MANGA CROSS and Other Digital Platforms

Manga Cross is Akita Shoten's new platform and I wanted to talk to it in more detail in its own separate post after the last post. I also want to explore other more successful digital platforms by bigger publishers to expand this post into a wider exploration of the rise of manga published in digital platforms.

 The rise of digital platforms started relatively recently with Jump +, Magazine Pocket and publishers have put more effort into pushing them by publishing more and more series but also creating a great platform for reading in mobile and other platforms.

Manga Cross is obviously a lot newer, it's only now nearing its second anniversary and I do think it has found a great amount of success for the fact its from a smaller publisher. In addition, digital platforms do not seem to be as attractive to the big authors and new authors as being published in magazines possibly because of pay? I imagine digital offers a lower base pay rate and so it relies more on physical tankoubon sales for money. And of course being serialised usually means you will get a certain level of visibility targeted towards a certain demographic already whilst in digital a good series might be lost in the midst of other series. However, digital gives a more flexible schedule for release and debatably more creative freedom.

What I seek to lead this to was the fact that Manga Cross and these platforms usually tend to be filled with newbies or veteran authors that want a more flexible schedule. In Manga Cross's case, it has a couple of veteran but also newbies alongside authors that first started off publishing their works on social media and the likes.

The Dangers in My Heart

The Dangers in My Heart Cover 3 - Akita Shoten, Sakurai Norio.

One of the few series in Manga Cross by a notable author and one that has had a past struggle with health issues during Mitsudomoe serialisation. Boku Yaba did start in WSC and was planned to moved to Manga Cross after its first five chapters whilst Rororro! continued there, Boku Yaba would be a monthly series with around eight to 10 pages. This allowed her to write this series alongside Rororro! and eventually when Rororro! it ended it became a biweekly series.

Boku Yaba is definitely the pillar of Manga Cross, it has been the most accessed series for the last few months and I believe its success shows a great deal of how digital platforms are more accessible because of the lack of a paywall to read. In addition, the lack of cost means it's usually more accessible for mobile users to just drop in to read a chapter or two. In addition these platforms can have significantly more series than a normal magazine as well as a bigger variation in genre, demographic and the likes. So digital platforms not only link naturally to social media and new forms of reading manga on mobiles and the likes and I believe these platforms will only expand more in the future and will become more attractive for new authors and veterans.

Creature Girl: A Hand's on Field Journal in Another World

Volume 3 Cover (Published by Seven Seas)

Part of this attraction will be because of how they will no doubt provide more chances for authors to write many different series. I touched this before when I talked about variety but here I seek to highlight and showcase this.

Monster Diary is an adult series with sex scenes between the main character and different monster girls. In addition, it also features blood and gore content. In short its the complete opposite to the sort of series Boku Yaba, a cute romcom between two innocent middle schoolers. In clear demographic terms Monster Girl would be in a seinen but one that would feature most likely in more ero leaning magazines like Young Champion and Young Magazine for example. In contrast Boku Yaba would feature in a shonen or possibly a seinen magazine with an older audience but one that favours more fluff series like Comic Alive and so on. However, digital platforms allow these vastly different series to be serialised in the same place and appeal to audiences with vastly different tastes.

This is something magazines can simply not replicate, and to highlight that even more i want to showcase a different series.

My New Boss is Goofy

Volume 2 Cover

My Boss is weird is a very popular series that was serialised on Manga Cross after seeing success on twitter. Its sales are close to Boku Yaba and it matches as one of the most successful series on the platform. However, in contrast to them it is a series for a female audience. In fact, Manga Cross categorises series for Otona (adult), shoujo and shounen so these platforms can catch more audiences then any single magazine could ever do as they can appeal to various different tastes. It can have any genre and even appeal to a niche.

