The Best New Manga of August 2016

Tokyo Ghoul, Vol. 8, by Sui Ishida
This book is mostly battles—the ghoul investigators are invading the Aogiri Tree’s towers, and the Anteiku crowd is trying to rescue Ken—but in typical Tokyo Ghoul fashion, they are broken up with some quieter moments, flashbacks, and real story development. We learn more about Touka’s backstory, for instance, and why she feels the way she does. Deep psychological truths are delivered among a flurry of blows. Noro, the Aogiri Tree ghoul with the weird smile mask, shows up and nobody can figure out quite what his deal is. A lot of threads are wrapped up in this volume, which comes to a close with a profoundly changed Ken starting out in a new direction.

Attack on Titan, Vol. 19, by Hajime Isayama
Attack on Titan, vol. 19, Special Edition, by Hajime Isayama
The past few volumes have seen a lot of reveals and story twists, so if you’ve fallen behind on Attack on Titan, now is a good time to catch up. The Survey Corps are battling to take back Wall Maria and secure the Shinsangana District gates, and they also have to contend with the Colossus Titan, the Armored Titan, and the Beast Titan. With its mix of action and intrigue, plus its setting in a city besieged by giants, Attack on Titan is great escape reading, and with the announcement that the second season of the anime will be released in spring 2017, there has never been a better time to jump on board. As with the last few volumes, Kodansha is offering two versions of volume 19: Just the manga or the Special Edition, with an original dust jacket by artist Paolo Rivera (Daredevil, Spider-Man) and a DVD of part 2 of the Attack on Titan: No Regrets anime (part 1 was bundled with the special edition of volume 18).

Yona of the Dawn, Vol. 1, by Mizuho Kusanagi
Princess Yona has a yen for her cousin, who was very sweet to her when her mother died when she was a child, but now is rather cool to her. Wait! Don’t run away! Yona of the Dawn may start out with a heaping helping of shoujo manga clichés, but it quickly turns into something very different. The story takes a hard turn about halfway through the first volume, sending the princess on a journey across the mountains, accompanied by her strong, quiet, loyal-but-always-taken-for-granted bodyguard. Kusanagi’s art is very classic shoujo, with heavy emphasis on hair and ornate clothes, which fits the fantasy theme of this story. Shoujo romance fans should definitely give this one a try.

Assassination Classroom, Vol. 11, by Yusei Matsui
Assassination Classroom was nominated for an Eisner Award. Wait, let’s savor those words: Assassination Classroom was nominated for an Eisner Award. It didn’t win, because the massive fourth volume of Shigeru Mizuki’s Showa is the kind of highbrow Graphic Literature that the Eisner voters tend to swoon over, but if Most Fun to Read was an Eisner category, Assassination Classroom would win hands down. It’s a cheeky high school action comedy that has the most downtrodden class in the school, Class 3-E, all trying to kill their teacher, Koro Sensei, who is an alien from outer space who has threatened to destroy the earth. Of course, the “losers” of Class 3-E all have special talents of their own—which their new teacher is pretty good at teasing out—and a series of skilled assassins are sent out by the government to assist them. In this volume, a part-time job leads to blackmail at the school sports day, which in turn leads to the students of Class 3-E helping out at a day care program. And no matter what, the whole class is still trying to assassinate Koro Sensei—and he is still eluding them.

Danganronpa: The Animation, Vol. 2, by Spike Chunsoft and Takashi Tsukini
Forget the Care Bears—Danganronpa brings you a Despair Bear: Monokuma, a tyrannical robot teddy bear who is principal of the weirdest school ever. It’s supposedly an elite academy, but one “average” student per year is chosen by lottery to attend. When Makoto Naegi is picked, he thinks he’s drawn the lucky number—but this school is even worse than Class 3-E. The evil teddy bear in charge has decreed that the only way to escape is to murder another student and get through a class trial undetected. If the class finds the correct culprit guilty, that person is executed; if they guess wrong, everyone but the guilty party dies. This second volume brings more twists and more evil teddy bear antics, as Monokuma continues to divide and torment the class in this dark-humored manga, which is based on a video game.

Kuroko’s Basketball, Vol. 1, by Tadatoshi Fujimaki
If you want to read hard-core a basketball manga with lots of emphasis on the fundamentals and sweaty scenes of the main character drilling hard to bring himself up to the level of the rest of the team, check out Slam Dunk. Kuroko’s Basketball is not that. All the main characters are superstars from the get-go, except for Kuroko—and he (mild spoiler) takes everyone by surprise. The essence of this book is different ways of approaching basketball, but it looks like it will really be more about competition and teamwork than the sport itself. Here’s the deal: A middle school had an undefeated basketball team with five amazingly talented athletes, all of whom went to different high schools. Kuroko is the sixth player, someone who is so self-effacing most people don’t notice him until he deliberately draws their attention. When he gets to high school, he joins the basketball team at the same time as Kagami, a tall, highly skilled player who has just come back from America. Everyone assumes Kagami will be the star of the team, but Kuroko surprises them by using misdirection as a tool on the court. While there is plenty of basketball and basketball talk in this book, there’s also the competition and character aspect, which makes it a well-rounded read even for non-basketball fans. Viz is publishing it as two-in-one omnibus volumes, which means you get a lot of story for your money.

Otherworld Barbara, by Moto Hagio
Dream pilots explore the dreamworlds of others in this beautifully drawn sci-fi manga by one of Japan’s most celebrated manga creators. Moto Hagio, the author of Heart of Thomas, is working in a more mature and accomplished style in this book, the first of a two-volume series. Her story is surrealistic in the truest sense of the word, with characters that are solid and believable and almost like us, except for some unnerving differences. This book won the Nihon SF Taishō Award, Japan’s top science fiction award, in 2006, and the American publisher Fantagraphics is bringing it out in a handsome hardcover edition translated by manga scholar (and Moto Hagio fan) Matt Thorn.
What manga are you reading in August?