Features

My Week in Manga: April 6-April 12, 2015

April 13, 2015 by Ash Brown

My News and Reviews

I posted two reviews last week at Experiments in Manga that featured some of Kodansha Comics’ newest series: Masayuki Ishikawa’s Maria the Virgin Witch, Volume 1, released back in February, and Naoshi Arakawa’s Your Lie in April, Volume 1, which will be released later this month. The main reason I picked up Maria the Virgin Witch was because Ishikawa was the creator of Moyasimon. I really wasn’t expecting to like it as much as I did, but now I’m very interested in reading the rest of the series. Your Lie in April caught my attention because it’s a music manga. It has the potential to become rather melodramatic, but I did enjoy the first volume and plan on reading more.

Last week also saw the release of Gamon Sakurai’s Ajin: Demi-Human, Volume 4 from Vertical. I’m actually quoted on the back cover, a blurb taken from my review of the first volume. This is all very exciting, although my legacy will now probably be that of an ignorant reviewer who spouts nonsense about production values and the quality of paper. Although I thought it looked nice, it turns out Ajin is actually printed on one of the cheaper, thinner stocks used by Vertical. Anyway. Lesson learned! I also discovered that a much more flattering quote of mine from a quick take last year was used for the final volume of Tetsuya Tsutsui’s Prophecy, except that it was credited to Manga Bookshelf. So it goes!

Elsewhere online, Lori of Manga Xanadu has recently been putting together some interesting lists of manga. A few weeks ago she featured sewing and fashion manga and last week focused on manga which include books with great power. Organization of Anti-Social Geniuses posted the transcription of the panel with Abigail Blackman on manga editing, lettering, and Japanese nuance. from the Castle Point Anime Con. Geeks OUT! has an exclusive interview with Jiraiya (one of the creators featured in the Massive gay manga anthology) from his recent North American tour. And Zero Comprehension has a brief guide to the official releases of the Golgo 13 manga in English.

In licensing-ish news, Digital Manga has launched another Tezuka Kickstarter for Clockwork Apple and is making plans for its next yaoi Kickstarter. Unrelated, there’s also a Kickstarter project for an original-English boys’ love anthology that looks quite good—Boy, I Love You. Viz Media has licensed the Yo-Kai Watch manga series for its Perfect Square imprint. I don’t often mention anime licenses, but I was very excited to learn that Discotek Media will be releasing Library Wars and Dororo. Finally, Sparkler Monthly has added the reboot of Jennifer Doyle’s excellent webcomic Knights-Errant. (Also, the most recent Sparkler Podcast talks about josei manga and the differences between the Japanese manga industry and the North American comics industry, among other topics.)

Quick Takes

Genshiken: Second Season, Volumes 4-6 by Shimoku Kio. For some reason, I don’t find the second season of Genshiken to be as engaging as the original manga series. I haven’t quite been able to identify why yet, though I suspect it may be because most of the newer characters haven’t seen much development in the recent volumes and the characters from the first “season” feel like they’re invading the new series. I think Genshiken works best for me with an ensemble cast. While there are still plenty of characters in the manga as well as regular plot tangents, lately the story has primarily focused on just a few. Admittedly, the two characters who are getting the most attention, namely Madarame and Hato, happen to be my favorites in the series. Hato in particular is marvelous. He’s going through some significant personal turmoil over his cross-dressing and love of boys’ love, which has a tremendous impact on the rest of the story and characters. And apparently just about everyone is in love with Madarame. But as interesting as the increasingly convoluted relationships in the series are, at this point what I really want is to know more about the other club members.

Last Man, Volume 1: The Stranger by Bastien Vivès, Michael Sanlaville, and Balak. Despite France being one of the world powerhouses of comics creation, relatively few French comics have been translated into English, especially when compared to the number of manga available. Last Man, which is in part inspired and heavily influenced by shōnen battle manga, has been very well received in France. And now, thanks to First Second, it’s available in English. (I believe Last Man may actually the first comic in translation that has been released by First Second.) Adrian is a young boy who has been training hard for his first fighting tournament, but when his teammate gets sick, it looks like he won’t be able to compete. Enter Richard, the titular stranger and a physically imposing man, who also needs a partner in order to compete. They make a peculiar pair: Adrian hasn’t quite mastered the magic and special techniques of his martial style, and Richard relies completely on his fists and strength. He also doesn’t appear to actually know the rules of the tournament, which poses a bit of a problem. So far, Last Man is delightfully engaging; I’m really looking forward to reading more of the series.

Missing Road by Shushushu Sakurai. Before quietly disappearing, DramaQueen released two final manga by Sakurai, Junk! and Missing Road. What particularly caught my attention about these two manga was the fact that they were science fiction—a genre that I’ve rarely seen in translated boys’ love manga. Missing Road specifically was described as “an epic sci-fi adventure of love, loss, and redemption.” Sadly, although some of Sakurai’s ideas certainly had great potential and I did like the setting, Missing Road doesn’t quite live up to that promise. The manga would have been more successful from a narrative standpoint if Sakurai could have expanded the story over the course of multiple volumes. As it is, she tries to cover too much ground in a single installment and many of the manga’s elements feel underdeveloped or truncated as a result. There are important close and intimate relationships, but Missing Road isn’t really a love story and is instead more about brutal war and revenge. Most of the sex is of a violent nature and rape occurs on several different occasions. The English-language edition was actually censored (with permission from Sakurai) for fear of United States child pornography laws.

Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, Omnibus 3 by CLAMP. With this omnibus, I have entered into territory that I previously didn’t have the opportunity to read before Tsubasa originally went out-of-print in English. At this point, I’m still enjoying the series. It’s not always the most emotionally compelling manga (although admittedly it can sometimes be heart-wrenching), but Tsubasa is definitely a solid adventure tale. The manga’s premise allows CLAMP to very creative and develop world after world, each one different from the ones preceding and following it and each with its own challenges and dangers to be faced. Nods to other CLAMP manga and characters are still prevalent, and I assume this will likely be true for the entire series. This particular omnibus prominently features RG Veda, which I haven’t actually read, so I probably don’t appreciate the references as much as someone who has. It looks like the alternate version of Seishirō from Tokyo Babylon and X will be an important antagonist in Tsubasa as well. The series Tsubasa most directly crosses over with is xxxHolic. This connection actually works very well for Tsubasa, but I find it somewhat distracting when reading xxxHolic.

Manga the Week of 4/15

April 9, 2015 by Sean Gaffney, Ash Brown, Anna N, Michelle Smith and MJ Leave a Comment

SEAN: Welcome to a wonderful week of manga here on Manga the Week of. For those of you who don’t like variety, there’s variety!

Dark Horse has the first volume of Oreimo spinoff Kuroneko, for those remaining fans who weren’t completely put off by the ending of the main series.

Does anyone remember Aquarion? Anyone? Anime, around 2005? Well, for those who yearned for a sequel in manga form, One Peace is giving us Aquarion Evol. It’s a Comic Gene title, so expect weirdness.

ASH: I like weirdness!

ANNA: I think I watched the first episode of the show and thought that there were too many orgasms when the robots combined.

SEAN: 12 Beast is a new Seven Seas series. It runs in Dragon Age. It’s from the creator of Monster Musume. It sounds radioactive to me, but I know others love this.

Gakuen Polizi is more up my alley, though I wish it was a bit less inconsequential. The 2nd and final volume is next week.

