I had the pleasure of playing a bunch of games of Penny Arcade: Gamers VS. Evil which is a deck-building card game. As an ex-Magic player, I have a high interest in games like this. It takes out the more expensive and sometimes difficult aspect. Plus, from the few I’ve played they are very fast paced as you build your deck on the fly. Gamers VS. Evil was all that with the bonus of being hilarious.

Using a dungeon-like component, you and the other players build up a deck of creatures and abilities which you use to attack the bosses. Boss loot and some other cards have point values which is how you win the game at the end.

There are different strategies to the game, but there are two basic types of cards: tokens and powers. Since tokens were green and so was the boss character of Gabe as Cardboard Tube Samurai, I decided I wanted to use tokens as my base. It took me a while to figure tokens out but I was determined to get them to work for me. From my experience they are a slower build as you start making your deck. Powers were strong going out of the gate.

Each character you play as some neat ability and it is one way of figuring out your strategy for the round, too. I had a blast playing as Gabe (since he helped my green deck hopes) but the best was Rex Ready! Because he is Rex Ready. He actually let me purge cards from my hand which is really helpful in a game like this.

Games flew by which I loved! With a rule that once six card stacks run out the game end, you are on a tight schedule to make your points count. Highly recommended and I can’t wait to play the expansion.

I have always enjoyed CCGs but hated the immense cost involved in playing them. There is a certain joy in buying booster packs but if you want to be in any way competitive you need to throw down a considerable investment. Anyone who has played Magic: The Gathering can attest to that. But with some good friends and a solid library you can have games that are radically different each time you play them. This makes the deck building game is a wonderful child of the CCG. While it is not as flexible and its parent it is far cheaper. You simply buy one box and you have a complete game and you have a game that plays much like a sealed booster match. A great compromise for those who like CCGs but also like eating regularly.

I recently played the Penny Arcade deck building game called Gamers VS. Evil. It is a solid version of the deck building formula with cards based on the various silliness from the web comic. You have everything from the Cardboard Tube Samurai to Pax Pox. Each player chooses an avatar that determines their starting hand and molds their play style with their special ability. You then take turns buying card to put in your deck. You can buy either red cards that mainly revolve around attacking and green cards which tend to have more indirect effects. Certain cards are worth points for buying them but mostly you want to build up your deck so you can buy from the Boss character piles. They have the cards with the best abilities and highest point values. The game ends when either types of cards are all sold out or one of the boss piles is empty. The player with the deck with the highest point value is the winner.

The game itself is lots of fun. We had 4 players and after 2 learning games we played several games in quick succession. If you know what your doing you you can play a game rather quickly. Since the cards you can buy are random much of your strategy comes from which Avatar you have and what is available to purchase. As with any deck building game or CCG deck control cards are worth their weight in gold. Any thing that lets you discard cards from your deck or draw more cards is powerful. Other than that most of your decision come down to how do you most effectively use your Avatar’s special ability to get boss cars as quickly as possible.

I did notice one oddity. The game is rather passive when it comes to other players. Despite the fact that there are PVP cards that let you give players negative points there is little to do to interfere with other players. In fact the most active and powerful strategy you have against other players is buying out the cards they need for their strategy. But the PVP cards do earn you a bit of ire anytime you play them none the less.

The game was really fun and each round felt slightly different. Apparently there another version called Rumble in R’lyeh. It same the same mechanics but all new cards. You can play that as a stand alone game or combine both sets together. That is a great way to keep the game alive but keep the price sane. I can’t wait to play it again.

I read my first manga on JManga! I finally decided to try it out with est em’s Apartments of Calle Feliz (aka Happy End Apartments) a one book series of short stories involving different people in one apartment building.

It starts with a writer ending up there and getting a room. His editor wants him to write a happy ending to his story but he is having trouble. His new roommate suggests telling stories about the residents. And in the end he finds a little happiness himself with a little bittersweetness that is quite honest.

I also enjoyed the couple, one a fashion design, and the other an artist who hasn’t worn a stitch of clothing for three years.

These are simple, artful with touches of humor character stories as is what I’ve come to expect from est em’s BL.

I have made some serious progress in Sekien No Inganock recently. I remember reading that there is some serious repetition as the game goes on. They were actually being kind. When I first looked at the game I had only read the first two chapters. But 11 chapters into the game I have a much more intimate view of the game’s writing style.

If you read the first 2 Gosick light novels in English you will notice that author loves to reuse certain descriptions. Victorique must be described the same way at least 3 times per book. The author of Sekien No Inganock does the same thing. Certain things like Gii fighting or the scenes of the Golden Staircase often use the same phrases again and again. Some times this is used for effect. The repetition is there to reenforce an idea so that it makes a difference when the lines are subtly changed. The problem is there are better ways to do get that same effect that don’t make you feel that the author is just very fond of the copy and paste shortcuts. At this point I have to wonder if it is an aspect of Japanese writing or an odd quirk of otaku writing.

The reason it stands out all the more is that 11 chapters into the game I feel that while I have gotten a good deal of answers there are still 3 times as many unanswered questions. While I still have the last chapter to finish I know they are not going to wrap that all up. Plus the game likes to imply things and give you many of its answers via inference. This is hardly a horrible thing but it makes the repeated material stand out even more. It seems even more superfluous when you are craving solutions but only getting half hints buried in repeated scenes.

Unless she has some major importance soon Ruaha was a cool character but I’m not exactly sure what her relevance to the plot was. If she were a walk on character for a single chapter it would make sense. But she stays around past when she was relevant for no real reason I can see other than to get involved with Kerkan. That not-a-sex-scene but so-totally-a-sex-scene between Ruaha and Kerkan was also sort of creepy but I suppose that was the point.

Sekien No Inganock is an interesting game with some serious flaws. It has some very interesting ideas, and imaginative setting, uniquely stylized graphics, and some strong characters.  And that is nothing to scoff at. But the execution of these elements could have been unfolded a bit neater. As I understand the accompanying web novels do quite a bit to clear things up but I will judge the game on what is presented to me in the game itself first. I will probably give my final thought on the game next week after I finally finish it and have some time to think of it as a whole.

A double does of BL this week! I finally finished up the second season of World’s Greatest First Love.

I had stopped because I was feeling a little frustrated with the progress of Ritsu and Masamune. Luckily when I returned we move to looking at other characters in the series.

I enjoyed the one off about Isaka, who we’d only met briefly, and his assistant who met when they were kids.

I was also immensely pleased that finally we got to see more Yukina the bookstore guy and Kisa the editor who were my favorite couple from the first season. Kisa’s insecurity was really felt. But it didn’t go on for too long so it didn’t drag down things.

I thought the main story also wrapped up nicely and with a bit of humor that was sometimes too absent in the middle of the season. Overall, I ended up really happy with the show.

Saint Seiya Omega says that schools out forever with episode 9. Saint Seiya started out going down the normal “go to super hero school and learn to be super” path that modern shonen seems to love. But then in the middle of a tournament arc it decides that both the school arc and tournament arc are lame and decides to blow both of them up at the same time. And then introduce a ninja saint. These were all very wise ideas.

Other than that Saint Seiya Omega has been fairly serviceable. Not the best shonen fighting series but also hardly the worst. The plot has been moving froward at a decent pace and the characters while a bit stock and generally enjoyable. The new-found love story between this mysterious new girl and Koga is amusing in how instant it is but such are shonen shows .

Aquila Yuna actually be an effective female saint is pretty neat. She seems like an equal member of the team as opposed to the low tier girl party member. I will say here whole ripping off her ancient legacy bound mask incident seems rather easily accepted after it happens. AS A FEMALE SAINT YOU MUST WEAR THIS MASK AT ALL TIMES . . . unless you have some important character growth in which case you can forget about all that jazz.

Saint Seiya is hardly a show I rush to watch every week but it entertains me when I get around to it and that is often the best you can ask for in shonen fighting. Hopefully now that the are no longer fighting students we will have more people being punched directly in the heart like the original Saint Seiya.

The Ongoing Investigations are little peeks into what we are watching and reading outside of our main posts on the blog. We each pick three things that we were interested in a week and talk a bit about them. There is often not much rhyme or reason to what we pick. They are just the most interesting things we saw since the last Ongoing Investigation.

This is certainly the calm before the storm. I expect that this will seem like a blessing when the con season rolls in and there are nothing but announcements after announcements. I hope that the next few months bring us news of Mawaru Penguindrum or I am going to be very disappointed.

The Line-Up is a monthly rundown of newly licensed in the U.S., newly streaming in the U.S., and newly announced anime and manga projects.

Newly Licensed in the U.S.

• Hetalia Axis Powers (manga) – Right Stuf
  I don’t care about Hetalia but I’m very curious about this new partnership of Right Stuf and TokyoPop. This could save a bunch of titles that were unfinished but I won’t get my hopes up too high.
  I know you just hoping that the Right Stuf will save Steel Angel Kurumi. We all have that same hope.
• Mr. Mini Mart – Digital Manga Publishing
• Ninth Life Love – Digital Manga Publishing
• Priceless Honey – Digital Manga Publishing
• Ray’s Days – Digital Manga Publishing

Newly Streaming/Broadcasting in the U.S.

• Kadokawa Niconico Ace added Strike Witches: The Witches of Andorra
• JManga added Taverna Dark Cooking Club of St. George’s Girls’ School, Mo’Some Sting, Gee the Wiz-Cat, Doukyusei, Digital Nostalgia Original Illustration Works, Nagomi Club, Records of the Three Kingdoms, Miku-4, Kimi no Tamenara Shineru, Moehime, But I’m a Maid!
  
• Viki added Koutetsu Sangokushi, Don Dracula, The Three-eyed One, Marvelous Melmo
• Shonen Jump Alpha added Rurouni Kenshin: Restoration, Barrage
  I am very curious to see how this Kenshin revival turns out.
  
• Toonami added Deadman Wonderland, Casshern Sins
• Digital Manga Guild added Itadaki! Panther, Obakeyashiki e Irrashai, Panic! Jin Jin, Shinku Chitai, Vampire ni Goyojin, Erementar Gerade: Flag of Blue

New Anime/Manga Projects in Japan

• +Tic Elder Sister Gag Series Getting More Anime
• Butt-Biting Insect Kids’ Song Gets 5 20-minute Anime Episodes
  Alrightythen! Every once and a while you really do see that “wacky Japan!”
• Highschool Water Polo Comedy Manga Mizutama Rindo Starts
  Someone obviously heard that no one had made a water polo manga yet and had to get to work on this. Next month except to see a Tchoukball and Sepak Bola Api manga.
• New Thriller Series Rain Code from Read or Die Manga-ka Begins
• 3D Evangelion Short Being Included with Smartphone
• New Weekly Shorts Series from Studio MADHOUSE
• Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai Disc to Include Unaired Episode
• Project 13 a Collection of Animated Music Videos Announced
• Manga Editor Series Mangirl! Getting Anime
• And Yet the Town Moves Manga-ka Working on Adaption Comic Hoshi Shinichi – Neratta Kinko
  This story is about “a thief and a mysterious safe,” needless to say I’m interested! Sadly, it is a only a one-shot.
• Narihirabashi Denki Shoten is A New Series From Saturn Apartments Manga-ka
  I hope this appears on the Sig IKKI site!
• Young Adult Sci-fi Novel Nerawareta Gakuen Getting Anime Film
• Driland Game Has Manga and Anime Adaptions on the Way
• Zetsuen no Tempest: The Civilization Blaster Anime Green-lit
• A 7th Volume of Gundam Unicorn Has Been Announced
  Yet another announcement to upset Gundam fans.
• 009 Re:Cyborg Getting a Manga Adaption
• Tokusatsu TV Show Ryujin Mabuyer Being Manga into Manga
• Animeka A Series of Anime Robot Shorts Being Made
• Studio Ghibli Co-Producing The Red Turtle with French and Dutch Animators
• Robin and His 100 Friends Getting a Second Season
• Basalisk Manga-ka Working on Cutey Honey Remake
• Girls & Tanks Anime Announced
• 4th Iteration of the Otokogi Manga Launching
• Pro Wrestling One-shot from Riki-Oh Manga-ka
• Animated Film Windwalkers: Chronicles of the 34th Horde Will Be a French/Japanese Co-Production
• P.A. Works Series Tari Tari Getting Manga Adaption
• New Zettai Karen Children Project On the Way
  I reluctantly admit I am curious to see what it is.
  
• Detective Opera Milky Holmes Getting Summer Special
• Kanaei Hazuki’s Manga Sukitte Ii Na Yo Getting Anime
  This is by far my happiest announcement for the month! I just talked about this series in my shojo most wanted list.
• The Monster Seated Next to You Anime Green-lit
• Light Novel Series Onii-chan Dakedo Ai Sae Areba Kankei Nai yo ne— Being Made Into Anime
• New Digimon Game Digimon World Re:Digitize Getting Short Manga
• 1001 Manga Coming from D.N.Angel Manga-ka
• Figure Line Busou Shinki Getting New Anime Adaption
• Novel Fuse Gansaku: Satomi Hakkenden Getting Manga Version
• Fantasy Series from BL Manga-ka Tooko Miyagi Starting in Asuka Magazine
• Akazukin Cha Cha N Getting Ongoing Monthly Manga
• New Fantasy Shojo Series Idea no Hana Beginning
• New Manga Uso Toki Rhetoric Launching in Hana to Yume
• New Manga Girl Love Variation Debuts Online
• Persona Manga Adaption Devil Survivor Out this Month
• Girls’ Generation Idol Group Getting Manga in Online Magazine Club Sunday
• Bodacious Space Pirates Becoming Manga
• ‘K’: Memory of Red Manga Based on ‘K’ Started
• Mushi Productions Working on Biographical Anime Film
• New Anime from Strike Witches Director Vivid Red Operation Announced
• New Hometown Manga Collection Features Works from Monkey Punch, Leiji Matsumoto, Hirumo Arakawa
• Josei Manga Clover Getting Sequel
• New Manga From Ping Pong Club Creator Started
• 4-koma Detective Manga Neko Tantei Announced
  Well, I do always want more detective series, but I’m not sure this is what I had in mind!

Rurouni Kenshin has been getting a strong revival recently. The manga ended in 1999, and other than the slightly infamous Reflection OVA, the series was fairly dormant until last year. Then a PSP fighting game and the Kyoto Arc movies heralded a Renaissance for the series ushering in the upcoming live action film. Even more surprisingly than any of that is the newly re-imagined manga of the original series. Seeing that the Kenshin name still has a good deal of cache with western fans Shonen Jump Alpha announced that Rurouni Kenshin: Restoration (aka Rurouni Kenshin -Cinema-ban-) would be the one of the titles they used to replace the recently finished Bakuman manga.

Like any good reboot Restoration is immediately familiar yet feels new at the same time. Clearly Nobuhiro Watsuki has changed and improved his art style since he last worked on Kenshin. But at the same time it ins unmistakably Kenshin.If you have ever seen the character redesigns for the covers of the Rurouni Kenshin Kanzenban reprints then you have a good idea of what to expect.

The first story combines the original introduction of Kenshin, Karou, and Yahiko with elements of the first Aoshi story. Like the art the story feels familiar but it is still its own beast. It starts during Bakumatsu with flashes of some iconic battles between Kenshin, Jin-e, and Saito. It then moves forward to the relative calm of the Meiji era and Kenshin once again gets mixed up with Kaoru trying keep her dojo from unsavory scoundrels. It is a quick little story that unites the main trio and shows off Kenshin’s skills. The chapter end with some cameos of villains from throughout the original series including Sanosuke, Saito, and Inui Banjin. A good introduction to the cold-hearted assassin of the revolution who becomes a pacifist who carries a revered blade sword so he can defend the weak without killing. But at the same time it reminds you that there is still a bit of the beast still in Kenshin.

It is an interesting trip back to the story of Himura Kenshin. I think it has the distinct ability to draw in new fans while reminding older fans what they liked about the original. I am curious if they are going to make Kaoru anything more that a damsel in distress most of the time. This would be a good chance for her to live up to the initial promise she had in the original series.

I myself am mostly just sitting back and waiting for Misao to be reintroduced.

I wasn’t really all the interested in the online magazine Shonen Jump Alpha. I had nothing against it, I just wasn’t keeping up to date with any of their offerings. But then they announced Rurouni Kenshin: Restoration and I folded. So here I am, reading a comic weekly which I don’t think I’ve ever done before. I’m pretty excited!

From first glance I was happy with what I saw. The art is top-notch, very sharp and crisp. The action is swift and bold.

We start with bloody battles featuring Kenshin as Battosai and then jump forward to the period after the war. This set-up works, you don’t know too much about Kenshin and his abilities but you know enough to be aware of his badass status. He makes it pretty freakin’ clear to a lot of people that he is indeed Battosai from the first chapter. It feels more aggressive, instead of trying to live out a humble life, Kenshin is ready to jump in the fray for a purpose. He hasn’t lost the rejection of unnecessary violence, but he also isn’t hiding from who he was. At least, that’s how it seemed in this chapter.

I wasn’t really kidding when not too long ago I joked that if they were redoing Kenshin they should have forgotten about Karou. Blessedly, she is already not nearly as annoying. I believe this can continue!

I feel like Gundam Unicorn 5 is beginning to show a bit of a dip in animation quality. The first few episodes have been gorgeous. You can tell that almost every scene was A Team animation through out. In episode 5 anything with the camera focused on the foreground is still amazing but when you get long shots you start to notice the B Team being brought in. It happened enough that even someone like me who does not normally notice such details of animation was keenly aware of it happening. I wonder how much that has to do with them having to stretch their budget now that Bandai announced an additional 7th episode that is rumored to be over an hour-long.

Unsurprisingly most of this episode has to do with the Black Unicorn, its pilot, and how Banagher deals with them both. There is also a good deal more Audrey Burne in this episode which I always appreciate. Nice bit of double-dealing in the episode as everyone tries to move things forward for their faction with the upcoming prisoner transfer of people who are technically not prisoners.

Riddhe’s job is technically ace pilot for the Federation he seems to be much more a professional cock blocker. And he tries his best to do his job in this episode. But by the end of it he seems to be going towards being cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs. I guess that is what happens when you get both the political and romantic “Lets just be friends” speech.

I do find it slightly odd the Bright constantly talks to a picture of Amuro. They were close and even had a bit of a father son relationship but they never seemed THAT close. When Bright gives Banagher the pep talk about those who pilot Gundams that snaps him funk it makes sense. That is the sort of leader Bright is. But I never saw him being that sentimental about Amuro. Maybe I am just thinking of Bright as too much of a hard ass.

Thankfully the centerpiece around Banagher trying to talk down Marida Cruz is better done than the Tomino crazy town speeches he had with Loni Garvey in the last episode. Banagher and Marida have a far more established relationship, Banagher has a bit more heft to his arguments, Marida has been legitimately brainwashed, and she is not killing civilians while they have their conversation. The whole scene with Loni last episode was clearly to set this up but there was clearly some Tomino logic going on in episode 4 that is thankfully not present here.

There are two cameos in this episode. One that everyone talked about that I am sure that Narutaki could care less about. The other was one that surprised me a little. Sadly we probably won’t be getting anymore Sayla Mass so I will make due with what we get.

