It's almost the end of the month and I'm just getting to this again....I'd express regret, but really that just gets in the way of progress. Let's just get into what amazing series Sunday has to offer this month (and these are already out, so you can pick them up right now!)
First a little sales news. On the debut day of these series, these were the ranking.
3: Komi #9
4: Major 2nd #14
14: Amano Megumi #11
49: Aozakura #8
58: Hatsukoi Zombie #12
65: Saike #12
163: Shinobi no #4
So this isn't really surprising at all if you've been paying attention to the TOC and general promotion, though I am a bit intrigued by Aozakura being higher than both Hatsukoi and Saike. Not because I think the series isn't deserving of it or anything, but because it doesn't really seem to get as much attention as those two do color page/cover wise. Granted Saike's odd position of basically being a new serial every time it returns is sorta helpful for promotion, and Hatsukoi might just be a case where Minenami likes doing color pages so the series gets more. The biggest travesty here of course is Pops who just keeps sliding down the ranks with each subsequent release.
Volume one started at 96th place upon release, Volume two at 168, Volume three at 189 and this one #4 has bounced up a liiiiiitle bit to 163, but that's still a little scary for the series, especially with the sudden time skip which is similar to what Quadrable tried but wasn't able to get much traction for. Granted Shinobi no at least polls well, so it's not nearly as unpopular as Quadrable.
Now to the covers!
First off is Aiko Koyama's Maiko-san! I would have actually preferred that the centered image had taken up more room on the cover since it's simply gorgeous. I feel like while the border around it does well to capture the warm fuzziness that is this manga, it really doesn't do the cover itself any favors. Still, I like that Koyama's logo for the series is small and unobtrusive and lets the composition of the artwork really sell itself.
Saike's 12th volume is really gets down to business with a unique angle starting from Saike's foot and working it's way upward, and the events of the volume being present for an air of mysteriousness. Unfortunately the downside of the white color used here is the darker colors stand out a whole lot more than necessary and thus this cover ends up looking a bit haphazard. I get that the whiteness represents the snowy night in which Saike does battle with his rivals, but the BG should have been another color I think. Otherwise as usual, the logo, volume # and Fukuchi's name are all nice and unobtrusive, and the artwork is still great as usual --just the color lets this one down.
Major 2nd has always settled into a sort of niche with it's covers and this one is no exception. Except I guess since the series has settled into a format where games are of a larger significance, the covers can't really depict very much leading to an interesting conundrum when choosing illustrations that are uniform. Mitsuda can't really illustrate games too well with this format, and when the series is basically nothing but games we're left with a cover that's kind of lacking, even if it's technically a great illustration with good color design. I guess it is a case where an early decision ends up coming back to bite someone!
Hatsukoi Zombie's covers have always been interestingly frustrating to me if I'm to be honest. The illustrations themselves are great, and this one is no exception but Minenami's design decisions with the volume # and the logo have always been a point of contention for me, as they are here. 12 volumes in, it's not necessarily like we need to know the title of the series, and the number up on the right along with the logo really cover up Minenami's wonderful use of color and balancing so that the eye goes to the logo rather than the design which is a real shame. I guess this is just the series aesthetic, so it's unlikely to change but it does sadden me.
This seems to be the month of one character taking up most of the cover for these releases. It's interesting in a "in-house" sort of way, as if this is Sunday's requirement for volume covers.....have I accidentally come upon some kind of weird truth? That aside, the colors of this are wonderful and really yell "spring is here"! Even if it's summer, hah. Like Hatsukoi above, I kind of question the title placement, but it works out a little better since it's split with Megumi in the middle, and the volume # is less obtrusive, along with Nekoguchi's name on the bottom, of which even blends in thanks to his clever idea of using the same colors as the cover itself. Ma-kun feels a little unnecessary, I think but he is another protagonist in this story so having him left out would be weird, but Megumi on her own would have been good enough.
Aozakura's 8th volume does away with the in house style of covers for this month with two characters, and nails it with the logo being big but attractively in the middle and keeping things simple by eschewing a BG so that the focus is on the characters. Really this is a strong cover --maybe even the strongest this month --is what I'd like to say but I personally think white wasn't the way to go with the BG color and with the logo being what it is (and where it is) I feel like something darker would have been better. Otherwise I have no complaints here.
Is it "Komi"? or "Comi"? Oda (not that one) says it's the latter, but I think I'll keep spelling it the former, mostly because it's habit, and 'cause the kanji reading leans more towards that. I guess if it becomes a major plot point I'll change over but man, that completely threw me for a loop --much harder than the ball Komi's about to hit. This is undoubtedly the best cover of the month due to it eschewing the house style, and having a life of it's own due to depicting several characters and having all of their unique quirks present. Not only that, but Oda (not that one) does a great job of using color/shading to depict the batting cage and even gives us a warm sunset(?) in the BG so it feels like a poster advertising the work rather than a one off cover. As such, Komi gets cover of the month! I have to add as well that I like the logo looking like it was written in chalk to get across Komi's preference to write and that this is a school slice of life/ romantic comedy series.
And last, but definitely not least is Shinobi no. After getting a few covers that moved away from "One character at a time", returning to it is a little jarring isn't it? Luckily Sakamoto is quite pleasing to look at, and Ogaki's love of having the audience involved in his covers by having the villain point his gun right off the page makes this a lot of fun to look at. The dragon on the left is most likely to refer to Sakamoto's name "Ryouma" which contains the character for "dragon", and is an additional touch I welcome. Again I feel like white isn't a good color for covers like these, but Ogaki does at least support it well with his choice for logo color and font size, even if it is a little huge for my liking.
And that's it for June! Any series in particular you're buying? I've already picked up Saike by this writing, but what about you? Feel free to tell me what you think you'll buy (or anything else for that matter) in the comments! See you next month with a new batch of interesting covers!
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