The Viz Media panel was the only manga related panel I chose to go for a few reasons. One, we were short on time since we were commuting, Thursday only had two that held any relation to manga, and none of industry, and I wasn’t impressed with the Shonen Jump Panel last year. It was all cheer leading, and no real news. And they tricked me this year! Last year the Viz industry panel was on Thursday, thus one of the impetus to change to going on Thursday. Instead, they put both the Viz panels on Friday, and nothing on Thursday! Why SDCC??
Pokémon: The Rise of Darkrai By Ryo Takamisaki Publisher: Viz Media/VizKids Age Rating: All Ages Genre: Game/TV Tie-in/Action Price: $7.99 Rating: Storyline: Ash and his friends have discovered that they’re walking toward the ancient Alamos Town after befriending a girl named Alice. Once they’ve arrived, they find out that the sacred garden of Alamos town has been ransacked, the mysterious Darkrai appears, appearantly not pleased and tells Ash and everyone else to leave immediately. Strange things have been happening as well… What I liked about this manga: Practically everything. The best parts were Brock (he’s so loveable) and the Palkia, Dialga and Darkrai battle scenes. Being that I’m a great Pokemon fan, that adds to the liking of this manga. What I did not like about this manga: Almost nothing. The great graphics and how it’s extremely alike to the movie makes it hard not to like the manga. Although, the character’s scripts make it really obvious to what just happened. It makes me want to say “Dur da durrr.” Nope, not even a script change. Baron Alberto is quite annoying, however.
Pokémon: The Rise of Darkrai By Ryo Takamisaki Publisher: Viz Kids Age Rating: A (All Ages) Genre: Game/TV tie-in/Action Price: $7.99 Rating: What is the story about? It’s about Ash, Pikachu, and Darkrai. Darkrai fights both Dialga and Palkia before he disappears into space. What did you like about the story? I liked the fight against Dialga and Palkia. I also like the pokemon Dialga. What did you dislike about the story? I hate it when Baron turned into Lickilicky, because it is freaky. I also hate the way they drew Infernape. Would you recommend the story to kids your age? Yes.
Worried that she’s been far too lenient with Lupin, Suguri starts him on a strict training regimen. But then Lupin disappears, and Suguri blames herself. When standard search methods fail, it’s time for some creative problem solving. With a little luck and a little talent she just might be able to find her precious pooch! By Yukiya Sakuragi Publsiher: Viz Media Rating: Teen+ Genre: Slice of life Price: $9.99 Rating: Lupin runs away during a thunder-storm, and jumps into a moving truck just as its finished packing. Lupin is whisked away from Suguri, who has been searching for him. Arriving in another perfecture (county), Lupin has his own set of adventures as he tries to find his way home. Suguri, devastated by Lupin’s disappearance, goes to any extreme to find him. I want to be honest here. I’m not a big dog person. I don’t mind having one around, but I’m much more of a cat person. This preference seems to have colored my view of this manga, as I just didn’t care for it. Not because it was badly done, I just wasn’t interested in the dogs or their owners. Neither the characters nor dogs really endeared themselves to…
While going through some old ANN news feeds, I picked up a few news items I want to comment on: DS Vision to go live in June: This just sort of passed right by in one of thier Daily Brief posts, but I want to give it more attention. This was first announced last November, and now it seems to be coming to fruition.
I’ve already gotten the newest issue of Shonen Jump, but I don’t want to read it until I’ve read the intervening Naruto volumes (17-27)! So, Naruto’s next story arc will have to wait. I think I need more doctor’s appointments to catch up.
Some company needs to step up to plate and rescue the City Hunter manga from license hell. This series, written and drawn by Hojo Tsukasa, ran in Shonen Jump from 1985-1992, and has a total of 35 volumes. It’s about Ryo Saeba, a sweeper, or gun for hire, working in Tokyo. He is known as The City Hunter, the best shot in the Underground World, where he worked as an assassin for my years before becoming sweeper. Now, he works with a partner, Kaori Makimura, who is the younger sister of his former partner, Hideyuki Makimura. Hideyuki died, and asked Ryo to take care of Kaori. Together, they take on work to help people as body guards or private detectives. And even though he is wanted by the police, he sometimes helps out Saeko Nogami, a pretty detective wtih Tokyo Metro Police. There is alot of action in this manga, and lots of sharp shooting from Ryo, making nearly impossible shots to save the day. Ryo is a well muscled, good looking man, and the women are all shapely beauties. Sound like a typical shonen series? Well, it isn’t! This series is freaking hysterical!! What makes City Hunter so funny?…
A few things I want to get off my chest first. Viz– Afros are for frogs and fists get their strength from the North Star and not nose hair. Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo must Gogogo-go Go-gogo! Bleach may make your whites look good as new, but it’s not going to do the same for Shonen Jump. Recycling is for cans, bottles and newspapers, not manga! I don’t know why, but these changes to Shonen Jump have really been bugging me. Why add these two titles? Why now? Bleach has been doing just fine on its own. It’s been making the USA Today Top 150. The only real logical reason to move it is to try to build Shonen Jump sales, if they are in fact slumping. (We don’t know SJ sales figures). And Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo, I really can’t believe they had a huge amount of requests to add this to the magazine. Viz only put out one volume in 2005 (which you can’t even find on their website), and they’ve started it’s serialization at chapter 110? That doesn’t sound like a serious commitment to me. It really made me think. What was so special about these two titles? Then, it hit me….
I‘m back and mostly recovered from SDCC. I was there for three days, Fri, Sat, and Sun, with my family, so I wasn’t able to hit all the panels, but I did get to go to a couple of manga related. We got to the convention center and through registration just in time for me to go to the Shonen Jump Panel, one I was looking forward to go to. Now, I’ve talked about my feelings on the changes for Shonen Jump so far here. For over a month now, Viz has been hyping the new title to be joining Shonen Jump, with Shaman King leaving, Naruto winding down to normal, and another title ending naturally. Anyone reading the magazine knew what the ending title was, Yu Gi Oh!. That was no big surprise. And Marc Weidenbaum, editor-in-chief of the magazine didn’t leave us in suspense about what the new title was going to be. As everyone has heard by now, it’s Bleach. I was ambivalent about this announcement at first. I like Bleach. I think it’s a really fun title, and would be a good fit with the magazine. But the more I thought about it, the less of…
Now, I really don’t mind the recent changes that were announced in the recent issue of Shonen Jump. This certainly isn’t the first time that a series has been taken out of the magazine to continue in graphic novels. Dragonball Z left after just over a year, and Yu-Gi-Oh! took out the “Duelist” arc to continue with the shorter “Millenium World” arc. I really didn’t mind these changes, since the series’ brought in only improved the magazine. I wasn’t sure if I was going to like Hikaru no Go when it was first announced, but it turned out to be an excellent series. Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo is not. I’m sorry, I didn’t like this series from the preview chapter they ran a year or so ago, and after reading the latest chapter, I still don’t like it. I really enjoyed Shonen Jump magazine because it would have entertaining, quality series, and of late, the only squabble I had was that there were so many running that I was only getting one chapter a month instead of my usual 2-3. Lately, it’s been Naruto, One Piece, Shaman King, Hikaru no Go, Yu Yu Hakusho, Yu-Gi-Oh! Millenium World, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, and Gintama (another…