Shopping List for October

Here’s my shopping list for October. It seems to be little small when compared to September when I ordered nine manga. Two of them have yet to arrive, one being: Zero: Circle of Flow volume 2 and the other one Junk volume 4. However, I won’t mind (lie)…at least my my purse won’t (truth), it shall rejoice this month…
By the way, that I go over my release list I actually realize that even one of the August manga (SIN volume 2) hasn’t arrived yet. Only two reasons come to my mind that could possible explain this. The first that springs to my mind is that that the first volume might have not sold too well, so they wait for more people to buy it before they release volume two.
The second reason, hopefully being the correct one, is due to there only being two volumes out in Korea. Since they don’t want to catch up, they changed the release date. Well, that introduction to my October list became rather long, if it didn’t scare you away, please click on “Read more”.

Carlsen’s Releases for October

After Tokyopop published their list a week ago it’s now Carlsen’s turn. Most of them might be already available in the German stores.

Seinen:
Astral Project, Volume 2*
Blood Alone, Volume 3*

Shounen:
Black Cat, Volume 14
Tales from Earthsea, Volume 1 (Manga adaption of the Ghibli movie)
Girls Bravo, Volume 8
Go Kids, Volume 2
Naruto, Volume 26
Hikaro no Go, Volume 13
.hack//XXXX, Volume 1
Slayers Special, Volume 3

Shoujo:
Crown, Volume 2
Charming Junkie, Volume 5
Ahiru no Oujisama, Volume 6
Hanakimi, Volume 12
Zero no Soukoushi, Oneshot
Vampire Knight, Volume 2

Shounen Ai:
Takumi-kun, Volume 4
When a man loves a man, Volume 3

Magazine:
DAISUKI 10/2007

Manga marked with a “*” are on my shopping list.

Tokyopop.de’s October Releases

In Germany the bigger publishers usually publish their list of releases for each month and not weekly like some American publisher’s do or fansites. Also every publisher in Germany has a fixed time when they release their manga:

Carlsen usually releases in the first week of the month, sometimes even earlier. Tokyopop’s releases follow them a bit later and Heyne in shares a spot with Egmont in the middle of the month. Lately it felt like Egmont published their books a bit later as well. The end of the month is reserved for Panini to put their books on the shelves.

I’m not sure if that has an impact on the sales figures, but as the average German manga buyer is 14 and female, they might get their pocket-money at the start of each month and tend to spend it all on the earlier released manga, just a thought.

So here’s Tokyopop’s release list for October:

Astral Project Volume 1 Review

Manga: Astral Project
Mangaka: marginal (Story), Syuji Takeya (Art)
Publisher: Carlsen Comics (Germany)
Price: 7,50€
Released so far: Volume 1
Release Schedule: Volume 2: October, Volume 3: January
Additional Information: marginal is the pen name for Garon Tsuchiya, the creator of Old Boy. On Carlsen’s homepage they say that volume 4 will possibly conclude this series. It’s serialised in Enterbrain’s magazine “Comic Beam”.

Whoever has read Old Boy knows what Garon Tsuchiya is capable of, so after I found out that he’s the brain behind Astral Project I immediately bought the volume. It was one euro more than your regular manga as it came with a really nice looking lacquer cover and had around forty pages more than usual as well.

The manga starts off in a modern day disco with the main protagonist, a young, attractive chap named Masahiko, getting a phone call telling him that his sister died. However the real story doesn’t start until he listens to a CD he finds in his sister’s room. To his surprise the music on the CD causes his spirit or astral form to separate from his body and he starts floating in the air. From that moment, he decides to find out what exactly happened to him and why and if there’s a connection between the death of his sister and his “outer bodily” experiences. A plot mixed between a detective story and paranormal happenings begins to unfold.

New Theme

As you can see I’m still testing around with the design. I’m trying to find one that fits my idea of “manly manga” but leaves room for other topics as well. I’m pretty bad with Photoshop, especially “texts”, so the header will most likely always look crappy, but at least this theme looks better than the one I used previously.

~Invalent~

German Manga Charts August 2007

Here are the German Manga Charts for August 2007 via splashcomics:

1. (-) One Piece Volume 44 (Shounen-Carlsen)
2. (-) Detective Conan Volume 51 (Shounen-Egmont)
3. (-) Death Note Volume 7 (Shounen-Tokyopop)
4. (-) Inuyasha Volume 46 (Shounen-Egmont)
5. (2) Naruto Volume 25 (Shounen-Carlsen)
6. (-) Haou Airen Volume 6 (Shoujo-Egmont)
7. (-) Junjo Romantica Volume 4 (Shounen Ai-Carlsen)
8. (-) Rockin’ Heaven Volume 1 (Shoujo-Tokyopop)
9. (-) Innocent Bird Volume 2 (Shounen Ai-Egmont)
10. (-) Shite Wagamama H (Shoujo-Tokyopop)
11. (-) NANA Volume 16 (Shoujo-Egmont)
12. (-) BAA: Last Order Volume 9 (Seinen-Carlsen)
13. (1) Shinshi Doumei Cross Volume 6 (Shoujo-Tokyopop)
14. (-) La Esperanza Volume 4 (Shounen Ai-Carlsen)
15. (-) Love Contract (Shounen Ai-Carlsen)
Shounen: 5 | Shoujo: 5 | Shounen Ai: 4 | Seinen: 1
Carlsen: 6 | Tokyopop: 4 | Egmont: 5 | Panini: 0

Information:
- if necessary I changed the manga’s name into the English one.
- I don’t distinguish between Yaoi and Shounen Ai.

I’m happy to see at least one Seinen title in the top 15, as 65% of the German manga readers supposedly are female.

Shin Angyo Onshi Volume 5 Review

Manga: Shin Angyo Onshi
Mangaka: Young In-Wan(Story), Yang Kyung-Il(Art)
Publisher: Carlsen Comics (Germany)
Price: 6,50€
Released so far: Volume 1-5
Release Schedule: Bi-monthly

After reading volume 1-4 my expectations for volume 5 were very high. Much to my relief volume 5 still kept the high level of historical background, fantastic and fluent art, as well as a exciting story. This is definitely one of the Manga which just gets better and better.

Kyung-Il, who’s amazing art I already was able to enjoy in their first(?) cooperation Island, does a very good job with his art. His ability to capture and express emotions through it as well as his sense for creating exciting fights rivals the skills of every great Japanese Mangaka. For me the only disappointment in volume 5 were the colored pages. This time they didn’t manga don’t impress me, because of their bright and more light design. I think a bigger publishing format, instead of the “normal” 18cm x 12.4cm, would suit the art more and bring forth the details better…and I would love to have a poster of that cover…

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