Diamond Comics is North America’s largest comic book distributor. If you have a local comic store in your area, it’s very likely they get their books from them. Every month Diamond releases a giant magazine, Previews, containing all the products they have – from comics, manga, DVDs and merchandise – that will be released starting in about two months’ time, giving retailers and buyers the chance to put their orders in before shipping dates.

I’ve been picking up the Previews magazines for years, oogling all the different books coming out from publishers and wondering how long until the stacks of Preview magazines I’ve yet to get rid of will crush me in my sleep. Starting now I’ll be writing about the different manga content published in Previews each month here on Kuriousity. This includes all the manga titles listed, the top Manga sellers as tracked by Diamond and mention of other things of interest I spot. With the small two month window, Diamond Previews has rarely been the source of new licenses but it’s a great reminder and showcase of all the books coming our way soon, plus the perfect time to get your orders in, whether through Diamond or at your online retailer of choice.

I’ll also be including with these monthly Preview posts a downloadable PDF that you can print off and check off the manga  you’d like to order. Then it’s as easy as bringing it into your local comic or book store – wherever in your area that orders in through Diamond Comics! Currently the list is just the names and does not include the Diamond order codes. I’ve never come across a store that requires them for ordering but if yours does, let me know and I’ll include them on subsequent files:

January 2012 Manga Previews Checklist (PDF)

You may continue reading at your own discretion for my thoughts, elaborations, random pictures and the Top 10 Selling Manga of November 2011!

With Free Comic Book Day 2012 coming up on May 5th, a handful of pages were dedicated to showcasing the comics created specifically for that day. For manga publishers, Drawn & Quarterly, Fantagraphics, Viz Media and Yen Press were all present. The only work strictly manga-related (though more specifically, manhwa-related) comes from Yen Press who are publishing a sample of their upcoming adapted book, The Infernal Devices: Clockwork Angel. Viz Media’s sampler is for their upcoming original comic based on the Voltron franchise – Voltron Force. Both books will be the FCBD standard of 32 pages. You can learn more about Free Comic Book Day (a gloriously annual event!) and the comics they’re offering this year on their website.

Next up is Dark Horse‘s section where the company traditionally has a batch of full-pages promoting their upcoming releases. This month they have a preview page of the second volume of their Avatar The Last Airbender sequel comic, The Promise. Volume one is due out this February and I can’t wait!

It’s been a while since I’ve read Adam Warren’s Empowered series but I was pleased to see it continues with volume seven on the way. The series is hilarious, chock full of pop culture jokes and super hero story spoofs. It follows a try-hard fails-bad super heroine named Empowered and her collection of allies, enemies and weird in-betweens. I was always impressed and extra entertained by the manga in-jokes including a healthy dash of playing around with boys’ love tropes and manga stereotypes to amusing, not offensive, effect. It’s a series I’ve got to get myself caught up on.

Dark Horse’s FLCL omnibus has a preview page and a May 16th release date for $19.99/US. “The complete FLCL manga adaptation – now with bonus color illustrations and remastered story pages!”. Also in their preview section was Bride of the Water God (Vol.11) which they promote as being a “Best-selling series in the United States and Korea!”. I guess that means it’s doing well? The second volume of Blood Blockade Battlefront is promoted a bit more humbly as “Sci-fi insanity from the creator of Trigun and Gungrave!”.

Here’s a fun piece of new Star Wars merchandise – a t-shirt with a coloured interior page from the Star Wars manga. It was released originally back in the late 90s with art by Toshiki Kudo. With the old-school manga take on the characters and the fun giant comic sound effects, I’m tempted to buy it!

Yen Press‘s manga-style adaptation of Soulless made the Previews’ featured section, as did Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s Fallen Words being published by Drawn & Quarterly. Both are one-shots and definitely on my to-buy list. Soulless really caught my eye after I read the sampler they had at NYCC 2011. The art is fantastic! Fallen Words also earns the Preview magazines’ “Certified Cool” stamp, meaning books they note as being especially worth checking out.

Just like when Tokyopop shuttered their doors unexpectedly quick, it’s sad seeing ads for upcoming volumes of Bandai Entertainment books. Here they have Kannagi (Vol.04) promoted which would’ve been released in March. We know from Bandai’s PR that this book has been cancelled.

Digital Manga continues to buy full pages to promote select upcoming titles of theirs as well. It’s great to see the worth is there for publishers to advertise their manga to the direct market. In this month’s previews, they have full page ads for Itazura na Kiss (Vol. 08), Replica (Vol. 02), Countdown 7 Days (Vol. 02) and Moon & Blood (Vol. 03). Of the four, I’m most excited for Replica and Countdown 7 Days which are definitely hidden gems I think more would like if they came across copies. These ads may become posters on my wall after I’ve put my orders in.

Onwards Towards Our Noble Death – which was originally released in April 2011 by Drawn & Quarterly – is featured in this Preview edition as a Star of the Month title. It’s another distinction in the magazine for a notable title. Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s A Drifting Life (which is going to a new printing) is also a Star of the Month. I really loved A Drifting Life so I’m glad it needs a second edition.  The creator’s four other one-shots are also featured - The Push Man, Abandon The Old in Tokyo, Black Blizzard and Good-Bye – so they should all still be available for you to order into your local store.

Kodansha Comics‘ has eight new volumes listed – Air Gear (Vol.23), Arisa (Vol.07), Bloody Monday (Vol.05), Cage of Eden (Vol.05), Gon (Vol.05), Deltora Quest (Vol.05), Love Hina Omnibus (Vol.03) and Sayonara Zesubou-Sensei (Vol.14). Adding to my frustration with the company, every synopsis is one generic to the whole series, saying nothing specific for the volume itself. Most are those used for volume one. It’s the same thing the company does on retail sites and even their own KodanshaComics.com. Drives me batty! I’ve contacted the company about it but haven’t heard anything back. Gon earned a special Kid-Friendly stamp while Sailor Moon (Vol.01) is re-listed as another Star of the Month.

I was pleasantly surprised to see a listing for One Peace Book‘s Breathe Deeply. The book caught me off guard when it appeared fully published and ready for the market at NYCC when news of the license hadn’t even been promoted. It’s good to see the dark medical one-shot get some wider market advertising, even if it’s description does start with the often groan-worthy “…begs readers to forget what they know about manga.”

