Pick of the Week

ANNA: Me too, I am excited for The Cornered Mouse Dreams of Cheese!

SEAN: I’m going with Seven Little Sons of the Dragon, which has an amazing cover and I love its author’s other series. Short story collection 4tw.

KATE: I feel like a Vegas gambler stumbling across an all-you-can-eat buffet after being on a losing streak: I just want to fill up my plate with as much delicious manga as possible! Any week that brings a new volume of Blank Canvas, a one-shot manga by Setona Mizuhiro, and a collection of short stories by Ryuko Kui is a good week in my book. If I had to pick just one title, though, it would be Akiko Higurashima’s Blank Canvas, a funny, insightful, and brutally honest look at how she became a manga artist; it’s the perfect antidote for the testosterone-fueled nonsense in Bakuman.

ASH: I’m going to echo everyone here, Blank Canvas, The Cornered Mouse Dreams of Cheese, and Seven Little Sons of the Dragon are all at the top of my list this week! It’s American Thanksgiving in a few days… no one minds if I take a couple extra helpings of manga picks, do they?

MELINDA: Even if I knew nothing about it, I’d pick The Cornered Mouse Dreams of Cheese based on the title alone. The fact that this is a much-anticipated title is just a bonus.

MICHELLE: Sean’s got me pegged. It’s high time I get on the Beastars train and I shall start by making it my pick of the week.

ASH: Me, too. The first volume was great and the second volume was even better. I’m really looking forward to seeing how Beastars continues to develop!

ANNA: I’ll go for Beastars as well!

KATE: As one of six people in the mangasphere who didn’t like Beastars, I’m going to buck the tide and pick the second volume of Gou Tanabe’s adaptation of At the Mountain of Madness.

MICHELLE: Can I just pick “VIZ shoujo” collectively this week? Three newer series—Daytime Shooting Star, Shortcake Cake, and Snow White with the Red Hair—have volumes, along with the finale of The Water Dragon’s Bride, the angsty fun of Anonymous Noise, and perennial favorite Skip Beat!! I’m down with all of it.

ANNA: Me too! My pick this week is the Shojo Beat imprint!

ASH: I can definitely get behind picking Shojo Beat as a whole, but the release I’m most curious about this week is the debut of Nicola Traveling Around the Demon’s World.

MELINDA: There are a few intriguing items on this week’s list, but I think I’m most excited to check out Melting Lover, the debut manga from Denpa Books’ new imprint, KUMA. I’m very interested to see what we can expect from them here!

SEAN: There’s quite a few things I like this week, but I’m going to go with good old Silver Spoon, because I love it and it is wonderful.

MELINDA: I was surprised to note that, in such a full week, the only thing on my Absolute Must Buy list is Silver Spoon. But also, YAY SILVER SPOOOOON! Seriously, I could not love this series more.

KATE: At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I am Team Silver Spoon 100%. It’s one of most consistently funny, honest, and gut-wrenching manga being published in English right now, and it deserves waaaaay more love and support from the mangasphere.

ASH: Silver Spoon really is a tremendous series! And so, for all of the reasons that everyone else has already outlined, it gets my pick. On top of that, I always get a little nostalgic reading the manga… it reminds me a lot of the people and places in my hometown growing up.

ANNA: I am feeling so guilty for not reading Silver Spoon yet, although I think I have a couple volumes stashed around my house. I’m not going to break the streak for pick of the week. I’m going to read the first volume this week for sure!

MICHELLE: Same here. It did have its ridiculous moments, but it was also pretty fun (and educational) and I was sad to see its release truncated (after a random time-jump volume). Hooray for its return!

KATE: After all these years, I’m excited to see who wins the contest to identify the “Drops of God” and the “Twelve Apostles.” (None are named John or Peter, FWIW.)

ASH: Ha! The Drops of God is definitely something to be excited about, even if it’s only a digital release. Print-wise, my pick of the week is the most recent volume of the fancy new edition of Berserk, which probably doesn’t surprise many.

ANNA: I’m always glad when good series get rescued, Drops of God for the win!

MELINDA: I’m going to add to this broken record here, by also declaring my excitement over the continuation of Drops of God!

SEAN: I acknowledge the brilliance of The Drifting Classroom while also wanting to stay the hell away from it. As a result, I’ll pick the new Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction, which continues to be fun to read even as I fear that it will end with the entire world dead.

MICHELLE: Dreamin’ Sun has reached its conclusion, and thus I feel a bit of a pang for not choosing it, but a new volume of Shojo FIGHT! comes out this week, and that’s simply more enjoyable to me.

KATE: No surprise here–my pick is Kazuo Umezu’s batshit classic The Drifting Classroom. The new VIZ edition is an essential addition to any horror manga fan’s library. On the fence? Here’s what I had to say about volume one.

ANNA: There’s a lot of great manga coming out this week, but I have to say my loyalty lies with Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction.

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!

MELINDA: 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.

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.

MELINDA: 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?

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.

MELINDA: 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!

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?

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