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Posts Tagged Oh!Great

Otaku USA: On The Shelf – February 27, 2013

Otaku USA: On The Shelf - February 27, 2013

It’s a Yen Press and Kodansha Comics week! My top picks of the books released yesterday are Until Death Do Us Part (Vol. 03), and – to my surprise- The Misfortune of Kyon & Koizumi. Those two were the only thing I really enjoyed about the Haruhi franchise, so reading a collection of shorts about them with some boys’ love jokes proved pretty entertaining.

You can read my thoughts on this week’s releases over at my weekly On The Shelf article for Otaku USA.

Air Gear (Vol.27) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Betrayal Knows My Name (Vol.05) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Battle Angel Alita: Last Order (Vol.17) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Cage of Eden (Vol.09) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Kitchen Princess Omnibus (Vol.03) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
The Misfortune of Kyon & Koizumi [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Nabari no Ou (Vol.13) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Pandora Hearts (Vol.14) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Triage X (Vol.02) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Umineko When They Cry: Legend of the Golden Witch (Vol.02) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Until Death Do Us Part (Vol.03) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]


Otaku USA: On The Shelf – December 19, 2012

Otaku USA: On The Shelf - December 19, 2012

There are no new manga volumes out this week, but it’d come as no surprise if certain events have readers a bit behind on prior releases. Sort of like my delay in posting about the books that hit store shelves on December 19th – oops!

You can read my thoughts on that week’s books over at Otaku USA’s On The Shelf article.

Danza [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Dorohedoro (Vol.08) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Oh My Goddess (Vol.43) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Paradise Kiss (Vol.02) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Tenjo Tenge (Vol.10) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Vagabond VizBIG (Vol.11) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]


Year In Review: Lissa’s Favourites of 2011

Lissa’s Favourites of 2011

There are no shortage of ‘Best Of’ lists this time of year. While I like popping around to different peoples’ sites and seeing what they thought, it’s a bit of a frustration that I can’t seem to write one myself. How people choose a solid list containing five or ten favourites, from across different genres and subject matters, is just something I can’t seem to muster the brain power for. Not enough conviction I suppose? There’s just so much to love!

But I can’t overlook the perfect chance to look back at all the great titles a year had to offer and 2011 had some really fantastic ones. So then where is this going, oh rambling one, you ask? My semi-traditional equivalent to the yearly best of – the random Lissa’s favourites and best-ofs list! Which really just means you get a lot more titles broken into a lot more categories so I can remain a lot more loving to a lot more series. And in some cases not so loving… From the Best Release Quality to the Favourite Fan Service and even to the most Gag Worthy – here are a bunch of my favourite titles from 2011!

Read more…


Swag Bag: Samurai, Incubus, Rabbits and Tyrants

Swag Bag

My bedroom is finally under control! A week of vacation as I transition to a new job plus a very release-heavy month, not to mention a few trips to my local library, have ensured every inch of my desk, floor and shelves were littered with material waiting to be read and watched. Upside to cleaning your room at least is there’s almost always something you’ll discover  you haven’t read yet, or perhaps just want to revisit.  Naturally among the now organized chaos are a bunch of the things I bought this past week:

For my birthday I received a gift card to Chapters. While I avoid buying from there in-store (too expensive!), their online prices are still pretty good, especially for the more niche material and some harder to find titles. Thus, it was just that I filled my digital shopping cart with.

Mister Mistress (Vol. 01)Boys’ love made up the bulk of my online purchase with my most eagerly awaited purchase being the hardcopy edition of Digital Manga‘s Rabbit Man, Tiger Man (Vol. 01). Second to that fun and charming tale of yakuza/doctor love, was Tyrant Who Falls In Love (Vol. 03). Never enough Hinako Takanaga on the bookshelves! Even Yen Press had some boys’ love to offer me with Tale of the Waning Moon (Vol. 02) and I picked up an older title I missed from Deux Press called Mister Mistress (Vol. 01). It’s almost unfortunate I enjoyed it so much since volume two is looking very tricky to find.

Using up the last pennies of my credit, I bought One Pound Gospel (Vol. 04) which is the end of the series. On the other end of series collection, I bought Descendants of Darkness (Vol. 01) which finishes off my collection of that series as well.

Next up it was into my local comic store, Strange Adventures, where I picked up the new releases (which if you’re curious about the complete recent lists for, check out my Otaku USA articles, On The Shelf). Viz Media dominated my purchasing stack, which I suppose by now should stop seeming like an anomaly.

I was really excited to get my hands on Kaze Hikaru (Vol. 19) – it’s one of my favourite series but there’s a long wait between books. It’s a really long series too so I’m always worried Viz Media will drop it. Everyone buy the series so this doesn’t happen! It’s really charming and wonderfully drawn.

Pokemon Adventures (Vol. 14)Also in the pile of awesome swag was 20th Century Boys (Vol. 16), Otomen (Vol. 11), Tenjo Tenge (Vol. 02) and Natsume’s Book of Friends (Vol. 08). A pleasant surprise was the size of Pokemon Adventures (Vol. 14). It’s notably thicker than past volumes and works really well with the content considering it’s the huge climax of all the plot lines coming together since volume one. Pokemon and trainers everywhere!

And lastly, to make my shopping bags all the heavier, a got a few volumes of manga from the library. Looking for something lighthearted and fluff-heavy, I borrowed Fall In Love Like A Comic (Vol. 01). A really fun discovery though was Saint Young Men (Vol. 01-03). I can’t read Japanese but that didn’t stop me from borrowing the books so I can oogle the amusing pictures and hope all the more someone licenses it. Buddha and Jesus living together in an apartment – how could you not be curious?

That was my Swag Bag this week – what about you?


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.

Read more…


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