manga the week of

As always, Midtown, Diamond and Amazon can’t quite mesh together. My store and most Diamond shops have Hayate the Combat Butler, Arata the Legend, House of Five Leaves, and Loveless out on 9/12. On the other hand, my store got in the Seven Seas stuff on 9/5, but Midtown isn’t getting it till 9/12. Best to just smile and nod.

Kodansha debuts the new Genshiken volume. In Japan it’s just Genshiken 10, but Kodansha USA has made a break with the former series and started its sequel with a new subtitle and Vol. 1. Of course, you can’t get rid of the old cast that easily – Saki and Kousaka make cameos, and Madarame is still a large presence throughout. For the most part, though, this is Ogiue’s new club, with new members – and a shifting mindset, devoted less to typical guy porn and more to typical girl porn. It’s a must buy for fans of the series.

And Seven Seas has a troika of September releases. The 2nd volume of Boris spinoff Alice in the Country of Clover: Cheshire Cat Waltz. A new omnibus of killer loli series Gunslinger Girl, containing the Japanese 11 and 12. (The end of the series was recently announced in Japan, possibly as they’d simply run out of cast members.) And the 5th volume of Toradora!, still the tsundere series to read if you don’t like tsunderes all that much.

And that’s about it, really. A nice quiet week. Any plans?

There is an awful lot of it, huh? I think Gon was annoyed at being by himself last week and called in his friends… and this isn’t even counting the Seven Seas titles my store is apparently getting in but Midtown isn’t.

Remember about a month ago when I said I’d heard good things about that long-titled quasi-incest thing? Turns out I was thinking of OreImo, out this week from Dark Horse, rather than Seven Seas’ Big Brother title. OreImo’s full title is Ore no Imōto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai, aka My Little Sister Can’t Be This Cute! This title has far less incest but just as many tsunderes, if not more, and is rumored to be good. So I will check it out to see if this is the case.

Bloody Monday from Kodansha Comics has hit lucky Number Seven, though I’ve gotten so far behind on it I may never catch up. Is it still the Japanese 24?

Sublime, Viz’s BL line, has Volume 1 of His Favorite. It has the typical BL seme with his arms around his man and a smirk on his face, but the fact that the other’s guy’s face, instead of fear or uneasiness, or even arousal, reads like “must control fist of death” made me smile.

Tempted as I was to give Hayate the Combat Butler the cover image just to see how many folks I could annoy, the clear winner this week is Vertical’s new Tezuka tome, the first part of Message to Adolf. I never got the series back when Viz put it out ages ago, so this was a must-buy for me. And it’s nice to see some late-period Tezuka as well, as this is a 1980s title. Vertical is also releasing the underappreciated yet fantastic penultimate volume of GTO The Early Years, and the adorably cute 9th (and penultimate?) volume of Chi’s Sweet Home.

PILE O’ VIZ time. Including some stuff Midtown is listing that I had thought would be next week. This includes the 11th volume of Watase Yuu’s shonen series Arata the Legend, 20th volume of still not cancelled and funny as hell Hayate the Combat Butler (Greece Edition), a new House of Five Leaves for you Ono fans, and 9th volume of recent License Rescue Loveless.

There’s also a pile of Jump stuff, which I was expecting this week. There’s new Bakuman! Two more volumes of Bleach, which is still not done with Aizen, believe it or not. Hunter x Hunter, taking time from its busy hiatus to give us a new volume. Naruto! One Piece! Two great tastes that few fans enjoy together, for some reason (can’t the ninja and pirate fans just get along?). And of course Psyren, which should be at the ‘exposition’ part of its fight/exposition/fight trend.

Shojo Beat is the bigger winner here, though, with some of my favorites out next week. There’s new Library Wars, new Oresama Teacher *and* a new Otomen. Now admittedly the three series have flaws. Library Wars doesn’t have enough war for some people; Otomen continues to be a BL series with no BL; and Oresama Teacher is written by Izumi Tsubaki, who is the ‘oooooh, shiny thing!’ of Beat authors. This does not make the series less awesome. Other titles out this week include Earl and Fairy 3and a new Fushigi Yuugi Sequel Thingy volume. (It is possibly that the title does not actually have the word thingy in it.)

Lastly, Viz’s younger fans will be delighted to hear there are new Fluffy Fluffy Cinnamonroll *and* Winx Club titles out next week.