Next up in the alphabetical publisher listings is Seven Seas Entertainment. They’ve got listings for Blood Alone (Vol.06) and Toradora! (Vol.04). Both volumes are listed at $11.99 which is a one dollar increase from the original $10.99 that the first two volumes had – I hadn’t even noticed the increase when I bought the third books. Uneven as the singles look next to the omnibus volumes on my shelf (I can’t help it, must be even!), I’m really eager for the new Blood Alone volume as they come out.

UDON Entertainment has a full page promoting the first volume of their upcoming Captain Commando manga. It looks and sounds pretty hilarious, touted as “The Return of Gaming’s Greatest Hero!”. It stars a “fighting force” consisting of Ginzu the Ninja Commando, Mack the Mummy Commando, Baby Head the Baby Commando and their fearless leader, Captain Commando. UDON hasn’t updated their own website in a while with schedule info so places like Diamond and online retailers have been the only real source for release dates.

Next up comes the Viz Media section which is usually a hefty multi-page addition to Previews. This time is no exception but it’s sad to see that almost all the artwork used is really low quality. It looks all grainy and pixelated. This isn’t a norm from them so I can only assume something went wrong between Viz and Previews this month. They’ve got a full page for Pokemon Black & White (Vol.05) and Voltron Force, then two-per-page splits for Blue Excorcist (Vol.07), Bakuman (Vol.10), Bleach (Vol.39), Rosario+Vampire: Season II (Vol.08), Nura Rise of the Youkai Clan (Vol.08), 20th Century Boys (Vol.20), Tenjo Tenge (Vol.06) and X 3-in-1 (Vol.02). It’s nice seeing the Will Eisner stamp next to 20th Century Boys though I do wish Viz Media would mix quotes up a bit – it’s getting old seeing the same Junot Diaz quote in every book and ad. All their other titles due out in March are listed with cover images, info and mini synopsis’s on a single page at the end of the larger preview sections. So many books! You can see the complete list in this month’s Manga Previews PDF.

Vertical Inc has three books listed - Drops of God (Vol.03), GTO: 14 Days in Shonan (Vol.02) and Twin Spica (Vol.12). This volume of Twin Spica is the last of the series and clocks in at a whopping 400 pages! The eleventh volume out this month also has 400 pages and while I’ll be sad to see the series end, it looks like it’ll be an experience to savour with two extra large books seeing it out.

Yen Press is the last-up with eight new books scheduled for March – Soulless, Bamboo Blade (Vol.12), A Bride’s Story (Vol.03), Bunny Drop (Vol.05), The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya-chan (Vol.05), Pandora Hearts (Vol.09), Spice and Wolf (Vol.06) and the newly begun, Is This A Zombie? (Vol.01). Is This A Zombie is listed as their Spotlight On title. Seeing the cover of Bunny Drop (Vol.05) with Rin now a teenager makes me fearful for that ending everyone is often complaining about. I’ve been assured it still sticks to its quality coming-of-age and family drama right up until the end though so I’ll be with it until the end! The synopsis for A Bride’s Story (Vol.03) also shows that the story will be shifting onto Mr. Smith for a while and his journeys away from the village we’ve be in so far.

Listed in the back of the Diamond Previews are the top selling titles from a variety of categories based on several months of sales tracking. This month they have the results for November 2011.

Top 10 Manga of November 2011:

1. Sailor Moon (Vol.02)
2. Codename Sailor V (Vo.02)
3. Negima! (Vol. 32)
4. Mega Manga Gigamiz (Vol.03)
5. MPD Psycho (Vol.10)
6. Claymore (Vol.19)
7. D. Gray Man (Vol.21)
8. Princess Knight (Vol.01)
9. Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (Vol.10)
10. Fairy Tail (Vol.16)

Sailor Moon (Vol.02) also made spot 8/10 on the overall Top 10 Graphic Novels & Trade Paperbacks list. Nostalgic shoujo manga up there with the superheroes and zombies, and in the direct market as well. Great to see!

That’s it for the manga-content of Previews January 2012. If you’re interested in browsing through all the comics, anime, toys and games scheduled for March(-ish), I recommend going to your local comic store and picking up a copy. Until next month! Well… for a new Previews post anyway.

There are no shortage of ‘Best Of’ lists this time of year. While I like popping around to different peoples’ sites and seeing what they thought, it’s a bit of a frustration that I can’t seem to write one myself. How people choose a solid list containing five or ten favourites, from across different genres and subject matters, is just something I can’t seem to muster the brain power for. Not enough conviction I suppose? There’s just so much to love!

But I can’t overlook the perfect chance to look back at all the great titles a year had to offer and 2011 had some really fantastic ones. So then where is this going, oh rambling one, you ask? My semi-traditional equivalent to the yearly best of – the random Lissa’s favourites and best-ofs list! Which really just means you get a lot more titles broken into a lot more categories so I can remain a lot more loving to a lot more series. And in some cases not so loving… From the Best Release Quality to the Favourite Fan Service and even to the most Gag Worthy – here are a bunch of my favourite titles from 2011!

Best Release Quality

While we’re not getting the same amount of individual volumes of manga as years’ past, the quality of releases keeps getting better. This year I was really impressed with Yen Press‘s work on A Bride’s Story which was a hardcover book sporting a beautiful full-colour, matte finish cover slip. It compliments the work perfectly!

Another nice hardcover book was Wandering Son which was released by Fantagraphics. The book was also printed at a larger than normal size making for a book that’s a bit tricky to fit on the shelf but really enjoyable to read.

Viz Media‘s softcover omnibus of CLAMP’s X series was also a treat with lots of full-colour, glossy pages inside. The series is also released in its original visual format for the first time in English.

Best Boys’ Love

My boys’ love buying was a bit smaller than usual this year as much of Digital Manga’s attentions shifted to digital releases and I began running into a lot of supply issues trying to buy physical copies from them (a definite downer of 2011!). Of the titles I did read though, two really stood out. The number one was Only Serious About You (Vol.01) – a really charming story that felt like Future Lovers meets Bunny Drop. The art was nice and the story so sweet and romantic, even with things remaining mostly platonic in this introductory volume.

