The big news this week is that a few Tokyopop titles seem to be straggling in… my guess is that they were already printed and there’s no point in not letting them get released to earn a little more cash for Stu’s vanity projects. So we have the final volume of Hanako and the Terror of Allegory to add to TP’s ‘completed’ category. There’s also new volumes of Deadman Wonderland and Fate/Stay Night, which will remain incomplete, as well as the shoujo Happy Cafe, likewise. And the seinen Maids and Service comedy Maid Shokun gets Vol. 1 of 4 coming out this month, but that’s all you get.

In other weird news, Midtown Comics has decided to catch up on Vertical’s releases by getting about 10 of them in at once. The last 2 volumes of Seven Billion Needles, 3 volumes of Twin Spica, Chi’s Sweet Home 5, and the 2-volume split of Apollo’s Song. All very worthy of purchase if you haven’t already. Also, Apollo’s Song ran in Shonen King, a now-defunct Shonen Gahosha magazine that is where the Young King OURS magazine got its King from.

Now for normal releases. Dark Horse has the final volume of Neon Genesis Evangelion: Campus Apocalypse, which tried to ramp up the Shinji/Kaworu ambiguous love, but apparently also had some good Asuka stuff as well. Seven Seas is releasing a new omnibus of Venus Versus Virus, so those of you who weren’t bored out of your skulls by the mindlessness can pick it up and see what all the fuss wasn’t about.

Viz has a new Afterschool Charisma, which more hot clone action. There’s Vol. 15 of 20th Century Boys, which must be on its 3rd end of days by now. And Viz debuts the re-release of Tenjo Tenge in handy two-volume omnibuses, now uncensored for whiny otaku who never bought it when CMX put it out. (Note: the same ones will not buy it now for some other invented reason.)

Kodansha has the first volume of the Phoenix Wright tie-in manga, this time a genuine serialized manga story rather than a doujinshi collection. It ran in Kodansha’s Monthly Young Magazine, which targets college-age men.

And Yen has a pile of stuff. The 9th volume of Bamboo Blade has the entire cast being AWESOME, I have it on good authority. Even Dan-kun fans will get to see him do things here. Higurashi has Shion continue her roaring rampage of revenge in the 3rd volume of the Eye-Opening Arc. Soul Eater gives us more pop art. Sunshine Sketch gives us more 4-koma sweetness and sort-of-yuri. Sasameke drags to a close with its second omnibus, which can’t possibly be as bad as the first was. We get a 2nd volume of Tales of the Waning Moon only 21 months after the first volume (it comes out just as slowly in Japan). And a new debut, The Betrayal Knows my Name from Kadokawa’s shoujo oddity collection Asuka.

That’s a whole lot of stuff. What are you getting?

This week is another good example of how it’s difficult to sort out release dates between: a) bookstores; b) Diamond Distribution, and c) Comic Shops ordering directly. Midtown Comics lists three titles I got this week, and one I got last month! On the bright side, it’s nice to see Diamond get things in FIRST for a change…

In the ‘old news’ department, Drawn & Quarterly has the gekiga anti-war manga Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths, as written by the creator of Gegege no Kitaro, Shigeru Mizuki. Be warned it’s heavy stuff. Also be warned you may dislike it if you don’t like ‘caricature’ faces. But get beyond that and I think it packs a powerful punch.

Seven Seas has its small list of June releases. We get the first volume of A Certain Scientific Railgun, which Seven Seas is sensibly not promoting as a spinoff of a series not available over here. The second volume of Amnesia Labyrinth is also out. It may be the last, but I’m not sure. I don’t think it actually ended in Japan, but… it does feature explicit incest, so I’m not sure if it’s on ‘hiatus’ after Bill 156. But then, it could just be on hold while Tanigawa wrote the new Haruhi books. Lastly, and very welcome, we have the Strawberry Panic novel omnibus, featuring the 3rd and final volume for the first time. Kudos to Seven Seas for listening to demand and getting this out. Reward them by buying it. It’s silly fun. Very silly.

And now for things that HAVEN’T actually come out already… there is a giant pile of yaoi from DMP. Kudos to DMP, by the way, for reminding us that there are other publishers in Japan bedsides the few we always see every week. Nihon Bungeisha, Akane Shinsha, Asuka Shinsha, Taiyo Tosho, Shinkousha… it’s a smorgasbord of companies that will make you say “who?” while providing you with quality yaoi. Old school fans will want to check out Bad Teacher’s Equation and the 3rd Kizuna reprint, both from the early 1990s. Fans of ongoing series will note that Blue Sheep Reverie has hit Vol. 4, which is quite high for licensed yaoi. Men of Tattoos not only has a great name, but ran in the magazine Opera, which I’ve heard good things about. And Rabbit Man, Tiger Man is not only billed as a comedy, but also has the title Rabbit Man, Tiger Man. (I hope it’s not an Ouran High School Host Club spinoff…)

Lastly, Viz has their trickle of 2nd week titles. New Arata the Legend and Kekkaishi from Shonen Sunday, and the penultimate Detroit Metal City from the lesser-known skeezy end of Hakusensha, Young Animal.

What appeals to you? Or will you spend the week getting the stuff Viz put out this week that you had to put off?

First of all, let’s note that Vertical has the 14th volume of Black Jack out next week. You should buy it, it’s fantastic, Tezuka at his most accessible and yet creepy.

That out of the way, the rest of the post is devoted to Viz’s 24 new titles shipping. For once there isn’t a new series debuting, but that’s OK, as we get simply oodles of old ones. Let me break it down by genre/magazine.

First, there’s a giant pile of Jump. Naruto. One Piece. Bleach in both 1-3 omnibus form as well as the new volume. Bakuman. Toriko. Nura. Slam Dunk. And the final volume of Hoshin Engi, which somehow released 23 volumes when I wasn’t looking. On the Jump Square front, there’s also new volumes of Blue Exorcist, Claymore, and Ultimo. That’s a lot of Jump.

For those who like their shonen of a different brand, there’s Fullmetal Alchemist, which also gets both a 3-in-1 omnibus and a new volume (25) this week. If you haven’t bought this series yet, get it. It’s fantastic, and is leading up to an ending that actually resolves and wraps everything up! So rare in manga these days…

No seinen this week. But we do get a josei title, albeit under the Beat imprint, as the penultimate volume of Butterflies, Flowers comes out. I suspect it may be getting more serious, though I hope some goofy stuff remains. It runs in Shogakukan’s Petit Comic, which has all the smut too spicy for Shoujo Comic itself. (Which is plenty smutty!)

And a huge pile of shoujo as well. Sakura Hime, from Shueisha’s Ribon. The 6th Seiho Boys’ High School from Shogakukan’s Bessatsu Comic, which may continue to have Maki torture me. And the rest is Hakusensha, as we see new Grand Guignol Orchestra, the final volume of Rasetsu, Kamisama Kiss’s 3rd, and 4 series from LaLa: Library Wars, Natsume’s Book of Friends, Ouran High School Host Club, and Vampire Knight.

Given how many of these titles tend to hit the NYT bestseller list when it comes out, I’ll be interested to see what happens, given they’re all coming out the same week. Could we see 1-10 positions all being Viz?