Comic stores get their manga on Thursday next week owing to this week’s Thanksgiving holidays. This should be the last time this happens in 2010 – apparently the Christmas and New Year’s holidays do not disrupt UPS quite as much.
Though Diamond shipped it to everyone but the Northeast this week, for me it’s the final shipment of Del Rey titles. I’ll miss them. Tsubasa and Psycho Busters finish before the gun, but the other series shipping this week are left in limboland until Kodansha USA announces plans. I’ll especially miss Sayonara Zetsubou-sensei and its love of observational humor combined with its love of insane schoolgirls.
Two Tokyopop titles that didn’t show up this week are here next week, as we get Vol. 7s for Lagoon Engine and NG Life. Lagoon Engine has caught up with Japan, so volumes are few and far between. Meanwhile, Tokyopop may want to push NG Life out the door as fast as possible – 8 ships next month. (I note, despite my hoping, that Gatcha Gacha 8 did NOT ship this week, and isn’t out next week either. I don’t know where it is, but hope it will appear as soon as possible.)
Bandai has Volume 4 of Gundam-00F, the latest in the long franchise. It runs in Gundam Ace, Kadokawa’s shonen spinoff from Shonen Ace that’s devoted to Gundam titles. That’s how big Gundam is over there. Even One Piece doesn’t get a One Piece Jump, for contrast.
Udon finishes off its Magical Girl title Fairy Idol Kanon, which is drawn by an artist known for her yuri series, but as this was put out by Poplar, a Japanese company that markets to kindergartners, I wouldn’t expect any in this. They also have a new Street Fighter title.
And Vertical not only has the 2nd of their horror manga 7 Billion Needles, but also the debut of a new Tezuka title, Ayako. This is a big omnibus of the 3 volumes that came out in Japan, in one 720-page brick. It originally ran in Shogakukan’s manly Big Comic from 1972-1973, and is eagerly awaited by all. I definitely recommend it.
Despite being the first week of the month, Midtown doesn’t list any Viz titles. Sometimes if the 1st falls on a Wednesday, they’ll bump all Viz’s stuff back a week. That seems to be what’s happened here.
Not true, One Piece does have it's own magazine. I've seen it, but never picked it up. I always assumed it was reprints of previously published arcs and lots and lots of ads for stuff.