Adults’ Picture Book: New Edition, Vol. 2 | By Kei Itoi | Yen Press – This continues to be really well-written provided that you can deal with awkward introverts who don’t like talking trying to raise a ball of fun who is nevertheless far more clever than her father wants her to be. Now married, Fusako is trying to figure out what that means… though before she does that, she might want to invest in a GPS so she doesn’t walk over an hour to get home after work. Meanwhile, Kudou’s colleagues bring him gifts (that he doesn’t want) and also muse on his sexuality, which is still very ambiguous. He states he’s not gay, but it’s pretty clear he was in love with Jinno. The premise of this manga seems to be defining “normal”… or more accurately, asking why people have to try really hard to be normal at all. Fascinating. – Sean Gaffney
Bocchi the Rock!, Vol. 3 | By Aki Hamazi | Yen Press – Make no mistake, Bocchi is the main reason to read this series, but I do appreciate that the other three girls in the main cast are not just there to react to her. They’ve each got their own issues. Kita worries her voice isn’t conveying the song as well as it could, worries that don’t go away when the singer from a rival band confirms it for her. Nijika is the leader of the band, so of course wants it to go far, even if that means playing at bad venues and having to face up to the fact that she’s a drummer and can’t do a cool pose. Even Ryo gets stuff to do, though I admit of the four leads hers is the one that most often comes down to “the stoic but weird one” most often. As for Bocchi herself, she’s still a mess, but far less than volume one. She’s coming along. – Sean Gaffney
Captain Momo’s Secret Base, Vol. 1 | By Kenji Tsuruta | Dark Horse – It’s 3019 CE and Captain Momo and her first officer, a tuxedo cat named Grandpa John, are escorting a space freighter on a years-long journey. This manga chronicles their daily adventures, by which I mean the distinct lack of same. These include using the meal replicator to create a toy mouse for Grandpa John, napping, and dealing with massive piles of stuff everywhere. She’s also naked the whole time. It’s not salacious, unless you count the time she flashes her coworker, but it’s definitely inescapable. Towards the end, somewhat of a plot develops, in that Momo currently doesn’t have enough energy reserves to complete her journey successfully, and must find a way to make up the deficit. I’m just not sure I’m interested enough to see how that turns out for her. – Michelle Smith
Chasing Spica, Vol. 1 | By Chihiro Orihi | Seven Seas – I was looking at comments about this manga, and I saw someone asking whether it was really OK to be rooting for the blackmailer in this series? Well, are we supposed to? Honestly, both leads are damaged in some way, shape or form. The blackmailer, Serika, is the “protagonist” mostly as the story comes from her perspective in this book, and it’s her own struggles that kickstart the plot. That said, I can’t deny that I’m more interested in Reiko, who is seemingly the prim and proper opposite to Serika but in reality is something much more complex, and grounded in apparent past family trauma. Plus we get “I’m good at something too. Sex.”, which is one of those over-the-top lines that makes me hope this eventually sees an anime. I was intrigued. I’ll read more. – Sean Gaffney
I Can’t Say No to the Lonely Girl, Vol. 2 | By Kashikaze| Kodansha Manga – It’s always tricky when two girls are in love but one of them isn’t quite aware that’s what this is. Sora definitely knows what this is—she’s been in love with Ayaka from the moment she first saw her. Unfortunately, not only does Ayaka not remember that, but she’s also perhaps unaware of her own feelings—since she sees her relationship with Sora as being based around the request from the teacher (and explaining about her perfect older brother helps explain more why she took it), the burgeoning feelings inside her can’t be romantic—they’ve got to be the TRUE friendship that exists beyond the commodity that they had before! If this seems frustrating, welcome to yuri manga, but it’s cute and they’re great kids. They’ll work it out. – Sean Gaffney
