Citrus+ 2, D-Frag! 14, Dungeon Builder: The Demon King’s Labyrinth is a Modern City! 3, Gal Gohan 5, GIGANT 3, Harukana Receive 6, High-Rise Invasion 15-16, Magical Girl Site 13, My Senpai is Annoying 3, Neon Genesis Evangelion ANIMA 4, PENGUINDRUM 3 (manga version), Scarlet 2 (the final volume), and Species Domain 8. A large number of these have been out digitally for a while.

Tokyopop has the 7th volume of Futaribeya: A Room for Two.

Vertical has the 14th volume of Witchcraft Works. They also have the digital debut of the final volume of Katanagatari.

Yen On only has three volumes, but one is a doozy. The Intuition of Haruhi Suzumiya is the 11th volume in the light novel series, coming out digital-only (for now, print will follow) in North America at about the same time it’s out in Japan. The last volume in the series came out in English almost 7 years ago to the day. It’s been a while. Now, this is merely three short stories, but hey, it’s nice to see Haruhi back again – rumors of the author’s crippling writer’s block were worrying.

ASH: It has been some time! I never got around to reading them all, but I did enjoy the Haruhi novels that I made time for.

SEAN: They’ve also got The Asterisk War 14 and Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online 7.

On the Yen Press side, no debuts, but we get Breasts Are My Favorite Thing in the World! 2, Bungo Stray Dogs 16, Is It Wrong to Try To {Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon: Sword Oratoria 13 (manga version), Overlord the Undead King-Oh! 5, and Teasing Master Takagi-san 10.

Give thanks for manga! And again, stay safe. Masks, please.

SEAN: The weekend of Anime NYC, and I am… not in a hotel room in New York City. Boo. Still, there will be virtual con, I’m sure.

No debuts for J-Novel Club, but we do see The Combat Baker and Automaton Waitress 9, Holmes of Kyoto 2, Mapping 2, The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar 13, Seirei Gensouki 12, and Sorcerous Stabber Orphen 9.

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

Kodansha also has no print debuts, but we do have a fair amount of print, assuming no last-minute delays. There’s Cardcaptor Sakura Collector’s Edition 6 and also Clear Card 8. We also get Granblue Fantasy 7, Living-Room Matsunaga-san 5, Saiyuki 3, and The Seven Deadly Sins 40.

MICHELLE: I need to catch up on Living-Room Matsunaga-san.

ASH: I still need to start reading Living-Room Matsunaga-san!

SEAN: Digitally there is a debut. Dr. Ramune -Mysterious Disease Specialist- (Kai Byoui Ramune) is about a sort of modern-day, more casual Black Jack and his bizarre supernatural-tinged patients. It sounds like a gag manga, but is apparently deeper than it looks. It runs in Shonen Sirius.

ASH: I’m curious about this one, though I don’t read much digitally.

SEAN: Also digitally: Dolly Kill Kill 8, GE: Good Ending 11, Heroine for Hire 3, Hop Step Sing! 2, Kakushigoto 9, Shaman King: Red Crimson 3, The Writer and His Housekeeper 2, and Yozakura Quartet 26.

Seven Seas has an early digital light novel debut: Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs. This time it’s a male office worker who dies and gets reincarnated in an otome game… as a schlub NPC. But he does recall the game’s events. Can he make his life better?

In print, there are two debuts. The Hidden Dungeon Only I Can Enter has a manga, and this is the first volume of that. It’s pleasantly dumb.

What the Font?! – A Manga Guide to Western Typeface has, aside from a terrific title, an “educational” feel to it. Expect anthropomorphic personifications.

ASH: I’m actually really excited for this one.

ANNA: Oh, me too!

SEAN: Also from Seven Seas: Cosmo Familia 3 (the final volume), Mushoku Tensei: Roxy Gets Serious 4, New Game! 10, Precarious Woman Executive Miss Black General 5, Saint Seiya: Saintia Sho 11, and Sarazanmai 2.

ASH: Whoops, still need to get around to Sarazanmai 1!

Square Enix has, not a manga or novel, but Final Fantasy VII Poster Collection. It’s Tifa-tastic and Aerith-riffic.

Vertical gives us the 8th and final volume of Arakawa Under the Bridge. There’s also Blood on the Tracks 3 and Go with the Clouds, North-by-Northwest 4.

MICHELLE: The first volume of Blood on the Tracks was enjoyably ominous.That’s another one I need to catch up on.

SEAN: It’s a very Rumiko Takahashi week at Viz. Not only do we get Urusei Yatsura’s 8th omnibus (introducing Ryuunosuke, the precursor to Ranma Saotome), but also debut Mermaid Saga in omnibus form! This is decidedly NOT a comedy, and shows off how good Takahashi was at horror and suspense.

MICHELLE: I have the single volumes of this, but have never read it!

ASH: I love Mermaid Saga so much that I’m double-dipping for the new edition.

ANNA: I think I read a tiny bit of it back in the day but I’m excited for the new edition too.

MJ: I probably need to finally read this.

SEAN: There’s also Beastars 9, Hell’s Paradise Jigokuraku 5, and Tokyo Ghoul:re Illustrations: zakki, an artbook.

MICHELLE: I’m so far behind on Beastars and Hell’s Paradise already!

ASH: I’m a few volumes behind myself, but have been liking both series so far.

SEAN: And then there’s Yen, and they have a lot, even with the normal “date shifts”. First we get the novels.

There are three debuts, though one doesn’t count. A Certain Magical Index SS 1 is hardly unknown to readers, but it is nice to see, especially as I whined at Yen when it did not come out (as it did in Japan) between Books 13 and 14. It’s a short-story collection, and introduces the reader to Hamazura… assuming they haven’t read Index 15-22 already.

The Place Promised in Our Early Days is another Makoto Shinkai adaptation… in fact, it’s of his first major film.

MJ: I usually like these adaptations, though I haven’t watched this movie in a long while. Might be nice to revisit.

SEAN: The big debut is Unnamed Memory, an extremely popular light novel series. A Crown Prince with a curse has to visit the strongest witch in the world to break it. Destiny ensues.

ASH: It does look as though it may have some potential.

SEAN: Yen On also has a LOT of ongoing series. 86 ~Eighty-Six~ 6, The Dirty Way to Destroy the Goddess’s Heroes 5, Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks? 7, The Hero Is Overpowered but Overly Cautious 5, I’m a Behemoth, an S-Ranked Monster, but Mistaken for a Cat, I Live as an Elf Girl’s Pet 2, Last Round Arthurs 3, Magical Girl Raising Project 10, Rascal Does Not Dream 3, So I’m a Spider, So What? 10, and World’s Strongest Rearguard: Labyrinth Country’s Novice Seeker 4.

And that’s just novels. For manga, there are five debuts. Mieruko-chan is a comedy from Monthly Comic Alive about a girl who can see terrifying ghosts and monsters… and does her level best to ignore them.

Sadako at the End of the World (Shuumatsu no Sadako-san) is a one-shot manga from Comic Gene about the girl from Ring ending up in a post-apocalyptic world where her presence is far more welcome.

ASH: Okay, both of these sound like something I should check out.

MJ: Same here.

SEAN: Star Wars: Rebels is the manga adaptation of the popular series, and comes from LINE Corporation.

The White Cat’s Revenge as Plotted from the Dragon King’s Lap is the manga adaptation of a light novel we’ve seen from J-Novel Heart. A girl with the worst luck ends up reincarnated in another world… sadly, the source of that bad luck is here as well. Can she escape and live freely? This runs in Kadokawa’s FLOS Comic.

Lastly, A Witch’s Love at the End of the World (Sekai no Owari to Majo no Koi) (no relation to Sadako’s title) is a yuri series from ASCII Mediaworks’ Comic IT. It… honestly reads sort of like a Japanese version of The Owl House. Which I’m fine with.

There’s also Eclair Orange, the latest in that yuri anthology, IM: Great Priest Imhotep 5, Keito Koume Illustrations Spice & Wolf (an artbook), Shibuya Goldfish 8, and Yoshi no Zuikara 2.

MICHELLE: I had no idea there was yet another Eclair on the way!

SEAN: I’m exhausted, how about you?

SEAN: Need a distraction from the real world? There’s manga.

Ghost Ship gives us Parallel Paradise 3 and World’s End Fantasia 3.

