Easter weekend was a busy one for conventions. On the east coast was Anime Boston, and on the west coast, Wondercon was held in Southern California and Sakura-Con up north in Washington State. Manga publishers split up to cover the anime cons, with Yen Press taking Sakura-Con. Yen Press has already been busy this year with the manga and light novel announcements, and their appearance at Sakura-Con was no different. They stuck with just manga licenses this time, announcing a whopping 13 titles to be released in either print of digital. Starting with print manga, one of the biggest announcements and surprise was Yowamushi Pedal. This is not only a sports manga, but also a long running series, currently at 39 volumes, features that tend to make publishers shy away from a title. Yowamushi Pedal though is already fairly well-known among Western readers. The anime was streamed by Crunchyroll, and fujoshi have been obsessing over the manga for a while. The story is about Sakamichi Onoda, an otaku whose passion for figures and anime was so great that he would ride his bicycle 60-miles round trip to Akihabara to shop there. His bicycling skills get him into competitive bike racing. I’ve…
At the beginning of March, Yen Press announced three new manga via their Twitter feed. They had teased the announcements in February and finally ended the suspense with the official announcement on March 1. The first title they whipped out was Rose Gun Days Season One. This is another series by Ryukishi07, the creator of the visual novel games Higurashi When They Cry and Umineko When They Cry, both of which Yen Press has licensed and published the manga adaptations. Rose Gun Days is another visual novel game adaptation. This time, the story takes place just after the end of World War II. Devastated and defeated, the Japanese government accepts the allies’ reconstruction plan. Japan begins to recover, but the United States and China taken control through the local governments. Chinese and American immigrants flood in, making the Japanese a minority in their own country. Rose Haibara works at Club Primavera, helping out her countrymen. Leo Shishigami is an repatriated soldier with a reputation with the ladies. Everything begins to change when Rose and Leo meet in the spring of 1947. This series is different from Ryukishi07’s other works, as it is more of an action romance. The first season is…
Kodansha and Seven Seas Entertainment are back this week, but their selections just aren’t speaking to me. Kodansha is top-loaded with titles I have no interest in. I gave up on Vampire Cheerleaders a while ago, even though that interest was mild at best, and I lost track of the Alice In the Country Of… awhile ago. So, I leave it to Yen Press again to spark my interest and they do a pretty good job this week. Second volumes of Demon From Afar and Love at Fourteen are out this week. The first volume of Demon From Afar felt like a prologue, so I’m curious to see where it goes in the second. Love at Fourteen is a pretty cute romance, so I can’t wait to see where things go in volume 2. Yen Press is releasing a few new titles as well that I want to read. I unexpectedly really enjoyed the first Puella Magi Oriko Magica series, so I’m really looking forward to reading Extra Story. I love the glimpses at alternate universes the spin offs give us. I’m curious about Devil is a Part-Timer. I think the idea of a Demon Lord having to work as a…
Tsukimiya is a cursed mixed blood. Half angel and half vampire, she is shunned by both angels and demons. The only way to rid herself of the curse is to drink the blood of a pure demon, but they are had to come by. Hinata is another mixed blood looking for the same cure. They finally find in it in Tsuzuki, a candidate for godhood and must collect God’s Relics during the current Crusade in order to attain it. Satsuki, a fallen angel, has the same goal. In between the two sides is the human organization Arcana, who has their own ideas about godhood. Tsukimiya finds herself tangled up in the web all these groups have woven, when all she wants is to live a long and normal life. Bloody Cross Volume 1-5 By Shiwo Komeyama Publisher: Yen Press Age Rating: Older Teen Genre: Fantasy/Action Price: $11.99 Rating: I had my doubts about Bloody Cross. Considering the publisher, both here and in Japan, I feared this series might have a heavy male gaze aspect to the art. I wasn’t wrong. Sadly that isn’t this title’s worse problem. I decided to give it a try after seeing some positive comments about…