That’s a lot. What’re you getting?

That’s it. Remember when last week of the month brought Tokyopop stuff? In the meantime, enjoy Gon. He’s awesome.

There’s quite a variety of things coming out next week at Midtown from various sources. Let’s leap right in.

Dark Horse is ready to explode with new releases, which I think have only been delayed once or twice before hitting shops! We have Vol. 24 of Gantz, which you either avoid like the plague or automatically seek out. It’s a pretty polarizing title, but very good at providing what its fans want. There’s also a new Gate 7, CLAMP’s new gig, which continues to mix Japanese historical figures with pretty young men and women in a very CLAMP way. And there’s a new volume of Oh My Goddess, finally free of the reprints and ready to go forward! Unfortunately, in this volume everything’s gone to hell. No, wait, everyONE’s gone to Hell.

Digital Manga Publishing has Volume 9 of Itazura Na Kiss, which I’m hoping continues the excellent character development we saw in the previous chapters. Meanwhile, there’s also some new yaoi titles, including I’ve Seen It All, which I just wrote three different jokes about only to delete them all as being too pornographic, so I’ll just say it’s about a doctor and has one of THOSE covers. For those who like less creepy looking BL, there’s Man I Picked Up, whose title doesn’t do it many favors but whose cover and synopsis (man takes a vagrant guy home and gradually grows closer to him) sound a lot better. Meanwhile, in Countdown 7 Days 3, Onigawara is definitely dead. Well, mostly dead. And Replica hits is final volume, with an action packed finale.

It will be no surprise to anyone who knows me that Dorohedoro 7 gets my cover image. I love this series and its complicated universe more with each volume, and can’t wait to see how much trouble Caiman will get into. There’s also Ikigami Vol. 8, much to the surprise of many folks who thought it had been cancelled, and the 8th volume of the Tenjo Tenge omnibus, which brings us full circle, as Gantz and Tenjo Tenge really serve the same audience.

So what appeals to you this week?

Sure, wait weeks for manga and then 38 turn up all at once. Midtown finally found all the Viz manga that most of us got this week. See my post on last week for that.

In titles I didn’t talk about last week, Kodansha has a new Air Gear and Cage of Eden, which both fight a war between entertaining folks with awesome shonen battles and pure blatant fanservice. Most of the time it tends to lean more towards the latter, but then they are Shonen Magazine titles. They also list Fairy Tail 12, but I think that’s part of the giant pile of reprints they’re doing this August – all of Fairy Tail, Ninja Girls, Shugo Chara, Wallflower and Parasyte are getting reprints.

It’s rare I use a Korean title for my featured image (in fact, it may have never happened before), but Lizzie Newton Mysteries has gotten a lot of good word of mouth, and might appeal to those who liked Young Miss Holmes. Meanwhile, the other debut from Seven Seas is I Don’t Like You At All, Big Brother!!, which is being released in a 2-for-1 omnibus. The cover art, and blurb saying it’s for fans of He Is My Master, kind of make me want to pull away from my keyboard in horror, but I have been assured that this title is better than it sounds, so will trust in that. And in the title I’m most excited about from this publisher, A Certain Scientific Railgun 5 continues to throw sisters at Misaki. I’m hoping after the cliffhanger horror of the last volume, she won’t completely lose it.

The BL imprint Sublime has two new debuts. Bond of Dream, Bond of Love seems to continue the trend of huge grumpy guy paired with small happy guy, and also has a character from the Tea For Two BL manga (remember Blu?) that came out several years ago from the same artist. Starting with a Kiss has a much saucier cover, but seems to be about the same type of situation, except this time the happy guy is a hotheaded guy. Also, the Japanese imprint for this series was SUPER BBC, with a lightning bolt in between. That’s totally irrelevant to this North American release, but makes me happy, and also wonder if SubLime will ever license some Blake/Avon slash.

Viz is also putting out some titles this week, despite the majority of Midtown’s list appearing elsewhere 8/8. A new Inu Yasha VIZBIG Edition, covering volumes 34-36. Vol. 6 of Itsuwaribito… no, I’m sorry, that’s a lie, it’s not coming out. No wait, I’m lying again, it totally is! And the penultimate volume of Kekkaishi, which given it’s penultimate had better be resolving everything.

