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Posts Tagged CLAMP

Otaku USA: On The Shelf – February 22, 2012

By Lissa Pattillo on Friday, February 24, 2012

One piece of good news this week – a new volume of XXXHolic! The sad news of the week – it’s the final volume. I’ve been buying the series since high school and it’s one of my favourites, if not my actual favourite, amidst CLAMP’s books over the years. I’ve heard people say the ending isn’t very satisfying but I’m going in with an open mind, and the glee of simply having another chance to drool over the beautiful artwork.

Along with the one series ending, Vertical Inc. has a new series (well, newly continued): GTO The Early Years (Vol.11) and Digital Manga is releasing the fifth deluxe re-issue of the boys’ love series, Kizuna. You can see the complete list of releases this week over at my Otaku USA On The Shelf article.

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Categories: Features, News, On The Shelf, Release Lists
Tags: CLAMP, Dark Horse, Del Rey, DMP, June, Kodansha Comics, Manga, One Piece, Otaku USA, Vertical Inc, Viz Media, Yen Press

Media Blasters Reveals Lay-Offs for 60% of Full-Time Staff

By Lissa Pattillo on Tuesday, January 10, 2012

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AnimeNewsNetwork has heard from Media Blasters that the company has just laid off 60% of it’s staff. The full-time staff was at 15 and has now decreased to “five or six regular employees”. The Media Blasters’ CEO, John Sirabella, said they’ve offered continued work in the form of freelance to the employees laid off.

This news following Bandai’s continues to carry 2012 off to a rocky industry start. The loss of jobs for Media Blasters’ staff is really unfortunate – my sympathies to those laid off, it’s a terrible experience. From a consumer point of view, the silver lining is that Media Blasters hasn’t shut it’s doors altogether. Surprisingly, the company has stated it will continue releasing titles as normal.

Unfortunately there’s no news of any upcoming manga publishing. Last we heard concretely from MB about their manga line was back in June 2010 when they cancelled a handful of their boys’ love titles. Stock on existing Media Blasters’ manga titles has also been difficult to get a hold of online or via the direct market with only a select few available for purchase on sites like Amazon unless you’re willing to shell out some hefty dollar values for used copies. If you’re looking to buy Media Blasters’ releases, RightStuf still has quite a few of both their manga and anime releases in stock however. Their Kitty Media titles – including their very entertaining selection of boys’ love titles – is sectioned separately on the site’s search. I also recommend finding their booth at any convention they attend, it’s often pretty sizable and stocked with just about every title they have.

Media Blasters has been running very low-key for a while, especially in the past two years following a large lay-off of full-time workers in March 2010. While they have an occasionally updated Facebook page, their Twitter account has been silent since July 2010 and their website – though broken as it was – was replaced with only ads to standalone promotions for anime titles and a link to their Facebook account. Their only recently updated website seems to be their Kitty Media (18+ only!) website which was relaunched in December as a member-only site to watch their hentai titles.

Hopefully we’ve got some good news coming our way after these two industry blows. I’m grateful Media Blasters has at least survived its latest belt tightening. With all companies in flux, hopefully they can get a more solid footing in time, helped in part by some great recent anime releases like Magic Knight Rayearth Remastered and Bakuman in their hands.

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Categories: News
Tags: Bakuman, Boys' Love/Yaoi, CLAMP, Media Blasters

Year In Review: Lissa’s Favourites of 2011

By Lissa Pattillo on Sunday, January 1, 2012

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There are no shortage of ‘Best Of’ lists this time of year. While I like popping around to different peoples’ sites and seeing what they thought, it’s a bit of a frustration that I can’t seem to write one myself. How people choose a solid list containing five or ten favourites, from across different genres and subject matters, is just something I can’t seem to muster the brain power for. Not enough conviction I suppose? There’s just so much to love!

But I can’t overlook the perfect chance to look back at all the great titles a year had to offer and 2011 had some really fantastic ones. So then where is this going, oh rambling one, you ask? My semi-traditional equivalent to the yearly best of – the random Lissa’s favourites and best-ofs list! Which really just means you get a lot more titles broken into a lot more categories so I can remain a lot more loving to a lot more series. And in some cases not so loving… From the Best Release Quality to the Favourite Fan Service and even to the most Gag Worthy – here are a bunch of my favourite titles from 2011!