Another boys’ love title that I loved was Rabbit Man, Tiger Man. I couldn’t resist the visual contrast between the small, cute doctor and the tall, scary yakuza! The story itself was a lot funnier than I expected and I was entertained by every page. The English adaptation stood out to me as being really good too, I loved some of the word choices. I really hope the rest of the series gets licensed.

Favourite Fan Service

While neither are new series to this year, the continuing Black Butler (Yen Press) and XXXHolic (Del Rey) win again for best fan service (the kind that appeals to me)! The suedo-romantic(?) tension between it’s lead male characters and the gorgeous clothing design and dark inking make them immediate must owns, complete with the occasional squeals and swoons. XXXHolic has been a more consistent wow factor volume after volume so it’ll be bittersweet seeing it end early this new year.

Best Second Chances

Re-releases, omnibus and new editions have became a fairly regular occurrence and the chance to revisit something missed is great. This year I was pleasantly surprised by Seven Sea‘s Blood Alone (Vol.01), an omnibus edition of the original first three volumes. It’s a great vampire story that steers clear of most tropes and focuses more on a subtle but poignant relationship between a young girl and her protector.

One of my favourite series of 2011 was Full Metal Alchemist. Though it’s been coming out for a number of years, I’d only just started reading it thanks to borrowing a friends’ copies. Viz Media celebrated the last volume of the series coming out by releasing a box set of the entire thing – all twenty-seven volumes! It’s a fantastic value. I highly recommend it, while also suggesting you avoid the omnibus editions which only cover the first nine volumes then stop.

Digital Manga‘s continuing editions of Kizuna have been great as well. In 2011 we finally got to the point in the omnibus editions where the original English edition by BeBeautiful had stopped. New content! I love that we have a second chance to purchase it, and now the whole thing at that!

Best (Worst?) Good-Byes

While 2011 saw some great series start, it also saw some of my favourites come to an end. The biggest and saddest goodbye goes to Vertical Inc‘s edition of Osamu Tezuka’s Black Jack. This is one of my favourite manga series of all time and to finish reading the last volume was a sad experience indeed. It’s such a fun series and Black Jack himself is an amazing character. I’ve no doubt I’ll be re-reading it again and again.

Viz Media’s English edition of Full Metal Alchemist also came to an end. The pain of it ending was dampened by how I’d read the whole thing within a month leading up to it and because the ending was so, so good. I’m also thankful we got to read the entire story. I wish I could say the same for things such as Pet Shop of Horrors: Tokyo and Shinobi Life which we’ve had to say farewell to early because of Tokyopop’s shutdown. That wasn’t an easy goodbye in itself either – so unfortunate!

Top Can’t-Look-Away-Titles

Like watching a train-wreck and being unable to look away (as they say…?), sometimes there are those titles that are just dark, depressing and sort of scary. Bleak as they may be, the emotional rollar-coasting of reading them makes every page turn worth it. Vertical delivered two series that fit the description, both by Usamaru Furuya. Lychee Light Club is a one-shot with plenty of violence, sex and crazy, crazy people. I read it, loved it and honestly may never read it again. It’s just one of those kind of titles, you know? My signed copy sits proudly on the shelf.

Usamaru Furuya’s No Longer Human has been an experience as well. It’s more grim and dark than violent and shocking but I’m definitely in for the whole messy journey. I look forward to seeing how it finishes in 2012 with volume three what was started in 2011 with volumes one and two.

Getting to meet Usamaru Furuya and hear him interviewed at TCAF 2012 was also a big highlight of the year for me. Hopefully in 2012 I’ll be able to meet an idol with fewer than twenty minutes of self-psyching to work up the nerve to say hello – it could happen, right?

Most Long Awaited

Of all the English manga titles and trends started in 2011, I think it’ll be most known for bringing about two of the most long-awaited manga series of all time – Naoko Takeuchi’s Sailor Moon and Osamu Tezuka’s Princess Knight.

Kodansha Comics released the two volume prequel series, Sailor V, and the first two volumes of Sailor Moon – both are must haves for the magical-girl fans out there! Talk about a trip down nostalgia lane too. While Sailor Moon is one of the most well-known manga titles, Vertical Inc took the honour of releasing one of the very first. The company released both omnibus volumes of Princess Knight in 2011 so you can now buy the whole thing – prepare to enjoy!

As a big CLAMP fan, I was also thrilled to finally get the first volume of their new Gate 7 in my hands. With the title first announced years ago by Dark Horse, it’s been a much longer wait than any anticipated.

Hidden Gems of 2011

Two titles published by Digital Manga that I really enjoyed were Replica and Countdown 7 Days. Both are by Kemuri Karakara and are series it’s tricky to really nail down genre-wise. They’re very shonen in nature but more character-oriented with really nice artwork, less focus on stuff like fighting and ‘The power of friendship!’. Sort of like… D.Grayman, Arata the Legend, and Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles – to name a few that come to mind first.

I really enjoyed both the series so far – great art, fun characters and some interesting stories. I heard little mention of either from the manga blogosphere or social media outlets though but I hope a lot of readers still got to check them out. I’m sure a lot of readers out where would enjoy them. Volume one of each were released in 2011 and I’m eager for the follow-ups in 2012.

Must-Own One-Shots

I love a good one-shot! When done well they’re a really satisfying experience, having either a nice collection of short stories or one solid piece planned for a one-go read. They’re also the easiest thing to suggest to new readers – short but sweet, without the commitment of multi-volume series. Of the one-shots published in 2011, my favourites were Natsume Ono’s Tesoro (Viz Media) and Taniguchi Jiro ‘s A Zoo in Winter (Ponent Mon). I’ve read works by both the artist’s before but these easily became my favourites of each. Both are high quality releases and have stories full of sincerity and compelling human drama – I highly recommend both!

Top Tear-Jerkers

I don’t consider myself quick to tears but sometimes a volume of manga manages to get me there. Goes to show you should always be ready with a hanky or two because you never know what tears a story may bring. Ouran High School Host Club (Vol. 17) was such a fun, high-energy and very satisfying read that I found myself tearing up from joy. That was a new one for me. I enjoyed it so much, seeing how far the series and characters have come. You can bet the last volume, due out in June 2012, will be one hard to say good-bye to.

