Genkaku Picasso

Welcome to Kuriousity

News, reviews and features with a focus on manga, self-published works and a Canadian perspective. Enjoy fulfilling your Kuriousity!

SITE RETIRED - Thank you for the years of support and readership!

Posts Tagged June

Super Savings: Fumi Yoshinaga Edition

Super Savings: Fumi Yoshinaga

August’s Manga Moveable Feast – an assortment of articles from a variety of bloggers about a single manga topic – is about Fumi Yoshinaga, manga artist extraordinaire. There’re already lots of great posts for the MMF about her books, her art style and her storytelling methods so I highly recommend following the updates.

For my contribution, I’ve compiled sources where you can buy Fumi Yoshinaga’s books online. We’re lucky to have so many to choose from and collect  – just compiling this list was a great reminder. While there’re a variety of places online and in-store to purchase her books, I’ve tried to find the cheapest options to make it that much easier to start, add to or finish your Yoshinaga library.

Read more…


Review: Men of Tattoos (2)

Men of Tattoos
Buy From Amazon.ca!Buy From Amazon.com!

Manga-ka: Yuiji Aniya
Publisher: Digital Manga
Rating: Mature (18+)
Release Date: June 2011

Synopsis: “Sweet, delicate flowers and killer animals…they spring to life on the tattooed backs of the underworld’s most infamous men. But does love have a chance to bloom in a world of sin that’s steeped in perpetual inky night? And in the midst of the crime-filled chaos, is there a passion so powerful that it can lift a soul right out if its body?”

Men of Tattoos is the kind of story that leaves you feeling there really is no such thing as the good guy. While the lack of a stereotypical happy ending gives the stories a sense of realism, they also make the entire experience a rather pessimistic one.

Read more…


Review: Men of Tattoos

Men of Tattoos
Buy From Amazon.ca!Buy From Amazon.com!

Manga-ka: Yuiji Aniya
Publisher: Digital Manga
Rating: Mature (18+)
Release Date: June 2011

Synopsis: “Sweet, delicate flowers and killer animals…they spring to life on the tattooed backs of the underworld’s most infamous men. But does love have a chance to bloom in a world of sin that’s steeped in perpetual inky night? And in the midst of the crime-filled chaos, is there a passion so powerful that it can lift a soul right out if its body?”

Men of Tattoos is frustrating because of how close it comes to being great but just ends up as a mess. There are a lot of good elements: the art is pretty with a different style than your usual yaoi and the story is willing to go to some pretty dark places, fitting for a manga with a cast full of criminals. But the narrative never really comes together ultimately making this an unsatisfying read.

Read more…


Swag Bag: All The RightStuf With BL, Kai and Viz

Canada Post recently announcing their rotating strike was already bad news on its own but I was doubly cranky about it as my box of RightStuf goodies was presumably trapped somewhere between here and there. Luck was on my side though and on the morning the strike was set to start, my box arrived!

Replica (Vol. 01)Taking advantage of their Digital Manga sale a little while back, I picked up a bunch of my must-have titles at prices I couldn’t possibly refuse! Paying their sale price on the US price, and the Canadian dollar as it is, I got each book for 50% off what I would’ve paid here.

Continuing current series, I bought Target in the Finder (Vol. 03), Kizuna Omnibus (Vol. 02) and Tyrant Who Falls In Love (Vol. 02). Now that I’ve got a couple volmes of Kizuna and Finder, it’s time to retire my BeBeautiful version to the storage bins. I also purchased Replica (Vol. 01) and Countdown 7 Days (Vol. 01). Both are shonen (I think?) series that I was able to get an early preview of from Digital Manga. I really liked them both and hope they still get a chance to impress people despite being hidden within DM’s big boys’ love library.

Back to the boys’ love, I got one of BLU’s final publications: Crimson Snow. It’s a one-shot title that I’ve been dying to have in my hand since I saw the gorgeous cover on Amazon last year. Learning the plot only furthered my want so it was the first to have its plastic covering ripped off. I also picked up the last two volumes of breath – a five volume BL series by the so far one-series company Yaoi Generation who’s been disappointedly quiet since last year.

Crimson SnowAnd because a RightStuf purchase isn’t complete without some anime, I happily took advantage of the Funimation sale to buy Dragonball Z Kai Parts 2-4 and the second half of the series Welcome to the NHK.

Buying back on more local soil, I visited our big bookstore Chapters as the customary before-and-after seeing a movie ritual (aka, it’s right next door to the biggest theatre). Last week I was thrilled to get a copy of A Bride’s Story from Yen Press. It’s a really gorgeous book and you’ll want to spend some time oogling the hard cover design before  you even crack it open.

This upcoming week is Viz Media‘s huge shipping list, which generally always happens the first week of the month. This often means a big armful of books for me and this month was no exception, especially with some of my absolute favourites out. Books carried to the check-out included Pokemon Adventures (Vol. 13), Bleach (Vol. 35), Blue Excorcist (Vol. 02) and Toriko (Vol. 05). I also bought Full Metal Alchemist 3-in-1 (Vol. 01) because of a friends’ recommendation. To try and round out the shonen just a little, I also bought Grand Guignol Orchestra (Vol. 03) – battling doll-like zombies with music while wearing Victorian gothic attire!