While the budget has dropped the story is still compelling. I still had a great time with this episode. I hope that the money they saved here is going to be poured into that last episode. Maybe they only spent a little money on this episode because Full Frontal only shows up at the end. Speaking of which even in death General Revil never catches a break.

I finally finished up watching The Earl and the Fairy anime since I was waiting for more of the manga.

Sadly, it ends up being sloppy. They try to cram in so much story in that it feels rushed and disjointed. I assumed that we would be following Edgar and Lydia attempting to get Edgar his earldom for the duration of the story. But that actually resolves itself rather quickly. Most of the series is them dealing with various fairy business and plots. This isn’t inherently bad, but like I said Edgar’s journey to becoming the Earl is too rushed. It doesn’t feel earned.

Some of the other stories are good like the moonstone ring and the final story with Banshee is also strong but everything just needed more time to develop. The idea of the Prince who is after Edgar also remains rather amorphous throughout the series.

Edgar and Lydia’s relationship seems to get nowhere by series end, too. It has a lot of one step forward two steps back moments. Lydia flat-out refusing to believe Edgar is in love with her even a little is a frustration. I’d much rather watch Lydia deal with her own changing feelings.

I really liked the setting, the characters, and the lore but it just doesn’t come together. Now I’m worried how the manga will fare.

When I caught up with Hayate I also got the new Excel Saga 23. It is as quirky a manga as it has ever been. There is a lot more collusion between the Municipal Force Daitenzin and Excel. In fact most of the book is both forces of working together while keeping their superiors in the dark. Of course this being Excel Saga things all go horribly wrong at the worst possible time. In reflection I can’t think of too many other series in which the manga is so utterly different from the anime in anything other than the core premise and charaters.

I think it is nearly impossible not to notice that Excel Saga has gotten much sexier as the series has gone on. It is not devolved to constant panty shots and shower scenes but there a quite a bit more “choice” camera angles and serendipitous costumes then there were at the beginning of the manga. But I am fine with that because it got Elgala out of the bargain. For some reason I find her incredibly alluring. But that the same time she also plays of Excel rather well. You need someone who is just as crazy as Excel but in a different manner to bounce off her at times. I am a but sad this means we don’t see Hyatt as often which is a shame.

With only 4 more volumes to go I am a little surprised Viz has not canceled Excel Saga but I am glad they have had the commitment to the series to finish it. I look forward to owning volume 27 whenever they release it.

I read the romance one-shot collection Sono Kuchibiru, Itadakimasu. Each story features an unlikely couple coming together. Each are sweet and cute sweeping you up in their simple stories.

My favorite was unsurprisingly the second tale about a girl who accidentally invites a delinquent boy to spend the school festival with her. She got the e-mail address of the class president wrong.

They end up working at a class cafe together and she gets to know him so when the truth inevitably comes out she realizes it was a happy accident.

That was my personal fav., but all the stories are good. Close second was definitely the title story about the guy with the mole on his lip. A very nice little collection.

The Ongoing Investigations are little peeks into what we are watching and reading outside of our main posts on the blog. We each pick three things that we were interested in a week and talk a bit about them. There is often not much rhyme or reason to what we pick. They are just the most interesting things we saw since the last Ongoing Investigation.

Two Flowers for the Dragon

Now I know I said I’d focus on individual titles, but Nari Kusakawa is one of my favorite manga-ka. Three of her titles were licensed by CMX (oh lord, how I miss them!) and two made it to completion. Recipe for Gertrude and The Palette of 12 Secret Colors are absolutely worth picking up if you can find them.

Anyway, my favorite is Two Flowers for the Dragon and as luck would have it it was not finished. Perhaps more torturous is that it was so close! One book away from the end CMX closed up shop.

Two Flowers is a fantasy about an oasis kingdom ruled by people descendant from dragons. The current heir is bright and mischievous Shakuya who possesses magical abilities and also transforms into a dragon when under emotional strain. We join her in the story when a few things are occurring 1) her presumed-dead-for-five-years betrothed reappears, 2) a conspiracy against her kingdom arises, 3) and secrets about her family begin to emerge. This all leads to a great journey to uncover the truth.

Romance also plays a big role in the series. Shakuya already has a new fiance since her first was presumed dead. Each of her hands sports a flower tattoo symbolizing her betrothals. Because of her dragon blood they bloom based on her feelings and she has one year to figure out which one of her suitors is to be the one.

I desperately wish another publisher would jump on the Kusakawa bandwagon.

Maid Sama

Honestly of all the titles on this list, this one not being rescued surprises me most. But with the recent partnering of Right Stuf and TokyoPop‘s undead body maybe being in limbo will change soon. They got a good start with the first 8 volumes seeing release.

Maid Sama is over-the-top shojo in fine form. Misaki is the first female student body president of her recently converted-to-co-ed high school. The guys run rampant led by Usui so she has become a thick-skinned dictator to deal with them. At the same time, Misaki is desperate for cash because of her family situation prompting her to work at a Maid Cafe. Obviously, she wants to keep this a secret but one day her rival Usui happens to see her in uniform leading to blackmail.

Both Misaki and Usui are insane characters playing off each other perfectly. They have so many abilities it is hard to keep track. Misaki is stubborn and perfectly capable making her battles with Usui about who has the upper hand at that moment. She is no push over, when she and the other maids get taken hostage by robbers, she busts heads (before Usui busts down a wall). Usui is ridiculous beyond reason, not only he is hot as can be, he is the best student in school; the most bad-ass fighter; a master chess player; a high-class chef; and (my personal favorite) is able show up anywhere at anytime (they actual reference and joke about this). And believe me the list goes on and on.

I love that Maid Sama doesn’t just go half way to insane, it is full-throttle!

Stolen Hearts

This was one of CMX’s last licenses and as such they didn’t get very far with it. Only two of its six volumes saw release. This is a very cute, sweet, and fairly simple series about a new couple.

Tiny Shinobu accidentally spills a drink on scary-looking Koguma’s bag so when he asks her for a favor she doesn’t feel she can refuse. Turns out that his family owns a kimono shop and she is the perfect size to help them sell their wares to a new, younger crowd of customers. Shinobu quickly learns that first impressions are deceiving and there is something gentle and sweet about Koguma.

These two begin dating in the first book which is refreshing. They are still learning about each other, but they are doing it together. Shinobu softens Koguma’s appearance which broadens their friendships and school life. Also you get to see lots of beautiful kimonos as they work at the shop!

One of Miku Sakamoto‘s other works, Nadeshiko Club, was also picked up by CMX but never released.

Nosatsu Junkie

This TokyoPop release is probably at the top of my charts. Not only is it far from finished in English, but the final volume of the U.S. release ends at a major turning point. Though you could read it as an ending in some ways. Any way, I’m not satisfied only knowing half the story!

Nostatsu Junkie follows fledgling model Naka who has the body and moves down right, but when she tenses up she has the face of a criminal. She is part of the same agency as popular, cute, and sweet model Umi. One day Naka discovers Umi’s secret, Umi is really a foul-tempered boy who is also the student council president of Naka’s school. In exchange for her silence, Umi promises to pull Naka to the top of the fashion world along with him.

Naka and Umi make a great team as it happens. Naka starts to further her career along with Umi. Naka falling in love with Umi causes her to both be more calm and more nervous depending. As for Umi, his masculinity starts to show through as he falls further in love with Naka. It is conflict after conflict in the world of fashion.

Despite being a romance, I consider Nostatsu Junkie to be mostly a strange comedy. That’s not to say I’m not invested in Umi and Naka’s bizarre relationship, I am very much, but it is just such a wacky series! It is filled with slap-stick-like humor, mile-a-minute dialogue, and more than its share of weird characters.

It is a guilty pleasure I can’t quite give up.

Venus Capriccio

Again, another CMX series that was canceled with just one book to go! Venus Capriccio is a simple story though pretty melodramatic.

Two childhood best friends, very different from each other, but both with a love of the piano start to realize their feels for each other. Takami is a tomboy who grew up close with her brothers giving her a tough and boyish exterior. Akira is a pretty boy who is a year younger with a lithe build and a (usually) gentle demeanor. They go to piano school together making them sort of rivals but Akira is considered a prodigy. Still they struggle in their relationship as well as their desires to create music.

What I like best about these two is their acceptance of who the other is, neither is trying to change.

Also I’m really curious about other Mai Nishikata works like Hana no Kishi and Cyboy.

In all honesty, I could have probably made an entire list of CMX titles—already three of my five highlighted here are from them—but I wanted to stick with modern shojo (otherwise this post would be a love letter to Swan). In a lot of ways, getting only part of a series is worse than never getting it all. You know you are missing something! Also seems like partially released series are less likely to be picked up by other publishers.

Drink #004: The Pink Lady,
Invasion of the Beautiful Boys

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Various people start watching the latest show for manly men who live and fight for manly things. They notice the men in this show for guys are pretty handsome. Some of them are even gorgeous. Parts of audience cheers with delight,  most of them continue to watch without batting an eye, and the rest run to their computers to rant at the injustice perpetrated against them.

In this episode we begin to examine this phenomenon. Is there anything wrong with throwing some service to the females watching a show theoretically for guys? Also what makes the male fans go nuts over this phenomenon in the first place?

(Listen)

And now your helpful bartenders at The Speakeasy present your drink

The Pink Lady

*1 1/2 oz gin
*1 tsp grenadine syrup
*1 tsp light cream
*1 egg white

Shake ingredients with ice, strain into a cocktail glass, and serve.

After getting lost in the mail the first time, I finally got my copy of Young Miss Holmes (casebook 1-2). I was already aware of this series in Japanese and had looked at a few volumes previously so I was looking forward to actually reading it. Unfortunately, the book doesn’t really get good until the last case in the volume but perhaps that will lead into a better continuation book.

Christie is the niece of Sherlock Holmes a man she admires and therefore is constantly trying to impress with her own stunning intellect. She inserts herself into cases where ever she can leading to some annoyance on the part of her uncle. But Christie is quite capable as are her maids so it isn’t annoying having her rush into danger. Christie notices details and observes people in classic Holmes fashion.

The only problem is, Sherlock Holmes himself is already in the first three mysteries. Christie comes off as rather frivolous to the plot since Holmes also figures everything out. This leads to lots of over explanations about what occurred in the crime. In fact, in the third (and worst) story Holmes gives his assessment of what has happened but Christie is somewhere else completely so we hear it again as she tells it to another person.

Speaking of the third story which is about a vampire, the entire thing felt out of place. In a Holmes mystery, you expect a supernatural phenomenon to be disproved as the culprit in a case and it is. However, vampires are shown to truly exist in the world. Also they give terrible advice. But worst is the final solution to the the conflict of telling the family the truth about what had occurred in their home. The entire thing was just dumb and happened to be the longest story of the bunch.

Despite all that, the last case in the book is good! Holmes is away so it falls to Christie completely. This one involves a cypher, a secret past, and a murder. It has a good twist and allows Christie to shine as an individual.

The main problem with Young Miss Holmes (originally titled Christie High Tension) is it that is comes off more like odd self insert fan fiction that anything else. Each of the five stories in the book are classic Sherlock Holmes mysteries. They don’t even change the names so you know exactly which ones they are. The set up for the cases is even exactly the same. So if you have read the Red-Headed League you know the story in advance. The only real question is how does Christie get involved and what does she do in the background.

So in many ways it just comes off that there is the random niece of Sherlock Holmes that pops up in cases but then does not do THAT much because you know it has to be Sherlock who solves the case. It is like the whole time in the background there was a little girl who was ALMOST as smart as Sherlock Holmes but you just never heard about it. And in the end it never really mattered. So at least in the Adventure of the Dancing Men it might be just a copy and paste of the original story with Christie in the place of Holmes at least Christie gets to shine in that story. In all the other stories she comes off as vestigial.

Which is a shame because she is a delightful character. She has an adorable spunk that makes her very charming balanced with a good amount of competence and panache. The main problem is that she is right next to Sherlock Holmes who is pretty much the pinnacle of the genre. The brightest candle does not seem as impressive next to the full force of the sun. I know that Narutaki wanted to like her so much. I mean she rides an awesome dog as her faithful companion. That is Narutaki catnip.

Her servants are also quite charming. Nora is always delightful whenever she is around. Her relaxed whip-smart sass is just dangerous as her actual whip.  The extremely religious Ann-Marie is the prim and proper maid who also duel wields pistols as an interesting dichotomy to her character. Miss Dunbar becomes her governess during the course of the first book. She quickly realizes that there is nothing can can teach Christie as she is already operating on an intellectual higher than most adults. Her main mission is to teach her student to be socially functional without trying to repress the unique qualities that make Christie exceptional.

The person who is not a delightful character is Mina Tepes who appears in a cameo in the third story. Thankfully she is not the super sexualized character she is in her own manga. I don’t think it would have been fun to read this book after Narutaki had puked all over it had they used the canonical Mina Tepes. But this really makes her a bizarre character to use in a cameo. She is distinctly written as a Young Miss Holmes character so she has none of the appeal to a Dance in the Vampire Bund reader but as an actual vampire she distinctly takes away from normal setting of the story. She distracts the reader far more than anything she might add to the story.

I think Young Miss Holmes would work far better if Christie were solving her own mysteries instead of being in background of classic mysteries. The connection to Holmes is great but she need to get out of her uncle’s shadow to be her own character. It would let her and her companions stand out more and really come into their own. There is a strong framework there. They just have to have the confidence to let it stand on its own.

The Earl and the Fairy vol. 1 basically covers what I’d seen of the anime. Fairy Doctor, Lydia, is an anomaly in the world as people have stopped believing in the wee folk. But her services are an asset when she gets whisked off by beguiling criminal Edgar who claims to be the Earl of the fairy realm in need of help. Oh, he is handsome and charming but incredibly hard to read even when he talks of his past you aren’t sure if you can really trust him. In true romantic fashion, Lydia can’t help but get caught up in his quest.

I enjoyed it a lot. Edgar is pretty irresistible but more than that I’m quite curious about the fairy realm, so far we’ve mostly just heard about it and seen tiny glimpses of fairies. The journey to getting his earldom has captured me.

I don’t have much disposable income but whenever I get a little free cash I make sure that I catch up on volumes of Hayate the Combat Butler. A coupon to Forbidden Planet finally let me catch up with the US release when purchased volumes 18 and 19. I know that Hayate could be doing better in the US so I always see it as my duty to help it out whenever I can.

Getting book 18 means I have to deal with more Athena but thankfully her story ends quickly in this book giving us a bit of a reprieve from her for a while. I think I am learning to tolerate her much more but that might be partially due to her now being connected to Ayako Kawasumi. The story with Hayate and Maria phony date is great if for nothing else we get more Maria and Linn Regiostar. They are both characters who do not get enough time in the spotlight. But as always Maria is an extremely refreshing character. I cannot read a chapter with her and not feel better. This book also marks the point where Hata really starts to promote Chiharu Harukaze from a very minor secondary character to a member of the main cast. She is a great character when Hata starts to delve into her and she makes a great person for Nagi to interact with as simultaneously an equal and someone who is a bit more mature. There is a reason picked her as woman of the year in 2011.

Book 19 is just as fun. The two Nagi stories are classic goofball comedies where Nagi and Hayate’s relationship is always at its strongest. The story of Nagi waking up early is delightfully tender and plays to all of her strengths. The story about breaking out of the “boredom stage” is in contrast wonderfully high energy. This also marks when Hata REALLY starts pushing Wataru and Saki as a couple with their trip to Las Vegas. He had been pushing it since the beginning but it really comes to the forefront here. Then again I have a feeling this was always been the plan. All the way back in the early books he stated that if he ever made a spin-off series it would just be about Wataru and Saki.

The best part of the official releases is the fact that you get the little inside flap stories. It is the only place you get to see Orumuzuto Nadja. The part where Maria asks if Hayate has any boyfriends is amazing. In fact both books are sort of amazing. I never regret buying a Hayate book. They always make my day a little brighter.

We finally completed the Broken Blade movie series with the final film Bastions of Sorrow (movie 6). It is a much better follow up than movie 5 but it doesn’t hold up all that well as an ending.

The bulk of time is taken up by a major battle so we get very little in the way of conversations or character development. That being said, the battle is quite well done.

Though it is strange that Rygart doesn’t feel as much a part of it, there was some disconnect. Still his fight with Borcuse is cool but I was disappointed in the final outcome because it seemed a bit of dumb luck.

It feels wrong that Zess is pretty much completely absent from the final films, too.

I realized early on that they weren’t going to complete the story with these movies but at the same time I felt a bit like, “Then why make SIX of them!” That is quite a lot. They ended at a definitive point in the war but nothing is resolved between characters.

The Broken Blade movies are an odd little project. If this were the 80s this clearly would have been an OVA but today it is a series of movies that they then sell on disk which essentially just makes them OVA’s with a theatrical release. I say this because while the movies have a definitive ending point it feels more like the end of act one of a play more than then end of a story. I know that these are mostly supposed to be a treat for the fans of the manga in Japan but us dirty Americans don’t get the manga anymore. Maybe JManga can pick this title up. Would mecha manga to better with a digital distribution? I’m guessing that is not the case but it might be worth looking into.

This is one big siege battle. In the end if you are going to go out on anything in a mecha series this is not a bad choice. We get the final showdown between Rygart and Borcuse. I’m glad they did not keep Borcuse around too long. Borcuse was a bit too much of a mustachioed villain to keep around past this point. The rubber-band shuriken that Rygart fights with in this movie is somewhere between completely goofy and totally awesome. In that regard it would be very much at home in G-Gundam more than Broken Blade.

As a side note I really like Narvi but she distinctly suffers from the classic “vaginas make you low tier” syndrome you see in far too many mecha anime. She is supposed to be such a great pilot but whenever we see her she is stinking it up on the battlefield. She is not Cleo but overall that is still a pretty backhanded compliment. In contrast while Captain Sakura could not take out Borcuse at least you felt like she was a captain for a reason. She was taking down grunt soldiers like a pro.

I know that Zess comes back later in the manga but that is because I did a little research on my own. As it stand with the movies Zess is this huge part of the first half of the movie series and then he seemingly disappears due to his injuries. It is clear that he is still connected to several very important plot threads but as it stands it feels like they forgot about him. In the manga is much clearer that he is merely on the back burner and that he will be back in the thick of things again. But the movies make it seem more like sloppy writing.

Overall I had a good time with the Broken Blade movies but I feel they could have been so much better. They initial promise is so strong but the final movies have great fight scenes but lack any of the character punch that the first three movies had.

The Ongoing Investigations are little peeks into what we are watching and reading outside of our main posts on the blog. We each pick three things that we were interested in a week and talk a bit about them. There is often not much rhyme or reason to what we pick. They are just the most interesting things we saw since the last Ongoing Investigation.

Aya Nakahara

Nakanara’s popular series Love*Com (Lovely Complex) was lucky enough to be released by VIZ fully. It is one of the best romances in recent memory by showing two people actually becoming friends, having commonalities in their lives, and then falling in love. Of course it had a healthy dose of humor and a unique and relatable lead, Risa.

