It’s the last comic shipping day before Christmas! The next couple of weeks are typically a little wonky in regards to shipping. While the manga load is light this week it sports some especially ‘NEED NOW!’ titles to make the trip to your local comic or book store just as worthwhile. You can see the list over at my On The Shelf article at OtakuUSA.

Fullmetal Alchemist (Vol. 27) is the big one – the final volume of the series! I’ve had the book for about a month now thanks to Viz Media’s FMA boxset released in November. I’m so eager for manga fans to get a hold of this book and to hear their thoughts of the end. It’s one of my favourite manga titles and I think it ended near-perfectly. Faith Erin Hicks – awesome artist, friend and the woman responsible for introducing me to the glories of Fullmetal Alchemist – wrote a great post about the importance of stories ending after she read volume twenty-seven.

I’m also really eager to buy the newest volume of XXXHolic – still one of my favourite CLAMP titles. The last couple of volumes in particular have been chockful of so much extra eye-candy that it’ll be hard to not just stand there at Strange Adventures and oogle every page.

Every week when I hit the local comic store for new books, I’m excited. I love buying new books and generally enjoy just about everything I buy. Some weeks though just have an extra-high ratio of awesome. This was one of those weeks!

Kodansha Comics‘ editions of Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (Vol. 01) and Codename: Sailor V (Vol. 01) - I have them. Turns out I somehow wanted them even more than I thought because the emotional reaction I had to holding them in my hand was a surprise even to myself. Much relief and happiness. They’re adorable books on the outside and were lots and lots of fun on the inside. It hurt to finish the first Sailor Moon and not have a second volume to leap into.

Thankfully I had other volumes of manga I was jumping up and down in anticipation for (not literally of course but you get the idea) – XXXHolic (Vol. 17) and Arisa (Vol. 04). XXXHolic is one of my favourite manga series and I’m thrilled there’re still new volumes to look forward to. I get caught off-guard every time I see a new volume or listing for it with DelRey‘s name still attached though – it and Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles were the only manga series the company held onto and it’s easy to forget that with Kodansha Comics releasing so many of their previous titles.

Speaking of series that do a good job blending shoujo and shonen elements together in one book (… of which I meant Tsubasa, if you haven’t read it), I bought the new volume of Yuu Watase’s Arata (Vol. 07). I have a love/like relationship with the series – some books really good, some volumes really meh. Flipping through I see more ‘our world’ stuff so I’m looking forward to that. I think there’s a lot of potential for interesting material in that part of the story but it keeps being sidelined.

Viz Media padded this week’s purchases further with House of Five Leaves (Vol. 04), Grand Guignol Orchestra (Vol. 04) and Bakuman (Vol. 06). I’m not sure how I missed this volume of Bakuman for so long but the upside is that if I really like it, I have only a week to wait for the new book. I’ve been liking it more and more with every volume too so the outlook seems good that I’ll really enjoy this one.

Lastly – for manga – I bought Yen Press‘s My Girlfriend’s A Geek (Vol. 04). I like this series for its very in-the-know humour about the genre and fandom but after three volumes, it’s wearing thin. What I really want to see is some evolution in the leads’ relationship where the guy actually confronts how insanely selfish, self-absorbed and demanding his girlfriend is. Fingers crossed?

To end this week’s Swag Bag, while I don’t usually write about the non-manga comics I buy, I have to take a paragraph to point people to the gorgeously released, highly entertaining, absolutely hilarious and completely worth every penny release of Kate Beaton’s Hark! A Vagrant. Instead of going on about what’s so great about it, I’ll simply direct you to her website where you can read the strips and see first hand why everyone should buy this book.

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!

A post over on the CLAMP_now community forums has confirmed what has long since begun to feel like the inevitable: CLAMP in America is officially cancelled.

“The title ‘Clamp in America’ has been cancelled. There is no tentative release date scheduled for this title at this time. The only pending volumes currently scheduled for release from Clamp are XXXHolic 17 in September of this year and XXXHolic 18 in December of this year.”

After initially being announced at San Diego Comic Con 2008, CLAMP in America was an informational and fandom oriented book about the manga group CLAMP and their history, influence and popularity in North America. It was (or would’ve been) written by Shaeon Garrity with interviews and input from fans, comic creators and CLAMP themselves. The book had been delayed every couple of months since then with no word from DelRey saying anything otherwise, until now.

This comes as a pretty big disappointment as I’d really been looking forward to it, both as a huge CLAMP fan and someone who enjoys Shaneon Garrity’s writing. That said, I’m not really surprised, especially since DelRey’s manga licenses recently shifted over to Kodansha Comics (with only XXXHolic currently remaining in their hands until it ends) and Dark Horse being the current CLAMP powerhouse with their omnibus editions. It’d be wonderful, however unlikely, if we could see the book shift over to Dark Horse; it’d be a great compliment to their CLAMP library.