Back in January, the nominees for the 8th Manga Taisho awards were announced. This year there are 14 titles, and again, there are several titles manga readers will be familiar with. Koe no Katachi, A Silent Voice has been announced for print from Kodansha Comics, and was streamed digitally on Crunchyroll. Maho Tsukai no Yome, The Ancient Magus’ Bride has been licensed by Seven Seas Entertainment, and Boku no Hero Academia, My Hero Academy has just been announced by Viz Media to run simultaneous with the Japanese releases. The rest of the nominees include Innocent, Osama-tachi no Viking, Kakukaku Shikajika, Kasane, Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun, Kodomo wa Wakatte Agenai, Dimitri Tomkins, Blue Giant, Houseki no Kuni, Ballroom e Youkoso, and Boku dake ga Inai Machi. Several of these titles look interesting, the problem with most them being they are seinen. One of the titles that isn’t and should be a no-brainer for license is Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun. This comedy series follows Sakura Chiyo who tries to confess to her crush Nozaki, a shoujo manga artist, but instead he asks her to help him with his manga. The anime of this series was streamed here and was well received. It’s from Square…
Lawrence Kraft is a traveling merchant, going to towns and villages, making deals for items to barter and sell. While passing through the village of Pasloe on day, he picks up a stowaway on his chart; Holo the Wisewolf, the Harvest Goddess of the village. The villagers no longer need Holo, and she wishes to go home, in the north. She and Lawrence strike a deal, and they begin their adventures together on the trip north. Spice and Wolf Volume 1-6 By Keito Koume Publisher: Yen Press Age Rating: Mature Genre: Fantasy Price: $12.99/ea Rating: Spice and Wolf is a series that started out as a light novel and was adapted into both an anime and a manga. After the anime was favorably received by fans, Yen Press licensed both the light novel series and manga. There was a bit of an uproar when the first light novel came out, because Yen Press had chosen to use a cover that would appeal to Young Adult readers more than to anime fans. To appease the fans, Yen Press offered a book cover with the original cover art on it. I’d heard reviews of the first light novel, and while the idea of…
No matter how I look at it, it’s Yen Press’s fault I’m not caught up reading manga! Look at all these omnibuses that are coming out from them this week. Goong, Ubel Blatt, Umineko When They Cry, and Until Death Do Us Part. I can’t keep up with regular releases, as it is, and with so many omnibuses, my TBR pile just looks worse! There is one non-omnibus title from Yen Press I’d like to check out; Secret Vol 1. I haven’t read Judge or Doubt, but I’m considering giving Secret a try. It looks like it will have more of a mystery element to it than just a psychological thriller. Also new this week from Yen Press is Akame Ga Kill. I know a lot of people have been looking forward to it, but I’m gonna pass on it. It screams harem, with the one country bumpkin guy surrounded by hot girl assassins. I just don’t see the appeal of these harem comedies. The other publishers aren’t helping much either. Kodansha releases three titles I do enjoy, though My Little Monster and Noragami sit a little higher on the pile than Missions of Love. Seven Seas has the third volume…
Animals the world over are setting their sights on fresh prey–man. Only biologist Jackson Oz has recognized the patterns in the escalating chain of violent attacks by animals against mankind. And these incidents are just the prelude to something far, far more terrifying. Now Oz is in a race against nature to try to warn humanity about the coming catastrophe. But is it already too late?! Zoo: The Graphic Novel Written by James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge; Art and Adaptation by Andy MacDonald Publisher: Yen Press Age Rating: Mature Genre: Thriller Price: $25.99 Rating: Yen Press has enjoyed a decent success with James Patterson-penned books, and Zoo: The Graphic Novel takes that formula and moves it up to the next level with a title in a deluxe hardcover format and story that could have been ripped from the headlines. While the story brings up some very interesting ideas, that doesn’t keep it from stumbling here and there. Zoo follows evolutionary biologist Jackson Oz, a man on the fast track at Columbia University until he throws it all away for a pet theory that no one believes. HAC, or Human Animal Conflict, is the theory that different animals around the world…
