Manga Bookshelf's Weekly Features

SEAN: This week I feel the Manga Bookshelf eye is turning towards That Blue-Sky Feeling, and I have to agree, I really want to see how it turns out.

MICHELLE: You’re definitely right where I’m concerned. There are a couple other things I’ll check out from this week but none with the emotional impact of That Blue Sky Feeling .

KATE: I’m going to make a pitch for volume two of Queen Bee, a cute–if predictable–shojo series about a girl with a serious case of Resting Bitchface and a temper to go with it. I don’t think I’ve ever read a manga quite so… relatable.

ASH: I am absolutely here for That Blue Sky Feeling, but I’d like to give a shout out to Roadqueen, too. It’s not manga, but it looks delightful.

ANNA: I’m now curious about Queen Bee which sounds delightful. But to be honest I’m attempting to catch up on my unread manga pile instead of reading anything coming out this week. Maybe I’ll actually be able to take a volume or two off that stack!

MJ: I’m definitely intrigued by Kate’s description of Queen Bee (and I’m apparently a volume behind!) but it’s hard for me to pick anything else but the lovely and poignant That Blue Sky Feeling. It’s exactly my thing.

MICHELLE: There’s a new volume of My Hero Academia plus a lot of VIZ shoujo coming out this week that I will absolutely be reading, including a particular favorite in Natsume’s Book of Friends, but my pick this week is The Wize Wize Beasts of the Wizarding Wizdoms. I literally know nothing about it other than it’s by Nagabe, creator of The Girl from the Other Side, but that’s quite enough.

KATE: What Michelle said! I’d read just about anything by Nagabe, as he’s such a terrific artist and storyteller. If people buy The Wize Wize Beasts of the Wizarding Wizdoms, maybe Seven Seas will get around to licensing Nagabe’s older work, too; this collection of short stories looks amazing.

SEAN: I am very interested in the new josei manga from Shojo Beat, but I have to go with Sexiled this week. The standard light novel fantasy is absolutely filled with tropes best described as problematic (read: misogynist), and I long to read a book pinning them to a wall and then stabbing them over and over.

ASH: As intrigued and delighted as I am by what I know about Sexiled, I’m with Michelle and Kate this week – The Wize Wize Beasts of the Wizarding Wizdoms is without question my pick.

ANNA: I’m also intrigued by The Wize Wize Beasts of the Wizarding Wizdoms and An Incurable Case of Love but I’m not going to pass up a chance to celebrate another volume of Kaze Hikaru which is by far one of my favorite historical shoujo series.

MJ: I’m jumping on what apparently is the majority pick this week: The Wize Wize Beasts of the Wizarding Wizdoms. Everything about it—from the artist to the magical creatures to the magazine it runs in—screams that it’s for me. So what other choice do I have?

SEAN: While it’s tempting to go for the Ramen Noodles, or the Golden Sheep, both of which I suspect will be talked about by my fellow Manga Bookshelf peeps, it’s no surprise that I’m going with the 3rd volume of the Zaregoto series, SUSPENSION: Kubitsuri High School. When you get the third in a series after the first and second came out about ten years ago, it’s an event. Also, Ii-chan’s irritating, deliberately inscrutability is fun.

KATE: I’m torn between Ms. Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles, which sounds like a carbohydrate lover’s dream, and Our Dreams at Dusk, which continues to be one of the best new series of 2019, offering a frank, thoughtful look at gender and sexual identity, so my pick is… both. Get ’em both. You won’t be disappointed.

MICHELLE: I’m definitely here for the ramen noodles and the golden sheep, but I’m most excited by a new volume of The Ancient Magus’ Bride!

ANNA: I’m very curious about Golden Sheep, The God’s Lie was so good, I’m excited to read more Ozaki.

ASH: It’s another great week of great releases! I can get behind everyone’s picks for the reasons already mentioned, but I’d like to take this opportunity to add The Miracles of the Namiya General Store to the mix as well. It’s a novel rather than a manga series, so this is really the only chance that I’ll get to pick it.

MJ: I’m not one hundred percent sold on anything this week, so I find myself waffling between The Golden Sheep and Ms. Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles, but the melancholy does tend to have an extra pull for me, so I guess I’ll join Anna in choosing The Golden Sheep!

MICHELLE: It’s really tough to choose between the debuts of The Way of the Househusband and Cats of the Louvre, but since the latter is complete in one volume and I won’t have the chance to choose it again, I’ll go with that. There really is a lot of good stuff coming out this week, though!