Lastly, we have a giant pile of Yen. Bamboo Blade has reached its final volume, and I will be very sorry to see it go. The Betrayal Knows My Name is up to Volume 4, but still has a long way to go – and is still running in Asuka. Bunny Drop 6 is out for what will I’m sure be a smaller but just as dedicated audience of fans who didn’t drop it cold after Volume 5. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya has a non-spinoff manga, as Vol. 13 is out (and Midtown finally gets the Nagato Yuki the rest of us got last month). There’s new Nabari no Ou and Omamori Himari. There’s the 2nd volume of Magical Girl deconstruc… wait, it isn’t really. Anyway, new Madoka Magica. And Soul Eater hits Vol. 10, and will hopefully be creepier and more striking than Soul Eater Not was.

Even without the Viz blitz that hit Diamond this week, it’s a big week at Midtown. What’re you getting?

Midtown and Diamond are conspiring against me. Their list is wrong. It’s missing Viz. Perhaps they will add it later. In the meantime, I’m adding it to mine, as it makes up 3/4 of the list.

Gen manga has a collection of their manga Wolf, which seems to be a boxing manga? Intriguing, though I admit to knowing nothing about it.

Kodansha has the first volume of their new Phoenix wright spinoff manga, this one starring prosecutor Miles Edgeworth. They’ve also got a new Deltora Quest, as well as the 5th Negima omnibus. For those buying for updated translations, they apparently end with Vol. 4, so if you were just double dipping, I think you can safely stop.

Vertical has a power trio of manga finally hitting Diamond’s shops. Volume 2 of creepy high school mind game manga Flowers of Evil; and a 1-2 punch of Onizuka, as he struggles with high school in GTO Early Years 13 and then proves his badass qualities as a teacher in GTO 14 Days in Shonan 4. Be warned, though. There may be a dick joke. Or two.

Given Kaze Hikaru is on Viz’s once-per-year schedule now, I think its release deserves an image. Other shoujo and josei manga coming out includes Ai Ore!, Dawn of the Arcana, A Devil and Her Love Song, the final volume of Haruka Beyond the Stream of Time (sorry about not getting the image, Haruka, but hey), Kamisama Kiss, and La Corda D’oro.

On the shonen side, there’s also plenty to choose from. Two more volumes of Bleach, a new Nura, some Slam Dunk and Tegami Bachi. Toriko hopefully moves past that endless fight and back into food. Ultimo gives you your Stan Lee, manga-style. And Yu-Gi-Oh GX is… still about a card game, right?

Now, it’s possible Diamond won’t ship any of these, in which case I apologize. My shop is at least getting Kamisama Kiss and Nura, though, so maybe some will appear. In any case, I’m just tired of saying ‘another small week’. So, big week! What’re you getting?

It’s August 1st! Or, as Diamond likes to call it, July 32nd! In other words, expect another lean week for comic shops.

Dark Horse, which has been fairly quiet as of late, comes out with not one but two new titles! Vol. 25 of the perennial classic Blade of the Immortal, which not only features snow, but also dawn. Two separate things that make for great manga. There’s also Vol. 2 of Drifters, Hirano’s attempt to follow up on Hellsing. Those watching the current anime season will be saddened that, though this manga features Oda Nobunaga, he is not a cute young girl.

Sure it came out everywhere else two weeks ago, but Diamond is above such petty things as street dates! Vertical, however, is merely content with getting you some quality Moyoco Anno manga. This one in particular is a period piece examining a young woman’s rise as an Oiran, and how that’s not really as heartwarming and empowering as it may sound. It’s fantastic reading.

Lastly, and with perfect timing, we have some X hitting shops just in time to miss the Manga Moveable Feast. Vol. 3 of the omnibus contains the original Vols. 7-9, and things get even more apocalyptic. Well, I imagine they do, things got entirely too depressing for me around this point. But more on that tomorrow…

Another small week, but it’s got some quality. What appeals to you?

The last week of the month has always been the quietest since Tokyopop left us, and this month is no exception. Let’s see what we’ve got.

Kodansha has two titles hitting Diamond. Arisa reaches volume 8, and finds that her love may be a building which is on fire. Meanwhile, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney wraps up with Vol. 5, saddening all the fans of the game who aren’t aware that the Edgeworth manga is apparently due out later this month. (Despite having no cover art online yet.)

