Home Archives for Giveaways
6 July 2011 Leave a Comment

Manga Giveaway: Rurouni Kenshin Contest Winner

And the winner of the Rurouni Kenshin Contest is…Rij!

As the winner, Rij will be receiving the first omnibus volume of Nobuhiro Watsuki’s Rurouni Kenshin published by Viz Media. A big thank you to everyone who entered! As part of the giveaway, I had entrants tell me a little about their favorite samurai manga. Their responses can be read in the Rurouni Kenshin Contest comments. I was happy to see a lot of love for Natsume Ono’s House of Five Leaves (both the anime and the manga) which is a personal favorite of mine. The Samurai Champloo anime was also mentioned several times and I happen to adore that series as well. I haven’t read the manga adaptation yet, though.

As some of you probably know, I often use my manga giveaways as an excuse to create lists. This giveaway is no exception. Here for your samurai manga enjoyment are two lists. The first list consists of some favorite samurai series (identified by me and those who commented) while the second list collects other samurai manga that have been licensed in English. This list is almost certainly incomplete, but it’s what I could come up with off the top of my head.

Some favorite samurai series:
Blade of the Immortal by Hiroaki Samura
Gin Tama by Hideaki Sorachi
House of Five Leaves by Natsume Ono
Lone Wolf and Cub written by Kazuo Koike, illustrated by Goseki Kojima
Ōoku: The Inner Chambers by Fumi Yoshinaga
Satsuma Gishiden by Hiroshi Hirata
Samurai Deeper Kyo by Akimine Kamijyo
Usagi Yojimbo by Stan Sakai
Vagabond by Takehiko Inoue

And some more suggestions (licensed in English):
Afro Samurai by Takashi Ohazaki
Dororo by Osamu Tezuka
Kaze Hikaru by Taeko Watanabe 
Kurogane by Kei Toume
Lady Snowblood by written by Kazuo Koike, illustrated by Kazuo Kamimura
Path of the Assassin by Kazuo Koike, illustrated by Goseki Kojima
Peacemaker Kurogane by Nanae Chrono
Red Hot Chili Samurai by Yoshitsugu Katagiri
Rurouni Kenshin by Nobuhiro Watsuki
Samurai Champloo by Masaru Gotsubo
Samurai Crusader written by Hiroi Oji, illustrated by Ryoichi Ikegami
Samurai Executioner written by Kazuo Koike, illustrated by Goseki Kojima
Samurai Legend by Kan Furuyama 
Samurai Seven by Mizutaka Suhou
Samurai Shodown written by Kyoichi Nanatsuki, illustrated by Yuki Miyoshi

Filed Under: Giveaways, Lists Tagged: ,
29 June 2011 6 Comments

Manga Giveaway: Rurouni Kenshin Contest

Once again the end of the month nears and once again I have some manga to give away. Enter this month’s contest for a chance to win a new copy of the first Rurouni Kenshin omnibus, equivalent to the first three volumes of the series, as published by Viz Media. As always, the giveaway is open world-wide!

I love samurai manga—from the fantastic Blade of the Immortal, to the melancholy House of Five Leaves, the historical epic Vagabond, the brutally passionate Satsuma Gishiden, and even the crazy insanity of Gin Tama…my list could keep going for a while, but I’ll stop there. There is an immense variety of samurai manga and stories can be found for just about every demographic. I’m interested in learning about what other samurai manga people are reading which is why this giveaway features Rurouni Kenshin, a rather popular and well received samurai series.

So, you may be wondering, how can you win the first Rurouni Kenshin omnibus?

1) In the comments below, tell me a little about your favorite samurai manga.
2) In addition to your favorite, simply mention a samurai manga that hasn’t been mentioned yet by me or by someone else.
3) If you’re on Twitter, you can earn a bonus entry by tweeting about the contest. Make sure to include a link to this post and @PhoenixTerran (that’s me).

One person may earn up to three entries for this giveaway. You only have one week to get your comments in. If you have any trouble leaving comments, feel free to e-mail me your entry at phoenixterran(at)gmail(dot)com and I’ll make sure they get posted. The winner will be randomly selected and announced on July 6, 2011.

VERY IMPORTANT: Include some way that I can contact you. This can be an e-mail address, link to your website, Twitter username, or whatever. If I can’t figure out how to get a hold of you and you win, I’ll just draw another name.

Contest winner announced—Manga Giveaway: Rurouni Kenshin Contest Winner

Filed Under: Giveaways Tagged: , ,
1 June 2011 Leave a Comment

Manga Giveaway: Oh, Ono! Winner

And the winner of the Oh, Ono! Gente manga giveaway is…ochaako!

I was very happy with the turn out for this month’s giveaway! A huge thank you to everyone who entered this month’s giveaway (which was unfortunately plagued by technical difficulties.) I particularly appreciate those of you who took the extra effort needed to enter the contest. As the winner, ochaako will be receiving a brand new copy of the first volume of Gente: The People of Ristorante Paradiso.

