Manga Xanadu

It’s a week until Christmas! Time to fill a manga lover’s stocking with their favorite titles! Only four publishers are offering new volumes this week. Kodansha has the second volume of Manga Dogs already. It feels like it just came out, and already volume 2 is out. Seven Seas Entertainment dumps the rest of their titles this week, including their first volume of their yuri series Citrus. They’ve really been pushing this one on social media. If you want Seven Seas to keep licensing yuri titles, then throw your support behind this one. The first volume of the second series of Dance In The Vampire Bund, Scarlet Order, also comes out. If you’ve been lamenting the end of the last series, lament no more! Vertical only has one volume, but it’s a big one. Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin Volume 8 hits the streets, and covers on of the bloodiest battles in the series. Viz Media releases a near handful of Signature titles. I knew Dorohedoro was still coming out, albeit slowly. Currently at volume 14, it’s coming up close to the end. I was really surprised to see that Afterschool Charisma was not only still going, but had reached volume…

Over in Japan, the top-selling manga series for 2014 has been published by Oricon. The list includes the top 30 titles and their sales numbers covering the dates from November 18, 2013 to November 16, 2014. Looking the list over, it’s pretty amazing how many of them have been licensed and are currently being released. Seventeen titles are current available, with the eighteenth, Tokyo Ghoul having just been announced by Viz Media at New York Comic Con in October: Rank Sales Title US Publisher 1 11,885,957 One Piece Viz 2 11,728,368 Attack on Titan Kodansha 4 6,946,203 Tokyo Ghoul Viz 6 5,505,179 Naruto Viz 8 4,657,971 Magi Viz 9 4,633,246 The Seven Deadly Sins Kodansha 10 4,622,108 Assassination Classroom Viz 12 4,295,257 Terra Formars Viz 16 3,816,372 Nisekoi Viz 17 3,275,885 Fairy Tail Kodansha 18 2,986,968 Bleach Viz 19 2,644,122 Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma Viz 23 2,397,887 Kimi ni Todoke Viz 24 2,394,263 Gintama Viz 25 2,380,774 Detective Conan Viz 26 2,289,738 Black Butler Yen Press 27 2,231,805 Noragami Kodansha 28 2,173,339 One-Punch Man Viz We will then have three of the top five titles and, and seven out of the top ten. That’s really not too bad. Should be…

Master Keaton is a series I have been wanting to read ever since I first heard about it. It is a reality based series that features an anthropologist as the protagonist! It’s a detective suspense series that just pushes it up higher in my esteem. Despite my hit and miss record with Urasawa, I loved Pluto, but didn’t care for 20th Century Boys and Monster, I have pre-ordered not jut the first volume, but the second as well. I really hope it lives up the hype I’ve been giving it.

Viz has some strong debuts and sales hitting the month of December. Assassination Classroom, and bundled sales of digital manga that makes catching up on some of the longer shonen titles not to hard to swallow hit this month. A new Jump Start title  hits this month as well that Takeshi Obata fans as well as Phoenix Wright/court room dramas will want to get out; Gakkyu Hotei: School Judgement. Gift certificates would make a great present.

Every week, Viz Media and the New York Times posts the top ten bestselling books. For Viz Media, it is the bestsellers on their site, Vizmanga.com. The New York Times gets their numbers of print sales from retailers. Offered here is a listing of these books with their status this week compared with the previous week, and some way-off analysis of the activity.   Vizmanga.com for the week of December 2, 2014 Vizmanga didn’t send out a top ten for the week.   New York Times Bestseller List for the week ending December 6, 2014 Naruto Vol 68     ∗ Attack on Titan Vol 1     ↑ 3 Monster Musume Vol 5     ↓ 2 Millenium Snow Vol 4     ∗ Black Butler Vol 1     ↵ 41 Food Wars Vol 3     ∗ Naruto Vol 67      ↑ 3 Attack on Titan Vol 14     ↓ 5 Attack on Titan: No Regrets Vol 2     ↔ Noragami Vol 1     ↵ 5 Viz Media has all the debuting titles this week, including the new top title. Naruto vol 68 pushes the monster girls from Monster Musume off their perch. It joins the previous Naruto, vol 67 to be the…

With their identities revealed, the Colossal Titan and Armored Titan kidnap Eren and Ymir and try to escape. The Survey Corps is on their tail though, led by Erwin, Commander of the Corps himself. It is another massacre, but they still escape with the help of a new ability exhibited by Eren. Back behind Wall Rose, Levi and Hange begin experimenting on Eren to learn his strength and weaknesses. But with the internal MPS under royal command on their trail, it becomes apparent more drastic measures will need to be taken to save humanity from annihilation. Attack on Titan Vol 11-13 By Hajime Isayama Publisher: Kodansha Comics Age Rating: Older Teen Genre: Fantasy/Horror Price: $10.99 Rating: The one thing I find frustrating about Attack on Titan is how well the story can continue to ask more questions about the mysteries of the world than it ever answers. These three volumes throw out lot of clues that only lead to asking more questions about what’s going on, tantalizing the reader with the possibilities of answers and then leaving them hanging. But the questions are so compelling that you have to keep coming back for more. Since the start of the series,…

