Warning: The following contain spoilers for Nana Volume 8. This last week I posted a review at Manga Village of Nana Volume 8. In it, I wrote that I wished Viz had waited until after this volume to move Nana to a Mature rating. The manga started serialization in Shojo Beat, and was rated Older Teen (16 and +) to match the magazine’s rating. After 7 volumes, Nana was “graduated” from Shojo Beat to be published straight to graphic novel with the higher Mature rating. Dirk Deppey of Journalista in his Feb. 8, 2008 blog entry was quick to point to a love scene as the reason, which other than one frame, was identical to every other love scene in the previous 7 volumes. Sorry. That doesn’t cut it for me. There has to be more to it than just one frame. I believe the reasons it was taken out was for the very reasons I think I should have stayed in; the subject matter. With this volume, Nana starts to get into some serious subjects; pregnancy, abortion, having a child out of wedlock and marriage for convenience instead of love. Everything starts out as usual. NanaK. has broken up…
Dragon Drive Volume 2 by Keiichi Sakura Published by Viz Media Genre: Fantasy, Gaming Rating: All Ages Grade B Storyline Reiji, recalling the events from last battle, wants to train so he does so in a secret training room that Agent L, the female associate that watches the battles and presents who is in the game, shows him. He trains there, determined not to give up. Soon he starts using class time for naps, and also starts avoiding Yuniko. Yuniko is starting to get worried when she sees Agent L and Reiji walking together down the halls. She gets jealous and follows with Hagiwara being dragged away by her. When they enter, a crazy dragon appears and attacks them. Reiji simply defeats the dragon, leaving his friends in amazement. Later, they’re having Summer Vacation when a mysterious girl comes and takes them from Dragon Drive to some place mysterious. Review Reiji and Chibi train and sync together so much, Reiji is able to control Chibi’s power. Then comes a surprise which twists the story up. It keeps the reader going, giving them motivation to read more. It’s happening to me right now. My brain is telling me “Read more Dragon…
I’m not much of a shojo/romance kind of gal. My first forays into manga was through the Shonen Jump action titles. When my Animerica subscription got converted (after two issues) to Shojo Beat, I was sure there wasn’t going to be anything in there for me. Almost 2 years later, I’ve changed my tune, but that’s because shojo isn’t afraid to have romantic leads with bite! (And I don’t mean vampires…) In honor of Valentine’s Day, here are some shojo manga where the leads are anything but romantic!
You’ll start to notice reviews in the Kidlette catagory. These are reviews of manga written by my two daughters. I’m not editing them other than correcting typos, so you’re getting what they think. Finally find out if the kids like the kid stuff! Now, just a bunch of random news items I want to comment on. Hunter X Hunter is coming back….again. After being put on hold in December with no reason and no date of return. You really have to wonder if Togashi wants to write this series any more. I wonder if he’s lost as much interest in writing it as I have in reading it. Yahoo Japan Auctions announced it’s top grossing auctions for charity for 2007, and at the top of the list was the “Worlds First Official Tsukasa Hojo ‘Life Size’ 100-ton Hammer”. It’s a replica of one of the hammers that Kaori would pull out to use on Ryo from Hojo’s manga City Hunter. It’s 1.8 meters (5.9 feet) long, but only weighs 50 kilograms (110 pounds). How cool is that? There are time I wish I could whip something like that out. Especially at work. From the “Dear God, Please No!” Department: Kodansha’s…
Dragon Drive Volume 1 by Keniichi Sakura Published by Viz Media Genre: Fantasy, Game Rating: All Ages Grade: A Storyline This high-schooler, named Reiji, is a video game player. He’s late to his school most of the time and his friend, Yukino, scolds him for it. One day she shows him this awesome game called Dragon Drive, a virtual game where the player is chosen his dragon and will fight other dragons for points to level up their character. His dragon is a sleepy, lazy one. He eventually calls him “Chibi” in a sudden match with this guy named Hagiwara, who seems to love Yukino. When in a situation where he would lose, he links with Chibi and Chibi levels up, and knocking out the opponent. The girl saying who’s in suspects he’s “special” and something will come out from this. Review Dragon Drive is a funny manga. The character’s personalities and the drawings are nice. Chibi, the little dragon, is quite funny, not obeying Reiji’s commands. Even though he just wants to be cool, he can’t get his act together. But this is when the cool part happens; he and Chibi can synch together in tight situations. It’s a…
Bandai Visual USA has announced that it will release the anime version of Haruka ~Beyond the Stream of Time. This is both good and bad. The good is that a shojo anime series has been licensed. There aren’t a lot of shojo anime out there, and with the manga version of this story being released in Viz’s Shojo Beat, a tie-in should help sales. Readers who like Haruka should check it out when it comes out. I do encourage people to check out the anime versions of manga they like. Especially a short series like this. Haruka is only 26 episodes long. Seeing the characters move and hearing them speak really adds another dimension to the story. I’ll admit that, while I usually end up preferring the manga to the anime, I have never regretted watching the anime. The bad thing about this is that Bandai Visual USA got it. If you aren’t familiar with anime, then you should know that Bandai Visual has a reputation for high priced volumes for less content. And it looks like this release isn’t going to be much different. According to Anime on DVD, this release of Haruka will be subbed only, and will…