J-Novel Club starts us off with a debut light novel, I’ll Never Set Foot in That House Again! (Nidoto ie ni wa Kaerimasen!). A J-Novel Heart title, this is about an abused young noble daughter who one day is found to have a rare Skill. Now she’s taken off to the research labs and treated like a princess. But will her family stand for that? This is a rare shoujo title where the heroine is more “cute and moe” than the typical “energetic and spunky”.

J-Novel Club also debuts the manga version of the Marielle Clarac series, The Engagement of Marielle Clarac. Fans of the books will want to pick this up, it’s a lot of fun.

Also out from J-NC: Black Summoner 2, In Another World with My Smartphone 21, The Magic in This Other World Is Too Far Behind!! 6 (manga version), Monster Tamer 2, Outbreak Company 15, and Slayers 3.

Kodansha, in print: Drifting Dragons 6, Hitorijime My Hero 8, Knight of the Ice 4, and Saint Young Men 4.

MICHELLE: I’ll be checking out Hitorijime My Hero and <i.Knight of the Ice for sure.

ANNA: I find <i.Knight of the Ice delightful.

ASH: Oooh! It’s a good Kodansha print week for me! I’m actively reading three of these four series.

SEAN: The digital debut is Peach Boy Riverside, one of the endless titles that are written by Coolkyousinnjya of Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid fame. It’s about a princess who meets the equivalent of Momotaro (hence the title) and chases after him. It runs in Shonen Magazine R.

Also digital: Ace of the Diamond 29, Cells at Work and Friends! 4 (the final volume), Giant Killing 23, My Roomie Is a Dino 4, Practice Makes Perfect 2, Shaman King: Flowers 4, Tokyo Revengers 18, and We Must Never Fall in Love 3.

MICHELLE: Yay for new volumes of two of my favorite sports manga!

SEAN: One Peace has an 18th volume of The Rising of the Shield Hero.

Seven Seas has a number of debuts. Blue Giant is a series that is coming out here in double-volume omnibuses, and ran in Shogakukan’s Big Comic. It’s essentially a sports manga, if the sport was jazz saxophone. It’s won multiple awards. I cannot wait.

MICHELLE: Sounds intriguing!

ANNA: Wow, I wasn’t aware of this before but it does sound amazing.

ASH: I am really looking forward to this one!

SEAN: I’m in Love with the Villainess! came out digitally already, but it was so good that you should get the print version as well. Volume 1 is out next week.

ASH: I’ve heard so many good things about this series; I’m excited to finally have the chance to read it!

SEAN: Rainbow and Black (Niji to Kuro) is a weird slice-of-life manga about a young woman and her… bird-puff… thing. It’s from Ichijinsha’s Comic Rex.

ASH: I do like weird, so count me as curious.

SEAN: And then there’s Unicorns Aren’t Horny (Ikkakujuu ha Tsuranukanai!), from GOT Corporation’s Comic MeDu, a webcomic about a woman who is still a virgin – by choice – and her unicorn roomate, who… really loves her. This is intriguing but could also be creepy? Not sure?

ASH: It sounds bizarre enough that I’m willing to give it a try to find out.

SEAN: Also out from Seven Seas: Arpeggio of Blue Steel 16, The Conditions of Paradise: Our First Time (essentially a Vol. 2), Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash 14, How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom 8, Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear 3 (manga version), Magic User: Reborn in Another World as a Max Level Wizard novel 3, Primitive Boyfriend 3 (the final volume), and Sorry for My Familiar 7.

MICHELLE: I’ll be checking in to see how Primitive Boyfriend ends.

SEAN: Square Enix debuts the manga version of By the Grace of the Gods, which has a light novel (from J-Novel Club) and an anime this fall as well. It’s a slow life reincarnation isekai with cute kids and slimes.

SuBLime debuts Birds of Shangri-La (Shangri La no Tori), a BL series that, erm… is hard to describe in a work-safe way. If you know what a fluffer is, you’ll know what this is about. It runs in Canna magazine, and is from the author of Coyote and Liquor and Cigarettes.

They also have a 4th volume of Given.

MICHELLE: Woot!

ANNA: Yay!!

ASH: I’ll admit that I’ll be picking both of these up.

SEAN: Viz gives us Fly Me to the Moon 2, Fullmetal Alchemist: Fullmetal Edition 11, Requiem of the Rose King 13, Rin-Ne 36, Splatoon: Squid Kids Comedy Show 2, and A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow 5.

MICHELLE: I need to catch back up on Requiem of the Rose King.

ANNA: Me too!

ASH: I’m really looking forward to more.

SEAN: Yen On has The Eminence in Shadow 2 and Wandering Witch 3.

Lastly, Yen has a one-shot title, My Broken Mariko, which ran in Comic Bridge. a josei title about a woman who finds her best friend just killed herself and the search as for why that happened. This deals with themes of abuse and suicide, but is also supposed to be fantastically written.

MICHELLE: I’m very much looking forward to this.

ANNA: I’m always going to check out some josei.

ASH: I’ve heard some very good things about this manga and plan on giving it read when I can.

SEAN: Did you vote? If you did, please read some manga to cool down.

SEAN: November, and there’s still a lot coming out every week.

And we start with a bang, as Dark Horse has the manga version of the highly-acclaimed series Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! (Eizouken ni wa Te wo Dasu na!). From Gekkan Spirits, it’s a fantastic look at goofy eccentrics trying to make their own anime.

ASH: I’ve definitely heard good things about the anime; hopefully the manga will be good, too!

MJ: That sounds kind of fun!

SEAN: J-Novel Club has a lot of print this week. Two debuts, By the Grace of the Gods (now with an anime) and I Shall Survive Using Potions! (the manga version).

Also in print: An Archdemon’s Dilemma 8, Ascendance of a Bookworm 2 (manga version), Infinite Dendrogram 9, The Magic in This Other World Is Too Far Behind! 9, and My Next Life As a Villainess! 4.

ASH: I’m really happy to see so much print coming out from J-Novel Club.

SEAN: Digitally the debut is Fushi no Kami: Rebuilding Civilization Starts With a Village (Fushi no Kami ~ Henkyou kara Hajimeru Bunmei Saiseiki ~). A young man is reincarnated in another world, but he doesn’t have cool magic or sword powers, and the world is medieval. He wants modern civilization! Can he find it?

And there’s also the 5th Marginal Operation manga.

Kodansha debuts in print That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime: Trinity in Tempest, another spinoff of the popular series.

Also in print from Kodansha: Fate/Grand Order – mortalis:stella 2, Fire Force 20, O Maidens in Your Savage Season 8, That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime 14, Welcome to the Ballroom 10, and Yuri Is My Job! 6. Wait, Welcome to the Ballroom still exists?

MICHELLE: Apparently! It’s been almost three years since volume nine came out.

ASH: Wow, that has been a while! O Maidens in Your Savage Season is the series that has my attention here, though.

SEAN: Digitally the debut is Otherworldly Munchkin: Let’s Speedrun the Dungeon with Only 1 HP! (Isekai Man Chikin -HP 1 no Mama de Saikyou Saisoku Danjon Kouryaku-), a Suiyoubi no Sirius series about a brother killed protecting his sister who’s reincarnated in a fantasy world… as is his sister, who he still has to save.

Also digital: All-Rounder Meguru 17, Cells at Work: Bacteria! 5, GTO Paradise Lost 13, Magical Sempai 7, My Boss’s Kitten 7 (the final volume), My Sweet Girl 11, Our Fake Marriage 4, Shaman King: Flowers 3, Shaman King: Red Crimson 2, and Smile Down the Runway 15.

MICHELLE: I should really check back in with My Sweet Girl. It was getting kind of good when I left off.

SEAN: One Peace has a 10th volume of Hinamatsuri.

Seven Seas debuts, in print, Yes, No, or Maybe?, a BL light novel about the television industry.

ASH: I might get around to reading this now that it’s in print.

MJ: Okay, I might be interested in this.

SEAN: Also coming out: Fairy Tale Battle Royale 4, The Legend of Dororo and Hyakkimaru 2, Shomin Sample 13, Skeleton Knight in Another World 8 (digital version), and Who Says Warriors Can’t Be Babes? 2.

ASH: I only just recently read the first volume, but I’m interested in reading more of The Legend of Dororo and Hyakkimaru. Osama Tezuka’s original Dororo is one of my favorites.

