It’s a smaller week, Week #2, but it tries harder! What’s coming out right before New York Comic Con?
Kodansha has two titles that, as usual, came out yesterday via Amazon and bookstore-oriented places. (pats Diamond on the head) Arisa is in the homestretch with Vol. 9, and Cage of Eden is starting to gear up with Vol. 7. Cage of Eden’s cover is also only mildly socially unacceptable this time! (I make no guarantees about the inside, though. Expect boobs.)
Seven Seas has a troika of releases, many of which hit Diamond *and* bookstores this week. For some reason, the Northeast Corridor (including me) is getting these in next week. Dance in the Vampire Bund hits its penultimate volume (don’t panic: a sequel has already started in Japan), and still has Vampire in the title, in case you missed that. Venus Versus Virus has a 3rd omnibus out, which I think may be the last (total apathy about the series prevents me from verifying this). And Girl Friends, Morinaga Milk’s popular yuri manga, gets a print release with the first of two omnibuses. Girl Friends is sweet, likeable, funny, and does not end with dead lesbians (sorry for the spoilers).
Sublime, Viz’s BL imprint, has Vol. 2 of Punch Up. Which has a kitty on a hot guy’s head. I don’t think I need to say anything else, really. KITTY!
Speaking of kitties, or at least catboys, Viz is starting to re-release the fantasy manga Loveless, which runs in Comic Zero Sum and is… not *quite* BL, even though most of the fandom would disagree with you. It is extremely popular, though, and it’s nice to see Viz rescue it. They also have a new Case Closed and the penultimate volume (did I really use penultimate twice in one post?) of Kekkaishi, which is beloved by bloggers (and hence has mediocre sales, the usual fate of titles beloved by bloggers).
So what appeals to you guys? Also, would you buy a manga that has as a tag line ‘Beloved by bloggers!’?
I buy tons of series beloved by bloggers! But in the case of many of them, I was already going to give Vertical money for Twin Spica the instant it was announced anyway. And I’ve been collecting Kekkaishi since before I knew it was beloved by bloggers. I dunno, what other series are blogger darlings? I feel like I collect them so naturally that I can’t recall which ones I’m collecting are and aren’t darlings.
Also, Arisa 9 is a penultimate volume too, you should’ve used the word four times in your post total.
Actually, Arisa 11 and 12 just hit Amazon.jp as coming out this month, so it may be more than 10 volumes there.
Loveless and Kekkaishi for sure. My mileage seems to vary with titles (I later find out are) beloved by bloggers, so I’m not sure how well that tagline would appeal to me. Hooray for Case Closed, too. Long may it be published.
HAve to go with Loveless did’nt have the opertunity to buy the first two volumes when my local B&N was clearing out their old Tokyopop backstock but now it’s two for the price of one whoo!
I was pleased as punch that Girl Friends was pushed up for release – when I pre-ordered it, its release date was Halloween, so you can imagine how happy I was when I checked the pre-order and found it was prepping for shipment. On the other hand, the second Kitchen Princess omnibus is on back-order despite having an Oct. 9th streetdate…
‘Beloved by bloggers’ is much too broad; ‘Beloved by manga bloggers.’ would have a much better chance of gaining my interest than the former, and a lot more than an anime release tagged with ‘Beloved by anime bloggers.’ Its okay for me to say this since I am in the latter camp. You folks are largely more professional and less idiotic, after all, so I wouldn’t have to worry so much about finding myself keeping company with something like Deadman Wonderland after being assured that it is really, really the bestest thing since sliced bread.