Manga Village

Shonen Jump is entering a new era – with Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha coming down the pipeline in only a few short weeks, it appears that we are headed towards a place where the legitimate publisher can beat the scanlator on the terms of his or her speed. Sadly, the content on Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha isn’t the most impressive of what is being published under the Shonen Jump label. Of the six titles in the original offering; Bakuman, Bleach, Naruto, Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan, One Piece, and Toriko, only Toriko and Bakuman really interest me in some way (even if it’s only a guilty pleasure kind of way). The one gem of a series that isn’t being published in Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha which I really enjoy is Kazue Kato’s Blue Exorcist. (Perhaps that’s because it runs in Jump Square, but honestly, if it’s being published as a Shonen Jump title in the USA, that shouldn’t exclude it from a USA-centric anthology.) By Kazue Kato Publisher: Viz Media Age Rating: Older Teen Genre: Supernatural/Action Price: $9.99 I bought the first volume of this series on a whim at the VizManga.com webstore and read it on a combination…

With 2011 in the rear view mirror, the Villagers look back at some of the titles, publishers and events that made the past year good (or bad). What was your favorite new title(s) of the year? Connie: There are a lot of different titles, so picking, say, Lychee Light Club over Sakura Hime is tough, since I like them both, but one ran in Ribon (for little girls) and the other in Manga Erotics F.  Lychee Light Club was probably my favorite one-shot this year, a great and very shocking book full of violence and objectionable content, but with amazing art and a manic, intense plot.  Sakura Hime was probably my favorite general audience title, if general audience can mean people who read magical girl series.  I’m a fan of Arina Tanemura, and while I’m not an instant convert on all her books, Sakura Hime was quite good, and I’m enjoying the setting and mythological ties so far. But my favorite title this year was probably Wandering Son.  I have a hard time talking about Wandering Son, because I feel anything I say won’t do the story enough justice.  It’s simply a nice, quiet book about pre-teen classmates exploring their…

The cast gears up for the mother of all Golden Week vacations. Hayate sunning in the Mediterranean? Our hero’s story truly is a classic tale of rags to… well, substantially less shoddy rags. But what about the students who don’t work as manservants to the super-wealthy? Well, they’ll just have to win vacation tickets in a game show or hit the jackpot in Vega. That could happen, right? By Kenjiro Hata Publisher: Viz Media Age Rating: Teen+ Genre: Romantic Comedy/Harem Price: $9.99 I’ve heard a lot about Hayate the Combat Butler, and seen how beloved it was by other manga bloggers, but I never felt the need to read it. The premise didn’t interest me, and I don’t care for harem-comedies, but I decided to give it a shot. It actually wasn’t too bad. The volume starts off at the end of a flashback from the previous volume. It’s very serious and rather intense. I was pulled in immediately by it and was hoping for more once the story returned to the present. Sadly that didn’t happen, as instead the remaining chapters were about where everyone was going on vacation for Golden Week, and specifically, all the girls that want…

It’s a short but varied week filled with good last-minute gifts. One of Del Rey’s last titles, xxxHOLIC, releases its penultimate volume this week. Vertical releases the second volume of its vintner saga, Drops of God, while Viz shows it’s eclectic side a little something from its Signature and Media lines. Good reading all around. The List: DEL REY MANGA xxxHOLiC Volume 18 GN, $10.99 KODANSHA COMICS Mardock Scramble Volume 3 GN, $10.99 VERTICAL Drops Of God Volume 2 GN, $14.95  **Weekly Pick** VIZ MEDIA Dorohedoro Volume 5 GN, $12.99 Fullmetal Alchemist Volume 27 TP (Of 27), $9.99  **Weekly Pick** Tenjo Tenge Volume 4 GN (Full Contact Edition 2-In-1), $17.99 YEN PRESS Betrayal Knows My Name Volume 2 GN, $18.99 Kobato Volume 5 GN, $11.99 My Girlfriend’s A Geek Volume 5 GN, $11.99 Spice And Wolf Volume 5 GN, $11.99 The Picks: Justin’s Pick: Mardock Scramble has proved interesting, if not necessarily anything new, and Dorohedoro is still a powerhouse of a manga with terrific art-presence, but this week I’m picking up Drops of God, if only because I still can’t tell if it’s tongue in cheek or deadly serious when it comes to the world of wine (or both!);…

