Not a whole lot of buying last week as I awaited a hefty RightStuf order to be delivered. And delivered it was! I prefer buying manga in-store and at conventions so when I make big purchases online, they usually consist primarily of anime.
Note to all Canadians: now is the perfect time to get together some friends, head over to RightStuf.com, fill up your cart with oodles of goodies (check out their clearance section for amazing deals), getting that free shipping and taking full advantage of our strong dollar. Save lots of money and get some awesome stuff!
In my box of shininess this time, I continued a recent buying spree of Funimation box sets which always impress with me low prices, great selection and amazing dubs. Their S.A.V.E line is really phenomenal – an entire series for $12? Try justifying to me how that isn’t affordable (advance note: you can’t).
My series of choice this time were Jyo-Oh-Sei, a sci-fi survival series of which I really enjoyed the manga; Baccano, an anime cominbing violent mafia wars and alchemy; Hell Girl (S01), an episodic series about a website where you can ask to have someone banished to Hell; and Eden of the East, which I’ve heard so many amazing reviews for from people I know, that I had to give it a go. Thus far I’ve watched Hell Girl, which was really good and had a continuing plot line I didn’t expect, and the first half of Baccano. The first four episodes made little to no sense but after that the story picks up pace and wow is it something else! Very fun.
The final boxset of the purchase was Media Blaster’s new release of Magic Knight Rayearth which is a digitally remastered version in celebration of CLAMP’s 15th Anniversary. I’ve already seen the series via VHS, but the quality I’ve seen of these remastered episodes is more than reason enough to finally upgrade that series to DVD. I look forward to the shiny nostalgia of this title.
Manga always needs to sneak its way in somehow though and I bought two books that I absolutely adored upon reading. First was the second volume of Bunny Drop from Yen Press. Following a man taking in a young girl and going through the realistic motions of caring for her is both heartwarming and impressively grounded. The other book was volume of The Last Uniform from Seven Seas, a positively adorable series about schoolgirls and their feelings for one another. Both books made me very happy.
In a disappointing follow-up to my last Swag Bag, the DelRey omnibus edition I bought of Mushishi fell apart into a pile of loose out-of-order pages when I sat down to read it! Looks like I got a bad bind. I hope it’s a one-off and not from a bad batch out there. If this is some kind of omen about DelRey manga then, well, it came too late.
So what’ve you bought recently? Anything you’d recommend or something coming up?
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My copy of Mushishi 8/9/10 seems pretty solid when I flipped through it [got it when it first came out], though I haven't read all of it yet.
I picked up X'AMD Boxset 1- such an awesome series, the animation and world building were equally fantastic, with a Miyazaki-esque war setting vaguely based in a more modern era, and the cast has grew pretty compelling. This is the good stuff (I watched it all in a day :) ), and I'm looking forward to eventually getting the 2nd set.
I also nabbed a number of clearanced titles like space-exploration themed Moonlight Mile, and thinpack boxsets of comedies Nerima Daikon Brothers [an anime muscial TV series from Excel Saga director Nabeshin mildy parodying the Blues Brothers], and the Catgirl Nuku Nuku TV series [a spinoff of the OVA centering on an android with a cat's brain tasked with protecting a mad scientist's young son, while having to deal with the family's mom's secret activities as a supervillainess]. Also nabbed some sports anime with assorted vols of Fighting Spirit [boxing anime :)], and the syrupy emotional manipulation anime Ai Yori Aoshi's first volume w/a cd soundtrack- I have some of the later dvd volumes, and it's something you just sort of end up liking even though it's sort of stupid, thanks mostly to having good character and relationship drama mixed in with all the generic anime hijinks.
And I ran out and bought the 2nd boxset of Casshern Sins at retail because the first set entranced me so much [HMV has them for 39.99 each at the moment]. Great remake of a 70's anime, with oddly 80's-styled designs with delicate animation and rich, deep colours and watercoloured backgrounds, covering assorted tragic encounters Casshern and his robot dog make in a postapocalyptic wasteland that's slowly rotting away.
In terms of recent good manga pickups that stood out, Seven Sea's omnibus of HayateXBlade is out and quite shiny, as was Kurozakuro Vol.1 [loved Togari, so looking forward to reading this] and I also finally nabbed Kobato vol.3. I also scored a $5 hardcover of Yoshitaka Amano and Greg Rucka's Wolverine/Elektra miniseries ^_^ !
I just got volumes 5, 6, and 7 or Rosario + Vampire I'm surprised at how dark and violent it's become but in a good way. Also my copy of volume two o My Girlfriend's a Geek is due to arrive the 16th wich is great because I loved the first one so much.
I'm soooooo envious of you *turns green* I've wanted Last Uniform for ages, but it's not available over here, unless i want to pay through the nose for it. Last time i checked it was hovering around the 44-50 per volume mark
My last order from RightStuf consisted of both volumes of D.Gray-man Season 1, saving a fortune off retail price, as well as completing some old manga series: volumes 6-8 of Loveless and volume 6 of Junjou Romantica. In the local bookstore, I recently bought Finder 1, Scarlet, Madness 1, Himeyuka & Rozione's Story, Yokan Premonition 1, Isle of Forbidden Love, and Cute Devil. You know… Essentially everything that was just added to eManga at a much reduced cost. *Grumble*
I'm browsing around JList at the moment for some naughtier items, including probably a subscription to the all-new Be Boy Gold. I'd do Gush (which looks zOMG so much better) except it doesn't seem to have furigana on all the kanji, and I'm not quite at that level yet. Also considering some awesome "otoko no ko" titles.
Hi, btw. New follower here. I like your content. Helps me to sift through what I want to read/watch, and what I don't.
Oh, forgot to say, if you liked the Anime of Jyo oh Sei (and lets face it, it's a freaking awesome series!!), make sure you get the manga which is loads better, though sadly just as short feeling.
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