#not even a little backstory for suzuran

[greythroat]

I was enabled so I'm posting some of my fave fic ideas I've come up with, all of these are Arknights (none of them are written except for Boy Meets Evil and I don't really plan to anytime soon so feel free to steal the other ones, I'd love to see what you do)

traincars (rosmiya)

Normal(ish) Terrans AU. War breaks out and Rosmiya ends up on a train fleeing away. Rosmiya typical bleak softness

school for good and evil au

Ever Amiya (may or may not be in the wrong school), Never Mephisto, enemies to friends but still destined to fight to the death, background Talina, feat. Tal breaking the curse on Evil and winning her story a year prior and Meph being her fanboy

surtr backstory

Surtr has less story than white bread but her files have some good imagery so why not expand on that? Kind of Surtr/all, feat. Ling, Pallas, Dusk and maybe others

badlands (utah au)

photographer mephisto working as a unit with journalist talulah meets painter ami. exposure and vulnerability despite distance. also it's winter. now i need to decide how dark this is gonna be bc there's a lot of cliffs to fall off of in utah

mephifaust aespa au (not rpf)

Very loosely inspired by Aespa lore. Very, very loosely. Criminal overlord x the soldier sent to kill him feat. identity issues (in this AU, ae is an alter ego everyone has based off of people’s impressions of you) and also Talulah appears briefly because I'm a loser and Meph is willingly supplanting his own personality with her ae. Anyway, Aespa was awesome at Coachella.

circus au

Everyone in Reunion except Talulah is a ghost and they work in this circus and Amiya goes there

alina and mephisto afterlife fic

deersapointment.jpg. Bad communication coupled with crushing grief and pain. Talulah's not here for once but she might as well be. This should be a fluffy wholesome concept but I had to. They don't hate each other or anything they just have a lot to talk about.

grave marker

Mandrake backstory concept. Separated from her abusive relationship by getting buried alive, survives by stealing from the graveyard she ends up in, hones her Arts, gets stalked by Leader, falls in love hate ???, me typical seething and tortured vibes

rosmiya future fic feat. meph and doc being questionable influences

A possible future (I say possible bc the ending could be way more sad) for EML where everyone is relatively stable. RI found the cure, Rosmiya is living a normal life with their adopted child, Doc and Meph who are both still at RI distributing the cure stop by (”you come into my home and live off my kindness AGAIN??”)

a hunter in scarlet

I don’t like how other people treat Red so I thought it’d be nice to write about her. Feat. Kal, Amiya, Suzuran, and the other Lupos.

flamew edge

This writes itself

a bunch of high school au ideas

I have a lot of ideas banging around for this AU that only make sense to me but I’ve been thinking a lot about writing a reincarnation AU of the AU. The kind of reincarnation AU where they don’t know from the start bc the angst and drama potential is fantastic. When your main concern was not killing your annoying AP Research partner but now it's LITERALLY not killing them

talulah + mephisto relationship study

Name stuff but more importantly villains who are found family. No I am not normal.

boy meets evil

Also a relationship study of Talulah and Mephisto but (even) more self indulgent. So Meph and Faust never meet and Koschei is a little more insidious with possessing Tal, so the curse is a bit more metaphorical and Tal stays herself. Multiple endings, tragedy, much toxicity and desperation

the sun that touches us

Same universe as above but there's no drama in this one. While Tal and Meph go through hell Faust is living his best life honestly. He and Firewatch are friends who run a Rhodes safehouse together. Place your bets on who is more weird and paranoid

as if it's your last

Meteorite and W high school AU. Crack pairing but feels interesting.

