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Posts Tagged 801Media

Digital Goes Live, Viz Takes To The Sky

Yukikaze

A few things of note today while I attempt to finish one of the way-to-many partially finished reviews sitting on my desktop :)

 Amazon.ca has a listing for Kambayashi Chohei’s science fiction light novel, Yukikaze. As there’s no artist listed, I’m making the assumption it’s the light novel and not a manga (not sure if one exists?). New news, old news, either way it’s good news for fans like me! I absolutely loved the anime and have awaited the day I’d get a chance to read the original novel. According to Amazon, that day will be January 19, 2010.

 Freelance manga adapter, Ysabet, has a LiveJournal post with a credits correction pertaining to the upcoming volume two of Shinobi Life. Contrary to the book, adaptation credit goes to her while the translation was done by Lori Riser. Also, Ysabet lives in the same city as me so how cool is that? Pretty darn cool because Halifax is awesome like that.

 Speaking of LiveJournal, Digital Manga has taken to the community site with two accounts for its imprints: one for June Manga and another for 801Media. They also have another account, june_manga_chat, where they invite questions and discussion pertaining to their titles, while the other two accounts seem primarily for newsletter and preview-type posts. (Source: The Yaoi Review)

 And speaking of Digital Manga, their imprint 801Media has recently announced the winners of their 801-chan Contest. Entrants were invited to script short 4-panel strips as seen in the back of their books starring the imprints mascot characters. Six winners were chosen (including myself, yay!) and they’ll all have their scripts drawn into the full-colour strips by the original artist and the strips will then be published in future releases. Congrats to all the winners!


Review: Meeting You


Manga-ka: Mio Tennohji
Publisher: 801Media
Rating: Mature (18+)
Released: October 2008

Synopsis: “Handsome Himeshiro will go out with anyone who asks, male or female. But when shy and timid Touru Onozuka makes his confession, Himeshiro decides to see just how far Touru is willing to go to win his love. He sets up various tasks and trials that Touru must complete to prove himself. Will Touru get fed up with all the weird conditions and humiliating acts, or will Himeshiro finally get serious? Mio Tennohji takes you on a journey of unrequited love, misunderstandings, and happy endings in this collection of heart-warming stories.”

If you’ve read one Mio Tennohji book, you’ve read them all. In recent months this has become a fact that I’ve all too clearly come to realize as 801Media continues to put out various titles by the boys’ love manga-ka. The various stories in this book aren’t anymore memorable than her others and they all stick to the considerably small range of plotlines that the artist seems comfortable with.

Read more…


Review: Love Is Like A Hurricane (Vol. 05)


Manga-ka: Tokiya Shimazaki
Publisher: 801Media
Rating: Mature (18+)
Released: July 2008

Synopsis: “When a little fun between the sheets gets a bit too rough, Mizuki ends up breaking Azuma’s glasses. Azuma has an incurable eye disease and his glasses need to be made to exact specifications. Mizuki, being the compassionate uke that he is, tries to make Azuma as comfortable as possible until his glasses are fixed. Of course, Azuma’s most comfortable between Mizuki’s legs with Mizuki flat on his back!! And what is the name of that incurable eye disease, anyway?”

It’s more of the same shenanigans here in volume five of Love is Like A Hurricane. The stories remain pretty episodic, continuing to offer lots of weird and funny situations from the kinky to the cute (and all sex-filled for your entertainment of course). In this volume, the opening chapter takes readers back a couple years in the school life of its characters while the rest of book continues with Mizuki and Azuma sex-capades, including sunburns, tutors and sex in a shrine.

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Review: The Devil’s Secret


Manga-ka: Hinako Takanaga
Publisher: 801Media
Rating: Mature (18+)
Released: May 2008

Synopsis:
“Father Mauro lived a peaceful life in a small town ministering to his community. That is, until he found a wounded demon (?) in the bushes of the church garden. While Raoul looks like a demon, complete with horns and a tail, he doesn’t act like the typical demon. Playful? Yes! Mischievous? Yes! Outright evil? Well… that depends on the definition. Does seducing men of the cloth count as evil – especially if they like it?”

Father Mauro is a kind-hearted priest living in a quaint little town. One day he finds an injured man named Raoul in the garden of his church, and despite the suspicious horns and tail the stranger has, Father Mauro takes him in to nurse back to health. Back on his feet in no time, Raoul is a very friendly individual who has no idea about whether or not he’s a demon. But, what he does know, and makes no secret of, is how much he likes the priest who saved him.

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More Boys’ Love Winter to Winter

How to Capture a MartiniAmazon.ca has a handful of new boys’ love listings today, most previously announced titles and a few new ones.

Some older Digital Manga licenses listed now are How to Capture a Martini and 9th Sleep by Makoto Tateno. 9th Sleep was originally slated for release in December 2007 but returns now with a listing for December 2009. Other titles include the 801Media title Kiss Your Hair by Duo Brand, Great Place High School – Student Council (second volume of the Great Place High School series) by Naduki Koujima, Love Skit by Rie Honjou and The Devil Inside (originally licensed under the name The Devil Within) by Rico Fukiyama. Awaken Forest by Yuna Aoi also has a listing, and I’m pretty sure it’s a previously announced release (though where it was announced escapes me currently).

The titles below, to my knowledge, are new:

Wagamama Go-Man (Light Novel)
Naduki Koujima (Artist), Kyoko Waktatsuki (Author)

Our Kingdom – Arabian Nights
Naduki Koujima
(Connected to the currently DMP-released, Our Kingdom series)

I’ve Moved Next Door To You
Fuuri Misasagi

Reversible (Vol. 01)
Various Artists

Reversible (Vol. 01) is the first release in a series of short stories by a variety of boys’ love artists new to English publication.

