20th Century Boys

Welcome to Kuriousity

News, reviews and features with a focus on manga, self-published works and a Canadian perspective. Enjoy fulfilling your Kuriousity!

SITE RETIRED - Thank you for the years of support and readership!

Posts Tagged SuBLime

Otaku USA: On The Shelf – June 12, 2013

Otaku USA: On The Shelf - June 13, 2013

Another week, another list of new manga – another week of lots of manga. Huzzah! This week’s On The Shelf on Otaku USA has been posted, but it will also be my last On The Shelf article for Otaku USA. It’s hard to believe I’d been doing it nearly two years!

For those still looking for the weekly list,  new books will continue to be posted every week here on Kuriousity as normal. On The Shelf mini lives on!

A Devil and Her Love Song (Vol.09) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Arata: The Legend (Vol.14) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Attack on Titan (Vol.05) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Bleach (Vol.57) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Dawn of the Arcana (Vol.10) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Demon Love Spell (Vol.03) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Haganai: I Don’t Have Many Friends (Vol.03) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
His Favorite (Vol.04) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Kisses, Sighs, and Cherry Blossoms Pink [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Knights of Sidonia (Vol.03) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Loveless (Vol.11) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
No.6 (Vol.01) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan (Vol.15) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
One Piece (Vol.67) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
One Piece Omnibus (Vol.06) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Pokémon Adventures Platinum (Vol.08) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Rurouni Kenshin: Restoration (Vol.01) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Sakura Hime: The Legend of Princess Sakura (Vol.10) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Sankarea: Undying Love (Vol.01) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Skip Beat! (Vol.31) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Slam Dunk (Vol.28) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Sleeping Moon (Vol.01) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Toriko (Vol.16) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Trigun Maximum Omnibus (Vol.03) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal (Vol.03) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]


PR: …SuBLime Launches The New Series Blue Morning

GLOBAL YAOI MANGA PUBLISHER SuBLime LAUNCHES THE NEW SERIES BLUE MORNING

Courtly Intrigue Between A Noble Family’s Capable Butler And His Young Charge Offers A Tender Story Of The Conflict Between What Duty Demands And What The Heart Desires

San Francisco, CA, May 16, 2013 – SuBLime, the global yaoi manga (graphic novel) publishing initiative between VIZ Media and Japan’s Animate, Ltd. (Animate), delivers an intriguing new series about aristocratic drama and the intricate relationship between the loyal butler of a noble family and a young heir he is duty-bounty to look after in the print debut of BLUE MORNING, by creator Shoko Hidaka. The new manga (graphic novel) series launched on May 14th, is rated M’ for Mature Audiences, and will carry an MSRP of $12.99 U.S. / $14.99 CAN.

At only ten years of age, Akihito Kuze suddenly inherits the Kuze viscountship after his father’s death. The family’s capable butler, Tomoyuki Katsuragi, takes over the task of raising the boy, serving as his tutor and mentor. However, the handsome and intelligent Katsuragi, well respected even among the aristocracy, remains cool towards his charge. Akihito finds himself relentlessly drawn to Katsuragi, frustrated by the distance between them and driven to discover the reasons why.

Read more…


RightStuf Warns of Boys’ Love Book Seizing at Canada Customs

RightStuf Warns of BL Book Seizing at Canada Customs

We have ketchup chips, Kinder Eggs and house the fantastic, and recently completed, Toronto Comics Art Festival, but even we here in Canada aren’t perfect. It saddened and concerned me to read this bit of news over the weekend, credit for which goes to Ash on Twitter.

RightStuf has posted the following warning on all four volumes of SuBLime‘s boys’ love series, Bonds of Dream, Bonds of Love by Yaya Sakuragi:

“Note: This item is banned in Canada, and will be seized by Customs if ordered.”

From what I can see, this is the only SuBLime title to have a note about being banned. We can assume it’s a note made based on a particular incident, though of course this wouldn’t be the first time we’ve heard negative stories about manga going over the border. Anime and manga have become buzz words of sorts for customs’ agent which see the youthful drawing of some characters, and sexual nature of others, reason to blanket the medium as pedophilia and pornographic in nature.

Bond of Dreams, Bond of LoveAs for Bonds of Dreams, Bonds of Love, I can see why they might ban it – with disclaimer I don’t believe in banning artwork like this – but it’s still not a series I’d ever viewed as being an obvious trouble-maker. Of course I speak from the viewpoint of a seasoned manga reader who is used to the distinctions of age and art style. One of the leads in this series is a teenager who very forwardly pursues an older man whom he’s known since he was very young. Though the young one is the more aggressive of the two,  it still follows a budding sexual relationship between an adult and a teenager and the age discrepancy is heavily emphasized in the way they’re drawn.