Thankfully I just finished a big Spring cleaning revamp of my manga bookshelves (which of course included adding a new one), so there’s plenty of space to start adding in my new goodies. That said, I’ll be selling a couple boxes full at this upcoming Animaritime so East Coast Canadians have another reason to come enjoy the event ;)

So what was in your swag bag this week?


Super Savings: Loonie Manga Deals at Amazon.ca

Loonie Manga Deals at Amazon.ca

Amazon always has some of the best pricing for purchasing books online and occasionally even manga gets the extra special discount treatment, such as Amazon.ca’s Loonie Deals. I was spelunking through the discounted section today and found some manga titles sitting there at some ‘get ’em while you can’ prices:

Steal Moon (Vol. 02) (BL)
$11.36 (CAN) – 31% OFF

Devil Within (Vol. 02)
$9.03 – 40% OFF

Lover’s Pledge (BL)
$9.35 (CAN) – 43% OFF

Love Master A (Vol. 01)
$7.45 (CAN) – 50% OFF

Venus Versus Virus Omnibus (Vol. 01)
$7.04 (CAN) – 59% OFF

A-I Revolution (Vol. 04)
$3.85 (CAN) – 74% OFF

Inukami Omnibus (Vol. 01)
$11.72 (CAN) – 37% OFF

IDOL Pleasures
$9.77 (CAN) – 41% OFF

A-I Revolution (Vol. 01)
$8.17 (CAN) – 45% OFF

King of the Lamp (Vol. 01)
$6.57 (CAN) – 56% OFF

Your Honest Deceit (Vol. 02) (BL)
$5.13 (CAN) – 68% OFF

What’s most interesting and worth a look about these titles is the majority are out of print series. Several of from the now-defunct Go!Comi, and there’s a boys’ love title from DramaQueen. Newer titles are the two omnibus collections from Seven Seas and offer a great value for some huge books with hefty page counts!


Review: Only The Ring Finger Knows (Vol. 02)

Reviewer: Jaime Samms
Only The Ring Finger Knows (Vol. 02)

Manga-ka: Satoru Kannagi (Author), Hotaru Odagiri (Artist)
Publisher: June
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Release Date: July 2006

Synopsis: “After all the studying he did for his exams, sacrificing time with his boyfriend Yuichi, Wataru gets a measly C-average on his summer prep test. Yuichi’s college classmate Asaka offers to tutor him, and he eagerly accepts. Wataru finds Asaka’s cool beauty and attitude strikingly similar to that of Yuichi’s, and subconsciously becomes vulnerable to his advances. For the first time in their relationship, Yuichi becomes enraged. Will they be able to overcome this new obstacle?”

When I started out reading this second volume of Only the Ring Finger Knows, I expected more tension between Asaka and Yuichi. Throughout the story, I kept expecting Asaka to step up and try to win Wataru’s affections. It seemed so obvious this is where the author was headed with this story. Instead, she spends a great deal of the book endearing Asaka not only to Wataru, but to her readers as well.

Read more…


Review: Right Here, Right Now (Vol. 02)

Reviewer: Shannon Fay
Right Here, Right Now (Vol. 02)

Manga-ka: Souya Himawari
Publisher: June
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Release Date: February 2011

Synopsis: “At the war’s height, Takakage and Mizuo once again cross paths. The two embrace, profess their unending love for each other, and swear mutual oaths…but there is talk of Takakage getting married. With their personal crisis and the war ripping apart the nation, how will the two men be able to stay connected?”

Right Here, Right Now is a very enjoyable time travel romance. In this volume the main character Mizuo has to decide between staying in the past with Takakage, a local lord he’s fallen for, or return to his life in the present. While it’s not the most unique dilemma (if you’ve read even a chapter of Fushigi Yugi you’ve seen Miaki sweat over the exact same problem), it’s still well done here.

Read more…


Super Savings: EverythingYaoi and Clearance Doesn’t Hurt Either!

Everything Yaoi Clearance

Sales come and sales go but many online sites have sales on 24/7. EverythingYaoi.com, a site that earns its name, has a handy Clearance section where they list just what it sounds like – items on clearance you can get for up to 50% off the cover price (and sometimes more).

Of the books currently listed, below are my top recommendations:

Going in alphabetical order, the first two books I’d recommend added to any boys’ love shopping cart is Can’t Win With You!. The series is three volumes long and while volume one isn’t on clearance, Can’t Win With You (Vol. 02) and Can’t Win With You (Vol. 03) are with each priced at $4.99/US each. The series is about a cast of amusing, often sexually explorative and teasing teenage boys in an all boys’ school, drawn by Yukine Honami, whose works have been published many times since by Digital Manga. The story itself is written by Satosumi Takaguchi who wrote Shout Out Loud! which was published by BLU.