This is where I want to compare it to Webtoon, the Korean platform  and ACQQ, U17 and other Chinese platforms. These platforms like i previously mentioned monetise their series and physical releases are not a regular thing. However, what i want to continue to highlight is how diverse these platforms are. This ability to be more diverse and because of the free to read for limited time business model which naturally lends well into getting people to buy the volume in case they miss chapters. But most importantly, this low barrier of entry is naturally well fit for mobile phone readers and it also gets people directly to what they want to read instead of buying a magazine with another number of series one might not be interested in at all.

In other words, I believe Akita  Shoten and other publishers should invest more in their digital platforms by boosting the amount of series and variety which will obviously mean an expansion in budget for servers and editors. WSC and other manga magazines have definitely seen an increasing decline in sales and even digital seems not to compensate for it as their price has risen substantially. In just recent years WSC, WSS and WSM and even WSJ have had price hikes. WSC specifically went from 280yen to 300yen to the current 320 with a space of three years. Tankoubons have likewise seen price hikes going from 440 to 499 in the same time frame. This is a bigger issue with shonen magazines since seinen magazines have not seen such drops and they are also pricier and not only the magazine but also the volumes.

I imagine this hike in price is a way in which profit can still be made from these magazines as they probably have a rather low profit margin for each magazine. However, the decrease in circulation makes it so the price of the magazine has to follow for a profit margin to even exist. It probably is the same for volumes. Investing in digital platforms will not solve this but it will provide an alternative platform that is bigger and more diverse, so it therefore could appeal to a bigger group of people than Weekly Shonen Champion could ever dream of. In fact, this is probably already the case in the current Manga Cross that has in two years given more hits for Akita Shoten than Weekly Shonen Champion. It is a tricky bet but publishers will have to adapt to a new age and there is no better time than now for Akita Shoten to divert its resources to continue building Manga Cross in a good platform for manga readers of all ages and tastes.

With the latest announcement of 4 new series for this July, three of which are weekly, Manga Cross will finally have an original series updating every weekday. Original series were previously only updated on Tuesday and Thursday. This is a big move because it should expand the number of original series running on platform by a lot. These new series are the only ones releasing on Monday, Wednesday or Friday,  yet, so there is still a lot of new series coming in the future to boast these new days it wants to have original series releasing. It is a show of intent that Manga Cross will be a bigger focus and the names of the authors appearing also show that the platform is more attractive to authors. 

State of the magazine

Champion has been hit a stride recently with popular and series with good sales emerging and establishing themselves in recent years. I want to sketch in this post how I imagine the current situation of the magazine regarding the new hits and its position for the future.

First of I would like to base this analysis through series, so it will be separated in segments.

The Vampire Dies in No Time

Vampire Dies in No Time had an anime announcement not long ago, it also has been a established series in the magazine for close to 5th years already. It has always received support and cooperated with other popular series in the magazine namely Jitsu wa Watashi wa and more recently Mairimashita! Iruma-kun. In terms of its place and how it plays in for the magazine current situation it is a series with promise and the anime could give the magazine another hit if it fulfils its promising status.

Mairimashita Iruma-kun

There is not much to say about Iruma, after its initial years it great to be an astounding success with the help of a stellar anime adaptation. It has become the best selling series in the magazine and its spin off is also one of the best selling series in the magazine. It really is a big hit and one of the pillars of the magazine at the moment and for the future as it looks like it could last a long while, in a sense its success serves to overshadow and pivot the magazine to the future as it looks past its older hits like Baki and Super Radical Family.

Koe ga Dasenai Shoujo wa [Kanojo ga Yasashisugiru] to Omotteiru

A new series but one that represents a different way to look for series. Koe is a series that found its popularity first online as it was shared online via twitter by its author. I highlight this because in essence this series is a safer bet to serialise as its has a degree of popularity but it also might bring people not familiar with champion to the magazine. I do think this something that will continue happening and probably expand if Koe finds success. In fact, however, Koe is not unique in this aspect Meika and Sachio had a similar route and occasionally artists are scouted via twitter by editors nowadays and it will only expand in the future. Hence, whilst this series is in itself not important at moment it signals a new sort of serialisation in Champion and magazines in general. However, at the same time it also highlights a potential gloomy aspect which I will highlight further on.