Unfortunate and not the news we’d been waiting to hear but at least we’ve now heard something.

Kodansha Comics isn’t slowing down after their huge news in March with a handful of new titles announced for their fall line-up later this year.

Tokyo Mew Mew
Love Hina (Omnibus Collection)
Shugo Chara! Chan
@Full Moon

Tokyo Mew Mew and Love Hina were previously released by Tokyopop but will sport new translations for these editions. Shugo Chara! Chan is a sequel to the series Shugo Chara! which was published by Del Rey. Lastly @Full Moon is a sequel series to Kodansha’s previously announced Full Moon series (which in itself was a license rescue from the long-since defunct Brocolli Books). When so many manga readers are left wondering if they’ll even see the next volume of their favourite series, it’s promising seeing a company already license a series and its follow-up in one go.

While Love Hina seems like a no-brainer as a big otaku favourite that’s been long out of print, I’m a little surprised by Tokyo Mew Mew. It was cute but I didn’t think had enough following to warrant a completely new release. Then again it might be a good warm-up to their upcoming Sailor Moon release to bring in a whole new generation of readers to magical girls (plus the anime version played on television here as well). I like the addition of the Full Moon series though because, though not explicity boys’ love, it still teeters in that territory more than well enough to show Kodansha’s not afraid to test the waters of the genre.

With the slew of titles, including the much-requested Sailor Moon, Kodansha continues to go above and beyond what I think many expected after their lacklustre introduction to the North American market. My concern now though is how they’ll deliver. We’ve many reasons to believe it’ll be good – from their manga-ruler status in Japan, to the talented staff we know to be working for them already – but until we get a pure Kodansha-made book in our hands, it’s hard to jump for complete joy just yet. Some giddy jigs for sure though.

Their first new titles are coming out in May – Arisa (Vol. 02), Rave Master (Omnibus) and Ninja Girls (Vol. 05). All three of which are continuations of Del Rey or Tokyopop series so we may not see much different in the form or design of the books. While the titles themselves don’t excite me too much, I’m most eager for Phoenix Wright and Monster Hunter Orage to see the trim-size and design work.

Hopefully we’ll see the start of their new titles marked with a full website as well, or at least something with more images and information than the press releases posted there now. Kodansha Comics appeared with a lot of anticipation, and while it may’ve lost the luster after Akira and Ghost in the Shell, it’s done a great job gaining it all back in the past few months. Now that we’ve got the promises, it’s all about the delivery – only another month to go!

It’s New Years Day! And that means the end of 2010 has come and gone – the end of the first decade of the 2000s’, the end of another year of fantastic comics (upon other many wonderful things).

Just for a little living in the past on this first day of 2011, what better time to look back at 2010 with some favourites, surprises, disappointments and neat website tidbits. Sure it would’ve made more sense to have posted yesterday but who has time with all those celebrations going on… right?

It’s been a fun year here at Kuriousity with all the writers contributing their own to the site. At the beginning of 2010, we also welcomed our newest reviewer Jaime Samms to the team who has been covering boys’ love light novels. Yay! Below are some of our top posts:

Most Popular Non-Review Posts in 2010:

Scanlation Sentiments: My Answers to Your Statements
No New Del Rey Titles After November 2010?
Tyrant Who Falls In Love Listed for OVA Release
Vertical Licenses Osamu Tezuka’s Ayako
VIZ Launching Digital Supplement for Shonen Jump Subscribers

Most Popular Review Posts in 2010:

Incubus Master (Part One)
Twilight the Graphic Novel (Vol. 01)
Pig Bride (Vol. 03)
Cute Devil
Your Love Sickness

Total Number of Posts: 406
Reviews Posted: 200

So in 365 days we managed to review 200 books, not too bad (and the exact number of reviews posted in 2009 as well). But, curious about what books came out in 2010? AnimeNewsNetwork has a handy list to show you just that. The list shows 997 manga titles out in 2010, not including manhwa (Korean) and manhua (Chinese) titles. That is a lot of books!

It’s so hard to pick favourites of anything (and I try my best to steer clear of the word ‘best’ because I think that’s pretty subjective person to person) but I did my best to select from the long list of books out this year which were the ones most memorable to me, for better or worse in some cases. I also restricted myself to only naming a particular series once so in a more accurate me-world there’d be a lot of overlap but for the sake of having a nice and varied list, one per subject it is:

Favourite Continuing-Through-2010-and-Beyond Series:

(6-Way Tie) Black Jack, Pet Shop of Horrors Tokyo, 20th Century Boys, Pokemon Adventures, Yotsuba&!, Bunny Drop – It’s far too difficult to choose a favourite series but these six are my top picks, the series that when a new volume comes out, I need it. Now. There’s a good bit of variety in the selection but all have a combination of great characters and complimenting artwork that I just can’t get enough of! All six series are currently on-going so for all the volumes I enjoyed of them in 2010, it’s great to know there’s even more coming in 2011.