#ryori.txt

[sharkskull]

Arknights opinion for ToW story (not a hot take, dont read if you genuinely like the story)

on a grand scale, it barely or not even make any sense the one true culprit Thor barely have any characterisation the motive just like as if he was having messiah complex or something

the tragedy is inevitable might as well set thing on fire, wow sir what a good assumption conclusion right there, have you learn a thing from your dad

biedermann even has more to character than thor, who should be more important in this whole case

i pity his fiancee Tatjana, she’s a good girl, nothing wrong with her

if i have to sugarcoat the story it be this:

"a story of fire lit by the fool to start a poetic war”

not even poetic, before all the sweet word it just weak justification to start a war in town

#arknights #hide dont show taken in a bad way #i genuinely love some character got portrayed here #but it doent mean it cover the bad initial motive #not even a little backstory for suzuran

[glassautomaton]

A deep dive into Lappland as a character, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Mangy Decrepit Wolf Lady

I’ll be going over her backstory, personality/character, and what I think her relationship with Texas really is, so it’ll be a long one.

Lappland is a character with painfully little in the way of content, despite being a launch operator. The only real scrap we got from her was with Suzuran’s record, which I made a separate post about here.

Starting with her history, we know a bit about Lappland from her time in Siracusa, mostly from a) her short interaction with the mafiosos in Code of Brawl, b) her token, c) her file and d) Suzuran’s file (maybe, but I’ll be treating my conclusion from the previously linked post as correct because honestly I don’t think they’d put in a red herring like that).

Most of this is, of course, very vague. We know that she used to be part of a family involved in the mafia, that her family was killed and Lappland was branded a traitor, and, based on her token, took revenge on several gangs before leaving Siracusa with a massive body count, possibly even making a takeover by that “Miss Sicily” character possible. The fact that Lappland herself was branded as a traitor could point towards her being the one who infected Suzuran, or having been framed for it. Or it could just be because the gangs she tore through were once allied with her family. Either way, her reputation seems to precede her as Gambino and Capone put aside their feud to prevent themselves from being dismembered, as Lappland has been noted to do to her victims.

Moving on to her personality, and this is where people tend to misunderstand Lappland as a character. Taken from her file:

Lappland is not as crazed as many of her voice lines suggest. In fact, she seems to seek out people for conversation. Her penchant for gallows humor makes sense: she was alone for a long time, maybe years, with the only constant in her life being killing and bloodshed. After such a long time knowing nothing but pain and killing, it makes sense that grim humor would be one of her preferred ways of communicating. It’s not like she has had anyone else to talk with since coming to Rhodes, hence her “frightening” aura even when just trying to communicate. As the person writing her final archive file says (most likely Texas),

She’s lost her family and will never truly be a part of another one.

The only time we see Lappland trying to reach out and communicate to other people, it goes poorly.

While this may be a particularly charitable reading for a spree killer, this seems like Lappland attemting to form connections with others, but failing as she either forgot how to properly form connections after losing both her family and herself to vengeance, or she simply can’t get past her Oripathy-riddled, bloodstained appearance.

Focusing more on Oripathy, we see the flip-side of Lappland’s personality: her sadism and gleeful lust for fighting. Having grown up in Siracusa, she may have been a killer from a young age, but her file points to the effects of Oripathy as being one of the key factors in her fixation on violence.

So, not only is Lappland just a wizard when it comes to fighting, but her Oripathy actually helps her in this regard. Most importantly, though, is the fact that her Oripathy causes her to fixate on those she considers to be combat targets, which can be seen in her voice lines where she attempts to spur her attackers on and encourage them rather than simply taunting them. This alone might be enough to explain her fixation on combat, but it leaves out one very important voice line.

To me, the only source of joy remaining in this insane would is using my power to conquer all.

What Lappland is saying here is that fighting isn’t the only thing she enjoys, or even that it would be something she has always enjoyed: she says it is the only thing left for her. Her family, her friends, her home, nothing but dust now. The only thing left for her is her blades and her enemy.

Everything that Lappland knew was taken from her, and likely left her a shell of whoever she used to be, but there is one person we know for sure had connections to Lappland in the past. That person, of course, being Texas.

What’s important to note about Texas here is that her backstory is, for all intents and purposes, very similar to Lappland. Both grew up as part of the Siracusan mafia, both are sole survivors of their family, and both got out, one way or another. Their E2 art and tokens mirror each other, if that wasn’t enough to convince you that they’re narrative foils. (I can’t show the E2 art without hitting the image limit, but the resemblance should be somewhat obvious.)

