Since it had been so long since I actualy bought set of manga books, at least 4 months, I figured that I  would purchase some random series that sounded interesting to me and ones I already follow but hadn’t  bought in a long time. This is just a rough summary of a few of the ones I bought.

Strawberry Marshmallow 5

I have been waiting on this book for quite a long time. Going on 8 months I believe. I’m so glad I don’t  have to wait anymore. As you may or may not know, this is 1 of my favorite show/manga series ever and  there isn’t an episode or a book that I don’t love that is related to it. Even the SM art book I have is  wonderful. As in the last 4 books, this has a great selection of short stories in it that are a joy to  read. Wether it is Nobue’s history on smoking, the girls finding out what their names mean or them talking  about best friends (I didn’t expect the “guess what Chika? we’re lesbians” comment Miu makes to find its  way into the offical book) each section is a wonderful read and there are quite a bit of laugh out loud  moments I found.

While Barasui’s style has changed slightly, the way he does eyes mainly, it still remains a fantastic  running series that looks as good as when it first started. Usualy this wouldn’t be a good thing as  character designs and the general look of things seems to change for the better as time goes on, this  series was always well done to me and didn’t need much improvement. Ok so the first 3/4 of the 1st book  the characters look very different and change a fair bit but as Barasui has stated, he never expected the  series to take off as it did so the characters looked different. Toward the end though he found the right  style for the girls and has run with it ever since. Bravo. If you love comedy and lolis this should be a  no brainer to buy.

Sunshine Sketch AKA Hidamari Sketch 1

Anyone who enjoys slice-of-life style anime I would wager has no doubt heard of this series. With a first  season already down, and a new one currently airing, it’s a very good thing that Yen Press decided to pick  this series up along with a few others. This manga seems to follow the newer series (x365) rather than the  original anime series. It may just be my opinion on this but perhaps the 1st series never followed the  original manga so they decided to redo it? Whatever the reason this was a great read and should be on  everyones list of manga to buy.

In true Hidamari Sketch fashion, all the character designs are the same and works so very well. After  seeing so much of the anime it is quite easy to imagine the japanese voices when reading which really  works so much better. Oh and lets not forget that it is a rather impressive looking book too. I’m very  glad there are more of these types coming out. Being perhaps 1 1/2 inches taller than most other books,  the panels are very easy to read and the book feels very sturdy in your hands. Much tougher than normal  flimsy flascid soft covers. Now while I wouldn’t go as far as to call this a hard cover book, it certianly  has more strength to it than a floppy Shonen Jump style cover. Also an awesome feature is that there is  perhaps 3 or 4 pages at the beginning that are in full colour which I always love to see. Ah if only the  entire series was done in full colour. I’d pay an extra $5 – $10 for that. I know many others would too.  Back on topic though I love both the manga and anime series of this and am eagerly waiting the next book  of the series. The worst part about all this? There is still a few more months to wait until more Sae +  Hiro yuri love. Issue 2 will be released apparently on 11/30/2008. yay.

Ichigeki Sachhu Hoihoi San

I picked this up a few days before hand while I was in the city while staying with some friends for a few  days. What caught my attention was the cover. It was quite unlike nearly every other anime on the shelf  because this one, like Sunshine/Hidamari Sketch, is taller than most other books as well as coming with a  dust jacket. This seems to be a trend with Infinity Studio’s work, much like Blood Alone. This is 1 of  those series that I am actualy mad that I can’t find any merch for. This entire book reads like a  elaborated instruction manual. Perhaps the story may be needed to fully understand this.

In the year 20XX, all bugs (but mainly cockroaches apprentlly) have become immune to all types of  pesticides and sprays. In order to kill these bugs, rival companies have started making tiny, 10″ tall  robots that hunt down, and exterminate them. Think of them as tiny bug terminators. They are programmed  only to fight bugs, and in some cases, rival brands of robots.

