SEAN: This is when you should start buying manga for Christmas.
ASH: Honestly, I started last December.
SEAN: Airship debuts Bowing to Love: The Noble and the Gladiator (Ai ni Hizamazuku Toki), which stars two men who are torn between duty, pure pleasure, and actual love amidst a vaguely Ancient Roman fantasy world.
ASH: I’ve enjoyed some of Saki Aida’s other works and have heard good things about this one.
MICHELLE: Hm. Potentially interesting.
SEAN: There’s also a deluxe hardcover edition of Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation, with the first three volumes.
And we also have The Strange Adventure of a Broke Mercenary 13.
Early digital features The Case Files of Jeweler Richard 11, She Professed Herself Pupil of the Wise Man 15, and Too Many Losing Heroines! 6.
Dark Horse Comics debuts Omega 6, a manga by the creator of the video game of the same name. Bounty-hunting androids are on a race against time!
ASH: This looks like it could be fun.
SEAN: Dark Horse also has Blood Blockade Battlefront Omnibus 2.
Denpa is listed by retailers as having Nana & Kaoru: Black Label 2 and Vampeerz 6.
Fantagraphics has the third and final volume of Search and Destroy.
ASH: Here for it! (And then I’m going to read them all.)
SEAN: Ghost Ship gives us The Elf Sisters Can’t Wait for the Night 3 and Inside the Tentacle Cave 6.
Lots of J-Novel Club debuts. The Isle of Paramounts: Reborn into a Slow Life Among the Strongest in the World (Tenseishitara Saikyou Shu-tachi ga Sumau Shima deshita. Kono Shima de Slow Life wo Tanoshimimasu) stars a guy accidentally killed by God, who gets reincarnated on a remote island with immunity to illness and a copy ability. Then he finds the island is not that remote after all…
ASH: I initially read that as starring a guy who accidentally killed God, but I’m pretty sure that’s a different manga.
SEAN: Looks like a Job for a Maid! The Tales of a Dismissed Supermaid (Maid Nara Touzen desu. Nureginu wo Kiserareta Bannou Maid-san wa Tabi ni Deru Koto ni Shimashita) has a maid fired by her employer after being falsely accused. Now she has to find new work. Fortunately, as others who run into her find, she can do literally anything.
ASH: That is fortunate!
ANNA: Happy for her!
SEAN: Miss Blossom’s Backward Beauty Standards: Give Me the Ugly Crown Prince! (Bishuu Abekobe Isekai de Busaiku Outaishi to Kekkonshitai!) has an otaku woman reborn in a world where ugly is beautiful and beautiful is ugly, and thus sets her eyes on the Crown Prince, who is not only “hideous” but has terrible self-worth issues.
ASH: Hmmm.
SEAN: The manga debut is This Alluring Dark Elf Has the Heart of a Middle-Aged Man! (Watashi no Kokoro wa Oji-san de Aru). A (male) office worker wakes in the body of a (female) dark-haired elf in a fantasy world. Unfortunately, this elf is still an introvert who avoids others. Cross Infinite World did the light novel for this. The manga runs in Comic PASH!
Other light novels from JNC next week: The Frontier Lord Begins with Zero Subjects 11, The Reincarnation of the Strongest Exorcist in Another World 7, and Revenge of the Soul Eater 2.
Other JNC manga include The Frontier Lord Begins with Zero Subjects 11, I Want to Escape from Princess Lessons 5, Oversummoned, Overpowered, and Over It! 10, The Retired Demon of the Maxed-Out Village 3, and Scooped Up by an S-Rank Adventurer! 2.
Kodansha Manga debuts A Curtain Call for You (Kimi no Tame no Curtain Call), a yuri series from Comic HOWL. An introverted writer hates dealing with people, but when outgoing transfer student Tsubame finds her writing, suddenly she’s being asked to help start a drama club!
ASH: Count me as intrigued!
SEAN: Omega Megaera is an omegaverse series from Itan. Omegas are discriminated against depending on whether they can bear alpha children, and so our lead, who is considered a creature that brings bad luck, has to come up with a scheme. This feels dark and political.
They also have a big old guidebook, Studio Ghibli: The Complete Works. It looks at each Ghibli film in detail.
ASH: Oh, that should be good! (Although I am used to most of the fancy Ghibli-related works coming from Viz.)
SEAN: Also in print: AKIRA Hardcover Collection 4, GAEA-TIMA the Gigantis 4, Magic Knight Rayearth 2 3 (the final volume), Sheeta’s Little Big World 2, Spacewalking With You 2, and Wistoria: Wand and Sword 10.
ASH: I really ought to give Spacewalking With You a try at some point.
SEAN: Digitally we see Killing Line 4, Manchuria Opium Squad 9, WIND BREAKER 21, and Ya Boy Kongming! 21.
Retailers say KUMA gives us YataMomo 2 next week.
MICHELLE: I’ve been meaning to read this!
SEAN: One Peace Books has an 11th volume of Farming Life in Another World.
As we’ve done I think every week this month, we start Seven Seas with a new danmei novel. Mistakenly Saving the Villain is whatever the danmei word for isekai is. Our hero dies and is reborn in a fantasy novel, where he has to rescue the hero. But he gets the wrong guy! There’s also a special edition with a double-sided bookmark, a sticker sheet, a poster, and four postcards.
ASH: Danmei has really taken off, it seems! And I’m not sad about that.
MICHELLE: Me, neither!