And if you don’t like ecchi fantasy or fluffy lesbians, well, there’s a third Magical Girl Apocalypse, which should at least give you gore.

The title The World’s Greatest First Love may not mean much to BL fans, but if I said it was Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi, I’m sure you’d know exactly the series I mean. SubLime has the long-awaited first volume.

MICHELLE: Ah, now this is one I’ve actually heard of!

ASH: As have I!

MJ: Count me in!

SEAN: I loved My Neighbor Seki even more than I thought I would, and am delighted to see a 2nd volume next week from Vertical.

MICHELLE: I regret to say I haven’t gotten around to reading the first volume, but I definitely will one of these days!

ASH: You definitely should, My Neighbor Seki is absolutely delightful.

ANNA: This is on my list of things I need to read!

MJ: Mine, too!

SEAN: Case Closed still has more mysteries, and Shinich… sorry, Jimmy is still a little kid, even as we hit the 54th volume.

We’ve passed the halfway point in Deadman Wonderland, and Vol. 8 comes out from Viz next week.

And Itsuwaribito, a series that has a much longer run than I really expected, has Vol. 14.

Lastly, a new volume of Magi is always welcome. Next week we have Vol. 11.

MICHELLE: <3

ANNA: I have been stockpiling stray volumes of this here and there. One day I shall read them!

SEAN: And for those of you who don’t like manga… well, why are you reading this?

My Week in Manga: March 30-April 5, 2015

April 6, 2015 by Ash Brown

My News and Reviews

An interesting variety of things was posted last week at Experiments in Manga. First of all, I had the privilege and opportunity to announce one of Sparkler Monthly‘s most recent additions, Kôsen’s Lêttera, a three-volume comic that was originally published in Spain. The winner of the Yukarism giveaway was announced last week as well. The post also includes a list of manga that feature reincarnation. As for reviews, I took a look at Akira Arai’s debut novel A Caring Man which shared the inaugural Golden Elephant Award grand prize with Fumi Nakamura’s Enma the Immortal. Whereas Enma the Immortal is historical fiction with fantastical elements, A Caring Man is a contemporary crime thriller that by and large is very believable. Finally, over the weekend I posted March’s Bookshelf Overload, which features a slightly less absurd amount of manga than most months.

Elsewhere online, Organization Anti-Social Geniuses has been posting some great manga-related content, including recording of a panel with manga editor and letterer Abigail Blackman from the Castle Point Anime Convention and a quick interview with editor Brendan Wright about Dark Horse’s upcoming release of Makoto Yukimura’s Planetes. (I’m very excited for this license rescue! I already own Tokyopop’s edition of the series, but Dark Horse’s sounds like it will be great, so I’ll most likely be double-dipping.) And speaking of Dark Horse, the final volume of Hiroaki Samura’s Blade of the Immortal was released last week. Robot 6 has an interview with Philip Simon reflecting on the manga’s end. Chic Pixel has a guide on how to import manga cheaply from Amazon Japan. Throughout March, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund posted a series of articles, Women Who Changed Free Expression, the last of which focused on the influential 24 Nengumi, or the Year 24 Group, as the female progenitors of shoujo manga.

Anime Boston took place over the weekend. Both Yen Press and Kodansha Comics had some pretty exciting announcements to make. Yen Press has licensed thirteen new manga, some of which will be digital-only releases. The two print releases that particularly caught my attention were the omnibus edition of Yowamushi Pedal, particularly surprising since it’s a sports manga that’s nearly forty volumes lone and still ongoing in Japan, and the yonkoma Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun which, if it’s anywhere near as good as the anime adaptation, should be fantastic. As for Kodansha’s announcements, Attack on Titan, Volume 16 will have a special edition. New licenses include Ninja Slayer Kills, two video game-related manga—Persona Q and Devil Survivor—and Junji Ito’s Cat Diary, which is the one I’m personally most excited for. Also revealed was the status of Vinland Saga, which had temporarily been suspended. Basically, only two more volumes are guaranteed to be released unless sales for the series improve. Vinland Saga is magnificent; if you haven’t already given it a try, this would be the time to do it!

Quick Takes

Barakamon, Volumes 2-3 by Satsuki Yoshino. While I largely enjoyed the first volume of Barakamon, I wasn’t particularly blown away by it. Still, I was interested in reading more of the series. I’m glad that I did, because it’s really starting to grow on me. Barakamon does have a little bit of a story to it—the once successful and respected calligrapher Seishuu has moved to a remote island to regain his composure and maybe find some inspiration—but mostly the series is about its characters and their interactions with one another. Even though he’s still a city-boy at heart, Seishuu has started to settle in on the island and isn’t nearly as out-of-place as he once was. The humor seems to now be a little less about the differences between country folk and people from more urban areas (although there still is plenty of that, especially when a couple of Seishuu’s friends and admirers from Tokyo show up) and more about the characters’ individuality and quirkiness. I am glad to see Seishuu relax somewhat and lose a bit of his arrogance from the first volume. In general he’s becoming a much more likeable character, which is probably part of the point of the series.

Cage of Eden, Volume 17 by Yoshinobu Yamada. Finally! The monsters have returned! Well, technically it’s only one monster (not counting the absolutely terrible people), but it’s a pretty big deal. The dinosaurs and creatures are some of the only things I actually like about Cage of Eden; they’ve been largely missing from the last few volumes, so I was glad to see them back in such a dramatic way. Most of the seventeenth volume is devoted to an intense, and most likely deadly, battle against a man-made, genetic monstrosity. Probably best described as a chimera, the creature is formidable and extremely dangerous. The students make some extraordinarily bad decisions when it comes to confronting the beast, which really makes me wonder how they’ve managed to survive for so long. (Granted, the body count in Cage of Eden is pretty high.) The fight hasn’t concluded by the end of the volume, though I suspect it won’t last too much longer. One of the good things about Cage of Eden suddenly focusing on action is there is less opportunity for the more obnoxious fanservice to interrupt the story. Some of the girls even get to put up a decent fight. (At least at first.)

Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer, Omnibus 2 (equivalent to Volumes 3-4) by Satoshi Mizukami. I wasn’t really sure what to expect from Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer and reading the first omnibus didn’t help much with that, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Sadly, I wasn’t nearly as taken with the second omnibus. I still enjoyed it, and I still plan on reading more of the series, but Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer seems to have lost a little of its spark for me. Maybe I’ve just gotten used to its strangeness, but at the same time that’s also what I enjoy most about the series. Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer is just so marvelously weird. At times the manga can be surprisingly dark, too, which I also appreciate. In the second omnibus, a slew of new characters are introduced as the identities of the rest of the Beast Knights are uncovered, although some of them are discovered to already be dead. All of them are rather eccentric with pasts that have some significant pain or sadness to them. The mage who plans on destroying the planet makes several appearances as well, and to some extent his motivations are explained, too. Much like the rest of the series, he’s not quite what one might expect.

