Welcome back, manga fans! The May solicits are one of the driest I’ve seen in a long time, which is probably the reason you’ll see a lot of Viz books this time. Not that Viz puts out bad books normally. I just usually filter out most of them since, well, those titles usually don’t need as much help to sell. (And if I gave into the impulse I’d pick 10 Viz titles nearly every month.)
10.5. There Is a Season, Turn, Turn, Turn
What’s most fascinating for me about the existence of this book is how it is both born of Mizuki’s real experiences as a Japanese person living, and serving, during WWII and part of a grand canon of works making Hitler look like the absolute cartoon he was. Dangerous. Destructive. An absolute monster. But a cartoon nonetheless.
I almost left this off the list, seeing as how it’s a new printing of an older book. However, it’s a Shigeru Mizuki book and I couldn’t resist. Also, considering what’s going on right now here in the US (and globally,) I can’t help but feel the wheels of history turning within these pages.
Shigeru Mizuki’s Hitler
Written and Illustrated by Shigeru Mizuki
Published by Drawn & Quarterly
Seventy years after his death, Adolf Hitler remains a mystery. With Shigeru Mizuki’s Hitler, the manga-ka (Kitaro, NonNonba, Showa: A History of Japan) delves deep into the history books to create an absorbing and eloquent portrait of Hitler’s life. Beginning with Hitler’s time in Austria as a starving art student and ending with a Germany in ruins, Shigeru Mizuki retraces the path Hitler took in life, coolly examining his charismatic appeal and his calculated political maneuvering. In Mizuki’s signature style, which populates incredibly realistic backgrounds with cartoony people, Japan’s most famous living cartoonist has created an overview of Hitler’s life as fascinating as it is informative.
10. Let Me Read Among the Stars
I have no idea what this series is about despite seeing it around for a while. It’s got the soapiest description I’ve seen in a good while and I’m very intrigued. It seems like something right up my alley as I try to find more shojo dramas. Make me cry dammit!
Fly Me to the Moon, Vol. 17
Written and Illustrated by Kenjiro Hata
Published by Viz Media
Nasa and Tsukasa may have reconciled, but things aren’t back to normal just yet. When she returns home, Tsukasa has to set her affairs back in order and make things right with the people who care about her. As she honors Tokiko’s final wishes, she recalls how they made plans to reach the moon together and came tantalizingly close. Speaking of tantalizingly close, Tsukasa and Nasa find that after their time apart, it’s harder than ever to sleep in side-by-side futons-and actually sleep!
9. I Will Break You
I really should have read this by now. It’s popular, it’s got a wild twist on sports manga, and is clearly well made. But I just don’t know if I want to read about horrible people being horrible right now. Sorry folks.
Oh, and “no-balls-barred battle.” Are we sure this isn’t a spin-off of “Dick Fight Island?”
Blue Lock, Vol. 8
Written by Muneyuki Kaneshiro
Illustrated by Yusuke Nomura
Published by Kodansha Comics
A mad young coach gathers soccer players from across the country to compete in a series of bizarre challenges in a high-tech colosseum he calls Blue Lock. It’s a no-balls-barred battle to become Japan’s next top striker, in this Squid Game-meets-World Cup manga, now in print!
8. The 00s Called. They’d Like Their Edgy Back.
It’s nice to be able to talk about “My Hero Academia” for once. It’s been a mainstay of jump for over half a decade now and while I really enjoy it, it rarely breaks into “must talk about” territory nowadays. So consider this my You Should Read “My Hero” But Don’t Bust Down Doors To Do So entry.
I’ve been more and more lukewarm on “My Hero” as the so-called ‘Dark Hero’ arc has continued. It’s been a weird shift that hasn’t quite worked, channeling a very different era of western comics than before. It isn’t helped by Deku’s new powers, which I know many fans hate but I’m fine with. I’m hopeful this starts to break the trend of overly complicated volumes and way too much action. Should I be? I’ll let you be the judge.
