#Naru is age 20 here like in most of my art

[arikitari-josei-osaka-naru]

Late submission for @smvillainsweek 2024 Day 5: Revenge / Regret. Content warning: blood, violence, harm to Zoisite

Princess Osakaite's attempts to revive Nephrite aren't going well.

[recentanimenews]

Manga the Week of 2/3/21

SEAN: February! The most depressing month of the year! Let’s cheer ourselves up with some new titles!

Airship has two digital-first light novels: Classroom of the Elite 7.5 and The Saint’s Magic Power Is Omnipotent 3.

J-Novel Club has LOTS of stuff. Let’s start with print, as we get two new omnibuses. Banner of the Stars 1-3 is the light novel series, while How A Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom 1-2 is a collection of the manga.

ASH: The Banner of the Stars omnibus looks nice.

SEAN: Also in print: Ascendance of a Bookworm 7 (the final volume of the 2nd arc), By the Grace of the Gods 2, and In Another World with My Smartphone 14.

ASH: Hooray for more Bookworm!

SEAN: Digitally, J-Novel Club has two debuts. The Great Cleric (Seija Musou – Salaryman, Isekai de Ikinokoru Tame ni Ayumu Michi), whose manga adaptation Kodansha is already putting out here, is the first. A reincarnated Salaryman decides to try to live to a nice old age by being a healer. Little does he know…

The other debut is She’s the Cutest… But We’re Just Friends! (Ore no Onna Tomodachi ga Saikou ni Kawaii), a relatively recent series. A guy finds that the hottest girl in the school shares the same gaming hobbies he does. They quickly become best friends… so why does everyone think they’re dating? This looks cute and fun.

Also out digitally: Animeta! 5, An Archdemon’s Dilemma: How to Love Your Elf Bride 4 (manga version), Banner of the Stars 5, I Shall Survive Using Potions! 4 (manga version), Invaders of the Rokujouma!? 35, Sorcerous Stabber Orphen 10, and The World’s Least Interesting Magic Swordsman 5.

MICHELLE: Animeta! is pretty fun.

ASH: I’ve been enjoying the series, too.

SEAN: No debuts in print for Kodansha, but we do get Eden’s Zero 10, That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime: Trinity in Tempest 2, and Witch Hat Atelier 7.

ANNA: Always happy for more Witch Hat Atelier.

ASH: Yes, indeed!

MELINDA: I realize it’s probably a very different slime, but after playing a lot of Genshin Impact, is it weird that I’m suddenly interested in that dude’s reincarnation?

The digital debut is My Dearest Self With Malice Aforethought (Shin’ai naru Boku e Satsui o Komete), a dark title from Young Magazine. Virgin Eiji wakes up one day to find a girlfriend in his bed, his friend saying he got in a fight, and no memory of the last three days. What’s going on?

Also digital: Chihayafuru 24, Otherworldly Munchkin: Let’s Speedrun the Dungeon with Only 1 HP! 3, Our Fake Marriage 5, and The Invincible Reincarnated Ponkotsu 3.

MICHELLE: I can’t let a mention of Chihayafuru go by without saying “Yay!”.

ANNA: Wooo!!!

SEAN: Believe it or not, we now move to Viz. The debut is The King’s Beast (Ou no Kemono), the latest Rei Touma series, and set in the same universe as Dawn of the Arcana. The world isn’t great: those who are half-beast, half-human are discriminated against. So our heroine serves under the king disguised as a man. This runs in Cheese!.

MICHELLE: I really liked Dawn of the Arcana and The Water Dragon’s Bride, so I expect I will like this, too!

ANNA: I like both of those series, and I enjoy it when a heroine has to disguise herself as a man, so I have high hopes for this.

ASH: Ditto what you both said! I’m looking forward to giving this manga a try.

MELINDA: I admit I’m a little tapped out on “heroine disguises herself as a man” when it’s not actually about a trans person, but I’ll give it a shot.

