Manga Xanadu

Wow. I thought I was stretching it last week. This week there is hardly any manga being released. Kodansha and Viz Media are about the only companies with anything coming out, and barely any at that. So let’s spotlight some related-but-not-manga titles. Kodansha releases the first to 2 books about Attack on Titan. Attack on Titan Guidebook: Inside and Outside is a look behind the scenes of the manga and anime. At nearly 400 pages, it features interviews with creator Hajime Isayama, his editor and staff of the anime adaptation, concept art from both the manga and anime, and an exhaustive guide to the characters and world of Attack on Titan. There is even a papercraft kit to make your own Colossal Titan head! This is a must for any Attack on Titan fan. Vertical, Inc. isn’t just a manga publisher. They also print novels, so it’s of no surprise that their leap onto the Attack on Titan bandwagon was to get the light novel series, Attack on Titan Before the Fall. This first novel is a prequel not only to the Attack on Titan series, but also to the manga of the same name as well. This first novel…

Yen Press has really been piling on the licences lately, both in manga and light novels. One of each was just announced and confirmed in the last couple of weeks. The one manga was announced on Twitter. Karneval follows the mysterious young boy Nai, who knows nothing but his name and Karoku. With only Karoku’s bracelet from “Circus,” he goes in search of Karoku. He is helped by an older boy Gareki and after an incident, they are recruited by the National Defense Agency Circus. As they travel, searching for Karoku, they meet new people and find new opportunities along the way. A lot of people were excited for this license when it was announced. There was an anime that aired last year, which was streamed and licensed by Funimation. I’m not really seeing anything from the description that excites me, but that’s nothing new. This is a title I will have to wait and see. It is currently 13 volumes and is scheduled for release in March 2015. Adding to their YenOn imprint is So, I Can’t Play H!, a romantic comedy light novel series. This one follows Ryuosuke Kaga, a high school student who is both a hopeless romantic…

Viz Media continues to push the boundaries of digital manga and simultaneous release with their new Jump Start initiative. WSJ readers will get essentially sneak peaks at new titles the same time as Japanese readers, titles that could potentially become regular titles in the English edition. Sports, Sci-Fi crime thriller and sports medicine manga will start the program. It will be interesting to see how well the more niche titles do. VIZ MEDIA’S “JUMP START” INITIATIVE TO DELIVER ENGLISH DIGITAL PREMIERES OF BRAND NEW WEEKLY SHONEN JUMP MANGA SERIES ON THE SAME DAY OF JAPANESE DEBUT Digital Publishing Campaign Eliminates Time And Distance Barriers To Offer International Fans The Opportunity To Sample Hot New Manga Titles; New Series JUDOS Launches Today!   San Francisco, CA, September 8, 2014 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), the largest publisher, distributor and licensor of manga and anime in North America, generates additional synergy between its English language WEEKLY SHONEN JUMP digital manga magazine and the original Japanese print counterpart with the launch of the new “Jump Start” initiative. WEEKLY SHONEN JUMP is the world’s premiere manga brand and leading international weekly manga magazine. Moving forward, VIZ Media will simultaneously premiere the first three chapters…

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 didn’t post at top ten this week, so no activity from them. However, I did discover I missed a month of the Nielson Book Scan Top 20 for July, so I will include it as well as August.   New York Times Bestseller List for the week ending September 6, 2014. Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds Vol. 6     ∗ One Piece Vol. 72     ∗ Attack on Titan Vol. 13      ↓ 2 Nisekoi! False Love Vol. 5     ∗ Pokemon Adventures Vol. 24     ∗ Time Killers: Kazue Kato Short Story Collection     ∗ Monster Musume Vol. 4     ↓ 4 Skip Beat Vol. 33     ∗ Attack on Titan Vol. 1     ↓ 4 High School DxD Vol. 2     ↓ 6 Viz Media, which had been purged from the list last…

Over the last few weeks Crunchyroll manga has been busy adding new titles to their growing library. Three of the titles are traditional manga, and three are part of their “Manga 2.5” line, which I would recommend avoiding, but your mileage may vary. The Kawaii Complex Guide to Manors and Hostel Behavior is published by Shonengahosha in their magazine Young King Ours. It follows Usa, a boy who starts living on his own when his parents move for work. His residence is filled with eccentrics and perverts, but so does his crush, Ritsu. This series is a rom-com that has 5 volumes and is ongoing. It also has an anime that just streamed on Crunchyroll in the spring. The current chapter is now up, and new chapters will be added monthly. No word yet on when/if previous chapters will be available. The inclusion of the description “perverts” is enough to turn me off from this series. The Legend of Onikirimaru sounds much more like my kind of title. It is published by Leeds Publishing in the magazine Sengoku Bushou Retsuden. A demon boy with no horns or name wields the blade Onikirimaru, the Demon Slayer. He is fated to kill…

Mei Tachibana has always been a loner. In her 16 years, she has never had a friend or a boyfriend. She doesn’t talk to anyone at school, and is teased mercilessly. All that starts to change when she catches the eye of the popular Yamato, who decides she will be his girlfriend. Mei doesn’t know what to think of Yamato, or if she can trust him, but she does think she might be falling in love with him. Say I Love You Volume 1-2 By Kanae Hazuki Publisher: Kodansha Comics Age Rating: Older Teen Genre: Romance Price: $10.99USD Rating: Say I Love You has the all too familiar premise of the popular boy taking a liking to the most unpopular girl, but this series succeeds with its quirky yet relatable characters and a realistic look at the problems teens face in high school. Mei Tachibana is a loner. Betrayed by those she thought were her friends in elementary school, Mei turns her back on friends and friendship, and relies on herself. She is strong-willed and speaks her mind when she thinks it’s called for which can get her into scuffles. Her dislike of her fellow students and the cliques they…

