We’ve got an embarrassment of riches coming in this week at Midtown Comics. Check out picks from Michelle, Sean, Kate, & MJbelow!
MICHELLE: Decisions, decisions! I am definitely keen to read quite a few of the volumes on this week’s Midtown Comics release list, but ultimately I’m going to have to cast my vote for volume 61 of Eiichiro Oda’s masterful One Piece. They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, and “they” must be on to something, because I’m really eager to see the rest of the crew again after the past few volumes, which featured Luffy on a solo quest to save his brother, Ace. Not only that, we’re about to embark upon the current arc of the series, which is very exciting indeed!
SEAN: We do indeed have an embarrassment of riches this week. My pick goes to Vol. 9 of Dengeki Daisy. A lot of Betsucomi manga tend to have their heroines in constant peril, and indeed that’s exactly what happens in Dengeki Daisy. What makes it work is that Teru does not whimper and wonder why all this keeps happening to her – she’s a very active Penelope, so to speak. This series has been in the middle of an ongoing very serious arc, which has been disconcerting to those who loved the comedic antics between Teru and Kurosaki. But the action and drama has also been skillfully handled, and you keep hoping that all this intrigue will end well so that the leads can live happily – if abusively – ever after.
KATE: Oh, the dilemma! I’m tempted by the first volume of The Earl and the Fairy, even if it sounds like a forgotten Lawrence Olivier/Marilyn Monroe movie, and I’m delighted to see that VIZ is re-releasing the early volumes of Skip Beat! as an omnibus. The title that most excites me, however, is the King City trade paperback. You may remember King City from the days when TOKYOPOP had a robust line of OEL comics. Though widely praised, Brandon Graham’s sci-fi comedy wasn’t a particularly good fit with the rest of TOKYOPOP’s catalog; the humor was too weird and subversive, and the art didn’t strike readers as particularly “manga-esque.” TOKYOPOP put the series on hiatus in 2007, then allowed Graham to bring the series to Image Comics. The TPB collects the entire series — 400+ pages — in a tidy, economical package. If you missed it the first time around, it’s definitely worth a look.
MJ: Wow, it really is a tough choice this week! It’s hard not to go for the final volume of No Longer Human, Usamaru Furuya’s adaptation of the classic novel, which Michelle & I fawned over in a recent installment of Off the Shelf. There’s also a new installment of Chi’s Sweet Home, and this week’s new omnibus release of Skip Beat! finally gives me a chance to get into that long-running series. In the end, though, I guess I’ll be the one to go for The Earl & the Fairy, artist Ayuko’s adaptation of the light novel by Mizue Tani, out this week from Viz. I’m always a sucker for a new shoujo series, and this one looks intriguing. I haven’t always been a fan of light novel adaptations, but having been so thoroughly won over by last year’s The Story of Saiunkoku, and eager to give this one a try!
Readers, what looks good to you this week?
My pick of the week is volume 13 of Karuho Shiina’s Kimi ni Todoke. I just keep waiting for new volumes of this series to see what is going to happen next. The plot is not anything new but the characters make it all the more interesting. I have yet to find a shoujo series with a great cast of characters and not only the main ones. I admit that I’m more interested in the other characters than the main couple especially Ayane. I want to see how the mangaka will handle this character and who will be the one to finally win her heart at the end. It sure makes me impatient to know.
Melinda: are you collecting ONE PIECE? I read the first volume recently and would love to get more volumes but the number of volumes and the fact that it is still ongoing is not encouraging.
I want to say Hana-Kimi; I’ve been meaning to read that series for YEARS, and now that it’s in an omnibus… I might not be able to resist. But for sure, I’m going out to get the new Kimi ni Todoke.
I just put in orders for the first Skip Beat omnibus. I’m happy that Viz is making it easy for us latecomers to start collecting too. Earl and the Fairy went into the same order. Now I just have to be patient and wait for them to actually reach these distant shores.
I just got my copy of the Skip Beat omnibus. I love the series so much that I didn’t even mind buying it again. xD This way will make it A LOT easier to lend out to friends~ Skip Beat is one of those series that gets exponentially better the longer you read. Unfortunately, I’ve had to preface lending out the first volume with “Don’t get discouraged! Kyoko gets much better, trust me! Just keep reading!” Hopefully this new release, since it covers a lot more of the start of the series, will make it easier for me to tempt people to keep reading. ^_^
Although, I have to say, this omnibus Skip Beat is the flimsiest manga I think I’ve ever seen. It rivals the Tokyopop books from that time when they downgraded their paper quality. o_o It’s not enough to warrant not buying the book, but I do worry a bit about it being able to withstand the multitude of lending out I have planned for it.
I just picked up Katsuya Terada’s The Monkey King so that’s my pick