I think the tokens symbolize the difference between the two pretty well: Texas keeps her family’s scutcheon, damaged but intact. She bears the scars of her past life but still has sight of herself. Lappland, on the other hand, does not have her family’s scutcheon. Having lost sight of who she once was, she is now defined by bloodshed and vengeance.

Texas has friends. She found her new family. She has people who like her, who want her around, and she has purpose. She is happy now. To Lappland, Texas’ very existence is a mockery to her. How come she gets to be happy while Lappland still has to suffer after everything? How come she has a new family? How come she has a purpose? Likewise, to Texas, Lappland represents the specter of what she had to grow past, and what she could be dragged back to if she let it.

It’s no secret Lappland has something of an obsession with Texas, but I don’t believe it to be that of wanting to rekindle an old relationship.

Lappland sees Texas as an enemy, and as her file said, she develops an obsession with those she considers enemies. But Lappland doesn’t want to kill Texas, or else she would have probably tried to kill her already. Lappland wants to drag Texas down to her level, to make her as miserable as she is. And, as she says in Code of Brawl, she wants to rile Texas up. Killing people Texas let live and bringing her their mutilated corpses isn’t a gift, it’s a provocation. Lappland wants to fight Texas, but she doesn’t want to kill her. As gruesome as it is, I think Lappland wants Texas to kill her, so she can die doing the one thing that still matters to her, looking, at least, at the face of someone she knows, instead of a cold, sterile hospital as she wastes away from Oripathy. Even in death, Lappland doesn’t want to be lonely.

#arknights #lappland #texas #long post #hopefully it’s not too rambling #my campaign to get people to appreciate Lappland continues #please just give us a Siracusa event I'm on my hands and knees here #maybe I should have split this into separate posts #not sure how many people are gonna read all this #oh well

[moonlightdestruction]

About Suzuran

BACKSTORY: Suzuran Yamashita (BLEACH OC)  had been the 5th seat of Squad 5 when Shinji Hirako and the other Visoreds where still captains and lieutenants. In her living years, she was a scrappy delinquent woman who had dropped out of higher education and resorted to street fights. Despite her aggressive behavior, Suzuran would always stay up to look a the moon. She was killed doing the very thing she loved, a couple of gang members had ended up stabbing her for disrespecting one of the other members, and the last thing she saw was the Full Moon in the Sky. Eventually, konso was performed on her and she was able to go to the Soul Society.

 During her time in the Soul Society, she decided to become a Shinigami and went through the proper classes and certifications to become so. She was trying very hard to become part of Squad 11, figuring that her fighting spirit would allow her to fit in quite well. Much to her dismay, she was put into Squad 5, which at the time was ran by Captain Shinji Hirako. Suzuran and Shinji butted heads for the most part, because of his nonchalant attitude, and her wanting to be in Squad 11. After a while, Suzuran became a very adept shinigami under proper training, and even rose to becoming Shinji’s 5th seat. Slowly afterwards, she was able to unlock her bankai. (Which she is banned from using, as it is far too destructive to use in any battle).

 During Aizen’s betrayal, Suzuran ignored direct orders and went to investigate the matter, for what could possibly be going on? During this betrayal, she felt heartbroken that her own lieutenant, and 3rd seat would betray her Captain…That they would betray everyone. In her fit of rage, she attempted to release Bankai but was ultimately hollowfied  watching Aizen’s face as she fell limp to the ground.

Suzuran lived in hiding with the rest of the visoreds after Kisuke Urahara aided in their recovery. She would often be on the side lines when it came to teaching Ichigo. However, after the events of Hueco Mundo and the Battle with Sosuke Aizen; Suzuran returned to Soul Society with Shinji, serving as his 3rd seat while Momo was his Lieutenant. 