This last week at Baltimore Comic Con, the Harvey Awards were held. Like the Eisners, the Harveys honor the best in comics and sequential art. Unlike the Eisners, the Harveys are nominated and voted on by the comic professionals themselves. It’s about creators honoring other creators for their work. While the awards center mostly around American comics, manga does get a nod in the “Best American Edition of Foreign Material” category. This year, three manga got nods: Attack on Titan by Hajime Isayama and published by Kodansha Comics, Sunny by Taiyo Matsumoto and published by Viz Media, and Showa: A History of Showa Japan by Shigeru Mizuki and published by Fantagraphics. All three titles have their merits. Attack on Titan, while sorely lacking the art department has a compelling story and interesting characters, things that have made it a huge franchise both in Japan and here in the States. Volume 1 of the series has been on the New York Times Bestseller List for almost 70 consecutive weeks. Sunny is a semi-autobiographical slice of life story about several kids living at the Star Kids Home orphanage, and one of the few constant things in their life is the old yellow Sunny…

It’s a slow release week this week, so it’s all about the titles I want to catch up on, but other shinies keep distracting me! Kodansha has picked up the pace lately by adding many titles I want to read. I’ve read the first volume of Sherlock Bones and did enjoy it, but 2-4 have been languishing on the shelf waiting for me to pick them up. With the release of volume 7, the final volume, I may as well just wait and read the whole rest of the series in one go! Seven Deadly Sins vol 4 comes out this week, adding to another growing stack of unread shonen. I have a lot of those I keep meaning to wheedle down, but then things like new Attack on Titan volumes come out and I’m off after the shiny things again. Viz Media is my usual point and click into a virtual basket, but this week there is only one title that I am of course woefully behind on. 07-Ghost vol 12 comes out this week, bringing the series only 5 volumes from finishing, and me 7 volumes behind. At least it has an end in sight and I unlike so many shonen titles….

Yen Press has confirmed, thanks to some Amazon listings, that they have two more Puella Magi Madoka Magica spin-off titles: Puella Maki Oriko Magica: Extra Story and Puella Magi Tart Magica: The Legend of Jeanne d’Arc. This news makes me very happy since I’ve really come to enjoy the Magica spin offs. I didn’t like Puella Magi Oriko Magica initially, but the second volume redeemed any doubt I had at the beginning. Oriko’s story gets to continue now with a  “what if” side story. This new story asks, what if Oriko had met Yuma Chitose before she gained her vision of the end of the world? Would she still have used and manipulated the girl in order to reach her own ends of trying to stop the end of the world? I didn’t find Yuma interesting in the main series, but I am curious to see what Mura Kuroe, the artist of the main Oriko series, comes up with this time. The series is one volume and is scheduled to be released in March of 2015 Puella Magi Tart Magica is a spin-off from the main series, and takes tidbit that was thrown out, that Joan of Arc was a…

Viz Media has plenty of digital manga ending and beginning this month, even a few surprises for their VIZ Select imprint. They are seriously mining the Tokyopop catalog, and from their weekly top tens, it’s been doing alright for them. I might even check out their newest acquisition. Find out what it is and more after the break!

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 August 26, 2014 Food Wars Vol. 3     ↔ Chibi Vampire Vol. 12     ∗ JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 3 Vol. 15     ∗ JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 3 Vol. 16     ∗ Future Diary Vol. 5     ∗ D • N • Angel Vol. 12     ∗ Fate/Stay Night Vol. 8     ∗ One Punch Man Vol. 4     ↓ 6 St. Lunatic High School Vol. 1     ∗ Trinity Blood Vol. 4     ∗ Digital-only titles absolutely dominate this week with new volumes and some new titles. Only two titles survived from last week, Food Wars and One Punch Man. JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 3 finishes its release just in time for Part 1 to start. Maybe we’ll be seeing a triple-tap next week. St. Lunatic High School is another Tokyopop…

Over the Labor Day weekend that traditionally ends Summer for most kids (though may schools start in August now), Yen Press announced several titles for both their new Yen On imprint of light novels and their regular manga line. Included in this license bonanza was both the manga and light novel series of Log Horizon and The Devil is a Part-Timer, the light novel series No Game No Life, Pandora Hearts Caucus Race, and the manga version of the Disney movie Big Hero 6. Log Horizon started in 2010 and follows the very familiar premise of 30,000 Japanese gamers being trapped in a fantasy online game world called Elder Tale. The story follows Shiroe, Naotsugu and Akasuki, three friends, as they band together to survive their new reality. Yeah, this screams Sword Art Online to me. But it seems to be doing well enough as it now has seven volumes out and 2 manga adaptation. Yen will publish the first light novel in March 2015. And speaking of manga series, Yen did announce the manga adaptation, just not which one. Though best bet would be on the straight adaptation Log Horizon. No date were announced for the manga. Like most…