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Author Archive for Lissa Pattillo

TCAF 2012: Events for the Manga-Inclined

Chi Sweet Home's Konami Kanata

The Toronto Comics Art Festival is only days away now – how time flies! For those who’re going, or those simply curious, the event organizers now have the complete schedule, exhibitor list and map available on their website.

TCAF had several very worthwhile manga-related events last year and this year they’re welcoming the creator of Chi’s Sweet Home, Konami Kanata. On Saturday evening she’ll be giving a talk at The Japan Foundation:

Konami Kanata in Conversation
Saturday, May 5, 2012 (7:00pm-9:00pm) @ The Japan Foundation
“Please join us in welcoming manga author Konami Kanata, creator of The New York Times Bestselling manga Chi’s Sweet Home, to her first-ever North American appearance. Kanata is traveling to Toronto to attend The Toronto Comic Arts Festival 2012, and will be giving a special talk at The Japan Foundation where she will discuss her 30 year career making manga, and spread awareness of the plight of those in the Tohoku Region of Japan still severely affected by the March 11th, 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Konami Kanata-sensei will be interviewed on stage by Vertical Inc. Editor Ed Chavez, and will be autographing copies of her work for attendees.”

As with other TCAF events, Konami Kanata’s talk is free to attend but RSVPs were being taken for this one in advance to accomodate numbers. While closed now, a ‘rush line’ will be open at 6:30pm for those who did not RSVP with attendance dependent on the capacity.

Along with Vertical Inc., comic & manga publishers Fantagraphics and Drawn & Quarterly will be at TCAF selling books as well. The complete list of exhibitors is an impressive array of publishers and artists; like any big event the only real downside is there likely won’t be enough time to visit all the ones you want!


Otaku USA: On The Shelf – May 2, 2012

Otaku USA: On The Shelf - May 2, 2012

I’m packing my bags and getting ready for TCAF but time was still made to make it to my comic shop of choice and stock up some new manga. Always time for new manga!

If looking for some new manga of your own, you can check out the most recent On The Shelf article over at Otaku USA for the list of what’s fresh in the bookstores this week.


Listings Up For 20th Century Boys Sequel & Nausicaa from Viz Media

21st Century Boys

Listings for the sequel to Naoki Urasawa’s 20th Century Boys were posted to retail sites late last week, acting as pretty good confirmation that Viz Media will be continuing on the story. The sequel is titled 21st Century Boys and will be released in November 2012. The last volume of 20th Century Boys is volume twenty-two and is scheduled for release in September.

21st Century Boys is two volumes long and continues right where the original left off as Kenji continues the fight against ‘the Friend’ while looking to his memories for clues that can help them.

21st Century Boys (Vol. 01)
21st Century Boys (Vol. 02)

Another listing of note is for a boxset containing two hardcover editions of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. The series, written and drawn by Hayao Miyazaki, is about our world in 1000 years when pollution has corrupted the planet. A young woman, Nausicaä, traverses this new world through forests and wars on a journey to discover what lead the planet here and what its future may hold. This edition will come with a bonus poster and interior colour pages.

To both of these releases I shout a resounding ‘yay!’ It seemed safe assumption that Viz Media would license a two volume sequel to 20th Century Boys but it’s great to see the listings for it. I’ve also never been able to read all of Nausicaä so an affordable, hardcover, extra shiny boxset offers the perfect opportunity!


One Peace Books Licenses Crayon Shin-Chan For New Edition

One Peace Licenses Crayon Shin-Chan

Almost missed this piece of news! One Peace books announced earlier this month that they’ll be releasing the comedy manga, Crayon Shin-Chan. CMX originally published the first eleven volumes before the company went kapoot, though the Crayon Shin-Chan manga itself is fifty volumes total.

Amazon.ca has listings for those three volumes which include the covers, page counts and release dates. Interestingly, all three volumes clock in at a hefty 360 pages each, suggesting they’re more than the usual single volume each. All three are scheduled to come out in October 2012.

Crayon Shin-Chan (Vol.01) | Crayon Shin-Chan (Vol.02) | Crayon Shin-Chan (Vol.03)

“Hes rude, hes crude, and adults tremble whenever hes around. His inappropriate comments and obsession with body parts and bodily functions make life stressful for his struggling parents. No one is safe from Shinchans verbal outbursts . . . and now, neither are you!” – Crayon Shin-Chan (Vol. 01) [CMX]

Potty-humour comedy isn’t my thing, so I won’t be giving Crayon Shin-Chan a second go. None the less I know there’s a fanbase out there for it so I’m happy to see those readers given a second chance to enjoy a series otherwise out of print.

