…um.

Well, Yen has two Korean manwha coming out (which I generally don’t cover on this site.)

And Little Brown is releasing the 5th Haruhi Suzumiya novel, which features Snowy Mountain Syndrome, the first story to be released here that isn’t yet animated.

But that’s it. Frequently when the first or second of the month falls on a Wednesday, Diamond treats it as a ‘5th week’. So no Viz blitz here, folks. Move along.

Hope you enjoyed your lull, as we have quite a few manga coming out next week! Including the direct market getting a few Kodansha titles at last. The lull is over!

First up we have Bandai, giving us the debut of Kannagi. The subtitle of the anime was “Crazy Shrine Maidens”, but “crazy” turned out to be a word that the fandom decided to take literally. I wonder if the manga itself is interesting divorced from the whole “virgin” controversy?

Dark Horse has the 6th volume of Ghost Talker’s Daydream, which I keep having to remind myself that yes, it is shonen. (It ran in Shonen Ace.) No doubt there will be ghosts, and sadomasochism. Possibly not in that order.

DMP has the 2nd volume (and final, I believe) of Fafner, as well as three new yaoi titles, including Volume 3 of the ever-popular The Tyrant Falls in Love (which runs in the BL magazine Gush – I think I’ve mentioned that before, but really, I wanted to mention it again.)

Kodansha has a few long awaited volumes, though no debuts quite yet. Arisa proved surprisingly popular with bloggers, and its 2nd volume is finally here. There’s new Fairy Tail and Negima volumes, for those who like shonen fights and fanservice. And Shugo Chara keeps trucking along with shoujo magical girl goodness.

Udon has a new Mega Man spinoff out, this one called Gigamix. I know nothing about it, but if Megaman spawned Gigamix, can Teramix be far behind?

Lastly we have the latest from the folks at Yen Press. The news here is the debut of the long-awaited A Bride’s Story, from the author of Emma. This is apparently in a deluxe edition, and Yen is really pulling out all the stops. There’s new Cirque Du Freak, Spice & Wolf, and Sumomomo. There’s guilty pleasures Haruhi-chan (for Suzumiya fans only) and My Girlfriend’s a Geek (for those who love fandom). And there’s a one-and-done omnibus sidestory of Higurashi When They Cry, which will allow us to take a break from the madness of the Eye-Opening Arc. Well, at least I hope it’s a break. It’s Higurashi, so no doubt there will be blood.

So what are you picking up this week?

First of all, the new releases from Kodansha Comics are starting to roll into bookstores and onto Amazon and basically everywhere except the direct market. I am hoping next week brings us some titles, I don’t want to start a Kodansha whine at Diamond the way I did a Tokyopop whine.

Meanwhile, there are some titles that the direct market just LOVES! And for them, well, here you go. The 17th volume of Gantz, from Dark Horse. It’s almost written for the Western comics fan.

Viz also has its Signature and SigIkki titles, traditionally reserved for the 3rd week of the month so that they can show off on their own while not surrounded by Naruto and Black Bird. This week sees the final volume of Natsume Ono’s Gente, the sequel to Ristorante Paradiso. This was a lovely surprise for me last year and this one, and I greatly look forward to it. There’s also Volume 3s of the Ikki titles I’ll Give It My All… Tomorrow and Saturn Apartments. I love the fact that Japan has so many magazines where these two disparate titles can run in a magazine together with nary an eyebrow raised.

Aaaaaaand that’s it. What’s intriguing to you?