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: 20th Century Boys, Air Gear, Arata the Legend, Bakuman, Black Butler, Black Jack, Boys' Love/Yaoi, Bunny Drop, CLAMP, Dark Horse, DMP, Fantagraphics, Gate 7, June, Kamisama Kiss, Kodansha Comics, Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, Manga, Natsume Ono, Oh!Great, Omnibus, Osamu Tezuka, Pokemon Adventures, Ponent Mon, Reservoir Chronicles Tsubasa, Rumiko Takahashi, Sailor Moon, Seven Seas, Shoujo, Tokyopop, Toriko, Usamaru Furuya, Vertical Inc, Viz Media, Viz Signature, Yen Press

Review: Kobato (Vol. 05)

By Lissa Pattillo on Thursday, December 29, 2011

1 Comment »

Manga-ka: CLAMP
Publisher: Yen Press
Rating: Teen (13+)
Release Date: December 2011

Synopsis: “As the seeds of love begin to bloom in her heart, Kobato’s attentions are diverted from giving solace to strangers and filling up her magic bottle in order to finally earn her mysterious wish! Now it seems all Kobato has eyes for the dour Fujimoto-kun and putting a smile on his face. With this turn of events, Kobato is fighting to save Yomogi Kindergarten more than ever before, all at the expense of her magic bottle. But as time runs out for her quest, is Kobato unwittingly endangering her wish, her life, and the lives of Ioryogi and his erstwhile allies (read: cronies) by choosing to follow her heart?”

It continues to be a flaw of these shorter length volumes of Kobato that we don’t feel we’re getting a lot of substance per book. Fortunately this particular volume hits that quality over quantity sweet spot, delivering on some much anticipated history behind the main characters. We’ve been following Kobato and Ioryogi on their path for five books and finally we’re seeing where it all began.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: CLAMP, Manga, Yen Press

Otaku USA: On The Shelf – December 21, 2011

By Lissa Pattillo on Thursday, December 22, 2011

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It’s the last comic shipping day before Christmas! The next couple of weeks are typically a little wonky in regards to shipping. While the manga load is light this week it sports some especially ‘NEED NOW!’ titles to make the trip to your local comic or book store just as worthwhile. You can see the list over at my On The Shelf article at OtakuUSA.

Fullmetal Alchemist (Vol. 27) is the big one – the final volume of the series! I’ve had the book for about a month now thanks to Viz Media’s FMA boxset released in November. I’m so eager for manga fans to get a hold of this book and to hear their thoughts of the end. It’s one of my favourite manga titles and I think it ended near-perfectly. Faith Erin Hicks – awesome artist, friend and the woman responsible for introducing me to the glories of Fullmetal Alchemist – wrote a great post about the importance of stories ending after she read volume twenty-seven.

I’m also really eager to buy the newest volume of XXXHolic – still one of my favourite CLAMP titles. The last couple of volumes in particular have been chockful of so much extra eye-candy that it’ll be hard to not just stand there at Strange Adventures and oogle every page.

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Categories: News, On The Shelf, Release Lists
Tags: CLAMP, Del Rey, Fullmetal Alchemist, Kodansha Comics, Manga, Otaku USA, Viz Media, Yen Press

Shaenon Garrity Talks Chobits For House of 1000 Manga

By Lissa Pattillo on Friday, November 18, 2011

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AnimeNewsNetwork has some great writers who contribute to the site and their manga editorial are always daily reads for me. Jason Thompson’s House of 1000 Manga is always an extra treat – a weekly exploration and showcase of a specific manga title. This week the column had Shaenon Garrity as a guest writer and she contributes an article on CLAMP’s Chobits. It’s a fantastic read so I recommend checking it out!

Shaenon breaks down the series’ themes of sexuality, romance and relationship dynamics in a really concise and well-thought out manner. I don’t necessarily agree with all of the conclusions she makes but she backs up every observation and opinion in a way that really gets you thinking about the story.

Even the forum responses, often a minefield of painful commentary, are worth going through for the article. Shaenon herself also elaborates on some points she couldn’t go into via the article for spoiler reasons.

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Categories: Editorials
Tags: CLAMP, Manga, Tokyopop

PR: Viz Media Manga Makes Holiday Gifting Easy!

