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Posts Tagged Manga

Review: Butterflies, Flowers (Vol. 07)

Butterflies, Flowers (Vol. 07)

Manga-ka: Yuki Yoshihara
Publisher: Viz Media
Rating: Mature (18+)
Release Date: June 2011

Synopsis: “Choko Kuze is in a relationship with Masayuki Domoto her current boss and former servant. Now that Masayuki’s ex-girlfriend Kaori has returned, Choko worries that the villianess has too many “hit points” and “magic points” for her to defeat. Choko follows Masayuki and Kaori to a hotel room and barges in unannounced, yet finds herself unprepared for the shocking scene in front of her.”

Butterflies, Flowers volumes have consistently been one of my most-anticipated since the series began. Despite some iffy aspects of an initially one-sided relationship, I fell in love with the adult humour. Anime-related puns, sexual gags and an over-the-top male lead who never failed to react in a way that had you reeling. Now we’re seven volumes in and… I’m not really laughing anymore.

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Review: Black Bird (Vol. 08)

Black Bird (Vol. 08)
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Manga-ka: Kanoko Sakurakoji
Publisher: Viz Media
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Release Date: May 2011

Synopsis: “Raiko, the demon hunter who has been staying at Misao’s house, is determined to save her–even if that’s the last thing she wants! Kyo won’t allow a threat to Misao to go unchecked and plans to take care of the problem in his own special way. Misao, however, hopes that she can broker a peace between Raiko and Kyo before things get out of hand. But when Raiko’s attempts to “free” Misao fail, he hatches a devious new plan that will use Misao’s bond with Kyo to destroy him!”

Raiko has become one of the biggest obstacles in Black Bird as the demons remain rightfully wary of him. Meanwhile Misao struggles to live calmly under the same roof as someone who wants to kill her boyfriend. At this point in the story we’re just waiting for the obvious and this volume feels like one of the most cliched and predictable of the batch. It still manages to wring out some drama but you need to suspend a lot of belief and try to enjoy the show despite easily guessing much of what’s going to happen next.

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Digital Manga Launches Hentai Imprint – Project H

Digital Manga Launches Project H

A few months back listings for some hentai titles popped up on Amazon under Digital Manga‘s 18+ boys’ love imprint: 801Media. With the website‘s promised overhaul delayed, it didn’t seem too far-fetched to assume the entire imprint was undergoing a little transformation. Not a far stretch going from BL porn to hetero porn, right?

Digital Manga couldn’t comment on the listings then but today the books’ appearance on RightStuf comes with a new publisher name, revealing Digital Manga’s newest imprint (warning adult content!): Project H!

A company representative has since confirmed the imprint which will have an official launch later this month. If it doesn’t already speak well enough for itself, the imprint will be a collection of adult hentai manga. My thanks to Digital Manga for answering my request for comment aboutProject H – best of luck with the launch and new titles!

The three launch titles, all one-shots, are:

Shocking Pink! – Riosuke Yasui
Three P – Hiroshi Itaba
Embrace & Bloom – Kuon Michiyoshi

Shocking Pink and Three P are currently listed with release dates late-August. The imprint currently has a placeholder on its website at projecth-books.com. They also already have a Twitter account set-up: @projectHBooks. The imprint, according to Digital Manga, will be “powered by 801Media and distributed by 801Media”. The original hints tie-in!

So what do you think? Is this a smart move by Digital Manga? Hard to argue that porn isn’t a strong seller! I’ll definitely be picking up at least one of these three launch titles when they come out – one, to sate my curiousity, and two, because my humble hentai collection could use some companions on their tiny shelf :)


Review: Sakura Hime (Vol. 01)

Sakura Hime (Vol. 01)
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Manga-ka: Arina Tanemura
Publisher: Viz Media
Rating: Teen (13+)
Release Date: April 2011

Synopsis: “Sakura is the granddaughter of a mysterious moon princess who slew demons with her Blood Cherry Blossom sword. All her life Sakura has been forbidden to look at the full moon without knowing why. Then one night, unhappy over her impending marriage, Sakura gazes up at the moon, only to see a demon attacking her…”

Sakura Hime is one of the most confused books I’ve ever read. Not confusing – it’s linearity is fairly simple to follow – but confused in how it hops around between genres and moods so suddenly. While the story opens with a feudal-Japan love story, things take some surprisingly bleak twists that take things into the territory of dark magical girl stories complete with a Moon Princess, demons and ninjas.

