There’s still no Tokyopop this week, and I’m hoping to be able to find out more on what happened to the missing titles next week.
So what do we have? Dark Horse is almost caught up with re-releasing Oh My Goddess! in right-to-left format, as Volume 17 comes out next week. And from Viz, we have… Volume 22 of Hikaru no Go, which apparently the rest of the world got 2 months ago. Look, I just report the releases, I don’t explain them.
Most of the new titles are from Yen Press, though. Manga bloggers will be delighted to hear that Volume 3 of Bunny Drop is upon us, bringing a small drop of josei joy into our lives. I myself am also happy to see a new volume of Bamboo Blade, which I’m hoping gives me some great Miyamiya expressions. We also see Volume 2 of K-On!, the moe lovers’ dream. And there’s a new Haruhi Suzumiya, still struggling with not being either the novels or the anime.
In titles that are exciting but I don’t actually follow, we have a new Nabari no Ou, for those people who like a different variety of ninja than the usual Naruto sort. We also see Volume 8 of Cirque Du Freak, a rare Shogakukan title with a non-Viz publisher, as Darren Shan apparently arranged NA rights with Yen. The original manga ran in Shonen Sunday, from where I understand Manga Starts.
Lastly, the 2nd and final My Girlfriend’s a Geek novel is out. I found that the extra distance created by the manga helped me enjoy it more, and found the novel itself a bit too discomfiting. Nonetheless, it’s only 2 volumes, and it’s nice to see the light it shines on Japanese fujoshi culture. I’m sure much of it is fictional, but it’s a very based-in-truth sort of fictionality.
Any ideas what you’ll buy?
I liked the second My Girlfriend's a Geek novel more than the first (though both made me laugh). I actually got the sense that the narrator and Y-ko could get along and enjoy each other's company—it wasn't just her constantly manipulating and abusing him. I kinda wonder about the ratio of truth to fiction too, but either way it was a fun read. I like the manga better too, though. Pretty pictures and all… (collarbones, ooh!)