It may have been the last month of the year, but that certainly didn’t stop me at all from acquiring a slightly absurd amount of manga. Part of that is thanks to Right Stuf’s major holiday sales. I picked up a couple of anime series—Shiki and Princess Tutu—as well as a rather large stack of mostly out-of-print boys’ love manga for super cheap. Also thanks to the sale, I finally got around to picking up the new Tokyo Babylon omnibuses. Other than that, most everything else was either a preorder or a gift. December was a particularly notable month for gay manga. Bruno Gmünder’s releases of Takeshi Matsu’s More and More of You and Other Stories (which I believe technically came out in November) and Gengoroh Tagame’s Fisherman’s Lodge are now both available. From Fantagraphics there was Massive: Gay Japanese Manga and the Men Who Make It and it’s fantastic. I’ll be reviewing Matsu’s English debut in the very near future and my review of Massive has already been posted. Chromatic Press also had some notable releases in December. Ellery Prime’s Gauntlet, the first Sparkler Monthly original novel to receive a print edition, is now available. As is one of the books that I’m most excited about (so much so, there’s even a quote from me on its cover), the paperback of the second volume of Lianne Sentar’s Tokyo Demons, Add a Little Chaos. I actually reviewed the novel back in July, but needless to say, I loved it and it looks great in print.
Manga!
Ajin: Demi-Human, Volume 2 by Gamon Sakurai
Alice in the Country of Hearts, Omnibus 2 by by Soumei Hoshino
Alley of First Love by Ellie Mamahara
Barakamon, Volume 2 by Satsuki Yoshino
Citrus, Volume 1 by Saburouta
Desire written by Maki Kazumi, illustrated by Yukine Honami
Dorohedoro, Volume 14 by Q Hayashida
Drug and Drop, Volume 1 by CLAMP
Fairy Tail, Volume 43 by Hiro Mashima
Fisherman’s Lodge by Gengoroh Tagame
Just Around the Corner by Toko Kawai
Knights of Sidonia, Volume 12 by Tsutomu Nihei
Little Fluffy Gigolo Pelu, Volumes 1-2 by Junko Mizuno
Massive: Gay Japanese Manga and the Men Who Make It edited by Anne Ishii, Chip Kidd, Graham Kolbeins
Master Keaton, Volume 1 written by Hokusei Katsushika, Takashi Nagasaki, illustrated by Naoki Urasawa
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin, Volume 8: Operation Odessa by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko
More and More of You and Other Stories by Takeshi Matsu
My Love Story!!, Volume 3 written by Kazune Kawahara, illustrated by Aruko
New Lone Wolf and Cub, Volume 3 written by Kazuo Koike, illustrated by Hideki Mori
Ninth Love by Lalako Kojima
Opus by Satoshi Kon
Passionate Theory by Ayumi Kano
Renai Sample by Homunculus
Sankarea: Undying Love, Volume 9 by Mitsuru Hattori
Say I Love You, Volume 4 by Kanae Hazuki
Steppin’ Stone, Volumes 1-2 by Shiuko Kano
Stones of Power by Azumi Isora
Tokyo Babylon, Omnibuses 1-2 by CLAMP
You See, Teacher…, Volume 1 by Ei Tachibana
Warning! Whispers of Love by Puku Okuyama
Witchcraft Works, Volume 2 by Ryu Mizunagi
Manhwa!
Lie to Me by Youngran Lee
Comics!
Corto Maltese: Under the Sign of Capricorn by Hugo Pratt
Gaylord Phoenix by Edie Fake
In These Words, Chapter 12 by Guilt | Pleasure
Lucidity by Guilt | Pleasure
The P. Craig Russell Library of Opera Adaptations, Volumes 1-3 by P. Craig Russell
The Ring of the Nibelung by P. Craig Russell
Light Novels!
Gauntlet by Ellery Prime
Cold Fever by Narise Konohara
Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, Volume 1 by Fujino Omori
Tokyo Demons, Book 2: Add a Little Chaos by Lianne Sentar
Novels!
Manazuru by Hiromi Kawakami
The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami
The Sound of the Mountain by Yasunari Kawabata
Collections!
The Great Mirror of Male Love by Ihara Saikaku
Anime!
Princess Tutu directed by Junichi Sato
Shiki directed by Tetsuro Amino
The Tokyo Demons series looks pretty good. I have just one question is this a novel or a light novel?
I love, love, love Tokyo Demons! You can check the series out here. (You might want to check out my Tokyo Demons tag, too.) As to whether it’s a novel or a light novel… I suppose that depends on what your definition of a light novel is. :) It has illustrations and is stylistically similar to a Japanese light novel, is serialized online and written in the tradition of a light novel, but it’s an original English work and the books are actually quite long.
I can second that Tokyo Demons is amazing! It took me a few chapters to get past the writing style (which is a tad unpolished for my taste), but the plot, and more importantly, the characters, are fantastically complex. The creators refer to it as a light novel, but it’s closer to an easily-read, illustrated book with a huge ensemble cast.
Yay! Another Tokyo Demons fan! :D
It took a couple of chapters for the series to really click for me, too, but once it did I was hooked.
Have you seen Princess Tutu before? If not, I assure you, you are in for a treat! As someone who mostly loves scifi anime and most of my top ten is scifi, this is still my favorite. Shame the manga so carelessly threw it all away.
I haven’t seen it, actually, but I’ve heard very good things about the anime. I’m looking forward to watching the series even more now knowing that you recommend it so highly, too! :D