Sunday is usually my quietest day, and this year was no exception, as I only had a single panel. Technically it should have been two, as Crossed Hearts split up their panel as they were introducing two new imprints, but the late time of that panel would have meant I’d get home around 10pm or so. The panel also helped to remind me how old-school I am. I started covering NYCC, then Anime NYC, carrying around a notebook that I would write in very quickly as the panelists spoke, and I have leveled up to carrying around a laptop that I type on very quickly, but otherwise my modus operandi is much the same. Which can be a problem, as panels go faster and faster and the slides stay on screen for a shorter and shorter period. This was especially true with Crossed Hearts, who had the most multimedia-driven panel I saw at the convention. They were here with Tiktok-style videos, and while they were cool, it meant it was hard to be there typing away like a beaver before the next one hit.

Crossed Hearts also featured a team that seemed to be very good at everything except public speaking, so they thoughtfully hired an emcee to yell loudly and get the crowd excited. It was a good move. The actual head of the panel was Aurora Aurealis, and the description of what the company is and what it offers reminded me a lot of the Kaze panel the previous day. They don’t narrow down by genre, they’re not just interested in hits. They focus on manwha from Korea (mostly of the webtoon/vertical scrolling sort), manga from Japan, and novels (from Korea for now). Their first titles, including Baroness Goes on Strike (a Peggy Sue rewind title), From a Knight to a Lady (a wake up in the body of a noble title, sans otome game), and The Archduke’s Adopted Saint (saint abused by her family Cinderella story), but future series seem to be wandering away from the typical shoujo stuff popular right now.

Out digitally this month and in November in print is The Matchmaker’s Fiancé: My Fiancé Won’t Leave Me Alone While I’m Finding Him the Ideal Bride (“Risou no Hanayome wo Sagashite Shiawase ni Shite Sashiagemasu” to Ittara, Sokkenakatta Kon’yakusha ga Nazeka Kakawatte Kimasuga, Hanayome Assen Ganbarimasu), a Comic Brise title about a matchmaker who is convinced her fiance isn’t into her, so breaks up with him, vowing to find his ideal woman. Little does she know… The Executioner of Greminal (Grenimal no Shokeinin) is also a digital August, print November title, about two talented guys who team up to hunt vampires, werewolves, and other supernatural creatures. This somehow doesn’t even have a female lead! Out in November in print (not not digitally, the Korean stuff seems to lack digital, probably for rights reasons) is Darling, Why Don’t We Divorce?, a villainess story where her divorce is contingent on seducing a guy who hates her.

Rounding up the stuff already announced, out at the end of the year is All-Rounder Maid Connie Wille (Bannou Jochuu Connie Wille), a FK Comics title about a maid who does everything perfectly and only wants to have a quiet, dull life, but sadly the manga is named after her, so that ain’t happening. They also have two novels. These got short shrift at first, but that turned out to be because it was the first in many new imprints that the company announced, A Novel Press. The Abandoned Villainess Became a Zombie is a Korean title whose name pretty much sums it up. She has to hide her zombie status while trying to figure out how to reverse it. The first volume is already out digitally, and I’m pleased to see the ebook has been fixed to be a real ebook and not a print replica (though it still looks thrown together). The biggest reaction (it got an anime earlier) was for Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke’s Mansion, which also features a girl who ends up in the body of someone doomed to die and tries to change her fate. This has print and digital in December.

Time finally for new announcements. Doomsday Requiem with You is a shoujo romance about a girl trying to save her father from dying by a curse, and her interactions with the Crown Prince who seems to be behind the curses. Soul Guiders is, by the way, when their slides started to go so fast I was not able to get the information. A princess and a demon search for macguffins is what I can tell you. Chiaroscuro has a princess who has no cool powers getting involved with a sacrificial boy? These all had fancy videos that made them look cool, and possibly distracted form the fact that I couldn’t read the slide in time.