Virtuoso di Amore by Uki Ogasawara. I was primarily drawn to Virtuoso di Amore for two reasons, the role that music plays in the boys’ love manga and the fact that it was created by Ogasawara. I enjoyed parts of her short and very smutty series Black Sun, currently the only other manga of hers available in English. (Techincally, Chronicle of the Divine Sword was at one point licensed, but I don’t think it was ever actually published.) Virtuoso di Amore follows Kenzo Shinozuka, a failed classical pianist (mostly due to his volatile temper), who has been hired by an aristocrat to live in his manor and play for him every night. His patron is Lorenzo Carlucci who, it turns out, used to attend the same music school as Kenzo. Lorenzo is determined to help Kenzo remake is name as a musician. I really liked the basic premise of Virtuoso di Amore as well as its dark ambiance and fervent drama, but Ogasawara’s storytelling is unfortunately disjointed and occasionally difficult to follow. For example, Lorenzo and Kenzo fall in love, or at least in lust, very suddenly, which makes me think their relationship at school must have been much more involved than is implied elsewhere in the manga.

Manga the Week of 4/8

April 2, 2015 by Sean Gaffney, Ash Brown, Anna N, Michelle Smith and MJ Leave a Comment

SEAN: ‘Tis Spring, and a young man or woman’s thoughts naturally turn to manga. What pleasures await us next week?

Unlike Strike Witches (look, panties!), Arpeggio of Blue Steel is an honest to goodness spy thriller that just happens to feature girls who are battleships. This is likely why I’m looking forward to the fourth volume from Seven Seas.

And for those who prefer their manga with a bit more yuri, there’s the 2nd volume of school drama Citrus.

Vertical gives us a new volume of Ajin: Demi-Human.

ASH: If you don’t mind dark and violent, Ajin is shaping up to be a great series.

SEAN: The rest is Viz. We get a 3rd Assassination Classroom, one of my favorite new Jump licenses.

ANNA: I haven’t read the second volume yet, but I’m looking forward to catching up. This series is fun and quirky.

SEAN: And one of my absolute favorite Shojo Beat series comes to an end with the final volume of Dengeki Daisy. Will Kurosaki finally go bald? The most important question yet to be answered!

MICHELLE: There’s so much VIZ I am gonna be reading from this week, man. Definitely all the shoujo!

ASH: Wow, Viz really is releasing a bunch of great stuff next week! I’m due for a Dengeki Daisy marathon read.

ANNA: The main story wraps up pretty quickly, but there are a ton of side stories in this volume which I always like.

SEAN: Meanwhile, in Food Wars! 5, all our hero has to worry about is having his life ruined forever by not serving enough breakfasts.

MICHELLE: I fell a couple volumes behind on this one, and am looking forward to a Food Wars! binge.

SEAN: And there’s not only war among chefs, there’s also Library Wars, though I think its 13th volume may be a bit less serious than previous ones.

Meteor Prince also comes to an end, though with only two volumes it’s had less of a chance to addict us than Dengeki Daisy has.

ANNA: The first volume was adorable!

SEAN: If you aren’t picking up the 4th volume of My Love Story!! next week, there’s something terribly wrong with you. (Apologies to TMBG.)

MICHELLE: There certainly is.

ASH: Such an incredibly delightful series!

MJ: Agreed!

ANNA: Double Agreed!

SEAN: One Piece 74 promises to give us more action, intrigue, silliness, drama, and possibly fresh fruit as well.

Skip Beat! 34 once again asks the question “will this be the volume where the plot progresses?”.

MICHELLE: I don’t even mind if it isn’t.

ANNA: I don’t care either!

SEAN: Toriko hits Vol. 27, will it kill off its hero in a pitched battle? Unlikely.

Voice Over! is almost, but not quite, over as it hits double digits.

MICHELLE: I continue to be surprised I enjoy Voice Over! as much as I do, but I’m really fond of it. Maybe I like best the series with exclamation points.

SEAN: World Trigger 5 is a new volume of World Trigger.

Finally, there’s a 2nd Yukarism, a series that interested me more than I expected last time. Will Volume 2 keep it up?

MJ: I’m actually really interested in this. I think I liked this more than most critics, and I’m pretty happy to see more of it.

ANNA: The second volume delves more into the past live of the main character, and deals with some of the ramifications of reincarnation in the present. I’m enjoying it too.

SEAN: Manga over flowers? What’s your choice?

Random Musings: Kôsen’s Lêttera at Sparkler Monthly

March 30, 2015 by Ash Brown

Studio Kôsen, also known simply as Kôsen, is a creative team made up of two Spanish artists: Aurora García Tejado and Diana Fernández Dévora. In Spain, they have been working together creating comics and drawing illustrations since 1998. Beginning in 2004, they started releasing translations of their work in English in the United States, but their comics have been released in other countries as well, including Germany, Poland, Italy, and Argentina.

I was first introduced to Kôsen through their comic Saihôshi: The Guardian, the English-translation of which was initially released by Yaoi Press in 2006. An amusing fantasy with magic and exciting sword fights to go along with its dramatic romance, Saihôshi is representative of what I’ve come to expect from and love most about Kôsen’s work: beautifully drawn, highly entertaining, sexy tales of adventure with a strong sense of humor.

One of Kôsen’s most recent efforts is the ongoing, original English-language comic Windrose, currently being serialized in the online multi-media magazine Sparkler Monthly. It’s a delightful series about a young Spanish lady named Danielle in the 17th century who, when her father goes missing, sets out to find him. In the process she becomes involved with a pair of travelers, Angeline and Leon, who have their own reasons for wanting to help Danielle.

And now there will be even more of Kôsen’s work at Sparkler Monthly! I am pleased to have the privilege to announce that the site will also be hosting Kôsen’s Lêttera, the comic that the duo was working on immediately before Windrose. The three-volume series was released in Spain between 2010 and 2014, but this will be the first time that Lêttera will be made available in its entirety in English.

Garnet Rune is a young, impetuous sorcerer whose tendency to abuse her magic for her own amusement and gain has gotten her into a bit of trouble—she’s been cursed so that every time she casts a spell, a poisoned mark appears on her body, slowly killing her. This forces Garnet to become more mindful of her actions, but it hasn’t really improved her attitude much. Though things don’t always go according to plan, she’s determined to lift the curse by any means necessary.

Lêttera debuts on Sparkler Monthly today with the release of the complete first chapter. The comic will continue to update on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays—six pages a week—until the entire series has been released. Lêttera will be free to read online, but in the near future the ebook edition will be available for purchase. And, if we’re lucky, there may one day be a print edition of Lêttera in English as well.

Personally, I’m very excited to see more of Kôsen’s work translated, and I’m very happy to see Sparkler Monthly involved in making that happen. I was already a huge fan of Sparkler Monthly, but I’m thrilled with the magazine’s recent expansions to include even more comics. With magic, adventure, and a healthy dose of comedy, Lêttera should be a tremendous amount of fun and a great addition to the Sparkler Monthly lineup.

My Week in Manga: March 23-March 29, 2015

March 30, 2015 by Ash Brown

My News and Reviews

Well, it wasn’t really intentional, but last week at Experiments in Manga was apparently Viz Media week. Both of the in-depth manga reviews posted as well as the most recent manga giveaway feature Viz Media titles. The winner of this month’s giveaway will be announced on Wednesday, so there is still time to enter for a chance to receive Chika Shiomi’s Yukarism, Volume 1. The first review posted last week was of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Part 1: Phantom Blood, Volume 1, the very beginning of Hirohiko Araki’s long-running, outlandish, supernatural epic. It can be pretty brutal and the manga certainly won’t be to everyone’s taste, but I’m very happy to finally see it being released in English. Over the weekend I posted my review of Aya Kanno’s Requiem of the Rose King, Volume 1, a moody historical fantasy inspired by William Shakespeare’s Henry VI and Richard III. The debut of this series was one of the manga I was most looking forward to this year. I’m very happy to say that I loved it.

