SEAN: This week we see January, traditionally the month with the fewest releases, take on Yen Press, which always buries us in stuff on the same week. Who wins?
ASH: We all do! Somehow. I think?
SEAN: The debut from Yen On is a one-shot and award-winner, Love Unseen Beneath the Clear Night Sky (Toumei na Yoru ni Kakeru Kimi to, Me ni Mienai Koi wo Shita), a romance title about an introverted college guy whose world opens up after he meets a blind woman. This is not an adaptation based on a movie but feels like it is.
ASH: Oh, interesting.
SEAN: We also see Solo Leveling: The Novel Omnibus, a giant brick featuring all the books to date.
ASH: That’s one way to do it… and does remind me this is a series I’m supposed to try at some point.
SEAN: And we get new volumes! Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki’s Conjecture 5, Even a Replica Can Fall in Love 2, Gods’ Games We Play 4, Hell Is Dark with No Flowers 2, Hero Syndrome 2, If the Villainess and Villain Met and Fell in Love 3, The Irregular at Magic High School 24, My Happy Marriage 8, Sabikui Bisco 9, and Sasaki and Peeps 8.
MICHELLE: I should potentially check out My Happy Marriage.
ANNA: Oh, me too.
SEAN: From Yen Press, we debut Everyone’s Darling Has a Secret (Houkago no Idol ni wa Himitsu ga aru), a seinen title from Manga Park. A young man who needs to get top scores or else ends up screwing up the answer sheet and gets sent to remedial classes… where he meets the prettiest girl in school!
Hell Is Dark with No Flowers (Jigoku Kurayami Hana mo Naki) is a manga adaptation of the light novel Yen is also releasing. It runs in Young Ace.
I’m Here, Beside You (Anata no Osoba ni) is a BL title from B’s-LOVEY. Our protagonist always loved the very straight class president in high school, but never did anything. Now he finds the ex-president is getting married… to a man! Drinking himself into a stupor filled with regrets, he wakes up… in his high school past?
MICHELLE: Welp, that’s an instant pre-order.
ASH: I am likewise intrigued!
ANNA: I’m curious!
SEAN: Also from Yen Press: Ako and Bambi 4, Bungo Stray Dogs: Dazai, Chuuya, Age Fifteen 3, Call the Name of the Night 5 (the final volume), Chained Soldier 10, Cheerful Amnesia 5, Days with My Stepsister 2, The Demon Sword Master of Excalibur Academy 8, From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman 2, The Girl I Saved on the Train Turned Out to Be My Childhood Friend 8, Goblin Slayer Side Story II: Dai Katana 7, Hakumei & Mikochi: Tiny Little Life in the Woods 12, The Holy Grail of Eris 9, Kowloon Generic Romance 9, Lord Hades’s Ruthless Marriage 3 (the final volume), Magical Explorer 2, Miss Savage Fang 2, Saint? No! I’m Just a Passing Beast Tamer! 5, Sasaki and Miyano 10, Sasaki and Peeps 3, Shadows House 8, She Loves to Cook, and She Loves to Eat 5, Shy 9, So What’s Wrong with Getting Reborn as a Goblin? 7, Spring Storm and Monster 2, Sword Art Online: Kiss and Fly 3, This Monster Wants to Eat Me 3, Toilet-bound Hanako-kun 21, Tougen Anki: Legend of the Cursed Blood 2, Tsubaki-chou Lonely Planet 9, and Your Forma 2.
ASH: Okay, yeah, Yen might have won.
SEAN: Viz has two debuts. Tokyo Alien Bros. is a seinen title from the creator of Hirayasumi, and ran in Gekkan! Spirits. Two aliens come to earth to investigate humans. One is very good at blending in. The other… isn’t.
ASH: Sounds absolutely like something I would read.
We also get Vagabond Definitive Edition, which is self-explanatory. 728 pages, $55 hardcover, filled with Takehiko Inoue, which justifies the price.
ASH: This should be glorious. I’m seriously considering upgrading from my VizBig editions.
