It’s another round of reviews from the Villagers, with this week leading off in a gentile way with A Gentleman’s Kiss from Deux by Katherine Famar. A true Gentleman needs a butler, so Charles Tan serves us a new Hayate Combat Butler Volume 8 from Viz. And since butlers always need some little kid to look after, Dan Polley brings the cute Mao-Chan Volume 1 from Del Rey. But where will they all live? How about the Magic Lover’s Tower Volume 1-2 from DR Masters reviewed by me? And who will guard the tower? Inukami! Volume 1 of course from Seven Seas Entertainment reviewed by John Thomas. Over in our columns, we’ve got our picks for the week, as well as our top manga for the month of October. It was another close run again this week. Check out what we liked. And then over at Good Comics for Kids, I’ve have the latest All Ages list, and check out the review of Avalon: Web of Magic by Ester Keller.
Mythbusters is a totally awesome show on Discovery Channel. Two guys and their three assistants take on myths from real life, the movies, and the internet and try to if they can confirm, bust or find plausible the myths they take on. The show has been running for 6 seasons now, and is not only entertaining, but educational, as it takes on things like physics, robotics and other science content to prove the myths. Last week, on the episode Coffin Punch, the assistants, Tori, Grant, and Kari took on a scene from Kill Bill, where the Bride punches her way out of a coffin she’s been buried in. Now, on Mythbusters, they like to use animation to illustrate the myth they will be trying to prove, often using the team members in appropriate parts. For this episode, the animation had a distinctly manga look to it. The whole Kill Bill scene is reenacted in comic book style, with the camera panning from panel to panel. The art is very cute, in that wants-to-look-like-manga sort of way. Kari’s constant clueless look is classic for so many shojo heroines that it’s impossible to count. And of course there’s the use speed lines…
This just in from BookCloseouts.com! They have a promotion from now until December 31st. Place an order of $35 or more, and get your shipping free! That is an awesome deal! Now you can get Manga Claus, and $30 more of books! Here are some searches to try: Del Rey Manga Tokyopop Viz Seven Seas Entertainment Now go buy some manga! Save the economy!
Viz is at it again it seems, trying to decimate our pocketbooks mercilessly, especially in this difficult economy. ANN has reported that Viz has listed 11 more volumes of Naruto for release in February, March and April. This second wave will essentially catch Naruto up with the releases in Japan, at what price? The last time Viz did this, the sales of their other titles suffered. It proved that there is a limit to what readers will buy, and that was back when the economy was still doing well. What’s going to happen this time? Did Viz plan for this with fewer releases scheduled for their other titles? And what’s the point of doing this again? The time jump in the manga made some sense the first time. But this time seems much more arbitrary. The only reason I can think of for this is to fight against the scanalators. Viz has been criticized for not doing anything about the illegal scans that keep coming out, and as anime companies have been learning, the best way to fight fansubs is to bring out the episodes at the same time they come out in Japan. Catching up the Naruto manga will…
In the December issue of Shonen Jump, there is a short announcement. Another manga will be joining the pages of the magazine. Tegumi Bachi, a title announced at SDCC, will start running in SJ starting in the March 2009 issue (out in February 2009). It comes from the pages of Jump SQ, and appears to be another soon-to-be big property in Japan. An anime special has already been created for it for the Jump Super Anime Tour event. Usually at these events, only popular titles from the Jump magazines are spotlighted. Dragon Ball/Z, Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece have all had specials created for these tours.
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!
Hellsing Volume 8 By Kohta Hirano Publisher: Dark Horse Age Rating: 13+ Genre: Horror/Action Price: $13.95 Rating: London is already bathed in blood, its citizenry almost entirely slaughtered by vampiric, reborn Nazi soldiers. And marching through the rivers of blood–thousands of extreme Catholic warriors in creepy cloaks. But the focus of this chaotic either volume is the return of Alucard, the slave-paladin of the British Protestants, who’s just piloted an aircraft carrier up the Thames to join the fray. It’s a crazy face-off between three gory armies and their primary killers, and if you think that sounds nuts, wait until you dive into the crimson-stained new volume of Kohta Hirano’s creepy-cool Hellsing manga series. Now, I generally don’t read blood-spilling horror manga, but for Hellsing, I make an exception. My husband started getting this series originally, but, having nothing to read one day I picked it up, and was instantly hooked. This volume is a good example why. We are still in the middle of a battle that started back in volume 6 with first the vampiric Nazis and then the invasion of the Catholics to take back Protestant England. It was not a good day to be a Londoner….