And speaking of Aya Kanno, it was recently announced that she will be one of the featured guests at this year’s Toronto Comic Arts Festival! (TCAF is currently the only large comics event that I attend.) Gengoroh Tagame, who was a featured guest in 2013, will be returning to TCAF this year as well. Ken Niimura (whose collection of short manga Henshin I thoroughly enjoyed and reviewed back in February) will also be an exhibitor. And since I mentioned Niimura, I would also like to point out Organization Anti-Social Geniuses’ interview with him from last week. Completely unrelated to TCAF, Seven Seas made a new license announcement—the first volume of Arata Yamaji’s manga series A Certain Scientific Accelerator is currently scheduled for release in October.

Quick Takes

The Man of Tango by Tetuzoh Okadaya. Originally licensed but never actually published by Aurora’s Deux Press, I was very happy when Sublime Manga picked up Okadaya’s boys’ love manga The Man of Tango. The English-language edition of The Man of Tango includes the story’s debut one-shot as well as previously unpublished material, making it the most complete version of the manga currently available. Though technically a boys’ love manga, with its burly character designs and emphasis on physicality, the tone of The Man of Tango is fairly masculine and the volume feels more like a gay manga. (Interestingly enough, Okadaya apparently didn’t even know what BL was before being invited to create the story.) As can be safely assumed from the title alone, tango plays a very prominent role in The Man of Tango. Dance is portrayed as a means of passionate expression and communication. Angie is a skilled dancer who teaches Argentine tango in Japan. Although he has been in many relationships, it isn’t until he meets Hiro, who exhibits a natural talent for tango, that he has completely fallen for someone.

Say I Love You, Volumes 5-6 by Kanae Hazuki. I become more and more impressed with Say I Love You the more I read of the series. Hazuki has captured the turmoil and insecurities of adolescence incredibly well. Sometimes the characters do seem a little wise or mature for their age, but generally the series remains well within the realm of believability. At the very least, the constantly shifting and messy interpersonal relationships of the series feel very realistic. Say I Love You excels at character growth and development. The recent introduction of new characters have complicated matters greatly for Mei and Yamato. Kai has started to develop feelings for Mei and he tends to be honest to a fault, which results in a significant amount of drama and strife as Yamato struggles with how to deal with his jealously. Another source of discord is Megumi. Her advances were rejected by Yamato and so she is doing everything that she can to disrupt Mei’s friendships and make her miserable. Mei, who is still learning to have confidence in herself and in her relationships with other people, is particularly susceptible to this sort of attack.

xxxHolic, Omnibuses 3-4 (equivalent to Volumes 7-12) by CLAMP. I only read the first few volumes of xxxHolic when it was initially being published in English by Del Rey Manga, so the material included in these omnibuses is completely new to me. While Watanuki still tends to be extreme in his reactions—quickly moving between utter joy and absolute despair—for the most part the tone of xxxHolic has started to even out and the balance between the series’ humor and the horror is better. There continue to be comedic elements, but the manga’s more serious nature has come to the forefront. Though frequently it’s deliberately cryptic, at times the manga can actually be fairly thought-provoking. xxxHolic has turned out to be far less episodic than I thought it was going to be. Some of the chapters don’t have a dramatic or direct impact on the story, but an overarching plot has developed. The series also ties in with Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, but the connection between the two manga occasionally seems a little forced. I find that I enjoy xxxHolic more when it’s completely free to be its own work.

Manga the Week of 4/1

March 26, 2015 by Sean Gaffney, Michelle Smith, Ash Brown, Anna N and MJ 2 Comments

SEAN: No, this isn’t an April Fool, there’s actually quite a lot of manga out this week (not technically a ‘first week of the month’ as it’s the 1st – if that makes sense).

Another era passes, as Dark Horse puts out the final volume of Blade of the Immortal, about which I’m sure Ash can enthuse about much more than I can.

MICHELLE: Wow, how many long-running things have they finished recently? At least two, in my memory.

ASH: It’s finally here!! Nearly two decades after the first volume was released in English. I am indeed enthused.

SEAN: Dark Horse also has the 8th omnibus of Lone Wolf & Cub.

Kodansha has the 4th volume of Attack on Titan prequel Before The Fall, whose blurb makes it sound as if we’re in for more horrible things happening to good people, in the best prequel tradition.

And Fairy Tail 47 means I am now 10 volumes behind. Ah well.

The debut of the week is one I’m quite looking forward to: Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches. I had, years ago, done a license request for the author’s prior Shonen Magazine title, Yankee-kun to Megane-chan. I never got that, but this has much of the same characteristics that made it a fan favorite. Delinquents, body swaps, humor… what’s not to like? Crunchyroll also has a digital version, if you want to binge-read.

MICHELLE: Hmm.

ASH: I’ve heard really good things about this series. (Also, are witches the new vampire?)

ANNA: I think mermaids and fairies are the new vampire!

SEAN: Udon is putting out another manga version of classic literature, with The Scarlet Letter.

Vertical’s Prophecy wraps up with its 3rd volume. Have the guys with paper bag masks considered crossing over with the animal mask folks from Doubt/Judge/etc?

What Did You Eat Yesterday? has a 7th volume, with more food and cooking, and perhaps also some plot as a side dish.

MICHELLE: Yay!

ASH: Double yay!

MJ: Triple YAY!!!

ANNA: Quadruple YAY!!!

SEAN: Lastly, we have a 6th volume of Wolfsmund, which never fails to put a smile on the face and a song in the heart. I believe Vertical is seeing if they can sell the rights as a musical.

ASH: That would certainly be something.

SEAN: Are you buying manga on the 1st of April, or just avoiding the Internet as sensible people do?

Manga Giveaway: Yukarism Giveaway

March 25, 2015 by Ash Brown

While February seemed to last forever, March felt like it sped by pretty quickly—it’s already time for the next manga giveaway at Experiments in Manga! (Part of the reason it seems to have arrived so soon is that this is one of the earliest days possible for a giveaway to start in any given month.) February’s giveaway focused on immortals, characters whose bodies don’t die, which got me to thinking about a slightly different version of immortality, reincarnation. And so for this month’s giveaway, you’ll all have a chance to win Chika Shiomi’s Yukarism, Volume 1, published in English by Viz Media. As always, the giveaway is open worldwide!

Whether or not you believe in reincarnation, it makes for some very interesting storytelling. In a way, it’s a sort of immortality—a person’s soul or very self is born and reborn over and over again. Generally, that person does not initially realize they are a reincarnation, but as they become aware of their past lives and memories their current lives and relationships are significantly impacted. Saki Hiwatari’s Please Save My Earth, Kaori Yuki’s Angel Sanctuary, and Chika Shiomi’s Yukarism are a few of the manga series exploring some of the implications of reincarnation that immediately come to my mind. (Interestingly enough, they all happen to be shoujo manga, too!)

So, you may be wondering, how can you win a copy of Yukarism, Volume 1?

1) In the comments below, tell me a little about your favorite manga dealing with reincarnation. (If you haven’t read a reincarnation story, simply mention that.)
2) If you’re on Twitter, you can earn a bonus entry by tweeting, or retweeting, about the contest. Make sure to include a link to this post and @PhoenixTerran (that’s me).