Yowamushi Pedal

Yowamushi Pedal is a very successful series and it still holds a great deal of importance to the magazine. It has however declined in sales and that was to be expected from its peak a few years ago now especially as there is no news of a new anime. It has a live action film set for this year and whilst it might renovate interest in the series and increase sales again, I can not say I am confident. Regardless of that Pedal is not going anywhere any time soon, its position in the magazine is still firmly of a central pillar even after over 10 years and I do not see this changing in the near future.

Worst Gaiden Guriko

A spin off of a popular series, for the future this series shows together with Makai a future that I am not particularly excited for, a magazine with spin off of popular series. I prefer this series to be in side magazines as well but their sales and popularity have propped up the magazine and its probably going to continue being a trend.

Appare! Urayasu Tekkin Kazoku

A big hit series, but one that has lost a that status in the magazine in recent years. The recent drama brought a new highlight but I expect the series to continue to be a mid level series in the magazine which will end when Hamaoka decides its time.

BEASTARS

Like Iruma-kun, one of the newest biggest hits in the magazine, however, unlike Iruma its close to its ending so its place in the future of the magazine depends heavily on the following work of Itagaki Paru and whether it will be in Champion or not. However, at the moment it is one of the biggest hits of the magazine and a sustaining pillar of the magazine but probably not for much longer.

Atsumare! Fushigi Kenkyuubu

Masahiro Anbe's latest hit that started in the same new series round. It is a successful series but one which has potential if given an anime, but at the moment its firmly a secure series in the middle of the magazine. It can continue for much longer, so it probably still has a long way to go for any ending.

Harigane Service Ace

The sequel to the popular series Harigane Service, at this point the series sales have declined significantly from its past glory but it will continue to run in the magazine for the coming future or at least one to two years. I however, only see it as a middle pack series which is past its best especially if it is not given any anime adaptation or similar.

SHY

A new series that might eventually become a standout series but at the moment its struggling to establish a clear position in the magazine, part of this originates from its lack of substantial growth in sales according to shoseki. Its future is up in the air and I am not personally confident in saying this will be a new standout hit but a middle pack series.


Rokudou no Onnatachi

Rokudou is by all means a middle tier success in the magazine and it is undoubtably quite far into its story, so it should head towards end in the near future. So in short it a sales that sustain the magazine in the middle tier but one which will probably never become big enough to be a pillar of the magazine.


Overall -

The magazine features all these series with varying degrees of importance and potential for the future. However, Champion is probably in a rather decent spot at the moment, the recent hits of beastars, and iruma-kun have given the magazine new big hits that it had not had in a while. However, it also has shifted to relying on series from the internet and spin offs for what i assume is safer bets for success and whilst former is not technically and issue i do find an issue with the latter.

Champion currently has two novel spins offs and two manga spin off, whilst the novel are harmless because they occupy only a couple of pages the series take a slot that could be given to a original work, potentially a successful one. It is a fall back measure for safety and I can understand in this difficult period for magazines that they seek safety instead of taking more risks. its normal and common in fact other shounen magazines tend to serialise things that they have found success with before. However, obviously this is only a problem because of the limited size of the magazine and you might know what I am trying to hint at here. I believe digital platforms for manga will only grow bigger, not only because they have no clear demographic so they can appeal to wider audiences and are in fact more convenient.

Akita Shoten has dipped in to the water with Manga Cross but it does not reach the level of other platform like Jump+ and the likes. It has various series of various genres that target differences audiences and it also has a re-serialisation of Ika Musume, Crows and AI no Idenshi for people that register in the platform.  I do think they should expand and republish their older series this way. They also occasionally have series from WSC feature at least some chapters for a limited period of time and I think they should do this from the onset as the series begins it serialises up to 1 or two volumes of chapter so it could give these titles more chance of exposure from the onset. 

