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Easily the most anticipated panel of this year’s Yaoi Con, Digital Manga brought out the big guns as promised in recent weeks to deliver to the eager audience. Deb Aoki and The Yaoi Review were both present and live-updating the panels so thanks to them both for the information.
You can read all about it under the cut –
Halloween is almost here – I hope everyone already has a spooky stack of books to get them in the mood this year! I sat down this week to put together a list of books I would recommend for readers but it occurred to me I already did that last year, and most of those books will forever stay on my lists of must-reads for Halloween.
You can check out my recommendations from last year which still sport some of my favorite titles:
Good Reads for Halloween (Part One) – Black Sun Silver Moon, Death Note, Kieli, Nightmares for Sale, Tokyo Babylon, Pathos, Mail, Fairy Cube, Ghost Hunt, Twilight of the Dark Master
Good Reads for Halloween (Part Two) – God Child, Alive, Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, Pet Shop of Horrors, Beyond My Touch, Daemonium, XXXHolic, MW, Parasyte, Cat Eyed Boy
Here at Kuriousity we’ve also enjoyed some great books this month for Halloween reviews such as Cowa!, Rin-Ne (Vol. 01), Cat Eyed Boy (Vol. 02), The Antique Gift Shop (Vol. 09) and Nightschool (Vol. 02).
My top recommendations for Halloween reads still remain Mail, Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service (post image credit) and Ghost Hunt – three series that should not be missed if you like your books leaving you with a reason to keep the lights on! And a newer recommendation for those who love the spirit of Halloween, but don’t need the scares that’re often associated with it, is the recently released Soul Eater from Yen Press (which you can expect a review for just in time for Halloween!).
What about you? Please share your suggestions and favourites – I’d definitely love some more ideas for what to sit down with and enjoy once the candy, costumes and chaos of Halloween dies down this Saturday evening :)
Happy Halloween!
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Manga-ka: Julietta Suzuki
Publisher: Tokyopop
Rating: Teen (13+)
Release Date: September 2009
Synopsis: “What does it mean to be truly human…? Odette is a lovely android built by Professor Yoshizawa. Curious to find out what it’s like to be human, she convinces the Professor to enroll her in high school. And thus, with a new group of friends in tow, Odette sets out to discover the true meaning of life as a human, where even the simple stuff is an adventure!”
Karakuri Odette brings us a fresh breath in the realm of android manga. In place of the more escapist concepts of A.I Love You or Absolute Boyfriend, we are given a fairly realistic, laid back take on what it would be like if androids interacted with humans.
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Manga-ka: Naoki Urusawa
Publisher: Viz Media
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Release Date: October 2009
Synopsis: “With the Friend’s identity still a mystery, the countdown to the apocalypse continues, day by day – for on December 31, 2000, humanity will meet its final hour. Hoping to get as many people who knew about their group’s emblem involved in their clandestine efforts, Kenji’s crew reaches out to their childhood antagonists: the twins Yanbo and Mabo. Back when they were kids, Yanbo and Mabo terrorized Kenji and company to no end. As adults, and with a crisis looming, will the evilest brothers in history now fight on the side of good?”
Hiding out in the sewer with a handful of explosives, a city on their tail and a world-ending conspiracy just around the corner, Kenji’s humble army is small but dedicated to stopping those who have tainted their childhood memories on a dangerously global scale. The end of the 20th century is upon them, but the final prophecy is as well, and the group knows full well that the world may never be same when the 21st century hits – if they live to see it. Warning: Review contains potential spoilers.
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Manga-ka: Rumiko Takahashi
Publisher: Viz Media
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Release Date: October 2009
Synopsis: “Sakura’s curiosity about the mysterious Rinne draws her deeper into an amazing world on the boundary between the living and the dead. Helping Rinne is one thing, but will tagging along with him leave her trapped in the afterlife? And does Rinne really know what he’s doing? Dealing with the afterlife isn’t easy, especially when you don’t know all the rules!”
Like many a manga-character before her, Sakura Mamiya can see spirits – but she’s gotten used to it. One day a student in her class finally decides to show up except only she can see him. She soon learns that the student, Rinne, an oddly dressed redhead, accepts money and food in exchange for his services. His profession? Shinigami …well, sort of.
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Manga-ka: Kazuo Umezu
Publisher: Viz Media
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Release Date: June 2008
Synopsis: “A chilling concoction of dark vignettes dripping with the macabre, the grotesque and the absurd. Hated by humans and demons alike, Cat Eyed Boy dwells in the shadows of the human world. Cat Eyed Boy continues his battle with the Band of One Hundred Monsters, a group seeking revenge upon the corrupt humans who have made them outcasts.”
Cat Eyed Boy is a horror comic that is actually scary. The monsters in each arc have fantastic, spine-tingling designs, but what makes them truly frightening is the fact that they represent more realistic threats such as sickness, death and deformity. Horror is our way of realizing abstract fears and transforming them into forms that can be defeated. Though, in this volume of ‘Cat Eyed Boy,’ the good guys don’t always beat the monsters and win.