And there you go! With one week to submit comments, each person participating in the giveaway can earn up to two entries. If needed or preferred, comments can also be emailed directly to phoenixterran(at)gmail(dot)com and I will then post them here in your name. The winner of the giveaway will be randomly selected and announced on April 1, 2015.

VERY IMPORTANT: Include some way that I can contact you. This can be an e-mail address in the comment form, a link to your website, Twitter username, or whatever. If I can’t figure out how to get a hold of you and you win, I’ll just draw another name.

Contest winner announced–Manga Giveaway: Yukarism Giveaway Winner

My Week in Manga: March 16-March 22, 2015

March 23, 2015 by Ash Brown

My News and Reviews

Two more reviews were posted at Experiments in Manga last week. Only one was of a manga, but the other book does include illustrations! I’m a little behind in reviewing the series, but I finally wrote up my impressions of Fumi Yoshinaga’s What Did You Eat Yesterday?, Volume 6. (Just in time for the seventh volume to be released later this week!) There’s some really nice character development for Shiro and, as always, delicious-looking food. The second review posted last week was for Haikasoru’s anthology of short fiction Phantasm Japan: Fantasies Light and Dark from and about Japan which collects twenty-one horror-tinged stories. It has a great range of contributions and authors and is an excellent followup to the The Future Is Japanese anthology.

I’ve been busy at work and the taiko performance season is ramping up, so I’ve not had much time to pay attention to the manga news over the last week or so. (Let me know if I missed something good!) However, I did see that Manga Brog posted a translation of interviews of Inio Asano and Daisuke Igarashi from the magazine Manga Erotics F in 2012. And speaking of Asano, Vertical Comics apparently made a license announcement a couple of weekends ago—an omnibus edition of Asano’s A Girl on the Shore. Asano’s Nijigahara Holograph left a huge impression on me last year, so I’m really looking forward to reading more of his work in English.

Quick Takes

Attack on Titan, Volume 14 by Hajime Isayama. The cover of the fourteenth volume of Attack on Titan has a Western flair to it (“Western” as in the genre) and, surprisingly enough, so do the contents. I found the introduction of the trappings of the American Old West to be a little bizarre in a setting that has largely been European-influenced, but it is what it is. I never expected there to be a guns-blazing saloon shootout in Attack on Titan, but it is an admittedly exciting scene even if it does feel a little out-of-place. Also somewhat surprising, not a single Titan makes an appearance in the volume except for flashbacks. The series’ focus has shifted from the fight against the Titans to the conflict inside of the walls as humans are pitted against each other. The Survey Corps is in the process of trying to reveal some major conspiracies to the general public, schemes that the Military Police and government would rather not come to light, so things get pretty violent. All in all, even considering the odd Western elements, it’s an excellent volume of Attack on Titan with some great action sequences, character development, and plot progression.

Fairy Tail, Volumes 44-46 by Hiro Mashima. The Tartaros arc of Fairy Tail continues with these three volumes of the series. Fairy Tail is facing off with a guild of demons which is attempting to eliminate all magic except for its own curses. For the most part, it’s battle after battle without too much story development. Major sacrifices are made by Fairy Tail (sadly, some of them lose their significance and impact when Mashima doesn’t completely follow through with them), and a new antagonist is introduced, the extremely powerful King of the Underworld, Mard Geer. Reading Mashima’s afterwords at the end of each volume, it seems as though he has tried to carefully plan out the important events and battles of Fairy Tail. Even so, it feels as though the series meanders getting from one major plot point to the next, almost as if Mashima is making the story up as he goes instead of having a definite endpoint in mind. However, the fights can be exciting and the characters continue to evolve, or at least power up. I was pleased to see the forty-sixth volume turn the manga’s focus back onto Gray, though, bringing his most recent story arc to a satisfying conclusion.

Sankarea: Undying Love, Volume 10 by Mitsuru Hattori. There have been parts of Sankarea that I’ve really enjoyed, and parts of the series that I really have not, but overall the tenth volume frustrates me more than anything else. Mostly it’s because of the narrative structure and the fact that several important backstories are crammed into the volume. I almost wonder if Hattori realized that he was running out of time to bring the series to a proper conclusion. (There is only one more volume after this one.) It is good to finally find out more about Chihiro’s grandfather and all of his research into bringing the living back to life. And there are some great horror elements to that particular story, as well. I just really wish the revelation hadn’t taken the form of a huge infodump given by a conveniently revived zombie. However, I did like the different art styles that Hattori used to distinguish Chihiro’s memories of his mother and the story about Chihiro’s grandfather from the rest of the manga. And I am curious to see how Sankarea will end. It’s been a strange if somewhat uneven series about zombies and love, part horror manga and part romantic comedy.

Manga the Week of 3/25

March 19, 2015 by Sean Gaffney, Ash Brown, MJ, Michelle Smith and Anna N 4 Comments

SEAN: Oh dear.

First off, it may not be in stores yet, but Kickstarter backers have gotten their two volumes of Tezuka’s Captain Ken from DMP. One of his early 60s shonen series (though, as with most of his series for kids, there are darker undertones), it’s complete in 2 volumes.

Kodansha stuff next. Air Gear 33. Roller blading! Pretty girls! Um…

Genshiken 2nd Season has its 6th volume out. The old cast has been slowly infiltrating the new series, even after graduation. Will this continue to be the Madarame Harem Show?

ASH: I’m a bit behind in this series, but I’ve enjoyed what I’ve read so far.

SEAN: Sankarea comes to an end with its 11th volume. Will all end well, like a good romantic comedy? Or will everything go horribly wrong, like a good horror manga?

And Ken Akamatsu gives us a 4th volume of Negima sorta-sequel UQ Holder.

Ponent Mon has the 5th and final volume of Summit of the Gods, for those who enjoy manly seinen mountain climbing manga. As everyone should.

ASH: I am absolutely thrilled to have this entire series in English.

MJ: This, yes, this!

SEAN: Alice in the Country of Joker’s Nightmare Trilogy comes to an end with, appropriately, Vol. 3. Will Alice and Nightmare find happiness? Can they overcome obstacles? Can they overcome the poor artwork? Will this have half a volume of short stories and Crimson Empire at the end of it? Is Alice in the Country of Hearts the new vampires? Can Heironymus Merkin ever forget Mercy Humppe and find true happiness?

MICHELLE: I would be very proud of myself if I caught this reference, but alas.

SEAN: The rest of this list is Yen, despite us being nowhere near the end. Let’s start with the Yen On imprint, as they have the 3rd Accel World light novel.

MJ: I’ve fallen behind on this, but I’m looking forward to catching up.

SEAN: I tend to forget about all of Yen’s Kingdom Hearts manga releases, but they’re big hits, and now Yen On has Kingdom Hearts: The Novel.

Sword Art Online: Progressive is not just a reboot of the series with an added focus on the world of Aincrad and more POV for heroine Asuna, it’s also huge – this first volume is much longer than Yen On’s other SAO books.

MJ: Yes!

SEAN: Not only do we have the 3rd Accel World novel, but also the 3rd Accel World manga.

Did you like Olympos? Or at least think it was really pretty? The same author’s Angel of Elhamburg is out next week. I do enjoy josei, especially from Shodensha, but I have a feeling this will be a Depressing-O-Rama.

ASH: Pretty and depressing? I’m in.

MJ: Sounds like my cup of tea.

SEAN: Given we’ve had eight volumes of Are You Alice? and it’s still not over, I fear we’re asking the wrong question. Perhaps Why Is Alice? Or How Is Alice? Does Alice Live Here Anymore?

