I finished October’s Harta!
ハルタ ９８号
(I especially like this month’s cover art, especially with the accompanying table of contents art)
The first 新連載 in this issue is 魔女のエデン by ゆめじ, which has an interesting background – it seems it was originally published in France (as L’Éden des sorcières), and now is coming over to Japan for the first time (but the creator is Japanese so it’s not exactly a translation).
I think that’s pretty cool! I don’t know a lot about the French comics scene, but from afar, it seems neat.
Anyway, I thought the first chapter had a fairly familiar fantasy story set-up, but something visually very cool happened right at the end and won back my intrigue.
The other 新連載 is 花園に幹が立つ by 野澤佑季恵, about the only boy attending a former girls-exclusive academy. I wasn’t pleasantly surprised that the comedy this goes for wasn’t at all “haha this boy has to do girly stuff” nor does it seem to be a harem situation, the comedy and drama look like they will instead come from his intending to just study but slowly getting warmed up to the “elegant girls’ boarding school” vibe that the characters around him embrace whole-heartedly.
The good period piece manga with the uncomfortable premise that I have mixed feelings about, 煙と蜜 by 長蔵ヒロコ, returns from hiatus, so I am glad for the author’s health!
On the ending side of things, ジラソウル -ゴッホの遥かなる道- by 沼野あおい concluded after a tanko’s worth of chapters. I’m not sure what exactly to make of it, as it seems neat but I feel weird about the specific use of real historic artists, in a way that seems at first impression pretty divorced from the context of their real lives. I’d be curious to read it in collected form though (and I am glad it’s getting one!).
And シャッター街のさくら姫 by 宮本伶美 also concludes! It was a straightforward and sweet story about revitalizing a local shopping district. Wouldn’t be a bad one to check out if that topic sounds appealing.
A 読切 I thought was especially strong this month was by 本を葬送る by 児島青 (hey, they did the tea one I mentioned last issue! I knew that art style looked familiar…)
It’s an especially well-illustrated story about a jaded used book store owner cleaning out the library of a deceased collector. Hits true to my tangential experience volunteering in a used book store, and comes with a real life book recommendation! The Palm-Wine Drinkard, by Amos Tutuola.
As for the self-indulgent section of things from comics I already knew I liked,
Dungeon Meshi was sure something this time around! So much happened! And holy dang good on Izutsumi!
峠鬼 also had a lot of plot and character motivation exposition that I’m intrigued by.
I loved this standalone ハクメイとミコチ chapter about a haunted ぐい呑み!
恋の絶望行進曲 is heading in an interesting and potentially grim direction…
And I like that あかねさす柘榴の都 gave Alba a chapter for some introspection on her own.
And I guess I’m in the mood to share an extra amount today so here’s a couple pages from ナッちゃんはテンションで水深が変わる
And a couple pages from いやはや熱海くん
P.S. just a note since some folks on here started following ホテル・メッツァペウラへようこそ - I saw that both the third volume and a volume of short stories from the same author were released with this issue. (I picked up the short story collection and haven’t read it yet but… it seems like it probably deals with similar subject matter, in the sense that the first thing I see opening it is some very pretty butlers.)
other manga report:
- 青のフラッグ (3-5)
This series is awfully good! I slowed down a bit going into these volumes (I think the leg injury angle left me a little cold since I thought that maybe the rest of the story was going to revolve around this somewhat contrived car accident, but that ended up not being the case at all), but picked up speed again and was fully won over in this stretch.
It’s full of endearing character art and dialogue that both warp to express as much character as possible, and by this point I feel like it’s broken completely out of any initial set-up and has an invested plot involving a lot of what feel like authentic teen kind of like, figuring each other out while figuring yourself out at the same time type conversations. It feels kinda similar to what I like about いやはや熱海くん, just in a much much more kinetic, action-packed (in as much as a manga about teens talking to each other can be action packed) sort of way. - シュトヘル （１）
The same friend who recommended 青のフラッグ recommended this, and while I’m not fully on board yet I am intrigued.
I didn’t go in knowing anything about it, and still don’t know very much ,especially since I read the first chapter some time ago before reading the rest of the volume, and the first chapter introduces the isekai-adjacent (and I think a gender swap is involved?) plot conceit before the rest of the volume spends 100% of its time establishing the setting of historical Mongolia, to the point that my memory is very foggy on the initial set up (but it seems primed to maybe turn back to that more with volume 2).
In any case, that historical setting is neat! It feels sort of like it would be a good fit if you liked A Bride’s Story, but wanted it to have more action. And reading about historical Chinese and Central Asian societies that used 漢字 (which the story deals with) is always interesting to read about in Japanese because having the (written) characters goes a really long way even if I have no idea at all how a given word or civilization name would be pronounced in either its original language or English. The title of the book itself is an amusing example, as the title is technically 悪霊 but the title that’s made its way to English in lieu of an official translation is “Shut Hell” even though that makes no sense and is completely wrong because シュトヘル is presumably a transliteration of a Mongolian word meaning 悪霊 and has nothing to do with English or shutting hell.
Anyway, I’ll keep reading!