Boy, do we have a lot to talk about this month! From the VIZ app launch (!) to the sudden repromotion of classic shojo manga (!!) and new shojo series for fans to enjoy (!!!), this May is bringing some serious flowers. That play on words was a bit of a stretch, but I tried! Anyway, on to the news. Let’s start with the big one.
VIZ manga app launches
Holy cow! Two days before Kodansha’s highly anticipated “K-Manga” app launch, VIZ dropped an app out of nowhere. Following the same format as the extant Shonen Jump app, for just $1.99 a month fans can access over ten thousand chapters of manga from a meticulously curated back catalog covering a huge variety of genres. Including my very favorite yuri manga How Do We Relationship? ; the works of legendary mangaka Taiyo Matsumoto, Junji Ito and Inio Asano; and niche artsy comics I’d never heard of before but can now easily pick up and start reading because they’re on this app.
Not every chapter of every series is available yet, but more are being added every day, and dozens of series are being simulpublished at the same time as they come out in Japan. It’s easier to read digital manga legally, supporting the mangaka you love, than it’s ever been before. At least through VIZ, anyway. I spent several days rereading How Do We Relationship? and catching up on Komi Can’t Communicate instead of doing actually useful things with my time and it was awesome. What a time to be alive. And speaking of reading VIZ comics digitally…
Get 30% off Digital Volumes of Nana and Skip Beat
Shojo fans, rejoice! With a blog post advocating fans to “read different” and hyping up the unique charms of Y2K shojo classics Nana and Skip Beat, VIZ announced that digital volumes of both titles are now 30% off. Nana is a manga by Ai Yazawa about two different girls with the same name sharing an apartment in Tokyo, and is renowned for its fashionable characters and incredibly stylish art. Skip Beat is, in a way, the One Piece of shojo, as it’s been running since 2002 and shows no signs of slowing down, but if that doesn’t scare you off, it’s a fun story about making it in showbiz to get revenge on a boy who insulted you.
Broader animanga fandom has historically focused around battle shonen and some seinen series, with shojo and josei manga often being overlooked. A recent Twitter trend asking people to QRT with their favorite “shojo, shonen, seinen and josei” quickly morphed into “favorite romance, shonen, seinen and movie.” Fortunately, with the new VIZ app and these special sales, it’ll be easier for new readers to give some shojos a shot!
Speaking of shojo, it’s time to talk about…
What I’m Reading
Wolf Girl and Black Prince, Volume 1
Ayuko Hatta
May 9, 2023
My first impressions were that this somehow reminded me of Ima Koi. Turns out this is actually an earlier series by the same author, which tracks but does make me wonder why this one got licensed after Ima Koi started serializing over here, and not before. It’s got some… D/s undertones, which aren’t really my thing but I can see how other people would be into that. Erika Shinohara lies and says a hot boy in another class is her boyfriend, and he agrees to go along with it if she’s willing to act like his dog. She is indignant but also kind of into it, maybe? So that’s a fun twist.
I thought the protagonist’s gyaru besties were pretty fun, and Erika and Kyoya have some charming banter, but nothing about the series really stood out to me. Kyoya’s demands on Erika are honestly a lot less toxic than in other series I’ve seen where things like that are framed as purely romantic, like Twilight or something, and the fact that Erika recognizes when he’s being unreasonable makes it easier to read. Though this comic is a few years older than Ima Koi, Hatta seems to have already figured out her art style, and there’s nothing awkward or off about how she draws characters or structures pages. A perfectly competent addition to the shojo romance genre. And speaking of the shojo romance genre…
My Special One, Volume 2
Momoko Koda
May 2, 2023
My Special One’s special twist is: Idols! Shy and serious Sahoko suddenly finds herself falling for the popular idol frequenting her family’s restaurant, and approaches the subject just as intently as everything else she does. In Volume 2, their relationship develops, with Kouta finally opening up to Sahoko about his past traumas and letting her take care of him. Sahoko is a really fun heroine: I admire how focused she is on her goals and how earnest and open she is about loving Kouta, now that she’s realized she loves him. No tsundere beating around the bush here! Getting more depth to Kouta’s “nicest guy ever” characterization was also really welcoming, and I feel like his backstory was handled with a good level of seriousness. The characters seem to be drawn a little younger than I think they’re intended to be, but the art style is still clear and appealing. Also a pretty good shojo manga! If I had to pick one over the other, I’d probably go for My Special One just because I do like Sahoko much more as a POV character than Erika. And Kouta as a love interest, honestly. I like when people are nice and sweet. But that’s just what I like. And speaking of things I like…
Show-ha Shoten! Volume 2
Story by Akinari Asakura, Art by Takeshi Obata
May 2, 2023
Azemichi and Taiyou are back, and this time they’re in it to win it! Sort of. They do their best. In this volume, they tackle a sketch comedy challenge and start practicing manzai comedy together, under the direction of an upperclassman girl who declared herself their manager. We also learn a little more about the other aspiring comedians in the high school circuit with them, and who they might be up against in the future as they compete at Wara-1. One of the things I really appreciate about Show-ha Shoten! is that even though it’s about structured, written comedy, there’s also a lot of random funny things happening around the characters at all times. Life can just be funny sometimes. The student council president’s ever-increasing threats of violence in this volume are hilarious, and the reusable bag joke from their manzai routine making them actually start carrying reusable bags around was a great detail. I also enjoyed the author’s commentary on his own high school manzai past. I’d been keeping up with the chapters on the Jump app, but the little extras for the volume release are new and very appreciated. Everyone knows a joke dies when it’s analyzed, but in the competitive structure of a shonen manga, the comedy comes through in a different way. Show-Ha Shoten! is funny and fun to read, and every time I read a volume of it for review I’m tempted to go back and reread the rest of the chapters to see what happens next.
That’s all I’ve got for you this month! Tune in next month for more VIZ news and reviews!