STATS AND GENERAL INFO:  First Name: Suzuran Last Name:Yamashita Rank: 5th seat of Squad 5 (During The Turn Back the Pendulum arc)          3rd seat of Squad 5 (Post Fake Karakura Town Arc) Height: 5′11′’ Eye Color: Violet Hair Color: Deep Purple (nearly black) Favorite Food:  Karē raisu (Curry over rice) Description: Suzuran Yamashita is a tall woman with a lithe body structure. She has an oval face shape with sharp cheekbones and a sharp chin, arched brows, and pouty lips upon which she always wears plum colored lipstick (Post Turn Back the Pendulum). Suzuran has eggplant purple hair that is slightly wavy and comes to her mid-back. If not in her Shinigami uniform, she tends to dress in a business casual style. Capri slacks with a form fitting t-shirt, with a blazer over top and matching heels. Or a pencil skirt with a blouse with black heels. One of her consistent accessories is her crescent moon earrings that she got when she got suckered into piercing her ears when Shinji got his tongue pierced. Zanpakuto: Tsukikage ( Moon Shadow/Shade) As a Zanpakuto Spirit Tsukikage appears as a rather tall man (6'3) with pale skin, medium length black hair, striking aquamarine blue eyes, and a lithe body. He is adorned in a sleek sapphire blue and black baroque frock coat. He has a little silver cravat with a moon brooch on it. However, his bottoms are torn skinny jeans and his shoes are Converse. Shikai: “Devastate: Tsukikage.”Tsukikage (Shadow of the Moon) In this form looks like a luminescent Khophesh.  Depending on the amount of light in the area, determines whether it will use “Light” Or “Shadow.” In the “Light” Mode, which is the Normal Light Blue looking one. It can manipulate light in a sense, to make illusions. It wouldn’t be as tricksy as say Sakanade or Kyoka Suigetsu, but it’s still pretty fucky to mess with, if the opponent doesn’t get it. In the ‘Shadow’ Mode it can manipulate shadows to blind and disorientate. In this mode it is completely pitch black. It’s only limited to the darkness that is around, so that mode is better used at night. Both modes can concentrate either Light or Darkness in slashes that affect a 10 meter radius. The Light Mode can cause temporary blindness and burns (but of course not as damaging as a Fire Zanpakuto would be). The “Shadow” Mode allows for the opponent to be encased in Darkness for a short amount of time. This can be disrupted by the opponent realizing the Darkness is an ‘Illusion’, the amount of shadow within the area, Suzuran’s reiatsu weakening, or any light attacks that pierce the area. In Battle Suzuran has to decide with Mode she will use prior to unleashing her Shikai. If she chose Shadow Mode and the area switches the lighting, her Shikai won’t be as effective due to the lack of shadows.

Bankai: “Eviscerate the Sky! Tsukikage,  (Hoshi o hakai shimasu) Starfall Destruction ”

Tsukikage, in the Bankai form, allows her to have two khopesh’s and changes her appearance to have dark grey and blue armor. This Bankai is INCREDIBLY destructive as it lets her practically rain down Meteors within a certain radius. The radius wasn’t really tested due to it’s sheer destructive power.  It also allows her to use amplified ‘Light’ and “Shadow’ manipulation within this form. Much like Captain Hitsugaya’s Daiguren Hyorinmaru, where he has Ice Flowers that indicate when his Bankai is up, she is surrounded by a Circle of Moons.  When one moon is used up, it turns black and it starts to drain the next one. She has a total of 4 Moons and can only use Heaven Hail at Full Destructive Power for the use of 1 Whole Moon. Every time she tries to use it with the other 3, the power and radius is reduced to 50% with the 2nd Moon, and 25% off of that with the remaining two. ( So 1 Moon =Full Power, 2nd Moon = 50% Reduction, 3rd Moon = 50% Reduction + 25% Reduction, 4th Moon = 100% Reduction). Now with use on the 4th moon, that means she would not be able to use it at all, and would have to use Light or Shadow during this time. In Bankai, she can use Light or Shadow Mode Freely without having to pick one prior to releasing her Bankai. Light Mode during Bankai can allow for illusions that affect a large amount of people. BUT, these wear off very easily, the pay off being more destructive power in this form. The Light Rays released when swinging Tsukikage in Light Mode are powerful and almost laser like. They can cause 2nd Degree burns if it directly contacts skin, and can blind the enemy for up to 40 seconds. Enemies with extremely powerful and dense reiatsu, or an Arrancar’s hierro will block some of the attack off and only receive 1st degree burns. In the Shadow Mode, Suzuran can have up to 3 Shadow Spheres which encases enemies within a distinctive spot and a 10 meter vicinity. Doing so takes up half a Moon, and the cages can only last 30 seconds at a time. If she switches between Shadow to Light Mode, the Cages will disappear. The Offense part of Shadow Mode comes in the form of Crescent Shades, which are attacks in the form of Crescent Moons that are completely black. The Crescent shades send concentrated blasts of dark energy that cut deeper the more encased in shadow that someone is. She cannot use Crescent Shade and Shadow Sphere at their full capacity together. The two other spheres would merge into one and allow the attack to focus on that area, with less damage. If she wanted full damage, no shadow spheres could be out at the same time as Crescent Shade. However the use of the Light and Shadow Manipulation is lessened if she already used “Heaven Hail” (Meteor Shower). So, if she used Heaven Hail and she was down to 2/4 Moons, her shadow manipulation would be less functional than it would be in her Shikai, even if it was Night time.