New licenses that aren’t original series included Welcome to the Rose Manor, a manwha about an impoverished noble who accepts a job as a tutor at the most haunted mansion ever. Emma and the Eyes that Bid Farewell is a manga I can’t track down the Japanese title of, but it runs on the GANMA app. A non-magic using girl enters the academy for magic users. Fortunately, she meets a hot guy. Unfortunately, a conspiracy wants her dead specifically. The Two of Them Can’t Be Mobs (2-Ren wa Mob Ja Irarenai) is also a GANMA manga, about a really hot guy and an oni girl (literally, she has horns) who want to blend into the background but can’t because of who they are. Love Beyond the Final Boss: The Hero’s Party’s Quest for Love (also can’t find the romanji, also on the GANMA app) takes place after the demon lord is defeated… and now all these isekai’d folks are going berserk. Our heroes have to stop them. This was noted as having, in addition to the main het couple, asexual, bisexual and intersex characters. That said, it appears to be for KonoSuba fans. Flirting with the Villain’s Dad is a manwha about a girl who wakes up… as the heroine’s AUNT in a tragic webnovel, and has to stop the deaths of everyone in the previous generation (i.e. hers) from dying.

The last original title before the panel got cut off by the con for going too long was Where Sea Meets Shore, and I wish I could tell you about it, but the slide went too fast. It’s an OEL title, and I am but one man with poor eyesight. It debuts next month.

Speaking of things I missed, as I mentioned, I was not at the 2:30pm panel that was the sequel to this one, where they announced new imprints. Glam Beat (shoujo/yuri stuff) and Blush Club (BL). The Devil in Me is a Thai yuri title about a priestess and a vampire, seems to be on the dark end of things. Ink Soaked into Ashen Paper is a Korean yuri novel about two countries at war brokering a peace by having a young princess marry an older queen. Fairy Trap is also a Korean novel, this one BL, about a guy who sleeps almost the entire day who finds he can dimension walk. And there’s Addicted to You, a BL title about an Angel who finds love with a human, and reincarnation is involved? This is the trouble with announcing things via Tiktok videos. Lastly, they’re joining with the Thai publisher Lily House to release more Thai yuri content in the future.

And that’s it! It was a good con!… except maybe for the DJ, whose music was FAR TOO LOUD. Looking forward to next year!

Of course, Anime NYC starts on Thursday, and I was there, covering the American Manga Awards! However, that is a story for another outlet. For Manga Bookshelf, the con began on Friday morning, with Kana. Self-described as a literary manga publisher, they were mostly pushing the just-released Billy Bat manga, by Naoki Urasawa and Takashi Nagasaki. It ran in Weekly Morning for almost eight years, and has been highly anticipated. Aidan Clarke, who is one of two people doing the lettering for the title, had a fascinating discussion of the various fonts needed to get across a similar impression that the Japanese reader has. Between the normal dialogue, the flashbacks, the narration, the Bat’s dialogue, the manga-within-the-manga dialogue, and the sound effects, there are a huge number of fonts that need to be broken out, and keeping track of what goes where is a challenge. they also used a font done by Ben Oda, who is seen as the inspiration of a lot of this work, and that was hand traced to give that non-digital feel to it. This was easily the highlight of the entire panel, and I really need to put Billy Bat higher in my reading queue.

But they also had plenty of announcements. Happy at Home (Ie ga Suki na Hito) is a one-shot from Comic Ruelle, about women in small spaces trying to find ways of being comfortable. Children of the Afterlife (Kakuriyo no Sennichi Hina) is a one-shot from Comic Jardin, about a demon who collects souls for the afterlife asked to help with a ghost. Soon the Fog Clears (Yagate Kiriiro wa Kumori Naku) is also from Comic Ruelle, described as a journey into the beyond-kind of book. It was mentioned that the artist is more of an illustrator. Good Morning Leon runs in Comic Polaris. Leon, a widower, is helped through life by his attentive cat Jack.

