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New books! My commentary here on Kuriousity is limited to “buy them!” but it might have something to do with the giant stack of books I bought from the last couple weeks that begs to be read right now. The full list is available as per yay-manga-comes-out-weekly usual over at my On The Shelf article for Otaku USA.
Yesterday I celebrated my birthday and there are few things I ever want more than the opportunity for more books. The manga publishing world responded (not intentionally of course, but I’ll think it so!) by having this week be an extra large bulk of titles. Hurray! You can see the full list – which includes over 30 individual releases – at my weekly On The Shelf article for Otaku USA.
My top pick of the week has to go to Viz Media‘s Kaze Hikaru (Vol.20). We need to wait a year between volumes and it’s a real shame when this series is so, so charming and well drawn. Kodansha Comics‘ Sailor Moon (Vol.06) is one of those no brainer purchases because it’s wonderful and this particular volume introduces the outer Guardians, Neptune and Uranus, which introduces a whole new layer of intrigue and classiness. For something new, I’ll be looking out for Seven Seas‘ first volume of Lizzie Newton: Victorian Mysteries. I really liked their release of Young Miss Holmes so I hope this one is similar. These and so many others this week to whatever extent my wallet can support!
Holy mangaful shelves it’s August already… On that stunning note in regards to the passing of time, this week’s On The Shelf article marks it’s first year anniversary! I’ve really enjoyed writing it every week and hope to keep doing so as long as I keep creating my own shopping lists for new printed manga. Which of course we hope will be a long, long time :)
This week there are new books from Dark Horse, Kodansha Comics and Yen Press. My top pick goes to the newest volume of 13th Boy, because magical pretty boy cactus love interest! Yup.
The recent lull of Kuriousity updates extended over to my On The Shelf article as well, but worry not curious list-seekers and manga-buyers (because I’m quite sure you were beside yourselves) – this week’s On The Shelf is a double-dose edition collecting what’s new and recent from last week and today!
My does-want-must-haves of this shipping stack include the first volume of Project-H‘s Velvet Kiss, Vertical Inc‘s classy looking one-shot, Sakuran, Viz Media’s new 20th Century Boys and the tenth volume of Black Butler from Yen Press.
There is lots of diversity this week as seven publishers all step up to the shipping plate to deliver their goods tomorrow (be here now, Wednesday-goodness!). While there are more volumes I’d put on must-buy lists than books I wouldn’t, exceptionally notables for me include Fantagraphic‘s Wandering Son (Vol.03), SuBLime‘s Awkward Silence and Seven Seas‘ Jack the Ripper: Hell Blade (Vol.01).
You can read the complete list of books shipping this week over at the usual place, Otaku USA’s On The Shelf article by yours truly.
First let me take a moment to say that Animaritime 2012 went amazingly. Huzzah for local cons! I really had a lot of fun and my panels were a blast as always (I think this year might’ve been the best yet!). A quick hello to readers new and returning who I spoke with at Animaritime – you guys all rock :)
One of few downsides to being buried up to your nose in convention work though is missing the opportunity to go out shopping for the very material you seek to promote. In my case, of course, that’s manga, and this week’s shipping list is a painful reminder how behind I am. Strange Adventures I am coming for you!
Viz Media takes home the manga-cake this week with their long shipping lists. Along with a whole bunch of continuing titles (including another Bakuman and two more of Bleach already!), they’re also debuting a new shoujo – Jiu Jiu. You can read the full list of titles out this week and my thoughts on some of them over at my weekly On The Shelf article for Otaku USA.
This week has some very, very, very pretty manga coming out. Yen Press is the big winner this week in that regard for their complete series, omnibus release editions of Alice in the Country of Hearts and the gorgeous one-shot, Olympos.
Other notables of the week include the first volume of Kodansha Comics‘ Attack on Titan and the final volume of Digital Manga‘s Kizuna. You can see the full list of titles shipping out this week at my On The Shelf article for Otaku USA.