Favourite Where-Have-You-Been-All-My-Life Series:

Ouran Host Club – I was lucky to find a set of volumes 1-15 for super cheap at my local comic store and as a huge fan of the anime, I had to finally pick this manga series up. I’ve been reading through it at a pretty quick pace this last week of 2010. I’m ten volumes in and loving it. It’s such a unique, fun and absolutely adorable series – I just want to hug every single character. I can’t wait to finish these volumes and await the new ones.

Favourite Tear-Jerker:

Pluto - And by favourite I mean only and by tear-jerker I mean of course it made me sad enough to cry, not to mention it’s depressing in itself having this series come to an end this year. This series had it all – suspense, drama, romance, angst, explosions and giant robots. Naoki Urasawa took the basics from Osamu Tezuka’s Astro Boy and made something really special, an eight volume manga I’d recommend to any reader (above the age of 16).

Favourite Purchase of the Year:

Cardcaptor Sakura Omnibus (Vol. 01) – While reading this series wasn’t new to me, this re-release by Dark Horse was still one of my highlight purchases of the year. The quality of this book is incredible – from the sheer amount of pages you get, to the tweaked adaptation for more fluidity and the pages upon pages of full illustrations, this was a gorgeous blend of nostalgia and quality. Magical girl shows don’t get much better than this.

Favourite Series to Fangirl Over:

Black Butler – Do I ever love this series. Wow, though not really in the ‘this-is-top-notch-stuff’ way but in the ‘I’m-being-perfectly-catered-to-for-entertainment’ sort of way. Specifically the art and character designs, both of which are sleek, sharp and use lots of black. Gotta love that butler. Oh and the plot’s kind of cool too.

Favourite Surprise:

(Tie) Toriko & House of Five Leaves - There were two series I went into with little to no expectations: Toriko, because of it’s food-centric plot line and rather unattractive art style, and House of Five Leaves because of how boring I found the artist’s previously released series (Gente and Ristorante Paradiso). But both series surprised me and quickly became favourites. Toriko I’d easily say is my favourite shonen currently running and I was really eager to get my hands on volume two of House of Five Leaves for more of that brilliantly subtle character drama.

Favourite Art Style:

(Tie) XXXHolic & Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles – Does it count as a tie if the two series are done by the same people and overlap with one another? Either way, both excellent. If I had to choose one of the two, it’d be XXXHolic for CLAMP’s brilliant use of blacks and minimal toning but Tsubasa offers up some epic magical fight scenes and an assortment of gorgeous character designs. Tsubasa had its final volume released this year while XXXHolic continues on with Watanuki having an excuse to dress in jaw-dropping beautiful clothing and lazing about looking darn good.

Favourite Improvement:

(Tie) Bakuman & Rin-Ne – Both of these series I went into really wanting to like. Bakuman is a story of budding manga artists by the creators of Death Note, while Rin-Ne is the next series from Rumiko Takahashi. Unfortunately the first volumes left me feeling cold – one full of air-headed characters too and the other just flat-out dull. Thankfully their subsequent volumes have proven far more enthralling and now I await volume three of Bakuman and volume four of Rin-Ne with renewed enthusiasm. Huzzah!

Favourite Guilty Pleasure:

Zone-oo – Oh, Zone-00 – your plot makes little to no sense, your characters are downright insane and your art style is gorgeous. From boys who look like underage girls to guys so huge and hairy they can block out the sun, there’s no end to the over the top character designs that make this book a treat to read every time. The plot, though rather non-nonsensical, is at least helped along tremendously by the writing which utilizes some of the best slang and attitude in translated manga I own.

Favourite Production Values:

Chi’s Sweet Home – Not being a fan of cats, a series about a cat being, well, a cat, falls short on my list of favourites. What Chi’s Sweet Home does possess that still attracts me to it every time I see it on the shelf is the production values. From the cute trim size to the smooth paper and full colour printing, it’s a downright adorable book whether you care much for the content or not.

Favourite to Read When I Want A Great Laugh:

Butterflies, Flowers - This isn’t a series I’d ever recommend for a great relationship in terms of any actual substance, health or believability, but if you’re looking for one that fodders some great comedy then look no further. The first volume was hit or miss with more flop than flair thanks to the one-sided dynamic between the characters yet once it got going, it’s one of my favourite series to sit down with. I know that I’ll have plenty of laughs from this sexually-driven shoujo an (obviously) older audience.