SEAN: Tokyopop debuts Ossan Idol! (Ossan (36) ga Idol ni naru Hanashi), an adaptation of a novel that runs in Comic Pash!. A Middle-Aged Man, bullied most of his life, turns his life around and gets buff, cool and handsome… but is unaware of this. Now he’s been scouted. This looks pretty fun.

MICHELLE: It does!

SEAN: Vertical has the 5th Bakemonogatari manga and Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro 4.

No debuts for Viz, just the usual powerhouses. There’s Black Clover 23, the 2nd Bleach: Don’t Fear Your Own World light novel, Daytime Shooting Star 9, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba 18, Dr. STONE 14, Haikyu!! 41, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Arc 4 7, Kaguya-sama: Love Is War 17, Love Me Love Me Not 5, My Hero Academia: Vigilantes 8, The Promised Neverland 17, Samurai 8 4, Shortcake Cake 10, Snow White with the Red Hair 10, and World Trigger 21.

MICHELLE: Yep, I’ll definitely be reading a bunch of these. I’m probably the most excited for Haikyu!!.

ASH: I’m following quite a few of these, too!

ANNA: I am also happy about many of these ongoing series!

SEAN: Yen On has three ongoing titles: May These Leaden Battlegrounds Leave No Trace 2, A Sister’s All You Need 8, and That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime 9.

As for Yen Press, the “debut” is Sword Art Online Progressive: Barcarolle of Froth, the continuation of Progressive’s manga with a new artist, covering the series’ third novel.

There’s also Final Fantasy: Lost Stranger 5, The Royal Tutor 14, Sacrificial Princess and the King of Beasts 11, and That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime: The Ways of the Monster Nation 2.

ASH: I really need to catch up with Sacrificial Princess and the King of Beasts; I enjoyed the early volumes, but have fallen behind.

SEAN: See? That’s a lot.

SEAN: BOO!

Cross Infinite World gives us the 2nd volume of Another World’s Zombie Apocalypse Is Not My Problem!, which surprises me, as I thought it was a standalone.

Dark Horse has the 6th volume of Mob Psycho 100.

ASH: While I’m not quite as taken with the series as I was in the beginning, I’ve still been enjoying it.

SEAN: There’s a triple dose of not-quite-porn from Ghost Ship, who have Destiny Lovers 4, Parallel Paradise 3, and To-Love-Ru Darkness 17.

J-Novel Club debuts a new manga, Campfire Cooking in Another World, based on the light novel of the same name.

They also have Can Someone Please Explain What’s Going On? 4, Der Werwolf 9, When the Clock Strikes Z 2 (a final volume, I think), and The White Cat’s Revenge as Plotted from the Dragon King’s Lap 3.

ASH: I haven’t actually read that last one, but that series title is great.

SEAN: Kodansha is still making up for lost time, so get ready. Print Debut #1: Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie (Kawaii Dake Janai Shikimori-san) is a Magazine Pocket series that seems to be part of the “girl teases the guy she likes” genre, though in this case they’re already dating.

Print Debut #2: The Witch and the Beast (Majo to Yajuu), an action-adventure series from Young Magazine the 3rd that seems to run on being really cool.

MICHELLE: It really does look very cool.

MJ: I like cool.

SEAN: Also in print: Cells at Work: Code BLACK 6, Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest 5, The Heroic Legend of Arslan 13, If I Could Reach You 5, Kiss Me at the Stroke of Midnight 11, Love and Lies 9, Sue & Tai-chan 2, and UQ Holder 20.

ASH: I’m not actively reading too many of these, but I am really glad to see the print titles picking up again.

SEAN: Two digital debuts. The first is another Shaman King spinoff, Shaman King: Red Crimson. This one started AFTER the artist moved to Kodansha, so ran in Shonen Magazine Edge. It’ll run 4 volumes.

The other is When We’re in Love (Hana-kun to Koisuru Watashi), a Betsufure series featuring a model student and a delinquent. Sure, throw another shoujo on the pile.

Also coming out digitally: Abe-kun’s Got Me Now! 5, Atsumori-kun’s Bride to Be 5, Cells at Work: Platelets 2, Kounodori: Dr. Stork 17, the 7th and final volume of Love Massage: Melting Beauty Treatment (I assume she has now melted and man and puddle can live together as one), Maid in Honey 2, My Best (♀) Butler 2, Orient 7, and Shaman King: Flowers 2.

MICHELLE: I couldn’t even make it one volume through Abe-kun. I am, though, happy for more of Atsumori-kun’s Bride-to-Be!

SEAN: Oh yes, and 12 more Drops of God volumes hit digitally, 22 to 33.

One Peace has a new debut: Farming Life in Another World (Isekai Nonbiri Nouka). This series from Fujimi Shobo’s Dragon Age is… exactly what it sounds like, but there’s more sex than you’d expect.

ASH: Huh. The farming aspect vaguely interests me, but…

SEAN: Seven Seas has two light novel debuts, one print and one digital-first. The print is ROLL OVER AND DIE: I Will Fight for an Ordinary Life with My Love and Cursed Sword!, which I reviewed when the digital version came out. It had a lot more horror than I was expecting, but should also satisfy yuri fans.

The digital first is Berserk of Gluttony (Boushoku no Berserk), a dark-sounding light novel about a man who’s lived his life always hungry finding out that he can feed on BLOOD AND SOULS! Not Elric of Melnibone, I’m sure, but close.

Also out from Seven Seas: Buck Naked in Another World 2 (mercifully the final volume), Classroom of the Elite 7 (early digital), Dance in the Vampire Bund: Age of Scarlet Order 3, The Girl from the Other Side 9, Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear novel 3, Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka 9, Mushoku Tensei 7 (novel), Nicola Traveling Around the Demon’s World 3, and Pandora in the Crimson Shell: Ghost Urn 13.

ANNA: I’m ashamed at how far behind I am with The Girl from the Other Side but I fully intend to get caught up.

MICHELLE: I think I have read through volume seven, but I also have a little catching up to do.

ASH: The Girl from the Other Side is still one of my top series; Nicola Traveling Around the Demon’s World is really wonderful, too.

SEAN: Square Enix has NieR:Automata – YoRHa Boys, a novel based on… well, take a guess.

They’ve also got Hi Score Girl 4.

Tentai Books says they’re releasing the 2nd volume of There’s No Way a Side Character Like Me Could Be Popular, Right?.

Vertical has the 3rd volume of Owarimonogatari: End Tale, which wraps up the Monogatari series… OR DOES IT?

Yen On gives us four more light novels to round out the month. There’s I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years 8, Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Familia Chronicle 2: Episode Freya, KonoSuba 12, and Strike the Blood 16.

Yen has two manga debuts. Heterogenia Linguistico is a Young Ace Up series that looks like it does for monster research what Delicious in Dungeon does for monster food.

MICHELLE: The covers have a similar aesthetic, too.

ASH: I am intrigued.

SEAN: Star Wars: Leia, Princess of Alderaan is a LINE manga title based on some obscure movie, and deals with Leia’s teenage adventures.

ANNA: I’m a little curious about this.

SEAN: Yen also gives is Happy Sugar Life 6, I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years 3 (manga), Kemono Friends a La Carte 4 (final volume), Our Last Crusade 3 (manga), and Restaurant to Another World 2 (manga).

Are you scared?

SEAN: Is this Phase Three of Manga reopening?

Cross Infinite World gives us a third volume of I Became the Secretary of a Hero!.

J-Novel Club has Ascendance of a Bookworm 9, Campfire Cooking in Another World 8, and the fourth Marielle Clarac book, The Wedding of Marielle Clarac.

ASH: I’m definitely behind on Ascendance of a Bookworm, but I’ve been enjoying the series.

SEAN: Kodansha seems to be making up for the lack of print lately. There are two print debuts. Heaven’s Design Team (Tenchi Souzou Design-bu) we’ve seen before digitally, it’s about animals designers with a bunch of questions for God. It runs in Morning Two.

MICHELLE: It’s not bad, but perhaps the most interesting thing about it is that it’s co-written by Tsuta Suzuki, creator of the supernatural BL series A Strange & Mystifying Story.

ASH: Even though I’ve really been looking forward to giving this one a try, I had somehow completely missed that connection, Michelle!

SEAN: Whisper Me a Love Song (Sasayaku You ni Koi wo Utau) is a ‘cute girl falls for her sempai” series from Comic Yuri Hime.

