Seven Seas has put out so many press releases lately that I kept waiting for it to stop before I could do a post summing it all up. Luckily, we seem to be in a lull, so let’s see what they have in the way of 2014 manga for us.

D-Frag! is a Comic Alive title from Media Factory, and seems to combine several popular otaku elements. Young man gets shanghaied into a club with four very strange women and has to deal with their wacky antics. Clearly there will be some harem stuff going on, and with the hero being a delinquent type it’s hard not to think of Haganai when seeing this one, especially as this also involves playing a lot of games.

Speaking of Haganai, after having been on Amazon for several months as a preorder, Seven Seas finally admits they have licensed the Shobon side-story volume, which is going out under the title “Now With 50% More Fail!” because, y’know, translating is good. (I think Shobon is an emoji or something? Totally untranslatable, I suspect…)

Yes, of course there’s a one-shot sequel to the one-shot, with more side-story madness. Given Haganai doesn’t have much of a plot to begin with besides the harem antics, side stories seem a bit odd, but hey, I still enjoy the series. This is called Haganai Hiyori in Japan, and comes over here as Club Minutes.

This title may have been seen before by a few people back in the JManga days, and I’ve always been a huge fan of it. The Lucifer and Biscuit Hammer is a rather twisted Japanese take on superheroes, and at 10 volumes (which Seven Seas will be publishing as 5 omnibuses), is just the right length. The hero, in particular, has a certain horrible mindset that makes me smile (and occasionally wince). Of all Seven Seas’ new licenses, this is the one I most recommend. (It’s also a Young King Ours title. We need more YKO over here.)

Looking at that picture, and the fact that this is called “I Am Alice – Bodyswap in Wonderland”, you might be forgiven for thinking this is the latest QuinRose spinoff series in the Country of Hearts. But no, Alice in Wonderland is to 2014 what Survival Games were to 2013. Ore Alice runs in Media Factory’s Comic Gene, meaning it’s appealing to shoujo readers. Given that Alice is in reality a young boy, and that the Wonderland Inhabitants look to be just as bishey as Country of Hearts, I expect there may be BL content in here somewhere, but who knows? I’ll admit this is the title I know the least about.

Lastly, we have three more Strike Witches manga spinoffs, with the cover above being for the story “One-Winged Witches”. We also get “1937 Fuso Sea Incident” and “The Sky That Surrounds Us”. They’re all Kadokawa series, from either Nyantype or Comp Ace, which is to say they are marketed solely to young men with lots of money who want cute girls. None of the Strike Witches manga have come out over here yet, so I can’t really say for sure if this will be another Haganai or another Monster Musume for me. Time will tell. In the meantime, fans of the series have to be happy at seeing all of these.

And that about covers it, at least until next week when they may announce nine more series. Seven Seas has come a long way in just one or two years. Is this all thanks to Country of Clover and Vampire Bund? Well, more licensed manga is always a good thing.

For those wondering what I mean, here’s Crunchyroll’s presser.

Kodansha not having a weekly digital equivalent to Viz’s Shonen Jump was always a major stumbling block, and this should fix that right up.

So… what are we getting? Attack on Titan and Fairy Tail you already know. UQ Holder! and The Seven Deadly Sins were announced at NYCC by Kodansha for next year.

That leaves 8. Let’s take a look.

The biggie here is definitely Space Brothers, which has an anime to its name, and which Kodansha Comics has already admitted they’d love to put out if it wasn’t 20+ volumes and seinen. If it does well digitally, perhaps we can see it in print. I once heard this described as “Twin Spica for MANLY MEN”, and that’s not far off. It’s called Uchuu Kyoudai in Japan, and runs in Weekly Morning.

Mysterious Girlfriend X (Nazo no Kanojo X) runs in Monthly Afternoon, and also has a tie-in anime. It’s 10+ volumes, and is sort of a weird romantic comedy. It also has an obsession with drool that I recall made me avoid it, but hey, whatever floats your boat.

A Town Where You Live (Kimi no Iru Machi) has everything a modern manga publisher doesn’t want: it’s 20+ volumes (and weekly – it runs in Shonen Magazine), a harem comedy, and its author had a prior series get cancelled for low sales over here (Suzuka). That said, it has a very active online fanbase, and let’s hope they pay to see it coming out over here.

Back a long time ago, I license requested Yankee-kun to Megane-chan, aka Flunk Punk Rumble. Sadly, it was one of my license requests that did not get fulfilled. But now we have the author’s new work, Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches (Yamada-kun to 7-nin no Majo)! It has bodyswaps, it’s funny, and it has a female creator. Can’t wait.

As the Gods Will (2nd Series) (Kami-sama no Iutoori Ni 2) is, as you might imagine, the sequel to As the Gods Will 1, which is (oh dear) a survival game horror manga that runs in Shonen Magazine. Despite picking up with the sequel, and my utter boredom with this genre, I hope it does well.

My Wife Is Wagatsuma-san (Wagatsuma-san wa Ore no Yome) is one of the more interesting romantic comedies Kodansha’s putting out these days. A loser guy (no, wait, come back) who really wants the cute girl he likes to (no, really come back!) like him wakes up one day, 10 years in the future, married to his dream girl! But he has no memories of the last 10 years. He has to figure out how they got this way. The author also writes a prison horror comic, so this must be the light relief.

…oh wait, here is the comic in question! Fort of Apocalypse (Apocalypse no Toride) is by the author of Wagatsuma-san but with a different artist. It runs in Shonen Rival, and has prisons AND zombies. I suspect it may be the darkhorse hit of this whole deal.

Coppelion, a Young Magazine title, is one of those series everyone expects to be the announcement at every single con but it never is. Genetically modified cute girls plus post-apocalyptic Japan, who can possibly resist? It’s 19+ volumes, which explains why Kodansha resisted. But now… digital!

Which of these has you most excited? For me, it’s Space Brothers and Yamada-kun.