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Manga Bestsellers: 2012, Week Ending 22 July

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Comparative Rankings Based on Consolidated Online Sales

last week’s charts
about the charts

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Manga Bestsellers

1. ↔0 (1) : Sailor Moon 4 – Kodansha Comics, Mar 2012 [416.0] ::
2. ↑1 (3) : Sailor Moon 3 – Kodansha Comics, Jan 2012 [413.7] ::
3. ↓-1 (2) : Sailor Moon 1 – Kodansha Comics, Sep 2011 [410.8] ::
4. ↔0 (4) : Sailor Moon 2 – Kodansha Comics, Nov 2011 [405.0] ::
5. ↑1 (6) : Naruto 57 – Viz Shonen Jump, Jul 2012 [382.5] ::
6. ↓-1 (5) : Vampire Knight 14 – Viz Shojo Beat, Jul 2012 [365.3] ::
7. ↑2 (9) : Rosario+Vampire Season II 9 – Viz Shonen Jump Advanced, Jul 2012 [328.5] ::
8. ↑2 (10) : Sailor Moon 6 – Kodansha Comics, Jun 2012 [325.0] ::
9. ↓-2 (7) : Negima! 35 – Kodansha Comics, Jul 2012 [315.8] ::
10. ↓-2 (8) : Ouran High School Host Club 18 – Viz Shojo Beat, Jun 2012 [300.8] ::

[more]

Top Imprints
Number of volumes ranking in the Top 500:

Yen Press 91
Viz Shonen Jump 83
Viz Shojo Beat 59
Kodansha Comics 48
Viz Shonen Jump Advanced 37
DMP Juné 34
Dark Horse 20
Seven Seas 17
Vertical 13
Vizkids 12

[more]

Series/Property

1. ↔0 (1) : Sailor Moon – Kodansha Comics [1,130.0] ::
2. ↔0 (2) : Naruto – Viz Shonen Jump [826.7] ::
3. ↔0 (3) : Bleach – Viz Shonen Jump [674.8] ::
4. ↔0 (4) : Negima! – Del Rey/Kodansha Comics [543.1] ::
5. ↔0 (5) : Rosario+Vampire – Viz Shonen Jump Advanced [535.7] ::
6. ↑3 (9) : Highschool of the Dead – Yen Press [524.8] ::
7. ↑1 (8) : Alice in the Country of Clover – Seven Seas [520.3] ::
8. ↓-1 (7) : Vampire Knight – Viz Shojo Beat [510.5] ::
9. ↓-3 (6) : Ouran High School Host Club – Viz Shojo Beat [499.1] ::
10. ↑7 (17) : Pandora Hearts – Yen Press [477.8] ::

[more]

New Releases
(Titles releasing/released This Month & Last)

5. ↑1 (6) : Naruto 57 – Viz Shonen Jump, Jul 2012 [382.5] ::
6. ↓-1 (5) : Vampire Knight 14 – Viz Shojo Beat, Jul 2012 [365.3] ::
7. ↑2 (9) : Rosario+Vampire Season II 9 – Viz Shonen Jump Advanced, Jul 2012 [328.5] ::
8. ↑2 (10) : Sailor Moon 6 – Kodansha Comics, Jun 2012 [325.0] ::
9. ↓-2 (7) : Negima! 35 – Kodansha Comics, Jul 2012 [315.8] ::
10. ↓-2 (8) : Ouran High School Host Club 18 – Viz Shojo Beat, Jun 2012 [300.8] ::
12. ↑17 (29) : Fairy Tail 20 – Kodansha Comics, Jul 2012 [289.7] ::
14. ↓-2 (12) : Bleach 42 – Viz Shonen Jump, Jul 2012 [282.5] ::
15. ↓-1 (14) : Alice in the Country of Clover Cheshire Cat Waltz 1 – Seven Seas, Jul 2012 [280.6] ::
21. ↑2 (23) : Bleach 43 – Viz Shonen Jump, Jul 2012 [257.9] ::

[more]

Preorders

13. ↑6 (19) : Sailor Moon 9 – Kodansha Comics, Jan 2013 [284.8] ::
18. ↑3 (21) : Sailor Moon 7 – Kodansha Comics, Sep 2012 [269.5] ::
20. ↑2 (22) : Sailor Moon 8 – Kodansha Comics, Nov 2012 [258.6] ::
34. ↑6 (40) : Sailor Moon 10 – Kodansha Comics, Mar 2013 [219.8] ::
47. ↓-5 (42) : Avatar: The Last Airbender The Promise 3 – Dark Horse, Oct 2012 [188.5] ::
72. ↑33 (105) : Yotsuba&! 11 – Yen Press, Sep 2012 [119.9] ::
76. ↑6 (82) : Negima! 36 – Kodansha Comics, Oct 2012 [114.5] ::
86. ↓-1 (85) : Only the Ring Finger Knows (novel) 5 – DMP Juné, Sep 2012 [105.9] ::
94. ↑2 (96) : Ai no Kusabi (novel) 7 – DMP Juné, Sep 2012 [99.1] ::
117. ↑16 (133) : Love Hina Omnibus 4 – Kodansha Comics, Aug 2012 [87.8] ::

[more]

Manhwa

390. ↓-3 (387) : Bride of the Water God 11 – Dark Horse, May 2012 [28.9] ::
489. ↓-12 (477) : Bride of the Water God 10 – Dark Horse, Jan 2012 [21.6] ::
491. ↓-50 (441) : Time & Again 6 – Yen Press, Jul 2011 [21.6] ::
607. ↓-77 (530) : Time & Again 3 – Yen Press, Jul 2010 [16.0] ::
665. ↑13 (678) : Time & Again 1 – Yen Press, Dec 2009 [13.3] ::
669. ↓-36 (633) : Time & Again 5 – Yen Press, Mar 2011 [13.1] ::
719. ↓-42 (677) : Time & Again 2 – Yen Press, Mar 2010 [11.3] ::
844. ↓-98 (746) : Totally Captivated 4 – Netcomics, Sep 2008 [7.4] ::
845. ↑234 (1079) : Toxic (anthology) 1 – Udon, Jul 2012 [7.4] ::
896. ↓-23 (873) : Let Dai 11 – Netcomics, Feb 2008 [6.3] ::