#suzuran yamashita #about

[violetgun394]

Something wicked this way comes

Alright, first character analysis is Matsuri Mizusawa. Probably cause in my opinion she's one of the most interesting/developed characters in Citrus.

Though if you didn't read the manga and only watched the anime you may hate her and have no clue what I'm talking about.

So looking into Matsuri's backstory we know she's always been a little devious and somewhat shut off from others. Though through meeting Yuzu and her going out of her way to spend time with Matsuri we know she's latched on to her.

Besides Yuzu, she's rather secluded. Both parents work, no major friends, and it's clear she fills up a lot of that with music and games. All the alone time probably helped give her the negative viewpoints she has of people.

Her interest in games and subconscious need to connect often has her playing sort of a matchmaker role. Or maybe the correct term is more like a dm in a tabletop rpg(like DnD). She likes the power, the control of the situation. She likes setting up a scenario to see how it plays out. Maybe if she can bring people together that may fill the encroaching emptiness within her. Though if it fails she detaches herself from it and probably loses a little bit of faith in humanity. She herself said the world is filled with empty people.

This is how she's introduced after all. Trying to set up a couple that doesn't work out. Then once reconnecting with Yuzu(the only person that's ever reached out to her) thinking that she may lose her to someone else. Despite Yuzu not reciprocating the same she is the closest person she's ever been to so she devises this devious plan to steal Yuzu back from Mei.

Though Yuzu is an unpredictable force of nature and transcends the little game "walls" Matsuri sets up. She easily sees straight though Matsuri and demands she go apologize.

In this situation there's a lesson to be learned but I don't think Yuzu is the one who gets it through to Matsuri. After all, Matsuri thought she could easily manipulate Yuzu like anyone else.

"You and I are not so different"

It's Mei that really drives it home. After seeing what Mei is like and how much Yuzu loves her she apologizes and actually starts supporting them. To the point where she even starts giving them advice on how to improve their relationship. Though this isn't really seen in the anime as it cuts off at chapter 16.

So those that only watched the anime really miss out on the major character developments Matsuri makes.

Despite her cynical attitude she starts opening up a little more. Actually comes out of this shell she made and starts interacting with the other characters and makes friends. She discovers she's got a soft spot for Harumin. She even actively sets up situations to try and improve Yuzu and Mei's relationship.

This is also somewhat of her downfall. She tries to hide it but she comes to care too much about those around her(She even goes to help Nene in one scene despite not even really knowing her).

The biggest point in the story for Matsuri is the lodge outing. She likes playing cupid so she sets up this entire (essentially) camping trip with all of their friends just so Yuzu and Mei can get some alone time. That's when shit hits the fan and she discovers that Mei still has an arranged marriage that she hasn't told Yuzu about.

