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Soliciting Multiversity: Top 10 Manga for September 2022

By | June 30th, 2022
Posted in Columns | % Comments

Welcome back, manga fans! After last month’s overstuffed extravaganza, I made it a point to stick within my allotted 10 this month. Or I tried to. You’ll see in a second why I think I technically succeeded. My only gripe this time around is I had to drop “Berserk, Vol. 41” since it’s not due till Dec. Hopefully it shows up in the solicits.

Oh! And Seven Seas voluntarily officially recognized their union! Hell yeah.

10.5. Does This Count as Manga or Just Aaaaaarrrttt?

I hesitated to include this in the 10 only because it seems like it’s mostly an art book with some manga selections within. Still, an artist for the Final Fantasy series is a huge selling point and is worth drawing attention to.

Steam Reverie in Amber
Written and Illustrated by Kuroimori
Published by Seven Seas Entertainment

A full-color steampunk artbook & manga collection hardcover-includes all 22 Major Arcana as removable tarot cards! In a world wedged somewhere between past and future, an airship drifts gently among pillow-soft clouds. This is the Tomeship-purveyor of used books and fresh coffee across the skies. It can only be seen by those who bear the Gearform Scar on their hearts. Are you one such soul? Don’t miss this beautiful release from an award-winning Japanese artist who contributed to Final Fantasy art.

10. Eye the Size of Komi’s

It’s a cute, relaxing, autobio cat comedy. It’s the kind of book that’s either 100% your cup of tea or something you can pass. It seems like more series are taking inspiration from “Komi Can’t Communicate” and giving everyone these huge dinner plate eyes, which are expressive and funny but hopefully aren’t the only draws. Still, it got my attention enough so we’ll see if it’s just OK or something better.

Nights with a Cat, Vol. 2
Written and Illustrated by kyuryuZ
Published by Yen Press

It’s time for even more stories about Fuuta’s life with his sister’s cat Kyuruga! All the mysterious habits and mannerisms of house cats are carefully reproduced in this relaxed and cute comedy about living with an adorable furball!

9. Would You Like Some Coffee?

“Coffee Moon” has the sort of low level off-ness that I love from a work. The cover is the same. On the surface it seems like a poppy, fun slice-of-life but the more you look at it, the more sinister it seems. What’s hiding behind the raindrops? Why can’t I remember tomorrow? Why do I feel like this is all an allegory too?

WHO. WAS. PHONE.

Coffee Moon, Vol. 1
Written and Illustrated by Mochito Bota
Published by Yen Press

Pieta, a normal girl, leads a normal, uneventful life in a world of constant black rain. As the rain pours down, like it always does, she takes her usual route to school and has a pleasant conversation with her friend Danae. This is what every day is like for Pieta, and she takes a sort of everyday satisfaction from her totally normal life. But then her typical, pleasant conversation with Danae…doesn’t happen. “Why…?! Why can I remember…yesterday’s today?!!”

8. Scooby Dooby Doo

Gay pet detectives. Need I say more?

Pet Detective Agency
Written and Illustrated by noji
Published by Denpa Books – Kuma

Welcome to the Sako Detective Agency where they will solve every crime and mystery, from murders to missing pets, with a bit of charm and a lot of love! Business has been slow lately at the Sako Detective Agency. So while Fumiyoshi appreciates having his strong, pink-haired assistant Rou Nakamura around, he may not have work for the big lug. When assignments finally do come coming in they aren’t unsolved mysteries seen on TV, instead the Sako Agency gets tasked to look for missing cats and dogs… Thankfully Fumi has the best lost-pet hunter around and he only takes payment in the form of kisses!

7. Answer Some Questions About Baking and I’ll Tell You Which Catwoman You Are

Another month, another yuri anthology. This time it’s on the raunchier side. All cat themed too? The cover is beautiful and that’s enough to get it on the list.

Continued below

Cats & Sugar Bowls
Written and Illustrated by Yukiko
Published by Seven Seas Entertainment

A beautiful collection of sweet and provocative yuri romances. Want a little spice with your sugar? Cats and Sugar Bowls serves up nine bite-sized tales about love between women. Rena and Sanae are like a pair of naughty kitties who act far more innocent than they really are. Touka, while looking for a lover willing to indulge her more extreme BDSM fantasies, runs into her boss at a bondage club. All these delights and more await!

6. Stella Stars All Around

If you aren’t reading “Spy x Family” yet, I don’t know what will convince you to do it. It’s got everything. Heart. Amazing action. Telepathy. Intrigue. Underground doubles tennis. DOGGOS. It just had the first 12 episodes of a gorgeously animated anime adaptation. Go read the last 7 volumes then get hype for vol 8.

Spy x Family, Vol. 8
Written and Illustrated by Tatsuya Endo
Published by Viz, LLC.

Yor is assigned to be bodyguard to a mafia family on a cruise ship by the secret organization Garden. But with Lloyd and Anya also on board thanks to a giveaway they won, Yor is starting to have doubts about her secret life as an assassin…

For older teen audiences.