SEAN: Again, I’d love to pick both Househusband AND Cats of the Louvre. But this is the last chance I’ll get to sing the praises of Dorohedoro, whose combination of gore, gratuitous nudity, and fantastic art, plotting and characterization has been a joy to read. Thank you to Viz Media for sticking with it while other Ikki titles died on the vine (remember Kingyo Used Books?).

ANNA: Househusband for me! The premise sounds hilarious and I’m looking forward to it.

KATE: It’s Cats of the Louvre and Way of the Househusband for me, too; it’s been too long since we had a new Taiyo Matsumoto release in English!

ASH: Viz in particular has SO MANY great releases this week! Cats of the Louvre is a definite must, I can’t wait for the debut of Way of the Househusband, and Dorohedoro is a longtime favorite of mine. So, I guess my pick this week is Viz?

MJ: Okay, I gotta go with the cats. Cats of the Louvre is by far my top choice this week.

SEAN: It’s always tempting to pick Hayate the Combat Butler, if only to remind people it exists, and Become You looks promising. That said, the retro shoujo fan in me wants to read Queen Bee, the next-gen sequel to Love Attack!, which Tokyopop released back in 1839. I’ll pick that.

MICHELLE: I am very happy to see more Giant Killing at last, as its seinen take on sports manga is something different, but I am really looking forward to the debut of Become You. I loved orange very much and although Dreamin’ Sun (an earlier work) wasn’t as good, I still enjoyed it. This is Ichigo Takano’s latest series, so I am hoping for great things.

KATE: Hot guys playing the guitar–sign me up! My pick is Become You.

ASH: Eyup! I’m here for the musicians of Become You, too! Though if Queen Bee ever sees a print release, that’s another debut I’d be interested in.

ANNA: I’m going to be relentless in my love for shoujo, and pick Queen Bee as well!

MJ: Okay, I’ve gotta go with Become You. There’s a kid on the cover with a guitar. I’ve been promised childhood dreams. This is a winning combination.

KATE: Last week’s INSANE manga haul has left me scarred: there was so much good stuff to choose from that I felt paralyzed when trying to choose one or two for our weekly round-up. This week, by contrast, I only have eyes for one series: Phantom Tales of the Night, which sounds a lot like Pet Shop of Horrors and has a pretty snazzy-looking cover to boot.

SEAN: I’ll go with a digital debut this week. Everything I’ve heard about Smile Down the Runway suggests it’s a josei title in shonen’s clothing, and apparently it has a terrific look at fashion and the struggle between doing what you love and earning a living. I want to take a look.

MICHELLE: There’s lots of Shojo Beat goodness, but for me this week is all about the sports boys. When Yowamushi Pedal is pitted against Haikyu!!, much as I love the former, I have to go with the volleyball kids. They’re just so dang endearing!

ASH: I certainly enjoy both Haikyu!! and Yowamushi Pedal, but I’m with Kate this week for my pick. I generally like horror manga, but I find shoujo horror particularly difficult to resist, so <Phantom Tales of the Night it is!

ANNA: There’s so much to choose from! I’m going to go with Daytime Shooting Star just because we don’t get much teacher-student romance shoujo here.

SEAN: Some of my favorites out this week – Witch Hat Atelier, a Monogatari novel, Silver Spoon – but we get A Bride’s Story so infrequently that I always feel a need to call attention to it when it’s out. It’s my pick.

MICHELLE: Lots of good stuff, indeed. I find I’m most looking forward to another installment of the always fascinating (and always gorgeous) The Girl from the Other Side.

KATE: Whoever decided to release new volumes of Silver Spoon, The Girl From the Other Side, Blank Canvas, Witch Hat Atelier and A Bride’s Story on the same day is trying to ruin me financially! C’mon, guys, have mercy on those of us with good taste…

ANNA: There’s so much great manga coming out this week! I love many of the series already mentioned, but if I have to be honest, the first thing I’m going to reach for is Witch Hat Atelier. It manages to create a slightly menacing yet absolutely charming fairy-tale like atmosphere in this story of a new young witch discovering her powers.

ASH: It really is such a bountiful week! My wallet weeps, but my soul sings. I wholeheartedly support everyone’s picks, but I’d like to express some extra love for Blank Canvas. Higashimura’s manga are always a hard-hitting but humorous treat.

MJ: Okay, I’ll be the one to go all in for Silver Spoon, because Hiromu Arakawa always wins for me, even with so many other fantastic books in the mix. I will admit, though, that I kind of regret that I haven’t paid more attention to Witch Hat Atelier.