And

Matsuri

Loses

Her

Shit

Why wouldn't she, right? There are so many factors to take into consideration here. Matsuri has actually improved as a person thanks to Yuzu and Mei. She's come to appreciate those around her and want what's best for them. And because she cares so much for them(especially Yuzu) she gets infuriated thinking that Mei is just toying with Yuzu.

She in fact gets so upset she accidentally reveals everything about them to Momokino and Suzuran in a fit of rage.

From there it's all downhill. She "game" she created to bring Yuzu and Mei closer together falls to pieces. She detaches herself and falls back into the depression she was in before. Which is really sad, seeing as how she's come so far since the blackmail fiasco.

She still comes out to hang out with Harumin and Nene, still cares for her friends, and for the most part hasn't reverted back too much. Though she now carries this somber weight on her that she can't really talk about. Reinforcing this previous idea she had that the world is as empty as the people in it.

Nobody's perfect. We all have our flaws. We all make mistakes. And those are crucial parts that help us build upon ourselves and determine who we are or want to be. Matsuri is very relatable this way and I think the way her character progresses is one of the main reasons we love her as much as the main girls.

She's reckless

She's devious

She's kind-hearted

She's Matsuri Mizusawa, and we wouldn't have her any other way

If you actually held on and read this fucking novel thanks! Let me know want you think. I didn't actually think it'd be this long XD I have more reviews planned for the other gals of Citrus. If there's a specific character you want to see next let me know.

#mizusawa matsuri #yuri #citrus #shojo ai #mei aihara #yuzu aihara #citrus manga #yuri manga #citrus saburouta #harumi taniguchi

[warelander]

Why do people love Fever 2's story so much? It's not that different from other puyo stories

I can only speak for myself, but there’s a few key factors for me that make it work as well as it does:

-It builds on the characters it established in Fever 1, we now know that Ocean Prince is actually a human who turned himself into a fish, we actually get to see Rei, we find out what the deal with the demon in Klug’s book is.

Compare that to later games, which bring up things, but refuse to elaborate on them, because most characters don’t really play a role anymore.

-The Backstory aspects give Primp a bit more of it’s own mythology, some of which even adds additional context to things that happen in the main story, especially in regards to Sig and Strange Klug.

Later games don’t do that anymore. Suzuran in particular can’t even get it’s own rules straight, considering that Puyo based things already exist there before they are supposed to, according to what we are told by the game.

-All the characters play roles that fit naturally into the story and they even affect each other, the ending of Raffine’s WakuWaku course for instance leads straight to the beginning of Sig’s HaraHara course. Similarly the plot is driven by the characters’ actions and personalities. Klug collecting the items to unseal his book ends up setting the demon free and him giving Rider a letter for Amitie, telling her to come to the Arca Ruins, because he  wants to show her off, is the reason why Amitie ends up there to begin with.

From PP7 onwards it really feels like things just happen, because they have to happen. Amitie and Arle are major players in PPT because they conveniently fell from the sky in the first cutscene and Raffine, Feli and Rulue are brainwashed due to the merging of the Puyo/Tetris worlds, which is never adressed again afterwards or even properly explained in why it only happened to them.

The game also uses characters that make sense for the plot, instead of forcing itself to use the same five characters over and over again + whoever happens to be new, like the later ones. This was a time where someone like Ocean Prince could be allowed to be a major part of a story, hard to believe nowadays, but his involvement actually carries two whole courses. I really want that back, instead of the steril kind of usage that the cast sees nowadays.

There’s also the little chats that you can initiate in the menu maps, most of them don’t have to do with the main story, but they are still pretty nice and there’s even a whole sub-plot revolving around the Memory of Chu.

On a personal note there’s also my preferences for how the cast is characterized here and the absence of many overplayed running gags, especially from Compile, but also later SEGA games, like Ringo freaking out over Yu and Rei, which happens every game now and the less I say about the Schezo/Satan cockfights the better.

Again, this is my personal take on why I like Fever 2’s story the most, others may have different reasons, but these are mine.