ANNA: I’m not in favor of double dipping since I also have the VizBig editions but that is tempting.
SEAN: Also from Viz: After God 2, Record of Ragnarok 13, Red River 3-in-1 2, Snowball Earth 4, Steel of the Celestial Shadows 5, Trillion Game 3, and Undead Unluck 18.
ANNA: Red River! Red River! Red River!
SEAN: Square Enix has a 3rd manga volume of The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten.
Seven Seas has two debuts, one manga and one danmei. The manga is Only I Know the World Is Ending and Getting Killed by Rampaging Beasts Only Makes Me Stronger (Kono Sekai ga Izure Horobu Koto wo, Ore dake ga Shitte Iru) is based on an as-yet unlicensed light novel, and its very title exhausts me. It runs in Magazine Pocket, and is a reverse isekai and a “I can return by death!” sort of thing, only unlike Subaru, this guy also gets skills.
Run Wild: Sa Ye is another one of those books which has spawned lots of adaptations. A young man who decides that living with his gambling-addicted dad is better than the contempt he gets from his adoptive parents goes to live with him, only to run into a brother and sister who end up changing his life! (It’s danmei, so you can probably guess which sibling changes his life more.)
MICHELLE: Heh.
ASH: Why, whatever do you mean?
ANNA: It must be the sister.
SEAN: Also from Seven Seas: After School Etude 2, A Cat from Our World and the Forgotten Witch 4, Cat on the Hero’s Lap 4 (the final volume), Diary of a Female Lead: Shujinkou Nikki 2, Dinghai Fusheng Records (manhua version) 2, Free Life Fantasy Online: Immortal Princess 9, How My Daddies Became Mates 2, I Abandoned My Engagement Because My Sister is a Tragic Heroine, but Somehow I Became Entangled with a Righteous Prince 2, The Lady Knight and the Beast-Eared Child 2, My Kitten is a Picky Eater 2, ROLL OVER AND DIE: I Will Fight for an Ordinary Life with My Love and Cursed Sword! 6, and Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs 11.
A manga debut from One Peace Books. The Revenge of My Youth: Re Life with an Angelic Girl (Inkya Datta Ore no Seishun Revenge – Tenshi sugiru Ano Ko wa Ayumu Re Life) is a shonen series based on an as-yet unlicensed light novel, and it runs in Comp Ace. An office worker at a black company drops dead and wakes up back in high school! Now he can make his high school life more vibrant, and also save the life of the cutest girl in school, who committed suicide after being bullied. Hence the revenge part of the title.
KUMA is listed as having two one-shots out next week. Even if There’s No Rainbow Tomorrow (Ashita Niji ga Denakute mo) is a one-shot title from On Blue. An online romance between a drag queen and a sleepy salaryman.
MICHELLE: I’ve had this pre-ordered for a while. I’m definitely looking forward to it.
ASH: What a pretty cover!
ANNA: Sounds cool.
SEAN: And there’s also Guardians of the Far Frontier (Hategaikaku no Bannin), a Lily Hoshino series from Rutile. An aristocrat with PTSD after being the only survivor of a battle is sent to a faraway outpost. Can a sorcerer help him with his nightmares?
ASH: Lily Hoshino is a name is don’t remember seeing for a while!
ANNA: Oh yeah, that’s a bit of a throwback.
SEAN: Kodansha has debuts. Dogs and Punching Bags (Inu to Sandbag) is the latest title from Kaori Ozaki, creator of The Gods Lie and Mermaid Prince. This ran in Gekkan! Spirits, and stars a woman returning home to help her drunken father live out his final days. She runs into a man whose enthusiasm for life contrasts entirely with her own. This release has both volumes, so is complete in one.
MICHELLE: Intriguing!
ASH: I missed that we were getting more Kaori Ozaki manga! That makes me very happy.
ANNA: It makes me happy too!
SEAN: Dra-Q is a seinen title that runs in Young Magazine. A quiet high school student has a secret… she’s a vampire! (Yeah, sorry, Dra-Q does not mean drag queen, this is not that kind of manga.) She can attend school but is forbidden to fall in love, so naturally the guy she has a crush on finds out her secret.