Some sad news and good news makes up this Super Savings’ post today. I was recently contacted by the owner of Totally Manga, a store dedicated entirely to selling manga. How I wish I could’ve seen that! Unfortunately they’ve needed to close up shop and that means getting rid of the last of their stock. Sad news indeed :(
The good news in this, however, is it that it means huge savings for online buyers. Much to my personal sadness, this sale is for US-buyers only (Edit: shipping options have been updated for Canadian and International buyers) but the deals are too great for me not to share with all Kuriousity’s American readers. This is especially true if you’re a BL fan – Totally Manga a fair variety of titles but predomiantly boys’ love, and notably from the English BL giant Digital Manga, including light novels and out of print titles. Many, many to choose from!
The best part? Every single volume is only $5.00/US! Free shipping is also offered on orders over $100. Quantities are limited, of course, so if you’re curious pop over there now and take a look. Buy lots of amazing, shiny books in my place because I can’t okay? Enjoy!
Added note: Doesn’t the website have the best colour scheme ever? Sort of reminds me of something… hmm…
Good ‘ol Wednesday, a day of new comics and once it’s over you’ve survived the hub of the work week (if you work the Mon-Fri beat anyway). My manga highlights of the week seemed to err on the dark side but rest assured there are some happy gems in the batch. Of course dark manga doesn’t mean it isn’t still highly entertaining. But enough of my ramblings -you can read the list of manga volumes shipping this week over at Otaku USA’s On The Shelf article.
Swag Bag time! Below are some of my thoughts of books I’ve purchased in the past two weeks (and love very, very much). As always these books were purchased at my local comic shop, Strange Adventures.
My favourite buy of recent weeks was the final volume of Ouran High School Host Club (Vol.18). I couldn’t even wait to get home to read it so I was quick to find a place to sit down and enjoy. It was a fantastic ending, probably one of the best I’ve ever actually read in manga series, especially a shoujo. I plan to go into it in more detail in an upcoming review, but in summary – yay! Though I’m really sad there’s no more to read.
Also from Viz Media this week were the first two volumes of their Bleach speed-up. Despite some pleadings from my wallet, I simply couldn’t leave volume 41 on the shelf when I was walking away with volume 40, so both it was! I enjoyed these together more than I have Bleach in a while and having two volumes at once I think played a big role in that. You can read more of my thoughts in my recent duo-review of the volumes.
Hopping back on a different shonen train, I purchased Toriko (Vol.09). It’s still one of my favourite on-going series right now which I never would have expected when I first came across it. It feels so reminiscent of Dragonball, including Komatsu who ups his adorable and toughing-it-out points in this new volume. On the flipside, I bought Dawn of the Arcana (Vol.04) which is a series I thought I would really like but it has yet to click with me. Volume four is it! If I don’t get into it after this, then I’m done with this iffy shoujo series.
With one series over and three others continuing, I sought something brand new by buying Puella Nagi Magica Madoka (Vol.01) from Yen Press. I haven’t seen the anime but heard the story was really good. The manga didn’t live up to my expectations, but I can see it being worth exploring further in some format at least. I wrote and posted a review on my Madoka thoughts last week.
Catching my eye was an older title from UDON Entertainment – Evyione Ocean Fantasy (Vol.01). Even knowing their track record for continuing manhwa past a first volume is horrendous, I couldn’t help but buy it. It’s a retelling of the Little Mermaid story except the mermaid is a gorgeous mysterious merman and the prince is instead, you guessed it, a princess. I really like what I read here but I won’t hold my breath for getting volume two.
And then it was boys’ love time! Two new Digital Manga titles arrived in-store, which is always a surprise since you never know for sure when their books will ship. Both titles were by Kazuma Kadoka – Kizuna (Vol.06) and Bad Teacher’s Equation (Vol.04). I was a little disappointed to see that the Kizuna volume was only a single, where all the others released by DMP were omnibus. Nothing that can be done when that’s all that’s left though. I’ll miss the series now that it’s over – it’s a true BL classic. Bad Teacher’s Equation as a series is so silly – I have fun reading it so I’m glad there are still a few volumes left to go.
And in non-manga buying news, but something that still overlaps a lot with the fandom, I purchased the second Avatar the Last Airbender: The Promise graphic novel from Dark Horse. As a big fan of ATLA, I adore these graphic novels for reading so much like the original series (very amusing dialogue, for one) and for being drawn by the very talented, GuruHiru.
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