Now that I’ve admitted that I have a problem, it’s time to take the next step. Cut down the number of titles I buy. To do this, I first made a list of my manga in order of priority. What titles I would get no matter what. What titles I would get when the first list didn’t have any coming out, the titles I could take or leave and then the titles that I could drop. Do everything in moderation, even reduction, right? Once I had my list, I then had to come up with a criteria by which to apply it. I decided I would get between $50-$60 worth of books. If felt this was the best way to go, since releases tend to fluctuate from month to month. I also wasn’t going to count the manga other people in the house bought (ie, the 2 titles my oldest daughter reads, and the 3 my husband gets). So, now I have my list and my limit. I then turned to the Previews catalog, the harbinger of happiness and dread. I actually started this with last month’s order, but it wasn’t so hard. There were only 12 titles total, one…
Bandai Visual USA has announced that it will release the anime version of Haruka ~Beyond the Stream of Time. This is both good and bad. The good is that a shojo anime series has been licensed. There aren’t a lot of shojo anime out there, and with the manga version of this story being released in Viz’s Shojo Beat, a tie-in should help sales. Readers who like Haruka should check it out when it comes out. I do encourage people to check out the anime versions of manga they like. Especially a short series like this. Haruka is only 26 episodes long. Seeing the characters move and hearing them speak really adds another dimension to the story. I’ll admit that, while I usually end up preferring the manga to the anime, I have never regretted watching the anime. The bad thing about this is that Bandai Visual USA got it. If you aren’t familiar with anime, then you should know that Bandai Visual has a reputation for high priced volumes for less content. And it looks like this release isn’t going to be much different. According to Anime on DVD, this release of Haruka will be subbed only, and will…
According to ANN, ADV is discontinuing Newtype USA. No reason why, just that a “new, unnamed” magazine will take it’s place. To be honest, I’m not going to miss Newtype USA. Of all the anime/manga magazines out there, this one had the greatest potential that was completely wasted by ADV. But then, that’s no surprise either. I remember the excitement at the news that Newtype would be coming to the US in an english form. Newtype was the bible to anime back in the day (and I mean the 80’s when I say that). Getting a version here was awesome news to the anime fan. And then…ADV got a hold of it. It became a big, glossy ad for ADV advertisers, and not the premiere magazine on anime that it should have been. Up until this year, there was no anime/manga magazine that I thought was worth my time. Anime Insider, from Wizard, it just another Wizard magazine cosplaying. There aren’t any real reviews and nothing bad is said about the advertisers products. Protoculture Addicts…it was a nice fanzine, but really lost it when it became a published magazine. I just don’t feel I can trust what’s said in it,…
Just off the presses from ANN and Comipress, Seven Seas/Tor has just confirmed that they have licensed Inukami!. This is a manga series based on Mamizu Arisawa’s light novel series of the same name. I found out about this series through a podcast I listen to, Anime Pulse, where it was reviewed. It’s a comedy/romance in the vein of Urusei Yatsura, only much more risque. It’s about a boy named Keita who comes from a family of Inukami (dog diety) tamers and who is also a letch, in the tradition of Ataru. Yoko, the Inukami he makes a contract with, decides she doesn’t like that, and wants to be Keita’s girlfriend, and not just Inukami. She has a fire attack that she hits him with, as well as the ability to transport instantly, which she does to him, minus his clothes. The anime was hysterical, and I was following the manga through scanalation, since I didn’t think *ANYONE* would *EVER* license it. But then, here comes Seven Seas, with their new buddy Tor, going and making ANOTHER series I now have to buy. I picked the wrong year to cut down on manga…
Hi. My name is Lori, and I’m addicted to manga. It started innocently. It was 2002. My husband and I were in a comic book store, and I was looking for some new series to pick up. There, I discovered Dragon Knights, a series Tokyopop was publishing in comic form. It was fun and I love dragons anyway. It lasted 6 issues before Tokyopop abandoned the comic form and went to publishing in graphic novel form, unflipped. I of course, followed the change in format since I wanted to follow the story. And thus was my addiction born. Why do I think I’m addicted to manga? Let me explain. I was looking at the numbers for Tokyopop’s releases for a small blog I keep there, and on a whim decided to look at how much manga I purchased over the year. My husband is always complaining I had too much manga, and I just brushed it off. Until I looked at the numbers myself. For the year 2007, I ordered 156 volumes of manga through Previews. I purchased another 47 from amazon.com, Deepdiscount.com and other sources. So that’s 203 volumes I purchased throughout the year. 25 of those volumes were…
