Manga Xanadu

Viz has some strong debuts and sales hitting the month of December. Assassination Classroom, and bundled sales of digital manga that makes catching up on some of the longer shonen titles not to hard to swallow hit this month. A new Jump Start title  hits this month as well that Takeshi Obata fans as well as Phoenix Wright/court room dramas will want to get out; Gakkyu Hotei: School Judgement. Gift certificates would make a great present.

Every week, Viz Media and the New York Times posts the top ten bestselling books. For Viz Media, it is the bestsellers on their site, Vizmanga.com. The New York Times gets their numbers of print sales from retailers. 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.   Vizmanga.com for the week of December 2, 2014 Vizmanga didn’t send out a top ten for the week.   New York Times Bestseller List for the week ending December 6, 2014 Naruto Vol 68     ∗ Attack on Titan Vol 1     ↑ 3 Monster Musume Vol 5     ↓ 2 Millenium Snow Vol 4     ∗ Black Butler Vol 1     ↵ 41 Food Wars Vol 3     ∗ Naruto Vol 67      ↑ 3 Attack on Titan Vol 14     ↓ 5 Attack on Titan: No Regrets Vol 2     ↔ Noragami Vol 1     ↵ 5 Viz Media has all the debuting titles this week, including the new top title. Naruto vol 68 pushes the monster girls from Monster Musume off their perch. It joins the previous Naruto, vol 67 to be the…

With their identities revealed, the Colossal Titan and Armored Titan kidnap Eren and Ymir and try to escape. The Survey Corps is on their tail though, led by Erwin, Commander of the Corps himself. It is another massacre, but they still escape with the help of a new ability exhibited by Eren. Back behind Wall Rose, Levi and Hange begin experimenting on Eren to learn his strength and weaknesses. But with the internal MPS under royal command on their trail, it becomes apparent more drastic measures will need to be taken to save humanity from annihilation. Attack on Titan Vol 11-13 By Hajime Isayama Publisher: Kodansha Comics Age Rating: Older Teen Genre: Fantasy/Horror Price: $10.99 Rating: The one thing I find frustrating about Attack on Titan is how well the story can continue to ask more questions about the mysteries of the world than it ever answers. These three volumes throw out lot of clues that only lead to asking more questions about what’s going on, tantalizing the reader with the possibilities of answers and then leaving them hanging. But the questions are so compelling that you have to keep coming back for more. Since the start of the series,…

I know everyone raves about Junji Ito, but I’ve found a lot of his work too far on the disturbing side. I don’t think I’ve been able to finish one of his titles, and I’m still haunted by Gyo‘s fish with metallic spider legs. **shudder**. It’s great that we’re getting this new collection of his so soon, but when are we gonna get his Cat Diary? I’ll bet that’s a series I can complete!

Several publishers have books coming out this week, just not a lot. Gen Manga Entertainment is back in the print game. Over the last couple of months they’ve been releasing books in print. This month it’s Stones of Power. The third volume of Attack on Titan Before the Fall, the manga adaptation of the second two light novels is out this week from Kodansha. I still want to see the first volume adapted. Vertical Comics has #2 volumes of Ajin and Witchcraft Works out, two titles that appear to be doing well for small publisher. Alice in Wonderland could almost be considered a genre on its own  with all the titles that have come out of Japan lately that are based, however loosely, on the original story. Seven Seas Entertainment jumped on that bandwagon with I Am Alice Body Swap In Wonderland, a gender-bending take on the story. If you like gender-bending stories, and aren’t completely burned out on Alice derivatives. In a different Wonderland, Deadman Wonderland, Viz Media finally surpasses the original Tokyopop releases and comes out with all new material with Volume 6. If you’ve been waiting for the rest of the story, it starts here.  Full list…

Shuiesha, the publisher of all the Shonen Jump titles released an app in Japan that allows 30 manga to be read for free. Some of these titles first run in Weekly Shonen Jump, and some in their mobile app Jump Live. This is all well and good for people living in Japan, but no so much for us here in the west. But that doesn’t mean we can’t wish. Going through the list, there are 5 titles that I would like to be able to read, or at least check out a few chapters or volumes. Rough Diamond: Manga Gakko ni Yokoso (Welcome to Manga School) – This series follows Yuuto Takatsuki, a high school boy who has already had a series published. Just as his series is ending, and he is looking forward to a normal high school, he helps out a fellow mangaka, and ends up missing one day of school too many, and isn’t able to pass his grade. Luckily, he’s offered a teaching position at a manga school. The principal will help me make his absenses disappear for teaching the class, but the only problem for Yuuto is that he has to teach students older than…

Just reading the description of this new series makes me think it’s a mash-up of Blue Exorcist and Nisekoi. But since it’s been licensed, it must have something going for it. Guess we’ll have to wait until next summer to find out.

