Manga Xanadu

This week I take a look some news items; Square Enix shutting down their manga service site, New licenses from Yen Press and Seven Seas Entertainment, some new digital manga coming to the Vizmanga site, and the top-selling manga in March and April according to Nielson’s Bookscan service. Shownotes: Square Enix E-manga Service Shutdown Yen Press License: Bloody Cross Thermae Romae on Barnes & Noble Nook and Amazon Kindle New Manga on Vizmanga.com Seven Seas Entertainment Licenses: Mad Hatter’s Late Night Tea Party & Alice Love Fables Nielson Bookscan Top Selling manga for March and April Music courtesy of Kevin MacLeod of Incompetech http://archive.org/download/MangaDomeEpisode04/MangaDomeEpisode04.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download

In a world infected with a deadly virus that turns its victims into zombie-like dolls call Guignols, a traveling band of musicians, known as the Grand Orchestra, wander the world, and bringing music to the uninfected. For the right price they will perform any song and maybe even a miracle. Led by Lucille, the beautiful singer, the Orchestra searches for the legendary Black Oratorio, which is said to hold the answer to ending the Guignol Virus. By Kaori Yuki Publisher: Viz Media Age Rating: Older Teen Genre: Horror/Romance Price: $9.99 Rating: Grand Guignol Orchestra is latest Kaori Yuki title to be released in English. It is a Gothic horror,  that puts a different twist on the zombie phenomena. I’ve enjoyed Yuki’s work since I first read Godchild, and was looking forward to reading her take on zombies. I wasn’t disappointed. The interesting characters, mixture of music and zombies, and a story with lots of twists and turns all wrapped up in a fairy tale-like setting made this a fun read. Right from the beginning I liked the characters. Lucille, the beautiful, gender-ambiguous leader of the Orchestra starts as rather capricious and a little sinister. But after seeing the “Divine Lightning”…

In honor of the Manga Movable Feast, this week I talk about the themes in Kaori Yuki’s manga. I also take a look at the manga nominated for the Eisners this year, and the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic manga that was recently announced in Japan. Please enjoy! Show Notes: Eisner nominations My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic manga Kaori Yuki Manga Angel Sanctuary The Cain Saga Godchild Fairy Cube Grand Guignol Orchestra Music courtesy of Kevin MacLeod of Incompetech http://archive.org/download/MangaDomeEpisode03/MangaDomeEpisode03.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download

I’ve finally done it. I’ve thrown the idea around for several years, but with help and encouragement from my husband, I have recorded my first podcast. In this first episode I talk about several recent news stories as well as a few manga I’ve read recently. In the future I will have more extensive reviews, and maybe even a guest or two! Have a listen. Comments and suggestions are strongly encouraged. The First Episode! Show Notes: Vertical Digital Manga Interview with Ed Chavez at Good E-Reader Asahi Shimbun Article on Jmanga Wondercon Anaheim Yen Press and Dark Horse at Sakuracon Viz Media manga app on 10″ Android devices Manga I’m Reading: Until Death Due Us Part Volume 2 Umineko: When They Cry Volume 1 Knights of Sidonia volume 1 Paradise Kiss Volume 3 Music courtesy of Kevin MacLeod of Incompetech http://archive.org/download/MangaDomeEpisode01/MangaDomeEpisode01.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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…

Over at Good E-Reader, Brigid Alverson recently conducted an interview with Kevin Hamric, the director of publishing, marketing and sales about Viz Media’s digital strategy. We learn that Viz’s digital titles are selling strong on all the platforms it is available on, that digital rights are now just as important as print rights, and that recent WSJ title Nisekoi was digital only, but Viz is now going back for print rights. It was good to see that Viz recognizes that DRM is only harmful to consumers and that just making titles available in the format people want will fight piracy better than just trying to stamp out scanlation site. On the whole is a good informative article, and I was with it all the way until this quote from Kevin: The more you make it easy for everybody, the more you are going to sell stuff. We want to make our product available in any format [readers] want. Whatever way they want it, we are going to give it to them. Okay Kevin, I and a lot of other people judging from the comments on the Google Play site for the Viz Manga app, want it available on 10″ Android…

