Manga Xanadu

Every week, the New York Times and Amazon posts the top ten bestselling books. The New York Times gets their numbers from print sales from retailers, while Amazon and Vizmanga.com calculates their own numbers. Once a month the Nielsen Bookscan posts their top twenty graphic novels of which manga is included. Offered here is a listing of these books with their status this week compared with the previous week, and some way-off analysis of the activity.   New York Times Bestseller List for the week ending April 4, 2015. Attack on Titan Vol 15     ↔ 2 Big Hero Six Vol 1     ↔ 2 Soul Eater Vol 25     ↑ 2 Attack on Titan Before the Fall Vol 4     ∗ Attack on Titan Vol 1     ↑ 3 Fairy Tail Vol 47     ∗ Attack on Titan No Regrets Vol 1     ↵ 18 Naruto Vol 69     ↓ 5 Sword Art Online Fairy Dance Vol 3     ↓ 3 All You Need Is Kill     ↓ 3 Another new Attack on Titan title seems to bring they all out of the woodwork. Attack on Titan Vol 15 keeps control of the top spot while Attack on Titan…

Words are powerful. Insults and rumors can derail a career; a bit of encouragement can give someone the strength to pursue their dreams. When a high school boy skipping class to sketch shoe designs and a taciturn woman drinking a morning beer meet in a Tokyo park, they say little, but the woman bids farewell with an ancient tanka poem. Will the boy figure out the poem’s meaning-and its corresponding response-before it’s too late? The Garden of Words Written by Makoto Shinkai; Art by Midori Motohashi Publisher: Vertical Comics Age Rating: Teen Genre: Drama Price: $12.95 Rating: The Garden of Words is based on an anime movie that was released in 2013. It takes place over a short period of time, just a few months in the summer, during Japan’s rainy season. But in that short period, two people find enough to say to give flight to the hopes and dreams for both of them. This story focuses on two people, Akizuki, a high school boy who dreams of being a shoe maker, and Yukino, a young woman who seems lost and without purpose. These two meet one rainy day under a gazebo in a Tokyo park, and continue to do so…

Due to Diamond shipping Viz’s shonen and shojo titles early last week, this week is looking very bare. Only three titles are coming out this week, one of which is from Viz’s BL line Sublime. One Peace Books is a small boutique publisher that has gotten into manga just recently. They’ve had some good word of mouth with Whispered Words, a yuri title. Their new title to be released this week is much more of a shonen action title, Aquarion Evol. It is the sequel to the anime Genesis of Aquarion which had some elements that could be called problematic. This series might be traversing the same road. We’ll see. Vertical Comics continues its release of the action-horror title Ajin with Volume 4 this week, but looks close to catching up to the Japanese release. Ajin keeps getting good word of mouth press from readers and critics, so hopefully sales are matching even with Crunchyroll running new chapters digitally. Kei Nagai’s trials continue to intrigue, and with more demi-humans coming out of the woodwork with this volume, the story can just only get more intriguing. While I don’t fully endorse the Vizmanga app, they do have some good bundle sales going. This…

No matter what the culture, knowledge has been equated with power. For centuries, this knowledge has been stored as words in books. Whether it’s a list of names or a wizard’s tome, books have been regarded as being magical. It’s no different in manga. There are several titles that feature books and the power of words with the ability to create, transport its readers to other worlds, and even kill. Fushigi Yugi and it’s prequel Fushigi Yugi Genbu Kaiden, both feature a magical book, The Universe of the Four Gods, that pulls the main characters, Miaka and Yui in the original, and Takiko in the prequel, into its story. Each of the girls is found to be a Priestess of one of the four gods, and Miaka and Takiko are tasked with finding the celestial warriors after which they can summon their god and make a wish The book itself isn’t used much in the story, but is the catalyst for the girls to start their adventures. Fushigi Yugi is available in 6 omnibus editions and Genbu Kaiden just finished its print run at 12, and both titles are available at Vizmanga.com Read or Die and the related Read or…

Vertical Comics is a publisher that likes to appeal to the more adult manga reader, and their newest license, announced at Genericon a few weeks ago, will do not just that, but will also appeal to the alt comics/manga reader. A Girl On the Shore is by alt manga creator Inio Asano. Previous works by him have been released by Viz Media (Solanin, What A Wonderful World) and Fantagraphics (Nijigahara Holograph). This two-volume series looks at the themes of love and sex as it follows two teenagers, Koume Sato and Kosuke Isoba. Koume was used and dumped by her crush, and now wants to start a purely sexual relationship with Kosuke. Their attempt at sex with no strings attached leads to unexpected complications  not just between them, but with the people around them. Vertical will be publishing this series as a single volume omnibus. Because the content is very adult, it will come shrink-wrapped and will be shipping early in 2016. While the title comes from an alt magazine, older fans of Flowers of Evil and Vertical’s josei titles should check it out as well. While I know Vertical always picks excellent titles, they are not always easy reading. With this…

Every week, the New York Times and Amazon posts the top ten bestselling books. The New York Times gets their numbers from print sales from retailers, while Amazon and Vizmanga.com calculates their own numbers. Once a month the Nielsen Bookscan posts their top twenty graphic novels of which manga is included. Offered here is a listing of these books with their status this week compared with the previous week, and some way-off analysis of the activity.   New York Times Bestseller List for the week ending March 28, 2015 Attack on Titan Vol 15     ↔ Big Hero Six Vol 1     ∗ Naruto Vol 69     ↓ 1 Monster Musume Vol 6     ↓ 1 Soul Eater Vol 25     ∗ Sword Art Online Fairy Dance Vol 3     ∗ All You Need Is Kill     ↵ 4 Attack on Titan vol 1     ↓ 3 Seraph of the End Vol 4     ↓ 2 Assassination Classroom Vol 2     ↵ 5 It’s an even 1, 2, 3, 4 for publishers getting titles on the NYT list this week. Seven Seas Entertainment makes it with just one, their big hit, Monster Musume. Kodansha Comics comes up next with two…