#puyo puyo #puyo puyo fever 2

[recentanimenews]

Bookshelf Briefs 5/28/19

Creature Girls: A Hands-On Field Journal in Another World, Vol. 1 | By Kakeru | Seven Seas – This was another “I’ll get the first volume, how bad could it be?” sort of book. The answer is pretty bad, at least for readers of my taste. That said, for those in the market this is aiming for, Creature Girls must be a dream come true. A monster girl story with actual coitus, as well as deep down analysis of the girls’ bodies, almost to the point of parody. The plot is the standard “guy transported to fantasy world” stuff, and there’s a few mentions made of battles against enemies that he helps them with. But the target reader is not here for that. He is here to see monster girls show off their boobs, swear they’re 18, and get screwed. This book gives that to you, in spades. I’ll pass on future volumes. – Sean Gaffney

Haikyu!!, Vol. 32 | By Haruichi Furudate | Viz Media – Oh boy, more full volumes of volleyball. They sure do (punches fist in air) PLAY that volleyball, huh? OK, OK, let me see… the twins’ backstory was quite good, and I enjoyed the end, where we see more of Hinata’s growth to the point where Tsukishima even praises him, as much as Tsukishima is ever going to praise anyone. And credit to the author, 32 volumes in, for continuing to find ways to not make volleyball boring. There are great poses and a fast pace which reminds you why this is such a popular series. The pace is not fast enough that the game is over, though, and I’m fairly sure that the next volume will have me groping for words once more. It’s a good series, though. – Sean Gaffney

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Part 4: Diamond Is Unbreakable, Vol. 1 | By Hirohiko Araki| Viz Media – Ten years after the final battle between Dio and Jotaro in Cairo, the fourth part of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure returns to Japan. In the first volume of Diamond Is Unbreakable, Jotaro has come to the town of Morioh to investigate a series of crimes and to search for Josuke Higashikata, his uncle and the illegitimate son of his grandfather Joseph Joestar. When Jotaro finds Josuke he discovers a high schooler with a very powerful Stand and a hair-trigger temper (both literally and figuratively) to go with it, a potentially dangerous combination. JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure continues to be a violent and grotesque series—the human and animal cruelty present will be too much for some readers—but I continue to love it for its strangeness, over-the-top action sequences, and ridiculous characters. Josuke in particular is one of those delinquents with a heart of gold that brings me tremendous delight. – Ash Brown

Kakuriyo: Bed & Breakfast for Spirits, Vol. 3 | By Waco Ioka and Midori Yuma | Viz Media – I’m wondering how much of this series is going to be Aoi healing people’s hearts through the power of delicious food. Oryo spends most of the volume sick (well, the impression is she’s also hiding), but even she will eat Aoi’s food. We also get backstory on Suzuran and Akatsuki, and take a trip back to Japan so that Suzuran can pay her respects to the late Shiro, and also stay behind. It’s a perfect opportunity for Aoi to stay behind as well, something her captor knows only too well, but she chooses to return anyway. This series looks pretty slow burn, so I think the food may outweigh the romance for a while yet. But I’m OK with that. – Sean Gaffney

Kiss & White Lily for My Dearest Girl, Vol. 9 | By Canno | Yen Press – Half this volume is Yukine and Ayaka, who are coming to realize that “winning” or “losing” is not the be-all and end-all of their relationship. Good thing too, as Ayaka finally wins. Elsewhere, we see a girl who’s a repeater (she was injured and couldn’t get attendance credits), so is something of a loner, but also a cosplayer. She ends up falling for a younger, puppy-dog sort of girl, but it’s hard to get over putting people at a distance, so they end up breaking up quickly. But is it really over? This volume frames the “main” pairing right in the middle, with the ‘volume’ pairing as a bookend, and it woks very well. Next volume is the last, so I suspect it will be all Ayaka and Yukine. – Sean Gaffney

