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Manga time! …which as a statement is sort of redundant here on Kuriousity. New week means new manga and while I continue unpacking my goodies from TCAF, I took a break for my weekly round-up of what new books are on the shelf this week. You can check out the full list and some thoughts over at my On The Shelf article at Otaku USA.
Some notables this week are NonNonBa from Drawn and Quarterly, Flowers of Evil from Vertical Inc. and the FLCL omnibus from Dark Horse.
Last week Digital Manga announced another six new print licenses! And I’ve long since run out of semi-creative ways to carry into that sentence, since it’s happened so much in recent months. Not that that’s a complaint in the face of so many new volumes of manga to anticipate for 2013. Yay for books! And now onto the good stuff:
A Century of Temptation – Kairi Shimotsuki (June, Summer 2013, $12.95/US)
Deflower the Boss – Ayan Sakuragi (June, Summer 2013, $12.95/US)
The Incredible Kintaro – Naomi Guren (801Media, Spring 2013, $15.95/US)
Ninth Life Love – Lalako Kojima (June, Summer 2013, $12.95/US)
Priceless Honey – Shiuko Kano (June, Summer 2013, $12.95/US)
Ray’s Days – RYOHZOH (Project-H, $17.95/US)
All of the titles above are one-shots so they’re a convenient one-book full package deal. None of them immediately stood out to me but we’ll see how appealing or ‘meh’ each looks as finished cover designs and plot synopsis’ appear between now and their release dates.
It’s the return of Swag Bag! In this once-was-weekly article I give a quick rundown of the books I bought that week and some brief thoughts, be it itty-bitty reviews if I’ve read them or first impressions if I haven’t. Since it’s been a long while since I’ve written one, this one is going to recap all my April purchases instead of just one week’s… so it’s a bit long. As always I encourage readers to share their recent purchases in the comments section!
I continued a few of my on-going shonen series with Viz Media‘s Blue Excorcist (Vol.07), Bleach (Vol.39) and Bakuman (Vol.10), the latter of which has just ended in Japan. Much as I wish sometimes series I like would go on forever, it’s comforting knowing there’s an end in sight. Kamisama Kiss (Vol.08) and Dawn of the Arcana (Vol.03) gave me a Shojo Beat fix, though I’m still not quite sure if I even like Dawn of the Arcana. Maybe now I’ll find out? So tricky to tell.
Arisa (Vol.07) was a quick-to-buy volume. I really like this series, though it is going on far too long. Suspense is one thing but get to the reveals already! And I hope comatose sister wakes up soon… I suppose I shouldn’t complain much about suspense in that kind of story after I finish reading 20th Century Boys (Vol.20). If you want a master of comic suspense, you need look no further than Naoki Usawara. So much suspense, all the time, and while sometimes it’s almost painful how much the story plays on that, it’s completely worth it. Definitely one of my favourites.
Digital Manga and Yen Press are publishing some of my other favourite currently running series, the kind that nestle neatly between the genres of shonen and shoujo. Of those I bought Black Butler (Vol.09), Countdown: 7 Days (Vol.02), Replica (Vol.02) and Durarara!! (Vol.02). I was surprised to see Durarara!! has a shiny gold finish on the cover letters; pleasantly surprised, of course. It’s a neat addition that hopefully means well for the book’s sales. It deserves them too, this series is great and I’m really glad it’s been licensed so I can finally read what all the fuss was about.
Speaking of high quality releases, Yen Press’s English edition of A Bride’s Story – WOW. It always amazes me how good it looks, not to mention of course how gorgeous the artwork is. It’s a beautiful piece of work all around. I was thrilled this month to pick up a copy of volume three. I also bought Bunny Drop (Vol.04) which is the start of the series’ time-skip to cute little Rin now being a teenager. So far my opinion on it is very… meh. Actually it’s more like, ‘I wish I’d stopped at three’. So sad.
Continuingly getting better however is Sailor Moon! Kodansha Comics recently released the fourth volume and while it was a little painfully episodic (one character after another being kidnapped), it had a lot of good Tuxedo Mask character development that the anime barely scratched the surface of. It makes me really like him as a character and even his relationship with Usagi more too. On the opposite end of the likeability scale are the characters of Itazura na Kiss (Vol.08) – why am I still reading this series!? Classic shoujo or not, the cons of the non-existant relationship are far outweighing the funny moments. Bleh.
Thankfully there were other omnibus to buy that were able to almost completely wash the ick of Itazura away – Vertical Inc’s Dororo (by Osamu Tezuka! and over 800 pages!) and Viz Media’s Cross Game (Vol.07). Cross Game has easily become one of my favourite comic series I’ve ever read – I get completely engrossed reading every volume. It’s just so good! The ability to make the everyday incrediably compelling and interesting is a skill Mitsuru Adachi definitely has. Another series that makes rather boring activities still charming to read is Seven Seas‘ Blood Alone (Vol.06). Don’t let the word vampire turn you off this one, it’s really sweet and has some good action sequences that are pretty realistic in their execution. Nothing too over the top and thus refreshingly believable.