In 1969 a group of boys built a secret base out of dried grass in a field. There, they came up with a story about an evil empire and the heroes that would stop them. They wrote in a notebook called The Book of Prophesy. 27 years later, events in the book start to come true. In 1999, the boys, led by Kenji Endou, have come together to try to stop the evil empire led by “Friend”, and their battle comes to a head on New Years Eve. Fifteen years later, in 2014, the battle with Friend begins again, with a “New Book of Prophecy”, this time led by Kenji’s niece Kanna. Jump ahead again 3 years to the Era of Friend 3 and it’s like 1971. The battle is taken up one last time. By Naoki Urasawa Publisher: Viz Media – Viz Signature Age Rating: Older Teen Genre: Mystery/Thriller Price: $12.99 Rating: I started reading 20th Century Boys when it first came out and followed it for the first 5 volumes. My first review of the series wasn’t very favorable. I found all the time jumping in them to be confusing and difficult to follow. After 4 years and…

In an ideal world where man and robot coexist, someone or something has destroyed the powerful Swiss robot Mont Blanc. Elsewhere a key figure in a robot rights group is murdered. The two incidents appear to be unrelated…except for one very conspicuous clue – the bodies of both victims have been fashioned into some sort of bizarre collage complete with makeshift horns placed by the victim’s heads. Interpol assigns robot detective Gesicht to the most strange and complex case – and he eventually discovers that he too, as one of the seven great robots of the world, is one of the targets. By Naoki Urasawa Publisher: Viz Media – Viz Signature Age Rating: Older Teen Genre: Mystery/Thriller/Sci-fi ISBN: 9781421519180 Price: $12.99 Rating: I had read the first two volumes of Pluto back when it came out in 2007, and absolutely loved them. But the time it took for me to collect the rest of the volumes and newer, shinier titles put reading it on the back burner. Thankfully, this month’s Manga Movable Feast gave me a good excuse to finally pull them out and read them. I’m glad I waited until I had the whole series before I read them….

The Chinese New Year has arrived, which means two things; a slow down of shipments at work as factories shut down for 3 weeks, and a new post about manga featuring this year’s zodiac animal! We move from the majestic dragon down to the more common snake, but as you will see, there are no such things as common snakes in manga! Fruits Basket – Let’s get the obvious out-of-the-way with Fruits Basket, which features all the zodiac animals. Ayame Sohma is the snake of the zodiac in the Sohma family. He is the older brother of Yuki, one of the main characters of the series. He is very handsome with silver hair and striking eyes. He is flamboyant, self-confident and self-centered, and annoys Yuki and Kyo to no end. He is very demanding that Yuki return his love as his brother, but Ayame’s treatment of Yuki when he was growing up has made that a difficult request for Yuki to comply with. Naruto – This long running series is about a screw-up boy ninja, Naruto Uzumaki, who wants to prove himself and become the leader of his villain, the Hokage. Orochimaru is the first major antagonist in the series….

The Public Morals Club has been infiltrated by the Student Council as ninja Yui joins the club to spy on them. But with his reasons for switching being done in secret, not everyone on the Student Council is as understanding. It could be the end of Public Morals Club if the club can’t get a stamp of approval from the Student Council Auditor. Then a member of the Student Council, Ayabe challenges Mafuyu to a one-on-one battle, where the unthinkable happens. Mafuyu loses. By Izumi Tsubaki Publisher: Viz Media – Shojo Beat Age Rating: Teen Genre: Comedy/Romance Price: $9.99 Rating: It’s been 5 volumes since I last read Oresama Teacher. I’ve enjoyed the series for the most part, but I’ve never been so enamored that I wanted to do anything more than just read it. These two volumes fall into the same category. A lack of Takaomi and more emphasis on Mafuyu, Hayasaka, and new club member Yui did make for some fun reading, but not enough to bring the series up that extra notch. Yui has been having trouble gaining the trust of Mafuyu and Hayasaka, and with the club needed the stamp of approval from the auditor, 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…

What is love, anyway? Ninako Kinoshita’s friends tell her it’s one thing, but Ninako wonders what this mysterious feeling is. When she meets Ren Ichinose, the handsome, enigmatic guy that all the girls worship, her life takes an unexpected turn. With just a few words and a smile, he changes her world. Ninako’s friend Daiki throws her for a loop when he expresses romantic interest in her. She cares for him, but can she return his feeling? As she tries to short out her confusion, Ninako realizes that there are many different facets of love–strange and wonderful sides… By Io Sakisaka Publisher: Viz Media Age Rating: Teen Genre: Romance Price: $9.99 Rating: Falling in love for the first time is a strange, wonderful and sad feeling all at the same time. Watching Ninako slowly realize that the feelings she’s starting to experience are those of first love was a fun and delightful experience. Strobe Edge starts out seeming like the typical love triangle. Ninako is a first year in high school, and a little gullible. She is also completely clueless about the feeling of her best friend since elementary school, Daiki. Her chance encounter with the school’s “idol prince”, Ren,…