Two New Fantasy Manga The Mage Next Door and Money Forest Begin English Serialization

Two new fantasy manga series have started simultaneous English serialization this week: The Mage Next Door by Hideaki Nabe and Money Forest by Kyohei Tawara. Both are set in fantasy worlds with very different tones and give readers a couple of fresh options to explore.

The Mage Next Door started as a standalone short work in 2022 and is now running as a full series in Weekly Shonen Jump in Japan. It follows Toya Osoegawa, a mage dispatched from the Magic Realm to track down rogue mages operating in the human world. Despite being a prodigy with an unusually wide and specific spell arsenal, Toya would really prefer to settle into a quiet and comfortable life than get into any fights.

Money Forest takes a darker but still comedic angle. The series runs on Shonen Jump Plus in Japan and follows a merchant named Rhodri who arrives in an elven forest during a period when humans have grown powerful enough to hunt and enslave elves. Rhodri is described as having sharp worldly wisdom and a strong sense of negotiation, though whether those skills are meant for confronting humans or working around them remains to be seen.

Both titles are now releasing new chapters in English simultaneously alongside their Japanese publication through Shueisha’s global reader platform.

My take: Money Forest has the more immediately gripping setup of the two. The tension between a merchant’s practical outlook and a world built on cruelty sounds like it could go in some genuinely thoughtful directions. Both are worth checking out for a first chapter or two.