[more]

BL/Yaoi

29. ↑1 (30) : Finder Series 6 Passion within the View Finder – DMP Juné, Jul 2012 [242.4] ::
57. ↑8 (65) : Samejima-Kun & Sasahara-Kun – DMP Juné, May 2012 [140.8] ::
65. ↑10 (75) : In These Words – 801 Media, Jun 2012 [127.5] ::
79. ↑85 (164) : The Tyrant Falls in Love 6 – DMP Juné, May 2012 [111.5] ::
83. ↑90 (173) : Same Difference – DMP Juné, Jun 2012 [107.5] ::
86. ↓-1 (85) : Only the Ring Finger Knows (novel) 5 – DMP Juné, Sep 2012 [105.9] ::
89. ↑56 (145) : Private Teacher 3 – DMP Juné, May 2012 [102.6] ::
94. ↑2 (96) : Ai no Kusabi (novel) 7 – DMP Juné, Sep 2012 [99.1] ::
129. ↑151 (280) : Private Teacher 2 – DMP Juné, Jan 2012 [84.3] ::
131. ↑103 (234) : The Tyrant Falls in Love 5 – DMP Juné, Jan 2012 [82.5] ::

[more]

Ebooks

5. ↑1 (6) : Naruto 57 – Viz Shonen Jump, Jul 2012 [382.5] ::
19. ↓-4 (15) : Naruto 56 – Viz Shonen Jump, May 2012 [262.1] ::
37. ↓-2 (35) : Maximum Ride 5 – Yen Press, Dec 2011 [209.6] ::
39. ↓-6 (33) : Naruto 55 – Viz Shonen Jump, Mar 2012 [208.0] ::
53. ↓-5 (48) : Naruto 54 – Viz Shonen Jump, Mar 2012 [157.1] ::
60. ↓-1 (59) : Blue Exorcist 1 – Viz Shonen Jump Advanced, Apr 2011 [138.0] ::
62. ↓-5 (57) : Naruto 53 – Viz Shonen Jump, Dec 2011 [131.7] ::
67. ↑2 (69) : Maximum Ride 3 – Yen Press, Aug 2010 [127.1] ::
98. ↓-1 (97) : Naruto 52 – Viz Shonen Jump, Jul 2011 [96.9] ::
100. ↑1 (101) : Maximum Ride 1 – Yen Press, Jan 2009 [96.6] ::

[more]

Bringing the Drama: Big

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Big: Not as charming as one would assume from this promotional image

ANNA: For this episode of Bringing the Drama, we are going to talk about Big, which is notable because it is the new show from fan favorite creators the Hong sisters and it also features the return to television of Gong Yoo, who was previously so excellent in Coffee Prince. The series is available on Dramafever and Hulu. Big‘s title and plot is a reference to the classic Tom Hanks movie of the 1980s but in execution the show might provoke more flashbacks to Freaky Friday. Gil Da Ran is studying to be a teacher, and her life seems to be going fairly well because she is engaged to be married to a doctor, Seo Yoon Jae. Yoon Jae doesn’t always seem to be able to find the time to spend with Da Ran, and a shady female colleague wants to break the couple up. Da Ran has an encounter with an overly precocious and slightly obnoxious teenager named Kang Kyung Joon. Kyung Joon and Yoon Jae get into a car accident with each other, and when Kyung Joon wakes up, he’s in the older doctor Yoon Jae’s body! Kyung Joon’s teenage body is stuck at the hospital in a lingering coma. What is Da Ran going to do, with a teenage boy in the body of her attractive and reserved fiance?

What were your reactions to the first few episodes?

EVA: I’m getting more and more used to Korean comedies starting off in tragic ways. Unrequited love! Orphaned children! Accidental drowning! What fun. But this one actually is. I completely bought Gong Yoo as both the doctor and the teenager (in fact, it took me until about halfway through episode three before I gasped and shouted at the computer, “It’s that guy from Coffee Prince!”) and Lee Min Jung’s reactions to both versions of Gong Yoo’s character is convincing. I’m impressed at how well the two actors are pulling this off.

EMILY: The first thing I noticed about Big is that it has a different feel than the other Hong sisters dramas I’ve seen. They usually go for the screwball comedy right from the get-go (just look at the beginning of You’re Beautiful) but this time they went with a more serious first episode. There were hints of humor, but in general, episode 1 plays things straight and sets up the premise of the story. Things start to get funnier in episode 2, but even then, it feels a bit toned down.

I like Gong Yoo in pretty much everything I’ve seen him in. Really, he could just sit there and read the phone book, and I’d probably tune in. In this drama, he faces the challenge of playing two characters- the adult doctor, Yoon Jae, and the teenager-trapped-in-an-adult-body, Kyung Joon. We don’t really get to see him in his role of Yoon Jae for very long, so it’s difficult to get a handle on the character. When he starts acting as Kyung Joon, he really lights up. I think he does fall into that trap, at first, of acting TOO childish, when trying to act like a teen, but he gets over it quickly and settles into the role.

I’m somewhat disappointed in the heroine, Gil Da Ran. She seems like such a cliched naive Kdrama heroine. I like how she acts around her younger brother- feisty and in charge- but everywhere else, she seems to have some doormat tendencies. While she isn’t quite as blindingly naive as Minam was in You’re Beautiful, she still scores high on the unbelievably-innocent scale. I have no problem with the actress playing her; it’s the character that feels a bit weak.

