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Posts Tagged Viz Media

Otaku USA: On The Shelf – October 12, 2011

By Lissa Pattillo on Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Conventions are generally my time to dig through boxes of vendors’ manga to find those older missed titles but that doesn’t mean I skip a beat on the new titles out! My most recent On The Shelf article is up at Otaku USA with this week’s new releases.

I was really happy to see the new volume of March Story is out from Viz Media. It’s not a series that seems to be on many people’s radar but I really enjoyed the first two. They can get pretty gruesome but my interest in the characters and gorgeous imagery outweighed the sometimes overly-heavy violence elements easily.

Seeing the release dates come up for Digital Manga‘s big pile of boys’ love titles was the real kicker for me though. Rabbit Man, Tiger Man; A Strange & Mystifying Story; and Kizuna are three of my favourite boys’ love series. I hope I can find copies of these new books at NYAF this weekend!

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Categories: On The Shelf
Tags: Bandai, Boys' Love/Yaoi, DMP, June, Manga, Otaku USA, Viz Media

NYAF 2011: Panels and Exhibitors for the Manga Inclined

By Lissa Pattillo on Tuesday, October 11, 2011

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The year’s last big pop-culture event is upon us this week – only two days left until the start of New York Comic Con. Also a combined part of the event is New York Anime Fest, offering up an assortment of anime and manga related content for con-goers. I’ll be flying to New York on Thursday for the weekend event and like many others I’ve been compiling the list of events I’m making sure I don’t miss!

There’s a variety of manga publishers present this year: Vertical Inc, Kodansha Comics, Viz Media, Yen Press, Bandai Entertainment and Dark Horse. That’s a lot of opportunity for exciting news and new titles. I’m already clamouring to try and be one of the lucky few who can get an early copy of Vertical Inc’s release of Princess Knight and hear the big news from Viz Media that’s been hinted at by Shonen Jump Group’s deputy director, Sasaki Hisashi, who will be in attendance.

“Going to NYCC! Wait for the big announcement VIZ &we make there!”

Ed Sizemore of Manga Out Loud and MangaWorthReading has posted about which panels he’s going to and exhibitors he’ll be visiting. He’s one of several manga bloggers attending the event (a fair number of those in Kuriousity’s blog roll will be there!) and gives short but convincing reasons for adding the times and places he lists to your own NYCC planner.

You can see the full list of guests, exhibitors and events on the NYAF website and I’ve included the specifically manga-related panel details under the cut of this post. They include some links to learn more about who’s bringing the manga news to NYAF this year.

I’ll be attending these events and writing about them here on Kuriousity throughout the weekend. If curious, you can see my coverage of last year’s event in the Kuriousity archives.

Two days left now… see you there!

Otaku USA: On The Shelf – October 5, 2011

By Lissa Pattillo on Monday, October 10, 2011

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Better late than never? My On The Shelf article went up last week on Otaku USA so check it out to see what new books you can expect to see on bookstore shelves right now. It’s the beginning of the month so that means lots and lots of Viz Media!

My top picks for the week are My Boyfriend is A Vampire from Seven Seas and Bakuman (Vol. 07) from Viz Media. The first sounds a lot like Until the Full Moon from Kodansha Comics, only with a manhwa and street-gang twist. It’s an omnibus too so ‘yay!’ for more manga for my money.

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Categories: On The Shelf, Release Lists
Tags: 20th Century Boys, Bakuman, Kodansha Comics, Manga, March Story, Naoki Urasawa, Omnibus, Otaku USA, Seven Seas, Viz Media

PR: VIZ Media Highlights for New York Comic Con!

By Lissa Pattillo on Thursday, October 6, 2011

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VIZ MEDIA ANNOUNCES EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES FOR 2011 NEW YORK COMIC CON

VIZ Media Welcomes NARUTO Japanese Voice Actress And Announces NARUTO SHIPPUDEN THE MOVIE: BONDS U.S. Film Premiere, Along With A Special Panel Discussions, Booth Activities And Giveaways

San Francisco, CA, October 5, 2011 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), the largest distributor and licensor of anime and manga in North America, has announced a packed schedule of events, panel discussions, promotional giveaways, theatrical film premieres, and rare guest appearances for the 2011 New York Comic Con, taking place at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York City, October 13th – 16th. VIZ Media will be located in Booth 932.