Favourite Shoujo:

Shinobi Life – I was completely smitten with this series from the first volume. A school girl and a time-travelling ninja doesn’t immediately imbue the most confidence but Shinobi Life makes it work. Both characters read a bit more mature than your average shoujo leads and there’s a good combination of drama and action to save it from being just another ‘two-worlds-one-love’ story. Most recently the story delved into potentially too-cheesy-to-work angle with more time travel and younger selves yet it still makes it work!

Saddest To See End Too Soon:

Stolen Hearts – One of the casualties of CMX’s demise, Stolen Hearts is one of the most charming shoujo series I’ve ever read so I was most sad of all to see this series come to an abrupt end. It tells the story of a class’s tallest student and the class’s shortest student falling in love over spilled drinks and kimonos. It’s so charming and full of mush, I’d love to get a chance to read more.

Favourite Boys’ Love of 2010:

Tyrant Who Falls in Love – Say what you will about the non-consensuality of this series (a somewhat regrettably rampant trope in boys’ love) but I loved this first volume to no end. It helps Hinako Takanaga is one of my favourite manga-ka, hands down. The exaggerated artwork and over the top situations were either good for a laugh or a well-entertained sigh of WTF-ery and I’m certainly in for the long haul to see when this relationship hopefully becomes one with a bit less ‘force’ behind it.

Most Love-Hate Relationship:

Peepo Choo – Oh Peepo Choo, definitely the most gratuitously violent and sexualized  title I’ve read all year. It certainly had a vibe all its own and it’s commentary on geek groups was on the nose enough to offend some folks. Though some of its overlapping plot elements didn’t play out that well, I still found myself enjoying all the culture shock elements of the plot and the array of unlikable yet still entertaining characters.

Can’t-Believe-I-Don’t-Have-Them-Yet of 2010:

(Tie) One Thousand and One Nights (Vol. 11) & Dragonball Omnibus – These are two things I spent the duration of 2010 telling myself I needed to buy and for one reason or another haven’t yet. I’m a huge Dragonball fan but having already bought and read various editions of the manga, I couldn’t get myself to buy these new omnibus despite how much I want them. Next year! As for One Thousand and One Nights, I just had trouble finding this – it never popped up on any local book shelves despite the presence of the rest of the series and it was quickly listed as out of stock on Amazon.ca. Thankfully it came back up as available just this week so with an order placed, I should at least have this one to look forward to early 2011! Such a beautiful story with heart-wrenching tales told within it.

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And then to round things out, a few memorable-for-different-reasons-series:

So Bad They’re Almost Good:

(Tie) Stepping on Roses & Black Bird - The key phrase is almost good. Or maybe it’s so bad… either way, these are two shoujo series that make me cringe with their unlikeable characters and offensively one-sided relationship dynamics that are played seriously. Stepping on Roses is my least favoured of the two, with Black Bird being a tad more tolerable if only because I give an ounce of credit to people doing stupid things when you take into consideration how screwed up the lead female was in the first volume. That’s not really a compliment to the story though which is obviously released to appeal to the Twilight crowd, sharing a lot in common with the sparkling-vampire relationships.

Most Near-Impossible-To-Drag-Self-Through of 2010:

(Tie) Sasameke & Red Hot Chili Samurai - Not too much to say about these two books as I’ve yet to be able to even finish them in their entirety. Boring. Boring. Boring. The story of a boy  who loves soccer being forced to play soccer and a samurai who eats chili peppers just didn’t offer up anything but a deep, dull-induced groan.

Most Disappointing Manga of 2010:

(Tie) Ayako & Ghost Hunt (Vol. 11) – My two biggest disappointments of the year, both I awaited with high hopes and eager eyes only to feel dissatisfied upon finishing. I’ve enjoyed nearly every Osamu Tezuka work I’ve read but Ayako is a definite exception, a dry and overly-dreary story about equally dry and overly-dreary people doing  bad things. Ghost Hunt (Vol. 11) was like the crescendo of the continually dwindling quality in the series including some really lazy looking artwork and a story that stops without resolution, not to mention benching almost all the main characters. Much sadness.

Most ‘Blech’ Manga of 2010:

AX: A Collection of Alternative Manga – Not only the worst book I read this year, but easily one of the most terrible manga I’ve ever read – speaking from my own personal opinion of course. This is definitely something you would say ‘is not for me’. Pretentious stories that relied on gross and gory to be edgy offered little in the way of thought-provoking stories or any especially memorable commentary of any kind past ‘look what we can do and call art!’. It felt like it expected a full pass on its mediocrity by stamping ‘artsy’ on itself. Worse off though I suppose was the surprise I felt at the mass amount of critical praise for a collection I couldn’t fathom ever touching again. Just goes to show how diverse some peoples’ tastes can be (and welcomingly so despite any disagreements).

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And that’s my semi-brief round-up of memorable 2010 reading! What were some of your favourites? Some of your least favourites? Or some of the titles  you missed that you intend to catch up with in 2011. Later this week I’ll also be posting my most-anticipated for 2011 so I hope you come by to share what titles you’re most looking forward to in the new year.