Shojo Beat, the sister anthology magazine to Shonen Jump has been going through a lot of changes lately. Of the six manga that started the magazine, only two remain. The rest were graduated out for one reason or another. But, with the line up they’ve got now, I think the magazine has finally found a good balance of titles that really make it shine. To start off the December issue of Shojo Beat, we are treated to a preview of a new manga; High School Debut. Reading the short description didn’t enthuse me to the title. A girl just starting in high school wants to get a boyfriend, so she finds another guy to coach her. Blah. I really wasn’t interested in another “girl wants boyfriend like in manga” story. But, as usual, I read the preview anyway, and was pleasantly surprised. Haruna, the heroine, wasn’t too annoying in her pursuit to bag a boy. But it was Yoh, the boy who knows just what a boy will like in a girl, that really endeared me to this preview. He has a sharp tongue and really doesn’t care what people think. He reminds me a lot of Kiri from Beauty…
ANN has reported that two new anime series’ for the spring have been announced that are based on manga; Golgo 13 by Takao Saito and To Love-Ru -Trouble- by Saki Hasemi and Kentaro Yabuki. Manly men can rejoice that one of their idols is finally getting his own series. Golgo 13 is about an amoral assassin that takes on assignments from all over the globe. This series started in the 1960’s, and is still published today. It’s 147th volume was published on December 5 in Japan. Duke Togo, code name Golgo 13, is a crack shot and a magnet for the ladies. He can pop off a target in one panel and then score with a beautiful woman in the next. Few men are more manly than Golgo 13. But for all his manliness, Golgo 13 has never had his own series. He’s only had a live action movie and 2 animated movies. Finally, he gets to come into his own. Viz Media has published 12 volumes of Golgo 13’s adventures under their Viz Signature line. To Love-Ru -Trouble- is a sci-fi romance comedy drawn by Kentaro Yabuki, best known here for his Black Cat series, also being published by…
Five and a half years ago, Viz put out a sampler at the San Diego Comic Con for a new manga anthology; Shonen Jump. Anchored by Dragonball Z and Yu-Gi-Oh!, Shonen Jump introduced us to new titles such as Naruto, Shaman King and One Piece at only $20 for 12 issues. Ah…those were the days. The December Issue featured some important milestones. Besides heralding in the 5th year of the magazine, it had the first Naruto story Masashi Kishimoto wrote. This Naruto and his world was very different from the one we know now. A “Proto-Naruto” is you will. Instead of being a ninja-in-training with the spirit of the 9-Tails Fox Spirit in him, Naruto is the son of the 9-Tails Fox. He has been raised by the last living warrior that fought his father, who is also a Yokai. Naruto has not been able to make any human friends, as he has been a mean-spirited trickster to them. The warrior sends Naruto from the mountain temple where they have been living, and tells him he can not return until he has made a human friend and brings him back to the mountain. The rest of the story is following…
Anime News Network has announced that the latest issue of Hakusensha’s LaLa shojo magazine has announced that the Vampire Knight manga, created by Matsuri Hino and published by Viz Media in the US will become an anime to be shown in Japan. Vampire Knight, published in Viz’s Shojo Beat magazine, is already very popular with girls here in the US. There are websites devoted to the characters and manga, as well as fans dressing up as characters at anime conventions. The bishonen (pretty) boys that make up most of the series is one reason for it’s popularity. Another is it’s school-horror theme. The story takes place at Cross Academy that has two class; the Day Class and the Night Class. Only a select few know that the Night Class is made up of exclusively vampires. We follow Yuki Cross, the adopted daughter of Headmaster, Zero, a latent vampire who keeps his urges at bay by drinking Yuki’s blood (against the academy’s rules), and Kaname, the vampire that saved Yuki, and considers her his. This is a shojo manga that has all the sexiness of vampires combined with hot boys and high school problems. Expect to see this licensed real fast.
At the opening of the new Kinokuniya Bookstore in New York, Viz announced the licensing of another of Takehiko Inoue’s manga, REAL, a sports manga with a twist; Wheelchair Basketball. With the mangaka present in a rare appearance, Viz announced that this lastest manga by Takehiko would join Vagabond and Slam Dunk in the Viz library.
Viz takes another step into the digital domain by offering one of it’s biggest sellers online. Naruto joins Bleach and Death Note on Direct2Drive , IGN Entertainment’s digital retail store, at the reasonable price of $1.99 an episode. It’s for windows users only right now, as it uses Mediaplayer’s DRM, but intel macs with windows emulators can run them too. Apparantly all the shows are also dub only, so if you like the watch your anime in the original japanese with subtitles, you’re going to have to stay with DVDs.