I know everyone raves about Junji Ito, but I’ve found a lot of his work too far on the disturbing side. I don’t think I’ve been able to finish one of his titles, and I’m still haunted by Gyo‘s fish with metallic spider legs. **shudder**. It’s great that we’re getting this new collection of his so soon, but when are we gonna get his Cat Diary? I’ll bet that’s a series I can complete!

Several publishers have books coming out this week, just not a lot. Gen Manga Entertainment is back in the print game. Over the last couple of months they’ve been releasing books in print. This month it’s Stones of Power. The third volume of Attack on Titan Before the Fall, the manga adaptation of the second two light novels is out this week from Kodansha. I still want to see the first volume adapted. Vertical Comics has #2 volumes of Ajin and Witchcraft Works out, two titles that appear to be doing well for small publisher. Alice in Wonderland could almost be considered a genre on its own  with all the titles that have come out of Japan lately that are based, however loosely, on the original story. Seven Seas Entertainment jumped on that bandwagon with I Am Alice Body Swap In Wonderland, a gender-bending take on the story. If you like gender-bending stories, and aren’t completely burned out on Alice derivatives. In a different Wonderland, Deadman Wonderland, Viz Media finally surpasses the original Tokyopop releases and comes out with all new material with Volume 6. If you’ve been waiting for the rest of the story, it starts here.  Full list…

Shuiesha, the publisher of all the Shonen Jump titles released an app in Japan that allows 30 manga to be read for free. Some of these titles first run in Weekly Shonen Jump, and some in their mobile app Jump Live. This is all well and good for people living in Japan, but no so much for us here in the west. But that doesn’t mean we can’t wish. Going through the list, there are 5 titles that I would like to be able to read, or at least check out a few chapters or volumes. Rough Diamond: Manga Gakko ni Yokoso (Welcome to Manga School) – This series follows Yuuto Takatsuki, a high school boy who has already had a series published. Just as his series is ending, and he is looking forward to a normal high school, he helps out a fellow mangaka, and ends up missing one day of school too many, and isn’t able to pass his grade. Luckily, he’s offered a teaching position at a manga school. The principal will help me make his absenses disappear for teaching the class, but the only problem for Yuuto is that he has to teach students older than…

Just reading the description of this new series makes me think it’s a mash-up of Blue Exorcist and Nisekoi. But since it’s been licensed, it must have something going for it. Guess we’ll have to wait until next summer to find out.

Every week, Viz Media and the New York Times posts the top ten bestselling books. For Viz Media, it is the bestsellers on their site, Vizmanga.com. The New York Times gets their numbers of print sales from retailers. Offered here is a listing of these books with their status this week compared with the previous week, and some way-off analysis of the activity.   Vizmanga for the week of  November 25, 2014 Neon Genesis Evangelion Vol 14     ∗ Food Wars! Vol 4     ↓ 1 Future Diary Vol 8     ∗ Bleach Vol 62     ↑ 2 Kyo Kara MAOH! Vol 3     ∗ Nisekoi Vol 9     ∗ Trinity Blood Vol 10     ∗ Naruto Vol 67     ↓ 3 Naruto Vol 1     ↓ 5 One-Punch Man Vol 5     ↓ 8 Another debut title takes the top spot this week. Neon Genesis Evangelion finally finishes its decade and a half run to end at volume 14. Food Wars gets pushed back on spot, while Select title Future Diary‘s volume 8 debuts at #3. Other Select titles Kyo Kara MAOH! and Trinity Blood debut as well. One-Punch Man takes the deepest dive, falling 8 spots to land…

It’s that time of the year again, where you have to go shopping for the manga readers in your life, but have no idea what to get them. No worries, here’s just one more gift guide to give you ideas of what to buy for who. For suggestions from previous years (some titles maybe out of print or digital only), check out my guides from 2013, 2010, and 2009. Card Game Lover – The king of card game manga is Yu-Gi-Oh!, but it is far from the only title worth reading out there. Cardfight! Vanguard is from Vertical Comics and is about timid Aichi Sendou who knows all about the card game Vanguard, and even has a deck, but has never played. When his most prized card is stolen, he ventures into a card shop to battle for his card back. While some would call this series a derivative of Yu-Gi-Oh!, there are enough differences in character and plot to really veer it onto its own path. The emphasis on having fun and making friends eclipses the  more competitive aspects of playing games which I think is a good thing. There are currently 4 volumes available. Mystery/Thriller Lover – Everyone…