My feelings were similar reading the last volume of Genkaku Picasso, also released by Viz Media. Picasso’s growth and acceptance of his new friends and their support for him was so touching. I never thought it’d be a series that would move me that much but, by the end of volume three, I was definitely wiping at my eyes to be able to see the pages.

Lastly, when it came to just downright heart-breakingly sad, Stargazing Dog from NBM Publishing won hands down. What made me cry wasn’t even always the sad parts, sometimes it was those bittersweet moments that predate them. It was no surprise to me that a book about the love and loyalty of a pet dog would be an emotional trip though. It’s a great read but definitely have your tissues ready for this one.

Yay-For-More-Coming Titles

We saw series start and end in 2011 but many others were just trekking their way through with more to come. My top-wanted series (because goodness knows there’re dozens of ‘em) that began in years past and have continued through 2011 and onward to 2012 are Kamisama Kiss, Bunny Drop, 20th Century Boys, Pokemon Adventures and The Tyrant Falls in Love. Saying good-bye to a year comes with a lot of good-byes in general but at least there are none for these yet!

Alas-Only-One Titles

Some continuing titles however, made their way through 2011 with unfortunately minimal appearances. A number of my favourite series only had one volume released over the entire year. While the books were great, the long wait is always tough. I’ve got my fingers crossed for more of Kaze Hikaru, Yotsuba&!, Berserk and The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service in 2012.

Most Redeemed

Along with the series that I already loved going into 2011, I also went into the year with a few series I was on the fence about. With several volumes of each throughout the year though, I was made a believer! While they each had some rough starts – be it too predictable, too slow or just painfully sexist, 2011 was a redeeming year for Rumiko Takahashi’s Rin-Ne (Viz Media), Kou Yaginuma’s Twin Spica (Vertical) and Tsugumi Ohba/Takeshi Obata’s Bakuman (Viz Media). Now I’ll be spending 2012 eagerly awaiting every new volume of these three.

Top I’m-Not-Sure-Why Reads

Most people have these kinds of reads – the ones where you really like them but you’re not really sure why. I went into 2011 not able to pinpoint why I love Viz Media’s Toriko and Kodansha Comics’ Air Gear so much and a year later I’m still not sure why. Both had several volumes out in 2011 and still the answer eludes me. One thing I do know though is I love Toriko more for the story, less for the art, and with Air Gear it’s the opposite. I guess as long as I still love reading them, it’s okay that 2011 held tight to their secrets!

Could’ve-Done-Withouts

Enjoyable as many reads were this year, there were some that I could have done without. They weren’t bad, per say, but I was left feeling so underwhelmed upon finishing that I felt my time and money could have been much better spent elsewhere. Blood Blockade Battlefront (Dark Horse), Drifters (Dark Horse) and Drops of God (Vertical) were all series newly started in 2011. While I usually give a series two volumes to impress, I think I’ll leave any future copies of these ones on the shelves for other more interested readers. Not necessarily bad, just not for me.

Most Gag Worthy

Alas where there is good and meh, there is also just outright bad. Thankfully I didn’t read too many stinkers this year but yikes, did the bad ever stand out when they did show themselves. While I don’t often regret reading a book, I got to that point with Ai Ore! (Vol. 01). With some of the most hateable characters I’ve ever read in a manga title, and the end of this first volume nearly earned the title a chuck at the wall. Why, Viz Media? Why?! Digital Manga’s The Beautiful Skies of Houou High was pretty bad also, but erred on the side of just being painful to read and falling short of being rage-inducing.

… and that’s it folks! My thanks to all the manga publishers, local retailers, fellow manga supporters and of course manga creators for a great 2011!

Get your holiday gift cards ready, it’s back to business for manga releases! It’s a pretty slow week as far as quantity goes but who can blame them when it’s right in the middle of the holidays? Still more than I honestly expected though so huzzah! The list of titles out can be read over at Otaku USA.

My top buys of the week are Air Gear (Vol.21) and Tokyo Mew Mew (Vol.02) – ironically both series I’m not entirely sure I like that much but I apparently like them both enough to buy. Air Gear is just really visually awesome and Tokyo Mew Mew is… well, it’s magical shoujo girls and I always give a series at least two volumes. In this case it’s an omnibus so that’s technically four volumes now I guess? Ah well, it gets bonus patience for having Kish as the villain.

It’s Wednesday! And the fifth Wednesday in the month too, that’s an extra week of new comics. You can see the list of new manga out over at my On The Shelf article for Otaku USA.

The big titles out today are the long-awaited new volume of MPD Psycho from Dark Horse, and the seventeenth and final volume of Osamu Tezuka’s Black Jack from Vertical Inc. I may very well cry when I finish that one – it’s never easy when one of your favourites comes to an end!

It’s been almost a month since New York Anime Fest with recaps and reflections still trickling out from the thousands who attended. 105,000, in fact. Wow!

Ed Sizemore invited Erica (Okazu), Melinda (Manga BookShelf) and I to be guests on his Manga Out Loud podcast. It’s posted online now and is part two of his New York Comic Con podcasts. We had a good conversation about what we did at the convention, how we felt it was handled by staff and organizers and about the discussion of legal issues surrounding comics.

The podcast got my brain turning again on my thoughts on the convention. Overall I found other elements of my trip to New York more fulfilling than the convention itself (dinners with awesome people! Kinokuniya! Book-Off!) but from an organizational point of view, I thought NYCC/NYAF was much better handled this year than it was in 2010.

My thoughts and some accompanying photos can be read below:

One of the biggest complaints with last year’s event – which was the first time NYCC and NYAF were combined – was  the ‘ghetto-izing’ of New York Anime Fest. This year the biggest split remains the Artist Alleys, where anime-styled artists are in a separate section than the rest of the exhibitors.

The segregation still exists for a reason, mind you, mainly that it allows an affordable place for artists to exhibit (Anime AA is far, far cheaper than the other section which is more professional-based), but this year was a huge improvement in placement. Last year the Anime AA was in the basement, far to the side of the convention centre. This year it was on a top floor in a wide, bright space. Lots of sunshine and a lot easier to get to. I found the entire atmosphere so much nicer and I heard the same from the artists I spoke to there as well.

