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Posts Tagged Kodansha Comics

Otaku USA: On The Shelf – January 19, 2012

Otaku USA: On The Shelf - January 19, 2012

New Wednesday! New comics! The shipment’s a bit light this week but three of the four titles are some of my favourite currently running series – Sailor Moon (Vol.03), Arisa (Vol.06) and Afterschool Charisma (Vol.05). Huzzah! You can see the full list of titles and read a bit about the volumes over at my On The Shelf article at Otaku USA.

This week some places also got shipments of Yen Press‘s big batch releases for the month. Diamond Comics is still behind on their shipments from Yen Press but you’ll see their slew of titles on next week’s list including the first volume of their new series, Durarara!. Look forward to it!


Diamond Manga Previews: January 2012

Diamond Manga Previews: January 2012

Diamond Comics is North America’s largest comic book distributor. If you have a local comic store in your area, it’s very likely they get their books from them. Every month Diamond releases a giant magazine, Previews, containing all the products they have – from comics, manga, DVDs and merchandise – that will be released starting in about two months’ time, giving retailers and buyers the chance to put their orders in before shipping dates.

Previews - January 2012

I’ve been picking up the Previews magazines for years, oogling all the different books coming out from publishers and wondering how long until the stacks of Preview magazines I’ve yet to get rid of will crush me in my sleep. Starting now I’ll be writing about the different manga content published in Previews each month here on Kuriousity. This includes all the manga titles listed, the top Manga sellers as tracked by Diamond and mention of other things of interest I spot. With the small two month window, Diamond Previews has rarely been the source of new licenses but it’s a great reminder and showcase of all the books coming our way soon, plus the perfect time to get your orders in, whether through Diamond or at your online retailer of choice.

I’ll also be including with these monthly Preview posts a downloadable PDF that you can print off and check off the manga  you’d like to order. Then it’s as easy as bringing it into your local comic or book store – wherever in your area that orders in through Diamond Comics! Currently the list is just the names and does not include the Diamond order codes. I’ve never come across a store that requires them for ordering but if yours does, let me know and I’ll include them on subsequent files:

January 2012 Manga Previews Checklist (PDF)

You may continue reading at your own discretion for my thoughts, elaborations, random pictures and the Top 10 Selling Manga of November 2011!

Read more…


Otaku USA: On The Shelf – January 4, 2012

Otaku USA: On The Shelf - January 4, 2012

It’s the first manga shipment of 2012! Fantagraphics, Kodansha Comics, Seven Seas and Viz Media all have some goodies out this week. You can read all the titles over at my On The Shelf article at Otaku USA.

My top pick of the week is the long-awaited second volume of Wandering Son. I really enjoyed the first and it’s got great publishing quality too. A big hardcover book isn’t how I’d like all my books but for a special few it works beautifully. You can read Shannon’s thoughts on the first book in her review – Wandering Son (Vol. 01).


Year In Review: Lissa’s Favourites of 2011

Lissa’s Favourites of 2011

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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Year in Review: Victoria’s Top 5 Best Manga of 2011

Victoria's Top 5 Manga of 2011

So it’s that time of year again. Yes, the “everyone makes lists about the best/worst things of the year.” And you know what? I love it. Yes, love it. And so, I decided to put together my own list of my top five best manga of 2011.

To be eligible for this list, all a series had to do was have one book this year that I have read. Some (most actually) began in earlier years but they were the titles I looked forward to reading the most in these last twelve months. And so, without further ado, here are my top picks of the year.

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Otaku USA: On The Shelf – December 28, 2011

Otaku USA: On The Shelf - December 28, 2011

Get your holiday gift cards ready, it’s back to business for manga releases! It’s a pretty slow week as far as quantity goes but who can blame them when it’s right in the middle of the holidays? Still more than I honestly expected though so huzzah! The list of titles out can be read over at Otaku USA.

My top buys of the week are Air Gear (Vol.21) and Tokyo Mew Mew (Vol.02) – ironically both series I’m not entirely sure I like that much but I apparently like them both enough to buy. Air Gear is just really visually awesome and Tokyo Mew Mew is… well, it’s magical shoujo girls and I always give a series at least two volumes. In this case it’s an omnibus so that’s technically four volumes now I guess? Ah well, it gets bonus patience for having Kish as the villain.


Otaku USA: On The Shelf – December 21, 2011

Otaku USA: On The Shelf - December 21, 2011

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 Hicksawesome 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.


Otaku USA: On The Shelf – December 7, 2011

It’s like Christmas come early with release weeks like this – a whole bunch of must-have manga titles! My top pick goes to Princess Knight (Vol. 02) but Blood Alone (Vol. 05) and a slew of Viz Media titles aren’t far behind it.

You can read the full list of titles shipping out this week, along with my usual random synopsis and price-noting, over at my On The Shelf article at Otaku USA.


Review: Tokyo Mew Mew (Vol. 01)

Tokyo Mew Mew (Vol. 01)

Author: Reiko Yoshida
Manga-ka: Mia Ikumi
Publisher: Kodansha Comics
Rating: Teen (13+)
Release Date: October 2011

Synopsis: “On her first date with the cutest boy in school, Ichigo is exposed to a mysterious ray that meshes her DNA with that of the endangered Iriomote wildcat. She soon discovers that she has developed super-human abilities and enhanced agility. Her new powers are put to the rest when she leads a team with four other girls, each endowed with special abilities of their own. Together, they must now protect the Earth from an alien menace known as Deep Blue.”

Tokyo Mew Mew comes on the coat tails of Kodansha’s release of Sailor Moon, offering another magical girl story for those eager for another fix. The premises between the series are similar – five girls are all granted special powers that transform them into warriors sporting cute little short-skirt outfits and oddly worded attack names. They’re charged with the duty of protecting the Earth from evil, which in Tokyo Mew Mew‘s case is a group of aliens out to destroy the Earth’s environment by possessing animals.

Read more…


Otaku USA: On The Shelf – November 30, 2011

Otaku USA: On The Shelf - November 30, 2011

It’s Wednesday! And the fifth Wednesday in the month too, that’s an extra week of new comics. You can see the list of new manga out over at my On The Shelf article for Otaku USA.

The big titles out today are the long-awaited new volume of MPD Psycho from Dark Horse, and the seventeenth and final volume of Osamu Tezuka’s Black Jack from Vertical Inc. I may very well cry when I finish that one – it’s never easy when one of your favourites comes to an end!


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