I may be jumping the gun a little bit here considering that the anime isn’t over yet (although it is ending in just two months) and the manga won’t be fully released in the US for another 2-ish years if Viz Media’s (print) publishing schedule holds steady (they've already run the final chapters in WSJ) but frankly having a review out earlier is better than later. Honestly I wasn’t even sure I would be able to finish the manga as it concluded serialization but as I went poking around online to see where the anime had adapted up to I was hit with manga spoilers everywhere and this was after the series two biggest twists.
Dammit fandom spaces.
So at that point it seemed like the only thing to do was to ricochet through a manga that the American Shounen Jump editors themselves said had no chance of being licensed here and talk once again (since I’ve highlighted AssClass before) about why the series isn’t nearly as dark as you would expect from the title.
Assassination Classroom (Ansatsu Kyousetsu) by Yuusei Matsui
Well this is going to be long so let's get to it!
I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I think my branch library has gotten a new employee lately who is fairly manga-savy, not just because of the "sad Naruto is over? Read these manga instead!" display but because I've seen more recent manga releases popping up in our small section recently. Obviously this was one of them, I hadn't gotten around to buying the latest volume of My Little Monster yet for, well, actually that's part of the review!
My Little Monster (volume 4) by Robico
After simply not having a chance to buy manga on a regular basis for so many years it still feels rather odd to get back into the swing of things and pick up a volume every other month, even back in high school when I was somehow able to buy manga I wasn't buying series as they came out, I was always trying to catch up with a million different series whenever I had a coupon! Of course, even back then in 2007-2009 there weren't many series coming out bi-monthly, I think Viz may have "sped up" some of it's big three shonen series and I would have gladly devoured more Fruits Basket if it came out six times a year instead of three but oh well. It's interesting that there's been such a bit shift towards these quicker releases, especially since Kodansha isn't trying to "catch up" with this series, it's already finished in Japan, but at least this way I won't suddenly have to start waiting four or more months for a new volume!
My Little Monster (volume two) by Robico
Back in the fall of 2012 I was pleasantly surprised to see that a new anime with a very bland sounding premise (girl is badgered by boy and a romance somehow develops) ended up becoming one of my favorite shows of the season and was then saddened when manga readers noted that due to how the series ended it was unlikely to get a second season. Well, that and the DVD sales, although I was a little surprised that this was the only one of the three shojo shows that season (the other two being Kamisama Kiss and Say I Love You) to not get licensed in the US since I thought it was by far the strongest. So I was quite excited that Kodansha USA announced that they were going to be putting it out and, like a good little manga fan, I went to my local independent book store, ordered it, and then actually got my book before anyone else did it seems, hurray for being a trendsetter!
My Little Monster (Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun, volume one) by Robico
