Looking at the much more reasonable Bookshelf Overload for January after the absurdity that was December’s is kind of strange. I feel like I must have missed something, but no, the list below is all of the media that made its way onto my shelves (or at least into the house) in January. Granted, this does not include everything that was actually purchased in January–some of that is still in the mail. Even some of my most anticipated January release have yet to arrive for one reason or another (I’m looking at you The Girl on the Other Side). On the other hand, some of February’s releases made their way into my hands early. 2017 is apparently off to an appropriately chaotic start. Anyway. Two of the manga released in January that I was most looking forward to that actually managed to arrive on time were Kore Yamazaki’s The Ancient Magus’ Bride, Volume 6 and Junji Ito’s Dissolving Classroom. Another cool thing that I discovered in January but which was actually published in October was the USCA English Edition anthology. USCA is an independent manga magazine in Japan so anyone interested in alternative manga in translation will likely want to track the anthology down. (I found my copy through Seite Books’ online store.) I was also happy that Chan-wook Park’s film The Handmaiden (which is inspired by Sarah Water’s novel Fingersmith) received a physical release in North America. I never did get around to writing a quick take, but I saw the film in the theaters and it was excellent. Sadly, the DVD seems to be a pretty bare-bones release.
Manga!
The Ancient Magus’ Bride, Volume 6 by Kore Yamazaki
Black Clover, Volume 1 by Yūki Tabata
Bloom into You, Volume 1 by Nakatani Nio
The Demon Prince of Momochi House, Volume 7 by Aya Shouoto
Dissolving Classroom by Junji Ito
Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma, Volumes 14-15 written by Yuto Tsukuda, illustrated by Shun Saeki
Franken Fran, Omnibus 4 by Katsuhisa Kigitsu
Haikyu!!, Volume 8 by Haruichi Furudate
Love Com, Volumes 1-3 by Aya Nakahara
My Love Story!!, Volume 11 written by Kazune Kawahara, illustrated by Aruko
Yona of the Dawn, Volume 4 by Mizuho Kusanagi
USCA English Edition by Various
Comics!
Angel Catbird, Volume 1 written by Margaret Atwood, illustrated by Johnnie Christmas and Tamra Bonvillain
Devil’s Candy, Chapters 1-2 by Rem and Bikkuri
Gorgeous by Cathy G. Johnson
Kim & Kim, Volume 1 written by Magdalene Visaggio, illustrated by Eva Cabrera and Claudia Aguirre
NewsPrints by Ru Xu
O Infante by Daniela Viçoso
The Perks of Being a Monster by Cathy Nguyen Le and Siobhan Noel Keenan
Root Bound by Cathy Nguyen Le and Siobhan Noel Keenan
#SeniorYear by Cathy Nguyen Le and Siobhan Noel Keenan
Samurai, Son of Death written by Sharman Divono, illustrated by Hiroshi Hirata
Siegfried, Volumes 1-2 by Alex Alice
Yours by Sarah Ferrick
Artbooks!
Undone by Kori Michele Handwerker
Zodiac! edited by Binglin Hu
Nonfiction!
Critical Chips: 10 Contemporary Comics Essays edited by Zainab Akhtar
Now with Kung Fu Grip! by Jared Miracle
Anime!
Chi’s New Address directed by Mitsuyuki Masuhara
Harmony directed by Michael Arias and Takashi Nakamura
Paranoia Agent directed by Satoshi Kon
Film!
The Handmaiden directed by Chan-wook Park
Oooh, nice, you got Paranoia Agent! That could not have been cheap. Have you seen it before though? It’s good stuff, it only makes Kon’s passing even more depressing.
I just found out Sentai licensed the Valerian & Laureline anime/french series hybrid show, so that pleases me (especially because I expect the movie to be terrible). Perhaps you shall consider reading the comic? I have difficulty finding volumes, but I am enjoying the comic (and have already watched and enjoyed the cartoon)
Ah, I did! I can’t believe I forget to highlight that! Unbelievably enough, I actually managed to snag a complete set of Paranoia Agent for less than some of the individual discs are going for. The cases and such are a bit banged up, but the discs seem to play just fine which is what’s really important to me. I’ve seen a few episodes before but never the entire series, so I’m really happy that I’ll now be able to watch the whole thing. (And in order, too!)
I had completely missed the Valerian & Laureline license! I know of the comics but I haven’t actually read any of them. I’d like to, though. It looks like Cinebook is beginning to publish a new and more complete edition of the comics in English this year, so hopefully that will mean they’ll be a little easier to find!
I’ve been having a tough time getting most of the volumes, I need to get them online most of the time because Cinebook is a UK publisher. I saw that they’re releasing a “complete collection” thing around when the movie comes out, but I already have vols 1 and 2 anyway, so the only new thing there is Bad Dreams, which I’m hoping they’ll reprint later on its own. Bad Dreams is the only reason I’d buy that one. Apparently, Bad Dreams wasn’t put into album format (I guess they do their comics different in France) until sometime after volume 11, even though it was serialized first. But when they published Bad Dreams in album format in France, they added some side stories to bulk up the volume, so I’m hoping that’s what Cinebook will do on its own later.
Oh, that would be nice! Especially for people who have already started collecting the comics. I wonder if those side stories will be collected in the first volume of the complete collection, too, or if they’ll come later.
I’m not sure if you know about Book Depository or not, but I’ve had a lot of success buying comics and other books published in Europe there since it’s based in the UK. The prices are generally pretty good (and sometimes even better than other online retailers) and shipping is free, too. :)
*claws eyes out* Thanks to Josiah’s otherworldly tastes, we showed Paranoia Agent at Anime Addicts when it came out and wow, I’ll never be the same… but the music is quite good. I had so much acne that semester from always pulling my cheeks down in openmouthed consternation.
Kori has a new book?! Excellent.
Even though I’ve only seen a few episodes of Paranoia Agent, the series was actually my introduction to the music of Susumu Hirasawa whose work I’ve become quite fond of. :)
And yes, it’s true! Kori has a new book! It’s a collection of erotic (but not explicit) illustrations from Kori’s Inktober project last year featuring men and tentacles. It’s pretty wonderful.
Hi Ash, thanks for the info on the USCA English Edition. Ordered it on Seite Books as well right away.
I’ve been a quiet reader of your reviews for quite a while now and i might have missed quite some manga if it hadn’t been for your site.
You are very welcome! I almost missed the USCA English Edition, too. Thank you for being a reader and for taking time to leave a comment! I’m glad to know that my posts have been useful. ^_^