Case Closed Volume 40 By Gosho Aoyama • Viz Media • Mystery • Older Teen • $9.99 Conan and his friends have more cases to solve, though only one murder in this volume. First he gets dragged into disrupting a date that ends up involving a drug deal, a suicide that looks suspicious, and a search for Dr. Asaga’s first love. After reading so many shonen, shojo and thriller titles lately, I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed the chase of a good mystery manga, so it was great to get back into a volume of Case Closed. The cases in this volume are mostly light fare, involving the relationships of supporting characters Sato and Takagi and Dr. Asaga. The mysteries involve solving puzzles and reading people. It’s a lot of fun watching the deduction process with Conan and the Junior Detective League. The one murder is fairly obvious about who the culprit is, it’s the way the murder is committed that is the mystery. This was a fun, light read, with three complete cases, and the last chapter being the hook for the next volume. If you need a mystery fix, Case Closed is sadly your only option at the…

Reviews are subjective things. A reviewer is drawing on many things when they write their review. Besides technical things such as story structure, character development and art, a reviewers personal preferences and experiences can affect their feeling about a book. And sometimes, even their gender can make a difference as to whether a book gets a good score or bad. In the following discussions, reviewers Alex Hoffman and Lori Henderson will look at different books and examine the similarities and differences they have over each of them. Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan Volumes 1-2 By: Hiroshi Shibashi Publisher: Viz Media – Shonen Jump Age Rating: Teen Genre: Action/Supernatural Price: $9.99 ISBN: Vol. 1: 978-1421538914 Lori Henderson: That was quite a debate we got into with Degenki Daisy. Will Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan be just as contentious? Alex Hoffman: I don’t know Lori – I guess that depends on what you think of the series. Want me to give the rundown? LH: Please do. AH: Here goes nothing. Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan is a series about a boy named Rikuo who is the descendant of one of the most powerful yokai in Japan. Being ¾ human…

Natsume Ono is one of my favorite creators in comics today. Her distinct style and charismatic writing have filled many of my evenings with beautiful imagery of Italy and feudal Japan, and her characters have sparked my imagination and wanderlust. When Ono’s first works were brought to the USA, we started somewhere in the middle – Ristorante Paradiso and not simple were a progression of sorts from La Quinta Camera, which is some of Ono’s earliest work. The series started as a webcomic, and was brought to print in one volume through Viz Media’s IKKI COMIX imprint. Of all the creators popularized by the IKKI format from Viz, Natsume Ono is the most complex, and most wonderful. La Quinta Camera is certainly an expression of that – but Ono has learned much between her initial comics debut in 2003 and her currently running series House of Five Leaves. By Natsume Ono Publisher: VIZ Media LLC; Sig IKKI Age Rated: T for Teen Genre: Slice of Life Price: $12.99 La Quinta Camera is a series of vignettes focusing on four men who live in a five-bed apartment in Rome, and how they use that fifth room; or rather, who they rent…

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….

It’s a new month with a whole new slew of manga to check out! Kodansha makes another strong showing with several volume 1s including the all ages title Animal Land, and the sci-fi title Mardock Scramble. Vertical releases their requisite zombie title Velveteen and Mandala, and Viz releases their monthly wave of shonen and shojo titles including Black Bird, One Piece, Naruto, and the next Pokemon: Black and White.

Fumi Yoshinaga was first introduced to US audiences through her BL titles. But this versatile writer has also created stories for young adults and adult audiences that both men and women can enjoy. She is also the featured creator of this month’s Manga Movable Feast. So here are the Villagers talking up their favorite Yoshinaga titles.