SEAN: It’s a new fiscal year, and that brings a new pile of books, mostly from Viz. What have we got?
DMP print release dates give me a migraine. Twittering Birds Never Fly 2? I guess?
ASH: I can never tell when something will actually be released by DMP anymore.
MICHELLE: Me, neither. I’ll perk up when Itazura Na Kiss 11 gets here.
SEAN: Kodansha gives us a 5th volume of Ken Akamatsu’s immortals fighting each other manga UQ Holder.
Seven Seas has a trio of books. The second volume of 12 Beast is minimally interesting to me, but may interest those who like fantasy and harems.
ASH: It should at least hopefully be a hit with the Monster Musume crowd.
SEAN: Oddball slice-of-fantasy-life manga A Centaur’s Life is up to Volume 6.
Pandora in the Crimson Shell combines one of my favorite authors with one of my favorite artists, but I have heard the result is… well. We shall see. I expect I will not love this as much as Excel Saga.
MJ: I dunno, the title just makes me feel like I should be reading something by Jun Mochizuki.
SEAN: The ninth volume of What Did You Eat Yesterday? will, I suspect, have far less fanservice than Pandora in the Crimson Shell, unless you count food as fanservice.
ASH: The food definitely counts as fanservice.
MICHELLE: Oh, I had forgotten this was coming out so soon! Yay!
ANNA: Woo hoo!
MJ: This, this, this this, THIS.
SEAN: The rest is Viz, starting with Vol. 64 of Bleach. Bleach has gone from one of the big 3 shonen series to a series where even fans are screaming “Just die already!”, but it seems to still sell well.
ANNA: That is certainly many, many volumes. I did enjoy the first 13 volumes of Bleach.
MJ: Every once in a while I think it might be fun to check out what’s happening in Bleach these days. And then I don’t.
SEAN: So well that we are getting another giant Bleach box set, with Vol. 22 through Vol. 48. Use it as a very short pole vault!
D.Gray-Man has its 7th 3-in-1 omnibus as well.
As if two series weren’t enough, there’s more Aya Shouoto starting next week, with The Demon Prince of Momochi House. Like Kiss of the Rose Princess, this ran in Kadokawa’s Asuka magazine.
ASH: The cover is pretty, and there are yokai!
MICHELLE: That looks like Tomoe from Kamisama Kiss!
ANNA: Is there a shoujo series featuring yokai? SIGN ME UP!
MJ: Okay, yes.
SEAN: And Kiss of the Rose Princess is exactly like Kiss of the Rose Princess, unsurprisingly. Here’s the 5th volume.
ANNA: I like it. I will not claim it is profound, but it is a good manga to read when I do not feel like thinking very hard.
SEAN: My Love Story!! has shot up in popularity thanks to its anime, and the 5th volume hopefully translates into even more manga sales.
ASH: It wasn’t popular before?! It should be. Still loving this series.
MICHELLE: Yay, again! I had no idea there was an anime.
ANNA: Such a great series! I hope the anime inspires more people to check out the manga.
MJ: Same here!
SEAN: Naruto also has a giant box out next week, with Vol. 28-48.
Nisekoi, one of my favorite modern harem comedies, hits double digits.
And with the 11th 3-in-1 of Skip Beat!, I think we’ve caught up with the single volumes.
MICHELLE: Just about. Volume 34 came out in April.
SEAN: We’ve just heard that Sunny will be ending in Japan soon, but in the meantime, enjoy its 5th volume. (Lotta 5th volumes next week.)
ASH: Viz has been doing a really lovely job with this series.
MICHELLE: I need to get caught up on Sunny.
ANNA: I’m glad VIz still breaks out the impressive packaging and design for series like this that totally deserve it.
MJ: This is such a beautiful series.
SEAN: Twin Star Exorcists is the newest Jump Square series, from the author of popular yet unlicensed Binbougami-ga!. I’ll let you guess what it’s about.
World Trigger is up to Volume 6, meaning it’s passed the 2-3 volume ‘culling’ stage of many Jump series.
Lastly, get in touch with your past life with the 3rd Yukarism.
MICHELLE: Yay, yet again. I wasn’t sold on this series after the first volume, but enjoyed the second a great deal.
ANNA: I like anything by Chika Shiomi and this series is no exception.
MJ: I’m with Anna here.
SEAN: Do you have manga for your summer vacation?
AshLynx says
July 3, 2015 at 2:11 amFirst off, I needs the 3-in-1s for D.Gray-Man and Skip Beat. And I’m behind on collecting My Love story so I need 4 and 5. And of course I need What Did You Eat Yesterday? 9
And secondly, I need 2016 here asap so I can get Legend of the Galactic Heroes! Viz has licensed the first three novels (HaikaSoru imprint) and Sentai got the main series! I don’t think any other AX or Otakon announcement will beat that. Or any anime license in the next 5+ years, I am just, wow, haven’t been this excited for an anime license since Rose of Versailles I think?
Marie says
July 6, 2015 at 11:25 amOnly What Did You Eat Yesterday? 9 for me. The series is always a treat even though I haven’t had much time to cook the meals from it lately.
I concur with Digital Manga inducing migraines. I have Twittering Birds Never Fly Vol. 2 in Japanese already. So since Juné censored their edition I won’t be picking it up now if it’s finally coming. But, honestly it’s just become increasingly difficult and costly to purchase books from Digital Manga. I’m about at a point of giving up on buying further books from the company. It’s sad too since I think I have volumes from three of their unfinished/ongoing licenses. (Poor Itazura na Kiss, so close to finished and not a bit of info on further release.)
Ash Brown says
July 6, 2015 at 4:16 pmOh my. I hadn’t heard about the censoring of Twittering Birds Never Fly. What was changed? :(
Marie says
July 7, 2015 at 2:27 amUh, think I’ll put a SPOILER and TRIGGER warning on this reply first.
Volume 2 has a flashback scene with a young Yashiro where some of the panels on two pages are darkened to obscure the images because it is a scene depicting his step-father raping him.
The effects of childhood sexual abuse is a big theme of the series as would be evident to anyone who reads volume 1, along with Yashiro’s history stated quite early on. Kou Yoneda has seemed to largely extend a great deal of sensitivity and care in the story and characters with complex issues. So it worries me that her work would be censored, especially given the full context.
Still, Juné is of the opinion the original images aren’t legal. However, a couple of the people I’ve spoken with that have seen (fans) or, I showed the pages to (non-manga readers), can’t understand how one version would be legal and the other not. So I’m rather unsure of what to think and truly hope the volume still doesn’t create any such problems.
Ash Brown says
July 7, 2015 at 6:36 amThank you for taking time to reply! I hadn’t heard about this particular incident yet, though I know DMP and other BL publishers have made similar decisions in the past. U.S. pornography law can be a tricky, and very subjective, thing. Depending on who is involved in a court case, the exact same image may or may not be found to be legal. In many instances, like this one, a strong argument can be made for legality, but manga and other comics tend to be looked at even more critically in North America. It’s a shame but understandable that most publishers probably don’t want to risk it.