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Author Archive for Lissa Pattillo

AWA 2012: Dark Horse Expands Franchises With New Trigun and EVA

Dark Horse Expands Franchises With New Trigun and EVA

Dark Horse was the second publisher to share some good news at this year’s Anime Weekend Atlanta, announcing that they had licensed two new spin-offs of their popular franchises.

NGE: Shinji Ikari Detective Diary – Takumi Yoshimura
Trigun: Multiple Bullets – Multi-Author Anthology

Shinji Ikari Detective Diary is a Neon Genesis Evangelion spin-off that takes place in an alternate universe where Kaworu and Kaiji are detectives who the lead, Shinji, seeks out for help. Like the other NGE spin-offs, several of which Dark Horse has published already, this series likely won’t have a plot at all similar to its source material but instead utilize the same characters to offer fans the cast in a new setting. I’m not a big Evangelion fan to begin with, but I’ll admit the detective story does pique my interest somewhat.

Trigun: Multiple Bullets is an anthology of short stories all done by different artists, including the series’ creator, Yasuhiro Nightow. You can read more information about the creators involved at AnimeNewsNetwork’s post about the acquisition. Dark Horse announced a similar bookEvangelion: Comic Tribute, back in the Spring.

Dark Horse also stated that they’ll be releasing the original Trigun series in omnibus editions, and will be doing the same for  Lone Wolf and Cub. Lone Wolf and Cub has been published by Dark Horse for over a decade (while first being published in English back in the eighties by a now defunct company) in small mini volumes. These new omnibus editions will be more the standard manga volume size, which is a great development to see. I always thought the artwork in the series would be better served with a larger trim cut.

No information was given as to when and for how much these new books will be released.


AWA 2012: Vertical Inc Announces Omnibus Release of Utsubora

Vertical Inc Licenses Utsubora Manga

Anime Weekend Atlanta took place this weekend and the first manga licensing announcements of the event came from Vertical Inc as they revealed their license for Asumiko Nakamura’s Utsubora.

This is Asumiko Nakamura’s first time having a series licensed for print in English (she had a one-shot published in Tokyopop’s Gothic & Lolita Bible), but  she’s got some popularity as a manga artist for all sorts of different genres including boys’ love, supernatural and comedy. Utsubora is a mystery series that seems ripe with the dark psychological twists that are a good fit in Vertical Inc’s library.

A synopsis from AnimeNewsNetwork:

 “The story begins when Aki Fujino, a beautiful girl who the novelist Mizorogi knew, dies under mysterious circumstances. Then a girl appears before Mizorogi, and although she introduces herself as Aki’s twin sister Sakura, her true identity is a complete mystery. As Mizorogi’s past ties with Aki come to light, people begin to suspect him of plagiarism. Mizorogi’s life spirals deeper into darkness as his editor and the police probe further into Aki’s death and Mizorogi’s connection with her.”

While originally two volumes long, Vertical will be releasing the series in one omnibus volume in June 2013.

It feels like it’s been forever since I first pondered if omnibus editions were going to become a manga-industry normality in North America. I think it’s safe to say that’s now the case. A lot of new manga licenses are being announced in this format, not to mention all the re-releases of older series. No complaints from me! Aside from a few bookshelf discrepancies, the money saved and lots-of-manga-one-go aspect of the omnibus editions makes me happy indeed.


Seven Seas Announces License of Milk Morinaga Short Story Collection

Seven Seas Announces License for New Milk Morinaga Yuri

New manga licenses! While Anime Weekend Atlanta is taking place this weekend, Seven Seas preempted the convention with a manga license they confirmed with Anime News Network – Milk Morinaga’s Kisses, Signs, and Cherry Blossom Pink.

This is the second title by Milk Morinaga to be licensed in English, the first being her series, Girl Friends. KSCBP is another yuri series, but instead of the linear Girl Friends, is a collection of fourteen short stories. Seven Seas will release them all in one book (approx. 320 pages) in June 2013.

“Sakuraki Girls High—an all girls school where interrelated tales of love occur. In “Even if We’re Not Friends,” Nana and Hitomi have been dear friends since childhood, but when Nana gets into the exclusive Sakuraki High while Hitomi doesn’t, their true feelings for each other emerge. In “The Summer Closest to Heaven,” Natsuka is a ghost who resides at the school, still in love with one of the living students who is now the school nurse. In “A Kiss, Love, and a Prince,” Narumi gets her first kiss from Tachiba in the school play, and is shocked at being kissed by a girl.”

