Manga Village

The genre of horror isn’t as easy to pin down like sci-fi, fantasy or romance. It doesn’t have to be in a certain time or place, or have certain characters to work. Horror is an emotion. The creator of a horror story is trying to elicit specific feelings from the reader, mostly feelings of fear and/or dread. Horror manga is no different. For the Horror Manga Movable Feast, the Villagers will be looking at the elements of horror manga, and talking about what they think works, or doesn’t work, in many of the titles available. John: What I love about horror manga is what I love about manga in general: the ability to know no bounds. Great horror manga has to be rooted in reality, but then stretch itself to the edges of believable be truly scary. A couple of favorites that do this darn near perfectly are The Drifting Classroom and Uzumaki. The Drifting Classroom is set in a graspable reality (a typical elementary school) that is teleported suddenly to a barren, hellish netherworld. Uzumaki is set in a small town in Japan that is infected by a plague of spirals. On paper neither sounds particularly compelling, but in…

Halloween is this coming Monday, and Yen seems to have prepared for it! Black Butler, Highschool of the Dead and Higurashi: When They Cry are squarely horror titles, and diverse enough to appeal to a wide audience. Dark Horse continues their lone shojo-manwha with the next volume of Bride of the Water God, and Vertical releases its high anticipated title Drops of God.

Another short list, but at least with more than one publisher. Just in time for Halloween, Dark Horse releases the next volume in the gory horror title Gantz, and Vertical reaches the penultimate volume of the Tezuka classic Black Jack. And Viz has the next volume of their uncensored Tenjo Tenge omnibus.

It’s a short list this week with Viz having most of the releases with their Shonen Sunday line being released. Battle Angel Alita fans can also pick up their yearly volume. Harper Collins is continuing alone with the adaptations they started with Tokyopop with the next series of Vampire Kisses, also with a new artist.

It’s the first week of the month, and that means Viz shonen and shojo titles! Psyren, which has been running in Shonen Jump finally has it’s first volume released. Or you can get your sports fill with the latest Slam Dunk and the final volume of Eyeshield 21. Kodansha releases a bunch of former Del Reys, as well as the new omnibus of Negima. Or get your learn on with Gandhi: A Manga Biography from Penguin Books. But don’t forget Seven Seas with two new titles debuting this week, and both fit for the season! The List: BANDAI ENTERTAINMENT Code Geass Queen Volume 3 GN (resolicited), $10.99 KODANSHA COMICS Fairy Tail Volume 15 GN, $10.99 Negima Omnibus Volume 2 GN, $19.99  **Weekly Pick** Ninja Girls Volume 7 GN, $10.99 Wallflower Volume 26 GN, $10.99 PENGUIN BOOKS Gandhi A Manga Biography GN, $15.00 SEVEN SEAS ENTERTAINMENT Certain Scientific Railgun Volume 2 GN, $10.99 Dracula Everlasting Volume 1 GN, $10.99  **Weekly Pick** My Boyfriend Is A Vampire Collection Volume 1 GN (Of 2), $15.99  **Weekly Pick** VIZ MEDIA Bakuman Volume 7 TP, $9.99 Bleach 3-In-1 Edition Volume 3 TP, $14.99 Blue Exorcist Volume 4 GN, $9.99  **Weekly Pick** Eyeshield 21 Volume 37…

It’s a short list for the end of September, but it’s got some big names on it. But we’ll get to those later. First, Bandai finally releases the 2nd volume of Kannagi about magical girl shrine deities. Del Rey Manga makes a rare appearance with the next xxxHOLIC, while Kodansha has a few other former Del Rey titles with Arisa and Negima. And just for the kids, there’s a new adaptation of the latest Pokemon movie from Viz.

It’s a smaller week this time as we get closer to the end of the month. Viz has an eclectic collection of titles from their Shonen Sunday, Signature and Viz Media lines, as well as a new novel from their sci-fi line. Seven Seas has caught up with the Blood Alone re-release and is releasing a new volume in the US with this week’s volume 4.

While we here at Manga Village love all the new manga coming out each week, there’s over 20 years of manga releases that we love and want to recommend too! So, in each column, we will look at a genre, or creator, or even publisher to come up with the best titles that we want to recommend to you! This Month: School Manga! September is traditionally the time kids go back to school, so this month we’re looking at titles that take place mainly at school. School is a big part of life and is often used promptly in teen manga titles. So here’s our some of our favorite manga that takes place at school! Alex Hoffman: There are a veritable ton of manga series that are set around a school – more shojo series than shonen, I would think, but there are quite a few of my favorite shojo series set in a school – Monkey High!, Kimi ni Todoke, and Otomen, just to name a few. If you are looking for specialized schools, well, there are plenty of those too! Mixed Vegetables is set in a cooking school, and Twin Spica is set at a school for astronauts….

Look! It’s a real list! With lots of different manga!! Dark Horse continues it’s on-again, off-again relationship with Eden: It’s an Endless World and it’s newest volume finally coming out this week. Kodansha has some old Del Rey titles this week as well as some of their new offering. Viz has a few Signature volumes, and Udon Entertainment releases their first original title, Randomveus.

So… since this week is a little light on content (although I’m sure we would all love Yellow II vol. 3) the team at Manga Village thought we would talk about our favorite new series from the first half of 2011.