Personally-followed manga, under-the-radar for everyone else

Damn, actual romantic progression?! Now I have to catch up again, and I have no idea where I last left off. Might as well start from where the anime ends. Which chapter was that again?

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And just to rerail the topic, if you're a fan of deadly games and contests of wits, try out Purgatory Dead Role. A bit different from its ilk in that the players are already dead, and they get resurrected if they die during a game. The lead guy is also different from your usual survival-game MC in that he's not a nice guy looking out for everyone; he's coldly logical and will not hesitate to kill himself in order to win.

I think around 27 or 28.

edited 23rd Jan '17 8:47:48 PM by diyedas

Hmm, seems like that's the part where Kawai gets tipsy. Thanks! Time to read and giggle

That sounds about right. You're very welcome!

Got two fresh stories that only recently popped their second chapter.

Elf-san wa Yaserarenai, by Synecdoche. Elves have the ability to cross over into our world and enjoy its luxuries to the point of being more plus-sized then they would like, something a diminutive dietitian learns when a long-eared stranger walked into his clinic. Very much a case of Bleached Underpants for the author (actually "Methonium"), and naturally has fanservice for fans of plump (Eh, I'm receptive. +3) elves (Yes. +1000)

Buster Dress, by Sadamatsu Ryuuichi. I have little clue about what constitutes a good mecha story. I only know that this plot so far seems typical for teen pilots in giant robots, and the art can be busy as fuck at times (hence why I noticed). Of course the mechs appear to have walked right out of Gundam, but wait... why do I feel this manga is more than a little inspired by Titanfall 2?

edited 1st Feb '17 8:49:57 AM by ChefFailure

"When I was alive, I was a tender soul. Now, I am tenderloin." -Nanako (Senryuu Shoujo)

Nice to know there's a fellow Methonium fan here.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Nice to see Methonium going legit like Tosh did, and hoping to see a lot more of this series.

I've got three new entries to share today:

Blades of the Guardians. Actually a Chinese work. Taking place in what could be a slightly fantastic version of the Qin Dynasty plagued by the influence of Rakshakas (demons found in Hinduism and Bhuddism) a bounty hunter named Dao Ma roams the lands with his baby son, and no place to call home until he can scrounge up enough cash with his blade. Heavily inspired by Spaghetti Westerns, and even has a direct reference to The Good The Bad And The Ugly as a chapter title.

Somali to Mori no Kami-sama. The setting is a beautiful world with a crazy number of diverse creatures who live peacefully, although the human species have dwindled so drastically the general population remember them almost to the level of nostalgia (about how Human Hunts used to be a thing...). Unbeknownst to them, there is a Golem currently exploring the land with his adoptive human daughter, using his experience to teach her and find more of her kind. As if my weakness for father/daughter dynamics isn't apparent enough.

Nenene. Because of how arranged marriages in the olden days tend to work, 16-year-old Koyuki is married to a priest who is 21 years her senior. However, he's as much of a Wizard as she is eager to prove herself a good wife, so it's a diabetes-inducing romance story with supernatural creatures involved if you don't mind the age gap. Incidentally, it's drawn by the artist for the remake of Horiyama, and just recently got a full serialization on January due to how popular this 3-chapter story became.

edited 1st Feb '17 9:00:17 AM by ChefFailure

"When I was alive, I was a tender soul. Now, I am tenderloin." -Nanako (Senryuu Shoujo)

While the effort is appreciated, I'm pretty sure we're not supposed to link directly to manga scalation sites. At least I think that was the verdict when it came up a little while ago.

Also I did put up that video for Prison Princess last week, if anyone's interested.

Aw, boo. Thanks for telling me though, I made the changes.

"When I was alive, I was a tender soul. Now, I am tenderloin." -Nanako (Senryuu Shoujo)

Newest chapter of Okusan is out, and with it we discover that Hubby Boy is a Trekkie. I guess adding that trope plus Fan Boy are in order, right?

edited 1st Feb '17 11:04:29 AM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Anyone here familiar with the lesser works of Yoshitomi Akihito, author of Blue Drop? I never particularly liked that series, but the rest of them are Yuri and rather good; I happen to like the one-shots and limited runs better than the longer series, my favorite being Futari to Futari (Two and Two).

edited 1st Feb '17 3:49:02 PM by ViperMagnum357

I've been reading Otome no Teikoku for some time now. It's a slice of life that takes place at an all girls school. It's features a lot f yuri and gets pretty fanservicey at times.