Two other second-half volumes I’d commend are Passion (Vol. 03) and Passion (Vol. 04). This series has always had a special place in my yaoi-loving heart as one of the first (if not the very first) strictly boys’ love stories to be published in English (excluding Tokyopop‘s early fare in the genre). I remember the day I bought volume one the day it came out… ah the memories and the first of many purchases. The series itself is pretty standard genre-fare but it’s sweet and fluffy and has those great classic cliches of student-teacher relations and starting said relations off on the seriously wrong foot.

Two other Digital Manga series worth adding to your bookshelf from the clearance selection are Moon and Sandals (Vol. 01) by Fumi Yoshinaga and Princess Princess (Vol. 02) by Mikiyo Tsuda. The first is part one of a two book series wherevolume one gets you attached to the characters and the following book proves a steamy follow-up. Princess Princess isn’t really a boys’ love story but pretty boys, teasing and crossdressing definitely makes it an applicable crossover for many fans.

And last but not least, a one-shot from Yaoi Press, the original boys’ love publisher affiliated with EverythingYaoi.com. The book is titled Surge and is a cute love story between a surfer and book nerd. It’s got some funny moments and an adorable art style plus one-shots are always a great cart topper. All in one!

Though these titles are just some of those in the site’s clearance section, it’s also recommended you check out their other sale sections to see what books from different publishers they’ve got on discount as well. Shipping prices can get a little hefty though so be sure to read through the FAQ section when making your calculations. Shop on, boys-love collectors!


Digital Manga Adds Stack of New BL Titles for New Year

Digital Manga Adds Stack of New BL Titles for New Year

A bit of an unexpected short hiatus for Kuriousity this past week but leave it to Digital Manga to surprise us with a bunch of new license announcements to start off the new year with a pleasant jump-start.

Originally these titles were announced through their Facebook page, a bit of an inconvenience as it requires you to be a Facebook user to see the news. Folks were quick to point manga fans in the direction though and soon enough Digital Manga’s Sales Manager, Yoko Tanigaki, was linking to the titles via her Twitter account. Impressively, and always a huge brownie point winner with me, was that within hours all the new titles were posted to Digital Manga’s website with covers, info and release dates. This all before the titles were posted to retail sites for an assortment of unconfirmed speculation as well. Thumbs up for being so on the ball!

That said, the new titles, predominantly boys’ love one-shots, announced were:

An Even More Beautiful Lie – Kei Kanai (July 2011)
Warning! Whispers of Love – Puku Okuyama (July 2011)
Sky Link – Shiro Yamada (July 2011)
A Liar in Love – Ueda Kiyo (June 2011)
A Fallen Saint’s Kiss – You Higashino
Tonight’s Take Out Night! – Akira Minazuki (June 2011)
I Give To You – Maki Ebishi (June 2011)
This Night’s Everything – Akira Minazuki (June 2011)
Entangled Circumstances – Kikuko Kikuya (June 2011)

… and some future volumes of continuing series:

Seven Days: Friday to Saturday – Rihito Takarai (August 2011)
Yashakiden: The Demon Princess Omnibus (Vol. 04) – Hideyuki Kikuchi (June 2011)
Angelic Runes (Vol. 02) – Makoto Tateno (June 2011)
Dog x Cat (Vol. 02) – Yoshimi Amasaki (June 2011)

It was an eye-opener to me when I learned (a while back now) that many manga series are licensed book to book and not as a whole series upfront. I really like seeing that Digital Manga has started announcing their x-number volume acquisitions as they happen, even if they don’t seem as exciting to most as a brand new title. It’s always good to see the series we’re already attached to getting continued attention from the company even with their newer titles coming in.

As for the new titles, based on the pretty covers, I’m most eager for Warning! Whispers of Love thanks to the unique looking design layout. It looks like it’d have more of a story than your standard love-you-love-you-more romance. But it looks to be another assortment of short stories, which tend to be more miss than hit for me, but I can remain optimistic! Going by just pretty-levels of artwork though, I’m intrigued by Tonight’s Take-Out Night!. So nice looking!

Going by those release dates, there’s going to be a big surplus of new boys’ love in the summer. There isn’t a lot of information listed just yet but with what we have, are there any here you’re most looking forward to checking out?


ANN Review: My Bad!

ANN Review: My Bad!

New review of mine posted over at AnimeNewsNetwork for a one-shot boys’ love called My Bad!, published by June manga:

“This book’s title speaks for itself like an apology from the artist. Either stagnant and predictable, or unnerving and unpleasant, there’s little to recommend about this boring batch of tropes that falls short of even making fun of itself.”

I’ve often found boys’ love one-shot collections mediocre but this one took it to a new level because even when it did try to step out of BL-bounds and be quirky, it was just gross or poorly executed. And some of the artwork, on the chapter illustrations in particular, were so disproportionately drawn! I get to wonder how those make it past editors sometimes. I’ve heard good things about the manga artist, Rize Shinba, so I hope My Bad! is an anomaly.


Take me back to the top!