Pick of the Week

MICHELLE: My pick of the week is absolutely the third Princess Jellyfish omnibus, which has graduated from being in my Amazon cart to actually being pre-ordered.

SEAN: There are titles I may be looking forward to more, but I think my pick this week has to be Neo Parasyte f, simply as the idea of a bunch of shoujo artists giving their take on one of the iconic bizarre horror series is something I’d never have expected to get licensed here. Well done.

ASH: I am so glad that Princess Jellyfish and Neo Parasyte f have already been mentioned because that frees me to pick the most recent volume of Requiem of the Rose King! I love the series’ dark fantasy reimagining of the War of the Roses and Shakespeare’s plays. The manga’s artwork and the drama are both very striking, and I look forward to reading more.

ANNA: I am also torn between Princess Jellyfish and Requiem of the Rose King, but I have to go with Requiem of the Rose King, just because it is so unique and surreal.

MJ: I’m sure this is predictable for any long-time reader, but Requiem of the Rose King always, for me! It is exactly my kind of manga.

SEAN: Any week with Oresama Teacher in it is going to be an Oresama Teacher pick of the week. Even as it’s gotten more serious, each volume still guarantees big laughs from me. That’s really something after 21 volumes.

MICHELLE: I’m definitely looking forward to the latest Oresama Teacher, but am most eager to check out the debut of Cells at Work! Quirky premise for the win!

ASH: Hmmm… there’s all sorts of interesting things being released this week, both old and new. I think I’m with Michelle this week, though. While I plan on reading a fair number of recent releases, it’s the debut of Cells at Work has me the most curious! (Perhaps it will even manage to scratch the Moyasimon itch.)

ANNA: I have to say I’m also interested in Cells at Work, it sounds like a very promising debut.

MICHELLE: Having acknowledged Horimiya last time, I am clear to pick the second volume of Liselotte & Witch’s Forest this week. The first volume was intriguing, even if it went by in a flash, and I look forward to finding out more about what’s going on.

SEAN: So much to choose from, but as I hinted, I am picking the 4th volume of Sword Art Online: Progressive, a reboot of the SAO Aincrad arc that shows off how much Kawahara has grown (and not grown, to be fair) as a writer since 2004. Also, Argo > you.

ASH: I’m definitely looking forward to reading more of Horimiya (I’ve fallen a little behind on the series), but the manga I’m most curious about this week is the debut of The Ghost and the Lady. A story combining supernatural mysteries with Florence Nightingale and packaged in a beautiful hardcover edition? Count me in!

ANNA: There’s not a lot coming out this week that I’m really excited about, but I’m going to pick Liselotte & Witch’s Forest, just because I have a feeling I’d like it once I get around to reading it!

MJ: I’m interested in the SAO novel that Sean is looking forward to, and also The Ghost and the Lady. But like Michelle and Anna, I’ll go with volume two of Liselotte & Witch’s Forest. I, too, haven’t gotten around to reading the first volume, but I feel like saving it for a double read this time was perhaps the right way to go!

SEAN: It’s the Attack on Titan Anthology, full stop. It’s amazing that this project happened at all, and it’s even more amazing that it turned out so excellent, with stories that are gut-wrenching, inspirational, and hilarious.

MICHELLE: Because I’m not really into anything that’s coming out this week, I thought I’d cheat and pick one thing from *next* week’s Yen offerings, thus freeing me up to pick something else then. So, this time I’ll plug Horimiya once again. It’s a very enjoyable, shoujo-esque love story, and I am looking forward to the latest volume.

ASH: I’m with Sean this week. Considering everyone who was involved, I was expecting Attack on Titan Anthology to be good, but I was still pleasantly surprised by just how good it is. Honestly, it’s a fantastic collection with a great variety of stories in a wide range of styles. Anyone with even a passing interest in Attack on Titan should be picking this one up.

ANNA: I’m not seeing much that I’m thrilled with this week. But do you know what I am thrilled with? Kaze Hikaru Vol 24. Sure, it came out in the summer, but I am just reading it now so it is my pick of the week!

MICHELLE: This is the part where I’d normally pick Magi, but I’ll switch things up this time and go with volume sixteen of Say I Love You. The gang is moving on past high school and I’m very interested to see how the series evolves as a result.

SEAN: Gotta be the new Kitaro for me. Mizuki is the master for a reason.

ASH: Same here! I’m absolutely loving the new English-language release of Kitaro and can’t wait to get my hands on the next volume.

ANNA: I have the first volume of Kitaro sitting around in my to-read stack. I’m still going to pick the second volume to highlight, just because it seems like the most important release of the week.

