Summer reading time is upon us once again. I have more time and energy for hobbies during this season, so here’s the first round of books. Most are continuations of ongoing series that I follow. I’ll do another round soon for either the May 10th or May 25th releases. The dollar->yen rate is finally recovering.
Tokyo Shinjuu
I saw the bright, stylized covers of Tokyo Shinjuu and its intriguing title (心中 can mean a double/lovers’ suicide) and knew I had to obtain these. I’m glad I did and I was definitely not alone–all the online stores quickly went through their initial stock and were sold out for weeks. Originally released as doujinshi, there are now four tankoubon under the Edge Comix imprint. This entry will be a quick (yet two months late) peek into the series, hopefully highlighting what makes it so appealing in the vast sea of BL manga.
The publisher Tousuisha and its magazine Ichiraci have made major issues lately: they’ve recently cut back to an every two-month publishing schedule, they lost Abe Miyuki, they lost Hashiba Maki, and now their best mangaka, Sugiura Shiho, is moving to a different magazine.
With the end of Silver Diamond and its side stories, a big question loomed: what will Sugiura Shiho’s next manga be? Her newest serialization is called Shuuten Unknown (Last Stop Unknown) and will appear in the May issue of Avarus. It’s a fantasy story about two men belonging to different (perhaps rival?) organizations that hunt treasure.
Treasure hunting? Sounds like more adventure, which is what she’s so good at writing. Love the character designs. I’m honestly tempted to buy the magazine and I never, ever do that. Either way, I’m excited to see information on her next manga.
With the departure of Sugiura Shiho, I can’t imagine Ichiraci has much to offer anymore. If the ship is sinking, someone needs to rescue Morimoto Shuu and Togawa Mitomo. Tousuisha used to be my favorite publisher and I love the hundreds of manga I own from their earlier days, so it’s been hard watching this obvious decline. However, as long as my favorite mangaka is still working, I’m good. I was nervous waiting for specific news about Sugiura’s next manga, so at least we know she’ll be okay and perhaps receive the same boost in popularity that Abe Miyuki experienced when she switched publishers.
I got really busy for a few weeks there and completely neglected this blog. I guess that’s about standard for this place. I’ll have to find the time to work on a blog entry about Tokyo Shinjuu if possible and if still relevant. I recently bought the second Tokyo Shinjuu series along with some other new releases.
Docchi mo Docchi (Same Difference) is back for a second volume, titled Docchi mo Docchi!! Don’t blink, you’ll miss the difference in the title. It’s a continuation from the first volume that focuses on their building relationship. I love the bright, cute cover. It will be released on 3/9. Getting new Hiiragi Nozomu manga is always a treat, so I already ordered a copy last week along with the new Tokyo Shinjuu book before that has a chance to sell out!
Fantasy
Fantasy by Okachimachi Hato (aka Matsumoto Miecohouse) is a fantasy manga in two ways: some characters have supernatural powers and the main couple is a 14 year old girl pursuing a 59 year old man. Holy crap, 45 year age gap! To make things even more interesting, Fantasy was published in Manga Erotics F, so it’s not shy about pushing boundaries. Let’s find out how far it will take us while attempting to not break WordPress’s terms of use (too much).
