Manga the Week of 5/1/24

SEAN: End of April, start of May, it’s all the same to me. Just one straggler from Yen On: Once Upon a Witch’s Death: The Tale of the One Thousand Tears of Joy (Aru Majo ga Shinu Made: Owari no Kotoba to Hajimari no Namida), a one-shot light novel. A witch apprentice learns she is cursed to die in one year unless she collects one thousand tears of joy. ASH: I really do appreciate one-shots,…

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Pick of the Week: Mimosa, Ramune and Blood

ASH: There are some interesting releases this week, for sure, but I’m more inclined to nab newer volumes of ongoing series rather than any of the debuts. That being said, my pick this actually does go to the debut of The Mimosa Confessions. Granted, I’ll be waiting for it to come out in print before I actually read it… MICHELLE: The Mimosa Confessions gets my pick as well, but there *is* some…

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Manga the Week of 4/24/24

SEAN: April is lurching towards its conclusion. What can we find? ASH: Hopefully my mind; try as I might, it’s convinced that March comes next. SEAN: There’s a lot of print Airship titles, as we see Free Life Fantasy Online: Immortal Princess 6, The Most Heretical Last Boss Queen: From Villainess to Savior 6, She Professed Herself Pupil of the Wise Man 10, and The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to…

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Bookshelf Briefs 4/18/24

Blue Box, Vol. 9 | By Kouji Miura | Viz Media – This is still a sports-lite volume of the series, which is good news for the reader but very bad news for Hina, who desperately insists she does not need an answer to her confession but she’s gonna get one anyway. Blue Box is, at nine volumes, assured of being a Jump success story, so you’d expect the author to start extending plotlines. As such, I…

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Pick of the Week: My Gemini

SEAN: For my pick this week I think I’ll go for My Gemini. Licenses from Asuka are pretty rare to begin with, and this dark twin mystery sounds pretty good. It’s also complete in one volume. MICHELLE: Me, too, and for all the same reasons! ASH: I’ll join you in picking My Gemini as the debut release I’m most interested in this week. But I’ll also admit to being rather curious about I Want You To…

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Manga the Week of 4/17/24

SEAN: Yen Press is here to bury us in titles once more. Yen has slid some releases at the last minute, so their calendar hasn’t quite caught up yet. I believe the only debut for Yen On this week is You Can’t See the Snow (Kimi wa Yuki o Miru Koto ga Dekinai), a one-shot about a college couple who meet in the summer, but she breaks up with him in the autumn – as she has an illness that causes her…

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Pick of the Week: A Smorgasbord of Manga

MICHELLE: I’m pretty intrigued by The Disabled Tyrant’s Beloved Pet Fish, but am gonna choose the fifth and final Marmalade Boy release because I still love this series so much and it’s a classic for good reason! KATE: This is one of those weeks I’ve been saving up for, as there is SO MUCH good stuff arriving at your local comic shop. I second Michelle’s pick–Marmalade Boy is gloriously silly–but…

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Manga the Week of 4/10/24

SEAN: Spring is here, tra-la, tra-la. It’s raining every day. Just like winter, actually. ASH: Life is skittles! SEAN: We start with Airship’s print releases, as they have the 2nd volume of I’m in Love with the Villainess: She’s so Cheeky for a Commoner. And for early digital it’s Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear 18. Dark Horse Comics has the 6th volume of their Hellsing re-release. J-Novel Club has some…

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Bookshelf Briefs 4/2/24

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, Vol. 10 | By Kanehito Yamada and Tsukasa Abe | Viz Media – Ah, Macht. He may be trying to be a demon who understands human emotions, but that does not mean that he’s not going to massacre humanity whenever it’s convenient for him. We also meet another demon who seems to be Serie’s evil twin, and she absolutely LOVES Fern and Stark, hoping to pick their brains about…

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Pick of the Week: Turn the Skip Beat Around

SEAN: Once again, tempted to just say “Viz”. We get so much good shoujo this week, with a new sequel for Kimi ni Todoke, the next Neighborhood Story, and the first Skip Beat! in 11 months. But my pick is the final volume of Kaguya:sama: Love Is War, a series that was one of the funniest romantic comedies to come along in years, and even had its fair share of drama as well. MICHELLE: There’s so…

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Manga the Week of 4/3/24

SEAN: It’s time for April manga! The best month! MICHELLE: All the cool people were born in it! SEAN: We start off with Viz Media, who have a spinoff to debut. Sequel? One of those. Kimi ni Todoke: From Me to You: Soulmate (Kimi ni Todoke Bangai-hen – Unmei no hito) takes place after the main series, and focuses on Kurumi. It apparently also ties into Crazy for You by the same author. It ran in…

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Pick of the Week: Struggling a Bit

MICHELLE: I am admittedly not terribly enthused about anything, but the first volume of A Man and His Cat was super cute, so I will take a gamble that the tenth volume will be likewise, and make that my pick for this week. SEAN: Feeling the same, really. But since its anime was a reasonable success, I’ll pick the latest volume of 7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her…

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Manga the Week of 3/27/24

SEAN: As March ends, we should all sit back and take stock. Did we March enough this year? ASH: How is it that it seems like March went by faster than February? SEAN: Airship has no print releases next week, but they do have early digital releases for 7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy! 5 and The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick Up Trash 6. Cross…

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Pick of the Week: Sifting Through Large Piles

SEAN: There’s a pile of stuff, but not too many titles that really leap out and grab me (aside from Medalist, of course). I’ve heard good buzz about Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc., so I think I will make that my pick this week. MICHELLE: I’m in a similar position. I suppose I’ll go with The Contract Between a Specter and a Servant but it could easily have weird power dynamics I’m not here…

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Bookshelf Briefs 3/16/24

Bocchi the Rock!, Vol. 2 | By Aki Hamazi | Yen Press – I did not realize that the Bocchi anime only adapted about 1.5 volumes, so the school festival chapters took me by surprise at how quickly they came. It makes sense, though, as does Bocchi’s (seeming) character development—with someone with her personality flaws, it’s harder to read in a 4-koma style book, so we need to eventually have her…

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Manga the Week of 3/20/24

SEAN: ALERT! ALERT! YEN PRESS HAS BREACHED THE CONTAINMENT SHIELD! AWOOGAH! AWOOGAH! ABANDON SHIP! ASH: It’s happening! ANNA: I’m going to run off and take cover! SEAN: Yen On has several debuts, starting with Amalgam Hound: Criminal Investigation Bureau: Special Investigation Unit (Amalgam Hound Sōsakyoku Keijibu Tokusō Han), which possibly has one too many subtitles. Amalgams are war machines…

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Pick of the Week: Galaxies, Alchemists, and Numbers

MICHELLE: I really enjoyed *Sweetness & Lightning* and have been meaning to check out *A Galaxy Next Door* since its debut. And now it’s ending, so I had better get a move on! SEAN: I’ll be picking Management of a Novice Alchemist, because I enjoy peaceful slow life people who reveal they’re secretly incredibly badass. And I can tolerate clumsy dojikkos, which this series also has in spades.…

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