First week of the month, which means it’s a landslide. As always.
Midtown lists Zetsubou-sensei 13 from Kodansha, which I got today. It also has Cage of Eden 4, which I didn’t get today, and Air Gear 22, which I simply don’t get. In many ways. (Two very fanservicey titles, and Zetsubou-sensei. Which I suppose has service this volume as well, but… it’s not really the same.)
Vertical has the 3nd and final volume of Usamaru Furuya’s manga adaptation of No Longer Human, which promises to bring things to an appropriate finish. That means no picket-fence and two-car garage, I’m reckoning. You may have a better chance of getting that in Chi’s Sweet Home 8, which is not drawn by Furuya. (Though the mind reels at how he’d draw a chapter of it…)
Then there is the terrifying pile of Viz. Let’s start with shoujo, as we have another debut this month. The fantasy romance The Earl And the Fairy, based on a series of light novels, debuts. It looks very pretty, but I’ve heard good things about it anyway. There’s a new Black Bird, which is apparently wrapping up soon, having possibly run out of new ways to appall me. Dengeki Daisy should wrap up this current arc with an epic finish (I think… maybe? Long arc, anyway.) Kimi ni Todoke is almost caught up with Japan, but not quite, as we get lucky Vol. 13 here. La Corda D’Oro hits Vol. 15 with a new release (perhaps it’s speeding up now that it’s over in its home country). Oresama Teacher is apparently still not satisfying everyone, but I still adore it. Stepping on Roses is STILL NOT ABOUT SHOGI. And we get some re-releases of two of Viz’s most popular series, with 3-in-1 omnibuses of Hana-Kimi and Skip Beat!.
As for shonen? Bleach has a 2nd character book, showing that its fans are devoted enough to actually make a character book sell – quite a rarity in North America. There’s new Naruto and One Piece to slam into the bestseller charts. And new Psyren, which… well, probably won’t, but is still interesting. In Sunday manga, there’s new Rin-Ne and Arata. (Speaking of which, what ever happened to Sunday’s digital initiative? Did the weekly chapters die for the non-Takahashi stuff now as well?)
Lastly, there’s a new Volume of Fluffy Fluffy Cinammonroll, which just makes me hungry.
That’s a lot of manga. Is there anything you can’t live without?
I hate that I like Black Bird but I just got to see how it ends and I like Misao inspite of her wishy washiness (I nominated her in this year’s ISML) so I’ll probably go with that and the Hana Kimi omnibus also since I really enjoyed reading the first volume and I had all intentions of following it before I moved last year.