To the San Diego Comic Con. It’s our annual summer vacation trip that we share with 40,000+ other fans. Unfortunately is always feels like ALL 40,000 are in the Exhibit room at the same time… Oh well. Hopefully this year there will be better crowd control. And we go for the panels just as much as the shopping. At least Brian and I do. The girls have DSes to keep them busy. So Doctor Who, Stargate, and an MST3...
The denizens of our village have harvested another batch of manga reviews for your enjoyment. Have a seat at the Inn, order some saki. Charles Tan brings Hayate Combat Butler Volume 7 from Viz to serve you. Dan Polley gets a cut above with Pumpkin Scissior Volume 3 from Del Rey. John Thomas may be a little unstable with Kujibiki Unbalance Volume 1 from Del Rey. And I don’t mind bareing my neck for Vampire Hunter D Volume...
From the Great Ideas Dept: John Thomas over at Mecha Mecha Media takes another look at Light Novels in the US and comes up with a GREAT new name for them: J-Pulp. I think this is a perfect name for them! It describes them exactly as they are meant to be. Short prose books meant to kill a few hours. And it’s a term book retailers and publishers can understand. They aren’t meant to be high literature, nor shoved in...
The Kindaichi Case Files, Vol. 16: The Magical Express Story: Yozaburo Kanari, Art: Fumiya Sato Publisher: Tokyopop Age Rating: Teen Genre: Mystery Price: $9.99 Rating: Kindaichi is summoned to examine a mysterious note declaring that a train bound for Hokkaido will be transformed into a “magic train of death.” When Kindaichi boards the train to investigate the threat, he meets members of a magic troupe who perform on the ...
What I’ve been dreading has finally become official: Kindaichi Case Files has been canceled. As part of Tokyopop’s slashing, the January 2009 solicitation of volume 18, Burial Francs, is on the list. I was hoping against hope that this title would some how survive, since it was one of the few good titles Tokyopop had to offer. Even though it’s a shonen title, it’s mysteries could keep an adult guessing. E...
We’ve been hard at work at Manga Village, bringing you another great round of reviews. Dan Polley masters the creepy-crawlies with Mushishi Volume 4 from Del Rey. Charles Tan is spiking Eyeshield 21Volume 4 from Viz Media. John Thomas checks out some stomach turning sci-fi with Gantz Volume 1 from Dark Horse. And I’ve got some historical shojo with Kaze Hikaru Volume 9 from Viz Media. We’ve also got our weekly ...
Pokémon: The Rise of Darkrai By Ryo Takamisaki Publisher: Viz Media/VizKids Age Rating: All Ages Genre: Game/TV Tie-in/Action Price: $7.99 Rating: Storyline: Ash and his friends have discovered that they’re walking toward the ancient Alamos Town after befriending a girl named Alice. Once they’ve arrived, they find out that the sacred garden of Alamos town has been ransacked, the mysterious Darkrai appears, appearantly not p...
I know, I’m late again. But holidays will do that. Anyway, despite my slowness, the rest of the gang got their reviews up on time! John Thomas didn’t fall to pieces and got his review of Dororo Volume 2 from Vertical out on time. I take a walk down memory lane with High School Girls Volume 9 from DR Masters. And Charles Tan hefts a Claymore Volume 12 for some monster fighting action from Viz. Then, we’ve got ...
Pokémon: The Rise of Darkrai By Ryo Takamisaki Publisher: Viz Kids Age Rating: A (All Ages) Genre: Game/TV tie-in/Action Price: $7.99 Rating: What is the story about? It’s about Ash, Pikachu, and Darkrai. Darkrai fights both Dialga and Palkia before he disappears into space. What did you like about the story? I liked the fight against Dialga and Palkia. I also like the pokemon Dialga. What did you dislike about the story? I h...
There is a lot of speculation going on about Kodansha and it’s reasons for joining the US Manga market. I think it’s a little premature to speculate now, but I guess that’s what bloggers and fans like to do. This is obviously something Kodansha has had in the works for a while. You don’t get $2,000,000.00 in capital without some planning, and to throw in my .02 about this, I would say it’s Tokyopop re...
ANN has reported on a press release from Suncorp, a digital distribution company in Japan. Leiji Matsumoto, the creator of iconic titles such as Space Pirate Captain Harlock, Galaxy Express 999, and Space Battleship Yamato, is creating an original online comic project that will appear on Nintendo Wii’s Wiiware store sometime this summer. For now, the announcement only states this will be available in Japan, but it also states ...
Tokyopop, being one of the few companies to embrace the potential of online manga is doing it again. Starting this week, and until Wed. 7/2/08, you can read all of Bizenghast Volume 1 on their website. And for every week after, you can read another volume leading up to Volume 5, which will be available to read on 7/15/08 only. I got hooked on this series through reading it online. Last year Tokyopop did this for the first two volu...