Nakahara actually has an extensive catalog of titles. She tends to go with pairs of unlikely people whether it be romances or friendships. Some of the titles I’d like to see: Hanada, too perfect girl meets uncouth boy; Nanaco Robin, imagine Kozuki from Love*Com (with a bad attitude) in a cute romance; and Berry Dynamite, idol duo who are friends on stage and enemies off.

At the very least I hope we get the new Love*Com manga that was recently announced.

Yoko Maki

Yoko Maki is best known on both sides of the Pacific for Aishiteruze Baby the sweet story of a high school boy who becomes the temporary older brother of a little girl. Kippei is quite the player but he matures thanks to his new responsibilities. It is hard not to fall in love with Maki’s leads.

Maki’s stories have graced the pages of Ribon often leading to simple romances like Atashi wa Bambi (a personal favorite) and Taranta Ranta. But we’ve also been treated to something a bit wackier like Shouri no Akuma or more story based like the supernatural Star Blacks.

In recent years, she has been branching out with things like Pika Ichi about two bullied high schoolers dispensing some justice; and Zen Zen following a guy who must take his brother’s place running a cram school. Both are collaborative works w/ Aki Mochida.

With so much to choose from, it should be easy to pick another title for U.S. release.

Julietta Suzuki

I recently discussed Julietta Suzuki’s lovely series Karakuri Odette. We were lucky enough to see it fully released from TokyoPop before they went (mostly) out of business. It is a great little comedy fantasy about a robot learning about humanity by attending high school.

Suzuki created a quiet series that has a charming approach to humor and relationships and that’s what I’d hope to see more of. Her stories always feature an off-kilter bent like Akuma to Dolce which has a demon with a weakness for sweets that our heroine puts to good use; and Kamisama Hajimemashita in which our heroine gets caught up with a fox spirits schemes. (*update: didn’t realize Kamisama Hajimemashita is already licensed under the title Kamisama Kiss*)

I don’t know a whole lot about these other works, but I’d like to very much!

Nana Haruta

I really love the simplistic approach to romance Nana Haruta shows in Cactus’s Secret. Happily released by VIZ, this four volume rom-com explores Miku’s trials of being in love with, to be frank, a clueless moron.

Haruta is another Ribon manga-ka who creates sweet and cute school romance series like Love Berrish! which takes place in dorms where a new transfer finds friends and love; Chocolate Cosmos featuring a misunderstood “scary” girl who is just looking for love; Itoshi no Goshujinsama where a girl is unsure if her boyfriend is as in love with her as she is with him; and Stardust Wink a love triangle between a girl and her two guy friends in the same apartment complex.

With the exception of her latest series Stardust Wink, Haruta’s stories tend to be short which makes them a little bit of an easier sell to be licensed I would think.

Kanae Hazaki

Kanae Hazaki is primarily a josei manga-ka and the only U.S. release for her is a josei compilation book. Voices of Love was put out from the now defunct Aurora Publishing under their Luv Luv Press imprint. Her stories are romances that involve at least a little (usually more) sex. And her characters are varying.

Hazaki is on my shojo list for one reason, Sukitte li Na Yo (try not be charmed by the cover). Sukitte is kind of like Kimi ni Todoke in high gear: girl without friends who the students think is creepy catches the attention of outgoing, popular guy who helps her make friends and open up. The difference being our couple begin dating within the first volume so the story centers around their ups and downs.

But it has its own personality, too. Mei doesn’t talk to people but she isn’t shy about telling you what she thinks, she just doesn’t trust people because of past experiences in childhood. Speaking of, most everyone has some serious problems that are tackled in the story. Also sex is a part of the fabric of the series from the beginning. That’s not to say it is constantly happening, it is just part of the conversation.

As far as I know Sukitte li Na Yo is Hazaki’s only long running (8 volumes ongoing) series, too.

Ayumi Komura

Ayumi Komura’s cooking/romance series Mixed Vegetables seems to have slid under the radar when released by VIZ. It follows the daughter of a patissier that dreams of being a sushi chef; and the son of a sushi chef who wishes to be, you guessed it, a patissier.

Komura is good at combining other story threads thoroughly within the romance of Mixed Vegetables. I hope she continues that with titles like: Hybrid Berry which adds baseball and learning to love the hobbies of someone you love; and Usotsuki Lily primarily a school comedy about a cross-dressing boy and his girlfriend who tries to accept him.

Though Komura doesn’t have a huge catalog of titles yet, I’m looking forward to all her efforts.

That’s it for now! I expect to be doing at least another post about shojo licenses that were not completely released in the U.S. and probably one about shojo manga-ka that haven’t been brought stateside at all yet.

On August 31, 2011 the U.S. shuttle program was officially ended. Due to high-profile shuttle disasters, increased results from unmanned space research, and the overall humongous expense the US decided that the money invested in the shuttle program is not worth the dividends. Now with one of the main pieces of the Space Race being the Cold War is long over the zealotry behind sending people in space is long gone. There are no dirty Commies to beat to the moon. The America that dreamed of sending a man into space, creating lunar and martian colonies, and extending its reach beyond the solar system is no more. Growing concern over domestic issues and a perceived notion that space travel is frivolous and dangerous has transformed modern space travel from a high concept to a farcical joke. Look at the reaction to Newt Gingrich’s proposal for a lunar colony. He might have well suggested throwing money into time travel research and cloning dinosaurs for a gigantic amusement park. In America, the dream of space travel is dead or at least in a fairly permanent coma for the time being.

At the same time Japan still seems oddly optimistic about manned space travel. I remember being slightly shocked that Sumire Kanou from Toradora! legitimately was studying to be an astronaut. I also remember Orihime Inoue off handily mentioning she wished to grow up to be an astronaut. While it is foolish to assume the aspirations of fictional characters are a one to one  correspondence to the desires of a nation the fact that Japan still writes popular stories in which people dream of exploring space in their fiction is remarkable.

You have the anime and manga for Planetes and Moonlight Mile both of which involved characters who wanted to explore deep space. Even the recent Kamen Rider Fourze has a space travel motif with Yuki Jojima being a hardcore space otaku and the rest of the cast having various levels of interest in space. You don’t get three space travel anime every season but they do appear frequently enough. Two series that we have recently beeen enjoying exemplify this infatuation with the hope for cosmic exploration: Twin Spica and Space Brothers. In their own way both of them revolve around a passion for celestial exploration.

Having just finished the Twin Spica manga and starting to watch the Space Brothers anime in the new season, I’ve become very emotionally attached to the dream of space travel again. These two series show so much hope and promise to the idea of becoming an astronaut and taking that first trip to space.

This was once a big dream in the U.S., too, but in the last decade excitement over current space exploration seems to be drying up. I recall one of my elementary school teachers being way into space and she worked it into lessons as much as she could. We built moon colony dioramas and I wished for space camp. I never did but I maintained a fond attachment to the idea of space travel.

I don’t know about you, but I can’t help but believe in that impossible yet incredible dream of space. Putting a face to the hope that traveling out past our atmosphere is what makes it resonate so strongly. Maybe in the U.S., we need our own Asumi and Mutta.

Twin Spica has pure and innocent temperament in its dream of space travel. I would go as far as to say it has an almost child like passion. The main characters in Twin Spica all have various reasons they wish to go into space. Asumi, Shu, and Marika probably have the purest desire to become astronauts solely for the earnest desire to explore the galaxy. All the students have a major handicap that stands in their way but all of them do their best to overcome that hurdle and make their dream come true. Asumi and Shu even more than the others have a naked passion for space that they cannot hide. It peppers all their conversations and influences many of their decisions. But the whole cast must make sacrifices and hard choices to peruse their goals. While it is never easy they move forward with no regrets. That is how intoxicating the dream of being an astronaut is.

That is not to say that Twin Spica is totally lacking in adult themes or considerations. Several chapters deal with the fact that the revived Japanese space program is being besieged by protestors from the outside and political squabbles from the inside. Many people see the project as a waste of time and money for a potentially dangerous project. They would see the money spent on the program put toward terrestrial projects. At the same time Takahito Sano tries to kick Asumi out of the program merely to punish her for the perceived sin of her father. While the cast’s dreams may have a child like intensity the obstacles they face as very nuanced and adult.

The clear-sighted dedication of Asumi in Twin Spica sweeps you away instantly. Despite her tragedies, wanting something so badly, knowing it for so long is in many ways enviable. Some people never find that passion in life. She isn’t bold in her desires for space, it just inhabits her very being.

Twin Spica presents the final frontier but it feels within in grasp because of characters like Asumi. Even in the face of the real world conversations that space exploration is a waste of money, Twin Spica shows that it isn’t always about the practical but about building the human spirit.

I always felt that Asumi’s small stature exemplified how small a part of the universe we all are. I can only imagine how humbling an experience it must be to be up there looking down on earth.

If the passions for space in Twin Spica have a child like innocence than the desire for stars in Space Brothers is an adult’s dreams. Mutta starts off with an equally intense and pure dream like Asumi but life gets in the way. He soon finds himself making many of the compromises we all make over the years. His dream of being and astronaut soon gives way to the more obtainable goal of a working as an engineer in the auto industry. All but a few lucky adults know the pain of having to let go our your passions and settle for a more sustainable lifestyle.

But Space Brothers is not about the banal death of the soul. It is about reaching for the promise of the final frontier. While Mutta’s ambitions might have been buried for a time when all seems lost he finds his way back onto his true path.  We see him rekindle the Asumi-like passion he had as a child and focus it again in an adult fashion. The lure of the stars proves to be unshakable even if the path toward the heavens is not a straight line.

But Space Brothers is not all broken dreams and a path of thorns. We see Hibito go on a more unclouded path towards space exploration as he steamrollers over anything that would get in his way. Serika Itou also seems to have a fairly uncomplicated path with all the enthusiasms of any character from Twin Spica. Space Brothers is a series that shows us that for some people that path to the stars is a destiny, and for others it is a twisting journey, but it can be a irresistible call for all of them.

Space Brothers presents us with a different side to a goal: the forgotten, given up dream. It strays away from sentimentality, maybe that is why it resonates so acutely. Mutta is so familiar. In a way, it feels like where we are in the real world in relation to space; we’ve forgotten why we wanted to go in the first place.

While I never doubted that Asumi would fulfill her dream, I don’t know what path Mutta will take. I certainly want him to recapture his youthful passion, but I don’t know if he will fully succeed. Yet, I feel as though the pursuit of space itself will still prove to be amazing. Believing in being able to get there is inspiring for Mutta and for me.

Space represents hope, achievement, youth, and the bond between brothers in Space Brothers. It is much greater than a physicality, space itself isn’t so faceless.

While the government might be shelving manned space flight projects but that does not mean they are completely off the table. Private companies are increasingly looking at the potential of space flight. The well publicized X Prize proved that commercially backed space programs were a distinct possibility and the recent interest in asteroid mining has opened a world of possibilities. The dream of space may be different then we thought it would be 20 years ago but it does not mean it is forgotten. As long as shows like Twin Spica and Space Brothers keep the dream alive space will be waiting for us.

The journey of making a dream come true is desperately moving when presented with so much sensitivity and detail as it is in Twin Spica and Space Brothers.

Pursing a dream is an immense undertaking, it is brave. Asumi and Mutta are underdogs and their dreams become your dreams. Big, space-sized dreams.

In a most unexpected turn of events the Master Keaton manga returns to the pages of Big Comic Original in the form of Master Keaton Remaster. I guess at least some of the rights issues around the original manga have been cleared up because I know for awhile the original manga series was quite expensive due to it being out of print. But now Taichi Hiraga-Keaton is back! He is still an amusing mixture of a loveable loser and an amazingly competent superman all in one package.  The series starts not long after the end of the original manga. Keaton is notably more entrenched in his academic career after his recent archeological discovery. But just when he thought he was out of the insurance game for good it draws him back in for what he is told will be one last job.

Of course this being Master Keaton we know that will not be the case. Soon he is investigating ruins, redeeming the honor of a man in a coma, and fighting slaver traders. All for one insurance case. It has all the mature elements that you expect from this manga. The story has a well researched history, a steamy underworld, and characters that show their complexity even if we only know them for a chapter or two. There is rape and sex slave traffic but there is nothing graphic or salacious. It just happens to be a story with the disgusting parts of the sex trade as a piece of it. All the bite of an adult story with none of the guilt.

One of the most interesting parts of any Master Keaton story is the fact that Taichi usually comes is for the climax of a story. He is presented with a case, does a good deal of research to find out what is going on, arrives at the critical moment during the ongoing story to help someone out, and then leaves before the falling action is over. This could be amazingly frustrating if done poorly but Naoki Urasawa does this in a way that merely makes you feel like the stories are and organic part of the world. Taichi does his part, and then leaves, and that is all we see. But we get enough of the story from Taichi’s perspective that it always feels satisfying.

I’m am really glad to see the manga running again. Master Keaton is some of the best bite sized seinen you can find. Hopefully they will work in his daughter soon as she is always a refreshing character. Maybe this renaissance of the series will help get both parts licensed for English. That would be masterful.

I watched the first two episodes of Motorcity, a new Disney DX animated series. It showed a lot of promise and sported some cool animation.

The story revolves around a futuristic Detroit with two levels to the city; the old, underground, and free area known as Motocity; and the modern, controlled, upper Deluxe.

Mike leads a group of car fanatic rebels known as the Burners who are trying to bring down the leader of Deluxe. Mike is pretty interesting as he isn’t a kid, but a 17-year-old who was once being groomed by Deluxe’s leader. Now having defected, he is putting all his skills and some sweet modded cars to use.

Also of interest is Jules a resident of Deluxe who is actually helping them secretly. And she just happens to be the daughter of Deluxe’s dictator. But even the rest of the Burners and Mike don’t know that about her.

Both episodes revolved around some sort of threat being sent down to Motorcity. There was lots of cool machinery and robots and whathaveyou to keep things interesting.

These were great episodes and I can’t wait to continue. Definitely something I’m going to attempt to keep up with. The episodes are streaming on Disney DX’s website so far.

I finally decided to sit down and finish up Guilty Crown. Oh boy. This anime’s bus for crazy town clearly had a bomb planted on it by Dennis Hopper and therefore could not go below 50 miles per hour or everyone on board would have died. It is best summed up by the fact that during the final assault on the massive enemy strong hold the remaining heroes are all in either massive mecha or armored personal carriers. And then the main character is on a segway. That is the logic that constantly propels Guilty Crown forward. And it is all done with complete earnest. None of this is The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra style of being goofy on purpose. It is done straight faced because everyone thinks they are doing Shakespeare. And that gives it a bizarre charm. But never mistake that for honest ability.

Not that all of that crazy means that everyone makes it out of Guilty Crown alive. Near the end we get to some Zeta Gundam levels of character death. Main and secondary character start dropping like flies.  In fact I was somewhat shocked that they ended on such a downer of an ending. It is hardly Space Runaway Ideon but you could not call it a happy ending either. Certain characters who you would assume have plot armor are actually quite vulnerable and most everyone who lives does so at the cost of a great sacrifice. I will say that Segai could not die quickly enough. When he finally was removed from the board it was a blessing. I was surprised another bad guy got off complete scot-free without so much as a slap on the wrist. Still there is no “boy gets girl and lives happily ever after” ending.

I can’t say that I would recommend Guilty Crown. Most of the reason I enjoyed watch it was how silly it was. It is a great show to watch with some sort of I Don’t Even crowd or for a few nights of personal MST3K but beyond that is is pretty lame.

I started watching the second season of the Story of Saiunkoku. The first season was incredibly strong so it is a hard act to follow. And so far this new part of the story (eps. 1-8) isn’t holding up very well.

It may just be the animations obvious quality drop that is stopping it from being as dynamic. Characters expressions are awkward, timing is often slightly off, and there is tons of talking without anything going on.

Despite that, the last few episodes have had some interesting developments including finally getting the story behind Eigetsu’s dual personality. We’re also learning a bit more about Shurei’s father’s past and his split with the Hong family.

For the love of Oyashiro-sama please stop making any more Higurashi anime. The original story was magnificent. The Rei OAVs added some additional clarification of story points while telling a compelling gaiden story. There were even 2 hysterical comedy stories. Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kira 3 and 4 on the other hand just continue the trend of horrible Kira episodes. When you do a Mion and Keiichi story that I have absolutely no interest in then you are clearly doing something terribly wrong. They are just the same jokes from earlier arcs only done without any spirit. I know the Higurashi characters are popular. I love them too. With all the tragedy and redemption they go through it is hard not to love them. But it is time to let them go. There story is over. There is no more to tell. It ended on a great note. Let us remember the good times we had together and not try and milk anymore from this setting.

Vol. 31 of Kekkaishi is exactly what every training transition should be. Yoshimori is learning new techniques from a really surprising source and the audience is seeing all these new complexities to the story thanks to this additional character. Also Tokine is also training; it is a great relief she will be working towards something in these final volumes and not just showing up at the end. 

The Ongoing Investigations are little peeks into what we are watching and reading outside of our main posts on the blog. We each pick three things that we were interested in a week and talk a bit about them. There is often not much rhyme or reason to what we pick. They are just the most interesting things we saw since the last Ongoing Investigation.

After a satisfying conclusion to the series Karakuri Odette—a quirky comedy manga about a robot who starts going to school and trying to learn about humanity—I began reading the manga-ka’s comments. One stuck out to me in particular: “My favorite guy character was Yukimura [a first year that has a crush on Odette], so I was excited about getting him together with Odette. But he wasn’t very popular with the readers, so I decided to give up on that idea. And ever since I’ve been afraid to give my lead character any kind of male love interest as another main character.” I was a bit thrown off, forget Yukimura, there was a romance in the series that played out great! Did she not write the manga I just finished reading? Did she completely forget about Odette’s interactions with Asao? Maybe it is one of those humble statements, but really she is selling her love piece of the story short.

At its core Karakuri Odette is not about romance, it is about human emotions. And even though this is a comedy fantasy, they still tackle that question about whether AI can learn to feel and grow. Odette is curious about everyone around her but of course possesses none of the usual fears that come along with human contact. Odette develops a range of emotions over the course of the story. Because she can be so honest, so true, she actually humanizes those around her. Few of her school friends know she is a robot by the end of the series, but you get the feeling that it wouldn’t matter.

“Asao . . . when you look at me, what do you see?”

Asao is the first person in Odette’s new life to discover she is a robot. Asao, a guy with a fiery temper, reacts first with shock and then apathy, he feels tricked into caring for a moment. It is classic fear, he wants to believe she is just a machine, but it doesn’t last long; how can he be so cold and be human when Odette is so warm and is a robot?

Odette comes to rely on and trust him as she does with many others, but she is always seeking out Asao whether to tell him something great that happened or to drag him along to help her or to bring him food she made for him.

At the center of much human interaction is love whether it is familial, friendly, or romantic. The idea of love VS. like, or as in Karakuri Odette like VS. LIKEIFYOUKNOWWHATIMEAN, is one of the most difficult for Odette to grasp.