MICHELLE: It does indeed look cute.

ANNA: Nice.

SEAN: Also in print: Chobits 20th Anniversary Edition 2, Perfect World 3, Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon 10 (the final volume), Rent-a-Girlfriend 3, Sweat and Soap 4, Wave, Listen to Me! 4, Wotakoi: Love Is Hard for Otaku 4, and Yuzu the Pet Vet 3.

MICHELLE: Super excited for more Wave, Listen to Me! and Wotakoi!

ANNA: I’m so behind on Wave, Listen to Me! but I want to read it someday!

ASH: Oh, Kodansha really is making up for the lack of print! I’m reading (or have read) most of these.

SEAN: Digitally there are also debuts. Shaman King: Flowers is a sequel to the original series, and ran in Jump Kai.

The Writer and His Housekeeper (Shousetsuka-sama wa, Monmon Shitagaru) is a josei series from Kodansha’s Ane Friend. Woman who housekeeps for an eccentric erotic novelist finds herself moving in with him when her place burns down. Not my thing, but hey.

MICHELLE: Yeah, this’ll be a pass from me.

ANNA: I love josei but am not into the whole servant thing.

SEAN: Lots of other digital-only titles. Cosplay Animal 14 (the final volume), Dolly Kill Kill 7, Fairy Tail: Happy’s Heroic Adventure 6, GE: Good Ending 10, Heroine for Hire 2, Kakushigoto 8, Shaman King: Zero 2, and Shojo FIGHT! 13.

MICHELLE: I have fallen quite far behind on Shojo FIGHT!, alas.

Seven Seas has no debuts, but plenty of ongoing series. We get Alice & Zoroku 7, Arifureta 10 (print version), Didn’t I Say to Make My Abilities Average?! 4 (manga version), Getter Robo Devolution 5 (the final volume), Himouto Umaru-chan 11, Love Me for Who I Am 2, Reincarnated As a Sword 4 (manga version), Restaurant to Another World 5 (early digital), and Wonderland 6.

ASH: I somehow haven’t actually read the first volume of Love Me for Who I Am yet; I should probably fix that.

SEAN: Udon has the 13th and final volume of Persona 4.

Vertical has a 2nd volume of The Daily Lives of High School Boys.

Viz gives us Sneeze: Naoki Urasawa Story Collection, which has eight short stories that mostly ran in Big Comic Spirits. Obviously, a must buy for Urasawa fans.

ASH: I’m really curious to see how Urasawa does with shorter manga, having previously only read his multi-volume works. (Well… unless you count Pineapple Army…)

MJ: I guess I’m in for this.

SEAN: They’ve also got two box sets: The Legend of Zelda Legendary Box Set (5 volumes, in Hardcover, with a “treasure chest” box) and Tokyo Ghoul: re Complete Box Set (16 volumes, comes with a poster).

ASH: That is a very pretty looking Zelda box set.

And we also have Blue Flag 4, Golden Kamuy 18, and Ultraman 14.

MICHELLE: Yay for Blue Flag!

ANNA: Also behind on this, gotta get to reading.

MJ: Oh no, same.

MICHELLE: Honestly, I live in a constant state of “Behind on this, gotta get to reading.”

ASH: Glad to see more Blue Flag and Golden Kamuy, too, though I’m also a little behind on those series.

SEAN: A lot of Yen’s October releases got delayed to later weeks. The ones that kept the same release date must be the STRONGEST Yen Press releases!

This includes no less than THREE debuts from Yen On. The first is long, long awaited by many horny anime fans. High School DxD has had its manga coming out here for a while, but finally we get the novels. Issei is contracted to a demon and getting involved with Fallen Angels, but what he really wants is a harem.

In the Land of Leadale (Leadale no Daichi nite) starts off with a woman who gets in a horrible accident… but doesn’t die. She is on life support, though, and her VR Game Leadale is a comfort. However, having now passed away, she finds herself in that same game world… 200 years after the events of the game! I’ve heard this is similar to Overlord, only without the evil.

Lastly we have a one-shot, Three Days of Happiness (Mikkakan no kōfuku). A college student sells thirty years of his life, for both cash and to try to find something worth living for. This sounds like it’s for fans of Makoto Shinkai’s earlier, more depressing titles.

ASH: Oh, is that me? That might be me.

SEAN: Also out from Yen On: Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody 12, The Greatest Demon Lord Is Reborn As a Typical Nobody 4, High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even in Another World! 2, and Re: Zero 14.

Yen Press has an expensive but no doubt gorgeous artbook due out next week: Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice Official Artworks. Based on the game, Yen also released a manga side-story of this world a few months back.

Yen also has Bestia 2, The Monster and the Beast 3, RaW Hero 3, To Save the World, Can You Wake Up the Morning After with a Demi-Human? 2, and Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun 5.

ASH: I’ll be picking up Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun for sure. And probably The Monster and the Beast, too.

SEAN: Is this too much? Or just enough?

SEAN: October 2020, where you have to bar your doors against trick-or-treaters. This year sucks. Let’s brighten it with manga.

Denpa Books says they’re putting out the 3rd Pleasure and Corruption.

J-Novel Club’s digital debut is a manga. Sorcerous Stabber Orphen: The Youthful Journey. By the title, I’d guess it’s a prequel to The Wayward Journey?

Also from J-Novel Club: Bibliophile Princess 4, Epic Tale of the Reincarnated Prince Herscherik 2, the 4th The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar manga, Record of Wortenia War 8, and Wild Times with a Fake Fake Princess 3, which I believe is the final volume.

Kodansha has a few print titles coming out. The debut, which I am very excited for, is Blue Period, an Afternoon manga from the author of She and Her Cat. A young man finds a calling in painting, but it’s one that might ruin his future if he’s not careful.

MICHELLE: I’m looking forward to this, too!

ASH: Same!

MJ: This sounds great!

ANNA: I’m officially intrigued.

SEAN: Also in print, the 5th Attack on Titan Colossal Edition, Grand Blue Dreaming 11, Interviews with Monster Girls 8, and Something’s Wrong with Us 3.

ASH: In case anyone hasn’t actually seen the colossal edition in person, it is indeed colossal.

SEAN: Two debuts digitally. The first is Practice Makes Perfect (Acchi no Renshuu Hajimemashita), a shoujo manga from Ane Friend. Two jocks who were just dumped by their respective partners due to lack of experience try to “practice” with each other.

The other is Shaman King: Zero, which contains various short stories of the main series that ran in Jump Kai back when this was owned by Shueisha.

And there’s All-Out!! 16, Domestic Girlfriend 27, Vampire Dormitory 4, and We Must Never Fall in Love! 2.

MICHELLE: I believe this is the penultimate All-Out!!, a sports series I have still not even managed to start. Shock!

SEAN: One Peace has a 3rd volume of The New Gate.

Seven Seas has a debut. Well, two, really, as The Hidden Dungeon Only I Can Enter has a print release now. It’s trash, but very readable.

ASH: Sometimes you need a series like that.

SEAN: The other debut is Cutie and the Beast (Pujo to Yajuu: JK ga Akuyaku Wrestler ni Koi shita Hanashi), a Betsufure shoujo manga about, well, a high school girl who falls in love with a wrestler who looks like a villain. This looks adorable.

MICHELLE: I have a soft spot for stories where a scary-looking guy is actually very sweet.

ASH: I am incredibly curious about this title; it looks and sounds great!

ANNA: I’m going to check this out too!

SEAN: Also out: The Ancient Magus’ Bride 13, Classroom of the Elite 6 in print, How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord 9 (the manga version), Kingdom of Z 2, My Next Life As a Villainess 4 (manga version), and There’s a Demon Lord on the Floor 8.

ASH: Hooray for more The Ancient Magus’ Bride! I need to catch up on the last few volumes (and spin-offs).

SEAN: Square Enix has a 2nd volume of The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest.

SuBLime has two manga: His Favorite 11, and Jealousy 2.

MICHELLE: I bought Jealousy volume one, but haven’t managed to read it yet. It looks very dramatic.

ASH: His Favorite is so goofy; I really enjoy it.

SEAN: Vertical has two books: CITY 9, and Knights of Sidonia Master Edition 7.

Viz has two not-quite-manga debuts. The first is The Art of Magic the Gathering: War of the Spark.