MICHELLE: I mean, it has to be The Poe Clan, right? If you’re in doubt, check out Kate’s terrific review!

ANNA: I am going to pick The Poe Clan as well, I am excited to read it.

KATE: Thanks for the plug, Michelle! I can’t stress enough how lucky we are to have this ground-breaking series in English, and with a great translation and gorgeous packaging to boot. Go, buy, and be prepared to swoon at all the roses and galaxy eyes!

Since we’re unanimous in our praise of The Poe Clan, I also wanted to highlight a series that would otherwise be my pick of the week: Kenji Tsurata’s Emanon, a beautiful fantasy/sci-fi story about a young woman who lives with the collective memories of all of her ancestors, stretching back to the beginning of life on Earth. The idea sounds kinda hokey (or pretentious), but Tsurata has done a fine job of adapting the source material–it’s based on a story by Shinji Kajio–into a thoughtful rumination on what it means to be alive. If you liked Wandering Island, Emanon is a no-brainer.

SEAN: The Poe Clan, absolutely.

ASH: I’m certainly looking forward to reading more of Emanon this week, and Golden Kamuy, too. But, yeah, there can really be no other pick than The Poe Clan.

MJ: It’s obviously The Poe Clan!

KATE: There’s a surprising amount of good stuff in this week’s new manga haul! I’m intrigued by Star Blazers 2199 and The Night Is Short, Walk On Girl, but I’m also excited to see Yen Press licensing more queer-friendly manga; Yuri Life looks like a winner. If I had to recommend just one title, though, my choice would be Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle, a gag manga that finds a surprising number of ways to make chronic insomnia look funny.

SEAN: Given it’s the last time I can pick it, I feel obliged to make my pick of the week Magi. Shonen Sunday series always have a much harder time here in North America, so I’m pleased that this long-runner seemed to do well and wasn’t consigned to 2-volumes-per-year hell. I’ll miss it.

MICHELLE: I’m intrigued by Star Blazers 2199 and am grateful to have more Ace of the Diamond and Classmates, but I must join Sean in one final pick for Magi. This story has come a long way and become more complicated than I ever would’ve guessed from that first volume and I look forward to seeing how it all ties up in the end.

ASH: I am very much intrigued by The Night Is Short, Walk On Girl, but my pick this week goes to the second volume of Classmates. I really loved the first volume and am always happy for the chance to read more of Asumiko Nakamura’s work in English.

ANNA: I enjoyed the first volume of Komi Can’t Communicate, and I always like to read two volumes of a series before deciding to be in for the duration or not. I’m looking forward to the second volume of this shonen comedy.

SEAN: My Hero Academia’s 19th and 20th volumes have what may be my favorite “light” arc of the series. As such, the 20th volume, like the 19th, is my pick. If only for those two faces. You know the ones I mean.

MICHELLE: Courtesy of the awesome Shonen Jump vault, I’m all caught up on My Hero Academia now, so volume 20 is actually a reread for me, but it’s a testament to the greatness of this series that I’m still looking forward to it. The light arc concludes, and is definitely great, but I also really enjoyed finally getting to meet a mysterious hero who’s been hinted at and finally makes his debut in this volume.

KATE: After being publicly shamed for my tendency to plug the same manga over and over — notice I resisted the temptation to type “again” — I had to bring my Recommendation A-Game this week. My pick is Ryuko, Titan Comic’s first foray into serialized manga. It looks like the sleazy, brutal, fast-paced stuff that Kazuo Koike used to pump out by the truckload, and I can’t wait to read it. The cover alone is swoon-worthy!

ANNA: There’s so much great shoujo coming out this week, it is hard for me to single out just one title. But I have to admit when looking over everything coming out that I’m always most enthusiastic about Yona of the Dawn, so volume 19 of that series is my pick!

ASH: So many series that I’m following have new volumes this week, making it very difficult to choose where to start. So, thanks for the reminder about Ryuko, Kate! I’ve been very curious about that series, enough to make it my pick, too.

ASH: Along with the usual variety of releases, this week also seems to have a fair number of series making their English-language debut. This includes the first volume of one of my most anticipated manga of the year, Skull-Faced Bookseller Honda-san. The series has already gained some recognition from its anime adaptation, but I’m thrilled to have a chance to read the original.

SEAN: Honda-san is definitely my manga of the week, but my pick this week is the first volume of new light novel Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki. In a marketplace where it seems the only things that can be licensed are those with some sort of supernatural/fantasy content, I want to champion the rare series that has none of those things. (It does talk about gaming a lot, though.)