There seemed to be good care taken to the anime/manga related scheduling as well. There was a lot of it on Friday but nothing really overlapped anything else. I was thankful to have no manga events happening at the same time as others which can be an unfortunate issue at multi-genre conventions. Most of the panels were also put in the same area as the rest – areas specially designated for panels. This varied from last there where anime/manga events were in rooms between the Artist Alley and the ‘anime stage’ where events like mini-concerts and karaoke were held. Not great for those who wanted to hear their panels in peace. I was really pleased with the way the panels were structured overall.

NYCC also put in place a door system where what badge you had determined what door you entered by. As someone with a press badge, I saw a huge improvement. Last year was chaos trying to figure out where (or sometimes even how) to get into the event, especially during the busy periods of the morning. This year knowing exactly what door to go to meant there were a lot fewer congested doors leading inside and I was always able to get in easily.

Into the show floor was still a different story though. It’s still a congested mess, even though at an event like this I know it can’t be helped all that much. That the large guaranteed-to-draw-a-crowd set-ups were clumped together at the front is a trend that always bothers me though, similar to SDCC. These places – like DC and Marvel’s booths – are areas where you ‘know’ people are going to go. They’re huge, they’re always crowded and they’re impossible to miss. So why do they need to be two feet from the front door? The whole floor was busy with the 105,000 people walking about and needing to get through the most dense crowds right at the entry points was frustrating both trying to get in and out. I’m sure this is likely a buying promise – they’re given those spaces as ‘prime retail’ – but I feel they hurt the flow of the place which can’t really afford to be anymore congested than that many people automatically make it.

The event also had an extra day this year – Thursday – where the show floor was open for several hours for 4-day badge holders, press and pros. It was great having a considerably less crowded chance to walk the floor and get oriented with where stuff was before trying to traverse the same space on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

What I always note the most at conventions, however, is the way companies choose to set-up and run their booths. I jotted down some thoughts on each anime/manga booth that I visited. Below are my thoughts on a few of them:

Viz Media

It was a pleasant surprise having Viz Media attend the convention. It’s about as far East on the US you can get for a business that’s run out of California. Unfortunately their far travel had an affect on their booth. It was devoid of books except for a small kids’ sampler. They had some cute free items, such as Viz Media anniversary bags, but I’m always disappointed to visit a book publishers’ booth and not be able to buy or look at any books.

Yen Press

Yen Press is a company based in New York so they had a lot more flexibility bringing things to the event. Their booth was eye-catching and well designed, plus sported a bunch of their new books to look at. Unfortunately that was all your could do was look. None of the books were for sale, which seems like such a huge waste. You’ve got our attention, we’ve seen the books, we want the books… then we can’t have them. I want to give you my money, why won’t you let me?

GEN Manga

The GEN Manga booth definitely had the most enthusiastic staff. Every time I stopped by, those working there were cheery and eager to talk to anyone who would stop and listen. I enjoyed the time I got to spend speaking to them about the anthology’s production and how excited they were to be releasing the material (which is always free first on their site). I was able to buy copies of all their printed books and get discounts on their online versions as well. They had a tiny booth in comparison to the behemoths around them but they made very good use of it.

One Peace

One Peace books had a small booth nearby to GEN Manga. I didn’t know until this convention that the two are headed by the same person, their Editor-in-Chief, Robert McGuire. I got to speak to Robert who was manning the One Peace booth. He was very personable and I learned a lot about both the publishers. The booth itself had lots of copies of their two manga books – Tenken, which was released last year, and Breathe Deeply, which they were debuting there at the event. I was surprised at the tactic of debuting a book before announcing it but the logic of having a book available when eagerness for it is logistically highest made sense. I was more than happy to buy a copy in support even knowing next to nothing about it.

Vertical Inc.

Vertical Inc‘s booth was exactly what I’ve come to expect of it after seeing them at a few different events, and I’m pleased every time. It’s a no frills set-up – a sign with their name and a couple tables, manned predominantly by their Marketing Director, Ed Chavez. The tables are covered in stacks of their books though, almost everyone the company has put out, all for browsing and buying. I was able to get a volume of an older series I was missing and leave with a big stack of all the new titles they were releasing for the first time at the event. Early copies, yay! It’s always nice when there’s a perk to visiting a publisher’s booth, not to mention complete buying access to the books they publish.

Dark Horse

Dark Horse‘s booth at last year’s NYCC had some copies of their manga available for viewing and buying but this year their booth was an almost entirely digital affair. They were heavily promoting their comics being available digitally and unfortunately promotion of their manga was worse than not present, it was barely present and hidden. There were no books anywhere to look at and two of the staffers I spoke to couldn’t tell me anything about Dark Horse’s manga titles. When I finally did spot their lone manga material, it was a single giant Gate 7 poster that – along with a poster for their newly announced Avatar the Last Airbender comic series – were placed facing inwards towards a garbage can against a support pillar. They were completely hidden from view unless you ducked your head into the little garbage cubby. Suffice to say, this made me very very sad.

Kodansha Comics

It was exciting knowing Kodansha Comics would have a booth at the event, since the company itself is rather silent with communication compared to other manga publishers. Their booth had some nice posters promoting their titles and you could buy a few of their newer books there too. Notably they had a lot of copies of Sailor Moon and Sailor V, plus a free Sailor Moon poster. I wasn’t able to talk to the staff about their book publishing – I got apologies and “I can’t talk about the books” – from a young woman I asked, but they were very nice all the same. It was great seeing them there promoting, especially with a title as big as Sailor Moon in their hands.

AnimeNewsNetwork

ANN didn’t have a booth, per say, but they did have a spot hidden back near one of the show room floor corners. Once you found them, there was a backdrop with the ANN logo repeated on it and a sign saying that if  you took a picture of yourself in front of it, and posted it online linking to them, you’d be entered in a draw to win a gift certificate. It didn’t tell you anything about ANN, or offer a chance to communicate with their staff, but it sure was some clever social media marketing that they just got to sit back and watch happen. I didn’t like it but I did respect it.

Media Blasters

Media Blasters is another company who’s booth looks almost identical every time I see it but always in a good way. Their booth is large, made up of multiple tables in a large square, that are covered corner to corner in DVDs and books. I was able to find all their new releases and get some older boys’ love titles I didn’t own. My favourite part was getting to chat with the welcoming staff and purchase some signed material they were selling from Yayoi Neko, whose work they publish.

