Manga Xanadu

Saint Seiya, also known as Knights of the Zodiac here in the west, is a series with a long lineage. The main series started in 1985 and was among the titles that helped make Weekly Shonen Jump the power house it was in the 1980s and 1990s. Since the end of original series, there have been some spin offs  that are now reaching a conclusion.

I love mysteries and detective stories, so whenever I hear about a new one, I have to talk about it! Shuiesha’s Cocohana magazine has announced that Akiko Higashimura, the creator of Princess Jellyfish and the award-winning Kakukaku Shikajika, will be starting a new detective series in the November issue due on in September.

Fruits Basket was a big license last decade. The shojo about a family cursed to turn into one of the Chinese Zodiac when they hug someone of the opposite sex was credited with such a big seller for Tokyopop that it kept the company afloat for several years. Sadly, the series has been out of print ever since Tokyopop lost the license and ended publishing 2011. Japan however is getting a 2-in-1 collectors edition re-release of the series. To celebrate this, mangaka Natsuki Takaya will launch a sequel series on Hakusensha’s HanaLaLa Online website for free, with new chapters available every Friday starting September 4.

Mythical Detective Loki is a series I have wanted released in the west for years. It’s had a bumpy history here. ADV Manga first licensed the continuation of the series, Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok, and released two volumes before they folded. Jmanga licensed the first series and managed to release five volumes before it folded. A third series, Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok: Gods of the New World, never saw translation here, but has now ended in Japan. The series is about Loki, the Norse god of mischief, who is banished to Earth in the form of a young boy. To return to the land of the gods, he must collect auras of evil, so he opens a detective agency. As well as collecting the auras, he has to deal with other Norse gods who come to visit and/or taunt him, some of whom do not want him returning. I love boy detective titles, as well as any kind of mythology, so I’ve been dying to read this series. I still have the two volumes ADV Manga released, but lost the Jmanga titles when they went under. But this is a series that so deserves another chance! It’s not the manga’s fault…

Over the years, a lot of titles have been licensed and started, but never finished due to various circumstances, mostly because the company that released them went out of business. One of these companies was CMX, an imprint of DC Comics. The imprint was dropped suddenly after a leadership change at DC. One of the titles cut off midstream was Stolen Hearts, a very cute rom-com. Stolen Hearts is about high school student Shinobu Okuma, a girl small for her age and Miharu Koguma, the biggest, most intimidating boy at school. Okuma accidentally spills milk on an antique kimono Koguma is carrying for his grandmother, and he has her come to his grandmother’s kimono shop to make up for ruining it. Okuma is put to work wearing kimonos and walking around town handing out flyers about the shop. Not only does she have fun wearing all the cute, coordinated outfits, but she finds out that Koguma isn’t as scary as he seems. I loved this series from the first volume. Koguma and Okuma make a cute if mismatched couple. Both are rather shy, and Koguma, with his unruly hair and love for small, cute things is a great male lead….

Back in September it was announced that Hiroshi Shiibashi’s latest original manga, Illegal Rare was ending, and the final two volumes were to be released in October and November. Shiibashi is the creator of Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan, a series about Yakuza yokai and ran for 25 volumes. Illegal Rare is another ensemble series about the supernatural. Humans and supernatural creatures live together in the same world, but these “Rares” are being hunted to extinction. To protect them, the Illegal Rare Counter-Protection Unit was formed. It is championed by Fukumen, a police officer that wears a mask. He goes to Axl, a member of the very rare and highly hunted Black Vampyr clan, to help him. In the first chapter, he rescues a mermaid, Mirror and she joins the unit as well. Illegal Rare is similar to Nura. It has a big cast, and features supernatural monsters. The monsters have branched out beyond the traditional Japanese monsters, yokai, and now include western monsters such as vampires, mermaids, and werewolves. The lead is a good-looking monster, and the main female is timid by loyal to the lead. Maybe it was too similar to Nura, and that’s why it didn’t succeed. I…

I love to do crafts and have dabbled in quite a few, including beading. I’ve made mostly earrings back when my eyes could see the tiny beads and my more nimble hands could hold them and string them on the needle and thread. Now, I am more content to read about it. Otokomae! Bead Club is a one shot volume by Kyousuke Motomi. Her name is well-known among western shojo manga fans. Two of her titles, Beast Master and Dengeki Daisy were licensed and released in the US by Viz Media. Her newest title, QQ Sweeper has also just been picked up, with the first volume out later this year. This title is an earlier series first published in 2004 in Shogakukan’s Betsucomi magazine. It ran for three chapters, and the compiled volume includes a side story and extra. The story follows Oikawa Ibuki, a high school girl who has just transferred schools so she can start over. She is very strong and versed in the martial arts, but she wants to be more gentile and feminine, and find a boy who is stronger than her. On her way to her first day, she meets Takumi Urabe, a mysterious boy…