SEAN: Shonen! Blue Exorcist 25, Boruto 10, Chainsaw Man 3, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba 20, Dr. STONE 15, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Part 4–Diamond Is Unbreakable 8, Jujutsu Kaisen 8, Kaguya-sama: Love Is War 18, Naruto: Shikamaru’s Story (a light novel), the 5th and final volume of Samurai 8, Seraph of the End 20, and We Never Learn 14.

ASH: I somehow missed reading the second volume of Chainsaw Man, so I’ll need to fix that. Also need to play some catch up with JoJo, too.

SEAN: Shoujo! Far fewer titles here. Shortcake Cake 11 and Yona of the Dawn 28. (Then again, Yona should count as 4 normal shoujo titles.)

MICHELLE: I’m happy about both of these.

ANNA: Me too!

ASH: Yay, Yona!

SEAN: Yen Press has two debuts. Sasaki and Miyano runs in Gene Pixiv, is based off a webcomic, and sounds sort of like the BL version of Horimiya.

MICHELLE: That’s intriguing!

ASH: Ooooh, when you describe it like that, I may need to check it out!

MELINDA: Sounds like this could be great!

SEAN: The Vampire and His Pleasant Companions (Kyuuketsuki to Yukai na Nakama-tachi) is a title that runs in Bessatsu Hana to Yume. A BL title based off of a novel, with art by the creator of Baby & Me, for those who recall that old Viz series. This is nothing like Baby & Me, but has lots of hot men, hot vampires, and hot vampire men.

MICHELLE: I was just reading about this mangaka yesterday because Kodansha announced their March debits and one of them is Ragawa-sensei’s Those Snow White Notes (Mashiro no Oto). Must be her time to shine.

ANNA: I have to admit, I’m intrigued by all these combinations of hotness.

MELINDA: There are some things that never get old. And by “some things” I mean “hot vampires”.

SEAN: Also out next week: Bungo Stray Dogs 17, Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody 10 (manga version), Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? On the Side: Sword Oratoria 14 (manga version), and Sword Art Online Progressive Barcarolle of Froth 2 (also a manga version, though the LN doesn’t have the subtitle).

Chilled to the bone this winter? Heat up with some manga. What are you buying?

By: Sean Gaffney

[recentanimenews]

Manga the Week of 9/2/20

SEAN: It’s always September, somewhere in Manga Land! What do we have for you this first week of the month?

Cross Infinite World has a 2nd volume of Beast Blood.

Denpa snuck out a release last week, though apparently the print comes a bit later. The Girl with the Sanpaku Eyes (Sanpakugan-chan wa Tsutaetai) is a Gangan Pixiv manga about a girl with “mean eyes” and her travails. Our own Kate Dacey reviewed it here.

ASH: Thanks for the review, Kate! I’ve been curious about this one.

MELINDA: I have, too!

SEAN: No debuts for J-Novel Club this week, but a whooooole lotta other stuff. In print, we get An Archdemon’s Dilemma 7, the first Ascendance of a Bookworm manga (I guess that’s a debut), Infinite Dendrogram 8, My Next Life As a Villainess 3 and Sexiled 2.

ASH: I’ve been enjoying the Bookworm novels, so maybe I should give the manga a try, too. As for the second volume of Settled, I’m really looking forward to getting my hands on it.

SEAN: Digitally, there’s By the Grace of the Gods 4, Full Metal Panic! 8, The Greatest Magicmaster’s Retirement Plan 6, Kokoro Connect 10, The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar 12, The Unwanted Undead Adventurer 6, and A Very Fairy Apartment 4.

Kodansha has some print for us. Knight of the Ice 3, L*DK 15, Living-Room Matsunaga-san 4, The Quintessential Quintuplets 10, Saint Young Men 3, To Your Eternity 12, and Waiting for Spring 13.

MICHELLE: I’ll be reading several of those, and am especially eager for more Knight of the Ice.

ASH: Oh! It’s a good Kodansha week for me, too!

MELINDA: I need to catch up with both Knight of the Ice and Saint Young Men.

ANNA: Glad for the reminder about Knight of the Ice, I’m already behind!

