Manga Xanadu

The big but strangly never mentioned news for this issue of Shonen Jump is that it is not long a purely monthly magazine. Subscriptions cards in the mag advertise a yearly subscription as being 10 issues. And you’ll notice this issue covers June and July. Of course, nothing is mentioned in the magazine about this change or why. The obvious reason is cost. Cut out 2 issues (this isn’t any bigger a normal issue) and save printing costs. If there was any other reasons, Viz isn’t saying, since they’ve said nothing about the change. Maybe they were hoping no one would notice? The issue starts out with a video game feature, looks at the Nura anime and vol 3 of the manga, Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds trading card and strategy and the Reborn anime which has started streaming on Vizanime.com. The manga starts up with Psyren. Oboro, the famous actor goes on a TV show about Psyren, and nearly feels the wrath of Nemesis Q. He is saved by Elmore Tenjuin, the woman who put up the 500 million to solve the mystery of Psyren. Another player isn’t so lucky. Ageha’s training contiues to surprising results that Sakurako can’t explain, but the…

Leaving her internship at Sushi Hyuga to go on her family’s annual trip to France is the last thing Hanayu wants to do. On the other hand, a pastry-research trip in Europe is Hayato’s idea of a dream come true–can the two aspiring chefs ever catch a break? Plus, Hayato has become suspicious of patisserie assistant Maezawa, who has expressed an interest in Hanayu. As it turns out, both Hanayu and Hayato may have their wires crossed about what Maezawa is really after! By: Ayumi Komura Publisher: Viz Media Age Rating: Teen Genre: Romance/Food Price: $9.99 Rating: I read the first 2 preview chapters for this series back when Shojo Beat was still around, and wasn’t impressed. Further reviews from fellow reviewers didn’t inspire me to look further into the series, and I’m not a foodie, so this volume had three strikes against it going in. But it actually wasn’t so bad. There wasn’t anything great about it. It’s a fairly average title, but I didn’t regret the time I spent reading it. Hanaya and Hayato, the leads that I found so annoying in the preview chapters of volume 1, aren’t so bad by this volume. Hanaya no longer has…

Yamaoka and his father Kaibara Yuzan, have never enjoyed an ideal father-son relationship.  In fact, it’s about as far from ideal as possible, and when they start arguing about food–which they inevitably do–the sparks really fly.  In this volume of Oishinbo, the subject of dispute is fish, starting with the question of whether mackerel can ever be truly good sashimi.  Later, things come to a head during the “Salmon Match” which pits father against son in an epic contest to develop the best dish before a panel of judges.  Will Yamaoka finally defeat Kaibara?  Or will he once again be left in his father’s shadow? Story by Tetsu Kariya; Art by Akira Hanasaki Publisher: Viz Media Age Rating: Teen Genre: Food Price: $12.99 Rating: The overall premise of Oishinbo is that Yamaoka and his partner Kurita are compiling the “Ultimate Menu” of Japanese cuisine for the 100th anniversary of the publishers of Tozai News.  Each volume of Viz’s compilation of this long running series is centered around a type of food. This volume is all about fish.  The stories are episodic, and can be broken down into two types; Yamaoka helping someone out or putting someone in their place about…

A Samurai during Japan’s Warring States period (1467-1573), Daigo Kagemitsu wants complete control over Japan.  He promises his unborn son’s 48 body parts to demons in exchange for that control.  When the baby is born deformed, Daigo throws the newborn into the river to die, but it is miraculously found by a doctor, Jukai, who makes prosthetics for the child and adopts him as his own.  When the boy Hyakkimaru is grown, he leaves home and begins a journey to recover his body parts.  Along the way he runs into a brash young thief, Dororo, whom he teams up with; together they battle demon and monster on their adventure to reclaim Hyakkimaru’s wholeness. By Osamu Tezuka Publisher: Vertical Inc. Age Rating: Teen Genre: Action/Adventure Price: $13.95 Rating: Dororo, first serialized in 1967, can be seen as a proto-shonen story.  It has many of the elements we now see in shonen titles today, though these were new at the time. Tezuka spins a memorable supernatural action/adventure tale and characters that really draw you in, and only disappoints at the very end, though not in story, but lack of it. The first volume of this title is the introduction. Tezuka jumps from…

“I’m going to uncover the mystery of the ‘Blade Children’.”…World-class detective Kiyotaka Narumi’s last words prior to his sudden disappearance continue to haunt his younger brother, Ayumu.  The cheeky 10th-grader becomes equally embroiled in the mystery of the doomed “Blade Children” when he is mistaken for the prime suspect in a murder at his school.  Led by Ayumu’s sister-in-law, Kiyotaka’s wife and fellow detective, Madoka, the investigation into the murder gives Ayumu a chance to clear his name.  But in doing so, he not only uncovers ties to the Blade Children but also more questions than answers about who and what they are. Story by Kyo Shirodaira; Art by Eita Mizuno Publisher: Yen Press Genre: Mystery Rating: Teen Price: $10.99 Rating: Spiral: The Bonds of Reasoning is a title that started out as a novel and was then turned into both a manga and an anime series.  This first volume introduces us to the main characters and the overarching mystery of the “Blade Children”, with individual mysteries giving us the pieces to the larger one. Ayumu Narumi is a 10th grader at a private high school, and brother to Kiyotaka Narumi, a world-class pianist in his teens and a “Great…

Hell Girl by Miyuki Eto; Original Story by The Jigoku Shoujo Project Publisher: Del Rey Manga Genre: Horror/Shoujo Rating: OT 16+ (Teen 13+) Price: $10.95 Rating: I don’t get it. Someone really needs to explain this to me. What was so bad about Hell Girl Volume 1 from Del Rey? I just finished reading it, and can’t see any of the problems so many other reviewers seemed to have with it. I’ve seen the anime this manga is based on, and, on the whole, the first volume follows the first 4-5 episodes in it. There are some minor changes, such as Enma Ai is seen as a student at the schools the girls go to, instead of always waiting in her home with her “Grandmother” for a request to come through the computer. And in the anime, those that ask for Ai’s help get a straw doll with a red string around it’s neck. If they decide to make the contract with Ai, all they have to do is pull the string. Ai also gives those looking to make the contract a taste of what they will be getting after they die and go to hell. Other than those small…

(Originally posted on Popculture Shock) Rin Amami is a regular middle school student—regular, that is, except for his gruff, gravelly voice. Though his classmates tell him he sounds like Godzilla or a toad, Rin has a secret dream: he wants to sing. He has an idol’s looks, and can pick up any dance style after seeing it once, but his voice crushes any attempts to go after that dream. While working on a street corner selling pictures of pop stars and taking dance requests, he literally runs into The Beatmen, an up-and-coming boy band. He becomes entangled with the group when the owner of Red Shoes, The Beatmen’s agency, declares that Rin possesses the legendary “Dragon Voice,” possessing the qualities of both a demon and an angel. Boss is determined to prove that Rin that will blend with The Beatmen’s already balanced sound, and adds Rin to the group. Dragon Voice Volumes 1-7 By Yuriko Nishiyama Publisher: Tokyopop Age Rating: Teen Genre: Music Price: $9.99 Rating: So begins Rin and The Beatmen’s rocky journey to become idols in Japan’s cutthroat entertainment industry. Their career gets off to a rocky start after The Beatmen lose a bet to a rival band,…