Manga Xanadu

Things are slowly down as we hit the middle of the month. Dark Horse releases their first omnibus of Astro Boy by Osamu Tezuka, a title they seemed to have kept from DMP. It collects the first three volumes into one massive 700 page book and includes the original story “Greatest Robot on Earth,” which was the basis for Naoki Urasawa’s Pluto. Fans of either series should definitely pick this up. Seven Seas has the 12th volume of Haganai: I Don’t Have Many Friends, where it’s school festival time. Hit Seven Seas’ Tumblr to find out more.

Viz picks up several more former Tokyopop titles for their Select line, including CLAMP School Detectives, just about the only one I’m really interested in reading. I wonder how far they will go with these rescues? I’m glad they have discovered the value of bundles as they add some older shonen jump titles.

After a heavy shonen and shojo release week last week, this week is a little on the lighter side. Seven Seas releases an omnibus of Dictatorial Grimoire, collecting all three volumes of the series into one book for a lower price. I’ve truly come to appreciate omnibuses for price and shelf space. I’ve considered Dictatorial Grimoire before, but this omnibus make it much more attractive.

Viz Media makes another move to spread its manga to other platforms as Weekly Shonen Jump finally jumps from the Vizmanga app to get on comiXology and Amazon’s Kindle. The jump to just these two platforms and not Nook, Kobo, iOS, or Googleplay is probably due to Amazon’s ownership of comiXology. Hopefully Viz will be able to announce expanding to those other platforms soon as well.

Maki Minami has become another of Viz Media’s go-to creators with this, her third series to be published by the Shojo Beat imprint. It’s starting up at a perfect time as well, as Voice Over! Seiyuu Academy has just ended. I don’t know if I’ll read it, since it uses the Rich-to-Poor trope that I don’t care for, but it can some times work for me, so may be I’ll at least check out the first volume.

Once Shinji didn’t care about anything; then he found people to fight for–only to learn that he couldn’t protect them, or keep those he let into his heart from going away. As mankind tilts on the brink of the apocalyptic Third Impact, human feelings are fault lines leading to destruction and just maybe, redemption and rebirth. Neon Genesis Evangelion Volume 1-3 By Yoshiyuki Sadamoto Publisher: Viz Media Age Rating: Older Teen Genre: Sci-Fi Price: $19.99 USD Neon Genesis Evangelion is an anime from the 1990s that defined a generation, and changed the mecha genre. I was never able to watch more than a few episodes of the anime, so I thought reading the manga adaptation would be a better way to go. Nope. My first instincts were correct. These first three volumes are slow and boring with a protagonist that you spend most of the time wanting to slap silly.

On her sixteenth birthday, orphan Himari Momochi inherits her ancestral estate that she’s never seen. Momochi House exists on the barrier between the human and spiritual realms, and Himari is meant to act as guardian between the two worlds. But on the day she moves in, she finds three handsome squatters already living in the house and one seems to have already taken over her role! Demon Prince of Momochi House Volume 1 By Aya Shouoto Publisher: Viz Media Age Rating: Teen Genre: Supernatural/Romance Price: $9.99 I was really looking forward to reading the first volume of Demon Prince of Momochi House, and was lucky enough to get a friend to pick it up for me as SDCC (along with one of Viz’s con bags). I read it the same night it arrived, but it wasn’t what I was expecting. I was let down by the stale characters and a story that didn’t seem to go anywhere.

It seems an edition of the US Weekly Shonen Jump magazine isn’t complete with a Yu-Gi-Oh manga being serialized in it. The first Yu-Gi-Oh manga was among the debut titles, and every new title was added to the magazine for most of their runs up to Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal, which just ended in June. So it’s time to load up the next one.

Ultraman is a Japanese superhero who has been getting a lot of attention lately in the US. Crunchyroll has been streaming the older episodes and now Viz Media has licensed the manga that acts as a sequel to original TV series, to attract old and new fans alike. And it’s finally out this week!

Superheroes have been all the rage lately on TV and movie screens, so it should come as no surprise that they’re popping up in manga too.  My Hero Academia has been serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump since late last year, but this simultaneous release of both the print and digital edition of the first volume finally makes the series available to non-WSJ readers.  I wasn’t wowed by the chapters that were made available in January of this year, but sales are putting me into the minority. Check it out yourself to see where you stand.

If you’ve been following my Top Ten posts every week, you will have seen that Tokyo Ghoul has been popular even before the print volumes came out. Part of this is probably because of the anime series which streamed earlier last year. If you’ve been curious about the series, but want to try before you buy, Viz Media has a deal for you. You can read an extended except of the first volume online for free. You can get almost half of the first volume to try, but only for a limited time. Check it out while you can!

Once a loner, Hikari “Picasso” Hamura has helped so many people that he finds himself surrounded by friends! Picasso’s going to need them as he faces his most difficult “portrait” yet. It’s easy to deal with other people’s problems. But it’s another story when you have to face your own… Genkaku Picasso Volume 2-3 By Usamaru Furuya Publisher: Viz Media Age Rating: Older Teen Genre: Supernatural/Mystery Price: $9.99 Rating: Back when I read volume 1 of Genkaku Picasso for the Usamaru Furuya Movable Manga Feast, I said I was definitely going to be picking up the last two volumes, which I did, but didn’t get around to reading. Have I mentioned I can be a bit of hoarder when it comes to books? Anyway, I finally decided to read the final volumes, and I am really glad I did. The classmates they help and the problems they deal with are both timely and poignant. The final volume has one of the best twists I’ve ever read in a book, and just elevates this series to a whole ‘nother level.