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Otaku USA: On The Shelf – August 31, 2011

Posted by Lissa Pattillo on Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Is it really the last day of August already? Yikes… summer just flew by. I can’t believe people will be returning to school in just a few days. I may’ve graduated years ago, but I still love hitting the books – just a different kind of course (not that I didn’t read a heck of a lot of manga in my school years as well!). Otaku USA has my newest edition of On The Shelf posted for this week’s manga releases.

My top pick is definitely Kohta Hirano’s Drifters. Elves, magic, distorted and exaggerated historical figures and the creator’s snazzy art style = a must read! Fingers crossed we don’t have to wait as long for volume two of Drifters as we did for volume thirteen of Eden… Better than never though, Dark Horse, so my thanks for both this week!

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Categories: On The Shelf, Release Lists
Tags: Dark Horse, DMP, June, Kodansha Comics, Manga, Otaku USA, Viz Media

Devils & Wolves – Digital Manga Adds 3 New Boys’ Love Titles

Posted by Lissa Pattillo on Saturday, August 27, 2011

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Slipping in some under the radar news last week (unless you’re signed up with DMP’s handy newsletter), Digital Manga has added a few new boys’ love titles to their print line-up:

Devil’s Infirmary – Aco Oumi
(“Hokenshitsu no Akuma”)

Ambiguous Relationship – Masara Minase
(“Mijuku na Kareshi”)

Gentlemen’s Agreement Between A Rabbit & a Wolf – Oumi Shinano
(“Usagi to Ookami no Shinshikyoutei”)

Devil’s Infirmary is the second book Aco Oumi has had published by Digital Manga – the first being 801Media‘s Love Circumstances. Amibiguous Relationship‘s artist may look familiar to some also – they’ve had a couple works released by Drama Queen and were the artist for June‘s BL novel, The Lonely Egotist. Oumi Shinano hasn’t had any works released in English yet but they do have a one-shot titled Yakuza Cafe coming from June in October.

Digital Manga has also recently updated their website to include book releases up until September 2012. Some notable (and my most anticipated titles) include up to volume five of Tyrant Who Falls In Love and the Finder series, About Love (wedding planner yaoi? Must see!) and the long-awaited third volume of A Strange and Mystifying Story.

An important distinction to make is the licenses above are for print and don’t include Digital Manga’s growing list of one-shot titles being published through their Digital Manga Guild. This includes the recently released Tired of Waiting for Love. The DMG titles are digitally only and will be released on eManga.com as they come out. I recommend following Digital Manga’s Twitter account for guild news as it comes out.

*Image above is from cover of Oumi Shinano’s Gentlemen’s Agreement Between A Rabbit & a Wolf

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Categories: Licensing
Tags: Boys' Love/Yaoi, DMP, June

Otaku USA: On The Shelf – August 17, 2011

Posted by Lissa Pattillo on Tuesday, August 16, 2011

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Wednesday is upon us again! New comics time, it’s a beautiful thing. This week new manga releases are represented in full by Viz Media and Yen Press. You can check out the full list over in my On The Shelf article at Otaku USA.

My top pick for this week is Naoki Urasawa’s 20th Century Boys (Vol. 16) from Viz Media:

“Hands down the book I’m most eager for is 20^th Century Boys (Vol. 16)—after the short epilogue-esque chapter at the end of volume 15, I’ll be diving atop that book as soon as it’s unpacked. A certain main character has some explaining to do amidst all the world-altering biological warfare.”

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Categories: On The Shelf, Release Lists
Tags: 20th Century Boys, Manga, Otaku USA, Viz Media, Viz Signature, Yen Press

Otaku USA: On The Shelf – August 10, 2011

Posted by Lissa Pattillo on Wednesday, August 10, 2011

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It’s that time again – and shall be that time every week – new comics time! My On The Shelf article is up at Otaku USA for your reading pleasure.

My top pick for this week’s releases is Viz Media’s Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit:

“This book doesn’t get a lot of discussion and it’s a shame—it’s a great story that really gives you a lot to think about in regards to society, mortality and a government’s hold on its people.”