And, because it’s such a small week, I’ll note that Udon has a new volume of its Apple artbook, featuring more pinups from the best Korea has to offer.

Aaaaaand that’s it. So? Any titles for you?

Diamond may still be shorting me on manga every single week, but despite that I continue to bring you this list of what’s out next week. This week I combine Midtown’s list (missing a title arriving at my store) and my own comic shop’s (missing one on Midtown’s list). Both, ironically, from the same publisher.

Kodansha has its usual list of titles Diamond gets one week later than everyone else, for some reason. We have Fairy Tail 20, which wraps up one arc only to send us barreling directly into another. Negima 35 continues to feature the giant final battle to save the magic world, with lots of posturing and counter-posturing. Sailor Moon 6 kicks off the S arc, and you know what that means… fans complaining about the romanization of the Outers’ last names, that’s right. (I’m joking, please don’t actually do so.) And Shugo Chara-chan 4 are no doubt more wacky and hilarious 4-koma adventures of the cast of Shugo Chara. (It’s harder to do these for titles I don’t read, I admit.)

Sublime has two new yaoi titles. Awkward Silence is by Hinako Takanaga, who has had everything in the world licensed over here. Honestly, this summary reads like it could be a generic shoujo manga, were the leads not both men. There’s also Punch Up! by Shiuko Kano, whose premise at least features grouchy construction workers. I’d go for the latter over the former (what with all my experience in reading BL, of course.)

In Viz’s regular line, we’re up to Vol. 21 of 20th Century Boys, as things pound relentlessly towards a climax.

And there’s July’s pile of stuff from Yen Press. Midtown doesn’t show The Disappearance of Nagato-Yuki-chan, but my shop’s getting it in, so I’m counting it here. For all those who want a kinder, gentler Haruhi series with less world saving and more adorable, this is for you. There’s also Durarara!! Vol. 3, which Midtown lists but my store does not. The striking covers of DRRR always appeal, but the manga artist has shown a deft touch with the plotting as well.

In other Yen series, Book Girl and The Wayfarer’s Lamentation is the 5th in the series, and may actually finally get into the mysterious past of Konoha’s in greater detail. 13th Boy hits Vol. 12, which dovetails nicely with 20th Century Boys hitting Vol. 21. Black Butler is up to double digits for this satanically popular series (see what I did there? I should write ad copy). There’s new High School of the Dead and Pandora Hearts, and the 2nd volume of Is This A Zombie? is there for those not driven off by Vol. 1. The other big debut this week is Vol. 1 of spinoff series Soul Eater Not!, which is serialized day-date by Yen Press as part of their Yen Plus online magazine. Should be fun. (Twilight Vol. 2 is also listed, but as this came out in October everywhere else, I’m not sure why.)

That’s a lot of great stuff! What are you getting?

As one would expect after this week’s huge stack of manga after manga, next week is slightly quieter. But there are still a few new manga out there to please everyone.

Digital Manga Publishing starts us off with a new volume of the ever popular Finder. It’s a big title with yaoi fans, despite reviews tending to use the word “sexplosion” when describing it. There is also Flutter, whose cover features two really depressed-looking guys. And they have Secretary’s Job as well, which does not seem to be a sexplosion, but at least the cover doesn’t feature leads who want to kill themselves. So it’s a nice balance.

Fanfare/Ponent Mon has Vol. 3 of mountain climbing epic Summit of the Gods. Even if it wasn’t illustrated by Jiro Taniguchi (which it is), you should get this anyway as one should always support any Business Jump manga that actually gets brought over here.

Kodansha has the 5th volume of Tarzan-ish shonen manga Animal Land, which should appeal to anyone who liked Zatch Bell, the author’s other imported series.

Despite the cover, which looks remarkably like Seven Seas’ other OEL titles, Angel Para Bellum is in fact Japanese. It’s from the artist who does Dance in the Vampire Bund, and runs in Softbank Creative’s Flex Comics! Remember them? That’s right, CMX’s old buddies. And now Seven Seas has them! They also have the start of a new Alice spinoff, this one featuring Boris. At 7+ volumes, it promises to be longer than the original series. There’s also some Korean titles: Jack the Ripper/Hell Blade, and an omnibus of Vol. 5-6 of My Boyfriend Is A Vampire, which I presume is one of those titles that is also the plot.