I love Da Ran’s family. They have a wonderful dynamic, one that almost mirrors the situation Da Ran will eventually face. Da Ran’s father is about 12 years older at least than her mom. In fact, they were teacher-student. Yet in spite of the age difference, and lots of parental drama they hint at, they have a successful and loving marriage. Something for Da Ran to keep in mind, perhaps, as she will no doubt become confused by the presence of Kyung Joon’s soul in her fiance’s body.

Thank you, Hong sisters, for all those bare-chested-post-army-body-fanservice scenes of Gong Yoo :)

One of the better things about Big: Gong Yoo and his abs

NANCY: I’m about eight episodes into the drama now, and I still don’t know what to make of it. It is not “Big,” for those who care about those kind of things. I would call it…a half-assed Secret Garden. Harsh, but…true.

I agree with Emily that Gong Yoo acts too childish for a 17-year-old (18 in Korea), and to top it off, his acting in no way resembles how Shin Won-Ho (the “real” Kyung Joon) interpreted the character. Kyung Joon is treated as such a child by Gil Da Ran that it’s impossible to view him as a romantic interest for her. So then is Yoon Jae her romantic interest? But he’s never around, so we have no idea what he’s like. It’s great that the viewer is unsure about Yoon Jae’s true feelings just as Gil Da Ran is—that is what makes the plot interesting—but it doesn’t work beyond that.

This is a romantic comedy without the romantic comedy. There is no couple to root for. I have no idea where this drama is going, and I feel like the drama itself doesn’t know where it’s going either.

EVA: See, here’s where it shows that I’m the noob here: I have no idea what Secret Garden is. But, yeah, this is nothing like Big and kinda-sorta like Freaky Friday.

It’s also clear that I’m (at least with this show) willing to cut the actors more slack than Emily and Nancy are. Yeah, Gong Yoo isn’t portraying the Kyung Joon character the same way Shin Won Ho did. But I was having so much fun with the character the way he decided to play it that I didn’t care. Heh.

ANNA: Actually having no idea where the show will go is mainly what appeals to me for this drama. Being unsure of which couple to root for actually seems somewhat refreshing. I’m sure that there will be a happy ending, but right now I’m not sure what to expect. I honestly am not sure if Gil Da Ran would be better off with Kyung Joon in in Yoon Jae’s body or the real Yoon Jae. She seems to have built much more of a solid friendship and companionship with Kyung Joon, even though she does treat him like a little kid. She really didn’t know Yoon Jae very well, despite being engaged to him. I agree that Gong Yoo’s frenetic little kid act settles down a bit a few episodes in. I’m afraid I’m too much of a fangirl to be all that critical of Gong Yoo’s performance or interpretation of the character, because he’s just so appealing as a lead character.

I feel like I have to give a shout out to Jang Ma-Ri, Kyung Joon’s ex-girlfriend who shows up and quickly suspects that something is wrong. She’s basically like The Terminator with ridiculous hair fashion accessories, and she injects a comedic element into the series that is definitely needed.

Ma Ri: Making Hair bows Menacing!

NANCY: I agree that Suzy as Ma-Ri is a great addition to the series! At first her interpretation of what is basically a sasaeng (crazy stalkers of kpop idols) scared the hell out of me. But once she stops acting like a freak, we see a loyal person who is trying to right a past wrong. She’s charming, and I also feel for Da-Ran’s brother.

Basically I’d like this series a lot more if Yoon Jae would just wake up to fix the plodding pace of this drama. :p

EVA: Ma-Ri is awesome. Once we got past the crazy stalker stage she became, fittingly, the most American of the characters — no noble idiot here. If she wants something she goes for it and damn the consequences. She may be incredibly annoying to the rest of the characters, but to me she’s a breath of fresh air.

I’m still only seven episodes in, so hearing that the show turns plodding is not good news. Emily, is there hope for a turn-around?

EMILY: I finished the series this week, and was extremely disappointed with it. I still love Gong Yoo, and think he did a fantastic job with what he was given, but the writers really dropped the ball here. They just went in circles for so many episodes. There were so many pointless scenes. Heck, all of episode 15 is a waste of time. Even Ma-ri becaume a useless plot contrivance in the last episode- I can’t believe she got away with what she did, good grief. I also can’t believe this is a Hong Sisters Drama. I really enjoyed so many of their other shows (You’re Beautiful, Greatest Love, My Girlfriend is a Gumiho, etc) that I can’t understand what they were thinking when they came up with this series. I am usually very easy to please, but in this case, I was just left scratching my head and wondering what the hell I just watched. *sigh*

Still, this has been a good year for dramas over all. I LOVED Queen In-Hyun’s Man, I’m still enjoying A Gentleman’s Dignity (in spite of 1 episode of stupidity, the rest of it has been pretty solid), and there are a bunch of new shows coming that look like they will be fun. That’s the nice thing about the Korean and Japanese TV systems- if you don’t like a show, just wait 3 months, and a whole new crop of shows will start :D

ANNA: Oh, I was hoping it would get better by the end! I was stalled out at episode 10, but I was thinking that the Hong Sisters would somehow be able to pull off the show. My tastes in drama generally tend to synch up with yours, do you think the show is worth finishing, or should I switch over to A Gentleman’s Dignity for more satisfying drama watching?

EMILY: Personally, I would switch. Apparently, the Big ending was a let down to a LOT of people, judging from the flurry of blog posts I am seeing today. Granted, it’s not the worst ending I have ever seen in a drama (that honor goes to the K-drama “Let’s Go To School, Sang-Doo” and the J-drama “Cheap Love”) but it is extremely weak and leaves lots of questions. And important events happen off screen. So annoying.

ANNA: How quickly my excitement over a new Hong Sisters’ drama has turned into crushing despair! If we aren’t going to recommend that people watch this one, what should people watch instead? Coffee Prince, to experience the glory of Gong Yoo in a series with much better writing? Secret Garden, if people are looking for a series about body switching that is less maddening?