I guess I’ll be doing this every other week from now on. That seems to be the pattern I’m falling into. Not intentionally mind you. Last weekend I was sick, and spent most of it on the couch. It just seems to be something comes up every other weekend. I guess that’s better than every weekend. Anyway…on to the reviews! I start things out with a look at Togari Volume 6 from Viz. Charles Tan checks out an older series with Warcraft: Dragon Hunt Volume 1 from Tokyopop. Katherine Farmar goes into a Freefall Romance from DMP/June Manga. John Thomas takes a virtual trip to Japan with The Akiba: A Manga Guide to Akihabara from Kondansha America. Does Dan Polley object to Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Case Book Volume 1 from Del Rey? You’ll have to click the link to find out. Week 2 starts with Charles Tan has more football antics with Volume 21 of Eyeshield 21 from Viz. Katherine Farmar is back with a Deux title this time with Future Lovers Volume 1. Dan Polley spreads his wings with a look at a new Del Rey title, Papillon Volume 1. John Thomas ends the week with an old…
Between the news about the economy and the negativism in this years elections (If I hear one more person in my office go off about the Gay marriage initiative, I’m going to scream!), I’ve been retreating more and more into my own fantasy world. One of those fantasies is getting out of this office of increasingly closed-minded individuals, and into a business of my own. This particular fantasy just started as I’ve been reading about the city I live in wanting to revitalize downtown, which still has an old time “Main Street” feel to it. The city wants to keep that feel, and get more businesses that are unique and won’t compete with the big box stores that have been opening recently (Target, JC Penney, etc). Now, one of the stores in downtown is our local comic shop, where I sometimes get awesome manga deals. So, I started thinking, wouldn’t it be cool if, in conjunction with the comic shop, maybe in a shop upstairs, there was a Manga Lounge/Reading Room? I can just see it, the walls lined with shelves of manga. Bean bags and lounge chairs scattered around; no set seating, so you can either read by yourself,…
I was listening to my tech podcasts this morning, like I do every Monday, and I got to Jumping Monkeys, parenting in the digital age. And, on this show, the hosts Leo Laporte and Megan Morrone do a segment called Spend, Save, Give where they take about websites that have interesting things to spend on, save on, or give to the community, etc. On today’s show, the Save was dedicated to Bookcloseouts.com, a site I have featured a few times myself on this blog. Megan was featuring it for the great deals you can get on kids books (which can be REALLY expensive). But Leo…I don’t know how he found it, but started taking about this title he found: When he first said the title, I thought I was mishearing him. He pronounced manga wrong (man-ga instead of mahn-ga), so I had to look this thing up myself, just to see if it was real. And, as you can see, it is. Check out the description of the book here. It’s as good as the picture. And buy a copy while you’re there. There are only 58 left and at 80% off, it’s a steal! Make it a new holiday…
I missed another week, I know, but I did have an almost good reason. Starting in October, the Good Comics for Kids blog has moved to School Library Journal, and I had to wait for my login to start posting my weekly comic list post, which I didn’t get until late in the weekend, and then I forgot. Anyway… September finished with Metro Survive Volume 2 from DR Masters by me, and Cat Eyed Boy Volume 2 from Viz by Charles Tan. October started with Wild Rock BL from DMP/June by Katherine Farmar, and John Thomas gave his own take on Cat Eyed Boy Volume 1 from Viz. Dan Polley started this week out with Air Gear Volume 9 from Del Rey Manga. Charles Tan got big again with the VizBIG edition of Rurouni Kenshin Volume 3 from Viz. John Thomas continued with the gore-fest that is Gantz Volume 2 from Dark Horse Comics. Katherine Farmar hopes you have enough time for her reivew of the BL title Not Enough Time from DMP/June. We made our new releases picks for last week and this week. We also picked our Manga of the Month for September. Don’t forget that you can…