Having just recently finished Seven Seas’ very shortly upcoming edition of Girl Friends (Vol.01), this announcement makes me doubly excited. I really loved Milk Morinaga’s writing – it was definitely one of the more emotionally thought out and ‘real’ works I’ve read in manga. Ah the internal dramatic s of love. I’ve long since been a fan of her artwork thanks to a couple Japanese editions I own (and alas could not understand until now!), and let me assure you that it’s wonderful. Seven Seas also did a great job with the book, barring a few unfortunately placed little typos, so I’m happy to see this new Milk Morinaga title in their hands. It’ll be a long wait until next June!


More Bucks For The Border – RightStuf Increases Free CDN Shipping Level

RightStuf Increases Canada Minimum Shipping Requirement

Some sad news came this past Monday from RightStuf – easily the best source of anime/manga merchandise in English online –  they’ve increased their free shipping minimum for Canadians to $250.

Before now, Canadian shoppers were required to purchase $150 worth of merchandise to qualify for free shipping. While it was quite a bit of money, it was still a very easy threshold to reach when you got started in their vast library, or went into shipments with a couple of friends. An additional $100 though is substantial. It also pushes purchases to a point where Canadian Customs is pretty much guaranteed to tax you heavily, adding an easy $100 minimum extra onto every order you purchase (I say from several experiences).

While increased costs for them leading to this is an understandable reason, it’s still a real shame to see such a huge increase to us. It will definitely affect how much I purchase from them because I can rarely afford purchases that large, or risk the massive additional customs fee on top of them. RightStuf does note that they are “currently looking into alternative Canadian freight options, and we are doing our best to find an economical solution that continues to provide reliable service”. Your Canadian consumers have their fingers crossed, RS!

You can read RightStuf’s shipping prices for Canadian orders that do not reach the $250 threshold on their Shipping Info page which begins at $10.50 for the first item.


PR: Author of the Doujin Smash Hit Let’s Eat Ramen! at New York Comic Con 2012!

GEN Manga Announces the appearance of Nagumo at NYCC 2012!

Nagumo will be signing and talking with fans daily at NYCC (Oct. 11th-14th )

NEW YORK, NY – GEN Manga Entertainment, Inc. announces the appearance of Nagumo, the author of Let’s Eat Ramen at the official GEN Manga booth #1025. Nagumo will be conducting signings and Q&A’s daily with fans throughout this year’s NYCC.

Nagumo is the author of the popular series Radio de Go! Making his debut in Manga Time Kirakira Carat in 2007 he has since made waves in the Japanese doujin community with his hit Radio de Go! Nagumo released an original story earlier this year exclusively for GEN Manga titled Let’s Eat Ramen.

Let’s Eat Ramen is the story of Saeki, a girl who loves ramen noodles. At last, she thinks that she has finally found the perfect ramen shop, but the problem is the shop is completely full of old regulars and she can’t get in. Will the timid Saeki ever summon the willpower to reach out and get the ramen that she desperately wants? An indie manga about the finer points of eating ramen noodles from the creator of the radio manga Radio de Go!, brought to you by genmanga.com. Available now in GEN 8 (162 pages, 1.99, available now)!

Flavor by Aji-chi, is GEN Manga’s latest edition to the exclusive underground anthology.

Read more…


Otaku USA: On The Shelf – September 26, 2012

Otaku USA: On The Shelf - September 26, 2012

It’s Yotsuba&! week! So says I, because there’s a new volume of Yotsuba&! out this week and I think that’s plenty reason to celebrate. It’s also the week that we see Digital Manga’s Kickstarter-funded, Barbara. A new Osamu Tezuka is always on my to-buy list. Then there’s a new volume of Tyrant Who Falls in Love – huzzah!

You can read the list of all the books shipping this week at my On The Shelf column for Otaku USA.

Barbara [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Deltora Quest (Vol.08) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class (Vol.04) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Genshiken Omnibus (Vol.02) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Higurashi When They Cry (Vol.19): Massacre Arc (Pt.01) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Jack Frost (Vol.06) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Miles Edgeworth Ace Attorney (Vol.02) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Omamori Himari (Vol.00) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Raiders (Vol.08) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Tale of the Waning Moon (Vol.03) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Tyrant Falls in Love (Vol.07) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Until Death Do Us Part (Vol.02) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Yotsuba&! (Vol.11) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]


Manga Guests Announced for New York Comic Con 2012

Manga Guests Announced for New York Comic Con 2012

New York Comic Con – formally known in-part as the New York Anime Fest – is swiftly coming up with October just around the corner. Leading up to the date with news of their guests and events, the convention announced Tuesday (via their mobile app) that they’ll be having three manga guests in attendance for NYCC 2012.