By Lissa Pattillo on Monday, November 14, 2011

1 Comment »

VIZ MEDIA SHOWCASES A DIVERSE COLLECTION OF NEW MANGA RELEASES TO MAKE UNIQUE GIFT SELECTIONS THIS HOLIDAY SEASON

New Releases For BAKUMAN｡, BLUE EXORCIST, DEATH NOTE,
D. GRAY MAN, NURA: RISE OF THE YOKAI CLAN, VAMPIRE KNIGHT And More Among The Best-Loved Series That Are Sure To Top Holiday Wish Lists

San Francisco, CA, November 14, 2011 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), the largest distributor and licensor of anime and manga in North America, offers a wide variety of unique art books and manga (graphic) releases – several of them brand new series – that make ideal gift selections for even the most discriminating fan this holiday season.

From the debut of Natsume Ono’s TESORO and the brand new shojo series, DAWN OF ARCANA, by Rei Toma, to a box set of the recently concluded FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST, to the latest editions of popular ongoing titles including BAKUMAN｡, BLUE EXORCIST, DEATH NOTE BLACK EDITION, NURA: RISE OF THE YOKAI CLAN, and the recently launched PSYREN, there will be plenty of aspiring young manga artists, spirit bending exorcists, royal romantic intrigue, charming stories of bonds between friends & family, tales of alchemy and more to complement everyone’s holiday season this year. And for the fan that has been especially good all year, don’t miss two gorgeously illustrated art books for D.GRAY-MAN and VAMPIRE KNIGHT. Each is filled with vivid character art, concept drawings, and insightful artist commentaries and also includes a full-color poster.

Read more…

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Categories: Press Releases
Tags: Bakuman, CLAMP, Dawn of the Arcana, Fullmetal Alchemist, Shoujo Beat, Vampire Knight, Viz Media

Otaku USA: On The Shelf – November 9, 2011

By Lissa Pattillo on Wednesday, November 9, 2011

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Wednesday! New comics day! You can read the list of new manga volumes out this week over at my On The Shelf article at Otaku USA.

There’s a bunch of new Digital Manga titles shipping this week, and Viz Media has released their new original-orientation, newly translated and highly spiffy looking omnibus edition of X. CLAMP really owns the omnibus market here don’t they? Their works are definitely setting a standard!

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Categories: On The Shelf, Release Lists
Tags: Bandai, Boys' Love/Yaoi, CLAMP, DMP, June, Kodansha Comics, Otaku USA, Vertical Inc

Swag Bag: Mew Mew Manga Power

By Lissa Pattillo on Friday, November 4, 2011

2 Comments »

New York Comic Con may’ve been almost a month ago but I’m still digging myself out of the stacks of stuff I bought there. What I brought back from the ‘big apple’ remains a post for another day but October proved itself manga-behemonth enough in release count to ensure every release-day was another manga buying opportunity.

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Categories: Features, Swag Bag
Tags: Bakuman, Black Butler, CLAMP, Dark Horse, Gate 7, Hinako Takanaga, Kamisama Kiss, Kodansha Comics, Manga, Natsume's Book of Friends, Seven Seas, Viz Media, Yen Press

PR: Deluxe Collector’s Edition of CLAMP’s Apocalyptic X…

By Lissa Pattillo on Thursday, October 27, 2011

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VIZ MEDIA TO RELEASE
DELUXE COLLECTOR’S EDITION OF CLAMP’S
APOCALYPTIC MANGA SERIES, X

Manga Powerhouse CLAMP Delivers A Prophetic Vision Of The End Of The World That Ponders Man’s Biology, Ethics And Ideals

San Francisco, CA, October 27, 2011 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), the largest distributor and licensor of anime and manga in North America, has announced the upcoming release of a deluxe collector’s edition for X, the apocalyptic action epic from the internationally renowned manga (graphic novel) creative team of CLAMP. X 3-in-1 Edition, Volume 1, debuts on November 8th, is rated ‘T+’ for Older Teens, and will carry an MSRP of $19.99 U.S. / $22.99 CAN.

Each of VIZ Media’s X releases bundles three complete manga volumes and features 24 pages of gorgeous, full-color illustrations never before published outside Japan! The pages are also printed in their original right-to-left reading order and presented in the highest quality.

As X (previously released in the United States as X/1999) opens, Kamui Shiro is a young man followed by mystery. He was taken from Tokyo by his mother while still a child and had to leave behind his dearest friends, including the gentle Kotori and her brother Fuma, following a terrible incident that claimed their mother’s life. Returning to Tokyo following his mother’s death, Kamui is a changed young man – moody and distant to his old friends, yet determined to protect them from the dark forces that swirl around him. It turns out that he is the nexus of a great cataclysm to come, and the inheritor to a strange destiny that could decide the fate of the entire world.

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Categories: Press Releases
Tags: CLAMP, Viz Media