Manga Xanadu

This last week at Baltimore Comic Con, the Harvey Awards were held. Like the Eisners, the Harveys honor the best in comics and sequential art. Unlike the Eisners, the Harveys are nominated and voted on by the comic professionals themselves. It’s about creators honoring other creators for their work. While the awards center mostly around American comics, manga does get a nod in the “Best American Edition of Foreign Material” category. This year, three manga got nods: Attack on Titan by Hajime Isayama and published by Kodansha Comics, Sunny by Taiyo Matsumoto and published by Viz Media, and Showa: A History of Showa Japan by Shigeru Mizuki and published by Fantagraphics. All three titles have their merits. Attack on Titan, while sorely lacking the art department has a compelling story and interesting characters, things that have made it a huge franchise both in Japan and here in the States. Volume 1 of the series has been on the New York Times Bestseller List for almost 70 consecutive weeks. Sunny is a semi-autobiographical slice of life story about several kids living at the Star Kids Home orphanage, and one of the few constant things in their life is the old yellow Sunny…

It’s a slow release week this week, so it’s all about the titles I want to catch up on, but other shinies keep distracting me! Kodansha has picked up the pace lately by adding many titles I want to read. I’ve read the first volume of Sherlock Bones and did enjoy it, but 2-4 have been languishing on the shelf waiting for me to pick them up. With the release of volume 7, the final volume, I may as well just wait and read the whole rest of the series in one go! Seven Deadly Sins vol 4 comes out this week, adding to another growing stack of unread shonen. I have a lot of those I keep meaning to wheedle down, but then things like new Attack on Titan volumes come out and I’m off after the shiny things again. Viz Media is my usual point and click into a virtual basket, but this week there is only one title that I am of course woefully behind on. 07-Ghost vol 12 comes out this week, bringing the series only 5 volumes from finishing, and me 7 volumes behind. At least it has an end in sight and I unlike so many shonen titles….

Viz Media has plenty of digital manga ending and beginning this month, even a few surprises for their VIZ Select imprint. They are seriously mining the Tokyopop catalog, and from their weekly top tens, it’s been doing alright for them. I might even check out their newest acquisition. Find out what it is and more after the break!

Every week, Viz Media and the New York Times posts the top ten bestselling books. For Viz Media, it is the bestsellers on their site, Vizmanga.com. The New York Times gets their numbers of print sales from retailers. Offered here is a listing of these books with their status this week compared with the previous week, and some way-off analysis of the activity.   Vizmanga.com for the week of August 26, 2014 Food Wars Vol. 3     ↔ Chibi Vampire Vol. 12     ∗ JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 3 Vol. 15     ∗ JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 3 Vol. 16     ∗ Future Diary Vol. 5     ∗ D • N • Angel Vol. 12     ∗ Fate/Stay Night Vol. 8     ∗ One Punch Man Vol. 4     ↓ 6 St. Lunatic High School Vol. 1     ∗ Trinity Blood Vol. 4     ∗ Digital-only titles absolutely dominate this week with new volumes and some new titles. Only two titles survived from last week, Food Wars and One Punch Man. JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 3 finishes its release just in time for Part 1 to start. Maybe we’ll be seeing a triple-tap next week. St. Lunatic High School is another Tokyopop…

This week has some interesting titles coming out, as well as ending. Kodansha has just one title; Noragami: Stray God Vol. 1. This title was announced to some excitement last year, as it also has an anime that was streamed on Funimation, giving it name recognition that may help move the volume. We’ll have to see if it makes to the NYT bestseller list next week. Vertical Inc., releases the 4th volume in their foodie series, What Did You Eat Yesterday? Seriously, if you’re not reading this series, why not?! It has something for everyone, foodie or not, and Vertical always puts out great editions. Viz Media says good-bye to two of its titles. Midnight Secretary, the josei-as-shojo ends this week with Vol. 7. I did enjoy the first two volumes with caveats, but am still interested in reading more. It’s on the to-read list. Dawn of the Arcana, a true shojo also ends it’s run with Vol. 13. I have the first two volumes that have been languishing in my to-be-reviewed pile for a while now. Maybe this is a good time to pick them up and finally check them out. Finally, Time Killers by Kazue Kato comes out….

