Kuriousity | manga reviews and news

Posts Tagged Sailor Moon

NYAF 2011: Kodansha Comics

By Lissa Pattillo on Tuesday, October 18, 2011

A downside to larger cons is that panel rooms can’t always hold everyone who wants to attend. This was the case with me and the Kodansha Comics panel at this year’s New York Anime fest. A wait in a long, long line ended with me being told the room could hold no more – alas! I’d forgotten that Kodansha had brought the creator of Fairy Tale, Hiro Mashima, to the convention and his presence at the panel filled it to standing room only (minus any remaining standing room so I’m told!).

Internet and dedicated bloggers still ensured the news got out to the masses though, as well as two press releases. This means the news for you without the 1500+ words from me! You can read about their new license, upcoming omnibus editions and their digital launch under the cut.

Swag Bag: Sailor Moon! And Other Awesome Things

By Lissa Pattillo on Friday, September 30, 2011

2 Comments »

Every week when I hit the local comic store for new books, I’m excited. I love buying new books and generally enjoy just about everything I buy. Some weeks though just have an extra-high ratio of awesome. This was one of those weeks!

Kodansha Comics‘ editions of Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (Vol. 01) and Codename: Sailor V (Vol. 01) – I have them. Turns out I somehow wanted them even more than I thought because the emotional reaction I had to holding them in my hand was a surprise even to myself. Much relief and happiness. They’re adorable books on the outside and were lots and lots of fun on the inside. It hurt to finish the first Sailor Moon and not have a second volume to leap into.

Thankfully I had other volumes of manga I was jumping up and down in anticipation for (not literally of course but you get the idea) – XXXHolic (Vol. 17) and Arisa (Vol. 04). XXXHolic is one of my favourite manga series and I’m thrilled there’re still new volumes to look forward to. I get caught off-guard every time I see a new volume or listing for it with DelRey‘s name still attached though – it and Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles were the only manga series the company held onto and it’s easy to forget that with Kodansha Comics releasing so many of their previous titles.

Speaking of series that do a good job blending shoujo and shonen elements together in one book (… of which I meant Tsubasa, if you haven’t read it), I bought the new volume of Yuu Watase’s Arata (Vol. 07). I have a love/like relationship with the series – some books really good, some volumes really meh. Flipping through I see more ‘our world’ stuff so I’m looking forward to that. I think there’s a lot of potential for interesting material in that part of the story but it keeps being sidelined.

Viz Media padded this week’s purchases further with House of Five Leaves (Vol. 04), Grand Guignol Orchestra (Vol. 04) and Bakuman (Vol. 06). I’m not sure how I missed this volume of Bakuman for so long but the upside is that if I really like it, I have only a week to wait for the new book. I’ve been liking it more and more with every volume too so the outlook seems good that I’ll really enjoy this one.

Lastly – for manga – I bought Yen Press‘s My Girlfriend’s A Geek (Vol. 04). I like this series for its very in-the-know humour about the genre and fandom but after three volumes, it’s wearing thin. What I really want to see is some evolution in the leads’ relationship where the guy actually confronts how insanely selfish, self-absorbed and demanding his girlfriend is. Fingers crossed?

To end this week’s Swag Bag, while I don’t usually write about the non-manga comics I buy, I have to take a paragraph to point people to the gorgeously released, highly entertaining, absolutely hilarious and completely worth every penny release of Kate Beaton’s Hark! A Vagrant. Instead of going on about what’s so great about it, I’ll simply direct you to her website where you can read the strips and see first hand why everyone should buy this book.

Share on Tumblr

Categories: Features, Swag Bag
Tags: Bakuman, Del Rey, Kodansha Comics, Manga, Sailor Moon, Viz Media, Yen Press, Yuu Watase

Otaku USA: On The Shelf – September 28, 2011

By Lissa Pattillo on Thursday, September 29, 2011

No Comments »

It’s that day again! It’s Wed- wait, no, that was yesterday. Well yesterday was that day – new comic day! And finally the day that Sailor Moon and Sailor V was released through the ‘direct’ market (aka, Diamond Comics) meaning those of us who buy at our comic shops finally have them in hand. But really that was the week before last news.

Back to the now and, while a tiny week, there are a couple titles out I’ve been looking forward to. All the week’s releases can be read over at Otaku USA’s On The Shelf.

The most notable book out this week in my opinion is Stargazing Dog from NBM Publishing. It’s the company’s first time releasing manga and it sounds like they chose an interesting piece of work to debut with. There’s a review of it over at MangaWorthReading that makes me even more eager to find a copy. It does sound like my assumption of needing some tissues handy was right on though – dog stories always manage to make me tear up!

