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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 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!
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
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.
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.
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!
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.
Thankfully 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?
Author: Ryukishio7
Manga-ka: Karin Suzuragi
Publisher: Yen Press
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Release Date: February 2012
Synopsis: “Based on the evidence detailed in Takano’s notebook, Rena believes she’s uncovered the truth behind Oyashiro-sama’s curse and the mysterious deaths in Hinamizawa! But though Rena’s theory fits perfectly with Hinamizawa’s dark history, it is difficult for Keiichi to believe such an outlandish tale, especially given Takano’s fascination with the occult. However, Rena cannot be diverted from her obsession with the plot she believes will inevitably destroy the village. Will her mounting paranoia cause her to take drastic action once again?!”
Things continue to get darker and more dire in this volume of Higurashi. Rena has fully bought into Takano’s conspiracy theory and believes that the whole village will be wiped out if she doesn’t do something. The only person in Hinamizawa she trusts is her friend, Keiichi. While Keiichi isn’t as sold on Takano’s story, he still tries to give Rena the benefit of the doubt and help her look into it. But, as Rena digs deeper into the goings-ons in Hinamizawa, the more paranoid she gets until even her best friends start to seem like enemies.
Kickstarters have really taken off in recent months with creators and organizations using the crowd-sourcing service to collect the funds they need to get projects off the ground that wouldn’t otherwise be funded. I still hold my reservations towards companies using the service but I’m glad it’s worked out so well for creators getting their original works out to a wanting audience.
Just such a project has been started for Roulette, an original boys’ love style story written by Tina Anderson (Loud Snow) and drawn by Laura Carboni (Love Circles). Laura is looking to raised enough money to fund the completion and print of the book, which will be 255 pages long. Via Kickstarter’s often-used reward system, you can also get a number of extra goodies depending on how much you pledge.
“Mafia accountant Riley Leary finds himself blackmailed by an unseen party when he’s caught stealing from his boss. To make matters worse, he garnishes the interest of the dangerous hit man, Anton Colletti. Will Riley manage to get things right, or will Anton make things go from bad to worse?” (Read a preview chapter)
For those who aren’t familiar with Roulette, it was originally published in Rush, an anthology of boys’ love stories by creators around the world and published in print by Dramaqueen. When the company ceased production, so too did Rush come to an end after only a couple issues. There had been problems with DQ and it’s handling of the project practically since the get-go with subscribers and creators alike left wondering where their dues were. As someone who subscribed to the anthology, I was among those both disappointed and rather miffed when the plug was suddenly pulled. It’s unfortunate when projects like this don’t work out.
If curious about the other creators who contributed to Rush, you can see what they’re up to today via the links below (or under the cut if you’re on the main page!):
Magic knights, vampires and supped up samurai – it’s another batch of new manga releases! You can read the list of shipping titles over at Otaku USA’s On The Shelf article for the week.
I purchased quite a stack from the books out this week with a number of series I’m collecting having with new volumes – 20th Century Boys, Cross Game, Replica and a few more must-haves. I’ll be giving my short thoughts on my recent purchases in the soon-to-return Swag Bag column. I hope readers will take the time to let me know what you bought also!
This past weekend kicked off the Spring/Summer convention season with both Sakura Con and Anime Boston taking place. Several manga publishers were in attendance at them (generally one or the other) and they came bearing news of manga licenses! You can read more about each individual title, and see some corresponding images, by clicking on the provided AnimeNewsNetwork links.
Dark Horse (at Sakura-Con via ANN)
Blood-C – Ranmaru Kotone
Emerald and Other Stories – Hiroaki Samura
Evangelion: Comic Tribute – Multiple Artists (Anthology)
Ore no Imōto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai (Oreimo) – Sakura Ikeda & Tsukasa Fushimi
Of Dark Horse’s licenses, I’m looking forward to Hiroaki Samura’s Emerald and Other Stories. I really like his Blade of the Immortal series and his one-shot released by Dark Horse comics, Ohikkoshi, was also a great read. Emerald and Other Stories looks especially interesting with the old West designs of the image ANN is using to promote it.
Vertical Inc. (at Anime Boston via ANN)
Paradise Kiss – Ai Yazawa
Paradise Kiss was previously released by Tokyopop many a manga-reader year ago and the books have long since been out of print. Vertical Inc’s manga ‘rescue’ of the title will be released as a multi-volume omnibus set that include a new translation and colour pages. I’m not a fan of the series myself because of a hair-pulling worthy ending (not my idea of a romantic end!) but the character drama and fashion aspects of the story still made it a good read. The first Paradise Kiss book will be out this fall.
Yen Press (at Sakura Con via ANN)
Alice in the Country of Hearts: My Fanatic Rabbit – QuinRose & Delico Psyche
Anything and Something – Kaoru Mori
Blood Lad – Yūki Kodama
The Misfortune of Kyon & Koizumi – Multiple Artists (Anthology)
Thermae Romae – Mari Yamazaki
Triage X – Shoji Sato
Umineko When They Cry – Ryukishi07 & Kei Natsumi
Edit: You can read synopsises for all of Yen Press’s new title announcements via their website. They also announce via that post they’ll be releasing the last three volumes of their manhwa series, Chocolat, as a single omnibus book late this year.
Yen Press has a great assortment of different titles in this list, something for just about any of their readers based on their existing library. Of the batch the most interesting to me looks like Kaoru Mori’s Anything and Something because of how in love I am with A Bride’s Story (which Yen Press is currently releasing). It’s going to be a collection of stories released in a large trim, hardcover edition similar to how they’re already doing A Bride’s Story. It’ll also include some full colour illustrations.
It’s interesting seeing another Alice in the Country of Hearts license. The series gained popularity when Tokyopop began releasing it and has since been picked up in various of its incarnation by both Seven Seas and Yen Press. With what looks like a lot of scrambling to grab a hold of whatever parts of this franchise is available, I hope it works out as a strong seller!
Not a bad year for manga licenses so far and it’s only April. Good signs, right?
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