SEAN: Sooooo much stuff. Let’s break it down. Oh, and apologies for last week, the date of Wallflower 32 got shoved back to May after I’d written the post. This is the danger of last minute date-changes. I will discuss it in May, and no doubt Michelle will have the same “it’s still going?” reaction.
MICHELLE: That is probably true.
SEAN: As for this week, let’s start with a Fantagraphics title from Inio Asano, Nijigahara Holograph. This single-volume release is dark, tragic, and creepy, and should immensely please Asano fans. Hey, if it sells well, maybe Viz will take a flyer on Oyasumi Punpun.
ASH: This is one of my most anticipated releases for 2014! I’ve been looking forward to getting my hands on a copy ever since it was announced.
ANNA: I am very excited about this! I enjoy Asano’s works very much, and Fantagraphics editions are always a treat.
MJ: This is definitely a draw for me. Everything about this sounds compelling.
SEAN: Did you enjoy Jiro Tanaguchi’s The Walking Man but wish it took place 300 years earlier? Than you’ll love the same author’s Furari, out from Ponent Mon.
MICHELLE: Ooooh! I really like Jiro Taniguchi!
ASH: It’s always nice to see more Taniguchi.
MJ: Agreed!
SEAN: You cannot stop the Alice in the Country of Hearts spinoffs! They are endless! Here’s March Hare, a 2nd series focusing on Alice pairing up with Eliot.
ANNA: I can take or leave new spinoffs, but sometimes they are fun.
SEAN: Seven Seas also has the 6th volume of Haganai: I Don’t Have Many Friends, featuring the tight group of not-friends getting involved in further not-friendship events.
I’ve enjoyed The Sacred Blacksmith far more than I was really expecting, and hope Vol. 4 keeps me happy despite my general distrust of manga fantasy-oriented stories.
Senran Kagura ended up being pretty much exactly what I was expecting, but the 2nd volume should give us more of that as well.
Vertical’s From the New World gives us a 3rd volume as well, speaking of popular titles I try to say as little as possible about.
ASH: I haven’t read beyond the first volume yet, but I have been told the fanservice was toned down considerably in the second.
SEAN: There’s no blood on the cover of Black Bird 18, and the protagonists are smiling, so we must have reached the final volume! Black Bird sold a pile, so let’s give a round of applause to this title I never warmed to but others most certainly did.
MICHELLE: I hear Strong Bad’s voice in my head, going “It’s over!”
ANNA: I’m sure that this was a financially remunerative title for Viz, so that’s nice even though I really never connected with this series.
MJ: Oh, Black Bird… I really won’t miss you.
SEAN: Blue Exorcist is always a treat, and I’m sure Vol. 11 will live up to the anticipation and not advance any of the potential romances I read it for.
MJ: Hee!
I fell behind with D.Gray-Man’s omnibuses, so should see if I can pound through them now that the 3rd one is coming out.
I can’t even remember if this Dragon Ball 3-in-1 is the original series, Z, or the color edition. Or the VizBIG edition. But hey, it’s Dragon Ball, surely someone hasn’t read it yet. Somewhere. Perhaps in outer Mongolia.
Oh hey, look, a new volume of Fushigi Yu– (Sean is trampled by the rest of the Manga Bookshelf team rushing forward to squee.)
MICHELLE: Hmm, did I just step on something squishy?
ANNA: If trampling is the best way to express my love for this series, I will be right back as I need to put on my trampling boots!
MJ: SO MUCH LOVE. Sorry about the trampling.
SEAN: Ow. Moving on to Midnight Secretary? (cheers but no violence) Excellent. Vol. 4 is approximately halfway through this series, and I expect things will take a darker turn round about now.
ANNA: I do enjoy Midnight Secretary quite a bit!
MJ: As do I!
SEAN: Nisekoi continues to try to catch up to its digital releases with the 2nd print volume. Do you like Jump harem comedies? Sure we all do! Well, a good 40% of us, perhaps…
MICHELLE: Now I’m hearing the voice of Sally Struthers!
SEAN: One Piece hits another milestone with its 70th volume. Donflamingo steps up to what seems to be the next ‘big villain’ role here, and it promises to be a lot of fun.
MICHELLE: Somehow I’ve gotten a couple volumes behind on One Piece. Clearly I need to rectify that!
SEAN: Comedy volume of the week has to go to Oresama Teacher 16, which is filled with idiots being idiotic. Each volume takes it to a new level.
ANNA: This manga never fails to make me laugh.
