Due to illness, I was unable to do a roundup last week, so this week combines the two weeks. So what’s in store? More licenses found and announced from Viz and Vertical, several digital manga stories, some news from Japan and Korea, 2 weeks worth of best seller lists, podcasts and the Manga Village roundup.
Too Much Good Stuff! Deb Aoki of Manga.About.com continues posting her coverage of panels from SDCC. This week she adds an entry for the Best and Worst Manga panel including comments from the panelists. There are more Best and Worst and a whole page dedicated to Most Anticipated. It’s interesting that Twilight made the Best list, but Maximum Ride got put in the Worst. Both make tons of money for Yen Press, so yah there. And the cat manga Chi’s Sweet Home and Cat Paradise both definitely deserve to be in the Best list. I don’t know what I would add to this list. I have hard time saying something is the Best or Worst. Except One Piece. That’s definitely a Best! Also added to her coverage is a complete transcript of the Online Piracy Panel. It’s NINE PAGES. The front page to it give the topics covered in the discussion, but getting the full transcript is almost the same as being there! Definitely thank Deb for her hard work in getting this up for everyone to read. This is a very relevant topic right now as fans and publishers bash heads over the best way to get comics and…
April’s Movable Manga Feast The third edition of the Movable Manga Feast began this week, with Ed Sizemore of Manga Worth Reading taking over the hosting duties. The series this time is Mushishi published by Del Rey Manga. An introduction to the series can be found here, while the full list of participates can be found here. The Feast lasts until Sunday, so keep watching for more posts on the series. I made my first contribution to the MMF with this series, which you can read here. If you have had any interest in this series, definitely check out some of the perspectives on it. You might be surprised. How Much would you Pay? Last week Yen Press announced they would be publishing Yen Plus as a digital magazine. This week Deb Aoki of Manga.About.Com has a poll asking how much would you pay for an online anthology. The results so far aren’t too surprising. I myself wouldn’t pay more than $5 for an online magazine the size of Yen Plus since I don’t enjoy reading manga online. I need it to be portable and an e-reader or tablet isn’t in my future anytime soon. What this poll does show…
Some live in the deep darkness behind your eyelids. Some eat silence. Some thoughtlessly kill. Some simply drive men mad. Shortly after life emerged from the primordial ooze, these deadly creatures, mushi, came into terrifying being. And they still exist and wreak havoc in the world today. Ginko, a young man with a sardonic smile, has the knowledge and skill to save those plagued by mushi…perhaps. By Yuki Urushibara Publsiher: Del Rey Manga Age Rating: 16+ Genre: Drama Price: $12.95 Rating: Buy This Book The back cover text make this book sound more sinister than it actually is. This first volume introduces the concept of the mushi, and the man we will follow who has the arcane knowledge to deal with them, Ginko, the Mushishi. Through a series of episodic stories, we see how mushi and men can interact, and how Mushishi bridge the gap and try to foster understanding between them. Ginko is a wandering Mushishi. He studies and tries to understand mushi. He is often called to a village that needs his expertise, but can also stumble upon people in need of help, even if they don’t realize it themselves. Strange and ancient, mushi are not actually malicious,…
More Simon and Schuster Sightings The sharp eyes of Michelle Smith of Soliloquy in Blue has spotted some more manga listings on Simon and Schuster from Viz. Two of them we already knew about; Grand Guigol Orchestra and Cross Game. But then four new titles showed up scheduled to come out at the end of the year. Kurozakuro is scheduled for November, and the rest, Kamisama Kiss, Psyren, Itsuwaribito are scheduled for December. I can’t say any of them really inspire me, but I’ve been surprised before. I am saddened by the news of no sign of Story of Saiunkoku. I loved the anime, and am so dying to read the manga! Hopefully the new Kaori Yuki title, Grand Guigol Orchestra, will help to pass the time. Del Rey Ousts X-Men: Misfits & Wolverine: Prodigal Son The weekend ended with a bit of downer as news and confirmation of the cancellation of first X-Men: Misfits and then Wolverine: Prodigal Son came out on Twitter. This seemed to be surprising news as X-men: Misfits seemed to have sold fairly well, hitting the New York Times best seller list for a few weeks. But the creators of both series say Del Rey…
This is something that’s been wondering around in the back of my mind for a while now, but found a voice on Twitter this week. With the news of Del Rey’s cancellation of their X-Men manga reboots, the question came up asking if Del Rey was having problems. That seems a very valid question. A look at Del Rey’s sporadic release schedule and the fact that they’ve gone to releasing omnibuses to complete some series’ does suggest problems. But that wasn’t my take. Del Rey is a division of Random House, one of the power house publishers, so I don’t think it’s a financial problem. I think it’s more of an attention span issue.
