In between the new titles the manga publisher Tokyopop licenses, they picked a series from many that they mass dropped to return. They previously released the fifth volume with some major lag between the time they released the later books because licensing issues. Volume seven will hit stores August 31st despite being announced canceled July of 2008 along with volume six, even though six apparently came out December of 2009 last year. Lagoon Engine is one of many that appear on Tokyopop’s site which falls behind in lack of news, people moving on, bookstores not carrying it, or has people assuming it’s canceled for good.

Lagoon Engine is another series by Sugisaki Yukiru of DNAngel, Rizelmine, and Candidate for Goddess. All three of those even made it to an anime form and DNAngel had quite the following way back then. The story of this manga gives you two brothers who can’t speak each others real name or they’ll be easily defeated by spirits called Maga. Yen is the brighter of the two and much more serious while Jin is the impulsive and a little dim. You have a grown up cross dresser, mystery around some of the main characters that the author hints to, and a neat mildly chibi style for many of the characters. I personally won’t be surprised by another delay in release or even no release of volume seven though. Thanks Tokyopop.

Image Source – Pixiv
Source – Anime News Network

This is where someone would say sorry for the lack of blogging, but it’s best to blog instead. Just a series of unhelpful events and uncertainty of life. There’s been a lot of good things this year.

Moon Boy returns – Yen Press took off as it announced many new series along with the manhwa picked up from ICEkunion. One of them being this adventure of rabbit and wolf people. Volume four had a September release and it can be found on Amazon for a fairly cheaper price.

The basic idea of the story is that these rabbit like people once lived on the moon, but were forced off and came to earth. It’s either that or be eaten. These people fit in society like normal, but many have no knowledge of this or their power. Myung-Ee Joo is the (loud…) main character who’s…okay stop. She’s not really the main character. The story pretty much drags her along with it.

Back to the basic idea. You have these loose rabbit people along with a fighting force called Rabbit Tribe who helps Myung-Ee Joo and protects Yu-Da Lee. Their goal is to save Yu-Da Lee from the foxes who believe they’ve completely wiped his mind and surround him everyday. Both sides are able to form swords either from fox claws or by the will of a rabbit.

Each volume comes with a small folded poster, the art is always styled, and the series gets straight into the fun and drama. There’s not really any character development minus learning about what one capable of and their different ways of not being serious. Publishers Yen Press and Orbit are now under one roof so now there’s going to be volumes of the Moon Boy series with three different logos and companies on it…

ADV and Tokyopop – Tokyopop licensed Mirai Nikki as Future Diary with the first volume in May 11, 2009. Other than that ADV and Tokyopop have been more of a pain than good. Tokyopop dropped Lagoon Engine, Beyond the Beyond, and others. ADV dropped Sergeant Frog and gave up after releasing 5 Centimeters per Second.

More? Yes and who knows what ADV Manga will do when and if volume two of Lagoon Engine Lagoon Engine Einsatz comes out. With Yotsuba&! being on hold and the big list of canceled manga from ages ago…Gamerz Heaven, The First King Adventure, and Rise R to the Second Power as examples. ADV tossing out both the profiting Newtype USA and the poorly thought PiQ anime magazines.

Mirai Nikki from Tokyopop? No thanks.
———————————————————-
Kaiba was a crazy adventure, Yozakura Quartet is animated, Kyo no Gononi has a new series, a cosplay magazine comes to the US with a large massive hard cover, and Soul Eater became popular.

Where’s the hard cover of Q Ko-chan volume two, though?

Next year maybe Geneon will return, Lolifox the web browser will make a come back, Letter Bee has a TV series announcement, and more Japan based comic publishers will cross the sea themselves to other countries. Guess this entry serves more of what to expect in future writings (but hopefully easier to read and coherent).

Tokyopop has just announced they cancelled Lagoon Engine. No volumes six and seven. Someone should stick it to them by making the manga crazy popular even though it’ll go unfinished in English.

Lagoon Engine stars two brothers who can’t reveal their real names. They go by Yen and Jin Ragun and their duty is to defeat spirits called maga. Yen is focused, calm, and rational while his brother is implusive and fine with running into a fight that he might not win. To defeat maga they have maga of their own. Yen’s is Koga (of a type able to gather information) and Jin’s is Sora (all power and no brain).

The battles in Lagoon Engine are special. A barrier must first be created to make it so both sides cannot see each other and neither side knows the others name. Once a side guesses or discovers the other sides name they can see them and be able to wipe out their opponent. As the story develops there are people who don’t fight maga, but have other uses for them. Along the way you come across other beings and family members of the Ragun brothers.

Lagoon Engine is worth much for its subtle hints and the many battles. At least DNAngel volume twelve is coming, as it was released in Japan June 16th. Maybe.

There may come a point in time when Yukiru Sugisaki’s Lagoon Engine won’t be release outside of Japan. Problems with Kadokawa Shoten and paperwork is what’s getting in the way basically. Tokyopop may just drop the series if it keeps up. Lagoon Engine is about six volumes from what I know and it’s doubtful is it’s still being published in Japan’s Asuka. The Jen and Yen Ragun may never hit the rest of the world. For a while volume 4 was going to be published early this year, but it seems won’t be till early or mid 2008. Waiting isn’t fun. Perhaps the covers of the Tokyopop releases will look differen from before, as the originals had white and a slightly different look.