'Tis the Season to Be Reading December Catchups!
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We're wrapping up another year and preparing to welcome a new one, and what better way to do that than with new catchups!
For a long time, the classic boy-meets-girl-meets-mecha series Full Metal Panic! had one particular volume that English fans didn't have access to, since it hadn't been translated into English and the anime never depicted it. Of course, we're talking about Volume 6, Dancing Very Merry Christmas, so you can get into the season by reading it now! Oh, the rest of the series is pretty great too :)
Speaking of Christmas, did you know that mistletoe has been used to treat a variety of diseases for hundreds of years? That means you can probably find it at an apothecary! Clearly, this means you should check out The Apothecary Diaries to see what shenanigans Mao Mao gets up to in the imperial palace.
To round out the selection, we've got swords-and-sorcery revenge against sexism (Sexiled), a noblewoman moonlighting as an author of genre fiction (Marielle Clarac), and the mischievous pranks of fairies (Very Fairy Apartment) for this month's manga! Members can get caught up on all these series now!
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Oooh, I watched the Full Metal Panic! anime.. I am so curious.
And lucky me, I have been eyeing The Apothecary Diaries for 3 months, and now I get to read it! -
Sexiled is a great series exploring an action-packed feminist takeover of a medeival patriarchal fantasy world, with a bit of a yuri vibe going on. The two main characters spend most of the chapters humiliating (almost) all of the men they meet (oh, but they're all idiots and deserve it, trust me - and that's why I say "almost" because they do leave the good ones alone). And it's by the same author that brought us Dragon Daddy Diaries. Which blows my mind, because the two series couldn't be any more different. DDD is pure sugar and just more concentrated cute than you can handle, about a 10,000 year old dragon who never interacted with humans before trying to raise a human toddler and learn about humanity along the way. Ameko Kaeruda has an amazing range of imagination.
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@pcj Ha! I didn't realize that Dragon Diary was by the same author... I wouldn't have guessed it in a hundred years.
I've been waiting for FMP to be on catch up for awhile now. Same Marielle. I read the first 3 volumes of Marielle and enjoyed them, but then got behind and missed the cutoff for the pre-pub.
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Good month for anyone that hasn't read these. Marielle will have you fangirling/fanboying swiftly, though fair warning that if you don't make the time to read them all your gonna be buying them instead.
Meanwhile, Maomao has to be one of my favorite characters from any LN that J-novel has released. The whole series is filled with great characters and has this odd mix of feudal era Chinese politics combined with an almost Sherlock Holmes level of mysteries and deductions.
And of course FMP is a classic, in all the senses of the word.
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Nice to see Apothecary Diaries on catch-up! It was a bit too heavy for me to pick up when it came out, but I'd been contemplating grabbing it recently.
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VFA was the first JNC manga I read, and it had me grinning all the way through. Pixie is such a frickin gremlin (enough so that you could honestly rename the archetype after her).
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As mentioned in the "Happy Holidays" news post, catchups will be changing on January 4, so you've got a bit over a week to read this month's selection!
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I'd been dubious about A Very Fairy Apartment, but a couple of days ago I said to myself, I said, "Hey. It's free just now."
What a lie that was.
It's only "free" if you don't go out afterwards and purchase the whole series...I think my dubiosity was a result of being a major fan of Rokujouma, and somehow having a block on the idea that there could be other Worthy Works with a bunch of goofballs invading someone's apartment.
Dunno.
Whatever my concern had been, it was totally bogus.A Very Fairy Apartment is very silly, and very well done.
