New manga from Kaoru Mori (unsurprisingly) steals the show at Midtown Comics this week, but check out our recommendations for additional picks as well!
KATE: A new Kaoru Mori manga is always cause for celebration, so I’m getting this week’s party started by recommending A Bride’s Story, which debuts on Wednesday. Like Emma and Shirley,A Bride’s Story is as much about the historical period — its customs, its social hierarchies, its clothing — as it about the characters. In this case, the setting is the Silk Road in the nineteenth century, and the characters are Amir, a twenty-year-oldwoman, and Karluk, her twelve-year-old husband. Their union is one of political expedience, but their growing respect for one another suggests that their marriage has the potential to evolve. Not a whole lot happens in the first volume, but the artwork is lovely, and the gently meandering storylines allow us to see just how capable and complex Amir really is. I’m already pining for volume two!
MICHELLE: I’m keen to read A Bride’s Story myself, but my pick this week goes to the second volume of Natsume Ando’s Arisa, back from a long hiatus as publishing rights shifted from Del Rey to Kodansha Comics. Volume one served up delicious shoujo creepiness as a tough girl named Tsubasa disguised herself as her more refined twin to figure out what in her school life caused her to attempt suicide, and ended just as she was on the verge of discovering the identity of “the King,” a mysterious person with the ability to grant any wish. Not only is the series back, it’s also on a bimonthly schedule from this point on.
DAVID: I’m going to have to second Kate’s pick of A Bride’s Story. I’m such a fan of Mori’s Emma that it would seem treasonous to do otherwise. (Though I’m also very much looking forward to Arisa.)
MJ: You can add me to the list of Manga Bookshelf-ers eagerly anticipating A Bride’s Story, but I’ll also take this opportunity to give a shout-out to one of my favorite shoujo series, Peach Pit’s Shugo Chara!. Kodansha Comics brings out volume 10 this week, following its long run with Del Rey Manga, and I can’t wait to pick it up! I’ve written a lot about this series (including a heartfelt plea for lowering its age rating) much of which can be accessed via my Shugo Chara! Evangelism post. After all that, can I pass up the chance to recommend it one more time? I think not!
Readers, what looks good to you this week?
I am highly anticipating Kaoru Mori’s A Bride’s Story. It is a must buy for me and I am sure I will end up enjoying it a lot. Mori has a unique style in making manga and so I am expecting a lot from this series. Emma is another series of hers that I loved a lot.
There are some interesting new BL this week such as Hinako Takanaga’s The Tyrant Falls in Love and Naduki Koujima’s GP High School: Student Council. I love both series a lot.
I’m also really looking forward to A Bride’s Story. I ordered it a while ago and expect that I will drop everything else to read it once it arrives. Michelle piqued my interest in Shugo Chara when I read her review at Soliloquy in Blue the other day. After seeing it mentioned again here I think I’m going to have to add this series to my wish list.
I definitely recommend it!
I’ve gotten Arisa 2 myself, luckily I got vol 1 in January and didn’t have to wait as long, glad it’s bimonthly now, cus that series leaves you wanting the next volume right away, even after volume 1!
I plan to get Bride’s Story at some point, I only saw the Emma anime, but it was great! I just kinda wish they’d put out a paperback version too for us cheapskates, eh?
Cirque du Freak 9 comes out soon too, I really enjoyed the novels and have all the manga volumes thus far, this is how you make an adaptation, Hollywood, not that piece of garbage you shoved out the door before it could even brush its teeth! Speaking of Cirque, I think this is currently the only series from Yen Press I’m collecting, no idea why, they just aren’t putting out stuff I want for the most part, I kinda wish they were. Viz is still on top for me and now I’m rushing to get Tokyopop titles for now too, and Vertical is still my secret lover, of course. But Arisa is actually the only Kodansha title I’m currently collecting too, Viz keeps getting all my monies at the end of the day. Hopefully I can start collecting Bride’s Story, another one to add to the (very small) Yen Press pile.
I actually forgot to mention Spice and Wolf. One of the series that I love a lot and always keep on wanting more of.
I arrived to the manga party too late to get to read Emma before it went out of print, so I can’t wait to get my copy of A Bride’s Story in the mail! It’s worth getting it for the cover alone – gorgeous! I also have Arisa 2. I bought vol 1 after (David I believe?) called it a shojo Naoki Urasawa. That line alone sold me on it. But I was afraid to read it until I knew Kodansha would keep it up.
I’m thankful to finally get the last omnibus of Rave Master from Kodansha. I’ve only been waiting two years to see this thing wrap up…