A few things before we begin:
1) There was no post last week as Midtown had no manga this week. not a scrap. Sorry. They’re making up for it next week.
2) Diamond is shipping on time, so comic shops open on 7/4 should have your manga right on time.
3) Diamond has been doing weird things with Viz deliveries the last two months. They’re staggering them, shipping a few at a time. I can’t say if this is deliberate or not. All I know is of the Viz I’m listing below, I’m not getting several of them till later. And I *still* don’t have Toriko 10 from last month. Diamond, why?
Now, onward.
Fantagraphics has the 3rd volume of outstanding seinen masterpiece Wandering Son, which will continue our story of its two leads and their ongoing exploration of gender, puberty, and life. This should be on everybody’s pull list.
Kodansha delivers to Midtown a bunch of stuff that’s been out in bookstores for a bit. Ongoing volumes of Air Gear, Bloody Monday, and Mardock Scramble. A new reissue of Gon. And an omnibus edition of one of their biggest shoujo sellers, Kitchen Princess. The big one for this week, though, is the debut of their new shonen series, Attack on Titan. Part apocalyptic horror, part military bonding, and part action thriller, Vol. 1 of this manga start fast out of the gate and doesn’t let up. Kudos to Kodansha for getting this award-winning series.
Penguin is releasing Gandhi: A Manga Biography. Note that it is only ‘A’ manga biography, which I can only assume is just in case they decide to add Gandhi to the cast of Legend of Koizumi.
Vertical is releasing the 4th volume of Drops of God, which wraps up the first ‘arc’ of this series, and reveals the 2nd Apostle! They’re also putting out a Five Centimeters Per Second, which is a poignant and thoughtful look at friendships, love, and the unrelenting passing of time. It’s worth checking out, and is complete over here in one collected volume.
Viz. Oi. Time for the bulleted list:
— Afterschool Charisma 6, an Ikki title hitting a week early. Clones!
— Bakuman 12. Manga writing!
— Bleach, Vols. 42 and 43. Speedup!
— Case Closed, Vol. 43. Not actually in Shonen Jump. Still called Jimmy!
— Claymore, Vol. 20. Youma!
— D.Gray-Man, Vol. 22. Gothic!
— Dengeki Daisy, Vol. 10. Go bald!
— Hana-Kimi, Vols. 7-8-9. Go buy the rest individually!
— Mameshiba: We Could Be Heroes. Adorable tie-in!
— Naruto, Vol. 57. Epic ninja battles!
— Natsume’s Book of Friends, Vol. 12. Yokai! And no threesomes, sorry, fandom.
— One Piece, Vol. 63. Pirates! Fishmen! Together, they fight… well, each other.
— Ooku: The Inner Chambers Vol. 7. Shogun! (Not by James Clavell, honest.)
— Oresama Teacher, Vol. 9. Comedy! And banchos!
— Pokemon Black & White, Vol. 8. Um… Pokemon?!? (shrugs)
— Psyren, Vol. 5. Powerups!
— Rin-Ne, Vol. 9. Sakura not getting angry!
— Rosario + Vampire Season II, Vol. 9. Fairy Tale! but not Fairy Tail? … wait, now I’m confused.
— Skip Beat!, Vols. 7-8-9. Go buy the rest individually!
— Skip Beat!, Vol.. 28. Just kiss already!
— Vampire Knight, Vol. 14. Vampires! Angst! Prettiness! And you CAN’T STOP READING IT!
— WINX Club, Vols. 1 & 2. More tie-ins!
The debut from Viz this week is Jiu Jiu, which is a new Hakusensha title (woo hoo!) which began in Hama to Yume and now runs in spinoff The Hana. It’s from the author of Clean Freak: Fully Equipped, for those who recall that cut short Tokyopop series (hey, why not ask Stu about it at AX this weekend?), and is about a girl and her werewolf bodyguards. As with many Hana to Yume series, it’s better than it sounds. Looking forward to this one.
Lastly, Yen has Olympos, which I mentioned already a post or two ago, but which Midtown is getting in next week for some reason.
So, out of that nightmarish pile, what suits you?
Like I can resist any manga by Fumi Yoshinaga? Obviously Ooku for me. I still haven’t read volume 6, it’s written in such fakespeare that not only have I forgotten most of the events of volumes 2-5, but I know it would take me about 60 minutes to re-read each volume individually. I’m not normally that slow on reading manga, but between translating fake English to modern English and comprehending the story when it’s written in fakespeare, reading Ooku just takes for freakin’ ever. But I’m still totally buying it. Even if volume 6 has been sitting on my shelf since before Borders closed (wow, 6 came out that long ago?). Also on the Viz side, what is the point of teasing us with those stupid 3 in 1s that only go 9 volumes in? What if they later look at one of those series years down the line (particularly FMA, sure the singles are still selling like hotcakes now, but maybe in 5 years….) and decide they want to redo the whole thing in omnibus? Will the old 3 in 1s not count and they’ll just start from the beginning doing VizBigs?
Oh and I’ve read volume 1 of Drops of God but damn do I want more! I’ll be picking up vols 2-4 at my earliest convenience (or at Otakon most likely being my earliest convenience. I’ll probably buy up half of their booth methinks)
Debating on Kitchen Princess. I’ve been enjoying Arisa by the same mangaka, but something tells me Kitchen Princess is not a freak mystery series. But at some point I probably will get Attack on Titan, gonna rent it from the library first perhaps.
Kitchen Princess is a lot darker than it sounds, just like Arisa was. And there is a bit of mystery to it as well. It only starts off fluffy and adorable. :)
Well if Kitchen Princess is dark that is excellent news! I don’t mind if it starts off fluffy and not psycho, Higurashi looked almost normal for half a second there after all.
Ok, so KP will go onto my Otakon wish list after all
Hahahaha, I loved the bulleted list. Especially the comment after Dengeki Daisy. And Skip Beat!…
Super excited for Jiu Jiu :D Now Clean Freak 1 won’t be quite so lost and lonely on my bookshelf.
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