The annual New York Comic Con is the largest gathering on the East Coast dedicated to comics, graphic novels, anime, manga, video games, toys, movies, and television. Complete details on New York Comic Con is available at: www.newyorkcomiccon.com.

Digital technology and distribution has forever changed the way fans read and purchase manga, and VIZ Media will showcase its industry-leading VIZ Manga App for the Apple iPad™, iPhone™ and iPod™ touch in a fun interactive demo as well as its online manga web portal at VIZManga.com. VIZ Manga currently features more than 40 popular manga series and over 400 volumes.

This year, VIZ Media is proud to welcome Junko Takeuchi, the Japanese voice of Naruto, who will participate in a special NARUTO SHIPPUDEN panel discussion on Friday, October 14th from 1:15pm to 2:15pm in Room 1A22. Come welcome the actress for her first-ever U.S. appearance, and hear her experiences performing the voice for the world’s most popular ninja!

Swag Bag: Sailor Moon! And Other Awesome Things

By Lissa Pattillo on Friday, September 30, 2011

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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.

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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

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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!

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

PR: Viz Media Sweeps NY Times Manga Bestseller List…

By Lissa Pattillo on Thursday, September 22, 2011

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VIZ MEDIA SWEEPS THE LATEST
NEW YORK TIMES MANGA BESTSELLER LIST FOR THE SECOND TIME IN A MONTH!

Latest NARUTO Edition Takes #1 Spot And Is Complemented By Other Top Manga Properties Including BLEACH, BLACK BIRD, BLUE EXORCIST, ULTIMO, DEATH NOTE And More!

San Francisco, CA, September 21, 2011 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), the largest distributor and licensor of anime and manga in North America, has swept the latest Top 10 on the New York Times Manga Bestseller list for the week of September 10th. This is the second time the company has dominated the list in less than a month; VIZ Media previously swept all Top 10 spots for the week of August 20th.

The top selling VIZ Media manga (graphic novel) titles included:

1. NARUTO Vol. 52
2. BLEACH Vol. 36
3. BLACK BIRD Vol. 10
4. DENGEKI DIASY Vol. 6
5. KIMI NO TODOKE: FROM ME TO YOU Vol. 10
6. LIBRARY WARS: LOVE & WAR Vol. 6
7. BLUE EXORCIST Vol. 1
8. BUTTERFLIES, FLOWERS Vol. 8
9. ULTIMO Vol. 6
10. DEATH NOTE BLACK EDITION Vol. 5

The New York Times Bestseller lists are an expanded version of those appearing in the September 25th, 2011 print edition of the Book Review, reflecting sales for the week ending September 10th, 2011. Rankings reflect weekly sales for books sold in both print and electronic formats.

Otaku USA: On The Shelf – September 21, 2011

By Lissa Pattillo on Tuesday, September 20, 2011

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It’s Full Metal Alchemist week! Only two volumes left, making tomorrow’s release (Vol. 26) the penultimate installment. With Viz Media‘s trend of stopping series mid-omnibus (which seems rather ridiculous to me!), I’m looking forward to buying the huge boxsetout in November. The whole series, plus some bonuses, all in one go – it’s a beautiful thing.

Back to the here and tomorrow, you can see the list of books released this week over at my Otaku USA: On The Shelf article . My top picks (alongside FMA) are XXXHolic (Vol. 17), Arata the Legend (Vol. 07) and Berserk (Vol.35). Some modern fantasy, overlapping modern/ancient fantasy and then some outright old-fashion, demon-ridden Western-style fantasy – an excellent combination for manga reading this week!

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Categories: News, On The Shelf, Release Lists
Tags: Arata, Arata the Legend, CLAMP, Dark Horse, Del Rey, Manga, Natsume Ono, Otaku USA, Seven Seas, Viz Media

Otaku USA: On The Shelf – September 14, 2011

By Lissa Pattillo on Tuesday, September 13, 2011

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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!

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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

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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?

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