But all that said - HAPPY NEW YEAR! May 2011 be a great one.

One of the more disappointing books I’ve read lately, I reviewed the eleventh (and possibly last) volume of Ghost Hunt for AnimeNewsNetwork.

This book was disappointing for a number of reasons but acting as pinnacle for the issues I’ve had with the series in this later half would be the jist of it. The art looks lazy and the word bubbles are haphazardly tossed around and the cast of characters feel so… flat. Mai was alright which is good since she was the only one really relevant in this one. Alas this wasn’t how I wanted my last manga-experience with this cast of ghost hunters to go.

Regarding the existence of a twelfth book, I really don’t know what to expect for the fate of this series’ final volume. Del Rey marketed this volume as the last but there is one more out in Japan, with this volume’s cliffhanger leading into it. Of course I’d love to read it – it looks like it would go into Naru’s backstory – but I’m not holding my breath. I am looking pleadingly at Kodansha Comic’s direction though. Please give the series one last chance to remind me why I loved it so much before, okay?

Kodansha Comics had it’s official launch event today, officially marking their entry into the North American manga publishing market. The event was held in New York at the Kinokuniya’s bookstore, and while I then couldn’t be there myself, my thanks to Anime Almanac’s Scott for tweeting the news as it was announced.

Since news of this event was announced a few days ago, social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter and forums have been a buzz with a mixture speculation and ultimatums. Will they actually have any new licenses to announce? Will they finally reveal their plans for the library of mid-series licenses from DelRey that they hold? Will they actually put live an actual website? Patience has already run very thin for many manga readers as a company directly backed by one of the biggest names in the industry has sat silent for so long, with it the potential promise of many beloved titles held just beyond reach.

So what was said today? Quite a bit actually! From word on the majority of DelRey’s titles and a few new titles as well, Kodansha Comics plans the first big bulk of its manga out in Summer 2011.

Of DelRey’s existing library of titles, Kodansha was able to confirm the following volumes due out next year:

• Arisa (Vol. 02) – May 2011
• Fairy Tail (Vol. 13) – May 2011
• Negima! (Vol. 29) – May 2011
• Ninja Girls (Vol. 05) – May 2011
• Shugo Chara! (Vol. 10) – May 2011
• Air Gear (Vol. 18) – June 2011
• Negima?! Neo – June 2011
• Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei (Vol. 09) – June 2011
• The Wallflower (Vol. 25) – June 2011
• Arisa (Vol. 03) – July 2011
• Fairy Tail (Vol. 14) – July 2011
• I am Here! (Vol. 02) – July 2011
• Negima! (Vol. 30) – July 2011
• Ninja Girls (Vol. 06) – July 2011
• Shugo Chara! (Vol. 11) – July 2011
• Air Gear (Vol. 19) – August 2011
• Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei (Vol. 10) – August 2011

Though there will be a six month from now until these books hit store shelves, they are going to a bi-monthly release schedule which is great to see. Also series that DelRey had released as omnibus are returning to single volume editions, notably Air Gear and Wallflower.

New titles announced were:

• Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (Vol. 01) – June 2011
• Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (Vol. 02) – August 2011
• Monster Hunter Orage (Vol. 01) – June 2011
• Monster Hunter Orage (Vol. 02) – August 2011
• Deltora Quest – July 2011
• The Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
• Mardock Scramble (Vol. 01) – August 2011
• Animal Land (Vol. 01) – August 2011
• Bloody Monday – August 2011
• Cage of Eden – August 2011

Edit: AnimeNewsNetwork has the original Japanese cover images and artist information available.

Kodansha also announced some license rescues: GON from CMX and Until the Full Moon from Brocolli Books. I was really surprised to read about Until the Full Moon, as such an older title though one I’m looking forward to having felt resigned to never reading the rest.

Along with continuing the series in single volume format, Kodansha will also be re-releasing the Negmia! manga in omnibus format, as well as the final volumes of Rave Master, which DelRey had originally license-rescued from Tokyopop.

Prices of their manga volumes will be $10.99/US per single volume and $19.99/US for omnibus editions. No word on the designs of these books yet but it remains fairly safe to assume they’ll be carrying on with DelRey’s designs and trim-sizes, if Akira and Ghost in the Shell were any indication.

Kodansha also noted that Sailor Moon was a title they couldn’t talk about at this time, that any titles from DelRey not mentioned aren’t necessarily cancelled (simply not scheduled yet) and that CLAMP’s XXXHolic will resume under the DelRey brand.

