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Posts Tagged Yen Press

Review: Legend (Vol. 10)

By Lissa Pattillo on Sunday, December 5, 2010

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Reviewer: Lissa Pattillo

Author: Woo SooJung
Manhwa-go: Kara
Publisher: Yen Press
Rating: Teen (13+)
Release Date: November 2010

Synopsis: “Painfully aware of the fate that lies ahead of Eun-Gyo should either the Shaman or the Bulkirin succeed in their respective goals involving the Seven-Blade-Sword, No-Ah asks Eun-Gyo to run away with him to a place where they can never be found. But Eun-Gyo refuses to allow the world to be destroyed because of her cowardice.”

This final volume of Legend unfortunately compounded all the elements I’ve had issue with for the past few volumes. While in this book many of the recently introduced characters are already gone, or swiftly dealt with, there’s still the leftover resonance of too many characters and most poignantly, too many bad guys. Note: Review contains spoilers for the series

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: Legend, Manhwa, Yen Press

Swag Bag – Freckles, Food and Manga Mysteries

By Lissa Pattillo on Saturday, December 4, 2010

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It was a fairly big week for titles I really wanted to come out so I was happy to arrive at my local comic shop and find nearly all the books I wanted were on the shelf waiting for me – and then some!

The first book I picked up was Ayako, a new one-volume omnibus from Osamu Tezuka. It’s published by Vertical and the packaging is definitely different from your average manga – a thick, hardcover book, and it’s a hefty one! Also from Vertical I bought the second volume of 7 Billion Needles. I really loved the first one though to this day still find it hard to figure out exactly why, it’s just a really compelling story.

Viz Media books came next and I continued on with several on-going series: Bleach (Vol. 33), Toriko (Vol. 02) and Cactus Secret (Vol. 04). I also bought the second volume of Bakuman (Vol. 02), even though the flat-out dumb character interactions in volume one left me feeling cold towards it. Fingers crossed for more manga industry and less… whatever that attempt at romance was.

Next I picked up some DelRey titles, which did feel a little odd all things considering. But these were two very welcome purchases, volume 28 of Reservoir Chronicles Tsubasa and volume 11 of Ghost Hunt. Both are the final volumes of the series which means they’re both two series I won’t need to fear never seeing the end of. The Tsubasa book also surprised me with how thick it is, looks like a lengthy finish. Hopefully one that makes sense too.

Alas that while it was good to see two series finish up just in time, it wasn’t so lucky for the first volume of Arisa. I picked up this series after reading Carlos Santos’ review of the title and I’m really glad I did (as I never would’ve if not for his review). I’ve already read it and really enjoyed it – definitely a case of not judging a book by its cover. Please, Kodansha Comics, should you ever truly exist, choose this book as one of those you keep going with from DelRey’s library.

And lastly, I picked up the boys’ love one-shot Cafe Latte Rhapsody from June Manga, and Black God (Vol. 11) published by Yen Press. Cafe Latte is by Toko Kawai, whose works I’ve generally enjoyed in the past. The art’s a little bleh but she writes good character stories. Flipping through, this one stars a character with freckles which I thought was cute.

So how about you? What marks your first purchases of December?

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Categories: Features, Swag Bag
Tags: 7 Billion Needles, Bakuman, Del Rey, June, Toriko, Vertical Inc, Viz Media, Yen Press

Review: K-ON! (Vol. 01)

By Marsha Reid on Wednesday, November 24, 2010

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Reviewer: Marsha Reid

Manga-ka: Kakifly
Publisher: Yen Press
Rating: Teen (13+)
Release Date: December 2010

Synopsis: “When their high school’s pop-music club is about to be disbanded due to lack of interest, four girls step up to fill the membership quota. Unfortunately, lead guitarist Yui Hirasawa has never played an instrument in her life. Ever. And although she likes the idea of being in a band, standing in front of the mirror posing with her guitar is a lot easier than actually playing it. It’s gonna be a while before this motley crew is rocking out, but with their spunk and determination cranked to 11, anything is possible!”

