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 really appreciate it’s not done here. Taiki knows that he’s starting to see Hina as a girl rather than a friend, and her confession is just making him stress. So he has to be fair to Chinatsu and reject her, because Chinatsu is the girl that he loves. Which we also see here, and the manga helpfully underlines that they already look like an old married couple. To my surprise, the next volume promises more melodrama. Where’s the sports? – Sean Gaffney
D-Frag!, Vol. 17 | By Tomoya Haruno | Seven Seas – It’s been a year and a half, and that’s a problem given that this is already a series that likely reads better when read month to month rather than in volume format. There’s just too much tsukkomi humor packed in here, and I honestly think if you put it by your bed and read a chapter a month you’d like it more. It doesn’t help that the “annoying group of adults” that follow Kazuma around are even more annoying than usual. The plot (such as it is) involves Chitose saying she wants to be an exorcist after graduation, which ties into an old childhood fear that it turns out Roka and Kazuma were also involved in causing/helping. I was amused at the brief suggestion that this will end with a polyamorous living arrangement (it won’t), but again, mostly exhausting. – Sean Gaffney
Delicious in Dungeon, Vol. 13 | By Ryoko Kui| Yen Press – Well, good news and bad news. The good news is that they managed to trick the Lion/Marcille into letting go of her as lord of the dungeon, and (so far) she is not being arrested and executed. The bad news is that they did this by having Laios become lord of the dungeon. Now, honestly, we’ve all been expecting this almost from Chapter One, but it still allows for a whole lot of evil and terrifying artwork, as all of Laios’ plans to make sure he does not get possessed and turn evil are for naught. Well, except for that last plan. That was pretty good, actually. Unfortunately, he’s cursed by the Lion by the cliffhanger ending of the book, and worries now that he’ll never be able to bring Falin back. Those who know Laios well will see that won’t be an issue. Fantastic. – Sean Gaffney
God Bless the Mistaken, Vol. 1 | By Nakatani Nio | Yen Press – This is from the creator of Bloom Into You, but while it has the same sort of vibe it isn’t yuri, sorry about that. This features more of a mentor relationship (I hope it does not turn romantic, but am prepared to be bitterly disappointed again) between Kon, a 14-year-old schoolboy, and Kasane, his landlord and a researcher into bugs, as in computer bugs, only these bugs affect reality, so that one day plant life grows over the entire city, and the next day that’s gone but everyone can walk on air, etc. She’s unaffected by any bug, which is handy but also a bit bittersweet. If you enjoyed Bloom Into You‘s tendency towards characters smiling wryly at each other, this is much the same, but the plot and characters were quite enjoyable to me. I’ll read more. – Sean Gaffney
Murciélago, Vol. 23 | By Yoshimurakana | Yen Press – For the second book in a row the explicit lesbian sex scene goes to someone other than Kuroko, who is sadly far too busy investigating our latest villain. But this is a series that runs on vibe, not plot, so as long as it has great fistfights (check), really hot muscley women (check), traumatized teens (check), incredible car chases (check), ludicrous parkour from Hinako (check), Kuroko doing feats so ludicrous that even comic books would say “this is too much” (check), and the aforementioned sex scene, we can put up with the fact that the plot is irrelevant and I’ve forgotten the role of a lot of the cast. It’s a shame that this has far too much explicit sex and violence to get an anime, as it would absolutely soar if it was made (with a proper budget). – Sean Gaffney
My Hero Academia, Vol. 37 | By Kohei Horikoshi | Viz Media – As with all long-running insanely popular Jump titles, as this series has gone along it’s had more and more fans saying that they hate it now and that everything is terrible. Normally I tune this sort of thing out, but honestly? With this particular volume, I kind of see their point. It’s a combination of “the villains are winning and everything will be lost, feel sad, feel fear!”—which is exhausting and irritating—with “I never got around to this in the main series before now, but I have to include it even though it feels shoehorned in and pointless.” The fact that in rural areas those with mutant quirks are persecuted has been lightly touched upon before, but not enough to have this dramatic scene that gives Koda and Shoji something to do for the first time in the entire series. Sigh. – Sean Gaffney
Teasing Master Takagi-san, Vol. 18 | By Soichiro Yamamoto | Yen Press – I had not realized that it’s been about ten months since the last volume of this came out over here, and in that time the series finished in Japan. So we’ve only got two more volumes after this one, which… well, feels much the same, but you can tell the author and publisher have planned the ending and know when it’s coming. Not only do we get another flash-forward to their marriage and child (which is an ad for the unlicensed Teasing Master (Former) Takagi-san manga that is still ongoing), but everything’s a lot milder. Nishikata is not hung up on winning to rub it in her face anymore, he wants to win so that he can be around her all the time. She also seems to realize this, and is very content to wait for him to get it. Still heartwarming. – Sean Gaffney
Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou, Vol. 4 | By Hitoshi Ashinano | Seven Seas – As with the previous omnibus, time passing and humanity declining is the subject of this volume. Alpha’s cafe repairs amount to making it more of an outdoor cafeshe— simply doesn’t have the resources. Takahiro is preparing to leave, so it’s probably for the best that Alpha’s “you’re like a little brother to me” hopefully puts paid to his crush. As for Maruko, she gets the incredibly dumb idea of taking Kokone to Alpha’s cafe and trying to pretend that she and Kokone are really close. The trouble with this is that once they’re together, Alpha and Kokone can’t even take their eyes off each other a little bit. It’s honestly hysterical. I believe the next volume is the last, and while I doubt it will kill any of the cast off, we have been seeing the older folks less and less… – Sean Gaffney
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