Manga Xanadu

Our hero Kitaro inherits all the super powers of his people, and with this greedy frenemy (mostly) on his side, and some help from his father, Kitaro packs a wallop that few yokai are strong enough to survive. Will Kitaro’s inhuman strength and whip-like hair be enough to stop these powerful yokai from spreading evil across Japan? We shall see! Shigeru Mizuki’s Kitaro: The Birth of Kitaro By Shigeru Mizuki; Translated by Zack Davisson Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly Age Rating: All Ages Genre: Supernatural Price: $12.95 I enjoyed the first Kitaro compilation Drawn & Quarterly released back in 2014, so I has happy to hear that they had licensed more of the series. This first volume doesn’t disappoint as it features stories from its first two years of serialization.

I caught a few episodes of the TV series Shadow Hunters, not realizing at first that it was based on the Mortal Instruments book series. While the TV series couldn’t hold my attention, I remembered I had the manga series based on the prequel, The Infernal Devices, and I had liked what I read of its serialization in Yen Plus, so I decided to finally read the whole series.

In the curious town of Utsuwa, where spirits know as ayakashi roam, lives Yue, a sheltered boy born and raised at the local shrine. On the night of the winter festival, Yue descends the mountain for the first time and encounters two boys. Though Yue wants nothing more than to become friends with his new acquaintances, Mikoto, the master of the shrine who rules over Utsuwa, declares that Yue must choose one of the boys as his “Meal”! Faced with this incomprehensible decision, what will Yue do?!

Tiffany Noboru doesn’t think she needs the childish talismans her parents left around her room to protect her from the things that go bump in the night. She learns how wrong she is when she is attacked and wakes up in a strange room with wings. She died and is now a gargoyle with the duty to protect the living. With many questions and few answers, she must figure out why she died and how to get home while dealing with a mentor more interested in chasing ghosts than teaching her, a dormitory of girls who taunt more than tutor, and a ghost who want to destroy them all.

What should have been a simple day out with friends turns into a mysterious disaster when powerful demonic beasts appear. Kazuya and Atsuro were supposed to meet Naoya, their enigmatic friend, but he doesn’t show up and instead sends another friend, Yuzu to meet them and give them specially modded game devices. It becomes apparent that Naoya has given them much more than they bargained for when demons spawn from these devices! These demons seem to be intent on killing humans, but could they actually be allies?! Kazuya and his friends must figure out what the devil is going on as the world around them inexplicably begins to fall apart!

Reading Matt Alt and Hiroko Yoda’s book Yurei Attack! The Japanese Ghost Survival Guide gave me a lot of ideas as a writer, but one that spurred my imagination was a story I didn’t want to write, just read.

In Edo, there is a woman with incredible supernatural powers known as Oyou, the Urameshiya. She is able to banish spirits haunting humans. But her power is a double-edged sword as she is feared by the same people who ask for her help, except for the outcast pickpocket, Saji. After a chance meeting, Saji is attracted to both her beauty and ability, and together they take on the supernatural in Edo. Urameshiya Volume 1-3 By Makiko Publisher: Jmanga.com/Futabasha Publishers Age Rating: Mature Genre: Supernatural/Mystery Price: $4.99/OOP Rating: Urameshiya was among the first selections available when Jmanga went live. I had seen it recommended by fellow bloggers, but its mature rating left me with some trepidation. I put off reading it until Jmanga released their Android reader app. My misgivings were completely unfounded, as I started reading the first volume, and worked obsessively through to the third, with little desire to put my tablet down. This title combines complex characters in realistic relationships with well told tales of the supernatural to create a very entertaining manga. Oyou, the protagonist of this title, is an outcast from society. Her strong powers make her someone people fear to anger, but at the same…

