Manga the week of 1/26

After a couple weeks where it seemed as if no manga were coming out at all, it falls to the good folks at Tokyopop to remind us that they’re back, and releasing more than ever! Plus Yen gets in the act as well with their January slate.

We actually start with DMP, which has 2 yaoi titles coming out, including one called No Touching At All. I have not read the manga in question, but given its genre, I’m going to make a wild guess that there will, in fact, be touching. And Tokyopop’s Blu imprint has a book from their new best friends, Gentosha, with the odd title You And Me Etc.

Back to Tokyopop proper, they have more cute shoujo coming out! Whee! We get the second volume of The Stellar Six of Gingacho, whose first surprised me with how big a smile it put on my face. There’s another Portrait of M & N, the silly series by the author of Gakuen Alice. There’s a new Gakuen Alice too, though we’re getting near the point in the series where I’m going to have to stop calling it ‘cute’ as it gets darker and darker. In non-Hakusensha shoujo, there’s the final volume of Mad Love Chase and the 4th of Momogumi Plus Senki, both from Kadokawa’s weird shoujo fantasy thing Asuka. And we even have (gasp!) a josei title this week, as they relase the 8th volume of cult hit Pet Shop of Horrors Tokyo, which comes from our friends at Asahi Shinbunsha, best known over here for… well, this.

On the shonen side, we see the debut of Lives, a new manga from Akita Shoten’s Champion Red. Those who are familiar with the type of reader Champion Red gets know what sort of reader they’re going for here. Expect a lot of fanservice and violence. Speaking of Akita Shoten, we also get the 7th volume of Samurai Harem from their monthly Shonen Champion. There’s also a pile of Kadokawa stuff, from the new Fate/Stay Night to Deadman Wonderland and the 2nd AiON (only a month after the first), all from Shonen Ace or Dragon Age, their two big shonen magazines.

Rounding off Tokyopop, we see at long last the 4th volume of the Full Metal Panic novels, Ending Day By Day. This was released as 2 novels in Japan, Part 1 and Part 2, but is being bundled together here. I’d love to see it sell better than the others have, if only as I want to see the rest of the books. (FMP, like Haruhi, has the major issue of the anime following the novel so closely that those who watched the anime first feel no need to buy the text version.) This one’s really good, though. There’s the 6th volume of the seinen Maria Holic, which no doubt will continue making fun of yuri tropes. And oh look, a new volume of .hack//Christ On A Bike.

(My lawyers advise me to note here that I bear no legal responsibility if you buy the new .hack and find that it does not, in fact, contain Christ, bicycles, or any combination thereof.)

Let’s move on to Yen, which also has a big fanservicey debut with High School of the Dead. This comes from Kadokawa’s Dragon Age, and many people were surprised at Yen getting it, but they have been expanding their range, so let’s see what they can do with it. I understand it has zombies in high school, in any case. Speaking of Kadokawa, we also have the 2nd Omamori Himari, which, along with Sumomomo Momomo, tells me that someone in Yen’s licensing department is taking the mickey. There’s more game-based bishoujo tease with Ugly Duckling’s Love Revolution, and the penultimate volume of Spiral. There are new Black Butler and Pandora Hearts volumes from GFantasy (their motto: look, we’re shonen, OK? Just shut up!). And lastly, there’s the second volume in the Book Girl novels, featuring a Famished Spirit. I greatly enjoyed the first book, so look forward to this.

So what inspires you this week?