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Categories: On The Shelf, Release Lists
Tags: Bandai, Dark Horse, Kodansha Comics, Manga, Otaku USA, UDON, Viz Media

CLAMP To Resume Legal Drug Manga Series

Posted by Lissa Pattillo on Saturday, August 6, 2011

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Exciting news for CLAMP fans today – it was revealed today that they’ll be resuming work on their series, Legal Drug! CLAMP had previously done three volumes of Legal Drug before it went on hiatus in 2003. Tokyopop released the ‘complete’ series in English.

“Meet Kazahaya and Rikuou. By day, they are two ordinary pharmacists; by night, their boss has them filling special prescriptions for clients with ailments that can’t be cured using ordinary elixirs.” – Tokyopop description for Legal Drug

Not too long ago it was announced that Legal Drug would be re-released in Japan, which of course times quite well with this news. Though translation of the relaunch say this will be a new series, I think it’ll still be more a continuation but with an opening that allows it to be taken as a new series. Clear introduction of characters, plot, etc. The re-release of the original three volumes will allow for readers to pick them up if previously missed, while the new series offers shiny new content for existing fans and still a clean-slate for new ones. Plus it’s been such a long time since Legal Drug was last serialized – it’d seem kind of odd just calling it a straight continuation.

I’m really excited as a big lover of the original. The big question for us English-readers now, however, is when will Dark Horse announce the license? Fingers crossed, but consider this a big ‘pretty-please, Dark Horse!’. The original Legal Drug seems like an easy one-volume omnibus perfect for a new English edition but is it on Dark Horse’s radar? The company’s release of Gate 7 has been constantly fraught with delays and failed launch dates but I remain confident in their CLAMP-releasing abilities based on the sheer quality of their Cardcaptor Sakura, Clover and Chobits‘ books.

For now though, a simple YAY! It may be a while yet until it’s available for us to read in English but it’s CLAMP, so at least I’ve little doubt it’ll come to us eventually.

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Categories: News
Tags: CLAMP, Dark Horse, Manga, Tokyopop

Otaku USA: On The Shelf – August 03, 2011

Posted by Lissa Pattillo on Thursday, August 4, 2011

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Sorry for the silence here on Kuriousity, readers. We’ve had some technical difficulties with updating the past couple of weeks. Things finally seem to be smoothing out with our web provider however (as evident by you reading this post – yay!), so our backlog of content will be posted over the next few days.

Recently I was invited to contribute to Otaku USA’s web publication (helping expand from USA to more NA!). This week marks the first of my new manga column for them – On The Shelf. The weekly article will be a showcase of the manga available that week through comic-distribution (thus meaning predomiantly Diamond Comics). I’ll be listing the available titles from a variety of manga publishers along with taking some time to ~~gush~~ elaborate on a couple different books each week as well. I hope it proves a useful resource for manga fans!

I’ll be linking to my Otaku USA articles from Kuriousity from now on as they’re posted. My Swag Bag posts – where I share what I myself ending up buying that week – will continue to be posted here. I hope readers continue to share what they’ve purchased manga-wise that week (I’m always curious to know!) as well as contribute their own weekly recommendations over at Otaku USA.

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Categories: News, On The Shelf, Release Lists
Tags: Dark Horse, Manga, Otaku USA, Vertical Inc, Viz Media, Yen Press

August 1st is Yaoi Day with DMP!

Posted by Lissa Pattillo on Thursday, July 28, 2011

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August 1st – or 8/01 – has been proclaimed Yaoi Day! Not a bad thing to celebrate mid-summer – nice and hot, right? Well, unless you’re living on the East Coast of Canada… but that’s a different matter!

Digital Manga is ready to celebrate Yaoi Day with sales and contests, the deals of which are lasting all week. Curious what they’ve got to offer? It’s all available to readers around the world and you can read all the details below:

SDCC 2011: It’s All About the Digital

Posted by Lissa Pattillo on Sunday, July 24, 2011

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San Diego Comic Con 2011 is in its final hours today so its round-up time! As the biggest pop-culture convention of its kind, there were many bloggers on site to record all the details, so, while here on Kuriousity I’ll just be giving the brief run down of manga-related news, I’ll also be giving select links of where you can go to learn more.

Digital was the biggest news of the year. For everyone’s benefit, I’ll forgo my usual sad sighs and short rambles at the trend of more digital and less paper and skip right to summing up the news!

