Manga Monthly: Part-Time Devils and Knightly Angels in January

A new month means a new PREVIEWS and a new Manga Monthly! This January issue features more than enough hot new manga titles to keep you warm through the coldest of winters. Take a look below and don’t forget to pre-order your favorites at your local comic book shop!

Dark Horse gets us going this month with the debut of Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt (JAN150172)! This series, which debuted as an anime in 2010, stars the foul-mouthed Anarchy Sisters as they bust demons in their new city.

Panty and Stocking are cute but highly dangerous angels, booted out of heaven for wrath, sloth, lust, envy, avarice, and gluttony (at least pride wasn't high on their list).

Now residing among the sinners of Daten City, the angels try to earn their way back into grace by exorcising evil at the behest of their questionable preacher boss, the Afro-bedecked Garterbelt!

Kodansha also has plenty of great series headed your way. Making its debut is Yamada-Kun and the Seven Witches (JAN151503), which stars troublemaker Ryu Yamada.

Yamada is already having a bad day when he stumbles down a staircase along with star student Urara Shiraishi. When he wakes up, he realizes they have switched bodies - and that Ryu has the power to trade places with anyone with only a kiss! Plus, it turns out he's not the only kid at school with a few magic tricks up his sleeve!

Kodansha also has the latest volume of The Seven Deadly Sins (JAN151500)!

This series follows a group of warriors – called the Seven Deadly Sins – who have been sent into exile.

But as it turns out, the Sins were framed and the kingdom’s princess is now on the run, seeking the legendary group out to help her reclaim her land.

But the first Sin she meets, Meliodas, is a little innkeeper with a talking pig. He doesn't even have a real sword! Have the legends of the Sins' strength been exaggerated?

Seven Seas Entertainment will be debuting the first volume of Clay Lord: Masters of Golems (JAN151584)! The young and impressionable Clay is nothing short of enthralled by the outside world.

Finding interest in the most mundane of details, Clay is a young man with a mysterious past and an awesome power to boot: he has the ability to create and shape golems.

When Clay decides to enter a golem-building contest which is sponsored by a local ruler, Clay may be getting more attention than he bargained for. Join fledgling golem-maker Clay and his eccentric companions as he continues to hone his unique abilities and sets out on a path of grand adventure.

The folks at Seven Seas will also be launching 12 Beast (JAN151588)! This hilarious fantasy tale follows a high school student suddenly transported to another world. Eita Touga, a seemingly normal high school student, is secretly the heir apparent to a distinguished line of ninja. Unfortunately for the Touga Clan, Eita has no interest in taking over the family business. More interested inthe virtual reality of video games than real life, Eita has sequestered himself to a life of digital bliss. That is until one fateful day, a mysterious harpy girl kicks in the door to his family dojo and spirits Eita away to a world full of monsters and mythological creatures. Can an unwilling slacker of a ninja like Eita help the denizens of another world stave off an invasion by a technologically-superior empire?

Viz Media has a ton of new manga headed your way! Their Perfect Square imprint has continued to publish the Pokemon Adventures series, and the X&Y arc continues in Volume 2 (JAN151563)! In this volume, X, Y and their best friends battle to rescue kidnapped baby Kangaskhan from the clutches of Team Flare. To protect themselves, the group of friends make an oath to follow five basic rules. Who can they trust? Meanwhile, the secrets behind Mega Evolution unfold!

If you’re more into classic fantasy, perhaps Viz’s new series Requiem of the Rose King (JAN151678) will be more your style! In medieval England, during the age of the Wars of the Roses, a fierce battle rages between the House of York and the House of Lancaster.

Young Richard of the House of York is determined that his family will ascend the throne... but he's hiding a secret that could destroy everything he desires.

Viz also is releasing the second volume of Master Keaton (JAN151724)! Taichi Hiraga-Keaton, the son of a Japanese zoologist and an English noblewoman, is an insurance investigator known for his successful and unorthodox methods of investigation.

Educated in archaeology and a former member of the SAS, Master Keaton uses his knowledge and combat training to uncover buried secrets, thwart would-be villains, and pursue the truth!

Yen Press also has plenty of new manga headed your way in this month’s PREVIEWS. The Angel of Elhamburg (JAN151740) will be debuting, for starters! By all appearances, the ties that bind High King Madeth and his dear friend, the knight Lalvan, are made of the sternest stuff, but in truth their friendship has always struck a delicate balance. With the arrival of Lady Prima and her newborn son Perseus, the precarious harmony between Madeth and Lalvan crumbles. And years later, when the young Perseus, harboring questions about his birth, seeks out Lalvan, will the repercussions be much greater than a friendship lost?

The first volume of The Devil is a Part-Timer (JAN151744) will also be headed your way thanks to the folks at Yen Press! After being soundly thrashed by the hero Emilia, the Devil King and his general beat a hasty retreat to a parallel universe, only to land plop in the middle of bustling, modern-day Tokyo!

Lacking the magic necessary to return home, the two are forced to assume human identities and live average human lives until they can find a better solution. And to make ends meet, Satan finds gainful employment at a nearby fast food joint! With his devilish mind set on working his way up the management food chain, what will become of his thirst for conquest?

Yen Press will also be bringing the first volume of Karneval (JAN151747) to your local comic shop! Two boys seek to unlock the mysteries of their past within the lush pages of the manga that inspired the anime. Nai - a young man who travels in search of another by the name of Karoku, a lone bracelet his only lead. Gareki - a willful young man who earns his daily bread by thieving and picking pockets. Thrown together at an eerie mansion, where they are entrapped and framed, Nai and Gareki are soon hunted down as criminals by national security forces. As they are driven into a corner, before them appears the most powerful defense agency in the country, Circus!

Log Horizon has been a massively popular anime series as of recently, and now you can discover more of the story with the first volume of the manga (JAN151748), to be released by Yen Press!  When thirty thousand Japanese gamers are suddenly trapped in the online game world of "Elder Tale," a realm of swords and sorcery - that was, up until yesterday, very much a fantasy - is now their cold, hard reality. Severed from their everyday lives, they're faced with fighting monsters, eating food with no flavor, and being unable to die! Amid the chaos in "Elder Tale" Akihabara, veteran gamer Shiroe locates his old friend Naotsugu and teams up with the beautiful female assassin Akatsuki. Together they embark on an adventure to change the world as they know it!

Yen Press is also launching Puella Magi Oriko Magica: Extra Story (JAN151750)! This side-story to the massively popular Puella Magi Madoka Magica focuses on a different magical girl, Oriko!

Oriko's ability to see into the future led her to commit bloody acts in her efforts to forestall an even greater tragedy later on. But what if Oriko had met Yuma Chitose before she predicted the end of the world? Would she still have chosen to manipulate the young girl if Yuma had been no stranger, but a dear friend? Puella Magi Oriko Magica: Extra Story explores the might-have-been, and further explores Kirika's devotion to her beloved Oriko.

That about wraps it up for this month’s Manga Monthly – but don’t forget, there’s plenty more manga available in the January PREVIEWS catalog, including Knights of Sidonia, Mobile Suit Gundam, Otomen, Dragonball, Terra Formars, Sword Art Online and many, many more! Be sure to pre-order your favorite series at your local comic book shop soon, and check back with us soon for the latest in upcoming manga!