ANNA: Skull-Faced Bookseller Honda-san is my pick, no question. It looks delightfully quirky.

MICHELLE: Yep, it’s bony booksellers for me, as well!

KATE: C’mon, guys, no love for The Alchemist Who Survived Now Dreams of a Quiet City Life or Precarious Woman Executive Miss Black General? You’re breaking my heart! I jest, I jest… I’m on team Skull-Faced Book Seller Honda-san 100% this week.

MJ: Okay, the truth is, I’m headed into production week of my teen opera today, so if Handel didn’t write it, it’s not really in my universe this week. But if I was in the same universe as my colleagues and any of this manga right now, I’d be Skull-Faced Book Seller Honda-san all the way. Do with that what you will.

SEAN: Most of the debuts I was looking forward to picking this week got schedule shifted away, and I’m left with a lot of “Hrm”. So I’ll go with Teasing Master Takagi-san 5, always a favorite and with two fantastic chapters bookending the volume.

MICHELLE: I’ll go with the third and final volume of Love in Focus . This is the second short series from Yoko Nogiri that I’ve liked more than anticipated. I hope she writes something longer someday!

KATE: Our Dreams at Dusk is just about perfect with beautiful art, great characters, and a compelling story that allows readers across the spectrum to appreciate just how difficult it can be to come to terms with your own sexuality.

ANNA: Honestly the main thing I’ve been thinking of this week is the fact that we had a Rose of Versailles cover reveal! So I’ll pick Rose of Versailles even though it isn’t coming out for a long time, and also reserve the right to pick it again.

ASH: I am in complete agreement with Kate. Our Dreams at Dusk is such an incredible series, I’m making it my pick even when this week’s other releases include another of my favorites, To Your Eternity.

MICHELLE: I am very happy that Haikasoru has kept up with printing the Legends of Galactic Heroes novels. One day, I really will read them! For my official pick, though, I’ll go with Beastars. I’m not entirely sold on the premise, but since the next shounen “big thing” I was initially meh about turned out to be My Hero Academia, I will be more receptive this time!

KATE: I’m also curious about Beastars, but I never miss an opportunity to plug Inio Asano’s Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction, a book that walks the tightrope between mordant and morbid with ease. You’ll laugh, you’ll grimace, and you’ll get a lump in your throat at least once or twice in each volume. Oh, and the art’s pretty nifty, too.

ASH: Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction is always a good choice, and Legend of the Galactic Heroes has been a great read so far, but for my pick I’ll allow my curiosity to get the best of me and go with Beastars. I’ve heard nothing but good things about the series.

ANNA: Like many, I’m curious about Beastars. I’m going to go with Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction though, it really is something special.

SEAN: My pick is the new My Next Life As a Villainess, as it always makes me laugh.

ASH: Even when it’s a relatively quiet week, there are still plenty of manga being released which have caught my attention. The debut that I’m particularly curious about and that I will make my pick this week is Magus of the Library. As a librarian myself, I generally get a kick out of reading about my fictional counterparts. (Granted, sometimes I get immensely frustrated instead…)

MICHELLE: While there are definitely things I like coming out next week, I’m not wildly enthusiastic about any of them, really. I reckon I’ll go with the sixth and final volume of World’s End and Apricot Jam for being a much more wholesome version of a girl involved with the lead singer of a band than I anticipated.

SEAN: My pick is the 4th volume of Tomo-chan Is a Girl!, which has become one of my favorite 4-koma series. It’s funny and has heart.

ANNA: My pick is my stacks of unread manga. Maybe this is the week I will get caught up on something!

MICHELLE: Despite the Pretty Little Liars vibes of its concept, the mere fact that Daytime Shooting Star ran in Margaret is sufficient for me to award it my pick of the week. I deeply hope I’m not skeeved.

SEAN: I want that too, and will always welcome Oresama Teacher and Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, but my pick this week is Side-by-Side Dreamers, because yuri science fiction novels are something I’d like to see more of.

KATE: I’m still reeling from last week’s enormous bounty, so I’m going to pass on recommending anything new. Ask me when I’m climbed out from underneath the big stack of books next to my bed…

ASH: I’m likewise behind in my manga reading, however many of the shoujo releases from Viz will still be added to my ever-growing stack this week. I’m easily furthest behind with Oresama Teacher, but it’s such a delightful series that I have no qualms with making it my official pick.

ANNA: I’m always excited for shoujo debuts like Daytime Shooting Star, but when looking over the week I’m most interested in reading the second volume of Snow White with the Red Hair, which seemed endearingly quirky based on the first volume. I want to see how the series develops.