Along with love comes another set of complex ideas like jealousy, insecurity, and rejection that are so foreign to Odette’s character. She may learn concepts from someone else, such as the idea of being “cute” or cooking food for someone special but she applies them often to her relationship with Asao. When she has to stay at a friend’s house, she goes to Asao’s; when she has to bring a guy on a double date, she seeks out Asao; or when her horoscope say she will meet her “destined partner,” she hopes it is Asao.

Asao finds himself at the center of lots of Odette’s adventures, but he doesn’t really mind. He reminds her of the important things like how you see yourself or actions speaking louder than words. He wants to make sure she is okay in this world. He says so himself, this is a girl “who knows how to waltz right into your heart.” At some point, he stops thinking of her as a machine. He doesn’t forget, it just doesn’t change anything. When confronted with the idea that Odette “is just a robot,” he straightforwardly replies that to him, she is a woman.

Is Asao in love with Odette? It is rather ambiguous, I like to think so, but Odette is most certainly in love with Asao. Sure she doesn’t understand it, sure she can’t put it into words fully, but it is obvious early on that she is quite fond of that blond delinquent.

Odette fell in love with Asao without even trying.  Congratulations Odette, that is quite human indeed.

I picked up The Story of Saiunkoku vols. 1-7 recently and my goodness has this only renewed my passion for the series. I fell in love with the anime a few years ago, so far this manga has followed it quite closely (both being based on a novel series which I have no way of reading, I don’t know if it follows the books closely as well).

Saiunkoku, put simply, is about a kingdom and a romance, but the series is far from simple.

In these volumes, we meet a large cast of nobles and get caught up in assassination schemes, courtly politics, syndicate wars, and various governmental situations. Shurei is a smart, hard-working, but poor, noble who is brought to court in the hopes of helping the new emperor. She not only forms a close relationship with Ryuki the emperor, but also many others in his circle. Shurei not only helps guide the emperor but begins gaining friends and influence in the politics of this large kingdom.

And that is what is so special about Saiunkoku; the political and societal struggles of Shurei and women in this ancient land. A good portion of the series after the first two volumes is Shurei dreaming and applying herself to become a civil servant which no woman has been allowed to do.

While the series also wears the hat of reverse harem, to its credit all the men are fascinating characters with their own places in the court and politics. And by and large they are not in love with our heroine. The story is pretty clear this is about Shurei and Ryuki. But on that note, it is amazing how little time these two actually get to spend together because of their stations and duties.

The story has a clipped pace never lingering too long on any one thing. At times I found myself really yearning for more time for Shurei and Ryuki to no avail. There are moments with a bit too heavy exposition but they seem to lessen as the volumes go on. All in all, it is a great world with a great cast that you want to know more about.

I will say that they wrapped up the first season of Young Justice quite nicely. I did feel that one or two of the slow building plots were quickly resolved in the last 2 episodes but that is more of a stylistic issue than a major complaint. Over all they did a good job of having everyone one in the main cast having some noticeable character progress while at the same time tying all the episodes together into one cohesive plot. I do find it a bit odd that all the new animated DC series seem to be utterly in love with Vandal Savage. While he is decently old character I myself had never heard of him before recently. But he makes for a good foil to teams as opposed to some villains who are better off as either pawns of a bigger villains or as the nemesis for solo heroes. I also have to applaud them for adding more women to the team with the addition of Zatana and Rocket. At the same time while Zatana gets a decent amount of screen time for a late addition Rocket sort of gets thrown in at the last second. So I thought, “Well she can get more screen time and character development when they come back for season 2.”

Then very surprisingly the next week went straight into season 2. And people HATED it. While I can’t say I was in any way as angry as other people I do feel their pain. The season starts after a 5 year time skip. Most of the Young Justice team is new, half the old team is nowhere to be seen, and most of the team that we see is remarkably different with no explanation.  I recognized all the new team additions but is mostly because I have a solid albeit firmly intermediate comics education. Well I recognized everyone except for Lagoon Boy. But all those underwater guys who are not Aquaman are super-duper high level nerd territory anyway. I am sure the average viewer would at least need some explanation for who the Blue Beetle is. The problem is unlike The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes they don’t do the greatest job of introducing people without exposition.

I get that they are going for the risky payoffs of the in medias res plot revelations but the execution is somewhat off.They did such a good job of building up the first team. If they just skipped ahead but kept the team the same it probably would not have felt so jarring. Both changes combined really throw off the flow of the story. I will continue to watch but I feel that the choice was a major misstep and apparently most of the audience agrees. Hopefully they payoff for the reveals of what happened during the time skip will make this all worth it.

The ending to Twin Spica is unsurprisingly a very emotional one. It has been a long road for all the students; they’ve all faced challenge after challenge but now they are facing their futures which is seemingly insurmountable without each other there. A lot of decisions are made in such a way that I simultaneously felt happiness and loss.

I was very pleased though that the manga does not stop where many other might and instead gives us important and thoughtful falling action, albeit in a condescend manner.

I’ll really miss these characters, I’ve carried their hopes in my heart for quite a while.

Twin Spica has been quite a journey and the final volume is no exception. The volume very much proves that it was the journey that was the most important piece and not the destination. That is not to say the destination was overlooked. The book has the natural climax you would expect. But it is merely a sharp punctuation on the story as opposed to the bulk of the last volume. What is more important is what leads up to that ending and what the ramifications are on the cast. The ending has a wonderful mixture of joy and sorrow as the cast exuberantly revels in its victories and tearfully mourns their losses. But you will note even in the biggest successes there is some regret likewise there is still hope even in the darkest tragedy. In a way that can be seen as a solid summation of one of the major themes of the manga as a whole. A spectacular ending to a spectacular series. It is a crying shame that this series is only going to get one printing.

I’ve started watching Star Wars: The Clone Wars CG TV series from the beginning. I’ve previously only seen an episode here and there on television when it was on.

What I noticed and liked best in these first 4 episodes is the changing focus. Yes, a good portion is following Anakin but there are of episodes, in fact the very first one, where he is more of an aside. We’re really getting a big picture story and a better understanding of the complex universe.

And so another season of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic comes to an end. Some people celebrate while others curse the heavens. Yet the sun keeps on rising and setting as if the presence or lack of ponies did not dictate the proper flow of the heavens. It has pretty much become a “We’ve always been at war with Eastasia” situation for both sides. The content has long since cease to be important. Both sides both want to win some greater philosophical battle that is no longer tied to the issue at hand. And overall the extremists on both side are incredibly horrible to listen to.

That nonsense aside the season was pretty fun. I still say that the shows is missing a certain a je ne sais quoi now that Lauren Faust left the show. It is still entertaining but there is a different sort of charm to the show now that she has moved on. That said there are now at least 2 stories Narutaki could watch as they bookend the season with fantasy adventures as opposed to having nothing but slice of life stories after the initial adventure. Other than that there has been a shift toward more individual stories as opposed to ensemble pieces. While episodes might focus heavily on one character in the first season it was a rare occurrence for any of the main five characters not to have a role to play in any episode. But many of the episodes in the second season zero in on a single charter or pair of characters and will often leave out the rest of the cast.

The best episode was probably the train mystery episodes but considering the blog I write for I maybe biased. A Murder on the Orient Express homage episode was not the first thing you would expect from this show. I also really enjoyed the Iron Will episode. It was extremely quotable. When somepony tries to block, show them that you rock! But overall most of the episodes usually had at least one or two amusing sequences. Overall it is still a fine show for little girls that just has an unusual but mostly harmless (but sometimes very annoying) older fan following.

The Ongoing Investigations are little peeks into what we are watching and reading outside of our main posts on the blog. We each pick three things that we were interested in a week and talk a bit about them. There is often not much rhyme or reason to what we pick. They are just the most interesting things we saw since the last Ongoing Investigation.

As I don’t read Japanese it is extremely hard for me to be any sort of taste maker when in comes to manga. By the time I usually know about a series it is fairly in the thick of things in its run. The rare exception comes when I know to check out a series because I have enjoyed something by the author in the past so I know to keep an eye on their current work. In a previous Manga of the Month I talked about Miki Yoshikawa’s Yankee-kun to Megane-chan. It is a great comedy series but it can be hard to recommend because you are asking for someone to commit to reading 23 books. But with a new series you can read a handful of chapters and be up to date. Since Yamada and the Seven Witches started in February it is a great time to start a Miki Yoshikawa manga.

Ryu Yamada and Urara Shiraishi are as different as night and day. Ryu is a rough a tumble delinquent while Urara is the class brainiac. One day the accidentally kiss as they fall down the stairs and discover they can exchange bodies by kissing. When the student council vice president get involved with their little secret they learn that they can exchange bodies with other people as well. So the three of them restart the school’s supernatural club to figure out why this is happening. But how long can the three of them keep this under wraps?

Miki Yoshikawa has done a good job of playing to her strengths while making enough changes to make Yamada and the Seven Witches feel like a retread of what has come before this. While it is still a school based romantic comedy the supernatural element changes everything. Ryu is very similar to Daichi where as Urara and Hana are both very strong and unflappable women but their strengths and weakness are very different. Buy the key to her success still seems to be good comic timing with loud but loveable characters. Ryu and Urara have a fun dynamic and bounce off the rest of the cast well. I will note while the series still feels female friendly the manga-ka has upped the fan service levels a little. Since Ryu can jump into female bodies he is not adverse to taking a peak at who he switches into before he has to get down to business. That usually means an underwear shot every few chapters.

Hopefully the series will remember on of the main reasons Yankee-kun to Megane-chan was great. Miki Yoshikawa was always smart enough to change the formula of how things word every few books keeping the humor and drama fresh. It is a little to early to tell if this will be the same case but we have not even met the eponymous Seven Witches yet.  If nothing else you have to admire a school romance series that has the characters kiss in the first book.

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Oh my Good Golly Miss Molly this is a lot of news this month. Have Anime Boston and Sakura Con always been big licensing cons like this or have I just not been paying attention?

The Line-Up is a monthly rundown of newly licensed in the U.S., newly streaming in the U.S., and newly announced anime and manga projects.

Newly Licensed in the U.S.

• Alice in the Country of Hearts: My Fanatic Rabbit – Yen Press
  
• Anything and Something – Yen Press
• Baccano! (Blu-Ray) – Aniplex
• Bakemonogatari - Aniplex USA
• Battle Angel Alita: Last Order – Kodansha Comics
• Berserk (movies) – VIZ
  Drat. Viz is without a doubt the slowest company in releasing anything on DVD. Glad it got picked up. I just wish it was someone else who picked it up.
  
• Blood-C - Dark Horse
• Blood Lad – Yen Press
• Bunny Drop – NISA
• Captain Harlock (TV) – Discotek
  A space pirate that does actual piracy! How quaint.
• A Century of Temptation – Digital Manga
• Cluster Edge – Sentai Filmworks
• Crayon Shin-chan – One Peace Books
• Danza – Kodansha Comics
• Deflowering the Boss – Digital Manga
• Demon Love Spell – VIZ
• Dusk Maiden of Amnesia – Sentai Filmworks
• Emerald and Other Stories – Dark Horse
• Eureka Seven AO – Funimation
• Evangelion: Comic Tribute – Dark Horse
  I am vaguely interested because Mine Yoshizaki is involved.
• Fractale – Funimation
• Future Diary – Funimation
• Galaxy Express 999 (movie 3) – Discotek
• Hakuoki Shinsengumi Kitan – Sentai Filmworks
• Hidamari Sketch x SP – Sentai Filmworks
• The Incredible Kintaro – Digital Manga
• Intrigue in the Bakumatsu ~ Irohanihoheto – Sentai Filmworks
• Kids on the Slope – Sentai Filmworks
  I am impressed they got Blu-Ray right out of the gate. There is no excuse not to pick this up now.
• King of Thorn – Funimation
• Lovely Complex – Discotek
  An unexpected license for them and I couldn’t be happier about it!
• Mahoromatic: I’m Home – Sentai Filmworks
• Medaka Box – Sentai Filmworks
• The Misfortune of Kyon and Koizumi – Yen Press
  I am waiting for The Hairballs of Shamisen manga.
• Missons of Love – Kodansha Comics
• Mysterious Girlfriend X – Sentai Filmworks
• NightS - Animate USA
• Oreimo – Dark Horse
• Paradise Kiss – Vertical, Inc.
  I’m very excited about this rescue and have high hopes for beautiful books.
• President Momoi Kun – Digital Manga Publishing
• Queen’s Blade: Rebellion – Sentai Filmworks
• Saint Seiya (movies) - Discotek
  YIPPIE!!!
• Sakuran - Vertical, Inc.
  I have heard nothing but great things about this title and it is a one book series which is always nice.
• Shangri-La – Funimation
• See Me After Class – Digital Manga Publishing
• Strobe Edge – VIZ
• Thermae Romae – Yen Press
  What an unusual license. I am very curious how this does.
• Triage X - Yen Press
• Tsuritama – Sentai Filmworks
• Umineko When They Cry – Yen Press
  I really want to read these now that I have played all the games. It will be like watching Fight Club a second time.
• Upotte!! – Sentai Filmworks
• Viewfinder: Hard-Working Cameraman Akihito Takaba’s Romantic Life as an Indentured Servant – Animate USA

Newly Streaming in the U.S.

• Crunchyroll added Yurumates 3D, Rock Lee and His Ninja Pals, Sengoku Collection, Polar Bear’s Cafe, Saki – Episode Side A, Upotte!!, Kuroku’s Basketball, Kid’s On the Slope, Mysterious Girlfriend X, Tsuritama, Queen’s Blade: Rebellion, Dusk Maiden of Amnesia, Phi Brain Puzzle of God S2, Medaka Box
  
• VIZ added Zetman, Accel World
  
• Funimation added Is This a Zombie? . . . Of the Dead, Lupin III: The Woman Named Fujiko Mine, Jormugand
• Sugoi Books added Peacemaker, Elemental Gelade, Ilegenes
• JManga added Kirara, I am a Cat, Apartments of Calle Feliz, Muyonosuke, The Witch of 2-A, Chitose Get You!!, Observation Diary, Tale of the Crescent Moon Dragon, Working Kentauros, Bono Bono, Black Borders, Harukaze Biyori, Doukyusei, Tactics, Monochrome Factor, The Good Witch of the West, Your & My Secret, Animal Academy: Hakobune Hakusho, Yurumates
  

New Anime/Manga Projects in Japan

• Oreimo Getting a Second Season
• Cyborg 009 Finale Manga to Launch
• Unaired Episode of Yurumates Bundled with Manga
• Kimi to Batsu Gag Comedy is New Series of Excel Saga Manga-ka
  Koushi Rikudou is always an unusual author so I am curious how this will turn out.
• New Magazine Bessatsu Shonen Champion Launching in June
• OVA of Eureka Seven AO to be Bundled with PS3 Game
• Detective Conan/Excalibur Crossover OVA Available Through Mail-Away
• The Rest of NisiOisin’s Monogatari Novels Getting Anime Adaptions
• Accel World DVDs to Include New Actual World Anime
• Light Novels Sakurasou no Pet no Kanojo Anime Green-Lit
• In Addition to an Anime In the New World Also Getting Manga Adaption
• Crayon Shin-chan to Crossover with Kamen Rider Fourze in Special
  Apparently someone thought that Fourze was not crazy enough.
• Comedy Manga Spin-off Attack! Titan Junior High Begins
• New Manga from Final Fantasy Franchise Starts
• NG-Shuu Being Animated as Extra for DVD Release of Kuroko no Basuke
• OVA Coming for Web Manga Hori-san to Miyamura-kun
• Food Manga Series Coming from GTO Creator
• Norwegian Children’s Book Block Makes a Museum Being Made into Anime
• New Manga Series Starting from Yasuko to Kenji Artist and High School Debut Writer
• Spin-off and Parody Manga Uta Hen Begins
• GTO and I no Head Gargoyle Get Crossover 1-Shot
  A nice bit of cross promotion between Tohru Fujisawa manga.
• Production Designers from Puella Magi Madoka Magica Working on Shojo Manga 
• To Love-Ru Darkness to Bundle DVD with Manga
• 3DS Game Senran Kagura Burst Has Anime in the Works
• Natsume Ono Drawing Web Manga 1-Shot
• Short Manga by Stepping on Roses Artist Started
• Shojo Manga Inspired by Idol Group Fairies Announced
• Steins;Gate Game Drama CD to Include Manga
• Crying Freeman Creator Releasing Short Ninja Manga
• Webcomics Starting of Namco Bandai’s Rolling Thunder and Wonder Momo
• Mixed-media Franchise Khronos Gear Getting OVA and Manga
• More Stitch! Anime On the Way as a TV Special
• A Chapter 0 of Rurouni Kenshin Will Be Coming Out
• Hopefully this will be better than the new OVAs.
• Josei Manga Karneval Receiving an Anime Adaption
• Mecha 1-shot from Bokurano Manga-ka Announced
• Count of Monte Cristo 1-shot in Grand Jump Premiere
• A Spin-off of Ikoi no Sodom -Bishōjo Impala- Started
• New Series Landmark Fieldworker -Toaru Machi no Genius Loki- to Being in Super Jump
• Yuri Manga-ka Milk Morinaga Starting New Series
• New Steampunk Manga Kikaijikake no Merudiina Beginning
  Maybe steampunk panels at anime conventions can start being about steampunk titles like this.
• Accel World OVA to be Bundled with Game
• Kamen no Ninja Akakage Remains Manga Based on 60′s Series Getting Revival
  I’m not familiar with the original, but it was by the creator of Giant Robo and Tetsujin so I’m quite curious to check this out!
• Remake Manga Kaen Majin ~Oni Harai~ Starting Up Soon
• The Incredible Zorori Children’s Book Getting Feature Film
• Manga Adaption of Re: Cyborg 009 and Fairy God One-shot in Next Issue of Monthly Big Gangan
• Dusk Maiden of Amnesia BD/DVD Release to Include Unaired Episode

SPOILERS FOR HAYATE THE COMBAT BUTLER

If you remember recently Hayte the Combat Butler went on a hiatus for short time. Kenjiro Hata made sure to mention that the break was not for health reasons or burn out. He just had a project he had to work on. But just before his time off started he mentioned that Hayate was 60% complete.

And then he recently asked his fans on twitter if they had any unresolved plot threads that they absolutely need to make sure get resolved before the manga ends. Reactions to this have generally been mixed whenever I bring it up. Everyone seems to appreciate an author who is dedicated to making sure as many plot threads get tied up in the end but most people also seem a bit worried that it means that the author also clearly does not remember half the things they wrote.

I, being a bit of a fanboy of Hata, I am going to assume the best of him. I have to wonder if he went on hiatus to sit down with his editor and carefully plot things out so they could wrap up all the niggling little details for the end of the series. It would be nice if we were all insane like Eiichiro Oda but I am sure that the weekly serialized schedule makes it easy to forget a plot thread or two. Even the best author and editor team will miss some minor point that an eagle-eyed nerd will remember as if rote.

Hata has repeatedly shown that he embraces social media platforms to interact with fans. You might as well use that encyclopedic database of otaku to see if there is anything important you overlooked in your grand strategy meeting.