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Review: Bleach (Vol. 35)

Bleach (Vol. 35)
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Manga-ka: Tite Kubo
Publisher: Viz Media
Rating: Teen (13+)
Release Date: June 2011

Synopsis: “Higher Than the Moon While the Soul Reapers are entrenched in bloody one-on-one battles with the Espadas, their sworn enemy Aizen is preparing to make the next move in his elaborate plan. The battlefields of Hueco Mundo will soon give way to another battlefield where the price of losing will prove to be infinitely higher. “

The first volume of Viz Media’s 3-in-1 edition of Bleach comes out this week and finishing this thirty-fifth single volume of the series makes me almost envious of the omnibus format. Never has there been a series that keeps me flipping through the pages as swiftly as I do in Bleach. A part of this is obviously because I want to know what happens next, but predominantly it’s because of how text-light and attack heavy the pages are. I love how fast-paced and energetic it is, you’re completely drawn into the fight sequences! Unfortunately they’ll only last you a couple of minutes at most.

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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?


Review: Arata (Vol. 06)

Arata (Vol. 06)

Manga-ka: Yuu Watase
Publisher: Viz Media
Rating: Older Teen (13+)
Release Date: June 2011

Synopsis: “Hinohara discovers to his horror that his tormentor Kadowaki has followed him to Arata’s world. Recalling his suffering, Hinohara flies into a rage that triggers his transformation into a demonic entity!”

My prayers were answered after the Kadowaki-heavy volume five. He’s considerably less present in this sixth book after Hinohara forces a retreat of the group of opposing Sho. It comes with a price however. We learn that as much power as Hinohara’s weapon has for good, in his hands it still has the capability to cause out of control destruction. For the good of the world he aims to save, Hinohara will need to learn to control that temper, but as readers, it’s fantastic to see him get a chance to vent.

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Review: Arisa (Vol. 02)

Arisa (Vol. 02)
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Manga-ka: Natsumi Ando
Publisher: Kodansha Comics
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Release Date: May 2011

Synopsis: “Unraveling secrets. Who is the mysterious “King” controlling the class? Tsubasa pursues Akira Manabe, a troubled boy who might know the King’s true identity. As Tsubasa closes in on Arisa’s secret, the King makes another move!”

Arisa‘s first impression continues to be its deceptive cover. Bright-eyed shoujo heroines and flowers give away nothing about the actual contents of the book – a continually compelling mystery about a school held in the grip of ‘The King’: a enigmatic figure who grants the wishes of students. When Tsubasa’s twin Arisa jumps from a window and goes into a coma, Tsubasa enters the school under guise of her sister to try and find out why.

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Review: My Girlfriend’s A Geek (Vol. 03)

My Girlfriend's A Geek (Vol. 03)

Author: Pentabu
Manga-ka: Rize Shinba
Publisher: Yen Press
Rating: Teen (13+)
Release Date: May 2011

Synopsis: “Lady Luck may have smiled upon fresh-faced college student Taiga Mutou in the form of his cute coworker Yuiko agreeing to go out with him. But little did he know that this particular lady was rotten through and through! When the couple’s first Christmas rolls around, Taiga decides to tutor a schoolboy for some extra cash. Only Yuiko’s fujoshi filter seems to have rubbed off on Taiga more than he ever anticipated, and now he’s seeing his new part-time gig in a whole new light?! Can Taiga hang on to the job, or will his Christmas plans be thwarted by his own fully ripe and rotten tendencies — not to mention Mr. Perfect, Kashiwabari, who still wants Yuiko for himself?!”

Yuiko is still a geek, specifically a huge boys’ love geek. The facets of her and Taiga’s individual personalities haven’t changed much since the beginning which makes the frustrating nature of their relationship a continued fault. Seeing as how the book is based almost entirely around this, you can see the problem. Some quirks are still entertaining though, and some occasional circumstances sweet, but they only just manage to balance out the moments that just painful – or as in this volume, even a little creepy.

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Review: Tenjo Tenge 2-in-1 Edition (Vol. 01)

Tenjo Tenge 2-in-1 Edition (Vol. 01)

Manga-ka: Oh!Great
Publisher: Viz Media
Rating: Mature (18+)
Release Date: June 2011

Synopsis: “Soichiro Nagi and Bob Makihara were always the meanest street brawlers around. When they enter Todo High they plan on carving out a reputation as th strongest fighters in their new school – easier said than done in a place that’s dedicated to training its students in the art of combat! After realizing they’re the new fish, swimming in a tank full of sharks, Soichiro and Bob enter the Juken fight club as rookie members. However, the Executive Council – the archrival of the Juken Club – soon launches a surprise attack. Soichiro and Bob have a chance to show their stuff, as long as they don’t get curb-kicked in the process!”

Shiny new packaging, pages of full colour artwork and a brand new translation – Viz Media has done fantastic work on bringing Tenjo Tenge back to the North American market. But how does the story hold up today when we feel like we’ve already had our share of series like it before? Martial artist high school students vye for the top spot as strongest there is with busty girls, punked-out guys and a flurry of action to keep your eyes glued to the page along the way. Tenjo Tenge was brought back for a reason and despite its questionable (but fully intact) content, it’s a manga series worth a revisit or a first time trial.

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