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   a ninja princess on the run from her overprotective guardian and intent on   
   seeing the world outside her hidden village.  There's a cute moment where   
   characters who have grown up with superheroes and monsters reacting with,   
   "Ninjas don't really exist, do they?"  More rule-of-cool worldbuilding, as   
   apparently ninjas have been around for a really long time and do have magic   
   powers, but they're secret protectors of humanity rather than, you know,   
   assassins for hire.  I guess Bukimi Miki likes Naruto or something.  After   
   some "girls on the town" stuff, the latest villain plot kicks in, with a dome   
   of darkness over Tokyo (Shy's home is in a bit of a podunk town, not in   
   Tokyo).  She assembles a strike force out of the heroes we've seen so far to   
   go into the dome along with the ninja (who is connected to the new villain),   
   and the rest of volume 5 and all og volume 6 are basically slogging through   
   darkened streets because they can't just fly to the center of it all, while   
   encountering some of the other villains.  A highlight of volume 6 is the "I'm   
   not a girl" cute Chinese hero guy fighting a villain who is super aggressive   
   but everyone mistakes for a girl as well, pissing him off.  The two bishyboys   
   have radically different ideas of what it means to be masculine, which makes   
   for an interesting if occasionally himboriffic conflict.  Recommended.   
   $13.00/$17.00Cn, rated Teen LV (still no actual harsh language, which makes   
   me wonder if in some future volume Mian Long or Doki break out some f-bombs   
   in frustration)   
      
        Easygoing Territory Defense vol 5: Seven Seas - Time for the cost of   
   success.  While Van continues to work on making his town better for everyone,   
   the fact that an actual DRAGON got killed (this is one of those settings   
   where dragons are very impressive) is starting to get around.  People still   
   think they can take advantage of this little kid, but not only is he really a   
   30-something reincarnated, but he's won over enough powerful people by this   
   point in the story that he's got champions at court...which he will   
   definitely need.  However, this volume isn't entirely about Van finding out   
   (or not YET finding out) that there are challenges a lot nastier than a   
   dragon awaiting him, Sou Akaike makes the time to follow one of the tertiary   
   characters for a bit and show how Lord Van's kindness and role modeling has   
   started to have secondary effects on the people under his command, not just   
   the ones important to his storyline.  Like Yuna (Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear) he   
   really just wants to live a secure and comfortable life without being   
   bothered, and like her he's finding that trying to arrange all that while   
   also being a decent person is painting a huge target on his back.  And his   
   front.  He has really strong walls around his town, but not around his heart,   
   and so he keeps taking on more and more responsibility for other people.   
   Recommended.  $13.99/$17.99, rated Teen 13+ (mostly for mildly bawdy stuff   
   and occasional decapitation of monsters)   
      
        Delicious in Dungeon: the Adventurer's Bible Complete Edition: Yen Press   
   - The original guidebook only covered through part of volume 11, just as the   
   endgame was about to start.  This goes all the way to the end, adding about   
   70 pages in the process.  The fold-out miniposter from the previous version   
   is now the inside of the slipcover, and there's extensive gold foil on the   
   slipcover so it's very hard to mistake the editions for each other.  Pretty   
   exhaustive guide to characters, races, and setting, and noteworthy for having   
   short manga stories attached to character profiles and in other relevant   
   places, helping flesh out backstory that wouldn't fit neatly into the   
   original story.  There's a bunch of extra comics at the end, including some   
   post-volume-14 material.  If you can still find the previous version, it's   
   not as spoilery and does get the core of things pretty well, but there's   
   enough new material here to be worth rebuying if you already have the   
   original.  Recommended.  $24.00/$31.50Cn (original was $18), rated Teen LNV.   
      
        Expected next month: Gunsmith Cats Omnibus vol 2 (due in late July, no   
   way I'm getting it read before August), Spy x Family vol 14, Magilumiere   
   Magical Girls vol 9, Way of the Househusband vol 14, Go Go Loser Ranger vol   
   14, Cat + Gamer vol 7 (might not arrive until September).  Plus a couple more   
   Shy volumes, probably.   
      
      
   Other Trades:   
      
        Trade paperbacks, collections, graphic novels, whatever. If it's bigger   
   than a "floppy" but not Manga, it goes here.   
      
        Atomic Robo and the Agents of C.H.A.N.G.E: Tesladyne LLC - The latest   
   Kickstarted collection of the Atomic Robo webcomic runs two plotlines.  In   
   the serious one, Robo and the now-adult kid from the Science Affair FCBD   
   story go to the old island HQ of Tesladyne to inventory some Dangerous   
   Things, only to be attacked by embittered former employees who think they   
   have a Better Way to Save The World (they're wrong).  In the silly plot, a   
   trio of old Robo rogues show up to attack the new HQ, a plan made more   
   chaotic and complicated by the fact that Doctor Dinosaur is technically an   
   employee now and no one really knows what side he's on, least of all Doctor   
   Dinosaur himself (not that he would ever admit that).  Some of the endgame is   
   kinda hard to follow because it jumps between island, desert base, flashback   
   to the island, aftermath at the desert base, and so forth.  Robo's physical   
   condition is the only real clue to the timeline, some captions might have   
   helped.  The bonus material is a simple TTRPG in which players take the roles   
   of the three villains attacking the desert base, but employed for a different   
   heist.  Recommended.  No price listed, and it has "The Vengeful Dead" on the   
   spine by mistake, oops.  (They included a cover-up sticker with Kickstarter   
   editions.)  Note, the next volume Kickstarter went live just before the end   
   of the month.   
      
        The Mighty Onion and Guinea Pig Girl: Little, Brown/Hachette - AKA The   
   Mighty Onion vol 2.  Like the first volume, it's a mixture of diary-style   
   entries and the comics produced by the two main characters, both together and   
   with other collaborators.  This time the main conflict is driven by success,   
   with the artist being hired to draw a legacy newspaper strip and finding she   
   no longer has the time to devote to The Mighty Onion.  As in the first   
   volume, the writer finds a new artist who turns out to be wildly   
   inappropriate, and once again it looks like this may be the end of the Mighty   
   Onion!  But then both creators make sanity checks (if barely) and reunite to   
   produce their true labor of love (for the characters, not each other, I   
   suspect they'd both react with an "ew" to the suggestion that their   
   relationship is anything other than professional).  Mark Crilley gets to play   
   around with a number of styles along the way, and include some photorealistic   
   art (of the sort he does on YouTube) occasionally.  The plot is a bit   
   sitcommy and I found it rough going in places because of my personal dislike   
   for that style, but otherwise another solid YA book.  This series is a   
   complement to Crilley's various "how to draw" books, being more about "how to   
   collaborate" by example.  Recommended.  $14.99/$19.99Cn   
      
        How To Be A Mind Reaver vol 4: Antler Studio - Another Kickstarted   
   collection of a webcomic. Unlike After God, this series started more as a   
   bunch of isolated gags and character bits without a really strong plot   
      
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   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)