I made it through April, now on to May! (My poor, poor wallet.) As usual, there were quite a few acquisitions last month. A few things of note: I finished collecting Naoki Urasawa’s 20th Century Boys (as well as 21st Century Boys) and have nearly completed my collection of Osamu Tezuka’s Black Jack, which is mostly going out of print. (The only volume I’m currently missing is seven.) I went to a really nice used book sale last week and found some interesting novels and nonfiction titles. I also picked up a random volume of Wounded Man out of duty since it was the only manga that I came across while there. It’s been a little while since I’ve found out-of-print goodies that I’ve been really excited about, but there were two that I came across in April that made me particularly happy: Kazuma Kodaka’s historical yaoi manga Midare Somenishi and Sakyo Komatsu’s disaster novel Japan Sinks. Both tend to be extremely expensive even used but I managed to snag them at cover price. It’s also been a while since I’ve picked up any new music, but I finally got around to buying the two Mushishi soundtracks which are wonderfully atmospheric. Finally, The Passion of Gengoroh Tagame: The Master of Gay Erotic Manga, one of my most anticipated manga releases for the year, is now in my hands. I wasn’t expecting it until May, so was thrilled when it showed up in April. It’s extremely explicit sadomasochistic pornography and certainly not for everyone, but Tagame’s work is incredible. Review to come very soon.
Manga!
20th Century Boys, Volumes 21-22 by Naoki Urasawa
21st Century Boys, Volumes 1-2 by Naoki Urasawa
Attack on Titan, Volume 4 by Hajime Isayama
Black Jack, Volumes 4-5, 13-14, 17 by Osamu Tezuka
Bunny Drop, Volume 8 by Yumi Unita
A Distant Neighborhood, Volumes 1-2 by Jiro Taniguchi
Dengeki Daisy, Volume 12 by Kyousuke Motomie
Dorohedoro, Volume 9 by Q Hayashida
Knights of Sidonia, Volume 2 by Tsutomu Nihei
Flowers of Evil, Volume 5 by Shuzo Oshimi
Limit, Volume 4 by Keiko Suenobu
Lovless, Omnibus 3 by Yun Kouga
Midare Somenishi by Kazuma Kodaka
Otomen, Volume 15 by Aya Kanno
The Passion of Gengoroh Tagame by Gengoroh Tagame
Patriot by Mashumaro Jyuubaori
Secret Honey of the Moon by Shinobu Tanei
The Two Faces of Tomorrow by Yukinobu Hoshino
Unico by Osamu Tezuka
Wounded Man, Volume 2 written by Kazuo Koike, illustrated by Ryoichi Ikegami
Manhwa!
Click, Volume 7 by Youngran Lee
Comics!
Brody’s Ghost, Book 4 by Mark Crilley
In These Words, Chapter 8 by Guilt|Pleasure
Teahouse, Chapter 4 by Emirain
Light Novels!
Spice & Wolf, Volume 8: Town of Strife I by Isuna Hasekura
Novels!
The House of Kanze by Nobuko Albery
Japan Sinks by Sakyo Komatsu
Shipwrecks by Akira Yoshimura
Anthologies!
Partings at Dawn: An Anthology of Japanese Gay Literature edited by Stephen D. Miller
Nonfiction!
A Different Kind of Luxury by Andy Couturier
Sex and the Floating World: Erotic Images in Japan, 1700-1820 by Timon Screech
Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan by Jake Adelstein
Anime!
Apocalypse Zero directed by Toshihiro Hirano
Jin-Roh: Special Edition directed by Hiroyuki Okiura
The Place Promised in Our Early Days directed by Makoto Shinkai
Voices of a Distant Star directed by Makoto Shinkai
Music!
Mushishi, Soundtracks 1-2 by Toshio Masuda
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