The second is Fangirl: the Manga, a Viz Original by Rainbow Rowell and Gabi Nam about a fanfic-writing twin who now finds herself in college with her fanfic writing disparaged and her twin not there.

ASH: Interesting! This had slipped my radar.

SEAN: Also from Viz: Case Closed 76, Komi Can’t Communicate 9, Persona 5 4 (or Persona 4 5, whichever you prefer), Pokemon Adventures: Collector’s Edition 4, Radiant 13, Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle 13, and Transformers: The Manga 3.

ASH: Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle continues to delight me.

SEAN: So? Whadja get?

SEAN: It’s October, and we are all having pumpkin spice something!

Dark Horse debuts Blade of the Immortal!… again. Deluxe hardcover this time, 576 pages, even has a bookmark ribbon to show it’s class.

ASH: Blade of the Immortal holds a very special place in my heart. While I didn’t double-dip for the paperback omnibus edition, I will be picking up these new deluxe hardcovers; Dark Horse has been doing a beautiful job with them.

ANNA: I’m sort of tempted but I also have such limited bookshelf space!

SEAN: J-Novel Club has some print titles for us. Ascendance of a Bookworm 6, How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord 12, I Shall Survive Using Potions! 2, In Another World with My Smartphone 12, and the 4th Marginal Operation manga.

ASH: Ascendance of a Bookworm is the one catching my eye here.

The digital debut is A Lily Blooms in Another World, a one-shot light novel by the author of Sexiled. It’s an “otome game villainess” story (where our heroine, once again, loves the villainess – see two weeks ago for more of this), but I loved Sexiled, so will definitely be giving this a chance.

ASH: Oh! I hadn’t made the author connection yet! Sexiled is indeed great, so I may need to add this one to my list, too. (If/when it is released in print.)

SEAN: Also, Discommunication’s 5th manga volume, I Shall Survive Using Potions! 5, the 5th Infinite Dendrogram manga, and Slayers 2.

Kodansha… let’s see. In print, we get Granblue Fantasy 5 and Maga-Tsuki 11-13 (which ends the series, a series that started so long ago I forget what it’s about. It has brides on the cover, though.)

Digitally, the debut is Four Kisses, in Secret (Kisu wa Kossori to). This is a one-shot short story collection of four one-shots that appeared in Dessert. Expect romance.

And 35 volumes of Shaman King. We discussed this before, but the delay has finished, and they’re due out next week.

And we get Cells at Work: Bacteria! 4, Chihayafuru 22, A Condition Called Love 6, Grand Blue Dreaming 11, Our Precious Conversations 7 (the final volume), Smile Down the Runway 14, Star⇄Crossed!! 3, That Time I Got Reincarnated (Again!) as a Workaholic Slime 2 (also a final volume), To Be Next to You 10 (also also a final volume), and You Got Me, Sempai! 9.

MICHELLE: Of course, I must cheer for more Chihayafuru but am also happy for the conclusion of To Be Next to You, which I’ve really enjoyed. I also need to read Our Precious Conversations at some point, as it’s by the creator of My Little Monster, which I liked.

ANNA: One of these days I need to catch up on Chihayafuru, I have a few digital volumes stockpiled.

SEAN: Seven Seas has only one print release next week, Made in Abyss Official Anthology – Layer 1: Irredeemable Cave Raiders. As noted, this is a doujinshi anthology of the popular manga.

ASH: I haven’t read much of Made in Abyss yet myself, but I do still like seeing these sorts of anthologies released.

SEAN: Digitally we see a 7th volume of Reincarnated As a Sword.

This is the one-month anniversary of my saying “Tokyopop has the 6th omnibus volume of Aria the Masterpiece.” And it’s still true! Ah, 2020, truly the most delay-filled year…

Vertical gives us a 6th Kino’s Journey, and also wants to let you know that Dissolving Classroom and Velveteen and Mandala are out digitally now.

Viz knows that this first week of the month belongs to them, and has pulled out all the stops. We start with Chainsaw Man, a highly acclaimed fan favorite… from the author of Fire Punch. Somehow those two things go together. I’ve been told it’s a lot of fun, but also really defines the “black” in “black comedy”.

ASH: I’ve likewise heard some great things about Chainsaw Man! I wasn’t a huge fan of Fire Punch, but I plan on checking this series out.

ANNA: I thought it was fun.

SEAN: Moriarty the Patriot (Yuukoku no Moriarty) is the other debut, a Jump Square series reimagining Moriarty from Sherlock Holmes as a protagonist.

ASH: Another one about which I am curious.

MICHELLE: Me too!

ANNA: This was not on my radar before but this sounds interesting.

SEAN: And there’s Revolutionary Girl Utena: After the Revolution, a one-shot manga volume from the Utena manga creator. The Utena manga and I do not get on, but I’ve heard that there are things to like about this.

ASH: I really liked The Adolescence of Utena manga, but I haven’t actually read the manga series. (Shocking, I know!!) I’ll be fixing that in the near future, and will be picking up After the Revolution, too.

MICHELLE: I’ve read the original and The Adolescence of Utena, but it was in 2006, right before I started reviewing. I remember a little. In general, I don’t have a lot of patience with narratives that don’t make complete sense, but I will still probably check out After the Revolution.

SEAN: Ao Haru Ride has its 13th and final volume, and The Demon Prince of Momochi House has its 16th and final volume.

ASH: I’m a couple volume behind with The Demon Prince of Momochi House, but as a whole I’ve been enjoying it.

MICHELLE: So many final volumes this week!

ANNA: Ah! I didn’t realize these series were concluding! Both very good.

SEAN: We also see An Incurable Case of Love 5, Jujutsu Kaisen 6, My Hero Academia 25, Naruto: Sasuke’s Story (a novel), One-Punch Man 21, Prince Freya 3, We Never Learn 12, and Yona of the Dawn 26.

ASH: Oooh, some other good titles from Viz, too.

MICHELLE: Forsooth!

ANNA: This is a happy week for me!

SEAN: Meanwhile, no one woke Yen when September ended, as they still have some releases that slid to next week. Including a debut… well, sequel… ACCA-13 PS. As you can imagine, this is an epilogue to the original.

ASH: Natsume Ono is one of the creators whose work I will always make a point to read.

SEAN: There’s also the 3rd Combatants Will Be Dispatched! manga, Hatsu*Haru 12, and Triage X 20.

What manga is in the autumn of your year?

SEAN: Try to remember the kind of September when manga was slow and discussion was mellow. Ready? Then follow.

MJ: (Follow, follow, follow, follow, follow, follow, follow, follow…)

SEAN: Going by their website, Denpa Books finally has the 2nd omnibus of Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji.

ASH: Happy to see this series get back on track!

SEAN: Seven Seas’ ero label Ghost Ship has FOUR titles out, including a debut. Welcome to Succubus High! (Succubus Gakuen No Inu!!) is a Takeshobo title from Web Comic Gamma Plus. An average boy is transferred to an all-girls school full of succubuses to teach them about men. Naturally, he does NOT want to have sex with any of them, because this is a Ghost Ship title and not a Fakku title. The line may be far away, but it’s there.

Other Ghost Ship titles out are Creature Girls 4, Yokai Girls 11, and Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs 10.

J-Novel Club has a trio of titles. The Combat Baker and Automaton Waitress 8, Cooking with Wild Game 9, and A Wild Last Boss Appeared! 2.

Kodansha, again, has no print titles. Digitally, we have a debut: My Best (♀) Butler (Ore no Shitsuji (♀) ga Iketeiru), a Dessert title that I could describe the plot of but instead I’ll just note it’s another “poor girl is toyed with by rich boys” series and go with that.

MICHELLE: Pretty much.

MJ: Ugh.

SEAN: I’ve made a decision to stop reporting Kodansha’s “early digital” series as they simply change the date at the very last minute too often. So, in digital-only land, we have Heaven’s Design Team 5, Lovesick Ellie 11, the 16th and final volume of My Boy in Blue, Princess Resurrection Nightmare 6, and Seven Shakespeares 13. As you can see, this week is devoted to “new volumes of titles we’ve caught up to Japan on”.

MICHELLE: I’m glad for more Lovesick Ellie!

SEAN: One Peace Books has The Reprise of the Spear Hero 2.