SEAN: Much as I’d like to, I just can’t get all that excited about Platinum End, as I haven’t felt the Obata love the way Michelle and MJhave. As a result, my pick this week is the new Yona of the Dawn, a series where I absolutely do feel all the love. Can’t wait.

MICHELLE: There is a great deal I’m looking forward to this week, including new volumes of sweet faves like Honey So Sweet and My Love Story!!, plus the second volumes of promising new series like Yona of the Dawn and Kuroko’s Basketball, but I enjoyed the 14th volume of Food Wars! so much (see this week’s Bookshelf Briefs column) that it’s got to be my pick.

ANNA: There are so many great volumes from series that I love coming out this week, but due to my enthusiasm for shoujo fantasy series, I am going to join with Sean and also pick Yona of the Dawn. The first few volumes of a series always seem so exciting and full of potential, I’m very much looking forward to this!

ASH: It’s a shoujo sort of week for me, too! My heart is torn between the next volumes of My Love Story!! and Yona of the Dawn, but like Anna and Sean, my pick for the week ultimately goes to Yona and the most recent epic shoujo fantasy to be released in English.

MJ: I’m pretty interested in Yona of the Dawn, but I’ve got to stay true to my Obata fangirlishness, and go with Platinum End. I’ve never been completely on board the Ohba/Obata train, but since that collaboration seems to be ongoing, I’ll do what I have to for my Obata artwork fix.

MICHELLE: There are three Kodansha titles that have been in my Amazon cart for at least a week now: the second volume of Sweetness & Lightning and the debut volumes of The Prince in His Dark Days and Welcome to the Ballroom. I am legitimately excited for all three, particularly the debuts, but given my enduring penchant for sports manga, it’s probably no surprise that it’s Ballroom that really has my curiosity piqued!

SEAN: There’s a pile of things I’m interested in next week. Franken Fran introduces my favorite character, Youth Romantic Comedies go Wrong (as I often appreciate), and there’s a new Umineko to read and grind my teeth at the irritation that is Erika Furudo. But yes, the pick this week has to be Welcome to the Ballroom. It’s won the Manga Taisho award, it’s filled with shonen spirit, but most importantly, it’s a ballroom dancing manga. You had me at that. (Just… no magical weightloss plots like the last dancing manga, OK?)

MJ: Welcome to the Ballroom! Welcome to the Ballroom! Welcome to the Ballroom! And that other stuff sounds interesting, too.

ASH: Kodansha Comics definitely has my eye (and wallet) this week, especially with its trio of debuts. I’m immensely curious about The Prince in His Dark Days, but like everyone else I can’t seem to resist the allure of shonen ballroom dancing. And so Welcome to the Ballroom it is!

ANNA: I didn’t realize that Welcome to the Ballroom is coming out, but now that I have that knowledge it is the only possible pick for me!

SEAN: Nothing really knocks it out of the park for me this week, but having just read it, I’m going with the 8th volume of Arpeggio of Blue Steel, which has a few surprising reveals, and one reveal that isn’t so surprising, but it’s nice to see confirmed. I enjoy this military thriller with cute girls.

MICHELLE: I’m definitely going with volume two of Complex Age this week. Volume one was indeed complex, and informative to boot. I’m looking forward to seeing how the story develops.

ASH: I’m intensely curious about the second volume of Complex Age, too, but my pick this week goes to the third omnibus of the incredibly surreal and at times devastating coming-of-age story that is Goodnight Punpun.

ANNA: I’m for sure most interested in Complex Age, I’m sure mostly because I haven’t yet read Goodnight Punpun yet. I could see it being a hard choice between those two titles!

MICHELLE: Although I’m happy to see more of Blue Morning, I have to admit that my heart belongs entirely to BLAME! this week. This is the title that made me a major fangirl for Tsutomu Nihei’s art style, and even if plot clarity is not his top priority with this title, there’s just something about his detailed rendering of the setting that gives me geekbumps. Thanks for the rescue, Vertical!

SEAN: I feel bad for not picking Hayate the Combat Butler, because if I don’t no one else will. But Michelle is right, BLAME! is clearly the pick of the week here, and I look forward to delving into it and being completely baffled by what is going on.

ASH: While I’m definitely interested in the re-debut of BLAME!, my pick this week is the most recent volume of Blue Morning. I’m not as voracious a reader of BL as I once was (maybe I’ve just become pickier) but I’ve been awaiting the continuation of Blue Morning with great anticipation.