Lastly, Viz has Vol. 4 of the adorable Fluffy Fluffy Cinnamoroll, which I always misspell. But not this time! Ha!

Be patriotic, Americans! Buy Japanese manga! Which one are you getting?

A few things before we begin:

1) There was no post last week as Midtown had no manga this week. not a scrap. Sorry. They’re making up for it next week.

2) Diamond is shipping on time, so comic shops open on 7/4 should have your manga right on time.

3) Diamond has been doing weird things with Viz deliveries the last two months. They’re staggering them, shipping a few at a time. I can’t say if this is deliberate or not. All I know is of the Viz I’m listing below, I’m not getting several of them till later. And I *still* don’t have Toriko 10 from last month. Diamond, why?

Now, onward.

Fantagraphics has the 3rd volume of outstanding seinen masterpiece Wandering Son, which will continue our story of its two leads and their ongoing exploration of gender, puberty, and life. This should be on everybody’s pull list.

Kodansha delivers to Midtown a bunch of stuff that’s been out in bookstores for a bit. Ongoing volumes of Air Gear, Bloody Monday, and Mardock Scramble. A new reissue of Gon. And an omnibus edition of one of their biggest shoujo sellers, Kitchen Princess. The big one for this week, though, is the debut of their new shonen series, Attack on Titan. Part apocalyptic horror, part military bonding, and part action thriller, Vol. 1 of this manga start fast out of the gate and doesn’t let up. Kudos to Kodansha for getting this award-winning series.

Penguin is releasing Gandhi: A Manga Biography. Note that it is only ‘A’ manga biography, which I can only assume is just in case they decide to add Gandhi to the cast of Legend of Koizumi.

Vertical is releasing the 4th volume of Drops of God, which wraps up the first ‘arc’ of this series, and reveals the 2nd Apostle! They’re also putting out a Five Centimeters Per Second, which is a poignant and thoughtful look at friendships, love, and the unrelenting passing of time. It’s worth checking out, and is complete over here in one collected volume.

Viz. Oi. Time for the bulleted list:
— Afterschool Charisma 6, an Ikki title hitting a week early. Clones!
— Bakuman 12. Manga writing!
— Bleach, Vols. 42 and 43. Speedup!
— Case Closed, Vol. 43. Not actually in Shonen Jump. Still called Jimmy!
— Claymore, Vol. 20. Youma!
— D.Gray-Man, Vol. 22. Gothic!
— Dengeki Daisy, Vol. 10. Go bald!
— Hana-Kimi, Vols. 7-8-9. Go buy the rest individually!
— Mameshiba: We Could Be Heroes. Adorable tie-in!
— Naruto, Vol. 57. Epic ninja battles!
— Natsume’s Book of Friends, Vol. 12. Yokai! And no threesomes, sorry, fandom.
— One Piece, Vol. 63. Pirates! Fishmen! Together, they fight… well, each other.
— Ooku: The Inner Chambers Vol. 7. Shogun! (Not by James Clavell, honest.)
— Oresama Teacher, Vol. 9. Comedy! And banchos!
— Pokemon Black & White, Vol. 8. Um… Pokemon?!? (shrugs)
— Psyren, Vol. 5. Powerups!
— Rin-Ne, Vol. 9. Sakura not getting angry!
— Rosario + Vampire Season II, Vol. 9. Fairy Tale! but not Fairy Tail? … wait, now I’m confused.
— Skip Beat!, Vols. 7-8-9. Go buy the rest individually!
— Skip Beat!, Vol.. 28. Just kiss already!
— Vampire Knight, Vol. 14. Vampires! Angst! Prettiness! And you CAN’T STOP READING IT!
— WINX Club, Vols. 1 & 2. More tie-ins!

The debut from Viz this week is Jiu Jiu, which is a new Hakusensha title (woo hoo!) which began in Hama to Yume and now runs in spinoff The Hana. It’s from the author of Clean Freak: Fully Equipped, for those who recall that cut short Tokyopop series (hey, why not ask Stu about it at AX this weekend?), and is about a girl and her werewolf bodyguards. As with many Hana to Yume series, it’s better than it sounds. Looking forward to this one.

Lastly, Yen has Olympos, which I mentioned already a post or two ago, but which Midtown is getting in next week for some reason.

So, out of that nightmarish pile, what suits you?