By Makoto Yukimura
244 pages, black and white
Published by TokyoPop
Most comics about outer space focus on the big concepts; gigantic space ships zooming through the void, or alien invasions of Earth. Maybe that’s why Makoto Yukimura’s Planetes is so instantly appealing. It’s science-fiction, yes, and it’s very much about outer space… but Planetes‘s focus on quieter, character-based storylines makes it instantly stand out as something much more interesting.
By Shinji Saijyo
208 pages, black and white
Published by ComicsOne
When I reviewed the first volume of Iron Wok Jan! back in January, I enjoyed the book a great deal. There’s nothing worse than a series you loved going horribly wrong, though, so I figured that it was time to make sure that all my readers knew that in fact, Iron Wok Jan! has not gone horribly wrong. In fact, it’s even better than ever.
By Frédéric Boilet
144 pages, black and white
Published by Fanfare/Ponent Mon
When do people fall in love? Is it slowly and over time, or is it quickly and without warning? More importantly, can both occur to someone at the same time? Frédéric Boilet’s Yukiko’s Spinach seems to wonder that very question, even as the narrator seems already sure of its answer…
By Junji Ito
200 pages, black and white
Published by Viz
Junji Ito is Japan’s master of horror comics, but it’s only recently that his work has appeared in English in the forms of Tomie and Uzumaki. With each new work that’s translated, Ito’s powers of terror and suspense grow stronger. What’s surprising about his new work Gyo is not that it’s as scary as ever, but that as the next major work after Uzumaki, Gyo is almost a deliberate reversal of what he did in Uzumaki.
By Erica Sakurazawa
208 pages, black and white
Published by TokyoPop
As more and more manga comes overseas into English-speaking countries, there are phrases you hear thrown around a lot. Shonen (“boy’s manga”) and shôjo (“girl’s manga”) are two of them, with people quickly pointing out which story elements make a book meant for which gender. Well, if you read Erica Sakurazawa’s Between the Sheets, the question then becomes: What’s the name for women’s manga?
Story by Yozaburo Kanari
Art by Fumiya Sato
240 pages, black and white
Published by TokyoPop
The mystery genre is alive and well in most forms of entertainment. Television, movies, books, just about all of them have a good-sized percentage of mysteries… except, of course, comics. Aside from CrossGen’s Ruse, there aren’t many high profile comics that tackle mysteries, unless you live in Japan. TokyoPop’s brought one of those series into English in the form of The Kindaichi Case Files, and based on their first volume The Opera House Murders it’s clearly something that should’ve made it over here years ago.
Continue reading “Kindaichi Case Files Vol. 1: The Opera House Murders”
By Tavisha and Rikki Simons
160 pages, black and white
Published by TokyoPop
I’ve been a fan for quite a while of Studio Tavicat—the umbrella name often used by creators Tavisha and Rikki Simons—so it’s no small surprise that I’ve been hearing about ShutterBox for a while. I’d just about given up hope on ever seeing this particular project, especially when the original venue never happened, when seemingly out of nowhere, ShutterBox Volume 1 appeared. After reading the book, I realized that having things just appear like objects out of a dream or a vision is really more apt than I initially thought…
By Rikdo Koshi
200 pages, black and white
Published by Viz
For a while now I’ve been hearing about a Japanese anime series called Excel Saga. I was told it was wacky, it was bizarre, it was hysterically funny. So of course, I never got around to seeing it. However, when I heard that Viz was publishing the Excel Saga manga, I figured that was a good a way as any to see what all the fuss was about.
By Yoko Kamio
216 pages, black and white
Published by Viz
If there’s one thing that reading Japanese comics has taught me, it’s that their school system is set up very differently than ours. What school you go to carries a great amount of prestige, with parents often spending a great deal of money to get their children into a school that will look good when promotion time comes around. When reading Boys Over Flowers: Hana Yori Dango, I also got another very important lesson—that if Japanese schools are really like this, they’re very much not the place for me.
Written by Koushun Takami
Drawn by Masayuki Taguchi
216 pages, black and white
Published by TokyoPop
A couple of years ago, it seemed every time I turned around I couldn’t escape from talk of Battle Royale. A movie rapidly approaching cult status, everyone kept talking about its brilliant satire of television and violence and how everyone really had to see it. Viz recently published a translation of the original Battle Royale novel (the basis for the manga and then the movie), and now TokyoPop has gotten into the action as well with the first volume of the manga. Having just finished reading this first volume, I can’t decide if I need to rush out and pick up the novel and DVD, or if I should wait so I don’t have the rest of the manga spoiled for me…
