Jay Karlson writes: First, a comment: THANK YOU for adding an “All Ages” section. My 8 year old daughter loves Manga, but they can get really dirty. Would she like “Peach Fuzz”? She already has read Sugar Princess and Cardcaptor Sakura. She LOVED Suihilibe. Keep up the good work! Thanks for the words of encouragement Jay! I found it frustrating trying to find appropriate manga for my girls, so I decided to make the page myself! Though I do have to update it for all the new titles coming out lately. But, that’s a good thing! Peach Fuzz, one of the first OEL manga Tokyopop published, is definitely written for a girl about your daughter’s age. Amanda, the lead character is in the 4th grade. Her new pet, Peach the ferret, thinks she is a princess, royalty among ferrets. Most of the conflicts come from Amanda and Peach learning to get along and live with each other. I think it’s definitely something an 8 year old girl would like, and a parent would have no problem with their daughter reading. If you’re still not sure though, you and she can go here to read the first three chapters of the…
Orange Crows Volume 1 By: James Perry II and Ryo Kawakami Publisher: Tokyopop Age Rating: 13+ Genre: Fantasy Price: $10.99 Rating: Five years ago, a young witch named Cierra broke the one unforgivable law of the witch society: attempting to create her own magic. Her unlawful tampering burned down a research room and injured the Mayor’s daughter, Cierra’s best friend. As punishment, she was exiled to the Wilderness, a barren wasteland crawling with witch-devouring Fairies and the bloodthirsty Forsaken…After surviving for five ruthless years, her exile has now ended, and she has been ushered back to civilization, only to discover that the world around her has changed greatly. Will Cierra be able to adjust back to a society that abandoned her? And if her freakish new ability that links her to the terrifying Fairies is discovered, she may not be let off with mere exile this time… Orange Crows is a new OEL manga from Tokyopop. I really knew nothing about it, and the cover didn’t intrigue me in anyway, but with a link to read the whole volume for free coming in my email, I decided to check it out.
I haven’t done this for a while, and last month’s Previews had some tough choices for me, so I thought I’d talk about it a little. There were a lot of titles I collect/want that were up for ordering last month. It’s very hard to keep my numbers down when publishers do this to me. (Yes, I do think they are all out to get me.) It isn’t that publishers had a lot coming out. There were just a lot of publishers that had titles I wanted. Bandai, CMX, Del Rey, Tokyopop, Viz and Yen Press all had an average of 2 books. Well, except Viz who always has at least 5-7 alone that I want. Doing a quick tape of everything (less the Naruto wave I already said I would have to pass on), if I had ordered everything I read, it would have come to over $100, and that with my 30% discount! Even in a good economy, that’s a lot for one month! 15 titles in all!
An announcement arrived in my inbox today saying that Viz was going to have a booth at Wondercon this weekend (2/27-3/1/09). They will be pushing their Viz Signature and Vizkids line. Now, I’m glad Viz is putting some time and effort behind these two lines. They certainly can use them, being the newest and smallest of the Viz books. Among titles mentioned for the Vizkids line were Pokemon, Legend of Zelda, and their new line of Chapter books for Naruto and Dragonball DEvolution. I can’t be there, so if some one who reads this is, can you ask them something for me? What happened to all the Pokemon manga? There are like, only 6 or so volumes you can buy (we have them all). But back in the early 2000’s, Viz had two floppies of Pokemon; Pokemon Adventure and Pokemon: Magical Journey. Why haven’t we gotten volume releases of these? Pokemon is still a hot property, at least if my kids are any indication! They would both love to read more Pokemon! My youngest would just devour the Pokemon Magical Journey! We were able to find two floppies around the cover price, and she loved them. What is wrong with…
I really enjoy Matsuri Akino’s manga. Pet Shop of Horrors is what hooked me. Then I checked out the other titles by her available from Tokyopop, and I got a wonderful surprise when I read Genju no Seiza. In volume 4, Count D from Petshop of Horrors made a cameo appearance! I loved the cross over. It worked perfectly with Count D being friends with Sohki, the mythical Kirin. I really enjoy stories with shared/extended universes, as long as I can read ALL of the stories. So now, I’m reading Pet Shop of Horrors: Tokyo, and I get to volume 3. The last story in the volume, Dalsegno, features a cat named Femto who comes to stay at Count D’s Pet Shop for a few days. While there, he meets another cat, a Sphynx named Amon. Count D explains to Amon who Femto is, and in that frame is the charactiture of Akino, a kappa, holding a sign saying “Please read the details in the Reisha manga series.” AHHH! There’s another Akino series in the PSoH universe?! The full title of the series is Reikan Shouhou Kabushikigaisha, or Psychic Business Corporation. It’s about Kanenari Tokiwa, a man that deals with…