Big Hero 6 is not only an Oscar-winning film, it’s also a manga, with Kodansha putting out the first (only?) volume next week.

Bloody Cross has a 6th volume out as well.

MICHELLE: Already?! Man, time flies.

SEAN: I made fun of Demon From Afar’s first volume for pretending to be something other than a Kaori Yuki manga till the blood-filled cliffhanger when we see no, it is a Kaori Yuki manga. I anticipate Vol. 2 will be darker.

MJ: Aaaaah, hm.

SEAN: Finally… no, just kidding, we’re still nowhere near finally. Next, we have the debut of another light novel/manga combo license, with the manga coming first. The Devil Is A Part-Timer! has Satan working in a fast-food joint,so I suspect ‘lighthearted’ is the order of the day.

ASH: The anime adaptation was actually pretty entertaining; I’m looking forward to checking out the original novels.

SEAN: Just in time for the anime adaptation that starts in April, here’s a 7th volume of The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan. Hope you like heartwarming!

I’ve been mocking the glut of vampire manga lately, so it’s only fair to say I quite enjoyed He’s My Only Vampire, and am looking forward to this 2nd volume.

Karneval is the omnibus release of the week for Yen, covering the first two volumes. It came out from Ichijinsha’s Zero-Sum, which is sort of the GFantasy of their company, i.e. a shonen/shoujo/josei/fantasy blend. It also features circus folks! Ha, bet you thought I’d say vampires.

MJ: You had me at “Zero-Sum.”

ANNA: Oh! This wasn’t on my radar before, but I am interested now!

SEAN: Another light novel/manga license where the manga comes a month early, Log Horizon features a group of MMORPG players startled to find themselves inside the game they’re playing. I would say it sounds like it’s for fans of Sword Art Online, but from what I hear the fandoms actually have a rivalry going on.

MJ: Heh, interesting.

SEAN: A second volume of Love at Fourteen is right up my alley after this influx of fantasy and supernatural titles we’re seeing.

MICHELLE: This is literally the one thing on this list that makes me personally go “Ooh!”

MJ: Yes, yes!

SEAN: If you wanted more from the spinoff Puella Magi Oriko Magica, then Yen has an Extra Story for you.

The end! The final volume of Soul Eater, one of my favorite recent shonen titles. I will miss your surreal art and exciting battles.

Sword Art Online: Fairy Dance has its manga reach its exciting conclusion, but, spoiler, still has the stupid birdcage.

Lastly (really this time), there’s a 9th volume of Triage X, which (checks cover art) is still Triage X.

Does something here excite you? Or are you seeing this pile, throwing up your hands, and going back to bed instead?

My Week in Manga: March 9-March 13, 2015

March 16, 2015 by Ash Brown

My News and Reviews

Two reviews at Experiments in Manga last week! First up, I finally got around to reading Kouhei Kadono’s Boogiepop at Dawn. Technically the sixth Boogiepop novel, and the fourth to be released in English, it actually serves as a prequel to the entire series. I’ve really enjoyed what I’ve read of the Boogiepop series and found Boogiepop at Dawn to be particularly satisfying. I’m hoping to do a Boogiepop Adaptation Adventures post once I have a chance to read the manga and watch the anime and live-action adaptations. The second review posted last week was of Yuki Urushibara’s Mushishi, Volume 2. Mushishi is one of my favorite manga, and the second volume includes some of my favorite stories in the series. The review is part of my monthly manga review project focusing on horror manga. Next month will feature Setona Mizushiro’s After School Nightmare again.

Sparkler Monthly has been getting some good press recently, which I’m happy to see. Jason Thompson delves into the comics side of the magazine in the most recent House of 1000 Manga. Lianne Sentar was interviewed by Brigid Alverson at Robot 6 about Marketing to the Female Gaze. Sparkler has been adding a bunch of new comics lately. The most recent is actually a rescue from the closure of Inkblazers, Heldrad’s Orange Junk. More comics and more print releases will be announced in the very near future (I’m particularly looking forward to the Tokyo Demons Cherry Bomb collection), so now is a better time than ever to consider becoming a member to support the creators and the rest of the Sparkler team.

Last week was apparently “manga week” at ICv2, which included interviews with Dark Horse’s Mike Richardson (Part 1 and Part 2) and Viz Media’s Kevin Hamric (Part 1 and Part 2). The Comics Journal has been collecting and posting tributes to the late Yoshihiro Tatsumi, and Ryan Holmberg has written an in-depth article on Tatsumi for the site as well. Elsewhere online, Comics Forum posted Masafumi Monden’s article Shōjo Manga Research: The Legacy of Women Critics and Their Gender-Based Approach and Reflecting Lights has a nice publisher spotlight on Vertical Comics. Finally, Sean has a roundup of all the manga and light novel licenses that have recently been announced.

Quick Takes

Attack on Titan: Before the Fall, Volume 3 written by Ryo Suzukaze and illustrated by Satoshi Shiki. An adaptation of a series of light novels, Before the Fall is a prequel to Hajime Isayama’s immensely popular and successful manga Attack on Titan. It takes place well before the original series, during a time in which humanity is facing the Titans, but has yet to really find a way to effectively deal with them. At this point, the Survey Corps at least knows how to destroy the Titans, but it is lacking the resources—specifically the three-dimensional maneuvering gear—that greatly aids in actually accomplishing the feat. Apparently, as the extra manga at the end of the third volume implies, Kuklo will somehow be involved in reclaiming that crucial bit of technology. However, most of the volume is devoted to the intense battle and tragic outcomes of the Survey Corps and Kuklo’s unfortunate confrontation with a Titan outside of the walls. There’s some plot and story development as well, but the action takes precedence this time around. In general, I don’t find Before the Fall to be quite as compelling as the original Attack on Titan, but it is interesting to see more of the overall worldbuilding and backstory that has been created for the franchise as a whole.

Cage of Eden, Volume 16 by Yoshinobu Yamada. It’s been a while since I’ve read any of Cage of Eden, though the sixteenth volume seems to be pretty par for the course. I enjoy a good survival story, but the manga is just not as enthralling as I want it to be. It doesn’t help that the fanservice tends to be narratively awkward; the sixteenth volume includes not one but two naked bath scenes of buxom middle school girls that interrupt the flow of the story. As for the story itself, there have been a few interesting developments. Having split into separate groups to investigate the spire and the pyramid on the island, the survivors have been able to begin piecing together exactly where they are as they uncover more and more secrets. Considering the number of deaths in Cage of Eden so far, it’s probably a safe bet that not everyone is going to survive to the end of the series. Especially taking into account the fact that the dinosaurs and other beasts aren’t the only dangerous creatures on the island. Humans can also be extremely deadly. And manipulative, too. It’s this menacing human element that the sixteenth volume of Cage of Eden focuses on. Trying to survive on the island has definitely taken its toll on the characters both mentally and physically.