This past week I also purchased my first digital manga volumes after buying myself an iPad (oh my credit card, it weeps!). Printed-versions are still my much preferred, but with some publishers now offering titles we’ll only ever see legally available in English via digital, I’d rather read them digitally than not at all. The iPad’s big screen and crisp graphics also offers a really nice reading experience, which I hope to go into with more detail at a later date.
After looking through different manga purchasing options, including Yen Press, Viz Media and Digital Manga’s apps, the site that earned my money was SuBLime – Viz Media’s new boys’ love publishing arm. The company sells digital copies you can then either read through your web browser on their website or download as a PDF to read however you digitally-please. This flexibility plus the tidy $5.99 price tag won me over. I bought three one-shots – Devil’s Honey, Oku-san’s Daily Fantasies and The Bed of My Dear King. All three were enjoyable in their own ways and I plan to share how and why soon.
…and that was my manga buying for April! What was in your swag bags this month?
Kickstarters have really taken off in recent months with creators and organizations using the crowd-sourcing service to collect the funds they need to get projects off the ground that wouldn’t otherwise be funded. I still hold my reservations towards companies using the service but I’m glad it’s worked out so well for creators getting their original works out to a wanting audience.
Just such a project has been started for Roulette, an original boys’ love style story written by Tina Anderson (Loud Snow) and drawn by Laura Carboni (Love Circles). Laura is looking to raised enough money to fund the completion and print of the book, which will be 255 pages long. Via Kickstarter’s often-used reward system, you can also get a number of extra goodies depending on how much you pledge.
“Mafia accountant Riley Leary finds himself blackmailed by an unseen party when he’s caught stealing from his boss. To make matters worse, he garnishes the interest of the dangerous hit man, Anton Colletti. Will Riley manage to get things right, or will Anton make things go from bad to worse?” (Read a preview chapter)
For those who aren’t familiar with Roulette, it was originally published in Rush, an anthology of boys’ love stories by creators around the world and published in print by Dramaqueen. When the company ceased production, so too did Rush come to an end after only a couple issues. There had been problems with DQ and it’s handling of the project practically since the get-go with subscribers and creators alike left wondering where their dues were. As someone who subscribed to the anthology, I was among those both disappointed and rather miffed when the plug was suddenly pulled. It’s unfortunate when projects like this don’t work out.
If curious about the other creators who contributed to Rush, you can see what they’re up to today via the links below (or under the cut if you’re on the main page!):
It’s new manga license time-! Again! Digital Manga sent out an e-mail about two new manga licenses, continuing their recent trend of revealing new licenses in pairs or trios of hentai and boys’ love. This week’s new licenses are:
See Me After Class (Vol.01) – Munyu (Project-H)
President Momoi Kun – Higashi Nishida (June)
Both books are scheduled for a print release in Spring 2013. See Me After Class will be $17.95/US, while President Momoi Kun is being listed at $12.95/US. You can see a few preview pages for President Momoi Kun over at its Amazon.jp page.
Digital Manga also recently sent out press releases announcing two new partnerships to release more manga digitally – Papyless (publisher of young woman’s comics) and Leed Publishing (hentai titles). I’m still not very keen on reading manga digitally but some of those Papyless titles are certainly tempting me to make some exceptions. We shall see!
Shannon Fay and I have had a few more manga reviews published in our local free newspaper, The Coast over the past couple of months. The majority have been to their website so for a couple thumbs-up titles we shared with our local readers, you can check out the links below:
| Shannon: | Lissa: |
The tricky part is always deciding what to review next. It’s interesting writing reviews that are not only considerably shorter than we’re used to for Kuriousity, but also in a way that bears in mind that the majority of The Coasts’ readers likely don’t read manga – or perhaps even comics – on a regular basis, if at all.
Kuriousity may have some posting lulls but Digital Manga hasn’t hit one yet, announcing another two new titles destined for print. Both titles were announced on DMP’s Twitter and Facebook accounts.
Wild Honey – Sei Takenaka (June)
Tender Hearts – Konomi Shikishiro (Project-H)
Both of the titles are one-shots with no specific release dates announced yet, though Digital Manga did say readers can expect Tender Hearts in Spring 2013. This will be the first time either artist has been published by DMP.
Via their Project-H account, a representative also stated: “…the new website is almost ready so please be patient while we run the final tests. Thank you!”. The Project-H website has had temporary placeholder pages since they launched back in July 2011. They also added that consumers can expect to see some release dates for their titles announced over the past couple of months.
Digital Manga Publishing kicked off the recent weekend with another three new manga licenses – when will their licensing streak end!? Not a complaint, mind you.