EMILY: Watch Coffee Prince for Gong Yoo, Secret Garden for awesome body-swapping, and You’re Beautiful/Greatest Love/Girlfriend is a Gumiho for better Hong Sisters efforts. ^_^

At least we can all cherish our memories of Coffee Prince!

Young King Ours, A Slightly Eccentric Manga Magazine

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Young King Ours has the tagline (in English) “The Most Eccentric Manga Magazine,” however, as the art is not crazy nor are the stories particularly wacky, the claim is a bit of an overreach. I’d give Manga Erotics F or Comic Beam the wins for eccentricity, but Young King Ours would probably be one of the leaders of the following pack.

Young King Ours is published by Shonen Gahosha Publishing, one of the lesser known publishing companies, and yet many of the titles that ran in the Pages of YKO are well known to western readers. Rikudo Koshi’s Excel Saga called YKO home until it finished its 15-year run at the end of 2011. Kouta Hirano’s Hellsing is another well-known title, as is Yasuhiro Nightow’s Trigun Maximum.

YKO began life in 1993 as a supplement, but became a monthly magazine in it’s own right in 1997. It sells for 550 yen/issue ($7.00 at time of writing) for just around 550 pages. Japanese Magazine Publishers’ data puts YKO monthly circulation at a modest 53, 000 in 2010, down significantly from 2008’s 68,000.  The website is the very opposite of eccentric, as there is little on display other than the titles running that month and a message or two, lumped together as it is with the other Shonen Gahosha publications. No contests or giveaways here.

The stories that run in this magazine are not immune from the power of fanservice, but surprisingly, the characters drive the story far more than sexualized images. The magazine is more likely to appeal to a slightly less…dare I say it…creepy?…audience that does indeed like large breasts but doesn’t seem to need the constant reassurance that the female characters wear underwear that fills the pages of other seinen magazines. Maybe for that reason, it is an eccentric manga magazine after all.

Young King Ours by Gahosha Publishing: http://www.shonengahosha.jp/ours/index.php

 

 

Comic Conversion: Cirque Du Freak

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Cirque Du Freak | Novel: Darren Shan / Little, Brown and Company | Manga: Takahiro Arai / Yen Press

When Darren Shan and his best friend Steve find a flyer for Cirque Du Freak (a circus of freaks) they just have to go. A wolf-man, a snake-boy—what boy wouldn’t love it? But when Mr. Crepsley and his spider, Madame Octa, come on stage, both boys are overcome with desire—Darren, to own the spider, and Steve, to become a vampire! Darren manages to get his hands on the spider, but his control slips and the deadly bug bites his friend. Mr. Crepsley is the only one with an antidote, and he will only hand it over on one condition: Darren must become his assistant.

According to his website, Cirque Du Freak‘s author (confusingly also named Darren Shan) was inspired to write his vampire novels by the combined inspiration of Goosebumps, with its easy-to-read format, and the dark horror of Stephen King novels. Later, manga artist Takahiro Arai was awarded the opportunity to recreate Shan’s story in manga form after winning a contest. Even though the manga adaptation was originally published in Shonen Sunday, thanks to Yen Press’s ties with Little, Brown and Company (the original novels’ publisher) they were able to print the manga in English.

I love creepy stories. I ate up the Goosebumps series as a kid, cringing and wincing at every page and then scrambling for the next book. I’d been eying the Cirque Du Freak novels precisely because of the promise for creepiness, but unfortunately I found myself disappointed. Despite the generally excited tone of the narrator, the descriptions often read with too little emotion to invoke fear or horror, even when a woman’s hand is bitten clean off by a wolf-man. Shan also manages to ruin his tension simply by reminding us of it too much. In the prologue, his narrator reiterates the point that this is a “true story” where bad things can happen—a common enough tactic that beefs up the tension. But then, Shan keeps doing it: “Little did I know that Alan’s mysterious piece of paper was to change my life forever. For the worse!” “If only I hadn’t been so scared of looking like a coward! I could have left and everything would have been fine.” It quickly becomes repetitive, and makes it feel like Shan is trying to force anxiety on the readers.

Despite my dissatisfaction with the creepy tone, the story is still pretty compelling. A boy becomes a vampire not because he wants to or is forced to, but because that’s the price he pays to save a friend from the mistake he made. There are quite a few times where the novel drags. Shan apparently feels compelled to describe all of Darren’s actions—even unimportant ones like the chores he did while waiting to go to the circus—and the chapters set aside to describe all of the freaks take ages. The plot itself is engrossing enough to still qualify the book as a page turner, but it’s tough to ignore all the awkward bits.

Takahiro Arai’s manga adaptation is definitely creepier. This is thanks in large part to the art; particularly with the freaks, the character designs at times take on a surreal, over-exaggerated feel, and his backgrounds of oversized crescent moons and propped up coffins look like scenes out of Soul Eater. Sometimes Arai takes it a little too far with Steve. His wide eyes and sharp-toothed grins are too quick to give away that there’s something messed up about this kid, but even so he feels like more of a threat than he did in the novel. Darren does look much younger than I imagined him (though to be fair, the book never specifies his age), and unfortunately the designs for the side characters are either weak or generic-looking, like the “cute girl” assistants in the freak show.

The manga takes a couple of liberties with the story in both minor and major ways. In the manga, Darren and his friends play soccer for money rather than fun (as they do in the novel), but this streamlines their path between getting cash and buying the tickets. Arai also changes some of Mr. Crepsley’s actions. First, he gives the flyer directly to Darren (rather than someone handing a flyer to a friend’s brother), again streamlining the plot while also making it seem more deliberate than coincidental that Darren was there that night. Then Mr. Crepsley shows up immediately to take back Madam Octa after Steve is bitten—meaning that Darren’s little sister sees him. Having not read the rest of the series, I don’t know if Darren’s family ever makes it back into the narrative, so this could either be foreshadowing that Annie will eventually figure out what happened…or an unfulfilled expectation for the reader.

