Slavery, character deaths, and the possibility of the future being erased are among the intense themes in series we’re reviewing in this week’s column! But if you want something, fluffier, not to fear—we’ve also got new and old volumes of too-cute manga to share with you, all below on Reader’s Corner!

Centuria (Vols. 1-3) • The Fragrant Flowers Blooms with Dignity (Vol. 5) • Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End (Vol. 12) • I Want to End This Love Game (Vol. 5) • Solo Leveling (Vol. 11) • Unholy Blood (Vol. 5)

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, Manga Vol. 12

The sentimentality you’d expect with Frieren being reunited with Himmel and the rest of her party in the past is there in heavy doses, but the manga takes unexpected turns in volume 12 as well, ensuring that readers encounter something new along with the familiar. At first, this means getting to really experience Frieren’s past party as they were. Of course, we’ve been privy to flashbacks galore, but with Frieren being physically transferred to the past, memories become full narrative as she travels with the hero’s party during their adventure to slay the demon king. It’s really interesting to see the subtle changes between the characters now and back then, and to see how they all react to Frieren, who must seem downright bubbly compared to her past self. But the mangaka duo behind this series doesn’t stop there; they end this volume by leading the party into a challenging, almost-impossible scenario. There have been multiple occasions where Frieren has faced almost-certain failure to find a way, with her party, to win, but even so, this challenge seems beyond them, in part because Frieren is hamstrung by time itself. I’m excited to see how she and her party deal with their enemies, which if the past has been an indicator, will lead to exciting fights and heartfelt conclusions. I admit, though, that I am a little worried—not just for the party (and thus the future party as well if they should fail), but for us as readers. These chapters feel a little clunky, a little less smooth than in previous volumes. This manga, which has been near-perfect, may be hitting a lull; here’s hoping that the mangaka will surprise and delight us like they always have as we enter a particularly dense part of the story. ~ Twwk

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End is published by VIZ Media.

READ Reviews of Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End: Vol. 1 // Vol. 2 // Vol. 3 // Vol. 4 // Vol. 5 // Vol. 6 // Vol. 7 // Vol. 8 // Vol. 9 // Vol. 10 // Vol. 11

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I Want to End This Love Game, Manga Vol. 5

A funny thing happened on the way to the end of volume five of I Want to End This Love Game: The series seems to finally found its groove. After the initial, super cute chapters to this series, it ran into its biggest challenge: how to keep the series entertaining while sticking to its central conceit of childhood friends basically teasing each other while refusing to admit that they each like the other. How do you keep that fresh while keeping the tone of the series sweet? The answer, at least as seen in volumes three and four: you don’t. The mangaka let the genie out of the bottle and started having Miku and Yukiya become physical (volume three was already promoted as the moment they “finally” spent the night together). But everything else about the series is cute, so turning it physical without the two establishing a true romance felt really, really wrong. The series lost its way, going back and forth between sweet and (a little) sultry. But how can you make the readers really believe that the two are getting flustered by holding hands or talking on the phone when they’ve already kissed? Somehow, though, volume five acknowledges that the two have shared some intimate moments while returning to the foundation of their care for one another, and it’s that care that returns the sweet tone to I Want to End This Love Game. Volume five starts bumpy, though, with that faux cuteness I mentioned and some confusion about what exactly they each want from their relationship (Miku wants to be “more” than his girlfriend, which obviously relates to the fake dating they’re trying out in this volume but also something else that isn’t clear). But as the two are put into a situation where Yukiya becomes very uncomfortable, the manga can finally create some character development and meaningful dynamics between the two. Will it continue? Who knows, but here’s hoping that the story has found its path and won’t wander off from it again. ~ Twwk

I Want to End This Love Game is published by VIZ Media.

READ Reviews of I Want to End This Love Game: Vol. 1 // Vol. 2 // Vol. 3

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Solo Leveling, Manhwa Vol. 11

Solo Leveling is an intense and exciting series, but it doesn’t do all things well. The pacing is bad. The protagonist is cool but hard to care about. And the romantic bits—and few as they are—feel generic. All these weaknesses are on display in volume eleven of the series, in which Jinwoo’s power (as much as is known) is displayed to the entire world through his fight with monstrous hunter Thomas Andre and a hunters conference, at which Jinwoo is tasked with protecting the strongest hunters other than himself, and his father is identified as their enemy. Whew. Meanwhile, the monarchs are starting to assault the earth, individually and in tandem, as the largest gate ever swirls over Seoul. If that seems like a lot of ground to cover, it is—and that’s not even considering a most out-of-place romantic segment added to the tale. In the original novels, the assault by the monarchs also felt like it was too sudden, but in manhwa form, it feels all the more. Despite the always amazing artwork that accompanies the tale, the series suffers under the weight of all these components, including a Jinwoo who is too dutiful to really show any type of personality that would make Western audiences care deeply about him (he’s as Korean of a protagonist as could be). All in all, volume eleven is a mess; here’s hoping for a better volume twelve where the action should remain intense and fast but where I expect the story to stay in place for at least a few chapters. ~ Twwk

Solo Leveling is published by Yen Press.

