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.
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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).

It’s nothing too new that the big global chain Borders isn’t doing well. The company lost several million dollars this year from what they normally earn and it can be seen when entering a store. Music and other non-book merchandise has been doing more harm than good. The greeting person they have by the door now is pretty annoying, too. Shelves are getting bare, there’s longer lines, and stores I visited don’t carry any manga from Yen Press (minus the magazine Yen+). It would be a tragedy if such large stores went under. Having such stores around makes getting into manga much easier and Borders does tend to carry more mature series then others (either certain types of romance or graphic action).

It’s been weeks since volume four of Moon Boy was released. No way to get it for myself unless bought online.

The second volume starts off from the action that ended the first volume. Adventura has some of the most impressive level of detail. Medieval fantasy settings with forests, libraries of magic, skeletons, and swords. It’s a good thing that it’s manga or it would have had a lot of brown. Each volume begins with a dramatic dialogue from one of the characters and ends with extras. Volume two has character profiles, translation notes, and a short extra comic with the characters.

The background of the story is of Lewin wishing to be a wizard. His grandmother helped him get into a magic school, however he was placed in swordsmanship. Lewin is a bit of an outcast, as he’s a red head and the first student in the school to not have magical powers. He gets into trouble, finds his way into areas of the school in where he’s not allowed, and seen as very weak. One day finds several students of a different area of the school. Much drama occurs, but there’s several moments where Lewin doesn’t seem so weak afterall. A sign of things that may come, there is this amazing scene where Lewin somehow lights up a smoke for the teacher as he decides to rush off elsewhere.

Volume two continues outside the school where Lewin comes to help two other studnents that are attacked by monsters. From this you’ll see Lewin’s sword and ability. He could be a threat or a hero of the school. Adventura is a loving adveture that may go in any direction as it unfolds, with Lewin being getting his wish. This volume is out now.

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.

Amano Yukiteru is a boy who doesn’t really have any friends, even in high school. He also made it a habbit to keep notes of his life on his cell and eventually started making friends with an imaginary friend Deus X Makina. She rules everything including space and time. So what does this super powered friend do? Allows him to write what will happen in the future. Mirai Nikki takes the supernatural a step further by having to survive a game that determines the Deus Ex Machina. The game plays where you have to kill using diaries, with personalities and stat like attributes that are based on the personality. One can win by destroying the diary.

The manga is still going and it’s not licensed. The other name this manga goes by is Future Diary. There’s also a side manga called Future Diary: Mosaic which shows everything from other players. Guess just incase people didn’t like the main set of characters.

Follow the link to more Mirai Nikki cosplay.

It is quite unfortunate that amazing manga like this will rarely see the light of day outside of japan. Wether it be the series is considered too short or that people don’t believe that it would do well, it is when you come across a manga like this that you really just hope that someone notices it’s brilliance and decides to pick it up for translation. For those who have read this series you no doubt enjoyed it and agree with what i’ve said. As for everyone else, if you are a fan of romance then I cannot recommend this enough. It rivals Kanon 2006’s Makoto story arc which (IMO) was 1 of the 2 best and saddest romance stories i’ve encountered. This is a short series that only runs for 5 books, and was made quite awhile ago but it still remains a brilliant work. However lets get on with the point of all this.

STORY

We follow a man by the name of Yoshizumi Ikuru who lives in the future. As I read this series over 4 or 5 months ago I cannot remember exactly if you find out how old he is but he seems to be around his eairly 20s. Unfortunately due to a major traffic accident when he was young that claimed his parents, he is now close to dying. He was able to survive and avoid his imminent death by scientists grafting body parts of another person onto/into him. This allows him to live but not for much longer. As he only has short time left to live, he turns in his application for an Ai-Ren. What is an Ai-Ren? Well as the manga puts it they are

“Human beings made out of artificial genes with the purpose of relieving the mental despair of a patient during his/her last moments of his/her life”

They are custom grown to suit the person they are given to. Unfortunately their life span is also not as prolonged as 1 would hope. They usualy die a few months after being “born” which in itself is quite sad but in this case is just worse. Ikuru decides to name his Ai-Ren simply Ai, as that is all she can say for the first few hours after taking her home. With both of the main characters introduced, the story now follows them together as they experience life together and eventualy fall in love with each other.

Characters

I figure more information on the main focus of this series wouldn’t be too out of order so i’ll go into some further depth of the characters. There are more that you meet but Since 90% of the story is based on 2, I will only go into detail about them.

Ikuru: He is a rather intelligent person who often has dreams/nightmares about his impending death and about his body’s deterioration. Sometimes these are so severe that they leave him unable to eat or even move due to bodies reaction. He doesn’t seem to mind cleaning and is pretty good at cooking too. He is an exceptionaly kind and understanding character that unfortunately feels cut off from the rest of the world. He seems to feel guilty about applying for an Ai-Ren but that later disappears through time when he becomes truly happy he did.

Ai: Born/grown at the request of Ikuru in a lab. She physicaly looks about late teens, eairly 20s but since her mind requires a short span to mature to her physical age, she acts very childish at first. Drawing on walls and never being able to stay still and the like. Although her personality is designed to compliment Ikuru’s, she seems to enjoy flashy things in life such as rock music which Ikuru doesn’t. She learns to play the piano thanks to Ikuru but soon passes him in skill and picks up the guitar as well. Together with Ikuru they grown vegetables outside of their country house. She keeps a diary of her life with Ikuru and always writes in it about her day and what happened.

Final Comments

Unfortunately that is about as much as I am able to write up about this due to it being short. However don’t take that as a bad thing has writing any more would just spoil it for the people who wish to read it. If you are looking for a great romance series that wont suck up too much of your time then I cannot suggest a more perfect book. It has great artwork in it that is minimalistic at times, but really shows a sense of the atmosphere and surroundings. A great read that should be on everyone’s list of “must read” manga.