April was a fairly reasonable month when it came to the number of manga and other books that I acquired, but by far my biggest acquisition was a house! It took nearly six months and a lot of stress to get everything to align properly, but I was finally able to close on the house that my family and I have had our eyes on since the the beginning of the process. We aren’t moved in yet, though we hope to be by the end of May. One of the (many) reasons that I’m especially excited about the new place is that it’s large enough that I’ll be able to devote an entire room to books. Now I’ll finally have a place to properly house my absurdly large library.
Anyway! Back to April’s manga. I happened across a bunch of Kaze Hikaru volumes for only a dollar each at my local comic book store, which made me very happy. As for preorders, there were several April releases that I was particularly happy to see, including Kaori Ozaki’s The Gods Lie (I loved Ozaki’s series Immortal Rain/Meteor Methuselah, so am glad to have the opportunity to read more of her manga) and the newly revised and expanded edition of The Passion of Gengoroh Tagame (I reviewed the original collection back when it was first released). However, what I think is probably one of the most notable and most important manga from April is Rokudenashiko’s What is Obscenity? I believe the official release date was technically in May and my copy simply arrived early, but that certainly didn’t stop me from reading and reviewing it.
Manga!
The Ancient Magus’ Bride, Volume 4 by Kore Yamazaki
I Am a Hero, Omnibus 1 by Kengo Hanazawa
The Gods Lie by Kaori Ozaki
Guardians of the Louvre by Jiro Taniguchi
Kaze Hikaru, Volumes 12-13, 15-18 by Taeko Watanabe
Library Wars: Love & War, Volume 15 by Kiiro Yumi
Midnight Stranger, Volume 1 by Bohra Naono
Of the Red, the Light, and the Ayakashi, Volume 2 by Nanao
The Passion of Gengoroh Tagame by Gengoroh Tagame
What is Obscenity?: The Story of a Good For Nothing Artist and Her Pussy by Rokudenashiko
Yowamushi Pedal, Omnibus 2 by Wataru Watanabe
Comics!
Broken Frontier edited by Frederik Hautain and Tyler Chin-Tanner
The Nameless City by Faith Erin Hicks
Two Keys, Volume 1 by Chloe Chan and Aliena Shoemaker
Vertoscope edited by Nechama Frier and Ten Van Winkle
Artbooks!
Bearutus by Cauro Hige
Blanc et Noir by Takeshi Obata
Living with Yuko Shimizu by Yuko Shimizu
Anthologies!
In Light of Shadows: More Gothic Tales by Kyōka Izumi
Nonfiction!
Straight from the Heart: Gender, Intimacy, and the Cultural Production of Shōjo Manga by Jennifer Prough
[…] Manga. For those interested in what sorts of manga and other books make their way onto my shelves, April’s Bookshelf Overload is now available. The feature used to be posted fairly early on in the month, but at least for the […]