As I am never one to shy away from giving my two cents I decided to make a list of the five most important loose ends that should be tied up by the Hayate ending. These are the little mysteries that could easily get shoved to the side but would annoy me if the go unresolved.

5. What is up with Yozora Housen? (Other than looking like she should be from Kannagi.)

She popped on the scene in chapter 285 as a rather mysterious character. She clearly has some connection to the whole King’s Jewel conspiracy as well as the Violet Mansion. She has magical power as she can summon robots, see ghosts, and throws around quite a bit of arcane terminology. Despite all of that we don’t really know much about her. Who is the mysterious person she works for? Why is she so interested in that picture of the 28th and what was on the missing half anyway?

4. What is Maria’s secret origin story? (Also what wonderful combination of genetics produced someone who is that stunning.)

We know that Maria was an orphan and supposedly adopted by Mikado after he found her abandoned in front of a church on Christmas Eve. But Mikado lying to people is hardly something new. Maria seems to have some link to Athena and the Royal Garden which are both connections you would not assume existed at first. The reason she was abandoned as a baby and why she can been seen by Athena in the Mirror of the Celestial Sphere are surely important pieces of the plot.

3. The death of Nagi’s parents. (And other heartbreaking tragedies.)

Nagi’s mother, Yukariko,  is clearly a mysterious character. A good deal of Mikado scheming is clearly related to some sort of mad attempt to resurrect his daughter making her a key to much of the actual core plot of Hayate. Also Hata has hinted that her death was not due to her illness as one would initially assume meaning there is clearly something else going on with her passing. Also what ever happened to Nagi’s father? We hardly know anything about him but he is surely someone important.  The fact that we know almost nothing about him or how he passed away in quite unusual.

2. Akane Himegami. (Is he a princess, a god, or both?)

Nagi’s old butler has always been one of the biggest mysteries in the series. At first it seemed like he left just because Nagi is so hard to deal with. As the series goes on we learn that he is involved with the King’s Jewel conspiracy and has ties to Athena.  It would be remarkably sloppy for him to appear before the ending.

1. What happened to Hayate’s family? (The good, the bad, and the despicable.)

Hayate’s parents clearly deserve some sort of comeuppance for all the horrible things they have done. They are responsible for almost all the tragedy in Hayate’s life but have not received the tiniest bit of punishment for their irresponsibility. They too are clearly characters who need to appear again during the finale. At the same time it is clear that not everyone in Hayate’s family is horrible. Hayate’s grandmother was shown to be worried for her grandson even after she passed away and was trying to correct the mistakes of her son. Hayate’s brother, Ikusa, has been show to be a standup guy who had to leave for unexplained reasons. As he has met and even greatly assisted Athena in the past so he clearly still has a vital role to play.

0. All the things I assume he would be utterly foolish not to tie up.

These are all things that I assume will be resolved but I just mention because sometimes people are silly. Clearly the mystery of the King’s Jewels and what they do has to be cleared by as the final arc of the story (or at least trigger the final arc of the manga). Also they better have the bomb between Nagi and Hayate finally go off so they can finally be a couple. I will accept no other ending than that one. Also Hinagiku has to get kicked to the curb so she can finally be with her one true love, Nishizawa (also known as Natutaki’s OTP).

There are other little details like what happened to Hinagiku’s parents or whatever Isumi did to traumatized Nagi so much that she is deathly afraid of the dark are important but not as important as these five issues. As long as the these are resolved I will be happy. Everything else is just gravy. I am curious if any fellow Hayate fans have an equally pressing issues they need answered from the end of the manga? If you could see one plot thread neatly tied up what would it be?

From well-known documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock (you’ll probably know him best as the guy who did Super Size Me), comes a look into the biggest geek convention in the U.S., San Diego Comic-Con. A Fan’s Hope follows a few different people through the convention which wasn’t abundantly clear in the trailer I saw but now after seeing it, the title makes much more sense. There is a lot more of a personal journey to this documentary than a real focus on the con as a whole and its development and history. While that wasn’t exactly what I was hoping for, the film isn’t a disappointment but more an incomplete tale.

Unlike some other films, Morgan is only behind the camera for this one, which is a shame since he would have been the perfect person to give us tidbits of information and bring context to scenes. The people we do follow are generally interesting if not experts on the con. Two artists trying to go pro, a comic book dealer who hasn’t had a good year for profits, a costume sculptor wanting to show off her skills, a toy collector on the hunt, and a couple where the guy is going to pop the question make up our merry band.

Equal attention wasn’t given to everyone, sometimes this was good (the couple), sometimes this was bad (the artist from the military), but most of all it felt like they should have cut back on the group as a whole or make the film longer. Though the public proposal I could have done without altogether, it makes me so uncomfortable! And I had gotten a little worried about the guy since his girlfriend seemed attached to his hip. Interspersed between these stories are celebrities saying a line or two or telling a story about the convention and these were a lot of fun. Kevin Smith does an especially good job while telling a story about what would happen if his now self could travel back and visit his 11-year-old self.

This film is a celebration of fandom, it is not an expose, but it really needed to be a bit of both.

I did not realize that this was a Morgan Spurlock documentary until after I saw it. Or I should more precisely say that I did not realize Morgan Spurlock was also the same director as Super Size Me until after I watched the movie. As a long-term nerd I can’t say that I learned anything particularly shocking about Comic-Con as a whole. It is distinctly more of a celebration of Comic-Con and a look at how it affects certain people rather than an in-depth expose of the grand mechanisms behind the convention.

If you’re looking for parts on Twilight fanatics vs. Comic nerds or the sickly side of the cosplay community you won’t find it here. They do touch on the fact that the convention had become much more of a general media con than a solely comic focused event though the eyes of one of the oldest remaining comic sellers but even that is mostly played as a positive. The real meat of the documentary was the experiences of the people who attended the con. You had the collector, the cosplay girl, and the dealer among others. Their stories were all interesting. The Mass Effect cosplay group was undoubtedly skilled. That animatronic Krogan outfit was a marvel. You cannot see that outfit and not be impressed. (You can but your mostly just a jerk who likes to pat themselves on the back for how “worldly” they are).

But the most interesting stories were the two men trying to get professional jobs in the comics industry while attending Comic-Con. It was a good look at someone who makes it and someone who was clearly not ready. I wish they had focused a little more on the artist who got a job through the event. As a married man in the military I felt he really contrasted the image of the lonely super spaz you associate with comic fandom. He was clearly seriously into comics with the skills to back up that love but I felt he was a fascinating example of the diversity of the community. The gentleman who was rejected was also compelling. As someone who has never taken rejection well his story hit very close to home even if he dealt with his setbacks with a good amount of grace.

The real question this documentary answers is why do people go to Comic-Con. It is a wonderful examination of what makes people come back year after year and why the convention has become the phenomenon it has. I am coincidentally listening to the Freakonomics audio book. Since Spurlock worked on the film based on that book I might give that a look soon as well.

Kekkaishi vol. 30 sets us on the road to the finale. Yoshimori comes face to face with Karasumori and begins the training needed to seal him away. It has a very melancholy feel since getting to this goal means leaving other things behind. It is also really disappointing to imagine Tokine not appearing in this arc as pivitol character so I’m hoping that will change. While Yoshimori’s mother has appeared, we still know little about her, and if you thought Masamori was a suspicious character, their mother is even more so.

The Moon Moth is strange by the fact that how the book presents itself and how it reads are very different.

The book is billed as a science fiction murder mystery and none of this is incorrect per say. It takes places in a future with interplanetary travel and ray guns. There is an assassin and the protagonist has to discover who he is. But the book plays out much more like a fantasy book that is about a stranger in a strange land learning to play a very alien game of manners. The world building just has a vibe that is more consistent with a fantasy novel than science fiction. The masks, the games of manners, and the musical elements to conversations all feel more at home in a fantasy story than anything else.

It’s not that science fiction could not toy with any of these tools to tell a story but the presentation feels like something I would see from George R. R. Martin rather than Robert Heinlein. Also the story is much more the story of a foreigner making many mistakes with an extremely formalized culture where the wrong bit of social faux paux can lead to your death.

When Edwer Thissell discovers who the assassin is it has less to do with you solving it along with him and more to do with the story demonstrating how he is getting a hang of the complex rules of this Byzantine social hierarchy. It was a very odd story. I can’t say I loved it but I do feel it was an unusual read. I think the uneven pacing does hold the story back a bit as the engaging parts of the story sit in between slower parts that seem to spin their wheels. But it is a story that translates well into a comic and does not feel like a story you have read before.

That unusual flavor alone might be why you check it out. Just realize what sort of story it is.

I will admit to knowing nothing of the source material on which The Moth Moon is based. I agree with Hisui that the description of this book is rather misleading especially the mystery element. If you’re going to call it a mystery, I expect to be able to follow along and make some sort of at least mild deduction.

In the Moth Moon, all of Thissell’s research is done off page or in a montage without words so we don’t know what he learns. His big reveal is equally difficult to follow because despite his evidence we don’t get to know the characters or their masks much prior to it. Thissell himself has just come to this planet and is slowly learning its very foreign customs, but I really couldn’t tell you much about him. He is either a genius beyond measure or the luckiest man based on the final conclusion.

I talked about the bonus stories on the Fate/Zero Blu-Ray Box 1 last week but not the actual content of the show itself. The other big selling point of the box set was that each episode had unaired footage. I guess the real question is what does this new footage add. Well for one thing I can say that I almost always noticed the bits they added so it is not like additions were so inconsequential that if you blink you miss them. They definitely have substance.

They come in three types. The first are scenes they were edited for gore. Usually a scene where a kid was being murder was edited in the TV you can now see in full graphic detail. The second type was a bit of expanded dialog to certain scenes. The third were a few minor linking scenes.

The problem is they all feel like too much like the minor scenes. While they often add a bit of additional flavor or emphasis but none of them add any major revelations. You distinctly get the idea that all these scenes were cut to move things along. If you are one of those people who gets very angry whenever an adaptation removes even the smallest amount of nuance you will love these cut scenes. But at the same time if you already thought the show was a bit too talky than these scenes will only add to that feeling.

I liked them but I have a feeling for most people they are hardly something they need to hunt down with extreme prejudice.

The Ongoing Investigations are little peeks into what we are watching and reading outside of our main posts on the blog. We each pick three things that we were interested in a week and talk a bit about them. There is often not much rhyme or reason to what we pick. They are just the most interesting things we saw since the last Ongoing Investigation.

Shoulder-a-Coffin Kuro had the pleasure of showing me there are 4-koma manga that I like! But then again, Kiyuduki doesn’t use the format in a traditional sense. Her low-key humor and simple but precise art makes this series a real charmer.

Shoulder-a-Coffin Kuro follows the story of a haphazard group of travelers headed up by the mysterious, coffin-carrying, black clad, girl going by the name Kuro. She along with a bunch of bats (one snarky one in particular, Sen) pick up two little cat girls along the way. Where they are headed remains a rather amorphous concept though they do seem to be looking for someone. Along the way we learn bits of pieces of character’s past. Each traveler plays off the others; Kuro being none too talkative while the kids are little balls of energy and mischief. The series has a melancholy undertone, not unlike Kino’s Journey but also not that heavy, though it is balanced out by the adorable art style and banter.

The way Kiyuduki plays with the format is of particular interest from using one giant panel to tell a story to expanding an adventure to two or three times that of usual 4-koma. At times she is using the format merely as a structure but still these adventures feel like quick bites. The printing is also nice with many color pages to enjoy.

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The news never stops and with a new anime season starting next month we have a good deal of streaming announcements as well as the normal amount of anime and manga licenses. I have to say that despite the major losses in the industry the licensing is still fairly health.

The Line-Up is a monthly rundown of newly licensed in the U.S., newly streaming in the U.S., and newly announced anime and manga projects.

Newly Licensed in the U.S.

• 07-Ghost (manga) – VIZ
• AnoHana – NISA
  This looks like the perfect fit. AnoHana is really a title that needs a boutique release.
  
• Casshan: Robot Hunter OVA – Discotek Media
• Children Who Chase Lost Voices From Deep Below – Sentai Filmworks
• Guardians of Luna – Seven Seas Entertainment
  The cover of this hurts me in so many ways from the generic art and coloring to the terrible type.
• Hatsukoi Limited – Sentai Filmworks
• Honey*Smile – Digital Manga Publishing
• Hot & Steamy – Digital Manga Publishing
• Love Makes Everything Right – Digital Manga Publishing
• Love On the Job – Digital Manga Publishing
• My Good Boy – Digital Manga Publishing
• Otome Yokai Zakuro – NISA
• Phi Brain Puzzle of God S2 – Sentai Filmworks
• Samurai Pizza Cats – Discotek Media
  Best announcement of the month. Discotek has gone down the rabbit hole and I don’t mind!
• Secret Thorns - Digital Manga Publishing
• Shin Getter Robo VS. Neo Getter Robo – Discotek Media
• Squid Girl S2 – Media Blasters
  I am still a little shocked to see Media Blasters is still picking up titles. Hopefully they can hang in there.
  
• Starts with a Happy Ending – Digital Manga Publishing
• This Boy Can Fight Aliens – Sentai Filmworks
• Wild Honey – Digital Manga Publishing
• Yawaraka Onnanoko – Digital Manga Publishing

Newly Streaming in the U.S.

• Crunchyroll added Hiiro no Kakera, Nyarko-san: Another Crawling Chaos, blossom, OZMA, Space Bros., Folktales from Japan, You and Me S2, Saint Seiya Omega
  
• JManga added The Shadowman, Barom One, Kimi no Tamenara Shineru, A Date with a Billionaire, Something from the Heart, Mistress Bought and Paid For, Yokan – Premonition, The Bride of Montefalco, A Bed of Sand, Marriage Scandal – Showbiz Baby!, Royally Bedded, Regally Wedded, Powerful Persuasion, The Millionaire’s Pregnant Mistress, The Sheikh’s Ransomed Bride, Pilgrim’s Castle, Night on the Galactic Railroad, The Spanish Duke’s Virgin Bride, By Love Alone, Pregnant by the Millionaire, Lovechild, The Billionaire Boss’s Forbidden Mistress, The Book of Five Rings, Professional Swordsment of the Edo Era
  
• Viki added OZMA, Black Jack, Black Jack 21, Astro Boy, Oniisama E…, Master of Epic, Penguin Girl, Waimo-kun
  

New Anime/Manga Projects in Japan

• Pokemon’s New Theatrical Short to be 2D
• Folklore Anime Furusato Saisei Nippon no Mukashi Banashi to Begin
• Children’s Witch-in-Training Book Novel Kuromajyo-san ga Touru!! Getting Anime
• Hosoda’s New Film Also Getting Manga Adaption
  This would be more interesting if manga based on anime movies not almost guaranteed to be horrible.
  
• Studio DEEN to Contribute Animated Short for Pray for Japan Documentary
• Zipang Manga=ka Draws Earthquake One-Shot Ore Shika Inai ~Kuroi Nami o Nori Koete~
• More Kyousogiga Anime on the Way
  This series has such a manic pacing that I really need to watch the first episode again.
• Director Yutaka Yamamoto Working on New ‘Charity Animation’ Project
• Production I.G collaborating to create Mass Effect: Paragon Lost prequel
  My roommate and I will surely check this out but we have the proper low expectations.
  
• Kuroko no Basuke Gets Special Before TV Anime Starts
• Space Brothers Manga to Bundle OVA with Next Volume
• Psychological Suspense Nove Aku no Kyoten Getting Manga Adaption
• Adachi Plans New Baseball Manga for Summer
• Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya Anime Confirmed
  Oh anything involving Illya.
• Starchild Reveals K Anime Project
• Inazuma Eleven‘s Next Soccer Anime Will Feature Time Travel
• Squid Girl Gets New OVA Bundle
• Queen Blade: Rebellion Adds OVAs to DVD Release
• First Hunter x Hunter Movie Comic Soon
• New Full-Color One Shot Manga by Katsuhiro Otomo Ran This Month
• Webcomic Spin-Off Manga of Your and My Secret Starting
  I am curious to see how Ai Morinaga embraces releasing her manga as a web comic.
• New OVA One Off from Aria Director Revealed
• Devilman G Spin-Off Manga Launched With Story But Not Art by Go Nagai
• More Seitokai no Ichizon Anime on the Way
• Usogui Gambling Manga Gets OVA Bundle
  Always fun to see new crazy gambling manga getting anime
• Ichigeki Sacchu!! HoiHoi-san Getting Full Length Anime
• Neko no Sumu Shima Quake Short Aired
• Suicide Prevention Manga Risk Ride Made by Christian Group
• First Theatrical Anime Film of Japanese Classic Nansou Satomi Hakkenden
• Chouyaku Hyakunin Isshu: Uta Koi Historical Josei Manga Getting Summer Anime
  Lots of josei manga getting anime this year, this seems to ebb and flow.
• Inu X Boku DVD Will Have Unaired Episode
• Seitokai Yakuindomo Creator Launching New Series Puchi Puchi Tan Tan Puchi Tan Tan
• 2nd Season Green-Lit for Recorder and Randsell
• A New Happy Science Religious Anime Film Coming This Fall
  And all the people who run bad anime panels REJOICE!
  
• Gag Mecha Battle Ippatsu Hyaku-Chuu! Devander Anime OVA Being Made of Tatsunoko’s Anniversary
• Studio 4C Produces Toyoto Web Anime
• Kono Danshi, Uchuu-jin to Tatakaemasu Sequel Announced
• Panda no Tapu Tapu Shorts About a Chubby Panda Starting
• Sapporo Mascot Getting Anime Short Series
• Toei Animation And Lots of Big Names Starting New Anime Film Project Exiled From Paradise
  Very interested in this! Seiji Mizushima is a director I’m always checking in on and Gen Urobuchi is a hot name right now.
• Fantasy Series Aoi Sekai no Chuushin de Anime Announced
• Guilty Crown PC Game Gets Anime Short Bundle
• Moyashimon Getting More Anime This Summer
• Cram School Guides Shinken Zemi Koukou Kouza Getting Anime Adaption
• Upcoming Anime Hyouka Gets Special Anime Bundled with Manga
• Wild Adapter OVA Announced
• Katsuhiro Otomo Starting New Long Manga Series
  I am a little surprised to see him go back to manga. I am curious to see what has inspired him to do so.
  
• Anime Adaption of Little Busters Revealed
• 2nd Season of Tamayura Anime Green-Lit
• OVA Upcoming for Rinne to Lagrange
• CG Series gdgd Fairies to Continue
• 4-koma Elementary School Girl Series Chitose Get You!! Anime Announced
• Tourism Anime Shorts The Four Seasons Streaming in 5 Languages
  I just talked about these in the ongoing investigations. Nicely produced shorts and makes me curious about the area.
• New Vocaloid-Inspired Manga Mikubon Vocaloid in Wonderland Starting
• Metal Fight Beyblade 4D Anime Will Have N.A. Only BeyWheelz Chapter
• More Anime for Junjo Romantica on the Way as an OVA
• AKB48 Mascot Getting Anime
  I am waiting for the anime about the pets of AKB48.
  