Credit for the news goes to AnimeNewsNetwork


Otaku USA: On The Shelf – April 25, 2012

Otaku USA: On The Shelf - April 25, 2012

New comics’ day! Alas that Diamond Comics was a bit behind in releasing a number of the new manga released but I suppose that’s nothing new. If you’re ordering from online retailers or large bookstores though, you should be good to go, buy and read!

Top titles of the week for me are Air Gear (Vol. 25) and the last Tokyo Mew Mew omnibus. You can check out the full list and more of my thoughts over at my On The Shelf article at Otaku USA.


Kodansha Comics Speaks and Shares Three New Manga Licenses

Kodansha Comics Announces Three New Licenses

It’s another round of manga license time! With this many new licenses prior to the thick of convention season I hope it means good for the summer months. This time it’s Kodansha Comics who sent out a press release, which in itself came as a surprise considering the silence that usually comes from them outside of book releases.

Battle Angel Alita: Last Order – Yukito Kishiro
Danza – Natsume Ono
Missions of Love (Watashi ni xx Shinasai) – Ema Toyama

Battle Angel Alita: Last Order is a relicense, having been originally published by Viz Media. Viz released the fifteenth volume back in October 2011 and Kodansha Comics will continue from there with volume sixteen in December of this year. The series is currently in tournament mode as its character duke it out to win the Zenith of Things Tournament.

Danza is a title I was surprised to see on the list, if only because Viz Media pretty much has a monopoly on Natsume Ono’s work. It’s great to see more of her work published in English and I’ve always enjoyed her short story collections the most. Danza is a one book release with six different stories. You can read a synopsis of them in Kodansha’s PR if you’re curious for more details on the story specifics. The title is scheduled to be released in December 2012 as well, with an Amazon.ca listing already up.

Last up from Kodansha today was their confirmation of Watashi ni xx Shinasai – or Missions of Love, as it’s now been renamed. At last! I contacted Kodansha Comics about this over a month ago when the listing popped up on Amazon. Alas, I got no response, which is pretty standard from them (busy, understaffed bees over there I’m left to assume). Ema Toyama has had two other series published in English already – I Am Here! (Del Rey) and Pixie Pop (Tokyopop). Missions of Love is about a secret phone novel author who blackmails a popular classmate into performing  “daring missions of love” to gain live-inspiration for her work. The first volume is currently scheduled for November 2012.


Viz Media Adds to Shoujo Beat Line-Up with Strobe Edge & Demon Love

Shoujo Beat Licenses Two New Titles For Print

Viz Media treated us with a couple new licenses this week, announced first via their Shoujo Beat Twitter account and then very shortly after through a press release.

Strobe Edge – Io Sakisaka
Demon Love Spell – Mayu Shinjo

This is the first time Io Sakisaka’s work has been released in English.  Strobe Edge has already been published in French though, and was cited by Viz as “one of the most requested titles that our readers have asked to be licensed”. The series is about a teen named Ninako who is looking for love and may have found it with the school’s number one mysterious heartthrob. He already has a girlfriend, however, and Ninako must learn to cope with her first experience with love being her first with heartbreak as well. Currently the series is ten volumes in Japan and has been running  since 2007 (still going!).

Demon Love Spell isn’t Mayu Shinjo’s first title released in North America. Her series Ai Ore! is currently being published by Viz Media in omnibus format. Unfortunately Ai Ore! (Vol.01) very easily earned top spot as my Most Gag-Worthy book released in 2011 so my hopes aren’t very high for this new one. The plot, however – about a shrine maiden who finds herself the target of a lusty demon after sealing away his powers – does peak my interest enough to at least give it a try. My fingers are crossed it proves more palatable! Demon Love Spell (“Ayakashi Koi Emaki”)  is currently four volumes and on-going.

Both of these new titles will start print publication later this year.

 


PR: Kodansha Comics Adds Three New Titles to Fall List

Kodansha Comics Adds Three New Titles to Fall List: Missions of Love, Battle Angel Alita: Last Order, and Danza

NEW YORK, NEW YORK (April 23, 2012) – Kodansha USA Publishing is excited to announce three new titles set to debut in the final two months of the year. November sees the publication of popular shojo author Ema Toyama’s newest manga, Missions of Love, while December marks the return of Yukito Kishiro’s classic manga, Battle Angel Alita: Last Order, and the debut of fan-favorite author Natsume Ono’s Danza.