This in fact makes me wonder to the digitally dominated comics market in Japan asian neighbours which instead of offering free to read with limitations to coerce people into buying the physical volumes, in these places there is less of an emphasis on this. In fact, they instead focus on monetising chapters after a certain threshold with usually cost small amounts of money but with the amount of readers it is worth it. I do know these webtoons can and are occasionally released physically but it is often a second thought and not all series receive this. Of course, the predominance of digital allows publishers and authors to cut out the manufactures and vendors and keep a large part of the profit for themselves. In addition, it also makes second hand sales impossible which is an annoyance for the publishers in Japan.

I do not think the Japanese market will transition to something resembling its neighbour but I do believe digital platforms will become bigger and not smaller, so Manga Cross has probably a more promising future than the WSC itself. However, I do feel like the magazine is in a good spot at the moment but I am not optimistic about the future and I see a shift towards a digital platform as the future for smaller publishers. 

DIssecting the Magazine - Mairimashita! Iruma - The Star has arrived.

Mairimashita Iruma-kun began in Issue 14 in 2017 of Champion. Its has had a bumpy ride to its current position as the one of the best selling series in Shonen Champion. Its debut in march in 2017 came as a surprise perhaps because it was a fantasy school life manga, genres that have not traditionally made significant success in Champion.

Start and Limbo

However, Mairimashita! Iruma-kun found an audience and its first few volumes sold relatively well according to data from shoseki. Its placements in the magazine somewhat contrasted this as whilst it initially received a opening colour page for its volume 1 release, it after this initial push by the editorial department it was left often in low placements. It seemed like the series had fallen to back seat and was possibly in even danger of cancellation as it often drifted towards the bottom of the table of contents. It came to end of its first year of existence in this limbo state. It did not seem like it had a significant future in the magazine even if its sales were not poor.

2018 and Reprints -

2018 was a year that led to a completely different scenario for the series, it started in the same trend as 2017 in the bottom of the magazine more often than not and with a complete lack of colour pages. However,  volume 6 release marked a different scenario when all volumes of the series were finally reprinted for the first time. Moving onwards from this it started to find it itself more often in middle of the magazine throughout most of the remainder of 2018 eventually receiving an opening colour page to celebrate the release of volume 7. This did not mean a complete change as it still often featured in the middle and sometimes in the bottom part of the magazine however whilst it did not receive significant attention or promotion yet it continued receiving reprints and growing in sales from volume to volume. 2018 was by all means the year in which Iruma turned its fortune as it started as a cancellation candidate and ended it as a established middle tier series in the magazine. However, 2019 would bring even more surprises for this series.

Becoming an Idol in 2019

The year started hot coming directly of the rise sales of the previous year and the series expanding popularity. It quickly received a opening lead colour page in the first December double issue and it was soon followed by the volume release in February with the anime announcement in another opening colour page. This trend of colour pages would continue throughout the year. In addition to this Iruma-kun placement soon started to be on the higher end spectrum, it still sometimes had middling position but it was now rarely ever in the bottom part.

After the anime announcement came its participation in the masterpiece revival project and a interview with Osamu Nishi in the magazine, both things that highlighted the series had a growing star power in the magazine. In addition to this its first popularity poll had started.

Part of this highlight in the magazine came from its growing sales showcased by the rise of circulation numbers which were at 900k at volume 11 and by volume 13 had reached 1.2m before the anime had aired. This continued by the time of the release of the anime it had reached 1.5 million copies in print, an incredible milestone for a manga that had been previously in limbo in the magazine.

The anime started airing in October and not only had did it air in NHK-E and had a prime time slot at 17:35 something a champion series had not had since Gaki Deka in 1980s. It found significant success and gave a major sales boost to the series.

Achieving the status of a major player in Champion.