SEAN: There’s also digital. The debut is That Time I Got Reincarnated (Again!) as a Workaholic Slime (Tensei Shite Mo Shashiku Datta Kudan), another spinoff of that popular series. This one is only 2 volumes long.

And we get All-Rounder Meguru 16, Cells at Work: Bacteria 3, My Boss’s Kitten 6, Smile Down the Runway 13, Stellar Witch LIP☆S 2, To Be Next to You 9, and Yuri Is My Job! 6. (The last will have print later, I imagine.)

MICHELLE: I’ve been getting caught up on To Be Next to You and liking it a lot.

SEAN: Seven Seas debuts Cube Arts, a “gamer invited to beta test a game that is more than it seems” story. It ran in Shinchocha’s Comic Bunch.

Digitally there is a light novel debut: ROLL OVER AND DIE: I Will Fight for an Ordinary Life with My Love and Cursed Sword!. A much requested yuri light novel title, this apparently starts off very dark (expect slavery), but has good buzz.

ASH: Hmmm, a yuri light novel could be intriguing.

SEAN: Seven Seas also has, in print, Makeup is Not (Just) Magic: A Manga Guide to Cosmetics and Skin Care, as well as the 3rd Arifureta: I Heart Isekai and My Monster Secret 21.

ASH: I’d actually like to give Makeup is Not (Just) Magic a read.

SEAN: Square Enix gives us a 2nd volume of My Dress-Up Darling.

ASH: Whoops, I haven’t actually read the first volume yet, so I’ve already fallen behind.

MELINDA: Oops, same!

SEAN: Tokyopop debuts Ossan Idol! (Ossan (36) ga Idol ni naru Hanashi), an adaptation of a novel that runs in Comic Pash!. A Middle-Aged Man, bullied most of his life, turns his life around and gets buff, cool and handsome… but is unaware of this. Now he’s been scouted. This looks pretty fun.

Vertical has two debuts. The first we saw a digital release of earlier, but now the Weathering With You manga gets a print release.

MELINDA: I didn’t read this in digital, but I enjoyed the movie and I tend to like manga adaptations of Shinkai’s work, so I really should check it out.

SEAN: The other one, With a Dog AND a Cat, Every Day is Fun (Inu to Neko Docchi mo Katteru to Mainichi Tanoshii) is definitely for animal lovers. Expect “indie” art styles, too.

MICHELLE: Definitely checking this one out.

MELINDA: Okay, want.

SEAN: The rest is Viz, mostly. No debuts, but lots to look at. For shoujo stuff, we get Daytime Shooting Star 8, Kakuriyo: Bed & Breakfast for Spirits 6, Love Me Love Me Not 4, Not Your Idol 2 (not a final volume, but the series is on hiatus in Japan after this), Skip Beat! 44, and Snow White with the Red Hair 9.

MICHELLE: I intend to read every single one of these, sooner or later. I didn’t realize that about Not Your Idol, though. That kind of stinks.

ASH: It’s a good shoujo week! I thought the first volume of Not Your Idol was excellent, so at this point I plan on reading the rest whenever it may be released.

MELINDA: Yes, same for me. Apparently my role in this week’s column is to point to whatever Ash says and repeat, “same.”

ANNA: It is a great week for shoujo! I’m sort of glad I didn’t read the first vol of Not Your Idol if it is on hiatus. I’m also especially happy to see a new volume of Skip Beat!

SEAN: On the shonen end, we get Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba 16, Dr. STONE 13, Dragon Ball Super 10, Haikyu!! 40, Kaguya-sama: Love Is War 16, One Piece: Ace’s Story 2 (final volume, and also a novel), and SPY x FAMILY 2.

MICHELLE: My love for Haikyu!! is pretty well documented at this point, so I will instead squee about how cute and great SPY x FAMILY is.

ASH: Likewise! Those are the two series from this batch which are getting most of my love this week.

ANNA: Nice, I need to read more SPY x FAMILY

SEAN: Lastly, Yen On had one August title skitter all the way into September: the 9th So I’m a Spider, So What? novel.

Which of these make the best titles to hide in your textbook while class is going on?

By: Sean Gaffney