Manga Monthly: Action And Intrigue With Manga

by Carrie Wood

We’re back with another edition of Manga Monthly, your inside look at the best upcoming manga! Between updated looks at some of the most influential classic series and some brand-new volumes, this month’s lineup can’t be beat. Be sure to pre-order your favorites from the December PREVIEWS at your local comic shop!

The original Battle Angel Alita followed the titular cyborg as she attempted to recover her memories and discover her past. Now, series creator Yukito Kishiro is back with a new series, Battle Angel Alita: Mars Chronicle (DEC171657) from Kodansha. This series is meant to be the “final chapter” of the franchise, and follows up directly from the Last Order series. The plot shifts between the present-day Alita, who gets caught up in a power struggle on Mars, and the past Alita, as the story explores her childhood with Erica.

Kodansha is also debuting a series from Mirsurou Kubo, best-known for her work on Yuri!! On Ice. This new volume, Again!! (DEC171658), is a dramatic time-traveling high school story about what it means to cheer on a friend. What would you do if you had the chance to do everything over again? Kinichiro isn't even that bad. It's just that on the first day of high school, his narrow eyes made him look shifty, so people assumed he was trouble. Now it's graduation, and he's looking back on three years with no friends. He never even joined a club. But after a bloody collision and an accidental fall, he wakes up a high school freshman, with the chance to try it all over... again!! Kubo worked on this series between 2011 and 2014 and now’s your first chance to get your hands on this hilarious series!

Seven Seas Entertainment is bringing back the original horror manga classic that inspired the genre for decades with the Devilman Classic Collection (DEC171774)!

For ages, the demons that once ravaged the earth have been trapped, leaving earth to enjoy a time of relative peace. But that peace is coming to an end. Demons have risen once again, tipping the world ever closer to Armageddon. Gentle Akira Fudo may seem like an unlikely hero, but due to his pure heart, he is able to become Devilman - a human with demonic powers, and the planet's only hope of salvation!

Traditionally, familiars are animal companions assigned to a witch or warlock in order to enhance their magical powers – not so in Sorry for My Familiar (DEC171784)! This new series from Seven Seas Entertainment follows the demon girl Patty, who has chosen an old man named Norman to be her companion in lieu of an animal. Norman and Patty embark on an adventure driven by their shared weirdness in this not-to-be-missed comedy series!

Tokyopop will be adding to their expanding lineup of family-friendly, Disney-based manga with their release of Wall-E (DEC171880)! Based on the Pixar film of the same name, the story follows the titular robot, who has been left behind on Earth by humans. His usual trash-collecting routine is shaken up when he discovers a tiny green plant, the first new sign of life for centuries! When the sleek new robot EVE shows up to take the proof of life back to humanity, Wall-E falls head over wheels in love and eagerly follows her across the galaxy into a whole new adventure!

Makoto Shinkai is one of the most prolific names in anime filmmaking right now, having seen mass success with the likes of Your Name, The Garden of Words and 5 Centimeters Per Second. One of his best-known short films is now available in print form thanks to the folks at Vertical Comics – Voices of a Distant Star (DEC171938)! Sixteen-year-old Mikako Nagamine enlists as a pilot to fight in the interstellar war against a force of alien invaders, leaving behind her one true love. Mikako's only connection to Noboru Terao, who's living the life of an ordinary high school student, is through cell-phone text messages.

As Mikoko travels farther away, it starts to take longer and longer for Noboru to receive her messages, until finally one arrives eight years and seven months after she sent it. When at last the fighting ends, she is left stranded on the spacecraft carrier. A rescue mission is launched to help - including Noboru, who's now a lot older. When they meet again, they'll discover whether their young love survived all the time and distance apart.

My Hero Academia (DEC171944) continues to bring the heart-pounding, hot-blooded shonen action to the pages of manga, and Viz Media will soon be releasing the 11th volume of this popular series! Bakugo's abduction by the League of Villains was a carefully calculated move designed to draw out the heroes-All Might in particular-and destroy them. Midoriya and his friends set out on a rescue mission that eventually pulls in not only All Might but also several other heroes! The casualties mount, until at last the mastermind of the plot appears-All for One, the only villain powerful enough to take on All Might head-to-head and possibly win!

The political thriller story continues with the second volume of ACCA: 13-Territory Inspection Department (DEC171986) from Yen Press!

The Five Chief Officers suspect ACCA’s inspection department vice-chair, Jean Otus, of being involved in a coup d’etat, and opt to send a special agent to keep close watch on his every move – but that agent is far closer to Jean than he could possibly ever know! ACCA saw success earlier in 2017 as a 12-episode anime series, and this story is an absolute page-turner not to be missed!

That wraps it up for this month’s selections, but be sure to stay tuned next month for another roundup of great new books heading your way! And as always, be sure to read through your December PREVIEWS catalog for a full lineup of books from these publishers and more – and be sure to preorder your favorites at your local comic shop!