Websites had some downtime yesterday so apologies for any who came by and were greeted by error pages. We should be back up and running fine now. That said, onwards to manga!
A snowstorm and slow release week kept me away from the comic shop last week but this week I was happy to make up for the short lull with a stack of must-own favourites.
Absolute favourites of the week were definitely the newest volume of Pet Shop of Horrors Tokyo (Vol. 08) and Black Butler (Vol. 04). Both star enigmatic pretty-boys with hidden powers and a whole lot of random happening around them. I was disappointed that the new volume of Black Jack wasn’t shipped here yet but these two definitely did a lot to brighten my mood. Retailers are listing this volume of Pet Shop of Horrors as the last one though – I really hope that’s not the case!
While no new Tezuka to buy this week from Vertical (though hard to beat the news we got instead!), I was able to pick up the fifth volume of the slice-of-life space story, Twin Spica. Purchasing another of what I consider great ‘relaxing’ manga, I was pleased to find a copy of Cross Game (Vol. 02). Unlike the first volume, which was three volumes in one, this second book is only two volumes in one. It’s a good set-up though, as the first omnibus did a good job sucking me in but I don’t think I can handle that much of Mitsuri Adachi’s placid characters every time.
Adding some more Viz Media books to the stack, I got the new volume of Library Wars (Vol. 04) despite my disappointment of prior books. I keep remaining hopeful we’ll get more actual war and library and less cliche romance. Fingers crossed! More promising was my purchase of Arata (Vol. 04) – more shonen-style action from one of the original shoujo-cliche queens, Yuu Watase.
And lastly I picked up a new boys’ love one-shot from BLU – Stray Cat. I’ve already read this one and really liked it. Great release quality from Tokyopop, fun characters with a nice art style and some really hilarious comics about the creator’s pets at the book’s end. BLU books don’t come out often but I’ve been pretty impressed with their selection overall these days.
This weekend I’m putting through a RightStuf order and that means filling up my shopping list with a whole bunch of surprise finds, bargain bin treats and must-have purchases (such as the boxset of Twelve Kingdoms!). Anything you’d recommend? A series new or old that you think shouldn’t be missed? Let me know!
So what were some of your recent purchases?
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Also criss-crossing time and fashion-space is the second book of the light novel series, The Twelve Kingdoms. The first book blew me away as a detailed and believable fantasy story about a girl ripped from her world and dropped into one of demons, Gods and people hatched from egg-fruit.
Next I picked up the first volume of The Secret Notes of Lady Kanoko which I bought purely upon hearing so many good things about it. Plus after reading so much Ouran I’m up for some more shoujo-y goodness. This is also the first new series I’ve bought that sports Tokyopop’s new graphic design work. It uses a lot of black and is pretty slick looking. I’m not sure how well it will compliment different series but for now the pink and black looks really nice.
After that, I bought the fourth book in the Twelve Kingdoms series. I now have 1-4 but haven’t read them yet which is something I really need to change. The anime was phenomenal and I’m really eager to relive much of its charm through the books upon which is was based. And the covers are so pretty, they’re at least great just to stare at for the time being.