Share on Tumblr

Categories: Release Lists
Tags: Bandai, Kodansha Comics, Manga, Sailor Moon, Seven Seas, Viz Media

Review: Codename Sailor V (Vol. 01)

By Lissa Pattillo on Wednesday, September 28, 2011

2 Comments »

Manga-ka: Naoki Takeuchi
Publisher: Kodansha Comics
Rating: Teen (13+)
Release Date: September 2011

Synopsis: “Minako Aino is a 13-year-old middle school student whose calm, normal life changes when she encounters a talking white cat with a crescent moon on its forehead. The cat introduces himself as Artemis and claims that Minako has the power to transform into the hero Sailor V!”

After many years of wanting and waiting, I now finally own shiny new English editions of Sailor Moon and Sailor V! While both were high on my wishlist, I had enough familiarity with the Sailor Moon manga through past experience that Codename: Sailor V won me over to become first of Naoko Takeuchi’s magical girl epics to be cracked open. Granted the power to transform into a mini-skirt wearing warrior with a magical pen given to her by a talking cat, can Sailor V beat the bad-guys, get the guy and live up to a fan-girl’s expectations? (The answer: Pretty much!)

Otaku USA: On The Shelf – September 14, 2011

By Lissa Pattillo on Tuesday, September 13, 2011

1 Comment »

It’s Sailor Moon week!! Well… for lots of people anyway. Alas not me and many others relying on Diamond Comics and/or overseas shipping. Still, knowing it’s out there this week and coming our way soon is really exciting.

There are a lot of new manga releases this week alongside Sailor Moon however so I’ll have plenty of fantastic books to distract me from the woes of a Moon-less release date. For all the titles out to bookstore shelves this week, my newest On The Shelf article is posted over at Otaku USA.

New volumes of Bunny Drop, Twin Spica, With The Light, Arisa and a handful of new series starting (among others) – plenty for everyone!

Share on Tumblr

Categories: News, On The Shelf, Release Lists
Tags: Bunny Drop, Dark Horse, Kodansha Comics, Manga, Otaku USA, Sailor Moon, Vertical Inc, Viz Media, Yen Press

Swag Bag: Until The Full Moon in the Belly of the Beast

By Lissa Pattillo on Monday, September 12, 2011

7 Comments »

Books, books and more books! Digital manga may be picking up speed but I’m so thankful we still have bookshelves, upon bookshelves of manga to buy. This past week I got a bunch of new titles along with scattered older titles that I missed.

I also secured remaining plans for my trip to New York next month for NYAF/NYCC. Going to the con again is going to fun, meeting new and old acquaintances amazing and then there’s the opportunity to step foot into Kinokuniya again. A place of manga beauty… Anyway! Any other Kuriousity readers going this year?

In terms of goodies bought here at home recently, I was pleasantly surprised to find an early copy of Osamu Tezuka’s The Book of Human Insects. It’s published by Vertical Inc. and is a nice hardcover edition. I wasn’t expecting it to be flipped, since I’m so accustomed to reading their Black Jack books, but at least it doesn’t take long getting used to reading it the other way around.

Adding some new boys’ love to my shelves, I bought the one-shot Midnight Bloom from Digital Manga and two volumes of the Takumi-kun series: Tales Out of Season and Barefoot Waltz. I also bought The Betrayal Knows My Name (Vol. 01) which though not undeniably boys’ love yet, is definitely leaning the way. This one’s an omnibus release which is a format I’m becoming more and more fond of – so much manga in one affordable go!

To my sadness, I bought the last volume of Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit (Vol. 07). It’s not actually the last volume of the series itself but looks like (based on retailer listings) that it’ll be the last one Viz Media is going to release. It’s unfortunate, but I suppose not very surprising as it doesn’t look to have sold very well. Starting something new to try and off-set the abrupt end, I bought my much anticipated Drifters (Vol. 01) from Dark Horse.

Another new series I bought (this one on a total whim because it was there) was Mardock Scramble (Vol. 01) from Kodansha Comics. From them I also bought Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (Vol. 02) and Until the Full Moon (Vol. 01). There was a huge quality contrast between these two titles – Until the Full Moon looked beautiful with a really nice paper stock for the cover. Phoenix Wright however had really low resolution artwork on the cover that was pixelated and fuzzy – it looked like a bootleg product. Not good, Kodansha!

From Viz Media I continued a handful of on-going series with Pokemon: Black & White (Vol. 03), Bleach (Vol. 36) and Toriko (Vol. 06). I’ve already read Bleach and it was really good – a great flashback volume into the pasts of all the Shinigami. Toriko was just really, really, really weird still (they’re fighting a battle inside a giant mammoth’s intestines!) and I can’t help but love it because of that. I then purchased Fall in Love Like a Comic (Vol. 01 – 02), having just recently read and enjoyed the first volume from the library.