The sometimes emotionless writing of the book really kills the creepiness that Shan obviously wants to build, and while the pacing is quick there’s a good deal of unnecessary action that still manages to gunk the story up. Arai’s adaptation fixes a lot of these problems, rooting out unnecessary tidbits and making the story just a little scarier. But I think what I like the most about the manga version is that if I had had no awareness of the original book, I probably wouldn’t have been able to pick this out as an adaptation. The manga flows well on its own, and the straight-from-the-text narration is kept at an astonishingly low level. And even though the novel has the strange feeling of being more of a “part one” than its own stand-alone story, the full volume of set up works well in the manga format. The Cirque Du Freak manga has its own issues, but it’s still the better choice.

Looney Tunes Platinum Collection 2 announced

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It’s a good thing that this post goes under Unshelved, as this announcement is so new there’s not even a cover art image to give you. Warner Brothers has announced the 2nd of its Platinum Collection sets for Blu-Ray on October 16th, with 3 discs containing 15 cartoons and bonus features. There’s also a separate 2-DVD set with just the cartoons.

Like the first Platinum Collection, 80% of these cartoons have been previously released on the Golden Collection DVDs. If you have a fantastic audiovisual setup that shows the difference between Blu-Ray and DVD, you might want to buy them again. Otherwise, there are ten new to DVD cartoons here to inspire grumpy cartoon fans to purchase it anyway. So here’s a breakdown:

DISC 1
A Wild Hare (1940, Avery) (Academy Award Collection)
Buckaroo Bugs (1944, Clampett) (GC5)
Long-Haired Hare (1949, Jones)(GC1)
Ali Baba Bunny (1957, Jones) (GC5)
Show Biz Bugs (1957, Freleng) (GC2)
The Wise Quacking Duck (1943, Clampett) (GC5)
What Makes Daffy Duck? (1948, Davis) (NEW TO DVD)
Book Revue (1946, Clampett) (GC2)
Deduce, You Say (1956, Jones) (GC1)
Porky In Wackyland (1938, Clampett) (GC2)
You Ought To Be In Pictures (1940, Freleng) (GC2)
Porky In Egypt (1938, Clampett) (GC3)
Back Alley Oproar (1948, Freleng) (GC2)
Little Red Rodent Hood (1952, Freleng) (GC5)
Canned Feud (1951, Freleng) (GC1)
Gift Wrapped (1952, Freleng) (GC2)
Birdy And The Beast (1944, Clampett) (NEW TO DVD)
Home, Tweet Home (1950, Freleng) (NEW TO DVD)
Going! Going! Gosh! (1952, Jones) (GC2)
Zipping Along (1953, Jones) (GC2)
Scent-Imental Romeo (1951, Jones) (Pepe DVD)
The Foghorn Leghorn (1948, McKimson) (GC1)
The High And The Flighty (1956, McKimson) (NEW TO DVD)
Tabasco Road (1957, McKimson) (GC4)
Mexicali Shmoes (1959, Freleng) (GC4)

DISC 2
Wabbit Twouble (1941, Clampett) (GC1)
Rabbit Fire (1951, Jones) (GC1)
Rabbit Seasoning (1952, Jones) (GC1)
Duck! Rabbit, Duck! (1953, Jones) (GC3)
Drip-Along Daffy (1951, Jones) (GC1)
My Little Duckaroo (1954, Jones) (GC6)
Barbary-Coast Bunny (1956, Jones) (GC4)
Tortoise Beats Hare (1941, Avery) (GC2)
Tortoise Wins By A Hare (1943, Clampett) (GC1)
Rabbit Transit (1947, Freleng) (GC2)
Porky’s Hare Hunt (1938, Hardaway/Dalton) (NEW TO DVD)
Hare-Um Scare-Um (1939, Hardaway/Dalton) (NEW TO DVD)
Prest-O Change-O (1939, Jones) (NEW TO DVD)
Elmer’s Candid Camera (1940, Jones) (GC1)
Bugs Bunny Gets The Boid (1942, Clampett) (GC1)
The Bashful Buzzard (1945, Clampett) (GC5)
The Lion’s Busy (1950, Freleng) (NEW TO DVD)
Strife With Father (1950, McKimson) (NEW TO DVD)
An Itch In Time (1943, Clampett) (GC3)
A Horsefly Fleas (1947, McKimson) (NEW TO DVD)
Hollywood Steps Out (1941, Avery) (GC2)
Page Miss Glory (1936, Avery) (GC6)
Rocket-Bye Baby (1956, Jones) (GC6)
Russian Rhapsody (1944, Clampett) (GC6)
Dough Ray Me-Ow (1948, Davis) (GC4)

DISC 3 (Included in Blu-ray Only)
King-Size Comedy: Tex Avery and the Looney Tunes Revolution (new documentary)
Tex Avery, the King of Cartoons (1988 film)
Friz on Film (GC extra, 70-minute documentary)
ToonHeads: The Lost Cartoons (GC extra, from the TV show)
Real American Zero: The Adventures of Private Snafu (GC extra)
The World of Leon Schlesinger (GC extra)
Friz at MGM (Captain and the Kids cartoons) (GC extra)
The Best of the Rest of Tex (MGM cartoons? unknown)
Private Snafu (GC extra)
Mr. Hook (GC extra)

So, what’s new? What Makes Daffy Duck is a great wacky Daffy cartoon, one of Davis’ best. Birdy and the Beast is the last Clampett Tweety cartoon to be restored for DVD/Blu-Ray, and he’s at his nastiest. Home Tweet Home is the last remaining early Sylvester/Tweety pairup not to be on DVD. The High and the Flighty features the one off pairing of Foghorn Leghorn with Daffy Duck, here a traveling salesman.