Anime News Network has an article about Viz Media having to restructure and layoff some employees in this difficult economy. In the comments to that story, of course, someone has to drag out the dead horse of piracy. Every economic problem that a manga or anime company has is not always related back to piracy. Can we get over this please? This is a tough economy right now, and things aren’t going to be getting any better any time soon. Don’t fool yourself. If Google, the giant of the online world has to lay off people, then you know this is a widespread problem. And Viz, despite it’s hugely popular properties is not immune to it. In fact, it may be hit harder than other companies. Look at Viz’s releases and schedule. They are about the only company that has several titles that come out every other month. When money gets tight, you start looking for places to cut corners, and let’s be honest, manga is a luxury item. If you have to cut down your manga order, you’re going to go for the titles you like most, and that’s not always going to fall in Viz’s favor. This economy…
While looking around for links to add to my e-reading section, I stumbled upon these posts about putting manga on the Sony E-Reader. They feature the PR-500, but the current, less expensive version, the PR-505, is essentially the same. These include an extensive comparison of color comics, scanalated manga, and Tokyopop manga available through Sony’s store. There are also links to a conversion guide to convert scans to a format optimal for reading, and Manga2Ebook, and RasterFarian, programs used in the conversion guide. Here are some videos as well, showing manga on the E-Reader: You won’t have to turn your head sideways for this one:
Well, I finally did it. I have listed some of my complete series up on eBay. I only put up a few that I’m selling, as eBay kept upping the fees with the more I listed. It was starting to suck, so I stopped at 5. I’ll be adding more as I see how these do. You can find them here: Read or Die Read or Dream Train Man: Densha Otoko (Viz Edition) Densha Otoko (CMX Edition) Treasure Hunter (CPM)
Today, Amazon.com had a big press event to unveil the newest generation of its e-book reader, the Kindle. Speculation has been running about for while now that Amazon would release a new reader with leaked photos, increased orders of screens, and a long reorder wait at the Kindle store. So, what’s new about it? Well, not much. There were some cosmetic changes, which many people called for when it first came out in late 2007. It’s lighter and thinner, has an estimated 25% increase in battery power, and more memory that will allow it to hold nearly 6 times more books. What’s in it for manga readers? Again, not much. It does boast a new screen that is capable of showing 16 shades of gray, as opposed to the first generation that could only show 4. This would definitely improve the quality of black and white pictures, which makes up most manga releases. What hasn’t changed? The two most important things that would make the Kindle relevant to manga readers; price and content. The price hasn’t changed, so it’s still $359. But in this economy, that prices the reader out of LOT of people’s range. Prices under $200 seems to…
Even though most of the big Cons are in the summer, Con Season gets its official start now in February with the New York Comic Con, and I’m really getting to hate it. Why? Because of all the license announcements! I am really, REALLY trying hard to cut down on the amount of manga I get. I’ve done a brisk bit of trading at Mangatude (which I still highly endorse), and have caught up on several series, and I’ve got more complete series ready to go up on eBay. I go through Previews, and am happy when I see titles completing. Another couple of titles I don’t have to buy. But then, con season rolls around, and the list of titles I have to get suddenly goes up again!
Zombie Powder Volume 2 By Tite Kubo Publisher: Viz Media; Shonen Jump Advanced Rating: T+ (Older Teen) Genre: Action Price: $7.99 Rating: We meet Wolfina Lalla Getto, a self-described “journalist of justice” who has been responsible for toppling various criminal organizations in her illustrious career. She’s got a peculiar choice of weapons, a camera tripod, with which she is very effective. However, when Gamma Akutabi rescues her from a camera-shoot gone wrong, he gets the idea that she might know where one of the Rings of the Dead might be, especially when he finds out that her younger brother Emilio lies in a coma, the sure sign, he thinks, of their knowlege of the rings. Supposedly, the Rings of the Dead can turn innocent victims into mindless vegetables by feeding off their life force.
A week or so ago, I wrote about trading manga and the website Mangatude. While, as some have mentioned, this doesn’t actually reduce the number of manga you have. It just switched them. But, if they were books you wanted and would have spent money on, well, it’s a good deal. But only if both players are playing by the same rules. For trading to work, there has to be some trust. When a deal is struck, you have to trust that the other person will send the book, just as they trust that you will do the same. Of course, when you make that trade, you don’t know if the person will or not. Mangatude has a rating system, so before you accept a trade, you can see what experience others have had, and this can help measure whether you’re will to make the deal. But, there is a way to beat this system, though it takes time. It’s appeared on eBay, and now it seems on Mangatude.