Lastly I bought a whole stack of old Tokyopop titles thanks to Strange Adventures‘ great discounted manga section. First I bought Soul Rescue (Vol. 01 – 02) since it’s by the same creator as Otomen, which Viz Media currently publishes. Because the cover looked really pretty, I then bought Million Tears (Vol. 01 – 02). Forget About Love (Vol. 01) was the last of my TP titles and unfortunately never had anything further than that published (so here’s hoping I don’t like it too much?).

Alas it looks like no Sailor Moon for me this week (why, Diamond Comics, why?!) but I’ve still lots and lots to read. Time to get started! So what’s in your Swag Bag this week?

Share on Tumblr

Categories: Features, Swag Bag
Tags: Black Jack, Bleach, BLU, Dark Horse, Kodansha Comics, Manga, Omnibus, Osamu Tezuka, Sailor Moon, Tokyopop, Toriko, Vertical Inc, Viz Media, Yen Press

Super Savings: Manga Galore at BMV Books

By Lissa Pattillo on Sunday, May 29, 2011

No Comments »

Conveniently located on Toronto’s busy (and bound to keep you even busier) Bloor St W, my roommate and I entered what we thought was just your run of the mill used book store. Never know what you can find, right? Well what we found was BMV Books – a three-floor discount bookstore with an entire floor dedicated to comic books, manga and fantasy novels.

The manga sold here is mostly overstock material, meaning it’s likely product sold to them that couldn’t be sold by either the publisher or other companies. They also sell some used material brought in to them by customers. Their selection is vast – from titles over a decade old to titles much more recent, you’ll find a little of everything and all at about 50% off the CDN cover price or less. Typically the books ranged from $3.00-$6.00, depending on the company and format.

We found books as new as the third volume of Vertical’s 7 Billion Needles and Yen Press’s Maximum Ride, to editions as old as Mixx’s Sailor Moon and Magic Knight Rayearth volumes (in surprisingly good condition too). There was something of every genre released in English, including boys’ love and yuri. First edition volumes of Fushigi Yuugi were especially nostalgic to me (my first manga GN purchases!) while I loved the opportunity to fill in my collection with some long-since out of print OEL titles from Tokyopop, NetComics titles (which I have trouble finding anywhere but conventions) and a couple ADV Manga books. All for cheap!

If you’re a manga fan who lives in or around, or is simply visiting, Toronto, then along with their assortment of comic stores, I highly recommend putting Bloor St W’s BMV Books on your list of must-shop stops.

Share on Tumblr

Categories: Features, Super Savings
Tags: 7 Billion Needles, Canada, Manga, Sailor Moon, Tokyopop, Vertical Inc, Viz Media

Swag Bag: Books, Demons, Vampires and Paint

By Lissa Pattillo on Sunday, May 1, 2011

2 Comments »

The Toronto Comic Arts Festival is coming up this week and though I’ve been saving pennies to lavish on the artists there, I had to leave some room in my pre-trip budget for new manga books!

From Viz Media this week I bought Kingyo Used Books (Vol. 03) which has a chapter about someone reading Sailor Moon in it – both nostalgic and well-timed. I also bought March Story (Vol. 02) and I enjoyed it even more than the first volume as it focuses more on the characters. Great atmosphere in this series. It only takes a quick flip through to stare at the artwork to see what I mean.

A little behind on this series but I finally came across a copy of Genkaku Picasso (Vol. 02). I’m expecting lots more of the same weirdness the first volume had and looking forward to it! I rounded out my purchases with a great discount-bin find of Buddha (Vol. 01) to add my Osamu Tezuka collection.

From Seven Seas I bought Blood Alone (Vol. 01) which is omnibus of the first three volumes. I’ve wanted to read this series for a while because of the pretty covers (doesn’t take much for me to give a series at least a fair try!) and having it re-released as a 3-in-1 is the perfect opportunity. It’s also a nice omnibus physically-speaking, very light in hand despite the huge page count and still feels tightly bound.

And lastly I was able to finish at least one of my on-going Tokyopop series by purchasing Mad Love Chase (Vol. 05). The series hasn’t made the most sense in the past couple volumes but I’m a fan of the artist’s work so my fingers are crossed for a somewhat coherent finish.

Next week I plan to write about my non-manga purchases for a change with hopefully a long list of self-published comics I’ll get to buy at TCAF. Until then, what was in your swag bag this week?

Share on Tumblr

Categories: Features, Swag Bag
Tags: Manga, Sailor Moon, Seven Seas, Tokyopop, Viz Media

Kodansha Comics Adds Mew Mew Power and More to Fall Lineup

By Lissa Pattillo on Monday, April 4, 2011

1 Comment »

Kodansha Comics isn’t slowing down after their huge news in March with a handful of new titles announced for their fall line-up later this year.

