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Titles From Yen and Ize Presses You Don't Want to Miss this Fall

Flowers may bloom in spring, but new books pop in the fall. With the return of colder weather, it's the perfect time to snuggle up with a new read, and this year, Ize Press, Yen Press' Korean content imprint, has you covered with a slew of new titles in a variety of genres. Yen Press has some great new stories, too, so grab your hot cocoa and a blanket – fall is reading season.

SSS Class Revival Hunter is a good choice if you're missing Solo Leveling – or even if you just want another story of the same ilk. Set in a similar world where RPG-like elements exist, people can become “hunters” to reap the benefits of the Tower…but only if they're lucky enough to be born with skills that can actually help. Gongja Kim wasn't – he's trying to make his way as an F-class hunter, but it's not really working, and death looks almost inevitable. And it kind of is – but after he dies, he discovers that he's able to copy the skills of the person who killed him and be revived. It turns out that some skills really are just gods-given cheats, and Gongja quickly learns that his hero, the Flame Emperor, may not be so much “good” as “tricky.” Armed with some new talents, Gongja sets out to not only make a name for himself, but to maybe right some of the wrongs of the world. It's an action-packed story with visceral art, and if it isn't perfect, it's at least imperfect in ways that make sense, such as worldbuilding feeling condensed or rushed because translating a novel into manhwa form is an imperfect science. It's a dark, fun tale of learning to work the system, and it should appeal to people like to watch the underdog learn to come out on top.
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But if you prefer your boys beautiful, Semantic Error may be more your style. This BL series, also based on a novel, follows two university students, Sangwoo and Jaeyoung. The two butt heads when they're put in the same group for a presentation, but Jaeyoung quickly earns Sangwoo's ire when he doesn't show up and puts in no work. Enraged, Sangwoo tells the professor, and the result is that Jaeyoung fails the class – which means that he can't graduate. Bewildered and angry, Jaeyoung sets out to torment Sangwoo, not realizing that what he's also doing is destroying Sangwoo's peace of mind. Sangwoo is neurodivergent, something that actually mentioned in the text, and he views Jaeyoung as an error in his world's code – hence the title. Jaeyoung doesn't really understand that in this volume, which can make the book hard to read; it feels very mean, even if Jaeyoung doesn't understand the way his actions are destabilizing Sangwoo. (Or the fact that he's had a low-key crush on the other man for a bit.) But this is one of those series that's popular for a reason, and if you can get past the problems in this opening volume, it is worth it. This is just more about the thorns than the rose.
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On the softer side of queer romance, we have The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn't a Guy at All, a yuri manga steeped in the music of the late 90s. Even if you're not a fan of the music of the period (although it is a definite draw), the story is a winner. Aya, a self-consciously typical high school girl, loves older western music, and that's something she tries hard to keep to herself. She frequents music shops in her free time, and that's where she runs into Mizuki, who she at first assumes is a boy. But it turns out that Mizuki's actually her quiet female classmate, a person Aya never really paid any attention to. The key point here is that this wasn't out of any cruelty on Aya's part; Mizuki has been fully entrenched in her loner persona. But now that the two girls have really met and discovered that they're both (gasp) human, something more than friendship begins to grow. For Aya, it never mattered what Mizuki's gender was; she was attracted to the person in the body rather than the body itself. And as Mizuki begins to trust Aya, the two form a relationship that's one of the more joyfully queer manga out there. It's about liking who and what you like and being happy in that, and it's not hard to see why this has been such a requested title.
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That's a far cry from Beware the Villainess, a story in which all of the romantic interests are, to put it mildly, garbage. Melissa suffers the standard death by traffic accident and lands in a story she knows all too well on a couple of levels – she's read it, but she's also acquainted with the villainess subgenre of isekai. That means that she has zero intention of following the plot, and she begins to proactively avert it…but when she does, all of the heroine's romantic interests get clingy! This makes Melissa even more determined to rewrite the plot, because there's no way she can leave the innocent heroine to deal with these idiots. The story has ample amounts of humor as Melissa weathers the vagaries of a poorly constructed reverse harem story by calling upon the spirit of Immanuel Kant and channeling The Simpsons, and the art does equally well in serious and silly situations. With a story that's complete in 127 chapters, this doesn't get bogged down under its own weight, and it's a great example of what the villainess genre can do in a story that's equal amounts of parody and playing it straight.
