This article was originally written for and published in
The YakisobaScans webiste. It was reposted on HOPPINGTOPPING in the
15th of October of that year, aproximately two weeks and a half after Volume 15
of KMB released in Japan. This delay was done in order to prevent
it from getting too much attention (even though I live outside of
Japan).
With all that said, here's the original post, but slightly revised:
I know, I know, haven’t done anything since last time - real life got to us and I’m actually learning Japanese now as well (yay for me, but also means less motivation to work on scanlations since you know what’s already going on), but a lot of stuff is going on in the Kill Me Baby sphere right now so I thought a blog post summarizing all the new stuff that’s been coming out these past few months would be a nice thing.
The first one is Manga Time Kirara Ten Final, which is starting tomorrow in Tokyo, Japan.
...this picture was originally a WebP. Fuck my life.
It’s apparently the final exhibition Houbunsha will do for Manga Time Kirara under this name (because I sure as hell know it is NOT the last one), and from what it seems it’ll just be like a more complete version of previous Manga Time Kirara Ten runs now that there are a few more adaptations under their belt and Kirara Fantasia is officially over.
Part of me wanted to hope for a new Kirara game, but alas, time will tell. Maybe stay tuned for a reaction/opinion blog if anything like that gets announced, it’s far from certain at this point. (EDIT 2024/10/14: Nothing of the sort happened. It was to be expected.)
Otherwise I cannot really talk about KiraraTen Final, because…..
For a single passenger, by the way. Also, this is actually a machine translation from Spanish running in my browser. If I change the language setting to US English, the prices only get higher.
What IS indeed certain, however, is Volume 15.
Yes, that really is the cover. Arguably the best one we’ve gotten since at least Volume 12 – the Yasuna might even be the best one ever.
It’s releasing later this month, roughly concurrent with the second half of KiraraTen Final’s run. and after spending some time browsing Japanese shopping sites, I can now unofficially show off what some of the tokuten (that is, pre-order bonuses) that will be offered in Japan for purchasing this volume at various stores are.
Animate
Yasuna and Sonya stacked into a hamburger printed into a piece of shikishi cardboard. From what it seems, it’s the type of cardboard they use for autographs in Japan.
Gamers
This time around, Gamers has 2: a clear file/folder that is included with all purchases of KMB and a fall-themed acryllic stand set (they’ve been doing these for a few volumes already, which is nice), which costs 3,190 yen with the Japanese sales tax.
Melonbooks
Fuckers won’t let me access the site from my foreign country and I currently do not have a VPN, let’s move onto the next one. Nevermind, it was just a bromide. Don't have a good
image sadly.
Toranoana
A print of the Sonya from the color pages of Manga Time Kirara Carat‘s March 2023 issue – it’s not even that new of a drawing, really disappointing since Toranoana in particular has consistently done nicer stuff before.
MangaOh
MangaOh has been a relatively new player in the KMB tokuten scene, having only started gaining bonuses since Volume 12., but their bonus merchandise is always good, and just like in Volume 14, they have yet again another big acrylic stand setpiece, this time a beach one for only 3,740 yen (3400 without sales tax).
shorts sonya... i am complete
WonderGOO
..Nothing, unfortunately.
And I mean nothing.
We know it for certain because Slow Start is releasing it’s 12th volume on the same day and WonderGOO does have a preorder bonus for buying it.
And it's quite unfortunate, but in the flipside WonderGOO was for the longest time the one notable manga storefront that KMB didn’t have preorder bonuses for compared to other Kirara series and unlike with MangaOh, there wasn’t anything that made them really stand out once they finally started getting them, so if any store was to eventually get on the chopping block regarding bonuses it’d have to have been this one.
Doesn’t mean it’s over for them, however, since the next issue of Kirara Carat, which will release on the 28th of this month in Japan is actually a KMB cover!
The WonderGOO postcard preview list doesn’t have Volume 15 of KMB, but does have an entry for this issue of Carat, which implies you’ll be able to get a postcard if you buy Kirara Carat from them. Unfortunately, there’s no image yet – but that is to be expected of manga magazines, as leaking anything regarding these could lead to severe legal consequences (and unlike Jump, there just isn’t enough of a demand for people to deliberately leak chapters ahead of time… that, and it’s a monthly magazine, meaning that the people who buy are more willing to wait as well.)
Surugaya
A postcard of Agiri taken from the cover of the chapter in Kirara Carat‘s August 2023 issue.
Other Stores
Comic ZIN and AmiAmi haven’t revealed any preorder bonuses yet, and since we
now know that WonderGOO has been culled from at the very least the possibility of
a unique store bonus it’s likely that they’ll not get any this time around either.
Comic ZIN is a small Agiri.
And as I predicted, AmiAmi got dropped to at least second class citzen status regarding tokutens, with it now recieving the same BW postcard of Sonya that some smaller shops in Japan and perhaps ebook retailers have as their bonus, if not completely.
My package arrived as of finishing to write the revision to this blog, so look forward to that and toodles!
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