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Viz Media has started a new series as part of their Jump Start initiative. Kimetsu no Yaiba is the newest series to get the first three chapters published in both the US and Japan.
There’s a good selection of titles for this week. Kodansha Comics releases Noragami Stray Stories, a collection of short stories set in the Noragami universe. I really like the main Noragami series, so this is a volume I’ll be picking up. Seven Seas has the third volume of their popular shojo Ancient Magus’ Bride. I swear I am going to check this series out at some point. I keep hearing nothing but good things about it. I also want to check out Udon Entertainment’s Stein’s Gate. Being a Doctor Who fan, I’m of course interested in stories about time travel. Volume 2 is out this week.
Kodansha releases the mother lode as 5 of their titles are all volumes I need in my collection. My Little Monster, Noragami, Seven Deadly Sins, Silent Voice and Yamada-Kun and the Seven Witches all have volumes out this week, but want makes this so hard is that there isn’t one I want more than the other. I want them all! Over on the digital side, Kodansha releases another round of the collections of their Crunchyroll titles, but I think their pricing is off. Looking at Viz Media and Yen Press, who are bringing out new titles as well as re-releasing older ones, Kodansha is nearly double. I would think it would be hard to justify $11 for an e-book vs a $5.99 subscription where I could read them all. I can see this backfiring on them.
Wow, this week digital releases outnumber print ones. Only four publishers have print titles. Drawn and Quarterly continues their releases of Shigeru Mizuki’s catalog, with the biography Hitler out this week. Kodansha releases the Master’s Edition of Fairy Tail, that collects the first 5 volumes in one massive tome which is good for new readers wanting to get in or die-hard completests.
It’s a subdued selection of titles this week. While most publishers have something coming out, there are only a few titles for each. Kodansha starts out on top with a title I’m seriously interested in. Fairy Girls is a spin-off manga from the series Fairy Tail, and features, you guessed it, the girls from Fairy Tail! The series is by another manga artist, Boku, but remains consistent with the main series. The women wizards of Fairy Tail are great, so it’s awesome that they get their book to kick butt in!
Viz is the top dog this week, as it has been for the last month on the New York Times and Amazon Bestseller lists. All of their shonen and shojo titles come out this week, including the final volume of Yukarism by Chika Shiomi, and new volumes of superhero titles One-Punch Man and My Hero Academia.
Last week of the month, and publishers have quite an impressive haul. Dark Horse Comics finally completes Gantz with final volume 37. Gantz is well known for its graphic content and outrageous fights. This volume will surely be no different. On the other side of this coin is the debut of the new series from Seven Seas Entertainment, Golden Time. This rom-com is from the creator of Toradora, and features college students looking for a fresh start, but just can’t seem to escape the past.