Another month, another mountain of media that somehow made its way into my possession! (Actually, I know exactly how.) Thanks to some fantastic sales, I finally got around to filling in the gaps in my collection of Takehiko Inoue’s Vagabond. I also ended up buying more anime than I usually do, too. In particular, Sentai Filmworks announced back in September that it would be discontinuing DVDs and has since been working to clear out stock. Since my eyesight is poor enough that I don’t usually notice a difference in visual quality between DVD and Blu-ray releases, I took the opportunity to pick up Space Brothers and a few other things at a greatly discounted price. As for October manga debuts, I was greatly impressed by Spirit Circle, Volume 1 by Satoshi Mizukami. I was also really looking forward to the release of Yokai Rental Shop, Volume 1 by Shin Mashiba since I enjoyed the creator’s earlier series Nightmare Inspector. Notably, manga translator and yokai scholar Zack Davisson released a new work in October, too–Kaibyo: The Supernatural Cats of Japan is one of the newest titles from Chin Music Press, a publisher that takes great care with physical production and design, so in addition to being interesting, it’s also a beautiful book.
Manga!
Ajin: Demi-Human, Volume 10 by Gamon Sakurai
Akuma no Riddle, Volumes 2-4 written by Yun Kouga, illustrated by Sunao Minakata
Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma, Volume 20 written by Yuto Tsukuda, illustrated by Shun Saeki
Gangsta: Cursed, Volume 3 written by Kohske, illustrated by Syuhei Kamo
Imperfect Girl, Volume 1 by Mitsuru Hattori
Jackass! by Scarlet Beriko
The Key to the Kingdom, Volumes 1-6 by Kyoko Shitou
Kitaro’s Strange Adventures by Shigeru Mizuki
Prison School, Omnibus 8 by Akira Hiramoto
Spirit Circle, Volume 1 by Satoshi Mizukami
Super Dimensional Love Gun by Shintaro Kago
Vagabond, Omnibus 7-8 by Takehiko Inoue
Yokai Rental Shop, Volume 1 by Shin Mashiba
Comics!
The Academic Hour by Keren Katz
Awaken, Volume 1 by Koti Saavedra
The Big Book of Bisexual Trials and Errors by Elizabeth Beier
Can I Pet Your Werewolf? edited by Kel McDonald and Molly Muldoon
Cosmoknights: Prologue by Hannah Fisher
Flutter, Volume 3 written by Jennie Wood, illustrated by Jeff McComsey
Fujoshi Trapped in a Seme’s Perfect Body, Volume 3 written by Seru, illustrated by Joberu
Generations by Flavia Biondi
Goro, Issue 1 by Sarah Horrocks
Ladycastle written by Delilah Dawson, illustrated by Ashley A. Woods
Mis(h)adra by Iasmin Omar Ata
Oh Joy, Sex Toy, Volume 4 created by Erika Moen and Matthew Nolan
Spinning by Tillie Walden
The Tea Dragon Society by Katie O’Neill
The Witch Boy by Molly Knox Ostertag
Light Novels!
Juni Taisen: Zodiac War written by Nisiosin, illustrated by Hikaru Nakamura
Novels!
The Explosion Chronicles by Yan Lianke
Milky Way Railroad by Kenji Miyazawa
Snakelust by Kenji Kagagami
Anthologies!
Japanese Gothic Tales by Kyōka Izumi
Poetry!
Bashō’s Narrow Road: Spring and Autumn Passages by Bashō Matsuo
Night Sky with Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong
Nonfiction!
Kaibyo: The Supernatural Cats of Japan by Zack Davisson
The Silver Spoon: Memoir of a Boyhood in Japan by Kansuke Naka
Anime!
Food Wars! directed by Yoshitomo Yonetani
Gosick, Part 2 directed by Hitoshi Nanba
Hozuki’s Coolheadedness directed by Hiro Kaburaki
Orange directed by Hiroshi Hamasaki
Pet Shop of Horrors directed by Toshio Hirata
Space Brothers directed by Ayumu Watanabe
I have Space Brothers, but still need to watch it. Been sitting on my shelf for quite a while (along with plenty of other anime, lol, and now there’s a Discotek sale for my 80s needs, I adore 80s anime)
Also, you got Key to the Kingdom! Good find! It’s short, but it doesn’t feel like a mere 6 volume series, feels like a much longer epic, and yet, it never feels rushed either. Shame it got passed over so hard.
Key to the Kingdom is yet another manga that I discovered thanks to you! I haven’t read it yet, but I hadn’t even heard of it until you mentioned the series as part of one of the monthly giveaways here. I’m looking forward to giving it a try. ^_^
And yes, Discotek sales can be dangerous! I’m so far behind in my anime watching, but I’m hoping to have a chance to do some catching up soon.
I hadn’t realized I had even mentioned it, but I’m sure I did at some point (maybe it was something to do with dragons? Or fantasy worlds? Or royalty?). I do tend to be familiar with a lot of obscure manga. Key to the Kingdom and Firefighter Daigo are among the very few manga I’ve read with an official English release (in book form, no less), yet I can’t even find scans of them online. You know something is obscure when there’s not even scanlations of it.
Yup! It was the giveaway about dragons. One of the reasons I enjoy doing giveaways is because I inevitably learn about a manga that I hadn’t heard of before. ^_^
ahhh, Gosick is so good!
I am the weirdo who gets angry when everyone compares Victorique to Sherlock tho. If anyone needs fictional detectives to accurately compare her to – Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe! Doesn’t visit crime scenes personally but has ‘assistant’ do it, rarely leaves dwelling in general, floor-to-ceiling books….. no orchids tho!
I haven’t seen it before, but I’m really looking forward to watching it! I’ve actually been meaning to read the Gosick novels that were released in English, too. I haven’t gotten around to those yet, either, though. But I did greatly enjoy the author’s other works in translation (Red Girls and A Small Charred Face).
the TokyoPop Gosick release was…. iffy… (and painfully short! Only 2 books?!?!)
Who thought it was a good idea to take light novel original covers, edit out everything but a closeup of Victorique and put it on a gross orange backdrop
Yeah, those covers were really… uninspired. Like many of TokyoPop’s titles, the light novels that were published varied drastically in quality. I’d really love to see series like Gosick and The Twelve Kingdoms picked up (and finished!) by another publisher.