A Devil and Her Love Song

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!

Archive for the Super Savings Category

Super Savings: EverythingYaoi and Clearance Doesn’t Hurt Either!

Everything Yaoi Clearance

Sales come and sales go but many online sites have sales on 24/7. EverythingYaoi.com, a site that earns its name, has a handy Clearance section where they list just what it sounds like – items on clearance you can get for up to 50% off the cover price (and sometimes more).

Of the books currently listed, below are my top recommendations:

Going in alphabetical order, the first two books I’d recommend added to any boys’ love shopping cart is Can’t Win With You!. The series is three volumes long and while volume one isn’t on clearance, Can’t Win With You (Vol. 02) and Can’t Win With You (Vol. 03) are with each priced at $4.99/US each. The series is about a cast of amusing, often sexually explorative and teasing teenage boys in an all boys’ school, drawn by Yukine Honami, whose works have been published many times since by Digital Manga. The story itself is written by Satosumi Takaguchi who wrote Shout Out Loud! which was published by BLU.

Two other second-half volumes I’d commend are Passion (Vol. 03) and Passion (Vol. 04). This series has always had a special place in my yaoi-loving heart as one of the first (if not the very first) strictly boys’ love stories to be published in English (excluding Tokyopop‘s early fare in the genre). I remember the day I bought volume one the day it came out… ah the memories and the first of many purchases. The series itself is pretty standard genre-fare but it’s sweet and fluffy and has those great classic cliches of student-teacher relations and starting said relations off on the seriously wrong foot.

Two other Digital Manga series worth adding to your bookshelf from the clearance selection are Moon and Sandals (Vol. 01) by Fumi Yoshinaga and Princess Princess (Vol. 02) by Mikiyo Tsuda. The first is part one of a two book series wherevolume one gets you attached to the characters and the following book proves a steamy follow-up. Princess Princess isn’t really a boys’ love story but pretty boys, teasing and crossdressing definitely makes it an applicable crossover for many fans.

And last but not least, a one-shot from Yaoi Press, the original boys’ love publisher affiliated with EverythingYaoi.com. The book is titled Surge and is a cute love story between a surfer and book nerd. It’s got some funny moments and an adorable art style plus one-shots are always a great cart topper. All in one!

Though these titles are just some of those in the site’s clearance section, it’s also recommended you check out their other sale sections to see what books from different publishers they’ve got on discount as well. Shipping prices can get a little hefty though so be sure to read through the FAQ section when making your calculations. Shop on, boys-love collectors!


Super Savings: RightStuf Offers Fierce Savings on Seven Seas

RightStuf’s first big sale of the year (excluding their starting-in-2010-New-Years-sale) is 33%+ off of Seven Seas books! I know I don’t often see many sales on their books so this is a great opportunity to pick up some old titles or, for even more savings, pre-order some of their upcoming omnibus editions. The sale ends January 6, 2011.

My top recommendations from Seven Seas would be the first volume of Aoi House (the second volume and I aren’t on good terms) and Aoi House in Love! – a fun OEL series that plays around with fandom tropes; Hayate x Blade Omnibus – a silly but charming story of sword battles in all girls’ school that appeals to fans of Yuri; and the Strawberry Panic Manga Omnibus – a semi-serious tale of Yuri love also in an all girls’ school. I’d also love to recommend The Last Uniform as a super adorable Yuri story but alas it’s no longer listed on RightStuf’s website.

As for me, I’m looking forward to buying the first omnibus book of Kashimashi, the complete-series omnibus of Hollow Fields and the one-shot Voiceful.

You can check out their index for the full list of RightStuf’s Seven Seas’ offerings.


Super Savings: Suit Up & Save! Sale on Dark Horse Books

RightStuf Savings on Dark Horse Books

New sale over at RightStuf this week – up to 33% off Dark Horse books! Lots to choose from so check out their entire library of titles.

This is also an extra perfect time for fellow Canadians to take advantage of such sales, with the Canadian dollar currently on par making these prices all the sweeter. Once you get to $150 worth of items, it’s free shipping so get some friends together and go to town! Just in time for some holiday shopping too.

RightStuf had a similar sale on Dark Horse books in May and all my same recommendations apply so I won’t repeat myself. Adding to the pile though, I highly recommend their new omnibus edition of Cardcaptor Sakura. This is book is gorgeous, with a tweaked translation, lots of full colour illustrations and great art reproduction. Plus the story itself is still as sweet as sugar. 576 pages for $13.39 should not be missed!


Super Savings: Amazon Offers Free Shipping for Lower Subtotal

Amazon Free Shipping

It’s just gotten that much easier to order online from book-selling giant Amazon as the site announced earlier in the week that it has lowered its minimum purchase requirement for free shipping to only $25.

Originally customers were required to spend over $49 to get free shipping, and though not a lot of money, it was still a hefty level to reach for those only interested in a few titles and not keen on holding off on them until such time they had enough to qualify for the savings (which can really, really add up). Now only a couple novels, graphic novels or manga can easily make the cut. You can read Amazon’s Free Shipping info page to learn more, including the complete guidelines for eligibility.


Super Savings: Tokyopop For Pennies at BookCloseOuts

Tokyopop For Pennies at BookCloseOuts.com

BookCloseOuts.com is a great site to check out for some good manga deals on any given day (just give it a browse and you’ll find dozens of books new and old for over 50% cover price) but they’ve currently got some extra snazzy pricing going on with some Tokyopop titles as a part of their “Kids Books for 99c Sale” – you heard me, 99 cents!