Why We Fall in Love (Watashi-tachi ga Koisuru Riyuu) is a josei title from Feel Young. An office worker falls for a guy at the office who’s just her type. Described as “for fans of Wotakoi”. Pumpkin Night is a horror manga from Web Comic Gamma. Years ago a girl had her face disfigured due to a bullying prank. Years later, she’s out to kill everyone involved. This is 10+ volumes, and looks quite scary. They also revealed the cover for Billy Bat 4, as well as the cover for Before Dawn and the End of the World, by Inio Asano, which made me laugh mostly as it has a gorgeous landscape and Asano’s usual super depressed guy face.

After this it was time for the Anime Herald panel, hosted by Samantha Ferreira and Katy Castillo. The Anime Herald website has been going since 2010, and now there’s a print magazine, designed to make the reader think of all the anime magazines of old, like Animerica, Protoculture Addicts, etc. The first issue sold well, over 800 copies, and the second has just come out, they’re hoping that will also do well. They concentrate on longer-form articles (by human beings, it is emphasized) That can be enhanced by art design. An example was shown of an article about the decline of the OVA that showed art of old-school VHS tapes with labels of famous OVAs like Megazone. They also had the big news that the third issue is coming out! More news on that as it develops. Folks could also get a print copy of the second issue at the panel, and it’s also available digitally.

The Seven Seas panel was packed to the gills, once they let people in – the doors opened at the panel start time, meaning it started 12 minutes late. This was unfortunate, as I had to leave early to get the next panel. They gave an overview of the company, plugged the Magic Repo Man and Magical Buffs anime coming out soon, and did some raffle giveaways. Then… new licenses! First came audio, as they have new books for A Tale of the Secret Saint ZERO, as well as two danmei titles: Dinghai Fusheng Records and There’s Something Wrong with the Chief. They also had that rare Chinese fantasy novel that’s het. Till the End of the Moon also has a live-action drama. A man goes insane with grief when his wife dies. Now she has to return from the dead to stop him turning evil.

Whispering Tiger: Jangsanbeom is a BL webtoon about a guy who gets possessed… only his oblivious boyfriend doesn’t even notice! I’m not sure if this is meant to be funny, sexy, or both, but it definitely sounds funny to me. The Ghost’s Nocturne has a prince of the underworld and a human, so may sound a bit familiar to BL fans. My Lips Are Being Targeted (Ore no Kuchibiru ga Nerawarete Imasu) runs in Trifle by Hana to Yume, which seems to be Hana to Yume but even gayer. At a school where people have superpowers, one man gives a powerup to anyone he kisses. He hates this power. Described as “My Hero Academia but they kiss.” Synchronicity Obsession is a one-shot BL title that’s in the “guideverse” genre, which is something I have no idea about. Seems to be cops but with special powers.

Another BL title is Scarlet Thirst, which I can find little about online. A guy with a dark secret needs to be rescued. Can his childhood friend pull it off? After that we got some yuri. I Wish It Had Just Been Love (Isso, Koi Dattara Yokatta noni) has a girl in love with her hot senpai. Then when she gets to college, she finds her senpai has given up on her dream… AND is dating a guy? That’s not gonna stand. Also on a lighter note, we see The Duke’s Daughter Must Seduce the Demon King… But the Demon King’s a Girl? (Koushaku Reijou no Rouraku Mission: Maou to no Seiryaku Kekkon ga Jinrui Saigo no Kirifuda desu!… tte, Maou ga Onnanoko no Baai wa Dou Sureba Ii no desu ka!?) is what the title says, I’m going to guess.

After this I had to leave, but for completeness’ sake I will mention they also licensed Enslaved By My Cats, one of the seemingly endless amounts of cat manga that SS has put out over the last few years; Goetia Shock is based on a light novel, also by Seven Seas, that tries to emphasize it’s a techno thriller but is a bit distracting due to the heroine’s boobs; and Witch and Mercenary, also based on a light novel that Seven Seas has, about a titular witch who hires a titular merc to protect her. And, there’s also a deluxe box set of the first six volumes of The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, really, Really, REALLY Love You, with some extra content?