Every week, Viz Media and the New York Times posts the top ten bestselling books. For Viz Media, it is the bestsellers on their site, Vizmanga.com. The New York Times gets their numbers of print sales from retailers. Offered here is a listing of these books with their status this week compared with the previous week, and some way-off analysis of the activity.   Vizmanga.com for the week of August 19, 2014. Food Wars! Vol. 3     ∗ One-Punch Man Vol. 4    ∗ Lucky☆Star Vol. 1     ∗ Chibi Vampire Vol. 11     ∗ JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 3: Vol. 13     ∗ JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 3: Vol. 14     ∗ D•N• ANGEL Vol. 11     ∗ Fate/stay Night Vol. 7     ∗ Bleach Vol. 61     ↓ 5 Naruto Vol. 66     ↓  2 New digital releases wipe nearly all the new print titles out from last week. Only Bleach and Naruto survived, and they only just barely scrapped by, taking the last two spots. All the rest of the list are either digital only or digital firsts. I really wish I knew how JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure kept doing the double taps. Are all JoJo fans in…

The climax of our story is finally at hand! Mankind faces a crisis and Kenji is hustling to save the world and the people he loves. But he also must solve the mystery of the Friend. Who is he and why did he become evil? The answer is tied to a memory Kenji has from when he was a twentieth century boy. 21st Century Boys Volume 2 By Naoki Urasawa Publisher: Viz Media Age Rating: Older Teen Genre: Mystery/Thriller Price: $12.99USD Rating: In my previous review of volume 1 of 21st Century Boys, I had hopes of the this part would redeem what I thought was a non-ending of the first part, 20th Century Boys. While this volume does tie up many of the loose ends and does finally answer the question “Who is the Friend?”, it still doesn’t satisfy like I had hoped. The search for the remote to the proton bomb continues, both in reality and in the virtual world. The UN Forces show their distrust of Kanna and the rest of the group, but that doesn’t stop them from continuing the search. Kanna’s powers come into play in discovering the bomb’s button and the location of the…

The Seishu Gakuen baseball team is one win away from fulfilling Wakaba’s final dream of seeing Ko pitch in front of a packed crowd at Koshien. But they’ll have to beat powerhouse Ryuou Gakuin in the North Tokyo Tournament finals in order to get there. Meanwhile, Akane Takigawa’s health takes a turn for the worse, and she’s scheduled to have surgery…on the day of the big game. By Mitsurs Adachi Publisher: Viz Media Age Rating: Teen Genre: Sports Price: $14.99US Rating: When Cross Game first came out, it got a lot of praise. It was also featured in a Manga Movable Feast, but the first chapter preview Viz made available didn’t interest me. So, I passed on the series, until I received a copy of the final volume. I decided to give the series a shot and see what everyone was so excited about. I did enjoy the volume. It was easy to  get into, even with being the final volume, but ultimately it still didn’t make a convert out of me. This volume starts out with Ko and the Seishu Gakuen baseball team departing to play the final game that will decide who will go to Koshien. Any potential…

Shohoku has made it to the second round of the Nationals, and are matched up to play against Sannoh, last year’s National champions. While Sannoh seems to be on a whole different level from Shohoku, the boys are ready to give up on their dreams of advancing just yet, especially Sakuragi. It going to take everything they got and every trick in their book to make it through this game. The question is, will it be enough? By Takehiko Inoue Publisher: Viz Media Age Rating: Teen Genre: Sports Price: $9.99 Rating: Slam Dunk is one of those titles that can suck you in and keep you glued to your seat whether you think you’ll like the series or not. I’ve read previous volumes and have enjoyed them all, but these volumes, some of the last before the end of the series are just amazing. There really is no other way to describe it. I know nothing about basketball and really don’t care for it, but I could not put down a single one of these volumes and had to grab the next, the game was so gripping. The entirety of these four volumes is dedicated to a single game; Shohoku’s semi-finals…

Misao has made the choice to forego college and a normal human life in order to be Kyo’s wife and mother to the demon child she carries. But her pregnancy is unusual, even for the demon world. The last pages of the Senka Roku will reveal the truth of the matter, but now that Kyo has it in his hands, does he really want to know…? By Kanoko Sakurakouji Publisher: Viz Media Age Rating: Older Teen Genre: Supernatural Romance Price: $9.99 Rating: I’ve had a love/hate relationship with Black Bird for a while now. I found Kyo’s skeeviness annoying, as well as Misao’s submissiveness. A lot of that changes with this volume. After defeating his older brother Sho, Kyo has learned the final fate of the Senka Maiden, and it doesn’t bode well for Misao. Kyo sets the Daitengu to work trying to find a way to keep both mother and baby alive. A single clue left by Sho and some information from the Senka Roku just might hold the answer. There are a lot of emotions flying around this volume. Misao is faced with the prospect of either she dying or her baby. Neither are acceptable to her. But…

At Sakura-Con last week, Viz Media announced the print and digital release of World Trigger, a digital Weekly Shonen Jump only title. It looks like a fun title, so I’m glad Viz is making it available finally to those of us who don’t subscribe to WSJ. More info available after the jump.

This week I check out the Weekly Wish List, a new title at Crunchyroll, double the Top Ten Department, and the new manga licenses announced at Sakura-Con from Yen Press, Dark Horse Comics and Viz Media. http://archive.org/download/MangaDomeEpisode54/MangaDomeEpisode54.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download