Manga Xanadu

A quick glance through the manga solicitations for this month revealed a title I’ve been waiting quite a while for.  I first learned about this series when I heard about the anime.  The first series ran in 2008 in Japan, and went 13 episodes.  The premise and the picture of a fat, rolly-polly cat on the series’ promotional art got me interested.

Viz Media’s solicitations for October and November seemed outrageous as I went through the latest Previews.  They solicited 46 volumes of manga and novels!  My jaw dropped at how much they were putting out!  So, I decided to break down the releases, looking at them by imprint and how much of a difference the price increase would make, if any.

It’s that time of month again when I have to place my Previews order.  But now, besides my usual problems of deciding what to buy, I have to wonder if the books I order will be canceled.  Diamond Distributing has had their red pen going at break-neck speed, what with canceling the entire Yen Press solicitation from last month’s order.  They’re back again and while not the only publisher to get red-lined, they just the most jaw-dropping. So, do I chance another manga order through Previews?  I want to support what titles I can with pre-orders, but is it a losing battle with Diamond who seem happy to slash their catalog back to the stone age of  just DC, Marvel, Dark Horse and Image? If I want a manga to survive, and I want the publishers to know I enjoy the title by pre-ordering it, will the publisher still get my message even after Diamond cancels my order?  Do the publishers see the numbers before the cancellation order comes down?  Am I wasting time pre-ordering with Diamond and risking my favorite, not so popular manga to an untimely death? I ponder these questions even as I prepare my next order. …

I was pleasantly surprised when I got this month’s Previews catalog.  There are actually books (not just manga) that look interesting enough to get this month!  OMG! Marvel, the company that we had just finished dropping ALL our titles for (mainly because they killed the Ultimate Universe) has two titles we’re going to check out this month.

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!

The Manga gods (ie publishers) smiled down on me in August.  After having such a frustrating time with having to decide with books to cull in July, August orders (shipping in October) was too easy!  I had to go through Previews twice just to make sure I wasn’t imagining it.  But, it was true!  My usual manga order was just under $60, right at my goal!  I was so shocked after July, I thought there had to be a mistake!  But, it seems publishers needed a breather too.  Or they’ve got another deluge planned for September-November, with the holiday buying season. In fact, our whole order was lighter, so I could add in a couple of titles!  My Nana review copy run seems to have ended, so I made sure to order Nana 13.  I have to find volume 12 now though.  And I decided to get the next volume of Fushigi Yugi: Genbu Kaiden 7.  I got volume 6 as a review copy and really enjoyed the story!  I’m late coming to the whole Fushigi Yugi thing.  I’m waiting for the VizBIG volumes of Fushigi Yugi (which are due in Jan 2009!) to get caught up there.  And, I…

I have no doubt about that now, after going through the Previews for July.  I’ve been able to keep my ordering down, and mostly reasonable by counting on my “must have” series’ not coming up in the same month.  Until this month.  And it’s all Viz’s fault.

I has them. At least I thought I did until I saw this forum thread. I’m way behind compared to some of these people. Maybe if I added in all my Shonen Jump and Shojo Beats…  Anyway, that’s not to say my manga collection isn’t still growing. This month is going to be another tough Previews order. There are a lot of not just manga but comic books that are coming out that look good. A new Doctor Who (10th Doctor), a new Fathom series, and I new Voltron in addition to the titles I’ve already added over the last few months: Madame Xanadu, Indiana Jones, and Chuck.

Ordering from the Previews catalog can be like gambling. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. And I lost big time. See, the problem with Previews is, I’m ordering books 2-3 months in advanced, based solely on a picture of a cover, and a brief marketing copy that meant more to entice retailers into buying than the individual consumer. When there’s a new title in the catalog, I can sometimes try and research it, if it looks like something I want, as long as the US title is the same as the Japanese (or at least close to). But often, there isn’t much to find, and I’m stuck going on instinct.

It was really hard getting through Previews this month. In the catalog, May is Manga Month, so along with all the regular series, there were new ones coming out that had to be evaluated. Top that with a weakening economy, and you get some really tough decisions to be made with this month’s order.  More after the cut.

Oh! Pay me! (If you get that….) It that time of the month again. Yes, that’s right. It’s time to do my Previews order. It wasn’t so bad this time. Only eleven titles on my first count, and two weren’t too hard to drop. I had considered getting the title Kannazuki no Miko. It’s only two volumes longs, but it’s an “only if I’ve got nothing else to get”, and I’ve got more to get . The other was Good Witch of the West. That was a little harder to give up. The story was finally getting good. We’re out of the courts and into the wilds, facing the “dragons” (dinosaurs), and finally searching for the meaning behind the Star Queen. But the other titles that are scheduled to come out are more interesting to me. That takes me down to 9 titles, and a total of $60.72, right at the top of my limit. There are some new titles coming out in April that I’d like to read. Two are from Viz; Fairy Cube by Kaori Yuki. I’ve become a big fan of her work. And Record of a Fallen Vampire. I don’t know much about this series, but…