Edit (July 25th): More info re: Viz Media’s licenses added

Viz Media with BL, Birthdays and a Baked-Good Puppy

Posted by Lissa Pattillo on Monday, June 20, 2011

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Some Viz Media news of note today including, well, just as the title suggests – some BL, birthdays and a baked-good puppy!

Viz Media is celebrating its 25th birthday this year (proving that awesome people and things were indeed born in 1986 – completely irrelevant it’s my birth year also). They have a mini-hub set up that’s updated with news relevant to the milestone – Viz Media: 25 Years! News so far on the site includes, among other things, their 2011 summer convention schedule:

April 22-24	Sakura-Con	Seattle, WA
May 27-30	Fanimecon	San Jose, CA
June 10–12	A-kon	Dallas, TXA
July 1-4	Anime Expo	Los Angeles, CA
July 21-24	San Diego Comic Con	San Diego, CA
July 29-31	Otakon	Baltimore, MD

Congrats on the birthday, Viz Media! May you have many more – and any chance we’ll see you on the East Coast at NYAF for well-wishes in person?

Noted by Viz Media staffer, Alexis Kirsch, on their Twitter page (and caught by eagle-eyed, Andre!) – Viz Media has licensed the manga series Cinnamoroll starring the character of the same name. Cinnamoroll is a Sanrio (company responsible for iconic characters such as Hello Kitty) character: a white puppy with long ears (that he uses to fly) and a little cinnamon bun shaped tail. No doubt the manga will be adorable and as sugary sweet as the baked goods that apparently drew Cinnamoroll from… wherever he came from.

Viz Media’s Job page has updated with four new job listings, but one in particular immediately caught the eyes of many – Editor (Yaoi/BL).

“The Editor (Yaoi/BL) is responsible for property acquisitions, executing print and digital publication production, and managing relationships with licensors and business partners in order to establish and grow VIZ Media’s line of mature content titles. …Knowledge of yaoi/BL genre and market, and ability to work on adult-oriented materials A MUST”

With Viz Media seeking an editor for the genre, it seems fairly safe to assume the manga-mecha company will be delving into some BL publishing. It’s exciting news and bears a lot of promise for boys’ love fans. It could do well filling the little gap that BLU’s demise has left by adding back some more BL titles on the shelves. Plus Viz Media’s wide distribution, which TP was always very similar to, means they may be easier to find than similar niche titles often are.

What boys’love titles would you like to see Viz Media license? The first that came to my mind was Sakuragari – a dark, boys’ love story by Yuu Watase (since they’re released almost everything else of hers). Ideas anyone? And don’t hesitate to let Viz Media know through Twitter – they’re always listening!

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Categories: Licensing, News
Tags: Boys' Love/Yaoi, Manga, Viz Media, Yuu Watase

Digital Manga Launches Hentai Imprint – Project H

Posted by Lissa Pattillo on Wednesday, June 8, 2011

5 Comments »

A few months back listings for some hentai titles popped up on Amazon under Digital Manga‘s 18+ boys’ love imprint: 801Media. With the website‘s promised overhaul delayed, it didn’t seem too far-fetched to assume the entire imprint was undergoing a little transformation. Not a far stretch going from BL porn to hetero porn, right?

Digital Manga couldn’t comment on the listings then but today the books’ appearance on RightStuf comes with a new publisher name, revealing Digital Manga’s newest imprint (warning adult content!): Project H!

A company representative has since confirmed the imprint which will have an official launch later this month. If it doesn’t already speak well enough for itself, the imprint will be a collection of adult hentai manga. My thanks to Digital Manga for answering my request for comment aboutProject H – best of luck with the launch and new titles!

The three launch titles, all one-shots, are:

Shocking Pink! – Riosuke Yasui
Three P – Hiroshi Itaba
Embrace & Bloom – Kuon Michiyoshi

Shocking Pink and Three P are currently listed with release dates late-August. The imprint currently has a placeholder on its website at projecth-books.com. They also already have a Twitter account set-up: @projectHBooks. The imprint, according to Digital Manga, will be “powered by 801Media and distributed by 801Media”. The original hints tie-in!

So what do you think? Is this a smart move by Digital Manga? Hard to argue that porn isn’t a strong seller! I’ll definitely be picking up at least one of these three launch titles when they come out – one, to sate my curiousity, and two, because my humble hentai collection could use some companions on their tiny shelf :)

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Categories: Licensing, News
Tags: DMP, Manga, Project-H