New year, new mag! Otaku USA is now selling its Spring 2024 issue. And before we go any further — yes, the magazine is now quarterly. Although the anime-specific Anime USA issues will still be coming out as well. (And I'll try to be better about reminding people of those, too, since I absolutely do features in 'em.)

So while Present Kara may be neck deep in Bang Brave Bang Bravern and Undead Unluck, Past Kara is here to tell you about rad recent releases that are totally worth your time. As always, everyone in this issue is fantastic, and you should pick this up to read everything. I'm especially happy to see A Place Further Than the Universe, one of my favorite contemporary series, getting some ink again. But that aside, here's what's mine in the new issue.

Over in the features... hey, I got the cover story! And honestly, Sacrificial Princess and the King of Beasts deserves all the hype it can get. It's one of my favorite shows of recent seasons — another for the "my terrible life turned out pretty great, actually" pile with lots of happy romance wish fulfillment and cool worldbuilding. This is one I absolutely recommend to anyone who thinks it looks interesting, as well as the subject of my other feature for the issue.

Undead Murder Farce is, without question, a show made for me. It's got supernatural horror. It's got rakugo. It's got more Victorian literary characters than you can shake a stick at. And it's got good and interesting mystery. Shows like this are why I'm glad I get to write for Otaku USA: I have a chance to wave a huge flag and relay to as many people as possible how very good a show actually is.

You can get the latest issue at your local bookstore or from the Otaku USA website. And while you're there, check out my site features. I'm penning articles every few days on everything from how to understand Bang Bravern to which legendarily bad anime Rifftrax should have a go at. And thanks as always for your continued support of my work and the work of my fellow anime nerds.