I feel like Square Enix actually added quite a few series this year, but they barely added any chapters for anything, to the point where I don’t even care if I don’t open the app for weeks LOL. At least that way when I return, I actually have series I’m excited to read to use my UP tokens on.

New Series

I Wish They Would Release Chapters Faster

• On and Off: Work-Life Imbalance
• The Newbie Princess Doesn’t Want a Game Over!
• The Otaku Love Connection
• The Commander Sorceror’s Contract Marriage
• Nia Liston the Merciless Maiden
• Proud to be the Villainess
• My Return to the Imperial Harem
• Dragon and Chameleon

Back-up Series for when I need to use up UP

• Reto The Protector
• The Red Ranger Becomes an Adventurer in Another World
• Ubel Blatt
• Rooming With A Gamer Gal

Continuing Series

Basically everything I was following is glacial in releasing new chapters…

Decent Release Schedule

• Living with My Brother’s Wife – I love this series
• Daemons of the Shadow Realm – This is fun! The characters are awesome and the daemon system is interesting
• How I Attended an All Guys Mixer – Still very cute
• Smoking Behind the Supermarket With You – Their relationship ever so slowly evolving hahaha
• The Emperor’s Caretaker: I’m Too Happy Living as a Lady-in-Waiting to Leave the Palace – Well I wasn’t expecting them to get engaged so soon, but it’s good because now it’s becoming even more political 🤩
• Always A Catch – very cute and funny
• Blast of Tempest – I don’t get this one, but in a I-would-like-to-understand kinda way, so I keep reading it
• Can’t Stop Cursing You – not really my kinda series but it’s short and complete so why not (that’s how often I don’t have other things to use UP on LOL)
• Suicide Notes Laid On The Table – going at a decent pace. It’s a pretty sombre series
• From Superfan to Stepsister – Good luck Akato…
• Talentless Nana – Manga UP has finally caught up to where I was at with Crunchyroll manga so getting back into this series.

Caught Up and Now SQEX is Trying to Drag it Out

• Fake it to Break It! – it took SQEX one whole year to release 10 chapters LOL
• The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Colleague – I feel like releases got super slow once they got together which sucks
• The Girl I Like Forgot Her Glasses – so close to the end but they just wanna drag it out. At this rate I’ll forget about the series which would suck for SQEX cos I really liked it and was ready to buy the tankobons
• My Happy Marriage – I feel like this one has always been slow
• Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You A Wizard? – This used to be such a good pace but now it barely gets any chapters released
• My Clueless First Friend – Same as above
• Even Monsters Like Fairytales – I feel like it’s so close to a conclusion…

Barely Read any Chapters

• Wandering Witch – Doesn’t help that the chapters are broken up into like 10 parts…
• Even the Elf Captain Wants to be a Maiden – There are enough other 1 chapter series taking my attention
• A Man and His Cat – Same as above

Maybe Didn’t Even Read a Chapter???

• YanOta: The Delinquent and the Otaku – I don’t think any were released this year
• The Gender of Mona Lisa – I know it’s the bonus chapters, but they were cool. This series hasn’t been marked as complete yet…probably doesn’t matter since I’m buying the tankobons.
• Reincarnated as a 15-Year-Old Queen: I’m an Ex-office Worker, but the Young King Is Interested in Me?! – Also don’t think any chapters were released this year

Dropped so Far Down My List I’ve Kind of Stopped Reading

• The Royal Tutor 
• Inu x Boku SS

Completed Series

Apparently I forgot to write a summary entries for My Housemate Sano-kun Is Just My Editor! and Do It Yourself.

• My Housemate Sano-kun Is Just My Editor! – I liked this one, it was cute and sweet
• Do It Yourself – Surprisingly I didn’t really like this one, maybe because I don’t really like any of the characters? Usually I like series about making things/creative endeavors.
• Beauty and the Feast
• One Room of Happiness
• ACCA-13

Conclusion

There are a couple of series that I’m interested in: Tanaka-kun is Always Listless (I liked the anime) and Lofty Flower Fall for Me! (I read it in Crunchyroll manga and really liked it). I suppose because most of the series I follow are slice-of-life-y I don’t feel the urge to check everyday. Also it’s still kinda a pain juggling UP to make sure I can read complete chapters and not have to wait who-knows-how-long to complete it.

The subscription model they introduced this year was also terrible value LOL. I think I would complain about this service more if Manga PLUS weren’t killing it with their offerings and Viz Media hadn’t also released to Australia. Also the service tends to cover genres that Shueisha doesn’t, or doesn’t do as well: romance (aimed at girls and between adult characters), straight fantasy, villainess/reincarnation, short chapter slice-of-life. So I won’t be dropping it and will probably continue to complain about it in 2025 too 😝

Categories: Manga UP

Tagged as: Yearly Manga Summary

hikaru