Manga spending has been light for me this month as I try and save some money for the upcoming New York Anime Fest (which thusly yes I’ll be attending! Any readers other planning to go as well?). But, that said, still a few goodies procured this week.

First off I picked up the book copy of Hinako Takanaga’s Tyrant Who Falls In Love. I originally reviewed a digital copy of the book so was excited to have my order of the full edition come. Like other June books lately (including Love Sickness which I also picked up and is also amazing and has also been reviewed for your convenience), it has a smaller trim size than the imprint’s usual so I’m guessing it’s becoming the norm. It’s not a bad size, about the same as Viz Media or Tokyopop books, but it is a little sad not having them extra-large as they were before – made them extra special, you know?

Though I was more weirded out than engaged by the first volume of the violently, culturally-jesting insanity that was Peepo Choo (Vol. 01), I kept to my conviction to always give a series two books. So, I bought volume two of the series. It’s still just as crazy but it feels like it was finally reigned in, more under control. Not to say it’s any less violent though, wow – absolute craziness. But an interesting plot, some funny stabs at industry specifics and lots of moments that make you go WTF?! that just prove how truly effective they’re rendered.

Looking to try something new, I picked up Tokyopop’s release of the manga Black Gate. It’s an omnibus of the first three volumes in one so it’s huge! Not big and heavy to read holding up for long but lays nicely on the table. I know nothing about the plot but the art looked really nice so it won me over. I’m not hard to please when it comes to trying out first volumes (or three at such a great price!). Looking forward to starting this one tomorrow.

From Viz I purchased the first print edition volume of House of Five Leaves. Admittedly I wasn’t very fond of Natsume Ono’s previous works (Ristorante Paradiso and not simple) but I was really impressed with House of Five Leaves. It had great pacing and was a nice change of pace from the often over-violent, super-stylized Edo-era samurai stories. Also Natsume Ono’s art has really improved as well.

And lastly, who could resist the hype surrounding Tokyopop’s release of Hetalia? I bought it, read it and yeah, it’s pretty darn cute. I’m no history buff though so I didn’t get a lot of the jokes without reading the little sub notes. And the art quality randomly became really pixelated but I guess that’s the price you pay for publishing a comic originally drawn for web-only resolution. And I couldn’t tell the characters apart most of the time. And I couldn’t read more than a couple pages at a time… but it was still pretty funny at times and very cute, I swear!

So what was in everyone else’s shopping bags this week?

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