Porky’s Hare Hunt is the first appearance of ‘proto-Bugs’, a goofy, Woody Woodpecker-ish rabbit that eventually evolved into the Bugs who debuted in A Wild Hare. Hare-Um Scare-Um features the same rabbit, and should have its original ending, lost for more than 70 years, restored! (This is the biggest reason to get the set.) Prest-O Change-O features Jones’ Two Curious Puppies, dialogue-free characters he used in the early days, battling a white rabbit who, again, is one of Bugs’ ancestors.

The Lion’s Busy features Beaky Buzzard, and has him battling an eccentric lion in a battle of wits and patience. (Beaky is smarter here than his other three cartoons.) Strife With Father is Beaky’s last cartoon, and is a parody of actor Ronald Coleman, here cast as an English Sparrow. Lastly, A Horsefly Fleas features the return of the ‘Food Around The Corner’ flea, who is still looking for a place to stay and eat.

Is that enough to justify buying 40 cartoons over again? Well, I suppose it depends how hardcore a fan you are!

Manga the Week of 8/8

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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?

Manga Bestsellers: 2012, Week Ending 15 July

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Comparative Rankings Based on Consolidated Online Sales

last week’s charts
about the charts

##

Manga Bestsellers

1. ↑2 (3) : Sailor Moon 4 – Kodansha Comics, Mar 2012 [410.3] ::
2. ↓-1 (1) : Sailor Moon 1 – Kodansha Comics, Sep 2011 [405.1] ::
3. ↓-1 (2) : Sailor Moon 3 – Kodansha Comics, Jan 2012 [403.4] ::
4. ↔0 (4) : Sailor Moon 2 – Kodansha Comics, Nov 2011 [401.8] ::
5. ↑2 (7) : Vampire Knight 14 – Viz Shojo Beat, Jul 2012 [373.5] ::
6. ↔0 (6) : Naruto 57 – Viz Shonen Jump, Jul 2012 [369.6] ::
7. ↑1 (8) : Negima! 35 – Kodansha Comics, Jul 2012 [351.9] ::
8. ↓-3 (5) : Ouran High School Host Club 18 – Viz Shojo Beat, Jun 2012 [333.9] ::
9. ↑1 (10) : Rosario+Vampire Season II 9 – Viz Shonen Jump Advanced, Jul 2012 [331.0] ::
10. ↓-1 (9) : Sailor Moon 6 – Kodansha Comics, Jun 2012 [322.8] ::

[more]

Top Imprints
Number of volumes ranking in the Top 500:

Yen Press 90
Viz Shonen Jump 82
Viz Shojo Beat 58
Kodansha Comics 49
Viz Shonen Jump Advanced 39
DMP Juné 30
Dark Horse 21
Seven Seas 16
Vizkids 12
Vertical 11

[more]

Series/Property

1. ↔0 (1) : Sailor Moon – Kodansha Comics [1,106.6] ::
2. ↔0 (2) : Naruto – Viz Shonen Jump [821.0] ::
3. ↔0 (3) : Bleach – Viz Shonen Jump [689.3] ::
4. ↑1 (5) : Negima! – Del Rey/Kodansha Comics [584.5] ::
5. ↑1 (6) : Rosario+Vampire – Viz Shonen Jump Advanced [544.7] ::
6. ↓-2 (4) : Ouran High School Host Club – Viz Shojo Beat [538.3] ::
7. ↔0 (7) : Vampire Knight – Viz Shojo Beat [522.5] ::
8. ↑12 (20) : Alice in the Country of Clover – Seven Seas [488.2] ::
9. ↔0 (9) : Highschool of the Dead – Yen Press [468.5] ::
10. ↑1 (11) : One Piece – Viz Shonen Jump [468.0] ::

[more]

New Releases
(Titles releasing/released This Month & Last)

5. ↑2 (7) : Vampire Knight 14 – Viz Shojo Beat, Jul 2012 [373.5] ::
6. ↔0 (6) : Naruto 57 – Viz Shonen Jump, Jul 2012 [369.6] ::
7. ↑1 (8) : Negima! 35 – Kodansha Comics, Jul 2012 [351.9] ::
8. ↓-3 (5) : Ouran High School Host Club 18 – Viz Shojo Beat, Jun 2012 [333.9] ::
9. ↑1 (10) : Rosario+Vampire Season II 9 – Viz Shonen Jump Advanced, Jul 2012 [331.0] ::
10. ↓-1 (9) : Sailor Moon 6 – Kodansha Comics, Jun 2012 [322.8] ::
12. ↑3 (15) : Bleach 42 – Viz Shonen Jump, Jul 2012 [291.6] ::
14. ↑21 (35) : Alice in the Country of Clover Cheshire Cat Waltz 1 – Seven Seas, Jul 2012 [273.8] ::
16. ↑11 (27) : Dengeki Daisy 10 – Viz Shojo Beat, Jul 2012 [268.1] ::
17. ↑13 (30) : One Piece 63 – Viz Shonen Jump, Jul 2012 [265.3] ::

[more]

Preorders

19. ↓-2 (17) : Sailor Moon 9 – Kodansha Comics, Jan 2013 [260.3] ::
21. ↓-1 (20) : Sailor Moon 7 – Kodansha Comics, Sep 2012 [259.6] ::
22. ↓-3 (19) : Sailor Moon 8 – Kodansha Comics, Nov 2012 [257.0] ::
40. ↑9 (49) : Sailor Moon 10 – Kodansha Comics, Mar 2013 [194.4] ::
42. ↓-9 (33) : Avatar: The Last Airbender The Promise 3 – Dark Horse, Oct 2012 [188.0] ::
82. ↑11 (93) : Negima! 36 – Kodansha Comics, Oct 2012 [107.8] ::
85. ↓-2 (83) : Only the Ring Finger Knows (novel) 5 – DMP Juné, Sep 2012 [106.6] ::
96. ↓-1 (95) : Ai no Kusabi (novel) 7 – DMP Juné, Sep 2012 [99.6] ::
105. ↑1 (106) : Yotsuba&! 11 – Yen Press, Sep 2012 [95.1] ::
125. ↓-7 (118) : Toradora! 5 – Seven Seas, Aug 2012 [85.9] ::