Missions of Love was originally published as Watashi ni xx Shinasai! In school, Yukina is a cold and distant girl, while Shigure is the most perfect, good-looking guy. But the two of them have a secret, and their extraordinary “love” is about to start! Yukina, under the pen name ‘Yupina’, is actually a popular cell phone novelist. When she discovers Shigure’s devious womanizing ways, she blackmails him to complete daring ‘Missions of Love’ for her to write about. Will these missions give them an opportunity to fall in love with each other? Author Ema Toyama is well known to American audiences for I Am Here!, which is published by Kodansha Comics, and Pixie Pop.

Battle Angel Alita: Last Order takes readers back to the world of cyborg battles and intrigue made so popular by creator Yukito Kishiro. Alita is a cyborg reborn with no knowledge of her mysterious past. Fighting in the Zenith of Things Tournament is the only way to rescue the brain of her friend, Lou, and the tournament has entered into its final rounds. Will Alita survive to fulfill her quest? Find out in Battle Angel Alita: Last Order, volume 16, the first volume in the series to be published by Kodansha Comics!

Danza is a collection of six short stories that chronicle interpersonal relationships by House of Five Leaves and Ristorante Paradiso author Natsume Ono. In “Rubber Boots,” the death of a business partner brings an estranged father and his adult son back together. The sudden appearance of a mysterious stranger helps a widower father reconnect with his precocious young son in “Memories of the Lake.” A German-American man struggles to bond with his “Diorama”-constructing Japanese father-in-law. A young Italian officer experiences payback of a humorous nature in “The Gelateria and the Carabinieri.” “Smoke” finds a man confronting the older brother he resents when they are both trapped in the rubble of a castle after an earthquake hits. And in “Partners”, a rookie cop in the NYPD starts harboring distrust towards his veteran partner after hearing some unsettling rumors.

Read more…


Swag Bag: Very Merry Month of Manga In April – No Foolin’!

Swag Bag: April 2012

It’s the return of Swag Bag! In this once-was-weekly article I give a quick rundown of the books I bought that week and some brief thoughts, be it itty-bitty reviews if I’ve read them or first impressions if I haven’t. Since it’s been a long while since I’ve written one, this one is going to recap all my April purchases instead of just one week’s… so it’s a bit long. As always I encourage readers to share their recent purchases in the comments section!

Kamisama Kiss (Vol.08)I continued a few of my on-going shonen series with Viz Media‘s Blue Excorcist (Vol.07), Bleach (Vol.39) and Bakuman (Vol.10), the latter of which has just ended in Japan. Much as I wish sometimes series I like would go on forever, it’s comforting knowing there’s an end in sight. Kamisama Kiss (Vol.08) and Dawn of the Arcana (Vol.03) gave me a Shojo Beat fix, though I’m still not quite sure if I even like Dawn of the Arcana. Maybe now I’ll find out? So tricky to tell.

Arisa (Vol.07) was a quick-to-buy volume. I really like this series, though it is going on far too long. Suspense is one thing but get to the reveals already! And I hope comatose sister wakes up soon… I suppose I shouldn’t complain much about suspense in that kind of story after I finish reading 20th Century Boys (Vol.20). If you want a master of comic suspense, you need look no further than Naoki Usawara. So much suspense, all the time, and while sometimes it’s almost painful how much the story plays on that, it’s completely worth it. Definitely one of my favourites.

Digital Manga and Yen Press are publishing some of my other favourite currently running series, the kind that nestle neatly between the genres of shonen and shoujo. Of those I bought Black Butler (Vol.09), Countdown: 7 Days (Vol.02), Replica (Vol.02) and Durarara!! (Vol.02). I was surprised to see Durarara!! has a shiny gold finish on the cover letters; pleasantly surprised, of course. It’s a neat addition that hopefully means well for the book’s sales. It deserves them too, this series is great and I’m really glad it’s been licensed so I can finally read what all the fuss was about.

Speaking of high quality releases, Yen Press’s English edition of A Bride’s Story – WOW. It always amazes me how good it looks, not to mention of course how gorgeous the artwork is. It’s a beautiful piece of work all around. I was thrilled this month to pick up a copy of volume three. I also bought Bunny Drop (Vol.04) which is the start of the series’ time-skip to cute little Rin now being a teenager. So far my opinion on it is very… meh. Actually it’s more like, ‘I wish I’d stopped at three’. So sad.