• Recorder and Randsell Getting Unaired Anime Bundle
• Short Peace Anime Omnibus Project Revealed
• Josei Romance Manga Natsuyuki Rendezvous Getting Noitamina Anime
• Unaired Episode of Is This a Zombie? to be Bundled with Manga
• Fullmetal Alchemist Manga Creators Working on Romance of the Three Kingdoms 4-koma Manga
• Augmented Reality PC Game Robotics;Notes Coming to the Noitamina Block
  The second I saw this was based on a visual novel I knew there was going to be “spirited discussion” about the choice.
  
• Noitamina Adds Original Concept Anime Psycho-pass for Fall
• To Love-Ru -Trouble- Darkness Anime Has Been Green-lit

If I knew Fables started with a murder mystery, I’d have picked up vol. 1 ages ago! Seriously, why does no one try to sell me with the important things? Any way, now that I have read it I am ready for much more. The series is set in modern-day New York City which Fabletown lives within including having their own government. Everyone has been displaced from their fairytale homes by a mysterious figure we know only as The Adversary so far. Heading things up in their current home is Snow White serving as Deputy Mayor (King Cole is really just a figurehead as Mayor) and Bigby The Big Bad Wolf as acting Sheriff. Snow is sharp and cold and her relationship with Prince Charming, well let’s just say they aren’t together anymore. Bigby gruff and observant and is perfectly in the vein of noir detective. The series is a delight from the Fable world within our own to the rebranding of the characters we know so well. It is an adult version but not in a mocking way, it just pushes things to after the “happily ever after.” Certainly people would get divorced or have marital problems after being together for hundreds of years! Feuds, friendships, affairs, alliances it is all here with all of the fairytale characters which there looks to be no limit of. Fables is playful, smart, and has a great hook. I can’t wait to pick up more in the series.

Hayate the Combat Butler is finally back.  I really missed reading the manga when it was on break. It was a rough 6 weeks. I never did find out what Kenjiro Hata was doing when he took off. I wonder if and when he will reveal what he was doing on the hiatus. But while he was gone they at little mini articles about super rare Hayate merchandise. The bag looked super cute. I wish I could read the 4koma on it. It is just more things that I wish I had to money to track down. But Hayate is thankfully back up to steam with Hayate fighting illness and trying to get Yakiniku. I always sympathize with Hayate’s mixture of poverty and misfortune. Also I would love to eat some Yakiniku. My favorite part of the newest batch of chapters since the hiatus has been the stories of heart breaking disappointment. I did not realize that the Japanese were hit by the Sea Monkey craze as well. I had assumed it was an exclusively American phenomenon but apparently that was not the case. If nothing else I have noticed that Maria is much more active in the plot lately. This is always a good thing. I am glad to see Hayate is running at full speed again. It is always a high point of my week.

I checked out the first chapter of Dorohedoro. The art style I can only describe as that hyped-detailed ugly. This is a city of mutants, experiments, and the sorcerers who create them. In general everyone has a rather grotesque look about them. Our main character has a reptile head and another person inside of him, but Caiman has no memory of what happened to himself. When we first meet him he is eating a guy. His partner who looks visibly normal and he are hunting sorcerers and looking for a specific one. That is about all I learned from this first chapter, but I have to say I’m intrigued.

After reading the fifth Fate/Complete Material I decided to go back and look at the rest of the Fate/Complete Material artbooks. The first book is rather standard. It just focuses on the CG from the original Fate/Stay Night PC game. It is essentially a glossy print version of the CG gallery from the game. It was a nice trip down memory lane to look over all paths of Fate/Stay Night. It made me wonder if we would ever get an animated adaptation of Heaven’s Feel. It is the only path left that has not been adapted and it seems like it is only a matter of if more than when it will be done. There are also some promotional materials and additional art work. That is probably the freshest material in the books. Anyone who had looked for Type-Moon art has probably seen most of it but it is nice to have all in one place. Of the 5 released books this one is probably the least essential of all the books. It has the least amount of notes and the has the most easily found material outside of the book. It is on the other hand the only book with all the erotic scenes in it. Can’t have a Fate/Stay Night artbook without some Saber butt. I am sure some people would pick it up just for that. It is a nice book for die-hard fans but everyone else can skip onto the later books as they have a bit more meat.

I started reading another Brian K. Vaughan series, Ex Machina which blends politics and superhero (not plural since The Great Machine is the only one) leaning more towards politics in this first volume. Our superhero isn’t actually a superhero anymore, instead he is newly elected Mayor of New York City. We see flashbacks throughout of everything from his childhood to gaining his superpowers to his actions as a superhero. Michell has the ability to communicate with almost any type of machine; ha can hear them talking. He is currently trying to not use his power and go about helping the city in a non-vigilantly way. Ex Machina has some stunning alternate history thrown in since the current timeline of the story takes place in 2002. Again this is mostly a political story with Mitchell dealing with an impending snowstorm on the city, a killer on the loose, and a painting that is causing controversy. The combo is unexpected  but you get a decent amount of superhero fix with the looks to the past.

Time for more live action Josuke Higashikata! We are now a little past the half way mark with Kamen Rider Fourze. The biggest change has been the addition of Ryusei Sakuta who is the second Kamen Rider in the series. His Bruce Lee inspired fighting style and planet based attacks were obviously too cool alone for a secondary Rider so to prevent him from overshadowing Gentaro Kisaragi they made Ryusei a real jerk. He is a secretive agent that is working for the mysterious Tachibana.  He does bring an interesting dynamic to the group as he is the only one with his own agenda. With episode 27 it seems like Ryusei’s identity as Meteor will come out and he will formally join the team as himself and not as his facade. I was a little surprised when they had graduation half way through the series. They keep Shun and Miu in the series but I was still a little impressed they had important main characters graduate half way through the series. It does help give a distinct feeling that time is actually passing which is nice. I have noticed that they are playing with the identities of the Zodiarts a bit more. In the beginning it was obvious who the Zodiart was that week. But they have been mixing it up so there are more red herrings. Haruka Utsugi is a prime example of this. Still a fun series that is oddly addictive. It has an infectious energy and an earnest spirit that you have to love.  Come on, switch on!

The Ongoing Investigations are little peeks into what we are watching and reading outside of our main posts on the blog. We each pick three things that we were interested in a week and talk a bit about them. There is often not much rhyme or reason to what we pick. They are just the most interesting things we saw since the last Ongoing Investigation.

Drink #003: Coconut Monkey,
Can you feel the One Piece love?

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I will mercifully refrain from singing modified lyrics to one of Elton John’s contributions to the Lion King soundtrack and merely ask in written form why is there not as much love for One Piece in the U.S. (and most of the English speaking fandom) as there is in Japan. How does the number one shonen franchise in Japan become a third tier property here? We will be looking at One Piece’s popularity in Japan, why it is so good, and what we think is holding it back. Let go on a voyage to find the answers to . . . One Piece!

(Listen)

And now your helpful bartenders at The Speakeasy present your drin

Coconut Monkey
*1 oz. white rum
*1 oz. apricot brandy
*3/4 oz. coconut cream
*1 1/2 oz. pineapple juice

Drink #027: Pirate’s Grog-
The Navy, Buccaneers, and Anime Piracy

The debate about piracy in anime and manga might not be as old as the fandom but it certainly seems that way. The debate itself has changed with the size of the fandom. the accessibility of legitimate media, and the technology involved to name a few factors. But no matter what, the debate comes down to if and when do you think it is ethnically acceptable to view any non-licensed media. We are looking in on this debate since there have been several changes in the industry as well as the fandom. Both extremes in the piracy discussion see the other side as harmful zealots where as most people are caught in the middle. We weigh in our opinions and make some suggestions on what could be done to make most a little happier.

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(Listen)

And now your helpful bartenders at The Speakeasy present your drink:

Pirate’s Grog

• 2 ounces dark rum
• 1/2 ounce fresh lime juice
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar
• 4 ounces hot water
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 slice orange

Preparation:

Mix all the ingredients in a mug and garnish with a cinnamon stick and a slice of orange.

When we went to go see A Letter to Momo our little group went on a side trip to Kinokuniya. These trips are always dangerous. I did not pick up anything but my roommate purchased the Fate/Complete Material volume 5 art book which of course was of no small interest to me.This is a very hefty art book all about Fate/Hollow Ataraxia. As I have never played Fate/Hollow it is always nice to get some more insight into that game. I have to say that I was slightly surprised that Bazett was the character on the cover. While she is one of the most important characters in the game she generally tends to be overlooked in most materials.The first part of the book shows all the designs from the returning characters. I never noticed how many odd little outfits Rin gets in this game. Interestingly enough all the new characters are near the back of the book in their own section. Also apparently that trio of girls who are the stars of Fate/School Life are rather prominent in Fate/Hollow. While they are no main characters that is a still a major upgrade from barely having names to becoming reoccurring minor characters. I wonder how they got that popular. There is also an amazingly wealth of background images and production sketches. Sadly I could not read the accompanying notes but I am sure they are filled with fascinating little details. Overall like the rest of the Complete Material books this is an amazing resource. As a side note they don’t have any materials from the sex scenes. I know that is a selling point for some people and a deal breaker for others. There is a whole page of naked Saber bum but other than that it is all clean as a whistle. It is definitely something I will pick up for myself when I have money again. If nothing else it only makes me want to play Fate/Hollow Ataraxia even more.

The Knight in the Area isn’t the best soccer anime you’ll see, but it does a solid job. I have to say I was surprised about the brother’s fate, I mean it was obvious Kakeru would have to go it alone, but the details of it were unexpected. As Kakeru finds his soccer spirit again, he decides to change schools looking for a player his brother respected. The players at Enoshima are a colorful bunch and I’m really enjoying the way they play off each other. The pacing is almost too fast however which leads to people saying a lot of things rather than showing them or us feeling them. I am pleased that in episodes 9-10 Seven is getting more of story. And she is a force to be reckoned with, quickly showing she has more skill than Kakeru and the boys of the team. It was really gratifying to see her far bypassing our main character. Kakeru is a player who will struggle for each new step and that is just fine.

Speaking of art books I also took a look at my roommate’s copy of the Art of the Mass Effect Universe. I am curious how many people bought this because there were interested in the art and how many people bought it because it had spoilers for the 3rd game.The book was an early sneak peek at some of the new squad members so I am sure that there was many a person who bought it for that fact alone. The art book is made up almost exclusively of concept sketches and background art from all three games. But it is amazingly insightful to see how certain races and characters have developed. Certain ideas seem fairly well solidified when they got on paper like the Asari but others seemed to go through quite a bit of tweaking like the Turians. I saw some designs that thankfully never saw the light of day. Some of the early Cerberus armor designs look outright dorky and while Joker looks like a retro future hick in the game at least he does not look like a lich or a space pedophile. There are also some interpreting insights into what got changed over the development of the games as well. Apparently there was supposed to be a big fight with monstrous Illusive Man at the end of the third game that was thrown out. I will note that the book seems to have come out slightly before the game was finished as one squad member did not have a name and the Banshee has a very different method of creation in the finished game. But as Narutaki will attest the lead time on putting out a book is quite long. Overall it is a great purchase if you are not too upset with Bioware after their recent brouhaha about the endings of the series.

With much anticipation, the first issue of Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples’ new sci-fi series Saga came out this week. It begins with the birth of our main character (ewww!). She (who remains nameless until the end of the issue) is our intermittent narrator giving us background on the endless war between Landfall and its moon Wreath which have pulled the rest of the galaxy into their feud. Her parents are currently in a bit of scrape as they are army deserters, one from each side. A sense of the world comes through with the great visuals as do the unique inhabitants that seem somewhere between new world technology and fairytale magic. The last few pages are emotional and beautiful. We know that our infant girl grows up but we don’t know when or if the story is going to shift time or if this is really a story about her parents or perhaps a saga that will play out many stories. Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples look to be a great combo, this is a really promising beginning.

Speaking of Mass Effect I also picked up the Datapad app because it is free so there was no reason not to give it a whirl. There is a little minigame where you assign ships to missions to gain galactic readiness points. It is without a doubt the most inefficient way to gain those points. It is basically a Facebook game that gives you a small amount of points and only affects a single area at a time as opposed to the other methods that raise awareness universally. It is just a “play for a few second and the forget about it” game but it strikes me as horribly inefficient. But the real reason to use the app is the other features. The first is the mail system. Every time you do a mission or have a meaningful conversation you will get a little email from one of the characters involved. It is a nice little feature that adds a bit of additional dialog to the game. Since the banter between characters is often a highlight of the game this is always appreciated. Who would not want more quips from Joker or Garrus’ insight into calibrations? The other highlight is the portable codex. The codex is an amazing resource into the background of the Mass Effect universe. The problem usually is that while your playing the game you are usually more interested in playing than reading the Codex. I printed out the Codex from 1 and 2 from the wiki and read that but most people read a select entry or two and call it a day. The ability to read the Codex outside of the game is just wonderful as it lets you catch up on the those little details on your commute or just waiting for something when it would be the best to read such materials. I just wish the app was a little more universal. Throwing in up as Android and web app would be a great idea for those without an iOS device.

I continue to be entertained and learn a bit of manga history with Kingyo Used Books vols. 3 and 4. The series often features nostalgia for manga and how that can inspire, help, and connect people. Here it continues with titles like Sailor Moon and Ranma 1/2 while also exploring figures like Masako Watanabe (credited with being the person to add stars to the eyes of shojo heroines and flowers around the borders) and Katsuichi Nagai (editor of Garo magazine) They finally get to that rascally Father of Manga Go Nagai, too. But most fascinating of the notes was one about the real life “rules” of sedori (resellers of rare manga) who have featured in the series. And of course there is a ton of much older classic manga talked about in these pages, though it is rather torturous since we will probably never get them in English. The recurring cast of characters grows as we meet more manga fans who just can’t get enough of the store. I love the addition of Sasayama whose first chapter was hilarious as he chides the regulars for being too pretty to talk about manga but coming to an understanding about himself in the end. Him taking down an arsonist in a subsequent chapter only solidified him in my mind. I always look forward to more Kingyo!

The Ongoing Investigations are little peeks into what we are watching and reading outside of our main posts on the blog. We each pick three things that we were interested in a week and talk a bit about them. There is often not much rhyme or reason to what we pick. They are just the most interesting things we saw since the last Ongoing Investigation.

I remember hearing about Friends with Boys when I was listening to Manga Out Loud podcast and thinking it sounded interesting but I forgot to look into the title further. But when I remembered I could read the comic online as web comic as mentioned again on the 3 Chicks Review Comics podcast I set aside some time to read Friends with Boys. The first thing that stuck me was the art reminded me of the art of Chynna Clugston. Both women have a style that is clearly manga aware but is equally informed by a wide variety of comic traditions. Faith Erin Hicks will discuss Tezuka as quickly as Bone when she is commenting on a page of her comic. She has an expressive style that lends itself equally well to web comics as well as traditional print comics. The story itself has two main layers. The first is the story of how Maggie McKay has to deal with going to a public high school after being home schooled all her life. At the same time there is a supernatural element of Maggie being able to see ghosts. The highest praise I can give the story is that if you removed all of the supernatural parts I would have found the story equally enjoyable. Maggie learning to make friends outside of her brothers with the punk Lucy and her brother Alistair was perfectly wonderful. While the ghost story tied the mundane drama together it was never forced to pick up the slack on the story. If anything it felt slightly thrown it just to make the story stand out as more than a mundane tale of friendship and self discovery. It did not detract from the story but it was an unusual addition. I will mention that not every plot element is wrapped up. If you want answers to every question the story poses you will be disappointed. The main story arc is resolved satisfactorily but certain side elements are left to your imagination. I don’t think the story is purposefully written to be a ongoing series. A sequel could be written but nothing in the book demands it. I would read more about the life of Maggie McKay and her friends and family but do not feel cheated if I never got more. The story itself is only up as a web comic for a few more days if you want to sample it but you can buy the physical book right now as well. As a side note what has Chynna Clugston been up to recently?

Avatar the Last Airbender: The Lost Adventures is a collection of short comics with mini-stories that happened during each of the seasons of the TV series. The book is divided into sections based on the books in which each story takes place. It is a little disconcerting if only because you are somewhat forced to remember what was happening at that particular moment, but you get on board fairly quickly. There are lots of different artists and writers so some are more stand out than others. I particularly liked the stylization by Brian Ralph for Momo’s adventure and the youthfulness of Gurihiru’s art. The greatest and most hilarious moments include the return of Wang Fire. It is a fun collection of mostly humorous anecdotes but nothing that screams buy this!

With Mass Effect 3 coming out next week I decided to read some of my roommate’s Mass Effect comics to tide me over until then. So I flipped through Mass Effect: Redemption and Mass Effect: Evolution. Since on of the main selling points of the series is the fact that the main character  is totally customizable by the player the comics have to focus on the static side characters for stories in the Mass Effect universe. Redemption focuses on Liara and her trying to get her hands on Commander Shepherd’s corpse in between Mass Effect One and Two. Evolution is the origin story of the Illusive Man. I thought Redemption was the stronger of the two stories. It basically built itself around the already established story that Liara told you in Mass Effect 2. It takes the broad strokes of that story and fill in the little details. Evolution on the other hand has a bit of the old “Boba Fett effect” in play. Giving an origin story to a character that mostly works on being mysterious can be detrimental. While Evolution hardly ruins the character of the Illusive Man I think he works better as an enigma. Also the story has a bit of “Who knew all these people knew each other before hand” going on as well. They are both interesting little stories but hardly necessary. But such is the way with most tie in material. At least none of it was Deception level bad.

Just as I was told, and seemingly like everyone else on the internet, I have started watch Downton Abbey. I was quickly sold during the first episode as a fan of period drama and calculating internal politics. The Crawley family loses its heir at the beginning of the first episode which starts a lot of things in motion. Because Lord Crawley has only daughters, the estate will pass to an unknown cousin. But Lord Crawley’s wife and mother (played by the splendid Maggie Smith) have plans of their own. The three daughters are a mixed bag but we don’t learn too much about anyone besides Mary in the first three episodes. Meanwhile below house the servants have their own concerns about the heir as well as conflicts of their own. This is where the series really shines with new valet Bates who has a bum leg; to not too bright kitchen maid Daisy; the inner workings of this large house hold are compelling. The time of the series is actually an interesting one of transition where non-nobles are beginning to leave service to strike out on their own, including women, but there is still a very traditional atmosphere to contend with like ideas of being ungrateful or getting above yourself. The series perfectly moves between stories of the servants and stories of the lords and ladies of the house and captures the inevitable interactions between them. I can’t wait to watch more and catch up with everyone else!

Not too long ago Miki Yoshikawa finished up Yankee-kun and Megane-chan. Apparently the ending is the series is rather controversial but I will cross that bridge when I get to it. What I am interested in is her newest series Yamada and the Seven Witches since I do not bear the author any ill will. It is another high school romantic comedy but now there seems to be a bit of a supernatural twist. The main character, Ryu Yamada reminds me of Shinagawa Daichi as they are both abrasive and some what dopy punks who are honorable beneath it all. Urara Shiraishi is far more intelligent and aloof than Hana. The first chapter is a body swap story that is resolved by the end of the chapter. It is mostly there to introduce a supernatural element and get the main characters to interact with each other romantically. But so far none of seven witches have made a formal appearance. So far the story has been cute and reminded me of the best strengths of Yankee-kun and Megane-chan. It is clearly a story for guys but with many of the strengths of a well told shojo story as well. I am curious to see where Miki Yoshikawa is going to take this story.

