As high sciety’s social calendar opens up and the Season draws to a close, London is gripped by fear. Someone has taken to stalking women of the night and painting the town red…in their blood. But while the name on everyone’s lips is “Jack the Ripper,” the name on Queen Vitoria’s lips is Phantomhive. Summoned to London to clean up the mess created by this madman, young earl Ciel Phantomhive arrives with his extraordinary butler Sebastian, at his side to pour him tea, polish his silver, and …investigate a serial killer! By Yana Tosobo Publisher: Yen Press Age Rating: Older Teen Genre: Supernatural Price: $10.99 Rating: The second volume of Black Butler starts off as light-hearted as the first. It opens by showing us a day in the life of Sebastian, as he deals with idiotic servants and a caprious master who off-handedly mentions that several orphans will be visiting…the next day. Sebastian’s internal dialog throughout this chapter is just hilarious as he tries to keep his cool with each new catastrophe interrupting his attempts to prepare for the visit. And his stress-reliever at like this is just awesome. Cats. He loves them, and where he comes from, they don’t…
Ordinary high school student Mai Taniyama is drawn into the world of ghosts and spirits when her school hires Kazuya Shibuya of Shibuya Psychic Research to investigate alleged haunting of an old school building. After accidentally breaking a very expensive camera and injuring Shibuya’s assistant Linn, Mai becomes his assistant. They are soon joined by a Shinto Miko, a Buddhist monk, a psychic medium and a Catholic priest. The school wants to be very sure there are no spirits to interrupt the buildings demolition. Story by Fuyumi Ono; Adapted by Shiho Inada Publisher: Del Rey Manga Age Rating: Teen Genre: Supernatural/Horror Price: $10.95 Rating: Ghost Hunt is based on a series of light novels originally published in the late 80s to mid 90’s. It follows the cases of Shibuya Psychic Research as they investigate alleged hauntings and find the cause, whether it is natural or otherwise. Of course, more often than not, the hauntings will be real. The first volume introduces all the characters that will become the ensemble cast for the rest of the series. The case of the supposedly haunted school building is really secondary to the characters introductions. We first meet Mai, a seemingly normal high school…
We’ve all heard urban legends–stories that we tell one another late at night., Just to make us cringe and freak ourselves out. WE dismiss these stories as just plain old creepy. But what happens when they become real…? Enter Detective Aso Daisuke. When he isn’t dealing with cheating spouses, con artists or his ero-manga collection, he dives deep into the intense fear of these horrors. With his first case–the man under the bed–can he stop a disturbed killer with a blood axe? By Sakae Esuno Publisher: Tokyopop Age Rating: Older Teen Genre: Horror Price: $10.99 Rating: I’ve always loved stories about myths and legends, and urban legends are the mythology of modern-day. We don’t believe in witches, vampires or werewolves. Instead we have axe murders, men with hook-hands, and ladies with slit-mouths. So, I was intrigued by the premise of Hanako and the Terror of Allegory which looks at what happens when these legends become real, and fortunately, I wasn’t disappointed. In Hanako and the Terror of Allegory, urban legends are just that, legends that get passed around by word of mouth. But every once in a while, a person can hear a story and start to believe it. As…
Halloween is a favorite time of the year for kids, not only because they get to dress up in costumes and wear masks and makeup, but also because of their second favorite activity of the year (right behind Christmas), Trick or Treating! So, in anticipation of that big day at the end of the month, here are some manga that might try to trick or treat you.
Hellsing, a secret organization also known as the Royal Order of Protestant Knights, has protected the United Kingdom and the English crown since ancient days from supernatural threats. Whether it is vampires or the mindless ghouls they create, the Hellsing Agency is ready to take on the fight local police are unable to handle.