It’s not easy to write and draw about music. Adding in little music notes and speed lines just doesn’t cut it when you can’t physically hear the music. Luckily K-On isn’t really about the music, it’s about the girls who play the music, so the complete and utter failure to explain what they sound like is both forgivable and understandable. They’re cute, they’re excited, they’re in high school and they’re building a friendship that will definitely last a life time.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: 4 Koma, Manga, Yen Press

Win a Trip to Japan with ANN and PTJ, Win eCash with Netcomics

By Lissa Pattillo on Friday, November 19, 2010

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Time for some winnings! A few interesting contests going on right now that are worth a gander and an enter.

Firstly, AnimeNewsNetwork has teamed with Aniplex (from whom they’ve licensed their two simulcasting series) and Pop Travel Japan (the tour-company of Digital Manga) to offer a contest where the winner gets a fully-paid trip to Japan!

There are two trip packages to be won – Tokyo Anime Fair Tour: an Otaku-centric tour of Japan including a trip to the Tokyo Anime Fair and Akihabara; and Fangirl Paradise Tour: a more boys’ love fan-central tour that includes the infamous Otome Road and a visit to an “authentic butler cafe”.

Entrants for the Fangirl Paradise Tour are required to take pictures of themselves in togainu no chi cosplay, with one of the two images having a sign proclaiming ‘ANN Please Send Me To Japan!’. For the Tokyo Anime Fair Tour contest, participants are to draw some Oreimo fanart and submit for the judges to see (with the ANN logo included somewhere in the picture all not-sneaky-like).

The winning packages include airfare, hotel accommodations, transportation while there, tour guides and customized guidebooks. Us Canadians (alas excluding myself) are able to enter the contest as well, though in place of airfare, there will be $500 given towards booking your own flight to Japan. Full guidelines and rules of course available over on the website.

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On their Twitter account, NetComics announced a fun little contest with the winner receiving $100 in e-Cash to go towards reading manga and manhwa on their website. With chapters for $.025, that’s a lot of reading!

1) Choose your favorite series.
2) Identify a scene/panel to recreate.
3) Do yer thang: bubbles, illustrations, etc.–the whole nine yards.
4) Q yourself whether or not your work is compelling/original.
5) Tweet it like there’s no tomorrow.

The deadline for NetComics’ contest is November 30th.

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RightStuf also runs numerous small contests, a current one being a draw for a random bag of swag. And though not really a contest but still for the artistically-inclined, a reminder that Yen Press’s current talent search is still on-going with a deadline of January 3, 2011.

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Categories: Contests
Tags: Anime, Boys' Love/Yaoi, DMP, Netcomics, Yen Press

Review: Time and Again (Vol. 04)

By Lissa Pattillo on Wednesday, November 17, 2010

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Reviewer: Lissa Pattillo

Manhwa-ga: JiUn Yun
Publisher: Yen Press
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Release Date: November 2010

Synopsis: “On occasion, life offers an unexpected blessing: a natural talent, a promising opportunity, or even a spot of good luck. But human nature will not be satisifed by simply enjoying the fruits of fate. When greed takes over and man exploits the gifts he has been given, seeking more power, more wealth, more than his share, it can only end in tragedy… a truth Ho-Yeon knows all too well.”

Time and Again is a series I would classify as having one of my favourite story formulas – supernaturally-inclined individuals interacting with episodic characters in varying stories that test human morale and and judgement. This manhwa tends to favour its lead characters more and the secondary short-term characters less, but it’s still offered up its share of just-deserts and suspenseful problem solving when spirits are involved. This fourth volume starts off with another tale of Baek-On and Ho-Yeon doing their work as exorcists to save a dying man but the lessons relearned at the expected expense of their clients carries the remainder of the book into the origins of Ho-Yeon.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: Manhwa, Yen Press

Swag Bag – Anime, Anime and More Anime

By Lissa Pattillo on Sunday, November 14, 2010

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Not a whole lot of buying last week as I awaited a hefty RightStuf order to be delivered. And delivered it was! I prefer buying manga in-store and at conventions so when I make big purchases online, they usually consist primarily of anime.