Seven Seas has three debuts. The Ancient Magus’ Bride: Wizard’s Blue (Mahou Tsukai no Yome Shihen.108 – Majutsushi no Ao) is another spinoff of the popular fantasy manga, it runs in Mag Garden’s Manga Door, and has been described as a genderswapped version of the parent series.

We Swore to Meet in the Next Life and That’s When Things Got Weird! (Raise o Chikatte Tensei Shitara Taihen na Koto ni natta) is from ichijinsha’s Zero-Sum Online. Two lovers vow to meet again in their next life. They do! Except she’s a 39-year-old OL, and he’s still in high school! This sounds… uncomfortable but cute if you ignore the premise.

MICHELLE: I will probably check out both of these, albeit with a certain degree of trepidation.

MJ: I. Hm.

ASH: Things did indeed get weird there.

SEAN: The digital-first light novel is Muscles Are Better Than Magic! (Mahou? Sonna Koto yori Kinniku da!), a fantasy comedy about a guy who’s trained forever and the elf girl who needs his help.

Also out next week: Didn’t I Say to Make My Abilities Average?! 10 (print), How to Build a Dungeon 6, The Invincible Shovel 2 (print), Mushoku Tensei light novel 8 (digital first), and Servamp 14.

Vertical has two titles. On the manga end, we get the 2nd Blood on the Tracks.

Pretty Boy Detective Club (Bishounen Tanteidan) is a novel written by NISIOISIN, but it’s a far cry from the Monogatari or Zaregoto series – it’s a reverse harem! A young woman trying to find a star that appears only once every ten years ends up being helped by, well, the title club.

MICHELLE: I cannot resist this.

MJ: Okay, maybe need this.

SEAN: Yen also has some runoff from last week. Yen On gives us a 4th Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World.

Yen Press debuts Yoshi no Zuikara: The Frog in the Well Does Not Know the Ocean, a Gangan title from the creator of Barakamon, about a fantasy manga artist trying desperately to draw realistic manga.

MICHELLE: Huh. The Yoshino series was not on my radar.

ASH: Oooh, I am intrigued!

SEAN: Lastly, we get Éclair Rouge, the latest in this yuri anthology series.

More to discuss than I thought. Fantastick. What are you getting?

SEAN: Manga is here and nothing can stop it!

Except perhaps fire. Pacific Northwest-based Dark Horse has two manga releases currently scheduled for next week, but has already said the wildfires might delay releases. But we will note them anyway: Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls 2 and Ms. Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles 2.

ASH: Yikes, that is a completely understandable reason for possible delays.

SEAN: J-Novel Club once again has two debuts, one which I care about and one which I do not. The “do not” is My Instant Death Ability is So Overpowered, No One in This Other World Stands a Chance Against Me! (Sokushi Cheat ga Saikyou Sugite, Isekai no Yatsura ga Marude Aite ni Naranai n Desu ga). Leaving aside the fact that no light novel with the word ‘Cheat’ in the title should ever be licensed, this is by the author of My Big Sister Lives in a Fantasy World, and apparently ties into that story, but I’m still not interested enough to look at it. But it should appeal to those who like this sort of thing.

Far more to my taste is The Sorcerer’s Receptionist (Mahousekai no Uketsukejou ni Naritaidesu), a J-Novel Heart series about a commoner woman whose goal is to become a guild receptionist, and the duke’s son who she keeps running into while she achieves this.

ASH: That one’s more to my taste as well.

SEAN: Also coming out next week: I Refuse to Be Your Enemy! 3, Lazy Dungeon Master 12, My Next Life As a Villainess! 7, and Sorcerous Stabber Orphen 8.

Kodansha has a very light week next week. No print books, and the digital side is light as well. The debut there is Maid in Honey, a Dessert title whose synopsis and cover art makes me cringe, but I know there’s a big audience for series like these.

MICHELLE: Yeah, this is another of the “girl with a service job” titles I mentioned last week. The style of the cover looked familiar so I did a search on the mangaka and, yep, she’s the one who did Beauty Bunny also. I think I’ll be passing on this one.

SEAN: We also see Abe-kun’s Got Me Now! 4, Altair: A Record of Battles 22, DAYS 20, and the 20th and final Elegant Yokai Apartment Life, which I’m not sure if it completed or if it was simply cancelled.

MICHELLE: I’m hoping for the former! I have been meaning to read it for ages.

SEAN: KUMA has a print release of Canis: Dear Mr. Rain (which I thought we’d had before, but…)

MICHELLE: I am pretty sure it was supposed to come out earlier but got pushed back.

ASH: Yup, I think that’s the case. I’ll probably check it out at some point now that it’ll be available.

SEAN: Seven Seas has two debuts, one print and one early digital, but both yuri. The print is Our Teachers Are Dating! (Hayama-sensei to Terano-sensei wa Tsukiatte iru), a Comic Yuri Hime title about a gym teacher and nurse who are in a relationship… and the school is rooting for them! This looks cute, though future covers suggest it will also be ecchi.

ASH: I’m more in the mood for cute than ecchi at the moment, but I’ll admit to being curious.

SEAN: The digital debut, from GL Novels (you can guess what GL stands for), is I’m in Love with the Villainess! (Watashi no Oshi wa Akuyaku Reijou). As with many light novels recently, an OL dies and is reincarnated in an otome game. However, she’s the heroine. But she’s not interested in the guys… This looks fun, and I’ve been reliably informed is very well written.

Also out next week: Cosmo Familia 2, Gal Gohan 4, the 7th print volume of How a Realist Hero Rebuilds the Kingdom, the 2nd print volume of Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear, My Androgynous Boyfriend 2, My Senpai Is Annoying! 2, Peter Grill and the Philosopher’s Time 2, the 6th print volume of Reincarnated As a Sword, and the 8th and final volume of Tomo-chan Is a Girl!, which I have really loved from day one.

MICHELLE: Hooray for more My Androgynous Boyfriend!

ASH: I’m looking forward to reading more of that series, too!

SEAN: Tokyopop has a 2nd volume of Koimonogatari: Love Stories.

Vertical has the 1st volume of Weathering with You in print. Which I know I said 3 weeks ago, but this year has just been VERY BAD for release dates slipping.

There are a LOT of light novels from Yen due out next week. Including one debut, Banished from the Hero’s Party, I Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside (Shin no Nakama ja Nai to Yuusha no Party wo Oidasareta node, Henkyou de Slow Life suru Koto ni Shimashita). “Slow Life” in Japanese loan word has become “Quiet Life” in English for these sorts of books, but the intent is the same: the heroes shun him, so he goes off to do basic boring tasks. I’ve heard good things about this.

Technically there is another debut, but it’s a sequel to a spinoff. Konosuba: An Explosion on This Wonderful World! Bonus Story moves the timeline forward a bit, but still has the premise of “Megumin and Yunyun have side adventures”, this time with Princess Iris along for the ride.

Other light novels: The Alchemist Who Survived Now Dreams of a Quiet City Life 4, Baccano! 14, Combatants Will Be Dispatched! 4, The Devil Is a Part-Timer! 17, The Genius Prince’s Guide to Raising a Nation Out of Debt (Hey, How About Treason?) 4, A Mysterious Job Called Oda Nobunaga 2, Re: Zero EX 4, Suppose a Kid From the Last Dungeon Boonies Moved to a Starter Town 3, and Torture Princess 5.

ASH: Wow, it really is a full week for the Yen ON imprint!

SEAN: Yen Press has three manga debuts. If Witch, Then Witch? (Majo Raba Majo Reba) is a Shonen Gangan title about a boy whose life is saved by a girl donating her blood. He wants to repay her anyway he can… and finds to do this, he has to dress as a witch and help her pass the magic exams. My expectations are low but not zero.

ASH: Hmmm.

SEAN: The second debut is King of Eden, a Korean horror manga that got a limited release a few years ago but is now out in a two-in one omnibus (it’s 4 volumes total, so the 2nd should finish it). Given it’s horror, it’s not my thing, but… Ash?

ASH: Well, now that it’s made its way to print, I may very well take a look!

SEAN: Lastly, we see the manga version of Last Round Arthurs, which I have described as “King Arthur meets Haruhi Suzumiya”.

We also see A Bride’s Story 12, The Elder Sister-Like One 4, Kakegurui Twin 7, My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong As I Expected 14 (manga version), Plunderer 5, The Saga of Tanya the Evil 11 (manga version), the 15th and final volume of Silver Spoon, Trinity Seven 21, and Yowamushi Pedal 15.

