The big news this week is that a few Tokyopop titles seem to be straggling in… my guess is that they were already printed and there’s no point in not letting them get released to earn a little more cash for Stu’s vanity projects. So we have the final volume of Hanako and the Terror of Allegory to add to TP’s ‘completed’ category. There’s also new volumes of Deadman Wonderland and Fate/Stay Night, which will remain incomplete, as well as the shoujo Happy Cafe, likewise. And the seinen Maids and Service comedy Maid Shokun gets Vol. 1 of 4 coming out this month, but that’s all you get.
In other weird news, Midtown Comics has decided to catch up on Vertical’s releases by getting about 10 of them in at once. The last 2 volumes of Seven Billion Needles, 3 volumes of Twin Spica, Chi’s Sweet Home 5, and the 2-volume split of Apollo’s Song. All very worthy of purchase if you haven’t already. Also, Apollo’s Song ran in Shonen King, a now-defunct Shonen Gahosha magazine that is where the Young King OURS magazine got its King from.
Now for normal releases. Dark Horse has the final volume of Neon Genesis Evangelion: Campus Apocalypse, which tried to ramp up the Shinji/Kaworu ambiguous love, but apparently also had some good Asuka stuff as well. Seven Seas is releasing a new omnibus of Venus Versus Virus, so those of you who weren’t bored out of your skulls by the mindlessness can pick it up and see what all the fuss wasn’t about.
Viz has a new Afterschool Charisma, which more hot clone action. There’s Vol. 15 of 20th Century Boys, which must be on its 3rd end of days by now. And Viz debuts the re-release of Tenjo Tenge in handy two-volume omnibuses, now uncensored for whiny otaku who never bought it when CMX put it out. (Note: the same ones will not buy it now for some other invented reason.)
Kodansha has the first volume of the Phoenix Wright tie-in manga, this time a genuine serialized manga story rather than a doujinshi collection. It ran in Kodansha’s Monthly Young Magazine, which targets college-age men.
And Yen has a pile of stuff. The 9th volume of Bamboo Blade has the entire cast being AWESOME, I have it on good authority. Even Dan-kun fans will get to see him do things here. Higurashi has Shion continue her roaring rampage of revenge in the 3rd volume of the Eye-Opening Arc. Soul Eater gives us more pop art. Sunshine Sketch gives us more 4-koma sweetness and sort-of-yuri. Sasameke drags to a close with its second omnibus, which can’t possibly be as bad as the first was. We get a 2nd volume of Tales of the Waning Moon only 21 months after the first volume (it comes out just as slowly in Japan). And a new debut, The Betrayal Knows my Name from Kadokawa’s shoujo oddity collection Asuka.
That’s a whole lot of stuff. What are you getting?
So are these Tokyopop titles you mention really coming out? I had both Hanako 4 and Deadman Wonderland 5 pre-ordered at Right Stuf, but they canceled the orders and removed the listings from their site. Major e-tailers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble also removed their listings, and though some third-party sellers at Amazon claim to have the books, at least one of them has feedback reflecting a history of listing titles he/she doesn't actually have. Who's saying they're available or on the way?
They are coming out via Diamond Comics Distribution, i.e. to Comic Book Stores. You can try to get one there, but my guess is they may just be shipping to those who pre-ordered them. I'm not sure where else they will be appearing.