For the Oh, Ono! giveaway, I asked people to tell me a little about how they discovered Natsume Ono’s work and which was their favorite. There were some great submissions made, so if you’re interested please check them out: Oh, Ono! giveaway comments. I found it interesting that the two most common introductions to Ono seemed to be either encountering Not Simple in the bookstore (which was her first manga published in English) or through one of the anime adaptations of her work. As a reference, here is a list of Ono manga that is currently available, or will soon be available, from Viz Media:

La Quinta Camera
Not Simple
Ristorante Paradiso
Tesoro
Gente: The People of Ristorante Paradiso
House of Five Leaves

Filed Under: Giveaways, Lists Tagged: , ,
25 May 2011 9 Comments

Manga Giveaway: Oh, Ono! (Gente Giveaway)

It’s getting close to the end of the month, and you know what that means, right? It’s time for another manga giveaway! This time around I have a brand new copy of the first volume of Natsume Ono’s Gente: The People of Ristorante Paradiso from Viz Media for one lucky winner. The giveaway is open world-wide, so I hope you’ll enter!

I first heard about Natsume Ono at a panel called “The Best Manga You’re Not Reading” at the American Library Association’s 2010 Annual Conference. It was a marvelous panel and among the manga mentioned was Ono’s Ristorante Paradiso. Gente is a related series which saw its third and final volume released in English earlier this month. But what made me fall in love with Ono and her work was House of Five Leaves. I first saw and adored the anime adaptation. (I really hope it will see a DVD release in the States. I’d even be perfectly happy with a sub-only set; I just want to own the series!) And now that the House of Five Leaves manga is being published in English, I’m buying the each volume as soon as it is released. Recently, Ono was one of the featured guests at the 2011 Toronto Comic Arts Festival and she also made an appearance at New York City’s Kinokuniya Bookstore, meaning even more people are beginning to recognize her name. Many of Ono’s works are already available in English, but I would love to see some of her boys’ love manga, written under the name basso, licensed as well.

So, you may be wondering, how can you win the first volume of Gente?

1) In the comments below, tell me about how, when, or where you first learned about Natsume Ono or any of her works.
2) Also in the comment tell me which, if any, of Ono’s manga you have read and if you have a personal favorite. (If you haven’t read any, just mention that.)
3) If you’re on Twitter, you can earn a bonus entry by tweeting about the contest. Make sure to include a link to this post and @PhoenixTerran (that’s me).

And there you have it. One person may earn up to three entries for this manga giveaway. The winner will be randomly selected on June 1, 2011; you only have one week to get your comments in.

VERY IMPORTANT: Include some way that I can contact you. This can be an e-mail address, link to your website, Twitter username, or whatever. If I can’t figure out how to get a hold of you and you win, I’ll just draw another name.

Please note, Blogger is having an issue right now dealing with comment submission. If you try to leave a comment and it doesn’t immediately appear, please send your entry to phoenixterran(at)gmail(dot)com and I will make sure your comment is posted and you are entered in the giveaway. My sincere apologies for the inconvenience.

Contest winner announced—Manga Giveaway: Oh, Ono! Winner

Filed Under: Giveaways Tagged: , ,
4 May 2011 Leave a Comment

Manga Giveaway: Return of Ranma Winner

And the winner of the Return of Ranma manga giveaway is…Matthew J. Brady!

Only three people entered the contest this month, which makes me sad, but a huge thank you to those of you who visited and commented! As the winner of the giveaway, Matthew will be receiving copies of the first two volumes of Ranma 1/2 by Rumiko Takahashi. These are in the larger, first edition format published by Viz Media. I’d also like to mention that Matthew has a comics blog that includes manga content, Warren Peace Sings the Blues, which is worth checking out.

This giveaway was in honor of April’s Rumiko Takahashi Manga Moveable Feast and so I asked people to declare their favorite Takahashi manga and post a link to one of the Feast entries. Takahashi’s works appeal to a lot of people for a lot of different reasons and so no one gave the same answer. One Pound Gospel, Rin-ne, Maison Ikkoku, Ranma 1/2, Urusei Yatsura, and InuYasha were all mentioned. (See the Return of Ranma comments for more detail.) People have shown a tremendous amount of love for Takahashi during the Feast and this has inspired me to try more of her works myself.

Here are the Feast links that were posted:

Random Sunday question: Takahashi (David Welsh, The Manga Curmudgeon)
MMF: Mermaid Saga and Rin-ne (Katherine Dacey, The Manga Critic)
Because It’s Funny: Rumiko Takahashi and Characterization (Sean Gaffney, A Case Suitable For Treatment)

Filed Under: Giveaways, Lists Tagged: , , ,
« Previous Page
Next Page »