Lucia is the new girl at school. She and her sister run a public bath that’s all the rage. When Lucia meets a terrific-looking surfer boy, there’s just one little problem: Lucia is a mermaid–not just any mermaid, but a princess on an important mission to save the seven seas from an evil force bent on taking control of the marine world. Such a responsibility doesn’t leave much time for romance. But Lucia vows to protect her world and win the heart of handsome Kaito. By Pink Hanamori Publisher: Del Rey Age Rating: Teen Genre: Fantasy/Romance Price: $10.95 Rating: Buy This Book This series is a a magical girl-fantasy-romance. Mermaids exist and live in the seven seas. Each sea has a princess with a pearl that gives them special powers. For not only can mermaids appear as human and walk on land, the princesses can transform into Idols, microphones and all. This series centers around three of the princesses. Lucia is the pink Princess of the North Pacific. She has come to land to find her pearl before her coming of age ceremony. She gave it to a boy she saved from a ship wreck when she was young. Hanon…
Princess Resurrection Volume 3 By Yasunori Mitsunaga Publisher: Del Rey Manga Age Rating: 16+ Genre: Supernatural Price: $10.95 Rating: Mummies, vampires, and a ghost ship: a typical day in the life of Princess Hime, monster slayer extraordinaire. But when her kid sister visits, Princess Hime may have finally met her match. Now she’s facing her toughest battle of all: sibling warfare! The campiness we saw in the first two volumes of this series starts to get toned down in the third. The fight between Hime and her brothers goes past simply sending hordes of monsters to something more serious. It’s not going to be all fun and games from here on out. It’s too bad the fan service doesn’t also take a hike.
Princess Resurrection Volume 1 By Yasunori Mitsunaga Publisher: Del Rey Manga Age Rating: Older Teen Genre: Supernatural Price: $10.95 Rating: Werewolves, demons, monsters, vampires – all these ferocious creatures are afraid of the same thing: the beautiful Princess Hime, an awesome warrior who fights the forces of evil with a chainsaw and a smile. Not only does she look great in a tiara, she has magical powers that allow her to raise the dead. She’s a girl on a mission, and with the help of her undead servant and a supercute robot, there’s no creature of darkness she can’t take down! Take a Princess with a chainsaw, an androids in maid costume and a bit of a loser student who gains semi-immortality by accident and throw them into a battle with monsters out of a drive-in double feature and you have the first volume of Princess Resurrection, a series that balance’s campy horror with a more serious fight to become the King of Monsters.
Yokai…Japanese spirits. Most people fear them, and a few people even hunt them, thinking they are horrible monsters to be destroyed at all costs. But young Hamachi wants to be friends with them! He sees them as mischievous creatures that could co-exist peacefully with humans if only given a chance. When his grandmother dies under mysterious circumstances, Hamachi journeys into the Yokai realm. Along the way, he encounters an ogre who punishes truant children, and angry water spirit, and a talking lantern. Will Hamachi be able to find his grandmother’s killer, or will he be lost forever in another world? Yokaiden Volume 1 By Nina Matsumoto Publisher: Del Rey Manga Age Rating: 13+ Genre: Supernatural/Humor Price: $10.95 Rating: The plot of Yokaiden sounds very generic. Orphaned hero goes off to another realm filled with monsters to avenge his grandmother’s death. But Yokaiden turns out to be much more than it’s basic plot. It’s a showcase for many of the strange and sometimes playful, sometimes dangerous creatures that make up Japanese folklore. The interplay with these beings often overshadows the plot, and its clueless main character. Hamachi is your typical happy, often oblivious protagonist. Despite losing his parents at young age,…
New York Anime Festival Days 2 & 3 Days 2 & 3 of NYAF brought publishers Del Rey and Viz with more licenses and news. Del Rey remains conservative with only a few new licenses, but shows it’s still got some cred with Kodansha. Viz has a little something for everyone in each of their lines, including some interesting suprises. What isn’t surprising is the number of titles from already known mangaka. Easier to sell a known than unknown quantity, I would say.
Day two started out with a real breakfast. Eggs, pancakes, french toast and toast. This hotel is awesome! It’s a lot better than the fast food sandwiches we usually end up with. Didn’t make it to Stargate Universe, but we weren’t looking forward to the line, and we were tired last night.