Masakazu Ishiguro
Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru

Moyoco Anno (website)
Sakuran*, Flowers & Bees*, Sugar Sugar Rune

Toshio Maeda (website)
Demon Beast Invasion*, La Blue Girl, Legend of the Overfiend*, Adventures Kid*

*These series are rated 18+ for sexual content, and sometimes violence, so readers be warned if you’re curious of what they are! Toshio Maeda’s website also has a lot of mature imagery.

The app lists Masakazu Ishiguro as a guest courtesy of JManga, while Moyoco Anno will be there as a special guest of Vertical Inc. JManga is currently releasing Ishiguro’s Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru (digital only) and Vertical Inc. just released a beautiful omnibus release of Moyoco Anno’s Sakuran this past summer. They have a few more details about her appearance on their newly relaunched blog.

Vertical Inc’s marketing director, Ed Chavez, spent Monday teasing eager fans on Twitter with news that there would be a big announcement on Tuesday. Guesses ranged from new licenses to Vertical Inc going digital, but the closest hint he’d give was that the news would make some happy and others sad (“…will applaud but will be saddened all the same.”). The news is great for Vertical but I can’t say I was particularly happy or sad either way, finding the news rather lacklustre after all that hype. Then again I’m not someone who generally goes to conventions for the guests so that’s just me. None the less, I hope all three guests have a great time visiting the convention and meeting some of their global fans!


Project-H Bids Farewell to Summer with Four New Hentai Licenses

New Project-H Licenses for End of Summer

Autumn is upon us! The rapidly dropping temperature is proof enough for me. This has been a busy summer for Digital Manga‘s hentai imprint, Project-H, and earlier this week they ended the season with an additional four new licenses.

Bust to Bust – Yasuiriosuke
Pink Bunny Play Time – Alice Sid
PuruPuru Hearts – Satsuki Kanna
A Sensual Ladies Man – Hitoshi Kino

All four books are one-shots priced at $17.95/US, $19.99/CAN and will be released as both print and digital editions, a new but growing trend for PH books it seems (which were primarily print-only at first). Project-H also noted that all four of these titles would be uncensored and, of course, will all come with a warning for mature readers only (no kids allowed!).


Otaku USA: On The Shelf – September 19, 2012

Otaku USA: On The Shelf - September 19, 2012

It’s manga finale week! Not the end of manga of course (apocalypse!) but the end of a few different series that will all be greatly missed – 20th Century Boys (Viz), Cardcaptor Sakura (DH) and House of Five Leaves (Viz). Filling the gap in our manga buying lives just a bit is the start of Dark Horse’s release of Angelic Layer. This is one of my favourite CLAMP series, so it could definitely warrant a re-buy for me.

You can read more of my thoughts on this week’s releases over at my On The Shelf article for Otaku USA.

And new to my brief postings here on Kuriousity, and for your shopping convenience, a handy list of this week’s releases complete with links* to buy!

20th Century Boys (Vol. 22) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Angelic Layer Omnibus (Vol. 01) [Amazon CAN, Amazon USRightStuf]
Attack on Titan (Vol. 02) [Amazon CAN, Amazon USRightStuf]
Berserk (Vol. 36) [Amazon CAN, Amazon USRightStuf]
Cardcaptor Sakura Omnibus (Vol. 04) [Amazon CAN, Amazon USRightStuf]
House of Five Leaves (Vol. 08) [Amazon CAN, Amazon USRightStuf]
Sailor Moon (Vol. 07) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]

*As a disclaimer, links on the site are affiliation links for Kuriousity with any and all proceeds from them going towards our hosting fees.


Review: A Devil and Her Love Song (Vol. 04)

A Devil and Her Love Song (Vol. 04)

Manga-ka: Miyoshi Tomori
Publisher: Viz Media
Rating: Teen (13+)
Release Date: August 2012

Synopsis: “Maria encourages antagonistic Ayu to be true to her feelings, but that simple action snowballs into a huge rift within their class! As secret crushes and hidden motives are revealed, the backlash of honesty just might destroy Mario’s efforts in uniting everyone for the choral competition!”

I was really surprised to see the avalanche of confession and reveal in this volume of A Devil and Her Love Song. The tension just kept rising between Maria and her classmates, and just when I thought things were going to plummet to an all-time low (which would be pretty darn low indeed), suddenly what we’ve wanted to have happen has actually happened! Maria’s classmates are finally privy to one of ‘those’ conversations, the kind no one ever seems to be around to hear but the ones you know that if they were, everything would change. And change it did!

Read more…


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