A Bride’s Story, Vol. 15 | By Kaoru Mori | Yen Press – Last time I said it would be another year until 15, and it turned out to be more than two. Still, it was worth the wait. The bulk of this book is set in England, as Smith takes Talas home to get approval for the family… which goes about as well as you’d expect, though it helps that Smith is already considered eccentric even within his family. Still, she gets to see nice horses, and gets to keep sheep, which helps to brighten her up a bit. The back half of the book concerns a young man rumored to “have a lot of money,” which irritates the childhood friend who was interested in him before but now he’s nouveau riche. As it turns out, rumors are mostly just rumors. This remains an absolutely stellar work that everyone should be reading. – Sean Gaffney
A Curtain Call for You, Vol. 1 | By Shiho Satou | Kodansha Manga – What starts with an introvert’s worst nightmare (the extroverted kid finds their secret notebook and reads it) turns into a manga that was indeed written for me, as it turns out this extrovert wants to start a drama club and she’s found a writer. This is a yuri manga, apparently, but I’m more interested in the growth of the two leads, as Sakura’s observational skills and talent help her to assert herself and Tsubame’s over the top exterior hides a lot of doubt and pain. I also really liked the third member of the cast, an actress who’s also at their school who shows off that she’s already figured out what our two leads are struggling to find. All this plus some really good scenes showing off the joys of writing and acting a new play. I definitely recommend this. – Sean Gaffney
I Don’t Know Which Is Love, Vol. 4 | By Tamamushi Oku | Yen Press – Mei knows, deep down, that it’s wrong of her to be falling for every woman she meets, and that she really needs to take a stand and ask one of them to go out with her. It’s kind of a shame that she chooses the one who’s most likely to be macking on someone else when that confession happens. Aside from that, this series knows what its lane is and sticks to it, as we see lots of the main cast almost snapping and banging Mei like a drum, but holding themselves back… or, in the case of her teacher, literally passing out before she can do anything. Mei may not know why her true love is, but everyone else can tell that these girls all love Mei and it’s really obvious. Which can be a problem if you’re a teacher, or a model, or a wannabe actress. Horny fun. – Sean Gaffney
Gabriel Dropout, Vol. 15 | By Ukami | Yen Press – For those who (like me) read this manga mostly for the yuri tease between Satanya and Raphael, rest assured there is a wonderful amusement park date here that is not really a date but yes it is. For those who are wondering if the manga will be coming to an end soon, probably not, but there are a few scenes showing Vigne struggling to figure out what to do after graduation, mostly as she realizes it might involve not being in Gabriel’s orbit forever. And we also find out that Raphael is only a sadist when the other person hates it—she’d be a bad dom for real. (As if we couldn’t guess that.) And we see that the teachers really do care about their students, or at least about Satanya not sounding like a chuuni all the time. Very fun, very gay. – Sean Gaffney
Kageki Shojo!!, Vol. 15 | By Kumiko Saiki | Seven Seas – There’s an ominous suggestion that Sarasa’s personal life and parents may blow up in the press, but that’s a problem for future books, as this one is centered around a fictional musical they’re doing (as in, not like Rose of Versailles), which is called Rippling, and is a time-travel romance. Sarasa isn’t the lead, but she is second lead among the ‘male parts,’ and gets to be the big love rival. For Sarasa in particular it solicits a big change in her appearance that stuns everyone. Ai *is* the lead, and the back half of the book shows us the actual storyline, which is actually a lot of fun, and I can see why it’s a hit in the Kageki Shojo!! world. This is coming to a climax soon, and I can’t wait to see where it goes. (I wish it had a soundtrack, but let’s face it, it could never measure up.) – Sean Gaffney
Maid to Skate | By Suzushiro | Viz Media – If you picked this up knowing its origins as a Twitter artist who loved to draw skateboarding maids and wondered if they would create a compelling story to go with it, you may as well put it down right now. This is not the manga for you. If, however, you know of its origins and wondered “I wonder if there will be more cool pictures of skating maids,” then good news, there are indeed! Just as May I Ask for One Final Thing? turned out to pretty much be “she punched evil nobles,” this title is pretty much “the maid skates really good.” There’s even a really fantastic action sequence involving a cat, a baby carriage, and several jumps. But yeah, the worldbuilding in this book is basically “maids skate here,” and that’s about it. But oh man, the aesthetic is worth it. – Sean Gaffney
Rainbows After Storms, Vol. 7 | By Luka Kobachi | Viz Media – After the lead couple have had their big fight and resolved everything, it’s time to resolve the other big outstanding subplot, and that’s Mai’s one-sided love. As you’d expect, she loves Nanoha but doesn’t want to break up a couple so is content to bury her feelings forever (and rejoin the basketball team). Chidori’s not having that, and urges her to confess and get rejected because in the end she’ll regret it less. Which is true. So she does, and she is. But hey, maybe she can find a second love with the manager of the basketball team. As for Nanoha and Chidori, they worry they’re too obvious, so dial it back at school—well, try to. Nanoha’s a bit bad at that. We even get the return of “we’re dating, but it’s a secret.” We know. Everyone knows. – Sean Gaffney
This Monster Wants to Eat Me, Vol. 5 | By Sai Naekawa | Yen Press – The anime has aired since the fourth volume came out seven months ago, and so I was a bit spoiled as to what was going to happen. But yeah, there are plot guns being fired here, as we finally get the skinny on the whole “you’re just so tasty and I can’t wait to eat you” from Shiori, and while the first part may be true in general the second part is absolutely not. More to the point, Miko is really standing out as the only sensible person in a manga filled with people making bad decisions. That said, Hinako is the one suffering the most here, and we get one of the best partial title drops I’ve ever seen in a manga. Unfortunately, I get the feeling this may tip the suicide ideation over into actual suicide. We’ll see next time, but boy this is well-written and dark. – Sean Gaffney
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