Overall, I thought New York Comic Con / New York Anime Fest had a lot of improvements this year over last. In fact one of my greatest complaints is, I presume, of little fault of the event itself and that was a distinctly lower amount of vendors selling manga. I found four, compared to the nine last year. Big drop. As a whole though, if you like multi-genre conventions and/or want to have the East Coast equivalent experience to SDCC, then NYCC is still the place to be.

New York Comic Con may’ve been almost a month ago but I’m still digging myself out of the stacks of stuff I bought there. What I brought back from the ‘big apple’ remains a post for another day but October proved itself manga-behemonth enough in release count to ensure every release-day was another manga buying opportunity.

Eager to see what happens next in one of the series lost to Tokyopop’s shut-down, I bought Shinobi Life (Vol. 08-10) in French from Amazon.ca. The volumes are a different size and colour than the English books (though are lovely!), and my ability to read is stiff, but I’ve really been enjoying going through them and seeing what drama befalls everyone next.

Also in French, I purchased Hinako Takanaga’s Silent Love (Vol. 02) and Be-Boy Magazine (Vol. 11). I really hope we see Silent Love in English someday and Be-Boy Magazine continues to impress me with how high-quality it is. This one even came with a mousepad for A Strange & Mystifying Story! I rounded out the order with Jeu du Chat et de la Souris (Game of Cat & Mouse), a boys’ love story by Setona Mizushiro that I’ve heard mentioned a lot by readers so I had to check it out.

Back to English, and my Halifax-local manga supplier, I bought the new volumes to a bunch of different Viz Media titles. Bakuman (Vol. 07) topped the stack with Kamisama Kiss (Vol. 04) and Natsume’s Book of Friends (Vol. 09) close behind. I also bought Psyren (Vol. 01) to give a new shonen series a go.

The last new Viz Media book I purchased was Tenjo Tenge (Vol. 03), though I’m still in debate on if it’ll be the final Tenjo Tenge book I buy. I honestly can’t tell if I like it or not. I read the volumes I buy eventually but… I guess we’ll see what my gut says when volume four hits store shelves in December.

Yen Press made me a happy buyer indeed with two series I’d never consider stopping out of lacking interest - Yotsuba&! (Vol. 10) and Black Butler (Vol. 07). I subscribe to their digital YenPlus magazine just to read Yotsuba&! chapters each month but having the collected book is the perfect reason and chance to sit down and read them all over again.

Other recent books came from different publishers. From NBM Publishing, I bought Stargazing Dog which is a sweet and simultaneously heart-breaking read. Seven Seas released Blood Alone (Vol. 04) which I was eager to get after loving their first omnibus release. It’s a vampire story I keep forgetting is a vampire story.

I started two new shoujo series with Gate 7 (Vol. 01) from CLAMP and Dark Horse and Tokyo Mew Mew (Vol. 01) from Kodansha Comics. I posted a review on Gate 7  back in October. The latter is an omnibus edition re-release of the series, complete with new translation and an adorable cover/spine design. I’ve read most of Tokyo Mew Mew years ago yet it’s been long enough now that this should feel like a fresh experience.

Because of a job situation my manga buying will need to be cut back for the next little while but I’m glad to have so many books to enjoy in the meantime! It’s also a good moment to remind people about the importance and awesomeness of local libraries. Free books! Borrowing costs you nothing but still supports your favourite publishers and creators so browse, borrow and enjoy :)

It’s a week of especially amazing works coming out! Don’t waste a manga-buying moment and stop by this week’s On The Shelf article to see the titles being released tomorrow.

A Bride’s Story (Vol.02), Yotsuba&! (Vol.10), Drops of God (Vol.01)… and then you have the fangirl button pressing Black Butler (Vol. 07) and a guilty pleasure like Air Gear (Vol.20) sprinkled on top. But those are just my absolute must-haves – still lots more on the list where those came from.

Writing On The Shelf for Otaku USA, I continue to be impressed week after week about just how much manga is released in North America. Stacks of new books every week. And by stand nearly every book at 150+ pages and all this ‘after’ the manga bubble ‘burst’. Sure we can always want more and more but you know what? We’re so darn lucky and I love it! Thank you, publishers :)

Manga-ka: CLAMP
Publisher: Dark Horse
Rating: Teen (13+)
Release Date: October 2011

Synopsis: “An innocent sightseeing trip to Kyoto opens up a magical realm to shy high schooler Chikahito Takamoto! Visiting a legendary shrine, Chikahito finds himself in the mystical world of Hana and her comrades–and his immunity to their powers leads them to believe that he’s no ordinary, awkward teenager! Protecting our world from violent elemental beasts, Hana and her team welcomes the confused Chikahito–who isn’t quite sure that he wants to be caught in the middle of their war! One’s thing’s certain, though, since he’s smitten with aloof, childlike warrior Hana, he’s along for the ride, for better or worse!”

Buying the first volume of a new CLAMP series is a treat and I’ve been so excited to get a hold of this book for quite some time. I know next to nothing about Gate 7 (I made sure it was so!), excluding my constant following of Dark Horse’s bumpy release attempts. But now it’s finally here and at last I can share my thoughts extending past a disappointed sigh. Gate 7‘s opening volume takes off fast while simultaneously trudging along slowly. None the less, CLAMP’s skill at gripping your eyes with their great artwork and tugging at your heart with their likeable characters still makes Gate 7 an effective opening instalment to their newest series.

Gate 7‘s lead character is Chikahito Takamoto, a fairly typical young man out on his first solo-vacation , one that leads him to the inevitable meeting with the demon battling trio of Kyoto. I really like him so far. There’s not a lot to him but he’s sincere and intelligent, plus his reactions to the weirdness around him is a good combination of freak-outs and plot-progressing acceptance. A downside to his book smarts though are some scenes that drag out during historical exposition. It’s interesting and relevant to a point but not enough to hold my interest for walls of text page after page.

While Chikahito wins my affection easily, I’m less sure about what I think about his partner in the spotlight, Hana. I really like Hana on the surface, she pushes a lot of my fangirl buttons, but she perplexes me. Adorable, innocent and with a slew of great clothing, Hana is a powerful warrior who slices through opponents and the magic they unleash without batting an eye. Predominantly Hana is cute and very childlike – such as when she’s casually held up by someone or wanders out of bed in frog pajamas.

