Well, it didn’t take me very long at all to get back into the habit of bringing a ridiculous number of books into the house. On top of that, I think I’ve discovered a new addiction: artbooks. I picked up two in July—A Sky Longing for Memories: The Art of Makoto Shinkai (which I reviewed not too long ago) and Yuki Urushibara’s Mushishi artbook (which was recently published in Japan)—and I have an increasingly lengthy list of others that I’m eying. Matthew Meyer’s new yokai guide/artbook The Hour of Meeting Evil Spirits: An Encyclopedia of Mononoke and Magic is now available, which I’m very excited about. (His earlier book The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons was great.) July also saw me finally get my hands on the fifth and final volume of The Summit of the Gods by Baku Yumemakura and Jiro Taniguchi which I’ve been looking forward to a great deal. Another release that I was happy to see in July was the most recent paperback from Chromatic Press/Sparkler Monthly: Heldrad’s delightful Orange Junk, Volume 1, which I made a point to review. And since I just happened to mention Sparkler Monthly, I’d of course like to take a moment to give a shout-out to the Sparkler Monthly: Year 3 Kickstarter as it enters its final day!
Manga!
Aquarion Evol, Volume 3 written by Shoji Kawamori, illustrated by Aogiri.
Black Rose Alice, Volume 5 by Setona Mizushiro
The Color Of Love by Kiyo Ueda
Cross Game, Omnibuses 2-8 by Mitsuri Adachi
The Demon Prince of Momochi House, Volume 1 by Aya Shouoto
Fairy Tail, Volume 49 by Hiro Mashima
Let’s Dance a Waltz, Volume 2 by Natsumi Ando
A Liar in Love by Kiyo Ueda
Love Stage!!, Volume 2 by Eiki Eiki
Ludwig B, Volumes 1-2 by Osamu Tezuka
Maid-sama!, Omnibus 1 by Hiro Fujiwara
Maria the Virgin Witch, Volume 3 by Ishikawa Masayuki
My Little Monster, Volume 9 by Robico
My Love Story!!, Volume 5 written by Kazune Kawahara, illustrated by Aruko
Ninja Slayer Kills, Volume 1 by Kotaro Sekine
Noragami: Stray God, Volume 5 by Adachitoka
Say I Love You, Volume 8 by Kanae Hazuki
A Silent Voice, Volume 2 by Yoshitoki Oima
The Summit of the Gods, Volume 5 written by Baku Yumemakura Baku, illustrated by Jiro Taniguchi
Sunny, Volume 5 by Taiyo Matsumoto
Terra Formars, 7 written by Yu Sasuga, illustrated by Ken-ichi Tachibana
UQ Holder, Volume 5 by Ken Akamatsu
What Did You Eat Yesterday?, Volume 9 by Fumi Yoshinaga
xxxHolic, Omnibus 6 by CLAMP
Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches, Volume 3 by Miki Yoshikawa
Your Lie in April, Volume 2 by Naoshi Arakawa
Manhwa!
Behind Story, Volume 1 by Narae Ahn
Core Scramble, Volume 1 by Euho Jun
Give to the Heart, Volume 4 by Wann
Comics!
Adventures of a Japanese Businessman by José Domingo
Beautiful Darkness by Fabien Vehlmann, Kerascoët
Corto Maltese: Beyond The Windy Isles by Hugo Pratt
The Divine by Asaf Hanuka, Tomer Hanuka, and Boaz Lavie
Fantasy Sports, Volume 1 by Sam Bosma
High Crimes written by Christopher Sebela, illustrated by Ibrahim Moustafa
The Hourglass written by Itoshi, illustrated by Aldaria
Lost in the Snow, Volume 1 by Velvet Toucher
Orange Junk, Volume 1 by Heldrad
SuperMutant Magic Academy by Jillian Tamaki
Artbooks!
Mushishi Artbook by Yuki Urushibara
A Sky Longing for Memories: The Art of Makoto Shinkai
Novels!
The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji
Anthologies!
The Book of Tokyo: A City in Short Fiction edited by Michael Emmerich, Jim Hinks, Masashi Matsuie
Folk Legends from Tono: Japan’s Spirits, Deities, and Phantastic Creatures edited by Ronald A. Morse
Monkey Business International, Volume 5 edited by Motoyuki Shibata and Ted Goossen
Nonfiction!
The Hour of Meeting Evil Spirits: An Encyclopedia of Mononoke and Magic by Matthew Meyer
The Science of Attack on Titan by Rikao Yanagita
Anime!
Children Who Chase Lost Voices directed by Makoto Shinkai
Video Games!
Hakuoki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom
I’ve gotten fully into Fables now, also got the Wolf Among Us game and will play that soon as well, hooray! It helps in large part that, in my anatomy class, I was reading a comic before class on the second day or something, and it obviously caused me and the professor to hit it off as he’s a major comic book nerd himself. Not manga, but it is why I’ve spent the last two months all over American comics instead of manga (though I’m certainly still reading those too), as I’m just starting to really get into American comics now.
Also, I saw a listing for Wayward v1 hardcover, which will probably have paperback v1 and v2 and bonus stuff, what to do? argh…
Aaah, the Wayward hardcover! It does indeed include the first two paperbacks as well as additional bonus content. And a snazzy poster. I’m torn since I’ve already started collecting the individual volumes, but the deluxe omnibus looks so nice! XD
If you have any interest at all in Godzilla, I’d recommend checking out James Stokoe’s work for IDW. Also, there’s only one issue out so far (though I think the second will be released this week), but Brandon Graham and Marian Churchland’s 8House: Arclight features gorgeous artwork and genderqueer knights in an intriguing fantasy setting.