Compared to some past months, the number of my March acquisitions seems completely reasonable to me. I’ve looked ahead to what April has in store for me (and my wallet) and it’ll be a bit ridiculous, so I’m glad that March ended up being relatively light. Even so, there were some things I was very happy to see arrive last month. Gengoroh Tagame had a second gay manga published by Bruno Gmünder, Gunji. Two of my most anticipated releases for 2014 made their appearance in March, too: the first volume in Fumi Yoshinaga’s What Did You Eat Yesterday? from Vertical and Inio Asano’s Nijigahara Holograph from Fantagraphics. (Reviews to come soon!) I was also happy to see Bento Books newest release, Kaoru Ohno’s novel Cage on the Sea. Not too long ago I reviewed Jeffery Angle’s Writing the Love of Boys, which got me interested in the work of Taruho Inagaki. By some miracle, I actually managed to find a copy of his extremely out-of-print novel Miroku, which had a very small print run from a very small press which, as far as I can tell, doesn’t even exist anymore.
Manga!
Castle Mango, Volume 2 written Muku Ogura,illustrated by Narise Konohara
Embracing Love, Omnibus 2 by Youka Nitta
From the New World, Volumes 2-3 by written by Yusuke Kishi, illustrated by Toru Oikawa
Gunji by Gengoroh Tagame
Hide and Seek, Volume 2 by Yaya Sakuragi
The Incredible Kintaro by Naomi Guren
Japan, Inc.: An Introduction to Japanese Economics by Shotaro Ishinomori
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin, Volume 5: Char & Sayla by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko
Monster Musume, Volume 2 by Okayado
Nijigahara Holograph by Inio Asano
Train Train, Volumes 1-3 by Eiki Eiki
What Did You Eat Yesterday?, Volume 1 by Fumi Yoshinaga
Ze, Volume 8 by Yuki Shimizu
Manhwa!
Stone Collector, Book 1 written by Kevin Han, illustrated by Zom-J.
Comics!
Black is the Color by Julia Gfrörer
Brody’s Ghost, Book 5 by Mark Crilley
In These Words, Chapter 11 by Guilt | Pleasure
The Sleep of Reason: An Anthology of Horror edited by C. Spike Trotman
The Undertaking of Lily Chen by Danica Novgorodoff
Novels!
The Budding Tree by Aiko Kitahara
Cage on the Sea by Kaoru Ohno
God’s Boat by Kaori Ekuni
Miroku by Taruho Inagaki
Nonfiction!
Understanding Manga and Anime by Robin E. Brenner
One Thousand Years of Manga by Brigitte Koyama-Richard
Twelve Views from the Distance by Mutsuo Takahashi
I loved Nijigahara Holograph and am hoping this opens the door for more Asano licenses!
Odd how April is such a busy month for manga. Lots coming this way this month for me too!
I loved Nijigahara Holograph, too! It’s probably one of the best comics that I’ve read this year. I’d certainly be interested in reading more Asano in English. :)
I don’t know what it is about April, but right now it looks like it’ll be the heaviest month out of the entire year for me for preorders!