Continued belowMy Hero Academia, Vol. 34
Written and Illustrated by Kouhei Horikoshi
Published by Viz Media LLC
All For One’s will has taken root in Tomura’s mind, and this new entity is now a global threat. Even so, the United Nations is hesitant to dispatch heroes to Japan, but Star and Stripe-the U.S.A.’s number one hero-arrives to tackle this menace head-on. In the skies over the Pacific, the combatants size each other up, trying to gain an advantage, but there’s no telling who’ll be left standing after the dust settles on this epic duel…
7. The Sengoku Period Ruins Everything
A series is about escaping subjugation and how instability and rapid technological change breeds hate, exploitation, and environmental destruction, you say? With centaurs?! In feudal Japan!?? Sure, why not? That sounds like fun. Sign me up!
Centaurs, Vol. 1
Written and Illustrated by Ryo Sumiyoshi
Published by Ablaze Publishing
An epic fantasy adventure set in an alternate medieval Japan, where humans co-exist with the mythic half man/half horse beasts known as centaurs, or “jinba”. The centaur race were long revered as deities in ancient times; however, with the advent of the sengoku (warring states) period, humans started to enslave and use them for military purposes due to their speed, stamina, and ability to communicate in human language. Centaurs living in the plains were rapidly subjugated; in contrast, large numbers of centaurs living deep in the mountains were still free due to their relative isolation.
A wild and proud samurai jinba from the mountains named Matsukaze, known as the redheaded rock tiger, is caught while protecting his son. He is traded to a feudal lord, and taken to his land. There he meets another centaur, named Kohibari, whose village was burned down as a child. He is a tame centaur, who had his arms amputated when he was captured, and has given up hope of escaping his human captors. If they can get over their differences and work together, they just might be able to return to the wilds as free centaurs.
6. Wander No Longer
I’m a big fan of Tsuruta’s art, specifically from “Wandering Island.” It’s got this fluid yet scratchy feel to it which gives the impression of falling into a pencil drawing at an art museum. Regardless of whether the story is any good, I’m very happy to see that the rest of his adaptation of “Emanon” has finally been released here in the states. It’s been 4 years since the last volume!
Emanon, Vol. 4: Emanon Wanderer Part Three
Written by Shinji Kajio & Kenji Tsuruta
Illustrated by Kenji Tsuruta
Published by Dark Horse Comics
Emanon is strange even for an immortal-a person with a mind over three billion years old, her consciousness endlessly migrating from new body to new body over the entire history of life’s evolution on Earth. Emanon Volume 4 tells the story of her existence in that odd decade called the 1980s, as Emanon’s latest incarnation grows from a grade schooler who seeks to conceal her intelligence, to a teen trying to avoid a relationship with the superhuman classmate pursuing her, to a young adult facing the death from old age of her best friend Hikari-a mortal time-jumper whose own life has crossed that of Emanon many times in the past, and will do so again many times in the future… but who dies at last in the here and now.
5. What’s In the Box?
Another series that’s been on my radar for a while that I’ve yet to read. This one, however, I’ve < a href="http://www.multiversitycomics.com/news-columns/soliciting-multiversity-manga-11-2022/">plugged before and is far more up my alley. I LOVE the cover, too. Unique among Shonen Jump covers, that’s for sure. When “Blue Box” gives you lemons…
Continued belowBlue Box, Vol. 4
Written and Illustrated by Kouji Miura
Published by Viz Media, LLC
After Taiki pushes himself too hard, Chinatsu nurses him back to health. Even though he never knows the right thing to say, he feels like the distance between them is shrinking rapidly. But with Chinatsu always on his mind, how can Taiki face a courageous Hina suddenly inviting him to the summer festival?For teen audiences.
4. Never Skip a Beat
My love for this series is well-documented as well as my frustration at its twice-yearly releases. At least Mogami & Tsuruga are finally out of the will-they-won’t-they phase and now into the “why is my family like this” phase. Good shit!
