 Hey everybody, welcome back to another exciting edition of the manga geekdom. Today we're doing the top 12 anticipated manga releases for the month of May 2023. Now there were a lot to choose from and this was actually a pretty nice diverse month. We got Jose, we got Chojo, Sane and Shonen, all that fun stuff that we're gonna cover today. Over 200 something volumes to choose from. I had my work cut out but I picked 12 books that I think you shouldn't miss out. Some really cool stuff here. Let's get started. First one on the list, welcome to Demon School Irumakun Volume 1, story and art by Osamu Nishi. This is a very popular series that got adapted into a very popular anime that's been airing for the past couple years. If you don't know what the series is about, we follow the young kid Irumazuzuki. He is very eager to please even at the cost of his well-being. Worse yet, he is the son of two selfish parents who end up selling him to a demon. Thanks to their irresponsible actions, Irumazuzuki has found himself living in the netherworld where he must live and attend school as the grandson of an older demon. This series is so much fun. I am so happy that Kodansha picked this up. I am looking forward to a lot of people experiencing Demon School Irumakun for the first time. The character of Irumazuzuki is just wholesome personified. He's such a sweet young kid and now he's on this epic new lifestyle where he is the grand kid of a powerful older demon. Unfortunately, nobody must know that Iruma is a human, otherwise they might try and eat him, so he is in disguise going to classes and meeting a ton of interesting wacky characters. I would say this comedy school I've shown in manga is great. If you like stuff like My Hero Academia, it's not as action heavy or intense, but it is funny, it is lighthearted, and it does have some serious moments down the road if you decide to stick with it. Now for something completely unrelated, we finally have the much anticipated reprint of Frankenfron. We have the new Omnibus Editions. Originally, this series was spread across 8 volumes, now they've been condensed into Omnibus Editions, two in ones, so all four Omnibus Editions are coming out on the same week. That is insane. Thankfully, if you go to a website like Right Stuff, you might see a discount there and hopefully it doesn't sell out, so you can grab all four books at the same time, or maybe down the road during the month of May. So you're probably wondering, what the heck am I recommending here? Now this is a very popular series from back in the day. Frankenfron is written by Katsuhisa Kigitsu and we follow Front, the finest creation of the brilliant mad scientist Dr. Madaraki. When the good doctor goes missing, leaving Front alone in a house full of stitched up monsters and scientific equipment, who better to take up his scalpel? With a combination of enthusiasm, skill, and heart that just can't be beat. Front wields mad science with a sunny disposition to solve the problems of the lonely, downtrodden, and lovelorn people who come through her door. But the people seeking help aren't always what they seem, and France's solutions are rarely what they would expect. This falls into the comedy but also horror supernatural aspect. It has a lot of body horror, so if you guys are a little bit sensitive about that stuff, it may not be to your liking. I would maybe look elsewhere, but it's still wacky, bizarre, and gonzo-ish enough that I do recommend it just because it's such an unorthodox look at obviously a play on Frankenstein's Monster and stuff like that. There are other characters that show up and I'm showing off the different covers here, and as you can see, it is a little not safe for work. So I don't recommend this Saiyan book for everybody, but if you're feeling adventurous and with a funny bone and want to see something out of the ordinary, then yeah, check out Frankenfran from the folks at Seven Seas. Record of Lotus War, The Crown of the Covenant is a manga adaptation based on the light novel series of the same name. The light novel was spread across three volumes and it was released back in 2019 as part of the 30th anniversary of the franchise of Record of Lotus War. I happen to be a big fan of it, I cannot recommend it enough. If you want some classic fantasy in your life, go watch Record of Lotus War. This new edition, The Crown of the Covenant, will also be three volumes and it's being put out by Udon Entertainment. This tells of a new era of adventure in the world of Record of Lotus War. A hundred years into the future, the ambitious ruler of the Kingdom of Flame now threatens to return Lotus to a state of war. Heroes appear once more as the young Prince Lyle of Marmos seeks the help of the legendary High Elf, Deedlet, while a new Knight of Lotus arrives to save all the kingdoms. Now this isn't a huge commitment, it's a nice drama fantasy adventure series, only three volumes, easy enough on the shelf and the wallet. I highly recommend it, especially from the amazing artwork here. The original stories by Ryo Mizuno and the art by Atsushi Suzumi. From fantasy and action, we go into comedy. I do want to highlight the Yakuza's bias, Volume 1. This is being put out by Kodansha and it is a story written and drawn by Tekiyatsuda. Ken Kanashiro is one of the top lieutenants in the feared Yakuza outfit, the Washio clan. He lives his life by the code of the Japanese underworld where nothing is more important than loyalty and ties between soldiers and their aniki are sacred bonds. Ken's never had time for hobbies until the boss's only daughter, Megumi, drags him to a K-pop concert and he sees the glittering charismatic June for the first time. Smitten like a new recruit on his first job, Ken plunges into fandom with the passion only a