Interestingly, I actually received volume three of this series from RightStuf just a couple weeks ago and didn’t have any issues. Then again, being buried among many other items certainly helped. The requirement to buy $250+ worth of material to get the free Canadian shipping from RightStuf ups the chance that any supposedly-risky material like this can glide through in similar fashion. Of course, this depends on if RightStuf will actually choose to deny** the ordering of these books from Canadians or leave it to the buyers’ own risk.

For Canadians looking for the books, who don’t want to risk border bans, you can still order the books via Chapters/Indigo, Amazon.ca and your local book stores via special order.

**May 16th Update: RightStuf has since updated the warning to the following: “Note: We cannot ship this item to Canadian addresses, and it likely will be seized by Customs if ordered.” So no more ordering even allowed for Canadians of these books anymore. An unfortunate turn of events, one that could set a very bad precedent for other material from one of the mediums’ most prominent supplier.


SuBLime Resurrects a Fan-Favourite with Crimson Spell

SuBLime Resurrects a Fan-Favourite with Crimson Spell

Some say this was inevitable, but most are just saying ‘yay!’ since last night when SuBLime announced that they’ve licensed Ayano Yamane’s boys’ love fantasy series, Crimson Spell.

Crimson Spell was originally licensed by Media Blasters, which has since ceased manga publication. The company released two volumes of Crimson Spell under their Kitty Media imprint. Currently the series is up to five volumes in Japan.

SuBLime lists that they’ve licensed the first four volumes of the series for print release starting in December 2013, with subsequent volumes out every two months after that.

“The curse of the magical crimson sword has turned Prince Bald into a monster… To break the spell, he sets out on a journey with the sexy and gorgeous magician, Havi. Bald has no idea that when he turns into a beast at night, Havi uses his unique talents to pacify his beastly appetite… The luscious journey of Bald and Havi begins.” – Media Blasters

 SuBLime has also noted that they’re currently discussing different translations for the characters’ names, notably Bald (the name Media Blasters used for the lead) becoming Vlad.

As someone who very much enjoyed the first two volumes – ‘classic’ fantasy and Ayano Yamane boys’ love? How could I not?! – I was excited to read this news. The title has been too requested and too front-and-center of the English boys’ love community for it not to be something I expected either SuBLime or Digital Manga to snap up eventually, but it’s great to finally hear the official who and when. My Media Blasters volumes will remain on the shelf for nostalgia, but you can bet I’ll be double-dipping with SuBLime’s new volumes and looking forward to those I haven’t read yet.


Otaku USA: On The Shelf – April 24, 2013

Otaku USA: On The Shelf - April 24, 2013

I’ve been pretty busy lately working on a number of freelance projects (websites, comics and launches, oh my!), but I’m never too busy for checking out the new manga. This week has some notables I’ve recently read and really enjoyed, such as Black Butler (Vol.13) and X (Vol.05).

You can read my thoughts on this week’s manga over at my On The Shelf article for Otaku USA. Enjoy! And I’ll be back~

Alice in the Country of Hearts: My Fanatic Rabbit (Vol.02)  [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Black Butler (Vol.13)  [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Bunny Drop (Vol.08)  [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Crimson Empire: Circumstances to Serve a Noble (Vol.01)  [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Doubt Omnibus (Vol.01)  [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Flowers of Evil (Vol.05)  [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Is This A Zombie? (Vol.04)  [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Knights of Sidonia (Vol.02)  [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (Vol.15)  [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Pandora Hearts (Vol.15)  [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Punch Up! (Vol.04)  [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
X 3-in-1 (Vol.05)  [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]


Manga Minis: Bye-Bye-Bye, SuBLime’s Boys’ Love Sync and Vertical goes Digital

Manga Minis: Bye-Bye-Bye, and SuBLime's Boys' Love Sync

We’re saying some sad good-byes to a couple things first in today’s mini news round-up, then cap things off with some interesting pieces of digital news to lighten things up at least a little:

 Seven Sea‘s Adam Arnold has responded to a fan’s inquiry to the status of their series, Blood Alone. Because of a publisher switch-up, the title is currently not available for Seven Seas to license past where it’s already released. With Blood Alone now owned by Kodansha, Seven Seas doesn’t see the license availability changing because of Kodansha’s own English branch. The last volume of Blood Alone published in English was volume six in April 2012. (News credit to Conner)

I really liked this series, so it’s sad we’ll likely never see volume seven published in English. I’ll keep my fingers crossed though! Series look so lonely sitting unfinished on the shelf…

Works

 Erica Friedman of ALC Publishing has published a post  announcing her decision to cease future publications. ALC Publishing has published several yuri books and, up until JManga’s recent shutdown, was collaborating with the website to release several yuri series digitally. Erica cites reasons including a poor buying market, fans lack of interest in digital titles and a lack of support from North America’s largest publisher of yuri, Seven Seas.

