3rd week of the month from Midtown Comics/Diamond usually means Yen Press, and indeed, that’s what we see here, with several new January releases!

(Note to Sailor Moon fans: we’re going by Diamond lists, and Kodansha books are always late to Diamond. I’m hoping for next week.)

Bandai, still trickling out its last few releases, has the 4th of its Code Geass “Queen” doujinshi anthologies, devoted to the female cast of Geass having fun sexy times together. Though not *that* sexy, this isn’t that kind of doujinshi.

Vertical puts out the penultimate volume of their release of Twin Spica! This is a 400-page bumper crop of space academy goodness, featuring the Japanese Vol. 13 and 14, I believe. Definitely read it if you want to feel happy and sad at the same time (which is what this series specializes in).

Viz apparently has the 5th volume of Pokemon Black and White, which I admit I know little about. But it’s Pokemon, and that still sells after all these years. Must be doing something right.

And then there’s the big pile of Yen. The big debut this month is the manga adaptation of Durarara!! It’s not the light novel license fans wanted (likely as that would sell about 15 copies each); and it’s not the anime (which has the benefit of awesome voice acting), but I’m hoping this adaptation works well with its source material, as opposed to other anime/novel/manga franchises currently being released by Yen where the manga suffers in comparison (coughHaruhicough). I will admit the cover is a great start. Very stylish!

Also from Yen, we have Vol. 8 of the runaway bestseller Black Butler; the final volume of Yen’s Shonen Sunday title Darren Shan, known over here as Cirque Du Freak; the final volume of Zombie Loan, another Peach-Pit classic; Volume 5 of tits ‘n gore series High School Of The Dead; and Volume 8 of fantasy/mystery/Lewis Carroll pastiche Pandora Hearts. There’s also new volumes of 13th Boy and Black God, for you fans of Korean Manwha. Lastly, the 4th volume of one of my favorite novel series is coming out from Yen: Book Girl and the Corrupted Angel. I wonder if this will resolve the pseudo-cliffhanger from the last book, or leave us dangling some more? Can’t wait to find out…

Anything appealing to you this week?