And that was that! Note: Kodansha Comics website has also updated with all the info shortly after the event ended. Still no actual website but at least they wiped the layer of dust off for now…

Personally I was surprised (and thankful) at the bulk of info, especially on the DelRey titles which was far less a wait than the year+ we had to wait for anything past Kodansha Comics’ original reveal. It’s great to see so many series continuing on, even if we do need to wait six months. A small price to pay if they’ll kick start again at that nice, consistent looking bi-monthly schedule. It’s also promising to see two of their new titles – Bloody Monday and Eden no Ori – are lengthy series, showing a presumed confidence in their future in the manga market.

What do you all think?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

]]> http://www.kuriousity.ca/2010/12/swag-bag-freckles-food-and-manga-mysteries/feed/ 4 http://www.kuriousity.ca/2010/11/review-xxxholic-vol-16/ http://www.kuriousity.ca/2010/11/review-xxxholic-vol-16/#comments Sun, 14 Nov 2010 01:10:38 +0000 Lissa Pattillo http://www.kuri-ousity.com/?p=9810 Reviewer: Lissa Pattillo

Manga-ka: CLAMP
Publisher: DelRey Manga
Rating: Teen (13+)
Release Date: October 2010

Synopsis: “The witch Yuko is gone, vanished and forgotten by the world with the exception of a small handful of people. But Kimihiro is determined to keep the wish-granting shop going, even if the shop’s arcane rules nearly kill him for the crime of setting a wrong price. Now begins a new chapter: XXXHolic Ro!”

Yuko’s absence is both the driving force and overlaying weight atop the entire volume. Watanuki’s resolve to wait for her is a substantially hefty burden to bear but he’s so emotionally committed to it that you can’t help but feel both sympathetic and enthralled as he dons the yukata that seals the deal on his role as the shop’s new owner.

What proved the most interesting part of the book for me, however, was the opportunity to learn more about how the store ‘works’. In taking over the shop, Watanuki also needs to adhere to the same rules and magical contracts that Yuko had – most specifically, the balance of proper payment. Through the character’s discussing it (as it occurred during the story’s time skip), we learn that Watanuki has already paid his share of prices for mis-charging customers, for taking too little while giving too much in return. The imbalance of exchange was then taken from Watanuki, apparently almost killing him with physical injury.

Watanuki almost losing his life to the store’s payment system also drives home the seriousness of his being unable to leave the store. When he almost died, he was unable to leave to get to a hospital treatment and there were no house-call doctors to help him. The fear weighs heavily on his friends that should he take too little from a customer in the future, that the resulting toil on his body could kill him before there’s anyway to get him help. The idea of being trapped in one building for perhaps the rest of your life is a scary idea enough, yet there’s more than even missing the outside and claustrophobia to consider and this turn in the story does well to emphasize it.

Suiting of how big a change in the series, there is some fantastic scene transitions in this volume that are very cinematic. The movement, the pacing, the carefully chosen use of thickly filled in backgrounds and chapter ends – it’s used to amazing effect to make the important scenes stand out. My favourite is the end of the first chapter, as Watanuki sits upon the porch to reflect on his decision and a butterfly follows the trail of smoke from his pipe into the night sky, symbolic of Yuko.

My one disappointment about the time skip though is how drastically different Watanuki’s personality is. He’s been through a lot and this is years later but still, to suddenly don this calm, ethereal personality after always having such a vibrant, temperamental state of being that it feels too stark a change. Then again, he did take up smoking Yuko’s pipe so maybe he’s having some daily doses of mellow. Whatever helps I guess? It still takes a lot of fun away from the story though, especially with so much page time with him and Domeki that used to spark lively interaction without fail.

Despite this blip however, I still adored this volume overall. It’s a strong transition into the story’s new direction and CLAMP’s phenomenal artwork is there to ferry it all along the way. Watanuki’s melancholy is a bit of a downer, something that’s been building for many volumes now in light of revelations and events, but I hope that the series continues to counterbalance it with more intriguing mysteries and compelling character interaction.

Review written November 7, 2010 by Lissa Pattillo
Book bought from Strange Adventures

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It’s going to take me a while to sort through all my manga swag from New York Anime Fest this past weekend, and who knows how long for a proper installment of Swag Bag – but before I traveled down to the US for some con adventures, I hit my usual Wednesday haunt at Strange Adventures to pick up some new and old titles.

My most anticipated, and thus quickly picked up, titles were the newest volumes of two of my favourites – Pet Shop of Horrors (Vol. 07) and Shinobi Life (Vol. 06). It was another long wait for Pet Shop of Horrors, and to my dismay, I found this particular volume a bit of letdown comparatively. I mean, it was still great because it’s Matsuri Akino but definitely not the series’ best. Shinobi Life proved as satisfying as ever though. I love how carefully it’s crafting a plot that could easily become confusing in another’s hands. Will the schoolgirl and ninja ever find their happy ending?