In the latest volume of Twin Spica (vol. 11) we are still reeling from the events of the previous volume. The entire cast is in a bit of haze which permeates their actions, but the book does swing into melodrama from time to time rather that its normal quiet introspection. I was rather surprised to not see Asumi’s dad at all in this, too. Still the stakes have become so intense and the end is so near you can’t help but be desperate to get the next and final volume.

Since I already did GTO: Shonan 14 Days as a Manga of the Month it is only natural that I recommend GTO: The Early Years as the companion piece. Shonan Junai Gumi is where Eikichi Onizuka’s adventure started. I always had a vague feeling there was a longer story that occurred before GTO when I first read the series. Characters make quick reference to old stories and grudges. Characters would pop on to the scene with minimal introduction. Ryuji Danma and Onziuka seemed to have had a tremendous amount of back story. But I did not think much about it and just assumed Tohru Fujisawa liked it hint at a greater story than he was telling. But when I learned that GTO was a sequel to an equally long manga called Shonan Junai Gumi it all made sense. So I was thrilled when Tokopop started releasing the original series and crushed when they closed up shop leaving the manga unfinished. Thankfully Vertical has licensed recused this series and is putting their own signature polish of the title.

Back before he was the greatest teacher in Japan Eikichi Onizuka was just a teenager with his friend Ryuji Danma and they both had a dream. To finally lose their virginity. It just so happens these two goofy teens are also the toughest delinquents in all of Japan. So the Oni-Baku has to fight all stripes of insane thugs, miscreants, yankees, criminals, and psychopaths to keep their reputation while trying to find love (or at least satisfy their lust) with some lucky ladies. They build quite a gang for themselves in the process.

It is great to get the end of the beginning of the Onizuka legacy when it seemed like this part of the story would not see a full licensed release in the US. While this part of the story is a bit cruder than later parts of Onizuka’s story it also has its own energy that is not present in the later iterations as well. The art and story telling is a bit less refined but I feel the humor is a bit ruder, the action a bit wilder, and the stakes a bit higher. As Tohru Fujisawa goes on in his career his work gets much more refined but he loses a bit of spontaneity in the process. This is the raw and uncut Onizuka. I would like to see this do well because then Vertical can go back and redo the old Tokoyopop versions of GTO: The Early Years and maybe even GTO itself. If you want more Onizuka there is the new Ino-Head Gargoyle that continues the GTO legacy with Saejima Toshiyuki who has been with the GTO franchise since Shonan Junai Gumi as well.

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While February is the shortest month of the year there are still quite a few updates to be had on the anime and manga news fronts.

The Line-Up is a monthly rundown of newly licensed in the U.S., newly streaming in the U.S., and newly announced anime and manga projects.

Newly Licensed in the U.S.

• Awkward Silence – SuBLime
• The Book of Bantorra – Sentai Filmworks
• Colorful Harvest – Digital Manga Publishing
• Elemental Gelade – Digital Manga Publishing
• Genshiken: Second Season – Kodansha USA
• Get Backers – Sentai Filmworks
• Gintama: The Movie – Sentai Filmworks
• Haganai – Seven Seas Entertainment
• Heroman – Vertical Inc.
• I’ve Seen It All – Digital Manga Publishing
• An Ideal Day to Fall in Love – Digital Manga Publishing
• K-ON!! – Sentai Filmworks
• Kanjou Spectrum – Animate USA
• Kiss Ariki – SuBLime
• Kurenai – Sentai Filmworks
• Level-E – Funimation
• Limit – Vertical Inc.
• Mayo Chiki! - Seven Seas Entertainment
• Occult Academy – NISA
• Planzet – Sentai Filmworks
• Pretear – Funimation
• Sengoku Basara: The Last Party - Funimation
• Sleepless Nights – Digital Manga Publishing
• Space Adventure Cobra (movie) – Discotek
• The Man I Picked Up – Digital Manga Publishing
• Unlimited Bladeworks – Sentai Filmworks

Newly Streaming in the U.S.

• SuBLime added Love Pistols, Oku-san’s Daily Fantasies, The Bed of My Dear King, Husband Honeymoon, Bond of Dreams Bond of Love, How’s Your Ex?
• JManga added Japan Sinks, I Love You Chief Clerk!, Love My Life, Cousin, The Seduction Big, Angus’s Lost Lady, In the Arms of Sheikh, Backwards Honeymoon, Blue Moon Bride, Daniel and Daughter, The Celebrity Doctor’s Proposal, Million Dollar Men, Kodoku no Gourmet, TSUMANUDA Fight Town, Recorder and Randsell, The Lucifer and Biscuit Hammer, Das Kapital, An Insatiable Passion, Amber By Night, The Cinderella Inheritance, Traded to the Sheikh, The Amalfi Bride
  
• Crunchyroll streaming Puella Magi Madoka Magica
• Crackle streaming Puella Magi Madoka Magica
• Hulu streaming Puella Magi Madoka Magica
• Comic Friends added Kimagure Orange Road

New Anime/Manga Projects in Japan

• New Web Anime Series Sekiei Ayakashi Mangatan Started
  It is actually streaming and available in the U.S. but there are no English subs.
• Princes of Tennis II Gets OVAs
• Sanrio’s Onegai My Melody Getting Animated Feature
• Jewelpet Series is Getting a 4th Season and a Film
• Saint Seiya CGI Movie and New Anime Series Saint Seiya Omega Announced
  Couple of interesting things about the new Omega series. First, it isn’t based on any of the manga, it is completely new, so it might be a great place for people to get into the series. Second, the character designer is Yoshihiko Umakoshi who did designs for Heartcatch Precure.
• +Tic Neesan Getting New Anime
• Otome Nadeshiko Love Diary 2 Will Have an OVA Bundled With It 
• Bunny Drop‘s Manga-ka Starting New Series Itohen
  I am curious how much the end of the Bunny Drop manga has soured people to the work of Yumi Unita especially among her English speaking fans.
• Black Jack Manga Returns in the Fall
  I hope they still have some of the classic crazy town elements that made Black Jack what is was.
• Sankarea Gets OVAs Bundled with Books
• PSP Adventure Game La storia della Arcana Famiglia Anime Green-Lit
  Seems like more and more girl oriented games are getting anime!
• GoRA Project Announced But No Details
• Goro Miyazaki Working on Samurai Era Film, Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata Also Working on Projects
  I haven’t had the chance to see Goro Miyazaki’s Up on Cherry Hill yet but I am curious about this new project. And Takahata working on something new is surely going to be wonderful.
• More Himitsu Kessha Taka no Tsume On the Way
• Newtype Ace Launches New Space Battleship Yamato 2199 Manga
• Amagami SS+ Gets New Path OVA
• Shiba Inoku-san 4-koma Getting Anime
• Otome Game Hanayaka Nari, Waga Ichizoku Anime Green-lit
• A New Installment of Rumic Theater Will Run in March
  Takahashi’s Rumic Theater stories tend to be a bit more on the serious side and have a bit more social commentary while still retaining her comedic fair. I am curious where this story will fit into the Rumic Theater spectrum.
• Love Live! School Idol Project Getting Interactive Anime
• KenIchi the Mightiest Disciple Plus A New Manga Is Coming Out Alongside the New OVAs
• Madhouse Collaborating on Peanuts Shorts
  What an unusual combination.
• Manga Bungo Series Adds Adaptions of Tiger Poet and Animal Farm
• Yurumates 3D Begins in April
• Koizumi Itsuki no Inbou a Haruhi Spin-Off Manga Scheduled
• Flash Animation Shorts Gakkatsu! to Begin on NHK Educational TV
• Speculative-Fiction Novel From the New World Getting Anime
• Hakuouki Sekkaroku Getting Many More Adaptions
• New BL Anime from Junjo Romantica / Sekai-Ichi Hatsukoi Creator in the Works
• Fantasy Series Hinoko from Kare Kano Manga-ka to Begin in March
• Upotte!! Bundling OVA with 4th Manga Volume
• Master Keaton Manga Getting a Sequel
• Kindachi Case Files Returning to Weekly Serial
• AnoHana Manga to Start in Jump Square

Just recently Weekly Shonen Jump announced that Bleach was entering its final story arc. I don’t think it is too uncommon a sentiment even among fans of the series that this is a good thing. Bleach has already lasted over 50 volumes and has wandered around enough in the plot that wrapping everything up would be for the best. I assume that the sales have dipped low enough for Shonen Jump editors to want to end the series but it still does well enough that they will let it have a graceful exit from the magazine. That might not be the case but it is the most likely scenario.

That aside, Narutaki and I have a few thoughts on the manga now that it is going into its final act.

No one could possibly be sad that Bleach is finally wrapping up. And I’m saying that as someone who really enjoyed it, for a time, and would like to see an ending. But we aren’t here to complain about the past missteps . . . totally. Instead, we want to frame it as what can be done right for this final arc.

Dear Tite Kubo. I have one simple piece of advice. STOP INTRODUCING NEW MINOR CHARACTERS. Your cast is bloated as it is. You can add in new villains. I have no problem with that. It is merely part of the shonen fighting formula. The thing is those characters leave the picture after a certain period in time. They get defeated and you move on.

But no more minor heroes. They just stick around to become dangling plot lines. You had all the characters from Karakura Town. Then you tripled the cast with Soul Society. Each arc after that has even added more allies but refused to tie up any previous plot lines. Does anyone even remember that Tatsuki Arisawa had a plot line? Can anyone remember half the plot lines with the various Shinigami and Visards?

This should be the time to start wrapping things up as you close shop and not adding new threads.

Then why did you add Ryunosuke and Shino? Do they add anything that could not have been done with any of the other 100+ allies for Ichigo you have already introduced?

I know that Eiichiro Oda has a similarly large cast and in the same magazine no less. But the main difference is when they leave an island in One Piece you get a feeling of closure on the characters in that arc. Their lives go on but you feel like you are ready to move on to the next plot point with a feeling of satisfaction. You could come back to these characters but you don’t HAVE to.

I have never gotten that feeling from any part of Bleach. This is your chance to make things right and give the series a solid ending. But you have to start breaking your bad habits now.

Dear Tite Kudo. Please reveal that Urahara has been the true villain of the series all along.

I honestly want to believe that Kubo has had a plan from the very beginning and that plan includes Urahara. His role in the first arc is great, unclear, surprising, and down right shady in the end. That first arc is good, has a nice pace, and has forethought.

Urahara is in the series just enough to make my big baddie ending possible while also not having to shoehorn too many things in order to make it work. His past is partially revealed but he rarely gives explanations or apologies. Urahara is mysterious (no Bankai revealed yet, lots of experiments) and very intelligent with a wider skill set that would obviously make him formidable as a last boss.

Kubo has gotten off track with the series, probably because he couldn’t have predicted its popularity, but I do believe he knew what he was doing at the start. Now that we have gotten around to wrapping it up I believe he can get back to his story and I hope that story is Urahara related.

Despite my complaining I still read Bleach as I find it entertaining if a bit sloppy. I am glad that it got the room to tie things up. Far too often series are just given a brief notice that there time is up and have to scramble to put some cap on the storyline that is totally unfulfilling.

No one wants a Shaman King ending.

I look forward to seeing how Tite Kubo ends the series with the time he is given and look forward to seeing what he does next. With one series completed I am curious to see what he can create with a full series under his belt.

My problem is that I tend to skim Bleach when I do read it. It is tedious to read a series that you can easily see is being stretched to its limit, at least it is for me. Bleach started well and I now hope that it can end well.

There was no way my apartment was not getting the Mass Effect 3 demo the day it came out. I will avoid spoilers but I am sure some people are going to be upset that I mention you fire guns and fight Reapers. That aside the demo lets you make a temp Shepard with the normal amount of customization and you even get to make a few key previous game choices. You play through the first mission that is a basically a tutorial and then it jumps ahead to the earlier E3 demo. The first part is very cinematic where the second half is a good sample of the new game play. Since the second half is further in the game they give you more weapons to play with and more power points to see how the new abilities feel. A few quick notes. The cool down for powers is extremely short in first part and terrifically slow in the second half. They clearly want you to experience the new combat shooting system with minimal power use in the second half. The new game plays is even more run and gun than the previous games. I think it is a bit harder but you still have the power wheel to pause the action and a story mode if the action is too frantic. I also noticed that you could not upgrade your weapons like you could in the E3 demo. I also have played a little with the Mass Effect multipalyer. The mode is thankfully cooperative. I would not want to step foot into a competitive version of the game. So far the gameplay revolves around  surviving waves of enemies with a few random mini missions to break things up. 11 waves of increasingly tough enemies is fairly grueling. But once you get the hang of it the game is fun if a bit brutal. Expect to fail missions a lot. They do give you a good amount of experience even if you fail. You use the money you earn in missions to essentially buy booster packs of upgrades and items. The items you get are random so you can expect to grind quite a bit. The only lame thing is to play as an aliens race you have to randomly unlock them buying the expensive version of the booster packs. Over all the demo made me look forward to the game in March and made be not worry about the multipalyer so it accomplished its mission.

I had the pleasure of seeing the premiere of Justice League: Doom at a special event held at the Paley Center here in NYC. The movie is based on a famous Justice League storyline from the comics known as The Tower of Babel in which Batman has contingency plans on how to take out each member of the JL stolen and then used against them. The basic premise remains the same, but the ways in which each member is neutralized as well as the ultimate villain are different in this new animated film. And it is executed fantastically. All of the stories are being told simultaneously which brings in a lot of tension as we switch from hero to hero. The writing is snappy and of course Batman has all of the greatest lines but it meshes well with the serious nature of the story. It gets very dark and what happens when Batman realizes what is going on as well as how the JL take that information is an excellent, thoughtful finish to the action packed story. This is a great addition to the DC animated library and a wonderful swansong for late great writer Dwayne McDuffie.

Much to the consternation of Tsukihime fans it seems that the Fate part of the Nasuverse is the part that always gets all spinoffs. Himuro no Tenchi Fate/School Life is not exception but it is one of the strangest spin-offs yet. It is a 4 koma comic all about the daily lives of some of the extremely minor characters at Shiro’s school. The comic most revolves around Himuro Kane, Makidera Kaede, and Saegusa Yukika but most of the school based main characters make guest appearances. Thankfully while the art is sort of crude and very gag manga based it is also wacky like a proper 4 koma. So that means punchy little jokes as opposed to more sedate Hidamari Sketch styled slice of life humor. That means Kinnikuman jokes, demonic family pikes, and some obscure historical references. But it is still wacky girls do wacky things without a hint of anything supernatural. Also did you know there is an Indonesian version of soccer played barefoot with a flaming ball? Thanks Fate/School Life! It is worth just reading the third and fourth chapters just to learn about all the odd sports they mention. Also Tchoukball is the most un-American sport ever.

I caught the first episode of Kevin Smith’s new reality series Comic Book Men which follows the clerks at Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash. Smith is also part of the program as him and the guys talk in a podcast setting interspersed throughout the episode. I’m not a big Smith fan, but this seemed like worth checking out. It is unscripted but at the same time seems really scripted. One example is when another clerk asks a question like “What is Robin’s origin?” which I can hardly believe they don’t already know the answer to. I realize this is for the benefit of more casual viewers but they need to figure a way to integrate it better. Also the customers they deal with in the store were all selling, not buying, which felt unnatural. Maybe it is just too difficult to tape a regular time at the store, like new comic day, because of release forms? In any case it just made things seem really empty and slow. As for the personalities of our cast everyone is fine except Bryan who just comes off as a real asshole. The first episode is quite stiff and unsure of its formula, but this doesn’t surprise me with a reality show. I will probably give it at least another episode to see if it can get into a grove but it doesn’t seem promising.

I decided to check out Sekien No Inganock as it was recommended to me by a reader. It is a steampunk visual novel which caught my attention. While steampunk is the flavor of the week nerd obsession of late in the English language world I was curious to see the Japanese take on the subject. Otaku are hardly into steampunk as much as Americans but there are things like Gear Antique that prove that they are aware of the genre. I will warn anyone interested in the game that there are an unusually high amount of anthropomorphic characters in this game.  While I would be hesitant to call it a furry game I would preface it with the statement that if you can’t stand anything with furry content this will instantly turn you away. The main love interest is at cat girl named Ati so your mileage will vary on that fact alone. Other than that the game has an intriguing premise. The city of Inganock much like Paradigm City was a prosperous steam-powered city until an incident sealed away the area during a disaster everyone cannot remember. Now the majority of the population is mutating while being hunted by invincible mythical beasts. The protagonist is a doctor who has taken in a strange girl who seems unaffected by the affliction plaguing the cursed city. The game play is mostly your usual long stretches of reading with a few key choices to make but there is one twist. About half way through each chapter there will be a section where you get to hear the thoughts of all the major players in the chapter. Unlocking one characters thoughts will let you see more of what the other characters are thinking. It is a nice bit of interactivity but it can be argued it is just a very complex form of making you read a linear story. The art has a very pastel vibe that makes it feel unique and gives everything a dream like quality. This is a game with pornographic content but I have not run into any of that in what I have read of the first three chapters. There was an unexpected scene of toplessness fairly early on but since then everything has been tame. Things still have the ability to go downhill since I am hardly an expert of how Liar-soft constructs their games. The plot seems to be made of episodic chapters that are all building to reveal the grand mystery behind what happened to Inganock. It is a promising start so I am interested to see where it goes.

I finally read the science-fiction / detective mash-up The Caves of Steel. It takes a future where Earth’s relationship to robots and the rest of the universe known as the Spacer Worlds is a tumultuous one. The culture of Earth live in domes and their environment as well as their lives are very set out for them. Tensions are high as robots become more advanced changing people’s livelihoods. Elijah is a middle-aged detective who must work with advanced robot Daneel to solve the murder of an important figure in the changing policies between Earth and the Spacers. This is a fairly short novel that attempts to pose philosophical questions during this imagined future. We learn quite a bit about the world surrounding Elijah as he travels around investigating and his perspective changes as he interacts with Daneel. Some of it is engaging while some of it feels shoehorned or tangential. And if the novel shows its age anywhere, it is the dialogue which is very fond of the words like Jehoshaphat. The mystery itself is a good one which I could not pick out the culprit in despite not having very many suspects.

When I watched the first episode of Sound of the Sky a while back, I thought it seemed interesting enough to continue a few more episodes in. I don’t know what happened, but re-watching the first episode I couldn’t believe my former self. It was slow and meandering. Perhaps I was mesmerized by the music, which is worth being mesmerized over, but not worth sitting through the rest of the show for. The setting is also interesting, taking place in a post-apocalyptic future with divides and wars, but the town in which everyone is stationed is relatively peaceful. Normally, that would all change when our main character arrives . . . but no, it is still basically peaceful. So it ends up being a show about this somewhat rag-tag team of girls in the military hanging out, meeting townspeople, and occasionally learning music. The main girl is predictably naive and in the last episode I watched pushed that to the limit by overlooking the fact that the military kills people as do guns and tanks. There are traces of underlying story, especially with the extended cast that has been working for a while, but nothing gripping. I am sure this show is doing exactly what it means to do, but that still doesn’t mean I want to watch it.