Every week, Viz Media and the New York Times posts the top ten bestselling books. For Viz Media, it is the bestsellers on their site, Vizmanga.com. The New York Times gets their numbers of print sales from retailers. 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.   Vizmanga for the week of  November 25, 2014 Neon Genesis Evangelion Vol 14     ∗ Food Wars! Vol 4     ↓ 1 Future Diary Vol 8     ∗ Bleach Vol 62     ↑ 2 Kyo Kara MAOH! Vol 3     ∗ Nisekoi Vol 9     ∗ Trinity Blood Vol 10     ∗ Naruto Vol 67     ↓ 3 Naruto Vol 1     ↓ 5 One-Punch Man Vol 5     ↓ 8 Another debut title takes the top spot this week. Neon Genesis Evangelion finally finishes its decade and a half run to end at volume 14. Food Wars gets pushed back on spot, while Select title Future Diary‘s volume 8 debuts at #3. Other Select titles Kyo Kara MAOH! and Trinity Blood debut as well. One-Punch Man takes the deepest dive, falling 8 spots to land…

It’s that time of the year again, where you have to go shopping for the manga readers in your life, but have no idea what to get them. No worries, here’s just one more gift guide to give you ideas of what to buy for who. For suggestions from previous years (some titles maybe out of print or digital only), check out my guides from 2013, 2010, and 2009. Card Game Lover – The king of card game manga is Yu-Gi-Oh!, but it is far from the only title worth reading out there. Cardfight! Vanguard is from Vertical Comics and is about timid Aichi Sendou who knows all about the card game Vanguard, and even has a deck, but has never played. When his most prized card is stolen, he ventures into a card shop to battle for his card back. While some would call this series a derivative of Yu-Gi-Oh!, there are enough differences in character and plot to really veer it onto its own path. The emphasis on having fun and making friends eclipses the  more competitive aspects of playing games which I think is a good thing. There are currently 4 volumes available. Mystery/Thriller Lover – Everyone…

It’s the first Tuesday of the month, and publishers have manga to release! If you haven’t been following the weekly releases, DC finally has the first volume of Batman: The Jiro Kuwata Batmanga collected, and perfectly timed for landing under the Christmas tree. It’s mix of Batman action and 60s insanity will be a double treat for Batman/manga fans. Or just something for non-Batman fans to laugh at. For not so laughing material, Vertical Comics releases volume 12 of Knights of Sidonia, their popular sci-fi series. This series will be caught up with the Japanese release with its next volume. Fans will then have to endure a long and excruciating wait to get their next fix. Can they hold out? Viz Media has the lion’s share of titles this week with their shonen and shojo titles making landfall. Assassination Classroom, the title about an alien threatening to destroy the Earth that takes on a class of middle school misfits is finally out. I’m seriously considering this one. New in shojo is Yukarism, a gender-bending, time-traveling title by Chika Shiomi. I will pick up the first volume of any series by her. She is one of the few mangaka I have that…

At the beginning of October, Seven Seas Entertainment touted that they would announce seven new licences over the next seven days. Starting on October 1st, Seven Seas posted the announcements to Twitter first, stirring up fans with some surprising and not so surprising titles.      The first title announced was Non Non Biyori. This rural slice of life comedy follows Hotaru Ichijo, who has just moved from Tokyo to the countryside, where the nearest bookstore is 20 minutes away by bike, a certain popular manga magazine comes out Wednesdays instead of Mondays, and the video store is 10 stations away. Helping Hotaru adjust to the slower life in the country are her new classmates Natsumi, Komari, Renge, and Komari’s older brother Suguru. There are currently seven volumes available in Japan. It had an anime which was shown last October and a second season is in the works. Crunchyroll streamed the first season, and Sentai Filmworks will be releasing it on DVD. The first volume will be available here at the end of June 2015. I might be interested in checking out this series, though I haven’t had much luck with slow titles that feature cute girls. I’ll wait and see. The…

Not sure what to get the manga lover in your life? Viz Media has some suggestions from their extensive library of titles! VIZ MEDIA SPOTLIGHTS EXCITING MANGA TITLES FOR WISH LISTS THIS HOLIDAY SEASON  2014 Holiday Releases Include New Manga Box Sets, Shojo And Action/Sci-fi Manga Series And Other Exciting Gift Ideas For Any Special Fan!  San Francisco, CA, November 11, 2014 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), the largest distributor and licensor of anime and manga in North America, has announced a compelling array of manga, special box sets, novels and other titles that will make ideal gifts to suit a wide range of budgets and interests to delight readers and fans of all ages this holiday season. Notable selections, which will be available in plenty of time for the start of the 2014 holiday shopping season, include lavish new box set editions for manga series BLACK BIRD, ONE PIECE, and VAMPIRE KNIGHT as well as the hardcover  storybook – PRINCESS MONONOKE: THE FIRST STORY – an oversized, full-color edition of the original Princess Mononoke story, created by Hayao Miyazaki in 1980 while he was first conceptualizing the landmark animated film. New and exemplary shojo manga series from VIZ Media’s Shojo…