I did make it the the Manga Mavericks panel just in time, hosted by Varun Gupta, Michael Jokoh, Siddharth Gupta, and Erica Friedman. There was also a special guest, Victoria Esnard, the founder of Red String Manga. They gave the history of the company, which started as a podcast years ago, before moving into news in 2022 and publishing in 2025. They are one year old! They publish manga across all sorts of genres – it’s not just indie stuff. They’re also a member of the Independent Manga Alliance, along with Mahjong Pros… whose publisher, Harrison Doan divebombed the convention, here to give Mahjong Pros new announcements, with Erica good-naturedly heckling him a little.

What did Mahjong Pros announcce? Akayoroshi: Hanafuda Shadow Games (Akayoroshi: Yami Hanafuda Yugitan) is a hanafuda horror manga, presumably announced to show they’re not all about mahjong. Bird: Mahjong’s Deadliest vs. Master Illusionist is a title I can find little info on, but… mahjong! There’s also Riichi Mahjong 101, a how-to book, and Snap Call Kirinji, a mahjong manga about a loser dad whose hospitalized ex asks him to look after their kid. How to do that? Why not… mahjong!

Back to Manga Mavericks. They gave more details about Sword of Paros, their most deluxe edition yet. It will have all the bells and whistles. An oversized hardcover, it will also have most of the original color pages from the 1980s, which neither the ublisher nor the author had – they had to go back to the Monthly Asuka magazine! They also announced Midnight Robot (Yoru no Robot), the story of a girl whose dad puts a screw in her head so she can fight against evil. No, really. They’ve also got Arai-kun & Haruma-senpai, the story of a handsome guy in college and the shy chubby underclassman boy he falls for. This looks cute as hell.

The main topic was the manga Heron and the Closed Country. Unfortunately, while the author is at the con, she was sick so could not attend the panel. But there was still lots of discussion. Indeed, she and the MM team stayed in conversation over discord while the work was being created, VERY rare with Japanese creators, most of whom don’t even speak to the North American publisher folk at all. She started to publish on Comitia, a site that allows authors to have more direct interaction with fans, and from there has entered into getting her manga into print. Also discussed was the fact that both the main characters in the story are agender and non-binary. The author has included this sort of character in past works, and mentions being annoyed at old manga plotlines of tomboyish girls who end up getting girly later. It was a terrific discussion.

My final panel of the day was Kodansha, which DID start on time. It helped that the panel before it wasn’t able to be there, though that doesn’t mean they let everyone in the room early to sit. Most of Kodansha’s announcements were of titles in their Print on Demand series, which is to say mid-range digital stuff that has enough requests to give print a try. This includes How to Grill Our Love, Abe-kun’s Got Me Now!, I Want to Hold Aono-kun So Badly I Could Die, Matcha Made in Heaven, and Changes of Heart. The publisher wewlcomes requests, but asks that you limit them to one title at a time, rather than inundate them with stuff.

They had two main announcements. The first is a horror title, Trapped on Tape (Torimatorimasu). This runs in good! Afternoon, and is by the creator of My Master Has No Tail. A girl and her goofy dog are bored in their new house… till they find a camera and some videos. Which seem to summon a ghost? The other, much bigger announcement (sorry, Trapped on Tape) is that Hajime no Ippo is finally getting a print release in North American. It’s subtitled Fighting Spirit, and coming out in 3-volume omnibuses. This legendary boxin manga has been running since 1989, has nearly 150 volumes, and has influenced so many people it’s not even funny. It should be amazing.

And that’s Day One! What wonders will Day Two bring?

It’s always striking how calm Sunday is compared to the previous two days. You’d think it would be near the same, given the large number of 4-day badges you saw walking around earlier, but the truth is that Anime NYC has always tended to have Sunday be the least happening day. On the bright side, this meant the lines for the bathroom were much shorter (well, for me, using a men’s room.)

Because I have a lengthy journey home thanks to Connecticut’s train tracks still being hundreds of years old (Amtrak can make trains that go 800 miles an hour, and they’ll still have to dawdle through New England), I was only able to attend one panel Sunday, which was Kodansha Comics. Kodansha always has one of the better, most professional panels out there, and this year was no exception, with Ben Applegate, TJ Ferentini, and Haruko Hashimoto.