ASH: Seems right.
ANNA: Listen, these things happen when you are a secret vampire.
SEAN: Also in print: Gachiakuta 5, The Great Cleric 12, The Iceblade Sorcerer Shall Rule the World 12, Kei X Yaku: Bound By Law 4, Ninja Vs. Gokudo 5, and Shimazaki in the Land of Peace 2.
Digitally there’s Boss Wife 9 (the final volume), Hozuki’s Coolheadedness 24, MF Ghost 20, Medaka Kuroiwa is Impervious to My Charms 15, and Ya Boy Kongming! 18.
J-Novel Club actually had some print out that should have gone on last week’s list, but it wasn’t on Yen’s site. Cross-pollination of publishers confuses me. THIS week they have Blade & Bastard 3 and My Instant Death Ability Is So Overpowered, No One in This Other World Stands a Chance Against Me! —AO— 7 out in print.
Last week they had Ascendance of a Bookworm 28, I Shall Survive Using Potions! 9, and Tearmoon Empire 11.
As for digital titles, there are two debuts. The first is the manga version of Imperial Reincarnation: I Came, I Saw, I Survived (Tensei Shitara Koutei deshita – Umare Nagara no Koutei wa Kono Saki Ikinokoreru ka), which runs in Comic Corona, and whose light novel JNC will be releasing soon. Our hero is reincarnated as a young child emperor who everyone wants to use as a puppet. Can he somehow control his own destiny?
The other debut is one I’ve been waiting for for some time. The Trials and Tribulations of My Next Life as a Noblewoman (Tensei Reijou to Suuki na Jinsei wo) has a deceptively dull title but has been called “the light novel Game of Thrones”. Our heroine is reborn as a rich noble, but with no magic or powers, just a normal woman. Unfortunately, when she hits fourteen, the drama starts, as she’s exiled from her home, and then at sixteen she’s dragged back to an arranged marriage. I have been told that this is dark but really good.
ASH: My curiosity has been piqued.
SEAN: Also from J-Novel Club: Ascendance of a Bookworm: Short Story Collection 2, Chivalry of a Failed Knight 4, the 7th The Frontier Lord Begins with Zero Subjects manga, the 8th Full Clearing Another World under a Goddess with Zero Believers manga, the 9th Isekai Tensei: Recruited to Another World manga, A Late-Start Tamer’s Laid-Back Life 12, When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace 12, and You Were Experienced, I Was Not 6.
Ghost Ship has Ayakashi Triangle 13, Inside the Tentacle Cave 4, Monster Marriage Shop 2, and Yandere Dark Elf: She Chased Me All the Way From Another World! 2.
I can feel Ed Chavez glaring at me from here, but retailers say the legendary They Were 11! (11-nin Iru!) is out next week. I know it’s probably still a placeholder date. Sorry. It *is* coming soon. A shoujo story from 1975 by Moto Hagio that ran in Betsucomi, and honestly if you did not order this when you heard the name Moto Hagio, then you should probably be reading some other weekly manga releases post.
MICHELLE: I was lucky enough to obtain a copy of Four Shojo Stories, in which the original run of “They Were Eleven” appeared, but this new edition also contains a sequel series, so I am definitely looking forward to that!
ASH: I also have one of the illicit copies of Four Shojo Stories and am likewise really looking forward to this release whenever it happens to come out.
ANNA: Did you know that I also have a copy of Four Shojo Stories somewhere in my house? But I can’t find it and will totally buy They Were Eleven whenever it is available.
SEAN: Airship, in print, has Free Life Fantasy Online: Immortal Princess 8 and She Professed Herself Pupil of the Wise Man 12.
And in early digital there is Failure Frame: I Became the Strongest and Annihilated Everything With Low-Level Spells 11.5 and Sword of the Demon Hunter: Kijin Gentōshō 8.
So, it turns out January is no longer the month no one releases anything. What are you getting?
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