James Nicoll Reviews

Insomniacs After School, Volume 9 is the ninth tankōbon in Makoto Ojiro’s contemporary manga series. Serialized in Shogakukan’s seinen manga magazine Weekly Big Comic Spirits, Insomniacs After School has been ongoing since May 2019. The English translation of Volume 9 was released in 2025.

Companion insomniacs Ganta and Isaki have contended with official and parental roadblocks to their quest to restore their high school astronomy club, whose observatory is the only place either of them can sleep. Now they face a development outside the club’s previous experience.

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Hiromi Kawakami’s The Briefcase is a stand-alone¹ slice-of-life romance novel. Translation is by Allison Markin Powell.

Thirty-eight-year-old office worker Tsukiko Omachi lives alone. It’s by pure chance that she encounters a near-stranger whom she only barely recognizes from her long-ago school days. As a result, their lives are transformed.

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2021’s Touring After the Apocalypse, Volume Two is the second tankōbon in Sakae Saito’s post-apocalyptic iyashikei manga. Touring has been serialized in in ASCII Media Works’ seinen manga magazine Dengeki Maoh since September 2020. Amanda Haley’s English translation was published in 2023.

The utter destruction of civilization¹ along with the annihilation of almost every living human is no reason tourism has to stop. So thinks Youko. Accompanied by (robot? android? cyborg?) Airi, Youko is touring Japan’s ruins.

What could possibly go wrong?

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RuriDragon, Volume Five is the fifth tankōbon for Masaoki Shindo’s on-going RuriDragon modern-day fantasy manga.

Half-dragon Ruri fully embraces the sloth she (presumably) inherited from her dragon father. Despite this, she has been strongarmed into taking a prominent role in her high school festival. To her surprise, the experience is not entirely unpleasant.

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2007’s House of Five Leaves, Volume 2 is the second tankōbon for Natsume Ono’s Edo-era historical crime manga. First serialized in Shogakukan’s seinen manga magazine Monthly Ikki in November 2005, the series was completed July 2010.

Masanosuke (Masa) Akitsu is an unwilling ronin, released from service by his master because Masa’s skill with swords cannot compensate for his crippling social anxiety. Saved from starvation by charming rogue Yaichi, Masa has entered into an uncomfortable alliance with the Five Leaves gang.

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Gu Byeong-Mo’s 2018 Apartment Women is a stand-alone mainstream novel. The 2024 English translation is by Chi-Young Kim.

Is Apartment Women also a dystopia? More on that later.

For Seo Yojin, husband Joen Euno, and six-year-old Jeon Siyul, the Dream Future Pilot Communal Apartments is a solution to pressing housing issues. Getting in wasn’t easy, but Yojin and her family were among the lucky few to be selected.

One small catch: The Dream Future Pilot Communal Apartments is a bold attempt to address South Korea’s negligible birthrate. In exchange for new homes in an invigorating rural setting, certain conditions need to be met.

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2021’s Touring After the Apocalypse, Volume One is the first tankōbon in Sakae Saito’s post-apocalyptic Iyashikei manga. Touring has been serialized in in ASCII Media Works’ seinen manga magazine Dengeki Maoh since September 2020. Amanda Haley’s English translation was published in 2022.

Exuberant Youko and stoic Airi set out on an electric motor bike to tour Japan’s many wonders. Their guide? Digital photographs from Youko’s sister, who took her own trip long ago.

Too bad about the end of the world.

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Faiqa Mansab’s 2025 The Sufi Storyteller is a stand-alone mystery.

The library in a rarely-visited building doubles as Professor Layla Rashid’s office. It offers both books and solitude. Today the office contains an unwanted gift: a corpse.

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Witch and Mercenary, Volume One is the first volume in Chohokiteki Kaeru’s Witch and Mercenary light novel series. Illustrations are by Kanase Benchi.

A prince determined to prove to his father that the prince (and not his twin brother) should inherit the throne has assembled an impressive army and set out to obliterate the witch Siasha. Witches being notorious dangerous, surely killing one would prove the prince’s worthiness.

Another possibility is that the witch will virtually annihilate the mercenary army, along with the prince, which is what happens. This greatly simplifies the succession, but it leaves surviving mercenary Zig Crane with a problem. Who will pay him now that the prince is dead?

Siasha is alive, rich, and the solution to Zig’s problems.

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2023’s Magus of the Library, Volume Seven is the seventh tankōbon in Mitsu Izumi’s secondary-universe fantasy manga series (Toshokan no Daimajutsushi in the original Japanese). Magus has been serialized in Good! Afternoon since November 2017. The English translation of Volume Seven appeared in 2024.

Theo is a poor, mixed-race young man on his way to becoming a kafna, as librarians are known. He will be one of a legion of kafnas in the employ of the Great Library. Created in the aftermath of a continent-wide genocidal conflict, the Great Library preserves knowledge.

What does that mean in practice?

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