[more]

Manhwa

387. ↑33 (420) : Bride of the Water God 11 – Dark Horse, May 2012 [29.3] ::
441. ↑5 (446) : Time & Again 6 – Yen Press, Jul 2011 [24.2] ::
477. ↑5 (482) : Bride of the Water God 10 – Dark Horse, Jan 2012 [21.7] ::
530. ↓-64 (466) : Time & Again 3 – Yen Press, Jul 2010 [18.8] ::
633. ↑54 (687) : Time & Again 5 – Yen Press, Mar 2011 [14.1] ::
677. ↑135 (812) : Time & Again 2 – Yen Press, Mar 2010 [12.0] ::
678. ↑138 (816) : Time & Again 1 – Yen Press, Dec 2009 [12.0] ::
746. ↑109 (855) : Totally Captivated 4 – Netcomics, Sep 2008 [9.3] ::
873. ↑261 (1134) : Let Dai 11 – Netcomics, Feb 2008 [6.2] ::
889. ↑1053 (1942) : Totally Captivated 3 – Netcomics, Jun 2008 [5.8] ::

[more]

BL/Yaoi

30. ↑2 (32) : Finder Series 6 Passion within the View Finder – DMP Juné, Jul 2012 [222.3] ::
65. ↑7 (72) : Samejima-Kun & Sasahara-Kun – DMP Juné, May 2012 [131.0] ::
75. ↑25 (100) : In These Words – 801 Media, Jun 2012 [117.0] ::
85. ↓-2 (83) : Only the Ring Finger Knows (novel) 5 – DMP Juné, Sep 2012 [106.6] ::
96. ↓-1 (95) : Ai no Kusabi (novel) 7 – DMP Juné, Sep 2012 [99.6] ::
145. ↓-7 (138) : Private Teacher 3 – DMP Juné, May 2012 [79.7] ::
164. ↓-18 (146) : The Tyrant Falls in Love 6 – DMP Juné, May 2012 [72.0] ::
173. ↑71 (244) : Same Difference – DMP Juné, Jun 2012 [67.9] ::
181. ↑97 (278) : Il Gatto Sul G 1 – DMP Juné, Apr 2006 [64.8] ::
234. ↑21 (255) : The Tyrant Falls in Love 5 – DMP Juné, Jan 2012 [51.8] ::

[more]

Ebooks

6. ↔0 (6) : Naruto 57 – Viz Shonen Jump, Jul 2012 [369.6] ::
15. ↓-1 (14) : Naruto 56 – Viz Shonen Jump, May 2012 [273.6] ::
33. ↓-8 (25) : Naruto 55 – Viz Shonen Jump, Mar 2012 [214.2] ::
35. ↓-6 (29) : Maximum Ride 5 – Yen Press, Dec 2011 [211.5] ::
48. ↓-5 (43) : Naruto 54 – Viz Shonen Jump, Mar 2012 [166.2] ::
57. ↓-10 (47) : Naruto 53 – Viz Shonen Jump, Dec 2011 [145.4] ::
59. ↓-3 (56) : Blue Exorcist 1 – Viz Shonen Jump Advanced, Apr 2011 [141.6] ::
69. ↓-1 (68) : Maximum Ride 3 – Yen Press, Aug 2010 [127.8] ::
97. ↓-8 (89) : Naruto 52 – Viz Shonen Jump, Jul 2011 [99.5] ::
101. ↑4 (105) : Maximum Ride 1 – Yen Press, Jan 2009 [97.6] ::

[more]

Happy Yaoi Day!

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It’s the busy season! I rounded up the manga news from Otakon (new Vertical series, Kodansha’s iPhone app and sale) at MTV Geek. Deb Aoki explains what’s going on at Shonen Jump Alpha—new additions to the lineup and the speedup of Blue Exorcist—as announced at San Diego Comic-Con, and Tony Yao takes a quick look at one new series, Takama-ga-Hara.

It’s 8/01—you know, Yaoi Day—and Khursten Santos explains how she has come to embrace, rather than shy away from, her fujoshi side. Khursten has also written a nice piece about her manga life.

The Manga Village team discusses their picks of the week.

I’m a bit late with this (sorry!) but Erica Friedman has this week’s yuri updates in the latest edition of Yuri Network News at Okazu.

Derek Bown’s latest Combat Commentary takes a look at the battles of One Piece.

Three Steps Over Japan takes a look inside Monthly Champion Red.

Matt Blind counts down the manga best-sellers for the week ending July 8.

News from Japan: Translator Tomo Kimura gives us a peek at the special silver spoons that come with different editions of vol. 4 of Silver Spoon. The Japan Times takes a look at the Kyoto Manga Museum. D.N. Angel creator Yurikiru Sugisaki and Dragon Head manga-ka Minetaro Mochizuki both have a new series in the works. Aloha Higa has announced that her Shirokuma Cafe is coming back after a hiatus announced in May. Infinite Stratos and its 4-koma spinoff are both coming to an end shortly. The final volume of Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei (vol. 30, for those who are keeping track) will include 15 extra pages that weren’t in the magazine serialization.

Reviews: Carlo Santos turns a critical eye on a fresh batch of new manga in his latest Right Turn Only!! column at ANN.

