2024 - The year of manga

So I wanted to make one last post before the year was over because I wanted to shoutout some manga that's been licensed in english and is coming out in 2024, I really like how stuff has progressed because, yes, manga sales in the US (so basically the ones translated in english) have skyrocketed, if you look at what's selling, it's still just the usual shonen suspects for the most part with a few action oriented seinen that have risen in popularity through an adaptation, word of mouth or... whatever. Point is, the publishers could've just kept pumping out the same trashy shit that would be closers in style and tone to the top sellers (oh and they do, looking at some publishers and the sea of totally unknown but really shitty sounding titles is... an interesting experience) but we've been getting more and more super interesting stuff the past couple of years, from gekiga masters like Yoshiharu Tsuge, to an underrated gem like Music of Marie (which came like a decade late considering it used to be quite a bit more popular as just a really great manga) to Sheeply Horned Witch Romi to Homunculus which I personally prefer to Ichi The Killer (and as a side note to anyone that bought it because I've been meaning to look into it for months but is it censored? Can anyone look up the scanlation and the official releases? Because I heard the publisher is notorious for being dumb and censoring shit and I don't wanna buy it if it's ruined by a bunch of losers). Hell, even Marvel remembered that they had a Tsutomu Nihei Wolverine series and reprinted it this year so they managed the incredible feat of actually publishing one comic worth reading this year, that's pretty unbelievable coming from them.

But yeah, I'm only doing this because, like, how many of you even know that the Nishioka Kyodai collection of Kafka adaptations was published in english? It's from a non manga publisher and they even dun goof'd by forgetting to switch the cover with the backcover😅 but it's cool, with a publisher like that you would expect them to just flip it and they didn't. I don't wanna say that if this sells well we'll for sure get more Nishioka kyodai because they obviously only released this because they're adapting Kafka but maybe, just maybe, some translator will try and get some more of their stuff at a different publisher and that would be incredible, they're one of my absolute favorite acts in this medium and even now I can't shake this weird feeling 'cause I never expected to see one of their works licensed in english.

And so, first thing's first, Fanta is going to publish Kaneko's Search and Destroy, this is the first of his works to be licensed in english and knowing Fanta... I'm surprised it's so cheap, even with a paperback I expected a higher price from them so I'm pleasantly surprised. It's a bit weird that we're only now getting it because I actually though we'd get it a few years ago when they made that anime adaptation of Dororo but instead we got, iirc, two different manga readaptations of Dororo made by fuckknowsorcareswho, surely you know that this manga is a remix of that unfinished Tezuka manga that got canceled but somehow reached legendary status after he died, guess they ran out of stuff to push when they wanted to make a buck off the "god of manga" tag. Weird that we got this one first instead of Soil but by our powers combined, we can bring them all over if this one proves to be successful. And yes I said first because Bambi doesn't count but what does count is that it is now fully scanlated along with the prequel so get on that. Search and Destroy was scanlated too in case you want to check it out first, I actually just kept putting it off and forgetting and then once Fantagraphics announced they were publishing it I figured it'd be nice to read it in physicals for the first time. I have a tendency to keep things in my plan to read or plan to watch for years even if it's something done by people that I usually really love because I figured it's good to always have cool stuff in your backlog and with how little time I have for movies and manga and stuff these days... Hopefully I'll get around to reading Bambi at the start of the year and hopefully you won't have to wait long for the next EVOL chapter since it's translated, it just needs to be ts.

And speaking of stuff that I kept in my backlog for the longest time before reading... Viz is actually going to publish My Name is Shingo by Kazuo Umezu. I don't even wanna talk about how long it lingered in my plan to read for 😅 but this is another one I never expected to see in english, I guess Orochi sold well so I'll take this wonderful surprise. Umezu in general is pretty fantastic and this

Speaking of Viz, they continue to bring us more and more Taiyo Matsumoto, an actual god of manga. I'll always be grateful to Viz because Cats of Louvre never got scanlated and we only got to read it because they licensed it, I'm not even buttmad cause France got a full color edition too cause, like... um... I am but, like, better than nothing, fucking frenchies.

Anyway, Tokyo These Days or Tokyo Higoro actually has some chapters scanlated if you wanna give it a try but from what I read it's fantastic and one of those stories that you could tell he really wanted to tell. He's a genius of the medium and I hope to see more from him.

Switching to someone that was influenced by Matsumoto, Shinzo Keigo actually has TWO manga coming out next year. Hirayasumi is absolutely wonderful and I was following it but fell behind for a bit and then I noticed he had put it on hold but apparently it's just for a bit and not because of any medical reasons but he felt like he wasn't satisfied with the quality of the drawings, that's really cool of him, both that he cares so much and that he has the freedom to do that. There's also Holiday Junction from Denpa, this is a collection of short stories that never got scanlated so I'm looking forward to it, I hope it's good because, for example when I read Bokura no Funkasai I wasn't terrible impressed and I felt like the idea and setting were stronger than the end product but as a mangaka he kept progressing and he's reached a level where you can't help but be excited for his newest stuff, you look at Hirayasumi or Tokyo Alien Brothers and this guy is legit one of the best, if not the best people in the medium that made their debut only about 10 years ago. And I really want these to sell well because I'm hoping we get Nora of The Weeds too, I was really digging that one but it kept getting dropped and last I took a look it had chapters by several different groups and looking at the current state of things I'm not gonna touch it because some of the chapters might just be mtl garbage so I NEED these to sell well so I can get Nora of The Weeds.

There's a bunch of cool stuff releasing in 2024, stuff that I had my eye on for a few years even, like Fool Night or Orb:On The Movements of The Earth, there's new the new Tsuge from D&Q, they've been slow but steady with these, and I sure hope they start releasing Kamui soon if they're gonna release them at the pace they're releasing the Tsuge collections, there's Ryan Holmberg's new imprint Smudge (over at Living The Line), there's lost to look forward to in 2024. Seeing small publishers like One Peace Books, Glacier Bay, Star Fruit Books and the like continue to grow is an absolute pleasure, they deserve success for actually trying to bring some cool stuff to the plebeians and I'm sure they'll have some interesting stuff planned for 2024 too.

Happy new year ^_^