Viz Media has been expanding its line of titles recently, reaching into the superhero genre that is usually reserved for American comics. While much of shonen manga features characters that could be seen as super-heroes, they aren’t quite like the superheroes Americans grew up with. With the growing popularity of superheroes in American mainstream media, it’s not too surprising that we’re seeing more superhero manga coming over. Tiger and Bunny – This series began as an anime which spawned the manga series. It follows the veteran hero Wild Tiger as he take on newbie partner Barnaby Brooks Jr. Both men are NEXTs, people born with super powers. They protect the city of Stern Bild and compete on the TV show HERO TV with several other heroes and have corporate sponsors. Wild Tiger takes being a hero seriously, including the secret identity and fight for Justice. Barnaby seems to be in it for her fame and fortune. These two very different personalities with the same power constantly clash, but not all masks are obvious. The first two volumes of this series were included on the YALSA Great Graphic Novels for Teen list for 2014. There are six volumes out, and it…

Look at all this manga this week, and it’s no April Fool’s joke! Kodansha has a bunch of their heavy hitters with two Attack on Titan volumes and the latest Fairy Tail. But the series that’s gotten quite a bit of talk-up is Yamada-Kun and the Seven Witches. It is available on Crunchyroll digitally with the newest chapters, but Kodansha is also releasing it in print. It’s a shonen harem comedy, so that’s not too surprising. It’s rare when that kind of series doesn’t sell. The first volume debuts today. Seven Seas has a couple of titles that do not involve monsters, and they involve girls. Citrus is one of their yuri titles, and volume 1 did well, so it will be interesting to see if volume 2 does just as well. Volume 4 of Arpeggio of Blue Steel is also out, the sub warfare series that still manages to get in cute girls. Some series are finishing up this week as well. Vertical Comic’s social media thriller, Prophecy ends it’s run this week with volume 3. The first two volumes are fantastic, so I can’t wait for this volume to see how it all ends. Diamond ships the huge…

Over the years, a lot of titles have been licensed and started, but never finished due to various circumstances, mostly because the company that released them went out of business. One of these companies was CMX, an imprint of DC Comics. The imprint was dropped suddenly after a leadership change at DC. One of the titles cut off midstream was Stolen Hearts, a very cute rom-com. Stolen Hearts is about high school student Shinobu Okuma, a girl small for her age and Miharu Koguma, the biggest, most intimidating boy at school. Okuma accidentally spills milk on an antique kimono Koguma is carrying for his grandmother, and he has her come to his grandmother’s kimono shop to make up for ruining it. Okuma is put to work wearing kimonos and walking around town handing out flyers about the shop. Not only does she have fun wearing all the cute, coordinated outfits, but she finds out that Koguma isn’t as scary as he seems. I loved this series from the first volume. Koguma and Okuma make a cute if mismatched couple. Both are rather shy, and Koguma, with his unruly hair and love for small, cute things is a great male lead….

I’ve enjoyed the manga adaptations of video games that have been released so far: Legend of Zelda and Pokémon most notably. What makes these adaptations so fun is the deviations they can take from the original work, making them more interesting or filling in the story better. I’m happy to hear this volume will be no different.

Every week, the New York Times and Amazon posts the top ten bestselling books. The New York Times gets their numbers from print sales from retailers, while Amazon and Vizmanga.com calculates their own numbers. Once a month the Nielsen Bookscan posts their top twenty graphic novels of which manga is included. Offered here is a listing of these books with their status this week compared with the previous week, and some way-off analysis of the activity.   New York Times Bestseller List for the week ending March 21, 2015 Attack on Titan Vol 15     ∗ Naruto Vol 69     ↔ Monster Musume Vol 6     ↓ 2 Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds Vol 7     ↓ 1 Attack on Titan Vol 1     ↑ 3 Nisekoi: False Love Vol 8     ↓ 2 Seraph of the End Vol 4     ↔ No Game No Life Vol 1     ↵ 6 Kamisama Kiss Vol 17     ↓ 3 Akame ga Kill! Vol 1     ↵ 8 Well, that’s a surprise–not! Attack on Titan Vol 15 debuts at #1 and pulls up Vol 1 a couple of spots along with it. It’s good to see Kamisama Kiss and Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds, both at three weeks…

On their Twitter account this week, Seven Seas Entertainment announced a new manga license after dropping some hints for followers to try to guess. A Certain Scientific Accelerator is another spin-off manga of the light novel series A Certain Magical Index. It follows Accelerator, the most power esper in Academy City. He starts out as an antagonist in both the main series and the spin-off manga A Certain Scientific Railgun, until he is defeated by Touma Kamijou, the protagonist in Magical Index. Accelerator’s story starts after this defeat and at the beginning of his journey to be more “heroic” in the story. The series is currently at 3 volumes and is ongoing. The first volume is set to be released in October of 2015, with volume 2 following up in January 2016. Seven Seas already publishes A Certain Scientific Railgun, so adding another Scientific title makes perfect sense. Yen Press holds the license to the main series A Certain Magical Index, both the manga and the light novel. I liked the first two volumes of Railgun that I’ve read, so I may consider this series as well. Stories with redemption arcs are popular right now so this could do well…