Gen Tsukiomi appears to be a normal high school student but there is more to him than meets the eye. So when his old caretaker asks him for help in protecting his current charge, Hikari Kuze, Gen wonders what is going on. Besides being a ditzy junior high school student, is Hikari like Gen, with a secret of her own? In what often feels like a comedy of errors, Gen tries to figure out who is after them while struggling to maintain his quickly dwindling control over the situation. As if that wasn’t enough, a new romantic rival appears! But which one of them is he actually after? Moonlight Kreuz Volume 1 By Yasumi Hazaki Publisher: Digital Manga Guild Age Rating: Teen Genre: Fantasy Price: $7.95/eBook only Rating: Moonlight Kreuz had an interesting sounding premise with romance, comedy and werewolves. But the first warning was there, with the female leading being described as  “ditzy.” And though I keep trying romantic comedies, I’ve yet to find one I really enjoy. This volume wasn’t a bad read, but neither was there anything that made want to pick up more. The lead characters, Gen and Hikari, needed first and foremost to be interesting to me….

It started with Kodansha announcing they licensed Sherdock, and then the unconfirmed (but hopefully true) license by Seven Seas of Dictatorial Grimoire. But starting on Valentines Day, February 14, it started to rain manga licenses from Viz Media and Seven Seas Entertainment (officially). Viz announced at total of 5 titles, 4 shojo/josei and one shonen. The two shojo titles are by creators who have already been published in the US. Yoroshiku Master, or Sweet Rein as Viz is calling it, is by Sakura Tsukuba. Two of her titles, Land of the Blindfolded and Penguin Revolution were originally published by CMX. It’s a 3 volume title about a girl and boy who bump into each other and become bound together, and the boy tells the girl, Kurumi, that is a Santa Claus and his master. This one looks a little shaky for my taste. I don’t quite get the obsession the Japanese seem to have to make Santa Claus a cute girl, so this one will have to get a “wait and see.”  This title will be available in November. Seems appropriate to come out right before Christmas. Voice Over! Seiyuu Academy has a little more appeal to me. This 11…

September is shaping up to a good month for new releases. All-Fiction.net dug up a new solicitation on Amazon for a new series from Seven Seas. Dokusai Grimoire, or Dictatorial Grimoire as Seven Seas is calling it is a three-volume manga series. It follows Grimm Otogi, a far-flung descendant of the original Brothers Grimm, has inherited a mansion from the deceased father he never knew. Along with that inheritance comes a curse; his ancestors made a deal with the mystical beings known as Marchen Demons who now have a claim on his soul. Otogi, with the help of a male Cinderella, must find a way to free himself by unlocking the power of a manuscript and stop the demons before they get him. I had found a love for fairy tales back in college, when for a paper, I had to write about Andrew Lang, an inspiration for Joseph Campbell, the well-known mythologist. Since then, I grab up titles that have something to do with fairy tales, which makes this title a must have for me. Over the course of the volumes Otogi will have to deal with tales featuring Cinderella, Snow White, and Little Red Riding Hood. While this…

Miko is a shrine maiden who has never had much success at seeing or banishing spirits. Then she meets Kagura, a sexy demon who feeds off women’s feelings of passion and love. Kagura’s insatiable appetite has left many girls at school brokenhearted, so Miko casts a spell to seal his powers. Surprisingly the spell works–sort of– but now Kagura is after her! By Mayu Shinjo Publisher: Viz Media – Shojo Beat Age Rating: Older Teen Genre: Supernatural Romance Price: $9.99 Rating: I had completely missed the license announcement for Demon Love Spell, so it came as a complete surprise when I saw it. I’ve only ever read one other volume by this manga creator, Ai Ore!, and had a sort of love/not-love thing with that volume. After reading this volume, I found I had the same feeling for this volume as well. Demon Love Spell is about a demon, an Incubus, who is bound by bumbling exorcist who can’t even see the spirits she is trying to exorcise. With his powers diminished, he has to stay with her until she can figure out what spell she used to bind him. Because he was a powerful demon, both of them become…

When one thinks of the holiday season, it tends to be of being merry, giving gifts, and celebrating the end of the old year and the beginning of the new. But the holiday season also has a history of ghostly stories and ghoulish things. Here are two Del Rey Manga titles that try to fit into the Comeuppance Theater genre, but just don’t quite make the grade.