I read some back volumes of Case Closed – Detective Conan recently, and it’s sparked by desire to read more mystery manga. The problem is, of course, is that there just isn’t a lot of other titles available. Seven Seas Entertainment had Young Miss Holmes, and Kodansha had Sherlock Bones, but both are complete. Kodansha does have another mystery series that Western fans are familiar with; Kindaichi Case Files. Tokyopop originally licensed Kindaichi Case Files, and published the volumes as complete cases, squeezing 22.5 Japanese volumes into 17. While Tokyopop had put the title on “hiatus”, Kodansha pulled the license soon after, killing any fan’s hopes of seeing the series complete. There were only 5.5 Japanese volumes left. That was probably only 2-3 stories! Now, I know Kodansha doesn’t rescue their older titles, and the 1992 Kindaichi series didn’t sell enough to justify bringing the series back or even completing it, but, there was a second series published in 1998, The New Kindaichi Case Files. This series is only 10 volumes, and continues the adventures of Hajime Kindaichi, his childhood friend Miyuki, and Detective Kenmochi, as they investigate mysteries and murders involving ghosts, monsters, the supernatural and folklore. Tokyopop had originally likened…

Shuiesha, the publisher of all the Shonen Jump titles released an app in Japan that allows 30 manga to be read for free. Some of these titles first run in Weekly Shonen Jump, and some in their mobile app Jump Live. This is all well and good for people living in Japan, but no so much for us here in the west. But that doesn’t mean we can’t wish. Going through the list, there are 5 titles that I would like to be able to read, or at least check out a few chapters or volumes. Rough Diamond: Manga Gakko ni Yokoso (Welcome to Manga School) – This series follows Yuuto Takatsuki, a high school boy who has already had a series published. Just as his series is ending, and he is looking forward to a normal high school, he helps out a fellow mangaka, and ends up missing one day of school too many, and isn’t able to pass his grade. Luckily, he’s offered a teaching position at a manga school. The principal will help me make his absenses disappear for teaching the class, but the only problem for Yuuto is that he has to teach students older than…

This week I check some stories In the News, the Top Ten Department including the Nielson Bookscan for June, and I advocate for the licensing of an older title, Captain Harlock. http://archive.org/download/MangaDomeEpisode67/MangaDomeEpisode67.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download

What wonderful news to come home to! Viz Media has licensed Master Keaton the one manga from Naoki Urasawa that I’ve wanted ever since I first heard about it. It combines two of my most favorite things in the world into one title; mysteries and archaeology! I mean, how awesome is it to have a detective who can solve cases and is an archaeologist, always struggling to uncover the truth. I didn’t think we’d ever get this title licensed in English. It had a few hurdles to get over for licenses today; it’s from the 1990s and is over 10 volumes. Then there was a disagreement over credits for the story, which actually sounded pretty petty of Urasawa to demand his name appear bigger than the original writer. But it looks like that problem has been solved, and Urasawa’s name is now known in the US. His work will sell no matter how old it is. Another thing that will make this a big seller is that it hasn’t been scanlated by anyone beyond the first few chapters. Trust me, I’ve looked. The only way to enjoy this series previously was the anime licensed by Geneon back in 2003-04. I…

I’ve been making license requests ever since I started blogging. In fact, one of my first posts was a plea to see City Hunter back in print. I’ve made wishes since then when titles by a creator I know about catch my eye, or certain subjects or other media tie-ins build my interest. Just recently I’ve notices that a few of my wishes have been granted! Kodansha started things off when they announced Bloody Monday as one of their new licenses at NYCC in 2010. I wished for it a year earlier in October 2009. But I didn’t learn of the manga first. It was through the J-drama that I discovered this title and it’s manga roots. I really enjoyed the J-drama with the plus that is seems to have been faithful to the manga (so far). Another plus about this title is that it written by the same writer as Kindaichi Case Files and Drops of God, two other titles I really enjoyed. I was absolutely surprised and thrilled that this title was picked up. It’s a little over the top sometimes with the drama and suspense, but that’s part of the fun! Jmanga is becoming a genie with…