The year started with increasing sales with circulation numbers increasing rapidly reaching 2.5m by the end of January. it was given a renewed boost in popularity after reruns in the holidays in the start of the year. Alongside this boost in popularity came its first cover in Champion and another popularity poll and the milestone of 3 million copies in print by the end of the anime, which announced a second season for the following year. A few months after we not only close to the release of volume 17 and the results of the 2nd popularity poll another cover its second in a few months but it also revealed the series reached the 4m copies in circulation milestone, an incredible achievement.

This success made it one of the biggest series in the magazine and it has received a spin off currently running together with the main series in Champion with another one planned for the future. Its was a somewhat arduous path that Iruma since it started off well but dropped off but eventually found it strides from 2018 onwards until this current peak in 2020 which might not be a peak at all yet.

Thoughts on The Vampires Dies In No Time Anime Announcement

The Vampire Dies in No Time had an anime adaption announcement in the latest issue of Weekly Shonen Champion. It is one of the oldest series in the magazine having begun serialisation in 2015, almost 5 years ago. The Vampire Dies in No Time is a gag manga like the title suggest it focuses on a Vampire that dies at the drop of a hat, alongside this rather weak vampire is a wide cast of quirky characters.

The Vampire Dies in No Time had flirted with an anime adaption many times, the first notable time was in its volume 5 dust cover, which included the words 'anime announced' and in much smaller print next to it the words ' fervent hope.' It was an interesting gag in itself and it fooled people both non Japanese speakers and some Japanese speakers. Its next flirtation with an anime came in Anime Japan and its 3rd placement in 2018 the series we want to see animated ranking for that year's event. This was followed by comments jokingly made by the author on twitter on the ease of animating the series, citing its mascot, and modern setting as examples of this.

First, I want to highlight what Vampire has in common with two specific series that they have both been animated as well. Super Radical Gag Family had its anime in the 1990s and its episode were short only 7 minutes which usually adapted a chapter of the manga. It was an adaption very faithful to the manga in aesthetics but it never received more than one season. It was however what I would call a perfect adaption of the manga's art style and comedy and whilst its hard to galge its success since there is not much data, it probably was not a massive success as it never got a second season.

Mitsudomoe in contrast to Radical Family has a gag style focusing more on ecchi and misunderstandings whilst Hamaoka tends to focus gag's on its eccentric characters and their often stupid and absurd hijinks that have equally lead to absurd results. Mitsudomoe style fits well in a romcom gag style manga and whilst The Dangers in My Heart is not gag centered it is a turn to romcom that I though fit Sakurai Norio style, I digress but what I want to highlight is that when Mitsudomoe was adapted into anime in 2010, it in my view was also a very good adaptation of the manga's material and whilst it was not a hit it did lead to a increase in manga sales. 

The Vampire Dies in no Time in comparison to both these series has are more visual like Super Radical Gag Family and Mitsudomoe. Between those two I would say closer to Super Radical Gag Family because its gag often delves into parody about the editorial department and even the publisher of the manga alongside the antics of the large cast of characters which often end up rather unexpectedly in a comedic sense.  However,  its comedy is more similar to series like Gintama, since it has more often than not a slapstick style of comedy, which is similarly featured in Gintama but in a more modern Japanase setting like Osomatsu-san.

If its not obvious enough vampires exist in this setting as well as other supernatural creatures. Vampire do cause trouble and there are as result vampire hunters and a research centers for the troublemakers. The nature of the trouble caused by vampires and others supernatural creatures is a big focus of the comedy in the series because quite often they range from perverts to public nuisances.  It is part of this cast of characters and how opposing groups involve themselves in many different hilarious situation that reminds me of Gintama. 

I will ponder on its potential for success when we receive more information on whether it will be a tv anime or some other form. So I will refrain now from commenting because it would be like putting the cartridge before the horse. 

 

Authors to see in Champion in 2020.

2020 has began and I have written various articles recently, mainly because I really want to write something everyday to practice and improve my writing.

So here is another post going back to champion after leaving it for a few posts.