Note to all Canadians: now is the perfect time to get together some friends, head over to RightStuf.com, fill up your cart with oodles of goodies (check out their clearance section for amazing deals), getting that free shipping and taking full advantage of our strong dollar. Save lots of money and get some awesome stuff!

In my box of shininess this time, I continued a recent buying spree of Funimation box sets which always impress with me low prices, great selection and amazing dubs. Their S.A.V.E line is really phenomenal – an entire series for $12? Try justifying to me how that isn’t affordable (advance note: you can’t).

My series of choice this time were Jyo-Oh-Sei, a sci-fi survival series of which I really enjoyed the manga; Baccano, an anime cominbing violent mafia wars and alchemy; Hell Girl (S01), an episodic series about a website where you can ask to have someone banished to Hell; and Eden of the East, which I’ve heard so many amazing reviews for from people I know, that I had to give it a go. Thus far I’ve watched Hell Girl, which was really good and had a continuing plot line I didn’t expect, and the first half of Baccano. The first four episodes made little to no sense but after that the story picks up pace and wow is it something else! Very fun.

The final boxset of the purchase was Media Blaster’s new release of Magic Knight Rayearth which is a digitally remastered version in celebration of CLAMP’s 15th Anniversary. I’ve already seen the series via VHS, but the quality I’ve seen of these remastered episodes is more than reason enough to finally upgrade that series to DVD. I look forward to the shiny nostalgia of this title.

Manga always needs to sneak its way in somehow though and I bought two books that I absolutely adored upon reading. First was the second volume of Bunny Drop from Yen Press. Following a man taking in a young girl and going through the realistic motions of caring for her is both heartwarming and impressively grounded. The other book was volume of The Last Uniform from Seven Seas, a positively adorable series about schoolgirls and their feelings for one another. Both books made me very happy.

In a disappointing follow-up to my last Swag Bag, the DelRey omnibus edition I bought of Mushishi fell apart into a pile of loose out-of-order pages when I sat down to read it! Looks like I got a bad bind. I hope it’s a one-off and not from a bad batch out there. If this is some kind of omen about DelRey manga then, well, it came too late.

So what’ve you bought recently? Anything you’d recommend or something coming up?

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Categories: Features, Swag Bag
Tags: Anime, Bunny Drop, CLAMP, Manga, Seven Seas, Yen Press

ANN Review: Black Butler (Vol. 03)

By Lissa Pattillo on Wednesday, November 10, 2010

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One of my current favourites for sheer fangirlish pandering that hits all the right buttons for me, I reviewed the third volume of Black Butler for AnimeNewsNetwork.

The story in Black Butler is pretty minimal. It likes teasing at some of the plot it hasn’t fully divulged yet but past that it survives pretty heavily on the effect of its short term events. Only three volumes in however and these enjoyable forays of snappily dressed men being amazing at butler-work and butt-kicking is nowhere near dull yet. Hopefully it doesn’t get to be so either, I’m so enamoured with the artwork, atmosphere and Victorian-charm. Pander away, Black Butler, for now I’m yours! (Except in regards to those three obnoxious housekeepers – why oh why are they still there?)

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: ANN Reviews, Black Butler, Manga, Yen Press

Review: Himeyuka & Rozione’s Story

By Lissa Pattillo on Sunday, November 7, 2010

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Reviewer: Lissa Pattillo

Manga-ka: Sumomo Yumeka
Publisher: Yen Press
Rating: Teen (13+)
Release Date: July 2010

Synopsis: “Intent on being an independent young woman, high schooler Himeyuka lives on her own in an unremarkable apartment complex in a corner of the city. But one day, she discovers her ordinary building has turned into something extraordinary! Her beloved “castle” is covered in childish scribbles—both inside and out! And waiting for her at the end of this rainbow-colored mess…is the perpetrator of the crime—a little boy named Rozione, who seems to know quite a bit about Himeyuka, though she has no idea who he is. Is he really just someone’s lost child, or is there a greater mystery behind his appearance?”

