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Wild Adapter

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Before I get to Wild Adapter, there are three other things I am very happy about right now:

1) Sharing manga leads to wonderful suprises: My sister has pre-ordered Bleach Volume 26 and Fullmetal Alchemist Volume 18 for me “in support of the manga industry” and as a thank you “for supplying happy, happy reading.” I was completely touched and more than a bit watery-eyed. Of course she will get to borrow these volumes from me when they arrive ;) Heh. Do I have an awesome sister or what? She’s even way ahead of me on reading Nana!

2) Mangatude. I’m having lots of fun there but I think I may be operating outside one of the goals of mangatude, which is to trade manga you don’t want for manga you really do want. Instead of stabilizing or shrinking, my manga collection keeps growing. You see, I have a lengthy wish list, but I did not have a lot to offer in trade. So instead of being patient I’ve been stocking up on popular titles from my local Half-Price Books stores that I can use to trade for the titles I cannot find. I’m hopeless. I know. But its an approach that is working.

3) Volume 1 of Natsuki Takaya’s new series Phantom Dream. It is now in my possession! I did a happy dance when it arrived. Its not often that I buy manga brand new, relying on my public library’s fairly extensive collection and haunting the used bookstores in the area, but for an author or series I love, I have a really hard time waiting.

Which brings me to my hopefully spoiler free review of Wild Adapter Volume 1, by Kazuya Minekura. …

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Busy, busy, busy

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The week has been a little crazy, and I haven’t managed much manga-wise, other than reading a couple more volumes of Yotsuba&! (SO CUTE) and making three trades at mangatude (YAY). I do have a couple of reviews up at Manga Recon today, though, and they are both of pretty interesting titles, so I’ll pass the links along here!

First off, I review Viz’s Heaven’s Will in today’s On The Shojo Beat column, and I must tell you that though I only graded it at a B-, I actually really liked it. It’s a complete mess, and impossible to recommend, but there is something so compelling about its quirky cast of characters, I really just wanted more. Read my review, and you’ll see what I mean. I should point out, too, Michelle’s review of Otomen vol. 1 in the same column, which made me want to run right out and buy it, though it’s obviously just for fun.

Secondly, I have a full-length review of the first volume of Nanae Chrono’s new series, Momo Tama. Writing this review was incredibly difficult for some reason, especially surprising considering that I quite liked the volume. I’ll be interested to see where this series goes, and whether it really does become a full-blown comedy as the promotional material suggests. I kind of hope it doesn’t, because it’s more interesting to me the way it is now.

Okay, that’s all for now. I look forward to the long weekend!

Find of the day!

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Thanks to Lori Henderson at Manga Xanadu, I have discovered the wonderful world of Mangatude, where people swap volumes of manga they don’t want for volumes that they do. With my tight budget these days this is a godsend, and I’m sure I’m not the only one in that boat right now. I’ve signed up, and already have a trade in the works!

Of course, as wonderful a find as this is, I’m thinking about how it affects the industry for us to be trading books instead of buying new ones on our own. Right now, I’ve justified it in that my budget is pretty inflexible, and I wasn’t going to be spending more anyway, so better to be maintaining my interest in series that I eventually *will* buy more volumes of. Better, too, that books I don’t need (like our accidental duplicate copy of Fullmetal Alchemist vol. 8) will find their way into grateful hands. It’s made me think a lot also about what series I *really* want, and what I’d be willing to give up in order to get something I want more.

I don’t have a lot for trade right now (and half of what I did have is already gone), but I’m sure that will grow as time goes on. In any case, I’m passing the info along in the event that I’m not actually the last person to know about this. :)