SEAN: Also danmei, Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi Deluxe Edition 2.
In non-danmei Seven Seas news, Grand Metal Organs is a seinen series from Comic Days. A weak guy in a world where only the strong survive, tries hard anyway, and is rewarded with death. But now… he’s come back wrong. For horror fans.
ASH: That’s probably me, then! I also like what I’ve seen of the artwork.
SEAN: Tales of the Hundred Monsters Next Door (Tonari no Hyakkai Kenbunroku) is also horror, about a guy suffering from demons and a yokai expert telling stories.
ASH: A yokai expert, you say? Sounds like this is another series one for me, too.
ANNA: Always happy to see some more yokai series.
SEAN: Wimpy Demon King and Tsundere Hero (Hetare Maou to Tsundere Yuusha) is a BL one-shot from equal. (Capitalization and Japanese manga magazines are enemies). The title is the plot.
Also from Seven Seas: The Ancient Magus’ Bride: Wizard’s Blue 9, Easygoing Territory Defense by the Optimistic Lord 6, Gravitation 7: Gravitation EX (the final volume), Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid 16, Royal Tailor: Clothier to the Crown 5, A Tale of the Secret Saint 10.
MICHELLE: I hadn’t realized Wizard’s Blue went on for so long!
SEAN: Tokyopop has one debut, Dear Demon King (Shinai naru Waga Maou e) a BL one-shot that ran in from RED. A king must choose between duty and love… also, I think, griffins are hot guys in this?
ASH: That does seem to be the case.
ANNA: Sometimes this happens, I suppose.
SEAN: It also has a 2nd light novel volume for Her Royal Highness Seems to Be Angry.
Retailers say Udon has 2nd volumes for Little Mega Man and Mr. Mega Man.
Viz Media has a big artbook, The Art of Manga, which apparently highlights ten manga artists (they don’t say who) and shows why manga is so beloved. This ties into to an exhibit in San Francisco.
ASH: Assuming that the cover art is reflective of the contents, we should at least see Rumiko Takahashi, Jiro Taniguchi, Kazumi Yamashita, Mari Yamazki, and Fumi Yoshinaga included. I suspect Tetsuya Chiba, Fujio Akatsuka, Hirohiko Araki, Gengoroh Tagame, and Eiichiro Oda will be featured, too. This should be phenomenal.
ANNA: Oh, this does sound cool!
SEAN: Viz also has JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Part 7–Steel Ball Run 4.
ASH: I have so much catching up to do, but I’m still incredibly happy to see more of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure being released in English.
ANNA: Yes!
SEAN: No debuts for Yen On, but we do see Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody 24, I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level 17, Kusunoki’s Garden of Gods 3, Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World 15, Victoria of Many Faces 3, and Who Killed the Hero? 2.
Yen Press pushed all its still to the last week of the month, so here it is. CLAMP Official Artbook: COLOR KURO is one of two artbooks, the other being SHIRO (also out this week) to highlight CLAMP’s career. They’re very expensive-looking, which is good, as they’re very expensive.
ASH: Truth!
SEAN: Corpse Knight Gunther is a webtoon series about a world where vampires have defeated humanity. Now the humans are striking back with… well, take a guess, he’s in the title.
Fruits Basket: The Complete Box Set is what it says. It has new covers and some postcards.
ASH: I’m still delighted Fruits Basket is still in print.
SEAN: The Girl Past the Filters (Filter-Goshi no Kanojo) is an ecchi manga from Comic Zenon. A stoic boy who enjoys interacting with an online persona who posts lewd pics of herself is startled to find that she’s his studious classmate.
The Maid Is a Vampire (Maid-san wa Kyuuketsuki) is a 3-volume omnibus of a series that ran in Manga Cross. If you liked Mechanical Marie but wished instead of a strong girl pretending to be a robot, she was a vampire, this is for you.
The Terrifying Students at Ghoul School! (Youkai Gakkou no Seito Hajimemashita!) is a prequel to, well, A Terrified Teacher at Ghoul School!. It runs in PFantasy.
Also from Yen Press: Adachi and Shimamura 6, Ako and Bambi 6, The Beginning After the End 9, Blade & Bastard 3, The BS Situation of Tougetsu Umidori 2, Convenient Semi-Friend 2, Cross-Dressing Villainess Cecilia Sylvie 7, Dara-san of Reiwa 2, The Devil Is a Part-Timer! 23, Everyone’s Darling Has a Secret 3, I Got a Cheat Skill in Another World and Became Unrivaled in the Real World, Too 6, I Made Friends with the Second Prettiest Girl in My Class 2, I Want to Be a Receptionist in This Magical World 7, Is the Order a Rabbit? 4, Kowloon Generic Romance 10, The Skeleton Enchanted by the Cursed Blade 2, So What’s Wrong with Getting Reborn as a Goblin? 9, Sword Art Online Ordinal Scale 3, The Three-Body Problem (comic version) 4, This Monster Wants to Eat Me 5, Trinity Seven 31, Tsubaki-chou Lonely Planet 11, and A Witch’s Life in Mongol 2.
ASH: A good reminder that I need to read my copy of the first volume of A Witch’s Life in Mongol . And that I need to start reading Kowloon Generic Romance, too.
MICHELLE: I routinely forget about Kowloon Generic Romance, but I also want to read it, at some point.
ANNA: Yeah! So much manga!
SEAN: Lots of good gifts there! Anything catch your eye?
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