Around midnight, under a lonely street lamp in a provincial town in Japan, lies a white woman, a blonde, alone, robbed of all four limbs, yet undead. Indeed, a rumour’s been circulating among the local girls that a vampire has come to their backwater, of all places. Koyomi Araragi, who prefers to avoid having friends because they’d lower his “intensity as a human,” is naturally sceptical. Yet it is to him that the bloodsucking demon, a concept “dated twice over,” beckons on the first day of spring break as he makes his way home with a fresh loot of morally compromising periodicals. (Source: Kodansha USA)

With their nations in conflict, the Hero Reid and the Sage Elria had long been on opposing sides of the battlefield. However, it would all come to a much too sudden end with the Sage’s passing. Single-handedly breaking through the enemy ranks to see Elria one last time, Reid meets his own heroic demise… But then, he opens his eyes as a newborn a thousand years later, getting another chance at life…and love?! *Source: Manga UP! Global*

**Volume 1:** Before we witness the series’ climactic showdown in the third volume of the End Tale—each part of which forms its own cohesive whole—narrator Araragi wrestles with a crucial bit of history that had turned him into the loner we met at the very beginning, who opined that friendships only lowered his intensity as a human. What initiates his pilgrim’s progress of a reckoning is his first encounter, at school, with the mysterious freshman Ogi Oshino, self-described niece of the equally enigmatic aberration expert Mèmè, and the book’s opening chapter is a harrowing standalone novella of a who-dunit involving a locked room of sorts. Our increasingly well-adjusted hero kept on beingdecent at one thing even when he was just hanging on, but this forte, an unlikely aptitude for math, of all things, becomes the focus of a cheating scandal and a web of recollections that forces him to come to terms with, what do you know, his capacity to connect to people. **Volume 2:** When an old flame who gave up on life and chose to go up in flames—because he wanted to leave you but couldn’t—comes crawling back after four hundred years, you might not appreciate it, especially if you’re in a new relationship. But nothing’s ever simple between people, and that’s even truer between monsters. For the first time in months, our heroic loser Araragi is human, parted by previous events from the ex-legendary vampire bound to his shadow. Before he, the second-ever thrall of the former Kissshot, can resume his partnership with the donut-loving waif that she’s turned into, she must make a choice—about that first-ever. Before the End Tale can end, some loose ends must be tied, and in this volume, the fixer Gaen calls in her favor, requesting an introduction to her niece; the errand of the amulet that Araragi ran with Kanbaru comes into crisp focus; and the time-traveling and -spanning Dandy and Demon Tales see their devastating resolution. **Volume 3:** No good deed goes unpunished, they say, and so does friendship and lowering your intensity as a human, they don’t say—alas, for all his literally painful hustle and inveterate need to save others, our brave fool of a hero ends up in hell, a conception of the inferno in its full Buddhist glory, and muses (lol) if there’s a return ticket. Told in three chapters, the final part of End Tale concludes the story proper and resolves the series’ panoply of ongoing mysteries: the dues of a do-gooder for relying on a power not his own, the identity of a shady transfer student, the outcome of a class president’s questing abroad, and even the true name of a park. Araragi, indeed, is the one who knows, but along the way he meets old faces, really every last one of them, who aid him on his journey for understanding, and perhaps for salvation, and you for one might not be surprised if he had another rendezvous with an erstwhile “cloistered princess” before it—guess what it is—sees an end. (Source: Kodansha USA)

Circling back to a middle school girl’s apotheosis, if we can call it that, in OTORIMONOGATARI, and the mortal threat it poses to the hero and his girl, this “Season Two” finale is narrated, for the first time in the series, by a grown-up—but if the word conjures a sense of reliability, of stability and certainty to you, dear reader, then the lesson to take home from this is to trust no one. Because the teller of the tale, who has been summoned by the heroine to defuse the situation, despite having been her nemesis since the very outset of the series, is—in the absence of the equally shady adult, Oshino, who at least was an expert—none other than his college frenemy, the fake ghostbuster who doesn’t believe in ghosts, the shameless swindler Deishu Kaiki. And it is indeed a con that he agrees to perpetrate, uncharacteristically pro bono, on a wrathful god—a mythic undertaking if true, which it may be, when a liar among liars holds that his story, like any other, is all a lie. But maybe not, when a man who claims to be wise in the ways of the world sounds just as self-conscious as his adolescent counterparts or a Russian anti-hero. (Source: Kodansha USA)

The reborn werewolf known as Veight now leads the Demon Lord's third regiment under the title of Vice-Commander. Having conquered the trading hub known as Ryunheit, he soon learns the struggles of governing a city of mixed human/demon population. Armed with an understanding of inter-species relations and a desire for peace, he spends his days quelling violent demons and pacifying disruptive humans in his pursuit to bring balance and tranquility (Source: J-Novel Club)

