Covering Sunday May 2018 Edition

"Late" seems to be the new theme of this blog....I don't much like it, but there's not a whole lot I can do as a simple cog in the engine that is Weekly Shounen Sunday....ah, well that's disngenous since all I do is talk about Sunday and not really directly contribute to it's creation. What would I be? Ah I can question my existence later I suppose. You're here or are you?  To hear about the covers of this month's releases, so let's hop to it.

First a little sales talk:

For the May releases the rankings are as follows:

Dagashikashi ranked in at #2

Be Blues at 6th

Tonikaku Cawaii at 13th

Kimi wa 008 at 25th

Evans at 36th 

Tenshi & Akuto at 45th

K.O.I at 59th 

and Memesis at 178th

This is around launch day/week. I'm saddened that Memesis did so poorly upon launch --worse than Xeno and Marry Grave even. Meanwhile Dagashi and Be Blues did really well as usual, while not surprisingly the veterans are going to strut high up as evidenced by Cawaii and 008's strong first week numbers. That being said, Evans is doing quite well for itself considering it's author is a newbie and it isn't an action or straight romance series. Comedies struggle a bit more, so that's even more impressive. I bought Memesis to support it, and will be picking up Evans soon enough --maybe I should take this chance to get all of Dagashikashi as well? Hm.

Speaking of Dagashikashi, we kick off the Volume commentary with it's final volume! Not much to say about this one, simple, straightforward, yet somehow evocative. One, because KOTOYAMA's art has improved so much through the run of this manga, and it's wonderful bearing witness to it. Two, because we won't be seeing Koko or Hotaru again after this, so just having a cover of them sending fans off with a smile is both heartwarming and tearjerking. Personally the cover hits all the right spots for me --logo centered, volume # small, and author name not intrusive. It's simplicity keeps it from being cover of the month, but that is by no means a knock against it! Dagashikashi has it's motif, and I'm glad it stuck to it the whole way through. Thank you again KOTOYAMA for making each week of Sunday that much sweeter!

Be Blues is up next, speaking of motifs. Motifs are great and all, but it gives me very little to talk about, hah. I will say that I actually really like the Be Blues logo for how jazzy it looks. It could be used for this soccer manga or a musical one about the blues, don'tcha think? Like Dagashikashi above, this cover has all the things I like, and even utilizes the cover slip effectively by having the character in the foreground looking like he's leaning against it rather than obstructing the art. Smooth move Tanaka-sensei.

We'll soon be saying farewell to Tenshi and Akuto, but there are still....two? Yeah, two volumes left before it goes for good, so it'll have a presence on the blog for a little longer. This month's selection of covers seem to all want to impress (me) as they take most of my critisims to heart and have grown greately from them. The Volume # is out of the way, Hirakawa's name is on the bottom and out of the way yet prominent enough that one can see who she is, and the logo is bright and shiny without being eye searing. It also features Akuto, Nari and Sho and their love triangle of sorts which would be the topic of the volume. Not only that, their colors compliment each other giving a sense of harmony! 

The tips of green in this cover's motif are really eye-catching I think. Ahh, Wakaki, even though you've betrayed me by straying from your action roots, I still adore your darling artwork. I do think the cover could have benefited from being a color other than white though. Aside from that, like the rest of the volumes I'm reviewing this month, everything is in good harmony. Is someone at Shougakukan reading this blog and taking my critiques to heart??

I don't know how Kuriyama does it, but while other series revel in some level of complacency when it comes to cover artwork, Evans amps up his game each volume, and I recognize that effort by giving this cover the coveted(?) volume of the month award. Where do I even start? Rather than a static background of a single color, Kuriyama gives us a scene out of the series, along with an interesting angle for the train and the gunslingers coming after the lovely "family". Heck, if one were to take the "SS comics" label off this thing it'd be awesome key art for an anime adaption! Please anime studios? We so deserve it.  I also like the little touch of Mattie sharing her "mom's" hair color. In one sense I was hoping she'd have a different one, but it makes sense for her to look similar to Pheebs (and she really does) for the purposes of the arc in this volume. Not only that Evans looks pretty cool, even if he actually isn't in the story, hah. All in all, this is the strongest cover this month, and I'm happy to give it the award it deserves --though it really deserves more than that!

"Softness" is what comes to mind when I see this cover, and for good reason. Tonikaku Cawaii is a pretty soft and fluffy series for the chapters that are probably in this volume. It's interesting that Tsukasa looks a lot like Hinagiku from Hayate,--wonder if that's by design as Hinagiku was the most popular girl in that series? Hm. Also, I have noticed that the subtitle of the series is "Fly Me To the Moon". It's just typing all of that in the TOC entries is extra time I don't have, and it's not listed as such in the magazine's listings, so I omit it. It does seem like a pretty blatant case of foreshadowing, but we'll see how that pans out. White and light are used pretty effectively here, and I like that Tsukasa's billowing dress kind of covers the volume # here --most people know what volume they're looking for so there's no need for it to be super prominent. 

Think Pink for Memesis! A pretty simple cover, but there's actually a lot going on in the background that may not be readily apparent, and I think the pink background clashing with the battle hardened protagonists actually does it a favor, especially since Yagyuu has this way with clothing --the folds and contours are all lovingly done here. One other thing I didn't think about too much until now is the difference in motifs and colors in Ash and Kijira's armors. Kijira was mentioned to come from a big family where he was running the household, while Ash speaks like a noble and unlike Rose and Kijira can read. Their backgrounds really haven't been hinted much more than that, but this cover makes it clear that they're probably of two different classes. In any case, having the title and volume # right down the middle inbetween the two was a good idea on Yagyuu's part and it looks like it'd fit right in with the motif/narrative of the series as a flag. 

Last but not least is 008's first volume. It has an interesting logo, (I didn't know that the title was supposed to be read "Double 0 Eight" and have been internally reading it as Zero, Zero, Eight.) And Eito looks pretty cool in what seems to be one of Matsuena's favorite poses --tugging at one's tie/clothes. Ayame on the other hand is posed for maximum fanservice which does nothing for me personally, but I get that's Syun's thing ---but her waist doesn't look like it could support that much strain, and it beyond that it does seem kind of unnecessary. It doesn't bring down the cover much but it is a little jarring. Otherwise it's a fine first entry into the spy action series. 

And that's it for this session! Which volumes will you be picking up if any? Hit me up in the comments, and see you next month with more "Covering Sunday!"