Manga Xanadu

Kadokawa has been trying to penetrate the US manga market on its own for a while now. Back in 2014, they released their Comic Walker app that was supposed to update with chapters of manga to read for free, but never went anywhere after a while. Now, it seems they are set to try again, with their new commerce site, Book Walker. They seem to be making interesting promises. The one that sticks out most to me is epub downloads. Most of the titles in English are already available, mostly from Viz Select. We’ll have to wait and see if they branch out into any new titles.

I had intended to talk about this in my Comic-con post, but as I don’t read many comics, it slipped my mind as I was ranting on other things. This was one of the few good announcements I heard come from Comic-con. Marvel is going to be bringing back the CrossGen Universe. What’s the big deal you ask? Well, CrossGen was a big deal for me. It’s what led me back to comics and subsequently into manga. Back in 2001 (I think), my husband and I wanted to get back into collecting comics. My husband had read several superhero titles in the past, so it was easy for him to find titles he wanted to get back into. My comic reading had been mostly Elfquest, X-men, Blue Devil, Amethyst and various tv/movie tie-ins such as Dark Shadows. But in 2001, these titles either weren’t available, or didn’t really interest me.  So every trip to the comic shop was a wistful look at what was available, and my eventual walking out with nothing. Until, that is, my husband put an issue of Mystic, one of the first titles from CrossGen in front of me. I’d always been interested in fantasy, so…

Syfy recently premiered three of their original TV shows. Warehouse 13 and Eureka are returning series’, while Haven is new for this year. First impressions can always be important, but they can also be deceiving. Let’s look at the premieres of each of the shows and see what the season seems to have in store. Warehouse 13 survived its freshman year to get a second season. Like most Syfy shows, last season ended with a cliffhanger of Artie being incinerated in the entrance to the warehouse. This is the first thing resolved before the actual episode starts. The resolution shouldn’t be a surprise either, as it was set up not just in the last episode of last season, but the “previously” at the beginning of this episode showed the same key scenes. This episode then proceeds to tie up a few of the loose ends from last season, including getting rid of MacPherson as the season’s arc’s villain though not without him leaving a cryptic message to Artie, and then sets up this current season’s arc and villain. This season opener was okay. It’s nice to get some closure, and I won’t be missing MacPherson. His reasons for going rouge…

The twelfth episode of the fifth series of Doctor Who, “The Pandorica Opens” is not only the penultimate episode, it also seems to portent the end of the universe as well. It all seems pretty grim as the truth behind the cracks in the universe is revealed, and our heroes are left in dire situations with no apparent way out. It’s a cliffhanger reminiscent of the classic series. But like many of the episodes in this series, it ends up being rather uneven in its consistency. The episode starts with Van Gough in another depression after having just painted a picture that we can’t see. Jump 50 years to World War II and Professor Bracewell, who is talking to Churchill about the same painting. This prompts a call to the Doctor, but gets routed instead to River Song, who is once again in prison. She escapes and goes to the Spaceship Britain to retrieve the painting, but not before running into Liz X. Then it’s another improbably message from River to the Doctor that sends him and Amy back to Earth, England, circa 102 AD to search for the legendary Pandorica. It doesn’t take long for the Pandorica to be…

Every series there is an episode where either the Doctor or companion isn’t featured much because they are needed for filming elsewhere. Multiple episodes are filmed at the same time and this usually happens near the end of the series. This 11th episode, “The Lodger” seems to be this series’ Doctor heavy/Amy light episode. The Doctor gets tossed from the TARDIS, leaving Amy alone to try to fly it while the Doctor tries to figure out what on Earth (literally) is keeping the TARDIS materializing fully. Meanwhile, ordinary human Craig Owens is trying to tell his female friend, not girlfriend yet, how he feels about her so they can reach that next step. He’s got an ugly stain on his ceiling from the flat upstairs and is looking for a roommate. While the neighbor upstairs keeps luring passersby up to never be seen again, the Doctor comes knocking to be Owens’ new roomie. This episode is basically just fluff, but it’s good fluff. It was originally a comic story written for Doctor Who Monthly, that was reworked to be a TV episode. The Doctor figures he can find and solve the problem, as long as he can pretend to be…

[Contains Spoilers] In the 10th episode of series 5,”Vincent and the Doctor”, the Doctor has been taking Amy where ever she wants to go, to basically make up for the last episode (even though she doesn’t remember). One of those things is to see an exhibit of the work of Vincent Van Gogh at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. While looking at the paintings, the Doctor notices in one of them, a painting of a church, there is a scary face looking out the window at them. The Doctor then interrupts a curator, Dr. Black, who is talking about the paintings, and asks, after complimenting him on his bow tie, when the church painting was painted. He then whisks Amy off to find Vincent Van Gogh and find out what’s going on. On the whole, this was a much better episode than the last  4 or so, in both the writing and the acting. This episode featured another famous person, but unlike other “famous people” episodes, it really focus’ on his life and work, and not on the monster that inevitably shows up. While Van Gogh is a well-known and acclaimed painter now, he wasn’t during his lifetime. This episode…