AstroNerdBoy on vol. 4 of A Certain Scientific Railgun (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Erica Friedman on the July issue of Comic Yuri Hime (Okazu)
Sara K. on The Fox Volant of Snow Mountain (Manga Bookshelf)
Erica Friedman on Hadashi no Chimera (Okazu)
Julie on vol. 1 of Polterguys (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 18 of Ranma 1/2 (Blogcritics)
Kristin on Sakuran (Comic Attack)

Jiu Jiu, Vol. 1

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By Touya Tobina. Released in Japan by Hakusensha, serialized in the magazines Hana to Yume and The Hana to Yume. Released in North America by Viz.

Those who follow my reviews know that I tend to be very fond of shoujo manga published by Hakusensha, despite the fact that most of my favorites were put out by companies which them folded. Astute readers may also recall my #1 complaint with said Hakusensha manga, which is that the artists need more editing than they are really given, and that much of their work, especially in early volumes, tends to be messy, unfocused, and uneven. Unfortunately, Jiu Jiu is a classic example of this sort of manga.

The author, Touya Tobina, has been seen here briefly before – her story Clean Freak: Fully Equipped had one of its two volumes put out by Tokyopop before they shuttered down. That story was more grounded in the real world. Jiu Jiu is a full blown fantasy, featuring a girl who aspires to be a demon hunter and her two wolf pets/bodyguards/whatevers, who can assume human form when they want to. It ran for two volumes in Hana to Yume, then for reasons unknown moved to the quarterly publication The Hana To Yume, where it recently ended last month with Volume 5. The premise involves a young woman who’s trying to block herself off from emotions in order to deal with her tragic past, and the two wolf boys, who want to be helpful and discover these new feelings of love within them, but are foiled by their playful natures.

I think I make that sound better than it actually it, unfortunately. Takamichi ends up being more of an emotional wreck than a stoic hunter. While this makes sense given she’s a teen who’s undergone a traumatic experience (which we still don’t get all the details about in this volume), it is a bit of a disappointment seeing her fall into the traits that I’ve associated with the basic ‘tsundere’ type. As for the two wolves/wolf boys, this falls more into the sort of shoujo romance tropes that were cliched 15 years ago. She constantly wakes up with them naked in her bed, they continue to act like wolves (well, OK, dogs really) even when in human form, etc.

The biggest problem, I think, is that this ends up being far more comedic than I’d assumed given its premise, and the comedy just isn’t all that funny. When it turns to serious matters, its quality improves significantly. Snow and Night, the two wolf boys, have a tough job, given their mistress is trying to shut out anyone close to her but they need to protect her (and make her understand why they want to). My favorite scene in the volume is where the three have to track down a werewolf (an evil one, let’s make that clear) who has been killing people during full moons. After reaffirming their devotion to their mistress, who seems to want them to remain innocent puppies, we cut back to the now defeated and transformed werewolf, who is a salaryman type. He begs for mercy, but Takamichi coldly informs him that her family are killers, and orders the man executed. It’s chilling stuff.

Unfortunately, there was more ‘wacky high school comedy with hot guys behaving like dogs’ and less ‘family of demon slayers’ here. Now, given that I am a big proponent of ‘never judge a series by its Volume 1’, I am hoping that things improve down the road. For the moment, Jiu Jiu is an excellent example of average Hakusensha shoujo – good plot, interesting ideas, but desperately needs an editor to take a firm hand.

Dawn of the Arcana, Vols. 3-5

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On the surface, Dawn of the Arcana looks like a Harlequin romance. Its flame-haired heroine is feisty and impetuous, torn between her feelings for the man who raised her and the man she was forced to marry. Both men are keen to “own” her — their word, not mine — and are willing to go to ridiculous extremes to prove their devotion, even setting aside their differences to honor her requests. And true to Harlequin form, the heroine frequently struggles to reconcile the circumstances of her marriage and her growing feelings for her jailer-husband.

Peer beneath its romance-novel trappings, however, and it quickly becomes clear that manga-ka Rei Toma is actually writing a pretty nifty fantasy-adventure as well, one with interesting moral dilemmas, parallels with contemporary geopolitics, and multi-layered characters whose behavior frequently deviates from the Harlequin playbook.

In volume three, for example, Nakaba’s mother-in-law attempts to dye her hair black, lest visiting dignitaries realize that the new Belquat princess hails from Senan. Toma might have used this scene to provide Caesar an opportunity to publicly declare his feelings for Nakaba, or demonstrate Nakaba’s ability to endure hazing with noble forbearance. Instead, Toma transforms this act of fairy-tale cruelty into a moment of self-actualization: Nakaba seizes a sword and defiantly gives herself a fabulous pixie cut — er, short, boyish locks — denying the queen the satisfaction of humiliating her in front of the royal family.

That act resonates throughout the next three volumes, as Nakaba sheds her girlish braid and girlish indignation in favor of a stronger, more active role in defeating Belquat’s royal family. Though Nakaba’s new ‘do leads to some predictable exchanges about “looking like a boy,” both Loki and Caesar admire her determination: red hair symbolizes more than just her country of origin, but also the struggles that helped define her as a person.

As appealing as such scenes may be, they highlight the series’ main drawback: the artwork is too plain and spare for a story with such vivid characters. Though the principal characters’ costumes are rendered in considerable detail, the supporting cast resemble Renfair extras, with faintly old-timey clothing and long tresses. Worse still are the backgrounds: with their perfect right angles and unvaried lines, they look like stills from an ancient Nintendo game, rather than a representation of a specific time and place. That sterility isn’t a deal-breaker, but it does reinforce the impression that Toma hasn’t quite developed the artistic chops to fully realize her vision.

Despite its artistic shortcomings, Dawn of the Arcana remains an appealing mixture of fantasy and romance, offering just enough sword fights, scenes of female empowerment, and emotional entanglements to appeal to fans of both genres.

Review copies provided by VIZ Media, LLC.

DAWN OF THE ARCANA, VOLS. 3-5 | BY REI TOMA | VIZ MEDIA | RATING: TEEN (13+)