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Another title that's completed its serialization in a manageable 107 chapters is My Secretly Hot Husband. Like Melissa, Leticia is reborn into another world after an untimely death, but she's in a very different position. She's no pampered noblewoman – Leticia is living the Cinderella story, forced into servitude in her uncle's home until she's eventually married off. But far from being the answer to her dreams, it just looks like she's traded one set of fairy tale problems for another: the man she's to wed is rumored to be ugly and cruel, sending her from Cinderella to Bluebeard. Or is it? Because when Leticia arrives at Lord Erden Halstead's home, she finds a sweet, handsome man with a love of bunnies, nothing like what she'd been led to believe. As she falls for her new husband, she's forced to wonder where the rumors came from, and whether there's any truth at all in her new life. With gorgeous art that makes excellent use of color, this is a charming historical fantasy story that does the arranged marriage romance trope well, and both Leticia and Erden are solid leads in a story likely to appeal to romance fans.
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Marriages don't always work out so easily, however, as The Men of the Harem demonstrates. From the same creative team behind the phenomenally addictive The Remarried Empress, this story starts on similar ground: Latrasil's lover spurned her for a lover. Now newly crowned empress, Latil is very invested in showing him just how badly he hurt her, and so she sets about assembling a harem of consorts – five of them, each handsome and alluring in a different way. Like The Remarried Empress, the story hinges on the trifecta of revenge, love, and politics, with Latil balancing the men of her harem and ruling her nation. If you've read the creative team's previous work, you're probably already planning to check this out, but if not, it's a solid introduction to their proprietary blend of luscious art, intense writing, and heady storytelling. Reverse harem stories may have a bit of a reputation for being on the lighter side; could this series reshape opinions on the genre? Either way, it will pull readers in.
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On a different end of the spectrum of politics sits Übel Blatt, which is being rereleased in a deluxe edition. This dark story, set in a fantasy world inspired equally by Medieval Europe and German epic fantasy, takes place in a grim setting where bloody battles are just a fact of everyday life. A young boy wielding a black blade is a major part of these fights, or at least in rumors about them, although those who meet him aren't sure how that can be. Spanning two generations of rulers and knights, the story is chock full of revenge, gore, and sex, although it also has an emotional core in Koinzell, the young man in question. It's complex, and although it isn't a perfect comparison, it should appeal to fans of Berserk. With an anime upcoming, now is a good time to pick this new hardcover, oversize deluxe edition up, especially if you missed it the first time around.
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Revenge isn't only for tormented seinen heroes, though. In I Tamed My Ex-husband's Mad Dog, Reinhardt is sent back in time fifteen years to the moment of her father's death at the hands of Prince Michel – and she's not going to just sit there. After stabbing him in the leg, she's banished to a far-off land, but there she meets a strange young man who is living in the wild. This so-called “mad dog” of a boy is basically feral, but he may hold the key to Reinhardt's revenge…and possibly a romance as well. Taking a different political approach than either Übel Blatt or The Men of the Harem, I Tamed My Ex-husband's Mad Dog is largely classed as a romance, but that shouldn't scare other readers away. Romance and revenge don't always sit comfortably together, but the popularity of this series suggests that that doesn't have to remain the standard.
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Sometimes it can be art, too! If you're into artbooks, the Oshi no Ko 1st Illustration Collection: Glare x Sparkle offers plenty of illustrations from the mystery/revenge/showbiz story. With over 130 illustrations, including manga artist Mengo Yokoyari's initial sketches and character designs and social media posts, this collection also offers insight into the creation process in the form of commentary from Yokoyari and conversations with the series' writer, Aka Akasaka.
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But if you like your art sweeter, Candy: Shō Harusono Art Collection has you covered. More than just illustrations from the creators' series Sasaki and Miyano and Hirano and Kagiura, this book has additional comics, commentaries (including manuscript notes), and a Q & A section where Harusono answers fan questions, making this a treat for fans.
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Finally, speaking of treats, Delicious in Dungeon is being re-released in a complete box set. Containing all fourteen volumes of the manga, this is an easy way to either read the series for the first time or collect it in a special format. The box is shaped like a mimic from the series, and along with the entire series, it contains a poster of monsters previously featured on the backs of the individual volumes. And who knows? Maybe it'll give you some recipe ideas for the upcoming holiday season.
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So no matter what your reading preferences, there's a lot to look forward to this fall. All you have to do is snuggle in and start reading.