After the first two weeks of July were very busy, this third week, as is traditional with comic shops, is fairly quiet. (Quick note: Midtown, where I get my list from, is very behind in getting Kodansha Comics. My shop (not Midtown) lists Fairy Tail 14 as coming in next week, and I suspect that means Arisa 3, Ninja Girls 6 and Shugo Chara 11 might also show up via Diamond. But we won’t know till Monday.)
First off, Bandai has a new one-volume Code Geass spinoff, Tales of An Alternate Shogunate. It’s essentially Code Geass in 1853, assuming that 1853 had giant mecha. It ran in one of Kadokawa’s media magazines, Kerokero Ace, but does not feature anyone from Sgt. Frog. I think.
Udon’s line of child-friendly manga never really got as much attention as it probably deserved. They licensed several titles from Japanese publisher Poplar, which specializes in the ‘kodomo’ genre, aka manga for children ages 3-6. The longest title Udon picked up was the 5-volume magical girl manga The Big Adventures of Majoko, and its final volume hits shelves next week.
Vertical has Volume 8 of its quietly fantastic space manga Twin Spica. Which I believe is actually the 2nd half of 8 and all of 9 in Japan, as Vertical is starting to release these in longer chunks. Very much worth your money in any case.
And Viz has its prestige items. La Quinta Camera is the latest in Viz’s quest to license everything by Natsume Ono they possibly can (that is not either yaoi or owned by Kodansha). This ran, like Not Simple did, in Penguin Shobo’s magazine Comic SEED!, and from the reviews I’ve read I expect I will enjoy it quite a bit.
The 6th volume of Ooku is also coming out. This runs in the Japanese magazine Melody, which tends to straddle the line between shoujo and josei so much that folks get confused. A good rule of thumb is to see which imprint the collected editions come out under. Gatcha Gacha, for example, ran in Melody and was put out under the Hana to Yume imprint. Hence, shoujo. Ooku, on the other hand, comes out in the much sleeker and more adult Jets imprint. This one’s josei. Enjoyable no matter where it slots, however.
Lastly, there’s the 10th VIZBIG Edition of samurai thriller Vagabond, which I believe is the last until Japan gets a few more volumes out, as I think the collections have almost caught up with the individual volumes.
Anything appealing to you yet?
Ooooh, man, I noticed the Twin Spica manga had been coming out in larger books (only by spying on the library, I’ll get 7 and 8 at Otakon), but I wasn’t aware it was because they were cramming more volumes into those. Guess that means it’ll come out as less than 16 volumes I take it? Either way, it’s going on my shelves. And Vertical puts them out at a great rate too! Like, what, every 2 months?
But as for not waiting until Otakon, I’ll be getting volume 6 of Ooku. It will go great in my Fumi Yoshinaga shrine (currently only missing Gerard & Jacques!) And then because it only comes out every 2 months in Japan, the wait will be on for volume 7 since we’ve caught up. Also, I don’t usually find the oversized Viz manga cheaper at the con, might as well use a Borders coupon.
I recently asked Ed Chavez about Twin Spica. He said that volumes 7 through 10 would each contain 1.5 volumes worth of material, so Sean is correct—the end of US volume 8 corresponds to the end of Japanese volume 9. Volumes 11 and 12 will contain 2 volumes worth of material, so Twin Spica will conclude in 12 volumes here instead of the original 16.
Thanks for the update! Twin Spica coming out in 12 volumes instead of 16 means less wait for me!
Yikes, this is going to be a rough Pick of the Week, I can see already. Too much good stuff!
I never really liked Twin Spica much but The Big Adventures of Majoko seems like it could be intresting I’m always on the hunt for good Children’s Manga that I can loan out to my little sister.