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Manga-ka: Akira Himekawa
Publisher: Viz Media
Rating: All Ages
Release Date: October 2009
Synopsis: “The Green, Red and Blue Links reach Death Mountain, where they challenge Shadow Link and Violet Link in battle. Then, inside the Fire Temple they learn a terrible secret about the Dark World and the evil power behind Vaati. To defeat this great enemy, the different colored Links must find a way to become one again in order to harness the power of the Four Sword!”
Part one of this story arc left us with an unnerving betrayal as the battle between Links becomes two against three. But with characters’ motives still unclear, and the evil Ganon pulling the strings of the dark lord Vati, Hyrule and its Princess only have the remainder of this volume to see their heroes reconnected and the country saved.
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Manga-ka: Kiminori Wakasugi
Publisher: Viz Media
Rating: Mature (18+)
Release Date: June 2009
Synopsis: “By all appearances, Soichi Negishi is a sweet, well-mannered boy who loves Swedish pop music, trendy boutiques, and all things fashionable. But at the same time he’s also Krauser II, front man for Detroit Metal City, an indie death metal band whose popularity increases by the day. Once the DMC makeup goes on and Soichi takes the stage, his natural talent as a death metal god can’t help but flourish. Is this the band he’s truly destined to be in?”
For those who have grown bored with schoolgirls, robots, samurai and pretty boys, VIZ’s Signature imprint has proven a salvation, offering such stellar series as Monster, Golgo 13, and the endearingly post-apocalyptic children’s series Drifting Classroom. They’ve recently reinvigorated the line with a range of over-sized trim titles that offer more variety from the normal manga fare, and Detroit Metal City is a great example of the diversity they’re bringing us.
Kodansha’s recent foray into North American releases has been a hot topic among blogs for the last couple of months, leading up to this week’s release of the first volumes of Akira and Ghost In The Shell.
I took the time to flip through both books, and while having heard tell of what readers would find, I was still a little surprised. The previous release of these series were by Dark Horse who published them both with a large cut-size, flipped pages and some edited content. Kodansha Comics’s books are re-releases of this material – the same translation, edits and presentation as the first editions from what I could see at quick comparison. The differences are minor, including soft covered first editions, a short ‘thank you’ foreword to Kodansha from the creator and the inclusion of Kodansha Comic’s logo on the spine. It’s difficult to tell if the print quality is more or less the same as Dark Horse’s since my prior copies are now several years old.
While Kodansha’s copies are good for those who missed picking up Dark Horses’, the convenience factor falls a little short when Dark Horses’ hard copy editions are still widely available in many areas (and even at cheap discount bin prices on top of that).
Though the re-release of these two -(albeit popular) titles warranted a little initial disappointment as Kodansha’s opening act, there was still anticipation of the potential for unedited, unflipped versions. However with the realization that the series’ are both simply repackaged editions of old material, it’s hard to get all that excited. On top of that, can Kodansha find a strong foothold in the North American market, both in the hearts and wallets of fans, when reselling something much of the target fan-base already owns?
Publisher Weekly’s interview with Kodansha USA’s publishing head, Yoshiio Irie, stated that Kodansha will soon begin announcing more titles with a focus on their older bestsellers. Question still is – will they be bestsellers English readers have already seen, bought or read or will Kodansha tackle some of their own material from scratch?
My hope is the latter, for even I, someone who wasn’t very crazy for Akira but still owns the old books, can’t imagine there’s a huge market for the redux choice. Still, I do really want to see Kodansha find success in a market that’s seen so much uncertainty in recent years, and though their frugality in this labour-saving endeavour fits neatly amidst the belt-tightening faced by manga publishers, it really puts a dent in the hype factor.
You can read more readers’ reactions over at the AnimeNewsNetwork and Mania.com‘s forums.
But what do you think? Did Kodansha start smart with these re-releases or do you think the risk of new material would’ve been a better gamble for pleasing the buyers?
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Manga-ka: Taeko Watanabe
Publisher: Viz Media
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Release Date: June 2006
Synopsis: “Sei devotes herself to becoming an ideal bushi, or warrior, and accompanies the Mibu-Roshi to Osaka. There, she finds the man responsible for killing her father and brother. Desperate to avenge her family, Sei uncovers his hideout with the help of a friend, but they are soon discovered and her companion is slain. Is Sei ready for the hardships of the Mibu-Roshi? Or should she return home to lead the life of a normal girl?”
The first chapter of this book cracked me up, sharing with readers an honest peek into the mind of Sei, living a life among men who are anything but as refined as she had envisioned. Smelly, rude and perverse, she sees the honest side of men and has no plans to be a part of it. When her plan to rise to the ranks of ‘a real man’ is taken into the hands of the boisterous Serizawa, Sei is suddenly whisked away to find her masculinity in a misinterpreted manner.
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