Their three new licenses are:
Love Makes Everything Right – Sanae Rokuya (BL)
Hot & Steamy – Hiroshi Itaba (Project-H)
Love on the Job (Vols. 1-3) – Harumi Chihiro (Project-H)
All three titles are by creators Digital Manga has previously licensed works from. DMP has previously published Sanae Rokuya’s boys’ love titles Red and King of Debt, while Harumi Chihiro’s better known Velvet Kiss was announced back in November. Hiroshi Itaba’s Three P, another one-short story, was one of Project-H’s launch books. All three new titles are scheduled for print release but there are no dates yet as to when they’ll be published.
Love Makes Everything Right – a oneshot BL – is an office romance where a man finds his new job has landed him at the receiving end of sexual harassment. You can see a few preview pages over at it’s Amazon.jp listing. DMP’s newest multi-volume series and hentai addition, Love on the Job, is of a more consensual-from-the-get-go nature. It follows a young man and woman who each land their dream jobs. When they realize they’ve been hired at rival companies, however, they need to keep their romantic relationship a secret or risk losing everything they have.
Of these new books, I’m most looking forward to Love on the Job. The plot sounds ripe for entertainment and drama while Harumi Chihiro has a really nice looking art style.
In additional DMP related news, boys’ love light novel fans will be happy to see volume seven of Ai no Kusabi is now available for pre-order on Amazon (US/CAN). The previous volume of the series was released back in July 2009. It’s been quite a wait so enjoy the return, Ai no Kusabi readers!
A listing on the Simon and Schuster website sent Twitter in a mini-buzz late this week with word that Viz Media had licensed Yuki Amemiya/Yukino Ichihara’s 07-Ghost. ANN confirmed the news with Viz yesterday so rejoice 07-Ghost fans!
07-Ghost is a story about an orphan gifted with magical powers who is enrolled as a student in a military-run academy until he discovers his father’s killers are there. The series was originally released by the now defunct GoComi who were only able to publish the first few volumes before dropping out in late 2009. Viz Media’s first volume is currently listed at $9.99/US with a November 2012 release date for volume one, and January 2013 for volume two.
I’ve since sold my volumes of GoComi’s 07-Ghost because it just didn’t interest me very much. I’m still sort of bummed about that fact because of how much I like the author’s illustration work and character designs. The story, unfortunately, just didn’t click with me. It’s been a few years now so maybe I’ll find it more to my liking starting over – we shall see!
Another listing on the Simon and Schuster website also revealed an upcoming omnibus edition of Yun Kouga’s Loveless. Viz Media originally announced the license at New York Comic Con 2011 but had only stated plans to release the series in single volume books starting where Tokyopop had left off (volume nine). The new listing shows the start of 2-in-1 omnibus edition kicking off from the series’ beginning. The first part is listed for $14.99/US and set to come out October 2012.
This new Loveless edition is great news for readers (and potential new fans) who didn’t have a chance to pick up Tokyopop’s volumes one to eight, while still pleasing those who did with the go ahead on volume nine+ in single format. Kudos to Viz Media for the dual release option!
Some of you may have noticed the Manga Is Not A Crime banner on my sidebar during one of your visits and the story of Ryan Matheson is a prime reason for my support of the work the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund does. Back in 2010, he was arrested trying to cross the border from the US to Canada when Canadian Customs official searched his laptop and found anime/manga imagery that they deemed child pornography.
CBLDF announced yesterday that all the charges against Ryan Matheson have since been dropped, which comes as fantastic news. Of course he’s not out of the woods yet with legal fees and some very unpleasant memories to follow him but it’s a big relief to see his immediate fight has finally ended.
Speaking out for the first time, Matheson says, “I’m glad to finally put this awful ordeal behind me. Ever since the beginning I knew I had committed no crime, so I was never willing to accept a plea to any criminal charge. The entire legal process is very traumatizing, and the overzealous bail conditions imposed on me were very difficult to endure. Although my defense was extremely strong, all trials are inherently risky and I value my life too much to risk a potential minimum mandatory sentence. I am very grateful for the spectacular work Michael Edelson and his team put into my case, and to all the generous people who supported me and contributed to my defense. I was able to stand up to the very last day and fight for something I believe in.”
As a Canadian, I have immense pride in my country as a place that values peace and equality. There’s no where in the world I’d rather live and I get homesick quick ever being off Canadian soil. Unfortunately nowhere is perfect and the pit in my stomach I feel crossing the border from trips to the US on my way home is a stern reminder of that. That I could be arrested for my bags full of comics is terrifying – it’s scary because it’s unfair for material that hurts no one, it’s scary because it could happen to anyone at anytime and it’s scary because if it happens, as Ryan Matheson’s case shows, there’s nothing you can do should someone else decide that what artwork you choose to look at is wrong.
MangaBlog’s Brigid Alverson has a really informative write-up on the case along with some history of other similar occurrences over at Comic Book Resources. It’s well worth a read and I hope gives you a good idea why supporting a group like CBLDF is such an important thing to do for comic readers everywhere.
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