MJ: I’m also pretty psyched for more Blue Morning, but having fallen so hard for Knights of Sidonia, I gotta jump on the BLAME! wagon here. Michelle’s endorsement goes a long way as well. I missed it the first time around, so count me in!

ANNA: I’m excited to have a chance to read BLAME! finally, and am glad Vertical picked it up because they always have great production values for their manga.

SEAN: It’s Viz week, so there’s quite a bit I’m interested in, but my eyes turn first, as they often do, to Skip Beat!. It may not be ending soon, but it is wrapping up plotlines, and one of the bigger ones starts to get wrapped up beginning in this volume. I will be reading it immediately.

MICHELLE: I second Sean in every respect!

ASH: It’s Haikyu! this week for me! I’ve been thoroughly enjoying all of the sports manga being released of late, but I especially liked the first two volumes of Haikyu! with their emphasis on playing together as a team.

ANNA: If Skip Beat! is coming out, there can be only one pick for me and that would be Skip Beat! How does it manage to be so good after so many volumes? I don’t know but I’m always happy when there is a new volume to read.

MICHELLE: What a dilemma! A new volume of Fruits Basket versus a new volume of Yowamushi Pedal! I love both series, but I think the advantage here has to go to the content that hasn’t been released here before, in which case it’s Yowamushi Pedal by a handlebar!

SEAN: An embarrassment of stuff this week. Emma, Furuba, Nozaki-kun, YowaPeda, and light novels galore. My pick is the second Baccano! novel, because Jacuzzi and Nice are sweeties, and Ladd and Lua are terrifying, albeit in different ways.

ANNA: There is so much stuff coming out! I have to go with the title I’m most likely to read very soon, which is Nozaki-kun.

ASH: Wow, it’s a really great week for Yen Press manga! I’ll definitely be picking up Yowamushi Pedal and Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-Kun, but my official pick of the week goes to the final omnibus volume of Emma. I’m so glad that the series was rescued! I’m looking forward to completing my collection.

SEAN: I admit, if it weren’t for Yen On not delaying two of their books this week, I might not have anything to pick at all. As it is, I’ll pick the 8th volume of A Certain Magical Index. Kuroko may drive me crazy with her “comedy lesbian” antics, but it’s still a great read for me.

MICHELLE: I don’t really read light novels much, so I *am* in the position of not having something to pick. So, instead I will pick Itazura Na Kiss volume eleven, which came out last week. Get yours from Akadot!

SEAN: And only from Akadot, it would seem. Grump.

ASH: As for me, I’ll be taking advantage of this slower week to try to catch up on The Heroic Legend of Arslan!

MICHELLE: I am somewhat reluctant to claim That Wolf-Boy Is Mine! for my pick of the week, since I know almost nothing about it and it could be dreadful, but the fact remains that it’s what I’m going to be buying, so I guess it wins by default.

SEAN: I am interested in Wolf-Boy, but I do have a go-to pick this week, so I will pick the 19th volume of Dorohedoro, filled with gore and gyoza.

ASH: Gore and gyoza! That’s a pretty good tag line for Dorohedoro. It’s such a strangely delightful and disconcerting series, and my pick for this week as well.

ANNA: There’s not much that is really grabbing me this week, I guess Wolf Boy? Meh.

SEAN: Another week, another really obvious pick. I’ve loved the other Moto Hagio volumes we’ve seen over here, and so absolutely cannot wait for the first volume of Otherworld Barbara, a story so good it won the Japan SF Grand Prize, the Japanese equivalent of a Nebula Award. It’s from Fantagraphics, so should look great too. And an omnibus to boot!

ASH: Yup, no question about it. It’s Otherworld Barbara for me, for all of the reasons that Sean has already described and more.

MICHELLE: Count me in, as well!

ANNA: Is this a unanimous pick? I agree too!

MJ: This, this, this, THIS.

MICHELLE: There is so much good stuff coming out this week. I probably say that all the time, but there’s usually not as much good stuff as there is this time! That said, I have been eagerly awaiting Kuroko’s Basketball for a long time, and even though I’m keen to read Yona of the Dawn, too, sports manga always has an edge with me.

SEAN: As I already indicated, it’s Yona of the Dawn all the way for me. A fantasy series with a kickass princess and archery to boot.

ASH: There really are some great manga being released this week, but I’m with Sean in choosing the debut of Yona of the Dawn. Could this signal the return of long-running epic shoujo fantasy series in English? I sure hope so!

ANNA: I enjoy a good sports manga, but I’m with most of the Manga Bookshelf crew in having a decided preference for Yona of the Dawn. Bring on the epic shoujo fantasy!