Happy May, VIZ fans! In America, the school year is winding down, the weather is warming up, and VIZ has a bunch of new releases for me to share with you all! Today we’ll be talking about a few series new to me, and some new takes on 2000s classic Death Note. But first, the news.
My Hero Academia Collection in Shonen Jump Store
The Shonen Jump Store is at it again, this time with an exclusive and limited collection of My Hero Academia inspired apparel and merchandise! Premium capsule collections that will not be restocked! T-shirts, hoodies, hats, quilts! Grab them while you can! I’m really glad I’m not more emotionally invested in this series because if I had any attachment to Bakugo Katsuki that T-shirt would be very tempting. On the other hand, if you’re emotionally invested in My Hero Academia and want to show off your faves, this seems like a great opportunity to grab some classy nerd swag.
Kaguya-sama: Love is War Added to Shonen Jump Vault
As season 3 of the Kaguya-sama anime airs to rave reviews (from me, I love it a lot), over 200 chapters of Kaguya-sama: Love is War join the Shonen Jump Vault for anyone with a Jump subscription to read. This manga by Aka Akasaka is both riotously funny and incredibly emotionally resonant, with characters that balance over-the-top comedic antics with human fears, worries and motivations. It’s a comic that makes me happy that I am able to read comics. I stayed up late last night catching up on the chapters in the vault, and while I cannot encourage anyone to stay up past their bedtime to read comics, I would not be surprised if you do. The first three chapters are free to read for anyone, so check it out and see if you like it!
Spy x Family Poll Results
Another month, another reader poll! This month’s poll was about which main character of Spy x Family would readers like to be: a mind reader, a spy, an assassin, or a clairvoyant dog. I know what I would’ve answered! See what everyone voted for here. Spy x Family is a series that’s recently had a huge increase in popularity thanks to its delightful anime adaptation (which I am also watching and enjoying a lot.) It’s good! Check it out!
Enough about the current big Jump series, it’s time to talk about…
What I’m Reading
Crazy Food Truck, Volume 1
Rokurou Ogaki
May 17, 2022
I really thought we as a society had moved beyond the Born Sexy Yesterday trope, in which a fully-grown but still young and sexually attractive woman is naive and unaware of the world and needs a mature older man to teach her. It’s been a while since I’ve seen it rear its ugly head. Unfortunately, the secondary protagonist of Crazy Food Truck is a scantily clad hot girl named Arisa with a mysterious past who acts naive and innocent while also eating all of the food truck owner Gordon’s stock after he saves her from some military goons. Gordon doesn’t really seem interested in Arisa so there isn’t a romantic angle to this trope, but it still feels very dated. Arisa aside, I really like the premise of a post-apocalpytic monster-cooking food truck, and what worldbuilding we get in this first volume is interesting and fun. It’s paced a bit like a Western action movie, which is fun to read about. I am mildly interested in uncovering the secrets of Arisa and Gordon’s pasts, but Arisa’s whole thing is almost too annoying to continue with this series.
Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible, Volume 1
Nene Yukimori
May 3, 2022
Shiraishi is a high school student with so little presence he’s rarely seen by other people around him, or face-detection software in cameras, or automatic doors. Yet somehow, his seatmate, the popular and pretty Kubo, can see him perfectly well, and uses the ability to tease and fluster him. I don’t really understand the near-invisibility gimmick (Why does it affect technology the same way it affects people? Why is he okay with living like this at all?) and I desperately wish Shiraishi wasn’t limited to only interacting with one single person all the time and instead made a bunch of wacky friends, like in HoriMiya or Komi Can’t Communicate. By the end of the first volume, the only people who seem to see Shiraishi consistently are Kubo, her older sister, and Shiraishi’s baby brother. I want him to make friends! I want him to be a part of society! The art is pretty cute though, and if you’re a big fan of wacky high school romcom comics, maybe give this one a shot!
Death Note Short Stories
Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata
May 10, 2022
I believe that someday Death Note will be gone from the public consciousness entirely, but that day is not today and will probably not be tomorrow. Until then, we have this collection of short stories exploring what could have happened if a variety of different young men (because this is still Tsugumi Ohba writing and we all know he doesn’t believe women are people) somehow found the Death Note and what they would do with it. The longest of these stories, titled “a-Kira” in this collection, was published on the Jump App as a special one-shot in 2020, others were published in different Shueisha magazines at various points of Death Note’s lifespan. Besides the stories of the different Kiras and an elementary school boy named Taro Kagami, there is a selection of 4-panel comics about the Death Note characters and two shorts about L’s life and backstory. It’s a nice return to the world of Death Note, and I always enjoy seeing best character Matsuda again. I wish Tsugumi Ohba believed that women existed, but we can’t always get what we want.
That’s all I’ve got for you this month! Stay tuned for June’s VIZ news and reviews!