true man who walks the way of the Yakuza could muster. This sounds hilarious and I love the sharp contrast of including K-pop fandom and of course the Yakuza lifestyle and tropes and all that stuff. Really looking forward to reading this. It sounds like a good time. This Jose manga has some witty humor, great artwork. I highly recommend checking something out like Yakuza's bias. Next up from Seven Seas we have the release of Last Game Volume 1, Story and Art by Shinobu Amano. This comedic romance showjo manga tells the story of a rich and spoiled elementary school student called Yanagi Naoto who has ruled his class in studies and sports but he suffered the first setback of his life when Kujo Mikoto, a girl from a poor family transferred to his school and outperformed him at every turn. Reeling from this unforgivable blow to his pride, Naoto decided that he had to make Mikoto lose at something by making her lose her heart to him. Now both in college Naoto proposes one last game with Mikoto but who will be the winner? With a quirky premise like that last game has really fun artwork and character designs and it's a nice rom-com slice of life that anybody can get into and at only 11 volumes it won't be such a huge commitment for your shelf. Another shounen book coming out, Dark Gathering Volume 1 by Kenichi Kondo. This is being published by Viz Media. This tells the story of Keitado who is ready to stop living as a shut-in. He's starting university. He's reconnecting with his childhood friend and he's also taking a tutoring job and he's not messing around with ghosts anymore. At least that's what he thinks until he finds out the elementary schooler he's tutoring is an occult obsessed genius who's hunting down dangerous ghosts and won't stop until she's found the one that took her mom. This series balances fun characters with great art and really creepy visuals. The monsters or ghosts shown on here are pretty unique and some are downright chilling. I do recommend this if you're in the mood for something a little bit more macabre while still retaining some shounen sensibilities. Moving right along we got Magical Girl Incident Volume 1. This sanen series is being published by Yenpress. This story is written and drawn by Zero Akabane and it tells the story of a little boy Sakura Hiromi who once dreamed he could be a hero. Now he's simply your everyday office worker toiling away for the sake of his company. Though he longs for his childhood dream it seems so far out of reach until he decides to step up and save a child one fateful day. Suddenly fantasies become reality and Hiromi finds himself transformed into a magical girl. I love when an author takes a risk and mashes topics and genres and tropes together to produce something unique, something different and I like this mishmash idea of a character that has always dreamt of being a hero and now has that opportunity but with a slight twist. Obviously this gender bender situation is uncommon but it presents itself for some unique storytelling and I really like the artwork. I think this is a cool idea for a book and I'm totally down to checking this out and possibly talking about it on the channel. Full disclaimer here. I may show a little bias here with the next one but this is one of my personal most anticipated releases of the month. I cannot wait to get my copy of Sugumi Project Volume 1 from Ipatu. More than two centuries have passed since Japan has been devastated by nuclear war. Cut off from the world, the island is now a place of terror and mysteries. Wonders of science, some believe best forgotten. Monuments to a bygone era of human decadence and irradiated monsters ready to tear apart any humans foolish enough to set foot there. After being wrenched from his family and falsely convicted, a French soldier of fortune named Leon finds himself on a cargo plane to Japan. He and his fellow convicts are given one year to locate a powerful weapon from ages past. A weapon known only by the code name Toratsugumi in exchange for their freedom. This sounds fantastic and badass. I could see this as a full-fledged live-action thing happening across theaters worldwide. I love the premise there's a heartbeat half-human girl that is involved in the plot. We'll see what that's about. I cannot wait to talk about this book as soon as I get it. I'm going to put out a first impressions video on Sugumi Project, but this is a really nice blend of action, horror, mystery, sane and manga. Check this out if you have a chance. Something a little bit different here is Yokohama Station SF Volume 1 is coming out. This is by Yuba Izukari and art by Tatsuyuki Tanaka and Gonbe Shinkawa. At 17 chapters, this is collected across three volumes, so once again, the commitment is there for you to save some shell space, which I encourage. This story tells of a future where Yokohama Station covers most of the island of Honshu. There are two ways of life inside the station and outside. Life within the station is strictly controlled, and those who fail to follow the rules are expelled to the harsher world outside. When one of these exiles receives a temporary ticket to go into the station, he's also given a mission to find the leader of a group determined to free humanity. Now this one is a pretty intriguing action sci-fi, sane and series. Looks pretty interesting, I have to admit I have not read this, but I am looking forward to checking this out eventually. We couldn't do one of these videos without mentioning a box set. This time, a toilet-bound Hanako-kun first stall box set from Yenpress. It's finally happening. We got that announcement last year, and I've been eagerly awaiting this. If you don't know what this is about, this is a story by Aigaro, and it is the first 10 volumes of 19 that have been put out