A collection of shorts made by various doujinshi artists and published by Capcom. Published under one omnibus volume in English. Volume 1 1. **Ashita e no Zenshin** *(Progress Toward Tomorrow)*, Yamauchi Tamako 2. **Gyakuten no Suiri** *(Turnabout Inference)*, Nisemura Kei 3. **Maboroshi no Gyakuten** *(Turnabout Illusions)*, Seventh Gear 4. **Chiisana Jimusho no Chiisana Jiken** *(A Small Case in a Small Office)*, Yamasaki Wataru 5. **Yasashii Uso** *(Kind Lies)*, Mikage Tsubaki 6. **Gyakuten Gokai** *(Turnabout Misunderstanding)*, Uchimura Kaname 7. **Douryoku** *(Motive Power)*, Naruzo 8. **Gyakuten no Aru Kyuujitsu** *(Turnabout Day Off)*, Kurokami Yuuya *\- 4-koma Manga Anko Kikuchiyo* Volume 2 1. **Gyakuten no Koneko** *(Turnabout Kitten)*, Otono Natsu 2. **Itako wo Mezase!** *(Spirit Medium or Bust!)*, Osada Kaoru 3. **Bengoshi wa Taihen** *(It's Not Easy Being a Defense Lawyer)*, DAIGO 4. **Minna de Gyakuen Nikki** *(A Turnabout Day Together)*, Aona Masao 5. **Gyakuten? Food Fight** *(Turnabout? Food Fight)*, Yorozu 6. **Car Life My Life**, Yamauchi Tamako 7. **Temari Tansaku Butai Shutsudou!!** *(Ball Search Team, Head Out!!)*, Tomo 8. **Densetsu no Bengoshi** *(The Legendary Defense Attorney)*, Anko Kikuchiyo 9. **Mayoi no Oozora** *(Maya's Blue Skies)*, Yamasaki Wataru 10. **Manjuu Funshitsu Jiken no Nazo** *(The Mystery of the Missing Manju)*, Tsukapon 11. **Michi to no Souguu** *(Encounter with the Unknown)*, Hashiba Rin 12. **Gyakuten Daikaiten** *(Turnabout Big Turnaround)*, Shinosuke *\- 4-koma Manga: Kano Aira, Shimanda Kiyono*

Born in the ruthless Exile Land where his next meal was never guaranteed, Moon has always aspired to no longer be a worthless human stuck at the edges of society. And while a once in a lifetime opportunity may pay out enough money to let him live his dreams, his road to riches is paved with games of death and survival. Can Moon survive long enough to see better days? (Source: Tapas)

A certain middle school girl has a fondness for hats, which serve as a line of defence against eye contact along with the overlong bangs she’s worn ever since she was little. Speaking in fits and starts when she doesn’t fall completely silent, her go-to line is “I’m sorry,” and she’s given to referring to herself in third person. Nadeko Sengoku is pretty, and not just cute. (Source: Kodansha USA)

Just when we thought the darkness menacing the town had been identified, named, and tamed, clear and unclear mysteries of seasons past looming or surfacing, then resolving, not without tears, not without bittersweetness, of course, but satisfyingly, in a tripartite finale, all loose ends tied up into, or at least with, a bow… The End Tale continues—if only for one last time, in a bonus stage for the ages, as our softie of a protagonist who wished for all parties involved, including himself, maturely enough, to end up happy, sees his reflected image freeze in a mirror and regretfully, regrettably, reaches for it to find himself through the looking glass. In an alternate reality where bits of the world have been flipped around, the hero comes face to face with the hidden side(s) of familiar faces, along with author NISIOISIN, whose bravura attempt to reimagine character possibilities concludes, with signature flair, the MONOGATARI series proper—thank you for reading. (Source: Kodansha USA)

How far does one go to help a lost child? In the case of returning narrator Araragi, the answer is too far, across the veil of time. Dutifully (if unknowingly) following up on Hachikuji’s cheeky foreshadowing, he concerns himself with his young lady friend and her fate in this instalment of the cult-hit series, heroically unable, once again, to find his own way home. Thus the tale is also, or more so, about the journey itself, the dark honeymoon of a trip he takes into the past with the dweller in his shadow, Shinobu. Even among a cast that routinely disrespects chronology with their meta-commentary, she takes the cake, or the doughnut, by rewinding the clock for a perverse road movie, one that by and large goes nowhere, spatially. It’s Kabuki not as in the theatre, but with the character for “tilt”—as in a slanted attitude toward the world, the posture of a bohemian. Or, perhaps, of a legendary vampire who once sought death, and of a high school senior who once tuned out life doing their dandy best to attend to an embarrassing wealth of aberrations in a provincial town. (Source: Kodansha USA)

Gail Hamilton is a “curse crafter” who got booted from his party for allegedly not pulling his weight…right after they were promoted to the Guild’s “S” rank. Unfortunately, the party didn’t realize that Gail’s cursed goods pack the power of holy relics and legendary gear! But too bad for them, because Gail’s going it alone now…and causing a sensation with the creepy-yet-useful curses he works with! *Source: K Manga*

Our sorry hero, his reformed girlfriend, and the amnesiac class president have all graduated from their high school out in the boondocks, and self-described Sapphist and ex-basketball ace Kanbaru, retired by reason of an “injury,” is starting her senior year and the narrator of this volume—her voice far more introspective than the smutty jock’s we thought we knew. Bereft of the company of her beloved mentors, the only other person around her with any working knowledge of aberrations the junior Ougi Oshino, apparently a relative of the Hawaiian-shirted folklorist, she feels a bit alone and blue, and sick with dread that the devil residing in her left arm courtesy of the Monkey’s Paw might act up again while she sleeps. Investigating a rumour that she fears might lead back to her, the former star ends up peering into an abyss of negativity called Rouka. Trapped in a pit the like of which could only be escaped by the one girl who was able to pull off slam-dunks in her basketball nationals, can the penitent Kanbaru, however, still be aggressive? (Source: Kodansha USA)