Haitani Otoya -

Does it make sense for an author with a cancelled series to return within a year? It does, in fact he returned to the magazine in the space of a few weeks with a one-shot and a few weeks later with a short series. It is not too far off to expect him to return in 2020 again with something new.

He is a talented author, through Junior there was improvement in the panelling which made it easier to read and it also took quite a while for an actual match which might have hampered its chances. His other one-shots showcased different ways he could develop in his stories next. His first Ninja one-shot had a darker ambience and a a slight change in style fit well in a story with a dark undertone.

His short story, Jinx, also showed a lot more promise as it again a sport story of martial arts fight but it with a darker story. Not only was the action so much better in terms of panelling but the story just had more to it than Junior but it ended somewhat unsatisfactory because it did feel like it did not close out the whole but a part of it, it was of course tough to do this in just 3 chapters but this might just ambition in the face of the possibility of this becoming a proper series. It is this sign of improvement and his quick return from cancellation that leads to me that it he will appear in the pages of champion sometime in 2020.

Takumi Watanuki -

A two time winner in Next Champion with a clear development in his art being shown in his latest one-shot that won the grand prize this time. Story wise, it is hard to judge since they both had rather basic stories. Basic does not mean bad after all its a one-shot and usually being easy to understand and focusing on a single theme to built on. In series, this is not necessarily always the case but I do think most series that fail in my experience try to do too many things at once and end up doing everything poorly. I do not know if he will get a series in 2020 but I do believe he might pop up with a one-shot or a short series, it is his goal to get a series after the last one-shot and thats what he is gunning for and I wish him good luck.

Isekai effects on the LN market and its spill over into Anime and Manga

Just to clarify by Isekai, i refer to series with any sort of character that is taken to another world be it by dying or being transported or any other method. I do know that other world is not necessarily a new setting as it has featured in classics like Alice in Wonderland but I am referring specifically to the Japanese web novel phenomenon of Isekai. This phenomenon had in particular clear repercussions on the light novels but also the manga and the anime market.

This phenomenon initially started from various small sites like Shousetsuka ni Narou where people published their own stories but soon Isekai stories stood out and became the most read works. More stories in the genre started appearing and they became basically the main genre of the site. Publishers noticed the potential market for this genre and decided to publish in print these once free available web novels, usually the story was had a few changes or another but it was still the same story most of the time.

The light novel market being essentially being like any other market of entertainment it follows trends. At the time it was the trend for school battle harem series like Infinite Stratos and many series authors and publishers obviously pumped out stories within that genre, bearing in mind that the Light Novel market is not as big as manga or anime but it tends to try an appeal anime otaku. The smaller size means that target audience has to a certain extent similar tastes and at the same time it does not allow for a broad variation of the market in particular niches. In manga, you see various niche apart from the general mainstream in the form of magazines like Comic Beam that deal with subject matter and shows things would not necessarily be in the main stream. I am not saying there are not any niche light novels in the market, there are an Novels 0 a label for more adult centric stories is an expansion of exactly that but it fits the scale of light novel market.

This is important because the light novel version of web novels became hits and other publishers followed along to a level that some of the smaller publisher have under their labels mostly Isekai works. Of course, after it would often have various chapters of the story online already and after the publishing deal was complete, the story would be taken down. But since the story often had large parts of it written already, volumes could be published at a faster pace. So not only was it was showing results in sales but a story that was was a popular web novel was also a lot safer investment because it already had an audience, than an original story, so the publishers drifted to it in droves.

In particular, for me this had downgraded the quality of light novels, after all the large amount of interests drove publishers to get deal even for not the top popular stuff. These web novels can also range from good to very poor and I must say a lot of poor stuff has been published. Good stuff has too but there is only a so much and the problem this caused was that it hampered original novels. This is why I believe the LN market has degraded in quality after all it was not only in past that there many classics light novel series from various genres though similar in visual novel, anime like story but there was more variation in terms of what the story was. Isekai has largely destroyed even if it is a broad enough genre to allow for wriggle room in the way the story goes but in the end, the vast majority develops in similarly.