Sumomo Yumeka is a creator who has several other of her works published in English and as an owner of each one, I was happy to see another of her titles licensed by Yen Press. Unlike the majority of her other English-books, Himeyuka & Rozione’s Story isn’t a boys’ love but instead a sombre shoujo-styled collection of short stories that shows us a Yakuza, a Witch, a Robot and a Doll are all capable of feeling and their stories equally as capable at making us feel for them as a result.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: Manga, Yen Press

Yen Press Seeks Fresh Talent for Yen Plus Serialization

By Lissa Pattillo on Friday, November 5, 2010

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Early September marked the first issue of Yen Plus in its digital format for subscribers. For only $2.99 a month – which is set up via PayPal – readers now have access to that month’s issue, which also now includes new chapters of K-on and Yotsuba&! (which was reason enough for me to subscribe right off the bat).

In their first issue they also officially launched their search for new talent to be potential new additions to the monthly magazine. At their request, information was kept off other sites to give subscribers the early-bird advantage. As of today however, the information for their New Talent Search has been posted publicly on Yen Press’s site so now all interested and qualifying artists can read the details.

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Categories: Misc
Tags: Global Manga, Yen Press

Swag Bag – Stellar Stacks of Demon Omnibus in Space

By Lissa Pattillo on Monday, November 1, 2010

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Happy Halloween! Er, a belated happy Halloween anyway. Hope those who celebrated it had a good time and didn’t get too stuffed on candy! While not treats of the sugary kind, I picked up a bunch of fun looking books last week.

It was a pretty hefty release week for Tokyopop titles so I left the store with a good armful of them. To start off, I picked up the first volume of The Stellar Six of Gingacho simply because it looked cute and I’m always up for giving a first volume a try. The interior art looks like a bit of a mess but hopefully the story proves more coherent. I love the colour scheme of the cover design though! Looking to try out another new series, and because I’m heard so many crazy things about it, I got the first volume of Demon Sacred which is by the same artist who did Jyu-Oh-Sei.

Next up I couldn’t resist their new How to Draw Shoujo Manga which shares how-to-dos and helpful tips for manga artists from a very Japanese-manga oriented perspective. This includes example material from a bunch of well-known manga artists including Fumi Yoshinaga. I’ll admit seeing her art on the back was the clincher to purchase this. Here’s hoping I learn something useful as I stare at the pretty artwork.

Continuing on with series I’m already collecting, into my basket went Mad Love Chase (Vol. 04) and Silver Diamond (Vol. 07). Both these series have admittedly begun to lose their luster for me but I’m stubborn with series I like (or have liked…)! Lastly for Tokyopop titles, I bought the second volume of Togainu no Chi because, well, it was on sale. I was pretty disappointed in the first volume but have been repeatedly told “It gets better!” so we shall see.

Adding to my swiftly growing stack of omnibus editions, from DelRey I bought the collected (Vol. 15,16,17) book of Air Gear -a series where the art is still fantastic even if the story keeps digging itself a deeper and deeper hole of WTF? – and (Vol. 08,09,10) of Mushishi – a series I’m collected sporadically because I liked the anime so much.

And to round out my shopping trips with a scattering from other companies, I got Twin Spica (Vol. 04) from Vertical, Dengeki Daisy (Vol. 02) from Viz Media – will it live up to my love of the first?! – and Himeyuka & Rozoine’s Story from Yen Press, which looks like a quaint little one-shot collection from a creator I’ve enjoyed works from in the past.

Anything exceptionally fantastic that came out recently that I’ve missed? Picked up something extra snazzy yourself? Let me know!

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