Skip Beat, Vol. 48
Written and Illustrated by Yoshiki Nakamura
Published by Viz Media, LLC
Who is that masked man? Or is it masked men?! There’s at least one cosplaying show biz executive running around Tokyo and maybe more-and not even the president of LME knows exactly who they are or what they’re doing in Japan. But Kyoko keeps running into them! Is drawing their attention a good thing, or is there something more than just a new drama afoot?!
3. The Manga Can Fit So Much Manzai In It *Slaps Cover*
Fuck y’all. I didn’t think I’d like this series as much as I did. Manzai, a form of two person stand-up comedy, is something I’ve always struggled to understand in other manga/anime, so an entire manga about it seems like it’d be an absolute thudding failure, right? Right?
Wrong. “Show-Ha Shoten!” is now up there now with “Akane-Banashi” as my favorite thing in Jump right now. It’s hilarious, absolutely fucking hilarious thanks to its manzai routine structure. I’ve only read volume 1 and once I’m done writing this, I’m going to read the rest of the chapters on the SJ app. It’s. That. Good.
Thank you Masha for giving the first volume such a glowing review over in WWAC’s Viz Pubwatch that I had to see what all the fuss was about and for letting me see what Obata’s art is like attached to something not called “Platinum’s End.”
Show-Ha Shoten!, Vol. 2
Written by Akinari Asakura
Illustrated by Takeshi Obata
Published by Viz Media, LLC
A pair of dreamers strive to rise to the top of the comedy world in this story by Akinari Asakura with art by Takeshi Obata (Death Note)!
Shy Azemichi Shijima has secretly been studying the art of comedy. His outgoing classmate Taiyo Higashikata has big dreams of being funny but no follow-through. When the two team up, they just might take the comedy world by storm!
Higashikata and Shijima vow to abandon their comedy dreams if they fail to win the High School Comedy Battle, but the competition is not what they prepared for. With just 30 minutes to spare, will they be able to write an entirely new sketch worthy of first place? Or is this the end for the talented duo?
2. From Comedy to WTF
I have a problem and that problem is I can’t stop recommending this series. It’s a deeply fucked comic and each successive volume cranks the fucked levels up higher and higher. It is an ordeal to read, even though it’s so breezy, yet you can’t stop. You need to know what Mommy will do next and how it’ll mess up Seiichi even more. I seriously think this might be Oshimi’s best work. And maybe his most messed up.
Oh and yes, the image is of volume 13 and yes, volume 13 is the one coming out in May but for some reason volume 14 is being solicited in the March solicits. Gotta love Diamond!
Blood on the Tracks, Vol. 14
Written and Illustrated by Shuzo Oshimi
Published by Vertical Comics
It’s been 20 years since his mother told Seiichi that she renounced motherhood, since she thanked him for being a killer, since he tried to strangle her there in the courtroom-and somehow he made it through. Living alone, working the night shift at a bakery, barely speaking to his father, Seiichi’s life is solitary and empty, and he likes it that way. But nothing lasts forever…
1. Millennials, ammirite?
If this manga turns out to be even a tenth as thoughtful as it looks like it’ll be, this might join “Kowloon Generic Romance” as a Scream From the Rooftops, You Gotta Read this Book. There’s an aching, angry core to this comic’s description and its cover, a seething rejection of the burdensome expectations of a generation who grew up during a boom time, when possibilities seemed endless, and still believe it to be so. Its invocation of “muses” is fascinating too because it is not a traditional flipped-perspective or play on the greek muses but instead a recasting of the role and its meaning.
Continued belowI need this book and I need it now to see where it actually takes these ideas or if it does at all.
The Essence of Being a Muse, Vol. 1
Written and Illustrated by Aya Fumio
Published by Yen Press
Somebody fill my emptiness.The day I was rejected from art school, everything that was “special” about me died. That’s why I have no choice. Since I’m back to being “ordinary,” I’ll go to the job my mom decided on while wearing the clothes my mom picked for me so that I can find what my mom calls “happiness” alongside somebody my mom can boast about, trapped in a never-ending cycle of “What if?” and “Too bad” all the while.
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Anything I missed? What are YOU looking forward to? Let me know in the comments!
