April saw a fair number of manga, comics, and other books making their way onto my shelves courtesy of some excellent sales and a handful of Kickstarter rewards. Once again, I mostly stuck to preorders this month, though as always a few other purchases slipped in as well. A few months ago I wrote a Spotlight on Mitsukazu Mihara which reminded me that I’ve been meaning to pick up the rest of The Embalmer that never made it into English, and so I now have the last three volumes of Shigeshōshi. I also got my hands on Aki’s The Angel of Elhamburg, which I reviewed a couple of days ago. As for the manga that were actually released in April, I was particularly curious about Naoshi Arakawa’s Your Lie in April, Volume 1 (which I reviewed earlier this month) and I was thrilled to finally see Blade of the Immortal, Volume 31: Final Curtain, the last volume in Hiroaki Samura’s long-running epic (review to come!). As for other books, I’m looking forward to reading Ken Liu’s first novel The Grace of Kings. (His award-winning short story “Mono no Aware” was one of my favorite contributions to the anthology The Future is Japanese from Haikasoru.) And I’m currently reading and enjoying one of Haikosoru’s most recent releases, Red Girls: The Legend of the Akakuchibas by Kazuki Sakuraba, so expect a review of that novel in the near future as well.
Manga!
Ajin: Demi-Human, Volume 4 by Gamon Sakurai
Alice in the Country of Clover: Cheshire Cat Waltz, Volumes 1-5 by Mamenosuke Fujimaru
Alice in the Country of Joker: Circus and Liar’s Game, Volumes 6-7 by Mamenosuke Fujimaru
The Angel of Elhamburg by Aki
Attack on Titan, Volume 15 by Hajime Isayama
Attack on Titan: Before the Fall, Volume 4 written by Ryo Suzukaze, illustrated by Satoshi Shiki
Black Lagoon, Volume 10 by Rei Hiroe
Blade of the Immortal, Volume 31: Final Curtain by Hiroaki Samura
Dengeki Daisy, Volume 16 by Kyousuke Motomi
Fairy Tail, Volume 47 by Hiro Mashima
Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma, Volume 5 written by Yuto Tsukuda, illustrated by Shun Saeki
Genshiken: Second Season, Volume 6 by Shimoku Kio
Gyo: The Death-stench Creeps by Junji Ito
Karneval, Omnibus 1 by Touya Mikanagi
Let’s Dance a Waltz, Volume 1 by Natsumi Ando
Library Wars: Love & War, Volume 13 by Kiiro Yumi
Lone Wolf and Cub, Omnibus 8 written by Kazuo Koike, illustrated by Goseki Kojima
Love at Fourteen, Volume 2 by Fuka Mizutani
My Little Monster, Volume 7 by Robico
My Love Story!!, Volume 4 written by Kazune Kawahara, illustrated by Aruko
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin, Volume 9: Lalah by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko
New Lone Wolf and Cub, Volume 4 written by Kazuo Koike, illustrated by Hideki Mori
Prophecy, Volume 3 by Tetsuya Tsutsui
Sankarea: Undying Love, Volume 11 by Mitsuru Hattori
Shigeshōshi (The Embalmer), Volumes 5-7 by Mitsukazu Mihara
Servamp, Volume 1 by Strike Tanaka
The Seven Deadly Sins, Volume 7 by Nakaba Suzuki
SOS by Hinako Ashihira
Terra Formars, Volume 5 written by Yu Sasuga and illustrated by Ken-ichi Tachibana
UQ Holder, Volume 4 by Ken Akamatsu
Wolfsmund, Volume 6 by Mitsuhisa Kuji
The World’s Greatest First Love, Volume 1 by Shungiku Nakamura
xxxHolic, Omnibus 5 by CLAMP
Your Lie in April, Volume 1 by Naoshi Arakawa
Comics!
Brody’s Ghost, Volume 6 by Mark Crilley
Empowered: Unchained, Volume 1 by Adam Warren and others
Grey Is…, Volume 1 by dee Juusan
O Human Star, Volume 1 by Blue Delliquanti
Sonnet written by Emily Cheeseman, illustrated by Lindsey Rodgers
The Usagi Yojimbo Saga, Omnibus 1-2 by Stan Sakai
Novels!
Adonis written by EAB, illustrated by Toluenesister
Dandelion Dynasty, Volume 1: The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu
Red Girls: The Legend of the Akakuchibas by Kazuki Sakuraba
Anthologies!
The Cape and Other Stories from the Japanese Ghetto by Kenji Nakagami
The Legends of Tono by Kunio Yanagita
Nonfiction!
Daughters of the Samurai: A Journey from East to West and Back by Janice P. Nimura
Anime!
DD Fist of the North Star directed by Akitaro Daichi
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