My Hero Academia, Vol. 38 | By Kohei Horikoshi | Viz Media – A definite step up from the last volume, here we see the heroes starting to have a comeback. There is a bit of shonen eye-rolling to get through, as EVERYONE has to come back for one last appearance to help out. This includes Lady Nagant, whom we last saw exploded but with her death unconfirmed, sniping All for One despite her massive wounds. It also includes the cast of Shiketesu, leading to the best callback of the series, where Camie does her “shojo manga” duplicate of Hawks, which manages to fool AFO enough for the real, injured Hawks to get away. And yes, that means it’s also the chapter with the translated footnotes that a very annoying fandom thought were made up by the translator. No, you missed the joke. Try again, folks. – Sean Gaffney
Queen’s Quality, Vol. 19 | By Kyousuke Motomi | Viz Media – The danger of long-running suspense series, especially ones with a supernatural bent like QueQua, is that there needs to be escalation to keep the reader interested. Shonen does this too, of course, but there it’s bigger and stronger villains, whereas here it’s bigger and more personal villains. Fumi has struggled with past memories for the entirety of the series, even back when it was QQ Sweeper, and the revelations that come up here are less “oh my God, we had no idea” and more “oh my God, she’s going to be depressed even more now.” But Fumi is made of sterner stuff (well, she is in the hospital—again—in this book) and is prepared, if necessary, to make this fight even more personal than it’s already been. Good stuff. – Sean Gaffney
Sister and Giant: A Young Lady Is Reborn in Another World, Vol. 1 | By Be-Con | Yen Press – “Sister” is used here in the Maria-sama Ga Miteru vein—indeed, they seem to explicitly have the same uniforms. Sadly, the sisterly relationship we see seems to have gone sour, in a lethal way—not a truck, but a train. The “Giant,” however, is very real, a young woman who is belittled and abandoned by everyone else in her tribe, but finds this isekai’d girl with no powers (she explicitly rejected them) is her savior. Together the two of them struggle to do adventuring jobs, fight off evil rapists from (of course) the Church, and look for those who abandoned them. Unfortunately, the other girl who got hit by the train was not proud enough to reject cool powers, and I think that might come back to bite her. A good take on isekai. – Sean Gaffney
Snow White with the Red Hair, Vol. 26 | By Sorata Akiduki | Viz Media – It’s been a YEAR since the last volume, and I have, of course, forgotten everything. My last review notes Ryu’s character growth, and now we see why—he’s staying behind while Shirayuki moves on, and the new arc, whatever it may be, begins in earnest. At least she has Zen with her for now. We also get to see more of Kiki and Hisame, and I think the reader may finally be coming to terms with the fact that, now that they’ve both grown up a lot, they’re a very good couple. So are Shirayuki and Zen, but that has to advance at a snail’s pace due to the nature of this manga, and it doesn’t help that it’s on a yearly schedule in Japan now as well, so we’re going to wait just as long for the next book. I’ll always be buying it, though. – Sean Gaffney
Teasing Master Takagi-san, Vol. 19 | By Soichiro Yamamoto | Yen Press – The only teasing going on here is teasing the reader, as we get a chapter where newlyweds Takagi and Nishikata (yes, another flashforward) resolve to use each other’s first names… but WE don’t hear what they are. Other than that, this is the penultimate volume of the series, so it’s setting up for the ending… except I suspect the ending will be pretty vague, so instead it’s sort of meandering along with more heartwarming than funny, including the scene where Takagi gets sick and he visits her home, and more scenes showing that Nishikata and Takagi are basically dating, and would be making out every day if he could work up the nerve. (He can’t even touch her back without having a breakdown.) The next one’s the last, should be fun. – Sean Gaffney
This Monster Wants to Eat Me, Vol. 1 | By Sai Naekawa | Yen Press – I read this suspecting it would be a bit depressing, and it is a bit, but the overly of mystery and horror helps to distract you. Hinako lives alone in a seaside town, and dwells on her parents and brother, who were killed at some point in the past. As a word of warning, she pretty much as suicidal thoughts throughout this volume, and I don’t see that changing. She ends up meeting a girl who turns out to be a mermaid, who wants to eat Hinako… but not yet, as she’s not tasty enough. The implication seems to be Hinako is too depressed to taste good, so as metaphors go it’s not bad. I’m most intrigued by Hinako’s friend Miko, who is her bestest bestest friend and does not like this new girl (the mermaid transfers in) at all. This is a riveting title. – Sean Gaffney
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