Manga Xanadu

Viz announced it at the party at San Diego Comic Con and on their twitter feed. Their digital manga is no longer held hostage in the i* world. You can now buy and read Viz’s digital manga online! Yes, you heard me! Everything they’ve been announcing that I’ve been ignoring because it’s only been for iOS users is now free to be enjoyed by everyone with access to a browser, so that includes mobile devices as well as PCs. As long as your device can run Adobe Flash Player, you’ve got manga in your pocket! This is the equality and freedom that manga needs to be really be successful in the digital realm. And Viz is doing it right. This month, all number 1 volumes are 40% off, which puts them at $2.99 a piece, and newer volumes are $4.99-$5.99.  This is about half the price of print manga which puts it in just the right range, especially since it can be accessed from anywhere, making it about as portable as you can get. What really makes this appealing though is the space issue. It’s one that’s been seriously on my mind for a while now. I NEED to let…

So, you’ve seen the movie Thor, and you hunger for more Norse Gods mischief, but you’re not looking for get buried in decades of superhero back log? Worry not my manga-mythology loving friend! There is a manga out there that does just that….it’s just not licensed.

Everything’s gone screwy at Takai Academy. When the crazy Headmaster forces Minagi’s entire class to study Einstein’s theory of relativity over summer school, Minagi volunteers to go in their place. There’s just one problems: he’s never even heard of relativity before! Luckily, Minagi has the plucky Miss Uraga to teach him.

Say hello to Kain, a shinigami clerk who records human life spans! Rinne’s father, Sabato, owes Kain’s mother a ton of money. As collateral, Kain takes something precious from Rinne. But when Sabato returns home to the scene, Rinne’s in a whole bunch of trouble!

Like a lot of people, I can’t keep up with all the titles I want to read, so some have to fall back and wait to be caught up on. Usually this isn’t a big deal. If it’s a recent series, within the last two years or so, and the publisher hasn’t gone under, or lost the license, catching up is usually as easy as getting online to Amazon or some other online retailer and ordering the missing volumes. In trying to do this though, I’ve run into some stumbling blocks, and it is absolutely perplexing to me as to why.

Shonen Jump may not have had a print issue for July, but the online manga had a monthly update just the same.

Would you know, just as I decide to start reading Maximum Ride again, it doesn’t show up in the magazine this month! But it’s absence is made up for with 2 chapters of Witch and Wizard. And then I didn’t even notice that Jack Frost wasn’t in the magazine last month, but it’s back this month with a new chapter not collected into a volume yet in Korea. So, Yen finally caught up to its releases in Korea. I guess it will become more sporatic. That’s okay though, since next month starts the serialization of a new adaptation, and it isn’t a James Patterson title! Gail Carriger’s Soulless, drawn by another former Tokyopop RSoM winner, Ren. Daniel X – Daniel finally defeats No. 5, but quickly learns there was more to him that just an electric alien catfish. Gathering all of the electronics in Hollingswood and destroying them in a decidedly non-environmental way makes his end final. Then No. 3 shows up to warn Daniel off, but that just makes him think he will definitely be his next target. The end of No. 5 was kind of anti-climatic, and I don’t know that I buy this one. No. 6 had…

The big but strangly never mentioned news for this issue of Shonen Jump is that it is not long a purely monthly magazine. Subscriptions cards in the mag advertise a yearly subscription as being 10 issues. And you’ll notice this issue covers June and July. Of course, nothing is mentioned in the magazine about this change or why. The obvious reason is cost. Cut out 2 issues (this isn’t any bigger a normal issue) and save printing costs. If there was any other reasons, Viz isn’t saying, since they’ve said nothing about the change. Maybe they were hoping no one would notice? The issue starts out with a video game feature, looks at the Nura anime and vol 3 of the manga, Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds trading card and strategy and the Reborn anime which has started streaming on Vizanime.com. The manga starts up with Psyren. Oboro, the famous actor goes on a TV show about Psyren, and nearly feels the wrath of Nemesis Q. He is saved by Elmore Tenjuin, the woman who put up the 500 million to solve the mystery of Psyren. Another player isn’t so lucky. Ageha’s training contiues to surprising results that Sakurako can’t explain, but the…

Saiyuki is among the first few manga I started to read. Having been a fan of the original Dragon Ball manga and knowing how it was based on the Chinese story Journey to the West, I was interested in seeing other takes on the story. While I came to Saiyuki for the story, I definitely stayed for hot guys. This title is a perfect blend of action, bishonen and angst, that it’s no wonder is was such a big hit with the ladies when it was released. By Kazuya Minekura Publisher: Tokyopop Age Rating: Older Teen Genre: Action/Fantasy Price: $9.99 Rating: The basic premise of Saiyuki is simple. In the land of Shangri-la, humans and demons known as youkai live together in peace. But the peace is threatened when someone attempts to resurrect Gyumaoh, a youkai known as the Ox King using a combination of demon magic and human science. The forbidden practice causes a Minus Wave of negative energy to spread across Shangri-la, and causing the youkai to lose their minds and attack humans. The gods summon a monk, Genjyo Sanzo, to travel to India in the west to find out who is attempting the revival and stop them….

One of the good things about Yen Plus is that it isn’t filled with a lot of articles about things I don’t care about. There aren’t color spreads of anime I don’t want to watch, video games I don’t play, or ads for devices I don’t and will never own. It’s just all about the manga. The ads in the magazine are all in-house for YP titles. I don’t have to skip a lot of articles to get to the good stuff. And there is a lot of good stuff in this month’s manga. Maximum Ride – I may have to re-evaluate my stand on this series. Things seemed to have taken an interesting turn, and I may start reading it again. If the major angst is over. This chapter has Max faced off against Max 2.0. It was a battle set up by Jed to see who was stronger. Original Max won, but defied her “programming” by refusing to kill Max 2.0. An explosion gives the flock the cover they need to escape. Jed is given an ultimatum from his higher-ups; the flock must be eliminated before their “New world Order” plan can go into effect. The whole NWO…

Two new Shonen Jump Advanced titles are featured in this new Mini Musings, neither of which really float my boat. Keep reading to find out why.

When a high-ranking government official is kidnapped, the Prime Minister must call in his top crime fighting force know as Section 9. Lead by the beautiful (and deadly) Major Kusanagi, the cybernetically enhanced squad must use all their skill to take down the kidnappers and rescue the hostages. But that’s only half of the mission; can Kusanagi and company find out who’s behind the kidnapping, and, more importantly, just what they’re after?