[Contains Spoilers] You know things aren’t going to go well when an episode starts off with opening narration that includes “the Doctor” , and “terrible losses he suffered”. As “Cold Blood”, the second of a two-part story and the 9th episode of the new Doctor Who series started, I got a sinking feeling. Picking up where the last episode left off, the Doctor and Nasreen have been pulled down to the Silurian city in the TARDIS, and are seeking a peaceful end to the attacks on the surface and to trade Alaya for Mo, Amy and Elliot. Instead, they are taken prisoner by Restac, a military commander. Malokeh, a scientist tries to stop Restac’s plans to wage war on the surface and awakens Eldane, the Silurian leader. The Doctor get Eldane and Amy and Nasreen into talks, still believing in humanity. Overall, this was a good episode, though Restac and Alaya were a little too stereo-typical with their “destroy the apes” stance. The humanity vs Silurians (homo-reptilia as the Doctor calls them) has been a staple in the Silurian stories, with the military always wanting to destroy while the scientific just wants to study and learn. Malokeh, once we got…

[Contains Spoilers] The Doctor’s wonky piloting of the TARDIS once again lands him some place he don’t intend to be, but needs to be in this 8th episode of the new series, “The Hungry Earth”. I’ve come under the distinct impression that the TARDIS has a mind of its own, and makes some of the side trips herself. Anyway, instead of landing to Rio de Janeiro, as promised, the TARDIS lands in the near future in a Welsh village, where a drill is set to pass the 21km mark, the furthest anyone has drilled before. But the Earth doesn’t seem to happy about this, as it first takes a night watchman, and then Amy, sucking them down underground. A barrier then surrounds the village, blocking out the sun, and allowing something to lurk in the ensuing darkness. This episode is the first of a two parter, so it’s all about set-up. No one really knows what is going on, as strange minerals seep to the surface, and graves are emptied seemingly from underneath. The Doctor, Rory and Amy arrive just as it appears that the ground is fighting back. It’s a good atmospheric episode. There is a lot of suspense…

[Contains Spoilers] In this 7th episode of series 5 of Doctor Who (or series 1 in the UK, season 31 for old school fans), “Amy’s Choice”, the Doctor, Amy and Rory are trapped by a man calling himself the Dream Lord, and gives them a difficult choice; choose the real world. In one world, it is 5 years later, and Rory and Amy are married, living in a quaint country village where Rory is a doctor, and Amy is pregnant. In the other, they are still traveling in the TARDIS. Both face dangerous situations. They must decide which world is the dream and which is reality. I liked the idea for this episode when it started, with the Doctor going back and visiting an old companion and all. Amy and Rory are living in the English country side in a quiet town. Their home is a quaint stone house with ivy and roses climbing around it, and geese running around in the yard. The scenes in this town had some good moments, including Amy trying to run whild pregnant (something I can relate to), and having old people as the enemy was just awesome. But these moments weren’t enough to…

[Contains Spoilers] “The Vampires of Venice”, while an overall decent episodes, still has some issues.  In the aftermath of last week’s attempted “mating”, the Doctor drags Amy’s fiancée, Rory out of his stag party and into the TARDIS, to give the couple a romantic date, just to keep their fires burning. He takes them to Venice, Italy, to 1580. Venice is closed off though, do to fears of the return of the Black Plague. Of course, it’s just an alien race there, plotting to take over the city and run off with the women, and the Doctor must stop them. On the plus side, this episode showcases the one of the Doctor’s strengths. His ability to verbally spar with his adversaries. It was particularly good in this episode, as the Doctor breaks in to Signora Rosanna Calvierri’s palazzo and confronts her. The following “question-for-a-question” scene as the Doctor and Rosanna, bat questions and answers at each other. The Doctor is really in his element here, as the verbal barrage of questions goes back and forth. It’s in scenes like this that the Doctor really shines. Then there are the not so shiny scenes. It mostly has to do with the…

[Contains Spoilers] “Flesh and Stone”, the second part of the two-part story by Steven Moffat featuring his Weeping Angels wasn’t all I was hoping it would be. I do believe this is the first time that I wasn’t excited about a Steven Moffat two-parter. Some setups from the first part just didn’t pan out, and while we did finally get some Weeping Angel action, it wasn’t enough to save the episode. And the ending, that was just wrong. But I am really starting to like Matt Smith’s interpretation of the Doctor with this incarnation. First, let’s get the not-so-good stuff out of the way. I was really hoping for more from the whole “eyes are not a window, but a door” set-up from the first part, but it just turned out to be a way to torture Amy and get the Doctor really mad, because Amy is being tortured. Another I really didn’t like was the retconning of the Angels to make this “eyes are a door” thing work. Amy wasn’t supposed to look in the eyes of an Angel, or else it gets stuck in there visual cortex, giving the angel the power to take her over and kill…

After a year of specials that were more forgettable than not, it was nice to get a regular season of Doctor Who back.  Like the producers that came before him, Steven Moffat has started the 11th Doctor off with a fairly clean slate. New Doctor, new TARDIS, new companion and new adventure, “Eleventh Hour”. This first episode played out much like a typical regeneration story, with the Doctor off kilter for most of it, as he gets his bearings on himself and then the situation. I have to say I had some mixed feelings about this episode. I miss the old orchestrated opening. The new one isn’t bad, it’s just that 3rd-4th series opening was better. I do like the new TARDIS interior, and new companion Amy Pond does get my approval. I particularly enjoyed the beginning with Amy as a child. Her interactions with the Doctor were great! I’m not to sure about the “Doctor’s Perspective” they presented with all the near stop-motion cam. It was interesting for the reboot, but I’m glad they haven’t used it since. The scene that not only made this episode, but cemented Matt Smith’s position as the Doctor was a the end, as…