Some of my recommendations from the sale are Jen Lee Quick’s OffBeat!, CLAMP’s RG Veda and Matsuri Akino’s Kamen Tantei.

For a list of the 99cent Tokyopop titles currently available (depending on the stock remaining – alas many on my originally compiled list have already sold out!), check out the lists under the cut:

Read more…


Super Savings: Media Blasters Sale at RightStuf

Media Blasters Sale at RightStuf

New RightStuf sale this week and it’s for all Media Blasters releases – animes, manga, t-shirts and plushies, lots of goodies and pages and pages of it to choose from.

While Media Blasters has some fun manga titles though, especially for boys’ love fans (Crimson Spell, Yokai’s Hunger or I Can’t Stop Loving You, anyone?) , their real bread and butter is their anime and boy do they have a lot of amazing titles. I’d forgotten how many of my favourites were theirs until I started working my way through the list.

If there was an award for anime I’ve seen the most start to finish, it’s definitely the fantasy-epic Berserk which I’ve seen at least half a dozen times. Twelve Kingdoms is one of the best animes I’ve seen in years and I can’t wait to own a copy for myself after being lucky enough to have my local library in possession of the series. The anime Moribito is trying to challenge Twelve Kingdoms though, another gorgeous show.

Definitely on my nostalgic side, there’s Twin Signal, a funny and cutely quirky one-shot DVD about a super arrogant robot who turns into a chocolate-obsessed chibi when his human little brother sneezes – and a rerelease of CLAMP’s Magic Knight Rayearth, the definitive magical-girls-tossed-into-another-world series. You can also take advantage of the sale by picking up the complete series + OVA of Magic Users Club, which made me think I was watching a hentai at first when I first saw the OVA back in junior high – watch out for those pervy tentacles!

So much shininess here to be had – what Media Blasters releases would you recommend?


Super Savings: RightStuf Offers Stellar Vertical Savings

New sale over at RightStuf.com! It’s so tough when they have manga sales back-to-back to one another – the Viz Media sale likely put a good dent in many manga buyers’ wallets. Hopefully we still have some bookshelf space left as they offer up to 30% from Vertical Inc series for the rest of the week!

Lots of great titles there to suggest. My personal recommendation is definitely Osamu Tezuka’s Black Jack – a brilliantly executed episodic manga about an unlicensed surgeon performing medical miracles around the world in a variety of situations ranging from the reality-grounded feats of skill to the unbelievably-out-there (tumour child anyone?). If  you’re looking for something on the darker side, I recommend another Osamu Tezuka title: MW – it’s creepy and fantastic, plus a one-shot.

For the more light-hearted reads, I recommend one of their newest (and already bestselling) series – Chi’s Sweet Home. If you like cats, this one’s for you. If you don’t like cats, it still manages to be pretty cute. There’s also Twin Spica which is a surprisingly gripping but still inherently optimistic story about a girl who wants to be an astronaut.

Sales like this are also a great time to pre-order some upcoming titles such as Osamu Tezuka’s Ayako which with this sale goes from $29.95 to $18.06.

As always I’m curious to know, what Vertical titles would you recommend or are planning to purchase?


Super Savings: RightStuf Bags Viz Media Bargains

RightStuf’s weekly sale has gone live and this week it’s on all Viz Media books -that my friends is a large library of savings indeed. Just going through the first couple of listings pages shows you these are sales well worth taking advantage of too – almost 50% off or more on some titles! The sale ends on August 2nd.

Because they fall a little higher on the price scale, and because they’re generally fantastic, I recommend spelunking through the Viz Sig imprint. Along with the wonders that is 20th Century Boys and Pluto by Naoki Urasawa, the Viz Signature line also includes Fumi Yoshinaga’s Ooku and the fan-tabulous line-up of titles currently up to read chapters for free of over at SigIkki.com. Definitely doesn’t hurt to get caught up on your favourite running shonen series either, be it Bleach, Eyeshield 21, One Piece or Naruto (to name some). Not to mention the shoujo… and artbooks… and back issues… and omnibus…and DVDs… Oh boy, this could take a while.

As a bonus, RightStuf is also offering free Viz Media convention tote bags to those who purchase three or more Viz Media items.


Super Savings: BookCloseOuts Adds Yen Press Titles

BookCloseOuts is a site that’s long been a source of getting Tokyopop books for super cheap (of which there are still lots to choose from). Thanks to librarian and fellow manga blogger, Tagnognat, we’ve learned that BookCloseOuts has now added a couple pages of Yen Press titles to their offerings as well.

There’s a fairly good range of titles there, from the Korean-shonen Croquis Pop to the cute 4-koma, Hidamari Sketch. I’d also personally recommend the title History of the West Wing – a one-shot book with gorgeous full colour artwork. The books are listed at 65% off which puts their prices down to a very attractive $3.99.


Super Savings: RightStuf Fulfills Your Yen Press Desires

RightStuf Fulfills Your Yen Press Desires

RightStuf is bringing manga fans more snazzy-savings this week, this time with all Yen Press titles. From now until June 14th, all Yen Press’s titles are 30% off their already listed prices! This means a nice chunk off every book so snatch ’em up while the price is good.

Lots of great new titles have come out recently such as Kobato (Vol. 01-02) and My Girlfriend’s A Geek (Vol. 01). The second volume of the popular Black Butler is out as well, along with a slew of other continuing favourites. And if you haven’t picked up Yen Press’s re-release of Yotsuba&! and their March release of the incredibly charming, Bunny Drop then by all purchasing means go out and do so, you won’t be disappointed.


Take me back to the top!