I've also been rereading Toshiue no Hito. It's about a college student who falls in love an older woman who happens to look a lot younger tha she is. It's pretty good.

This likely won't count as under the radar, and it only started this week, but the premise was enough to grab my attention and so I'm sharing it.

Bokutachi wa Benkyou ga Dekinai , titled in US Shonen Jump as We Never Learn, focuses on three protagonists: Nariyuki Yuiga, a hard working third-year high school student who's among the top in his school and is gunning for a recommendation that can get him a scholarship so he can better support his poor family. Rizu Ogata is a genius who trounces Yuiga in the sciences and is capable of doing university level math problems in her head. Fumino Furuhashi is a Ditzy Genius whose skill in the humanities is so superior to Yuiga's that she can write a tearjerking essay for her homework within ten minutes after having completely forgotten about the assignment until that moment.

Yuiga is told he can get his scholarship but there's a catch. He has to tutor Ogata and Furuhashi so they can get into their target colleges. Given their Red Baron-worthy genius this shouldn't be a problem. Of course there is, and it takes two forms. The first is that science genius Ogata wants to attend a liberal arts university and literary genius Furuhashi wants to go to a science university. As if aiming for schools entirely contrary to their talents weren't bad enough, the two of them suffer Crippling Overspecialization and are total dunces outside of their specialties. To give an idea of just how bad, they each score 2 on the practice tests Yuiga gives them. He proceeds to give them the exact same test multiple times over the next week and their score drops.

In other words, The Spock wants to study literature and The McCoy wants to study science, and they both suck horribly at it.

If Yuiga wants to get his scholarship, he's going to have to these girls to vastly improve their scores since he's realized he's not going to change their minds about what to pursue, natural talents be damned. Nor, after some soul searching of his own, is he inclined to.

Like I said, the premise that they're actively going against their natural talents, and what looks to be a subversion of Hard Work Hardly Works, has caught my interest.

edited 6th Feb '17 5:05:30 PM by sgamer82

Wow, from the description it sounds so frustrating.

For the characters or the readers? Or Yes?

edited 6th Feb '17 5:04:51 PM by sgamer82

Yes.

Obviously frustrating for the main character, and to the readers by proxy.

Yeah. But he's determined to do it anyway (scholarship is that important to him) and after some soul searching he's able to empathize with them wanting to find their own way, natural talents be damned.

I'll check it later but I'm still not convinced I'll like it.

No biggie if you don't. It's only on chapter one so obviously it's too early to judge. Like I said it's more the premise itself that has me interested than anything. If you have any trouble finding it some have translated the title as "We Can't Study"

edited 6th Feb '17 5:29:06 PM by sgamer82

Worth noting that We Can't Study is one of JUMP's six new series, and this is the one penned by the guy who made the magical girl spinoff of Nisekoi.

I discussed the manga a bit in the Shonen Jump ToC rankings thread, so I'll just repeat myself: as far as romcom premises go it's rather good, and the first chapter is serviceable, more of setup than anything. Could be interesting if it delves into more detail about the geniuses' hardships in their chosen fields, and maybe some reverse tutoring plot is in the works, but I can also see the story falling back on typical romcom shenanigans.

Tsurezure Children anime in the summer,woo!

Secret Signature

Read second chapter of We Never Learn. We learn why the girls are focused on their contradictory goals. Furuhashi wants to study astronomy due to a childhood love of the stars and Ogata wants to learn psychology due to a love for analog/tabletop games that she cannot win due to get lack of ability at understanding people.

Question: Is psychology normally a liberal arts subject or is this a Japan or translation thing?

edited 13th Feb '17 4:48:40 PM by sgamer82

To those casually scanning the thread, and are the same manga. It's just that is the official translation and is the fan translation. Given that all the official titles for the new round of series were released ahead of time, I think it stupid that the fan translations just ignored it and decided to make their own English title, but whatever.

I would also argue that the series absolutely doesn't count for this thread because it's in Shonen Jump.

edited 13th Feb '17 10:19:46 PM by burnpsy

Yeah, it's probably not under the radar, but it hasn't exactly blipped on the radar either so I figured it'd be fine at this starting point.