It’s been a while since I updated my post on manga for Halloween. The titles I choose to put on this list don’t just have death, vampires, horror, or supernatural elements. I try to choose titles that have a creepy atmosphere to them as well. Something that can send a chill up your spine, and not just gross you out. Going in order of publishers again, let’s start with Dark Horse, who still has the most titles to fit this genre. School Zone – This is a 3 volume series that tell stories of ordinary kids who encounter the strange and terrifying in their school. Ghosts, urban legends and superstitions turn out to be horribly real. This series is by Kanako Inuki, who is known as the Queen of Manga Horror. She also created CMX’s Presents. You can read a review of volume 1 here, and all three volumes here. Viz Media has a couple of new titles and both of them come out this month! Grand Guignol Orchestra – This is a new 5 volume series by Kaori Yuki, creator of The Cain Saga, Godchild and Fairy Cube. Lucille is the head of the travelling Grand Orchesta. For a…
Canon is a story of revenge, regret, love and redemption. Canon Himura is the sole survivor of a vampire attack where 39 of her fellow students died and she herself was made into a vampire as well. Six months have passed, and now she is searching for the vampire she believes is responsible to avenge her friends and herself. She is accompanied by a vampiric crow, Fui, who helps her sniff out other vampires. At first, all they find are servants, humans infected with vampire blood, until Sakaki appears. He is half human/half vampire, and he has a grudge against the same vampire as Canon. His parents were killed and he left for dead for being a “half”. He offers to help her find and destroy their mutual enemy. by Chika Shiomi Publisher: CMX Age Rating: Teen Genre: Horror/Suspense Price: $9.99 (OOP) Rating: Buy All Four Books This seemingly straightforward setup quickly starts taking twists and turns as Canon learns the truth about who killed her friends, her connection to the elder vampire Rod, and who holds the strings to her heart. As the truth comes out and the battles between Sakaki and the pure blood vampires continue, people change…
I love Halloween. It’s become one of my favorite holidays, and not for the candy! As the days get shorter and the nights grow longer, bare trees cast eerie shadows, it’s time for ghosts, ghouls and things that go bump in the night to come out! So for the month of October, I will be following the theme of Halloween in articles and reviews, mostly about vampires, though I think some ghosts and yokai might sneak in, and there might even be some trick or treating! Even the theme will get in on the action! So I hope you’ll enjoy the fun and frights of this haunted month!
Last year, I talked about a bunch of the manga that was out that I thought was most appropriate to read on a dark and spooky nights of Halloween. This year, I want to narrow my focus some, and look at some manga that isn’t particularly spooky, but features some traditional monsters, both eastern and western.
Inside Scanlation ComiPress, one of the first manga new reporting sites is hanging up it’s news hat and has moved over to a more timely topic: Scanlations. There has been a lot of talk about scanlations, especially since the economy took a dive, but do you really understand what scanlations are or how they came to be? Inside Scanlation seeks to answers these questions and more. The site looks at the history of scanlations, interviews scanlators and publishers for their takes and even explains some of the nuances of the community. I think this is an interesting project. And while people don’t agree with what the scanlators do, I think it’s worth the time to find out why they do it. It’s the anthropologist in me.
Ha! I’m getting a weekly done on the actually week! Yeah, I had to take the day off from work to do it, but hey… Actually, I took the day off for Halloween, and this is just a benefit. But, staying in the spirit of things, we’ve got some spooky reviews for you this week! I start out this week with another review of Yumekui Kenbun: Nightmare Inspector Volume 4 from Viz. SCharles Tan brings another delivery from Dark Horse with Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service Volume 7. John Thomas brings some Samurai action with Afro Samurai Volume 1 from Seven Seas Entertainment. Afros can be scary… Then we go for some animal themed BL with Voice or Noise Volume 1 from BLU by Katherine Farmar, and LIssa Patillo makes a guest appearance with a review of Ruff Love from Deux Press. Some people (mostly guys) think BL is scary… So, we’ve got something scare everyone! We do our weekly picks for this spooky halloween, and our reviewers are either going batty or dreaming of Akihabara. But don’t be melancholy! We wouldn’t steer you wrong! Over at Good Comics for Kids at School Library Journal I have the kids picks for…
It’s that time of year again when ghosts and goblins come out to play. Do you want to get into the Halloween spirit, but just don’t know what to get? Well, here’s a list of manga that I’ve either read, or know something about enough to recommend (or warn you away from). I first posted this on my Tokyopop blog, but I’m bringing here with a few updates. Well, I thought it was going to be just a few, but every time I start to think I’m done, I come up with another book! I tried to keep the books in this list to more appropriate to a Halloween theme, than just ghosts, vampires and monsters, etc. It would take forever to list ALL manga with those in it!