5. Teabagging Tattoos

This is a deeply weird series and I love it. Ostensibly an adventure story about the hunt for gold, it’s turned into an absolutely bonkers, international thriller with the best comedic facial expressions this side of “Demon Slayer.” There are only 5 more volumes until the end and I recently caught up so I am hyped and you should be too.

Golden Kamuy, Vol. 27
Written and Illustrated by Satoru Noda
Published by Viz LLC

At long last, all of the tattooed skins are accounted for. Asirpa, the key to solving the code and the location of the Ainu gold, is in the hands of Lieutenant Tsurumi and the 7th Division. Sugimoto isn’t about to lose Asirpa again and takes off after her, but will have to deal with Botaro the Pirate first. Meanwhile, Sophia and her partisans have also returned to make their play for the gold, and Hijikata and his men are still in the game. All are driven together toward one goal, gripped by their desire to possess the Golden Kamuy!

4. DID YOU LEARN NOTHING FROM JEFF GOLDBLUM?

I actually think this is a great twist on the Jurassic Park formula. It seems like it’s got the plucky attitude of an educational comic mixed with the fantasy elements of, well, dinos being real. Clearly the creator loves dinosaurs and, honestly, that’s all you need for me to buy in.

Dinosaur Sanctuary, Vol. 1
Written and Illustrated by Itaru Kinoshita
Published by Seven Seas Entertainment

In 1946, someone discovered an island where dinosaurs had survived into the present. Through breeding and genetic manipulation, humans managed to increase their population and supercharge their popularity! Until, well… the unfortunate accident, when people’s attitudes soured on the idea of visiting dinosaurs. This story follows a rookie zookeeper who is newly hired at Enoshima Dinoland, a struggling dinosaur sanctuary, and the fascinating creatures who need specialized love and care!

3. Lie to Me

This is like if Knives Out’s central gimmick was set in a dramatic period piece instead of a slick whodunnit. I’m instantly intrigued into how the mysteries will play out or if this will be entirely a drama. The cover is also really striking in its sparsity? It doesn’t give much away and I think that’s for the best.

Usotoki Rhetoric, Vol. 1
Written and Illustrated by Ritsu Miyako
Published by One Peace Books

It is 1926, the first year of the Showa era. Urabe Kanoko has left her hometown after it turns against her for having the ability to hear lies when spoken. She collapses from hunger after arriving in a town called Tsukumoya, where she meets a poverty-stricken detective named Iwai Souma. Is this fate? Or something more?

2. Have You Heard the Good Word?

Continued below

I’ve prosthelytized for this book enough times but much like Naoki Urasawa’s works, I think it continues to deserve a spot on these lists. Each new volume makes me love this series more and more and I think it might be Rumiko Takahashi’s best work ever.

Maison Ikkoku, Vol. 9
Written and Illustrated by Rumiko Takahashi
Published by Viz LLC

A hostess at Godai’s work runs off and leaves her two young children in his care. Not sure what to do, he brings them back to Maison Ikkoku, where Kyoko volunteers to help look after them while Godai tracks down the mother.

For older teen audiences.

1. Don’t Look Back in Anger

If you had told me that the “Fire Punch” guy, a series I bounced off so hard because of its edgelord first chapter that I never went back to read the rest, would publish one of, if not THE best & tightest shonen manga in the last 10 years and then go on to draw not one but TWO 200 page one-shots of equal or greater quality before he begins part 2 of that best & tightest shonen manga, I would have said you were huffing whatever Fujimoto was when making “Chainsaw Man.”

The first of those two one-shots, “Look Back,” has been covered extensively here at Multiversity since it debuted on the Shonen Jump App so I won’t say much more. “Look Back” is amazing and cemented Fujimoto among the creators I will read anything by and his spot on last year’s inaugural Best Mangaka vote. It also confirmed for me that, despite all the sex jokes and the chaos goblin nature of his characters, he is a sentimentalist at heart and it shines through in all his work.

Go read this when it comes out. Go buy it when it comes out. Even if you’ve read it before. Even if you’ve read it 2, 3, 10 times. It’s worth it. It’s human and vulnerable and achingly beautiful. It’s a testament to what manga can do and will be pointed to for years to come.

Look Back
Written and Illustrated by Tatsuki Fujimoto
Published by Viz LLC

Two young artists from a small town inspire each other to improve their art and become manga creators. But as they grow up, a terrible tragedy will change their lives forever.

For older teen audiences.

Anything I missed? What are YOU looking forward to? Let me know in the comments!


//TAGS | Soliciting Multiversity

Elias Rosner

Elias is a lover of stories who, when he isn't writing reviews for Mulitversity, is hiding in the stacks of his library. Co-host of Make Mine Multiversity, a Marvel podcast, after winning the no-prize from the former hosts, co-editor of The Webcomics Weekly, and writer of the Worthy column, he can be found on Twitter (for mostly comics stuff) here and has finally updated his profile photo again.

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