Little Witch Academia, Vol. 3 | By Trigger, Yoh Yoshinari and Keisuke Sato | JY – The spinoff comes to an end here, and there’s no real climactic finale—they have to win a flying contest against another school, but Diana is ill, so Akko tries her hardest (and mostly fails) and succeeds in the end, because she’s just that plucky. In the end, I think this spinoff probably works best for the groups it’s marketed for—kids and those who watched the anime. I wasn’t as fond of it as I was the other ones, as it’s clear that any character development is going to be in the main series. But as an advertisement for the main series, it’s excellent—I certainly would like to see more of everyone. Something to get your niece for her birthday—at three volumes, it’s even affordable. – Sean Gaffney

My Monster Secret, Vol. 16 | By Eiji Masuda | Seven Seas – Every new volume of the series after its first “ending” seems to be designed to annoy me—something that also befell the very similar Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches, if I recall. As the cover might give away, this volume doubles down on the teacher-student romance between Akari (who has at least appeared a lot) and Sakurada, best known as the least developed one of Those Three Guys, who looks much older than he is, which I guess is supposed to take the curse off the creepiness but doesn’t. Elsewhere, there is still some good comedy—I particularly liked the chapter with the supermarket sale—but more and more it appears this should have ended with the mutual confession. – Sean Gaffney

One-Punch Man, Vol. 16 | By ONE and Yusuke Murata | Viz Media – Still far too serious, and now faced with Saitama barely being in it. Certainly if you like cool fights it’s a good read, but I can get that from a dozen other manga titles. I read this for silliness, and that’s in short supply here. I did like the idea of the superhero “Megane,” who is pretty much just a guy with glasses. There’s also some good development from Garo, whose analysis is top tier, but who sadly is a bit too focused on the wrong things. But then again so are the A-rank heroes—there’s a fair bit of hypocrisy here. At least Genos knows what’s what, and we also get the return of Bang, who has a grudge of his own. It looks like Saitama will show up soon, and thank goodness. Who needs a totally serious One-Punch Man? – Sean Gaffney

Ooku: The Inner Chambers, Vol. 15 | By Fumi Yoshinaga | VIZ Media – Revolution is approaching as the most senior of Iesada’s ministers signs a trade treaty with America without waiting for Imperial approval. This fellow silences his detractors with harsh punishments and winds up assassinated by the end of the volume for his trouble. Meanwhile, the pregnant Iesada has evidently been gotten out of the way by somebody, but it’s unclear who, leaving her bereaved consort Taneatsu in the dark about her demise for a full month. Now he’s doing his best to guide her clever successor, who has just been married to an Imperial prince. She was concerned about deceiving the emperor, since the shogunate’s part of the deal was to oust foreigners, but a big reveal in the final pages proves they’re the ones who’ve been deceived. Still great, if sad. Poor Taneatsu. – Michelle Smith

Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization, Vol. 3 | By Tomo Hirokawa, based on the story by Reki Kawahara | Yen Press – The danger is ramped up a lot more in this volume, which also comes with the return of a familiar face from the Progressive series. When it comes to “NPCs can surpass their programming,” no one’s done it more often than SAO, with the current Alicization arc being all about that. Kizmel was (storywise, at least) first, though, and it’s heartwarming to see Kirito and Asuna reunite with her, even if she doesn’t know who they are. That said, this side story is still all about Premiere, who has a role that she is clearly there to fulfill… and also there’s more than one of her? Not for casuals, but SAO fans should find this a lot of fun. – Sean Gaffney

Yowamushi Pedal, Vol. 11 | By Wataru Watanabe | Yen Press – The joy of our whole team of six catching up with one another is tempered by the reminder that there can be only one winner of this race… and that the others are going to drop back and fail. It’s a hard lesson for Onoda to absorb, and by the end of the book he’s still struggling to. The rest of the book is filled with the most manly cycling ever, fortunately, and I have to say pound-for-pound this series even manages to out-shonen the Jump titles. That said, holy hell, this is a long race, and we’re still not done. Sports manga go on forever, and nothing says that better than this omnibus, which equates to vols. 21-22 of the original. I hope Sohoku eventually wins. And by that I mean Onoda. – Sean Gaffney

By: Ash Brown

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