Continuingly getting better however is Sailor Moon! Kodansha Comics recently released the fourth volume and while it was a little painfully episodic (one character after another being kidnapped), it had a lot of good Tuxedo Mask character development that the anime barely scratched the surface of. It makes me really like him as a character and even his relationship with Usagi more too. On the opposite end of the likeability scale are the characters of Itazura na Kiss (Vol.08) – why am I still reading this series!? Classic shoujo or not, the cons of the non-existant relationship are far outweighing the funny moments. Bleh.

Osamu Tezuka's DororoThankfully there were other omnibus to buy that were able to almost completely wash the ick of Itazura away – Vertical Inc’s Dororo (by Osamu Tezuka! and over 800 pages!) and Viz Media’s Cross Game (Vol.07). Cross Game has easily become one of my favourite comic series I’ve ever read – I get completely engrossed reading every volume. It’s just so good! The ability to make the everyday incrediably compelling and interesting is a skill Mitsuru Adachi definitely has. Another series that makes rather boring activities still charming to read is Seven Seas‘ Blood Alone (Vol.06). Don’t let the word vampire turn you off this one, it’s really sweet and has some good action sequences that are pretty realistic in their execution. Nothing too over the top and thus refreshingly believable.

This past week I also purchased my first digital manga volumes after buying myself an iPad (oh my credit card, it weeps!). Printed-versions are still my much preferred, but with some publishers now offering titles we’ll only ever see legally available in English via digital, I’d rather read them digitally than not at all. The iPad’s big screen and crisp graphics also offers a really nice reading experience, which I hope to go into with more detail at a later date.

After looking through different manga purchasing options, including Yen Press, Viz Media and Digital Manga’s apps, the site that earned my money was SuBLime – Viz Media’s new boys’ love publishing arm. The company sells digital copies you can then either read through your web browser on their website or download as a PDF to read however you digitally-please. This flexibility plus the tidy $5.99 price tag won me over. I bought three one-shots – Devil’s Honey, Oku-san’s Daily Fantasies and The Bed of My Dear King. All three were enjoyable in their own ways and I plan to share how and why soon.

…and that was my manga buying for April! What was in your swag bags this month?


PR: Viz Media Announces New Shojo Manga – Strobe Edge & Demon Love

VIZ MEDIA ANNOUNCES NORTH AMERICAN PUBLISHING LICENSES FOR NEW SHOJO MANGA SERIES STROBE EDGE AND DEMON LOVE SPELL

VIZ Media announces its latest manga (graphic novel) licenses with the acquisition of the domestic publishing rights to two new shojo series – STROBE EDGE, by Io Sakisaka, and DEMON LOVE SPELL, by Mayu Shinjo. Both titles are scheduled to begin publication later this year under the company’s Shojo Beat imprint.

Creator Io Sakisaka’s STROBE EDGE (rated ‘T’ for Teens) asks the timeless question, “What is love?” Ninako Kinoshita’s friends tell her it’s one thing, but Ninako wants to discover this mysterious emotion herself. When she meets Ren Ichinose, a handsome, enigmatic guy worshipped by all the girls at her school, she finds her heartbeat quickening with excitement! Is Ninako about to experience the many facets of love?

Celebrated manga creator Mayu Shinjo (AI ORE!, SENSUAL PHRASE) also returns with her new supernatural romance, DEMON LOVE SPELL (rated ‘T+’ for Older Teens). In the series, Miko is a shrine maiden who has never had much success at seeing or banishing spirits. Then she meets Kagura, a sexy demon who feeds off of women’s feelings of passion and love. Kagura’s insatiable appetite has left many girls brokenhearted at school, so Miko casts a spell to seal his powers. Surprisingly the spell works – sort of – but now Kagura is after her!

“STROBE EDGE has been one of the most requested titles that our readers have asked to be licensed, and the romantic coming-of-age story will be a perfect series for young teen readers in particular,” says Leyla Aker, Vice President, Publishing. “Mayu Shinjo’s new series, DEMON LOVE SPELL, will intrigue older teen readers and young adults with its fun mix of comedic supernatural romance and gorgeous artwork. We look forward to launching both series later this year and will be announcing more information on the forthcoming debuts soon!”

For more information on Shojo Beat manga titles, please visit: www.ShojoBeat.com


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