Happy belated new year everyone, and welcome to the first monthly manga giveaway of the year at Experiments in Manga! To start us off in 2013, I’m giving away a brand new copy of Kazue Kato’s Blue Exorcist, Volume 1 as published by Viz Media. As always, the giveaway is open worldwide!
One of the things I like about the end/beginning of the year is seeing all of the lists of best (and in some cases worst) manga of the year. I’ve never written one of those posts at Experiments in Manga, but perhaps it’s something I should consider. After all, I do like reading other people’s lists—sometimes I learn about titles I haven’t heard about yet and other times a title is mentioned on several different lists which makes me take notice. Last year, Blue Exorcist won not one, but two Readers’ Choice Awards at About.com: Manga—Best New Manga and Best New Shonen Manga. I had been hearing buzz about the series for quite some time before that, but the results of the Readers’ Choice Awards is what finally drove me to give Blue Exorcist a try.
So, you may be wondering, how can you win Blue Exorcist, Volume 1?
1) In the comments below, tell me a little bit about your favorite manga newly released in 2012. (Kuriousity put together a list of most of the manga that was published in 2012 in English if, like me, you need a reminder. Note: Your favorite new manga of 2012 doesn’t necessarily need to be in English!)
2) For a second entry, simply tell me about your favorite “new to you” manga from last year—manga that you read for the first time regardless of when it was published.
3) If you’re on Twitter, you can earn a bonus entry by tweeting about the contest. Make sure to include a link to this post and @PhoenixTerran (that’s me).
There you have it! Each person can earn up to three entries for this giveaway. As usual, there is one week to submit comments. If you have trouble leaving comments, or if you would prefer, you can e-mail me your entries at phoenixterran(at)gmail(dot)com. The winner will be randomly selected and announced on February 6, 2013. Good luck!
VERY IMPORTANT: Include some way that I can contact you. This can be an e-mail address, link to your website, Twitter username, or whatever. If I can’t figure out how to get a hold of you and you win, I’ll just draw another name.
Contest winner announced—Manga Giveaway: Blue Exorcist Giveaway Winner
My favorite new manga published in 2012 is Thermae Romae for sure. It was wonderful and totally exceeded my expectations. I really can’t wait for volume 2.
As for my favorite manga new to me in 2012, but published any time; It’s got to be Animal Land by Zatch Bell mangaka, Makoto Raiku. It has many aspects that I love about shonen manga, like determination themes and battles, but it also has a philosophical side to it. It pains me that nobody on the manga blogging community is talking about this series because it gets better with each volume it is much different than any other shonen currently available(including Blue Exorcist, which is pretty bland if you ask me).
Just to be clear, I’m not entering for this giveaway. I already read the first 6 volumes of Blue Exorcist and I didn’t like it. I just wanted to chime in with my opinion if that’s okay :)
Not a problem, thanks for sharing! ^_^
Well, my favorite new TITLE published in 2012 was Message to Adolf, but my favorite new VOLUME from 2012 was Bakuman vol 10. Bakuman has been the only title that I got really excited about well before it was published in English at all, and the series has yet to disappoint. And I’ve only recently discovered Tezuka, hence my interest in Adolf.
In the “new to me” category, I would list Death Note. I’m not sure how/why I didn’t pick this up when it was originally coming out, but I went back to it largely based on the strength what I’ve been seeing in Bakuman. :)
My favorite volume of manga published in 2012 would have to be Vol. 3 of Wandering Son. Takako Shimura does such a wonderful job at poignantly portraying the lives of her two adolescent trans characters without getting too sentimental. In this volume many important plot lines are introduced, and we start seeing what can go wrong for these kids when their classmates find out about their secret. Not to mention the Fantagraphics releases are always absolutely stunning!
For the “new to me category,” I suppose I’ll go with Silver Spoon by Hiromu Arakawa. I’m really enjoying learning more about agriculture, and her visual gags and sense of humor are always spot on.
My email is rgamble95(at)gmail(dot)com
My favorite manga that was published this year was A Devil And Her Love Song. It was a really interesting manga about a girl from a Catholic private school, but was expelled for violence, so she transfers to a new school. She’s able to read people very clearly and is a very good singer.
A manga that was “new to me” that I read was Sailor Moon, I have watched the anime, but I hadn’t yet read the manga. Since they just republished the Sailor Moon series all renewed and nice, I thought I would give it a shot. I loved it, honestly. Sailor Moon shall forever be in our hearts, no matter how old we become (dramatic fanfare) XD
My email is: jemjewelsjade98@gmail.com
My favorite manga released last year was Onepunch-Man. It’s an hilarious manga in Shounen Jump about a super hero who can destroy any villain with one punch. he then starts to hate his power cause it makes everything too easy.
A manga that is “new to me” would be Sun-ken Rock. its about a Japanese guy going to Korea to be with the girl of his dreams. But the then he somehow becomes a mafia boss in Korea. It’s also very interesting and funny. Thank You! xD
My email is: zamted@yahoo.com
My favorite newly published manga is the re-release of Crayon Shinchan, actually. XD I got into this series when I was young, so the manga has a nostalgic feel for me. I was so excited when I found out that it was being republished! I feared it was doomed to be out of print forever, I’m glad someone decided to give it some new life again.
My favorite “just discovered” manga from last year would be Wandering Son. It’s such a different, touching sort of story. I’m disappointed with myself that it took me this long to start reading it! XD
I’ll be tweeting about the contest from @bunnycartoon. Yay! :D
It seems I didn’t buy any volumes of any newly published series this year, unfortunately. My manga funds were spent buying up old collections people were getting rid of. I did greatly enjoy the volumes of Spice and Wolf published this year though!
My favorite newly discovered manga is a toss-up between Bunny Drop and Sakura Hime.
Retweeted the contest post as @KenshinGirl