Manga Xanadu

My how time flies!  I can’t believe Easter is already upon us!  Ah, that springtime holiday where everyone buys big, flowery hats, kids color eggs and get baskets from the Easter Bunny.  So, in honor of this spring holiday that’s never on the same day every year, here are some rabbits in manga. Alice 19th – This is a shojo series by Yuu Watase.  Set in modern times, it’s about Alice, a girl forever living in her older sister’s shadow.  During a fight over a boy, Alice’s sister, Mayura disappears.  She is a Lotus Master, someone who can use the power of words to enter the inner heart of others.  Alice has accidentally sent her sister to the darkness, and must now master her power to save her.  Alice is told all this by Nyozeka, a white rabbit she saves at the risk of her own life.  This is a relatively short series at 7 volumes.  It’s the only modern-day setting manga by Watase that I like.  I really like the idea of using the power of words to either help or hurt others.  While not a great series, it’s an enjoyable one and worth the time to read. Dragon…

Being carried around everywhere and having handsome Megumi act like a slave may seem ideal, but Suzuka just wishes he would stop.  Can anything be done about Megumi’s captive state?  Or is Megumi doomed to see Suzuka as his master…forever? Captive Hearts Volume 1 By Matsuri Hino Publisher: Viz Media – Shojo Beat Age Rating: Teen (13+) Genre: Romance/Comedy Price: $8.99 Rating: Long ago, a thief named Kuroneko-maru stole a family heirloom of a samurai family, the “Scroll of the Rising Dragon”.  When he tried to read it, the guardian dragon appeared and cursed Kuroneko and all of his descendants to a life of servitude to the Kogami family.  Megumi Kuroishi, a descendant of Kuroneko, has lived most of his life not knowing about the curse, as the Kogami family was believed dead in China while on a trip.  But, the daughter of the Kogami, Suzuka, appears and returns, and the curse kicks in, making for much comedy and the stirrings of some romance…maybe? Captive Hearts is first and foremost a comedy.  Megumi’s sudden “Manservant fits” can be funny, hitting him suddenly, and making him obsess over Suzuka even when he’s not with her.  Reverting him back to normal usually…

Viz has been a great supporter of manga in the US. They were among the first companies to bring translated manga here in the form that would best reach it’s audience; flipped (read left-to-right), and in floppies. They were also smart enough to snag one of the most popular manga artists to translate; Rumiko Takahashi. Viz’s Urusei Yatsura was among the first manga-comics I ever bought. I missed out on the comic versions of Ranma 1/2 and Inuyasha, as I wasn’t reading comics at the time, but when they started to collect them as graphic novels, I gave them a serious look. The biggest problem I had, and still have, is that these titles continued to come out as flipped after they discontinued the floppies. All their other books were coming out unflipped. Dragonball and Dragonball Z, titles that also came out as floppies first, got second edition reprints as unflipped. Why not Ranma and Inuyasha? Michelle Smith, blogger for soliloquy in blue, in her twitter feed, pointed out an entry at Simon and Schuster website for a VIZBIG edition for Inuyasha, scheduled for November 2009.  All I can say is, ABOUT TIME! I dropped Inuyasha, even though I was…

These are just quick impressions of manga I read during the week.  I’ll come up with full reviews some day.  The Rating scale for these quickies are as follows: Must buys, Would trade for, or Good way to waste an hour or so. Fairy Tail Volume 5 – Gray’s past is revealed and Ezra, who came to retrieve Natsu, Lucy and Gray instead ends up helping them.  There is some awesome battle action as Natsu tries to save the villagers, Gray and Lyon continue their grudge match, and Lucy goes against a giant rat and her goth-loli owner. Must Buy. Rave Master Volume 2 – Haru arrives at Punk Street to find Musica the Blacksmith to fix his sword.  Demon Card is there and in control, of course, and he has to not only battle them, but figure out who the real Muscia the Blacksmith is.  This second volume seems rather bland as typical shonen fighting.  But what really made if hard to get through was the translation.  What is up with the constant cry of “Snap!”?  This book was painful to read, even though it shouldn’t have been. Would Trade For Translation: Epic Fail

I haven’t done this for a while, and last month’s Previews had some tough choices for me, so I thought I’d talk about it a little.  There were a lot of titles I collect/want that were up for ordering last month.  It’s very hard to keep my numbers down when publishers do this to me.  (Yes, I do think they are all out to get me.) It isn’t that publishers had a lot coming out.  There were just a lot of publishers that had titles I wanted.  Bandai, CMX, Del Rey, Tokyopop, Viz and Yen Press all had an average of 2 books.  Well, except Viz who always has at least 5-7 alone that I want.  Doing a quick tape of everything (less the Naruto wave I already said I would have to pass on), if I had ordered everything I read, it would have come to over $100, and that with my 30% discount!  Even in a good economy, that’s a lot for one month!  15 titles in all!