SEAN: License Rescue of the week absolutely goes to Phantom Thief Jeanne, the one remaining Tanemura title that was out of print after CMX went under. Kudos to Viz for picking it up!
MICHELLE: Despite owning the full CMX run (and watching VHS fansubs of the anime long ago), I have not actually read this series. Perhaps the VIZ edition will compel me.
ANNA: This is my favorite Tanemura series, because it is absolutely bonkers. And Jeanne makes failed attempts to turn rhythmic gymnastics equipment into deadly weapons, which is always good for a laugh.
MJ: I’m definitely looking forward to having a chance at this!
SEAN: We’ve hit the 2nd to last volume of Psyren, which is good, as it feels like it’s just about time to start wrapping things up. Given it’s a Jump series, I’m not sure how sudden the ending will be, but…
MICHELLE: Some day I’ve gotta catch up on this.
SEAN: What’s Rin-Ne 14 doing among all these Shueisha titles? Take your Shogakukan-ness to the 2nd week of the month where it belongs! Wait, likely it’s here so that it doesn’t get in the way of that week’s OTHER Takahashi release…
MICHELLE: I’m torn. Do I like RIN-NE enough to cheer for it?
SEAN: Skip Beat! 3-in-1 hits Vol. 7, which I think means it’s still dealing with Black Moon rather than Box R.
Strobe Edge 9 is also a penultimate volume. How much worse can things get than they already are? Well, it *is* a romantic comedy…
MICHELLE: No question about these two. *Cheer!*
ANNA: I’m impatient for Strobe Edge to wrap up, but I do enjoy it!
MJ: Seconded!
SEAN: Lastly, Tegami Bachi has also reached 16 volumes, and as ever I have next to nothing to say about it.
That’s a lot of manga. What will you get this week, and what will you put off?
Ash Lynx says
February 27, 2014 at 9:26 pmDamn is this a good week! I’m going to spend way too much if the comic shop gets in new manga for me.
First off, Dragon Ball. I am one of two people who haven’t already read it (I’ve read a large chunk of Z, but never original, even though my limited exposure to it told me that I actually like it much better, because it’s fresh off of Dr. Slump and is thus more comedic and more fun for it). Also, that big color thing they recently released that you (might be) talking about, it says “Dragon Ball” on the side of it, but it’s actually the very start of DBZ. Yeah, figure that one out, dammit Viz, that should’ve been easy to label correctly! Sure, it might all be “Dragon Ball” in Japan, but you damn well that’s DBZ here. That’s the way you labeled it!
D.Gray man and Skip Beat will round out my omnibus purchases I believe. I’m really starting to get into Skip Beat and am enjoying it so damn much! I do like getting manga in nice big chunks! I wonder how far Viz is going to go with their Skip Beat 3-in-1s for now. Since 32 is out, it wouldn’t make much sense to go right up to it, it might hurt singles sales. I mean, they’ll get there eventually but…
The Shonen Jump trio will be all mine! Blue Exorcist (which I finally caught up on the other day), Tegami Bachi (I really want more of this), and Psyren (someone gave me 1-14 for free, SJ stuff is addicting as all hell). My friend is going to have a fun time using my books as a library.
I’ve seen the anime for From the New World, so I rented the manga and indeed, it made me go “did I just rent a softcore porn or something?” because no manga has ever randomly jumped into lesbian loving so frequently and strangely. It’s not that the anime didn’t make it obvious those two girls loved each other, they just didn’t do naked bathing scenes at random to show it. i think the anime had better atmosphere (and liked to play Dvorak’s 9th Symphony, aka “From the New World” symphony, which is what the title kept making me wonder before seeing it), but the last third killed the series for me. Hopefully you guys enjoy it more.
I’ve read the first three Midnight Secretary, but I’m kind of “meh” on it. Never got into Black Bird, I rented vol 1, which wasn’t horrendous, but clearly not for me, but it sounds like it only gets worse.
I had the CMX Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne run, but I wasn’t overly impressed with it. Maybe it was just too silly for me, I dunno. I liked Full Moon more, but I think those two and the one vol ION are the only series of hers I’ve read, what else is worth it? I really want Viz to get Tsukuba Sakura’s leftovers, since they got Sweet Rein. That’s my next request (even if I already own both Penguin Revolution and Land of the Blindfolded)
wandering-dreamer says
February 27, 2014 at 10:22 pmPsyren raps up pretty quickly, it was consistently in the bottom three of the WSJ rankings so the manga-ka had to move fast to end it before it was canceled. It is an actual ending though!