Missions of Love, Volume 10 by Ema Toyama. To be completely honest, I wasn’t expecting to enjoy Missions of Love nearly as much as I do, but here I am, ten volumes later, still completely hooked on the series’ melodrama and exceptionally twisted train wrecks of relationships. And there are some pretty momentous developments in those relationships in this volume, specifically a confession of love that can’t be mistaken or ignored. It seems as thought the time is drawing very near in which Yukina will have to choose either Shigure or Akira, but she’s only now realizing that might mean losing one of them completely. Partially in an attempt to avoid having to make an immediate decision, she challenges them both with a mission: to take her on a date as boyfriend and girlfriend. Missions of Love has always been suggestive, often skirting the edge of what would be deemed appropriate behavior and occasionally crossing over the line, and the tenth volume is no different. The relationships in the series aren’t healthy ones and never have been. Seeing as how many of them were initially based on manipulation and blackmail that probably isn’t too surprising, but it is interesting to see the characters develop legitimate feelings of affection for one another. They just don’t always go about expressing it in the best fashion.

xxxHolic, Omnibuses 1-2 (equivalent to Volumes 1-6) by CLAMP. I read the first few volumes of xxxHolic when the manga was originally being published by Del Rey Manga but never got around to finishing the series before it went out of print, so I’m happy that Kodansha Comics is releasing the omnibuses. xxxHolic is a manga of extremes. One moment it’s ridiculously comedic and the next it’s deadly serious. The manga can be a strange mix of humor and horror; sometimes the balance between those two aspects of the series works better than others. I like the incorporation of yokai in xxxHolic since I have a particular interest in yokai. Generally, CLAMP’s renditions of the traditional stories are much more contemporary and free-form in nature. Yokai and folk tales serve more as a source of loose inspiration rather than a rigid structure for the manga to build upon. xxxHolic and Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle are directly related to each other, although they can be read separately without to much of a problem. So far, I find the Tsubasa references to be some of the least interesting in xxxHolic, but I do get a kick out of some of the throwaway nods to other CLAMP manga. For example, the leads from Legal Drug make a brief appearance with a minor (yet arguably crucial) role selling a hangover cure.

Manga the Week of 3/18

March 12, 2015 by Sean Gaffney, Ash Brown, MJ, Michelle Smith and Anna N 3 Comments

SEAN: Enjoy this last mild week of manga, before March 25’s apocalyptic deluge.

Starting off, we have not a manga per se, but something that deserves attention nonetheless. Just So Happens is coming out from Abrams as a graphic novel, and details a Japanese woman who lives in London but has to return to Japan for a funeral. Early reviews are excellent.

ASH: Oh, I’m glad you mentioned this! The previews I’ve seen look great.

MJ: Wow, this does look interesting.

SEAN: We’re at the 2nd to last volume of Oh My Goddess! from Dark Horse, and I still can’t quite believe I’m typing that.

Attack on Titan has its 15th volume come out from Kodansha, even as the first volume remains in the NYT bestseller lists.

And My Little Monster hits Vol. 7, even as it seems to have hit a sort of angst holding pattern.

ASH: I do like the quirky cast of characters, but I hope to see a bit more story development with this volume.

MICHELLE: I’ve fallen a few volumes behind on this one, I’m afraid.

SEAN: There’s also a 7th volume of the Seven Deadly Sins.

Kokoro Connect has rapidly developed into an excellent title for me, and I’m pleased to see Seven Seas has the third one out next week.

Servamp is the debut volume of the week. It runs in Media Factory’s oddball shoujo magazine Comic Gene and, obviously, has vampires – a whole pile of them. The artist is known for BL, but there’s not much tease in the first volume, which I reviewed here.

ASH: I know quite a few people who are excited for Servamp; I may have to give it a look despite being a little tired of vampires.

MICHELLE: I definitely have vampire fatigue. Especially vampires who fall in love with teenagers.

ANNA: Even I have a touch of vampire fatigue.

SEAN: And another Strike Witches spinoff comes to an end with the 2nd One-Winged Witches.

Viz has its second Master Keaton volume, with more exciting insurance action and inept interpersonal relations.

ASH: Hooray for more Urasawa (et al.)!

MICHELLE: Definitely looking forward to this one!

MJ: Same!

ANNA: I liked some chapters of the first volume better than others, but you really can’t go wrong with Urasawa.

SEAN: A 3rd Resident Evil will give you all your horror needs.

Unless your horror needs are filled by a 5th Terra Formars.

ASH: Still not a fan of the roach design, but the over-the-top fight sequences are pretty great.

SEAN: Any choice purchases next week?

The Magical World of Mangatime Kirara ☆ Magica

March 10, 2015 by Erica Friedman 1 Comment

When an anime or manga franchise is exceptionally popular in Japan, it is often marked with special issues of a current magazine, or a short run of a dedicated magazine of it’s own. You can see examples of this with a long-lived franchise like Gundam. Gundam has been around for decades in one form on another – so long that it is effectively a genre unto itself. One almost expects that the anime and manga world honors Gundam with a dedicated magazine.

The Puella Magi Madoka Magica franchise was almost the complete opposite. It was designed from the outset to fully saturate the Japanese market. Anime and manga, otaku merchandising, high end accessories, make-up, clothing (for men and women), bags, movies…for a while you couldn’t walk through a shopping arcade in Japan without stumbling across something that was Madoka-themed. And so, although the series is not long-lived in any meaningful way, it isn’t all that surprising that Hobunsha, the publisher of the many Mangatime Kirara imprint magazines also has a Mangatime Kirara ☆ Magica (まんがタイムきらら☆マギカ) magazine. (Hobunsha is also the publisher of all the spin-off stories of the Magica franchise.)What did surprise me was the magazine’s longevity. It’s currently at 18 issues. If you’ve ever tried to publish a magazine, you know that that is a lot of content. For a relatively recent series, it’s an amazing amount of content.

Mangatime Kirara ☆ Magica is a hybrid magazine. Because it is focused on a specific franchise, the pages include gag comics, slice-of-life, action, comedy and tragedy stories. The characterizations are as much “fanon” as they are canon, with popular pairings and fandom-created character quirks used freely. But, this magazine is, ultimately, a corporate created tie-in meant for fans of the series, rather than truly fan-created derivative work.

The magazine does have a website, which is mostly focused on selling the manga, artbooks and other tie-in publications for the series. The website has individual spin-offs and publications reading samples, costs and purchase data and not much more. Because this is specialty magazine, there are no circulation numbers available. The magazine costs 780 yen an issue ($6.52 at time of writing) for 250 pages, plus a series-themed gift. (The above issue came with a fetching clearfile of Devil Homura, as seen on the cover. Which is why I bought it. ^_^)

This is a magazine for fans of this series, full stop. No one else would care to read 200+ plus pages of jokes about Kyouko being hungry, or Mami at home or maid Madoka. But for 18 volumes so far, enough people do that Mangatime Kirara ☆ Magica is alive and well, with stories of Magical Girls living banal lives in our world and fighting Witches in their magical world.

Mangatime Kirara ☆ Magica from Hobunsha: http://www.dokidokivisual.com/madokamagica/

My Week in Manga: March 2-March 8, 2015

March 9, 2015 by Ash Brown

My News and Reviews

And the honor of the first in-depth manga review for the month of March at Experiments in Manga goes to Tetsu Kariya and Akira Hanasaki’s Oishinbo, A la Carte: Vegetables which, as is probably fairly obvious, is a food manga about vegetables. I tend to enjoy the Oishinbo, A la Carte collections, finding them to be both educational and entertaining. Vegetables is a good volume, but it does get pretty political. I also posted a list of manga featuring immortals last week as part of the announcement of the UQ Holder! Giveaway Winner. February’s Bookshelf Overload was posted as well, which can mostly be summarized by me yelling “JooooooJoooooo!”