Other boys’ love collections to look forward to for the next holiday season come from Yaoi Press with several new bundles of their previously released series, such as a collection of Dany+Dany’s works, the Gothic Yaoi Bundle; the Yaoi Gems Bundle, which includes Stallion, Saihoshi and the first two volumes of the Yaoi Anthology series, and, my personal recommendation of the bunch, a Winter Demon Bundle containing all four volumes of the series.

Most of the books and bundles linked to here are slated for release in winter of next year (gross thinking of next winter while we still suffer this year’s nasty winter bite though isn’t it?).


Review: Black Sun


Manga-ka: Uki Ogasawara
Publisher: 801Media
Rating: Mature (18+)
Released: December 2008

Synopsis: “Gerun Fortress – a coastal stronghold along the Mediterranean Sea. Here, two-hundred Monastic Knights make their final stand against a league of 20,000 Middle Eastern soldiers led by General Jamal Jan. Called “beardless” by some, “shameless” by others, Jamal soon seizes the castle and its acting commander, Prince Leonard de Limbourg. The general’s ideas of how to subjugate the enemy do not conform to the typical rules of warfare, however. In quick order, Prince Leonard finds himself stripped naked and forced to perform in front of his own men. Leonard’s humiliation does not end there; now the general’s captive slave, he is brought back to a strange land and presented before His Majesty the Sultan. Will Jamal’s deviant attentions lead to certain punishment for both he and Prince Leonard?”

A battle of thousands versus mere hundreds leaves the commander, Prince Leonard, looking for a way out that won’t leave the castle stained with the blood of his men. In exchange for their safety, he surrenders himself to the enemies General, Jamal Jan. Forced to engage with Jamal in front of the soldiers present there, Leonard is humiliated, then whisked away to Jamal’s home as a prize of war, one that not only spells obvious troubles for him, but possibly for his captor as well.

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Review: Love Is Like A Hurricane (Vol. 04)


Manga-ka: Tokiya Shimazaki
Publisher: 801Media
Rating: Mature (18+)
Released: March 2008

Synopsis: “Mizuki really wasn’t expecting the cool and reserved class representative, Azuma, to suddenly declare his love for him, yet now they’re an official couple. But Mizuki and Azuma aren’t the only happy couple. Izumi & Akira sneak off to the student council room for a quickie every chance they get! Stormy winds are coming for ours two loveable ukes. With the school festival quickly approaching, their respective semes aren’t getting the tender, loving care that they require…”

It’s more of what readers’ve come to expect from Tokiya Shimazaki as the semes of the story just cannot get enough loving from their respective bottoms. An old friend of Mizuki returns for a visit while fellow classmates prepare for the upcoming student festival. It’s haunted houses, late night bush tumbling and more Izumi & Akira page-time in this fourth volume of Love Is Like A Hurricane.

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Review: Love Circumstances


Manga-ka: Aco Oumi
Publisher: 801Media
Rating: Mature (18+)
Released: March 2008

Synopsis: “Somehow over the summer, Yamaguchi ended up going out with his best friend, Takagiri. But now that they’re together, something’s really been bothering Yamaguchi; why does Takagiri love him so much? It is his shaggy hair that begs to be petted? His often stubborn personality? Or the way he blushes when lavished with Takagiri’s umm… affection!?”

Yamaguchi and Takagiri are best friends and over the summer they’ve started to date. While Takagiri is very open about his affections, and desires, Yamaguchi has trouble expressing his feelings, or accepting Takagiri’s.

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Review: A Foreign Love Affair


Manga-ka: Ayano Yamane
Publisher: 801Media
Rating: Mature (18+)
Released: May 2008

Synopsis: “Celebrating his marriage to the daughter of a rival yakuza clan, the hot-tempered under boss Ranmaru Ohmi soon attracts the passengers attention as much for starting fistfights as he does wearing a kimono wherever he goes. Enter Alberto Valentiano, a handsome Italian stud with a taste for all things Japanese – and a few secrets. Instantly smitten by the passionate Ranmaru, Al uses all his European charm to conquer the object of his desire.”

Ranmaru has just been wed to the daughter of a rival yazuka clan but he seems less than enthusiastic over the prospects of it. Instead he runs about the cruise ship they wed on, getting into fistfights and stirring up attention with his refusal to wear anything but his traditional kimono. It doesn’t take long for him to catch the eye of Alberto, an Italian with a love for the Japanese. It doesn’t take long for the suave, and drink buying, man to whisk Ranmaru into his bed for some ‘cultural exchange’.

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Review: The Sky Over My Spectacles


Manga-ka: Mio Tennohji
Publisher: 801Media
Rating: Mature (18+)
Released: March 2007

Synopsis: “Even though Azumas “spectacle fetish” is infamous, guys are out of the question, and Sorachi is definitely way out of the question – hes too serious for him to even carry on a decent conversation with. One day, however, Azuma finds Sorachi asleep without his glasses, and can’t help himself from kissing him! Glasses may be the thing that attracts Azuma to Sorachi… or is it?”

Azuma has a fetish for people wearing glasses. It’s considered common knowledge in his class how his loves and lays were all with cute girls with spectacles. However, Azuma suddenly finds himself attracted to his fellow male classmate, Sorachi, causing him to wonder if questioning his sexuality is worth his fetish (especially when the object of his attraction seems to hate him). It doesn’t take much imagination to realize where things are going and soon the two are hopelessly in love with each other, cueing all the usual dramatics. This is the title story of the small collection and takes up just over half of the book.

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