Sound of the Sky is sort of like dating a shallow supermodel. You meet her and she looks gorgeous and sounds wonderful. Everything about her superficially is impeccable. But after a few deep conversations you realize there is not as much going on inside as you might have first hoped. There is quite a bit to like about this anime. The production values cannot be questioned. The animation is often amazingly fluid, the backgrounds are often breathtaking, and the sound design is outstanding. If you want lesson on how to make an anime that draws you in with the power of animation this is a good example. The problem is the story itself swallowed a bottle of Valium. To say that the show is just post-apocalyptic K-On! is selling it a bit short but it is also sums up all the major problems with the series. It just seems like the slice of life tale of 5 girls not really doing much of anything in a small town while they fix a tank and play instruments. The formula could be good. There is nothing inherently wrong with slowly building this world and getting us involved with the characters before turning on the main plot. The problem is that it is like telling someone to watch 10 episodes of Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou to get to the three exciting episodes at the end. The post-apocalyptic setting is unusual and well realized. The cast lives a very provincial lifestyle despite the fact that they are surrounded by the remains of a once great civilization. But the stories they tell are rather sleepy despite the promise of grander tales that could be told in this setting. I am not sure if anyone who is not a fan of slice of life shows could casually make that commitment for the reward at the end. The characters are fine. They are a bit stock and Kureha Suminoya can be grating but they did not annoy me as much as the K-On! cast. There is also a pretty distinct yuri vibe going on. Nothing overt but it is omnipresent and rather unmistakable. I will probably continue to watch just to see the last few episodes. Apparently they start to live up to the promise of the prophecy in the beginning. I will power through the middle episodes to see if the pay off at the end is worth it just in case our readers were curious.

In D.Gray Man vol. 18 something surprising is introduced, a phantom thief story! The gang is visiting a small town for the purpose of getting a few people out of jail, but then they get wrapped up in the story of a thief who controls people’s bodies. Of course it ties into a battle for innocence, but still it was a fun break.

The Holidays threw off my anime viewing schedule as some of the series I watch streaming are on Nico Nico. If you miss a week on Nico Nico you can’t catch up. But then I realized last week that most of the shows I were watching are also on Hulu. So it was time to get back into Last Exile: Fam the Silver Wing. As I watched these episodes I realized one thing. Fam Fan Fan and Giselle Collette are harbingers of doom because whenever they leave a location that place gets obliterated. They leave the Kingdom of Turan and it gets wiped off the map by a super weapon. They steal some airships and everyone involved is executed. They join an air pirate raiding party and they are slaughtered out. They leave the Silvius and it gets sunk. They take off from Glacies and it gets hit by the same super weapon as Turan. They are like the Jessica Fletcher of the Last Exile universe. Wherever they go people die. That little observation aside I have been enjoying the show. I think since I remember liking Last Exile but not thinking the original series was that amazing I lets me judge the show a bit fairer than the hardcore fans. I don’t think it will surpass the first show. The story is still a bit too simplistic and it does not have the innovative feel that the first series does. But Luscinia has grown a bit as a more realistic villain although his bad guy laugh in episode 15 is not helping any development of his motives. Fam and Giselle have grown on me but there very simple world view is sure to turn off some viewers when contrasted with the more complex politics of the rest of the cast. Thankfully Millia has calmed down a bit and is much more tolerable than her first appearance. She is much less Princess Princess and more of a leader as the series has progressed which is a welcome bit of character progress. Also like Sound of the Sky there is an unmistakable yuri vibe to this show. Your mileage may vary on how much that appeals to you. I mostly just ignore it. Overall this remains a fun little show that I stream at lunch once a week now that I have caught up. I will complain that the next episode preview fooled me with scenes of Claus and Lavi but it just turned out to be a recap episode for the first series. That was just mean.

If you want to know how fast the Sailor Moon manga moves, Chibi Usa shows up in volume 3. This volume is really a double whammy of stories because we get the conclusion of the first arc against the Dark Moon Kingdom and also the setup for the next part of the series concerning the Black Moon clan. I really enjoy Rei’s part at the beginning with her premonitions. But the best thing of all is that in the manga, Chibi Usa doesn’t generally make you want to strangle her at all times. Her appearance throws a good wrench into things, but at the same time it is another one of those mysteries that seems a little hard for the audience to really see as difficult to figure out. And consequently makes the cast look a bit like idiots.

Since I was catching up the Last Exile I decided to watch Guilty Crown 8-15 as well. Of all the things you can complain about Guilty Crown doing wrong the biggest problem is that it is as subtle as tank bursting through your front window while blaring Ride of the Valkyries. The show cannot image doing anything with a light touch. When people die it is in the most melodramatic way possible. When they are conflicted they writhe with indecision. When villains are evil they eat up the scenery with their ham-fisted evil. I am enjoying the show on a certain level for the fact that it is unapologetic in its bombastic nature. The reason I cannot recommend the show is that there is always something off in its execution. Every turn just comes off a bit too calculated and a bit too false. Gai’s history with Mana and Shu is telegraphed but still comes off as somewhat out of nowhere even if it is not. It does not help that it keeps the charterers rather repugnant before trying to redeem them. I have an odd feeling they are going to try to have Daryl Yan do a Heel Face Turn. The problem is they have spent so much time portraying him has a psychopath that any redemption is going to come off as hollow. At least Yahiro Samukawa had a reason to be such a bastard before they had him change sides. Also Hiroyuki Yoshino apparently hates childhood friends because he sure loves killing them off when he is in charge of an original script. I will finish up this show and probably have a good time with it but it is really going down as a black mark in the history of Noitamina. This show would get a far kinder reaction if it were not in such a treasured spot for more discriminating anime fans.

Princess Knight was always a series I desperately wanted to read. After all it inspired so many creators and I’d heard its name when discussing things like The Rose of Versailles and Revolutionary Girl Utena. Vertical re-released it in English just this past year and so I was finally able to see for myself the influence. I realize now after reading it, that I had no idea what to expect from it; tt was unlike anything I had conjured up in my mind. The only thing I had consistently heard was it’s the story of a girl with the heart of a boy and through my own assumptions I figured she wanted to be that boy when really she just wants to be the typical princess. Does it take on gender politics, definitely, but does it do so in the ways I thought it would, not as much. It being, what I concluded to be, a satire of the fairytale genre was a surprise.

Princess Knight has gained this almost mystical reputation as this prototypical shojo manga. For a time it was even incorrectly labeled at the first shojo manga by American fans. It did not help that one of the few ways to read the manga was buying the very out of print and insanely expensive Kodansha bilingual manga release. This all led to Princess Knight gaining a legendary status as if was often referenced by other works but was almost impossible for the average fan to get their hands on. So much of the series reputation came on what people thought it was more than what it actually was. In a way I think most fans saw the works that were inspired by Princess Knight and extrapolated what they thought it would be. And so the actual gender politics are far less progressive and the themes far less complex than some of fandom might have imagined.

At first, I had trouble getting on board with Sapphire, it just felt like she wanted to be the stereotype of a woman. She masquerades as the handsome, gallant, brave prince and the beautiful, demure, helpless princess in turns. At one point during a fight in which she is winning, she loses her boy heart then proceeds to say how weak and scared she is and how she has lost the will to fight. But by the end, I realized that her dual hearts were being used to highlight the ridiculous standards of gender. The problem for Sapphire isn’t that she has two hearts but that her identity is in constant limbo, people have been telling her what she should and shouldn’t do and be since the moment she was born. This is certainly a reflection of her royal status, but also a look into how the world tells us who we should be as men and women. The fact that the story does it with humor and a break-neck pacing keeps it from falling too heavily. But still it is there, the search for identity. Sapphire doesn’t know herself and it isn’t until the end of the series that she realizes she can be a combination of traits.

I myself was struggling to figure out what exactly makes Sapphire feel so very different that then women who come after her like Utena or Oscar. Despite the fact that Utena and Oscar seem stronger than Sapphire it is very clear in all three stories that the masculine is the strong and capable and the feminine is weak (although Utena plays and examines with this concept more than the other two.) I think the major divide comes down to an issue of agency. Sapphire rarely if ever feels in control of her position as someone who has insight into both genders. By an accident of her birth she is born with two souls and due to a misfortune is forced to pretend to be a boy. While her boy’s heart often makes her very capable in the first book she often treats it like a burden and hardly seems attached to it. It seems more the necessity of the plot keeps her from simply giving away her boy’s heart. She spends so much of the series wanting to be demure but never truly striving for that path. Even her balance at the end if more through the contrivance of other characters than her own prerogative. Oscar on the other hand is also forced by her father to be raised as a boy but she owns the role and embraces her path. In fact she is given several opportunities to leave the life of a woman living as a man but chooses duty over comfort. Oscar owns her path as opposed to be forced upon it. The character with the greatest agency and balance is Utena. She is the only one of the three that not only chooses her path but strives to live as a prince while identifying as a woman. Her issues in the show are far more complex than Sapphire or Oscars but she also has the greatest control over her decisions.

I actually found Hecate to be a more interesting and inspiring character throughout the series. By making her not a human but a demon she is essentially allowed to act as a the more progressive woman, she is outside the conventional system already. In her fashionable Audrey Hepburn-like tap pants with backbone and independence, she is a reflection of the modern times in which the manga was made and not the medieval fairy-tale setting of the story. She doesn’t know much about the human world and her encounters with people always show her to be quite the mischief-maker. But while making her a demon might sound like a step back, the fact that her mother, who is shown to be an evil twisted witch and major villain of the series, is constantly trying to turn her into the perfect human girl keeps it from (for lack of a better word) demonizing being unconventional. Hecate rejects marrying the prince multiple times over and in the end executes a plan to help him escape. She does none of this because she has the heart of a man or a woman, but because that is simply who she is.

If anyone is a heroine in the mold we first expected from Princess Knight it is Friebe. She may be hot-headed, selfish, and only participating in a tournament to find a husband but she has much of the agency that Sapphire lacks. She is a warrior by choice and is fighting to find a husband as opposed to hoping one comes to her. Her standard attire is that of black plate armor. She also has the arrogant bravado and chivalry associated with male knights. But at the same time she is willing to accept her feminine side and devoted herself to studying domestic chores as much as martial prowess. She more than Sapphire seems to have a very balanced soul between that of a man and a woman and all by her own choice. She seems to contribute to the archetype of the woman proudly living her life as a man to throw away gender roles and be who she wishes to be not who society tells her to be.

There are many other women in the series worth exploring from the organized ladies at the palace that defend Sapphire to the island warriors to the seductress Venus. We decided to focus on these few because they stood out to us for various reasons. Princess Knight presents a lot of different roles for women. And for the women we talked about, each is to really look for who they are and what they want. I didn’t fully grasp this until reading the second volume but I think it was worth it.

The Rose of Versailles and Revolutionary Girl Utena come from a later era that had much of their path laid out by Princess Knight. It is easy to forget that it is often a string of small changes that lay the path for revolutionary turning points in the future. Osamu Tezuka was able to popularize the concept of an adventure manga for girls. He introduced a character whose fluid gender would inspire later authors to take the radical ideas that he set forth and go even farther with them. Princess Knight might not have been the radical text we thought it was but it is still undoubtedly paved the way for so much of the shojo we love today.

Every time I get a new volume of D.Gray Man, I think to myself why don’t more people read this? I realize it is not an unpopular series but it also doesn’t seem to have really stuck around. This may be partially due to it moving from the prominent Weekly Shonen Jump magazine to the monthly Jump Square. There is a lot of shonen fighting manga out there, so it is easy to miss one. And besides that, picking and choosing what is worth settling in the long haul with can be difficult.

D.Gray Man combines supernatural powers and occult lore with the shonen fighting formula. The gothic and macabre designs are well utilized giving life to everything from the obvious horror to less imaginable whimsy and humor. The art overall is a real treat in the series; the details in the European setting to costume and architecture are wonderful. Allen Walker possess a power called Innocence that can be harnessed to defeat demons and the like. The organization known at the Black Order recruits people with these gifts in an ongoing war against the Millennium Earl and his dark minions. Even before Allen joins their ranks, it is clear that there are many secrets to each side and to Allen himself. Allen is a positive lead who has a lot of charm about him; he is very honest and possesses a lot of heart. He isn’t the type of character who you forget about to concentrate on the support personalities. But he does have an electric group of people around him. The series utilizes everyone and the setting well, even pushing the grotesque monsters and violence pretty far at times. And it has a lot of mystery in the undercurrent which slowly reveals itself.

At just 22 volumes so far, D.Gray Man isn’t too much of a commitment compared to its brethren. (And VIZ is almost in line with the Japanese, releasing the 21st volume in November.) Within its pages is a solid journey that doesn’t drag and reveals its twists and turns in good time. Add in a good cast and artwork that begs to be looked at in detail and I find I can’t resist D.Gray Man.

• Learn more!
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I have to say this is a brilliant little idea from Narutaki. If you have ever done a year in review article you will find that the while you might remember the last week’s news crystal clear what was licensed and when all tends to blur together after a few months. Hopefully this monthly post will help us, and anyone who needs it, have a clearer picture of what was picked up over the year.

Newly Licensed in the U.S.

• Ano Natsu de Matteru (Waiting in the Summer) – Sentai Filmworks
• Another – Sentai Filmworks
• Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo – S’more Entertainment
• Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai – Funimation
• Brave 10 – NISA
• Captain Commando – Udon Entertainment
• Daily Lives of High School Boys – NISA
  Huzzah!
• Familiar of Zero F – Sentai Filmworks
• Flutter – Digital Manga Publishing
• Galaxy Express 999 TV – S’more Entertainment
  I am very curious to see how well this does for the new company. Such a strange title to pick as one of your first out of the gate.
• Growing Up with Hello Kitty – AnimEigo
• Highschool DxD – Funimation
• Inu x Boku SS – Sentai Filmworks
• Listen to Me Girl, I’m Your Father – Sentai Filmworks
• Locke the Superman – Discotek
• Motto To Love-Ru -Trouble-  – Sentai Filmworks
• Polyphonica Crimson S – Maiden Japan
• Poor Poor Lips – ALC Publishing
• Somedays Dreamers – Sentai Filmworks
• Velvet Kiss – Digital Manga Publishing
• Venus Wars – Discotek
• Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal – VIZ
• Zettai Karen Children (Psychic Squad) – Sentai Filmworks
  Interesting name change. If nothing else the retitled name gives you a slightly better idea of what the show is about. Maybe they also just wanted to get away from the children part.

Newly Streaming in the U.S.

• Crunchyroll Streaming Recorder and Randsell, Nisemonogatari, Brave 10, Ano Natsu de Matteru, Poyopoyo, Knight in the Area, Inu X Boku SS, Familiar of Zero F, Another, Bodacious Space Pirates, and Listen to Me Girls I’m Your Father
• VIZ Streaming Rinne no Lagrange
• Crackle Streaming Kurozuka
• JManga Adds Hyakushou Kizoku, Poor Poor Lips, Doll the Hotel Detective, Tenka Ichi!!
  
• NicoNico Streaming High School DxD, Senki Zesshou Symphogear, and Detective Opera Milky Holmes S2
• NicoNico Douga Streaming Black Rock Shooter
  

New Anime/Manga Projects in Japan

• Young Magazine Launches 6 New Manga in 7 Weeks
• Coming-of-age Teen Manga From Houzuki-san Chi no Aneki Creator Begins in March
• Renai Distortion Restarts in New Magazine
• Jormungand Manga-ka Starting New Manga in April
• Seigi Keikan Monju Manga-ka Launching New Title This Spring
• History’s Strongest Disciple Kenichi Getting OVAs in March and May
• Anime of Rock Lee no Seishun Full-Power Ninden Gag Manga Based on the Naruto Character Coming Soon
• Kouji Kumeta and Yasu’s Collaborative Comedy Manga Joshiraku Getting Animated
• Momo Pro Z Wrestling Manga Based on Idol Group Begins in February
• Well-known Creators Contribute to “Manga of the Dead” Website
• Himitsu Kessha Taka no Tsume Gaiden Mukashi no Yoshida-kun Anime Started on Jan. 21
• Rising Star Anime About Cricket Being Made For India
• est em Starting New Series Ippo
  est em was one of the first BL manga-ka I read that really drew me in to the stories. Her short manga collections are quirky, tragic, and all manner of things in between.
• Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion Movie and Nunnally of the Wonderland OVA Announced
  I can’t help but feel like this took a lot longer to come around than it should have, it has been many years now since the original TV series finished. Still I’m looking forward to the new projects even if I’m a little cautious about them.
• Leiji Matsumoto’s Ozuma Gets 6 Episode Anime
• The Devil Does Exist Manga-ka Starts New Elite High School Series Classroom of Peacocks
  The children of celebrities all attending a school, what mischief!
• BL Manga Tight-rope Getting An OVA
• GTO Spin-off Manga Inohead Gargoyle Starts
  An unusual character from GTO to spin-off into his own manga but it just might work.
• Uta no Prince-sama Maji 1000% Love 2nd Season Announced
  Definitely my favorite piece of news this month!
• BakuTech! Bakugan Series Announced
• Eyeshield 21 Artist Murata Reveals Magical Girl Work
  Man everyone want in on magical girls every since Madoka.
• Shonen Sunday Super Adds Gundam AGE Side Story
• Kickoff to the Galaxy!! A New Soccer Anime Based On the Novel Galactic World Cup
  There is so much soccer anime for 2011! This makes the third anime announced for the year.
• Phi Brain Puzzle of God Is Getting a 2nd Season
• Sora no Otoshimono Coming Back For a 3rd Season
• Yankee-kun to Megane-chan‘s Yoshikawa Starting New Manga in February
  I can’t wait to see what she does next!
• Bunny Drop Manga-ka Launching Digital Manga About The Creative Process
• Romance-Horror Manga Yume Yume Utsutsu Begins in February
• Yuri Manga-ka Milk Morinaga Will Start a New Series in June
• Ultra Jump Announces New Manga Tail Star from Cloth Road Artist
• New Manga Utau! Heian-kyou About Heian Period Aristocrats Starting in March
• Animal Comedy Shirokuma Cafe Gets Animated in Spring
• Ouran‘s Manga-ka Released Detarame Mousouryoku Opera One-Shot
  I love that a bunch of performers in need of help fall out of the girl’s closet. It is too bad it is so difficult to get one-shots in the U.S.
• Kuzu!! a Spin-Off Series to Crows Gangster Manga Will Begin in Young Champion
• Patema Anime Film Due Out This Year Getting Manga Adaption
• Star Driver Movie Coming Soon
  I hope it builds on the ending and it is not just a compilation movie.
• Princess Resurrection‘s Manga-ka Starting New Simultaneous Series
• Sakamichi no Apollon Manga Finishes Up While New Spin-Off Is Announced