Manga Xanadu

Worried that she’s been far too lenient with Lupin, Suguri starts him on a strict training regimen.  But then Lupin disappears, and Suguri blames herself.  When standard search methods fail, it’s time for some creative problem solving.  With a little luck and a little talent she just might be able to find her precious pooch! By Yukiya Sakuragi Publsiher: Viz Media Rating: Teen+ Genre: Slice of life Price: $9.99 Rating: Lupin runs away during a thunder-storm, and jumps into a moving truck just as its finished packing.  Lupin is whisked away from Suguri, who has been searching for him.  Arriving in another perfecture (county), Lupin has his own set of adventures as he tries to find his way home.  Suguri, devastated by Lupin’s disappearance, goes to any extreme to find him. I want to be honest here. I’m not a big dog person. I don’t mind having one around, but I’m much more of a cat person. This preference seems to have colored my view of this manga, as I just didn’t care for it. Not because it was badly done, I just wasn’t interested in the dogs or their owners. Neither the characters nor dogs really endeared themselves to…

Pokémon: Diamond and Pearl Adventure! Volume 1 By Ihara Shigekatsu Publisher: Viz Media Genre: Action/Adventure Rating: All Ages Price: $7.99 Rating: Storyline: Hareta, a ten-year-old boy who has been living in the wild for four years, starts his journey with Mitsumi, who is Rowan’s assistant. Hareta accidentally woke a sleeping Onix and sends out Piplup, though not in a ‘friendly’ action. Onix calmed down after many attempts to stop Onix without Piplup. Then, the day after, it seems that Hareta has reached Piplup’s heart with his attempts to stop the same Onix, who seems to be under a spell. After bringing it to it’s senses, Hareta, Mitsumi and Piplup start their journey to reach the legendary Pokemon, Dialga! What I liked about it: Everything about it, actually. The way Hareta was eating Piplup on accident was funny and, all the chapters after it were hilarious, as Hareta throws Piplup’s ball far off, into trees, into a lake, and possibly more. Also, in the second chapter, “Hareta’s Very First Pokemon Battle!!”, he flings it into an uncomfortable spot for both the camera man and Piplup. It was pure funny, especially because of the fact that it’s on TV. Could you make…

In 1985, there came Vampire Hunter D, an orginal video animation, adapted from a novel by Hideyuki Kikuchi, about a world overrun by vampires and the vampire hunters who sought to bring them under control. It became a classic, not just because it is one of the best animated vampire movies around, but because of the compelling story, interesting visual style and wonderful characters. Now, Saiko Takaki is bringing Hideyuki Kikuchi’s novels to the printed page. To date, there have been 17 novels featuring D and the world of the far, dark future and hopefully, all of them will be manga-ized. Hideyuki Kikuchi’s Vampire Hunter D Manga Volume 1 Adapted & Illustrated by Saiko Takaki Publisher: Digital Manga Publishing Age Rating: Young Adult 16+ Genre: Horror Price: $12.95 Rating: In the far future of 12,090 A.D., mankind has ruined the planet. Through nuclear attacks and pollution, mutants have arisen, including the return of supernatural creatures like vampires and werewolves. It is the vampires, incredibly, that actually save mankind and return order to the world where they reign as nobles for more than 5000 years. However, the nobles have largely become corrupt and decadent over the years, living in luxury and…

This week manga celebrates six months of manga news, views and reviews! I can’t believe how quickly the time has passed! I hope everyone has found our reviews useful and enjoyable to read. It’s a smaller celebration this week. We start this week with John Thomas’s review of Haridama: Magic Cram School from Del Rey. Rather appropriate as it’s the end of the school year, and lots of students are probably cramming. Charles Tan then gives us a look at Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service Volume 6 from Dark Horse. Then I let the dogs out with Inubaka Volume 8 from Viz. They were barking up a storm anyway. Over in the columns, we’ve got our weekly picks. It’s shojo week with all the Viz titles as well as a few sprinkled around the other publishers. Come check out if we recommend any.

In the article by Publisher’s Weekly, and picked up by AnimeonDVD.com, Tokyopop has pulled out of it’s exhibit space at the San Diego Comic Con. Some might see this as another sign of them going down. I see it as another smart move. Exhibit space has no doubt become very expensive at Comic Con International, as it’s at a premium. The Exhibit Hall (aka Dealer’s room as it was once called many, many moons ago), now takes up the entire convention hall first level. And the space Tokyopop has been getting for the last few years was an entire block, enough to fit at least 10 vendors in, but they weren’t doing anything really productive with this space. Maybe 1/4 of it was used for a local vendor to seel books (not them), the other 3/4’s was used for computers to log into their website (last year) and hold autograph sessions with their creators. For the money that they must have been pouring in, that’s not a very effective use of the space, if you ask me. Now, just because they pulled out of the Exhibit Hall, does that mean they won’t show up at the convention? Hardly. San Diego…

Jumping on the bandwagon once again, I’ll throw in another 2 cents about Tokyopop. No ranting this time though. I think this is a good move for Tokyopop. Attention can be divided up properly, and well as investment. Tokyopop has alway tried to be on the cutting end of bring manga to new technologies, something I wholeheartedly believe in. But, I think these new digital mediums may have been distracting to the publishing side, and the publishing may even have been at odds with the digital side. Separating the two may help both grow without having to worry what the other is thinking or may do to stop them. I think the reduction of releases is also a good idea. Quality is always better than quantity, and Tokyopop seemed to be doing the latter. I did some number crunching of TP titles at the end of 2007, and in just a 5 month period, they had 212 releases, with 37 new titles and 34 titles ending. About 1/6th of their titles monthly were either starting or ending. A lot of these titles were mediocre and short. As has been mentioned elsewhere, TP doesn’t have access to the super hot titles….

In case you missed it the first time around, Bookcloseouts.com has another sale on Tokyopop books. They range in 50%-75% off, but most of the books I’ve looked at are 60% off. That’s still only $3.99 a book. It’s a steal if there are some older titles that you’ve been thinking about getting. My suggestions: Pet Shop of Horrors Genju no Seiza Dragon Voice Dragon Knights Vampire Game Crescent Moon Planetes RG Veda – For Clamp Fans Clamp no Kisenki – For Clamp Fans Comic Party That should be a good start. Some of those series are only the first couple of volumes. For others, you can get a near complete run! The books are in good shape with maybe just a black mark on the bottom of the books to mark them for closeout. I couldn’t find an expiration date for this sale, but the last one was for a month, so I’m gonna guess the same for this one. On an unrelated note, but I wanted to point out that Walmart and Amazon.com has the One Piece Season One Uncut Collection for only $22.00. That’s half off the regular price! It’s only for half a season (13 episodes),…