Man, April has been a very busy month for manga. Let’s see what’s hitting stores this week. It’s a lot.
Dark Horse, a company that’s cut back on manga in recent years, has three whole new books out! There’s Vol. 22 of popular violence ‘n service title Gantz. Vol. 41 of Oh My Goddess!, which is not known for its violence or fanservice. Well, not the kind of service Gantz offers, anyway. And after 7 years, we see Vol. 2 of The Monkey King, another adaptation of the famous story by Vampire Hunter D artist Katsuya Terada that ran in Shueisha’s Ultra Jump.
From Kodansha, we get Vol. 5 of their two newest Shonen Magazine titles. Thriller Bloody Monday (which reminds me of 24), and mystery Cage of Eden (which reminds me of Lost, only with far more shots of breasts drawn in loving close-up).
Seven Seas gives us two volumes that many folks got today from Diamond – for once, it’s Midtown being a week late. Blood Alone Vol. 6 has vampires in it. And Toradora Vol. 4 has tsunderes in it. It’s arguable which creature might be more scary to the average person…
Udon offers us Vol. 1 of a manga I know absolutely nothing about, Captain Commando. It seems to be some sort of superhero thing. And is apparently not from Japan, but original to this publisher? I guess? Looks interesting, at any rate.
Viz’s third week is usually its most interesting. We see Vol. 6 of my favorite Ikki title Dorohedoro; Vol. 6 of the Tenjo Tenge omnibus; and Vol. 2 of the X reprint, which should look gorgeous if nothing else. And apocalyptic.
Lastly, Yen has a giant pile of releases. New Betrayal Knows My Name. New Black Butler. New Black God. And that’s just the B’s! There’s also the 2nd Durarara!! manga, which should finally give us some Shizuo; a 6th volume of Zombie massacre title High School of the Dead; and the final volume of Higurashi’s latest arc, the Atonement Arc. After this we take a 5-month break before the next arc begins, so enjoy Higurashi now for the summer months!
So what are you getting out of that large pile of manga?
I’ll be grabbing both Kodansha titles, as those have proven to be quite enjoyable. I’m loving Blood Alone, definitely an underdog series for me as of late, along with Toradora! v4, which I’ll take all the tsundere I can muster.
And of course, Dorohedoro v6 will be sure to please me – the Ikki release schedule from VIZ is really starting to wear on me, though. Not nearly enough Signature Series love in either the community, or industry. Will also be picking up TT omnibus 6, and the second X reprint from VIZ.
Yen Press has got me down for DRRR! v2 and HotD v6, since I’m a glutton for cheeky fanservice/zombie gore.
May is also looking to be a very busy month for me, and June won’t be slouching either!
Oh yeah, about Captain Commando: he was featured in Marvel vs Capcom 2 way back in the day, but also had his own video game in the early 90’s (from Capcom).
I’m going with Tenjo Tenge (which will go right next to my Cardcaptor Sakura and Sailor Moon omnibus) and X/1999 because it restored my faith in Clamp
It’s just Tenjo Tenge for me!
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