Tokyo Mew Mew
Love Hina (Omnibus Collection)
Shugo Chara! Chan
@Full Moon

Tokyo Mew Mew and Love Hina were previously released by Tokyopop but will sport new translations for these editions. Shugo Chara! Chan is a sequel to the series Shugo Chara! which was published by Del Rey. Lastly @Full Moon is a sequel series to Kodansha’s previously announced Full Moon series (which in itself was a license rescue from the long-since defunct Brocolli Books). When so many manga readers are left wondering if they’ll even see the next volume of their favourite series, it’s promising seeing a company already license a series and its follow-up in one go.

While Love Hina seems like a no-brainer as a big otaku favourite that’s been long out of print, I’m a little surprised by Tokyo Mew Mew. It was cute but I didn’t think had enough following to warrant a completely new release. Then again it might be a good warm-up to their upcoming Sailor Moon release to bring in a whole new generation of readers to magical girls (plus the anime version played on television here as well). I like the addition of the Full Moon series though because, though not explicity boys’ love, it still teeters in that territory more than well enough to show Kodansha’s not afraid to test the waters of the genre.

With the slew of titles, including the much-requested Sailor Moon, Kodansha continues to go above and beyond what I think many expected after their lacklustre introduction to the North American market. My concern now though is how they’ll deliver. We’ve many reasons to believe it’ll be good – from their manga-ruler status in Japan, to the talented staff we know to be working for them already – but until we get a pure Kodansha-made book in our hands, it’s hard to jump for complete joy just yet. Some giddy jigs for sure though.

Their first new titles are coming out in May – Arisa (Vol. 02), Rave Master (Omnibus) and Ninja Girls (Vol. 05). All three of which are continuations of Del Rey or Tokyopop series so we may not see much different in the form or design of the books. While the titles themselves don’t excite me too much, I’m most eager for Phoenix Wright and Monster Hunter Orage to see the trim-size and design work.

Hopefully we’ll see the start of their new titles marked with a full website as well, or at least something with more images and information than the press releases posted there now. Kodansha Comics appeared with a lot of anticipation, and while it may’ve lost the luster after Akira and Ghost in the Shell, it’s done a great job gaining it all back in the past few months. Now that we’ve got the promises, it’s all about the delivery – only another month to go!

Share on Tumblr

Categories: Licensing, News
Tags: Del Rey, Kodansha Comics, Manga, Sailor Moon, Tokyopop

Kodansha Comics Announces Release of Sailor Moon Manga

By Lissa Pattillo on Saturday, March 19, 2011

10 Comments »

Many fans wished on a star and Kodansha Comics gave us the moon – yesterday it was announced that Kodansha would be re-releasing the Sailor Moon manga in English starting this upcoming September. They’ll also be releasing the never-before-released-in-English short series, Codename: Sailor V which was a precursor in both events and creation to Sailor Moon.

Suffice to say, many fans are excited (myself undoubtedly included) and the news spread quickly to the eyes and ears of lots of happy manga-reading folks. There’s something sort of surreal about getting exactly what you asked for isn’t there?

The edition Kodansha will be releasing is the new deluxe collection that was last published in Japan as part of Sailor Moon’s anniversary celebration.

“The original 18 volumes have been condensed into 12 volumes covering the main storyline, and two volumes dedicated to short stories. Each volume has gorgeous new cover art, retouched interior art and dialogue along with extensive bonus material from Takeuchi, and detailed translation notes.”

During my trip to New York last year I had the extreme joy of visiting the Kinokuniya bookstore. Surrounded by thousands of untranslated volumes of manga, Sailor Moon was high on my list of must-finds. They only had one volume but I was quick to pick it up – the re-released edition of Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (Vol. 06). I hope Kodansha Comics’ release is kept very similar to the Japanese editions because it’s gorgeous! The trim size is a little smaller than the ‘standard’ North American manga release with a smooth-finished cover-slip adorned in brand new artwork for the new editions. Inside are three full-spread, full-colour illustrations before starting into the retouched manga chapters. The page-count is a bit higher than normal also, showing how the new editions are twelve books instead of the original eighteen.

Kodansha will begin releasing the series in September 2011 and the books will come out on a bi-monthly schedule. Kodansha Comics has yet to release anything past their republishing of Dark Horse’s editions of Akira and Ghost in the Shell but it goes without saying there’s a lot of anticipation for the first of their summer line-up to start in May so we can get a better look at the quality we can expect from them. I speculated before that with their books we’ve seen so far, it seems likely they won’t be straying far from the original material in terms of design. Holding onto my Japanese edition of Sailor Moon, I can only go from speculating to hoping that that’s the case.

But as we sit and wait for those first volumes to land in store-shelves, may I say THANK YO U, KODANSHA! You have made many a moon-fan’s day.