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Shopping List for October

invalent — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 01:02:44 +0000

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:
# Astral Project Volume 2*
-The second volume of the “newer” series by Garon Tsuchiya and reviewed a few days ago.
# Blood Alone Volume 3*
-Finally the third volume of this very calm and soul soothing manga. Infinity Studios released it in the US some time ago.

Del Rey:
# Air Gear Volume 6
-After an exciting volume 5 I’m eager to see what happens next and (male hormones on) the cover certainly intrigues me.

Panini
# Dangu Volume 5
-Ahh, I hope we get to see the big guy again this time, though I’m in for the fights! It’s released by Dark Horse in the US and still, despite the strong euro, it’s still cheaper over here. It even falls into the “very expensive manga” category in Germany.

VIZ Media:
# Claymore Volume 10
I ordered volume 5-7 in my local comic shop months ago, but they still have not arrived. However I don’t care: it’s Yagi. I enjoyed volumes 1-4, I’m patient, I buy it…not at my local comic store anymore though.

Manga I’m thinking of buying:

Yen Press
# Black God Volume 1
-an interesting sounding manga, or “manhwa”, even if it’s serialised in a japanase magazine by Im Dal Young and Park Sung Woo. By the way, those two seem to make like 3-4 manhwa at a time…I think Park Sung Woo owns his own studio: Studio Zero, not so sure though

*=planning on reviewing the volume.

Carlsen’s Releases for October

invalent — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 20:43:17 +0000

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

invalent — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 19:21:19 +0000

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:

Romance
Love Triangle – Aisuru Hito, Volume 4
Selena Lin: Burning Moon, Volume 4 -a manga by a Taiwan author.
Steady Beat, Volume 2
Sweet & Sensitive, Volume 14
Ultra Maniac, Volume 2
Dein und mein Geheimnis (My Barbaric Girlfriend), Volume 2
Honey x Honey Drops, Volume 1

Action
Bleach, Volume 16
The Prince of Tennis, Volume 18
Grenadier, Volume 4
Blue Dragon RalGrad, Volume 1

Fantasy
Archlord, Volume 4
Die Legenden vom Traumhändler(The Tale of the Child Pedlar), Volume 3
King of Hell, Volume 4
Recast, Volume 4
Wiedersehen mit Shao, Volume 5 -Sequel of Mamotte Shugogetten
Iscel, Volume 3

Comedy
100% Strawberry (Ichigo 100%), Volume 10
I Luv Halloween, Volume 2 -OEL manga
School Rumble, Volume 12

Drama
Beck, Volume 15
D.V.D. Depressiv. Verliebt. Durchgeknallt. (DVD), Volume 8

Mystery
A Midnight Opera, Volume 3 -by a German author.
Death Note, Bd 8

Astral Project Volume 1 Review

invalent — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 20:38:36 +0000

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.

Wow, what a great first volume. It really made me forget my surroundings and it was interesting from the start till the end. No stereotypical characters, a main protagonist whom I can identify myself with and despite the fact that he’s good-looking he’s no playboy and seems down to earth, despite him often not being (pun intended).

The plot is played out nicely; we get snippets here and there. One puzzle piece joins the other yet we still don’t know of how many pieces the puzzle will consist of in the end. The art worked great with the mysterious and tense storytelling and had consistency, compared to the messiness of, for example, Oh!Great.

The art style actually reminded me a bit of Night Head Genesis (anime); the older brother had a similar appearance to him, but I think it’s more of the theme and some scenes that reminded me of it: the mysterious girl standing in front of the moon and the “diving” scenario also existed, although in an averted way.

The cover design seems crafted with care as well. At first glance it looks rather simple but when you look more carefully you can see all these subtle placed details, like the CD, the heads rising towards his “astral body”, or the houses in the circle.

Story: 7 – Good characters, well elaborated plot.
Art: 6 – The way a few heads were drawn occasionally looked strange, as well as the lips, but I really like how the artist used different types of styles within one volume.
Enjoyment: 7 – Has everything: suspense, character, plot, intrigue, very nice art, and a bit of skin for the male eye.
Overall: 7-

Comment on Carlsen’s release: They did a pretty good job again. Lettering was fine (better than the previous reviewed SAO volume 5), translation was easy to understand and not as vague (see Panini’s Utopia’s Avenger and Egmont’s XS). The only thing I spotted were few editing mistakes on the double page that introduces us to chapter 4.

New Theme

invalent — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 11:30:25 +0000

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

invalent — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 17:44:37 +0000

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

invalent — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 22:28:29 +0000

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…

The Manga continues with its episodic structure and the story background is still provided by Korean folktales. I really appreciate the explanation they give at the end of each “tale” or “classic. I find that information very interesting as it shows how the author changed it and for me that adds authenticity to the story.

Art: 6 – minus 1 because of the not that impressing colored pages, they are too lighthearted and too bright for me.
Story: 7 – The stories gave a tiny peek into Munso’s heart and more of Sando’s true strength is shown and we finally get a glimpse of Ajite and his “Sando”. I want MOAR!
Enjoyment: 6 – We get introduced to Ajite and his Sando; Munsu’s and Sando’s characters get developed more as well, I still don’t know what the “dwarf”‘s role is…except annoying me.
Overall: 6+

Comment: The typesetting seems fine, as well as the actual translation and editing. The paper quality is the usual standard for German releases, what I do hate though are the occasionally cropped pages…where a bubble is severed and one forth of it is missing.

Hello world!

invalent — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 19:27:47 +0000

Welcome to MoreManlyManga. This is my first post. You can neither Edit nor can you delete it, but you may start ~~blogging~~ reading!