On Friday Yen Press announced new licenses for their manga and Light Novel lines through their Twitter account. There are a total of 8 titles; 3 Light Novels and 5 manga, but two of those are adaptations of the light novels. Still, that is a lot of content to commit to in 2015. The first manga announced was Rust Blaster. This was the debut work of Yana Toboso, the creator of the very popular Black Butler series that Yen Press also publishes. The story follows the most unvampire-like vampire Aldred and a human transfer student Kei. They meet by chance at a vampire academy, but there meeting wasn’t just an accident, it was fate. The one volume series ran in Square Enix’s G-Fantasy. There was no release date announced. Vampires are really my thing, but at one volume I’d be willing to give this series a go. The next two manga titles are from the Puella Magi Madoka Magica series. Puella Magi Homura Tamura is a slice of life 4 koma comedy series. This spin-off is based on the main manga series by Magical Quartet. It ran in Houbunsha’s Manga Time Kirara Magica and there is one volume available. Puella…
It was announced in the second volume of Secret, a psychological horror series by Yoshiki Tonogai, that the series would end in the third volume, scheduled to be released in Japan in April. The series, like Tonogai’s other two titles, Doubt and Judge, is about people trapped in a situation where they must root out a perpetrator to escape. Secret puts six survivors of tragic bus accident to the test. Three of them are murderers. They all have one week to discover who the murderers are. These three must then show remorse for their crimes and find a way to atone for them, or evidence of their sins will be given to the police. But when everyone has a secret, it isn’t easy to know who to trust. Tonogai, who contributed to the series Higurashi: When They Cry, seems to be have been strongly influenced by its psychological horror and mystery aspects, as all three of his titles involve these elements. Reception of Doubt and Judge has been mixed here in the West, with Judge just edging out Doubt. Yen Press, who licensed Doubt and Judge, also licensed this series, and has been simulpubing the individual chapters digitally beginning with chapter 7….
It’s the day before Christmas and Yen Press decides to flood the bookstores with their new releases! Don’t they realize most of the money is gone by the 24th? How am I suppose to not only keep up with my favorite regular releases, but also pick up the new ones?! Spice and Wolf Volume 10 comes out this week, and as soon as I get volume 7 I will binge read to catch up. That’s how I got hooked in the first place, binge reading volume 1-6, so another binge can only be a good thing. While not a regular release, it is one that is good to see return. Tena on S-String hasn’t had a volume released since 2010, where the first arc ended, but nothing was resolved just yet. It returns this week in an omnibus 2-in-1, starting up a new arc. I wasn’t enamored by the series, but I grew to like the characters well enough that I wouldn’t mind seeing how the next arc starts. Of the new releases, I do have some interest in the new light novel series A Certain Magical Index, and I wouldn’t mind seeing if Milkyway Hitchhiking read better as a…
Amazon once again takes the wind out publisher’s sails with some solicitations outing unannounced licenses. This time, Yen Press, who has just recently resolved its issued with the online retailer, had some pre-orders go up for two new manga titles and one light novel. All three new titles are related to existing licenses and just expand on their libraries. Sword Art Online: Girl Ops just started last year in Dengeki Bunko Magazine and only has one volume out so far. It follows the girls of Sword Art Online: Aincrad in their real life adventures at the SAO Survivor School and their online adventures in ALFheim. This series looks cute, if the cover art is any indication. I liked the manga adaptation of the novel, though I wasn’t enthralled with it. I haven’t checked out the other spin-off, Fairy Dance, but it’s in my to-be-read pile. Sword Art Online has been doing well for Yen Press, so this is a good, if obvious pick up for them. Amazon has it scheduled to be released in May 2015. Puella Magi Madoka Magica: The Rebellion Story is an adaptation of the movie by the same name and is three volumes. After the end…