SEAN: Most of what JManga is doing this week is catching up on some new volumes, so let’s look at those.
Crazy for You and Pride both have their Vol. 3s out. Both of these series were hits for me, so seeing more of them is a very good thing. Also, I love the way Kaoru Shiina draws grins.
MJ: I loved both of these, especially Pride! I kinda can’t wait for those new volumes. I’m seriously anxious over here. I would read them right now if I could.
MICHELLE: Me too! I am very happy about both of these, but since we’re talking about shoujo from Shueisha here, I will shamelessly exploit this opportunity to beg JManga to “please get Cat Street!”
SEAN: Elemental Gelade hits Vol. 2, and we are thus one-ninth of the way through this fantasy series! (Sorry folks, I got nothin’.)
MICHELLE: I can muster no enthusiasm for Elemental Gelade.
MJ: Clearly, neither can I.
SEAN: Despite the lack of a translated title (apparently some publishers just don’t want titles changed), Edo Nekoe Jubei Otogizoshi is one of my all-time favorite JManga releases, simply as it’s a supernatural mystery cat manga from a cat manga magazine. Its very existence here in North America for sale justifies digital manga.
MJ: I’m completely ignorant on this one, and now I feel I should be ashamed! More cats!
MICHELLE: I bought a couple of volumes of this but confess that I haven’t read them yet.
SEAN: There are also two new titles. Eleven Soul is a long-running shonen series from Mag Garden’s Comic Blade, and has an intriguing premise of futuristic samurai trying to battle a genetically engineered enemy that has taken over half the world.
MJ: That sounds… well, a little bit “meh.” But I’ll give it a shot.
MICHELLE: I will split the difference and say that it’s a premise that is teetering on the precipice between intriguing and meh. Could go either way.
SEAN: I am presuming that The Narrow Road to the Deep North is not the play by Edward Bond, but the classic Japanese work Osu no Hosomichi, a travel diary through Edo Japan. The original text is quite famous, consisting of both prose and haiku verses, and I wonder how Variety Art Works have managed to convert it to manga.
MJ: I hope this is exactly what you think it is, because that sounds really intriguing. I’m definitely on board for that.
MICHELLE: Me too!
Estara says
November 17, 2012 at 5:20 pmCan I recommend some lovely retro Jmanga to you guys? And they’re available to non US readers, too. Edo period horror mystery romance Urameshiya
and 70s/80s-style (but released in 2012) josei Madame Joker
Sean Gaffney says
November 17, 2012 at 6:53 pmI looked at Urameshiya 1 here: http://suitablefortreatment.mangabookshelf.com/2011/08/19/urameshiya-vol-1/ But I really need to read more of it. And Madame Joker is in my huge stack of JManga to read as well. Given how much I adore Wonder!, I should be checking out more of these Futabasha josei series.
Michelle Smith says
November 17, 2012 at 7:18 pmI think I have purchased at least the first volumes of these, but haven’t gotten around to reading them. Bad me!
Estara says
November 17, 2012 at 7:30 pmHeh ^^ – I should have known you guys had these already on the radar.
Estara says
November 17, 2012 at 7:33 pmAnd I want to add a Non-US buyer complaint that I can’t buy Pride or Crazy for You (the second one I complain about for form’s sake, because Germany got a print edition years ago, even before Kimi ni Todoke became popular).
Michelle Smith says
November 17, 2012 at 7:35 pmOh, that stinks. And I actually own that version of Crazy for You! I wanted it so much I got the German volumes and tried to read them with Google translate. I got, like, one chapter in. :)