MICHELLE: Hooray for more YowaPeda!

ASH: Oh yes, and A Bride’s Story, too! And of course, Silver Spoon. Yen manga is where it’s at for me this week.

SEAN: Leaving aside MJ(SILVER SPOOOOOOOOOOOOON!), what are you all getting next week?

ANNA: I’m going to use this week as a breather to catch up on all my unread manga!

MJ: Hey, I think I missed my cue. SILVER SPOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!

SEAN: Mid-September, and, for once, quite a light week. We do have some very impressive debuts, though.

J-Novel Club has two new digital light novels. The first, and more sensible one, is Mapping: The Trash-Tier Skill That Got Me Into a Top-Tier Party (Hazure Skill “Mapping” wo Te ni Shita Shounen wa Saikyou Party to Dungeon ni Idomu), a standard “my skill seems useless so everyone hates me but in reality it’s super overpowered” light novel. I’d planned on skipping this, but have been told it’s better than it sounds. We’ll see.

ASH: I mean, cartography is incredibly useful.

MJ: I kind of have a thing for maps, but I tend to NOT have a thing for light novels, so???

SEAN: The next one I am absolutely not skipping. This may be the most ridiculous license we’ve ever seen. WATARU!!! The Hot-Blooded Fighting Teen & His Epic Adventures After Stopping a Truck with His Bare Hands!! (Truck Uketome Isekai Tensei! Nekketsu Butouha Koukousei Wataru!!) is a massive parody of isekai works where the hero gets hit by a truck and dies. Wataru does not die, though, he’s JUST THAT TOUGH. I am hoping this is as silly as it sounds.

MICHELLE: I am amused by the phrase “the hot-blooded fighting teen.”

ANNA: I hope this is as silly as you are expecting!

ASH: I am amused by the premise, at least!

MJ: I, too, am amused. Probably not reading this, but still amused.

SEAN: We also get Deathbound Duke’s Daughter 2 and the 3rd and final volume of The Extraordinary, the Ordinary and SOAP!.

Kodansha has some print debuts, both of which have appeared before digitally. Sayonara Football is from the creator of Farewell, My Dear Cramer (in fact, it may be an noutright prequel), and came out digitally around the time the author’s other series Your Lie in April was doing well. Now it has a print release.

MICHELLE: Yep, Sayonara, Football came first, which is something I didn’t know when my first reaction to Farewell, My Dear Cramer was basically, “Why did the mangaka introduce these two girls and then quickly start focusing on someone else instead?”

MJ: That sounds frustrating.

SEAN: Sue & Tai-chan is, of course, the new cat manga from the author of Chi’s Sweet Home.

Also in print: Eden’s Zero 9 and Witch Hat Atelier 6.

MICHELLE: I still need to read Sue & Tai-chan and Witch Hat Atelier.

ANNA: I love Witch Hat Atelier, excited for the print volume. The art is so fantastic.

ASH: It is an astonishingly beautiful series, both art-wise and story-wise.

MJ: I’m behind on everything, but I like both cats and witch hats, so I feel like I should be on board for these.

SEAN: There’s two digital debuts, but one has print coming 2 weeks later. Whisper Me a Love Song (Sasayaku You ni Koi wo Utau) is from Comic Yuri Hime, and looks quite sweet.

Digital-only for now is Heroine for Hire (Heroine Hajimemashita), a Dessert series about a very strong girl who becomes bodyguard for her high school classmate, who says he will make her “the most important girl in the world!”. Any title that has the heroine suplexing people is always on my watch list.

MICHELLE: I will check out both of these. Kodansha has a couple more of these “girl with a service job” series coming out over the next couple of weeks, but this one looks the most promising.

ANNA: I enjoy this type of dynamic in shoujo, I might overcome my usual resistance to digital shoujo and check it out.

ASH: Likewise.

MJ: Same.

SEAN: Also: Dolly Kill Kill 6, GE: Good Ending 9, Kakushigoto 7, Men’s Life 4, Orient 6, and Saint Young Men 8. Also, Something’s Wrong with Us 3, which will also get print in 2 weeks.

MICHELLE: This is the final volume for Men’s Life, also. I never hear much about Orient.

SEAN: Seven Seas is taking a break, they have one print release, which we’ve discussed when it came out digitally: Sazan and Comet Girl.

ASH: Now that it’s out in print, I’ll likely be checking it out!

SEAN: Digitally they have the 3rd volume of light novel Magic User: Reborn in Another World as a Max Level Wizard.

Udon has Persona 4 12, meaning it is as strong as three Persona 4s.

MICHELLE: *snerk*

SEAN: Viz has the debut of one of the most beloved manga classics, now getting a re-release with all the bells and whistles. And digitally as well! Maison Ikkoku is the story of a guy who didn’t quite make it into college and his attempts to live at an apartment complex filled with eccentrics… and a gorgeous apartment manager! I have… very mixed feelings about this series, but cannot deny it’s super loved by everyone who isn’t me. Love to see it get this release.

MICHELLE: I’m not surprised that it inspires mixed feelings. There were definitely things I found kind of annoying, but on the whole I love it anyway. I’ve reviewed all of it before, but I will at least do briefs for the re-release.

ANNA: I’m glad it is getting a re-release too.

ASH: I had just finished putting together a complete set of the out-of-print volumes when the new edition was announced. Still, I’m glad it’ll be more readily available for others again!

MJ: This is THRILLING. I suppose I also have mixed feelings about aspects of this manga, but in most ways I adore it. I was never able to compile a complete set for myself, so here’s my chance!

SEAN: Ping Pong also comes to an end with its second and final omnibus, speaking of super beloved series.

MICHELLE: I decided to wait for the second volume and read it straight through. I’m looking forward to it!

ANNA: Haven’t read the first volume yet, but I have it!

ASH: I am absolutely thrilled we finally got this series in English.

MJ: Like Michelle, I’m behind, but I can’t pretend it was on purpose. I must catch up and read them both together!

SEAN: And we also get 20th Century Boys Perfect Edition 9, BEASTARS 8, Hell’s Paradise Jigokuraku 4, Levius/Est 6, No Guns Life 7, and The Way of the Househusband 4.

MICHELLE: I am steadily falling farther and farther behind on BEASTARS. Sigh.

ANNA: Always delighted by another Way of the Househusband volume.

ASH: Ditto and ditto! I’ve also been meaning to read more of Hell’s Paradise, too.

SEAN: Is your life being destroyed by Yotsuya-san? Or are you buying manga?

SEAN: My computer rebooted while I was typing this up, so I am now typing it up again and mad.

MICHELLE: Ugh.

ASH: I have been there before and empathize.

MJ: Sadness.

SEAN: Cross Infinite World has Past Life Countess, Present Life Otome Game NPC?!, a reverse Bakarina where the fantasy world countess ends up reincarnated as a modern-day commoner girl in an otome game. She’s still stealing events from the heroine, though.

ASH: Huh, that’s an interesting variation.

SEAN: J-Novel Club debuts Black Summoner (Kuro no Shoukanshi), a 12+ volume novel that features a man who sacrificed his memories for more power. OP fans will like this.

The other debut is Holmes of Kyoto (Holmes at Kyoto Teramachi Sanjo), an antique-store oriented mystery that feels like the antidote to titles like Black Summoner. It’s a J-Novel Heart title, and is 15+ volumes in Japan.

ASH: That sounds like it could be fun!

SEAN: There’s also a 3rd Cooking with Wild Game manga, a 3rd Demon Lord, Retry! manga, The Holy Knight’s Dark Road 3 and Seirei Gensouki 11.

Kodansha debuts in print the first Clover collector’s edition. They’ve also got I’m Standing on a Million Lives 7 and The Seven Deadly Sins 39 in print.

ASH: Clover is one of my favorite CLAMP works; I suspect I will be double-dipping for the fancy hardcover omnibus.

MJ: I may as well!

SEAN: Digitally the debut is We Must Never Fall in Love! (Zettai ni Tokimeite wa Ikenai!), a Dessert series from the author of The Walls Between Us. It’s… well, it’s stepsibling romance. Which Japan sure loves more than North America.

MICHELLE: I didn’t realize that, but I might give it a shot anyway at some point.

ANNA: Maybe…..

SEAN: Also out: Ace of the Diamond 28, Giant Killing 22, and Tokyo Revengers 17. Quiet week for Kodansha.