Due to the storyline, as I said this book plays out like an instruction manual on what to do, and what not  to do. There are a few other characters but the main focus is on the robots (1st and main character robot  type is called Hoihoi-san). On top of instructions for your Hoihoi-san, there are also advertisements for  newly created items such as weapons, addons, vehicals and such. Again this is a wonderful read and is cute  as hell for such an odd topic such as tiny robot bug killers. At only 1 book long this is a great buy I  though. Actually after I finished reading this, I was really mad that there are no Hoihoi’s to buy. They  did make them as a limited edition (grrr) release but I missed out by a year or something. Buu

Konkon Kokon 1

The small petite book caught my attention on the shelf. It’s a bit smaller than regular manga and had an  interesting spine so I picked it out of the shelf. Awesome thing I did. By Broccoli Books (i’m starting to  really love their stuff) it is about a boy called Ren who is a huge monster nerd. He loves everything  about them, however he hides this from everyone due to him going “nerdy” when he talks about them. 1 day  when he is in class this little girl shows up claming that she has to repay her debt to him. He has no  clue what she is talking about but since she is a fox girl, he is naturaly intrigued by her and keeps her  around accepting to let her “repay him”. He picks up more monsters along the way. Be warned, there is a  trap amongst the monsters he befriends though -_-; damn traps.

Anyway this sort of reminds me of Hidamari Sketch as the reaction faces in this title are so over the top  it’s great. It has that really super cute quality thing about them. Oh and did I mention that all the  girls are lolis? I’m quite sure I did. So this is a win win book. While it cost me $25 (even though the  book clearly states $9.99 US) I don’t regret it at all and glad I picked it up. Only 1 in the series has  been released yet so if you enjoy it like I did, you’ll be forced to wait for issue #2.

Ghosttalker’s Daydream 1

I came across this book while browsing perhaps the only place I trust to buy manga from. It sounded  interesting enough and after finishing reading this about 30 min ago I can say that it was indeed well  worth the price. While the sticker on the book clearly says “warning explicit content” much as you would  find on any heavy metal album, there wasn’t much shocking imagery or content in said book. Anyway onto the  story. I can’t be bothered to try and remember the base storyline right now as i’m feeling exceptionaly  lazy, so i’ll just write what is on the back of the book.

“Say hello to Saiki Misaki, your garden variety girl working hard to make a living, holding down two jobs  at once to get buy. Yes, like so many others, Misaki has a normal day job… as a dominatrix and a writing  for a sex magazine. But really, that’s a pretty normal job, considering she moonlights as a necromancer.  If that isn’t odd enough, Saiki is an albino, and a virgin.”

Now while that sounds like it should be worthy of an adult sticker, I personally don’t but that is just  me. Yes there are a few outfits she wears in the book that are pretty revealing, a small number of times  when either her top is pulled off, or she falls over flashing everyone in the vacinity her obviously  shaved (or mabye shes just lucky)… er… nether region, but it is never explicit and you never really  see anything such as boobs or kitty. Actualy in the case where she falls over either the original artist  or the manga company who has aquired this, has put a big black rectangle over her naughty part so you  don’t actualy see anything.

As for the story itself it has me very interested. She acts as a spirit talker for hire. When someone has  a problem with ghosts, or something related to them, they call her employer (I guess thats what you’d call  him at least) and he gets her on the job if she accepts it. This could mean getting rid of a ghost, seeing  if a place is haunted or hunting down someone that a ghost wants to see… stuff like that. She also has  this odd demon weapon which reminds me of Spawn’s cape. It seems to have a life of its own and obeys her.  So it is great stuff to read. Oh and did I mention she is pretty cute too?

So that about sums up a few of the titles I’m glad I payed for. The only real issue I have is how damn long it takes for new books to come out. Does it really take like 4 – 6 months to translate a 150 – 200 page book and get it mass produced? If I can read an entire manga in 10 – 15 min then someone should be able to translate it in a week or less no problems. Take a certain person who manages to translate a full 24 or so pages in under 1 day, every month a new installment of Kodomo no Jikan is released. He isn’t even getting payed I don’t think to do that. Someone on a wage should be able to move their ass and still do a good job at things. Ok that’s my small rant over.