SEAN: The start of November, and hopefully we’ve hit the temperatures going down a bit.
ASH: Ours just went up again today; it was very weird.
SEAN: Airship has the print debut of the light novel version of The Villainess and the Demon Knight, which they seem to have rated as Older Teen, which, um, whatever. You do you. Our reincarnated otome game villainess has been put in a brothel, and the man purchasing her for an entire night is her childhood friend. Can her life be saved by the power of amazing sex?
ASH: Oh, my!
SEAN: In early digital releases, Airship has Classroom of the Elite: Year 2 9.5 and A Tale of the Secret Saint 7.
Dark Horse Comics debuts Cthulhu Cat (Neko no Cthulhu), an Engterbrain title from the author who gave us Yokai Cats. This time it’s Lovecraft Cats.
ASH: I will admit to being curious as this should be ridiculous in a good way.
SEAN: There’s a debut from Ghost Ship: The Cursed Sword Master’s Harem Life: By the Sword, For the Sword (Makenshi no Maken Niyoru Maken no Tame no Harem Life). This runs in Web Comic Gamma Plus, and stars a young man transported to another world with only his two samurai swords for company. Who can talk. And transform into hot girls.
ASH: That’s quite the curse there.
SEAN: There’s also a mature Seven Seas BL title, Leave the Sacrifice at the Gate (Ikenie Monzenbarai), which runs in Byō de Wakaru BL. A boy who is doomed to be a sacrifice is rather unnerved when he finds that the god who’s supposed to eat him just wants to take it easy instead.
ASH: Okay, I’m intrigued by this one, too.
SEAN: Apologies to Hanashi Media, who I missed last week. They had The Fruit of Evolution: Before I Knew It, My Life Had It Made! 10.
No debuts for J-Novel Club, but we get The Death of the Skeleton Swordsman: Dominating as a Cursed Saint 2, the 13th The Faraway Paladin manga volume, From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman: My Hotshot Disciples Are All Grown Up Now, and They Won’t Leave Me Alone 4, the 2nd I’m a Noble on the Brink of Ruin, So I Might as Well Try Mastering Magic manga volume, the 5th The Invincible Little Lady manga volume, and The Otome Heroine’s Fight for Survival 3.
Two debuts from Kodansha. Snow & Ink (Yuki to Sumi) runs in Comic Days. A woman about to lose in her battle from the throne buys a man accused of murdering 50 people. Can they understand each other when no one else will? This one’s dark, folks.
ASH: Sounds like!
SEAN: Thunder 3 is a Weekly Shonen Magazine title that looks like it’s from 1965 but is in reality from 2022. A boy and his two buddies must journey to another world when his little sister watches a DVD that kidnaps her!
ASH: I love seeing these callbacks to older styles!
SEAN: Also in print: The Fable Omnibus 4, Medalist 5, The Seven Deadly Sins: Four Knights of the Apocalypse 14, and Vinland Saga Deluxe 5.
ASH: I still haven’t decided whether or not to upgrade my Vinland Saga collection, but these deluxe editions are SO NICE.
No digital debuts, but we see Blue Lock 28, How to Grill Our Love 11, Life 20 (the final volume), Love, That’s an Understatement 5, Matcha Made in Heaven 10, Those Snow White Notes 22, and Tying the Knot with an Amagami Sister 15.
MICHELLE: I really should get around to reading Love, That’s an Understatement, considering how much I loved Lovesick Ellie.
ANNA: I need to read more Lovesick Ellie.
SEAN: One Peace has a 2nd volume of Nukozuke!.
Seven Seas debuts the manhua adaptation of Dinghai Fusheng Records, based on the danmei novel Seven Seas will be releasing next year. Two men fated to be together, magic, exorcism, the whole nine yards.
MICHELLE: Woo! (Though, probably, I will wait for the novel.)
ASH: I do like that we’re seeing manhua translated more frequently these days.
SEAN: For actual danmei novels, we have Peerless 2.
Also out from Seven Seas: The Duke of Death and His Maid 15, His Majesty the Demon King’s Housekeeper 8, Killer Shark in Another World 2, Nightfall Travelers: Leave Only Footprints 2, Plus-Sized Elf: Second Helping! 3, and The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick Up Trash 6.
From Square Enix we see Demons of the Shadow Realm 6 and Otherside Picnic 11.
Tokyopop debuts A Tail’s Tale (Okashiratsuki), a seinen title from Comic Zenon. A girl who struggles to fit in at her sports club as she doesn’t tan meets a boy with a tail!
Also from Tokyopop: If My Favorite Pop Idol Made It to the Budokan, I Would Die 9 and Sweet for Sweets and Foreigners 2.
Two debuts from Viz Media. Colette Decides to Die (Colette wa Shinu Koto ni Shita) is a shoujo manga from Hana to Yume. An exhausted apothecary jumps into a well, but finds herself in hell caring for Hades, who’s sick! Now she’s going back and forth between the two worlds. This was 20 volumes in Japan, so Viz is doing the omnibus route, this has the first two volumes.
MICHELLE: Huh.
ANNA: I’m intrigued!
ASH: Likewise! And I’ve heard some good things.
SEAN: Kagurabachi is a Weekly Shonen Jump title about a boy whose father is murdered trying to get revenge on the men who killed him. (That said, it’s in Weekly Jump, so shouldn’t get TOO dark.)
ASH: A story of revenge, you say? You have my attention.
SEAN: Also from Viz: Dark Gathering 10, The Elusive Samurai 13, In the Name of the Mermaid Princess 4, Like a Butterfly 9, My Special One 8, Natsume’s Book of Friends 30, One-Punch Man 29, Queen’s Quality 20, Sakamoto Days 14, Wolf Girl and Black Prince 10, and You and I Are Polar Opposites 3.
MICHELLE: Will now be the time I finally catch up on Natsume?!
ASH: And shall I join you?!?
SEAN: Lastly, some Yen stragglers. Yen On has a 4th volume of I May Be a Guild Receptionist, but I’ll Solo Any Boss to Clock Out on Time.
And Yen Press debuts 86–EIGHTY-SIX: Operation High School, which is the traditional High School AU these sort of dark “everyone dies” series tend to get. It ran in my nemesis, Comic Alive.
At last, a relatively short list. What are you picking up?