MICHELLE: I suppose comparatively it is a quiet week, but two of those titles are among my favorites, so I’m happy.

SEAN: One Peace has a 14th volume of The manga version of The Rising of the Shield Hero.

So much from Seven Seas. The print debut is BL novel Sarazanmai, which we’ve discussed before.

ASH: I’ve still not delved into Sarazanmai… I need to get on that!

SEAN: Who Says Warriors Can’t be Babes? (Onna Senshi tte Motenai desu ne!) is a fantasy comedy from Kodansha’s Palcy. A girl has a crush on the hero, so she trains to be a strong warrior. Sadly, she trained TOO hard, and now he doesn’t see her as a woman!

MICHELLE: One-punch woman?

ASH: Hmmm. I could see this premise going either in a direction that I would really like or in a direction that I really wouldn’t.

MJ: I’m. Hm.

SEAN: And we see the 2nd print volume of Adachi and Shimamura, The Dungeon of Black Company 5, Failed Princesses 2, Gal Gohan 4, The Hidden Dungeon Only I Can Enter 2 (digital version), The Ideal Sponger Life 6, The Invincible Shovel 3 (digital version), the 2nd Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear manga, Monster Girl Doctor 6 in print, the 11th Mushoku Tensei manga, and Skeleton Knight in Another World 6.

Square Enix has a 2nd volume of Cherry Magic!.

MICHELLE: I liked the first volume more than I expected to, and look forward to the second!

ASH: Maybe I should give the series a try, then!

SEAN: SuBLime gives us Caste Heaven 3 and Therapy Game 2.

MICHELLE: Caste Heaven was not for me, but I did mostly enjoy Secret XXX, of which Therapy Game is a spinoff, so I should check that out too.

ASH: I’m surprisingly behind in my BL reading and already have some catching up to do.

SEAN: Tokyopop has the 6th omnibus volume of Aria the Masterpiece.

Vertical, in print, has the 5th APOSIMZ. Digitally, they have a 15th volume of Ajin: Demi-Human.

Viz debuts Fly Me to the Moon, a new romantic comedy series by the author of Hayate the Combat Butler. A young man meets a very strange, possibly alien girl, and they get married almost immediately. What happens after that? And who the heck is she? This is getting an anime soon.

MJ: Maybe?

SEAN: Also out from Viz: Pokemon Sun & Moon 8, Rin-Ne 35, Splatoon 10, and YO-KAI WATCH 15.

Are you a reincarnated countess? A lovestruck warrior? A possible space alien? What manga are you buying?

SEAN: It’s always September, somewhere in Manga Land! What do we have for you this first week of the month?

Cross Infinite World has a 2nd volume of Beast Blood.

Denpa snuck out a release last week, though apparently the print comes a bit later. The Girl with the Sanpaku Eyes (Sanpakugan-chan wa Tsutaetai) is a Gangan Pixiv manga about a girl with “mean eyes” and her travails. Our own Kate Dacey reviewed it here.

ASH: Thanks for the review, Kate! I’ve been curious about this one.

MJ: I have, too!

SEAN: No debuts for J-Novel Club this week, but a whooooole lotta other stuff. In print, we get An Archdemon’s Dilemma 7, the first Ascendance of a Bookworm manga (I guess that’s a debut), Infinite Dendrogram 8, My Next Life As a Villainess 3 and Sexiled 2.

ASH: I’ve been enjoying the Bookworm novels, so maybe I should give the manga a try, too. As for the second volume of Sexiled, I’m really looking forward to getting my hands on it.

SEAN: Digitally, there’s By the Grace of the Gods 4, Full Metal Panic! 8, The Greatest Magicmaster’s Retirement Plan 6, Kokoro Connect 10, The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar 12, The Unwanted Undead Adventurer 6, and A Very Fairy Apartment 4.

Kodansha has some print for us. Knight of the Ice 3, L*DK 15, Living-Room Matsunaga-san 4, The Quintessential Quintuplets 10, Saint Young Men 3, To Your Eternity 12, and Waiting for Spring 13.

MICHELLE: I’ll be reading several of those, and am especially eager for more Knight of the Ice.

ASH: Oh! It’s a good Kodansha week for me, too!

MJ: I need to catch up with both Knight of the Ice and Saint Young Men.

ANNA: Glad for the reminder about Knight of the Ice, I’m already behind!

SEAN: There’s also digital. The debut is That Time I Got Reincarnated (Again!) as a Workaholic Slime (Tensei Shite Mo Shashiku Datta Kudan), another spinoff of that popular series. This one is only 2 volumes long.

And we get All-Rounder Meguru 16, Cells at Work: Bacteria 3, My Boss’s Kitten 6, Smile Down the Runway 13, Stellar Witch LIP☆S 2, To Be Next to You 9, and Yuri Is My Job! 6. (The last will have print later, I imagine.)

MICHELLE: I’ve been getting caught up on To Be Next to You and liking it a lot.

SEAN: Seven Seas debuts Cube Arts, a “gamer invited to beta test a game that is more than it seems” story. It ran in Shinchocha’s Comic Bunch.

Digitally there is a light novel debut: ROLL OVER AND DIE: I Will Fight for an Ordinary Life with My Love and Cursed Sword!. A much requested yuri light novel title, this apparently starts off very dark (expect slavery), but has good buzz.

ASH: Hmmm, a yuri light novel could be intriguing.

SEAN: Seven Seas also has, in print, Makeup is Not (Just) Magic: A Manga Guide to Cosmetics and Skin Care, as well as the 3rd Arifureta: I Heart Isekai and My Monster Secret 21.

ASH: I’d actually like to give Makeup is Not (Just) Magic a read.

SEAN: Square Enix gives us a 2nd volume of My Dress-Up Darling.

ASH: Whoops, I haven’t actually read the first volume yet, so I’ve already fallen behind.

MJ: Oops, same!

SEAN: Tokyopop debuts Ossan Idol! (Ossan (36) ga Idol ni naru Hanashi), an adaptation of a novel that runs in Comic Pash!. A Middle-Aged Man, bullied most of his life, turns his life around and gets buff, cool and handsome… but is unaware of this. Now he’s been scouted. This looks pretty fun.

Vertical has two debuts. The first we saw a digital release of earlier, but now the Weathering With You manga gets a print release.

MJ: I didn’t read this in digital, but I enjoyed the movie and I tend to like manga adaptations of Shinkai’s work, so I really should check it out.

SEAN: The other one, With a Dog AND a Cat, Every Day is Fun (Inu to Neko Docchi mo Katteru to Mainichi Tanoshii) is definitely for animal lovers. Expect “indie” art styles, too.

MICHELLE: Definitely checking this one out.

MJ: Okay, want.

SEAN: The rest is Viz, mostly. No debuts, but lots to look at. For shoujo stuff, we get Daytime Shooting Star 8, Kakuriyo: Bed & Breakfast for Spirits 6, Love Me Love Me Not 4, Not Your Idol 2 (not a final volume, but the series is on hiatus in Japan after this), Skip Beat! 44, and Snow White with the Red Hair 9.

MICHELLE: I intend to read every single one of these, sooner or later. I didn’t realize that about Not Your Idol, though. That kind of stinks.

ASH: It’s a good shoujo week! I thought the first volume of Not Your Idol was excellent, so at this point I plan on reading the rest whenever it may be released.

MJ: Yes, same for me. Apparently my role in this week’s column is to point to whatever Ash says and repeat, “same.”

ANNA: It is a great week for shoujo! I’m sort of glad I didn’t read the first vol of Not Your Idol if it is on hiatus. I’m also especially happy to see a new volume of Skip Beat!

SEAN: On the shonen end, we get Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba 16, Dr. STONE 13, Dragon Ball Super 10, Haikyu!! 40, Kaguya-sama: Love Is War 16, One Piece: Ace’s Story 2 (final volume, and also a novel), and SPY x FAMILY 2.

MICHELLE: My love for Haikyu!! is pretty well documented at this point, so I will instead squee about how cute and great SPY x FAMILY is.

ASH: Likewise! Those are the two series from this batch which are getting most of my love this week.

ANNA: Nice, I need to read more SPY x FAMILY

SEAN: Lastly, Yen On had one August title skitter all the way into September: the 9th So I’m a Spider, So What? novel.

Which of these make the best titles to hide in your textbook while class is going on?