SEAN: Third week of the month, which is traditionally Yen Press time, and that’s true this month as well. But before we get to Yen, we have a few choice tidbits.
Kodansha has the 11th volume of Cage of Eden. Now that it’s getting serious enough to kill off some of its main cast, will things continue to take a turn for the deadly? And what will this mean for the female cast’s ability to strip naked and bathe in rivers? (Likely not much.)
Vertical continues to dip its toes into the josei market, this time with Kyoko Okazaki’s Helter Skelter: Fashion Unfriendly, a done-in-one manga volume from the pages of Shodensha’s Feel Young. The premise reminds me of the movie Death Becomes Her, though I suspect this won’t be as funny as that was. It’s still a highly awaited release.
MJ: I’m absolutely looking forward to this, and have been since the announcement last year at NYCC. I’ll be picking it up for sure.
MICHELLE: Me, too!
ANNA: I am looking forward to this as well! I think Vertical putting out more josei is a great thing, and I’ll absolutely be picking this up.
SEAN: Viz has its annual release of Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit, but it’s almost over, as I think the series ends with 10. I’m not sure if it’s still doing the ‘let’s see how people deal with impending death’ thing or if it’s moving into a big climax. Honestly, it was a bit too depressing for me.
MJ: I haven’t read this in a long time, and had actually thought it was already over. Oops?
MICHELLE: I have a bunch of volume of this but I haven’t read beyond volume two ‘cos it was too depressing for me, too.
SEAN: And now about that Yen. There’s Vol. 3 of BTOOOM!. Indeed. There is that.
MJ: Um. No.
MICHELLE: Big fat no.
SEAN: We have reached Vol. 9 of Bunny Drop, which ends the main storyline, though there is one more volume of side-stories coming out next year. This is the biggie, and now at last everyone can discuss THAT spoiler. Though not till next week, please. (It’s also still quite well-written, but I fear any discussion of it tends to be dwarfed by THAT.)
MJ: I’m diving in… with a little fear, I’ll admit, but I wouldn’t miss this for the world.
MICHELLE: I definitely feel that I have to read it for myself before formulating an opinion, but there is definitely some trepidation.
ANNA: I honestly stopped reading this because of THAT spoiler, I think I stopped at volume 3 or so.
SEAN: For those who liked the Doubt omnibus, we have Vol. 1 of Judge. I didn’t, so will be passing. But hey, more students trapped in a survival game who die one by one. We can never get enough of that. Apparently.
MJ: Heh.
SEAN: Pandora Hearts 17 will no doubt excite MJas much as 15 and 16 did. Or perhaps even more. One day I’ll read it. (Likely whenever Squeenix titles are available digitally again.)
MJ: Definitely more! After volume 16, I’m pretty much dying for what comes next. DYING, I say.
MICHELLE: Big fat yes!
ANNA: Everyone is such a fan of this, one of these days I’m going to have to check this series out.
SEAN: Puella Magi Kazumi Magica is apparently the fluffier of the two spinoffs, but that’s really not saying much. Any series with Kyubey in it is guaranteed to get very dark, very fast. Vol. 2 is here.
Spice and Wolf’s 9th novel drops. Wolves. Economics. Econowolves.
Lastly, Umineko: When They Cry wraps up its 2nd Arc, Turn of the Golden Witch. In case you needed reminding, this manga contains some scary scenes that may not be suitable for children. PARTICULARLY the tea party. (shudder)
MICHELLE: I gave up on this a while ago. Has that kid stopped going “Uuuuu! Uuuuu!!” yet?
SEAN: Pretty much no, though we do eventually find out why she does that.
What manga are you reading with your tea and cake?
Super pumped for Helter Skelter, but that’s pretty much it for me this week.
I’m also a person that dropped Bunny Drop. The main draw of the series for me was the cute little kid, so once I heard that she grew up, I was already plannng to skip on the rest of the series. And then when I heard about that spoiler, it cemented the decision for me.
Yeah, I’m about 3 volumes behind on Ikigami, I’m almost shocked I’ve read like 6 volumes because, yes, it is depressing. BUT! I have Barefoot Gen on my shelf, I’m practically using Ikigami as a stepping stone towards eventually getting the balls to read Barefoot Gen. But one thing I do like Ikigami is that, as I go further in, some 1984 “big brother is watching you” stuff is going on, I do like that trope a lot. I am still impressed with the overall variety of the scenarios though. But after they give the Ikigami to the person you didn’t expect the first time, you can kinda guess who’s going to get it from then on pretty easily, at least so far. But as it goes on, we do see more of the technical main, the guy delivering the Ikigamis, and how he’s having second thoughts. Big brother no likey.
I got Helter Skelter early at Otakon (straight from the Vertical booth!). I think I was honestly expecting it to be darker, but it was pretty good. I’m kinda glad I read Utsubora afterwards, as I liked it a lot more. One problem I remember having with Helter Skelter is that the assistant girl looks like everyone else with short hair, male or female, so I got all those short black haired characters confused at times.
My husband and I have followed Bunny Drop since we first watched the anime on CR a few years ago. So, of course we have to finish the series up (even though we were spoiled well before we even picked the manga up – that’s the internet for you even when you do your best to avoid spoilers). And of course I can’t wait to read the next installment of Pandora Hearts. I’ve got it ordered via Amazon, though, and they sent me an email a couple weeks back saying that the release date was bumped back to August 27, so I might not get it until early next month (boo!).
I never picked up Bunny Drop after I learned about the spoiler as I feel like Yen Press was marketing it as a slice of life child raising Manga kind of a Josei Manga version of Yotsuba & ! than that’s how it ends I don’t like to use the word duplicitous or underhanded but that’s how I felt. Still since I never read it I’m not that mad just don’t get me started on how I feel about Oreimo though that tends to trigger the “nerd rage” button in my head