Manga Xanadu

At school, Kyouko Hori is known for being smart, attractive, and popular. On the other hand, her classmate, the boring, gloomy Izumi Miyamura, tends to get painted as a “loser fanboy.” But when a liberally pieced and tattooed (not to mention downright gorgeous) Miyamura appears unexpectedly on the doorstep of the secretly plain-Jane homebody Hori, these two similarly dissimilar teenagers discover that there are multiple sides to every story…and person!

Square Enix’s Young Gangan magazine revealed that the title Until Death Do Us Part will be ending in the 22nd issue out November 20, after almost 10 years of serialization.

On her first day at her new school, Penelope – Peppi – Torres reminds herself of the basics; don’t get noticed by the mean kids and  join groups with similar interests. But when she trips into a quiet boy in the hall, Jaime Thompson, she’s already broken the first rule, and the mean kids start call her the “nerder girlfriend.” How does she handle this crisis? By shoving poor Jamie and running away! Falling back on rule two and surrounding herself with new friends in the art club, Peppi still can’t help feeling ashamed about the way she treated Jaime. Things are already awkward enough between the two, but to make matters worse, he’s a member of her own club’s archrivals – the science club! And when the two clubs go to war, Peppi realizes that sometimes you have to break the rules to survive middle school!

The “Curse Killing Arc”…The “Time Killing Arc”… As each incarnation of the terrible events in Hinamizawa unfolds, Rika Furude must watch as her friends descend into madness and despair, knowing the only fate that awaits her is death. With the unique ability to see all these worlds, Rika desperately searches for the common links between them, which will help her break the cycle and give her and her friends a happy future beyond June 1983. but with less than a month before the Cotton Drifting in her current life, will Rika be able to change destiny in time?

 Last week of the month, and publishers have quite an impressive haul. Dark Horse Comics finally completes Gantz with final volume 37. Gantz is well known for its graphic content and outrageous fights. This volume will surely be no different. On the other side of this coin is the debut of the new series from Seven Seas Entertainment, Golden Time. This rom-com is from the creator of Toradora, and features college students looking for a fresh start, but just can’t seem to escape the past.

It was announced in the 12th volume of the manga adaptation of the light novel series Spice and Wolf would be starting its final arc in the next volume.

New York Comic Con saw its largest number of manga publishers not only attending the show, but in having panels and making announcements! And manga publishers really made this last major con of the season count.

Diamond Distributors is getting the Viz Shonen and Shojo titles out a week early. There are plenty of old favorites such as Assassination Classroom Vol 6, Library Wars Vol 14 and My Love Story Vol 6, as well as a new debut. QQ Sweeper is by Kyousuke Motomi, the creator of Dengeki Daisy. It was her first series after Dengeki Daisy ended. It’s a supernatural romance about a new girl transfer student who gets involved with a boy who cleans up the school, but physically and metaphysically. I’ve been looking forward to this series and can’t wait to read it.

There’s a lot of manga coming out this week. Kodansha releases the first volume of Devil Survivor, the adaptation of Shin Megami Tensei, the game that the Persona is a spin-off of.  I’ve been interested in Shin Megami Tensei, as well as Persona, thanks to my older daughter’s obsession, so I’ll be checking this title out. Vertical Comics does the seemingly impossible as it releases the final volume of Mobile Suit Gundam Origin, the series that not even the publisher believed would sell. But Vertical and Western fans proved them wrong, and now the series comes to an end with Vol 11.

On their Twitter feed last week, Yen Press made two quick announcements that if you weren’t watching carefully, you might have missed. One was the announced license of a new series, and the print release of a previously announced digital only series.

Kazumi, a teenage girl, wakes up in a suitcase without any clothes or memories. She soon learns that she is a magical girl, and part of a team know as the Pleiades Saints, who fight to protect their town Asurano from witches. But something about the Pleiades seems off and as Kazumi learns the truth about them, magical girls and herself, will anything be right again?

Haruka and Mamoru finish off the invisible enemy and its operator, the hit man Fang. Sierra is injured and is off the case for a while, leading to the introduction to the abrasive Juliet, who Haruka doesn’t get along with. Turus ups the ante by offering a bounty on Haruka and Mamoru that draws in killers from around the world. Mamoru becomes the bait for them while Haruka has an adventure of her own with some friends from school. Meanwhile, Wiseman, one of those attracted by the bounty makes his move, finding Mamoru’s weak spot, setting up a trap meant to take care of the blind swordsman for good. Until Death Do Us Part Volume 3-4 Story by Hiroshi Takashige; Illustrated by DOUBLE-S Publisher: Yen Press Age Rating: Older Teen Genre: Action Price: $18.99 Rating: Once again, there is a lot going on in these two volumes of Until Death Do Us Part, but not much happens. Mamoru and his sword still dominate the action, but there are a few shining moments here and there that keep me just interested enough to keep reading.