I was fairly busy last week, but a few things did catch my eye online. Viz Media’s Shojo Beat imprint announced two new licenses: Bloody Mary by Akaza Samamiya and Honey So Sweet by Amu Meguro. Seven Seas had a pretty big surprise, too—it’s opened a division focused on producing anime and manga themed tabletop games. First up? A deck-building game based on Space Dandy. Tofugu posted a great article about choosing the best yokai books available in English. I’ve reviewed two of the books mentioned—Yokai Attack: The Japanese Monster Survival Guide and The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons: A Field Guide to Japanese Yokai—and have read some of the others, so I can confirm that it’s a worthwhile list. Also, Paul Gravett has a lovely post remembering mangaka Yoshihiro Tatsumi, who passed away over the weekend.

Quick Takes

Black Rose Alice, Volume 3 by Setona Mizushiro. After a brief detour into lighter territory in the second volume, the third volume Black Rose Alice has taken a definite turn for the darker again. The series can be legitimately disconcerting and oddly provocative at the same time. Alice is getting to know all of the vampires in the nest a little better, but it’s Leo who is in the lead for her affections. The twins are somewhat immature and Dimitri is intentionally trying to not get involved with her, so Leo seems to be Alice’s obvious choice for procreation. Going through with it will lead to both of their deaths, so she is taking her time in making the decision, wanting to feel confident that her choice is the correct one. However, time is not on Leo’s side; his death is already imminent. Alice is unaware of this, though she does notice him acting out-of-character. Black Rose Alice is a strange and disturbing series. As a whole the vampire mythology that Mizushiro has created continues to be unlike any other that I’ve encountered. There is a very dark eroticism to the story as well. Occasionally there are more humorous moments, but they only serve to emphasize the underlying horror of the series.

My Little Monster, Volumes 4-6 by Robico. The third volume back-pedaled from the progress that the story and characters had made in the first two volumes and now with these three it seems as though My Little Monster is stuck in some sort of mire. I still like the characters, most of whom are quirky or weird in one way or another, but I find it immensely frustrating that the series just isn’t going anywhere. Actually, other than the awkward romance, I’m not entirely sure what the overarching story is even supposed to be at this point. However, there is definitely one heck of a love polygon going on. But even with so many unrequited feelings, there doesn’t seem to be as much drama as would be expected. In some ways, that’s actually a little refreshing. It’s nice that the characters can enjoy one another’s company even considering the romantic rivalries. I am glad to see that Haru’s volatile and frequently violent emotional state hasn’t been romanticized, although occasionally it is used for a bit of humor. In part, My Little Monster is intended to be a comedy, but these volumes are generally a bit more serious overall. There are still some genuinely funny and endearing moments, though.

Not Enough Time by Shoko Hidaka. Because I’m enjoying her ongoing series Blue Morning so much, and to make the wait for the next volume a little easier, I’ve made a point to read more of Hidaka’s manga. Not only was Not Enough Time Hidaka’s debut in English, it was also her first volume of boys’ love manga to be released in Japan. Even though it’s an early work, Hidaka’s storytelling and nuanced characterizations were already quite excellent. Her artwork is lovely, too. Not Enough Time is a collection of six short boys’ love manga, some of which share a few recurring characters while others are completely unrelated. One lead couple consists of two high school students, but all of the other romances in the volume are between adult men. The basic settings and overall scenarios of the stories collected in Not Enough Time aren’t particularly unusual or unique. What makes them stand out is Hidaka’s willingness to allow the relationships to be complicated and messy; the endings aren’t always wrapped up happily or neatly. Instead, there is a sense of ambiguity and the feeling that characters’ lives continue on well after the manga has concluded. I thoroughly enjoyed the collection.

xxxHolic: Rei, Volume 2 by CLAMP. After two volumes, I’m not yet convinced that CLAMP knows exactly where Rei is going as it feels a bit aimless. I find that I’m much less interested in the episodic stories of the series than I am in its underlying plot. Only ominous hints are given as to what is going on, just enough to keep the manga engaging. Watanuki is as clueless as the readers are at this point (if not more so), though he is becoming increasingly suspicious about his precarious situation. Both Yuko and Domeki obviously know what is what, but they either can’t or won’t tell him. Rei may be somewhat haphazard story-wise, but I really do enjoy the series’ striking artwork. It might not be absolutely necessary to have read xxxHOlic to follow Rei, but I do get the feeling that the manga will be more meaningful to those who have at least passing familiarity with the original series. (I should actually get around to finishing xxxHolic one of these days, especially now that it’s back in print; I’ve only ever read the first few volumes or so.) I’m very curious to see how Rei ties back into xxxHolic proper, or if it ever does. The third volume of Rei has been released in Japan, but apparently the series is currently on hiatus.

Manga the Week of 3/11

March 5, 2015 by Sean Gaffney, Ash Brown, Anna N, Michelle Smith and MJ Leave a Comment

SEAN: A small second week of the month, but with a lot of variety.

For comedy fans, we have the 4th volume of D-Frag! from Seven Seas.

And they’re also giving us the 2nd and final volume of Girls Und Panzer prequel Little Army.

Sublime has been fairly quiet lately. Are they playing hide and seek? Or just publishing Hide and Seek? Vol. 3 ships next week.

ASH: I reviewed the first volume just last week; I’ll be very happy to have the complete series on my shelves.

SEAN: I remain surprised, but not at all disappointed, that Knights of Sidonia is as long as it is. 13 volumes and counting from Vertical Comics!

ANNA: Ugh, I need to get caught up on this series! I do really like it!

MICHELLE: Yay, more Sidonia!

ASH: Should be a good time!

MJ: Add my voice to the chorus of “Yay!”

SEAN: We’re nearly at the end of 07-Ghost, but not quite. There is a 15th volume, though.

ANNA: Maybe I will read all of it in a marathon session when it is done.

MICHELLE: Yeah, despite good intentions I have not managed to resume this one.

SEAN: And a 21st of Arata the Legend, which surely has erased Fushigi Yuugi from everyone’s heads by now.

ANNA: Not to diss Arata, but I am super excited about the new Fushigi Yuugi series that was recently announced.

MICHELLE: Eh?!?!?! I missed it! Please tell me it’s Byakko Kaiden.

ANNA: It is!!! EEEE!!!!!!!

MICHELLE: !!!! I am all asquee!

MJ: WOOT!

SEAN: Ranma 1/2 is always at its best when Takahashi allows herself to stretch with a longer storyline, and the “Ranma Gets Weak” one stretches out over half this seventh omnibus. I review it here.

I also reviewed Aya Kanno’s Requiem of the Rose King, a new Shojo Beat series that is nothing like Otomen except its art is gorgeous. It’s her take on Shakespeare’s Henry VI and Richard III.

ANNA: I have this, haven’t read it yet, but it sounds great!

MICHELLE: Oooh. I’m kind of a Richard III fangirl.

ASH: This is actually one of the series I’m most looking forward to this year.

MJ: I’m definitely on board with this!

SEAN: Lastly, there’s a 17th volume of Rin-Ne, which is also at its best when Takahashi allows a longer storyline, but sadly we see that far less often.

MICHELLE: RIN-NE is pleasant. I have a few volumes here that I haven’t been dying to read, though.

SEAN: Oh manga’s heart wrapped in an obi’s hide! What are you getting next week? (Also, ten points to whoever gets that without googling it.)