The Best New Manga of March 2018

your name., Vol. 3, by Makoto Shinkai
This volume wraps up Makoto Shinkai’s story of a city boy and a country girl who yearn for different lives—and who get their wish when they swap bodies while they sleep. In this final volume, Taki (the city boy) realizes what he must do in order to rescue Mitsuha (the country girl) from a comet that’s heading right toward her—but her father, the mayor of her town, doesn’t want to go along with the plan. The manga is adapted from Shinkai’s award-winning, critically acclaimed anime film of the same name.

Real Life, Vol. 1
Technically, this isn’t manga but a graphic novel done in a manga-influenced style, although unlike most manga, it’s in full color. Amber, Alice, and Andrea, three students at the elite London International School get the story off to a great start by getting detention together, all for different reasons—and as each of them explains what got them in trouble, we start to see their very different personalities. Like all teens, they are heavily into the social media, and out of boredom they decide to create a profile of the ideal guy. But this is one of those stories where social media crosses over into real life, and that’s what happens—maybe?—when someone with the same name as their fictional character enrolls at the school. This graphic novel was produced by Disney and was originally published in Italy.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V, Vol. 3, by Shin Yoshida
Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V is a pretty sophisticated take on the card-game-battle genre. The hero, Yuya, a middle-schooler and aspiring professional Action Duel gamer, has three alter egos who all come from different dimensions. In this volume, he starts to learn about the Adam Factor, and his search for this mysterious power will lead him to the dark history of these alter egos and the circumstances around the dimensional split that created them. It’s a story of heroism, revenge, and cards—cards that have extraordinary power, and that the characters use in duels that are more than mere games.

One-Punch Man, Vol. 13, by ONE and Yusuke Murata
This volume gets off to a good start with a giant, many-eyed octopus on the rampage and the superheroes squabbling among themselves about how to deal with him; as usual, their attempts to subdue him result in a lot of property damage. Then Saitama, disguised as Charanko, has reached the semi-finals of the martial arts tournament, but the final fight involves as much dialogue as punchin’ and kickin’. In between, we get a look at the Superhero Association’s evil counterpart, the Monster Association, but it’s still not clear what they are up to—other than recruiting. As always, ONE and Yusuke Murata deliver the goods in terms of both action and satire, making this a great one-two punch of a manga.

Boruto, Vol. 3, by Masashi Kishimoto
This sequel to Masashi Kishimoto’s long-running Naruto chronicles a new series of ninja adventures, with Naruto’s son Boruto in the starring role, but plenty of characters from the original series playing their parts as well. This volume kicks off with Naruto and Sasuke joining forces against a formidable foe, with Boruto adding a new spin (literally) to the battle. It’s a pretty awesome demonstration of ninja smarts as well as powers, but at the end, their enemy stops time itself to deliver a troubling prophecy. After that heavy moment, it’s fun to watch Boruto and the rest of the Konohamaru team take down a trio of hapless robbers, and even more fun to watch the boys blow their hard-earned money on trading cards. Boruto’s next assignment brings a different kind of a challenge: He’s to be the bodyguard to a poor little rich boy with a lot of attitude—almost as much as attitude as Boruto himself.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Vol. 3, by Akira Himekawa
Link and his companion Midna travel through the forest and return to the Shadow Realm, where Link becomes a wolf once more—and starts to get more comfortable with his beastly side. Meanwhile, the children have left Ordon village and are taken by a kindly protector to another village, where they meet up with their lost companions. But this place is no safer from the Twilight than their old village, and soon it comes to swallow them up, leaving their ghostly presence behind. The two-woman team known as Akira Himekawa continues to combine superb storytelling with beautiful art that draws on nature and folk traditions from around the world.

Kaguya-Sama: Love Is War, Vol. 1, by Aka Akasaka
This very mannered romantic comedy takes place largely inside the characters’ heads, and the fun comes from watching them second-guess each other, and then second-guess their second-guesses. Kaguya Shinomiya and Miyuki Shirogane sit atop the weird caste system that exists in manga high schools; he’s the student body president and she’s the vice president, although they don’t seem to do a lot of actual student governing. Both come from elite families, both are brilliant (in different ways) and oddly, they don’t seem to have a lot of friends. Therefore, they have fallen for each other, but neither wants to be the first to confess their love, as that would be a sign of weakness. Each brief chapter centers on a single small incident, such as a friend offering them tickets to a movie, and their frantic, spiraling attempts to control the situation.

Laid-Back Camp, Vol. 1, by Afro
Laid-Back Camp is a slice-of-life story about two friends: Rin, who likes to camp in spots with a view of Mount Fuji, and Nadeshiko, who meets Rin when she rides her bike to see Mount Fuji for the first time. They share some cup ramen noodles and get to know each other, which leads to them doing some camping together; conveniently, they also go to the same school. Eventually some other girls come camping with them as well, and they fix meals together, discuss camping gear, and text each other when they are apart. It’s not exactly bristling with suspense, but that’s not what slice-of-life manga are about—they are more the manga equivalent of a warm bath, or in this case, a quiet weekend of camping. This manga has been adapted into an anime.

City, Vol. 1, by Keiichi Arawi
Keiichi Arawi, the creator of Nichijou, brings a surreal twist to this slice-of-life comedy about a college student living in the big city. Midori is broke, and the rent is due, so she tries some, er, creative methods to raise some scratch. But this is a Keiich Arawi manga, and Nichijou fans know what to expect: slapstick comedy, odd characters, and weird occurrences in a city that seems to have a lot more randomness in it than the real world.

Cutie Honey a Go Go, by Go Nagai, Anno Hideaki, and Itou Shinpei
With Cutie Honey, Go Nagai basically created a magical girl for male readers: She’s an android who has the ability to create matter, which allows her to transform from a Catholic schoolgirl to a powerful, scantily clad, butt-kicking superhero. The original Cutie Honey manga appeared in the 1970s, and Seven Seas will publish that in July; Cutie Honey a Go Go is a new take on the character that ran in the mid-2000s. In this story, complete in one double-thick volume, Cutie Honey teams up with government agent Natsuko Aki, who poses as a teacher at her school, to save Tokyo from the terrorist group Panther Claw.