You are currently browsing the monthly archive for January, 2008.
My two weeks long exam period starts in ca. 9 days, but after I’m through with them, I can – at last read manga again! I’ll also have more time to finish off some review drafts, which have been piling up for a while now. January was a very light month, with only two titles on my list, but February is the opposite with 7 definite purchases and 3 possible ones. Below you can find the list –same procedure as every year shopping list entry (ref. to this)
It’s Tokyopop.de’s turn to announce their releases for February! Yeay!
Before talking about manga, I’ll quickly reach into the field of anime Tokyopop.de published a news stating that they decided to not acquire any new anime titles in Germany. They further say that it’s unlikely that they’ll change their mind in the near future. However they guaranteed to fully publish all their already ongoing series. As for a particular reason they only mentioned ‘illegal downloads‘, which seems to be a common excuse these days. From the way they commented on the board they seemed pretty clueless on how to get the consumer to buy their products. Therefore they saw no other alternative except stopping their licensing. I don’t particularly care, as I think anime crumble when compared to manga on every field, an inferior medium in my opinion.
Additionally to their monthly releases they also informed us of their guests for the Leipzig Book Fair, being: Anike Hage (Gothic Sports), Anna Hollmann (Stupid Story), Anne Pätzke (Kulla and the wishing flower – lit. translated), Christina Plaka (Yonen Buzz), Natalie Wormsbecher (Demon Boy Lain, Summer Rain), Reyhan Yildirim (Tylsim), Jenny (Pink Diary) and Kei Ishiyama (Grimm’s Manga).
Heyne and Carlsen just announced their February releases!
Carlsen had to slightly change their original release plans for Speed Grapher and Jiro Taniguchi’s Chichi no Koyomi. They postponed them both to March. There was no specific reason given for Taniguchi’s manga, but the reason why Speed Grapher’s release has been delayed, was because the Japanese have to approve of it. There were hints that the Japanese often take “for eternity” to approve certain things. It’s not the first time that I’ve been reading these “complaints” by German publishers, though – of course –I have no means to prove if these complaints are valid.
Additionally to the new releases Carlsen also announced their first guest for the Leipzig Book Fair. People will be able to see You Higuri, the mangaka of Zeus, Cantarella and Flower. It will be her third visit to Germany. She visited Germany in 2004 to attend the the AnimagiC Convention and an unofficial visit to do research for her manga Ludwig II. She was also supposed to visit the AnikiCon 2007, but sadly it was canceled. Now on to the new releases for February 2008!
Below you can find the manga charts for December, compiled by the two publishers Carlsen and Egmont (as always via splashcomics.de).
December 2007:
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1. (-) Love Mode Volume #8 (Shounen Ai – Carlsen)
2. (-) Detective Conan Volume #53 (Shounen – Egmont)
3. (-) Inuyasha Volume #48 (Shounen – Egmont)
4. (1) Naruto Volume #27 (Shounen – Carlsen)
5. (2) One Piece Volume #45 (Shounen – Carlsen)
6. (-) Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle Volume #14 (Shounen –Egmont)
7. (-) Ludwig Kakumei Volume #2 (Shoujo – Carlsen)
8. (-) Cute X Guy Volume #4 (Shoujo – Egmont)
9. (-) Uwasa no Futari Volume #2 (Shounen Ai – Egmont)
10. (-) Akuma no Himitsu Volume #1 (Shounen Ai – Tokyopop)
11. (-) Seitokaichou ni Chuukoku Volume #1 (Shounen Ai – Egmont)
12. (-) Ouran High School Host Club Volume #9 (Shoujo – Carlsen)
13. (5) Shinshi Doumei Cross Volume #7 (Shoujo – Tokyopop)
14. (7) Death Note Volume #9 (Shounen – Tokyopop)
15. (-) Princess Princess + Oneshot (Shoujo – Egmont)
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Seinen: 1 | Shounen: 6 | Josei: 0 | Shoujo: 5 | Shounen Ai: 4
Carlsen: 5 | Tokyopop: 3 | Egmont: 7 | Panini: 0 | Heyne: 0
A yaoi manga placed first?! EEEKS!
It is indeed a bit unexpected that Love Mode placed first. It just shows how important girls are for the manga business in Germany. Furthermore it was probably highly anticipated, as if I am correct, it was on hiatus for a while, because of licensing issues in Japan and the issues took forever to be resolved (Volume 7 of Love Mode was published back in May 2006). Still I am surprised it won versus both, Detective Conan and Inuyasha. Respect fangirls, respect! A real pity that no seinen will ever be able to claim the throne.
So, I am (finally) back at my university place or what I call my home by now. Family meetings are so annoying if they last longer than 3 days. Sigh. Nothing changed here, except now there’s even more university work to do, so much anime/manga related news to catch up with and obviously post something…of “substance” (Who am I fooling here?!).
I will start with the January release list and because it’s so small, I will add my shopping list as well. Most of the manga have been released already (Tokyopop’s and Carlsen’s) and I only wrote a post containing Carlsen’s titles, so you can find the rest below the cut.