It’s a real shame when any publisher is forced to pull the plug for reasons beyond their control, and Erica’s worked very hard to cater to a niche market over the years. As a reader and collector of yuri, I’ve enjoyed ALC’s previous titles and I’m grateful that Erica will still be promoting the genre and sharing her thoughts via her website, Okazu (which has recently gotten an address change, so update those links folks!).

 SuBLime announced a new project in late February – a joint manga and light novel release that will be simultaneously released in Japan and in English. The title is Into Illusion, written by Reiko Yoshihara, the author best known for Ai no Kusabi. The artist for the manga is Ryo Tateishi, whose work on the cover provided by SuBLime is enough to make any boys’ love fan interested! You can check out their post for the eye-candy and more information. This series is scheduled to start at the end of April.

 And lastly, keeping on the digital train, Vertical Inc. will be releasing a number of their series for digital purchase starting this Spring. The current planned titles are Twin Spica, The Drops of God, and 7 Billion Needles with availability to be made on Amazon’s Kindle, Apple’s iBookstore and the NOOK. This is good news for those who prefer their collections condensed digitally, plus Vertical has previously said that their Twin Spica series is already going out of print so this offers it a second lease at readership life. (Credit for the news goes to AnimeNewsNetwork)


Swag Bag: Marching Into Spring With All The Right Stuf

Swag Bag: Marching Into Spring With All The Right Stuf

It’s this week’s second Swag Bag! While I was busy hitting up my local comic store for goodies, RightStuf was preparing a box full of animated wonders to send my way as well. My Visa may’ve wept this week, but not as much as it has in the past thanks to RightStuf’s new shipping policies for Canadians.

Though I haven’t seen any of it, I started with parts one and two of Funimation‘s DVD sets of Toriko. I bought it based on my adoration of the manga. I’ve already made my way through both sets, which are a bit short at only thirteen episodes each. The show itself doesn’t offer anything more than the manga, but I really like the dub which is something I can usually count on Funimation to do really well. It had many funny, memorable quotes so I’m sure I’ll be watching it again just for the fun script.

My biggest purchase was the entirety of Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood on Blu-ray. I haven’t seen any of this either but the manga is phenomenal and I recently finished watching the original anime on Netflix. I’m very excited to see my favorite characters who were not in the first anime. Lin! And I’ve heard that the production values are great. This purchase includes the whole series, plus the OVA collection.

And also on Blu-ray in my collection pile was the box set of Black Butler II. It actually includes both the DVDs and Blu-rays, which is a great touch. I really liked the first season of Black Butler but it ended at a point that definitely didn’t feel like it needed a sequel. Can’t say no to the fans I suppose right? From what I’ve seen of Funimation’s previews clips, the new little butler-owning prepubescent has some seriously scary issues.

Fate/Zero Keychain: Rider SDRounding out the shopping trip were some Black Jack DVDs to finish off my collection (yay discount bins), and also an adorable Sailor Moon keychain and Tuxedo Mask plushie. I also couldn’t help but buy a couple Fate/Zero key chains of Rider and Waver. I’ll buy anything with those two on it! Maybe someday I’ll do a write-up of the phenomenal statue of Rider I received a couple weeks back…

And last, as I naturally cannot make any online order that doesn’t include at least some manga, I caught up on a few recent boys’ love titles – Bond of Dreams, Bond of Love (Vol. 03) and Awkward Silence (Vol. 03). I really love SuBLime‘s releases, from the clean and consistent cover design they use across all their titles, to the solid translation and lettering work inside courtesy of decades of experience from their parent company, Viz Media. I was a little disappointed that His Favourite (Vol.03) was spaced far enough apart from the other two third volumes that I wasn’t able to include it in this shipment. Ah well, next time!

That does it for this week’s Swag Bag. As always, feel more than free to share what purchases you’ve made recently and if you’d recommend them!


Otaku USA: On The Shelf – March 13, 2013

Otaku USA: On The Shelf - March 13, 2013

A new Wednesday and a new batch of comics! My knowledge of what day of the week it is often comes from when new books come out, so I’ve really been throwing myself for a loop lately with these late On The Shelf posts. Eep! Not this week though – Wednesday posting, on time!

Without further ado, you can read my thoughts on this week’s new books over at my On The Shelf article for Otaku USA.