To my luck that day, a box of used manga had just been deposited in the store with a whole bunch of well-kept books looking for a new home. While the individual who owned the books prior seemed to have very similar tastes to myself (ie: very little there I didn’t already own unfortunately), there were still a few goodies to pick up:

Looking for some new series to start, I picked up the first volumes of The Chronicles of the Grim Peddler (which was fantastic fairy-tale manhwa) and Monochrome Factor (which I haven’t read yet). I also bought the first two volumes of Mushishi after having read them at the library and enjoyed them, plus the anime was really good. Lastly I got volume three of 07-Ghost, firmly establishing to me that this series still doesn’t make any sense. Ah well, I gave it three volumes – character designs are still pretty though!

Shannon, here – Halloween is my favourite holiday and to honour it I’m counting down 13 manga throughout the month that I think best capture the Halloween spirit. They aren’t all horror manga, as to me Halloween is about more than scares: it’s about a sense of fun and wonder. It’s about discovering that there may be more to this world than meets the eye. So with that in mind, there’s everything on this list from action-packed shounen to romantic-comedy to children’s manga to some lock-the-doors-and-leave-the-lights-on horror. (See all 13 Days of Halloween so far…)

- – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – -

10. Sugar Sugar Rune

Sugar Sugar Rune is a children’s fantasy series from Moyoco Anno, a manga-ka more known for her explicit josei manga like Happy Mania and Flowers and Bees. It’s about two young witches, Chocolat Meilleure and Vanilla Mieux, who are sent to the human world to compete in a contest to collect human hearts. Whoever collects the most wins and becomes queen of the magical world. The heart collecting is more symbolic than literal, so if you were expecting a manga where two little girls hunt down humans and rip the still beating hearts from their victim’s chest, well, it’s probably out their but this isn’t it.

What Sugar Sugar Rune is is a cute fantasy series that manages to be smart as well. There are lots of shoujo manga featuring witches as the protagonists, but Anno has really put a lot of thought into the magical system and the way magic works. Just like in her adult series there are some very interesting observations about gender and how men and women (or, considering the ages of the characters in Sugar Sugar Rune, boys and girls) relate to each other.

But much like D.Gray-man, it’s the art that makes this series rise above other manga featuring similar themes. Anno abandons her usual sparse style to go in the opposite direction here. There’s a ton of occult imagery packed into practically every page of the manga, all of it rendered in a sparkly, screen-tone drenched shojo style. It’s a weird mash-up, but it works. If you want a sparkly shojo this Halloween season, then Sugar Sugar Rune is what you’re looking for.

Take a peek around the anime/manga blogosphere and today’s big news is evident. It was announced via e-mail press release that Random House’s sci-fi/fantasy imprint, DelRey, will no longer be releasing Japanese-licensed manga. Kodansha Comics, the manga-publishing arm of Kodasha USA, will be gaining license-hold of their titles which will be “gradually taken over by Kodansha USA Publishing on a per-title basis.”

Recent speculation about DelRey’s future as a manga publisher came about after Andre posted about the lack of listings for DelRey manga in Diamond Previews, along with noting some pushed back release dates on Amazon. This not too long after DelReyManga.com vanished and instead began forwarding to the mish-mash website, Suvudu.com. It generated a lot of discussion across blogs and forums but I think few expected things to happen quite this quickly. In this instance though, I’m inclined to say bad news is better than no news.

What’s unfortunate though is that this is so immediately perceived as bad news. I don’t say that with any implication I believe it’s unfounded, either. Oh, Kodansha, you have some work to do.

Seeing any manga publisher fold isn’t a pretty picture. In this instance  however DelRey isn’t disappearing so much as it’s being absorbed into Kodansha Comics. There’s definitely some potential good to come of this.

Publisher’s Weekly had some more detailed information pretty quickly after the initial story broke (first posted on Twitter by @debaoki). What stands out the most in the article is the following paragraph which outlines the intended relationship between Random House and Kodansha Comics after this shift:

“In an e-mail interview with Irie, he said that while Kodansha USA Publishing will now directly oversee the publishing of Kodansha-originated English-language manga licenses, Kodansha still plans to “to work with local partners in foreign territories.” He said that Random House will continue, “handling much of the publishing side, such as editorial, production, sales and marketing.” Irie will be based in Tokyo while KUP general manager Kumi Shimizu stays in New York.”

For those worried about design changes of future books, I think it’s worth looking at their re-releases of Akira and Ghost in the Shell. Both are in almost every way copies – from size, design, translation, lettering and even censoring – of Dark Horse’s original releases. From at least what we’ve seen so far from KC, which admittedly is very little, they sure don’t look like they’re going for any grand re-invention. Keeping in mind again that they’re essentially taking over DelRey titles instead of licensing-rescuing after the fact so that in itself makes things considerably different. I think it stands to reason that it’d be both the most logical and hassle-free route to maintain the original designs, pleasing consumers and retailers, plus avoiding all that time-consuming, money-requiring work of having them redesigned simply to… what? Stake a greater claim than their logo over it already will? For new series perhaps, but I can’t see it being the case for continuations.