It’s this childish nature of Hana that really throws me off. It’s similar to what I felt when reading CLAMP’s Suki series. The lead is cute and quirky but maybe too much so. Enough in fact that I wonder if their cute-factor borders more on mentally handicapped. I like a lot about Hana but there’s so little we actually know. I really want to see her be more self-aware. Some of her actions show a greater awareness than her cute sound effects and strange habits suggest – such as her spell on Chikahito and random moments of creepy enigmatic stares – yet these moments are buried amidst the spacey personality features. So far she lacks a direction or purpose past habitually fighting and instinctively filling her tummy.

Hana’s gender is also in question. Granted, I find her appearance – and I use her because Dark Horse does – so feminine that it seems weird her gender is in debate at all. It’s not because I don’t think they ‘could’ be a boy since it’s CLAMP (and I think it’d be pretty keen if she was), but it just seems odd that Chikahito would consider it in the first place.

The other two members of her team aren’t anymore fleshed out but the trio make a pretty balanced group. Sakura is the group’s go-to guy and always seems to have a laid back smile on his face, more than happy to divulge information about any given situation for the sake of talking. Tachibana is the sullen member, more serious in his disposition but not so up tight that he comes across as unapproachable. They both have abilities that they can use to best their foes by channelling it through Hana, turning magic into beautiful rendered physical attacks.

CLAMP’s artwork overall is gorgeous, bringing together an assortment of stylistic elements from their different series. The character designs and loose ink style carry over from their recent Kobato while the use of heavy blacks look more akin to the work of XXXHolic and Tsubasa. One of my favourite visual elements to Gate 7 were the humourous and exaggerated expressions – which Hana has a lot – because they look so much like Angelic Layer, one of my favourite CLAMP works from an art perspective.

Comparisons aside, the detail work in Gate 7 always gives you something to look at without overwhelming what’s happening. Background details are especially impressive, though CLAMP does opt for some photo manipulation at times in place of line work. Character designs are attractive and very distinguishable from one another while chapter covers and full-spread illustrations are bound to leave you flipping back to stare further at least once.

By the time volume one comes to an end, Gate 7 has introduced us to the main characters and given some brief tours of what we can assume will the main setting in Kyoto. We’ve seen Hana display amazing amount of power while we learn Chikahito’s contribution to the story is a so-far refreshing, ‘nothing’ (you’ll get what I mean once you read it). A real charge to the story comes at the end when the concept of Oni and their attachment to their masters comes into play. It hurts the book in that it gets a little dull with so much explanation but definitely begins setting up for a lot more plot in book two.

I don’t think I need to suggest that CLAMP fans buy this title – it’s a given, right? Those who waffle on their like of the manga team or haven’t read a work of theirs before should at least pick the book up and flip it through. So far it’s also very approachable for those who haven’t read a CLAMP work before, which you can’t say as easily for some of their titles. Admittedly, if Gate 7‘s art doesn’t grab you then the content itself might fall just short of making up for it. It succeeds as a first volume though – I’m suitably curious and eager for more – but I hope in volume two things happening becomes more important than people standing around preparing readers with information they might need later. Dark Horse’s lovely wrap-around cover, smooth adaptation, slick lettering and very, very extensive translation notes are all icing on this long-awaited CLAMP cake.

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Book bought from Strange Adventures

Back from New York with a suitcase full of swag and I was still excited to get home and see what new goodies are out this week! If you’re curious about what new manga titles are out, you can pop over to Otaku USA to read my On The Shelf article for the week.

A big chunk of my excitement for this week’s releases is because the first volume of Gate 7 is finally out. CLAMP are some of my favourite creators and to have a new title from them to read for the first time is really exciting. How many years has it been since that happened? Plus the book looks gorgeous! Dark Horse has a preview of the manga’s first chapter over on their website that you can read to get an early glimpse.

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!

Panels

Unusual Manga Genres
Friday, October 14 2011
11:00 am – 12:00 pm

This panel is a testament to the diversity and specialization of the manga market in Japan. Thanks to the popularity of manga in the United States, many of the titles I cover are now available in English. As someone who dislikes superhero comics, I’m amazed at the scope and the breadth of manga titles available. My PowerPoint presentation is broken down into broad categories – “Regular Sports” (manga about track and field) “Unusual Sports” (Hikaru No Go, golf titles), “Quasi-Sports”(fishing manga, yo-yo manga), “Manga for Girls” (ballet manga, pet manga), “Manly Manga” (Pachinko Manga, Mah-Jong Manga), “Food Manga” (Yakitate Japan, Bambino) and the “Uncategorizeable” (manga about tasting junk food, manga about Jesus and Buddha living as roommates).

Speakers: Erin Finnegan, Noah Fulmor

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Yen Press (Publisher website)
Friday, October 14 2011
12:15 pm – 1:15 pm

The Yen Press crew — publishing director Kurt Hassler, senior editor JuYoun Lee, and assistant editors Tania Biswas and Abby Blackman — unveil exciting new projects and take questions from the audience. Also immediately following the panel, creators Svetlana Chmakova and Rem will be hosting a special autographing session to sign copies of their latest works at Autographing Table 1 . Svetlana will be signing copies of her new adaptation of renown author James Patterson’s WITCH & WIZARD while Rem will be signing limited edition comics featuring the first chapter of her adaptation of New York Times bestselling author Gail Carriger’s SOULLESS!

Speakers: Abby Blackman (Editorial Assistant), JuYoun Lee (Senior Editor), Kate Locke (Author), Kurt Hassler (Publisher Director), Svetlana Chmakova (Comic Creator), Tania Biswas (Editorial Assistant)

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Hiro Mashima and Kodansha Comics (publisher website)
Friday, October 14 2011
6:30 pm – 7:30 pm

Join Kodansha Comics as we welcome Hiro Mashima to New York for the very first time! Mashima, the super-popular creator of Rave Master and Fairy Tail, and the artist of Monster Hunter Orage, will talk about what it’s like to be a manga creator, answer questions from fans, and even give a drawing demonstration. Plus, Kodansha Comics will have some very exciting announcements for next year. Don’t miss it!