07 Ghost (Vol.03) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
21st Century Boys (Vol.02) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Arata the Legend (Vol.13) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Blade of the Immortal (Vol.26): Blizzard [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Fullmetal Alchemist 3-in-1 (Vol.04) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
His Favorite (Vol.03) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Neon Genesis Evangelion 3-in-1 (Vol.02) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Paradise Kiss (Vol.03) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Rin-Ne (Vol.11) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Tokyo Babylon (Vol.01) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]


Swag Bag: Prequel, Vampires and Caramel Pudding

Swag Bag:  Prequels, Vampires and Caramel Pudding

Swag Bag time! I had a little shopping hiatus the past month, but, believe me, I’ve made up for it in the last couple weeks. So, without further ado, here’s the first of a few Swag Bag posts to cover it all!

To start things off with a dose of boys’ love, I bought the Digital Manga oneshot, Caramel. My first impression was that the little guy has really silly looking hair. Second impression was it looks adorable. Both were correct – the little guy had silly hair and the story was super sweet, albeit a little sad being so short.

My impulse purchase of the day was Dark Horse‘s Blood-C (Vol.01). I don’t have any real interest in the Blood franchise, and my knowledge of this anime stops at CLAMP’s involvement. Still, the cover was really nice and the interior artwork looked good too. It looks very CLAMP-like actually, I’d say very likely inspired by their more recent works such as Tsubasa. We’ll see how the monster hunting itself entertains as I read it.

Fushigi Yugi Genbu Kaiden (Vol.11)

Something that is never impulse and always a must-have-right-now is Naoki Urasawa’s work. This week that was 21st Century Boys (Vol.02). It’s the last volume in the 20th Century Boys story. It’s so weird knowing this series is now done after all these years. I’ve already read this final volume and I’ve gotta say… I can’t remember who ‘that’ is. Oops. Time to re-read!

It never stops being weird buying a new volume of Fushigi Yugi though, such as this week’s Fushigi Yugi Genbu Kaiden (Vol.11). Now this is a series I’ve been reading a long time. It was one of my first manga from back in the Animerica Extra days of serialization. This prequel series only has one volume left, however, and the downside to it being a prequel is we all know how it’s going to end. So sad! But it’s so good.

Then it was meta territory with Bakuman (Vol. 18) – manga about making manga! This series is fantastic; I adore every volume, even with the awkward romantic subplots. This volume addresses the intensity of manga deadlines when the two leads launch yet another series. How many pages a month!? Freaky.

I finished off my Viz Media purchases with Pokemon Adventures (Vol.15) and Afterschool Charisma (Vol.07). There was quite a wait since the last volumes of each but fortunately neither are especially complicated in the plot department (though telling the clones apart in Afterschool Charisma isn’t always easy).

And then what’s a week without an omnibus? I’m a few months late on this one but I was pleased to buy Young Miss Holmes (Casebook 3-4). The first volume was cute with this precocious niece of Sherlock Holmes solving mysteries. I loved the short cameo from the dowdy Sherlock and Watson as well.

And then lastly for manga I had to nab a digital copy of Sword and Mist, released by SuBLime. It’s a digital only release but I’ve made my peace with these as an occasional thing, and I can’t deny that SuBLime puts out a great product. This title was a must have because it’s by Hayate Kuku. She’s only had one other series released in English – Love Sickness by Digital Manga – but I really loved it. Her masculine characters and sense of humor reminds me a lot of one of my BL favorites, Naono Bohra, who unfortunately hasn’t been as embraced by English publishers as I’d like. In any case, Sword and Mist! It’s got manly men, assassins, feudal China and cross-dressing – how could I resist?

The Adventures of Superhero GirlAnd then finally was a new book by a friend of mine, Faith Erin Hicks. Out now from Dark Horse is a hardcover, full color compilation of her web comic, The Adventures of Superhero Girl. It’s been a while since I read these comic strips so it’s been fun re-experiencing all the funny in-jokes about comics and super heroes. It’s an entertaining and worthwhile purchase for sure, and I’m looking forward to finishing it cover to cover again.


Otaku USA: On The Shelf – February 13, 2013

Otaku USA: On The Shelf - February 13, 2013

Our snow here was short-lived, two feet of beautiful white fluff now little more than some crusty banks after a night of rain. It was rather disappointing! On the other hand, it means there’s nothing but some distance between me and new comics.

For my thoughts on the new manga out this week, you can check out my On The Shelf article for Otaku USA.

Awkward Silence (Vol.03) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Deltora Quest (Vol.10) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Hayate the Combat Butler (Vol.21) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Hiroaki Samura’s Emerald & Other Stories [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
InuYasha VIZBig (Vol.14) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Knights of Sidonia (Vol.01) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]


Take me back to the top!