That said, DelRey’s books had already been going through some big changes before this news was announced. Over the past few months, the first of DelRey’s many planned omnibus editions have come out, combining 2-3 volumes of manga of series both new and those previously released in singles. I’d theorized for a good while that this was DelRey trying to make whatever money they could back from licensing fees already paid out for individual volumes before they shut down. In light of today’s news, I still maintain there could be some truth in this. Full disclaimer that I could just have no idea what I’m talking about of course. Now however I also see the omnibus as the beginning of a paved road to quick completion of these series for KC. Now of the series they do pick and choose to complete, they’ll have much shorter amounts of time obligated to them. This leaves more room for what we can hope are many new series to come.

And what a collection of new titles we could have. Kodansha Comics having that name isn’t a coincidence and their direct tie to Kodansha (JP) opens up a huge potential library of titles to bring over. Seriously, check out ANN’s Kodansha page to get an idea. It’s hard not to get excited over the prospects of titles such as Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon, Billy Bat, Princess Knight or Ookiku Furikabutte (among many, many others). But of course there’s always the question of what kind of ‘risks’ KC may be willing to take.

Another response from Kodansha Comics posted on the Publisher Weekly article was promising to this effect at least (and also for other companies looking to license Kodansha properties):

“Irie said Kodansha’s plan was to continue to “expand the manga market in the U.S. “ He said KUP will itself license its manga from its parent company and Irie emphasized that there would be “continued licensing of Kodansha manga to other licensees.””

Some consumers have already begun to hope that this direct-line to licensing could also translate to some savings for all wallets involved. I don’t see it as being all that likely ($35.99 for a re-re-release of Ghost in the Shell, really?) – but it would certainly be nice if the decrease (or removal?) of licensing fees from their budget could in turn benefit the buyers. Cheaper to publish, cheaper to sell? That’d certainly be nice, however unlikely.

At the end of the day though, we’re still in a messy situation purely based on the lacking faith most have for Kodansha Comics. They were originally announced in 2008 yet have since released only a few volumes of their oldies-redux, complete with old-school censoring and poor paper quality, and they had trouble keeping up with any of their set release schedules on top of that. Alas on top of ‘that’ they’ve had little to no communication with retailers or consumers, including one of my biggest pet-peeves – no website! That becomes especially frustrating now with such a big announcement. Currently KodanshaComics.com has the press release up (and by the looks of it a designer on hand presumably working on the full version) but anything past that is yet another wait-and-see.

At the end of day it’s sad to see DelRey going under like this, even while it appears more like a change of trimmings in terms of how it’ll affect manga-buyers. DelRey (or Random House I should say specifically now) will still do the heavy lifting (translation, editorial, printing, distribution) but Kodansha gets the credit and offers the big-gun, risk-taking support behind them.

So any news is good news I say… but ironic that despite it we’re still just stuck in another wait and see situation all the same. Good thing we have that two-hour NYAF panel to look forward to and… oh wait, it’s been cancelled already. Alas…

Your thoughts, readers?

The current relationship between Kodansha and Random House began in 2003, with the first titles debuting in 2004 under the latter’s Del Rey Manga imprint. Since then, more 500 volumes have been published, including many bestselling manga series.

Under the new arrangement, Kodansha’s subsidiary, Kodansha USA Publishing, LLC, established in 2008 and led by Yoshio Irie, will be publishing Kodansha-originated manga themselves directly in the U.S. English-language market with strong support from Random House Publisher Services (RHPS), Random House’s third-party distribution division. Del Rey Manga associate publisher Dallas Middaugh will remain with the program, transferring to RHPS.

“We are very excited to extend our relationship with Random House,” said Yoshio Irie, president and CEO of Kodansha USA Publishing. “Both companies see opportunity in the American manga market, and we look forward to working together to further the distribution and exposure of manga in the United States.”

“We are thrilled to have a publisher as distinctive as Kodansha USA Publishing join the Random House Publisher Services portfolio,” said Jeff Abraham, the division’s president. “Kodansha is one of the great worldwide publishing brands for the manga category, and we will do everything to support their efforts with our many booksellers and distributors who love selling manga titles.”

Del Rey’s ongoing manga titles which were licensed by Kodansha will be gradually taken over by Kodansha USA Publishing on a per-title basis.

Tokyo-based Kodansha established Kodansha USA Inc. on the occasion of their company’s 100th anniversary. Kodansha USA Publishing began by publishing Akira and The Ghost in the Shell in 2009 under the Kodansha Comics imprint. They plan to expand their strong line-up of manga under this exciting new collaboration with Random House Publisher Services.