READ: Reviews of Solo Leveling Vol. 3 // Vol. 6 // Vol. 7 // Vol. 8 // Vol. 9 // Vol. 10

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Centuria, Manga Vols. 1-3

“My mother sold me off, and this entire time, I thought that was normal.” Julian, a boy sold into slavery, kills his master in the first pages of Centuria volume one and stows away on a ship. Unfortunately, it’s a slave ship, and Julian is caught. There, among the roughly one hundred other slaves, he encounters selflessness and kindness for the first time in his life, especially from a pregnant mother named Mira. But when the ship is caught in a storm, the captain decides to lessen the weight of his ship by killing all the slaves. The other slaves use their bodies as shields for Mira and Julian, but are at the mercy of the sailors. When all of the slaves have been slaughtered except for the mother and the boy, however, an eldritch sea goddess rises from the waves—she has accepted the lives of the slaves as a sacrifice to herself, and offers to give either Mira or Julian the power of a hundred lives, as long as the other person dies… When Mira passes away and Julian gains superhuman power, he vows to protect Mira’s baby and seeks a peaceful life to raise her. But other powerful forces are at work in the world, both human and Lovecraftian, and some of them have other plans for Julian and Diana… I have been loving Centuria! (As have other readers: Volume three recently sold out in Japan!) A dark fantasy that is not quite as bleak as Berserk (at least not yet) or as superficial as Ubel Blatt (in my view), Centuria alternates smoothly between heartwarming and heartbreaking, and the jury is still out (as of volume three) as to which will ultimately have the upper hand. Mangaka Tohru Kuramori (formerly an assistant to Tatsuki Fujimoto of Chainsaw Man) has crafted a story of family (natural and found) and the value of human life, with characters that can tug at the heartstrings. It’s no coincidence that the words I’ve used to describe this tale—heartwarming, heartbreaking, heartstrings—all have a common root: Centuria has a lot of heart. It’s a unique series so far, and I am here for it! ~ NegativePrimes

Centuria is published by Shueisha and can be read for free on Manga Plus.

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The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity, Manga Vol. 5

Kaoroko’s birthday has arrived and so has summer—and surprises arrive with both in volume five of The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity, one of the most gorgeously illustrated and warm romance manga currently in print. Volume five continues to feature both these elements—beautiful art and that warm nature—with the latter punctuated by how the two earnest leads and their kind friends interact with one another. It’s fulfilling to see Kaoroko and Rintaro draw closer by celebrating the former’s birthday and spending time together on the beach, but it’s equally heartwarming to see the other characters interact and grow, whether they be Rintaro’s supportive parents or the awkward Subaru. There’s a lot of focus on the latter in this volume, in particular, which I find fantastic—she’s such an interesting character, and it is exciting to see her change and grow. There are several panels featuring Subaru in this volume that are standouts, beautifully depicting her expressive face. In fact, there are a dozen or more panels on which I paused with my reading to simply stare; the artwork in this series is outstanding. I’d been reading the chapters as they were released on the K-MANGA app but stopped for a while to allow Kodansha to release their physical copies, and I think it was worth it because the artwork has a real punch on a paper page. I’m eager to see more of the series in print and cannot wait for the anime too, which premieres this year. What a beautiful, beautiful series. ~ Twwk

The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity is published by Kodansha.

Read: The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity Vol. 1 Review

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Unholy Blood, Manhwa Vol. 5

Revelations abound as Hayan and her assistant and not-quite-boyfriend Euntae seek out Hayan’s childhood friend, in a bid to recover Hayan’s missing memories of the vampire disaster that claimed the lives of her parents and many other people. At the same time, the leader of the evil vampires, going by the not-at-all presumptuous name “God,” continues to weave their plots around Hayan and promotes a “vaccine” against vampirism that, let’s just say, does something quite different than advertised. Can Hayan avoid playing into “God’s” hands and save her loved ones—and potentially the entire world—from an apocalyptic repeat of the disaster from her childhood? Let me say up front that though I still enjoy this part of the story, I do have some complaints about volume five. “God” strings Hayan along a little too easily, in my opinion, and some of the big reveals are kind of obvious. And in the wake of misinformation about vaccination, the subplot about the fake anti-vampire vaccine rubs me the wrong way (especially since it was written in the midst of the Covid pandemic). Nevertheless, by the end of the volume, the tension is perfect and the cliffhanger is real! And, of course, the art is fantastic! Unholy Blood remains a good vampire story with amazing visuals, even if some of the symbolism and quality dips a bit here in the middle. ~ NegativePrimes

Unholy Blood is published by Yen Press.

READ Reviews of Unholy Blood: Vol. 1 // Vol. 2 // Vol. 3 // Vol. 4

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“Reader’s Corner” is our way of embracing the wonderful world of manga, light novels, and visual novels, creative works intimately related to anime but with a magic all their own. Each week, our writers provide their thoughts on the works they’re reading—both those recently released as we keep you informed of newly published works, and those older titles that you might find as magical (or in some cases, reprehensible) as we do.