The entrance to the con was packed with free copies of the Young Magazine 100-page English Edition that everyone at the con seemed to be lugging around (including me), as well as a totebag. Readers can vote on which series they want to see more of, and if it gets a good response they may do another one. Having a sequel to Boys Run the Riot inside got the biggest reaction. People were also happy to hear about Kodansha House in October, with more creators coming to New York, including Atsushi Ohkubo and Suu Morishita.

They discussed the “print-on-demand” service they started last year, in an effort to put digital-only series that deserved print but possibly the sales did not justify it. We’re getting second volumes for Love, That’s an Understatement, Teppu, and Blade Girl. And then we get the big news, which is that all the big news happened last month. This is not uncommon for publishers. The summer is littered with huge conventions. Kodansha had panels at Anime Expo at the start of July and San Diego Comic Con at the end of July. There’s no way they’d have a list of 15-20 new series by the end of August.

As a result, most of this panel was a recap of what they’d already announced at the last two panels. That said, there are some really great titles in there. They’re bringing back iconic shoujo manga Mars (hardcover, fancy metallic covers, new translation) and iconic shoujo manga Shugo Chara (new covers, new translation). There’s Fruit of the Underworld, by popular author Aya Kanno, known for Requiem of the Rose King and Otomen. They’re also doing a big ol’ giant deluxe box set for Ghost in the Shell, and Ben knows his audience, as he immediately said “yes, it will include those three pages. If you know, you know.” Shirow instructed them as to how he did some of this stuff, so they could replicate it. Rolled posters in the box – not folded!

There’s also Wicked Spot, a new series from the creator of Tough Love at the Office; Love at First Memory, from the creator of Springtime with Ninjas and Boss Bride days; Love Out on a Limb, from the creator of Love in Focus and That Wolf-Boy Is Mine!; popular yuri title Marrying the Dark Knight (For Her Money); BL baseball manga Blue Summer Haze; BL title Smells Like Green Spirit, from the creator of Boys, Be Ambitious!; Dragon Circus, from the creators of Ultraman’s manga; and Stella Must Die!, with a story by the author of Princess Resurrection.

They were quite enthusiastic about a couple of titles. That’s Not Love is by the creator of 1122: For a Happy Marriage, and is about former friends reconnecting years later and secrets from middle school. Cat-Life Balance stars a man who will gladly take on any task and help other co-workers… and it’s causing him to burn out. One day he spots fellow employee Kurone, who deals with work by being stonefaced, playing in an alley with stray cats. Can cats solve their issues? Probably not, but the cats are cute, right?

We then got to the new announcements, of which there were three. My Journey to Her was a very popular digital-only title when it came out last year, and it won an Eisner. They’re now doing a print release for it. I had read this when it first came out, and it’s a riveting and informative look at the author’s gender dysphoria and subsequent reassignment surgery. It ran in Weekly Morning.

Speaking of Yūna Hirasawa, they’ve also licensed her current Weekly Morning series, Luca the Dragon Vet (Ryūi no Luca). A young woman is determined to be a vet who takes care of dragons in her fantasy world. Alas, there are tough exams, difficult classes, and unfortunate family connections. But, I mean, dragon vet! Who wouldn’t want to be a dragon vet?

Then we got the big announcement: Yes, it’s not just iconic shoujo manga getting the big re-release treatment. Beck, a Monthly Shonen Magazine series from 25 years ago, is finally getting fully released in print in English! Tokyopop released about a dozen volumes before the 2008 “everything is cancelled” happened, and the series being 31 volumes meant we missed over half the story. Kodansha picked up the series about seven years ago and finished it, but that was digital only. Now it’s coming in print in 2-in-1 omnibuses.

And that just left Q&A, my old nemesis. (I have several nemeses.) So I departed the con. Anime NYC has gotten near 150,000 people by now, so it’s not a convention to be taken lightly. But if you love anime and manga (and light novels, maybe, they get mentioned once or twice), you should have a great time.