However, how does all this spills over to manga, well Light novels usually receive manga adaptions, a movement probably started by manga publisher and light novel publishers like Kadokawa. Likewise, the popular isekai novels usually also became popular manga and it spread and even smaller publishers that dealt mainly with Light novels are now publishing manga through online services and release tankoubons. It has not effect negatively the manga scene in particular but it is just really a phenomenon that caught on and spread to other mediums albeit similar, manga adaptations of light novels are not necessarily new after all but they seem to me to have reached a new level. One case in particular is the manga adaptation of That Time I got reincarnated as a Slime which was so successful and with the help of the anime managed to figure in top 10 best selling manga series of 2019. This leads to the repercussion this movement had in the anime industry.

Of course, the popularity of these works led to interests in animating them and in natural course of action many isekai anime started popping up recently and with many more still upcoming. Not all of them are successful but there were big hits like Konosuba, Overlord, That Time I got Reincarnated as a Slime and of course this gave a push for other adaptions some of which failed and some that are still yet to air but one thing is for sure the journey these series had from web novels freely available in the internet to light novel, manga and anime is incredible even if it had a negative impact on the light novel industry. 

Favourite Series of 2019 -

I have written about various series here and I will try to avoid listing them again here even if they might be one of my favourites for the year. I thought about only including series that actually began in 2019 but my range of manga reading is only so far and I could not think of many. Therefore, this will include various series that I enjoyed reading in 2019 regardless of the year they began or their status.

Neko ga Nishi Mukya - 

Yuki Urushibara, the mind behind Mushishi, latest work which is currently appearing in the pages of Afternoon. Its manga with all the creative of Mushishi with the comfort of Hitoshi Ashinano works. It is similarly to Mushishi for most of the time episodic but unlike Mushishi it has a goal which is for the main female character to return to normal but that will eventually happen when she feels in herself like it. 

What is mesmerising from this series is the way it makes you feel comfortable in a way that mirrors series from Hitoshi Ashinano like Kotonoba Drive and many others. In a way that is more Urushibara's like there is an episodic story in each chapter that usually does not involve the main characters but they are called in to sort out but at times the solution is reached by themselves in order they are more involved and handle it in various ways. 

I personally enjoy this series because it provides me this comfortable atmosphere as well as episodic stories that deal with real human troubles, like the crossroads we face or how we might feel a pity disguises as arrogance or  how we need to let things ago as everything is transient. These are embedded into the stories not in an obvious way but in a way that the reader can understand without being told and reflect, but this has always been the case for Urushibara works.  She excels at this and I recommend any of her works if this is something you are interested in. 

The series is not officially translated yet, but there are unofficial translations available on mangadex by the group Hi wa Mata Noboru. 

Ao no Shima to Neko Ippiki - 

One of the various fascinating traits of Japan is large array of islands. In this series, the main characters moves to one of those islands outside the main 4 largest islands. It is a slice of life as the mc moves back to this place that he left and it is rather soothing this series. The main character has been hinted to returned possibly to take his mind of some personal issue and the series is most focused on his daily life with the daughter of his senpai, who is absent, and her cat. It is yet another mystery but the series does not delve too much into these but instead gives hints that the reader can build upon on.  The art is not sensational but it beautifully illustrates the landscape of the island whilst the story provides the reader with what life would be like in this island. 

Hakumei to Mikochi - 

The little life in the woods in incredibly fascinating to follow. It is a manga of their daily life obviously displaying exciting events rather than just their day to day life. It is not neccesarily a manga that has a goal or any plot that it is building up. In fact, I would say the story is largely aimless and for me that is fine after all if is a series focused on the life of these two in this tiny world then I could not see anything more aimless then life itself. After all, we just seek self preservation with comfort until death, there is no plot or fantastical story in life. It this why i find this the perfect slice of life series because not only it really shows life but a comfortable yet exciting life in the tiny world of Hakumei and Mikochi that I am always looking to see expanded.