An announcement arrived in my inbox today saying that Viz was going to have a booth at Wondercon this weekend (2/27-3/1/09).  They will be pushing their Viz Signature and Vizkids line. Now, I’m glad Viz is putting some time and effort behind these two lines.  They certainly can use them, being the newest and smallest of the Viz books.  Among titles mentioned for the Vizkids line were Pokemon, Legend of Zelda, and their new line of Chapter books for Naruto and Dragonball DEvolution.  I can’t be there, so if some one who reads this is, can you ask them something for me? What happened to all the Pokemon manga?  There are like, only 6 or so volumes you can buy (we have them all).  But back in the early 2000’s, Viz had two floppies of Pokemon; Pokemon Adventure and Pokemon: Magical Journey.  Why haven’t we gotten volume releases of these?  Pokemon is still a hot property, at least if my kids are any indication!  They would both love to read more Pokemon!  My youngest would just devour the Pokemon Magical Journey!  We were able to find two floppies around the cover price, and she loved them.  What is wrong with…

Even though most of the big Cons are in the summer, Con Season gets its official start now in February with the New York Comic Con, and I’m really getting to hate it.  Why?  Because of all the license announcements!  I am really, REALLY trying hard to cut down on the amount of manga I get.  I’ve done a brisk bit of trading at Mangatude (which I still highly endorse), and have caught up on several series, and I’ve got more complete series ready to go up on eBay.  I go through Previews, and am happy when I see titles completing.  Another couple of titles I don’t have to buy.  But then, con season rolls around, and the list of titles I have to get suddenly goes up again!

Hunter x Hunter Volume 16, 17, 18 By Yoshihiro Togashi Publisher: Viz Media Age Rating: Older Teen (16+) Genre: Action Price: $7.99 Rating: These three volumes finish up the Greed Island arc (thankfully), though in retrospect it wasn’t as bad as it could be.  Volume 16 continues “The Bomber” arc within Greed Island that was started in Volume 15.  Genthru and his team has 96 and only need 4 more to win the game.  Several teams of hunters, including Gon’s gather to come up with a way to stop Genthru.  They decide to get a card no one else has and keep it from them.  By creating a team of 15 they can activate the quest.  After gathering the requisite number (including Hisoka), they reach the challenge of a killer dodgeball game.  Volume 17 finishes the game, and starts the war between Genthru’s team and the winners of Plot of the Beach card.  There’s more training for Gon and Killua while Tsezguerra’s team buys them time to come up with a strategy to beat Genthru.  Volume 18 is the final three-on-three battle between Genthru’s team and Gon’s, and the end of the Green Island arc.

Just a few comments about this month’s Previews catalog: Marvel/Del Rey collaboration: I have two words for the Wolverine manga; Emo Logan.  Does the world REALLY NEED more emo Logan?  I mean, honestly…  The art looks great, I’m not gonna knock that.  The Marvel catalog had some pictures of pages, and they did look nice.  But this isn’t going to win anyone over from one side of the manga vs. comics camp, and really hope it was never meant to.  If anything, this will probably fan the flames, but that seems to be the way Marvel likes it.  Not that they want to come up with anything original…

“On the Eighth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, Eight Dragon Priestess Guardians,” Akane Motomiya is walking to school, when she hears a voice calling to her from an old well.  When she goes to investigate, she is sucked into the well by Akuram, the oni leader who wants to control Akane and take over Kyou, a land that greatly resembles Kyoto of the Heian period.  Akane, it seems, is meant to be the Priestess of the Dragon God, and is given powers and eight Guardians to protect her.  Along with two her friends Shimon and Tenma, who were sucked in as well, she must protect Kyou from Akuma and his oni before they can return to their time. Yes, Haruka, Beyond the Stream of Time, another Shojo Beat title.  I really like this title, mostly because it happens in the Heian period.  I love the history and the costumes.  It also has dragons and other legendary creatures, which is another thing I love.  This title has gotten a lot of flack for being so derivative of Fushigi Yuugi, the title that originated the “girl goes back in time and is surrounded by a ton of bishonen”,…

I guess Viz has faith in their chapter books line. In the Naruto line, they already have 4 books out with more scheduled for release. And honestly, as reading material for young ages 5-8, the books haven’t been bad. They have stayed true to the manga, adding embellishments that are appropriate for young ages and uses panels from the manga for illustrations. I know this probably irks older readers who don’t like to see their favorite stories “dumbed down”, but with Naruto, and now this new series I’ve found, I don’t think it’s bad, especially as a parent. As I was searching Amazon for links for my previous post, I found this listing.  Dragon Ball (the first, actually good, half of the series) is getting made into Chapter books.  It’s not scheduled until August 2009, and there were at least 3 more set to follow this one.  Those didn’t have any cover pictures though. While Dragon Ball Z got all the hype, Dragon Ball, the part of the series that made it popular in the first place hasn’t gotten nearly the attention it deserves.  The manga started here in the US when Viz was publishing floppy comics, before the graphic…

“On the Seventh Day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, Seven Dragon Balls,” Goku is a strange boy with a tail and super strength living by himself in the mountains.  One day, a girl named Bulma finds him while she is searching for a legendary object: a dragon ball.  If you collect all seven and call forth the dragon, he will grant you one wish.  Goku has one of the balls, left to him by his Grandfather.  He agrees to let Bulma borrow it, but wants to go along with her on her journey to make sure the dragon ball remains safe.  The pair then embark on a strange and exciting journey to collect the rest of the dragon balls, but they seem to have some competition. Dragon Ball (the original series, not Z) has the distinction of being the first manga I ever bought, in English or Japanese.  I was into Dragon Ball well before it became the phenomenon it did here.  And I never like Z.  I stopped picking up the manga when they started heading off into space.  The first 16 volumes are all I need.  Goku was cute and fun, with his clueless innocence. …