Speaker: Hiro Mashima, Kodansha Comics Staff

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Vertical, Inc. Industry Panel (publisher website)
Friday, October 14 2011
8:45 pm – 9:45 pm

Vertical, Inc., one of North America’s premiere publishers of Japanese printed pop-culture returns to New York Comic Con to reveal a handful of new additions to what is already a critically acclaimed comic catalog. Currating one of the more eclectic and challenging manga lists Vertical will continue to ask its readers to read differently with titles such as Chi’s Sweet Home, GTO and Osamu Tezuka’s Princess Knight. What will join those ranks? Join us and find out!

Speaker: Ed Chavez

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CBLDF: Defending Manga (CBLDF website)
Saturday, October 15 2011
7:30 pm – 8:30 pm

Right now a manga fan is facing a mandatory minimum sentence of one year in prison and registering a sex offender because Canada Customs agent alleged that horror and fantasy manga on his laptop were child pornography. The threat to manga has been growing in recent years, as North American authorities misunderstanding of the material leaves innocent readers in the crossfire. Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is fighting these cases, with a need to raise $150,000 to defend the Canada Customs case. Come listen to a discussion on the issues facing manga and what you can do to help.

Speaker: -

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VIZ Media (publisher website)
Sunday, October 16 2011
10:45 am – 11:45 am

VIZ Media’s 25th Anniversary celebrations continue with a special panel packed with exciting news on upcoming releases and prizes for our fans! VIZ Media staff will provide the latest updates on new acquisitions and upcoming releases, as well as give the scoop on groundbreaking new projects!

Speaker: Sasaki Hisashi, Viz Media Staff

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Anime News Network (website)
Sunday, October 16 2011
2:30 pm – 3:30 pm

Meet the editors behind Anime News Network. The ANN staff will discuss the challenges and rewards of running the world’s most read anime and manga information website. The staff will also discuss upcoming projects and the site’s future direction. This is an opportunity for readers to meet the ANN staff in person.

Speaker: ANN Staff, Christopher MacDonald

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!

Manga-ka: Yasuhiro Nightow
Publisher: Dark Horse
Rating: Teen (13+)
Release Date: September 2011

Synopsis: “A breach between Earth and the netherworlds has opened up over the city of New York, trapping New Yorkers and creatures from other dimensions in an impenetrable bubble. They’ve lived together for years, in a world of crazy crime sci-fi sensibilities. Now someone is threatening to sever the bubble, and a group of stylish superhumans is working to keep it from happening.”

B3 – or Blood Blockade Battlefront – is the newest English-released work from Yasuhiro Nightow. His popular Trigun remains to date one of the few series where I found the anime more enjoyable than the manga it was based on. Nightow’s artwork was confusing to follow and his pacing erratic, making an otherwise entertaining story a chore to follow. It’s always been a disappointment to me that I didn’t like the Trigun manga so I was hoping for another chance to give Nightow a try. Does Blood Blockade Battlefield redeem the manga artist in my eyes? … unfortunately not. I bet it’d make a spiffy anime though.

Right off the bat I was pleasantly surprised by the design of the story’s main character. He looks more like he’d be a secondary character than someone you’d expect to be the story’s lead. Leonard Watch has a simple short black hair cut, comfy looking sweatshirt, goggles and squinted eyes. His run of the mill appearance matches his pretty humble personality too. He’d a pretty laid back young guy, but the story revs up pretty fast and he’s soon caught up in one circumstance after another where he’s stuck going with the flow just to keep alive, which thankfully he does with all he can offer. He’s got a special ability granted to him by a traumatic event in his past but so far it seems more handy than granting him position of ‘WOW-super-powered-newbie!’ like so many more standard shonen series.

Likeable as I found Leonard, however, the story he’s in was a lot more difficult to digest. A New York separated from the world in a giant bubble, strange creatures living among human beings, and now some evil organization using a mix of beasts and technology to try and sever the connection by, well, making connections between the different worlds. Or something to that effect. Either way, it leaves a notorious group of do-gooders known as Libra chasing a tiny dopey looking monkey around the city with their newest member, Leonard. What could have been an exciting series of events is muddled by choppy scene transitions and a lack of coherency. I kept losing track of where they were and some times even the specifics as to why. At least a clear line between the good guys and bad guys was drawn.

The Libra team seems like a fun enough bunch – you’ve got the quick-to-anger, white-haired chain smoker (Zap), the attractive and sarcastic gun-toting female (Chain), and the heart of gold, super powerful leader who also sports a mean under bite and side burns (Klaus). With Leonard tossed in there, I liked reading the scenes where they interacted. There was some good humour and one-liners that prompted a chuckle or two.

Nightow’s artwork looks considerably cleaner than in Trigun and I found myself stopping to linger to on the solid ink more than once. Unfortunately I did the same thing on a few scenes for less positive reasons, namely some really awful proportions that lack enough consistency to be entirely a stylistic choice. A nude scene with Zap was especially hard to look at, sporting a body frame akin to someone who’s been decomposing awhile. In contrast, Dark Horse didn’t hold back on the book’s physical quality and I love the book’s matte cover and paper stock. It’s a great looking book design-wise as well with a snazzy title font and spine layout.

While I didn’t like Blood Blockade Battlefront as much as I wanted to, it’s still an improvement over Nightow’s older works when it comes to storytelling coherency, even if only just. Like Trigun, I feel this story would probably work better as an anime with colour making sequences easier to follow and some tidier exposition. As it is here, not even a lead character I liked and some fun with the other characters makes me want to pick up volume two. Regrettably B3 was a battle lost for me.

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Book purchased from Strange Adventures

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!

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?

Students, students, students – they’re everywhere! Here in Halifax we have a large amount of universities and colleges considering the size of our humble city so when September hits, the population seems to spike! I hope they’re lucky enough to find the awesome places we have here to buy comics and manga, just in time for this week’s new stuff.

My On The Shelf article is up over at Otaku USA which includes a whole bunch of Viz Media titles and four new series starting from Kodansha Comics. There’s just so darn much! A gift for the shelves and a curse for the wallet. Perfect moment to be thankful that so many independent Canadian retailers charge based on the strength of the dollar and not those prices on the back of books though… yikes.