Manga Xanadu

Over in Japan, the top-selling manga series for 2014 has been published by Oricon. The list includes the top 30 titles and their sales numbers covering the dates from November 18, 2013 to November 16, 2014. Looking the list over, it’s pretty amazing how many of them have been licensed and are currently being released. Seventeen titles are current available, with the eighteenth, Tokyo Ghoul having just been announced by Viz Media at New York Comic Con in October: Rank Sales Title US Publisher 1 11,885,957 One Piece Viz 2 11,728,368 Attack on Titan Kodansha 4 6,946,203 Tokyo Ghoul Viz 6 5,505,179 Naruto Viz 8 4,657,971 Magi Viz 9 4,633,246 The Seven Deadly Sins Kodansha 10 4,622,108 Assassination Classroom Viz 12 4,295,257 Terra Formars Viz 16 3,816,372 Nisekoi Viz 17 3,275,885 Fairy Tail Kodansha 18 2,986,968 Bleach Viz 19 2,644,122 Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma Viz 23 2,397,887 Kimi ni Todoke Viz 24 2,394,263 Gintama Viz 25 2,380,774 Detective Conan Viz 26 2,289,738 Black Butler Yen Press 27 2,231,805 Noragami Kodansha 28 2,173,339 One-Punch Man Viz We will then have three of the top five titles and, and seven out of the top ten. That’s really not too bad. Should be…

I asked for it and I got it! With the end of the “Yellow Scarves Arc” manga in Japan, I recently lamented that with no new announcement, there weren’t any more DRR manga to look forward to. Square Enix fixed that as they announced a new DRR title would be starting in the December issue of GFantasy Magazine. The series will get a new artist Aogiri. It will continue to chronicle the adventures of our favorite characters in our favorite area of Tokyo, Ikebukuro. The ward is thrown into chaos again with authority from shady places, assassins from overseas, delinquents from Saitama and a underclassman who knows Mikado’s secret. All the while Izaya Orihara watches over the chaos, laughing. I really hope this is an adaptation of the 4th light novel. I can’t tell, but if Square Enix continues to follow suit, then it should be. I’m also not so sure about the change in artists. I really like Akiyo Satorigi’s work in the last three series’. But, at least he gets on last hurrah, as GFantasy as also announced that Satorigi will be doing a special chapter also in the December issue. This one shot is tentatively titled “Durarara!!…

When ever there is a disaster, whether it’s an earthquake, tsunami, or both in the most recent case in Japan, calls immediately go up to donate to the Red Cross, or any of the dozens of other charity organizations set up to send relief to the people affected by the devastating event. But there is another group that is just as affected, if not more, that rarely gets any attention. Pets.