so far, collected in one box set. Obviously, this is a very unique box set, and we're going to take a little bit of a look of what's inside courtesy of Yenpress themselves. I took the screenshots from one of their TikToks, so shout out to them. They don't know about this, but yeah baby, let's go. At this school, there are rumors about the seven mysteries, and one of them is Hanako-san, set to occupy the third stall of the third floor's girl's bathroom in the old school building. Hanako-san grants any wish when summoned. Nene Yashiro, an occult loving high school girl who dreams of romance, ventures into this haunted bathroom one day, and to her surprise, the Hanako-san she meets, there is nothing like she imagined. Hanako-san is a boy. Hai Jingsonsu and Nene becomes entangled with Hanako-san bound to him to assist him in his occult work as he is protecting the school and the area of monsters and yokai-inspired creatures. You know, all the stuff middle schoolers face nowadays. So the bound Hanako-kun has phenomenal artwork. I highly recommend checking this one out. It's a lot of fun, it's cute, it's funny, it's dark and mysterious at times. The anime I enjoyed and I am looking forward to owning the original, so yeah. Even though I don't have many box sets on my collection, I'm not a huge fan of them, I do like the creativity displayed here by Yenpress as you're seeing here with the pictures as you open it. All 10 books inside and it comes with a poster. I think this is an excellent way to incorporate the themes of the manga with the lore of Hanako-san and the bathroom stall into the box set itself. I'm really looking forward to owning this box set. Parallel World Pharmacy published by One Piece Books. This is the manga adaptation of the light novel of the same name written by Liz Takayama with art by Sei Takano. This Saiyan series is still ongoing and it's another isekai. We follow a young pharmacologist who gives us life to his research. He sadly passes away from being tired and overworking and he soon finds himself reincarnated as a boy named Farma, the son of a court physician in this new world that runs sort of like a medieval Europe type country. In this new world, faulty remedies run rampant. Farma uses his knowledge of modern pharmacy in our world and of course some Deus Ex Machina cheat powers he acquires from, you know, otherworldly sources to cure all the diseases around him. Yes, it's an isekai but the fact that it comes from a wholesome place of wanting to save people and have everybody be healthy is cool to me. The world is a mishmash of things from our world and how the kingdom might view new types of science and how they may be against it while also talking about the politics of the merchant guild and how they are against any new establishment in the pharmaceutical world, if you will, and how they're going to boycott this because obviously it's a monopoly in the interest of them making money at the expense of other people's health and all that stuff. Those sort of topics get explored. It has fun artwork and interesting characters and just a unique take on the isekai stuff and focusing on something that very rarely gets touched upon on light novels and manga that being the world of health and medicine. So yeah, do check it out if you're interested in some sanan fantasy adventure goodness. All right, saving one of the most popular releases and most anticipated releases I should say of the year. For last, this is Don't Call It Mystery Omnibus edition volume one. This is being put out by Seven Seeds from the legendary Yumi Tabura. You might know this creator from amazing series like Basara and Seven Seeds. Don't Call It Mystery Omnibus volume one collects the first two volumes and it tells the story of Totono, a young college student who stands out both for his hairdo and his finely honed abilities of observation and deduction. When Totono is accused of murder, he puts a skill to work and uses his exceptional insights to find the real killer. Later, all Totono wants to do is return to his own little world but he can't avoid getting caught up in one mystery after another. In his own blunt yet gentle way, Totono is a truth seeker who tries to make sense of a chaotic and often dangerous world. This Jose series is still being published in Japan. It started back in November of 2017 and currently has 12 volumes. Now with the Seven Seeds announcement, we're looking at six volumes here in the US and I'm super excited to have this. Of course, if you don't know, this series had a live action adaptation and it also has a live action film in the works for this year. Obviously, I don't have Tamura's famous works like I mentioned with Basara for example. That's horribly out of print and expensive but hopefully sales of this indicate that people want more from the creator and the other publishers that have the rights for the other books can put them out. Fingers crossed, that is a possibility. So if there's one book out here for all you mystery loving fans out there, one book you should get this month, I would say Don't Call the Mystery is one of the hyped releases that should be under everybody's radar. Alrighty folks, there we go. The top 12 anticipated manga releases for the month of May. Thank you so much everybody for tuning in. I really do appreciate it. Your support means the world to me. Truly awesome. I hope this was to your liking and entertainment and if you want me to talk about one of these series at length, let me know in the comment section down below. Thank you everybody for tuning in. This has been another installment of the Manga Geekdom. We'll be back with another episode soon. Stay safe, God bless. Thank you for liking, commenting, subscribing, all that fun stuff. I will catch all of you on our next video.