The Kindle has been getting a lot of press lately. It was feature on the cover of Newsweek, it’s back ordered because of the demand, but is it really all that the hype is making it out to be? And what’s this going to mean to manga and other j-media? The Kindle is Amazon’s entry into ebooks. Since Amazon sells books, this seems to make sense. The Kindle uses a new technology know as “electronic paper”. It uses black ink, in a way similar to an etch-a-sketch, to electronically charge the ink so that it clings to the screen. This gives the appearance and readability of paper without the flicker or glare of a computer screen. It has wireless connectivity that makes getting books and other files fast and easy. No need to search for a WiFi hotspot. Anywhere Sprint service is available, so is your Kindle. You can buy and download books from the Amazon Kindle Store with the keypad at the bottom of the reader. It comes with an account and email address for your purchases and correspondence. You can also download magazines and daily newspapers, so no more paper cluttering your house or needing recycling. It can…
Shojo Beat, the sister anthology magazine to Shonen Jump has been going through a lot of changes lately. Of the six manga that started the magazine, only two remain. The rest were graduated out for one reason or another. But, with the line up they’ve got now, I think the magazine has finally found a good balance of titles that really make it shine. To start off the December issue of Shojo Beat, we are treated to a preview of a new manga; High School Debut. Reading the short description didn’t enthuse me to the title. A girl just starting in high school wants to get a boyfriend, so she finds another guy to coach her. Blah. I really wasn’t interested in another “girl wants boyfriend like in manga” story. But, as usual, I read the preview anyway, and was pleasantly surprised. Haruna, the heroine, wasn’t too annoying in her pursuit to bag a boy. But it was Yoh, the boy who knows just what a boy will like in a girl, that really endeared me to this preview. He has a sharp tongue and really doesn’t care what people think. He reminds me a lot of Kiri from Beauty…
(Originally posted on Popculture Shock) Rin Amami is a regular middle school student—regular, that is, except for his gruff, gravelly voice. Though his classmates tell him he sounds like Godzilla or a toad, Rin has a secret dream: he wants to sing. He has an idol’s looks, and can pick up any dance style after seeing it once, but his voice crushes any attempts to go after that dream. While working on a street corner selling pictures of pop stars and taking dance requests, he literally runs into The Beatmen, an up-and-coming boy band. He becomes entangled with the group when the owner of Red Shoes, The Beatmen’s agency, declares that Rin possesses the legendary “Dragon Voice,” possessing the qualities of both a demon and an angel. Boss is determined to prove that Rin that will blend with The Beatmen’s already balanced sound, and adds Rin to the group. Dragon Voice Volumes 1-7 By Yuriko Nishiyama Publisher: Tokyopop Age Rating: Teen Genre: Music Price: $9.99 Rating: So begins Rin and The Beatmen’s rocky journey to become idols in Japan’s cutthroat entertainment industry. Their career gets off to a rocky start after The Beatmen lose a bet to a rival band,…
I really shouldn’t be surprised. This certainly isn’t the first time I’ve been disappointed with Tokyopop. But this really shouldn’t have been *that* hard. What am I talking about? The touted “12 days of Manga Holiday”, they were doing on the website. They just couldn’t finish it, with just two days left to go. Did they not have this planned out? Did all the programmers go and vacation and no one told the interns what to do? Do they just don’t care? More and more I’m feeling it’s the last. Either that or they just keep trying to do *too* much and everything gets dropped. Oh well. Merry Christmas anyway. Edit: Well, Tokyopop did finally manage to update their page, not that they told anyone… The eleventh day was an mp3 of some sort. Couldn’t find out from what. Some imanga no doubt. And the twevlth day was the first volume of Dramacon.
“On the Tenth day of Christmas, Tokyopop gave to me…more avatars!” By popular request it seems, Tokyopop has created two more of their holiday avatars. These two are from Dramacon and Fools Gold. You can grab them know at the Tokyopop website along with the previous avatars. Collect the whole set! Once again, these will be available for the weekend. Check back again Monday, after 5pm PST here or Tokyopop.com to see the next gift. We’re down to the last two days. Let’s hope Tokyopop makes them worth it.
ANN has reported that two new anime series’ for the spring have been announced that are based on manga; Golgo 13 by Takao Saito and To Love-Ru -Trouble- by Saki Hasemi and Kentaro Yabuki. Manly men can rejoice that one of their idols is finally getting his own series. Golgo 13 is about an amoral assassin that takes on assignments from all over the globe. This series started in the 1960’s, and is still published today. It’s 147th volume was published on December 5 in Japan. Duke Togo, code name Golgo 13, is a crack shot and a magnet for the ladies. He can pop off a target in one panel and then score with a beautiful woman in the next. Few men are more manly than Golgo 13. But for all his manliness, Golgo 13 has never had his own series. He’s only had a live action movie and 2 animated movies. Finally, he gets to come into his own. Viz Media has published 12 volumes of Golgo 13’s adventures under their Viz Signature line. To Love-Ru -Trouble- is a sci-fi romance comedy drawn by Kentaro Yabuki, best known here for his Black Cat series, also being published by…
“On the Ninth day of Christmas, Tokyopop gave to me…another iManga mp3!” This is from Riding Shotgun again, Make Ya Self by Far East Movement. You’ve only got 24 hours to get it, so go to Tokyopop.com now and download it! It’ll be gone by 5pm PST tomorrow (12/21/07). Check back here or Tokyopop.com for the next present!